Social media is a great way to market your brand and attract potential customers. But did you know that your startup company can take this further and use it as a direct sales channel? Here are how you can do it and some useful strategies to succeed.
Why Social Media Is A Good Sales Channel For A Startup Company
One question that will probably come into your mind is whether social media would indeed be reliable as a sales channel. After all, it isn’t easy to convince people to make a purchase then and there. But it also offers some great benefits that you would want to take advantage of.
A Shortened Sales Cycle
More people now start their purchase online, with 80% saying that they even begin the pre-purchase research online. But they also noted that the online sales cycle can still be complicated, often moving through different channels.
With social selling, that cycle can be made shorter. The discovery and purchase phase happens within the same platform. This makes it easier for customers to do their purchases, encouraging return buyers.
Better Lead Generation
As you might already know from social media marketing, the different platforms offer a great opportunity for discovering leads. But social media gives you more for the work at hand. With it, you can listen in on the conversation of these leads. This information can help refine your selling strategies on and off the platforms and increase sales.
Stronger Influence On Purchase Decisions
With its reach and popularity, social media has been shown to have a strong influence on the action of its users. This extends to their buying decisions. 65% of B2B decision-makers even note that content on these platforms can have an impact on their moves. By turning it into a direct selling channel, you can harness this influence and generate more direct revenues.
Greater Customer Retention
Constant contact with recent and past customers is important for getting them to do return purchases. With social media, you can make that contact in a non-invasive way. This is vital, as not everyone is a fan of aggressive sales pitching.
Here, you can engage these customers in a more natural dialogue. For instance, they will be able to inform you of their changing needs. You can then provide them with new products and offers, with them consuming these right on the channel. Through this, you retain up to 45% of customers.
Developing Your Startup Company’s Social Media Sales Channel
When developing your social media sales channel, you should have a good idea of how your target customers use it in their customer journey. First, determine where that audience is. The social media marketing strategy that you have already implemented will help determine this.
Facebook is the most popular option for most brands. Its large size means that most types of consumers will be present in it. Additionally, it has one of the most extensive e-commerce functionalities, giving you greater room in doing your sales efforts.
There are two particular ways that you can take advantage of the platform.
- Consumer product retailing: The aforementioned marketplace features makes it easy to quickly create your shop and process transactions.
- Specialty products/services: Groups-based marketing will help you better target the niches that are interested in these products.
Note that these aren’t the only two strategies you can employ on the platform. Facebook regularly introduces new social selling features you can take advantage of. You can also explore other methods for attracting customers.
Social Media As A Startup Company B2B Sales Channel
Even business-to-business firms can take advantage of social media as a direct sales channel. With brands going on social media to reach out and attract customers, you also have plenty of potential clients to capture. But it will require a different approach.
For this, focus more on LinkedIn. Here, your strategy will employ something similar to groups-based marketing. By connecting with different industry groups, you get a good idea of what potential clients want to purchase. Additionally, you can use LinkedIn as a springboard to retarget these clients on other platforms.
Create The Right Sales Pitch
A major challenge your startup company will face when using social media as a sales channel is convincing people to buy. More than in any other channel, people on social media are less receptive to content that pushes too hard for them to buy.
Instead, you would want to use your content to steadily nurture prospects first. This is another area where you can lean back on your social media marketing to boost customer interest. Create content that will educate and help them solve their problems.
Once you have gotten their interest, you can position your product/services as a solution. Note that you still don’t want to be a hard sell here. While you can highlight the benefits of your product, be ready to acknowledge questions from potential customers.
Make The Purchase Process Easy
As mentioned above, placing the purchase process on social media makes it easy for customers. So you would want to double down on this by making it even more streamlined. Use features such as Buy buttons and one-step payment to let customers complete purchases in one go.
It would also help for you to closely integrate your startup company’s social selling channels into one ecosystem. This will allow customers to easily move from one platform to the next if they need to. Make sure that your inventory is in sync across all channels to accommodate purchases coming from different directions.
Getting Additional Help For Your Startup Company
A critical aspect of turning social media into an effective sales channel is responding to customer inquiries in a timely manner. People are more inclined to proceed with their purchases if you can respond to their questions faster. But with the volume of inquiries, you might find yourself shorthanded.
This is where outsourcing some of your social media efforts can be a good move. Outsourced agents can serve as force multipliers to handle incoming inquiries and orders. Additionally, you can let these agents handle customer support after purchase.
Drive More Sales On Social Media For Your Startup Company
Once properly set up, social media will generate a large number of additional sales for your startup company. So, don’t hesitate and start building your virtual stores on these platforms. We are ready to help you make that effort a success.