Are you looking to get more sales accomplished in your field? With the power of Influencer Marketing, people have the ability to build their brand and sway others, but most do not know how to effectively use it. Influencer Marketing, when leveraged properly, has the power to bring in more sales and generate leads. Our Influencer Guest, Jimmy Z, talks about the best way to fill your sales funnels with tons of great tips and tools on this episode.
Learn to Influence with Integrity
During this podcast, Jimmy mentioned that the main difference between proper Influencing and manipulation is intent. A great Influencer is an individual who looks to create a win-win situation for all people involved. Another important aspect of “Influence with Integrity” is that good Influencers look to add meaning to what they sell to people. Many people will ask you why they should bother buying your services. You want to provide more value to your service than what they originally thought. When you are deeply invested in what you want to sell, you can add more personal value to a product which WILL entice people. Bottom line here – personality and passion will add more value to anything!
Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: You can use this information and apply it to the Digital Marketing world of sales. Social media is unique in that it allows us to connect to people and show off a brand. For any product you sell, you want to create content that shows how important it can be for customers. This kind of content is what we call “value-based content.” With this, you should be giving the customers as much as you can about a product by adding that personal value to your messages. If you just try a quick joke or description on social media and then wait, people will ignore what you have to say. Give them as much as you can right from the start. When you do that right, customers can refer you to others and those others will continue referring you!
Determine Your Free Line
While personal value is important to sales, you are not going to get paid because people see the personal value you are adding to the product. That is mainly to help them generate interest in what you want to sell. However, that interest can be used to convert a lead into a customer when they get some free content from you. To effectively get customers on board or invested in your product, you need to offer free things that get them thinking about you. Maybe your company publishes reports that anyone can access. Or, maybe your company uses a blog or webcast (similar to what we do at Social Jack). When you use this free material, you can get very personal with prospects and get them into your funnel. Your line of how much “free” material you give away can depend on what company you work for, but it is effective nonetheless. Think of this content as your fish hook (or net, so you can grab more fish). By hooking potential leads at the start, it is easier to get them to come on as customers!
Create Credibility
Now, without value, your customer will not be interested in your product which can be bad. However, another thing that can hurt you is not having the proper credentials to sell your product. As an Influencer, you are the expert on your career field. However, if customers do not see what gives you the right to speak to something, that will lose interest the moment you talk to them. In order to fix this, you need to build credibility. Make sure your information on social media is up to date and that people know why you are trustworthy. You can’t generate interest if the trust isn’t there.
“The two keys to selling are interest and credibility.” – Jimmy Zawiski
Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: The easiest way to build credibility is by writing a book. Did you know that Amazon Kindle can do this, not to mention, make it EXTREMELY easy? Kindle has a self-publishing feature that educates you on everything you need to know about publishing a book and putting it on Kindle for FREE. Make use of this and build your credibility!
Bonus Influencer Tip: Amazon has an additional sister site called Createspace. This site not only gives you formats you can use to publish a book, but can also provide quotas on much it would take to print it. You can also connect it to a phone number so people can order a printed copy for a cheap amount ($3-5 at most). This is a GREAT way to spread your Influence at a low cost!
Create a Sequence Map
Do you know what you want to say about product but not sure exactly how to say it? Jimmy recommends using a sequence map, which is a map filled with empty bubbles. In this map, you write down a different thought about your product in one bubble. Once you’ve written down everything you want to say, you can then develop a flow by connect one thought to another which will connect to another. By writing down what you want to say, you can better practice and effectively sell the product by knowing when to bring in that personal value.
Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: If you are not one for writing stuff down, you can do it electronically too! Pages and Microsoft word can have you use bubble shapes in a document as well. You can type in the bubbles and then draw lines to connect everything!
Find A Way to Teach a Course
Another way that you as an Influencer can bring in more people is by taking your expertise and turning it into a course for people. This can establish credibility as people can see you break down material and demonstrate why you are an expert in this field. Doing this will generate interest in your product and turn those people into customers who want to learn from you. When you have a quality course and quality marketing, you will generate A LOT of customers!
“The greatest thing you can do is take your thoughts and turn it into a course.” – Jimmy Zawiski
Influencer Marketing Pro Tip: Jimmy recommends Kajabi if you want to teach an online course. It gives users a good set up to explain things and when mixed with awesome marketing, can bring in serious revenue for you!
In Summary
Social media has a massive Influence on sales in this age, and following these tips make it simple! Remember, adding personal value to a product will generate interest, but just be aware of how much free content you give people to egg them on. You also need to establish trust with them by having proper credentials to speak to a product’s value. Luckily, there are endless resources that can help you grow your credentials and, by extension, your Influence. When you market yourself right, your sales fishing net will bring in a lot of brand new customers!
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We hope to see you in our next Influence Factory!