Are you struggling to understand sales conversions on Pinterest? Then this episode is for you! Kate, the founder of Simple Pin Media, sat down with Susan from Social Sales Girls to talk about her history in the eCommerce space, how she’s grown, and how she’s teaching people to look at conversions differently.
Sales Conversions
Susan’s business was born from her experience trying to find resources to help her drive traffic to her store. There was a huge lack of resources at the time, yet she knew if she could get her traffic up, she could figure out how to convert them through a sales funnel.
Before purchasing her online store, WeSqueak, she had a brick and mortar shop where she sold mostly wholesale. Once she purchased WeSqueak, she realized that her sales were down for the first time ever. Retailers were having trouble paying her and so she decided to change up her business model. She made the switch to direct to consumer, and really dove into selling in the online world.
Her background in selling to retailers gave her a head start in understanding conversions. She knew that her presence was small, and not very visible online. She didn’t have enough traffic to get the sales she wanted. So the first step was getting more eyes on her products and more traffic to her site.
Finding Your Audience
Susan started with the people in front of her by figuring out what kinds of things they responded to by posting on Facebook and Instagram. What things were grabbing their attention? And on top of that, she focused on growing her email list. From her experience with brick and mortar stores, she knew she could always generate sales by sending out direct mail. So she set out to learn how to run ads on Facebook to drive people to her store, and get them to sign up for her email list. Easier said than done…
Getting in front of more people and finding ways to expand her audience proved to be difficult for Susan. That’s what has led her to share her experiences with others by providing resources she wished were available when she was learning.
Along the way she learned that whenever you try to master something new, you are probably going to fail a lot before making progress. It will take longer than you think to learn these skills. It’s not easy. BUT once you learn it, you’ve developed some really good problem solving skills. Susan encourages other business owners out there that it is worth it. It just takes time, and being willing to try new things.
It’s important to remember that there isn’t a one size fits all when it comes to sales conversions. There are so many different factors that play into things. You have to consider industry standard, type of product, niche, and what you’re doing to market yourself. We see a lot of people just wanting a formula, without putting in the work to find the right formula for them. You have to pull your weight if you want sales conversions. What works for one business might not work for another. It’s about trial and error, finding the things that work, and saying goodbye to the things that don’t.
When it comes to getting started and choosing the right path for your business, Susan suggests diversifying your strategy. Do not put all your eggs in the Instagram basket, or the YouTube basket, or the Pinterest basket. Don’t feel like you need to use all the platforms, but definitely focus on more than just one. Aside from that, she tells people to manage your expectations for social media. Success on social media looks like getting brand awareness and increased traffic; getting people through the top two sections of your sales funnel.
Related: A Full Funnel Strategy on Pinterest
Conversions is a numbers game
Remember, eCommerce is a numbers game. Conversion is a numbers game. Most people aren’t aware of how much traffic you need to get the sales you want. When someone joins her program, Susan has them build out their sales funnel. They put the actual numbers in each section of the funnel, and tell them what the benchmark is that they need to get to. This helps people get a good idea of where they are, and where they should aim in order to achieve the conversions they want. An average conversion rate for an eCommerce store owner is 1-2%, meaning you need 3,000 people coming to your site every month before you can expect a sale a day.
Susan points out that the problem is so many people only measure success by sales. Success really comes from your brand awareness and audience size. That’s why the key to successful sales conversions starts by taking note of your audience size and determining how much you need to grow it to make a sale. Make a list of the work you need to do so you can start filling the gap between where you are today and where you need to be.
This can be applied to organic and paid Pinterest marketing, although Susan notes that most people can’t get where they need to be without some paid reach. The good news is that you don’t have to invest a lot – it can be super cheap. Top funnel ads cost hardly anything. Paid reach doesn’t have to be a huge investment, but it is worth trying.
Create Connection Through Content
When it comes to Pinterest, an eCommerce client usually gains their reach through their content. Yet, a lot of people are resistant to creating content whether it be blog posts or short form video. Susan believes that if people are resistant to creating content, they probably don’t understand why they’re doing it. They’re only focusing on sales, and they aren’t actually seeing that when they focus on creating quality content, their audience size increases which eventually leads to more conversions.
If you feel stuck when it comes to content, it’s completely okay to recycle it! Work smarter, not harder. Create fresh pins for your post, repin old content, update URLs regularly.
We recently did a podcast episode on the importance of building connection with your audience through short form video and blog posts on your website. Pinterest is a cold traffic source, meaning it’s not like Instagram where people already know who you are when they click over to your website. Pinners most likely know nothing about your business. Writing a short blog post that introduces yourself or a product you sell, is a great way to get people to think about purchasing. And that’s where you get people into the middle part of the funnel – consideration.
Related: How To Leverage AI For SEO
Build Out Your Email List
A really great tactic Susan mentioned was to offer a freebie or an opt-in on a blog post. This gets the pinner from the top of your funnel to the middle section, where they become aware of what you offer and consider you for future purchases. If you can get them on your email list, that’s where you really own the process of converting them. People who hit your site from an email are seven times more likely to buy than that person who has no information as to who you are or what you can offer. So get your mind out of just the sale, and into how you can convert them to your email list.
If you take anything away from today’s episode, let it be this: move the goalpost from sales to audience. Stop focusing on the bottom of the funnel and start focusing on the top. Let your attention be on creating more brand awareness. You will feel way more encouraged by what you’re seeing, and you won’t feel like you’re doing it all wrong. Success comes from audience, and that comes before sales.
Susan’s Inner Circle walks members through the process of taking an idea they had and turning it into a business. It is designed to be a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, championing each other on and learning together. If you are interested in joining the Inner Circle, or learning more about Susan’s business, visit thesocialsalesgirls.com.
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