Sell On Social Media
Learn the basics, master the art of selling on social media.
People have a lot to say about social media. They want to tell you that social media is bad, that it's dangerous, and that it's ruining our society. I think social media has actually done a lot of good for us. It's connected me with so many people worldwide, and I've made so many friends that I would never meet otherwise.
My business would be drastically different if not for social media, and that's because I've spent a lot of time studying social media, staying on top of trends, and learning how to use social media to grow my business and sell my product.
I don't think social media is evil. I think it's a powerful tool that anyone can use if they take the time to learn it. So for the next few weeks, we're going to be doing a mini-course all about selling on social media.
Week one: The Basics
These blog posts will help you master the art of selling on social media so that you don't have to treat Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or whatever platform you might use as enemies but as tools to help you grow your business.
Sign up for my mailing list to make sure you don't miss the following two segments of this mini-course!
Let's get into it.
Step one to growing your business on social media and selling your product: know the basics.
#1 Have Your Product/Service
The first step to selling on social media is understanding what you're selling.
Are you a service-based business or a product-based business?
What is your goal when creating content for social media?
Do you want more clients to come into your salon for your hairstyling services? If so, that's what you need to be selling on social media. All of your content on social media has to circle back to that essential element: getting new clients into your salon.
The first thing you need to do to sell online is identify what you're trying to sell and keep that at the forefront of your mind whenever you make any other decisions about what to do with your social media.
Is it going to help you sell your product?
#2 Know Your Audience
Everybody uses social media. Everyone, their mother, their dog, and their five-year-old kid. It's important to know that you're not making social media content for everybody on social media. So you have to make sure that you know your audience if you're using social media to grow your business or if you want to sell on social media.
The best way to go about this is to be extremely specific. If you find that your content is too specific and you're not getting a lot of traction, you can always zoom out and be less niche. But if you start more specific, you'll have a greater understanding of whom you're making content for.
When you're more specific with whom you're creating content for, you have a greater probability of your content getting more traction and achieving what you want it to do.
Some posts get a lot of likes because many people like them, and other posts get a lot of sales because they resonate with a specific group of people.
When creating your content for social media, think about your ideal customer.
- What does she do for work?
- What does she do in her free time?
- What kind of friends does she have?
- What kind of TV does she watch? Does she watch movies? Read books?
- What are the struggles she deals with?
- What kind of pain does she feel?
When you know the answers to all of those questions, it's easier to find the answer to the ULTIMATE question: how can you help her?
Not only that, but how can you relate to her? How can you make her feel safe, excited, and seen? And how does your product or service do that?
Take some time to answer this question. It's crucial when you're trying to sell and grow your business on social media.
#3 Create A Promo Plan
Creating a promo plan for your business is your greatest defense against burnout.
Many people say they get burnt out promoting their business on social media. They say that the algorithm constantly changes, keeps them guessing, and eventually, they burn out.
The algorithm does matter but what matters MOST OF ALL is your consistency. If you're consistent with your social media content, your business will grow whether you're chasing after the algorithm or not.
So, create a plan and stick to it.
I always say that you should be making eight specific pieces of content to sell on Instagram. You don't just want to come out the gate swinging, promoting your sale. You want to warm up your followers so that by the time you DO get to the sale, they've warmed up to you.
These are the eight content pillars I think you should hit. If you hit each of these one day a week, you'll be making more sales by the end of the week, guaranteed.
- Share Your Story
- Educate
- Demonstrate
- Survey Your Audience
- Behind The Scenes
- Entertain
- Inspire
- Offer
To learn more about these eight content types, check out my free guide, Strangers To Clients, where I go over all of these content types in detail and give you examples so that you can master the art of creating content to get life-long clients!
When you have a handle on those eight content types, you can plug them into a content calendar (I have a free template for that, too!), so it's easy to stay on top of.
Once you go through all these steps, you'll have a solid foundation to start selling on social media.
Don't forget to check out next week's post about how to sell through your Instagram DMs!
Sheila Bella is a marketing expert and beauty business coach, as well as the President of The American Academy of Micropigmentation and founder of the Pretty Ambitious Summit.
She is considered a leader in the world of permanent cosmetics and beauty having built a 7 figure beauty business in 3 years.
In 2019, she pivoted to the online coaching industry and grew her online program, Pretty Rich Bosses, to 7 figures.
She works with beauty entrepreneurs every day, helping them create the businesses and lives of their dreams!
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