5 Social Media Strategies To Boost Sales For Your Startup

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Quora – all these social media platforms don’t need any introduction. They are like little continents of their own, however, with not so little population. 

Now I don’t think you will be astonished if I tell you that 22% of the world’s total population uses Facebook. 

And don’t forget, that’s just Facebook. 

Here’s another mind-boggling statistic for you. 

Out of an estimated world population of 7.524 billion people, over 3 billion people are logging into social media accounts around the world. This means, that about 40 per cent of the global population is currently engaged in social media. 

And the best part is, people actually check their social media accounts a couple of times a day. 

With such widespread use, social media presents an incredible marketing opportunity. And if you are not leveraging it already, then you are missing out a lot. 

That said, you start your social media marketing journey, you don’t need to acquire huge funds or a large workspace. You can start anytime you want, with little to no resources. 

So even if you are new to social media marketing, these simple, not to say proven strategies will help you boost the sales for your startup.

Here’s tip number 1 for closing more sales from social media.

1. Engage with your social media audience 

Social media platforms are for enthralling the audience, enough to make them notice you convert into permanent viewers. If we break it down in simple terms – Social platforms mostly boost your conversion rate, which is followed by sales. 

It’s all about understanding a bit of human psychology. People open their social media accounts to see people having fun, not to see your sales pitch. So you can’t simply start by showcasing your product, no matter how useful or wonderful it is. 

So your main motive should be to engage your audience. 

The question is – how can you engage your target audience? 

For that, you have to interact with them by posting light-hearted, witty and inspiring content. For starters, it will evoke positive emotions and secondly, it will make them more receptive of your product, your brand and your product. 

Look at how even huge conglomerate like Microsoft engages their audience by showing the casual, human side of their CEO:

Here’s one more example of IBM, International Business Machines Corporation, giving an insight into the life of interns at their company. 

You’d say, how does this fit into the realm of social media marketing? 

Actually, it’s quite natural. 

Okay, let’s take an example of the late Steve Jobs. He was a genius, a titan, but why do you think people still love him even after 7 years after his death? 

Because humans are inherently emotional beings, they are pulled by someone they can relate to. If Jobs was a strapping, suit wearing honcho, people probably still would have liked him and his products. 

However, because he acted like a normal passerby and showed his witty side, people felt a connection with him. And when humans feel a connection with other human… they tend to generate a special leaning towards what they are selling as well.

And the result? We all know how some people treat Apple like a religion, which is quite evident from the queues outside Apple stores.

Now, think of it in terms of your social media posts. 

When you post the content that will make them feel, your audience will be more inclined to share your post with their friends and family, resulting in massive exposure for your brand. 

2. Build connections with social media influencers 

Do you know that 60% of consumers have been influenced by a social media post or a blog review before purchasing a product or service? 

If nothing else, for this reason alone social media channels can be a great platform to boost your sales. It’s pretty difficult for a startup to reel in hotshot global celebrities to star in their campaigns, because that require millions of investment.

However, there’s an economical, and sometimes a more effective alternative, that is, social media influencers. These social media influencers have an outstanding influence on a wide array of audience. Sometimes even more than celebrities, because they are more relatable and hence more trustworthy. 

However, you need to target influencers carefully. By carefully, I mean that you need to target the influencers in your niche. And there are a whole of influencers out there – tech reviews, beauty bloggers, marketing gurus and more. 

If you open to widen your budget, you can hire social media celebrities for conducting contests and generating traffic to your landing pages.

There are many possibilities for influencer campaigns to help promote your brand. Take advantage of the chance to get creative and have fun with unique ideas. Here’s an Infographic by Sharelov with tips for brands thinking of collaborating with Influencers.

3. Don’t forget to provide the best customer service 

If a visitor comments on your Facebook post or any other social platform and never receives a response, then the trust is lost. This elusiveness doesn’t bode well on your brand. And you know what will happen next? Your potential customer will simply turn to one of your competitors. 

On the other hand, if your prospects get a timely and thoughtful response then the visitor is likely to flattered and will generate more interest in your brand. Mind you, don’t forget to address your negative feedback as well. Not just new customers, you can easily win your lost customers back if you pay close attention to negative feedback. 

Think of your social media channels as an opportunity to display how awesome you treat your customers.

In addition, make sure that you are taking all the following necessary steps to indulge your customers: 

• Hire a social media responder who can post and monitor all your social activities and can provide timely response to your prospects. If you are averse to this process, then you can avail the services of chatbots and other automated assistants.
• Keep auditing your social media channels in case they get inflicted by some common bugs or to see whether your social channels are fast enough. Plus, the regular inspection will give you a perfect idea about which social channel is drawing maximum traffic or what strategy is working out the best.
• Make your content creative, witty and humorous and engage your customers using giveaways, contests and offers.
• Do NOT ignore the comments and queries of your viewers, whether positive or negative. 

4. Keep eyes on your competition 

Before you even start your social media campaign, you need to clearly discern who your competitor is, what strategies they are using and up to what extent those strategies are working out for them. 

Even you, yourself are a startup, doesn’t mean you have to limit your research to startups only. Choose every operating business in your niche, whether its a small business or a giant conglomerate. Because to get a better insight into the industry, you need to monitor social media campaigns of large corporations.

5. Know what your goals are 

To inject your energy in the right direction, you need to set some long-term goals. If you want to generate higher social media marketing ROI (Return On Investment), you need to set your goals and make data-driven decisions. Once you are well aware of your goals, you can easily align these goals with your broader social media marketing strategy. 

But don’t focus too much on Facebook likes or the number of retweets your post is getting, what matters the most is that you are generating specific, relevant and let’s not forget timely results. So focus on metrics that matter the most like web traffic, referrals and higher conversion rates. 

One more thing… 

While I know that with all the time and energy that you will inject into your social media endeavours, you would want to see pretty quick results. 

But before jumping head start into the social media marketing campaign, don’t forget that people log into their accounts to have fun, to connect with friends and relatives. They are more interested in seeing the photos of cute kittens than coming across something salesy. 

Why am I telling this to you?

To tell you to be patient in your social media marketing strategies. No doubt, they will generate sales for you but before that, they will generate viewership and traffic which may or may not eventually convert to sales. Once social media pushes the prospect in your direction, it’s up to you how well you can nurture them and persuade you into buying your product or services. 

So don’t abandon these platforms after a few months, keep on working on your social media marketing strategy. After all, where else will you get more than 3 billion people so easily?