The only thing that is more relevant than the pandemic right now is the change in social media marketing trends. Social media marketing trends rarely stay static, it’s in their nature to keep changing with the times.
So where does your brand stand? Are you at the mercy of the algorithm gods? Are you wondering how to make sense of your social media numbers despite your quality content?
Just Between You and Me, we’ve had the same questions. This is why for our 4th episode, we sit down with Kim Garst, an international best-selling author, international keynote speaker, one of the world’s most retweeted people among digital marketers, and one of the most sought-after persons to understand how to do social media marketing.
The Social Media Landscape Of Today
With the pandemic looming over us, it is one of the most challenging times in economic history as well as is the history of social media marketing. As humans, we are so averse to change that we fear it. Although we can’t stop the inevitable from coming, we have the power to embrace the change and not get left behind.
In this unprecedented economic shift, many businesses have been forced to pivot while others have perished or are struggling with stunted growth. While some businesses tried something different than what they were used to and succeeded, many models didn’t embrace the change but still survived. However, there are nuances that have absolutely shifted.
The primary forces for this shift in social activity and engagement are:
Acknowledging the times we live in:
Nobody has a clue what post-pandemic normal is going to look like but at some point and hopefully, soon, we will not be in a crisis management situation and that will open new if not more opportunities for businesses. It is crucial for businesses to acknowledge the current situation and build strong relationships with their audience.
For example, Apple stores around the world saw the approaching lockdown and shut down before the government ordered it. They reached out to their existing customers and encouraged them to buy online and educated them about their convenient return policies and responsive customer service.
Europe’s local food delivery service, Dilervoo took the initiative to not only facilitate contactless delivery to their customers but also provided support to their riders who were diagnosed with the virus. They also partnered with non-profit organizations to deliver free meals to those on the frontline. This not only helped them connect with their customers in these trying times but also strengthened their relationship with them.
Do not abandon your space:
It’s important to understand that when things are so unpredictable around the world, change is going to be difficult. While it is a great time to experiment with new social media marketing trends, it is imperative to not abandon your current flow if it is getting you successful engagement. Instead, lean in further and take advantage of the situation by publishing more. People are at home and they are watching, leaving you with the responsibility to create and provide valuable content.
To put it simply, you can use your resources to engage more with an already involved audience. If your Facebook or Instagram communities are responding well, use LIVE videos and post more often to deliver more value to your audience.
Services are going online:
Corporations, businesses, and many service providers have realized that a work-from-home model saves a lot of money without impacting productivity. If anything, there has been an increase in productivity. With less capital spending on rent and commute, this may be the economic grace companies have been waiting for and they may not go back to what used to be “normal”.
A lot of individual service providers like dance or yoga instructors, tutors, or therapists are now forced to conduct online sessions. Even with the digital age, this was something that was uncomfortable for them to try at first but now it’s opening up opportunities to reach a wider clientele. They have also started discovering digital tools that allow them to be better at what they do.
A lot of opportunities are going to reveal itself on the other side of the pandemic. The real question is if your business is ready to take it on and if it is, how do you let your audience know?
Social Media Platforms for Businesses
Being present on all social media platforms is imperative for a social media marketing strategy consultant like Kim. However, for businesses, it’s important to identify which platforms do their ideal users reside in and be present on all of them equally.
It’s important to not use social media marketing as tools only to drive traffic back to your platform. What your users and potential users are looking for is a connection to you and your brand.
Every social media platform serves a different purpose and more importantly, presents your brand and its products differently. What works on Twitter may not work on Instagram, simply because the user interface of both these platforms are created to fulfill different needs.
If you’re serious about social media marketing then you need to have a social media growth strategy for every platform that you can benefit from.
Let’s deep dive into the current big 5 social media platforms to understand their benefits, use-case, and what are the benefits of social media marketing using their tools.
Facebook started as a platform for people at Harvard University to build a social network. However, by 2006, it was the quintessential social media platform to connect with your friends and their friends. Ten years after that, Facebook became the biggest source of information for brands to understand their consumers.
Even with the arrival of many new platforms, Facebook still remains one of the biggest providers of social media marketing opportunities. If anything, it is an online marketplace. It not only pioneered tools to market to a digital audience but has constantly innovated to stay relevant to new-age marketers.
Here are some tools that Facebook offers its business clientele to market on the platform:
(a) Facebook Communities
We can’t stress enough what a blessing Facebook groups are. They have nurtured communities and safe spaces for people to share and engage with things that interest them. This provides an organic space for any brand to provide solutions and drive traffic to create buying opportunities. It is here that you can find people who are most interested in your product based on what they like and engage with.
(b) Messenger Bot
The Messenger Bot came as a tool for brands to constantly engage with their consumers by leveraging its ability to set reminders, redirect sales, and send auto-responses. Companies like Lego used the bot to get relevant consumer information and also to direct the customer to make a booking or sale. In the case of Lego, it used the chatbot to ask customers questions like their age, budget, and the type of set they were looking for and then connected them with a purchase link and free shipping.
Maroon 5’s use of the Messenger Bot went viral when fans tweeted about how connected they felt with the band. The bot would ask multiple choice questions and redirect them to links of video clips, social media posts, and also asked if they “want to be the first to know” when they released new music.
(c) Facebook Ads
Facebook ads have also evolved to become more interactive. 2019 saw Facebook ads become more personalized. These social media ads are created to engage with consumers and they change patterns and call-to-actions based on the consumer’s buying behavior.
It is also one of the biggest platforms where people consume video. Most of this feature is made by brands that use visual communication, mixed with call-outs and Facebook ads. There is no minimum amount required to promote on Facebook but some of the advanced ads need a minimum amount of spent to work.
(d) Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace lets you buy and sell locally. It is a great place for local businesses to capture leads, engage with interested buyers, and drive sales. It has free listings, real-time sales insight, and a chance to reach an active and growing community that is interested in buying.
With a variety of content tools to offer, Facebook is definitely one of the must-be spaces for social media and advertising. Videos, texts, bucket-list images (these are images that inspire or create desire), blog links, user-generated images work best on this platform. To create a relationship with your audience, it is best to create a calendar that includes all of these to target different feelings towards the brand.
For example, a travel company can use a blog link and user-generated images to share as a customer’s experience traveling with them, videos, and texts to inform their audiences of their new travel packages and bucket-list images to create a sense of desirability and engage new users.
It’s important to understand the users of a platform to be able to catch their attention and get organic responses to what you’re sharing. Facebook since its inception has been a great space to build communities and if you’re looking to grow organically, that is the best space to start. It takes time to build an engaging audience but it definitely pays when you have their attention and can redirect them to a conversion.
Paid reach on Facebook lets you target people who do not like your page yet but have similar interests or are in your demographics. You can choose the number of people you wish to reach and how it is calculated is the amount spent divided by the reach results.
What started as a picture-blogging app is today one of the biggest social media marketing hubs. Instagram came into being in 2010 and has since then ever evolved to keep its audience engaged with a variety of unique features. The current version of the app hosts some of the most interactive techniques in the social media and marketing space that have been specifically built for businesses to engage with their users.
Let’s take a look at these tools that Instagram offers on its platforms:
(a.) Stories
Instagram stories have created an amazing space for brands, businesses, and influencers to interact with their audience. It has opened a new door for effortless communication in the social media realm. Businesses can use this space to interact and gauge the reactions of their viewers and to take this engagement further, Instagram has also created specific tools to foster communication.
1. Poll: If you’re looking to gain quick insights, this tool allows you to present a question with two options to your client. It is the easiest and effective way to know what your users want to know about.
For example, you can use this option to understand whether your user is more likely to buy your product or not.
2. Questions: Want to get a little deeper with your insight? You can ask your the user a question about your stories. This feature allows them to type in their response in a limited space but you can take the conversation forward on Instagram DM.
3. Swipe Up: A feature that is only available for verified accounts or a minimum following of 10K, it allows your users to jump from your stories to your website, online store, or other platforms like YouTube. It is a great way to convert engagement on stories to a sale or subscription.
4. Instagram LIVE
For upfront feedback and personalized engagement, Instagram’s LIVE feature lets you reach out to an audience from every corner of the planet. Whether it is to educate or entertain, the setup of an Instagram Live is casual and facilitates engagement through the comments section. You can also request the conductor of the session to let you be a part of the screening. A lot of brands and influencers like Gary Vaynerchuk are using this to further engage their audience and build a community.
5. Support Small Businesses: A gift of the looming pandemic, this tool allows users to interact amongst themselves and share their love for small businesses they vouch for. It is a great initiative to drive more users to the platform and encourage them to take a glance.
6. Effects on stories: A novel and yet to be widely accepted engagement tool, Effects on stories can be a great way to increase brand awareness in a fun way on Instagram. It can be used to represent a product or value that your brand stands for and can also be seasonal (for pride month, Halloween, etc.).
(b.) Direct Message (DM)
Instagram DM is the new place to build personal and lasting relationships with your users. It allows you to engage in conversations with them and gather insights to add more value.
There is also a record feature on DMs that allows you to send voice notes to your users and engage with them exclusively. Business accounts on Instagram also let you save quick replies to send to users – like your contact details, information about an upcoming sale or a link to your website.
(c.) Sponsored Content
Instagram lets you create ads on posts that you have shared on your feed. These can be targeted to users who share similar interests to your brand’s offerings. It also gives you a variety of call-outs that lets you, direct people, to either your profile or your website. For someone who has used Facebook ads, Instagram’s ad tools should be no surprise as it takes after their algorithm.
(d.) IGTV
A tool that provides a new and on-the-go platform for video sharing, IGTV is one of Instagram’s strongest suits. While many brands are yet to explore the value of this, it gives you a space to share video content that unlike your feed is not restricted to one minute. You can also share a preview on your feed and stories that when tapped, opens the video in IGTV.
(e.) Instagram Shopping
Yes, you can now buy and sell products on Instagram and it is much more interactive than many online stores. The highlight of this feature lets you use eye-catching photographs to woo an interested buyer and a simple tap on the product allows them to view quick details of the product like name, colour, price, and also offers to redirect to the website to complete the purchase. A lot of fashion and beauty brands are using this opportunity to catch their audience at the exact time when they have the thought or desire to buy a product.
(f.) Instagram Threads
To personalize communication with a close-knit community and form a clique, Instagram has launched a stand-alone app called Instagram Threads. Many brands are becoming selective of their interactions on social media and this new tool provides just that. With a dedicated inbox and notifications, it also lets you update your status so your tribe knows what you’re up to.
Instagram is one of those platforms that gives you multiple touchpoints to engage with your user. While images and interaction through stories and polls work best on Instagram, it is slowly also entering an interesting space in the video segment.
It is also one of the platforms on which people are looking for real connections, making available an opportunity to not only understand your users but to extend maximum value to them.
Organic traffic on Instagram is spearheaded through stories. It is currently the easiest way to catch someone’s attention on this platform and redirect them to your website or landing page (especially if you have the Swipe Up feature). Using all of Instagram’s tools like stories, feed posts and direct messaging in harmony lets you max out on engaging with your users.
When deciding to go for paid promotions on Instagram, it is important to set specific goals to make sure that you convert maximum users. For example, if the click redirects them to your profile, what do you want them to see, and is it easily available for them to notice it. If users are being redirected to a website or landing page, is the information there enough to push them to purchase?
Always remember to first maximize your organic reach and prepare well for paid promotions before putting your money on it.
A microblogging and interactive social network, Twitter has been around since 2006. It also is one of the leading platforms that picks up and delivers trending topics and conversations to its users. It has been one of the most sought-after places for brands to interact and engage with its users. In more recent times, however, Twitter has drifted off into a broadcasting and news-related platform. It is, more often than not used to report a bad quality service or product, which has also led to a lot of brands downplaying their engagement on Twitter.
It is one of the most focused platforms to increase brand awareness and loyalty by providing great customer support online and also provides access to network with industry leaders and influencers.
Twitter offers 4 main tools to engage with your users:
(a.) Retweets
A ‘retweet’ is a simple yet powerful action that lets users know what you believe in and stand for, and also helps build a community around it. It is the easiest way to find your tribe on Twitter. It is also an indicator of engagement and what kind of content is working for the brand.
(b.) Polls
Twitter polls have been an extremely popular engagement tool amongst businesses and influencers. It’s one of the quickest ways to get insights from your user and deliver the best solutions to their needs.
(c.) Direct Messages
In the past few years, Twitter has turned into one of the best spaces to provide immediate customer service. It has become a quick-response solution for companies to reach out to unhappy customers and give them solutions. It is also a great way to engage in personalized conversations with users who have been engaging with your content.
(d.) Quick Promote
Twitter’s quick promote tool lets you reach a wider audience on the platform that identifies with similar interests. It is a tool to boost a post that already has been getting attention and would do well by reaching more users. You can target users based on country, region, and metro area and it is important to note that Quick Promote restricts your geo-targeting options to nearby locations.
The content that works best on Twitter is images, text or tweets, and polls.
Understanding that Twitter users are looking for quick response engagements but also wanting to indulge in discussions and conversations is the key to creating value-adding content on the platform.
Growing organically on Twitter and improving your engagement requires you to be an active and participating member of the community. The more you engage with users who share your interests or are reacting to your content, you’ll get closer to building a community.
Twitter’s paid reach or ad campaigns get you noticed by more users on the platform. A paid campaign lets you maximize your reach and impressions and gives your user the opportunity to watch your video, install your app, drive traffic to your website or get you more followers and engagement on your profile. It uses look-alike targeting, event targeting, interest and conversation targeting, and re-engager targeting, or you can also create your own unique audience list. If you want to get the most out of your paid promotion on Twitter it is most important that you start from a strong organic foundation and use actionable insights from there to target similar users across the platform.
TIKTOK
If you haven’t heard about TikTok, it’s about time you came out from under the rock. A recent addition to the video-sharing social platforms, TikTok has been on the news for both good and bad reasons.
While TikTok has a huge audience base and a unique delivery algorithm that gives you greater engagement, it lacks proper customer service and doesn’t have a fixed policy on content censorship which makes businesses think twice about having a presence on the platform.
TikTok’s location-based algorithm also opens interesting gateways for local brands to reach more users. However, TikTok strictly allows only video content, and maybe overwhelming for a brand to constantly create new video content every week.
Fresh in a crowded space, TikTok Ads give an early advantage to businesses to promote without much competition. It gives you great local reach and engagement in your ads and works best for a new product launch.
At the same time, its lack of ad history performance serves as a double-edged sword.
Given the pros and cons, there are many reasons to give TikTok some space in your social media marketing plan. It has been constantly growing in the number of users and it is a great opportunity to leverage your video content and attract more users.
A platform for professional networking, LinkedIn made its appearance for the first time in 2003. It has since then stuck to its goal of creating an online space for real-world professional relationships. The unique thing about LinkedIn is its ability to tap into existing connections and grow your brand through word of mouth, making it one of the top platforms for lead generation. LinkedIn provides many opportunities for B2B companies to interact with their users and potential buyers. In fact, it is the most preferred and successful lead generation platform for B2B businesses.
It is important to understand the kind of content that works on each platform and LinkedIn is more different than others. What may work on Facebook and Instagram may get no attention on LinkedIn simply because the user is on the platform to fulfill a different purpose. Actionable and research-driven content works best on LinkedIn. It is also great for sharing motivational speeches and real-life experiences. It allows you to upload content in 3 formats – image, text, and video.
Neil Patel recommends using LinkedIn to briefly talk about your main content and redirect interested users to your website for conversion.
LinkedIn is also a great place to distribute your content (especially if it caters to working professionals) and having 5-10 published works on your profile boosts credibility.
You can also use LinkedIn Ads to put forth your content to a very selective and profitable audience. It lets you create sponsored content, regular text ads, and even send messages via InMail. LinkedIn’s crown though is its Matched Audience Tool that allows you to retarget users that are already in your sales funnel, making sure they convert into paying users.
LinkedIn also has groups that you can leverage to interact and build connections with like-minded people in the industry. You can use insights from these groups to create value-adding content for your users.
While it is wise to choose the platforms that work best for your business, it is silly to only put your effort into one. Each platform offers a different approach and with constantly changing algorithms, you’d best place your bets on multiple horses.
It is also important to plan a calendar to monitor your engagement and growth on every platform. The old yet golden rule of social media, also known as the 80/20 rule suggests that you use 80% of your posts to educate your audience about the industry and only 20% of your posts for self-promoting material. This not only curbs spamming your audience with sale-centric posts but also builds a relationship of trust. It also lets your users know that you are well-informed about the industry you’re in and that your products are well thought through.
Social media is ever-engaging its users by innovating new functions. More often than not, this leads to a user changing the platform it spends the most time on. If you think about it, judge how much you’ve been using Facebook and Snapchat since Instagram adopted stories. This is called platform hopping. Keeping this in mind, it is integral to choose your goal and growth for each social media and equally divide your attention to ensure you don’t lose touch with your audience.
Finding Your Ideal User
Understanding your audience is the key to cracking social media marketing and it is important to strike conversations to know what they need. How do you do that?
Social media gives us ample opportunities and touchpoints to build deeper and true connections with our audience. With access to so many people around the world, it is not difficult to find those that share your interests. Communities on these social platforms have become a meeting place for like-minded people to connect, discuss, and share with each other.
While it is one of the oldest tricks in the book for social media promotion, Facebook groups are one of the best ways to find and engage with your ideal user. One of the positives of using this platform is that Facebook notifies you every time someone is interacting with your post, keeping you updated, and ensuring that the conversation goes on.
Your ideal users are possibly on other platforms too, like Instagram and Twitter. One of the simplest tricks to find them is checking the followers on your competitor’s page or pages that promote or talk about the same intentions as you. Browsing through these user profiles, you will find many of them are potential users that just haven’t noticed you yet. You can follow them or drop a comment on a post so they notice you.
If you’re looking to have one-on-one conversations with your user, Direct Messenger on Instagram and Twitter is a great place to start. It also gives you the opportunity to collect insights and understand what they find value in. Not only are you building a connection, reinforcing your brand to your potential user but you’re also letting them know that you care for them and this paves the way for a personal rapport.
Putting forth an invaluable insight, Kim says that our current customer is basically someone that we were a while ago. Looking at it from this perspective, it is easier to ask yourself and understand what you needed when you were in their spot, a few years ago. You can write up a list and gather insights from behavioral patterns that when looked at in retrospect can give you valuable information.
Delivering Value: The Cornerstone Of Social Media
![Delivering Value tip by Kim Garst]()
When someone gives you or your brand attention, remember to serve them with something valuable. The responsibility of delivering content to people is on you and if you don’t deliver value, then Steve bluntly says that ‘you’re stealing from them”.
Gary Vaynerchuk (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNtjOeCq0yU) also advocates creating content that adds value to your consumers. He talks about how the majority of people don’t succeed at social media marketing is because they’re impatient. According to him, self-awareness is key. He says, “if you don’t know who you are, you have no shot”. Knowing and accepting what you’re passionate about lets you create authentic and valuable content.
In one of his blogs, Neil Patel also talks about the ingredients that make great content. Of them, being able to provide answers and creating engaging and thought-provoking content is most important for businesses to imbibe. When you are able to give a solution to your audience’s questions or problems, they are more likely to remember and trust you. Even if it takes time to create value-building content, do it because it gives you a higher quality connection.
There is a lot of insight to gain from the engagement behavior of your audience. Steve warns against the pursuit of vanity metrics or simply puts the endorphin rush that we get from likes and comments that we strive for instead of our main purpose which is to deliver value.
Vanity metrics are surface-level metrics like the number of downloads, likes, registered users, and pageviews. These metrics, although they look great on paper, do not provide any actionable insights or real data that can be used to drive social media marketing growth.
The opposite of vanity metric is clarity metric, like the average amount of time a user spends watching a video, quality engagement, and the time to convert a passive user to an active buyer. These can be used to accelerate growth, identify missing value points, and ultimately provide the best to your audience.
Also, remember to not get caught up in the turmoil of creating perfect content to the extent that you don’t make anything. Every person’s dynamic is different, so don’t be bothered if you’re not the first person to get there or you share the space with other creators.
Steve says that there is no competition online and that by showing up every day and putting our work out there, we will find our equilibrium. No two pieces of content can be the same and so use yours wisely to communicate value and build a relationship of trust and strength.
The future of content is dominated by video.
Kim predicts that 86% of social traffic is going to be through video by next year. This is great news for businesses and brands since videos attach more traffic by 300% and help nurture leads. It is no wonder why video has been gaining more attention on social platforms and is comparatively more engaging and interactive.
Research has also found that 85% of consumers want to see more video content from brands. Even more so, 97% of marketers say using video content has helped their users gain a better understanding of the products and services they offer.
There are different ways of how people can consume a video. When creating video content, it is important to keep all those kinds of viewers in mind. Most viewers don’t click on the play button, especially when they are scrolling through social media. However, you can catch their attention through closed captions and text overlay.
This helps your viewers watch and understand the video without pressing play, giving them an opportunity to engage with your content.
Leveraging Your Ancillary Platforms To Amplify Your Content
There is no point in creating content if you are not going to amplify it. Don’t focus on the quantity of content, instead leverage it in terms of distribution.
Gary Vaynerchuk talks about making 30 pieces of content from a single keynote. It is the most comprehensive framework for content repurposing and distribution that will help you max out on your pillar content.
Let’s break it down:
It all starts with identifying a pillar content. A “Pillar Content” can be anything – an interview, a Q&A show, a long-form text article, a keynote, or even a vlog. The trick is to be able to repurpose 30 pieces of content from this “Pillar Content,” so choose something that has a lot of valuable information. Gary’s pillar content consists of his daily vlog, DailyVee, keynote speeches, interviews or podcasts he does, and even his fireside chats.
After you’ve chosen your pillar content, start creating microcontent from it. Microcontent is easy to consume, snackable content like quotes, 1-minute videos, GIFs, memes, images, etc. Use the best moments from your pillar content to refurbish into micro-content. These are moments that will build a connection with your audience or leave them with a question so that they engage more.
What’s next? Create a social media calendar and space these out and publish on all your platforms. It is important to understand how to create a social media calendar for this plan. Not all content can be published everywhere. The pillar contents will work best on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Google Podcasts, website blog, or IGTV. Micro-content will work on fast-scrolling platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. You should also engage in community conversations and write articles on Quora, Linked In, Reddit and share it with your already signed up users via email.
While there are many dialogues on when one should post on a particular platform, Gary calls for an all systems go attack. If your pillar content goes live on all channels at 6 PM in the evening (no matter where in the world you are), the micro-content should follow immediately after at 6:01 PM.
Distribution is not the end of this cycle, in fact, without this step most of your effort is futile. Once your content is live, be active on your channels to listen and respond to your viewer’s first reactions. Make note of insights of what worked best and on which platform. Engage in conversations in the comments sections to get the most of this period.
Got the insights? Great, now use it to create more micro-content that is driven by your community’s insight. Max out on this opportunity to add more value to those who are engaged and build stronger connections with them. Publish this content on your platforms and again, interact with those who are engaging with your content.
Did you realize that one piece of content has now been repurposed into 30 more and has engaged with multiple users across different platforms, letting you engage with a variety of audiences together? Well, it did.
Conversion Through Content
If you’re giving value to your viewers through your content, it would be a disservice to not direct them to an opportunity to pay for it.
Attracting users to your social media platform is only the first phase of social media marketing. Let’s talk about how we can get them to convert into a customer.
A lot of users must have engaged with your micro-content but not all of them will turn into potential buyers. How do we then segregate those interested persons and ensure that we put our resources into converting them?
To understand this, let’s look at the old yet relevant sales funnel technique.
The sales funnel is a 3 step framework for social media marketing. It is crucial for a marketeer to understand how the filtration of many viewers happens to engage that one interested buyer.
When we create a snackable video, its sole purpose is for people to notice us and engage with us. A snackable video can either entertain, educate, or both but what it doesn’t do is make an offer. It simply makes the viewer aware of your brand.
For example, a snackable video for a fashion brand like H&M would probably be about summer fashion trends or 5 ways to wear a jacket. This appeals to all viewers on the platform that are interested in fashion, whether or not they display online buying behaviors. These people make for the top section of the inverted pyramid.
From this set of persons, we will further filter those who may be interested in making a purchase. When we make a video ad, we only serve it to those who have previously interacted with our video. For this, Kim suggests we only select those viewers who have watched the video for more than 20 seconds. Facebook ads let you retarget based on the watch time of your viewer. This ensures that we had their attention and that they may be interested in buying the product.
For H&M, this video would show their latest collection’s catalog. The video will also have an option to redirect the viewer to your platform, in the case of H&M, their online store.
This brings us to the bottom of the pyramid. Once the viewer has been redirected to your platform and is browsing, he is a potential buyer. It is here that you can make an offer to further increase the chances of converting the engagement into a sale.
H&M could offer a 20% discount on the first purchase or free shipping. A lot of companies also get potential buyers to register for their discount coupons before they can even choose the product they want to buy. In such a case, even if a sale is not made on that day, the company has a strong lead of someone who is interested and can be targeted with promotions of sales and new collections. This is a direct offer.
The offer page will work differently for a high-investment product, like a yearly subscription to a magazine or an online course. In such a case, you can redirect the viewer to a landing page that gives him nuggets of information along with the offer to help him make an informed purchase. This is an indirect offer.
Let’s also talk about the traditional sales funnel method that starts with giving the viewer access to your product for free. For example, a magazine can offer one month’s free subscription on signing up. At this stage, the company has already generated a lead that is interested in their product. However, this does not confirm a sale.
When the free subscription is reaching its term, the company will reach out to the lead with a low-cost offer. For example, the magazine could offer a discount or freebies on purchasing a yearly subscription. National Geographic offers merchandise like backpacks and explorer jackets.
Once you have a subscriber, you have an option to serve more value-adding subscriptions or other products that are more expensive. For example, National Geographic offers its reader explorations with Nat Geo Explorers or a subscription to their online channel to access more value-adding content like their documentary films.
Manufacture your own funnel based on the knowledge of your community. There are no hard and fast rules and you can modify the sales funnel by understanding the basic principle and modifying it based on your unique solution.
Iterate and Double-Down On What Works For Your Audience
After the conversion, you need to double down on what has worked for you organically. You need to keep offering more and more value to your user.
Kim gives us an example of a webinar she was offering on “9 ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile”. She first spread the word in her community and list of people who she engages with and knows will be interested. She got leads by leveraging the relationship she has built organically over the years with her community.
She also then used Facebook ads to target more people to view her product. The Facebook ad led to a landing page that had Kim’s offer in it. However, in this unique and customized funnel that she created with keen insights into her community, Kim was serving value-adding products like LinkedIn templates along with the webinar. This in turn redirected her potential buyer to also subscribe to her main product, Business Builder’s Academy which has a monthly subscription.
Kim says that it is easy for users to get lost when they’re constantly viewing so much content online. It is your responsibility to reiterate content and valuable offers to your users to ensure that they keep paying for your services.
In a candid rapid-fire round, Steve got Kim to share her top Instagram tools that she uses on a day-to-day basis.
![top Instagram tools]()
Kim’s ToolKit :
Live Streaming: Streamyard
Social Media Management: Agorapulse
Analytics: Agorapulse + Google Analytics
Content planning tool: Monday
Static Graphics: Easel.ly
Video: InVideo.io
Well, that’s all for this one. We hope you’ve got enough to get you started on your social media marketing strategy. Remember that everything takes time, especially building strong and trustworthy relationships but with the right plan of action and valuable content, you will inevitably get there.
This post was written by Sarika and edited by Abhilash from Team InVideo
