In the age of relationship-based marketing, social selling isn’t going anywhere. You may have dabbled a bit, or even worked out a strategy for your social selling, but the chances are, you need to step up your game. Social selling allows for a level of service and personality not available before with cold calling, with communications being tailored to individuals’ needs, interests and industries. Here are a few ways that your business can get ahead with social selling.
Listen to your customers – make a point of responding to comments, complaints or questions from your customers. Tag them in your posts and watch which hashtags they’re using. Keep an eye out for what’s trending. Understanding more about your customers, or potential ones, will give you more of an inside edge.
Research your personas – in order to offer personal and tailored communication, know your users. Find out what their grievances are, what their pain points are and arm yourself with the information you need to solve their problems. Follow their tweets and posts, retweet them; know exactly what is going on with your competitors and their clients.
Open up lines of communication – pose questions to your customers, share content that might be of interest; update your LinkedIn profile with articles, graphics, statistics and videos; blog at least once a week.
Use existing networks and connections – by increasing the size of your network with past and current co-workers, you increase the base from which to draw referrals.
Use top social listening tools, to bring relevant conversation to you, instead of spending many hours looking for the right groups and right conversations. Using keyword tracking and key phrase mentions across social platforms and the web, will show you the people in need of your services.
Keep tabs on your competitor’s social accounts – if you see customers venting their frustrations or complaining, that’s an opportunity right there. Add these people to your social streams and Twitter lists.
Become a content expert – developing a large amount of quality content can help you connect quickly and easily. You can share relevant and seemingly personalised content when it’s needed, which should pave the way for a sale. Posting your quality content through social media platforms or blogs will draw potential sales to you.
For more on social selling and how it can benefit your marketing efforts, contact us. Partnering with us will enable you to stay in touch with your client base, create online communities and sell more products online. We’ll make sure you engage with the right people to drive your media strategy forward.