Anna Maria Richards
Just because people follow you on social media doesn’t mean they want to buy your products or services. There are many reasons why followers click the like or follow button on your page.
Followers may feel that your posts are entertaining or educational. They may just want to keep up to date with what you are up to or want to engage with the content you are sharing to share it on their channels or get ideas for things they are working on. Sometimes, people follow social media accounts to find people similar to them in your follower base. The list is endless. (1)
There are ways in which you can engage your social media followers and encourage them to convert into paying customers. This is not the same for all companies and the ways you can do this can be as unique as every company out there, but there are 4 broad strategies you can follow to help you achieve this:
1. Find followers that match your buyer persona
Even if people have followed you for different reasons, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t potential leads. Because of that, it might be a good idea to take some time to view their profiles and check if they match your established buyer persona. If you found a few, don’t hesitate to make personal contact. It is flattering to be contacted by brands in a friendly and natural way.
Say that your business operates within the field service sector, and you are in the lawn care or landscaping industry. None of your followers fit the customer persona you were aiming for. Don’t worry – see this as an opportunity to speak to a different audience who are engaging with you and experiment with some different approaches.
Some business management operational tools like this lawn care app from Jobber have built in ad campaign functionalities which let you design and publish social media ads in the same place you access your CRM or job scheduling. Take advantage of these tools by updating or creating new personal campaigns specifically for people using social media. (2)
2. Bait your followers out
Usually, it’s better to encourage your prospects to come to you instead of you having to find them one by one. What better way to do that than to attract them with discounts, promotions, and giveaways?
If you’re just laser-focused on converting your social media followers, you can make your deals exclusive to them. For example, you can give away a time-limited discount on followers who’ll see the promotional post first. If they don’t need your service or product, they can have a coupon code, which they can use later if they can refer your company to one of their social media acquaintances, friends, or family members.
Alternatively, you can tell them how good your service is and attract their interest by demonstrating how they need it. A before and after image maker tool to showcase how transformative your services and products are is a great way to demonstrate the value you can provide, especially on social media where imagery is so powerful.
3. Create an opportunity where you can interact and sell them something
In some cases, you’ll have a lot of outliers even if you did all the things businesses need to do in social media. These outliers won’t ever fit your target demographic and can’t be lured by promotions. You may wonder why they’re still liking your post and leaving comments from time to time.
These followers have a different yet intricate customer journey. You can start mapping this by creating an opportunity to interact and understand them better. When the time is right, you can try to guide them to your sales funnel gently.
Using lawn care as in the example above, if you’re a lawn care specialist, you could consider starting an online live seminar where your followers can exclusively attend and get tips on how to care for their yards. In that seminar, engage them––offer solutions to their problems, find their pain points, and look for places and spaces wherein you can insert yourself as the solution. And depending on the customer journey you mapped for these prospects, try to close a sale.
4. Take care of your followers
Social media is one aspect of your business. Undoubtedly you are busy with a whole host of things. Remember that social media can offer a number of things for the benefit of your business. So, if the previous three strategies don’t work and you can’t completely figure out why some of your followers are with you, you can stop actively trying to convert them.
Instead, you can treat these seemingly unconvertable followers as an essential part of your community. They may not be the ones giving you business, but they’re the ones keeping your social media accounts alive. Engage with them whenever possible. Provide help and guidance when you can. Let them help you build your business’s credibility in the online space. Nurture your relationship with these people as they may even become word-of-mouth marketers even without being customers themselves.
While you may think that this is all optimism layered on top of defeatism, this is an actual strategy, which modern marketers call social selling. In the long run, you can hope that some of them will reciprocate your kindness with business and have a solid network to attract more customers. (3)
Conclusion
Above are the four core strategies you can adopt to convert your social media followers into paying customers. Of course, this list isn’t all-inclusive, and it largely depends what you use your social accounts for, and what the messaging is that you want to portray to your online community. Social channels are as unique as every individual business so be brave enough to experiment and have a try at different things. You may be surprised what works and what doesn’t.
References
- “Why Do People Follow Brands On Social Media?”, Source: https://www.marketingcharts.com/digital/social-media-113405
- “What Is A Buyer Persona? Introduction To Basics And Examples For 2022”, Source: https://www.upwork.com/resources/buyer-personas
- “Social Selling: Definition, Ideas, Strategies, And All The Tools You Need To Get Started”, Source: https://www.saleshacker.com/social-selling-guide/
