Running a business today is not an easy task. Given the COVID-19 times, every business has to think of flexible and effective ways to get sales and reach customers. And since all brick or mortar businesses are either shut down, operating online, or working at a 50% capacity, businesses need to up their games to get sales.
Whether you have a small or a big business, having a sales lead is the basic element that drives your business towards success. And since 2020, when almost all businesses have gone digital given the pandemic, social media is the only platform that is working out to attract people to your business page.
For you to understand how to convert social media prospects into your customer, you will need to understand a few concepts.
What Are Customer Leads?
So let us take an example, you have set up a store selling paint sprayers and repacking kits online. And if a social media user shows an interest in your product and gives you information like their name, email address, or phone number, this is your social media lead.
Social media lead is the first step towards sales and making them your customer. Many marketers hold social media campaigns to collect leads, nurture them with information and attract them with elements of your product, and lastly, convert your leads into prospects and then your customers.
Now that you understand how the conversion works, that is from sales leads to prospects and from prospects to customers, we can help you with a tip on how to convert more prospects on social media. It is not that hard and if you go through our 6 step plan, it is pretty easy.
A 6-Step Plan to Convert More Prospects on Social Media
Before we get you started on how to convert your prospects on social media, let us give you one valuable piece of information; People want to know what your product is.
It is this simple, when you set up your social media profile make sure all that you have put in on there, tell your customers what kind of product you are selling? what needs of your customers will be met by your product? what are the features of your product? Mention in detail the description of your product.
Social media leads and sales are not just about how you are selling anymore, it is about gaining the trust of your customers, showing them images of your product, satisfying their every query and confusion.
Today, customers are the king, more so than before. Because previously, the customer was the king as well in all our marketing books and sales tips, but today in a practical sense, the customer truly is the king, and all sales and marketing plans are based on this factor alone.
The following are tips for you to convert more prospects on social media:
1. Optimize the Layout of Your Social Media Profiles
When starting a social media campaign, it is important that you determine a layout for your social media page that can attract customers. Various factors play an important role in determining the best layout for the customers.
Because the purpose of the campaign is to get leads, make sure you have provided all the necessary information for your customers to contact you, shop from you, or sign up for updates.
The following are a few tips to consider:
- Keep your contact information updated. Have phone numbers, emails, and contact forms or messenger for your customers to reach you out on. One thing you need to be prepared for is to have answers to your customer’s questions. A lot of businesses hold training sessions for their employees for customer support.
- Sometimes, what happens is, your customer can not find a call-to-action button. They might see products they like and want to ask you about them, but they may not find where the ‘contact us’ button is. This might be detrimental for your sales lead. Make sure you have a call-to-action button on your content for your customers.
Facebook and Instagram offer special call-to-action buttons for content. This includes buttons like ‘message’, ‘sign up’, ‘Book’, ‘Reserve’, ‘Get tickets’ etc
If you cannot provide specific details for your product, you can mention the link in the bio. This option is used by Instagram.
2. Create Attractive Content
You cannot expect people to click your content if it is not attractive. And it is simple math that if your content is not compelling, you won’t be able to collect leads on it.
The competition on the digital front is so intense, that you need to create content that can grab the attention of its viewers enough that they want to click it.
For each content, you create, make sure it has a call-to-action available. And if it’s tempting enough, you won’t have a problem turning your leads into customers.
Here are a few tips, you can use for your clickable content:
- Tag your products on your social media shop. Be it on Facebook or Instagram.
- ‘Swipe up’ on Instagram stories.
- ‘Shop the look’ pins on Pinterest.
3. Ensure User-Friendly Interface
If someone likes your business content and click on it and then lands himself on a confusing landing page, you will lose your sales right there. So create user-friendly, simple yet attractive landing pages.
The following are a few tips for you to create a landing page that will get you, customers:
- The landing page must be relevant. If the content had a call-to-action for ‘buy now’, your customer must be able to buy the product on the landing page. If there is no corresponding content for your customers, they might lose interest and close the window.
- A landing page will have a clear pathway, which will make it easier for customers to comprehend the information on the landing page. It should be easily scannable for your viewers.
- If your social media page has a form, make sure it is simple and easy to fill for your customers.
4. Use Social Media Advertisement to Bring You More Prospects
Once you have all the organic lead you can get, it’s time to get lead from ads.
Every social media page offers a paid advertisement option. A lot of businesses use the option of pay-click ads, which require them to only pay to the advertisement company once, a person clicks your ad.
Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, and LinkedIn, all offer options of advertisement to get leads. And all the clicks and leads you get from these advertisements are synced into the analytics information of your business page, which will further help you follow the lead.
You can send this data collected by social media sites to your sales or marketing team. The only thing you have to make sure of is to create attractive content. This means if you are advertising your titan repacking kits, make sure you use a clear picture of it to advertise it with a plain white background with a call-to-action.
5. Offer Incentives to Your Leads and Prospects to Turn Them Into Customers
With the competition going intense on a digital platform, every business has to come up with creative ways to bring in the lead and turn them into your customers.
For this purpose, you can hold content polls, giveaways, and prizes for your customers. Offer discount codes to customers who participate in your social media contest.
Sometimes businesses can also offer gated content such as webinars, group invites, whitepapers, emails, newsletters with special content, and privileges to drive lead to your social media pages.
6. Personalize Your Offer With Analytics
2021 is the era of customer-centric businesses. If you can make a customer feel that the offer was procured just for their need, you might turn your business into a gold mine.
Because like it or not, customers are the only element that can either run your business or kill it. A lot of businesses use emails, chatbots, social media messengers, and live sessions to personalize their offers to customers.
Why does personalization work? Because customers like to see the human element in the products. So if you are holding a Facebook live session, telling your customers about yourself and your products, the customers might feel more at ease thinking that they know you and they know the product and therefore feel more comfortable buying it from you.
Customers today like to know everything about you, your products, your brand, etc. It is not an exaggeration when we say they are even interested in knowing about the history of your company etc.
Therefore, the better relationship you have with your customers, the better you will be able to turn your leads into prospects and your prospects into customers. The key to running a successful business, in the end, comes down to attracting new customers and turning them into loyal customers.
Author Bio:
Sheikh Adil is a keynote speaker on social media strategy, LinkedIn marketing & social media marketing trainer, MediaHicon digital marketing author, and SEO consultant for global organizations.