Selling techniques have deeply evolved during the last decade, changing from the traditional method of cold calls and printed ads to a new, more integral strategy that goes beyond just capturing the client´s attention, but also guiding customers during the whole purchase process. This innovative method is known as ¨Inbound Marketing¨.
The results obtained by Inbound Marketing have proven to be remarkable, and a company usually starts noticing a direct impact on sales soon after implementing the strategy. To have a better understanding of why this process works so well, it is important to take a deeper look, step by step, of how Inbound Marketing can work for a company.
ATTRACT – How would you increase the number of visitors to your website and company content?
As a result of the big impact of social networks in modern life, Social Media Marketing has become the perfect strategy to attract specific audiences that are potential clients. Followers who like what they see eventually share the contents published. By creating a community in several social networks, one can amplify the reach to other people.
Social Media Marketing should be used to have permanent contact with clients and to allow more human interaction with them.
Firstly, a firm should choose the correct social networks by studying potential clients and their preferences. Contents should be present in more than one network and adapted to each of them. For example, LinkedIn can be used to attract the public in a professional framework, while Instagram or Facebook can be used with a more friendly approach in a casual context.
CONVERT – What do you need to do to turn a visitor into a lead?
Social selling increases the extent of a message in less time, being able to reach millions of people. At the same time, in order to reach a specific public, it allows for segmentation of the audience and raises their interest in the product or service.
It is important to create timely, relevant and original content that appeals to the consumer and conducts him to consider making a purchase in the future.
Choosing the right information and giving something interesting and useful to the public will help to generate leads. Becoming a solution provider can help expand the scope of the Social Network. As a result, more followers on Twitter or Facebook usually increase the number of leads automatically.
LinkedIn has proven to be the most successful of the social networks to capture quality leads, as it offers additional features to target specific individuals, knowing that they may have a certain status or decision-making powers in a company. Hence, it facilitates communication with the right prospects that are more likely to become costumers.
CLOSE – How to increase the number of leads that turn into real clients?
Social Media can provide essential information relevant to closing a transaction, such as data necessary to screen the client´s needs, problems and interests. Thus, it shortens the distance between the seller and the buyer.
Placing ads on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram helps to engage quality leads that can be converted into clients. Nonetheless, it can take time to build a strong foundation in each platform. The client needs to feel identified with the company from the beginning, which can be achieved by luring him to find relevant information posted on a steady basis.
During the closing phase of the Inbound Marketing process, Lead Nurturing and Lead Scoring have proven to be effective tools. Lead Nurturing is a marketing automation technique. It saves time by classifying leads and educating them through quality content and personalized information during the whole purchasing process, even until the closing phase. The objective is to stop wasting time on prospects that won’t generate a sale, and instead concentrate on the opportunities that will generate a future sale, aiming to identify the moment when they are ready to buy.
Lead Nurturing works jointly with the classification technique of Lead Scoring. After the digital behaviour of leads is measured, they are classified by demographic profile, potential value, interests, and their affinity with the company’s Buyer Persona.
In this phase, the relationship with the prospect is tightened, increasing the likelihood of becoming a customer. Without getting too far ahead, one must not take the risk of overwhelming the prospect, since the opportunity to sell could still be lost.
DELIGHT – What do you need to keep your client satisfied?
Once a transaction is closed, the client’s satisfaction needs to be closely taken care of. Social Media is crucial to keep a client pleased and to develop an after-sale relationship. Clients want a quick response when they need help or when they face a problem with a product or service. Therefore, having a presence in these platforms is a great tool for a company to provide an immediate response and support to the client. Social Media can be the perfect channel to fulfil the needs and demands of customers, and they may reward a company by spreading a positive word of mouth.
During this stage, it is important to avoid focusing exclusively on the complaints. Furthermore, it is vital to keep an eye on the people who share the company’s content, since they usually have a positive influence among their followers, helping to position the brand.
Digital positioning is achieved by managing recommendations and fostering an online reputation.
All things considered, it has become quite clear now that Social Media plays a direct and very important role in the sales process, in addition to its function in marketing and brand awareness activities. Social Selling must be regarded as a competitive advantage in optimizing sales, but also as a daily challenge of getting to know customers, capturing their attention and develop a high-quality digital interaction with them.
Changing or creating something new in your digital marketing strategy is not always an easy task. It implies a change of mindset and behaviour as well as having the right tool(s) to make it happen. From our expertise, there are several ways to begin. These best practices are just the beginning of the success of it. In our next webinar, we will show why 90% of top marketing managers are implementing social selling tools, why managers should embrace it and how to effectively implement a social selling strategy.
Author – Tricycle Europe Marketing Team
