Show notes

Episode 92 - Stop selling on social media.

Esther

Good morning. And welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. I'm Esther.

Melanie

And I'm Melanie.

Esther

And today we're talking about "stop selling on social media".

Melanie

Jesus, that's Savage.

Esther

Well, I mean, we have to get at the point across.

Melanie

Okay. Good point. Anyway, let's not get on the wrong side of you this morning.

Esther

I have my coffee.

Melanie

You've not nearly obviously had enough. So you've got a point, though. People do oversell. People are constantly being sold to. So how do we stop doing this and still get people to buy from us?

Esther

So number one tip that I would give is to just be yourself when you are yourself and you're giving value, then people will know that what you're talking about is something that you're actually an authority in or that you actually know about. So if you're being yourself on social media, you will be talking about the issues of not having enough caffeine in the morning before recording a podcast episode. You will be talking about how the Ironing on a Sunday night Dodge your head in because you're relatable to lots of other people. Right?

Melanie

This is because I mentioned I do the ironing, isn't it, on a Sunday?

Esther

Yes. And I feel sorry for you.

Melanie

You wouldn't believe the aware conversations we have. Really. But no, you're right. Being relatable is important, but sometimes it's more important to be relatable to your audience rather than just being yourself. And what I mean by that is that if I'm targeting corporates and CEOs, which sometimes I am, I speak in a completely different way to the way I would normally speak every day, because I wouldn't be, I would say high ticket product, particularly, which is the way I'm happy to be. So I then have to speak in a completely different way, using different images, calls to action, reading that sort of thing. So when you're trying to speak to them, you're trying to help them understand that you can be relatable and connect to them on their level and still not sell, because if anybody can't tolerate being sold to a lot of us, Joe Schmo is the rest of us normals. We can actually tolerate to be sold to every now and then because we can appreciate that it has to be done. But for most people, just being useful, being helpful or even being funny. Yeah. You're really good at that, aren't you?

Esther

No, you're the better one. But when Melanie says that she has to change the way she is, she's not changing her hair colour and her accent. She is just adding in a few different phrases that will relate to the CEOs and the Chiefs. I'm sure a lot of them also have to do the Ironing on a Sunday night, so they probably could relate to that as well. But when you're selling your services, it has to be on a level of you're not going to be talking about your ironing. You're not going to be talking about your kids. You will be talking about something, a problem that you have helped solve for somebody else.

Melanie

Be helpful.

Esther

Yes, we always like being helpful. So we're coming up to the run up to the big C word, right? At the time of this recording, I have seen the countdown has already started and

Melanie

last week it was 100 days, isn't it?

Esther

Yeah. And me personally, it's keeping it in December, right. But I love buying stuff for that big day. So how do you get around mentioning it and not mentioning it to somebody like me who just wants to scroll through their Facebook feed without being sold to on a constant basis from the middle of September, your bubbles and your Angels and your hair clips and your toys. What advice would you give to people without having to mention why they need to sell these things?

Melanie

Special occasions, special occasions happen year round, wedding anniversaries, weddings, birthday parties. Frankly, the next big important day for me is Black Friday. I don't know what you're talking about. That's the next big important day for me. So for those of you forgotten Black Friday is coming up. Don't forget.

Esther

You forgot my birthday.

Melanie

Oh, CROMS, did I?

Esther

I'm going to make her pay for this later.

Melanie

Damn it.

Esther

But yeah, it's true. You do have all these occasions that come up and you can be recommending or promoting your sales or your products without openly selling.

Melanie

Yeah, you can tell people without mentioning the C word. There's more important days coming up before anything else you got Black Friday, you got Halloween. So whatever your products or services are, you can mention those and you can say this is the last. We're counting down the last three special days of this year. So Halloween being one Black Friday being the second, and I'm sure they can work out what the third one is.

Esther

Let's hope so, but it's becoming constantly seeing the contact nigh by Nye. Click here. Do this. Do that. Constantly having a call to action that is salesy. What call to action would you recommend for not being salesy?

Melanie

Well, "download" would be a good one. "Download" to learn more information or here are some top tips to help you spread your finances over the next quarter. Better ways to Save There are lots of things, lots of calls to actions you could use without actually selling as a tip. A lot of businesses had to close down initially through the first lockdown in Covid and what kept most of the businesses open was by being resourceful and helpful and thinking what their audience was going through rather than selling their products or services because for a lot of them, it wasn't realistic. Staff were laid off. They weren't getting supplies into the country because obviously boats and planes and everything else was impacted. So instead of disappearing off the ether, they were just useful to their audience, which I totally, totally applaud them for because when they could start getting their staff back in and they could get shipments back in and that sort of stuff, they were still top of mind for their audience so bravo to them. But why should we stop doing that? It really works.

Esther

Exactly. And you just reminded me, share your good news stories. Share your behind the scenes of your business. If somebody in your company has a birthday, share that celebrate with your company with your staff and let people know, or if you provide services for birthdays, etc. To mention the people that you have provided a service or goods for. Yes, with permission. But if you're able to mention, for example, we did a website for X-Y-Z and give them a shout out. It helps that business as well. So be helpful. Share your knowledge and just be there. What is it they say? Is it 80 20 or is it 70 30? I never remember.

Melanie

Well, 80 20 is the recommended. What she's referring to is 80% of the time. Share other people's related content to what you're doing and then 20% of the time. Share your content. But even during those 20%, that doesn't mean you're "buy now, buy now shop now, shop now". That's where you can talk about yourself. And we've had this conversation before. It depends on where you are in your sales funnel. Are you in awareness, consideration or conversion? And that's how you speak and they all have slightly different calls to action.

Esther

Sorry. There'll always be somebody. Who will be ready at the point at the exact moment that you share the "Buy Now" button that are ready to click. It happens all the time that you just think of something or I forgot whatever. And you automatically see, I think we all know Google listens, but it automatically pops up on your feed that this is available. And I have so many of these left and you're like, perfect. This is exactly what I need at the right time, so it doesn't matter if you only share it once a week, once a fortnight your "Buy Now" button, there will always be somebody there that needs it at that very moment.

Melanie

And sometimes it's just enough. Even if you've gone through that part of the sales funnel, the lower part of the sales funnel and you're restarting again. Somebody got I should have contacted them last week and that reminder that you're there that you're being useful and resourceful. It's just enough to help them push the button. But try not to always sell because we really hate it as much as anybody else. And we're in the business of trying to sell stuff. Yeah.

Esther

And the key is in the title. It's called social media. Social.

Melanie

Okay, to put the emphasis on the first word. And even when you say social media, media tends to be the lower word. For some reason, social media, you don't go social media. It's very rare that people would do that. So the emphasis is on the first word. Being social is how it works. So, yeah, that's rant over.

Esther

Basically, we'll be back next week with another no, we won't. We try not to rent every week. Try being the operative word. But that is it for this week. Guys, if you do have any questions or if you would like us to help you with anything in order to not be salesy on social media, then just reach out. We're here subscribe to our channel and follow us on all our social media so you can see when the next episode drops. And you can learn more marketing tips from Melanie and myself.

Melanie

Thanks for joining us, guys.

Esther

Bye. Bye.