How to Master Social Selling with Content
Does this sound familiar?
- Your sales reps need content to nurture prospects.
- Your website needs fresh content so prospects know you are active and up to date on the issues.
- Your marketing team is already overworked.
- You want to get more clicks from LinkedIn and SEO but aren’t sure how to start.
These issues are all related to social selling with content.
If you’re in sales and marketing, then you know that social selling is one of the most effective ways to connect with potential customers and close deals. But what exactly is social selling, and how can you use it to your advantage? In this blog post, we’ll explore the ins and outs of social selling and provide some tips on how to use content to master the art of social selling.
What is Social Selling with Content?
You are reading social selling content right now.
Social selling with content is a powerful approach to sales that utilizes content like blog posts, videos, and other digital media to help establish relationships and build trust with potential customers. The most common way sales reps share social content is through LinkedIn, blogs, and email, buy each industry has its own favorite social media channels that respond to effective content.
By providing quality information that helps educate buyers on the product or service being sold, social selling helps make it easier for prospects to understand why they should purchase that product or service. This approach can be used to build relationships with prospects, nurture leads, and help close more deals. Additionally, content marketing can also be used to generate more referrals and drive word-of-mouth sales for the business.
It works. Here are some actual results from clients:
- A software client of ours increased their leads from LinkedIn by 200% with content.
- A small managed services provider receives over 300 likes on LinkedIn and YouTube each time they post a new video. It would take all month to reach those same contacts with phone calls.
- A distributor increased their web hits by 3X with new content for blogs and email newsletters.
- A consultant client increased their subscription list from a few hundred to over 15,000 after a year of publishing social selling content.
- An analytics client grew their LinkedIn followers by over 2,500 new contacts.
Now that you’re sold on providing social selling content to your team, here are some ideas on how to get started.
Define Your Target Audience and What They Want to See from You
I’m always surprised how many of our clients don’t carefully define their target audiences.
However, it’s an essential part of creating content that resonates with your intended audience. It’s important to do research and develop an in-depth profile to help you envision your ideal consumer. Once you identify the behavioral patterns, interests, socio-economic backgrounds, and other traits of your target market, you can begin crafting a fun and informative message that speaks specifically to their needs. Crafting a unique message that accurately reflects your brand while still appealing to the most desirable consumer segments is the key to standing out from the crowd. With a little bit of research and dedication you can create engaging marketing messages tailored to specific groups.
Plan And Create Content That Is Interesting and Engaging for Your Target Audience
Content creation is a great way to reach your target audience. It involves choosing the right topics that are specific to the interests and needs of your key demographic and delivering them in an informative yet entertaining manner that can both educate and captivate.
Creating content for successful social selling requires effort and planning because different thinking styles require different content formats.
- Social selling to executives requires easily digestible video content
- Search engines and data-driven buyers prefer written content
- You need reports and longer-form content for click bait
- Your sales team needs sales enablement help with slide decks and emails
You’ll want to create a content plan based around themes or topics that will resonate with who you’re targeting, be active on all relevant social media channels, consider video, audio, written pieces and more – it’s up to you how unique and creative you get. Remember though, clever content will always yield better results than something mundane. Take the time to build an interesting concept for your ideas and you may just capture the attention of many people who wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.
Post Regularly, But Don’t Spam Your Followers with Too Much Content
Regular posting is important for keeping your followers engaged but don’t overdo it. Posting too frequently can fill up your followers’ feeds and lead to decreased engagement. Try mixing up the type of content you post and give your followers something unexpected occasionally. This will help keep them interested while still allowing you to stick with your regular posting schedule. Creating a balanced plan that considers how much and what type of content you post will ensure that you avoid annoying your faithful followers with an overload of posts.
Respond To Comments and Questions from Your Followers in A Timely Manner
It’s no secret that responding to your followers can be time consuming and a bit challenging, especially when you’re extraordinarily busy. However, we believe that building a relationship with your followers through replying to their comments and questions is an essential part of growing your presence on any given platform. Whether it’s adopting a more casual or professional tone depending on the topic at hand, saying “thank you” and being sure to be polite will ensure that your relationship with them continues to grow stronger. It doesn’t have to be complicated; just taking the time to engage with your audience in some way will make all the difference.
Use Social Selling Techniques to Build Relationships with Potential Customers
Social selling is a great way to build relationships with potential customers and make an impact in your industry. It involves using social media platforms to interact directly with prospects, engage them in conversations, and convert them from leads into customers. While some may think it’s just about pitching sales whenever you can, if done correctly, social selling allows you to create meaningful connections between yourself and the customer without feeling overly sales-y. By building these relationships before any money changes hands, you’ll be able to better understand their needs as well as give you an opportunity to showcase why your product or service is exactly what they’re looking for. So don’t hesitate – start taking advantage of social selling today.
Monitor Your Analytics to See What’s Working Well and Adjust Your Strategy Accordingly
Regularly monitoring your analytics is an essential part of devising a successful strategy. By carefully evaluating data on topics like website visits, user engagement, and website performance, you can gain valuable insight into what’s working well and where you should focus your efforts. Armed with this knowledge, it becomes easy to adjust your strategy going forward to ensure that you can reach your online goals. There will be expected highs and lows throughout the process – but that’s all part of the adventure.
We Can Handle This for You, Completely Turnkey
If you want to increase your sales, it’s important to understand how social media works and how you can use it to reach your target audience. By following the tips above, you’ll be well on your way to building a successful social selling strategy that will help you close more deals and grow your business. However, we understand that not everyone has the time or inclination to blog or create videos. If that describes you, then contact us today. We specialize in creating quality content for our clients so they can focus on what they do best – selling.
Contact us today for affordable packages that will get you on your way to monthly content that sells for you.