As beneficial as social media marketing is to many businesses, it can be difficult to fully utilise social media beyond looking at vanity metrics such as views, reach, and engagement. However, you could achieve better campaign results by looking at this one immensely valuable metric in social media marketing - conversion.
Conversion is the metric that measures how many viewers or followers are turned into leads and paying customers. It is the diamond in the social media marketing crown when reporting results and identifying whether your campaign is effective or not. In other words, you should optimise for conversion and find out ways to nudge your social media followers into action!
So, let’s look at some ways you can persuade your followers and convert them into the next marketing funnel:
UGC or User Generated Content can improve customer experience and help conversion. For example, Signature Market in the example above asks their Instagram followers to draw their dream cake, which stimulates shares and interest. It helps their conversion rate when their followers are turned into advocates by sharing their content.
The idea behind this is to ‘not try too hard.' By using UGC, users will not feel compelled to purchase your products. Instead, they would think that they are acting on their initiative.
Good social media marketers understand the power of using social proof. And showing off data and numbers is one way to use social proof to convince leads. Here’s an example of our own attempt to provide social proof on our website:
When users visit websites that show off numbers such as these, it will give assurance to leads that your offerings are indeed what you claim to be. You can also display social proof figures from your website or your other marketing efforts to your social media post, like the example below:
Marketers also use testimonials to better convince leads. Customer testimonials are a great way to provide valuable information to interested prospects. It works because seeing other people's experiences with your product after they've used it may be just what your followers need to reduce the perceived risk of purchasing your offering.
Most people will listen more to the recommendations and choices of people they trust. This is why influencers are such a hot topic among social media experts. Even micro-influencers can nudge followers into taking the intended action. Micro-influencers are found to be effective for the decision stage, for a couple of reasons:
There’s a lot of ways influencers can engage and convert their audience. One example is using valuable referral codes. “Valuable referral code” in this case means that you are giving the influencers' followers an enticing and appealing nudge that can entice them to act quickly. For example, the audience gets a free 1-month trial if you use the given code.
People appreciate genuine two-way conversions in general, and this natural interaction should be extended to your social media audience as well. Customers report spending 20%–40% more money on brands that engage with them on social media. In the end, consistent social media interaction and presence could signal to your viewers that you are active and ready to serve them.
One way to be genuine and engaging is by hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on your social channels. The transparency you have provided by answering any questions they may have about your company allows the audience to feel they can trust your company. However, do take note that this will only happen if you can respond warmly and appealingly.
One final way to convert social media followers is by rewarding them with special promotional offers from time to time. Make it only available on your social media page. Use limited-time offers with a set limit (e.g. time, number of people) to entice them to convert right away. You simply need to include a link back to the relevant sales page and provide all of the information they require to receive the promotion.
These are some of the enticing things you can start doing right away to boost your customer conversion rates. Overall, it comes down to the fact that your followers will only buy from you if they believe your offering is the one that will solve their problem. So, let’s strive to optimise for conversion that leads to better campaign results and impactful ventures!