Social media is a highly interactive playground for brands to engage their audiences and influence action as customers navigate the marketing funnel. Most businesses understand the audience interaction and engagement pieces, but not all know how to use a social channel to drive wins beyond likes and shares. How does a social media marketing agency do it? They use the social media marketing funnel to give followers a clear, easy path to purchasing.
If your brand is active on social media but not profitable, it’s time to evaluate how you’re using the full social sales funnel.
What Is the Social Media Funnel?
The funnel for social media is a visualization of the stages users navigate to become loyal paying customers, moving from awareness to consideration, decision, and action—and eventually brand advocacy. Every sales funnel, through traditional channels or social media, begins at the awareness stage and ushers customers to convert. The social media marketing funnel functions the same as a conventional sales funnel in function: Each begins with awareness and steers customers toward an action, but the content types and touchpoints you’ll use to move customers through their buying journey differ.
You can—and should—use social media marketing funnels in tandem with your brand’s other campaigns to effectively reach a potential customer at any point in their journey, through any channel. Online shopping isn’t a siloed experience. People compare brands, browse multiple sites, and educate themselves on companies before purchasing. Your social content strategy must create valuable interactions intuitively with new and existing customers as they explore feeds for products and services.
Building a Social Sales Funnel
Creating a social media sales funnel means developing strategic content that creates touchpoints along the customer’s journey, from awareness at the top of the funnel to consideration in the middle to action near the bottom and onward. The social media funnel includes paid and organic efforts, and yes, even influencer marketing to round out all the phases of a buyer’s journey. When compelling posts raise awareness and build trust in your brand, customers find solutions to their problems and reasons to purchase.
Catalog which content topics and types—posts, videos, product images, and infographics—resonate with your target audience and shape your content calendar around posts your followers find engaging and interesting. Note which areas of the sales funnel this content addresses and make sure your strategy includes materials to support each of these stages:
- Awareness – Casting a wide net to help people discover your brand
- Consideration / Evaluation – Showing followers what your company offers and highlighting how your products compare to what’s on the market
- Decision / Acquisition – Building customers’ confidence in their purchase choice
- Advocacy / Engagement – Fostering relationships that lead to brand loyalty and future sales
Social Content for the Customer Journey
You probably don’t need a digital marketing agency to remind you that your content creation must offer high-impact visuals, engaging posts, and on-trend topics. But great content will only get you so far. An effective social strategy must include materials targeted to various stages of the social media marketing funnel.
Doing this effectively can be a big undertaking for a small brand with limited resources, but it’s necessary if you want to stay competitive. Consider whether a social media marketing agency can help, or start small and add initiatives as you get up to speed. To help you brainstorm ideas, let’s explore a list of content marketing essentials for each stage of the social media funnel.
Awareness
In the awareness phase, potential customers learn about your brand and familiarize themselves with your products or services. Content for the awareness stage isn’t pushy and doesn’t ‘sell’ customers; it offers something of value for free, like a how-to guide or a webinar. Here are some examples of organic and paid content to deploy in the awareness stage:
- Social media contests and giveaways
- Industry-related how-to guides and tutorials
- Facebook live Q&A sessions
- Social videos about the company or product niche
- Infographics of industry trends
- Influencer takeovers introducing your brand
- Paid social ads and boosted posts
Consideration
You’ll need to help your customers decide whether your product or service is a good fit. Create content that helps build brand credibility and assure people as they make purchase decisions. Include these types of content in the consideration stage:
- Reviews and testimonials in Reddit and other forums
- Behind-the-scenes videos showcasing the product quality
- User-generated content vouching for your brand
- High-quality product visuals
- Product demo videos
- Remarketing and targeted TikTok ads
- Comparison graphics or videos on your product line(s)
- Sponsored social posts from influencers or ambassadors
- Product-centric Facebook groups
Decision
Prospective customers in the decision stage are nearing the end of the social media sales funnel and should need only a slight nudge to convert. Use these types of content to help them commit:
- Social contests with purchase incentives
- Influencer posts with coupon codes
- Invites to join the subscriber list or VIP groups (for retargeting campaigns)
- Facebook and Instagram ads with limited-time offers and coupons
- Free trials or bonus products with purchase
Advocacy
You want your social followers to stay in touch with your brand after they’ve made a purchase. Social media is an excellent habitat to foster relationships and encourage purchasers to share their experiences. Their feedback can attract new customers and boost your brand’s credibility. Leave paid tactics for other stages and rely on authentic organic messaging to build a community around your brand through:
- VIP groups and posts designed for customers
- Posts with hashtags related to the product
- Responses to community posts and brand mentions
- Customer service interactions with purchasers
Best Practices for Creating a Seamless Customer Journey
Addressing all areas of the funnel will strengthen your social media marketing’s potential. When determining content, use a variety of posts, ads, videos, images, user-generated content, and influencer marketing to support different areas of the customer journey—and remember to consider what your competitors offer. Find brands with similar target audiences to see what their followers engage with most and better understand these social users’ needs. Analyze what your competitors are doing on social to see which content gaps you can capitalize on, and how you can present your products to set your brand apart. You don’t need to deploy a boatload of tactics immediately. Roll out a few, measure the performance, adjust, and add new content to your marketing plan as your efforts gain traction.
When your content is authentic and purposeful, you’ll provide customers a seamless experience on your social feeds. Your audience won’t feel they are being sold to, but will find value in what you offer and then move intuitively from followers to customers to brand ambassadors. If you need help creating a social strategy to accomplish this, contact Joybyte, an all-in-one social media marketing agency with the tools and experience to drive results.
