Social media is a great way for small business to interact with their customers and promote sales. Take the leads you gain from your social media efforts and manage them in a simple CRM and sales tracking app like Base.
You’re already using social media to interact with customers and now you want to make some sales. Great. You’ve come to the right place. Here are some surefire ways to promote sales through sites like Facebook and Twitter.
1. Offer a Special Promotion
People love sales. That might mean you mark down items on your site, or just offer social subscribers an “exclusive” coupon code to save when they buy from you. Your post might look like this:
Twitter followers save 20% on all handbags. Enter TWEETSAVE at checkout http://www.yoursite.com
2. Create Custom Landing Page
Facebook allows you to customize the page new visitors see when they visit your business page. Set this up to feature your newest promotion. Here’s a great example from Sephora, who promotes multiple items at the same time on its custom page:
Keep this updated to reflect your sales strategy of the moment.
3. Create Conversations Around Products
Not every Tweet or status update needs to push your product directly. Use dialogue with followers to drive them to your site. Maybe you just launched a new product, or service. Get the feedback of your followers:
Our firm just launched a native app for the iPhone. What do you think of it? http://www.yoursite.com
4. Personalize the Message
You should not, by any means, focus solely on promotional messages in your social media updates. Mix them in with personalized interaction. Find people who are talking about subjects that relate to your industry and jump in (even if it’s not to pump your product; in fact, especially if it’s not to pump your product) as it’s appropriate. Once you connect, these new contacts are more likely to visit your site.
5. Hold a Contest
While it may not net instant sales, holding a social media contest will expose your brand to new people. Be aware, however, that Facebook has some Promotion Guidelines that are updated occasionally, and are worth a gander. Essentially you can’t require someone to like your page as a means to enter the contest. Contests are great because when people enter them on Facebook (or Twitter) they share them. Then more people see them and they enter too!
It’s important to cultivate your social media promotion strategy and tie it in to your bigger marketing campaign at large. You should both monitor what people are saying about your brand online and respond appropriately, and sprinkle in your dose of promotional posts here and there. Remember that you’re working to build trust with consumers, and that will take time.