Social media has become an ultimate platform for interaction between the brand and its users so modern e-commerce businesses should absolutely use it for self-promotion.
However, each platform demands an individual approach and companies should keep them in mind when planning their social media promotional strategy.
Table of Contents
8 Ways to Promote Your ecommerce Store?
1. Define your audience
The first thing you need to do is to define your target audience.
Different platforms have different audiences so that’s a starting point before choosing the social media. Compare these statistics:
- Instagram: 68% of the users are female and 59% of the users are between 18-29 years old,
- Pinterest: 81% of the users are female, the median age is 40 years old and below,
- Twitter: most of the users are male, 37% of the users are between 18-29 years old,
- Facebook: 53% are female users, 88% of the users are between 18-99 but 84% of the online users are between 30-49 years old.
As you see, each platform is suitable for a different user group. It’s important to consider it when choosing a platform.
2. Choose the right platform
Once you have a vision of your desired target audience, it’s time to choose the correct platform(s) for promotion.
Because each platform has a different content type, you have to think about what you are going to post. For e-commerce stores, Instagram and Pinterest work the best.
Both platforms offer an excellent option to display your products and recently both Instagram and Pinterest added new shoppable features that let users make purchases without leaving the app.
3. Create a content plan
Users expect regular updates from the companies because it increases engagement and awareness. According to the numerous studies, the average posting frequency for the platforms would be:
- Instagram: about 2 posts/day
- Pinterest: 11-15 pins/day
- Facebook: 1 post/day
- Twitter: 10-15 tweets/day
Creation of a content plan performs one more critical function: it helps you keep the posting consistent in times of seasonal sales or other similar events and prepare for them in advance.
The best way to organize your content is to create an editorial plan and keep up with it.
4. Keep the communication going
One of the most important features of social media is that it lets the users directly communicate with the brands. Thus, it’s essential that you communicate actively with your users and always reply to all their comments regarding your products or services.
This is actually a trap for many brands. They notice positive feedback but tend to ignore the negative one and that brings a huge backlash afterward.
When posting content, try engaging the users. Ask questions or their opinions, suggest sharing their thoughts or stories. Such kind of interaction works brilliantly as it adds to personalization and makes the customer feel that you care about them and are interested in their lives.
One of the best-working tactics that many brands do is asking their followers to share their own photos/stories on their social media profiles with an appropriate hashtag. This boosts the users’ engagement and at the same time increases the audience reach significantly.
5. Make your content entertaining
The primary focus of social media is entertainment so don’t forget that. While you want to inform the users on your products and services, try adding the entertainment element to your content.
Do different giveaways, competitions, and other gamification events. Add humor to your content and always keep it visually appealing.
In social media, the competition for user’s attention is incredibly high so you need to stand out and get remembered.
6. Be consistent
The biggest difference between company’s and personal social profiles is that brands tend to have a consistent style that they follow across all their social media accounts.
This style depends on the brand logo and identity a lot. Normally, companies choose certain colors to stick to when posting content. This helps them differentiate from the competition and be more recognizable.
Consistency starts with choosing the proper theme and overall store design. This, in turns, depends on the level of customization of the platforms.
Magento design, for example, offers more options to play with, but all e-commerce platforms offer a significant amount of themes to choose from.
The design consistency implies having high-quality content and investing time and resources in its editing. As an e-commerce entrepreneur, do research on e-commerce product photography and come up with your own individual style.
7. Add social media buttons to the site
You want to see your shoppers on your social media profiles. Paid advertising is good but the best way to gain followers is through implementing the social media buttons on your website.
The website visitors are your perfect target audience as they are already interested in your product. Encourage them to follow you on social media with the help of social media buttons placed on the pages of your store.
I.e. you can add a “Pin it” button on the product pages of your store for an instant switch from the site to the platform.
Another clever trick is adding an Instagram gallery to your landing page and asking users to share their own photos on Instagram so you can display them on your site.
8. Use shoppable features
Recently, Pinterest and Instagram rolled out the brand-new shoppable features for the e-commerce stores.
In Instagram, brands can now tag the products on the photos and provide users with information about the price and availability. As well, the users can check out the product without leaving the app and instantly buy it.
As for Pinterest, the platform also features shoppable pins with product tags and provides links to the quick purchase.
Both platforms are aimed to make in-app shopping more natural and provide a better and smoother experience for the user.
So if you want to boost the online presence and performance of your brand, explore these features and actively use them. But remember: to get access to shoppable features on Instagram, you need to first create a store on Facebook and then link it to your Instagram business profile.
Conclusion:
Social media is becoming the ultimate place for connecting with your customers and informing them about your brand in an entertaining and informative manner.
By keeping an editorial calendar and posting regularly, you will be able to surely grow your audience and boost their loyalty.
Just remember that social media is a serious marketing platform that can either make or break your business, depending on how carefully you approach it.
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