Turning social media into product sales

 

Think about your personal buying behaviour for a moment. When was the last time you purchased something without researching it on Google? Did you read a review? Did you look at the brand’s social media pages? Or was it social media that brought the brand to your attention in the first place? Our decision making process has completely changed in a short amount of time.

In 2006 smartphones didn’t exist.

Today, 9 out of 10 people look at their phone before they get out of bed or brush their teeth.

The Digital Media Customer Decision Journey

Social media has evolved the way we communicate and make every day purchasing decisions. In the digital purchasing cycle, people need to see your brand online at least once before even considering as a choice. Over 60% of people need to see it between 2 – 4 times and almost 25% need to see it between 5 – 9 times (Source: Sprout Social).

With billions of different websites and apps online, the customer decision journey for alcohol brands and hospitality business will vary for every business, but understanding your customers will allow you to pick channels and messaging wisely for maximum impact.

So how does it work?

Although every brand or product will have a slight different buying journey when it comes to digital media channels, the stages will remain the same.

Awareness

It all starts with awareness. How will your future customers first find out you exist? It could be from a Facebook post you’ve targeted to a specific audience (known as native advertising). It could be from a cleverly crafted hashtags on Instagram or Twitter? Perhaps you rank well on Google and you appeared on the first page of someones search. Maybe a blogger wrote an article about you.

Obviously, someone needs to be made aware of you and your business as the first step of the process.

Consider & Evaluate

Now that future customers know you exist, they are going to size you up a little. They’ll visit your website, they’ll look at your all of your social media profiles. Increasingly they’ll take virtual walk through you venue if you have a 360 degree Virtual Tour on Google street view or your website. They will most definitely look at your reviews across review sites like TripAdvisor for wineries, bars and restaurants, or Untappd for craft beer breweries.

This process will only take someone a matter of minutes and they’ll do it while sitting on a bus or on the couch. Once they have gotten to know how you shape up compared to their other options, can they become your customer and buy from you.

Buy & Bond

People are now aware of your brand. They have considered and evaluated your suitability. When they buy from you or visit you venue and finally get to enjoy your product or service is when the magic really happens.

With a clear social media presence & a well crafted digital strategy, your new customers will start to talk about you on their social networks. When this happens two things will occur:

They’ll bond with your business.

Research has proven that when you share on social media your body releases dopamine. The same response occurs when you eat a piece of delicious chocolate or drink some decadent wine, or even have sex. Your customers are going to get a little hit of dopamine when they like your on last photo on Instagram. This is why we are all becoming social media addicts, even if we like it or not.

They become your brand advocates.

When they do, the cycle starts again with their friends and family. Remember, the best results don’t come from what you say about yourself, but from what other people are telling the world about you, on their blogs and social networks.

To be truly “winning” at social media, your customers will be doing most of the talking about you online. Going from being noticed by your customers to being in a digital relationship with them, is a process. Soon you’ll be bonding with your customers when they are sitting on the train or lying in bed at night. Your new brand advocates will be your best asset in building brand awareness, telling the world just how awesome you are.

The social media landscape is constantly changing, but one thing that will remain unchanged is its power to drive brand awareness and overtime brand advocates., sharing their content of your brand. This in turn will create great awareness of what you do and what they love about you.

If you need help with managing social media for your bar, brewery, winery or business, take a look at SocialDrinkers social media services here.