Why Your Business Needs a Social Media Marketing Funnel

In our last post, we briefly touched on the idea of a sales funnel and how it can be used for your business. With this technique, you cast a wide net and attract people by providing useful content. As they "go down the funnel", you add in a marketing message or incentive for them to utilize your business. In other words, many leads in with a few customers coming out. But what if we want to focus on our existing customers using social media? Consider adding a social media marketing funnel to your strategy!

What is a Social Media Marketing Funnel?

When you think about social media and how customers are purchasing products these days, two of the biggest statistics we can benefit from are knowing that
A. More and more people are using social media each day. Almost half of all adults are active on a social network, according to research from Pew!
and
B. 92% of customers trust word of mouth and peer recommendations over all other forms of advertising.
The idea of a social media marketing funnel is one in which you take a bottom-up marketing approach to your social media pages. By focusing on relationships and building trust with your primary demographic of customers, their networks help you expand your reach of potential customers. Neil Patel and the brains over at QuickSprout developed an excellent infographic on this subject. To best summarize, your goal is to turn strangers into friends, friends into customers, and customers into salespeople who do the talking for you. When your customers are engaged, you'll be the first business they think of when recommending a specific product or service to their friends.

Can I still use a traditional sales funnel?

Some might think that you can only take one approach in your marketing strategy, but it is best to use both a sales funnel and a social media marketing funnel at the same time! With a traditional funnel, measure your impact by how often social media has affected a potential sale, how an increase in fans has affected sales, and any examples of sales where the user was exposed to social media vs a situation where they were not.
Using a social media marketing funnel, focus on tracking your interaction stats, such as how often customers are clicking to your content and sharing it. You can do so by downloading a social media management tool such as Hootsuite or Sprout. Lastly, utilize information collecting apps and e-mail sign up lists on your social media pages to measure conversions.