6 Tips to Build a Winning Social Media Marketing Funnel

Every growing company needs a social media marketing campaign that’s well-targeted and efficiently executed.

You’ve got to pick the right KPIs, set up appropriate social media channels, and know when to make strategic changes after a period of tracking—and these are just some of the moving parts marketers will need to master for a successful campaign.

1. Set Appropriate Goals and Expectations

Is your campaign conversion-oriented, or is it intended to build brand awareness?

The goals you choose for your social media campaign should directly influence other elements of your social media marketing strategy, like platform choice, frequency of posting, and the type of content you promote.

Your campaign expectations need to be tempered by your brand’s reach, target markets, and budget, and other resources. Ask yourself: How much can I sacrifice to boost a faltering or unexpectedly successful campaign?

Keep your expectations in check. While a 100% increase in conversions is realistic for those starting from a low base, even the best social media campaigns struggle to deliver such success immediately.

Similarly, if the upper levels of the funnel are weak, there’s no chance for down-funnel success.

2. Pick the Right Metrics

The right metrics let you know when to adjust your tactics and how to maximize a campaign’s impact on its target demographic. Examples include:

• Conversions
• Site impressions
• Retweets
• Likes
• Comments
• Bounces

If your social media marketing campaign is intended to generate brand awareness rather than conversions or follower engagement, tracking site impressions and the bounce rate should take precedent. Viral social media posts are an excellent way to garner retweets and likes, but the wider the audience you reach, the less focused your campaign will be on your target market. If you’re focused on conversions, tracking the number of comments on social media posts probably isn’t necessarily relevant to that part of the funnel.

You have to be clear about what the campaign needs to do for your company. Identify the right set of metrics, and then pick your marketing tactics accordingly.

3. Spot Sales Funnel Problems Beforehand

Knowing which common social media marketing issues you might face—and how to prepare for or avoid them—will save you a lot of trouble down the road. Many social media marketing problems occur due to lumpiness in the funnel.

A lumpy funnel, where one segment of the sales funnel is over-performing relative to its input, but under-performing relative to the next part of the funnel, won’t sink a campaign, but it does highlight problems with product differentiation and messaging.

If your brand is well-established, the consideration phase is where funnel lumpiness is most likely to occur. For example, Coca Cola’s stellar brand awareness makes it difficult to expand the top of the funnel, while the lowest parts of the funnel—conversion and brand loyalty—are functioning well enough. With an inability to convince engaged consumers to defect from a competitor, the consideration phase is where an established brand’s media campaign is weak.

A lumpy funnel can be addressed by shifting a campaign’s emphasis onto product features and away from raising awareness.

4. Segment Followers and Customers

You need to know your customers and your target demographic well, especially considering the fact that only a subset of your customers is accessible via social media. Segmenting your current customers and your target market will give you the comprehensive profile you need. Start by asking these vital questions about your audience:

• Which segments of your current and target market can be engaged via social media?
• Are there any noteworthy segments among your current social media following?
• Which social media platforms are the most important to your current customers? Which are important to prospects?
• Are some segments of customers or followers more likely to be easier or harder to move down the funnel?

Once you know who you’re targeting and where, you can strategize how to move them into the next part of the funnel.

Strict segmentation, alongside well-defined goals, will keep a campaign focused and engender success.

5. Find Ways to Discourage Low-Fit Leads

One of the abstract goals of every social media marketing campaign should be to pack the higher levels of the funnel with high-fit leads.

In most social media marketing funnels, the top of the funnel will have a large number of leads that had no chance of moving further down: many of them were never a fit for the product or service being marketed in the first place

Retaining these low-fit leads further down the funnel means your campaign isn’t using its resources efficiently. Low-fit leads low in the funnel may also mean your marketing campaign is targeted inappropriately, or maybe it’s using content that’s just not refined for your target market.

To discourage these low-fit leads from the lower parts of the funnel, stay laser-focused on your content. Your social media content should explicitly outline who your product or service is intended for and how they should use it.

If you’re afraid of losing high-fit prospects by discouraging low-fit leads, you’ll need to refine your content and targeting more. This should eliminate any risk of driving away high-fit prospects—there shouldn’t be much overlap with low-fit leads if you have good product-market fit.

6. Use the Right CTA at the Right Time

Finding the right CTAs for your social media marketing campaign will work wonders for the effectiveness of your funnel as a whole. Each phase of the funnel needs a carefully chosen CTA to move the prospect to the next phase or to convert them.

You may have some success immediately converting customers who are aware of your product, but this is rare. For most social media campaigns, the first CTA the customer sees after the awareness phase should take them to another social media resource. That resource, in turn, should help them to evaluate whether the product is a good fit for them or not.

Then, at the end of the content, throw in another CTA—ask them to either convert or further their engagement by learning more. Keep them intrigued, moving them deeper into the consideration phase of the funnel rather than letting them bounce.

The chain of CTAs could continue through conversion or brand loyalty, depending on the scope of the campaign and the depth of the funnel.

Social Media Marketing Success

Remember: know your audience, keep your goals defined, and monitor your metrics. If you’re struggling to rid your funnel of low-fit leads, try refining your messaging. If you’re having issues with lumpiness, look for new ways to bolster your weak phases and even out your funnel. No matter what, don’t be afraid to try new things.

If you’re going to build a winning social media marketing funnel, experimentation is key.

<div class="tip">For a holistic understanding of sales funnels beyond social media, learn more about marketing sales funnels.</div>

This article was written by Compose.ly writer Alex Carchidi.