Are you Selling in the Right Place? Online Marketing
Most business people aren’t using the social media platforms you like to use as a consumer to buy products and services. In fact some don’t use social media at all for business. If your next thought is, “well, they are old” or “they aren’t tech savvy”, I would reply that you’re probably making judgements based on your reality of online marketing, not the reality of your customer. And data shows most of our business activity is still done using dark social.
In 2013 in the US, only 22% of business people used LinkedIn, a well known social media business platform. That means 78% didn’t. And, although a lot of statistics state a large number of businesses use Facebook, begging people to “Like” them, I have a hunch a large number of customers don’t buy things because they happen to be on Facebook, see a product and buy it.
Social media is about communication and social interaction, not fulfillment. When was the last time you went to Facebook to do research when you were looking for a product or service to buy and then bought it there? Odds are, you went somewhere other than social media platforms to actually make a purchase.
Now a number of people do use social media when they are ready to buy, asking friends “if the know anyone who…”, but I contend the majority still go to sites like Google, Amazon or their favourite website to research and actually buy. And converting visitors to sales is one of the most important things about a B2B website, isn’t it?
Social media is great to find out about an event or restaurant, but again not everyone is an active user of social media. So as a business owner ask yourself two questions: “Are my prospective customers there?” and “How do my customers currently purchase my product/service?” Then move your hard earned dollars to where your customers are. Measure and adjust based on facts and what’s working.
Stop doing things because it’s the shiny new thing. Do it because it works.