Use a Facebook App as a Call to Action to Increase Social Conversions

The social networking revolution has produced a quantum shift in marketing. Businesses that have learned how to leverage social networks, like Facebook, have reaped the benefits of being proactive by generating more social conversions. Social conversions can range from more social engagement to sales and revenue uplift. Apps that facilitate more marketing leads and create sales are one of the best ways to generate a call to action to potential customers that they will respond to and enjoy.

Nfoto Case Study

A Norwegian online retailer of photo products and services has used apps to increase sales conversions, achieving a higher return on their investment. By using apps from ShopSocially, they were able to produce a 20 percent increase in their fan base in one month. However, for every two new fans that they managed to get, at least one of them would end up as a paying customer. They even obtained a 43 percent conversion rate, which is extraordinarily high for most online businesses. In total, the photo business managed to generate $400,000 in incremental revenue through their use of social apps on Facebook. This proves that apps can help you catapult your sales strategy to new heights by adopting the very same strategies.

Effective Calls to Action Can Increase Your Business Income

One of the most important aspects of any marketing message is the call to action. Without asking for the sale or the social action you want to instigate, you have less of a chance of getting it. Social apps can be clever ways to include your call to action in a way that is socially-acceptable. Unlike an e-commerce website that can use a direct approach in asking for sales, it’s considered rude to solicit anyone on a social networking site. They’re not there to buy a product, unlike those that visit an e-commerce website. They’re there to socialize. To ask for the sale, Facebook apps that convert tend to do it in a much more subtle fashion. For instance, they might hold a contest to generate leads and make a sale, but the main motivator may be entertainment, not need. In addition, a social call to action might involve asking a person to fan your page or to share your status updates. It’s hoped that by generating incentives that create a desire to buy afterwards that these marketing leads will convert to sales. If nFoto’s example is any indication, that’s not that hard to do with the right Facebook apps in place.

How to Use Facebook Apps to Increase Your Social Conversions

Social apps are available through Facebook and a variety of third-party portals, like ShopSocially.com. They can enable you to add functionality to your business page, create interesting social events, or ask questions from your audience. The more you engage your friends in ways that appeal to them, the more likelihood they will respond to you when you decide to issue a call to action via any one of these strategies that involve using apps:

• Contests – What better way to introduce your products or services to your fan base than a contest? You can get many marketing leads, valuable customer feedback, and someone gets to be a lucky winner! People love entering contests and you can find many different contest apps to make it an easy way to ask people to friend or fan you. You can even make their contest entry conditional upon sharing or commenting your contest posting.
• Referrals – ShopSocially’s Refer-a-Friend app was a big part of nFoto success story. This app offers a visitor a discount for hitting the like button Facebook. This action will put your post on their feed, making it visible to their friend’s list. It’s a quick an easy way to promote your posting. This can amplify your outreach tremendously on Facebook.
• Coupons – Another strategy that contributed to nFoto’s success was the use of coupon apps. Apps that offer electronic coupon codes to people can help motivate people to buy in a specific period of time or risk losing the discount. You can even use a coupon app to provide another coupon for people who have already completed a sale, to ensure repeat business. Coupons are one of the most effect ways to generate sales and adding them into your social networking strategy can increase your sales dramatically.
• Promotions – A myriad of apps will help you spread the word to generate word-of-mouth endorsements. When a user clicks “Share” on your posting on Facebook, the item is put on the user’s wall and remains there a lot longer than when they hit “Like.” This amounts to a testimonial or endorsement of your services and free advertising. There are apps that will facilitate sharing and give incentives to visitors to share your message with their friends. Look for apps that do this for mobile phones to reach that audience, too.
• Surveys – Another way to create some interest and gain valuable feedback from your fans is to conduct a survey. It generally amounts to asking some question of relevance to your fan base. The Ask-a-Friend app on ShopSocially is one example of this type of app. This can help you measure interest in some specific market activity you have planned in the future. A low level of interest will mean not to waste your time on the effort in the future.

• Lead Acquisition – You can’t harvest emails from Facebook directly without consent. It’s against their policy and can cause your account to be terminated. However, you can get an app that will help you with lead acquisition, including some that integrate into your fan page that will allow them to add their email to your mailing list. That is a legal way to grab an email from Facebook. Another way to get a lead is use Facebook login apps on your website to allow a quick registration that encourages people to register with your site. This can allow you to market them on Facebook and promote your products and services on their feed when they make a purchase.

Social Apps on Facebook Facilitate the Marketing Process

Social networking pages help you reach out to thousands on a daily basis. However, with more people paying attention, you need to automate the process of collecting leads and generating sales. Apps can step into the gaps left behind by the lack of marketing functionality available in the Facebook platform. They can help you engage your fans in ways that they find acceptable and interesting, without being too pushy. They have been proven to increase social conversions like marketing leads and sales. As more businesses learn the ins and outs of marketing to Facebook users, they will start to integrate more apps to their business pages. Early adoption can be the route to greater riches, a wider exposure, and a much easier and more efficient way to do business on Facebook.