IBM reports that sales on Thursday and Friday of last week showed double-digit growth in online sales (+17% and +21% respectively). Yet of that traffic, less than 1% was driven by FACEBOOK and TWITTER (0.68% and 0% respectively), and less than half of referred social media traffic converted into sales. Does this give SOCIAL MEDIA a BLACK EYE in its abilities to drive sales?
It's not the job of social media to drive SALES. All forms of advertising and marketing are designed to drive TRAFFIC. Your efforts should be convergent to drive traffic to your store, place of business or website. It is the job of SALESPEOPLE to drive sales.
Social media is another form of marketing and advertising that is best explained in the Marketing Funnel that has been around for many decades. There are 7 steps to the Marketing Funnel...
1. Unawareness - I have NEVER HEARD of your business before.
2. Awareness - I am NOW AWARE that your business exists.
3. Consideration - I am CONSIDERING a purchase from you.
4. Preference - I PREFER your product or service over your competitors.
5. Action - I am BUYING IT in store or on-line!
6. Loyalty - I am HAPPY with the purchase and FEEL GOOD about it!
7. Advocacy - I am so happy that I'm REFERRING people to you
Purchase and Retailer in MindOn Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we were all very well aware that huge discounts were available. Most of us ALREADY had our planned purchase and favorite retailer in mind. Earlier in the week, we probably received an email from our list of favorite places to shop. We simply went to their website eager to see a great deal. If that retailer didn't get our business, we went over to the next best competitor to cost shop. We were at the 5th Step of the Marketing Funnel.
If I really wanted a new smartphone, I went to My Favorite Electronics Store. I didn't feel the need to check my Twitter feed or Facebook page because I already had my purchase and supplier in mind.
All advertising, including Social Media, is crucial in taking your product through Steps 1 - 4. If you have the right marketing strategy in place, ACTION to PURCHASE is a natural progression. Social Media is extremely powerful on Steps 6 and 7.
Social Media is another form of advertising to be used in conjunction with conventional advertising that has the power of branding. Social media is not the Sword in the Stone as a stand alone. Use each medium for its advantages. The concept of Media Mix has worked for decades when each medium is used to its specific advantages.
If you arrived at this week's PROSALESGUY BLOG looking for the above topic, as I promised last week, I apologize. The timeliness of Black Friday and what some writers felt was a shortfall in social media expectations was too glaring for me to miss. We'll get back on track next week.
A number of professional salespeople have called as of late interested in Individual Sales Training. I do offer personalized training one-on-one through web conferencing. It's 100% geared toward your experience level and industry you work in. Yes, it's also affordable. Feel free to click the link, call or email me.
Thanks for reading!
Dave Warawa - PROSALESGUY
Follow @ DavidWarawa
Before anyone goes too far into a "social media advertising" program, make sure you do some research on the Pepsi Refresh program, one of the largest social media programs ever launched.... and will probably go down as one of the biggest failures ever in "advertising". During the time of this campaign... Pepsi LOST market share. Read it before anyone tries to sell your radio customers a snake oil solution.
Pepsi Refresh:
Before:
http://adage.com/article/digital/marketing-pepsi-refresh-case-marketing-textbooks/141973/
After:
http://adcontrarian.blogspot.com/2011/03/social-medias-massive-failure.html
Teachers in colleges are assigning the Pepsi Refresh project to students for research on how wonderfully the campaign did, but none of the question as on thing: "Did it sell more Pepsi?". Read up!
