Reasons You Should Be Utilising Instagram For Social Selling.
Every month, 130 million fingers tap on an Instagram shopping post to learn more about products.
Using Instagram shopping posts is a great way for brands and businesses to showcase your products and use your Instagram feed to make more purchases—especially now thanks to Instagram’s new checkout feature, which lets you purchase products *directly* on Instagram without ever leaving the app!
It’s not a surprise. But, unfortunately, salespeople struggle to generate new leads. Hitting up the phone and making a few cold calls to a new prospect to land a meeting or demo are long gone.
If you try cold calling today, you will discover that it takes at least eight phone calls. And do you know what happens once you arrive? They don’t want to talk to you!
Indeed, more than 90% of CEOs never respond to or buy from cold calls. It’s fair to say that as salespeople, we have our work cut out for us. How do we distinguish ourselves in the face of these challenges? How can we raise the
Are the tactics we use to get the attention of the right people at the right time. The fundamental reason is this: people have never been more informed about buying decisions. As consumers, we have grown up with blogs, websites, and podcasts that help us find out who to buy from.
A networked world means that we are already friends with some of the best decision-makers in our lives. We trust and respect them and seek their advice on almost everything. Selling products to people you already know is no longer enough. You will need to meet them where they are, and that means where they are hanging out.
For many people in our business, that means using Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Instagram. And while these social platforms can increase your reach, they are hardly the best way to sell. We believe in storytelling.
The answer is clear: social selling.
As a sales leader, you need to find new, reliable leads and get them to the buying stage as quickly as possible. This article is my Pro Tips to help you along the way: Understand the basics.
What does social selling mean? First, it means using your online social presence to build your relationships with the influencers and decision-makers in your industry. After all, when you add a client to your pipeline, you’re not just adding a new lead to your database — you’re also likely to have a major impact on their decision.
Using your social presence to build these relationships, providing ongoing opportunities for collaboration and partnership.
This is a topic I’m absolutely passionate about. One of the common t aspects of sales is the online persona we portray. The way we think, act and speak about ourselves. As a Salesforce Certified Trainer and as a marketing consultant, I’ve personally been on both sides of the equation.
I started selling over 33 years ago in a pre-social selling world. My sales success was often going out and making cold calls. And while I got the opportunity to “meet” many potential customers, I rarely had the chance to form a solid relationship.
I didn’t have the time to establish meaningful relationships, and after a while, I started losing my enthusiasm for it. However, with the introduction of the concept of social selling, this has all changed.
Social commerce uses Social Media Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as vehicles for promoting and selling products and services. The success of a social trade campaign is measured by how consumers interact with corporate marketing through retweets, likes and shares.
PRO’s
Social commerce specialists, influencers, and bloggers produce images, videos, post messages, and interactive features that promote online sales and other e-commerce initiatives. Some of the marketing tactics employed by social trade include:
Social commerce is an evolving and dynamic field of online marketing that works in conjunction with social media and the growth of online shopping. For example, fashion and shopping-related blogs use social commerce and media to inspire shoppers to purchase linked items online.
For example, many popular fashion and beauty industry professional blogs have Instagram accounts that allow followers to like, share, and comment on the product offered. The tagged item often links directly to the shopping cart or check out the shop, ie. Instagram for Social Selling
“Social commerce happens when expert digital marketing professionals take the best of e-commerce and combine it with social media.” AAW
At face value, the recent launch of Facebook Shops isn’t an innovation. The business flirted with shopping as far back as 2007 without any fanfare or remarkable success. This ranged from private markets to the original incarnation of Facebook stores (2009), payments via Messenger (2015). Finally, in 2018, a more accessible marketplace product competing with Amazon AMZN +0.8 per cent, Google GOOGL +3.1 per cent and Etsy.
The significance of Instagram for Social Selling in the Facebook portfolio makes this most recent announcement more significant than previous attempts. Facebook set up the Social Commerce category first, not just adding an e-commerce layer to its social network.
Estimates put revenue upside at $30B across transaction fees, increased advertising, and deeper customer relationships. The timing is accurate. Rising online shopping figures and the extended state of the pandemic will have accelerated internal plans. Further benefits are derived from helping a large number of small business customers at a critical time and expanding revenue sources beyond ads.
With an incredible amount of customer data available on social, you have a prime opportunity to tweak and target your advertising.
Your horse-printed bathrobes can be advertised directly to the flannel-loving horsemen out there. Likewise, adorable baby-sized sunglasses can be worn right on the food of cool young dads.
Social commerce offers a chance to get specific, ready-to-purchase products in front of your ideal customer, those people who would love these products while they are scrolling on social media. In a way that traditional e-commerce websites and marketing cannot do.
If your demographic target is 18-to-34 years of age, they’re already online and waiting to shop while they’re scrolling around.
48% of U.S. Internet users of this age made purchases on social media in 2019. However, for those in that demographic who have not yet shopped on social media, 27 per cent said they were inspired to give this a chance.
It’s a new and improved shopping centre, one where you can shop and also Netflix Binge. Time to open a store!
Currently, only some of the top social platforms are offering social trade. But as interest (and revenue) grows, we’re likely to see more of these social media brands integrating “shop now” options.
60 per cent of people are discovering new products on Instagram. Your products should be one of them.
Instagram Shops allows users to purchase products featured in your photos and videos from anywhere in the app.
1. More people are using Instagram.
2. Any size of business can thrive.
3. Businesses can make money directly from Instagram.
4. Stories make your business relatable.
5. Hashtags can increase your visibility.
6. You can effectively engage with customers.
7. Mobility is king.
8. You can keep an eye on competitors.
9. It offers many ways to get creative
Business profiles can create a customisable storefront page, which acts as a curated collection of products for sale. Each product has its own detailed page, including pricing, media, and a detailed description.
Instagram’s Shopping Tags allow businesses to label their products in their Stories or Posts. U.S. brands also have the option of highlighting products in post captions and bios.
For eligible U.S. businesses and creators, Instagram Checkout allows customers to complete a transaction using Facebook Pay. (Those without checkout may use other tools to complete the off-site purchase.)
To set up your Instagram Shop, you need to live in an eligible country. The second step is to connect your Instagram Business account connect to your Facebook page. You also want to comply with Instagram’s business policy and trade arrangement.
Instagram Shops facilitate the selling of all manner of consumer goods.
Check it out, click it, buy it. Social media shops remove friction from the consumer’s journey, making it easy to follow from discovery to purchase. They’re in there. There’s a product. There’s nowhere to go but a checkout.
At the end of the day, every mouse click is an opportunity for a potential customer to change his mind. The customer wants a seamless experience; they want to go from a social media platform to the instant gratification of purchasing a product on their mobile phone. So businesses that have the customers’ attention and the ease of an online shopping platform go the spoils.
Take those unnecessary steps away and bring the right to social shopping.
Like the early bird catching the worm, the data is very compelling. Researchers predict that e-Commerce sales will exceed $735 billion over the next three years.
It makes sense to bring your goods to the online spaces where your customers are already hanging out if you want to do this.
81% of shoppers research products on Instagram and Facebook, and 48% of Pinterest users make shopping a top priority. So why don’t you give them what they’re looking for?
Not only can you easily introduce and educate your followers about your products with shopping posts, but you can guide your followers to purchase with just a few taps!
Buyers are using social media to search and evaluate products and vendors online actively.
You want to make sure you’re using Instagram shopping posts as effectively as possible — we’re talking beautiful imagery, great captions, and sales pitches timed to perfection. Images sell products.
Social trade offers an instant focus group.
“Social Commerce speeds up the transaction process and offers an incredible way to gather feedback.”
Your catalogue of goods is out there for consumers to review and discuss together. No crystal ball is needed: your customers can tell you what they like or don’t like.
Allowing your customers to weigh in and vote on product development and inventory decisions while they’re there? (How do we feel about my glow-in-the-dark wolf backpack design? Anybody? Hello, huh?)
On the social side, you have clear information about exactly who your customers are and the opportunity to chat with them through comments or direct messages to provide personalised customer service.
Growing your brand and being on Instagram relies on how well you get on this platform. It’s not just all images and hashtags. The salesperson is engaged early in the purchase process, building a relationship as a trusted advisor on this platform.
Another part of this story of how social media has spread from the marketing department to touch every part of an organisation—from branding and communications to human resources, sales, and customer service.
Social selling uses social media to identify and engage prospects and customers at the right time to build and nurture relationships. A more sales-focused definition in the context of a users/salesperson role is: Social selling leverages a user/salesperson’s professional brand to fill their pipeline with the right people, insights, and relationships. Social is where your customers learn, seek, discover, and decide.
57% of your customer’s journey is done before a Salesperson becomes involved, according to Forrester Research. Social selling’s huge potential to transform an organisation’s operations and drive revenue comes from its capacity to influence potential customers at any stage of the buying journey.
The earlier you or your sales team embarks on building a relationship during your customer’s journey, the longer period and opportunity you will have to build a sufficient relationship and trust to make a sale.
The sweet spot for social selling to begin in earnest is after the initial awareness stage, i.e., from the launch of a lead generation or other social media campaign to when a salesperson decides the time to make a pitch or request a meeting or call. This is when the benefits of marketing and sales teams working closely together to implement a strategic social selling program really kick in—the Buyers contact the salesperson to request a proposal or product advice.
Of course, social commerce is probably just one piece of your overall digital marketing puzzle.
With the boom in e-commerce, you want to maximise the benefit for your Brand asap. As mentioned earlier, we are seeing a major uptick in e-commerce across markets and territories. In addition, a larger proportion of consumers are getting used to buying online, allowing digital marketers to test and learn through different channels and B2B or B2C businesses to start engaging with your consumer on their journey.
Develop your sound digital marketing and branding strategy that engages, sells, and intrigues across the wide web, diving into our Social Media Advertising 101 guide. Then, build your brand across all of your platforms to give you the best chance of success, online or offline.
Audrey Anderson LinkedIn for more information email me 0r book a Free Consultation with me online
Consumer Definition: In the age of digitalisation, e-commerce and mobile shopping has increased considerably. Consumers demand seamless delivery of goods while shopping online. Leading Digital Marketing and Social Media marketing
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