The final step in our series on the Sales Marketing Process for Small Businesses is the sales conversion.

You have created attractive content and built relationships with consumers for a loyal following, but do these fans actually mean business?

With social media you usually reach potential customers earlier in the sales process. It also provides more opportunity to convert prospects than with other traditional sales.

In the attention economy we are in, you have to optimize your conversion path, making it really easy for potential buyers to buy. Consumers tend to be less motivated to buy early on in the process and if they have to search to buy from you, they are less likely to convert.

Take a look at your Facebook page, does a potential buyer have to search to find your website, then figure out how to buy your product or service? If so, you are missing out on converting your Facebook fans.

As we know success in social media relies on sharing strong content on social platforms. Most times this content resides in a blog on your website. With this in mind make sure your blog has conversion points. These will ultimately make every post a landing page. Test out different calls to action to find out what works best for you.

With social media prospects entering the sales process earlier, they may not be ready to make a purchase right away; but you can convert interested social media fans into email subscribers. These are people that are willing to provide an email address for valuable and relevant information. They are interested but have not yet actually said yes. You will have a better opportunity at this point because they will see a larger range of content, which will pull them through the sales process.

Treating social media leads differently is crucial to drive the marketing process. If you approach them with traditional email sales campaigns it will likely kill the sale. It all comes back to providing the value through content such as answering common questions to help them solve their problem. Through these efforts you have been able to develop trust by showing you’re a thought leader, making their decision process easier. As a result they will likely purchase from you rather than a competitor they don’t have a relationship with.

The education process on social media is a very powerful tool that should be implemented into every business. Publishing your content online where people can find it will build you audience. Over time build a relationship with this audience and the sales conversion will become a byproduct of your valuable content.

Thanks for learning with us through this series on the Sales Marketing Process for Small Businesses. If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at john@thebusinesssourcellc.com.