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Social media has transformed the landscape of marketing. Never before have businesses been able to access such a significant chunk of their target audience, all at the same time. According to Statista, there are over 2.77 billion social media users in the world in 2019. This amount is predicted to increase to 3.02 billion by 2021.
This is why it's essential to establish a robust online presence of your brand, regardless of which sector you operate in. But, the question arises: Is posting content and building followers enough to guarantee the success of your business? While building followers is a great way to build recognition for your company, eventually, what drives growth in conversions? You don’t just need people to follow and engage with your social media posts. Instead, you need them to convert into customers as well.
This is easier said than done. Here's a guide for how you can turn followers into customers.
Know Your Followers
You can’t identify what speaks to a person and motivates them into turning into a customer unless you know them. Before you begin employing the right social media marketing tools to target your followers, the first step is to know and understand them. This will help you in creating customer personas, which will then form the basis of your communication strategy later on.
For instance, a leather skin shop that sells items best suited for young adults didn’t opt for all the social media platforms. They made their research game stronger and marked their presence on the platforms that could earn them a lot in the long run.
After all, merely gaining followers isn't enough. You need to gain the right type of followers — ones that fall into your target group. If you want to know how to get more followers, learn how to get a lot of followers on instagram without being spammy, and you'll be greatly rewarded.
As per recent statistics, those falling between the age of 25 and 34 account for 34% of users on Instagram and Pinterest. If your target audience is 16- to 24-year-olds, Tumbler and Instagram are likely your best bet (with 38% and 37% of total social media users of sites respectively).
Identifying your target audience allows you to choose the right platform and gain the right followers. You can then further delve deep into their consumption patterns, needs, and wants to understand better which type of content is best likely to convert them into customers.
In short, you need to:
- Know your target audience.
- Find out which social media platform, out of the many available, they use the most.
- Serve content that is suited to the specific needs of the customers.
Leverage Your Customers
Influencer marketing is the new driving force. For every dollar spent, influencer marketing brings in $6.5 for its businesses. In today’s digital age, it's common to see internet celebrities taking the front seat in influencer marketing. But they aren’t the only influencers out there.
Instead, your current customers can also influence other followers. After all, 92% of people use referrals before seeking services from a company. Leveraging your current customers to create user-generated content (UGC) can help build credibility and trust of your brand.
Instead of serving your followers branded messages, focus on your unique selling points, and ask current customers to leave reviews on your social media platforms. Highlight some of them in your testimonials to ensure that your followers see them. Every user-generated post will help in improving your brand image, which in turn will play a pivotal role when you go to turn followers into customers.
In short, you need to:
- Ensure the quality of your service so that your current customers are satisfied.
- Encourage them to talk about you online, as well as leave reviews on your page.
- Highlight customer experiences of some of your happy customers.
Keep Your Followers Engaged
Social media marketing can give you a lot in the long run, but only if you do it the right way. Merely getting your follower count up won’t seal the deal. Instead, you must also keep your followers engaged to ensure that they don’t forget about your brand. Considering that retaining just 5% of your customers can boost your profit by 95%, even if it takes being consistently active on social media, it's a goal you should aim for.
According to Gallup, engaged visitors boost company profits by at least 23%. So, if you're planning on posting weekly content on your social media page, think again. You must interact with your followers every day to relay an authentic, credible, and professional image.
What does staying engaged entail? It calls for creating posts that are likely to be of interest to customers. It includes responding to customer queries and complaints on your social media platform, as quickly as you can manage.
For instance, let’s say you sell cars online. One follower commented on one of your posts, asking about the details of a given car or a potential discount. This is a lead for your company. By responding to the follower promptly, the chances of them completing the transaction will be higher. It also allows you to illustrate quality customer service. This, in turn, will help generate positive word of mouth.
You might not give much importance to customer service. But, in the long-run, customer service and hence the experience is what creates loyal users of your products. It's a unique selling point that doesn’t fade away with time.
In short, you need to:
- Keep your followers engaged with daily social media posts.
- Use automation tools if you think you can’t manage to post on time, on your various platforms, on a daily basis.
- Respond quickly to queries and concerns to get leads.
- Keep your tone consistent with reflecting a positive brand image.
Give Them a Tangible Reason to Convert
Sometimes, communicating the key features of your product isn't enough to turn followers into customers. You need to go the extra mile to make them feel special. Most of us like personalized services. They make us feel valued. This is the human psyche, and you can leverage it to ensure better conversions.
How can you make your followers feel valued? Simple! By offering them discounts and coupon codes. To guarantee exclusivity, only offer such incentives to your social media followers. This works in two ways. Firstly, it gives your current followers a reason to convert into customers. Secondly, it allows you to build your follower base. Even if your new followers don’t become repeat purchasers, at least they'll try your product. And sometimes, that's enough to transform them into loyal customers of the future.
If you're using promo codes, make sure that they're not found on the web or the various deal sites.
In short, you need to:
- Offer discounts and incentives to your followers.
- Ensure its exclusivity to grow both your follower and customer base.
- Align it with your overall brand image. Make sure to run the campaign seasonally to prevent brand dilution
Final Thoughts
Unleash the true potential and benefit of your social media presence. Don’t be happy that you simply have an audience to speak to. Work to turn followers into customers. Only then will your online presence be of any use.
