Social Media Marketing Tips

5 Social Media Marketing Tips [Boost Sales]

Do you want to boost online sales for your business? Social media is a great way to do that, however, you can't simply post the same links to your sales pages on a bunch of different platforms and expect your revenue to climb. In this article, I give you 5 key social media marketing tips to leverage the major apps to your advantage.  

1. Use social media within a broader funnel strategy

Instead of treating your social media strategy as a standalone part of your business, view it as one part of your broader funnel strategy. Before investing time into social media, first map out your marketing funnel.

In case you're not certain what a marketing funnel is, it's a series of marketing tactics that convert people who've never heard of your brand into loyal customers...

Here's a snapshot of the four levels of the marketing funnel:

• Awareness. At this initial level, known as the "top of the funnel," you're focused on making people who've never heard of your business aware that it exists. For instance, a brand posts a TikTok video, which reaches many TikTok users who didn't yet know about the brand. 

 

• Consideration. Here, the "middle of the funnel," you're focused on making people consider your products for purchase. For example, a brand might post a video on Facebook showing little-known uses of a product. Someone following that Facebook page may consider purchasing the product now that all the uses are evident.

 

• Conversion. We're now at the "bottom of the funnel," where a brand tries to convert interested prospects into buyers. For instance, a brand could create an Instagram story with a 30%-off coupon code in it, which expires in 24 hours, urging followers to make a purchase today.

 

• Loyalty. This stage is also part of the bottom of the funnel. Here, customers who are happy with a brand's product will take two more valuable actions - buy additional products and tell their friends/colleagues about the brand, leading to free, word-of-mouth advertising. For example, a brand may announce a new product on Facebook. Existing customers, who follow the Facebook page, not only purchase the product, but share the post with their Facebook friends. 

Do you already have a funnel strategy in place? If so, you can use social media to amplify the progress you're already making at each stage, or possibly get through a bottleneck you might have at a certain level.

Do you not have a funnel strategy in place yet? That's okay. You can build one from scratch, on top of social networks. 

If you want to learn more about marketing funnels, I recommend you check out an online course from Skillshare.

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2. Use different social networks for different funnel stages

A mistake beginners in social media marketing often make is viewing all networks as different versions of the same thing. Though certain social apps have a lot in common, they're all fundamentally unique. A post that performs well on one may hardly be noticed if duplicated on another.

Because of these fundamental differences, certain social networks are better suited for certain funnel stages. Below, I'm going to give you an overview of the major social apps used for marketing, the type of content to make on each, and the funnel stages each are helpful for.

Facebook

Funnel Stages

• Organic Facebook posts - ie, ones that are not ads you pay for - generally only get shown to people who already follow your brand's Facebook page.

 

• People who follow your Facebook page already know who you are. Thus, Facebook is not suited for the top of the funnel, but the middle and bottom.

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Post Types

• Photo and video posts do well.

 

• You can add a description to a post, which is a great place to include a link to your website.

Post Advice
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• Yes, you can pitch products to your Facebook followers, with links to sales pages. However, these "sales" posts should encompass no more than 20% of your posts.

 

• If you're constantly asking people to buy things from you, and not offering much else, they may mentally tune your updates out, or unfollow your page. 

 

• In about 80% of your posts, try to build trust and loyalty with your audience, mid-funnel aims. To do that, give them free stuff of value, like tips or engaging content, such as an online quiz. To easily make engaging content, I recommend the tool Outgrow.

 

• Giveaways are also great to share on Facebook. Choose an item your followers would be interested in and let them enter a sweepstakes to win it. FYI, you can set up a giveaway with a "viral sharing" feature with the tool UpViral. 

Post Example

• Many people who follow my Facebook page are readers of my books.

 

• Since I write crime thrillers, I often host giveaways for crime-thriller books.

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Instagram

​Funnel Stages

• Organic Instagram posts are mostly only shown to people who already follow your brand's Instagram page, however, certain ones can surface for people who've never heard of you, especially video posts in the Reels section. 

 

• Instagram can be used for the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel, however, different formats are better suited for each stage.

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Post Types

• Instagram is predominantly a photo app, however, their Reels feature is intended for short-form, vertical video. The third format of post is a Story, which can be an individual photo or video, or a sequence of them.

 

• Though your profile page can have a link, many of the post types on Instagram are limited in terms of links, or offer no links at all. If you want to direct people to an external page, you need to include a detailed call to action (CTA) in your description. You may have to tell them to visit your profile, then click the link there, or to search for your product on Amazon.​

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• Reels are better than the other two formats for the top of the funnel, while Stories, which allow links, are helpful at the bottom of the funnel. Photo posts are great for the middle of the funnel.

Post Advice
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• Like Facebook, "sales" posts should encompass no more than 20% of your posts.

 

• The best-performing Instagram uploads are focused on people, not non-personal content like quizzes or giveaways. These people-centric posts often give a glimpse into someone's personal life.

 

• If you run a business that consists of just you, feel free to use Instagram to post about your life in general, not just topics that concern your brand. If you manage an account for a company with various employees, focus on "behind the scenes" content, showing how specific people help create and deliver products.

   
Post Example

• Though I do mention my books on Instagram, I often post about things that have nothing to do with them.

 

• For example, when I take a trip, I usually include a photo. Me on a ski trip...

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TikTok

​Funnel Stages

• TikTok videos are shown to people who already follow you, however, can be shown to a lot of people who don't already follow you. 

 

• TikTok can be used for the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel, however, it is particularly powerful at the top, since it may surface a post to hundreds of thousands - even millions - of users who have never interacted with the brand's account before. 

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Post Types

• TikTok is for vertical videos.

 

• Though you can post longer videos on TikTok, many of the most-viewed uploads are very short, ie, under 10 seconds.

 

• Though your profile page can have a link, posts can't. If you want to direct people to an external page, include a detailed call to action in your description.

Post Advice​

• You may be wondering how you can get a TikTok video shown to a million people. Though there is no exact method for doing this, three factors play a part - topic popularity, watch time, and engagement.

 

• TikTok's algorithm can understand what topic a video is about, based on text on the screen, words spoken, and other signals. It will try to show a video to users who have already expressed interest in a topic by watching similar videos. If the topic of your video is already popular on TikTok, your "ceiling" for views is extremely high. If your video's topic is not already popular on TikTok, your ceiling would be low. Thus, creating videos about popular topics will significantly increase your chance of wide visibility.

 

• Just because a video is on a popular topic, doesn't mean TikTok will show it to millions of people. At first, it'll show it to just a few users and see what percentage of it they watch. The algorithm strongly prefers videos with a high "watch time" - if a lot of people watch your video all the way through, versus swiping away, TikTok assumes the content is good and will show the video to more people interested in the topic. If those people watch a high percentage of the video, TikTok would show it to an even larger segment, and so on.

 

• Engagement - which refers to comments, likes, saves, and shares - also plays a role in TikTok determining if your content is good. The more engagement, the better. However, watch time, versus engagement, appears to play a larger factor in TikTok's determination of quality.

   
Post Example

• A lot of people go on TikTok to hear about books. So, most of my posts are about a book of mine.

 

• Often, I include some text on the screen related to the plot, then show the cover...  

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YouTube

​Funnel Stages

• YouTube is similar to TikTok in a lot of regards. YouTube videos are shown to people who already follow you, however, can be seen by a lot of people who don't.

 

• YouTube can be used for the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. It may not be as effective for the top of the funnel as TikTok, however, since YouTube videos are often much longer than TikTok ones, plus can have a link in the description, YouTube can be more effective than TikTok at the bottom of the funnel. 

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Post Types

• YouTube is for videos. The main type of video on YouTube is a horizontal one, which typically range from 5 minutes long up to over an hour. YouTube also has a Shorts video format, which are brief, vertical videos, like the kind on TikTok and Instagram Reels.

 

• Your profile can have a link, as can each of your horizontal videos, however, Shorts cannot.

Post Advice​

• The YouTube algorithm is similar to the TikTok one. It can push videos to a lot of people if they're about a popular topic, generate a high watch time, and lead to a high level of engagement.

 

• VidIQ and TubeBuddy are tools I recommend that'll help you identify popular video topics on YouTube.

 

• Many YouTube users discover videos via search, ie, they'll enter some keywords into the search bar, see a list of results, and click a video that catches their attention. As a user watches videos, YouTube will gain an understanding of the type of uploads the person prefers, and begin recommending related ones.

 

• When videos show up in search results and recommendation areas, their title and thumbnail image are very important. Users tend to click on videos with curiosity-provoking titles/thumbnails.

 
   
Post Example

• I teach a few online courses about writing.

 

• I use YouTube to show clips from the courses. In the video description, I include a link to learn about the full course.

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Pinterest

​Funnel Stages

• A lot of Pinterest's value for marketing is in its search capability.

 

• Like YouTube, people often search for keywords on Pinterest and click on results that come up. Pinterest will make recommendations to users based on previous content they've interacted with.

 

• Pinterest Pins can contain links, making them effective at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel.

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Post Types

• Pinterest is primarily for Pins, ie, vertical images. 

 

• You can post short videos on Pinterest, too.

Post Advice​

• Try to create Pins that are targeted to keywords people search for on the app. To find popular terms, and compare them, you can use the Trends feature within the analytics dashboard.

 

• Pinterest appears to heavily value saves as a determinant of Pin quality. If many users save a Pin, when another user searches for a keyword related to that Pin, it will appear high in the search results.

 

• Pins that get a lot saves tend to be well-designed. They also often, though not always, offer at least some valuable information directly within their image, ie, a user does not need to click on a link and go to an external website to learn something. 

   
Post Example

• I often write articles on this website with marketing tips.

 

• For each article, I create a Pin. Within the Pin's image, I'll include a brief overview of the concepts I discuss in detail in the article. I also add a link to the article.

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3. Give each post a purpose

Associating a post with a certain funnel stage is great. However, you want to get into even more depth, deciding how that post can accomplish a specific goal within that funnel stage, then composing a call to action to encourage viewers toward the goal. Here are some examples for different funnel stages:

• Top of funnel. Once someone becomes aware of your brand, you want to keep the communication going. Two ways to do that are to ask someone to follow your account, or direct the person to an external landing page, where you can offer a lead magnet in exchange for an email address. Be clear about what action you'd like people to take, and how they'd benefit from it. Example, "If you want to become a great guitar player, follow my account for more guitar tips."

 

• Middle of funnel. Let's say you've convinced someone to follow your account. The person knows your brand and wants additional advice from you. Continue giving free tips to establish your expertise and credibility. At this mid-funnel stage, you don't want to ask for a sale, however, you do want to introduce your products. Possibly you can video yourself or a customer using one of the products and getting great results. As for a call to action, you can link to pages on your website where you go into detail on your products, such as a case-study article.

 

• Bottom of funnel. Here, you want to go directly for a sale, relying on conversion rate optimization. Instead of simply asking people to buy something, give them a compelling reason to buy it now. Limited-time deals work well for this. For example, you can offer your followers a 2-for-1 coupon that expires in 24 hours.

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4. Build your social media followings one at a time

Growing a following on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest very rarely happens overnight. You'll likely need to put in a good amount of time to get solid results on any platform.

​Instead of trying to grow all of your accounts at once, I'd recommend you prioritize them, and focus on one at a time. Yes, you can definitely make accounts on all of these platforms right away, however, in terms of dedicating time to creating posts, focus on them individually, at least in the beginning while you're learning.

Though the different networks have their own nuances, certain types of photos and videos can be repurposed across them. For example, let's say you decide to focus on TikTok first. Videos you create on TikTok can definitely be cross-posted to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.

Cross-posting only takes a few minutes. Feel free to do this as you're building up your TikTok account.

Once you get a hang of TikTok, and have an active following, only then would I suggest you start focusing on building up a second account.

Once you have followings on various accounts, and understand the platforms well, you might be able to manage all of them on your own. However, this can be tricky, especially if you're in charge of many other parts of your business.

What you can do is oversee the strategy, then hire freelancers to help carry it out. They can create certain photos, videos, descriptions, and more.

​To hire social media freelancers, I recommend viewing the profiles on the platform Fiverr.        

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5. Establish a social media content schedule

You should avoid posting on the fly. Instead, consider funnel stages, topics, and post types, and plan ahead.  I recommend you create posts and schedule them to go live in the future.

You can view your scheduled posts on a calendar, quickly see if you have too few, or too many, of a certain kind, and make adjustments.

Tailwind is an excellent tool for scheduling Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest posts. You can schedule TikTok and YouTube uploads directly within their apps.

Posting frequency and consistency will help you grow your following on each network. Ideally, you'd post once a day on a platform if you were trying to build your followers from zero, or at least three days a week.

Posting on similar days of the week, and at similar times, can help too. Advanced scheduling makes day/time consistency easy.


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