5 Ways of Turning Social Media Followers into Customers

3.5 billion people use social media across the globe. Many of these people are more than happy to follow their favorite businesses for updates (and the occasional giveaway). However, businesses tend to find that having many followers doesn’t necessarily translate to profits. Oftentimes, companies might have impressive follower lists without much to show in terms of actual revenue. In this guide, we will explore effective ways to turn your social media followers into customers, including personalizing interactions, utilizing targeted advertising, showcasing user-generated content, and offering exclusive promotions. 

But how can you remedy that? Well, there are a few approaches that have proven to be very useful for getting your followers to become eager buyers. Let’s explore them below. 

Understand Your Followers

Before you can start monetizing your social media following, you need to understand who you’re dealing with. Only by learning more about your followers can you figure out the best ways to approach, engage, and convert them. 

For instance, you can take advantage of Audience Insights and learn the demographics and other key data that might help you understand how your followers align with your best customers.

You can also look into which of your posts are performing best and which ones are lacking in engagement. You may be surprised that what you think is important to your followers doesn’t resonate with them at all.

If you’re unsure about what direction to take, you can always ask. Run a survey on your social media feed, asking people what they’d like to see more of or why they are following you. These insights might give you answers about the best course of action in your situation.

Figure Out When to Post

Sometimes seemingly minor details can make a huge difference in success. The same can be said about your social media marketing campaigns. If you’re testing various elements of your posts and seeing consistently poor results, you should consider experimenting with them when you post as well. For instance, depending on your audience, you may find that it’s better to post in the morning, during lunch break, or even later in the evening when people have more time to scroll through the feed.

The social media platform you’re using also matters when deciding on when to post. The best time to post on Instagram may vary significantly from other social media platforms because the audiences form different habits and preferences based on what they tend to browse the most.

The good news is that most social media platforms will provide you with ample data, as well as plenty of opportunities for experimentation. That way, you can figure out exactly what’s working and tweak your post times accordingly. And when more people engage in your posts, you will find that they not only interact with you on social media but are much more willing to purchase from you as well.

Provide More Value

Sometimes, the reason why your followers aren’t turning into customers is that they don’t yet know enough about your products. There’s only so much you can say in a social media post, and the majority of your followers won’t read external resources. 

Luckily, there’s a way to provide more value for your audience while simultaneously generating excitement and engagement. By organizing webinars, you can instantly separate yourself from the competition and become the coveted expert in your field.

Sure, you may be thinking that webinars are hard to organize, but there are plenty of webinar marketing tools that make the technical part almost as simple as creating a social media post. 

Then, you just need to come up with an exciting topic, prepare the materials, and add an enticing offer at the end, creating the perfect sales tool for educating and converting your followers into eager customers. 

Direct People to Your Site

One of the biggest drawbacks of social media is that you’re always restricted in how you sell. Facebook and other popular platforms have strict rules about the type of language you can use if you don’t want to run into issues, which can be limiting when you have a good product and want to showcase all that it can offer. That’s why in many cases, it makes a lot of sense to direct people to your site, where they can learn more about your services or products and sign up to your funnel. 

You can use your social media posts as a preview, enticing people to click through to your landing page. There, you can pitch your products and services in more detail, expanding on what makes your offer different and offering plenty of proof that it works. Finally, you can use online form builders to get people to sign up, adding questions and other qualifiers that will help you learn more about each lead and provide more personalized solutions based on their needs.

The reason why it’s important to direct people to your site is that this alone can greatly increase your chances of success. Social media is full of distractions, and even if your readers are paying full attention one second, they can be looking at something else just a moment later. Meanwhile, on your site, you have complete control over how you present your messages and what happens next, which is a good position to be in as a business. 

Use Remarketing Ads

Sometimes, the best way to get more buyers is not to attract new buyers but to focus on those who almost bought but didn’t. That’s the basic idea behind remarketing ads, which allow you to show social media ads to people who previously visited your site but didn’t buy.

For instance, if someone abandons a cart on your site, you could retarget them on Facebook, enticing them to reconsider the offer by showcasing the products or even offering a discount.

The reason these ads work so well is that people are already familiar with your brand, as they have visited your store and might also be your followers on social media.

These types of ads are more relevant, less intrusive, and more in line with what the prospect already wants to do. If you plan and execute a remarketing campaign well, you may be able to convert a significant portion of those who leave your site without buying.

Final Words

Turning your social media followers into buyers isn’t easy. But while you probably won’t be able to convert them all, you can use the strategies above to at least improve the number of people who decide to take you up on your offer. 

The list of methods above is by no means conclusive, but it can serve as a good starting point that will help you make steady improvements over time.