8 of the Most Effective Ways to Integrate Social Media Into Your Sales Strategy

Social media has turn out to be an borderline omnipresent reality of on a regular basis life, with the typical grownup spending practically two and a half hours per day on these platforms — however its affect has come to increase nicely past our private lives. 

These apps have turn out to be an integral a part of how fashionable firms function — as a stable social media presence is turning into a “need-to-have” versus a “nice-to-have” for many companies.

And whereas leveraging social media is most usually related to advertising and marketing, weaving it into your gross sales technique can yield spectacular outcomes. Let’s check out eight of the best methods you’ll be able to combine social media into your broader gross sales technique. 

1. Determine the most-used platforms in your preferrred buyer.

As a gross sales professional, you need to have a nicely thought out preferrred buyer profile. This profile ought to spell out key details about who your purchaser personas are. For B2B firms, this will embody the scale of the corporate that might profit out of your product, how a lot income they create in, and their organizational construction.

For firms that promote to customers, your preferrred buyer profile ought to embody data reminiscent of how previous your patrons are, what their pursuits are, and what downside they’re turning to your product to unravel.

After getting your preferrred buyer profile laid out, use this data to find out what social media platforms they’re more than likely to be energetic on.

For instance, in case you work for a B2C firm and are concentrating on Era X and Millennial customers, you’ll be higher served to focus your efforts on Fb than Tik Tok. Conversely, in case you promote B2B and want to acquire direct entry to seasoned professionals, LinkedIn could also be a extra productive platform to concentrate on than Pinterest.

Along with understanding what platforms are regularly utilized by your preferrred buyer, take time to know how your buyer is utilizing these platforms.

For instance, in case your prospects choose natural-looking user-generated content material, then you’ll more than likely discover them on Instagram as a result of that’s the place that kind of content material performs greatest. Or in case your viewers prefers searchable educational content material, they might spend extra time on YouTube.

This data will present useful perception on the place you need to focus your vitality to greatest join with and serve your viewers as you implement social media into your gross sales technique.

2. Share buyer tales with advertising and marketing.

When it comes time to buy a brand new product, patrons really feel extra assured of their determination figuring out the product has a seal of approval from one other purchaser. Actually, most patrons say word-of-mouth suggestions affect their shopping for selections.

One of the best ways to include the word-of-mouth method into your gross sales technique? Via sharing buyer tales your prospects can relate to. As a gross sales rep, you play an integral position in sharing your buyer’s tales.

Though your advertising and marketing group is commonly tasked with the job of making content material in your firm’s social media channels, your frequent communications with prospects and prospects can present useful content material as nicely.

Ensure you are usually sharing the tales of comfortable prospects together with your advertising and marketing group for amplification in your firm’s social media platforms to supply social proof that may assist drive gross sales for your small business.

3. Leverage social proof in your gross sales supplies.

Along with sharing buyer tales with advertising and marketing, don’t neglect to incorporate social proof in your gross sales supplies. If you happen to obtain a stellar on-line assessment or have a contented buyer create an appreciative social media publish praising your product, reference them in your gross sales pitches to construct belief and credibility with potential prospects.

4. Optimize your private social media accounts.

Your organization’s accounts aren’t the one touchpoints your model can have with a buyer on social media — your private accounts can function a personable extension of your organization’s model.

As a gross sales rep, you’ll be able to optimize your individual social media accounts to assist your promoting efforts. This fashion, patrons can rapidly see you’re a consultant of your model as quickly as they see your profile.

The 2 platforms which might be greatest for this are Twitter (the place customers typically go to speak straight with manufacturers and thought-leaders) and LinkedIn. Try this publish for tips about optimizing your private accounts for promoting.

5. Use social media when prospecting.

Social media is usually a highly effective instrument for prospecting and connecting with new contacts, particularly for these working in B2B gross sales. If your organization sells to different companies, LinkedIn must be a key instrument in your prospecting course of.

LinkedIn permits you to discover and construct relationships with potential prospects which might be an ideal match for your small business. The free model of the instrument has a search function that permits you to filter customers by key phrases, trade, location, work historical past, and mutual connections. You possibly can merely tailor your search to incorporate the attributes of your preferrred buyer to seek out new contacts to succeed in out to.

For reps able to take their LinkedIn prospecting to the subsequent stage, LinkedIn Gross sales Navigator offers superior search insights, offers useful lead suggestions, and may even join together with your CRM, making it simple to remain in contact with new contacts.

6. Observe related metrics.

As a gross sales skilled, you’re no stranger to monitoring metrics reminiscent of the typical size of the gross sales cycle, pipeline velocity, and common lead response time to know how your small business is performing. And in case you aren’t already, it’s time to embody social media metrics in your common reporting.

What number of of your leads are available in from social media? Of your social media leads, what number of of them convert? What proportion of your complete gross sales come from social media leads? This data is useful to trace to know find out how to proceed integrating social in your gross sales technique.

Along with these quantitative figures, it’s possible you’ll need to contemplate monitoring some qualitative data. For instance, if a particular social media publish led to an inflow of leads that ended up changing, word what kind of publish this was and search to know what made this content material so profitable. This could inform your technique transferring ahead.

7. Add social listening to your working rhythm.

If you happen to might be granted the superpower of studying your buyer’s minds, would you’re taking it? Although I can’t offer you that superpower, I can attest to the facility of social listening, which may help you perceive how your prospects actually really feel about your product and firm.

You possibly can then use the knowledge you discover to tell your gross sales technique transferring ahead to raised accommodate buyer wants and considerations. Listed here are a couple of methods you’ll be able to incorporate social listening into your common working rhythm:

• Seek for your organization or product title on Twitter to see what customers are saying even when they don’t straight @ your organization. You can too do that with opponents to see what customers are saying about related manufacturers.
• Use a instrument reminiscent of HubSpot Social Inbox to see all your firm’s model mentions throughout platforms in a single place.
• Observe the LinkedIn updates of firms and people you have an interest in working with. Anytime they’re talked about within the media or elsewhere on the platform, you’ll obtain a notification.
• Scan the feedback part of posts out of your firm, your opponents, and any influencer advertising and marketing posts selling your or your competitor’s merchandise.

8. Conduct aggressive evaluation.

I’ve alluded to it above — social media is a robust instrument for conducting aggressive evaluation. Not solely are you able to see what content material your opponents are sharing to interact with their viewers, announce new product drops, and promote their present product line-up, however you too can entry feedback and critiques to see how their prospects really really feel about their merchandise.

Whether or not their viewers resides optimistic or constructive suggestions for his or her product, reviewing this data frequently may help you distinguish the differentiators of your organization and providing within the phrases of shoppers in search of these attributes.

Spending time reviewing the content material shared by your opponents on blogs and social is a value-added exercise that may present helpful insights into the aggressive panorama of your trade.

Moreover, in case you work in B2B gross sales, performing a aggressive evaluation of your preferrred buyer’s opponents can also be worthwhile. By figuring out what your prospect is up towards of their trade, you might be higher outfitted to stroll right into a gross sales dialog figuring out precisely how your product can go well with their wants and assist the expansion of their enterprise.

Although the job of social media administration typically falls beneath the accountability of selling, social media platforms are extremely useful for gross sales professionals to make use of and perceive as nicely. Try this publish for social promoting suggestions you’ll be able to implement at the moment.