Using Social Media to Promote Direct Sales Services
To make your activity known to consumers, social networks represent an excellent lever.
They are a simple, free, and effective support to address your customers and broadcast your product catalog.
It is a very interesting building block for your communication, but be careful they do not replace everything because only part of the clientele is on social networks. You must therefore continue more traditional communication actions in parallel (sending SMS, sending emails...).
Choosing the channel that suits us best
No need to be everywhere, especially if social networks are not our strong suit from the start. You must prioritize the one that suits you best, according to your skills and expectations.
To choose the most relevant social network, you need to ask yourself some questions about your objectives :
- Looking for first customers?
- Developing current sales?
- More visibility?
And above all try to capitalize as much as possible on these prospects.
Creating a website with Wordpress/Wix or others
It is possible to create a website for your farm, where you will find opening hours, some photos, etc. However, unless you have a lot to say, time, IT skills, or a lot of money to spend, it is rather a bad idea! Creating a website that is both beautiful, well referenced, synchronized in terms of information (hours, prices, etc...) costs money and takes time (count on €5000 for the creation of the site).
In practice, it is much more profitable and effective to list your farm on existing sites, especially those that work best, i.e. Facebook, Bienvenue à la Ferme, and Google Maps...!
Google Maps
It is important to list your farm on Google Maps, to add your opening hours, some photos, etc... The addition is done via Google Business, and will allow you to post news, etc.
Don't forget to ask your customers to add a positive review of your farm when they come!
Bienvenue à la ferme
Bienvenue à la ferme is a good place to make yourself known: the site is well referenced and appears correctly when searching on Google. It is not necessary to put your entire catalog there but it is important to be present.
https://www.bienvenue-a-la-ferme.com/
To start on Facebook, it is important to create a Facebook page (not a personal profile). This will have more impact with customers who will more quickly associate it with a sales space. Creating a Facebook page is done via this link.
On this page, you can make as many posts as you want, it allows you to capitalize on potential future customers.
Above all, do not forget :
- To indicate your contact details (phone number and/or email as well as your address depending on the commercial organization).
- To check comments on posts and messages received on Messenger to have optimal exchange with your audience and not miss potential orders.
- Add your Whatsapp (see below)
- Join local groups with your page ("You know you come from...", etc...) and share posts regularly (no more than once a week!).
With Facebook, it is possible to create an online shop or put a link to your website or your online order form.
Example of an interesting Facebook page.
The little extra tip : Change your cover photo as your sales progress. A photo of your products/production with available products, prices, and your contact details allows your customers to have all the necessary information for the purchase in a few seconds.
Whatever strategy you follow, you must facilitate access for your virtual customers, to your farm or your catalog as soon as possible. You can use Sucrine Club for that.
This social network is quieter but just as effective if your goal is to communicate more easily with your existing community.
You can create a group with your consumers, simply by entering their number.
You can also configure it as you wish : allow everyone to speak or only yourself, if you just want to send information to all your customers at once (for example, announcing a new sale).
It is also possible to set up "Whatsapp for business" which is a good way to keep the door open with your potential customers (usually connected via the website or via Facebook).
A good principle is to post once a week, highlighting products, possible compatible recipes, etc... It is also a good way to ask your current customers to share with their acquaintances to recruit new customers...
Good to know : WhatsApp will not bring more visibility than you already have. It will simply help to communicate better with your customers.
Another interesting social network is undoubtedly Instagram. It will be more focused on photo or video posts : it is the ideal medium to share beautiful photos of products or the farm. It also allows you to target a younger population.
The "stories" you share and which are visible only for a few hours can be an opportunity to get closer to your community, encouraging them to react and respond.
It is also possible to add hashtags (#) followed by keywords to posts. They allow grouping all posts mentioning the same hashtag and thus potentially reach targets interested in this keyword.
Good to know : It is possible to connect your Facebook page to your Instagram page thanks to the tool Meta Business, which allows you to reach different communities easily. You can prepare posts in advance and schedule the date and time of publication on both social networks.
Youtube
Youtube is an interesting social network if you already have the knack - the idea is not to promote your products there but to make yourself known to attract customers indirectly.
Warning: this activity is very time-consuming without necessarily having many sales benefits. It is not a recommended channel UNLESS you are already well established and it is an activity you enjoy!
In any case, keep in mind that building a community takes time, you must be patient and manage to create relevant content to grow it.
The most important is the engagement rate of the people who follow you. It is better to have a small community very interested rather than a large community insensitive to your products.
How to use social networks
Have an attractive profile
To attract your future customers to your page, you must be attractive :
- All information must be quickly visible on your profile : Farm name, type of production, location (municipality and department), and at least a phone number or an email address. At a glance, users must have an idea of who you are and what you do.
- Put a profile picture : Yourself, your products, the farm, there is no rule but it will be the first image people have of you on social networks.
- Make a small personalized description on your profile.
Take the opportunity to put key information (accompanied by emojis, it is more visual), for example :
- 🐷 Direct sales Gascon pork
- 🚜 Coin Coin Farm
- 📍Lannemezan (65)
- 🧑🌾 To discover the farm and place an order: https://elevageducoincoin.sclub.fr/
Post at the frequency that suits you
No need to add pressure with unsustainable posting goals. The goal is not for maintaining your social networks to become a burden.
You can post at the frequency that suits you, as long as your profile exists, that remains the main thing.
The posting frequency depends on several parameters :
- What are you looking for?
- What are your skills?
- How much time do you have to devote?
If you have more time during certain periods of the year, do not hesitate to schedule posts to anticipate busier periods.
Also, one way to increase your posting frequency is to delegate posts.
On Instagram, you can now make shared posts, which means they are visible on two profiles at once. Why not share a post with a neighboring farmer or call on a local influencer? By influencer, it can simply be a person with a more or less large community but who might be interested in your products.
Inspiring content ideas
It is not always easy to know what to post to create new posts.
Here are some ideas :
- Introduce yourself as well as team members if you have several because consumers like to put a face behind the products.
- Present the farm, the sales place so that consumers can project themselves.
- Present the animals, products, events and farm work everything that can help consumers understand your job and get closer to you.
- Post recipe ideas, product preservation tips or even share customers’ reviews.
You must encourage community members to interact : ask questions, ask for their opinion and above all do not forget to answer them!
How to turn your followers into customers?
This remains the most important step : finding new customers through social networks.
To optimize your chances of converting followers into customers, you must make it as easy as possible for them.
In addition to all the posts you publish that will make them want to buy from you, you must clearly give them instructions to follow to buy your products. For example, offer exclusive deals on the first order of a new customer.
Ideally, provide them with a unique order link, so customers can see product availability and order independently either for pickup at the farm or delivery.
You can also pin a post with prices and your contact details so it is always visible.
Find here tips to easily share your catalog.
Sponsored posts
It is possible to ensure some visibility by paying for sponsored posts.
Their cost varies and you can use them occasionally for example :
- For the launch of sales.
- To announce events.
- To make special offers.
These posts allow you to target consumers located near your farm.
Other means exist to make yourself known to users.
For example, you can easily set up a Google My Business page and register on Google Maps to have information visible from the first page of search results.
Sources
This article was written thanks to the kind contribution of Sucrine Club.
