style="font-size:15px;"> Samantha Hartley,
Enlightened Marketing (www.EnlightenedMarketing.com)
The #1 reason people fail at social media marketing is that they don’t have a solid foundation. They don’t have a brand, they don’t understand the outcome they provide, and they have absolutely no way of differentiating themselves from the competition.
Social media is the ultimate amplifier. If you have a good product or service, it will be amplified until it is perceived as great. If you have a shoddy product to begin with, that will also be amplified. Think about when you speak to your friends. Do you tell them that a restaurant you liked was good or do you say it was amazing? Inside each of us is a storyteller. We like to amplify. Social platforms and the internet in general allow us to do that. They are a megaphone for your message. The people who consistently do well using social media are the ones who were already doing well to begin with. The medium simply amplified their success.
Convert
So, what happens after you attract clients or customers? If they are an ideal fit, they convert. I say if they are an ideal fit because not everyone you attract will be. In our story earlier, Sue attracted Jane, who was an ideal fit. She was looking for quilts to buy. Let’s say Sue also attracts Edgar to visit her site because he likes the pictures of the quilts on her Facebook profile. However, he doesn’t have any use for a quilt; he just thinks they are pretty. He may never buy. And that’s okay. You want to convert the Janes out there, not the Edgars.
As I mentioned previously, conversion can happen in one of two ways: (1) a stranger turns into a consumer, or (2) a stranger turns into a client or customer.
People become consumers when they subscribe to your blog, get on your newsletter list, or merely like your Facebook page (more on this later). They are consuming your information. At this point, they have converted. They are no longer strangers.
Why is this important? Even if they aren’t paying for the content they’re consuming, they are still being exposed to your company and your brand. There is an old marketing adage that says a person must come into contact with your brand seven times before he or she will make a purchase. Seven times!
Think about the last time you went grocery shopping at a big chain store. Chances are that there was some table setup that allowed you to sample a product—whether it was a new juice or old-fashioned jam. Studies show that when people sample, they are more likely to buy! This same “sample table” concept also works online. Offering people a sample of your work—whether through written content, pictures, or videos—can also lead them to buy from you.
Ideally, the formula works like this:
Consumption of Valuable Content + Time = Client
Time is a variable. Some people may buy right after sampling your product or service. Others may need much longer. Some of our clients received our newsletter for over a year before they decided to become clients. And not everyone should turn into a client. You only want those who are a perfect fit. The more qualified the buyer, the fewer the returns.
Consumers and business buyers want to make up their own minds about what they need without interference from noisy marketers. In fact, by the time they are ready to talk to you, they will be armed with information about your company, its people, and its products.
Benefit from this new buyer behavior by engaging with them as they search for answers. Deliver content that is relevant and compelling in their search for solutions. You can do this before they ever call you or walk through your front door.
You become the expert your future buyers can count on. Your content engenders a trusted relationship that makes it easy to buy from you. That’s what content marketing is all about.
Newt Barrett,
coauthor of Get Content. Get Customers
How Does Social Media Marketing Fit When It Comes to Conversion?
Let’s be completely honest about what social media rarely does—lead to instant clients. For example, if you are looking to put up your LinkedIn profile and immediately get swamped by client requests, you may be disappointed. I won’t say that social media marketing doesn’t ever lead directly to clients because it does happen, but this should not be your goal. If you want to gain clients quickly, there are better ways of achieving it.
What social media is great at is turning strangers into consumers. It’s the perfect channel for allowing people to get a taste of your product or service—it’s sampling made easy.
AHA! Zen Moment
Social media marketing works best as a tool for attracting traffic and attention. It doesn’t work as well for converting strangers into clients. It’s better suited to converting strangers into consumers (i.e., blog readers or newsletter subscribers), if simply because “free” is an easy sell. Free works! And over time, it can and will lead to business.
What’s the Best Conversion Tool?
Your website! There is no getting around this one. You shouldn’t be engaging in social media marketing if you don’t have a website first. Every time I speak on the subject of social media marketing, someone inevitably asks me, “Can’t I substitute a social media profile (say, on Facebook or LinkedIn) in lieu of a website?” The answer is always no.
Why should you have your own website and not depend on social media profiles?
• You own your website. You don’t own your social media profiles. Your profile (and your hard-earned contact list) is owned by the social media site itself. If it goes “poof” tomorrow, then so does your online presence.
• Social media profiles are limiting. You can convey only so much information on your profile. Although it may (and should) intrigue someone, it isn’t enough to make a sale. Remember, social media is not a selling tool! It is an attracting tool.
Transform
Once you have mastered the art of attracting and converting, you must transform your successes into attraction magnets. This brings the entire online marketing process full circle.
People, especially strangers, crave social proof. Social proof is the theory that we are more likely to do something when we see others doing it. This applies even more when the others in question are similar to us. We often decide what to do (including whether to buy) based on what others are doing. This isn’t the only factor in our decision making, but it is a major one.
Social media is built on social proof. Because of this, social media is a great way to transform past successes into new attention for your company.
There are two parts to transforming:
1. You have to do a good job. If your service or product just doesn’t deliver, you are out of luck. You can’t transform a bad experience into an attraction tool. Let’s say you sell a blender and it breaks. The customer tries to return it, but your overworked employee says you just don’t take returns.
