Five expert tips for creating compelling content that drives social selling success
Social media has become essential for businesses to connect with their target audience and generate leads. One of the most effective strategies for leveraging social media for sales is social selling, which involves using social media platforms to build relationships with potential customers and drive sales.
However, creating high-quality content for social selling can be challenging. In this article, we will break down what you need to know about composing and posting genuine, high-quality content.
1. Learn your audience.
Understanding your target audience is the first step in creating high-quality social selling content. It’s essential to figure out the needs, interests, and pain points of the people you are trying to reach. Studies show 71% of consumers prefer personalized ads tailored to their interests and shopping habits. Therefore, putting in some effort and research for your audience can help raise brand awareness in your target group.
A terrific way to understand and relate to your target audience is to create buyer personas representing your target audience. According to information from the Marketing Insider Group, companies that use buyer personas in their marketing strategies have 124% higher engagement rates. Conducting additional research to learn more about your ideal will help you tremendously with creating content that resonates with your audience and addresses their needs and pain points.
2. Provide value for your network.
Your content should provide value to your audience, so ensure that it addresses their pain points or offers solutions to their problems. There are many ways to achieve this: you can share industry insights, helpful tips, or product demos that display how your product or service can help your audience. Try to keep your content informative, educational, and useful.
It is also critical to be consistent. Statistics show that brands that post at least once a day on Instagram see the highest engagement rates. Remember that consistency over time is your way to success in social selling – no matter the platform you use.
LinkedIn statistics show that posting once per weekday on LinkedIn can help you reach 60% of your unique audience. And according to LinkedIn’s own best practices, posting at least once a week can help you stay top-of-mind with your network. If you don’t have the time to post daily, don’t worry! Additional research shows that companies that post at least once weekly on LinkedIn see twice the engagement with their posts.
However, consistency is key. According to Forbes, LinkedIn’s algorithm favors consistency, meaning that frequent posting can help improve the visibility of your posts and overall reach. Other research states that consistent branding across all channels can increase revenue by up to 23%.
These statistics demonstrate that consistent posting on LinkedIn and other social media outlets can help you reach more of your target audience and increase engagement with your content. By developing a content calendar and sticking to a consistent posting schedule, you can build a more substantial presence on social media platforms and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
3. Use visuals to make your content more attractive.
Visual content is more engaging and memorable than text-based content. According to Buffer, tweets with images receive 150% more retweets and 18% more clicks than those without images. Facebook posts with images receive 2.3 times more engagement than those without images.
The same can even be said for LinkedIn. LinkedIn posts with images can receive at least twice as much engagement as those without. According to LinkedIn, video posts have five times more engagement than image or text-based posts. And 71% of B2B marketers use visuals as a part of their content marketing strategy on LinkedIn. In addition, infographics are the most shared type of visual content on LinkedIn, followed by images and videos.
These statistics show the importance of using high-quality visuals, especially videos and infographics, in your content strategy on LinkedIn to increase engagement and reach. By incorporating visuals into your LinkedIn posts, your content can be more eye-catching and memorable for your audience.
Visual content can tell a story or showcase the benefits of your product or service. However, using high-quality visuals, such as images, videos, infographics, and animations, is crucial to capture your audience’s attention. Using visuals that align with your brand and are easy to understand is necessary to bring awareness to your account and products.
4. Be true to yourself.
Authentic content can help you build trust with your audience and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry. Your posts must reflect your brand’s personality. Use a conversational tone when posting, and avoid sounding too salesy or promotional. We also recommend sharing stories or experiences demonstrating your brand’s values and how you can help your audience.
Engaging with your audience goes hand in hand with posting relevant content that aligns with your brand values and image. Remember that social media is about building a nurturing trusting connection with your audience – and reacting to their comments, likes, and questions is just as important as providing them with new insights.
In fact, 71% of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend it to others. Additional statistics show that companies responding to customer complaints on social media have a 95% higher customer retention rate. If you ever get negative feedback, owning it and making the best of it instead of despairing over it is best.
5. Optimize your content for social media use.
Since you are producing messages for social media, your need to optimize your content specifically for these channels. How can you achieve this? Well, there are a couple of essential aspects to consider. One of the most crucial characteristics of social media content is hashtags.
Social media posts often use hashtags to categorize content and make it more discoverable by users interested in specific topics. For example, hashtags help users find posts on particular subjects or themes. By using relevant hashtags, individuals and businesses can increase the visibility of their content and reach a wider audience interested in those topics.
Hashtags also play a crucial role in marketing and branding strategies. Companies and organizations create unique hashtags to promote their products, services, or campaigns. These branded hashtags help increase brand awareness, encourage user-generated content, and facilitate tracking and analyzing social media campaigns’ reach and engagement.
Additionally, hashtags can represent trending topics. By incorporating trending hashtags into their posts, users can tap into ongoing conversations, increase their visibility, and reach a larger audience. Trending hashtags allow you to participate in broader discussions and engage with a wider range of users. According to Hubspot, tweets with hashtags receive two times more engagement than those without – and Instagram posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement than those without.
However, hashtags aren’t the only hack for social media content. Formatting your posts to fit the requirements for each platform perfectly increases the readability aspect and your audience’s engagement. Think about it that way: It should be easy and enjoyable for your audience to read your content, engage with and share it. Social media optimization helps you increase your reach and visibility on social media.
Create your social media content to reach your goals.
By now, you should know that creating high-quality content for social selling requires a deep understanding of your target audience. But it also includes supplying valuable and visually pleasing content, ensuring you show your brand’s true self on social media and be authentic, and perfecting your content for specific social media outlets. By following these tips, you can create content that resonates with your audience, helps to generate leads, and builds meaningful relationships with your audience on social media.
Have you mastered creating compelling social media content, or are you still looking for ways to improve? We look forward to your stories and feedback!
Photos by Laura Chouette on Unsplash