how to prospect on social networks
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 4:14 am
4 Steps to Prospecting and Winning New Customers with Social Media
June 12, 2020Community Management , Lead Generation , Social Networks 6 Comments
No, social networks are not just for telling your life story. Social networks are now real prospecting tools and, if used well, should allow you to win new customers. How to do it? Here is a foolproof method in 4 steps.
I am regularly contacted by companies who call on me for help to develop their turnover. After a quick audit of their sales methods, I always identify the same problem.
Overwhelmed by developments in marketing and communication, these companies continue to prospect as they did 10 years ago: they waste hours prospecting by telephone and send their salespeople to the brink via door-to-door sales.
If you too are still prospecting with your flyers at hand, you must know that these traditional prospecting methods are no longer effective.
The reason is quite simple: the consumer no longer wants to be interrupted to receive information but wants to go and get it himself when he
As you can see by viewing the excerpt from our infographic on Social Selling above, portugal email list Social Selling is a 4-step strategy that will allow you to:
to attract Internet users to you;
to transform them into prospects;
convert them into customers;
build loyalty with them so that they become your ambassadors!
4 Steps to Winning New Customers on Social Media
Step #1: Grab the attention of target Internet users
To attract the attention of Internet users on social networks, there are 3 actions to implement right now.
Optimize your social media profiles
It's all about keywords and visuals. If you want to be visible on social media, you must first fill in all the available fields using strategic keywords that describe your business and that your customers use to search for you.
Don’t neglect any section and avoid copy/pasting. Your descriptions must be clear and inciting. Use every field at your disposal to highlight your added value and encourage visitors to contact you.
To attract the attention of target Internet users, also take care to use professional photos, reflecting your values and your professional activity: we are naturally talking here about a profile photo but also the cover photo which is all too often neglected by users.
Selling on Social Media in 4 Steps
If we take the example of Guy Kawazaki above, his profile picture reflects "his person" well and his cover means: "I have enough legitimacy to speak in front of thousands of people, contact me!"
To communicate perfectly on social networks, take care to use perfectly sized images: for this, here are all the dimensions of images on social networks !
Share quality content
To convince users to follow you on social networks and thus start a relationship with your target, it is important to share quality content on your social networks that reflects your expertise and provides added value to your target.
Concretely, to be of quality, your content must meet at least one of the following vocations: solve a problem of your target, educate your target on a specific subject, deliver exclusive information, entertain your target.
If your content doesn't fulfill any of these purposes, don't share it on your social networks. The goal here is to position yourself as a visible and recognized expert in your field of activity.
Get involved in groups/communities
On the vast majority of social networks, users have the opportunity to gather in groups in which they discuss their issues or interests. They regularly ask each other questions and this is an opportunity for you to position yourself as an objective expert seeking the full satisfaction of your customers.
Integrate groups around your fields of activity and do not hesitate to regularly provide relevant answers to Internet users. It is not a question here of promoting yourself at every turn but of providing quality answers so that in the long term, the members of these groups come to you in case of need.
Step #2: Transform your contacts into prospects
At this point in the Social Selling method, you should have gained visibility, regularly attract visitors and encourage your contacts to interact with your publications. Now, you will have to identify the hottest contacts and get in touch with them to turn them into prospects.
Identify hot contacts
4 Steps to Selling on Social Media
Here, you simply need to regularly analyze the “Likes”, comments and shares on your publications. People who regularly interact with your content are naturally very receptive to it.
If we take the example of my tweet above: I shared an article that I wrote on the blog presenting 34 tools for communicating well on the Internet and Social Networks . On Twitter, this tweet generated 20 retweets (shares) and 23 “likes”. These people are therefore sensitive to my article and therefore potentially have a need around web communication.
Connect with these hot contacts
Now that you have identified contacts interested in your content, you need to get in touch with them. To do this, simply send them a message to thank them for their interest in your publication and add them to your network. Depending on their feedback, you can present your activity to them and try to get a physical or telephone appointment in a third step.
The key to success here is to be clear about your intentions. Studies show that online responses are better when you clearly ask someone for something. In short, you want people to share one of your articles, so ask them!
Step #3: Convert your prospects into customers
Companies that have integrated social networks into their sales prospecting strategy often tend to complete the first two steps and stop there. That's not so bad, but it's not enough.
Now that you have identified and connected with new prospects, it is essential to integrate them into your communication strategy in the same way as a prospect acquired by telephone or door-to-door. Concretely, this involves entering all the information about new prospects into CRM software and from there, sending them ultra-personalized communications, at the right tempo.
By communication, I mainly mean quality emails that are adapted to the maturity of your prospect. You cannot send the same email to a prospect ready to buy today as to a prospect who will have a need in 24 months.
To better understand this step, I recommend that you read this article presenting the 4 pillars of successful web communication .
Step #4: Make your customers ambassadors
At this stage of the method, if you work well, you will get new customers. However, it would be a shame to stop there: did you know that acquiring a new customer costs on average 14 times more than retaining an existing one? The 4th step therefore makes perfect sense.
For this last step, you will have to do several things:
Maintain the relationship with your new customers;
Encourage them to recommend you;
Repeat the entire method with your new customers’ contacts!
To maintain the relationship with these new customers, you will simply have to continue to send them quality communications and reach them via your social networks. The objective here will be, for example, to ensure your after-sales service, to improve the customer experience or to remind them of you in the event of new needs.
June 12, 2020Community Management , Lead Generation , Social Networks 6 Comments
No, social networks are not just for telling your life story. Social networks are now real prospecting tools and, if used well, should allow you to win new customers. How to do it? Here is a foolproof method in 4 steps.
I am regularly contacted by companies who call on me for help to develop their turnover. After a quick audit of their sales methods, I always identify the same problem.
Overwhelmed by developments in marketing and communication, these companies continue to prospect as they did 10 years ago: they waste hours prospecting by telephone and send their salespeople to the brink via door-to-door sales.
If you too are still prospecting with your flyers at hand, you must know that these traditional prospecting methods are no longer effective.
The reason is quite simple: the consumer no longer wants to be interrupted to receive information but wants to go and get it himself when he
As you can see by viewing the excerpt from our infographic on Social Selling above, portugal email list Social Selling is a 4-step strategy that will allow you to:
to attract Internet users to you;
to transform them into prospects;
convert them into customers;
build loyalty with them so that they become your ambassadors!
4 Steps to Winning New Customers on Social Media
Step #1: Grab the attention of target Internet users
To attract the attention of Internet users on social networks, there are 3 actions to implement right now.
Optimize your social media profiles
It's all about keywords and visuals. If you want to be visible on social media, you must first fill in all the available fields using strategic keywords that describe your business and that your customers use to search for you.
Don’t neglect any section and avoid copy/pasting. Your descriptions must be clear and inciting. Use every field at your disposal to highlight your added value and encourage visitors to contact you.
To attract the attention of target Internet users, also take care to use professional photos, reflecting your values and your professional activity: we are naturally talking here about a profile photo but also the cover photo which is all too often neglected by users.
Selling on Social Media in 4 Steps
If we take the example of Guy Kawazaki above, his profile picture reflects "his person" well and his cover means: "I have enough legitimacy to speak in front of thousands of people, contact me!"
To communicate perfectly on social networks, take care to use perfectly sized images: for this, here are all the dimensions of images on social networks !
Share quality content
To convince users to follow you on social networks and thus start a relationship with your target, it is important to share quality content on your social networks that reflects your expertise and provides added value to your target.
Concretely, to be of quality, your content must meet at least one of the following vocations: solve a problem of your target, educate your target on a specific subject, deliver exclusive information, entertain your target.
If your content doesn't fulfill any of these purposes, don't share it on your social networks. The goal here is to position yourself as a visible and recognized expert in your field of activity.
Get involved in groups/communities
On the vast majority of social networks, users have the opportunity to gather in groups in which they discuss their issues or interests. They regularly ask each other questions and this is an opportunity for you to position yourself as an objective expert seeking the full satisfaction of your customers.
Integrate groups around your fields of activity and do not hesitate to regularly provide relevant answers to Internet users. It is not a question here of promoting yourself at every turn but of providing quality answers so that in the long term, the members of these groups come to you in case of need.
Step #2: Transform your contacts into prospects
At this point in the Social Selling method, you should have gained visibility, regularly attract visitors and encourage your contacts to interact with your publications. Now, you will have to identify the hottest contacts and get in touch with them to turn them into prospects.
Identify hot contacts
4 Steps to Selling on Social Media
Here, you simply need to regularly analyze the “Likes”, comments and shares on your publications. People who regularly interact with your content are naturally very receptive to it.
If we take the example of my tweet above: I shared an article that I wrote on the blog presenting 34 tools for communicating well on the Internet and Social Networks . On Twitter, this tweet generated 20 retweets (shares) and 23 “likes”. These people are therefore sensitive to my article and therefore potentially have a need around web communication.
Connect with these hot contacts
Now that you have identified contacts interested in your content, you need to get in touch with them. To do this, simply send them a message to thank them for their interest in your publication and add them to your network. Depending on their feedback, you can present your activity to them and try to get a physical or telephone appointment in a third step.
The key to success here is to be clear about your intentions. Studies show that online responses are better when you clearly ask someone for something. In short, you want people to share one of your articles, so ask them!
Step #3: Convert your prospects into customers
Companies that have integrated social networks into their sales prospecting strategy often tend to complete the first two steps and stop there. That's not so bad, but it's not enough.
Now that you have identified and connected with new prospects, it is essential to integrate them into your communication strategy in the same way as a prospect acquired by telephone or door-to-door. Concretely, this involves entering all the information about new prospects into CRM software and from there, sending them ultra-personalized communications, at the right tempo.
By communication, I mainly mean quality emails that are adapted to the maturity of your prospect. You cannot send the same email to a prospect ready to buy today as to a prospect who will have a need in 24 months.
To better understand this step, I recommend that you read this article presenting the 4 pillars of successful web communication .
Step #4: Make your customers ambassadors
At this stage of the method, if you work well, you will get new customers. However, it would be a shame to stop there: did you know that acquiring a new customer costs on average 14 times more than retaining an existing one? The 4th step therefore makes perfect sense.
For this last step, you will have to do several things:
Maintain the relationship with your new customers;
Encourage them to recommend you;
Repeat the entire method with your new customers’ contacts!
To maintain the relationship with these new customers, you will simply have to continue to send them quality communications and reach them via your social networks. The objective here will be, for example, to ensure your after-sales service, to improve the customer experience or to remind them of you in the event of new needs.