Customers are becoming more aware, circumspect and more careful when it comes to spending and investing their budgets. Now that social media and the online environment allow us to know everything about the products and services, the selling tactics change.
Besides marketing and customer service, social selling is one of the fastest growing areas on social media. Efficient social selling depends on detailed understanding of customer behavior. Usually, the companies that engage in social selling approach the market in an instinctive and experimental way and ignore the customers’ needs, insisting on the idea that testing and modeling the behavior is enough. This couldn’t be more wrong. The markets are too competitive to allow this luxury.
Here are a few online selling tactics to attract and convert users into clients:
1. Create an online destination to share your content
It doesn’t matter if your company is B2B or B2C; you need to create a place for social participation, where people can find you. It can be a blog, a Facebook company page, a LinkedIn page or a Tumblr account. There you’ll be able to share your content and engage with your future customers. You can use them to promote your products or services, offers or reinforce the company’s image.
2. Look for opportunities to engage with your buyers
Anyone who wants to ask for an opinion, about a product or company will go on the Internet. At least once a week you can monitor for comments of conversations that interest you and take part at the discussions. Searching the social media websites using the right keywords is a quick and efficient method to engage with your future buyers. There is a variety of free social search engine tools like tweetreach or keyhole, that can be used to surface the interaction opportunities.
3. Make your selling activities more social
LinkedIn is one of the best social networking websites for B2B. You can create a great customer base just by driving a great lead generation campaign on LinkedIn. Try to create a connection with your target, nurture them rather than to invade them with direct proposals. Imagine that they receive these types of messages every day; you don’t want to get stuck in the crowd.
And let’s not forget about websites like Youtube, Vimeo or Instagram. Sharing visual content is a great way to generate leads and engage with customers. So, if you’re looking for a new way to expand your content, consider spending more time into the social video area. Make short video presentations of your products or services to draw more people to you. Customers are much more responsive to visual content.
Does your company use social selling to attract new customers? What strategies do you use to increase your sales?