Have you ever been chased across a car lot by an over anxious salesman, or hounded by a real estate agent that got your contact information and just wouldn’t let go? We’ve all dealt with an overzealous salesperson at some point — and most of us go out of our way to avoid another encounter. Treating your social media followers to a constant barrage of promotional posts is basically taking that old “used car salesman” approach and can turn followers off for good.

While you must post content to keep your followers engaged, a steady diet of “Look at me” and “buy this” posts will backfire quickly and turn away the very people you’ve worked so hard to reach. Striking the right balance of informational, engaging and promotional posts is a must if you want your social media and email campaigns to succeed. Striving for balance ensures that you entertain and interact with your followers in addition to selling to them and makes it a lot more likely that they’ll hang around and read what you have to say.

Engagement Posts
Engagement posts should evoke a response from your customer, but shouldn’t be a call to action or marketing ploy. Seeking out information that is relevant to your brand’s industry and then actually having a conversation with your followers should be your goal when you create engagement posts. Engagement posts should generally be topical, of interest to your followers and industry and ask a question or seek an opinion.

Typical engagement style posts for a vitamin/health shake seller:

• “What’s your favorite hot weather workout?”
• “Do you have a favorite fitness hack?”
• “Slice it, dice it or scoop it into balls – how do you like your melon?”
• “64 ounces of water a day – how do you make sure you stay hydrated?”
• “We’d love to know what you think about… (Insert latest trend or industry news or interesting health fact here)”

Engagement posts should be outgoing, friendly and non-promotional in nature and should make up about 30% of your initial posts.

Informational Posts
Provide great content and interesting information to your followers and you give them a reason to read your posts and open your emails. Think about the magazines and news sources your target customers follow and create or link to similar posts. Own a locksmith service? Link to pieces on home safety, what to do if you lock your pet (or baby) in the car or how to install a safe. Have a pet grooming business? Link to pieces on puppy care, wearable technology for pets and summer pet safety. You can create your own pieces for your blog as well, but a few minutes of research will yield plenty of non-competing and informative pieces you can share with your customers.

Information pieces position you as someone who provides relevant and useful content and as an authority in your field, even if you did not write the initial piece. Provide information without strings to your followers at least 30% of the time and they’ll actually be interested in what you have to say. There’s an entire Internet worth of information available to choose from, sticking to authority sites and avoiding competitors are the only rules to follow when you post informational style updates.

The balance of your posts can highlight a specific product, sale or service. Use the remaining 40% of your posts to pitch your product of the month, present an offer or promote your latest sale. By offering relevant, useful and engaging posts most of the time, you strike the right balance with your followers and avoid looking like a constant pitchman or overeager salesperson. As an added bonus, you position yourself as an expert in your field – and someone to turn to when it is time to buy.