Many small business owners come to us because they have a limited budget and they feel social might be an inexpensive way to boost their sales. As much as we’d like to say “YES, right this way to the land of endless sales with only a small business expense!”, we’re an ethical agency who knows that that client will drop off by the end of that first month.
The truth is social media is one important component of an overall sales strategy but 1.) isn’t a sales strategy and 2.) shouldn’t be your only sales initiative. If you want us to be successful (and ultimately your brand), you need to fill us in on your unique sales strategy because an understanding of that will help us on the social side. Everything works hand in hand with social (and its effectiveness). If you don’t have a sales strategy, create one before starting social.
- Will you be attending any wellness festivals/expos for your amazing vegan snacks (where you will promote the social accounts that we’re working on)?
- Will you be investing in SEO? Google Ads?
- Will you be doing any additional advertising like print or radio?
- Will you be reaching out to wholesalers/distributors who might then promote the brand via social?
When creating your sales strategy, have a clear idea of where you want your company to go and how each facet/department (including your social team) can help you get there. Inc. says the first step to creating this strategy is to build out your roadmap for your business, “including creating a list of target customers and developing a plan for how you’re going to connect with them, is crucial if you want to reach your sales goals”. When approaching a social media agency like us, we will be able to tell you where those customer avatars are most active on the social side and what types of content might resonate with them but again, social is one means of communication with that customer. Where else are you approaching and connecting with them?
Your sales plan should include items that support social as a potential sales channel (not the other way around). Social media should not be your foremost sales strategy which supports every revenue goal of your company. Unless you have an enormous ad budget, along with a large budget to work with countless influencers, that is a losing strategy. One where you will be disappointed in the social agency you work with and the social media marketing agency will feel an unreasonable pressure to meet all of your brand’s sales goals. However, if you build out a strategy where everyone pulls their weight and social has its place within that sales strategy, there is much more chance for a successful outcome.
Finally, be realistic in terms of your expectations with social on the sales side. Especially when starting with a new brand, there isn’t a magic number for spend X and receive X (we wish there was!). There are too many other variables that affect social including your other sales efforts, overall budget, product pricing, saturation of your particular space — on our end, when first getting starting with a new client, we need to build up their audience (and unknown brand) and eventually begin to see patterns in the performance of our social media.
Want to chat how social media can contribute to your overall sales strategy? Book a call to chat!