What is social selling?
Social selling is a term that is increasingly being used in online marketing. The term actually says it all. A digital dialogue is started with a potential prospect with a commercial intention. The aim is to entice the potential buyer to make a purchase.
The idea behind social selling can be traced back to inbound marketing. Actively entering into a dialogue has the goal of letting potential buyers come to you. A great advantage of a well thought-out social selling strategy and its execution is personalization. With marketing automation, liquid content and account based marketing personalizing content is becoming increasingly important. The big difference with social selling is that a person within the organization actively seeks interaction.
Does social selling replace traditional sales?
Some people believe that social selling will replace traditional sales. We do not have a scientific answer but we rather see it as an addition to the existing sales process. The increasing transparency through the internet and the growth of lead generation websites and webshops are the cause of this. By definition, this already has an impact on commercial employees and marketers. This new form is also called smarketing. Every day, organizations need to be more creative to capture the attention of the target group with their products. Social selling contributes to this and fits within a fully equipped online marketing department.
What what do you need to consider when using social selling?
As with any traditional sales conversation there is a human factor to the business. This also applies to social selling. Companies do business with companies, but people make contact with people. If you are going to start with social selling do so on a personal level. Do not try to put the logo of your company, product or brand on everywhere but interact from your point of view as a person and expert. You know the solution of the problem and you want to bring this to the attention of your target group.
The second important step of social selling is that you actually deliver information. Actively react and contribute the solution. Here, references to personal knowledge base articles or expert reviews contribute very positively. Of course, every online marketer knows that every click is the basis for further analysis and lead nurturing. Make your social media accounts attractive and stay yourself. Search where specifically in the market and your digital network you can contribute with your expertise by implementing social selling.
Would you like to know more? Contact one of our experts or check out all our services. Jelba scores quality leads and transactions for its B2B customers through the use of digital channels and has experience with social selling.
Jelba and Social Selling
To remain a leading player in B2B online marketing, B2B E-commerce and B2B lead generation we are active with technology and target groups to achieve the best result (more business via online channels) for our clients on a daily basis. Our clients reach a big part of professional buyers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany every day.
We are happy to share our knowledge and experience about social selling. Do you have any questions about B2B online marketing or social selling? Reach us via phone 030 – 227 14 23 or via e-mail collega@jelba.nl. If you would like to use this article in your own publication, please ask us for permission and of course provide a source reference with a link to this article. We are also thinking of our own SEO position.