The importance of selling platforms and social media engagement. A few tips and guidelines.
Selling Platforms
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An online store in the form of a website is excellent and an absolute must for all businesses, large and small. But as the old saying goes, never put all your eggs in one basket. Try and get as many sales channels as possible.
Other than the obvious Google Ads, build your presence on other digital platforms and marketplaces. A good start would be eBay and Amazon.
If you have something niche, Etsy is a great marketplace to target an audience that looks for unique, niche or handcrafted products. Of course, with the emergence of social media, Facebook and Instagram are also great places to establish an online presence and look into advertising with them. They can be as effective as Google Ads and, most of the time, more affordable.
If you are a reseller of a brand or trademarked item, ensure you have permission both from the brand owner and the selling platforms to advertise and sell their brand. If you do not do this, your ads may be removed, and your accounts could be suspended. It would be best if you did not build a business model based on online selling without these permissions.
If you have a physical address, consider opening to the public even 2-3 times a week. If you have a local shopping centre, consider a pop-up stall during festive periods wherever your customer wants you to be – go there. If anything, Covid has shown us that we must increase our reach to as many possible platforms. You may even find a marketplace your competitors didn’t think of.
Social media engagement with your customers and target audience
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In this day and age, you need to be everywhere! You need to be where your customers are, and you need to be where your competitors are and are not! Open up all your sales platforms and open up all your communication channels, including downloading whatsapp for business. This is how you create awareness and further your reach, which equals sales.
Engaging with your customers can be heaps of fun. Letting them know you are here, there and everywhere can create a feeling of security and trust for your customer. You don’t have to engage daily – you need to be there. Your information should be up, and you should be reachable with a click of a button. Creating fun videos, posting photos and creating posts have significant advantages. Creating engaging content is also one of the steps in building the ultimate sales funnel.
Look at your demographics and see which platform needs more of your attention. Are you talking to Instagram followers, Facebook users, Twitter followers or TikTok members? Whatever the need – create it. Social Media is the power for building strong brands. You must have it.
You must maintain a balance between sales and marketing posts, such as offering discounts and posts telling people about who you are and your company’s culture and vibe. I found a healthy balance: for every seven posts on identity, there were three on sales and marketing.
Engage professionals who can bring your social media up to scratch. Many experts do this, but as with SEO, ensure you get what you pay for and that you can measure the return on investment. Look at their portfolios and see if they can really and truly relate to your product or service. You will be paying good money for this service; you don’t want just anyone doing it – they could potentially damage your reputation if they don’t know what kind of content they are posting or don’t relate to your business. I know it’s tempting to outsource these sorts of things to offshore individuals as they charge a fraction of the price – but imagine the damage they can create by simply not understanding the culture of your business model or product? For example, Is it wise to engage a company based offshore to promote an Australian product? Relevance, authenticity and cultural context are critical.
Building your team forms one of the most important elements in running a successful business. Your SEO and your digital marketing experts form part of your team so it is imperative you search hard to get these right. The other elements of running a successful business are just as important. For example, you would need to ensure you have enough resources (including money) to be able to manage your team. Good business planning and strategic management are imperative when starting or running a business. It’s important to know and understand the reasons why businesses fail and ways to avoid that happening to your own business.
