Social selling is an efficient tool for financial service providers to address potential new customers and their needs. They need their social network presence and a solid strategy to do this.
A few years ago, the use of Social media in the financial sector was unthinkable. Today she is one of the front runners. On the one hand, this is due to the new generation of consultants and investors and innovative that have conquered the market.
Digital engagement has become a critical competitive advantage. A vital discipline in this context is social selling. It is used to make a name for yourself with the help of your own social media profiles – be it on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter – to fill the sales pipeline with the right prospects, relevant information, and contacts.
3 Phases For Successful Social Selling
Social selling is about building relationships and strategically using Social listening to jump into a customer conversation at the right moment and deliver the solution to a current problem. A solid strategy is essential to ensure that all the opportunities offered by social selling are capitalized on.
If you are starting, a three-step approach is best. This begins with the basics of Social selling and includes more and more features with the growing wealth of experience of the consultant teams.
Stage 1: Encourage Digital Newcomers
Every Social selling program starts by providing all participants with content they can share on their own social media channels, which they are usually active on anyway. This phase supports financial advisors in particular, but also program managers in getting used to the use of Social media at work. They gain self-confidence because they can better assess how potential prospects react to their content. Another plus: companies retain control over the content they pass on to their employees.
Every financial service provider has specific Social media content requirements that depend on resources, marketing and sales collaborations, and the maturity of their Social media presence. As a rule, a distinction can be made here between your content and the content of third parties. Marketing teams usually have a wealth of material that needs to be adapted for Social media use. They form the basis of an efficient content plan. However, there is also the option to automate the curation of third-party content. If, for example, an asset management company does not have its content marketing team or does not have the time or human resources, there are providers with appropriate software solutions that tackle this problem with little effort and high impact.
Stage 2: Clear The Stage For Social Experts
Once the first stage has been successfully mastered, the next step is to plan and create your content and set up social listening streams to track buy signals.
Compliance is an important issue, especially in the financial sector. Although many companies use social media for sales purposes, they do not have comprehensive compliance guidelines. For example, legal action could be taken if a financial advisor shares non-compliant content. This is where Social selling tools can help. If a user creates or plans their post, the integrated compliance feature warns of possible problems even before clicking on “Publish.”
Not only can the post be quickly customized this way, but the user also learns more about the company’s Social media policies. In addition, every incoming and outgoing social media communication can usually be stored for auditing purposes.
Social listening helps financial service providers understand what their audiences are talking about on social media. This is helpful when recognizing buying signals, making contact, and building customer relationships. The streams can be set up for specific keywords and specific Twitter groups to participate in online discussions, identify buying signals and gain valuable insights about potential customers.
Stage 3: The Road To Becoming A Social Selling Superstar
The final stage encourages financial services firms to leverage data to use social media for intelligent lead generation and nurturing. Professionals also rely on social ads to push existing posts and thus address even more potential customers with their messages. To do this, an advertising budget is set for a position with a clear call to action for lead generation and the target group to be addressed. Ideally, this leads to an optimized landing page with a trackable link.
Existing CRM or customer data can often be used to find new prospects. The performance of the post can, of course, be analyzed afterward. It’s a good idea to experiment with positions and target audiences to maximize return on ad spend.
Advanced companies combine social media data with marketing automation data from Market or Pardot and web data from platforms like Google Analytics. By bringing this data together in a business intelligence tool, financial services firms can see the actual value of social media and use it as the basis for new investments in social selling initiatives.
Conclusion: Social Selling Is Not A “One Size Fits All” Approach
Social selling is not a “one size fits all” approach but a journey with several stations. Regardless of whether financial companies consist of beginners, experts, or superstars – maybe even a mixture – it is essential to develop a comprehensive strategy tailored to the employees’ expertise. This is the only way to create a social selling program that leads to targeted customer contact, higher sales, and long-term company growth.
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