Social networking can help you connect with the right prospects for your business. Here are strategies for social selling you need to start using today.
Leveraging your social network is one way to connect with prospects and boost your business. In fact, 90% of top salespeople use social selling tools to do just that.
Just like any new experience, starting to use new tools and channels can be daunting. That’s why we’ve put together this list of 7 surefire strategies to help you get started with social selling.
1. Presentation is Key for Social Selling
If you wouldn’t turn up to a meeting with a new prospect in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, don’t have that as your profile picture on social media. Your profile picture can be casual or even quirky if that’s relevant to your business. Most people choose to play it safe and pick a clear head and shoulder shot of them in business attire.
You need to think about the copy on your LinkedIn profile, Twitter Bio, Website or Facebook page as the first conversation you have with someone. The content should be engaging and have enough information to reassure the customer that they have found the right person or business.
2. Word of Mouth is Still Important
91% of B2B purchases are influenced by Word of Mouth. Online recommendations hold just as much weight as hearing from someone directly. That’s why collecting reviews and recommendations should be one of your social selling strategies.
How do you get people talking? That’s where Word of Mouth Marketing comes in. Dropbox has used relationship selling to their advantage by offering their existing users some free additional storage if they recommend a friend. It’s a win-win strategy that has seen them grow to more than $4 billion in net worth with a relatively small advertising budget.
3. Be Credible
Another important part of gaining confidence is being known as an authority in your area. To gain this reputation, you have to be a part of the conversation that goes on around your business, and that of your target customers.
This can mean sharing content on a blog, or in an eBook. It can also mean taking part in discussions on LinkedIn forums or sharing content to your feed that shows you are keeping up to date.
Boost your credibility on LinkedIn by asking your contacts to endorse you for certain skills. Then potential customers can see that you have helped others with the same or similar problems and will have more faith that you can do the same for them.
4. Target Your Market
Before you start using social selling, it’s vital to take some time and think about who you are selling to. Knowing your target market and coming up with a profile (or several profiles) of your ideal customer can help you focus your activity on where it is going to do you the most good.
You need data to carry out this task. If you know who your current customers are, that’s a great starting place. Looking at the demographics of your website visitors, existing client base or simply choosing the type of business you want to connect with will all help you know how to best approach them.
You’d use a different ‘voice’ to talk to lawyers close to retirement than you would to hipster millennials planning their first startup, for example. They also have different needs and different questions, your social selling should address those.
5. Track Your Performance
As with any other kind of marketing, you will want to measure how successful your efforts are in reaching new customers. It’s pointless to invest time and money into something that isn’t working.
To do this, use different landing pages for certain tweets, Facebook or LinkedIn posts. Then, by looking at which page a visitor landed on, it’s easy to work out where they came from. If one approach is successful, then you can focus your efforts there.
A word of warning, though. Just because visitors from a certain source are bouncing straight off your site it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not interested in what you’re offering. It may just mean that they can’t see an obvious way to get the answers to the questions they have. It’s important to get the landing page design right.
6. Follow the Thought Leaders
Find businesses that relate to your industry on LinkedIn and follow them, do the same on Twitter and any other social media platforms you are using. Whatever these companies have to say will then show up in your feed. Read it, share it and comment on it.
Talk to other commentators, too. Agree, or disagree but do it respectfully. This is how you build relationships that lead to more connections, which in turn leads to more prospects.
7. Listen As Much as You Talk
One of the most useful social selling tips to understand is that social selling is about having a conversation. It isn’t like advertising, which is simply about getting a message out. Social selling is about building relationships.
The only way you can do that is to engage with people. If someone leaves a comment on one of your posts, give them a reply. Thank people for sharing your content. Wish them a happy birthday when an application prompts you too!
8. Share Your Success
One way to boost the signal on any reviews of feedback that you get is to share it with your followers. If the feedback came in an email, then ask your customer to leave it in a more public forum, or get their permission to quote them.
One of the beauties of social selling is that your network starts to root for you. When something great happens, they’ll often comment with congratulations or share your celebration. That all widens the audience for your good news message.
Get in the Mix
The most important part of social selling is getting into the fray. Connect with people, talk and listen, share and offer up your own content. You’ll soon find your network expanding and new prospects coming your way.
And if we can help you with leads, data or digital marketing help then do get in touch today. Connect with us, let’s see if we can help!
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