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Cindy Ratzlaff

Bestselling author, award winning brand marketing and social media pro, Cindy Ratzlaff, creates sales driving campaigns for authors, books and publishers.

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Like Minded Strategies | Social Selling

By Cindy Ratzlaff September 20, 2012

We’ve been told that selling through social media is a no-no and that at best we should keep it to the 80/20 rule; 80% engagement and 20% sales. Heck, I’ve even said that in the past. Now I’m proposing we rethink the concept of sales altogether and throw the 80/20 rule out the window.

In the early phase of building a social media platform for any brand, personal or business, we focus on likes, follows, friends, fans and subscribers as a metric for measuring whether or not a brand message is hitting an eager audience. That’s still a valid thing to measure and a brand that can’t gather a tribe in a pool of more than a billion social media users simply may not have a marketable idea.

The next phase, after building a following is usually to introduce the offering, listen to the feedback, adjust the offer f necessary and promote to the faithful. If the market research has been accurate and the product or service is of value, the brand gets instant feedback on the viability of their offering in the way of sales. Are people willing to pay you for what you do or make? That’s a pretty definitive answer to “Is my business viable?”  If the answer is yes, and that’s of course the goal, the next step is to rinse and repeat. Continue growing the brand following and offering the same product or natural product extensions.

A Like Minded Selling strategy creates growth for both two complementary but unique brands through co-promotion.

This strategy requires a marketing effort that will continually grow the pool of potential customers so the offer doesn’t fatigue the current fan base.
This can be done through advertising, live events, special offers, contests, guest blogging or other marketing activities all designed to bring a new following to your social media properties. This strategy is a good one but should continue to receive a portion of your time and budget.

But to exponentially add rocket fuel to your second growth phase, a brand should “What does my current customer base like, besides my product or service?”  Do they care about artists, animals, children, vacations, inspirational quotes, tech events, skiing, books? What are their passions?  This information can be invaluable in finding partners, creating offers that feed their interests, identifying advertising outlets, co-creating contests and giveaways, or joint venturing to create offers that are bring two fan bases together for a whole new product.

I recently had a client prospect ask me if she should promote her product to her direct competitors?  I think it’s a stronger play to promote your new product to like minded brand’s customers by finding common ground and creating a win-win scenario between your brand and the brand who already attracts some cross over clients.

If you have a product that has a charity aspect, say 10% of every product sold goes to a college fund for artists. Find a brand that showcases handmade crafts and partner to co-promote based on your mutual interest…artists.

If I produce social media training programs for entrepreneurs, I might partner with someone who helps entrepreneurs set up their LLC’s or get their finances in order. My tribe will be interested in that product and their tribe is likely to be interested in mine. We could promote one another, co-create a product together, hold a contest together with a prize that is desirable to entrepreneurs or a number of other options. We’d be creating a “Like Minded” marketing and selling strategy.

Like Minded Selling Questions

  • What does my current fan base like?
  • What else do they want, need or enjoy that I don’t offer?
  • Who else offers that?
  • How can I create a bundled offer, package, promotion or service that will introduce my fans to them and their fans to me?

I’d love to hear your success stories or ideas for creating Like Minded Selling success stories.

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Filed Under: Personal Branding, Social Media Tagged With: branding, Marketing, Social Media Strategy

About Cindy Ratzlaff

Cindy Ratzlaff was named to the Forbes “20 Best Branded Women on Twitter” list and Forbes Woman called her one of the “Most Influential Women Tweeting about Entrepreneurship.”

During her 20-plus years as a publishing executive, Cindy created branded marketing and PR campaigns that ushered more than 200 books onto the New York Times bestseller lists. She was named to the Ad Age Marketing 50 list for the launch campaign behind The South Beach Diet.

She is the author of three books, and her essays on happiness have appeared on Oprah.com, CNN.com and her articles on social marketing have can be read on Business Insider. She speaks to conferences such as BookExpo America, Pennsylvania Conference for Women, Romance Writers of America, Ernst & Young, Garden Writers Association, Texas Conference for Women, United Way’s Ignite Leadership Network, Massachusetts Conference for Women, and more on the topics of happiness, personal branding and creating a digital footprint.

She engages daily with more than 450,000 people through her popular Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blog sites.

Comments & Feedback:

  1. Estelle Sobel Erasmus

    October 2, 2012 at 7:27 am

    Great article, Cindy! I’m in the process of looking for like-minded partners for my non-profit organization, Mothers & More, which I’m on the board of. This is very helpful.

    Reply
    • cindyratzlaff

      October 2, 2012 at 8:28 am

      That’s fabulous Estelle. There are so many wonderful organizations and groups that would be perfect partners for your non-profit.

      Reply

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