In order to understand a social media marketing strategy and how it relates to sales, it’s important to first understand the customer journey.

A customer journey consists of three stages: awareness, engagement, and conversion. 

Different things happen at each stage and the timing of the process from start to finish, called the sales cycle, will differ from offer to offer. The bigger the investment, the longer the sales cycle.

During the AWARENESS stage, your client is coming in contact with your brand and is cold–meaning it hasn’t yet formed a connection to your brand. This is considered the TOP of your marketing funnel and typical marketing activities include social media (paid/organic), blogs (owned or guest), podcasts (owned or guest), and media features. Your marketing objective here is to reach and attract as many people as possible to build brand awareness.

During the NURTURE/ENGAGEMENT stage, the MIDDLE of your marketing funnel, your ideal client is warm and showing interest in your brand by taking an action in the journey. They may have opted into your mailing list, downloaded your lead magnet, attended a free webinar or event, asked questions about your products or services. Your marketing objective here is to nurture and create connection to appeal to your ideal client’s needs or desires.

In the CONVERSION stage, or the BOTTOM of your marketing funnel, your ideal client is warm and ready to convert. They may inquire about your services, book a discovery call, add items to their cart, etc. This is where sales happen and it is up to your sales team, sales systems, etc., to make those conversions by closing the sales. Your marketing objective here is to convert and remove as many objections as possible.

So now that you understand that social media marketing is at the top of the client journey, you can see its importance in bringing audiences to your brand. It is a key marketing component to build brand awareness and it is where the possibility for a sale starts, but it is not where your sales are made. 

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