When I understood the power of social media, the first thing that I did was to create my presence across various social media presence and promote my brand on it. I took the help of professionals to create promotional campaigns to suit the requirements of various platforms. I was thrilled to find the number of likes, comments, and followers that I received in the next few days.
However, it took me a few days to realize that the increase in the number of likes, comments, and followers was not contributing to my sales at all. I didn’t find any improvement in my profitability. I was under the misconception that an increase in followers would automatically lead to an increase in buyers, but I was completely wrong! That’s when I realized that I had to do a lot of work to convert my social media followers into buyers.
In this article, I have mentioned some points that I followed and personally tasted success in them as well. I strongly believe that these points can be followed by anyone (irrespective of whether you promote your big business or small business).
Have a thorough understanding of the target market
Today, we have various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest and so on. A person who uses Facebook extensively may not use Twitter to the same extent. One who uses YouTube extensively may not be active on Snapchat. So, it is important to understand the segmentation of your target audience. Understand the age group of your target group and know how much time they spend on each of the social media sites. For example, Snapchat is mostly used by people in their 20s, whereas Facebook is used by people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s as well.
Proper segmentation of your target audience will help you spend time on the right platform and this will directly improve your sales. For example, if you are promoting a new app or a new gadget, your target audience is the people in their 20s. This will tell you that you need to spend more time while marketing on platforms such as Snapchat, which is the favourite among youngsters. You have to make an impact on your target audience if you want to increase your sales. You can achieve this only when you create campaigns that are powerful enough on sites that really matter. Just because you have created a campaign on all the social media sites, you cannot expect your business to grow. You should spend your energy and effort in the right medium to achieve the desired goal.
Engage and engage actively
When you want your followers to become buyers, you need to build a good relationship with them. They need to trust your product enough to invest their hard-earned money in it. This will happen only when you give them the assurance that your brand is credible enough. The first way in which you can reassure your followers that you care for them is by engaging actively with them on your social media sites. When somebody posts a comment or question about your product/service, you need to respond immediately so that you make your followers feel that their voice is being heard.
You can talk to them about promotional campaigns on your site and you can provide a link for your website while replying to them. If your followers have reported an issue about your product, don’t hesitate to apologise for the same. Arrange for an alternative solution right away, so that they don’t feel disappointed. Make use of social media tools or appoint a person exclusively for social media engagement, if you don’t have the time for the same. The money that you spend on these efforts is worth its weight in gold, as you will see a phenomenal improvement in your sales figures.
Social-media specific campaigns
Once you have understood your target audience and the social media platform that they are most likely to spend time on, you should then proceed to create specific campaigns to attract them. For example, you can create a campaign for Instagram users only by announcing a 20% off on your products for customers who use a specific code that you have used in that advertisement. This way, your Instagram followers will be thrilled that they are getting a special treatment from you. You will see an improvement in your sales, eventually, when you follow this method.
Make use of influencers
When you want to lend credibility to your product and encourage people to buy the same, you can use the technique of influencer marketing. This is a technique where you use celebrities or famous personalities to endorse your product so that your followers get attracted. For example, if your business is about fitness supplements, you can take the help of a fit actor in the film or television world to endorse your product and talk a few lines about it. You can link your product’s details in the influencer’s profile so that his followers too are aware of your product and they get talking about the same. The more views your product generates, the more sales it is bound to create. Here is a tip that you have to follow in this method – ensure that you use the right influencer to endorse your product so that your plan doesn’t backfire.
In a nutshell, I would like to tell you three very important points if you want your followers to become your buyers. Firstly, do a thorough research on the social media sites that are popular among your target audiences of various age groups. Secondly, make your followers feel important by engaging with them actively. Thirdly, use campaigns that are particular to a social media platform instead of creating generic or vague campaigns. When you follow these techniques, you will definitely trigger curiosity in the minds of your target audience. A curious follower is bound to become a buyer eventually. It is all about tapping the potential of social media platforms effectively, in a way that will suit your business needs.
