An Introduction to Social Selling

You might have heard of the term, social selling, but we’re consistently surprised at how many people in the business don’t have a firm grasp of what it actually means.

Contrary to instinctual and widely held belief, it is not related to social media marketing or social media advertising. However, it does provide a way to use those channels, and others, to create new sales opportunities which can provide more satisfactory returns, and fewer angry responses, than traditional sales calls.

Social selling seeks to use social media to build rapport with an expanding network of potential clients and then leverage those relationships to introduce prospects to your marketing and sales funnels. When social selling is performed properly, it can eliminate the need to cold call prospective customers entirely.

Social Media

If you’re looking to master social selling for your insurance brand, you will first need to master social media. This is achieved by growing and nurturing a focused and engaged audience which can be primed to accept sales messaging as part of a larger content delivery strategy.

Facebook and Twitter are prime candidates for sales messaging as they prioritize discussion as part of their core offering. However, those brands seeking to engage with a younger audience would do better to look to more visual platforms such as Instagram, Snap, and TikTok, which are significantly more popular with that demographic. If professionals are your target, then Linkedin is a smart choice, while Reddit and YouTube are ideal if you are seeking people with specific interests.

Whichever platform/s you are active on, you need to make sure your content is suitable for both the audience being targeted and the nature of the channel. Facebook allows for more detailed posts, while TikTok is optimized around short form video content where you only have a second or two to grab the attention of a viewer, for example.

You need to have a strong content strategy which is designed to promote discussion and keep people’s attention. Your brand also needs to actively keep prospects’ attention by responding to comments and adding to the conversation.

Tools

Most of these social channels now come with a host of tools which can help you analyze metrics to deduce where your visitors are coming from, how long they are spending on your content, and how much engagement you are seeing from them.

This data will allow you to constantly refine and shape your content strategy to maximize engagement from the audiences you are seeking to target. For even deeper analyses, there are also third-party tools, such as Amplify and Salesforce, available which can help you strategize to a greater degree.

"Sales has always been about building relationships, establishing credibility and providing the right solutions to the right prospects at the right time,” says social media platform provider, Hootsuite. "Social selling is like that too. It simply leverages social media to help you build relationships, expand your network, streamline lead generation, and meet your sales goals!”

Listen

Social selling seeks to play a longer game than traditional sales calling and will require patience and a listen first/sell later approach. In the modern and fast paced world of instant gratification, this can be a tricky skill to acquire, but will yield greater results if you give it the chance to grow and develop.

You need to pay attention to what your prospects are saying online, the kinds of content they are looking at – from other providers, not just yours – and respond in way which are authentic and don’t come off as just another sales pitch. Follow prospects back and engage with them on their own content to keep your brand alive in their mind. You need to judge these interactions carefully however as over interacting will come off as intrusive and insincere.

Final Thoughts

Demonstrate to prospects that you are a brand interested in more meaningful interactions than a quick sale and you will stand a good chance of building long-lasting relationships which will keep a customer returning repeatedly.

"Whether you are promoting a professional brand or your own personal brand, it helps to begin your interactions with social listening,” says Shopify. "This means paying attention to online conversations to hear what people are saying about your product, noting customer pain points or things they love about your company, and building your messaging around that. You engage in these conversations and answer people’s questions, but you do not launch into salesperson mode. The goal is to have authentic discussions; it is not to put on a hard sell.”

Social selling is sure to be a hot topic at Digital Insurance Summit 2023, being held in May at the Hyatt Regency Austin, TX.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.