There’s no doubt about it, social media is a very noisy place right now, and it doesn’t show any signs of quietening down any time soon. The whole world went online in March, and they’re still there, so every time you post you have an awful lot of competition. All of this noise and competition for attention means you need to carefully craft your sales posts so that they don’t get lost.
What not to do
Would you walk up to a stranger on the street and ask them to buy from you? Probably not. Why? Because that is socially unacceptable! When you are writing posts for social media the rules of what is socially acceptable are the same as in reality. Nobody likes to be directly sold to, so constant “buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff” posts aren’t going to win you any fans and are unlikely to get you extra sales.
You may even have a Facebook group made up of your customers and ideal clients who you want to share your latest offer with. Nothing will turn them off faster than tagging all of them in your posts. Again, this isn’t how you would communicate with a group of people in real life. It quickly gets annoying and is sure to get them to leave in droves.
How to do it well
To truly write good sales posts you need to think about your ideal client. An ideal client is different from a target market because an ideal client is a specific person that you have in mind when you’re writing. This person can be entirely or partially made up or a could even be a real client of yours.
Having this person in mind will make writing any posts an absolute breeze.
Imagine you have to walk into a room of 100 strangers and tell them something that will interest every single one them. You don’t know anything about them, you don’t know whether they’re male or female, adults or children, teenagers or octogenarians. How would you do it? It’s impossible.
Now imagine that you must tell your best friend something that will interest them. You know everything about your best friend, what interests them, what they want to hear, what they find appealing and what they find off-putting. Telling them something that interests them is easy.
Your ideal client is your best friend
Having an ideal client is just like talking to your best friend. In fact, your ideal client will become your new best friend. Every post you write should be written to them. You will know what they want to hear, what their pain points are, and what their objections are, so you’ll be able to write to explain how your product or service can solve those problems.
You’ll know what sort of questions they’ll be asking so you can answer them. You’ll know how much they can afford to spend so you can tailor your pricing to suit their needs.
How often to do it
Before you can start selling to people through social media, remember it is all about being social and communicating in a socially acceptable way, so you are going to have to build relationships with people online. Get yourself in groups or on social media channels that your ideal client will be in.
With Facebook groups, make sure you check and abide by the posting rules. Some groups have specific days where you’re allowed to post, some groups you’re allowed to post any day, and some groups have themes such as Tenner Tuesday.
If you make sure you are in the places where your ideal client is going to be, you can keep an eye out for posts where they’re asking for what you sell, asking for recommendations or they’re asking questions that you know the answer to.
Make sure that you get involved in these conversations so that you can build relationships with people as well as build your reputation. Don’t just rock up, add a “buy my thing” post and leave. You need to share value so that you can nurture them. We’ve all heard the expression “people buy from people” because it is important to keep this in mind. You need to show that you are a real person, not just a business. You need to let your personality shine through so that your clients feel that they know and trust you.
The most important thing to remember
When you are writing your sales posts, tell your ideal client what they want to know. You will need to take them on a journey and tell them a story to make them want what you are selling. Explain to them that you understand how they feel, and show that you empathise with them.
Explain how your item will benefit them, what problems will it solve, and how they will feel after using your product or service.
Most importantly of all, remember that you are opening a line of communication with real people. So do this how you would if you were talking to them in real life.
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Written by Nikki Knight. Nikki is the “writing for small business lady”. She offers proofreading, copy editing, transcription and copywriting for small businesses. You can get in contact with her on her website or by email.
