How to Use Social Media in the Purchase Funnel in the Russian Online Market?

The main feature that distinguishes social media from other marketing channels is that they can not only satisfy the customer demand but also to generate it. Today, we will tell how to apply a classic purchase funnel in social media.

So, let’s remember at first what the famous Lewis concept includes.

— Awareness. We increase the reach.

— Interest. We position and develop the brand in a way to quicken a consumer’s interest in your very product/service.

— Desire. We show competitive advantages of your product/service.

— Action. We stimulate conversions.

A – How Do We Reach Potential Clients?

There is a lot of ways to attract attention of audience in social media. Please note now that even before formation of a social media marketing strategy we need to clearly understand what audience and what USP (unique selling point) we are going to work with.

At this stage, the more tools you will use, the higher your reach and, consequently, a chance that your potential clients will learn about you will be.

Paid distribution:

• Targeted advertising,
• Work with opinion leaders,
• Paid placement in themed groups.

Among other tools in the digital market, social media marketing has the widest targeting opportunities. So, by means of functionality provided by that VKontakte, you can even target your ads at the competitors’ audience.

Apart from that, there are also services by means of which you can also collect data of the audience in social media that is of our interest for further ad launch. Here are examples of such services:

• Cerebro Target, an official app to search audience for VK targeting.
• TargetHunter, a modern tool to analyze and select active target audience on VKontakte.
• Pepper.Ninja, a parsing service for Facebook, Instagram, Odnoklassniki, and VKontakte audience.

Besides, one should not forget about organic reach and its increase that will be ensured by:

• Contests in social media with an appeal to repost, tag a friend etc.
• Viral content.
• Active participation in themed groups on Facebook, VKontakte, and activeness on Instagram accounts of bloggers who have relevant audience, as well as on thematic pages.

I – How Do You Spark Interest?

To solve this task, content of good quality will help you on your social media accounts:

• Show your expertise.
• Provide a user with full information about your offer: tell what customer problems, pain points, and needs you can solve.
• Uncover main issues and objections that your clients might have in account posts and sections.

You must set up paid promotion of posts and monitor users’ reactions—what posts trigger more emotions, what ones eventually lead to queries and conversions—analyze indicators, and make adjustments to the content plan.

D – How Do You Show That You Are Better Than Your Competitors?

Make sure that you have enough reviews, themed information, and studies to prove your reliability to customers.

• Collect and publish positive reviews on your page.
• Answer all negative reviews and claims.
• Consult users in themed groups.
• Make video reviews of customers and add them onto your page.
• Answer customers’ questions in social media and messengers.
• Make videos with product reviews for YouTube.

Use paid placement:

• Retargeting on VKontakte and Facebook: promote posts with clients’ comments and reviews.

A – How Do You Push to Make a Purchase?

Potential clients need a push to make a purchase: stimulate conversions through discounts, coupons, and other special offers. Note that time-limited offers work best for social media.

• Sending of special offers to subscribers in messages.
• Contests in social media that stimulate purchases.
• Promo codes for a discount that is only applicable for clients in social media.

Use paid promotion:

• Retargeting to posts with special offers.

When setting up retargeting, we recommend NOT excluding subscribers to your group/account. Social media algorithms work against brands, and today it is almost impossible to get organic reach even having a high ER.

Conclusion

The purchase funnel does not sell—it controls sales. If the sales system in your company is not developed, the funnel will not help. Besides, one needs to understand that the purchase funnel is only part of a customer journey. At that, at every stage of the journey you can have several points of contact with a customer. Today in our blog, we only went through one of possible options to construe a purchase funnel with the use of a single channel—social media.

If you decided to get promoted in the Russian market and are looking for a comprehensive solution, RMAA Group experts will help you elaborate and implement a marketing strategy to conquer consumers in Russia and CIS countries.

Follow us in social media