All business owners should appreciate social media marketing since it gives them what they need most: new customers and sales to stay in business.
It’s for this reason that pitching the selling points of social media is actually not that difficult. You have a service that they need!
When you can communicate the why and the benefits behind your social media marketing services, business owners left and right will open their checkbooks to pay you to deliver.
Plus, I’ve found that providing examples will better persuade businesses that otherwise would be skeptical of signing you to help their marketing.
My goal is that the following list helps you communicate the main reasons every business needs to be on social media.
And of course, I want you to land more clients to improve your standard of living.
P.S. This is very similar to the approach I’ve been using and it’s helped my digital marketing company land over 20 clients in a few months. If I can do it, you can too!
Social Media Marketing Selling Points
1. Where the attention is
The reality of social media is staggering. Look at these numbers:
- Facebook has over 2 billion users
- Instagram has over 700 million users
- YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world, just behind Google
- The average woman spends 6 hours and 33 minutes per week on social networks and the average man spends 4 hours and 23 minutes per week
- 27% of drivers are on Facebook while driving
With those out-of-this-world statistics in mind, all you need to communicate to the business is that more people are active and spend more time on social media than any other media platform.
Not television, radio, or the newspaper has the kind of attention that social media holds today.
So these businesses should be marketing themselves exactly where their target audiences are spending time if they want to reach them and market to them.
It’s not rocket science here!
Also, make this fact more real by asking the business owner questions. Say, for example:
- Do you spend more time on Facebook than you do listening to radio or reading newspapers?
- Are you on your cellphone more than you’re reading billboard ads?
- Do you watch online ads but change the channel when TV ads come on?
These questions will help the business owner internalize that social media does have all of the attention.
And when they get that, it’s easier for you to land a deal to manage their social media accounts and run social advertising campaigns to market their business.
2. Build personal relationships with your audience
Most businesses market the old school way. They send a message out and hope their audience listens to them.
But the problem is there’s no back and forth communication. It’s a one-sided relationship where the business is always talking, never listening, and the consumer is only allowed to listen.
Social media marketing is different because you can build personal relationships with your customers, which gives your business an ear to listen and your audience a voice to talk.
You’d be wise to ask questions on some of your company’s posts for audience feedback.
Being present on social media also allows a company to direct message potential customers to learn about their interests. They can reach out to someone who came into their shop that day to ask about the experience.
Also, the businesses doing email marketing once a week are wise since they’re building authentic relationships and staying top of mind for their audience. Some get creative and individually email customers on their birthday to come in for a free gift.
How special do you think these customers feel when a business celebrates their birthday?
Only social media profiles give you the platform to build lifelong customers like nothing else.
This is something you must also pitch to business owners since it’s a unique advantage of what you’re selling.
3. Organically grow your presence
Facebook ads and Google ads are great, besides the fact that they can get expensive quickly—even if you’re bringing in new paying customers from them. And you’ll always need to pay the piper to get new business.
What’s better than paying for new customers to buy from your business? Organic growth that turns into paying customers.
You must pitch these owners that you’ll grow their Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, or YouTube following and then you’ll convert this audience into new business.
If you can convey how you’re going to do it and then you pull it off, they’ll keep paying you every single month since that’s a tremendous value add for their company.
And how do you do that? Here’s how.
Say you manage the Instagram profile of a restaurant and post savory delicious pics every day for a year. And you optimize the posts with creative captions and effective local hashtags.
Over time you’re going to gain a solid following in the local community. Once your audience is growing, you can send restaurant promotions and calls to action asking your followers to come into the diner for a meal (without paying for ads).
Now if they have a special promotion and want to add some rocket fuel to it then they can still do ads, but one great asset of social media marketing is the organic growth that comes with it.
Go Sell SMM Benefits
I see it time and time again. A wantrepreneur or failed entrepreneur spends all of their time reading, planning, and learning vocabulary terms, only to never put it to use.
It’s no wonder they can’t build a business or make more than a few hundred dollars a month in this space.
Here’s the secret they’re missing and I hope you learn: Progress is made my doing.
The only way you’re going to master your craft, get clients, deliver results, make mistakes to get better, and build a legitimate business is by cutting your teeth trying to sell social media marketing to business owners.
So go get out there and talk to as many companies as you can. Call, email, walk in, and get referrals every single work day.
When you work hard doing sales consistently, your pitch gets better and you’ll land more deals.
All that’s left to do is deliver what you promised and you’ll have a heck of a business in your hands.
Believe in yourself. What looks like a small side hustle can turn into the business of your dreams in a few short months, or weeks.
The harder you work, the quicker you reap the benefits!
