Why Your Small Business Posts Aren’t Getting Sales

You made the product, took the pictures, wrote something about it, hit publish, and waited and waited. Maybe a few people liked it, your mom commented, somebody you haven’t talked to since high school showed up to tell you how cute it was but at the end of the day nobody bought anything. So now you’re wondering if you need better pictures, different products, lower prices, or another social media platform. Before you go changing everything about your business, there’s something we need to talk about.

Posting about a product and giving somebody a reason to buy it are two different things.

And that’s where a whole lot of small-business owners get stuck.

1. You’re showing the product, but not explaining why somebody needs it

A picture and a price aren’t always enough. People need to understand what they’re buying, who it’s for, and why they should care. If you sell handmade flashcards, don’t just post a picture of twelve cards sitting on a table. Show a mom using them with her kids, explain what the kids are learning and show how easy they are to pull out when somebody needs an activity. You’re not changing the product but you are helping people understand it.

2. You’re assuming people saw your first post

You posted your product on Tuesday and nobody bought it so now you’re afraid to post about it again because you don’t want to annoy people. Here’s the problem. A whole lot of your potential customers never saw Tuesday’s post and some who did see it weren’t ready to buy that day. You can talk about the same product more than once by giving people a different reason to pay attention.

3. You’re making people work too hard to buy

Somebody sees something they like. They get excited and click your profile, then they click another link and hunt around your website until they finally find the product or they don’t and just give up. Every unnecessary step is another opportunity for somebody to leave. So make the buying process obvious, tell them exactly where to go and whenever possible, send them directly to the product they’re interested in.

4. You’re talking about features instead of benefits

Features tell people what something is. Benefits tell them why they need it. A set of twelve educational flashcards is a feature but having a ready-to-use learning activity for a rainy afternoon is a benefit. Both matter. But don’t assume customers will automatically make that connection themselves.

5. You’re waiting until you need sales to figure out what to post

This one gets a lot of small-business owners and oh how many times I have seen this and possibly done this myself. You need money coming in, so you sit down to make a sales post and suddenly you can’t think of a single thing to say. You stare at the screen, rewrite the first sentence six times, decide the picture isn’t good enough and before you know it, an hour has disappeared and you still haven’t posted anything. That’s not helping you sell. You need a way to turn the products you already have into finished posts without starting from scratch every time.

What to do instead

Start with one product you already sell.

This week, create five different posts about it.

1. Show the product clearly.
2. Explain who it’s for.
3. Demonstrate how it works.
4. Answer a question someone might have.
5. Tell people exactly how to buy it.

You don’t need five new products. You need five different ways to help somebody understand the one you already made.

Need help actually writing those posts?

That’s exactly why I created I Don’t Know What to Post, my $29 ChatGPT Thread Starter.

It walks you through a few questions about your business and helps you create finished posts you can actually use.

Not another giant list of ideas you’ll never get around to doing.

Actual posts.