How to convert your Social Media followers into paying customers for free!
Followers DOESN’T equate to sales! Having more followers is only one part of a marketing strategy and it shouldn’t be the only strategy! When I worked as a Marketing Director for a client a few months back, their only marketing strategy was increasing their followers. They thought that the more people followed them, the higher the chance was to get more sales. But I will explain why that’s wrong and how to effectively convert your followers… for free!
For the following I want you to have a sales goal in mind. These steps are best implemented when you have a monthly or quarterly goal. It can be “increase sales by 20%” or “get 10 new customers by the end of the month” etc.
Have CTA’s with your content!
A Call to Action (CTA) helps your customers know what you want them to do. When you are posting a photo on Instagram of your best-selling frames, the caption shouldn’t just be “Look how amazing our best seller shades look on Amanda” it should also include “click the link in the bio to grab them today with free shipping. This week only”. The CTA’s should be related to your monthly goals. If you are looking to get new customers, have a CTA that encourages new customers to visit your site. If you have a goal of gaining new followers then have a CTA like “follow for more”. But keep in mind new followers don’t = sales. If anything, it just makes your conversion rate worse if you don’t change your strategy. But click below to listen to podcast episode 12 for more information on that! (See how I used a CTA ☺️)
Spark a Convo with your audience!
You can make social media more personal by talking to your followers, instead of at them! Using Instagram story features such as polls and quizzes are great ways for them to engage with you. You can also make videos replying to Tik Tok comments; both are great ways to increase engagement and ultimately boost sales.
Strategy Example: (Goal to have 50 new customers this month)
As an eyewear brand, you can have an Instagram campaign where your followers tag their best friend under one of your posts with the glasses that they think look best on their bestie. While also encouraging them to share why they think their friend would look best in the glasses.
This allows your current customers to show their friends your brand, which can lead to new customers. And you can incentivize them by sending 5 lucky best friends a pair that their best friend suggested.
borrow other’s audience
Looking outside your current audience is another great way is to “borrow” other people’s followers. The easiest and my favorite way to do this is by getting people or influencers to get show off your brand. You can ask your customers to post a photo of their glasses to get 20% off of their next purchase. Or you can take it to the next level by hiring influencers with a large reach to get your brand noticed by more people. Both ways are effective, but before thinking of working with influencers, click the button below to have Toby Solutions help you with influencer management. (Again another way to use CTA’s ☺️)
As a reminder, try to have your goals for social media reflect back to your overall business goals. If you have goals like “increase followers by x” think of why, what will you do with those new followers? And instead of trying to add more followers, convert the ones you already have. If you have 10k followers and only 10 sales a month, adding followers shouldn’t be a goal for you, increasing conversions should!
