More importantly, how can you differentiate your business and stand out from the competition? With major social media leaders, such as Facebook and Instagram, developing tools for online selling, this means more businesses are migrating to the Internet.
By using social media tools and the art of social selling, you take a personal approach to selling your products without bombarding your audience. While still using the most popular platforms, you leverage the relationship over the sale, which translates into meaningful interactions and hopefully more sales for you.
Let’s explain what social selling is, why it’s important and how to use it in your business.
What does social selling mean?
According to HootSuite’s definition, social selling is two-fold:
Social selling is the art of using social media to find, connect, understand and nurture sales prospects. It is the modern way to develop meaningful relationships with prospects so that you are the first person or brand a prospect thinks of when they are ready to buy.
By engaging in a dialogue with customers and leaving a footprint. Your product becomes the answer to their problems. You understand the customer’s need and your job is to turn your product into the chosen solution.
What social selling is not is spamming followers or your audience with mass marketing messages, or poorly formed messages that are just looking for a quick sale. Remember: you are building a relationship with your followers, creating a natural dialogue and conversation.
Why is social media selling important for small businesses?
We talk about the importance of selling on social networks for several reasons. Here’s what you need to consider when developing your social media selling strategy.
Ability to reach new audiences
By establishing your social media presence, you extend your reach to over 2.5 billion users on Facebook alone. By looking at the next generation of shoppers. More than 50% of Generation Z users turn to social media to discover new companies and brands. Don’t miss the opportunity to sell to this growing audience.
Competitors are already using social selling
With the rise of social media, it’s likely that competitors are already a few steps ahead of you. If you’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s the importance of getting your business online. And establish your social media presence among other small businesses.
When done correctly and with a little time and patience, social selling buyers will choose you over the competition.
Does social selling really work?
Don’t take our word for it, here are some social selling companies and Pay Now merchants that have built an impressive following!
Atlas46, a construction tools company with 300,000 followers on Facebook, shares users’ content in their feed. With this social selling strategy, customers see the products in action. And customers become their advocates and salespeople, simply by sharing their content.
Another Pago Ya merchant, Kissed By A Bee Organics, gives social proof to her audience on Instagram by literally demonstrating how her products are the solution they need. The before and after post, says it all.
Use a post like this to show user feedback and proof that your products work. And stay at the forefront of buyers’ minds. These examples of social selling are proof that if you go out of your way to connect with your audience, they will return the favor.
How is social selling used for a company?
And you may be wondering, what’s the best social selling strategy? Here are two ways to get started today, keep in mind that these ideas apply to most social platforms.
Network with other companies
If you network with other small businesses, provide feedback and share tips, they are likely to reciprocate and recommend your business to others. A good place to start is to find like-minded Facebook groups; check out these small business groups and consider joining one.
- Pay Now Vendors
- Stay at home moms
- Small Businesses
- Small business marketing tips
- Small Business Networking
- Moms building online businesses
Try using Facebook or LinkedIn groups to network with other businesses. Remember, it’s not about spamming them with your products. But look to start conversations and build a network, asking for feedback and being open to constructive comments.
Engage with your audience
Did you know that posts that ask questions get 100% more comments? Keep the question short and easy to answer. Start a conversation based on their answers, chances are they will interact with future posts.
Here are some ways to start the conversation:
- If you sell books, what is your favorite book of all time? Or what was your favorite children’s book when you were a kid?
- If you sell training/online courses, what do you want to learn this year?
- If you sell clothing or accessories, what is the clothing trend you want to bring back? Or what is your most embarrassing fashion choice?
- If you sell health or fitness products, what’s the health change you want to make this year?
- Take it a step further and use Canva to design eye-catching images, photos get 53% more likes and almost 104% more comments! The key here is to engage you and your audience, don’t just ask a question and ignore it.
The goal is to start a conversation.
Does selling on social networks really increase sales?
Now that you know how social selling works and some ways to apply it. Here’s how you can use it combined with social media to increase your sales.
Make posts shoppable
If you make posts shoppable, you give shoppers a direct outlet to your store. Instead of sending them elsewhere and risk losing the sale. Increase your chances of closing the sale and make it easier for customers to buy.
Another reason why Checkout Now should be your e-commerce platform of choice. We give you access to social media selling with seamless integration.
To do this, you’re going to need a product catalog and that’s where PagoYa! comes in!
Be easy to find and… memorable
To stand out among the billions of social media users, you absolutely need to offer a unique customer experience. There are over 30 million small businesses in the United States, give them a reason to choose yours!
If you’ve been approved for a Facebook store, you should have the ability to sell on Instagram as well. We mention this because when users browse the Instagram Explore feature, posts are personalized based on users’ interests and style.
By using Paid Now to make your posts shoppable, you give your business even more exposure to an active audience!
How do I start doing Social Selling in my business?
To get started you will need to have two (things) ready:
- A business profile
- An online product catalog
With Pago Ya E-commerce, you have access to social selling through the use of our online product catalog. In addition to these two requirements, you also have to comply with Facebook’s Commerce Policies.
Once you have these two elements set up, start posting and interacting with users. Need some inspiration? Here are some social media marketing ideas:
- Ecommerce marketing tips for beginners.
- How to sell and promote products on Facebook and Instagram.
- How to sell on social media in 2020
What’s next
As you’ve learned, social media and social selling go hand in hand. When done right, your business is at the forefront of buyers’ minds.
Ultimately, it’s about getting your products online and providing customer service. If you give shoppers the ability to buy directly from social media and leave them with a memorable experience, they’ll come back wanting more.
Ready to get started? Check out our social selling integrations for Facebook and Instagram.
