Technology has from time to time proven that it will continue to influence our lives in more ways than we can imagine. More specific to this article, social media has introduced tremendous changes that we never thought were possible. Different sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest are at the forefront of marketing what experts call social selling.
The scope of social selling in Canada is more promising as an increasing number of people demonstrate preference for viewing products and purchasing at one click. Most people do not want to be redirected outside the platforms to complete buying a product. That is the basic building block of social selling.
What is social selling?
Social selling does not have an agreed-upon definition. However, it generally entails businesses using their social media pages to generate leads, create relationships with customers, and eventually make a sale.
It is all about how you would engage prospects and apply marketing strategies on them for a successful closure of the sale. Typically, you may have share open-ended questions with the prospects then continue engaging them until they are ready to buy. The engagement in social selling does not stop at the point when a purchase is made. Instead, you have to do a follow up via the social media platform to learn more about their experiences with your product.
Even as you undertake social selling, you need to remain open to some warnings. This process has nothing to do with bombarding strangers with countless DMs or Tweets. A simple mistake and you will have lost a lead for good.
Should you engage in social selling?
Definitely! If your business has not included social selling in its funnel, you are losing more opportunities to social media savvy competitors.
Social selling provides you with some crucial benefits that you should proactively be ready to leverage. Among the advantages that it offers include:
• Higher quality leads generation
• Increased web traffic
• Increase brand visibility
• Creates and improves personal brand
You should not delay any longer from implementing this. The longer you wait, the faster your competitors get ahead of you.
Social selling does work provided you have a strategy that you are keen on implementing and have set aside time to build online relationships with customers and prospects. You should be ready to engage with their content, share relevant content, and make meaningful sales pitch. Please keep in mind that the people you seek to build relationships are already on social networks and exposed to all kinds of content. Therefore, you have to be present to tactically and genuinely interact with them.
What social selling entails
There are some crucial pillars that make up social selling and help determine the success or failure of your efforts.
These are:
1. Creating a professional brand
You must earn the prospective buyer’s trust by presenting yourself as a dependable brand. This professional images translates to higher enquiries from prospects and positive responses to your communications.
2. Focusing on the right prospects
Undoubtedly, social media is vast and gives you access to all kinds of audiences. In social selling, you are not focused on all these people. Instead, your interest is drawn to the audience that matter as far as your business is concerned.
3. Comprehending what insights say
Social selling requires you to listen to insights and act on what they have to say about your efforts. Having clear metrics to measure your efforts is an unavoidable undertaking.
4. Building dependable relationships
You have to create trust with your target audience by sharing helpful information. Remember to have genuine conversations with them and look into how these can turn to a prospect and eventually a sale.