Is There Money In Social Media?

Social as a Primary Sales Tool

There are tons – almost endless! – powerful sales tools online, but it’s easy to get distracted by so many shiny objects that you lose track of which ones really yield the best results for your own business.

For some companies, social is the best sales tool out there – but only if you embrace it!

The challenge with ecommerce selling is that there are so many different angles you can pursue. There’s email marketing, content marketing, paid advertising, guest blogging, landing pages, ecommerce sites, SEO, strategic web design, and a slew of other strategies and individual focuses.

The biggest problem is that businesses and marketers get distracted. Instead of putting the emphasis on sales, the focus is spread across multiple different areas. When this happens, a business can easily be stopped in its tracks–as time is spent on low-yielding tasks. The answer to this costly conundrum is to hone in on the sales tools that actually work and do away with the ones that don’t.

When put like that, it sounds simple. However, as soon as you begin assessing your own sales data and campaigns, you’ll quickly come to the realization that you aren’t sure which tools are your best tools. Well, chances are social media will surface somewhere near the top of the list.

According to a Nielson report on social media, Americans spend three times as much time on social networking sites as they do reading email (7.6 percent of online time is spent reading email, while 23 percent is spent on social). Even more eye opening is the revelation that 70 percent of social users shop online. In other words, your online customers are waiting for you on social networking sites. You simply have to find ways to monetize this reality.
– via Inc.com

Leading them to the sale

So if you’re going to use social to sell, how do you do it? How do you not only encourage engagement, but encourage sales as well? This is a great explanation of leading readers to the sale through social media, and how powerful of a sales tool it can be for small businesses.

Social media is buzz for companies and people. Social media is people talking one to many. Social media is narrowing your business communication down to a niche. People just like to browse for things they might like. Unbounce did an article on cart abandonment a year ago, stating that “56% of shoppers aren’t ready to purchase but want to save their selection for later”, in their cart. I think it is safe to say that this behaviour has not changed. So what we should use social media for in this case, is to introduce that product to the customer.

Sales appear less ad hoc when it’s a new product to the customer. When there’s some kind of buzz around your product, people might start to want your product unconsciously. It will become more and more top-of-mind, and an eventual sale will be deliberate. Even though it might seem ad hoc to the buyer at that point. This might be a long term effect of your social media efforts.

It is nice to just tweet about beautiful cars when you are selling bread, but those tweets won’t make you money. Tweeting about that new paleo bread you are selling online starting today could get you (immediate) sales, though.

Start early in the process of a new product or offer; “We are releasing a brand new plugin early next week!” or “Only on sale next week, get yours!” and create scarcity; “We’ll start with a test audience of 250 people.” All the basics of sales go for social media as well. You can easily create series, repeat your offer…

Create the need or wish for your product or services. And guide the potential buyer via your preferred social media outlets to your website to close the deal.
– via Yoast

Is your business on social media yet? Have you seen any sales increase because of it?