Social Media Sales Tips (2) – How To Become Your Own Success Model?

In my article A Shockingly Simple Social Media Sales Tip You Are NOT Using Today!, I explained that your past sales history is an invaluable treasure that you can reuse over and over again, and enjoy the same rewards. In doing so, you will become your own success model. Don’t you love that thought?

In addition, I discussed how you can assimilate and record your sales-driving-interactions in one central location that is visible to your team (At Garious, we are using Nimble and it serves the purpose beautifully.)

Now that you have your previous sales information handy, how can you leverage it to make more sales? That’s the exciting part that I will share with you today. Let’s get started…

1. Tweak Your Target Market Identification Process

Let’s say your initial assessment of your ideal niche market was stay at home moms between 30 and 40 years of age. However, you managed to sell your product to a 45 year old stay at home mom. What can you conclude from this information?

You certainly can not assume that you made a wrong target market assessment based on few exceptional incidents. However, if you noticed a repeated pattern of sales outside of your preset target market, you may consider one of two options:

1. Tweak your brand message and social activities to appeal to your target market
2. Change your target market definition to fit the new market segments that are bringing actual sales

Which of these opposing directions will you choose to take?

Your decision will largely depend on the reasons behind choosing your target market at the first place. Perhaps your market research revealed that 30-40 year old women are willing to pay more for your product than older ones. In this case, changing your brand message to attract this market is a smart move.

But if you realized, based on your sales history, that your target market choice was based on a wrong assumption, then it is time to make a shift.

In either case, I strongly believe that what worked with the 45 year old woman who invested in your product can work with hundreds of similar women if (and only if) you followed the exact same strategy that worked in the past. This brings us to the second tip…

2. Refine Your Targeted Social Reach Strategy

Sticking with the 30 to 40 year old stay at home moms example, let’s say that you discovered that 80% of your Twitter sales resulted from women who are 38 to 40 years old. This information tells you that you want to focus on this specific age range on Twitter.

One of the most important factors when analyzing previous sales is to figure out what sparked your customer’s interest in your brand at the first place. How s/he was first introduced to your business? Was it a blog post? An email subscription? A social media contest that you held? A freebie you gave away?

If, for instance, you discovered that email subscription is your number one sales initiating channel, you will want to focus on driving more traffic to your landing page.

On the other hand, if you wrote a blog post that generated so much traffic and sales, you want to focus on delivering similar content when working on your content marketing strategy which leads us to the third tip…

3. Turn Your Site/Blog Into A Social Hub

In previous articles, I advised against putting all your social media eggs in one basket!. Since we live in a crazy world of unpredictable surprises, putting your entire marketing effort into your Facebook page is NOT a smart move, especially since Facebook can remove your page permanently if a hacker managed to sneak in and ruin things for you.

The same applies to Twitter and most popular social networks. Still doubtful? Listen to this excellent copyblogger podcast interview and you will change your mind!

Here is another surprising article that you want to check: 12 Mind-Blowing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know. Out of the 12 stats, the following 3 should ring a bell:

1. 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog
2. Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic
3. Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing

Think of your blog as your evergreen asset that you must consistently nurture with outstanding content that your readers will love, share and trust.

So, if your sales history shows that Twitter is your number one sales source, you need to take two steps:

1. Follow the same Twitter strategy that worked in the past
2. Even more importantly, work on driving more traffic to your blog and set an ambition to turn your blog/site into your number one sales source. Again, your blog is your evergreen asset and the only social media channel that you have full control of

The Bottom Line Is…

Your successful sales history can easily become your roadmap for more sales if you follow these steps:

• Record successful sales details accurately
• Interpret the assimilated information correctly
• Devise a strategy that will guarantee repeating (or exceeding) your successful sales pattern

What’s your take on these tips? Did they resonate with you? What thoughts/ideas/actions have this article inspired for your business? I can’t wait to find out…