Stop trying to sell with every post you make!
This has been my go-to thought when people ask me for advice about social media- stop making every post a sales post.
“But Ethan, isn’t that the whole point of my business being on social media?”
I get it; as a marketer, I want every single post I make to earn me money- to get the sale. And if people don’t know what I am offering, how are they going to buy from me? Or maybe they’re going to forget and I lose their business. However, as a social media user, it’s the opposite.
Open your book
Imagine you're reading a book and every sentence was "Come buy from me" os something similar. You're going to get bored with that book before you hit page 2. That book will wind up in the trash pretty fast. Our timeline has the exact same issue.
Think about it this way: You’re writing a book. Every post you make is a sentence in the book about you or your business. If every post is “come buy from me” or “look what I do”, your audience will stop engaging. Then they’ll stop looking at your content altogether and now your posts are having the opposite effect and you’re not selling anything.
So how can you stop selling with every post?
Instead of constantly telling people about the ways they can do business with you, give them the why. Bring value to your followers- what will they gain from following you? We buy from people we know, like, and trust so you content should reflect that. Content ideas could be:
Advice
Industry knowledge
Behind the scenes glimpses into your days
Customer testimonials
I’m not saying that you never have a sales-type post. People should periodically be reminded that hey, you are a business and they can buy from you. My general rule-of-thumb is 1 out of every ten posts is a sales-type post. The rest is filled in with other content ideas that still tell your story without explicitly selling to them. Use a content calendar to get your ideas organized and move forward from there.
So stop trying to sell with every post you make and make a timeline worth reading.