<span style="font-weight: 400;">How does word travel fast nowadays? Social media. That’s right. Social media acts as the perfect medium to create awareness and promote your brand on a larger scale. There’s only so much word of mouth can achieve. If you are looking to establish your mark in the industry, social media marketing is the way to go. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Social media has the power to influence individuals to purchase products. And this is where you can use this to your advantage. A marketing funnel demonstrates a customer’s journey to purchase a product or avail one of your services. It is a result of the initiatives and measures taken by you to ensure the conversion of your customer.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">By utilizing the social media marketing funnel, you can go a long way to ensure that your viewers convert into purchasers. This will automatically lead to a higher customer engagement rate. Slowly but gradually, you can personalize the content to broaden the scope of a higher conversion rate.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">First, we have to understand the different stages which constitute the marketing funnel. It’s a step-by-step process to turn your social media marketing strategies into success. </span>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>The stages of a social media marketing funnel</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">There are various stages that are involved</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in a marketing funnel. Social media affects each and every stage. The intensity depends on the approaches you undertake. Let's go through them one by one.</span>
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<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Awareness</b></span></h3>
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</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The first stage is all about creating awareness about your brand, its services, and products. As the title of the stage suggests, you have to take measures to promote your brand and its aspects. By utilizing a variety of social media platforms like Facebook and <a href="https://vividreal.com/tips-for-instagram-marketing-how-to-kill-it-on-instagram-in-2020/">Instagram</a>, you can achieve the above. Using paid Facebook ads is a great way to reach the targeted audience. </span>

Oh, and on a similar note, <a href="https://vividreal.com/facebook-ad-campaigns/">our team has Facebook Ad campaign experts</a> who will help you to increase your sales and leads. Talk to us today.

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Brand awareness is extremely important to increase your customer reach. This is the first stage in a customer’s journey to know your brand.</span>
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<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Engagement</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">The second stage consists of the relationship between the customer and your brand. Getting faintly acquainted with your brand will not cut the deal. In order to convert the customer, the relationship has to be made stronger.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">You have to utilize the strategy of social media marketing in such a way that your visitors show deep interest in your brand and actively engage with it on social media platforms.</span>
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<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Consideration</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">This stage represents a crucial one. This is where the customer seriously considers the proposition of buying your products. By displaying offers, benefits, discounts, positive testimonials from other customers, you are aiding the customer to make a decision regarding the purchase. Applying “limited-time” strategies can help in compelling the customer to grab the opportunity.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">This stage fluctuates according to the domain of the product, but social media undoubtedly plays an integral role in strengthening this segment of the customer’s journey.</span>
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<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Action</b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">This is typically the final stage of the funnel, where the desired outcome should be the purchase of the product by the customer. This is not always the case though. Sometimes, it can lead to a query or an aspect of a similar kind, and not a conversion. The worst-case scenario is that the customer turns away and does not buy the product.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">In this situation, you will have to find other means to retarget your lost customers and convert them. This could be done through retargeting ads or reminder emails.</span>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>What elements do you include to create a social media marketing funnel that converts?</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Now that you have understood the various stages involved, we can have a look at the elements that go into the making of a social media marketing funnel that increases your conversion rate.</span>
<ul>
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<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Develop business awareness in the first stage</b></span></h3>
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</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Before you venture into social media marketing, you have to understand the importance of incorporating the correct elements in your funnel.</span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Including relevant information like contact details, a relevant CTA button, and enticing content, on the landing page of your social media channels will allure the audience to engage. Social media platforms like Instagram have limited space for the display of information. It’s important to keep in mind that you do not include significant information that may be overlooked.</span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Making use of social media features like image and video sharing, posts, live updates on various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram keeps your audience updated with the latest content regarding your brand. This will aid in keeping your social media profiles active. A dead profile is not going to reap in benefits.</span></span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Algorithms can also go a long way to help you understand the spectrum of your targeted audience and the corresponding content to be included in the social media pages. With the inclusion of the right content, you can massively increase the rate of customer engagement.</span></span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Using paid advertisements to substantially increase brand awareness on social media is being frequently put in motion. PPC ads by Facebook and sponsored posts will bring in traffic to your content. Instagram features like Stories and posts also aid in the above.</span></span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Taking the help of Influencers to market your products is a brilliant strategy, especially on Instagram. Influencers, both<a href="https://vividreal.com/5-ways-micro-influencers-can-up-your-marketing-game/"> micro</a> and macro, have an admirable number of followers and they have the capability to influence their followers to visit your website, purchase your products, etc.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Such an incorporated strategy can aid to build your repertoire of leads and supports the conversion of potential buyers.</span>
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<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Sustain the potential buyer’s interest and cultivate the prospects in the second and third stages</b></span></h3>
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</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">In the consequent two stages, you have to put efforts to maintain a lead’s interest in your product and cultivate the desire to purchase the product. Basically, you have to show and convince them to buy your products. You may ask, how do we do it?</span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">It is crucial to build a trustworthy and genuine image of your brand. This is one of the ways through which you can develop your lead’s interest. Asking your current customers to leave reviews and comments regarding their experience with your business, on social media, will aid in increasing trust and build the legitimacy of your brand.</span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The display of testimonials on your social media pages will enhance the credibility of your brand.</span></span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Also, you have to ensure the maintenance of the developed interest in your brand. All those efforts will bear results if you do so. Posting content such as hosting contests, polls, a live Q &amp; A session will provoke engagement from the leads.
</span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can also host contests where participants are required to share variables of your content in order to enlist in the competition. This is a tactful strategy to receive no-cost brand promotion on social media platforms.</span></span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Utilizing tools to build the landing page, such as Clickfunnels, can aid in the creation of squeeze pages that will collect data in exchange for useful resources such as free guides or handbooks. You can use the collected data to retarget the leads and maintain their interest in that specific product or interest. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Once you have understood this aspect of the funnel, you can proceed to personalize your strategy for every prospect and increase conversions subsequently.</span>
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<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Conversion of prospects into buyers in the fourth stage</b></span></h3>
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</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">In the final stage, you have to concentrate on making your lead commit to a purchase. Once you have completed the phase of developing the interest of the lead, you have to look at ways to convert the lead through social media marketing.</span>
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 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are various distractions that could hinder the process of conversion. In case the prospects require encouragement, utilize the collected data acquired in the second and third stages to reach out with alluring deals.</span></span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email marketing, targeting pixels, sponsored posts and paid ads are some of the mediums through which you can retarget those leads.</span></span></span></span> Check out <a href="https://vividreal.com/9-deadly-email-marketing-mistakes-that-you-might-be-making/">our article on some of the email marketing mistakes that you should avoid</a>.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once you have achieved the all-important goal of converting the lead, encourage your customers to continue the relationship with your brand. Maintain your social media marketing strategies so that the interaction with your customers is consistent.</span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Enquiring about their experience with your brand or asking them to leave a review aids in reassuring the customers of the services provided by you. By using personalized retargeting, you will encourage recurring purchases and build the trust factor.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">You can use various effective means to measure the impact and ROI of social media marketing.</span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Statistical comparisons of different social media platforms.</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Comparison of sales on one social media platform versus another.</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Tracking user-interaction of specific social media platforms.</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Utilizing Software-as-a-service(SAAS) measuring tools.</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Measuring conversions from social media platform based sales.</span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Making use of information collection apps such as Facebook Store, email signup pages. </span></li>
</ul>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>To sum it up…</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Using a social media marketing funnel imparts a clear understanding of the approach to convert leads and prospects. Each constituent plays an integral role in developing the structure of the funnel. Through social media marketing, you are able to broaden the scope of increasing the number of leads and their subsequent conversion.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Social media proves to be an efficient medium to increase the traffic to your website by promoting your brand on various platforms. All businesses should utilize it as efficiently as possible to witness positive growth. And a social media marketing funnel will aid your brand in implementing these strategies. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">If you are having difficulties in understanding and implementing the approaches, <a href="https://vividreal.com/social-media-marketing/">our team of Social Media Marketing experts</a> will be glad to help you out!</span>