Shruti Kaushik is a Writer, Entrepreneur, and a featured Linkedin Branding Expert. She is best known for bringing massive recognition to brands in less time through her “organic social selling techniques”. Also known as “Queen of Content” by Femina India (60th Anniversary Edition), Shruti has assisted clients in the Government, NIC or National Informatics Center, Ministry of Skills & Entrepreneurship, for their content planning, and development.
The ripple effect triggered by the pandemic has pushed economies on the edge of their collapse. Traditional businesses are fractured from within, and above all, the future today has become highly uncertain. A traditional business is usually a supermarket, restaurant, or agency. These companies provide customers with a service or a commodity. A traditional business works by providing a commodity to its clients and consumers in return for payment.
But all is not lost. As the pandemic is the first chapter of a new digital economy, It is the beginning of a new decade which is the gateway to a more simple yet transcendental digital revolution.
The art of using social media to discover, engage with, appreciate, and cultivate sales prospects is known as social selling. It’s the new way to build positive relationships with prospects because you’re the first person or brand that comes to mind when they’re ready to buy.
Organic marketing strategies that have a clear narrative and address the changed consumer behavior will work. An organic marketing strategy, rather than using paid advertising or sponsored content, inherently drives traffic to your company over time. Traditional sales networks are almost extinct. People nowadays seldom answer strangers’ calls or open emails they know are sales pitches. Most consumers now do comprehensive online research on companies and their products and are already well-informed about products when they approach sales representatives. Millennials have embraced social media more than previous generations, who also perform preliminary research for business items.
In this new world, social selling has grown in popularity, and it now accounts for a large portion of the marketing and sales funnel. Social selling by B2B sellers outperforms their rivals by 72 percent. Organic marketing covers things like blog posts, case studies, guest posts, unpaid tweets, and Facebook notifications that you don’t have to pay for.
Here’s how the businesses can be better organised and shaped-
Attack the need of the customers– Attack is perhaps a strong word, but it makes sense here. The pandemic-enforced lockdown changed customer behavior. Marketing strategies that were previously helping companies scale businesses now needed a brand new refocus. As a company or as a small brand, you will have to let your customer know that you are acknowledging the change. And how you are creating a difference in your business right now. Focus on repeat customers, and re-connect with them digitally or target new customers with storytelling as a tool (explained in the next step).
Storytelling to accelerate Social Selling– One of the most effective ways applied in this course of time is selling organically. Storytelling will assist you in meeting your revenue quotas more quickly. People like reading about characters who encounter and conquer obstacles, so it works. Telling your story, as well as other people’s tales, humanizes your selling and enhances relationships with potential customers (and productivity). However, for some people, telling a good story is second nature.
If you want to know what was the extra kick here– So, connecting with the customer’s demand. Here is an instance, You don’t sell chips, instead, you sell why customers should eat chips? Let’s be more clear. What is storytelling? It is hidden marketing. You share customer experience to encourage other customers and convert their doubts into buying. When they read stories or certain “buying scenarios” shared by you, their will to buy becomes stranger.
Cross branding through micro-influencers– Influencer marketing has been the most successful mass branding way so far, but it’s understandable that with reduced cash flow, approaching high-profile influencers is temporarily questionable. A cross-branding strategy blends two or more offerings from different brands to market complementary goods or services to a larger audience. But that’s not a blockage in this rewarding branding technique. Instead of approaching big-shots, you can connect with micro-influencers who have more than 50k followers across all platforms. You would be surprised that some might even do that for free. Pitch 5-6 small influencers and plan your cross-promotion strategy. This will work big time, trust me.
Forget Facebook and Instagram for a while if you are a B2B– There’s no doubt that they are a good source for business. When it comes to social media, the conventional wisdom is that different platforms work better for different types of brands. Some say that Instagram is best for B2C, Facebook is key for local businesses, Pinterest is ideal for ecommerce, and LinkedIn caters primarily to B2B; they are all wrong. The real key is to know how to use each platform effectively. By taking advantage of powerful social media platforms like Instagram to increase your brand reach and find new opportunities to network and scale your business.