TL;DR
Selling on social media can feel awkward, especially when you’re not sure what genuinely works. Business and marketing coach Lizzy Palios has spent 10 years figuring it out, building 6- and 7-figure businesses along the way. Now, she’s sharing her top 10 tips for selling more on social so you can sell with confidence and have some fun doing it.
I’ve been making money through social media for about 10 years now. It’s taken our family from only earning $9 an hour at a famous coffee shop chain to building multiple 6- and 7-figure businesses. And most importantly, it allowed me to stay home with my kids and still have that creative outlet, too.
The first business I grew using social media was with a Network Marketing company. I grew to the top 0.01% of the company by sharing the products creatively on social media in Reels and Instagram stories. I also used those same platforms to share that company’s business opportunity itself.
After a few years, I started my own coaching business because I kept getting asked how I grew on Instagram and used it to build a business. That business has now grown into a multiple 6-figure business.
Along the way, I’ve learned countless lessons about how to sell on social media. Here are my top 10 tips for Creators from the last 10 years.
1. Make buying from you ridiculously simple
If people are confused, they tend to say no. We don’t want that! If someone has to look really hard, click through four different pages, send you a DM, or wait for a response to figure out how to buy from you, you’ve created unnecessary friction.
I moved over to Stan Store from another platform because Stan was way simpler. The Stan Store link in your bio makes it so easy to share your offers, and people can comment keywords for the links to your freebies and offers. You can try out Stan free for 14 days here! You’ll love it.
2. Qualify offers before creating them
Nothing breaks my heart more than someone coming to me after they’ve spent hours creating a course that no one has bought. Now, sometimes the sales page copy may need tweaking, or they haven’t shared it enough. Those things are fixable. But the surest way to know if something is going to sell is to ask your ideal clients strategic questions.
For example:
- If I could magically provide you with the result you desire, what would that result be?
- What would achieving that result mean for you?
- Have you tried anything in the past that didn’t work? Why do you think it didn’t work?
I share more questions you can use in my free Sell More on Social Media guide (which you can grab here).
I’ll usually get on the phone with 3-5 people that match my ideal client profile and LISTEN to them. Note the language they use. It’s gold to use in your copy on sales pages, emails, and content.
3. Talk about your offer more often
This one feels obvious, but I coach a lot of business owners, and pretty much all of them do not share their offers or how someone can work with them enough.
Mention your offers in your:
- Instagram stories a few times a week
- Emails
- Captions
People trust the familiar and DO NOT trust what is unfamiliar, so talk about your offers more often. Most of your followers don’t see every piece of content you post, so you need to be very repetitive.
4. Use social proof like it’s your job
I don’t know about you, but I run straight to the reviews on Amazon before I buy something. I want to see what everyone else thought of the product and what results they got. People want to see that before buying from you, too.
Use screenshots of client wins in your Instagram stories. Tell people how you can help them get the same result, mention wins in your captions, tell stories using before-and-after language. Add screenshots and testimonials to your sales page.
This all helps someone trust you and buy from you!
5. Create amazing freebies
Give people a taste of working with you or learning from you. Make sure the title is simple and appealing. A great freebie solves a small problem but leaves people wanting more help or personalized help from you.
For example, I love to share hooks that people can use in their content. But then I might offer an Instagram audit and strategy call where I give them personalized feedback on what’s missing from their account, and some great niche-related hooks they can use.
Your freebie should deliver value but leave them wanting more. Also, remember that even though it’s free, people still pay with their email address and the time it takes to consume it, so I see it as someone’s first purchase with me.
6. Create a low ticket offer and use it as a ‘tripwire’
I’ve made thousands of dollars from offering what’s called a tripwire. When someone grabs a freebie from me, they get redirected to a landing page in Stan that offers a low-ticket offer as a one-time special. This then starts the buying relationship.
It’s easier to sell more to someone who has already bought something than to get a new buyer, as long as your product was valuable. So right when they’ve grabbed a freebie is a great time to start the buying relationship.
You can also use Stan Funnels and Order Bumps to automatically boost your average order value after someone downloads your freebie or makes a purchase.
7. Specifics sell
Being specific on social media, in your content and offers, will help you sell more—whether it’s selling people on why they should consume your content, follow you, grab your free resource, or buy your offer.
For example:
❌ Instead of saying ‘grow your email list’
✅ Say ‘grow your first or next 1000 subscribers’
Or in your content, saying ‘I’m 37. Here are 10 things I’d tell my 27-year-old self’ would be much better than saying ‘Here are 10 pieces of advice’.
The more specifics you give about the ideal client/customer, problem, timeline, or result, the easier it is for someone to think ‘This is for me.’
8. Stay consistent
I know this can be hard on days where you wake up thinking, ‘What do I post today?’, or where you’ve got sports practices to take kids to, a home to clean, and a business to run. Creating and posting something can be hard!
But the main goal of marketing is to stay top of mind for when someone is ready to buy what you offer. You don’t need to post three times a day, but three times a week is a good amount.
And Instagram Stories are a great place to keep showing up, too. Just post something personal and something business-related daily. It can be a quick tip, the lunch you just made with the recipe linked, or a direct link to an offer.
Think about a realtor. Most people aren’t buying or selling houses daily, but if that realtor keeps showing up, giving value, and staying visible, they’re much more likely to come to mind when someone is moving!
I’ve also had people watch me for years and then message saying, ‘Okay, I’m ready to work with you’. If I had disappeared, I wouldn’t have worked with some of my favorite clients.
9. Sell the transformation, not the features
I see a lot of sales pages, and they are often feature-heavy. People do not wake up thinking ‘Man, I could really go for a 4-week fitness challenge with weekly calls and a workbook today’.
They wake up thinking ‘I have a wedding to attend in a month and I’d love to lose 5 pounds to fit into my favorite dress that is a little snug right now.’
Speak to those kinds of pain points and desires, add social proof, and you’ll sell more spots in your offers!
10. Know that selling is actually serving
When I started my first business, asking for the sale in posts or messages felt kind of weird. But then moms started buying the products I shared, and they’d write to thank me and share how it had helped them. That made me SO HAPPY.
When you truly believe what you sell helps others, selling becomes actually really fun. I’ve helped people leave 9-5 jobs they didn’t love because they started their own business, and they’ll tell me that my work has changed their lives.
That gets me fired up to keep sharing what I do. Write down evidence of how you’ve had the transformation or how you’ve helped others to boost your confidence, and then share away! Confidence is the #1 thing that makes sales.
One last thing to remember is that selling is a learnable skill. Read books on sales skills, study successful salespeople, practice talking about your offers and what you do, and pay attention to what people respond to.
