The One Type of Social Media Post That Makes Sales For You

If you’re looking to promote the sale of your products and services on social media, the first thing you might think to do is to create posts that talk about how great your company is, provide details about the way your products and services work, and share how you can make life better for people who decide to do business with you — essentially, posts that serve one purpose and one purpose only: promotion.

While this is an important end goal, if your content comes off as too pushy or “salesy,” you’ll end up getting the exact opposite result you’re looking for and drive potential consumers away.

Instead of trying to shove sales down your followers’ throats, a great and easy way to show the world how awesome your business really is is by sharing the thoughts and opinions of those who have already had the pleasure of working with you.

By posting consumer testimonials on your social media pages, your products will fly off the shelves without you having to lift a finger.

The Power of Testimonials

When’s the last time you turned to a review to help you decide where to eat, what to buy, or who to do business with?

The power of testimonials is no joke. Today, people want social proof to help them decide when and where to take action.

Social proof is defined by Wikipedia as “a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation.”

Essentially, if we see someone doing something interesting or cool, we want to hop on the bandwagon and get a taste of all the action!

According to a recent study, the regular use of consumer testimonials on your social media platforms generates over 60 percent more revenue, leads to higher conversion rates, increases search traffic, and more!

So instead of creating a post full of copy that’s clearly just trying to promote your business, it’s much better if you let others speak on your behalf.

How to Find the Best Testimonial

An easy place to pull testimonials from is by finding your business listing on online platforms like Yelp or Google, but you can also reach out to people you’ve previously worked with and directly ask them to make a comment on what working with you is really like.

An important note: If you don’t have any reviews online yet, don’t solicit your followers to write one! This can actually hurt your business more than help.

Think of it like this: The companies with the strongest reviews focus on providing the strongest customer experience — they don’t just ask anyone who happens to buy their product or use their service to leave a comment. 

In fact, most review platforms even have software that targets businesses who try to solicit reviews from their followers. If you’re looking for more information about why you shouldn’t solicit reviews and the guidelines Yelp has in place to stop you from doing so, you can head to this great article from Yelp’s official blog.

When searching for the perfect testimonial, it’s essential that you choose reviews that explain what it’s really like to work with you and the true benefits of doing so — not just ones that simply say “X Company is great!”

Once you’re ready to share that testimonial with the world, do your best to include links to the original review, pictures of the reviewer, the name of the reviewer, and contact information (like a link to their social media — not their phone number) so you come off as more authentic to your visitors.

Taking Testimonials A Step Further

While posting a photo and some written copy goes a long way, you can take the power of testimonials a step further by turning them into a video!

In fact, testimonial videos are ranked as the most effective form of video content, closely followed by tutorial and demonstration videos.

In addition to video having a way higher retention rate than written copy, video testimonials also work so well because they more clearly display and represent emotion.

If you’re still not convinced, you can head to this link to watch a testimonial video we created!

See how we were able to better set the scene, use concrete visuals to aid in our storytelling, and clearly show the emotional ties the reviewer had to the company?

Whether you decide to take the video route or simply make a social post, using testimonials in your marketing plan will help you easily sell your products, appear authentic to your followers, and effectively share your company’s greatness with the world.

If you’re interested in making a testimonial video or need any further guidance on developing a marketing campaign that works specifically for you, our team at OpticTour would love to do what we can to help you out. Whenever you’re ready, you can head to this link to get in touch!