How to Sell Online to Generation Z
Generation Z (Gen Z) is no longer the future, it is the present. Let's learn about their shopping habits, what makes them unique, and how to sell to them.
People in service-based businesses have always struggled with using Instagram to advance their enterprises. It is frustrating to see a platform with incredible potential, but have no idea how to use it to your advantage. These entrepreneurs struggle to find the right content to post to keep their businesses in front of potential customers. That is why many entrepreneurs in service-based businesses just keep away from Instagram altogether.
However, there are certain things you can do and tactics you can employ to not only have a presence on Instagram, but to thrive - including making money on the social networking platform. In addition to using Instagram tools like Growr, which can help you better position your service-based business to grow its audience and make money, you can consider the following:
Show your expertise
You can use your Instagram account by answering important queries they may have in the fields in which you are an expert. Find tips, shortcuts, and hacks that you can share with your audience and keep them longing for more.
It may surprise you to find that some tips that you may regard as a little too obvious will actually elicit interesting responses from your Instagram followers and solidifying your position as an expert in that industry. Create compelling and eye-catching visuals to further help you make your point, and do it in a way that makes your followers want to know more.
Inspire with quotes
People love quotes. They are extremely common and often create high levels of engagement. Just take a look at your Instagram newsfeed right now and you will see a number of them as you scroll down. You can leverage quotes, too. Whenever a potential client walks through your doors, they may truly be in need of your services, but the truth is, often this need comes from other things within them, including their ambitions and dreams as well as their fears.
You can use quotes to speak to their inner selves and the issues that sent them to your door in the first place. For instance, a client who’s looking for a virtual assistant will most likely have a deep-seated need to have more time to work on the bigger picture of their enterprises. They know that a lot of their time is spent on tasks that hardly push their vision forward and so they might not even realise that they’re looking for someone to take care of these tasks, which can leave them with the time they need to pursue “the big picture”.
To these kinds of followers, you can share quotes about time, fulfilment of dreams, etc. Leveraging quotes in no way means that you have to bombard your Instagram followers with philosophical quotes; it means you should add some to your overall content posting plan, and share them once in a while.
Post short testimonials
Instead of looking at Instagram as a platform for sharing images and short video clips, see it as a micro-blogging platform. This means showcasing your authentic self as if you were in a room with the followers you are conversing with. It is possible to have captions as short as a single line, a paragraph or a mini blog post. Instagram limits a post to 2,200 characters, but you can also use the comments section to continue a thought.
Show your services in action
When creating your Instagram posting schedule, think about the outcomes that make clients stay loyal to the services you offer. Use this social media platform to showcase these goals being accomplished. Create appealing pictures that would be a good representation of your services and share them.
Nike and nails... what a niche! (Source: @jessicawashick)
Inspire with success stories
Every success story your business collects as it engages with its customers can be repurposed for Instagram. By sharing these client stories, you encourage others to seek out your services. You can request your clients to record a video for you or write a testimonial that you can share on Instagram.
If you are in a niche market, like the health and fitness industry, it helps to share images of a client before and after they used your services. Other niches where this tactic could work include nail technicians, seamstresses, hair stylists and dermatologists. On social media, images speak louder than words.
Sell the solutions to their problems
To stand out from your competition, consider not just displaying your services and making your sales pitches to potential clients, but as a brand that helps people make lifestyle changes. Whether it’s changing to attain greater financial freedom, seeking better health, finding more time to spend with family, boosting self-esteem, etc., there are ways you can talk about these lifestyle changes through images and video clips. You just need to be a little creative to figure out how to tell these stories in a number of ways that make them look and sound fresh every time.
Offer tips
Shutterstock/marigo20
All service-based businesses can offer tips as a way of keeping their Instagram followers engaged on social media. Tips can be about the process they need to know to make the most of your services as well as answers to frequently answer questions that many of your customers may have about your business and its services. The tips should be closely related to your business’ value proposition.
Conclusion
While the process of creating a workable platform for a service-based business can sometimes be challenging, brands that decide to put enough effort into it have found themselves thriving and growing their clientele. So, don’t shy away from the platform, there are opportunities hidden therein that you will only find when you submerge yourself in it.
