It’s all well and good growing your Instagram following, but if nobody buys from you then you’re wasting your time. Today, I’m sharing my top tips to turn your social media followers into customers or clients.

 

How to turn followers into customers or clients

This post focuses on turning Instagram followers into customers or clients since that seems to be the main platform my audience is on. But, most of the tips here can be applied to other social media platforms as well.

Tip #1 for turning followers into sales: Make sure you're attracting the right followers

You could have a million followers but if they're all Eskimos and you're trying to sell them some ice cubes, you're going to have a terrible time. You need to make sure your followers are the right people for your brand. So, they need to be interested in what you're selling or at least have a need or desire for it.

If people don't want or need your product, they're not going to buy it. It's just that simple. If they don't yet want it, it's up to you to create that desire for it.

How do you make sure you're attracting the right followers? Well, you start by defining your ideal customer and then you make sure that everything you post on social media is tailored to this person. I look at this a little bit more in-depth in my brand new Instagram ebook. Click here to check it out.

Tip #2 for turning followers into sales: Don't forget to send people to your website

It's easy to assume that people know where to buy your product or where to inquire about working with you, but you have to remember that nobody else is as familiar with your business as you are. They may not know your website off by heart or they mightn't know that they can buy that pair of shoes in your last Instagram post.

Sometimes, it really does help to add a quick call to action to your post. So just a simple “shop now the link in our bio” usually does the trick.

The key thing when sending people to your website is to just make sure that your website isn't letting you down. So, make sure it loads quickly. Make sure you send them to the correct page. Make sure everything is accurate and up to date. Make sure your checkout flow is smooth. Just make sure everything is as good as it can be on your website.

Tip #3 for turning followers into sales: Try and get people onto your email list with a lead magnet

What is a lead magnet? It's basically a freebie (usually a digital download, like an e-book or a cheat sheet) and you offer this freebie to people in return for their e-mail address. To get people onto your e-mail list, you could promote your lead magnet in some social media posts or you could link to a landing page where they can download it.

Then, on Instagram, you could add a link in your bio to the page where they can download it.

I wrote more about the step-by-step process for growing your email list over here.

Tip #4 for turning followers into sales: Give lots of value in your posts, but don't forget to ask for the sale

I'm constantly going on about how you need to provide value to your followers. But, on the flipside, you don't want to be giving away so much value for free that you actually forget to tell them about whatever it is that you sell or do.

Unless you promote your product or service, they're probably not going to buy from you.

Tip #5 for turning followers into sales: Reply to comments in a timely manner

If you keep on top of your comments and make a point of regularly replying to them, then you'll be able to reply to queries from potential customers or clients before they change their mind and look elsewhere.

If you struggle with this you can use an app like Planoly to monitor and reply to comments.

Tip #6 for turning followers into sales: Focus on the benefits of your products or services, not the features

I think I've mentioned this before on this blog and it's something I cover in-depth in my brand new Instagram Ebook.

In a nutshell, you want to be writing about the benefits of your product or service to your ideal customer, not the features. For example, if you're selling pencils, you wouldn't be selling the fact that they have a graphite led. Instead, you'd be selling the fact that your pencils can transform their drawings.

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