Social Media and Your Sales Funnel

Read Time: 00:02:49

– Create social content calendars using an equation – Utilize purpose driven approach that map back to your funnel – Measure beyond engagement

There are several platforms and agencies that can measure social media channels for you, talking about likes, shares, follower growth, etc. That’s great. All are important to know. But once you get to a certain point in the stakeholder chain, all of that falls a bit short. So we set out to help you determine how your social content is impacting your sales funnel.

From my days of running a social media agency, we were able to bring a disciplined approach to content creation and social media management. A keystone element to that, was the content calendars we created using a quasi-custom social media equation, or SME. The components were as follows:

Entertaining [content aimed at entertaining the user, not necessarily tied to your property but aligned with customer profile interests]

Informative [content geared around thought leadership, industry news, and used to further bolster your credibility as a trusted advisor of the industry]

Engaging [You see it everywhere, ‘Finish this sentence “My favorite way to spend the weekend is by…” or entities liking, retweeting, commenting on others’ content]

Convert [content used to directly promote yourself, increase sign ups, trials, purchases, etc.]

So a clients SME would be 30% Entertaining, 40% Informative, 20% Engaging, and 10% Converting. The SME was but one piece we used to bring a higher level of content creation to social media. Taking it a step further, would be understanding how your content is playing into the portions of your sales funnel. So to quickly review – we view your funnel as a linear experience, that people can come in via different traction channels, move along the line however they wish, drop back in and out, based off of content and campaigns geared to solicit a specific reaction. Thats a different blog post, but you get the idea. To that end, I’ve taken the SME from the old days and applied our version of the AARRR Metrics. So, when you create your social content do it with purpose and direction by creating a similar equation for yourself, but geared towards your funnel. And don’t forget to measure it.

Acquisition – 40% of all social content will be geared towards follower growth and getting your properties in front of new eyes. #’s, Twitter Chats, Co-branded contests etc.

Activation – 20% of all content should be urging users to take an action. Share, watch a video, sign up for the newsletter, download your latest white paper, etc.

Revenue – 10% of content should be about sales, promotions, your product, service revenue stream directly.

Referral – 10% of your content should be geared towards sharing your content, which in turn drives acquisition.

Retention – 20% of your social content should be geared towards best practice, tips and tricks, industry best-of to drive the retention of not only your social audience but your customer base.

So all of this is a methodology. A best practice. A prescription for your content calendar creation. But how do you measure it? By leveraging the MarketingRunner platform and creating unique content portions in your calendar that map back to your sales funnel, you can know exactly what channel and what type of content is playing its part in growing your business. Fairly powerful stuff.

Want a closer look? Simply fill out the form below and one of our MarketingRunner Team members will reach out. Or, if you’re ready to get going sign up for your free trial and marketing consultation, and let’s talk.

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