But that definitely doesn’t mean that creating a few social profiles and posting regular content is going to get you the customers you’re looking for – a few interested leads every now and then, sure!
Almost 80% of businesses making use of social media are not able to turn their followers into customers. But what exactly are the successful 20% doing? They are avoiding the following 7 pitfalls of social media.
7 reasons why your social media audience refuses to convert
1. Your social media campaign isn’t well thought through
The most common reason for social media to not work for businesses is the fact that they are not ‘audience driven’. Simply put, the campaign does not consider who the target audience is, what they are looking for and the type of content they engage actively with.
While there are no strict ground rules for any of the social media channels, it is important to understand how users behave on each one of them, and how they expect you to reach them.
For instance, you’re in love with a lifestyle brand. But if it keeps populating your feed with only their products – one after the other, you’re simply going to turn off the notifications or unfollow the brand. No one wants to be spammed!
As a ground rule, use social media to start conversations with your audience and not just bag numbers!
2. Your social media messages are not framed well
Apart from an entire campaign going wrong, it is also the messaging your post uses that could go wrong entirely.
Every post you make shouldn’t just be with the purpose of simply maintaining a presence. The message you use needs to nudge your audience towards making an interaction with you. Be it asking a question, conducting a poll, requesting feedback or asking for participation, link them to a page that drives them to your business – but adds value to them at the same time.
One of the approaches that has always worked for businesses, includes addressing the problem and offering a solution – yes, hit the nail on the head in one go!
But of course, you need to continue testing your social media messages and optimize them for better results.
3. Your audience is being directed to a common page
A typical consumer today, doesn’t want to run into unwanted information. They look for businesses who are willing to share information that ‘they are looking for’ instead.
Imagine searching for a solution on Google and the selected search result taking you to a general page from a business site instead of the solution directly – you don’t even bother taking a look around or seeing what the business offers; you immediately close the tab and move on.
This is why it is important that your social media posts don’t lead your audience to a general page on your site. If you’re promising them a solution, take them to that exact page for maximum conversions.
Note: Also make sure your audience is not running into 404s while setting up trackable URLs.
4. Your audience is not your ideal customer
There are businesses with thousands and even millions of followers on social media. But when you ask them how many are really their customers, the answer runs in the hundreds.
The reason being, most accounts have generated followers from ad campaigns that weren’t streamlined to reach their ideal customers. They target being known in the industry and that leads them to getting people who are merely interested in what they offer or are at an even earlier stage in the customer life cycle.
So while a big number of followers definitely makes you look like a popular choice among consumers, it is better to focus on the quality of your audience. In order to do so, create your customer personas for each social media channel and target with highly specific campaigns that only interest them.
5. You’re not focusing on long term engagement
It is important to understand that not all your social media followers are at the same stage in the customer lifecycle. While some of them are ready to make a purchase from your business, there are others who know they will need to make the purchase in future – but not currently.
That means you need create a long term engagement campaign on social media. You need to identify where the majority of the segment is in the sales cycle and create content that keeps them engaged, then slowly nurtures them towards conversion.
After all, lead nurturing shouldn’t just be left for emails!
6. Your landing page is too sales oriented
Sometimes it isn’t about the quality of your social media followers or the posts you’re making – it is the landing page or the website that you’re directing your audience to, that is making you lose conversions.
The number one reason for losing conversions here is that the site is too sales oriented. In a consumer-centric space, it is important that your audience is taken to only what they want to see and what adds the most value to them.
This includes making information easily available – in sync with your social media messages, easy access to the products and services they have shown interest in, trust signals and more. Maintaining a consistent messaging on social media and your site, rather than being pushy about a sale, will dramatically boost your conversions.
7. You’re not focusing on the analytics
You could be doing everything right on social media. But if you’re not measuring the impact closely, you could be losing out on opportunities to convert your audience into customers.
If tools like Google Analytics are too overwhelming for you, look for a social media management tool that also offers deep insights into your performance on each channel. This way you will understand which channel works the best for your business, where you need to put in more effort and what exactly it takes to convert your social audience into customers.
Conclusion
Social media is one of the most important communication channels for any business today. With millions of daily active users, it is the one place where a business can effectively reach out to their target audience with their value proposition, simply and easily.
But it takes more than just setting up of profiles and publishing content on a daily basis. You truly need to understand who you’re targeting among those millions and how you want to draw them towards your business.
Vanhishikha is the Content Marketer at Exit Bee, a conversion rate optimization software that enables exit intent retargeting on websites. She is usually found digging for the latest social media and content marketing tactics, and ways to keep customers engaged.
