Otherwise known as the social media funnel, the social media value chain is, quite simply, the process of turning your general audience into leads and then, finally, paying customers.
The steps you take in this process largely depend on you and your brand. While one business might have a 10-step process, yours might only need 4. And, truthfully, one isn’t always better than the other.
Having said that, this post is going to dive deeper into how the social media value chain works as well as how your PT clinic can make the most of it. Let’s get to it!
How does the social media value chain work?
As I’ve said, it works as a process with stages that largely depend on you and other factors surrounding your brand. Among others, examples of these factors include what your service is, its price, as well as your brand’s reputation.
For example, let’s say your physical therapy clinic specializes in sports rehab with rates that are understandably higher than clinics that have no specialties. Your brand might need a longer chain to make more consistent sales because you have a more specific audience and rates that require a bit more convincing.
Sample of a long social media funnel:
- You create a landing page on your website for a free eBook
- You share and boost that page on social media
- Your audience sees your post and gets interested
- He/she clicks on the post and gives his/her email in exchange for the eBook
- He/she receives a set of emails that ultimately lead them to your bookings page
- Your audience books a session
Sample of a short social media funnel:
- You create an ad on TikTok about how your services are currently on sale
- Your audience sees your ad and signs up with their email to receive the discount
- They get a session at a discounted rate
- They’re now become part of your email list to be used for future marketing campaigns
Regardless of how long your process is, though, we like to think they all jell into 3 general stages.
The 3 stages of any social media value chain
Brand awareness.
As a business, social media is where you can establish your presence in the industry despite your relatively compressed audience.
The point of this stage is simply to let people know that you are a thought leader in your industry. This way, they know that you’re here, you’re a strong option, and you’re worthy of their trust and attention.
Additionally, this stage is also where you increase the size of your audience. The more people know about your brand, the more people you can potentially turn into leads. This brings us to the next stage.
Conversion.
After reaching more people, successfully gaining their trust, and establishing your expertise, it’s time to bank on your efforts. This is where you turn your audience into leads and paying customers.
There are many, many ways you can do this (more on this later) but this ultimately comes down to you.
Nurturing relationships.
The chain doesn’t end with you making a sale. No, you have to nurture the relationships you’ve built along the way. This includes your existing customers, your leads, and your audience in general. If you had help from influencers and other brands, you should nurture those relationships, too.
This stage further enhances your chances of making a sale from both first-time and repeat customers. This also cycles back to the same principles that made your “brand awareness” stage successful.
8 Easy tips to maximize each stage of the social media funnel
1. Learn everything you can about your audience.
The larger your audience gets, the more data you’re going to get. The more data you get, the more accurate the picture it paints will be.
That being said, use all of the data you gather to create a precise buyer persona. And I’m not just talking about basic demographics like age and gender, I’m talking about going deeper into spending habits, jobs, social and economic status, family, and all these other things that make a person, well… a person.
Adjust this persona every so often and use it to make your ads better targeted on social media.
2. Create posts that offer value to your audience.
Remember this: Modern marketing revolves around the customer. Not you.
So don’t run your social media profiles thinking you’re Taylor Swift. The harsh reality is that your audience isn’t waiting on your every post. In fact, they might even scroll through your posts and not read a single word you said.
What you should do instead is create content that actually offers them value. This way helps you gain their trust and catch their attention.
3. Cultivate your audience’s attention with even more posts that interest them
Don’t stop at just one. Find other angles to help address your audience’s pain points and create more content about them.
This further enhances their trust in you which, in turn, helps establish you as an authority in your space. Not to mention, posts that your audience finds interesting also encourage engagement and widen your reach.
4. Post solutions to the problems you helped identify
These solutions don’t always have to be yours either. This helps your brand look more authentic and, again, helps your audience trust you more.
For example, let’s say your PT clinic is running a campaign about the most common problems associated with sitting in an office for too long. One of those problems is neck pain because of a slouched posture. What do you do?
You create a post that helps solve, if not prevent neck pain. You could even share another page’s solutions because that offers value to your audience, too.
5. Always add a CTA
CTAs or call-to-actions are exactly what they sound like. They encourage your audience to take action.
This is how you’re going to keep your audience in the loop while not-so-subtly nudging them to take the next step of their buying journey.
CTAs don’t have to be complicated either. They can be as simple as “check this out”, “read more”, or “book a session”.
6. Add buttons to your landing page
First of all, if you’re running a social media campaign, you should also have a website for your brand. So, if you don’t already have one, do that first (after reading this, I mean).
Anyhow, your website’s landing pages are where you will convert your audience into either leads or customers. But, to make landing pages effective, they have to have buttons for the simple reason that buttons are eye-catching. Not to mention, they also look more legit than just a hyperlinked phrase.
7. Advocate for your happy and loyal customers
To this day, nothing is a stronger marketing tool than word of mouth. They’re even better than paid ads, sponsorships, SEO, and even your own brand’s message.
“How much better?”, you ask.
92%. Yes. Ninety. Two. Percent.
According to Nielsen, that’s how much consumers trust word-of-mouth over all other forms of advertising. And when more people trust your brand, you make more conversions.
So, when your customer is happy about your service, never forget to advocate for them. How you do that is up to you. A couple of examples include replying to their comments or shared posts and compiling screenshots of positive reviews to share on your feed.
8. Focus on the most crucial social networks for your brand
If you’re a small business like us, you likely also have a small team. So, if you try to focus on all of the most popular social media platforms, you will also more than likely burn your team out, resulting in subpar profiles.
Instead, focus on 1 or 2 social media platforms that your audience uses more frequently.
This way, you end up with a couple of really good profiles with amazing content. This, in turn, enhances your reach, engagement, and hopefully, conversions.
Conclusion
The social media value chain should serve as a guide for all of your campaigns moving forward. And, no matter the extent of your chain, remember that it all revolves around building trust and brand awareness, converting your audience to leads and customers, and finally, nurturing relationships.
We at Ad Doctors Digital hope that this helps you figure out and, ultimately, solve problems that you have around your PT clinic’s social media. If you don’t think you have the time or patience for it, though, give us a call and we’ll help you figure it out.
