Social Media is a great tool to build brand awareness and increase your audience, but how do you get people to jump from your Social Media channels over to your website. In this article, we will discuss the best ways to drive your ideal audience from where they are to where you want them to be.
Optimize your platforms:
In the bio of each Social Media platform should be who you are, what you do and a link to your website. As you can see from our bio below, we have included each of these. We have also told our audience what action to take by using the word “Click”.
When it comes to promoting your business, you can never assume people know what to do and therefore you need to tell them exactly what action you would like them to take. If you have many links that you would like people to click, I would suggest creating a landing page on your website that links to the various different products or services you are promoting. I would stay away from third-party Link sites like “Link Tree” as this results in you driving traffic to their site, not your own!
Post when Audience is Active:
Each business has a certain audience they should be targeting. This audience will use specific Social Media Channels depending on their age, location, interests, etc. Likewise, they will only use these platforms at certain times. Think about your target audience and when they would fit Social Media into their lifestyle. There is no point posting at 5 AM GMT, if your target audience is Irish students, as they will not be online at that hour. In this case, it would be better to post at 7 pm when they are home and unwinding. Use your Social Media analytics to determine what time people are responding best to your content.
Engage:
After determining when your potential customers are online, it’s good to talk to them. We all know how it feels when a brand we follow responds to us on Social Media. We feel important and that we are valued by them. Therefore, it is vital that you create this feeling with your customers too. When your customers feel heard and important, they are more likely to purchase from you. We would suggest engaging with your current audience, your competitors’ audience, and complimentary brands audiences too. When you are engaging, always be authentic and consistent in your messaging and tone of voice. Encourage people to check out your products and services through the link in your bio. Remember, people need to be told what to do!
Valuable Content:
There is no point in posting something for the sake of it. You need to provide value to your customers. This helps you become an authority in your area and shows you know what you are talking about. Trust is the biggest factor in determining if people will purchase from you or not. Therefore, creating valuable authentic content will make them much more likely to come to your website, which then gives you a better opportunity to convert them into paying customers.
Freebies:
So you’ve made valuable content, you’ve told your audience the action you would like them to take, but they’re still being a little reluctant. We unfortunately live in a world of sceptics and people who like things for free, so you are going to have to offer something to get people to take the final leap to your site. You could offer a discount code, free consultation, free guide, or entice them to enter into a competition. This would be a great opportunity to collect email addresses too in order to communicate with this potential audience in the future.
Paid Advertising:
I believe it’s always beneficial to dedicate some of your marketing budget to paid Social Media advertising. This is a guaranteed way to get your content in front of the right people, as long as you know how to target the ads correctly. Google and Facebook know your customer better than they know themselves. You can run an ad campaign, entering the details of exactly who you want to target, their location, occupation, interests, and even what they have recently searched. These companies can then put your ad on a plate in front of your ideal customer.
When using these types of platforms to promote your product or service, you will have access to their analytics. You’ll be able to develop a clear understanding of what is working and what isn’t, therefore you will be able to change your ad material, targets or budget, relevant to those insights. You can even choose that your goal is to put your ad in front of people who are more likely to visit your site. We would always suggest running paid advertising alongside organic content, as they both work in conjunction with each other.
Encourage Sharing & Reviews:
People trust their peers before they will ever trust a company. Therefore it is vital that you encourage your current customers to review your business and refer you to their friends. You can encourage your audience on Social Media to tag their friends or share your content also. You can offer discount codes or rewards for those who write a review or refer a friend. If a friend of mine tags me in a post on Social Media, I am instantly curious because my friends and I have the same interests and usually what they are buying, I want to buy too!
Enjoying this article? We’d appreciate a review below and will send you a discount code in return.
Calls To Action:
A call to action tells customers the exact action you want them to take. See that nice big, button below? Click it! It is important that you place “Calls to Action” in each of your Social Media captions, bios, and also throughout your website.
If you enjoyed this article, you will see a clear CTA at the bottom right of this page, showing you our other articles. These are used to steer you in the right direction, for your benefit, and for our benefit of keeping you on our site! Use the same method on yours!
