As a differentiated social media social marketing model, social selling requires the integration and polishing of individuals, departments and systems during actual operations. It is not just as simple as applying tools. In order to serve and empower customers more efficiently, SocialEpoch has refined the social sales 1+5+1 methodology based on actual combat. In a recent series of content, we will show you the details of the methodology in detail.
01Open social media promotes SocialSelling
This is the number and ranking of monthly active users of overseas social media platforms as of October 2023:
Here, we see the strong cohesion of overseas social platforms. Compared with any platform or form, it brings together all kinds of users and organizations: there are individual consumers, KOC/KOL with a certain number of fans, distribution store owners, key decision-makers of B2B companies, and countless organizational units are active in it. Not only that, users on the platform will also span space, face the world, and communicate with the world.
Another feature of social media platforms is that they occupy a lot of users’ time and energy, which provides a basis for finding a large number of users, communicating in a timely manner and understanding customer profile characteristics. It can be said that the open platform has promoted the development of the SocialSelling system.
In the new era of experience that puts people first and personality first, the direct interaction experience between individuals has reached its peak, which has also created a new era of personal sales based on social: first, the current marketing messages are too saturated, and information from individuals sometimes gets more attention than official corporate messages; second, personal brand sales and social media messages sometimes have more communication power. The value of official marketing is of course undeniable, and personal brands gain trust with their decentralized and warm direct communication; thirdly, consumers nowadays pay more attention to personal experience, so consumers prefer personalized sales services;
Fourth, consumers are often looking for individuals, not brands. In many communication and transaction links, it is the interaction between individuals that determines whether to cooperate; fifth, the personal brand value of sales staff is becoming more and more important; in the B2B and B2 big C fields, sales individuals have an increasing impact on transactions.
Open platforms cater to social sales, and personalized experiences also require social-based personal sales services.
02SocialSelling is not selling on Social
SocialSelling refers to sales and marketing creating and operating content on social media to establish sales and marketing influence (individuals or companies), establish connections with target customers, maintain relationships and maintain trust, obtain customer leads, and thereby obtain sales interactions and order closings.
SocialSelling is a process strategy in which sales and marketing attract target customers through social operations and improve the speed and efficiency of order closing. Results are obtained through a series of sales personal interaction processes such as Social listening, Social publishing, Social media insight Research/Intelligence, Social engagement, Social collaboration, and Social CRM.
In the Social Selling system, sales conversion is the goal. To achieve this goal, you must go through the entire process of social selling from customer acquisition to conversion.
03Social Selling: The Trend Choice of B2B/B2 Big C Industry
In previous content, we have analyzed social selling content and application scenarios many times:
In the rich overseas marketing growth system, social sales starts from the Social platform, which is the most interactive, has the largest crowd, and has the widest coverage, and is developed with decentralized personal sales as the center, taking the path of differentiated marketing + sales. Therefore, compared with other marketing systems, it has greater value in cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
For different industry scenarios, social selling has different meanings: for DTC brands, through a large amount of content distribution and communication, multi-faceted values such as brand recognition, brand trust, brand reputation, and brand conversion can be obtained.
For B2B and B2 big C businesses, its effect is not only reflected in brand promotion, but also in inquiry leads and owned-channel marketing. It also revolutionizes the efficiency and quality of communication and interaction between enterprises and customers.
For global expansion services and global expansion SaaS companies, based on social selling, a complete link from Outbound prospecting → Leadsgen → closing can be realized, including customer intelligence search and lead mining, as well as sales connection and owned channel retention for later closing orders, allowing sales individuals to complete the entire customer life journey more efficiently.
04The core features of social selling SocialSelling
Social selling has three core elements:
Active: Empower sales to find and tap customers more efficiently and proactively. For sales individuals, in addition to the leads from the corporate marketing department, personal lead development capabilities are also very important. Social selling can help every salesperson proactively develop lead inquiries.
Social media multiple accounts: This has two meanings, multiple accounts on multiple social media platforms. From a marketing perspective, only when there is enough content and wide enough coverage can it truly have the value of attracting traffic. This is also the decentralized characteristic of social sales.
Accurate: The demand for marketing is not only quantity but also quality. Accurate customer leads can shorten the sales transaction cycle and reduce transaction costs. Customer behavior and information on social media are basically real-time and can bring a large number of accurate leads to sales.
It is naturally not easy to achieve good results. Here SocialEpoch refines the entire process of social selling into a 1+5+1 methodology. For global expansion and overseas local companies, understanding the value of social selling is only one of them, and the methodology behind the tools and theories is more important.
