Social media platforms have taken over the world. They are no longer predominantly used for socialising and communication, but for our working lives too. Over 3.6 billion of us use social media, the top platforms being Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and the amount of users is only going to continue to grow in the coming years.
Social platforms are key for effective marketing, helping you gain authority and trust. Using channels such as Facebook and Instagram to promote your business will boost brand awareness, traffic, conversions, and insights. This might be through advertisements, product listings, and engaging visual content. Facebook and Instagram have become the top-performing platforms for users to research and purchase products.
We have put together the most effective (and smart) ways to use social media to drive your audience down the sales funnel.
Optimise Social Media Landing Pages
To convert as many members of your audience as possible, optimising your social media landing page is essential. A social media landing page is a designated page designed for your social media audience. So much traffic is driven via social media. Therefore, a landing page is an integral part of your marketing strategy to generate leads and achieve successful conversions. They drive users to take action rather than browse. For example, if you have a new product launching, you should create a landing page with an engaging call-to-action to encourage users to purchase.
Create Quality Visuals & Content
Poor quality images and impersonal content can be detrimental to your social media posts and can give off a bad impression. Original, high-quality images that are related to your content are an effective way to drive your conversion rate up. Specifically on Instagram, a very visual social platform with high competition. Create visuals that stand out but are also in line with your branding to ensure consistency.
For your content, make sure you write for your audience. Get to know who they are and what it is they want, carry out keyword and hashtag research and use appropriate call-to-actions.
Video Centric Posts & Ads
With the likes of TikTok and Instagram reels, videos have become more popular than regular image posts. They are more engaging, and information is easier to digest. The human brain can process information from videos 60,000 times faster than text. Video centric posts and ads on landing pages can help boost conversion rates by up to 86%. Your videos should not be too long, as users can easily lose interest or become distracted.
Ensure Brand Consistency
Brand consistency is important so your social media audience can easily identify who you are. Therefore, changing your brand guidelines can damage your engagement and affect your ability to achieve a conversion. Create posts that are in line with the rest of your brand’s identity, such as a consistent colour palette and tone of voice in your content.
Focus on Engagement, Not Followers
You can’t gain a high volume of followers if you are not engaging with your current followers. Each social media platform works differently, so it is beneficial to research what days and times are best for you to post (as well as look at your profile’s insights), to grab their attention. Posting regularly (more than once a day), using relevant hashtags, tagging users and locations, and liking, commenting, and sharing others’ posts are also great for boosting engagement.
Monitor Analytics & KPIs
Your social media marketing strategy won’t be effective if you don’t analyse your past data. By looking at your key performance indicators, you can figure out which posts and ads are performing the best and why. With this data, you can tailor future content to exactly what your target audience wants or prefers.
Run Competitions & Giveaways
Competition and giveaways are effective for boosting your engagement and followers – people like free stuff! When running a competition, get your users to like, comment and share your post, as well as follow you, as a rule for entry. You can revolve your competitions around national holidays and worldwide events if you are short on ideas for content.
By implementing the above strategies for your social media marketing, you can drive your audience further down the sales funnel until you eventually achieve a conversion. It won’t happen immediately but remain active and dedicated and you will see improvements.
Need help being more social with your marketing? Our social media experts at Bigwave can help. Contact us today to enquire.