Want More Sales? Engage on Facebook!

by Janet Gifford

Today I was talking to a client about the struggles of trying to run a busy retail business, and yet still stay connected to the customers who keep her business afloat, but don’t come in every day (or week, or even month). She’s trying to post on her Facebook business page more regularly to stay in touch with everyone, but she’s having trouble thinking of things to post. Here is a list of 3 things that she can do right now to get started, and then 2 ideas to plan for down the road.

What’s new, right now, in your business?

1. Have you put your fall line(s) out? Tell us about them! Take pictures – show us how cool things are and invite us to come see what’s new. Fall clothes … especially … have yummy textures and patterns. Describe them for us.
2. If you have a new service, let us know why it’s perfect for us. Describe it, then add the important WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) piece.
3. Take pictures of your store, your storefront, the flowers in the box outside, your staff, or a particular product that you want to highlight. It’s summer produce season – do you sell a kitchen tool that makes slicing zucchini a breeze?

Create a plan – it will make it much easier!

1. Put a notepad by your register, or somewhere close to where your staff is. Ask your staff to jot down ideas for posts. Did you have an interesting conversation today that could be a fun post? Did someone give you a great tip? Did you hear a neat story about how one of your customers or clients used something they bought from you? It’s all about engaging folks so that they can get to know who you really are, and then giving them reasons to come see you again (and again, and again)!
2. Take advantage of buying cycles. Every successful business knows what their buying cycles look like – do you know yours? Who is buying what from you – and when are they buying it? Once you know that, create quick Facebook posts based on that idea. Think about my example above with the zucchini slicer. If you are a kitchen store and late summer/fall means your customers are in buying pots to process homemade salsa and food processors for pesto, tell them what’s new and why they need it. If you’re a hardware store and fall means yard cleanup, what garden tools do you have that should be in everyone’s garden shed?

Here’s a quick example for a women’s clothing store. Post a picture of your favorite fleece jacket and then a caption: ”Our fall line of luscious, super-soft and fuzzy fleece pullovers just arrived! The colors are fabulous and will give you that outdoorsy glow, even if you’re more of a sit-inside-by-the-fire sort of girl. Here’s a picture, but you really need to come in and feel the fabric.”

Engaging with your customers and clients doesn’t have to be a chore (although it’s easy to get into that mindset). Your posts can – and should – be short, interesting, and fun snippets of information that keep you top-of-mind with the people who already know you and like you.

Ready to post? Tell us what’s new and why we need it!