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

The distinctive aspect of social media, setting it apart from other marketing channels, is its potential to not just fulfill customer demand, but to actually create it. In this article, we will discuss how to use the classic purchase funnel in social media.

Firstly, let’s revisit the Lewis concept, which is well-known in marketing.

• Awareness. We expand the audience reach.
• Interest. We aim to position and develop the brand in a way that will generate interest and capture the attention of potential consumers towards your product or service.
• Desire. We highlight the unique selling points of your product/service to demonstrate its superiority over competitors.
• Action. We encourage the customer to take action and make a purchase.

A – How can we connect with potential clients?

There are various ways to capture the audience’s attention on social media. However, it’s important to note that before creating a social media marketing strategy, we must have a clear understanding of our target audience and unique selling proposition (USP) to work with.

At this stage, utilizing a variety of tools will increase your reach and thus increase the likelihood of potential clients becoming aware of your brand.

Paid promotion:

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

Social media marketing provides extensive targeting opportunities that set it apart from other tools in the digital market. With VKontakte’s targeting functionality, you can even direct your ads to your competitors’ audience.

In addition to this, there are various services available to collect data on the social media audience that is relevant for launching further ads. Here are some examples of such services:

• Cerebro Target is an official VK app used for audience search and targeting.
• TargetHunter is a contemporary tool designed to analyze and select an engaged target audience on VKontakte.
• Pepper.Ninja is a parsing service that can be used to extract audience data from social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Odnoklassniki, and VKontakte.

Additionally, it is important not to overlook the potential of organic reach and the methods to increase it, which include:

• Organic reach can also be increased through social media contests that encourage users to repost, tag a friend, or engage with your brand in some other way.
• Content that has the potential to go viral
• Another way to increase organic reach is through active participation in themed groups on Facebook, VKontakte, and engagement with Instagram bloggers who have a relevant audience, as well as on thematic pages.

I – How Can You Generate Interest?

To accomplish this objective, high-quality content on your social media accounts will assist you:

• Demonstrate your expertise.
• Offer the user comprehensive information about your offer: explain the customer problems, pain points, and needs you can solve.
• In account posts and sections, address major concerns and objections that your clients may have.

It is essential to establish paid promotion of your posts and monitor user engagement. This includes analyzing which posts evoke more emotions and lead to more queries and conversions. By examining these metrics, adjustments can be made to the content plan.

D – How can you demonstrate your superiority over your competitors?

To demonstrate your superiority over your competitors, consider the following strategies:

• Gather enough reviews, relevant information, and research to showcase your credibility to customers.
• Publish positive reviews on your page and respond to negative ones.
• Participate in themed groups and offer consultation to users.
• Create video reviews of customers and post them on your page.
• Answer customer inquiries on social media and messaging apps.
• Produce product review videos for YouTube.

Utilize paid placement techniques such as:

• Retargeting on VKontakte and Facebook: promote posts that feature positive comments and reviews from satisfied customers.

A – How can you encourage customers to make a purchase?

To encourage potential clients to make a purchase, you can provide incentives through discounts, coupons, and other special offers. Time-limited offers tend to be more effective in social media.

Here are some ways to stimulate conversions:

• Send special offers to subscribers via messaging.
• Run contests on social media that incentivize purchases.
• Offer promo codes for exclusive discounts that are only available to social media followers.

Utilize paid advertising:

• Retargeting your special offer posts to a specific audience.

When setting up retargeting, it is recommended not to exclude subscribers from your group or account. Social media algorithms are working against brands, and it is nearly impossible to achieve organic reach, even with high engagement rates.

Conclusion

The purchase funnel is not a tool for selling, but rather a tool for controlling sales. It is important to note that if your company’s sales system is not well-developed, the funnel will not be effective. Additionally, it is important to understand that the purchase funnel is just one part of the customer journey, and there can be multiple touchpoints with customers at every stage. In this blog, we have only covered one possible way to create a purchase funnel using a single channel, social media.

If you are looking for a comprehensive solution to promote your brand in the Russian market and CIS countries, Quarter Billion Agency Group’s experts can help you develop and implement an effective marketing strategy.