How E-Commerce Stores Can Benefit From Social Media Marketing
June 7, 2022
People are shopping online now more than ever before, and for good reason. Ever since the COVID outbreak first came to light, many people have been hesitant to shop in person at their favorite retailers, and now, they’re looking online to buy both everyday necessities and make non-essential purchases.
Brick-and-mortar stores with a limited online presence are struggling, and many companies have taken note. Facebook recently released its Facebook Shop feature in the past couple of years, which allows businesses to set up online storefronts on Facebook and Instagram, where they can sell their goods.
But, even before the COVID pandemic, studies show that online spending is on the rise. In 2019, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 3.53 trillion US dollars and e-retail revenues are projected to keep on growing.
Is your e-commerce store ready to capture this increase in online shoppers?
Whether you’re currently setting up your e-commerce store, or are an established e-commerce brand, now’s the time to think about how you’ll attract customers online. Social media marketing is a great way to help encourage more sales, as online stores with a social media presence have an average of 32% more sales than those that don’t.
In this guide, we’ll go over social media marketing techniques for companies who want to grow their online sales.
Prioritize user-generated content to establish trustworthiness
User-generated content is any type of content that’s created by a brand’s customers, rather than the brand itself. This type of content is great for building online authority and trustworthiness by providing social proof.
DTC (Direct-To-Consumer) brands are a great example of how eCommerce brands use user-generated content to grow brand awareness. These types of businesses don’t sell their products in-store, so while they’re a bit different than traditional brick and mortar retailers, looking at their social media strategies can provide helpful inspiration.
Brooklinen is a great example of a DTC Brand that posts user-generated content throughout their social media feeds. The majority of their social content is created by actual customers, rather than the brand itself.
For more details on how to gather and promote UGC content, check out this guide.
Use Facebook campaigns to attract new customers
Eighty-five percent of orders from social media sites come from Facebook. Take advantage of this purchase-ready audience by creating a paid Facebook campaign. Facebook campaigns are great for reaching new prospects because of their detailed targeting options. You can choose your ad audience based on demographics, location, interests and more, making it easy to show ads to people who are interested in your products. Just make sure to avoid these common Facebook ads mistakes!
Engage with your audience to build your online community
As e-commerce continues to grow, e-commerce brands with excited, active communities will flourish, and those without a strong brand will be left behind.
Here are some basic best practices to keep your social audiences engaged:
1.) Use brand-specific hashtags
Brand-specific hashtags give social media users a way to join the conversation and can help grow your social media audience. For example, Coca-Cola’s Share A Coke campaign aimed to make drinking a coke a more engaging and personal experience by replacing the brand’s logo on cans and bottles to people’s names. They used the hashtag #shareacoke on their social media channels to bring the popularity of this offline campaign to their social channels, and to encourage customers to share their Share a Coke experience.
2.) Be real
Use Social Media as a way to tell your company’s story. By sharing the inner workings of your company, people will see your brand as more authentic and real. This can also be a great way to show off your company’s mission and passion, which makes your brand feel more human. Posts that show off your company’s team, explain your history, or show what makes your products unique are great ways to let customers peek behind the curtain and see what makes your company special.
3.) Have stellar customer service
Social media is a place where people share what they love about brands, along with what they don’t love. If you see a complaint on one of your social media platforms, pay attention. Respond to the complaint and give the person a way to contact your support team to resolve the issue. Others will see your response and know that you care about your customers.
Send users to an easy and secure e-commerce store
Your social media marketing efforts will be wasted if you send users to an out-of-date, non-secure, or hard-to-use online store. Make sure your e-commerce solution is functional and ready to handle all your online orders.
The Marekting 360® Shop App is a full-featured and affordable e-commerce solution that includes web, mobile and social stores.
Grow your e-commerce business with Marketing 360®
In today’s retail climate, it’s important to optimize your brand’s stores both online and offline. With Marketing 360®, you get the best tools you need to market and grow your business from a single platform, and our dedicated team of social media strategists can help you create a plan that can help your unique business grow.
Learn more and see our plans and pricing.
Originally published on 5/28/20
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