Social media is an incredibly powerful tool for businesses looking to attract new customers. With billions of active users across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more, social media offers unparalleled opportunities to connect with your target audience and turn followers into paying customers.
Here are some of the most effective social media tactics you can use to convert your existing followers into buyers:
Offer Exclusive Deals and Discounts
One of the best ways to incentivize your followers to make a purchase is to provide special offers that are only available to your social media followers. For example, you could offer a 25% discount code or early access to new products for anyone who engages with your page.
When structuring exclusive deals:
- Make sure offers are only redeemable for social media followers, to encourage new follows
- Require users to take an action (like, share, comment) to access deals
- Offer tiered rewards for top engagers to inspire competition
- Limit deal duration to create urgency
Exclusive discounts make followers feel special and give them a reason to buy now versus later.
Host Social Media Contests and Giveaways
Contests are hugely popular on social media and can help you rapidly grow followers while identifying potential customers.
To maximize contest success:
- Require contest entry via social channels to boost follows/engagement
- Offer prizes your target audience will value (free products, gift cards, etc)
- Promote widely via posts, stories, ads, and influencers
- Keep contest simple to enter (like, share, tag friends) to drive reach
- Collect lead contact info during entry for future marketing
Giveaways incentivize followers to take action while allowing you to gather lead data you can retarget later.
Use Retargeting Ads
Retargeting (or remarketing) ads help you reconnect with followers who’ve previously engaged with your brand by serving them related ads across channels.
For example, if someone visited your website but didn’t purchase, you can display ads encouraging them to complete the purchase. Or if they watched an Instagram Story, you can remind them to check out your page.
Benefits of retargeting include:
- Keeps your brand top of mind after initial engagement
- Allows personalized messaging based on their previous actions
- Continually nurtures followers towards a conversion
Leverage platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google to create tailored remarketing campaigns reaching followers across devices.
Collaborate with Relevant Influencers
Influencer marketing is extremely effective for raising brand awareness and generating conversions on social media.
When reaching out to influencers:
- Identify influencers in your niche with engaged, aligned audiences
- Offer free products to influencers to create organic content
- Pay influencers for sponsored posts and Stories promoting your products
- Negotiate unique discount codes tied to influencers for tracking sales
- Repost and highlight influencer content to maximize reach
Associating your brand with trusted influencers provides ready-made access to new yet qualified audiences.
Engage Followers with User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) comes from unpaid fans and followers, lending it greater authenticity.
Tactics to generate UGC include:
- Run contests for customers to submit photos using your product
- Share customer testimonials, reviews, and stories
- Repost customers wearing or using your products
- Use hashtags to source UGC from satisfied customers
- Ask open-ended questions to spark discussion
UGC feels more authentic and makes the path to purchase clearer for potential buyers.
Provide Value Via Social Content
While occasional promotions are great, avoid making your social channels exclusively promotional. Followers will disengage if your content feels spammy.
Instead, share a healthy mix of:
- Industry insights – Build authority by demonstrating knowledge
- Behind-the-scenes content – Give an inside look at your brand
- User tips and how-tos – Provide value with helpful guidance
- Relevant links and resources – Curation builds credibility
- Ask Me Anything – Enable two-way conversations with fans
Valuable social content keeps followers engaged between promotions so they become buyers.
Optimize Social Channels to Drive Site Traffic
Driving followers from social platforms to your own website or sales channels is critical.
To optimize:
- Include strong calls-to-action in posts – Give people direction on engaging further
- Link to landing pages – Send traffic to targeted landing experiences
- List website prominently in profiles – Make it easy for visitors to navigate to your site
- Use link stickers in Stories – Add clickable links to optimize Story swipe ups
Making it seamless for followers to move from social to your sales funnels removes friction in the buyer’s journey.
Track ROI of Social Efforts
It’s vital to track which social initiatives convert followers into actual paying customers so you can double down on what works.
- Use UTM parameters to tag links from social posts to your site
- Assign unique discount codes to specific platforms, campaigns, or influencers
- Integrate analytics platforms to match user actions on social and site
- Analyze follower overlaps across channels to ID most lucrative sources
- Compare traffic, leads, and sales before and after campaigns
Monitoring ROI leads to optimization, helping refine your social strategy to maximize conversions.
There is tremendous potential to monetize followers on social channels through targeted promotions, influencer partnerships, optimized content, and strategic call-to-actions. Approach social with a purpose and let data guide your efforts for the highest conversion impact. With strategic effort, you can transform even casual followers into lifelong customers.
