A famous quote by John Mussel goes by- “If the content is king, conversion is queen.” If you ponder over this simple quote, you will realize how true the words are. If you are reading this article, perhaps it’s safe for us to presume that you have been on social media for long enough and know how it has changed over the years. Where it once had been a place for people to connect with their friends and families, social media has become an inevitable part of businesses. That is why the world has also seen the rise of social media marketing as a job.
Now, the primary job of social media marketers is to gain followers. But do you think followers are enough for any business?
Of course not, because unless there are customers or buyers of a brand’s products, the business wouldn’t even last. Thus, the more pressing matter that social media marketers put their heads to is successful social media marketing campaigns. These campaigns are an integral part of their strategies as they involve subtle coaxing and convincing followers to become buyers.
However big a follower base your business might have, ultimately, what matters is if you can convert your audience to customers; otherwise, your marketing strategies are meaningless. So you will need a killer social media marketing strategy so that you can work towards converting your social media followers to customers. In this article, we will tell you several tips you can achieve exactly that.
How to turn your social media followers into customers
Increase your productivity:
Your social media marketing strategy should start with ways to gain more followers. Unless you have a substantial number of followers, you won’t have a good customer base. You have to be organized and systematic in whatever moves you have while social networking. It would be best if you kept in mind that these moves should ultimately increase productivity.
Firstly, you have to start posting content or tweets regularly. If you are haphazard and inconsistent in your uploads, people will start to lose interest in your brand. That will lead to no more conversions of followers into buyers. When you are working to increase your productivity, you should make it a point to dedicate some time daily for social media marketing and post at least a few times daily. If that seems too tedious, you could use automated scheduling and social marketing tools. One of the best ones is Socialpilot.
Analyze every content you post:
Complacency is the worst thing that could happen to your brand. Become complacent after gaining a certain number of followers and maybe, even a certain number of buyers. It won’t be late until you stop attracting followers at all.
You see, though satisfaction is a good thing, complacency is really bad. When you stop being productive, you don’t pay attention to the details of your every post. When you start feeling that way and stop seeing growth in your followers and customer base, you need to ask yourself a few questions.
A) Which of your posts performed the best. B) At which times did your posts receive maximum engagement and, C) What are your followers’ demographics (location and age)? Suppose you don’t have the answers to these questions. In that case, you have to start delving deep into analytics, as they would act as a guide to your plan of action in your marketing strategy. Using the data, you will be able to attract more followers and customers.
Keep track of your competitors:
If you have been building your brand on social media for a few years now and have been posting regularly, following on the metrics, it is natural that you would have earned a large number of followers who respect you. But, since more and more people are joining these platforms every day, the competitors in your niche may be starting to get an edge over you. That, of course, is not at all favorable for your brand or your plans to monetize it.
In this case, you again have to take the help of analytics. You must understand which type of posts people like the best and most engage with. You also need to compare your posts with your competitors and see where you fall short in delivering what the audience wants. Identifying the demographic qualities and interests of the audience is the only way that would help you get more conversions.
Give your followers incentive to follow and buy from you:
The first rule of thumb when trying to influence someone is that you should never try too hard. And yes, you did hear that right. When you want to convert your social media followers into interested customers, you have to tempt them subtly. Create stories behind each product and each post that you upload.
Also, you can never go wrong with good offers and irresistible discounts, so use them to your advantage. Show your audience how good your products are and how they can get it all at nominal prices. It would be best if you ensured that buying from you was an experience in itself.
Nowadays, people are more attracted to great products at nominal prices. Suppose you hit these two criteria and make it all a unique experience. In that case, it won’t be much late before your customer base doubles. Be sure not to ask any of your followers to buy directly. As we have said earlier, you need to be subtle about it; you have to persuade them and let the people decide whether they want to buy from you.
Set goals and ace your campaigning:
As they say, change is the only constant in life. It is so important that you also set new goals for your brand and work toward achieving them. But every new goal would require at least a slight change in the functionality of your brand. And this is a good thing! By exploring new functionalities of your brand, you will be able to develop goal-driven campaigns.
Ultimately, you would be aiming for more sales, so you should concentrate more on increasing brand awareness. You could take a different approach too and give the sales more focus. You could try out both of these techniques and compare which method works more efficiently in driving traffic to your website. Both the methods are fine as long as they work for you.
Appreciate your audience:
Making your fans and followers feel special is the most important part of having an online brand. That is because you do know that they are the ones who have been advocates of your brand and have helped you achieve what you have. Since they have so generously aided your sales, you have to show appreciation to them. There are quite a few ways you can get to know and appreciate your audience.
Firstly, on Twitter, you could start a hashtag such as #FollowbackFriday and promote a certain number of followers. On Facebook, you could add an app, that is, “fan of the week (or month),” to your fan page. You could also comment on why they have been selected. But remember that you shouldn’t overdo anything. As they say, less is more, so try to keep the appreciated follower count to a single digit.
Be loyal to your followers:
You can’t expect your followers to become buyers if you are not loyal to them. You may wonder what this means. It’s pretty simple- you must keep your word. Whether you have promised them a new product on a certain date or any offers and discounts, you have to make sure they receive these benefits. If, in any case, you are unable to upload anything, you must let them know.
Conclusion
And there you have it- the tips that would help you convert your social media followers to loyal customers. Besides all the points that we have listed above, you must also look through good social media marketing strategies and try to implement those as well. To wrap up, you must appreciate the followers who have supported you and your brand and remind yourself to build a good connection with them.
