Digital marketers use social media platforms to effectively connect with a wide range of e-commerce customers. An increasing number of online users leverage social media to research brands and shop online. According to reports by Statista, “As of April 2020, 37 % of U.S. internet users between the ages of 18 to 34 years reported they had purchased something via social media before but did not do so regularly. Only eleven percent of respondents aged 55 years and older stated the same.”
This is a vital piece of information for online retailers. Millennials are an integral part of most e-commerce target markets and make up a significant portion of online purchases. This establishes that social media is not only a means of driving traffic and posting content, but also a strong and powerful mode of converting prospects into customers.
How To Use Social Media Marketing for E-Commerce
Create a Posting Schedule
Once your presence on social media has been established and you start to grow a following, you want to ensure that your audience doesn’t forget about you. To maintain the success of your ecommerce social media strategy, you need to maintain consistency. For example, creating a posting schedule lets you stay relevant and visible, and keeps your brand top-of-mind for consumers while they make purchasing decisions.
To add value through different content sources in your schedule, many social media managers are in favour of the rule of thirds – 1/3 interaction, 1/3 industry news and tips sharing that followers can benefit from, and 1/3 promoting your services and products. Being consistent in social media marketing and e-commerce also relies on remaining consistent with the persona of your brand while resonating with the interests of your targeted audience.
Establish Your Brand
Before launching a brand-new product or store, it’s important that you start creating buzz around it. The product launch will be less likely to succeed if you don’t have an audience to promote it to. Social media marketing allows a business to launch a brand online and improve its awareness and extend its reach. It is important to remember that developing brand awareness as part of e-commerce social media marketing is a steady process and it does not happen overnight. However, if you are trying to speed up the process, paid social media posts can help you!
Partner With Influencers on Social Media Platforms
According to reports, 74% of people reach out to social networks for advice on purchase-based decisions. Partnering with influencers on social media platforms can therefore be a strategic decision to elevate the reach of your brand. Influencer marketing content offers 11 times higher return on investment as opposed to conventional means of digital marketing. Influencers with a strong online following can work wonders when it comes to offering a great boost to your brand.
Leverage Video Content
Your content must represent your personality. However, not all content placements and types create the same impact. To stop your posts from getting washed out by other social media accounts in your timeline, you can experiment with different content formats like Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories, TikToks, and Instagram Live.
More than 500 million people use Instagram Stories every day. The platform keeps introducing new sales features to both Instagram Live and Stories, which have a completion rate of 86%. Instagram is not the only popular social media platform in terms of short-form video content, as Facebook initiated Stories in 2020, LinkedIn has implemented its own take on Stories, and TikTok has aggressively grown in size in recent months. Each one of these platforms offers unique opportunities for e-commerce store growth, depending on where your audience resides online and what type of content they prefer to consume.
Showcase User-Generated Content
Comments and positive reviews from satisfied and happy customers are a form of authentic social proof. What’s even better is user-generated content. Consider running a campaign where your audience can share videos and pictures that feature your products.You can then re-share all these pictures on your accounts, generating easy posts for engagement, and increasing your brand’s credibility amongst your target audience.
Boost Your E-Commerce Sales With Social Media Marketing
Most customers are extremely active on social media, and these platforms have fundamentally become the central hub of focus on the internet. We can help you use the above tactics in your e-commerce social media marketing strategy to generate greater traffic, sales, and awareness.
