How to build a sales funnel using social media

Social media has been an instrumental tool for online marketing. From building awareness and trust to receiving free advertising and third-party endorsements, social networks can cover the entire sales process at a sliver of what it costs to do traditional marketing and lead nurturing. In this post we take the classic sales funnel stages and show you how our social media strategy supports and plays directly into the sales process.

The Lead:

A lead is someone that fits in your potential target customer demographic, but you haven’t had the chance to talk to yet. The great thing about the social networks is that they are filled with leads, and you can segment the social population with some very simple identifiers. From hashtags to paid targeting, it’s easy to get in front of your ideal audience on social media. The social media sales funnel refers to this as building brand awareness.

The Prospect:

Once in the social networking world, you will begin to gain followers and social media users who interact with your posted content. In your terms, you may consider this a “prospect.” Your followers have confirmed interest to become prospects, and now you can begin a conversation by engaging with comments or the information they post. These discussions and interactions allow you to provide information about your services as the new prospect enters the discovery phase to learn more about your business.

The Qualified Prospect:

The discovery phase turns a prospect into a qualified prospect. To allow a smooth transition for the social media sales funnel, we make sure that once prospects land on your website that they engage with your brand, usually by signing up for a newsletter or opting into an exclusive offer. This empowers the prospect to find more information about the business and proves your social significance across platforms. Getting the prospect to your website is the main goal. Once there, the prospect confirms that they have a need for what you’re selling by “opting in” and becoming a “Qualified Prospect.”

Committed and Transacted:

In the traditional sales funnel, a qualified prospect will transition to the committed stage when they’re ready to make a purchase and then fulfill the actual transaction. The conversion process takes time and nurturing, but posting regularly and staying relevant will help establish trust, keep you at the forefront of your qualified prospect’s mind, and ultimately, help you sell on social media. You can entice the purchase decision by offering sales and special offers on your social media pages, directly engaging with your ideal customers.

Loyalty and Advocacy:

Most traditional sales funnels end at the transaction, but the social media sales funnel makes it easy to gain loyalty and advocacy from your new customers. If you deliver on your promises, these loyal customers will also become advocates, which might be the largest return on your social media investment since 92% of consumers trust their friend’s recommendations.

Sales, marketing, and advertising are all changing with the rise of social media. Not only could it be detrimental to not have some sort of social media presence, but you could be missing out on great opportunities for growing your business, selling more products, and gaining strong third-party endorsements. Don’t miss out -- Let Yakkety Yak help you get your social media sales funnel on track. Contact us today.