A Must-Do Series on Marketing Funnel for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs: Part 8
Understanding funnel marketing for Social Commerce: Acquire more leads with strategic funnel activities
We are safely assuming that you’ve read the seventh part of our series on funnel activities for the C2C business model. Now let’s go ahead with our eighth part: funnel activities for Social Commerce.
A marketing funnel for social commerce is significantly smaller and easier to manage than other conventional business models.
Reason: when companies choose social commerce, it's usually because they have a very clear idea of who they are targeting. After all, they are reaching out to a very specific section of potential customers and target to convert them specifically.
The leads are easier to assemble as their information is readily available and they can be reached instantly. Their interest in learning more about the product is expressed directly through direct messages and comments in response to the posts. Their feedback can also be gauged instantly.
Let us now dive into the three stages of a marketing funnel for social commerce and explore the marketing strategy that serves each phase the best:
ToFu marketing for social commerce
The ToFu stage of the marketing funnel for social commerce targets to spread the word about a product or service to the target group.
The target group is determined by segregating data based on the company's assumption of the interested leads or based on data extracted from Google searches, posts, track history with purchases, and much more.
At this stage companies employ various strategies:
Influencer marketing: To reach out to more people and leverage the faith that followers have in a particular influencer.
For example, a beauty product recommended by a beauty blogger has much higher credibility than the company placing itself.
Here is an example of Shilpa Shetty Kundra, with 27 Million followers promoting Mama Earth’s skincare products.
Interesting and engaging content creation: Social media runs on interesting content. Companies that can tap into what people will like and share the most will almost always win the game.
MoFu marketing for social commerce
At the MoFu stage, when companies already have the target audience’s attention, they aim to trigger a response from them.
If customers interact with the brand, it not only validates their interest, but also the success of their marketing efforts.
The MoFu stage includes leads within the ToFu state that responded or actively showed interest in the marketing efforts of the company. The leads either enquire about a product, comment under the post, or have responded to the company's effort to reach out to them.
At this stage, the companies employ any one or all of these strategies:
Direct messaging: The biggest boon of social media is that companies can directly reach out to their targets and before they know it, they are already on the company's page touring through their offerings.
Initiating campaigns that can trigger participation: One of the best ways to get people to interact is to give them something worth interacting with. Relatable campaigns with a cause that people care about will trigger interaction never before.
If you are a veteran of social media, you will remember this campaign for a cause initiated by Lilly Singh, then known as Super Woman. The campaign that spread like wildfire intended to raise funds for girls’ education.
Offers and discounts: Ahh! the good old and famous 'more for less' that never fails. Announcing a sale or big discounts has always been a magnet for potential customers.
BoFu marketing for social commerce
At the BoFu stage, where companies have already interacted with the product, companies now aim for real conversion and sales.
This stage includes customers that have shown definite interest and intention to either purchase or remain a part of the community, by following the page or subscribing.
They obviously have a much higher chance of moving to a reap purchase as they are constantly reminded of the product and updated about new launches and price benefits.
Here, companies cannot over-market themselves and exhaust their target so companies employ some of the simplest strategies to convert leads at this stage including:
- Discounts and concessions
- Regular posts and interaction
- Prompt response
- Feedback and testimonial ads
For example, check out this discount advertisement by a brand:
But the journey doesn't end here. Once the leads are converted and they make a sale, it's important to nurture these leads so they move on to the next golden state: loyalty and advocacy.
Loyalty and advocacy
This stage aims to make the active customers purchase again and remain loyal to stay accessible for future engagements.
Even when they don't always make a purchase, customers that had good experiences with the brand will always spread the good word, drop their reviews, support your stories, and much more.
There's no marketing tool like happy customers for social commerce.
And that's the way the cookie crumbles
Solemnly hope you get that reference as we wrap this article right about now.
Remember that the crux of marketing, especially for social commerce is to have a grip on what elicits a response in people and how you can push it further.
Have a good day, and stay with us. We will be back with more content of marketing and sales funnels in no time.
Adios!