In today’s article, I want to get to the nitty- gritty of authentic selling via social media.
If you are an online business owner, social media is a crucial piece of your sales process, but the question is…
How can you sell authentically on social media in 2023? and a “downtime trend” in the market?
Let’s take a closer look.
There were different ways of selling via social media that has worked in the last couple of years – selling via FOMO, scarcity, building “authority”, content, (Stripe) results, promises of “quantum leaps” etc.
That was the “standard” for the online industry, and it made a lot of coaches and online businesses a lot of money.
However, this was a time when money was circulating freely, and the online industry was booming. Everyone wanted a piece of the cake. The buyer’s market was not aware of the psychological triggers and trauma responses created by marketers, closers, and copywriters to get them to buy.
And a lot of buyers that were emotionally and psychologically triggered into buying – lost a lot of money.
Even though the “buyers” started to see the pattern in the industry in the way sales have been done, they were still responding to the triggers and buying into the stories and promises because they could have easily replenished the bad investments with more income by increasing their prices.
This worked for years until it didn’t.
The bubble popped. What has changed?
First of all, the “buyers market” progressed from “unaware” to “aware”. They’ve started to understand the pattern in which they’ve been sold, just to come out empty-handed, tricked, or even worse – traumatized – from the coaches and programs that promised BIG results.
Most of us, if we’ve been in the online business space for a couple of years, can remember at least 5-10 “bad” investments we’ve made, believing the stories and promises – and buying from the place of reacting VS responding.
In other words, we’ve been burned so many times by social media selling processes from the “big boys”, that we’ve come to a point of understanding the money-grab approach and have started to rebel against it.
The buyer’s market matured.
That is the first thing that changed (and it’s a HUGE change.)
The buyers have stopped reacting to FOMO, Stripe screenshots, promises, and scarcity by learning from their mistakes.
The shift in the buyer’s awareness is the first and most important reason why selling via social media, from now on – will need to change.
Your audience will not let themselves make a buying decision while emotionally triggered, because they’ve seen, time and time again – that this does not bring anything but the loss of money and confidence.
This, on the other hand, created a lot of suspicion in the overall market.
So, the new year brings in two major changes in the “buyers” market:
- The buyer’s market awareness is much higher, they’re less confused and not reacting to emotional manipulation in the sales process
- The buyers are now much more suspicious and cautious about what they buy and from whom
On the other side, the whole market has been in a downtrend for about a year – a downtrend that will most probably continue throughout 2023.
This means that there is overall less money circulating in the market, resulting in sales being harder and harder to get because the money is scarce.
You can easily see this change on social media, too.
If you look at the big online names, that just a year ago were selling “results”, “promises”, and “no sales call sales” – they are getting less and less engagement on their posts and content.
Less people are engaging, and fewer people are buying. They’ve lost the trust of the market.
No matter what big promise or Stripe account they show, trying to persuade their audience of their success.
And while the big names still perpetuate the same narrative about how they are doing well, this is just a narrative to keep their business more appealing to their audience – or grab just the last portion of the “unaware” buyer’s market.
In reality, they’ve been hit hard – and you can see the online gurus that were into pushy, manipulative sales go into the “trauma” or “authenticity” narrative to wash out the bitter taste they’ve left in their customer’s mouths.
That is the unspoken secret in the online world, but if you take the time to just look at the engagement and the comments from their audience on social media (sometimes it’s an angry mob) – you can see below the “everything is fine” surface.
So, what does all of this mean and what can you do to still sell to your audience and make money using social media – even in a downtrend?
The first step is to understand these big changes that happened in the buyer’s awareness, as well as the current market downtrend.
People don’t buy products or services anymore, they buy what you stand for and who you are.
Results are still important, but they will not get them to engage. They’ve seen enough fake promises to believe that they can repeat other people’s (sometimes faked) results.
It goes back to the beginning.
Who YOU are. How YOU vibe.
What YOU stand for.
This is the future of (authentic) social media selling.
People will still buy, even in a downtrend.
But, they will buy from people vs buying dreams or results, strategies, or frameworks.It’s time to get out of our little bubbles and start sharing what we stand for.
That means sometimes creating polarising posts, and expressing your opinion about certain topics. That means showing your struggles without the “victim porn”. Forget about the “I was living in a basement two years ago and now I am making millions” narrative.
If you want your audience to buy from you, you will need to establish TRUST. Trust is a vibrational match between you and another.
Credibility will be a huge one. Honestly as well.
And authenticity will be a CRUCIAL for selling over social media. How do I define authenticity?
For me, authenticity means that what I think is what I speak and what I do. It’s all connected.
This creates vibrational coherence, and vibrational coherence establishes trust. Your social media should be not only about your products, it should be about who YOU are. Whether you like it or not, you are now the product.
People will buy from you because they trust you and see you as an authentic, credible person with strong opinions, values, and interests. This is what will make them become your client.
So, if the future of social media selling is you and your authenticity, the best thing to do is to go inward and take a big look under your own surface.
We’re all perfectly imperfect. Stop hiding and boldly share who you are on social media. Your audience sees you anyway.