From likes to leads

We’ve all heard the saying “social media is great for increasing brand exposure” but how exactly does that lead to sales?

After all, the entire world could know about your company but still not want to buy from you! 

It’s not as simple as “getting likes” either. Don’t get us wrong, likes are lovely (who doesn’t want to be liked) but again, everyone could like you but STILL not buy from you. 

The secret of turning likes into leads is to combine:

💎Content

💎Engagement

💎Outreach

💎Analytics

All four of these are needed. Take one away and all you have a is time and energy hoover.

But before you do anything you need to understand who your ideal customers are, so you can create content that appeals to them and address their pain points. This will help you attract the right kind of followers who are more likely to become leads. After all, you could create the most amazing dog related content, but if your ideal audience are confirmed cat lovers, it’s not going to bring customers to your door!

Let's go deeper…

CONTENT 

The most important part is your content because it’s this that everything else hangs onto. Content can be images, videos or text and should show who YOU are, what you do, how you do it, and for whom! Don't be afraid to share your stories and knowledge. What is boring or mundane to you will be useful or amusing for others. You stand too close to the problem to see the value of the solution sometimes!

ENGAGEMENT 

Engagement is a fancy schmancy marketing term for “talking to people and being sociable” Respond to comments, messages, and mentions promptly and in a friendly manner because it helps build trust and establish a relationship with your followers, increasing the likelihood of them becoming leads. But you also need to comment on other peoples’ posts, and not just those in your newsfeed. Look for your ideal clients and comment on their posts as well.

OUTREACH 

Outreach is an essential part of your social media marketing strategy, because without it your content is simply shouting into an empty room.

The two main forms of outreach are:

💎commenting on other people's posts

💎 engaging via direct messages.

Now, let's be clear here. We never, ever advocate sending cold pitches because it's all about the relationship. Why would somebody buy from you if they had never heard from me before and have no kind of existing relationship with you?

A message sequence does not have to be pushy or annoying. In fact, the first message many of our clients send does not include any kind of advertisement at all. It's simply a kind introduction and a comment on something they recently posted about.

Other sorts of dms can include:

💎Thank you for accepting my connection request

💎Happy Friday, I hope you have a great weekend.

💎I've just written a blog about XX  I thought it might be useful for you.

None of these messages include any kind of pitch. They are simply open, friendly and engaging. There is a reason LinkedIn tells you about people having new jobs or a birthday. It's an opportunity to start a conversation!

ANALYTICS 

Analytics allow you to gather information about your followers' preferences, demographics, and behavior. This information can be used to tailor your marketing strategies and create targeted campaigns that are more likely to convert likes into leads.

Knowing what analytics to track and how to do it and what they mean will make your social media marketing stronger.

We've all seen people say, "Oh, you shouldn't get hung up on vanity metrics."

But tracking your analytics is not about vanity metrics. It's nice to keep a track of likes and shares and comments. But ultimately, you will need to decide what analytics you're tracking, and what you're going to do with that data. At the end of the day, there's no point having lots of lovely data if you don't know how to use it.

💎For example, are you going to track how many people respond to your first, second, and third DM? This is useful data for telling you how good your messages actually are.

💎Are you going to track how many people sign up to your email list from a particular freebie? This can tell you how valuable your target audience finds your lead magnets.

💎Are you going to use Google Analytics to track visitors to your website? And add in a heat map, so you can see how long they spend on which pages. This would be useful for telling you where your website copy needs adjusting.

With algorithms all over the place, there's not a lot of point tracking metrics such as reach and impressions, on LinkedIn at least.

So, the answer is…

By creating interesting content and engaging with your audience, concentrating on your outreach and monitoring your analytics, you can generate more likes and shares, which in turn can lead to more leads and ultimately more sales.

Always remember that everything you do on social media should be designed to help your target audience, to let them get to know you and to build the know, like, trust that forms the bedrock of all social media marketing.

Effective social media marketing is a combination of content, outreach and engagement and your analytics. It is a full time job and NOT something you should be passing over to “an admin person”. 

Yes, it takes time, lots of time. And effort, even more effort. Oh, and a plan or strategy! It’s no wonder that many companies outsource their social media marketing. The key here is to find an agency who offers it ALL.

Like us! SocialJems is a unique sort of agency, not because we offer it all, but because we can also train you and your team on how to do it. From strategy to content, engagement to outreach and via blogs, articles and email marketing, we can 

💎do it for you

💎do it with you

💎show you how to do it! 

With the summer holidays here we are helping many brands to reduce the workload and mental stress as they juggle kids and work. 

So, drop us a message or visit www.socialjems.co.uk  to see how we can help you. (yes, that is the CTA!)