In one of our previous articles “How to Start an Online Business,” we discussed how important it is to have solid social media marketing strategies for ecommerce.
According to the portal statista.com, “As of August 2019, 30 percent of internet users in the United States between the ages of 18 and 34 have stated that they have purchased something through social media in the past, but have not done so regularly. “
This data makes us understand that the various social media platforms are no longer a simple means of publishing personal content. Indeed, they have turned into powerful tools to convert followers into customers.
What makes a social channel so lucrative for online store entrepreneurs is the colossal number of people who have integrated these platforms into their daily lives. Therefore, the management of social media profiles for ecommerce is a gold mine waiting to be exploited.
Are you ready to find out how to increase your sales by taking advantage of social media channels?
- Use the right content
- High quality images
- Product Videos
- Interact with your followers
- Use paid advertising
- Consistency
- Use the right hashtags
1. Use the right content
We understand the temptation to publish posts about the pleasure of morning coffee, but if your ecommerce offers anything else, perhaps it is better to avoid.
One of the social media marketing strategies for ecommerce considered to be vital throughout this journey is to always keep your audience in mind.
Who’s your follower base? Why do you think they’re following your publications? What do they expect from your social channel?
Keep your posts short but interesting; you have to make them push for an interaction.
You can ask questions or create quizzes. Some pages invite their followers to post photos or videos using their products. The important thing is to bring the focus on them but at the same time involve your brand.
Keep in mind that this is the time to showcase your products or services from various perspectives. Take advantage of social channels for this aspect too.
2. High quality images
As mentioned also in the previous section, this is the time to show your product from different angles to the public. Always keep in mind, however, to use a photographic camera of a certain quality and to catch particular moments or angles.
When it comes to a social channel dedicated to online selling, the best is to avoid posts that are entirely textual, or composed only of a link.
Instead, attract your followers with a nice quality image, captivating text, and only then insert a link too. Thus you will publish complete and professional posts that push your fans and followers to share them on their profiles.
3. Product Videos
Think about the last time this happened to you: you are carelessly scrolling on your favorite social network and you suddenly come across a product that makes you fall in love. Who has never had an experience like this?
Social media marketing is undoubtedly effective because it is showing us the things we really want. Based on algorithms with statistical information that can be a little “intrusive”, but at the same time, they know us quite well.
Video is one of the most effective ways to take advantage of this moment and capture the attention of your audience, this is because it generates desires and needs in consumers automatically. In addition to static advertising with products, social video marketing tends to push your ecommerce sales to impressive levels.
When a potential buyer can see the product in use or see it “move”, the latter becomes more tangible and desirable. In fact, as many as 64% of consumers say they are more interested in a purchase after seeing a video of a particular brand.
To shorten the phases required for a sale, you can link Facebook video ads directly to the product shown. Meanwhile, on Instagram, you can take it one step further and turn your video into a shoppable post or story. This way your audience can become a customer without leaving the platform.
Make sure you keep the length of the Instagram video quite short and good quality. Nobody wants to spend 5 minutes trying to figure out what’s the use of a product!
4. Interact with your followers
Social media are the perfect platform to interact directly with your customers. Some entrepreneurs have long understood the benefits of social interaction and therefore try to make the most of it.
They are committed to creating content that pushes followers to respond, to click, like, or write and share their experiences with the product or service. It is not uncommon to see them go live on various platforms, or create free webinars.
You should thoroughly think about how and what you are going to respond to your fans because this is extremely important for the future interactions on your profile. Interactions must always be direct and personalized. Some brands create generic answers for the most frequent topics but at the same time creatively adapt the answers for that specific fan who is writing.
It should also be added that the customer or the simple fan of the page must be able to perceive a voice or a style of the present and reliable brand. He must be able to perceive a kind and professional person who acts in the interest of the brand and from whom he can always request support and assistance in case of need.
Sometimes it can also happen to receive negative feedback. It can happen from customers, who have come across an unpleasant experience, and also from people interested in the most unthoughtful reasons to put down your Brand. In these cases, it is crucial to handle feedback with absolute caution and also rather quickly. The risk is to give space to a chain of negative comments from which there is no easy way out.
Always keep in mind that you are addressing a person, so calling them by name is imperative. Reassess the situation and express your willingness to remedy what happened.
5. Use paid advertising
Paid advertising is an important tool that brands use to have greater visibility with their target customer.
Building a website with all your products and services or just posting on social media a few times is no longer enough. Gone are the days when social media reached audiences organically and for free. Paid options are now changing the game.
According to Digital Commerce 360, the sales generated by the ecommerce industry worldwide for 2019 amounted to $ 3.763 billion. This number will continue to grow over time. How businesses of all sizes succeed in the ecommerce marketplace involves strategy, analysis, and continuous investment optimization.
Faced with these facts, businesses must create promotions for their products and services specifically for social media platforms. This includes thinking hard about targeting their brand and focusing on the message to convey. Only by operating in this fashion, advertising will touch the majority of potential consumers who shop online.
6. Consistency
“Can I publish only once in a while?“, “Who has time to take care of messages and comments, I have a business to run.” – these are some of the most common phrases that are heard when it comes to consistency in the use of Social Media.
Our advice is to post on social media every day. The number of people you reach without paying for an ad or post aka the organic reach can only reach a certain number of people. Every time you post you increase your chances of reaching more followers. Posting strategically and consistently every day maximizes your organic reach.
If a page or profile is not regular with its posts, it will lose interactions. Not only because the followers will no longer want to interact with the page but above all, because some algorithms of the social channels give priority to the most active profiles.
Constant posting on various social channels is the key to helping you complete more online sales. Only by making yourself heard often and consistently you will empower your brand and be recognized.
This is because you will have the opportunity to make the voice of your brand heard and bring your product and style to the attention of the public in a systematic way.
By constantly displaying your services aesthetically and pleasantly, you will gain the attention of your potential customers. Reminding them of the various payment options or other support elements, you can help influence the purchase decision and increase sales for your business.
However, if you think this step requires valuable time, doing a simple search will change your mind. Online, you will find very useful tools that will help you post content at a specific time of day.
For example:
7. Use the right hashtags
While optimizing posts using specific keywords won’t make the post rise to the top of a user’s feed, it will earn you more visibility, particularly for new audiences.
Incorporating relevant keywords and hashtags into your posts, especially the most successful or commented posts, can increase your brand recognition.
All this especially by those users who are looking for information regarding the published topic. Therefore, you should spend some time looking for specific hashtags that will help new users discover your unique and unmissable content.
Online you will find many techniques that explain in detail how to identify the hashtags that bring the most traffic for various products and services.
Conclusion
As an ecommerce entrepreneur, your goal is to increase sales every day. True, many digital marketing channels can help you achieve this. On the other hand, however, social media are the only ones that allow you to reach both new and old customers.
Use our guide to develop and improve your social media marketing strategies for ecommerce. With consistency and perseverance, you will increase the visibility of your brand. Very soon you will grow the base of your followers and consequently, you will be able to promote and grow sales.
Social platforms are definitely incredibly profitable sources if you start them right.
