I Have Followers But No Customers Or Sales!

“I have followers but no customers or sales!” I post regularly but I still haven’t gone viral once!” “They vote for sales and products and then don’t purchase!” “I have 1,000 subscribers and 10 views on my videos!”

I can imagine the toll it takes on you are a business owner, a blogger, or a service provider, to have all the followers, subscribers, or even a 200-name-long email list, and no views, sales, or engagement.

I’ve only been blogging for a few months, and I’ve had these frustrations nearly make me redesign and replan my entire scheme at 2 am on a Monday, knowing I have work in a few hours.

It seems like you’re doing everything right:

• Posting daily or weekly
• Your content is SEO friendly
• You’re encouraging a visit to your site or store each post
• Using the correct audios, hashtags, and templates
• Your products are reasonably priced
• You’ve identified the clear need for your product
• You’re remaining positive and not becoming jealous or envious of others’ successes.
• You’re praying
• You’re 100% sure this is where God wants you, and what He wants you to do
• You pay for ads and promotion
• And every other thing in the book!

Did you check everything off the list? Because I didn’t. I missed about five of those. There are hundreds of things that people do to ensure that their social media presence and the success of their business are not left completely to chance. Don’t lose your confidence in this business, don’t lose yourself obsessing over being rich.

Before this very necessary reality check that we all need, I want to congratulate you on your business! It takes a disciplined yet imaginative person to take something that was in your head and put it in the physical world. If you never sell another candle or template, get another view on YouTube, or follower on Instagram, you have given it more of an attempt than most people on this earth. Bravo!

And lastly, before I continue, I’m going to assume that you know the following:

• You can’t post a bunch of random videos and funny memes and expect to reach your target audience. Let’s assume your audience consumes and uses the products or services that you offer. If not, cut it out! You can’t just share random videos like everyone! Save that for your personal page.
• You aren’t hoping or expecting to go viral- especially if you’re not ready for that! You do not want your product or page to go viral before you’ve perfected every inch of it. A recent example would be the Pink Sauce by Chef Pii which went viral on Tik Tok and Instagram. Her recipe, website, nor her nutritional facts were ironed out completely before her launch and went viral and now she is overcome with negative reviews, skeptical customers, and trolling accounts. If your website looks cheap or unprofessional, if your products are not consistent, if your policies are not written, if your reviews are not good, you should take more time with those things than wondering why you don’t have sales. You’re in this for the long run, don’t be discouraged if it is not your time yet. Empires rise and fall every day; you don’t want to be one of them because of poor planning.

Now, for the hard part. If we have no customers and only followers, we have to look at the following to see where the disconnect is. In doing this, we will know what exactly needs to change.

So, you have followers, subscribers, and viewers, but no customers or engagement, is it because:

• Your followers don’t know you. Have you introduced yourself? Our brands in this social media age, depend a lot on connection. There are millions upon millions of businesses and accounts in your very industry. You can’t only say your business’s name, you may need to include your own! Make a reel, tik tok, or post about who you are, your age, your family, and your passions. Do not include your business vision, services or sales. This isn’t about your business this is, briefly, about you!
• You’re confusing your legitimate business with a get rich scheme. Anything of value took time to cultivate. Maybe you have work to do, maybe it’s not your time yet. If you haven’t been working hard for over a year, you should not be saying “I have followers but no customers or sales” every second of every day. Stop refreshing your sales page and obsessing. The best cakes take longer in the oven. Not everyone is going viral, face it. You may have to work harder than the next guy.
• You haven’t had a sale, a new product, or a new color in one of your items since you opened! Perhaps people go to your site and the same thing each time. I would easily purchase the pink ink pens, but those blue ones are going to rot on the shelves. Why? Because I don’t NEED these pens, but I love pink! Some people like strawberry flavor, some people are waiting on those jeans to go on sale, some people are waiting for you to add a wax to the car wash. Switch it up! Try new colors, promotions, add a double zero or XXS to your store, you never know who is on the verge of purchasing.
•  Your content is mid. Your content is not moving anyone to purchase because it is so-so. Do you look your best in these videos? Are you lip-sync’s crisp? Are your memes hitting? It’s possible they are not. I’ve come across so much content that I easily, and without thinking, swipe extremely fast past a video that looks like it was half-baked. It’s easy to like a picture or video, but it’s going to take more conviction to click a link in a bio, browse through an online store, and purchase a cart.
• Your product or service isn’t worth the trouble? If people are going to purchase from you, make it worth their while! We’ve seen thousands of clothing brands that consist of a t-shirt and logo on there- and that means absolutely nothing to us. Step your design skills up! Step your quality up! Include goodies and treats with your products. A cheap bracelet, a company pen, a business card, a coupon. Just a few things that make people feel better about the shipping cost.
• Your prices are too high. I watched a video called “Why my business failed” on YouTube. She said her prices were too high and that’s why she could sell her products. Then at the end, she turns right around and says she’s not dropping the prices. And guess what? She made a “Why I’m quitting my business” video seven months later. DROP YOUR PRICES. You need to get the cost of your product and labor as low as you can. People are broke! It is hard convincing someone to pay $25 for your candle when TJ Maxx has them for $10. You should not be trying to triple your profit simply because your cost of production is high. The markets are saturated, but our wallets are not.
• You’re trying to get rich from something that can’t make you rich without breaking your customer’s pockets. Unless we become household names or clients to celebrities, a lot of jobs have ceilings. We can’t all be number one. Your customers should not have to pay extra simply because you desire a certain lifestyle. This is a BITTER pill to swallow. It’s hard to get rich from one thing! A barber, a hair stylist, a seamstress, a chef, most of these professionals are not filthy rich. And charging $200 for a $50 haircut is not going to get you there, it’ll only leave your chair empty. People want to shop. We love to shop! Trust me! But if you’re too expensive we will likely go to the next option. Stop trying to get rich from your business at our expense. Invest your money, open a savings account, adjust your spending habits. Again, bring your prices down. People want to support you, but if you’re trying to buy a Porsche with your candy grapes business, we’re both going to end up not having what we want. I know that we all want to have a high end brand, but every brand can not be luxury. Someone has to cater to the average consumer. If you have the ability to do that, than do it!
• People are desensitized to advertising and products. It’s possible! We see ad after ad, whether they are paid for or just social media posts. Everyone is handing out business cards, and fliers, and sharing their @ name. After a while it all sounds like blah. It’s easy for our content to get lost in the sea of videos and pictures. Go back to the drawing board and consider the value of your product: how to make it better, more affordable, more accessible, and more necessary!
• You’re spamming your audience. Don’t over-advertise, over-promote, or over-sell your products. Try offering some tips and tricks for utilizing your product instead of just waving it around in every post.
• They don’t trust you yet. Share some reviews to show that your business isn’t a scam. Some of us have been traumatized by purchasing from online stores and never receiving the promised items or receiving a tarnished version of it. Post reviews and testimonials to develop trust and legitimacy!
• You haven’t used any other marketing tools except Instagram. You must spend money to make money! I get it, sometimes social media is all we can afford, but if you can spare it, send out a few free products to some low-no-cost influencers or pay the fee for bigger ones and get your product featured on more pages than your own!
• They’re buying it from someone else. Your product is either too cheap or too expensive, so elaborate it’s not useful or too basic, offered in stores or on Amazon prime as opposed to your shipping that may take longer.
• Your item is a gimmick. Nothing wrong with fads and phenomena. The thing is though, their time comes and goes rather quickly. These types of things are one-time buys. Perhaps all who were going to purchase did and did not see a need to purchase again. Try to adjust your service or product so that it is something to be missed and purchased repeatedly.
• We’re heading into a recession. The main reason people may not throw $20 at you for a journal is that, again, money! We are broke out here! We only have money in our wallets for products that respect us enough to be affordable. It’s unfair to expect people to buy a $50 t-shirt with a logo on there when you yourself wouldn’t even do that. Be fair, be real.
• This is not the plan God has for you. I spent two years working on something that I thought God wanted me to do, only to turn around the next year and have all my progress snatched away! A year later I am doing what God wants me to do and the doors are opening! If you have not prayed, give it a try. Above all, you cannot be upset with God for not delivering something He never promised.

With these things in mind and others, understand you can only go up from here! Plenty of people have slow starts. Plenty of people scrap their businesses and start completely new ones; give yours the best opportunity to succeed by doing real reflections.

Next time we speak I hope you’ve ditched the “I have followers but no customers or sales” for “I’m overwhlemed by my sales!”