Traffic, leads and brand awareness are all benefits that come from good marketing, but the most important goal of any marketing strategy is to generate sales. It’s been proven that a good content marketing strategy can increase revenue for almost any business, but many neglect the obvious benefits that come from combining content marketing methods with social selling.

Social selling is simply using social media to interact and be social with your customers. It’s an ideal way to receive real-time feedback and give your brand a personal feel to it. Studies show that LinkedIn is the most common platform for those who use social selling, with Twitter right behind.

When customers receive feedback and engagement from social selling, they gain trust in your brand and your products. Studies show that businesses that regularly use social selling consistently grow in revenue each year by over 20 percent more than those who don’t. To make it easy, we have come up with five ways you can incorporate social selling and content to boost your sales.

1. Create Content That Helps With Social Selling

What kind of content will get noticed and shared on your social media sites? We have a few guidelines and examples.

• Webinars
• Surprising or shocking information that promotes action
• FAQ pages
• How-to guides for simple problems customers face
• Content that demonstrates how your service or product works

These types of content are interesting, easy to share and helpful to almost anyone scrolling through social media or searching the internet.

2. Answer Questions Your Customers Have

We can’t stress it enough – social media is invaluable when it comes to building your brand and solidifying your customer base. Now, content can play into that when you listen to your customers and answer the questions they have about your products or industry. What you offer should provide a solution to a problem, and your content is your chance to explain HOW it does and WHY it is better than the competitor.

Pay attention to what your followers, potential customers and fans are saying and asking. When you show that you are truly interested in what they want, they are more inclined to see the value in your products.

3. Offer Content for Every Phase of the Sales Cycle

From opening a conversation to closing the sale, there are several different pieces of the sales cycle. You need valuable content for each phase.

During the sales cycle, the customer is making the decision about whether your products are the right fit for them. As they do their research, you are essentially competing with other companies when you don’t even know it. When social selling, companies use content to generate leads and create awareness about a product or brand. They also nurture leads with targeted content to increase sales opportunities by over 20 percent. Once you have delivered and the customer has evaluated, content creates trust, loyalty and improves your brand reputation. At each stage of the sales process, there should be content that your customers find engaging and helpful.

4. Have a Conversation

Content that starts a conversation is content that is doing the job it is intended to do.  Answer questions, address concerns and engage regularly with your potential clients and customers.  While originally this may mean that they simply reply to a post or comment on a status update, your long-term goal is to schedule a call or respond to an email.  That will continue the conversation and leads to revenue, sales and a solid relationship.

5. Keep an Archive of Useful Information

FAQ pages, blog posts and simple articles can be extremely useful when social selling. While you can pump these out on a regular basis on your social media platforms, they are ideally used when a customer has a question or concern. If you have an archive of valuable information that addresses common problems or issues in your industry, customers are more inclined to trust your expertise.

Anytime you have a concern, question or conversation on your social media posts, link back to a relevant piece of content that your company has used in the past.  This showcases you as an expert in your business and highlights you as an established business.

Good Content Is Essential

It is much easier to make a sale to a potential customer when you have valuable, helpful information to share with them about the problem they are facing. Using a content marketing service is the perfect way to get started on establishing your business as the go-to source in your industry.