Two Reasons Why Your Social Media Strategy Isn't Working

I’m sure we’ve ALL heard the success stories about businesses that have made crazy SALES thanks to Instagram.

And maybe you feel like you’re over here putting all this time and effort into your social media, but something feels OFF? You’re not seeing ALL the leads and sales raining into your DMS.

And now you’re like, am I missing something here?

I hear this a lot. 

AND here’s the TRUTH behind those success stories.

Social Media ISN’T Everything.

I see way too many businesses that treat social as their entire marketing plan. 

The whole sha-bang.

They’re posting beautiful photography on Instagram, following all the tips and tricks…hoping to get the attention of their ideal customer

And I think the problem is they’ve heard how powerful social media marketing is WITHOUT realising that it is the FIRST step in what is often a 4 or 5 step process.

They’re posting away - with content disappearing from the feed or Stories within 24 hours and there’s no sign of a STRATEGY - and it's frustrating cos they’re not seeing ANY growth for their business.

And they’ll usually end up saying “social media isn’t working”

Don't get me wrong, social media when done properly as part of a bigger marketing plan can completely transform a business.

And I love social media for all the positive impact that it can have for small businesses. 

What I don't love about social - we’ll save that for another day.

Anyway - I mean I wouldn't have had a whole career and now my own business without it.

BUT here’s the thing.

Social media is just a tool for amplifying OUR message, and for getting OUR brands out there.

It comes last and is just one piece of a bigger puzzle when it comes to marketing our business.

When a small business comes to me for help with their social media – YOU KNOW WHAT it’s OFTEN NOT their social that is the problem.

Or at least, it’s not the tactics.

It’s that they haven’t dedicated enough time to two things.

So that all of the posting to Instagram in the world won’t help without these two things.

1.  They don’t have a clearly differentiated brand.

When you don't know how to communicate your difference and why you do what you do, why it matters, and how it's different from your competitors? 

You’re going to find yourself stuck in a race to the bottom on pricing. 

And let's be honest there’s just no way, us small businesses can compete against the big guys like this.

Branding is what sets you apart from your competitors. 

And I don’t just mean a logo.

Branding is about differentiation. 

It’s about answering the question: 

Why You? 

Having a clear brand identity across all touchpoints is needed in order to get ANY traction with your social…

If you jump straight into putting a bunch of money behind some FACEBOOK ads that say 

“Hey! We sell a coffee scrub, it’s great for your skin. Buy Now” 

They will fall flat. 

The ads won’t work and you’re probably gonna end up blaming Facebook ads and the ALGORITHM overlords. 

When the truth is your branding is your message, and if it’s not strong and unique then your social media efforts are going to be for nothing.

What if you saw this message from one of my fav brands @frank_bod.

“There's a party in your bathroom, babe. Natural skincare made from coffee to give you soft, glowing skin. No nasties, so you can be naughty.”

It’s about humanising your social media accounts and NOT just putting out COOKIE CUTTER content - but REALLY thinking about things like your captions, actually putting personality and storytelling into what you do - these are things that really set YOU APART because people CONNECT with that.

Social media is just the AMPLIFIER. If you haven’t nailed your business's personality and message - amplifying isn't going to help.

2.  They don’t have a SALES FUNNEL

BECAUSE the TRUTH is a beautiful drool-worthy Instagram account isn’t gonna do ALL the work - it needs a backend system to make sure you close the deal.

You want to treat social as the conversation starter, -  It’s where everyone’s hanging out so it’s important to be there, but work on getting people off social and into a platform that you own, as soon as you can.

Because at the end of the day social channels are rented space. It’s important to give your people a reason to stay connected with you, be it your email list or website.

As business owners, we want to have this sale funnel all mapped out BEFORE we start posting on social media, or else we’re just posting for posting.

Your sales funnel is basically the journey a COLD lead takes from being completely new to you and your business to warm up until they become a customer. It’s a very intentional way of using content to sell for you.

AND social media is just one part of that funnel.

It’s important to understand where social sits within your planning.

Let's say someone sees your Instagram post, and then they check out your website where they can sign up with their email to get something valuable in return - now you can build that relationship with a series of connection-building emails until they’re ready to buy from you.

You don't wanna be pushing sales content on Instagram. 

It will pay off more if you spend your energy building real connections with your people.

Let the other steps in your process do the selling for you.