Social media marketing offers incredible benefits to ecommerce marketers. Want to learn how to use it to reach your prospects & grow your business? Here’s how.
An effective marketing strategy hinges mostly on the ability to be where your customers are, which is what social media offers.
Most people use social media today with the number growing to over four billion users as of October 2020. Internet users spend almost seven hours online and two-and-a-half hours on social media daily.
If that is not enough to convince you to use social media to your advantage, consider this:
42% of all internet users use social networks when looking for more information about brands.
The current surge in social media usage is a result of the COVID-19-related lockdowns. These numbers show the importance of integrating social media with your ecommerce marketing strategy.
Not convinced yet?
Check out some of the benefits that using social media marketing for ecommerce offers:
1. Get Quality Traffic from Micro-Targeted Social Campaigns
Micro-targeting allows you to capitalize on consumers’ demands by gaining insights from their online profiles, interests, demographics, etc.
You can create a more targeted, personalized, and profitable campaign leading to greater audience engagement and better returns on investment.
Micro-targeting on social media also allows you to:
- Target audiences who’ve shown interest in your offers.
- Segment audiences by interest and elevate product visibility.
- Use localized words that can make an impression on your targeted audience.
- Show messages that align with an individual’s livelihood.
But how can social media help with micro-targeting?
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow you to use precise targeting and appeal to people’s emotions through localized ads. They increase your chances of getting quality leads that can convert.
Once a potential customer clicks on your ad, your chances of conversion will depend on your landing page creation tactics.
- Are the calls-to-action (CTAs) convincing?
- Does it showcase the benefits of your products or offer?
- Does it have intriguing images?
Placing an ad on one social media platform is not enough. You also need to write content that guides your leads to move them down the conversion funnel.
2. Drive Brand Awareness and Conversions through Social Media Shops
Have you heard of Instagram Shops and Facebook Shops?
Consumers can now discover and purchase products from your Instagram or Facebook Shop.
Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops make shopping seamless for consumers while also helping ecommerce businesses improve their conversion rates.
They allow you to create an online store, choose products you want to feature, and customize your shop with brand colors. Potential customers can then browse, share, save, and shop right from the social media app.
And the best part?
Visitors to your shop can message you directly if they need help or support or if they want to track order delivery.
3. Boost Search Rankings with Engaging Content and Quality Links
Before we can go any further, let me tell you that social media signals do not have any significant direct effects on your search rankings. However, there is a relationship between SEO and social media.
A robust social media strategy can help amplify your efforts to meet various ranking factors that Google considers while displaying search results.
For example:
You share content on social media that many people link to or share. You get more links directing people to your site and this can help boost your search rankings.
What should you do to boost the search rankings for your ecommerce business using social media?
You should:
- Optimize your profiles on each social media platform. Use similar images for consistency, ensure that your bio is relevant, and leverage keywords that showcase what you do.
- Maintain consistency in posting times and posting frequencies. You should post when your target audience is online.
- Optimize your social media content for shareability. For example, you should use viral headlines, eye-catching visuals, and convincing calls-to-action.
- Encourage visitors to your ecommerce site to share the products they like with their friends. Add sharing buttons to product pages and ensure that your products deliver value.
- Use easy-to-consume and shareable content formats like video and images. Share product tutorials, how-to videos, demos, and testimonials.
- Engage with your followers on posts and amplify your reach by sharing your content on other platforms as well.
Most importantly, you should track the performance of your social media strategy and replicate your successes. You can use social tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Awario to identify your best-performing content and improve future campaigns.
4. Increase Engagement and Sales with Social Videos
Your ecommerce business can generate more value by using videos for marketing.
According to a study, 80% of marketers said that videos directly increased their sales. 95% of them said that videos helped increase user understanding of their products and services. Similarly, 83% of them said that videos helped generate leads.
But there’s more…
Using videos can help increase the time spent on a page, allow you to answer customer questions, and increase shareability. They connect the buyer to the product and show them how to use it.
But what about Live videos?
Most social media platforms offer Live video features that ecommerce businesses can leverage to showcase their products.
You don’t need a professional camera to host a Live session. You can shoot videos on your mobile device as long as it has a high-resolution camera and excellent video quality.
But what are the best practices when hosting Live videos?
You should create buzz about the Live session the day before to get more people to join you. During the session, you should showcase your product from different angles, explain its use cases, and include subtitles.
Finally, you should have a Q&A session at the end of the Live session to answer the questions your audience has. Make sure that you allow users to share the video.
Ready to Leverage Social Media Marketing for Your Ecommerce Business?
Competition is fierce, especially with the pandemic, which caused many businesses to move online. But your ecommerce brand can stand out and grow by using the right strategies.
Integrating an effective social media strategy into your ecommerce marketing strategy can help you increase brand awareness. It can also help you drive quality traffic, increase conversions, and build a community around your brand.
Need help leveraging social media marketing for your ecommerce business? Get in touch with me to discuss the questions and ideas you may have.
By Shane Barker
