Need More Customers? Start on Social Media.

Sixty percent of consumers say they’ve made a purchase as a result of a marketing email; only 12.5% even consider clicking a ‘buy’ button on social media. But this isn’t an invitation to scrap your Facebook account. It’s a wakeup call: with a conversion rate more than three times lower than email, social media simply shouldn’t be your primary source of leads — but with nearly four-billion users, social media should be your primary means for expanding brand awareness. You need to invest in social media marketing, through every stage of the customer lifecycle. And you need to do it right. Here’s why, and how.

The Customer Lifecycle

Good business isn’t about closing a deal, it’s about developing a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with your customers. For marketing, sales and CX departments, the goal is to maximize the customer lifetime value of each prospect that enters the funnel. And the only way to achieve this goal is to nurture your leads, demonstrating transparency and empathy, and delivering personalized, interactive experiences at every touchpoint. The more often and more deeply a consumer engages with your brand across their varied social media platforms and devices, the more likely they are to convert from a lead to a customer and then from a customer to a brand evangelist.

So, how does it work? 

Customer Lifecycle Stages

Although similar to the buyer's journey — which outlines the buyer’s path from initial awareness at the top of the funnel to purchase at the bottom — the customer lifecycle considers the value of a customer for the full length of the relationship, including any support they may need as well as any assistance they may provide in helping to promote the brand on social media. In other words, the customer lifecycle takes into account the customer’s experience, long after an initial purchase is made. 

The customer lifecycle has five stages: reach, acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty.

Stage 1: Reach

Before a consumer has any personal connection to your brand, they may: 

• Identify a problem, pain point or need that can be addressed by a product or service you provide
• Discover your brand, product or service through social media posts from your brand loyalists or influencers (more on this later)

During this first stage, also known as the top of the funnel, the consumer compares products and brands, conducts research, and reads customer reviews. This is your opportunity to reach them through social media (as well as digital ads and SEO). And if the consumer requests more information (or makes a purchase), you’ve been successful. 

Stage 2: Acquisition

Once the consumer visits your website or sends you an email or social media direct message, they’ve entered the acquisition stage. As the name suggests, this is your opportunity to acquire a new customer. But first you must convert the user to a lead. 

If the prospect reaches out by email or social media message, you’ll need to: 

• Respond with answers to their questions and solutions to their problems
• Inquire about their needs and pain points so you can further personalize their experiences
• Offer the products or services that would best serve them
• Educate them on the uses of your products and services

If the prospect has made it to your website, they should be able to easily access interactive, personalized, value-add experiences and content that can help them better understand and relate to your brand — and, ideally, make an informed purchase decision. 

Of course, to convert website users to leads, you’ll need to ‘gate’ some of your most valuable content. Here’s one example of how it could work:

1. Post engaging content on social media (like a case study, a behind-the-scenes look, a user-generated video, or a repost from an influencer, for instance)
2. Boost that social media post with advertising dollars, adding a call to action to click the link for an exclusive download or other benefit (this link goes to the landing page, or squeeze page, you’ve already developed)
3. On your landing page, summarize the value proposition, and include a form above the fold (every person who completes the form is automatically added as a lead to your CDP and CRM)

Stage 3: Conversion

Every customer makes purchase decisions on their own time. For some, no nurturing is necessary at all. For most, a drip campaign of value-add content and subtle sales messaging is required; automated trigger emails can be sent based on the lead’s behaviors online and in response to emails (and texts).

No matter how long it takes, or what tactics are deployed, once the lead has made a purchase they have been converted into a customer. The buyer’s journey ends here, at the bottom of the funnel. But the customer lifecycle is really just beginning — and social media will continue to play a prominent role.

Stage 4: Retention

Once you’ve converted a lead into a paying customer, you have the opportunity to begin developing loyalty, in the hopes of creating a brand evangelist (Adobe even has paid positions for brand evangelism) or influencer. Of course, you also have the opportunity to turn them off completely. In other words: this stage represents a balancing act between continually engaging the customer and being perceived as pushy. 

The number-one way to maintain your customer relationships is to focus on the customer, and not the sale. To provide value on an ongoing basis, ask questions and listen. Conduct customer service surveys, measure your customer satisfaction score, develop and utilize a voice-of-the-customer program, and provide access to self-service portals. Then, use the information you’ve obtained to improve your products and services, as well as your marketing and sales messaging and the customer experience you provide.

Finally, and this is a big one, offer exclusive perks, such as product/service discounts, referral bonuses, free swag and 24/7 support. When customers feel heard, respected and appreciated, they’re more likely to remain loyal to your brand.

Stage 5: Loyalty

You can't create brand loyalty out of nowhere. It must be nurtured and instilled throughout the customer lifecycle, on social media, via email and on your website. If you’ve provided consistent, personalized and empathic experiences from initial awareness through retention, you have the opportunity to amplify your reach exponentially by empowering your brand evangelists to promote you on and offline. To ensure you’ve positioned yourself to benefit from brand loyalty, ask yourself the following questions: 

• Have you included social media follow and share buttons on your website and marketing emails?
• Do you engage with customers and prospects on social media, through chat, and in comments?
• Do you offer customers exclusive perks such as discounts and birthday gifts that keep them coming back?
• Do you have a referral program that makes it easy for customers to connect you with more prospects?
• Have you made your company easily accessible via email, phone and live chat?
• Have you developed and implemented an influencer program?
• Do you put out requests for and then post user-generated content?

What Does the Customer Lifecycle Have to Do with Social Media?

If you’re adhering to the customer lifecycle, you’re posting regularly on social media. In fact, you should have a social media strategy, and that social media strategy should be tied to your content marketing strategy as part of a 360-degree marketing strategy.

As a co-creator of the content marketing division of The Associated Press, I can tell you that your content marketing strategy underlies everything. With the content you create, you inform, engage, inspire and empower your prospects and customers. On your website and with your emails and social media posts, you leverage your content — and the content generated by your customers and influencers — to deliver messaging and experiences that are targeted to your audience. Of course, while customers on your website and email lists have already passed the first stage of the cycle, the vast majority of the billions of people on social media don’t know what you do or even who you are.

This is why social media is important. There’s a massive, captive audience of potential customers seeking out content they enjoy, and it doesn’t matter if that video, photo, survey, question or commentary comes from a random user, a celebrity or a corporation. Want to increase brand awareness and build engagement? Do it on LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Reddit.

Don’t believe me? Here are seven brands using social media to build armies of dedicated supporters (and customers). 

7 Brands Doing Social Media Marketing Right

1. Duolingo on TikTok

Duolingo had about 100,000 followers on TikTok in mid to late 2021. Less than one year later, the language learning app had more than three million. And it wasn’t a fluke. Duolingo’s success can be (and has been) traced back to a “coherent strategy.” So what was/is that strategy? First, Duolingo took TikTok’s advice and applied the Flicker, Flash, Flare content strategy. Then, Duolingo started pouncing on any TikTok trend that fit their brand. Finally, Duolingo iterated and optimized for nearly a year — and with the company’s 39th video finally reached real virality.

@duolingo This is an SOS #DuolingoEmployee #owltok #livelaughlove #helpme #imscared ♬ original sound - k a r l

2. Wendy’s on Twitter

At Fashion Week in October 2018, then chief concept and marketing officer of Wendy’s, Kurt Kane, was asked a simple question: How many approvals does the company’s social media team need before it can post a tweet? His answer: zero. That’s because, the year before, the Wendy’s c-suite realized its play-it-safe social media strategy was not conducive to organic growth or engaging consumers. 

In 2017, Wendy’s responded to a teenager on Twitter, helping him attain the record for most retweets ever; to celebrate the social media success, Wendy’s publicly awarded the young man a year’s worth of free Wendy’s chicken nuggets — and gained nearly a million followers in mere months. Ever since, the newly empowered social media team has trailblazed for other big brands, not only hopping on trends but creating them. 

For example: Wendy’s developed an entire messaging ecosystem around “beef,” savagely roasting competitors on Twitter and even releasing an EP, We Beefin, featuring tracks like “Twitter Fingers” and “Rest in Grease.”

3. GoPro on Instagram

GoPro has nearly 20-million followers on Instagram and has won multiple Shorty Awards for its account — all with a very simple strategy that highlights products without a single sales pitch. So, how do they do it? GoPro is the world’s most versatile camera, ideal for extreme adventures and amateur POV filmmaking. So, for nearly a decade and half, GoPro has posted and created campaigns around user-generated content from influencers and ‘regular’ GoPro’ers alike, engaging, inspiring and empowering risk-takers worldwide. Additionally, GoPro has developed a smart social media strategy that leverages each platform for different uses, based on the platform’s most important features:

• On Facebook, GoPro promotes the business and connects with customers personally
• On Twitter, GoPro focuses primarily on communicating with followers and promoting new products
• On YouTube, GoPro shares videos with tips, tricks and tutorials to help new customers as well as GoPro enthusiasts
• On Instagram, GoPro shows off high-quality photos and videos taken with the camera and shares the most inspirational and aspirational content created by its dedicated users

4. Slack on Twitter

If you work at a desk and haven’t used Slack, you’ve certainly heard of it. It’s the world’s fastest-growing SaaS startup ever. Designed to solve work problems like poor communication and collaboration, particularly in a post-pandemic hybrid/remote work environment, Slack demonstrates its capabilities on social media every day — building trust by appealing to human emotions, targeting pain points and using clear language and aspiration taglines like “Be less busy.” On Twiter, for example, Slack shares with its nearly 500,000 followers a variety of content including much-needed tips for better productivity and work/life balance, user-generated content, news articles and invitations to #SlackCommunity events. When Slack experiences an outage, even the apology is inspirational.

Things we’ve learned on 2-22-22: Tuesdays can go two ways, two deep breaths can make a situation more manageable, two heads are better than one, and we’re twice as grateful for your patience during today’s disruption—no two ways about it.

— Slack (@SlackHQ) February 22, 2022

5. Peloton on Instagram

Although having a charismatic leader can only get you so far, it can certainly jumpstart your brand — and that’s exactly how Peloton broke into the at-home fitness market. Inspired by his own challenges fitting studio cycling classes into his schedule, John Foley pitched the idea for a tech-driven at-home solution that would not only mimic the routines but also the competitive, communal environment at fitness centers. Peloton isn’t the only provider of stationary bikes, treadmills or digital fitness subscriptions, nor is it the cheapest, but in 10 years the company developed “a cult following” and grew to more than two-million subscribers.

Throughout the last decade, Peloton users shared that the empowering instructors and the friendly competition, connection and motivation from fellow riders kept them engaged. Peloton, meanwhile, used the influencer- and user-generated content on social media to enhance engagement, increase brand awareness and recruit more customers.

Even today, subscribers meet online through Facebook Groups, a dedicated Reddit Community and self-formed tribes, while Peloton continues to mix copy, video, GIFs and photos on Instagram and other owned channels to share open-ended community questions, motivational messages and promotional content for new rides, workouts and instructors. 

And yet, almost suddenly, everything fell apart. During COVID, Peloton couldn’t keep up with demand; now, the company’s halting production, cutting jobs and canceling construction projects in response to waning enthusiasm and plummeting sales. 

But I included Peloton here anyway, both as a lesson and as a warning.

If Peloton wants to survive, the company can’t kill the social media budget (as worried leaders so often do) — because social media is what catapulted Peloton to the top. If anything, Peloton needs to invest even more — to overcome the negative publicity.

Although many of us have sprinted back to our fitness centers for a little human interaction, there will always be consumers committed to working out at home. So: Peloton could give up and let Apple Fitness+, ClassPass and YouTube instructors take over; or, with sustained investment in consistent, transparent, empathic and personalized social media marketing, Peloton could retake the reins.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Peloton (@onepeloton)

6. Ryanair on TikTok

In the middle of a pandemic, with airline businesses hemorrhaging, an otherwise unknown industry player took off on TikTok (pardon the pun). Ryanair’s strategy is straightforward: target young people with fun, funny and hip content, and react quickly and creatively to trends using behind-the-scenes footage and clips of planes. 

7. Spotify on LinkedIn

Spotify has more than 400-million users and nearly 200-million paying subscribers — and it probably goes without saying that the streaming service’s LinkedIn posts aren’t the reason why. Nevertheless, Spotify’s greater than two-million LinkedIn followers are highly engaged, and these professionals have millions of connections on and off the platform who may be considering switching from Pandora or finally investing in a fee-based version of the app.

LinkedIn is designed to help you “manage your professional identity,” “build and engage with your professional network,” and “access knowledge, insights and opportunities.” So, why are LinkedIn users spending so much time on Spotify’s company page? Hint: it’s not for the music or the podcasts.

Spotify posts regularly, with consistent branding and voice, and strives to deliver “knowledge, insights and opportunities” while showcasing the team’s core values — something today’s consumers have come to expect. To do so, the social media team relies heavily on: 

• Spotify’s own employees (which, by the way, improves company culture, which in turn creates internal influencers), with its “workspace vibes” and “Life at Spotify” series, as well as regularly released techy tutorials and project breakdowns
• Influencers, delivering weekly “Spot On” interviews with celebrities, business leaders and other popular figures
• Leadership’s stated commitment to socio-political causes

7 Lessons We Can Learn from the Companies Killing It on Social Media

Reread the description of the seven companies doing social media marketing right. There are lessons there that could apply to your organization.

1. Develop a strategy, first. Then implement, iterate and optimize. Every successful social media marketer has a plan, based on a combination of the following: 
1. The company’s mission
2. The company’s core values
3. The company’s products and/or services
4. The company’s branding and overarching marketing and content strategies
5. The company’s target audiences and their pain points, needs and goals
6. The company’s audience demographics on each social media platform
7. The social media platforms’ best uses
2. Don’t set it and go. Monitor and react. Most companies that are successful on social media don’t 'stick to the plan,' they continually seek out and take advantage of ever-changing trends.
3. Trust your social media team. If you trust your recruitment and hiring processes, you should be able to count on the people you’ve hired to strategize, implement and analyze your efforts on social media. If your company requires a litany of approvals before anyone can post, you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunities — and stifle the creativity of your team.
4. Analyze and iterate. Each of your social media posts represents a learning opportunity. By tracking and analyzing your data over time, you can begin to identify audience trends and adjust accordingly, phasing out less popular campaigns and investing further in the most effective approaches.
5. Take risks, and develop a personality. You should have defined your brand voice already. All you need to do, then, is apply that voice on social media, consistently, and with vigor. Not every trend or snippet of industry news requires a response, but when you do participate, post with confidence and tell it like it is. This is the only way you’ll build that coveted ‘thought leader’ reputation. Also, it’s the best way for the world to learn what you stand for.
6. Use influencers and customers. Not in a manipulative way. This benefits everyone. Forty percent of teens trust influencers more than their friends, and 92% of all consumers consider peer reviews and user feedback to be the most credible source of purchase information. In other words, what sells is seeing other people using and discussing the product. What sells is showcasing characters that consumers either admire (i.e., influencers) or with whom they can relate (i.e., average users). So, create an influencer program with perks for participants, and keep an eye on those tags from customers because they’re (obviously) the best source of user-generated content.
7. Create community. There are multiple ways to do it and you just need one that works for you, whether it’s sparking conversation in the comments section of your posts, creating and curating Facebook Groups or Reddit Communities, or building a forum or social networking space for customers and prospects to congregate. The more people talk about what you do, the more the excitement grows — and with excitement often come conversions.

Bonus: If you upgrade your product or service in response to customer feedback, tell your customers! It means you’re listening, and you care.

No Time for Marketing on Social Media?

Marketing — and particularly social media — budgets are often slashed first when companies cost cut. But often the things we think we don’t need are the very things we’ve been under-prioritizing all along. 

If you understand the critical role social media should play in your marketing and business strategies, but don’t have the bandwidth to implement, monitor and analyze your campaigns, automation’s your answer.

Here are the seven best social media automation tools:

1. Sprout Social
2. HootSuite
3. Buffer
4. SocialPilot
5. Zoho Social
6. Sendible
7. Agorapulse

Or, you could automate everything...

^{A sample Sprout Social social media marketing schedule}

Got a Better Idea?

If you own or work for a brand that’s gone viral or found consistent success on social media, let us know in the Comments section. Maybe we’ll talk about you next!

Image Credits (in order of appearance)

1. Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/xv7-GlvBLFw
2. Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/ypyaaEf2ntM
3. Photo by Paul Felberbauer on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/idNOBU5k_80
4. Photo by Bruno Gomiero on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/jp7J14W9sSg
5. Photo by Adem AY on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/Tk9m_HP4rgQ
6. Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/PJziurStmac