What's up guys. Welcome back to my channel. Today I want to talk about something I'm really passionate about and that I believe every small business should implement and that is content marketing or as you might know it. Social media marketing so I know a lot of you have tried your hand on Instagram YouTube Facebook Pinterest and you didn't see the results you thought you would. So you either became inconsistent with posting or you just stopped altogether. I used to be in the same boat. I used to post on Instagram and I wouldn't get many visits to my Etsy shop from my post.

And also I just felt sales me and pushy constantly posting images of my product. So I just stopped altogether. But for the past about eight or nine months I've been taking E courses I invested a lot of money in a private one on one coach and I'm now realizing what I was doing wrong when it came to social media marketing. And that's why I really want to make this video today. I really want to share what I learned that changed my mindset of how I should be showing up on social media for my business.

So just to drill in how much social media has helped my shop traffic and sales. I want to share with you that social media has actually brought in 44 percent of my overall Etsy traffic. Sixteen percent of which is from YouTube and email marketing and twenty eight percent is from Pinterest and Pinterest is something that I now automate and that I'm not really consistent with. So Pinterest is a huge traffic driver with minimal effort so that's why I always suggest that you guys get on Pinterest A.S.A.P.. And this is actually a portion of what I teach my private clients.

So at this point you're probably thinking OK we get it. Social media is a huge traffic driver and helps increase sales for a small business. How do we do this then how do we use social media in the correct way. Well you first need to understand content marketing. You need to know the definition and understand what it's all about. So I think Wikipedia has a really good definition on this. So I'm gonna go ahead and read how they describe content marketing. Content marketing attracts and transforms prospects into customers by creating and sharing free valuable content content marketing helps companies create sustainable brand loyalty provides valuable information to consumers and creates a willingness to purchase products from the company in the future.

This relatively new form of marketing does not involve direct sales. Instead it builds trust and rapport with the audience. Let's be honest nobody likes to be sold to especially from strangers. So if we use content marketing and provide value for our potential customers then they begin to build something in the business world that's called no like and trust. No they know you because they see you on social media like they start to like your content because it's inspiring them or educating them or demonstrating something and then trust they either sign up for your newsletter or they decide to follow you on Instagram or another social media platform and they begin to trust you and therefore eventually buy from you.

So a traditional sales funnel looks like this. You have a product you market the product and you get the sale and then the funnel ends right there. Now in content marketing we use something called the flywheel funnel and that means that the customer is in the center first you attract your potential customers with your content creation. Then you engage with them whether you're talking to them in the DMZ or you're commenting on their comments on YouTube or if you're responding to them via email. You're engaging with them and interacting building that relationship.

And then lastly your delighting them. So when they decide to purchase from you they're so excited about the value of the product that you gave them or even if they don't purchase from you yet but they download your freebie and join your newsletter that freebie is gonna be super juicy and super helpful. So you're delighting them and they're gonna start talking about you they're going to start telling their friends they're going to start referring your business to other people. And what happens is as this goes on the flywheel will start to spin.

So the more customers you get the happier they are the more they will refer you and the flywheel will start to spin faster and faster and faster creating a larger impact and more sales for your business. This is why I originally created a thank you card for my orders. I knew the importance of a happy repeat customer. And it's the same reason why I started this youtube channel because I knew the importance of giving my potential customers value. Now not everyone will buy from me just because I'm putting content out there and that's OK.

I'm really OK with that because I genuinely want to help people. Whether I make a sale or not. But we can't deny the fact. That because we're out there on social media posting providing value there will be a conversion. There will be some people who will choose to purchase and that is why social media marketing is so important. And understanding that content marketing is about the customer and not about you when your product is the key to really understanding what should I post on my social media accounts to really build that know like and trust.

OK. So all of this sounds really great. You're ready you're ready to post on social media now. But despite me saying all of this about content marketing a large portion of you guys won't do it. And the reason is is because it takes so much patience and. It takes a plan so you don't just start posting on Instagram and all of a sudden you're getting referrals and sales. It's going to take a little time to start seeing those benefits. But if you're serious about your small business and you really want to know how to use social media marketing in order to grow your traffic and your sales in your business then you need to know which platforms you want to post on.

So if you want more information on which platforms you should be on then I want you to hit that notification Bell and subscribe to my channel because next week I'll be going over the platforms that I truly believe that you guys at Etsy sellers should definitely be on in order to drive traffic and increase sales. So hit that subscribe button. I hope this video is helpful. And thank you guys so much for watching. I will catch you in the next video. Bye guys.