You wouldn’t interrupt people talking at a café to try and sell them something
(unless it was another cup of coffee or a slice of pie). In the same way, people
aren’t on social media to be sold goods and services. They’re there to see what their friends are up to, share interesting content, and engage with their favourite brands in social way (that’s where we come in!). However, that doesn’t mean you can’t translate social activity into sales, it just takes tact, patience, compelling imagery and the right sort of targeting.
Takeuchi are one such business we’ve been working with to great effect on that front. Importers and resellers of high-end excavators and other machinery, Takeuchi are looking to sell big-ticket items to a well-defined segment of potential customers. Importantly, they get that social media requires a ‘soft-sell’ approach, prioritising genuine connection with their fan-base over simply screaming ‘Buy! Buy! Buy!’ into the void. We’ve taken that and run with it, steadily building an engaged, well-targeted audience across their social channels. And you know what? It worked.
The Takeuchi team tell us they’ve had multiple enquiries through their 0800
number publicised on their social feeds, with those incoming requests being
converted into sales. They’ve even exhausted their initial shipment and had to hustle to bring in more machinery as demand outstripped supply! We’ve shaped content and delivered it to the right target audience to encourage those enquiries, and they’ve stepped up on their end delivering exemplary customer service to seal the deal. It’s social media for business at its best.
It might seem like a contradiction to say “people aren’t on social media to be sold to” and then following that up with “but look at this example where they were”. The key thing to remember is yes, nobody wants to be interrupted at a café to be sold something they have no interest in buying, but what if they were just talking about needing exactly what you’re offering? Well, friends, then you’re in business.
