Winning Repeat Customers Via Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing can seem like a waste of time, but the reality is that social media marketing is not a trend that's declining. With the rising number of people interacting with one another on social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, business people are taking a closer look at how their businesses can be a part of the online social movement. Below are three things to consider in regard to winning repeat customers with social media marketing.

Gaining a Customer Following on Social Media Websites

First things first: winning repeat customers through social media marketing is not something that usually happens overnight. Building a strong customer base on social media websites most often takes time and diligence. There will be people who organically find a business' Facebook page, for example, and this can happen through good search engine rankings, friend referrals, and shared posts. However, the majority of followers are going to become followers based on the efforts of the company to promote themselves in a way that's intriguing to people and that puts the audience first. How much value can the business add to the followers' lives? The business needs to post high value content, and they need to be able to enrich the lives of followers on an ongoing basis. Some businesses do this with contests and promotions, for example.

Building a Reputation with Social Media

Providing valuable content is a great way to gain new followers and retain old ones. It's important for business people to put themselves in their customers' shoes before posting anything on a social media website. What's important to the customer? What is the post going to say about the business? Ethics and integrity are a bigger part of social media marketing than most people understand. What is posted on a business' Facebook account will give people the "big picture" of what the business is all about and what the business values. Paying customers are more likely to purchase a second time from a business to which they feel close.

Asking For the Sale and Following Up

It's important that businesses sustain integrity when doing their social media marketing. In addition, businesses need to respect that people are quite often using social media in a personal way, and they're not usually going onto Facebook or Twitter to be sold something. However, sales statistics will be grim if no one ever makes a sales offer to an interested prospect. Follow-up is as important in social media marketing as it is in business that's done offline. Ask interested customers if there is any further information they require, and ask them if there is anything more the business can do for them. People respect businesses that have a good reputation, that are transparent when it comes to their values, and that are respectful in the way they sell online. In addition to admirable business ethics, with adequate follow-up gaining repeat customers will prove to be effective for businesses that use social media marketing.