“If content is fire, then social media is gasoline.”
- Jay Baer, host of the award-winning Social Pros Podcast
Welcome to Episode 2: Non-Salesy Strategies for Marketing on Social Media, where we take an under-cover look at how to build brand loyalty and trust with our clients and target market through the medium of social media marketing.
Obviously, our business must make money to maintain a healthy bottom line, so how do we bring those sales in without our customers feeling annoyed or turned off at our marketing efforts?
Today, we are focusing specifically on how to drive your online social media marketing to bring in those customers and drive traffic to your website. We not only want to bring in customers and clients, but we also want to keep them and be in business with them for the long haul.
We’ll be “untangling” alternatives to outdated, pushy and gimmick-y sales tactics in this episode, such as …
AND MORE!
Are you ready?
Come on in and pull up a seat!
“If content is fire, then social media is gasoline.”
- Jay Baer, host of the award-winning Social Pros Podcast
Welcome to Episode 2: Non-Salesy Strategies for Marketing on Social Media, where we take an under-cover look at how to build brand loyalty and trust with our clients and target market through the medium of social media marketing.
Obviously, our business must make money to maintain a healthy bottom line, so how do we bring those sales in without our customers feeling annoyed or turned off at our marketing efforts?
Today, we are focusing specifically on how to drive your online social media marketing to bring in those customers and drive traffic to your website. We not only want to bring in customers and clients, but we also want to keep them and be in business with them for the long haul.
We’ll be “untangling” alternatives to outdated, pushy and gimmick-y sales tactics in this episode, such as …
AND MORE!
Are you ready?
Come on in and pull up a seat!
Do you remember the movie, Jaws?
I might be dating myself with this analogy, but my brain works in mysterious ways sometimes. Jaws, of course, is the 1975 American thriller directed by Steven Spielberg which is also based on a novel of the fears of being attacked by great white shark.
Of course, the music was brilliantly scored and won many awards leaving movie-goers with a haunting melody that has been referenced in many comedy sketches involving predators, of the human and non-human variety.
I can still hear that tune in the back of my mind whenever someone is trying to sell me something I don’t want and the little hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. You can tell when the “hunt” is on!
One of friends told me the story of the time she went into a furniture store as she was in the market for a new sofa. Granted, this story took place about a decade ago and we have learned oh so many things about sales techniques since then …
She walked into the store, stopped for a second, realized the living room section was at the back of the store and started making her way towards it.
From the moment she walked in, a lady with a fierce bun twisted tightly to the top of her head rose from her seat at the counter in buttoned up a very drab brown suit, straightened her name tag and walked to the front of the counter. This sales lady had a severe demeanor and looked more like a military commander than a woman selling home furnishings.
Her and the sales lady locked eyes before she ever left the “welcome” carpet … And the hunt was on!
Imagine the chilling sounds of the Jaws music, picking up tempo as they walked towards each other. It was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard this story.
So, imagine the music as the sales lady starts to move in … choosing to move about the store in circles coming in closer and closer with each round she made. The sales lady fluffed some pillows, straightened a few vases, and smoothed her about suit twenty more times. But her eyes never wavered. She was locked in on the prize. Today was the day she was going to get her commission!
Eventually her circling brought her into ear shot of my friend and the sales lady finally spoke. They had a brief conversation where the sales lady learned that she was still in the “looking” stage and may not be ready to buy just yet. The sales lady backed off for a minute or two then returned and inquired again. No bite. After the third and fourth try, my friend became exasperated with the sales lady constantly intruding that she left the store purchasing nothing. The words she used to describe this salesperson were “intrusive, pushy and unfriendly.”
Intrusive, traditional marketing went out the window a long time ago, and for a good reason. People do not want to be sold to, they want to establish a real connection and relationship with you.
That’s the secret sauce to getting your audience or customers to trust you.
And, if they trust you – they will buy from you.
Consumers find it off-putting when brands post pushy promotions in order to keep them purchasing things that may not be relevant to them.
Over the years, we have moved largely to an e-commerce market and most of us are using social platforms to market our businesses and services. The reason I shared the story of the furniture sales lady is because this type of approach, even online, is rarely well-received.
When people choose to do business with you, it’s not as simple as making a decision to purchase the first thing they see. We, as business owners, need to give them what I like to call “the feels” in order to make that connection.
Customers must be earned.
Your market research must be closely examined in order to learn how to attract new customers in a way that results in brand loyalty.
Learning to market effectively -- and genuinely – in a virtual world is truly a great way to educate others on exactly what your business offers without your audience feeling that you are “too in their face”.
I think it’s important to remember that you never want your marketing to be so focused on sales that you forget there is a human sitting behind that screen.
And it’s probably a good time to give some thought as to how you can make a true connection on a more human level.
So, let’s talk for a minute about the power of social media …
We all remember when we were first introduced to Facebook. I still remember filling out that profile with some skepticism. And with absolutely NO IDEA of how it would grow at the FIERCE rate that it has.
Now it’s become part of mainstream media around the globe.
As quickly as social media has insinuated itself into our politics, workplaces, home life and literally every other nook and cranny … it continues to evolve at lightning speed, making it tricky to predict which way it will morph next.
Social media has become a fundamental way to get information ABOUT the world OUT into the world.
You can’t dispute it. But, if you want your business to be successful in 2020 and beyond, you’ve got to get yourself online!
So back to marketing in the land of social ...
Your content is published, and you’re registered for all the social accounts that suit your needs. And now it’s time to promote your brand.
This may all seem like a no-brainer, but consistency and brand story are key so that your audience can find and connect with you easily.
One genuinely great thing about the land of social is that you can get the word out without a massive overhead marketing budget. Bearing in mind to keep gimmicky, sales-y type of content far, FAR away.
And with that being said, I want to dive into a couple points that have had positive results for us and our clients …
#1. Warming Up Your Leads with A Strong Message
It’s more cost efficient to retarget existing leads when you sell something on social than it is to target cold leads.
The quality of your messaging matters so much for an effective “selling presence”.
So, don’t shortcut yourself, your business of whatever it is your selling. Don’t shortcut your brand. And promote everything with consistency and pure greatness.
The takeaway here is that your business products and your message should be equally strong. And if “untangling” isn’t your strong suit or you don’t have time, consider hooking up with an expert content creator who understand how to take your message and deliver it concisely and with pizzaz!
Remember people … Less is more! And marketing this way takes talent to get it right.
But also make sure you hire a creative individual that shares a passion for your brand and your business – just as much as you do. As the care and attention, you put out into the world will make a huge difference between getting people to click through to where you want them to go or clicking away to a competitor.
#2. Using Truthful, Inspiring Stories in Your Marketing
Telling true, behind the scenes stories is something a lot of your followers can resonate with. That’s the beauty of selling something great to the right target audience. Keep it simple, truthful, and inspiring.
Talk about WHY you’re sharing the service, product, blog or podcast and be clear on what problem you are trying to solve. Something else to consider is not solely using stock images. In order for your audience to feel a true connection with you, they need to see your face from time to time.
#3. Optimizing Your Message for Each Network
We are all aware that each social network handles images, text and videos differently. Therefore, you must be knowledgeable on the strengths of each social platform that you choose to bring into your world.
For instance, Twitter limits us to a whopping 280 characters per post.
However, what Twitter lacks in word count it makes up for in visual -- and we know that a picture is worth a thousand words -- so go ahead and get creative with your brand’s face! Just remember to keep the quality high as you’ll gain 150% more retweets for tweets with imagery.
Likewise, with Facebook. Posts with pictures get upwards of 53% more likes than the average post. And LinkedIn posts with images acquire a high-achieving 98% percent more comments.
People respond well to visual stimulation, and as a general rule, you should do your best to produce every piece of shareable content alongside a suitable visual.
#4. Make Your Social Content Informative
Over the handful of past years, my business (like many others) has been navigating how to be successful with our social strategy. One of the things we’ve learned along the way is that your business is much more likely to be sustainable if it provides a solution or some type of usefulness for your audience and clients.
I am pretty sure we’ve all seen those emotive gimmicks on the dreaded pop ups or on Facebook or Google Ads. These may seem like a good solution to generate buzz and increase web traffic but in reality, these types of ads may only be generating short term curiosity that may not have the long-term results that you’re hoping for.
In other words, once you have jumped out of a spaceship and descended into the Earth’s atmosphere with a parachute, all else tends to be downhill. It’s kind of a humorous analogy, but also true!
People want solutions. They want relief from pain and from small inconveniences. We all want answers to complex questions and information that helps us clear obstacles and helps us reach our goals.
So, in your social posts, length does NOT equal effectiveness. Honestly, it’s the opposite. The tighter and clearer you can be, the better. Most of us just don’t have the time for extra preamble or content that doesn’t relate to our crazy overly busy lives.
Writing takes practice. I’ve been writing content for over a decade and if you ask either myself or one of my glorious creative writers, we can confirm that it’s actually much easier to write a 3,000 essay than to write something that is powerful enough, dynamic enough and short enough to grab an audience within 2 or 3 seconds.
And just when you think you’ve got it … something shifts making your trusted and true content completely irrelevant.
Since we are all working virtually these days, there’s no shortage of work for bright unicorn-like, content creators. Becoming an expert in this field won’t just help you market your company more effectively, but you will more than likely come to be known as an industry leader that is able to provide legitimate quality solutions.
#5. Creating Captivating Headlines
Earlier, I provided a word of caution to over-emoting on your business’s social posts. And with good reason ...
I’ve definitely clicked on headlines that were nothing more than click-bait disguised as attention grabbing headlines.
And I personally find this to be annoying and an incredible waste of time. The last thing you need is for your audience to feel that you’re not being consistent with your offerings once they get to your website.
Did you know that almost 80% of your audience doesn’t go past your headline!?
So, you really want to make it count!
Something else to keep in mind as you’re writing are these two things:
So, if your headline reads “Cut Your Operating Expenses by 15%”, your audience will see an immediate potential cost savings opportunity that someone has clearly taken the time to measure.
Again, there aren’t a lot of short cuts in this approach and it takes much quality time and effort to be able to offer real goal-driven results but your own ROI on this effort is going to make it all worth it in the end.
Creating customer loyalty takes time, but this is one way to claim it quicker!
#6. Believing in Your Brand!
This has been stressed in over 100 of my 300 blog posts as it’s truly that important!
You must be passionate about your business. As in, you need to be 110 million percent confident in whatever you’re trying to promote or share with the world.
If you remember the sales lady story we shared at the beginning of this episode, it’s very likely that she didn’t seem happy because truthfully, she wasn’t. Selling furniture probably isn’t her jam. And you’re going to be hard pressed to scale if you don’t really love what you’re doing.
So, having lukewarm feelings will absolutely show and you won’t come across as very genuine.
For example, I’m VERY passionate about design and organization!
So, by offering these types of services as a way to help other business’s bring their goals to life, I not only get the opportunity to make their dreams come true BUT also live mine while doing #AllTheThings.
And last but not least …
#7. Learn Your Demographic
The more you understand your target market, the less you will resort to using dusty, old, sales-y content that’s not going to help you anyway.
Connecting and engaging with your audience is crucial in today’s virtual world, especially if you want to turn a profit. But you got to know your people!
You should be able to pinpoint their needs, wants, dreams and desires. This is the bread and butter of a successful social media marketing plan …
So, how can you better understand your demographic?
Once you’re able to get a real feel for your target audience, you’ll be better equipped to help.
People want to deal with a business that genuinely cares and understands. Not a faceless brand just out to empty their wallet. Engaging is just so huge and it probably seems like we’ve beat this point to death by now, but everything keeps pointing back to this principle.
One last point before we wrap, and it’s is so simple.
Not to mention people love to engage with this.
We all love free stuff!!!! Like, who doesn’t?
So, consider hosting a contest or offering free 1:1 calls.
People love to be actively engaged in a way that appeals to their sense of excitement! And this gives them a chance to do just that!
Plus, you’ll likely see a boost of followers, an increase in your online visibility and pump up your engagement BIG TIME!
Part of the key to executing this successfully is to offer something of tremendous value. And I’m talking something that will be completely irresistible to your audience.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
Then lastly, create the content and promote the heck out of it!
It’s TIME to get your people invested and aim to have your audience do some of the heavy lifting. Set things up so they get extra entries for sharing or by completing tasks like “Pin on Pinterest”, “Share on Facebook”, or “Follow on Instagram”.
It’s genius.
Your contest will basically run itself!