If you sell products on your website, it’s essential for you to be using social media marketing. Simple as. As social media platforms have evolved over the years, they have become more and more crucial for eCommerce businesses, and you absolutely must be using the top social tools in the right way to keep up with your competition. In this article we’ll look at why social media marketing is integral to any successful eCommerce strategy, and help you identify which aspects of social media are relevant to your business.
Let’s start with the biggie – paid social. Social media advertising is probably the most effective form of advertising in 2018, and we’re not just saying that because we’re biased. The powerful tools on offer by the likes of Facebook and Instagram allow you to create social media marketing funnels that convert, helping turn targeted audiences into paying customers. Every eCommerce company should at least be using Facebook, and ideally be using both Facebook and Instagram. Precision targeting and the holy Facebook Pixel are the two factors that will help generate those big bucks.
If you haven’t heard the phrase Facebook Pixel, prepare to have your life changed. The Facebook Pixel (not to be confused with the Google Pixel) is a piece of code that you add to your website. It helps track conversions from Facebook ads, and monitors user behaviour on your site. By gathering user data, the Pixel can then be used to create targeted audiences for future ads, helping you remarket to granular levels. For example, you could create an audience based on everyone who had reached your checkout but not purchased, and then fire out ads specifically for these users.
You can also use the Pixel to create highly-converting Dynamic Product Ads. You know those times you look at those shoes you really shouldn’t blow your pay cheque on, only to have them follow you around the internet until you give in and make the purchase? Those are DPAs. As these types of ads are tailor-made for each specific user, they minimise the number of conversions lost at the last stage of the sales process. They’re powerful, they work, and once they’re set up you can leave them to their own devices.
There’s plenty more to go over regarding paid social, but we need to touch on organic. No social media strategy is complete without organic social, and if you spend all your time on ads without giving your page some TLC, you’re setting yourself up to fail. The majority of paid social ads are ‘dark posts’, which mean they don’t show up on your page. So if a user clicks through to your page from one of these ads, you’ll want to make sure your page looks the part, and has plenty of fresh content for the user to digest. Many people like to believe that organic is dead, but it simply isn’t the case! Posting content that offers value to your target customer will help you build up trust and respect. You should also post glowing reviews and testimonials – social proof is a big factor in purchase consideration.
In addition to posting valuable content, you should also use social media to listen to your customers. Many users turn to the direct nature of Facebook and Instagram messenger (and Twitter), to find solutions to their problems. If you’ve got a customer service team primed and ready to respond to these issues, you can turn a potentially negative situation into a positive. Social is king of customer service right now, if you get it right. You can also go one step further and use social listening to check out when users are talking about you, or something you can help with. Clever listening is a great way to hunt down potential customers whilst adding value. Double win.
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