There is a saying in sales that goes something along the lines of “you need 7 touches with the same customer before they will be willing to buy from you … before they Know, Like and Trust you”.
Almost all businesses out there are looking for more customers.
Building your customer base
Time and time again, we meet with business owners or managing directors or even sales people. They know they have a great product or service, a great team on board and great systems … all they need is more customers.
Customers, on the other hand, are “blasted” day in and day out by well meaning salespeople or advertising promotions. They are trying to capture their attention to tell them exactly how good their product or service is ….
At best, the prospect subconsciously blanks this stuff out, deletes the email unread, doesn’t take the call or just clicks that little X button on the top of your advert. This ends all well intentioned attempts to capture their attention and start to try to build some type of relationship with the ultimate outcome of trying to make a sale.
This is uncomfortable for all involved.
The cold caller doesn’t like the rejection, (often leading to a high turnover of sales people – a further cost to the business). Additionally the prospective client doesn’t like feeling like a piece of meat that is being pursued.
We all hate that feeling of being pursued. It’s something deep inside our prehistoric mind that scares us a little bit by being pursued … and it’s exactly the same in business.
So, how do we change this?
How do we turn it all around?
How do we go about engaging prospective clients that will get them to a point where they are chasing us to do business with us?
How do we build that all important Know, Like and Trust quickly and effortlessly?
How do we position ourselves in our prospective clients’ mind as THE ONLY real option when it comes to solving their problem and make all of your competition look like “time wasters”?
The answer comes in 2 words: “Social Media”
Well, I should say “A well structured social media campaign utilizing specialist skills from a multitude of skilled, elite level copywriters, designers and students of online consumer and buyer behaviour” … but that would be a bit over the top for this article.
You see, social media is completely changing the game when it comes to “lead generation done well”. It has a multiple of factors that put it head and shoulders above other forms of lead generation such as cold calling, email blasts, networking, junk mail and all the rest….
Powerful factors of social media
The factors that make social media so incredibly powerful include:
- You can get your message right in front of your ideal target market
- You can illustrate your company’s products or services in an extremely benefits led way
- You can create a real “feeling” around your product, service and brand and what you stand for, that will really engage your prospect’s “heart and mind”
- You get your prospective clients engaging with you
- Happy customers can positively impact prospective clients as to how good your product or service is
- You can create a “good” viral message that can be spread further and further afield by your happy customers (think “word of mouth” referrals on steroids, here!) which is EXTREMELY powerful
All of those positive engagement speeds you through the crucial “Know, Like and Trust” hot buttons in your prospective clients’ mind. Clients that otherwise, in all likelihood, would never even have heard of you.
Every single time that your social media posts are seen or engaged with by your prospective clients, you automatically win some more Know, Like and Trust.
Let’s revisit that sales line regarding “the 7 touches with the same client before they will be willing to buy from you.…”
If you believe that and have a prospective client who has engaged with your posts, liked them, commented, maybe even “shared” them, do you think they would be closer to doing business with you…?
Absolutely.
What if you only posted 3 times per week and your target only interacted on 2 of those 3 posts? Well, then in just over 3 weeks, might they be thinking about doing business with you?
Well, it MUST have crossed their mind, right?
Using know, like and trust to lead to ROI
When your social media campaigns are done correctly, with the right team and the right strategy, then you absolutely should be getting a very positive ROI. Of course, social media is a specialist skill area so it’s worth calling in a professional team to get it done right …
… and you should insist that the specialist team should absolutely provide a trackable, replicable and consistent ROI.
If you have enjoyed this blog and would like to have a chat to see how you could generate a Return on Investment from your social media, contact us and we can pencil in a mutually convenient time to have a chat.
