7 Benefits of Social Selling for Online Business Owners

Social selling (also known as virtual selling or digital selling) reflects the dynamic changes in how businesses and consumers interact today. It’s a brilliant way for sales teams to reach new and current customers, tap into new revenue streams, and reach their sales goals. Research shows that 78% of social sellers outperform peers who don’t leverage social media.

Traditional sales models typically involve cold calls, lead vetting, and sales demos. In the online age, however, how customers interact with brands and products has shifted significantly. And as an online business owner, you know how fast-paced the digital world is. New trends are constantly emerging, impacting consumer behavior and preferences. But social selling isn’t just a trend; it’s a modern sales tactic you can use to adapt to shifts in digital commerce.

Keep reading as we guide you through uncommon insights to help your brand build genuine connections that convert into brand loyalty and sales.

What is Social Selling?

Social selling is a modern customer acquisition strategy for finding, engaging with, and securing potential buyers or clients on social networks. The “social” element is very much at the heart of the strategy, whereby sales reps use social tools and networks to build connections and nurture relationships that eventually lead to a sale.

For this reason, social selling was traditionally a B2B practice. Sales reps would use platforms like LinkedIn to identify prospects, nurture potential leads, and build a network of qualified leads. It’s still a popular and effective tactic, particularly when combined with traditional lead generation and nurturing tactics like making cold calls, recording phone calls, and personalizing pitches.

But, social selling is quickly catching on in B2C, too. Online businesses now use outreach methods, social media content, and sales tools to expand their reach, connect with customers, and reach sales goals.

Yet, just because your company has a Social Media account does not mean you're leveraging social selling to the maximum. If you want to become one of the top DTC eCommerce brands in the world, you’ve got to learn the ins and outs of social selling for online business owners.

7 Ways Social Selling Positively Transforms Your Business

The general benefits of social selling are clear: it's a way to put your brand out there in front of prospects.

But is social selling really worth the hype, considering the volume of work involved? Well, keep reading to find out. We have all the answers!

7 Benefits of Social Selling for eCommerce Business:

1. Social Selling Boosts Sales

Research shows that social sellers are 51% more likely to reach their sales quota. Why? Because social selling is organic! With many of today’s online consumers looking to build genuine connections with brands, the tried-and-tested tactic gives customers what they want.

Rather than pitching to target buyers and preaching to them about why your brand is so great, it creates conversations that organically lead to sales.

2. Social Selling Increases Brand Visibility and Reach

Social selling makes the most of your resources — particularly time and money — to reach more people over time.

It requires posting useful information that others want to share, engaging with groups of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say or offer, personalizing customer interactions, and even leveraging the power of influencer marketing.

As a result, your brand builds up a positive reputation over time. The more you socialize on these platforms, the wider your network becomes, attracting people who you may otherwise not have reached through traditional means. People will begin to recognize your brand name, trust in your products and services, and tell others about your company.

3. Social Selling Helps You Run Cost-Effective Campaigns

Marketing campaigns play a key role in creating and maintaining brand awareness. However, they are often expensive and tend to target a wider demographic.

Social selling may take time, but it also costs little in comparison. And you’re more likely to see significant ROI, especially when you’re trying to find B2B clients.

Traditionally, your marketing team might have run Google ads. With social selling, you can go on LinkedIn to approach business leaders directly. They get your elevator pitch in a non-scripted way and a personal invitation to a demo appointment instead of an open-ended CTA. The result is high-quality leads and an increase in conversions at a lower cost.

4. Social Selling Helps You Engage With Different Market Segments

There's a richness to the data on social media, from demographic information to people’s interests and preferences.

You can even reverse engineer this, for example by using specific social media platforms to target different age ranges. Think TikTok for Gen Z and Facebook for Millennials and Gen X. Of course, this starts with the people who interact with your brand. However, you can take things a step further by joining groups and communities in social media spaces. This clues you into the conversations people have around your industry but away from your specific brand.

The conversations you have in these spaces can be a great promotional opportunity and a chance to learn about people. Listening to their opinions and pain points means you can create more targeted messaging in the future.

5. Social Selling Helps You Adapt to Customer Trends and Preferences

As we mentioned earlier, the way customers behave changes over time. Engaging with social media helps you to keep your thumb on the pulse. It means you can better adapt to potential shifts, such as changes in consumer payment preferences or interest in environmentally friendly packaging, for example.

Once you’ve built an established presence within your social network, you can speak to these trends. It means you can join in conversations on the topic and offer guidance such as how to pay with cryptocurrency.

6. Social Selling Increases Customer Engagement Through Personalization

Personalization is rapidly becoming a driving force in modern sales and marketing. When you interact with people on a personal level, it humanizes your brand.

This is important because it’s always more fulfilling to talk to another person than an algorithm or faceless corporation. This connection is vital for building customer engagement and trust in the sales process.

Social selling gives you access to valuable data that helps you personalize interactions. For example, you might reference a group that you’re both part of or highlight a common interest.

Social selling tools like Sales Navigator help you target prospects even more efficiently, giving you access to analytics to improve your personalization efforts and drive engagement.

7. Social Selling Gives You Competitive Advantage

More and more businesses are using social selling. According to HubSpot’s 2024 Global Social Media Trends Report, 52% of social media marketers use social media to sell products while 70% have a dedicated employee for managing social commerce.

Those who adopt social selling strategies effectively stand to gain a competitive edge. Staying active on social media and engaging with potential customers in meaningful ways means you can differentiate your business from countless others online.

Social selling methods are also flexible. The nature of it means you can learn from patterns in behavior, continue researching, and adjust as you go. As such, you’ll be among the first to find out about significant changes and trends that put you one step ahead of your competitors.

How to Make Your Social Selling Yield Superior Results

Whether you dropship on Shopify as a side hustle or own a fast-rising DTC eCommerce business, there are two main ways to go about social selling: traditional and inbound. Traditional methods rely on prospecting and lead nurturing tactics. The idea is to actively search for potential buyers who you want to build a relationship and secure business with.

Inbound social selling, on the other hand, uses tactics that draw buyers to you. By sharing useful content, making your business more searchable on social media, and establishing a positive reputation, you increase the chances of social shoppers coming to you when they’re ready to buy. It’s worth using a combination of the two to expand your network and customer base.

Here’s how it works in four simple steps:

Step 1: Establish Your Presence

Social media profiles are both a billboard and store-front. They help you make a memorable first impression on prospects and communicate your core message.

As an online business owner, you’ll likely already have business accounts on the major social media platforms. Based on your understanding of your audience, ensure you have a presence on the platforms they visit. For example, there’s no point being on TikTok if your target demographic is mainly on Facebook.

Once you have created profiles, optimize them to establish your brand on your chosen platforms. Ensure all copy and visuals align with your brand and reflect your company’s core values and offers. Remember, the main aim of social selling is to build relationships. Your profiles should attract your prospect’s attention. It should also build trust and demonstrate expertise.

Step 2: Find Potential Customers

Once you’ve established a presence, you can start searching for and connecting with potential buyers.

Start by looking at your most loyal customers, the platforms they’re on, and who else is in their network. It’s also worth looking at your competitors’ profiles to see who follows them, as those followers represent potential customers for your business.

Then, leverage sales and social tools to help you expand your network even further. Social listening tools, in particular, are a great way of finding potential customers. Use these to search social conversations for hashtags, posts, and profiles that mention your brand and relevant keywords or topics. It’s also worth setting up alerts that can flag future mentions of your brand.

If you’re using Facebook and LinkedIn, join relevant groups where you can share content with potential customers and engage with them to increase your reach.

Step 3: Create and Share Relevant Content

An inactive social media page won’t get you anywhere. Posting content gives people online something to engage with. As engagement builds, the algorithm suggests your content to more people, funneling in more potential customers.

Make your content useful and informative, not just sales. It should give value to potential buyers, demonstrating your expertise and building trust, rather than being purely promotional. This is your opportunity to build credibility and create share-worthy content that will be shown outside of your own network.

Any content you share should also be valuable, and consider ways to incentivize user-generated content (UGC). According to HubSpot, 87% of businesses say UGC increases sales so this is a powerful way of spreading awareness, building trust, and boosting conversions.

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Step 4: Engage with Your Audience

Being social means having a two-way conversation. As such, social selling requires a degree of engagement. Respond to relevant comments and interact with potential buyers on their posts or in groups.

Use this opportunity to build your brand voice and build trust. Ensure engagement is genuine and you’re only interacting with potential customers on genuine topics you can connect on.

Keep an eye on alerts from your social listening tools and respond to interactions that mention your brand, whether positive or negative. You can even use this to spark further conversations by asking questions or providing additional information.

What are the Best Networks for Social Selling?

The best networks for social selling depend on your business and customers. You must consider your target audience, industry, resources, and goals.

Each platform has unique benefits. Here's a snapshot:

• LinkedIn: Favored by many B2B businesses, LinkedIn is ideal for prospecting individual customers and targeting them with personalized campaigns. LinkedIn also has a Social Selling Index (SSI) tool to measure the success of your social selling techniques.
• Facebook: Salesforce’s State of the Connected Consumer report shows that Facebook is customers’ most preferred platform for engaging with brands.
• TikTok: With the majority of TikTok users aged under 25 years old, this is a great option for targeting this demographic with engaging content and targeted ads.
• X: Formerly Twitter, X is ideal for conducting consumer research and social listening, as you can monitor existing and potential customers, competitors, and trending topics to engage with.‍
• Instagram: Instagram lends itself to casual conversations and direct selling, with 44% of users shopping via the platform each week.

To choose the best social network for your business, you have to understand where your target audience is active. Next, define your goals and align them to the platforms' features to ensure your content resonates with the target audience. Review competitors' audience strategies and realign your messaging, if need be.

Social media moves fast. Test different options, track performance, and adjust strategies accordingly.

Final Thoughts

If you want to become one of the top DTC eCommerce brands pushing the industry further, you have to learn the ins and outs of social selling. That's non-negotiable.

While it was once a novel idea, social selling has caught on, with more and more brands selling and marketing on different platforms. Join them, and you’ll soon be connecting with customers better, building long-term relationships, and driving revenue growth.

If your online business doesn’t already engage in social selling, there’s no time like the present to kick-start your strategy. All the best!