In this week's episode of "Inside the Mind," we talk about How to Make a Sale Using Social Media.
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Make A Sale Using Social Media.
This week's episode comes from a subscriber question. Bill Gluth says: I'd love to see you create an online marketing segment on how social media tags into the sales conversation. I see lots of content, comments and sharing but I'm not hearing a lot about sales and revenue generated as a result of that effort.
Thanks so much.
Bill
Well Bill this one's for you, because today's episode is all about.... Drumroll please... How to Make A Sale Using Social Media (Yaaay!)
Major social media sites like Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter, and even specialized sites like forums and blogs give you unparalleled access to people's wants and needs.
The thing about these sites that has revolutionized marketing is that you get to learn about people's personalities in an unfiltered way. Things like their likes, interests, and most importantly whatever experience they're lacking in their lives are all made readily available when you learn to read between the lines.
When you use all of this information people are literally giving you, you can craft content that easily leads them into a purchasing decision.
(V.O)The blog over at Kajabi has an excellent article on becoming a copywriting badass. Step 2 is to visualize your customers.
They say to "Simply slap on a Facebook Fan Widget (like the one we have on our blog here) and check out your fans.
After viewing a couple dozen profile pages, you can soon get to know your audience."
Then create a checklist of your audience.
In the example they say Meet Kajabi Joe:
Then list out Joe's favorite Movies like Rocky and Rudy
Interests like Self Help and Internet Marketing
Favorite Books like "Think and Grow rich" and Four Hour Work Week"
They also list out Kajabi Joe's Favorite Quotes Music and Political Affiliation
Doing this vastly decreases your chances of ever creating a piece of dud content because you can use different elements of their own personalities to create content that speaks to them on their level.
When you know who exactly your customer is, they'll be the one's telling you how to make the sale.
The reality is, making sales is about a handful of things.
1. Have a Offer people want or need
2. Attract said people "in the wild" Episode 2 touches on this with content development
3. Present your offer in a way that's compelling, usually through the design and copy of a landing page which we'll talk about in a future episode.
4. Get them onto a list.
5. Make the Offer.
Surprisingly though, very few people take the time to do the detailed research necessary the extent they know what kind of movies and music their ideal customer's like.
Instead they resort to tactics that play on common desire, like "How to get more Facebook Fans", then offer a free webinar, or pdf report, then do this.
(Email marketing guy)
While this might work in the short term, ultimately manipulative tactics leaves customers feeling pressured into a sale. On the marketing side, this means that you'll have to spend more money, time, and resources on acquiring new customers, rather than maintaining relationships with existing ones.
But marketers who don't do their research aren't always aggressive. The lack of research still shows in the way they try to get your attention.
(two people having conversation while paper balls are being crumpled and thrown)
Now I know this can all sound very ambiguous, but I want you to keep this in mind the next time you make a purchase.
I want you to ask yourself Why am I choosing Brand A over Brand B. Why am I trying this new product? That type of thing.
Awareness of how your own purchasing decisions are influenced can be one of the greatest tools you can have when influencing other people.
*product
While there are a number of different sales techniques and processes that you could use,at the end of the day if you want to make more sales, just listen to the market, they'll tell you how to make the sale.
Then deliver a product that is massively transformative to their lives.
And to give you an idea of how all of this can lead to sales generated, we need to look no further than Starbucks... (sips coffee)
Back in 2008, Starbucks was slipping. Sales and traffic were falling for the first time in its history as a public company. Founder Howard Schultz, even admitted, the company had lost it's soul.
As part of their turnaround plan, the chain launched MyStarbucksIdea.com in July 2008 as a forum for consumers to make suggestions, ask questions and, in some cases, vent their frustrations.
As a result, Starbucks posted its first U.S. same-store sales gain in two years for the last quarter during a time when the company relied on digital and social-media promotions instead of what had become an annual TV blitz.
Now I imagine they didn't switch up their tactics too much after they noticed this working, Flash forward two years to 2010 when they launch VIA their brand of instant coffee... after 10 months, they were able to release this headline.
Starbucks VIA® Ready Brew Hits $100 Million Sales Mark in First 10 Months.
But wait Tommy, I'm not Starbucks you say, I don't have the same resources available to me you say.
Fair enough, back in 2005, my team and I created a video for a local band. We released the video on Myspace. Two months before the band's first album dropped and showed it only to people who we thought would be interested in the music.
There was quite a bit of positive feedback on the video, and when the midnight release of the album came around, this is what the store looked like.
*end
Alright that's all I've got for today's episode of Inside the Mind, thanks so much for watching, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Twitter and Google +. Please be sure to like this video and favorite it for easy viewing.
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