6 Ways to Influence a Purchase using Social Media
I have been thinking about the power of social media persuasion lately and have read multiple papers on how Generation X (1965-1980), Millennials (1981-1996) and Generation Z (1997 and later) make their purchasing decisions.
On average your target market spends up to six and a half hours per day viewing social media content (Instagram, YouTube, FB) which makes up a quarter of their day. That is the time that you have to capture that customer’s attention.
With the beauty industry market being valued at around $532 billion and expected to be valued at $806 billion by 2023, it shows how much influence the industry has over it’s consumers and how popular it has become (Global, 2018). Over the last few years, this large shift in the industry was due to the increased use of digital marketing, social media, and the psychology of persuasion. Persuasion is the centerpiece of any business activity. Customers must be convinced to buy your company's products or services.
When it comes to purchasing new products or looking for new product recommendations, 53.13% of the respondents turn to social media or online beauty influencers to find new suggestions. The other 46.86% either visit a store or ask a friend or family member for recommendations. 80% of consumers are likely to buy a product based on a friend's or digital influencer's recommendation. Understanding the statistics, what is the persuasive behavior that the brand or an influencer should use?
Here are 6 suggestions:
1. People are not inspired to act by reason alone, they want to see results.
2. Use language that will unite an idea with an emotion. The art of storytelling takes intelligence and it also demands a life experience; it is not an easy task. Make sure to practice your delivery.
3. Toss out the powerpoint slides, dry memos and learn to tell a good story. In a story you can provide a lot of information, but also arouse your listener's emotions and energy. Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists.
4. It takes rationality, however little creativity to design an argument using conventional rhetoric. It demands vivid insight and storytelling skill to present an idea that packs enough emotional power to be memorable.
5. Follow this general structure:
Personal desire
Life objective
Struggle against the forces that block that desire
6. Understand humanity in others and deal with your audience in a compassionate, yet realistic way.
If you want to influence how the customer feels about your product, provide an expertise that creates the desired emotion. Share a vivid customer story contrast this approach with that of a salesperson delivering a data dump in the form of an 85 slide PowerPoint presentation, and your online campaign just formed itself! Make sure you do that on a regular basis so that you audience comes back to you as their favorite resource.
Hope this was helpful!
MD