In today’s digital age, not having a social media presence can be a mortal sin. For businesses, social media provides an effective platform for promoting products and services. If you’re managing an online business, being on social media is even more important if you want to stay competitive. 68% of consumers agree that social media provides them with an opportunity to interact with brands and companies. If you are not on social media, you miss out on the opportunity to attract new customers.
Perhaps you have second thoughts about using social media marketing for your online store. When done right, social media can effectively drive traffic to your website and online store. But increasing your online sales can be easier said than done. As many businesses start to realize the importance of social media, it is important to gain some knowledge about how to market your online store effectively. So here are the steps on how social media marketing can drive more traffic to your site and potentially increase sales.
Steps In Boosting Online Store Using Social Media
- Set Clear Goals
- Choose A Suitable Social Media Platform
- Create High Quality Content
- Make It Easy For Users To Share Your Product
- Use Hashtags Sensibly and Be Active On The Right Ones
- Create A Compelling Identity
- Add A Call-To-Action Button
- Include Images
- Ask For Reviews
- Offer Personalized Customer Service
Let’s get on with it.
Steps In Boosting Online Store Using Social Media
The ecommerce space is a very competitive industry. To attract customers, you must stand out and make your presence felt online. Social media marketing will help you increase awareness of your online store and grab the attention of potential customers. But your job will not be easy. Here are some steps to enhance awareness of your online store using social media marketing.
1. Set Clear Goals
Marketing without a purpose is a waste of time and effort. Social media marketing can be effective when integrated with a strategy. Without goals and objectives, there is no way you can measure your success and return on investment. Having clear goals will help you throughout the campaign. Your goals will help you better evaluate your campaign to find ways to adapt and improve your campaign along the way.
So many businesses have made the mistake of jumping into social media without knowing what they want to achieve. Setting clear goals will help you strategize for your campaign. For example, are you aiming to increase brand awareness? Do you want to drive traffic to your website or boost your sales? Goals will help you come up with a social media strategy. The most important thing is to make sure that your social media marketing goals are properly aligned with your business goals.
Setting clear goals will help you become accountable. Whatever your goal is, it will help you secure the appropriate budget. When setting goals, always keep in mind the SMART approach.
- Specific. It’s okay to start with a general direction but try to be as specific as possible. Increasing your target audience is general but increasing your LinkedIn followers is specific.
- Measurable. What are your metrics for defining the success of a campaign? In the goal above, aiming to double the number of LinkedIn followers makes your goal measurable.
- Attainable. Of course, you would want to aim high but don’t set yourself up for failure. If you are just a startup and want to reach a million LinkedIn followers already, it simply not attainable yet.
- Relevant. Is your social media goal aligned with the bigger strategy? Each goal should be supportive of your business objectives.
- Time-bound. Does your goal have a deadline? If it doesn’t have one, it is easier to put it off. So make sure to set a timeline for completion.
2. Choose A Suitable Social Media Platform
There are many social media platforms to choose from, but it does not mean that you have to be on all of them. As social media strategist Peg Fitzpatrick puts it, “It’s better to be amazing at one or two social media platforms than suck on five or six.” Just because the hardware store around the corner found success on Facebook does not mean you should be on the platform as well.
The trick is to be on the platform where most of your target audience is focused on and target your advertising on those channels. Facebook may have the biggest network of users but if your audience hangs out on Snapchat or Twitter, that’s where you should be. By narrowing down your ideal customer, you also narrow down your choice for social media platforms.
When it comes to finding the right social media platform for your business, the demographics of users of each platform will also come into play. You may also consider how active your target audience is on that platform. Aside from demographics and engagement, you may also want to look at how individuals use the platform.
3. Create High-Quality Content
Without a doubt, one of the best ways to get the attention of your target audience is through content. 82% of marketers actively use content marketing and more than 60% measure the success of their content marketing strategy through sales. As a marketer, it is important that your content provides value to your followers. You don’t want to bombard them with too many self-promotional advertisements which could become annoying.
While most social media content is text-based, you need to start creating and distributing visual content to maximize your social media strategy. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 65% of B2B marketers use infographics to boost their sales. To really connect and develop lasting relationships, you need to create content in different formats like videos, guides, case studies, and others.
To be successful on social media, you should also make sure that you should share relevant and interesting content. It could be as simple as posting a photo on Facebook to tweeting a link to your latest blog post. When you provide users with relevant content, they will likely share it with their friends and contacts. It will also help customers see you as an authority figure with the topic they are sharing.
4. Make It Easy For Users To Share Your Product
Have you imagined the traffic you will generate by linking your online store with your social media channel? There is a reason why social media channels have share buttons. They are integral in increasing your brand’s conversion rate. This allows customers who instantly like your products to directly share your online store with their friends using social media.
Social shares will not only drive additional clicks but also boost your brand awareness and of course generate sales. Customers love sharing their experiences and products that they have purchased and would recommend themselves. According to a study by Ogilvy, Google, and TNS, 74% of people are willing to share a good product or experience if they are motivated to do so.
So how do you keep them motivated to share your products? Give them a reason to do so by rewarding them for being loyal brand advocates. Leveraging social sharing will help increase engagement leading to an increase in new customer acquisition and additional revenue. Referral marketing can be effective if you make it easy for customers to harness their power to share your products and bring in new customers to your online store.
5. Use Hashtags Sensibly and Be Active On The Right Ones
Hashtags first began on Twitter but are now becoming popular on other social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Its wide acceptance should give you plenty of reasons to consider using them. Hashtags can make your content viewable by anyone with an interest even if they are not your followers.
Over the years, hashtags have become a powerful tool for extending the reach of a business on social media. It allows your followers to join discussions or events easily. However, you should treat hashtags differently on each channel. The number of hashtags for better engagement varies on Twitter or Facebook.
When used properly, hashtags can help your business find potential customers with common interests. It will help people find your posts and if they find value in it will connect with you in their most convenient way. Hashtags will also give you a better understanding of what your audience is searching for.
6. Create A Compelling Identity
When using social media, your brand identity should be front and center. Interact with your customers in a way that best fits your brand image. Having a compelling identity will help differentiate your brand from the competition. Your brand identity will give personality to your business and a promise to your customers.
Brand identity goes beyond the logo, color, fonts, style, and voice of your organization. It represents the underlying truths and values of your business. It is what gives your brand a sense of authenticity. It is what brings repeat clients to your door. Compelling brand identity will allow you to build deeper customer relationships.
In creating your brand identity, you need to understand exactly what your business represents and where you plan to position yourself in your industry. Analyze what makes you unique within your industry and start building your value proposition.
7. Add A Call-To-Action Button
Whether you want customers to sign up for a newsletter, buy your products, or take advantage of a free trial, call-to-action buttons will allow the customer to complete the checkout or purchase process. These buttons can do wonders for your social media posts. It can drive traffic to your website, generate sales, and increase leads and conversion rates.
Creating a call-to-action button can be a little bit tricky. When done correctly, a CTA will help you with customer acquisition. The key is knowing where to position them to get maximum results. Data from CampaignMonitor suggests that CTAs on buttons can have a 28% higher click-through rate compared to CTAs in text.
Without a call to action, your readers or followers will become confused after reading your post. They would not know what to do and what are the next steps to take. They might scroll down to read your content, but they wouldn’t know what to do with the information. Most likely, they will leave your website without doing anything. So make it clear to them what they need to do.
8. Include Images
One of the best ways to stand out and attract attention is to add quality images on your social media posts. If you are running an online store, it will be much easier for customers to buy your products if they can see its picture along with the description. The ecommerce industry has become a competitive space where visuals are no longer considered a nicety but an essential component of your social media strategy.
When it comes to images, the numbers don’t lie. Adding photos on your Twitter posts gives your tweets a 35% boost in retweets while Facebook posts with photos receive an average 37% increase in engagement. Also, posts with images resonate better than those without. When people hear information, they can only remember 10% of that information three days later. On the other hand, if that information is accompanied by a relevant image, people can retain 65% of information three days later.
Adding images is much easier nowadays thanks to websites like Canva and free image websites like Pexels and Pixabay. If you don’t have an in-house design team, you also have an option to outsource graphic design. It may entail some minimal charges but in the long run it can help you drive website traffic and eventually increase revenue.
9. Ask For Reviews
Customer reviews can be a good way to build trust. 93% of customers read online reviews before buying a product. People want assurance when buying a product, and online reviews allow them to learn about products or services. It gives them social proof of the level of credibility of the online store. 93% of customers say that online reviews influence their purchase decisions.
You can ask customers to review your products or service on their preferred social media channel. Reviews create a sense of trust among your audience and can help boost your online sales. It will help you engage with your followers and act as word-of-mouth advertising. By hearing out what customers have to say, it will provide you with valuable insights to help you improve the customer experience.
So how do you encourage online reviews? Ask them to leave one. One study revealed that 68% of customers will leave reviews when asked. You can do this automatically after a purchase through a personalized email or satisfaction survey. If you have a physical store, you can create a review box at the front desk and train your staff to ask for a review.
10. Offer Personalized Customer Service
Online reviews don’t mean anything if you don’t do anything about them. The beauty of social media channels is that they provide you with a venue for communicating with customers and providing personalized service. Through support channels, you can interact with customers and respond to the comments they leave on their posts. Social media has provided customers with a channel for airing their grievances and when they do, they expect you to respond as soon as possible.
With customer experience now influencing customer loyalty, you need to step up and take your customer service to the next level or risk losing customers to the competition. When they leave negative feedback, engage with the customers right away. Your followers want to feel valued and heard. Engagement and interaction will heavily contribute to increasing your sales.
Consider adding messaging apps on your website for better engagement and support. AI-powered customer service is on the rise allowing businesses to solve customer problems quickly. When personalizing the customer experience, social media is not enough. Customers want an immediate resolution to their issues, which is where Live chat software can come in handy. In fact, 41% of customers prefer live chat support over other channels.
Social media marketing is here to stay. To stay competitive, you need to leverage the benefits that it can bring to your online store. With these tips, you can look forward to increasing the online presence of your online store.
Why Choose airisX E-Commerce Solutions?
Customer support, being airisX’s bread and butter, is the go-to service for the majority of our ecommerce website clients. Unlike Amazon FBA sellers, ecommerce website sellers need to set up their own customer support without the help of Amazon’s support team handling the bulk of customer inquiries. We offer phone, email, and live chat support, working with your customers to make sure their issues are resolved and to make sure your platform reputation for attentive customer support is well-maintained.
Offering speedy responses to customer inquiries on public facing social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Sitejabber, Trust Pilot, Instagram, etc. is the name of our game. We help our clients manage their ecommerce websites’ social media responding, providing fast resolutions to customers and improving your social media image. Get in touch with us at contact@airisx.com and we will get back to you with a tailored solution for your business needs.