3 Tips to Increase Sales on Social Media

Get ready to transform your social media scroll into a sales success story! Terrah and Audrey from TJ Creative Agency spill the beans on the strategies they swear by to supercharge your sales on social media. They not just talking theory; they're dishing out actionable tips that will morph your online presence into a powerhouse of profit. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Increase Sales Through Social Media Tips
• 12:04 Building Trust, Answering Questions for Confident Buying
• 18:14 Online Shopping and Booking Made Simple

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever wondered what goes into your favorite brand's digital marketing strategy? I'm Tara, the founder of TJ Creative.

Speaker 2: 0:05

Agency and I'm Audrey, the Creative Marketing Director of TJ Creative Agency. Whether you're an influencer, a business owner, a content creator or just an overall creative person, we'll teach you how to create the perfect social media strategy and build your brand online. Welcome back to Social Sessions. Everybody it's Tara and I here again, just like we always are. It's funny. We are talking about how to get more sales. So three strategies that are going to help you get more sales through social media.

Speaker 2: 0:44

We've kind of talked a little bit I think we said this last week but, like a lot of us are setting pretty lofty goals for 2024, totally normal and I'm assuming a lot of your goals are to increase sales. If you're a business owner, that's probably your goal. If you're a small business or you're a social media agency, that's probably your client's goals are to increase sales. That's typically the business's goal at the beginning of each year. So we want to share a few tips on how you can do that through social media. Specifically Before that tip of the week, I actually have been trying to think more of actual tips and things that I've seen our clients deal with recently or struggles that they've been dealing with recently, and this is very accurate for January, the first of the year and this is stop overthinking and stop over planning. Like I said, we're probably all setting these pretty lofty goals, which means we're probably also determining how we're going to reach those goals. We're planning, and we're planning, and we're planning, and we're planning and we're planning. And, before you know it, like you're four months down the line and you're still in the planning phase and you haven't actually taken any action. So you can plan yourself in circles, but none of it means anything until you actually start to take the action.

Speaker 2: 2:09

So I was just thinking about this, because I hear a lot of people in one on ones recently that I see repeatedly, or even just single conversations, and they typically go something like I've been thinking about doing X, y and Z, or I'm really just trying to figure out the best way to blah, blah, blah. And, like I said, before you know it, you're still thinking about the best way, yeah, and you just haven't actually done anything. So, yes, having a plan is great, right, it's going to really set you on the right track, it's going to help you get where you need to go. But you have to get to a point where you're like, okay, I have planned it. I have to take a step, like I have to actually do something and, putting it specifically in social media terms, honestly, like your first post, if this is like coming up with a new strategy, your first post isn't going to be out the gate. Amazing.

Speaker 2: 3:05

Just like anything that you're trying to achieve, the first step that you take probably is not going to be like a massive step that changes everything for you. It's probably going to be like something little. For example, like if it is a new social media strategy and that's something that you have been like planning and planning about. You've been doing all the research. Okay, the first step is like actually start creating content. Or if maybe one of your goals is to like do some influencer marketing this year, you can plan and plan and plan. The first step is like get a list of influencers, reach out to them. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Like just while we are all in the planning thing You're just doing, like when you are doing one-on-ones. How do you? What do you say about framework or strategies in planning? Do you think quarterly? Do you think month to month?

Speaker 2: 3:58

What are some of the I?

Speaker 1: 3:59

mean when.

Speaker 2: 4:00

I do one-on-ones, it's typically like they share what they're going through, like their issues, and then I kind of need the homework. I'm like, okay, this is how we're going to do this. I typically think in terms of, like social media strategy, come up with your strategy, work with it and then adjust it. I don't think you necessarily need to completely rework your strategy. That often it usually looks like here's the strategy, this is what I'm doing. If you notice that it's not working, tweak it here and there, but it's usually not an overhaul because the strategy typically is coming from analytics and research to begin with. What are your competitors doing? What's your audience interested in Things like that? Yeah, I think it's something that develops.

Speaker 1: 4:46

It develops over time. You're not going to have the A and B testing going into it to even be able to make a strong Right, I think you make your strategy.

Speaker 2: 4:57

That's what I mean. You make your strategy and I think the framework is going to look the same for a while. But you might notice, oh okay, like these videos that we had intended or these topics that we had intended for brand awareness aren't really working. Let's change that aspect of the strategy. Maybe the other parts are working. Or like it's hard to specifically in a strategy because everything is so intertwined If your brand awareness part isn't working, that's top of the funnel, right. So if that's not working, it means the other two aren't working. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:34

So also Megan. I don't know if it was just me, if it was Megan and I or if it was me and you. Regardless, we have an entire episode about, like determining what area of the funnel is not working for you and how you can tell, kind of like, where you need to make those tweaks. Yeah, that's kind of a sidebar, but if you need to, like, if you don't really know what area is falling flat, we have a whole episode on how to determine that. Yeah, so, anyways, that's my tip is, just during this this the time of year where we do get caught up in planning just like remember that you still need to take action. The planning can feel safe, right, there's no risk in planning anything. The risk happens when you actually start to take action. But you have to take action in order to see any rewards, so true, so now actually getting into the episode how we're going to make sales. Three tips, three things that you might need to adjust or understand a little bit better in order to actually profit and make sales. Number one understand your audience triggers. Now, what I mean by that is you have to know what activates your audience, what is resonating with them the most, how you're going to do this. You're really going to be looking back at analytics. You're going to see which posts seem to garner the most profile visits, which ones get the most engagement, which ones you get even in terms of like stories, right, maybe you're talking about a specific thing in stories and you get way more responses on one than you do another. So all of that, you're going to kind of compile all of that and really be able to see what is resonating with your audience, what is getting them to take action a little bit more. And it really typically boils down to like two different things, right, it typically is either like numbers, analytics, credentials, information, things like that. That's a lot more.

Speaker 2: 7:38

I was going to say qualitative or quantitative. I don't remember the difference. I don't remember the difference, so I don't know why I was going to say those, but just a little bit more analytical or an emotional, entertaining story Telling side of things. So analytics, credentials, like examples like that, obviously before and afters. I would put before and afters in that category because it's very like this is what it used to look like, this is what it looks like Now. It feels like data. I would say statistics, right, like we do this on our page sometimes where we helped a company increase sales by 50%, like statistics like that. These types of things work best if your audience is very business minded, if you are marketing to like business professionals, if you are marketing, so that's why it works for us, right? Because the people that we, as a social media agency, are marketing to our business professionals, it's either someone high up in the marketing team or it's business owners. So that's why things like that it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2: 8:43

But the other side of things, the emotional side of things, it's really your audience needs to see themselves in your content. They need to be able to see themselves with your product, with your service. So this is things like testimonials with dentists that we've worked with. It's smile reveals. I would even categorize celebrity endorsements in this category, because to me, a celebrity endorsement is very aspirational. It's somebody looking oh look, I love that person, I want to be like that person, so they're able to see themselves like that. You know what I mean. So that's what I think the difference is. Some examples like obviously we work with a lot of medical clients like cosmetic, but they're medical at the end of the day. That's stuff that you would probably want analytical and number types of things. And also I want to be clear that it's not necessarily one or the other.

Speaker 1: 9:43

I think your audience is ways more.

Speaker 2: 9:46

But I think you can have a little bit of both. But I do think there's like a majority of your audience is going to take to one versus the other, but that doesn't mean the other is never going to work. But, like I said, medical audiences you're probably going to want to know, like that's where the before and afters come into play. Do I want to know that this doctor is going to be able to do what I want them to do? I want them to whatever. You know what I mean, it's going to be more data backed, because there's a little bit more at stake in who you choose for your doctor versus what pots and pans you're buying. You know, yeah. But with that being said, I think our place, the Pan Company, does great in leaning into emotions. They're very much like the it pan right. They have celebrity endorsements, they have influencers. That all kinds of leads into that aspiration which is a little bit more emotional.

Speaker 2: 10:36

They also showcase, when you look at their page, like their photography and things like that is very much like homey right, they're kind of making it seem like aesthetically yeah, it's like yeah, you want that and it's like here's what, here's the feeling that we offer, and it's like photos of like cooking with friends or cooking like with family, or even they'll like kind of switch it into like cooking is like your self care time or things like that, and you get all of that through their photography, through their videography, all of that type of stuff, and that's the way that they're really playing into that emotion, right? Because as the consumer, you see yourself using this pan, hosting a dinner party, you see yourself like on a Thursday night, like making dinner for yourself, and you know what I mean. So it's that's what I mean by the two different action points, and you have to understand which, when your audience resonates with more.

Speaker 1: 11:35

Very good stuff.

Speaker 2: 11:36

And we've talked about too. Like I said, with it, kind of you, you can play with both a little bit. We talked about this last week. You heard me talk about smile makeovers. That's like still in the medical side of things, but it's playing into the more emotional right.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Yep, I think a balance of both, but definitely you'll. You'll see your audience go to more one side than the other. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:03

Absolutely yeah. So number two is really building that trust and building that confidence. So I like to think of this as like FAQs right, you know your audience better than anyone. You, as a business owner, we we talk about this too. I just had this conversation with like an injector with a med spa, saying, yes, I'm making your content right and yes, I can see certain answers or certain you know analytics from my side. But you are actually in person with these clients. You know better than I do what questions are they asking you when they come in the door? What are things that you're hearing regularly, because that's what I want to be able to answer in the content. So the in the reasoning for that is like I said, it's really building confidence. Your this also plays into your website, but your website and your social media content should be able to answer your ideal client or your audience's questions so that they feel confident enough to book with you or to buy from you. So, bringing it back to like our place right, we'll just stick with this example.

Speaker 2: 13:19

They have highlight covers on each of their products, on their page right and on each of their products. If you scroll through it, if you click through it. It's going through really the key, like selling points of each product, and then at the end there's like a link that's like if you want to learn more, learn more. But it might be things like is this a nonstick pan? Can I wash this in the dishwasher? How much is this product? Like things like that. That might seem like common sense.

Speaker 2: 13:48

People typically want to know before they purchase, right? Even this is a random example, but I have a planner right in front of me, something you might want to know before buying, like a Actual written-out planner. How long does this planner last? Is this a 12 month planner? Is this a three month planner, where I'm gonna have to be rebuying it every three months? Like things like that. People want to know the details and feel confident in you. And if you're a service provider, it might be things like Do you have payment plans? If it's a large service, it might be like thinking of veneers. It might be do they stain? Does it ruin my natural teeth? Things like that. You need to be able to answer all of these, like someone should just be able to kind of scan your page and have answers to most of those questions.

Speaker 1: 14:35

Which is what, and a going back to like Content pillars but those things kind of is a way to keep that stuff organized once you identify what those, what those trust, those confident building types of content would be and then filtering them into that. Yeah, help you organize that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2: 14:58

And also, just because you say it one time, that's not enough, like keep it going. If you say, if you have one post from six months ago Saying yes, we have payment plans, do you expect your audience to scroll back six months worth of content to have that question answered?

Speaker 1: 15:15

No, yeah, I think, yeah, you're re-answering and it and it does feel sometimes like you've said it a hundred times. But again, like Audrey said, if it's go, if it's past those 12, top those images, those first 12, they're probably not gonna go search for it. And if that's why highlight buttons, I think, are so valuable because you store quite a bit of the that does most frequently ask Questions in those highlight buttons and just push people back to them. Also, like or sometimes, if they do ask I know I've done this before if somebody's asked in a comment, then I'll refer them to that post right, like Send them a DM of that post specifically, which will pull them back to it.

Speaker 2: 15:57

Yeah, and that's the beauty of pinned posts to like bonus points. If you want to have those types of things pinned to your profile again, there's I can get like. I'm guessing most of you that are business owners.

Speaker 2: 16:12

You know the questions you get frequently you know what they are, so just start answering those. So that's Like I said they should. They should feel confident enough to want to book with you or to buy from you. After viewing all that again, this applies to your website too. Like, maybe maybe you give a brief synopsis of something on Social media and then you say something like for more information, go to our website, or for, like, a longer list of FAQs, go to our website, something like that. It's not like it needs to be paragraph on paragraphs, especially if something is like a case-by-case Situation, but give a brief overview or acknowledge that that is a question that you can answer on social media.

Speaker 1: 16:59

I Also think the transparency builds an automatic trust with whoever it is right when. Somebody asks something and you reply with the answer. And you give the answer, you're building that relationship immediately, even though they may maybe never met you, or it's just a way to connect to them and get Start to build the relationship.

Speaker 2: 17:25

Yeah, yeah, and this is all like middle of the funnel stuff too, so this isn't necessarily the stuff that's gonna go viral. This is the stuff that's going to build the relationship with people who've already found you Mm-hmm, just taking that relationship one step further, if you will. And lastly, tara and I cannot stress this one enough Make your buying and booking process as easy as possible. Okay, think about it like I always say. Think about it like as if you are the one doing the buying or the booking. If I have to click, okay, if I see a post that says like, click the link in our bio for To book or whatever, and I click and it is a link tree, fine, I can get through a link tree I click on the link tree. Now there's like a pop-up on the website. Okay, that's annoying. Let me click out of the pop-up, okay.

Speaker 1: 18:21

Here's this.

Speaker 2: 18:22

I, okay, now I have to put in my email. I have to wait for the email to come in. Then I get another link in my email. You've lost me. You have lost me Like I'm done. That actually just that's an actual example that I just had yesterday.

Speaker 1: 18:37

I got.

Speaker 2: 18:38

I got a story that was like Get a free bikini and I was like, okay, like let's see. I'm like, obviously I'm gonna have to sign up for an email newsletter. There's no fucking way, this is just whatever. So I click the link I put in my email and then obviously they're doing SMS, like the text too. So I'm like, okay, whatever. Then I click the button. It takes me to my text, like into the new app. Takes me to my text, it sends it.

Speaker 1: 19:03

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:05

I'm like, oh my god. I'm like I'm regretting this.

Speaker 1: 19:09

I'm already regretting this.

Speaker 2: 19:10

So now I'm in my text. I have to wait a second and a text comes through. Okay, here's the link in which you get this. Okay, now I have to go. I have to look at the size chart. I have to see, like, what size am I? I have to put them in my bag. I have to put them in my cart. Okay, now it's like. Now I'm like where is the discount? I go back into the text and it has the discount code. I'm done. Actually, by the way, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I was like that's enough. Yeah, that's enough.

Speaker 1: 19:43

I was like, because I was in the middle of something I would I feel like it almost turned you off to the brand when they put you through that much work.

Speaker 2: 19:51

It's just so much and it's also like disrespectful feels like a strong word, but you have to acknowledge that your audience is doing things. Everybody has shit to do at all times. Okay, there's always better things that your audience could be doing than shopping with you or than with booking with you. Okay, they have other things that they could be doing and you have to acknowledge that and be respectful of their time. Okay, and then also, as a business, you want their sale, so it makes sense that you want it to be as easy as possible. So that's like a product based. That's another thing.

Speaker 1: 20:28

Can I give an example of that too that's thrown a few times is like from for influencers like, say, you're following an influencer and you're like, oh, I love those shoes or that rug she posted. And then it's like, okay, they share their like to know it link. Well, I don't know about you, I mean, I know like to know it has a lot of valuable things and it's great platform for influencers. But like navigating that place and navigating that, when you go to the find the profile of the influencer that you like, then you have to find the product. Then that product link is going to take you to the other person's website and now by that time I'm like you know your website I used to have a.

Speaker 2: 21:11

I think like to know it has done a little bit better at making things like better, because before I never, if it was a like to know it link, I was not clicking it because it either required me to like sign in or it required me to have the app. Unless I was doing it wrong, but I think for a long time it required one of those two and then I was like forget it, I'm not using this, and I think they have since gotten rid of that, where it's a little bit easier.

Speaker 2: 21:39

It's a little bit better, but yeah, that's a good example.

Speaker 1: 21:43

It does bring you and like shop, like that they could figure out that, like the there was a few and I don't remember when it was but like, say, you had an outfit, just tag the shoes and then automatically that shoe came up and then you could purchase it, like that's how easy I want it to be. I don't know if it gets there.

Speaker 2: 22:02

I mean, that's honestly like. That's like exactly how TikTok shop is, so actually kind of a debate discussion. You're saying you want it to be that easy. Tiktok is doing that. And I've never seen more complaints about TikTok and like even some. So I saw I don't know if you saw this article, it was like the New York Post or New York Times or something, and it was. Someone wrote this article about TikTok is cringe and I think it's on the way out.

Speaker 2: 22:27

And I saw a lot of people reposting it, a lot of like big influencers reposting it, being like, honestly, yeah, I'm so fed up with this app. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And then I started hearing people in my actual life be like I'm there's to. It feels like QVC and genuinely like I would say I used to send things to a lot of my friends on TikTok. Right, we would send. Now it's like I would. I had like seven or eight people that I was constantly. We are sharing things back and forth. Now it's like one or two, because most of them are not on the app anymore. So it's like, yeah, give and take right because, yes, it feels easier.

Speaker 1: 23:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:09

But they've lost it, they've, they've, they're kind of driving a lot of people away with the shopping issue. Yeah, with it being every video.

Speaker 1: 23:21

And it's not like you're making money from a sell over there either, because I've put in some things up there and it's like if somebody buys something, you get like 30 cents. I don't know what the I mean. Maybe it's dependent on price.

Speaker 2: 23:32

I think it's also, on top of that, like it's not just TikTok shop, but it's also like normal ads, right, you have normal ads. You have TikTok shop videos that are quote, unquote, organic, and then you have influencer ads right, where they're getting paid, not through TikTok to do brand deals. So it's like several different types of videos where you're just being it's just ads, ads on ads on ads, with different formats of ads. Yeah, yeah, so anyways, but that was a sidebar, I will say, switching gears in terms of services, making your booking process easier.

Speaker 2: 24:11

I just had this conversation with someone the other day where, if your service costs a lot of money and it requires a consultation, do those digitally, do those virtually? Okay, make it a Zoom call, because A it feels like a much larger commitment to go into an office for a consultation. Now, I understand that there's some consultations that maybe you need to be in person for, but if you can get that virtual one out of the way, where maybe you're the doctor or you're the dentist or whatever and you're answering the questions that they probably have, right, what's the downtime like? Do you have payment plans? What is like those types of questions that maybe that's gonna weed people out and also feel like less of a commitment and also give them like the information to feel comfortable to actually book the process. Because I think for a lot of people like myself included, if I have to book a consultation, it feels like I'm already committing to pay you money. It feels like I might as well be writing a check and giving it to you just by going into a consultation.

Speaker 1: 25:19

So if I'm able to get work from doctors. It's like, well, I don't think, I think I need to see them in person so that we can, you know, like basically they can sell them on their personality or whatever it may be, or the vibe, or. But I just think we're moving away from that and COVID pushed us into it. But like people have found that their time is more valuable than sitting there with the surgeon and then going to the next surgeon.

Speaker 2: 25:46

And it does. I was gonna say it feels like you book a consultation, you drive all the way down there for 15 minutes to drive back home. It's like what the fuck, why did I? It feels like a waste of your time, genuinely. So it's like a lot of these questions can be asked because that consultation for the patient most of the time is just asking like basic questions, right, you're not getting into the nitty gritty of all of it. Most of the time, like that's really what they're asking about. It's usually about pricing. It's usually about like recovery time. It's about like how long until I see the results?

Speaker 2: 26:23

Whatever your service is, those are the types of things that you can usually do over Zoom call. For example, I had a meeting like months ago, maybe a year ago at this point, with the photographer, because I had had this idea that I, whatever that I had wanted to do, but I don't need to do an in-person visit with her, right, we did a 10 minute, 15 minute Zoom call. I'm like this is my idea. She's like okay, great, this is what I'm thinking. I'm gonna send over a report situation Like the same thing that we do with discovery calls. I think turn that into like, if you, if your business requires a consultation, try and do it virtually, because you're gonna get way more signups. I literally, like I said, had this conversation yesterday and in a one-on-one and she had point blank said yes, we get way more signups and way more leads, way more people are willing to fill that out when we do virtual consultations, yep.

Speaker 2: 27:25

So again, it comes down to making it as easy as possible and, like, as risk-free as possible too, right, yeah, true, yeah. So those are, those are our tips, pretty simple tips that you can implement very easily, you guys, very easily. So I hope these were beneficial for you, hope they help you increase sales in your business. If not, give us a call, we can help you increase sales. We can help you increase sales. Yeah, we can help you increase your sales. Or we can coach you on how to do it, because, if you didn't know, we have monthly coaching calls. Yes, we do, but I would love it if you rate and reviewed the podcast and we will talk to you next week.

Speaker 1: 28:14

Thanks, guys bye.