how can brands sell through social networks?

7/27/2019 How can brands sell through social networks?

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How can brands sell throughsocial networks?

An iCrossing point of view

Prepared by: Tristn El segui VP of Strategy Latam & SpainThis document contains confidential and proprietary information of iCrossing Inc.


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COPYRIGHT 2013 ICROSSING LTD OCTOBER 2013 | HOW TO SELL THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKS 1

Since social marketing became a core part of brand strategies weve been asking this question.Marketers are now starting to realise that we were trying to over-simplify and in many cases missingthe point:

We compared apples and oranges: we took social networks as a new sales channel and

expected to obtain the same results.

We broadcasted content and didnt care about the users reaction.

We did not understand the context: users are on social networks to connect with friends

and relatives. They talk about news and share pictures... They arent necessarily expecting to

receive promotions and we did not understand why they werentin buying mode.

As a result of this, many brands thought that social networks did not work for them. But the fact is thatwe did not fully understand the value that social networks provide.

Social networks are a recommendation channel, not a direct sales channel

Does this mean that we cant sell though social networks? No, we have to understand that they play a

different role in the sales process.

Users have changed the way they buy. Theyre well informed, use multiple devices and receivenumerous commercial messages from many different brands... Messages that they have learnt toignore.

Social networks are the link between initial awareness and final conversion

Brands need a bridge between initial awareness (mainly generated by paid campaigns) and themoment of truth (sales interaction). Social networks provide this bridge by delivering content anduseful information along the path to conversion.

The scope and scale of this fluctuates according to the type of purchase being made. In general, thelarger the purchase, the more inclined people are to do some in-depth research and look to their peersfor crowdsourced opinion.

While companies would love for this to happen on their brand pages, its much more likely to takeplace within friend networks. Businesses need to be active in social listening so they're reacting towhat's going on and fueling conversation, not just seeding their marketing messages.

The traditional funnel (adapted to social media) describes this process:


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Often, the most important engagement takes places at the customer service stage when you can usethe directness of social platforms to make a real difference to your relationship. A positive experienceat this stage in the process drives audiences to become fans, repeat purchasers and advocates,adding fuel to future marketing efforts.

Once weve understood the process (awareness, consideration, action and advocacy), we can

establish the:

5 steps to start selling on social media

1. Goals

Brands need to translate business goals into social media goals.Ask yourself why you want to be on

social platforms? Decide what defines success and how to measure it.

To succeed we have to connect with the right people in the right place, at the right time, with the right

content, through the right interface.

y need to be always on (or at least always aware). They haveWhat does this means for brands? The

to become connected brands.

2. Audience

The second step is to define our audience profile. Using social monitoring tools, its possible to access

detailed information regarding the sites your customers visit, their opinion of your products (and

competitors products), what content they like the most and other information that can help you get to

know them better, engage and define your strategy.

Its important to understand the context of why users have visited the social site; theyre likely to be

focused on sharing pictures or planning their weekend so direct sales messages are not appropriate.We need to be cleverer than that to grab their attention.


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3. Conversation

With all of the obtained information, we should be capable of defining the best conversation topic. The

topic that allows us to establish a relationship with the user, not talking directly about the brand, but

catching the attention of people potentially interested in our brand.

This is how we generate the required engagement to gain awareness for the brand message.

4. Strategy

We already know what our goals in social media are, we know our audience and we have found our

conversation topic - how do we make this work altogether?

The process can be divided into 4 phases:

Awareness

At this point we use the best combination of paid, owned and earned media, to drive traffic toour landing pages, where we have placed a series of calls to action implying different levels ofcloseness to the sales interaction (whitepaper, webinar, free trial).

Consideration

Depending on the product, this process can take days, weeks or months. This is the stagewhen we have to help the users go through to the next stage.

To do so, we will provide information and services useful for them in the decision makingprocess. This could include buyers guides, product reviews or research depending on the

industry.

Action

Finally the user buys and becomes a customer.

Advocacy

Once the user has purchased the product we deploy our loyalty strategy to keep them as aclient and offer upsells. If we make this experience positive, the customer will act as apromoter and recommend our brand/product so more people will buy, consider buying and/orbe aware of our brand (effects of earned media in the purchase funnel).

5. Social analytics

Lastly, we have to measure. To do this we have to choose which metrics and KPIs are representativefor each stage of the funnel. Those that describe better how online campaigns are working and howmany users we have in each stage.

Conclusion

Social practitioners had become know for attempting to avoid directly answering the ROI questionwhen it came to their activity, however with social media firmly ensconced in most firm's digitalstrategies, it's getting harder to hide behind fluffy metrics.

The return needn't be cold, hard cash, but having a positive influence on conversion rates shouldalways be a consideration whenever campaigns or calendars are being constructed. And if you can


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prove the effect they've had, it makes your argument easier for getting bigger budgets to take thingson to the next level.

For further information, or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your

iCrossing account manager [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

how can brands sell through social networks?

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