Spending time on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn can be a great way to build a pool of prospects or leads. LinkedIn, for example, is full of millions of business professionals who are using the platform to advance their business or career. On Facebook, people gather around relationships and common interests, but are not there to be marketed to. And Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest users have their own unique characteristics and patterns of behavior.
And those are just the big players in the social media world. As you can see, not all social media sites are alike when it comes to your sales funnel.
However, as a general rule, most social media platforms work best for doing a very specific job in your sales funnel … creating leads.
Social media sites, as the name might suggest, are platforms where people like to socialize. They are generally hanging out to have a good time, let their guard down, and are not usually looking to buy products and services. Even on LinkedIn, populated by serious business-minded professionals, people are not usually looking to buy your products and services. They are there, however, and on the other social media sites, for engagement.
They want to chat, interact and hang out with people a lot like themselves. This means social media offers a great opportunity for you to connect with your target audience. Present yourself as a “real person” rather than someone doing business. Put out a lot of great content that answers big problems and solves real questions for your audience.
But, invariably, people on these platforms will want more of what you have to offer. And this presents a great opportunity to invite them to join your email list for access to more great content from you.
The top of the funnel is the perfect place for social media. This is where you build a list of contact details by offering a free product or service in return for the email address of a prospect. This is the “meet and greet” stage of the sales funnel, where you let people know about you and your business. Keep the conversation casual on social media sites during this process.
It's also important to understand that as a business owner, you shouldn't expect marketing miracles from social media. Over the years it has been found that social media is a great place to keep in contact with your customer, and it does work effectively to collect prospects at the top of your sales funnel. It is, however, not usually a place that is efficient for selling your goods and services. Contact, engage, inform and build interest, answer questions, offer quizzes and contests, but don't try to sell on social media.
So make sure that you are using social media to start relationships off and leverage those relationships to generate the RIGHT traffic to your funnel.
But then what? Creating the perfect funnel formula is an important part of marketing in all types of online business. Want to discover a complete formula for yourself? Check out our case study video on how to automate your marketing funnel to get more leads and make more sales like clockwork.