3 Ways Social Media Can Power Up Your Content Marketing Sales Funnel

Allow us to introduce you to the most underused and misunderstood channel in the marketing sales funnel system…

SOCIAL MEDIA.

Social media typically appears at the top of the funnel, at the polar opposite from sales. So, there’s no wonder that small business owners tend to ignore social media as a channel. According to the funnel, you don’t make money from your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – well, at least, not directly.

Unless…

You’ve never really used social media to its full potential.

The whole point of the sales funnel is to let you know where your prospects are in the buying process so that you can use the right tactics to get them to move to the next stage. Social media plays a vital role in this process mainly because it can make your small business look human and authentic.

You can use social media at every stage of the sales funnel, not just at the top, to connect with your prospects and make them trust your brand.

Here’s how:

Awareness > Get Leads

Social media is an excellent way to put your small business on the map. There are many ways to get people talking about your business. For instance, you can advertise on Twitter, create sponsored posts on Instagram, or boost your pins on Pinterest. Or, you can create enticing YouTube videos to make your local business known. Or you can use Vine to advertise the products/services you are selling.

Evaluation > Lead Nurturing

Now that you’ve got new visitors to your website, it’s important to know how to make them stay. Obviously, you don’t want them to bounce back. So, how about bringing social to them, on your website?

SlideShare is a powerful tool that you can use to create compelling slideshows and embed them on your site. You can turn some of your most successful posts into slideshows by simply copying and pasting the information. However, make sure to add graphs and pictures to make the slideshows visually appealing.

Conversion > Retention/Loyalty

After carefully examining your products, after reading your blog posts and after watching product demo videos, the prospect decided that buying from you is the smart thing to do.

Congratulations!

But your work is not over yet. Now you need to turn your new acquired customer into a loyal buyer.

Luckily, social media can be of great help.

You can create social media giveaways, contest, and special offers to generate new leads while enticing your existing customer. For instance, you can create a contest on Facebook where you ask your fans to post an image of them using your product. The photo with the most shares or likes wins. Not only that this online marketing strategy can boost your small business’ online presence, but they are also encouraging customers to tell their followers why they choose your products. It’s a win-win.

There are plenty of ways to think about the role of social media in the sales funnel. You just have to choose a strategy that makes the most sense for your small business.