Social media platforms provide an ideal opportunity to engage with your target audience, enhance brand visibility, and direct potential customers to your website. However, operating without a clear strategy may result in a haphazard approach that lacks direction. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a well-thought-out social media strategy.
What is social media e-commerce?
Social media e-commerce involves utilizing social media platforms to promote and market an e-commerce business. Its main objectives include creating brand awareness, enhancing online visibility, expanding the customer base, and ultimately boosting sales.
Additionally, social commerce is a subset of social e-commerce that specifically focuses on selling products directly through social media platforms. On the other hand, mobile commerce refers to the practice of selling products through mobile devices, such as dedicated apps and mobile browser transactions. It is worth noting that social media e-commerce is particularly significant since the majority of social media users, approximately 99% of social media users, access these platforms through their mobile devices.
How to create a social media e-commerce strategy
Curious how to start promoting your own business and products on social media? Let’s walk you through our six-step strategy.
1. Set up social e-commerce channels
Utilize the functionalities of Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to enhance the shopping experience for your customers. By leveraging these platforms, you can easily showcase your products and make them more discoverable to potential buyers. Instagram and Facebook both utilize the Meta Commerce Manager for their shopping features, allowing you to seamlessly integrate your product catalog and start tagging items in your posts.
2. Find your authentic voice & be unique
In the past, there were only a few DTC brands in the furniture retail industry. However, the landscape has drastically changed over the past five years, with numerous mid-century furniture manufacturers now competing for attention on social media. This trend is not limited to furniture, as DTC brands in various market segments have also experienced a similar surge in numbers. Given the crowded nature of the field, how can you distinguish yourself?
One effective approach is to establish an authentic brand voice that reflects your company’s identity. Coupled with compelling brand visuals, this is an initial step towards garnering attention. Additionally, it is crucial to identify what sets you apart from others in your industry. This could be your company’s unique story, a specialized offering, or exceptional customer service.
Research indicates that 86% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for a superior customer experience. Therefore, if your products are similar to those of your competitors, providing exceptional social customer service can be a key differentiator.
3. Use organic and paid strategies
On social media, a combination of organic and paid strategies is usually the preferred way to go. Paid social media can help you reach an even wider audience—but your organic content is what’s going to keep them coming back.
Here are a few tactics your e-commerce business can use to combine these two powerful strategies.
Organic Social Media Strategies for E-commerce
- Presence of and use of product reviews on your social media accounts
- Adding relevant hashtags to increase the discoverability of your brand
- Personalized interaction with customers on your accounts and theirs
- Providing excellent social customer care
- Using user-generated content to further your social proof
- Use social listening to improve your product and discover new customers
Paid social media strategies for e-commerce
- Paid advertisements and post boosts
- Using lookalike audiences and website visitors to supplement your advertising
- Running influencer marketing campaigns
- Creating a brand ambassador program
- Forming brand partnerships
- Creating a referral or affiliate program
- Running advertisements and boosts of any of the organic strategies mentioned above
4. Use social proof
Word-of-mouth and reviews continue to be effective strategies for promoting purchases and serve as excellent examples of social proof. Social proof, a psychological concept, suggests that consumers are more inclined to buy from companies that they see other satisfied customers patronizing.
Therefore, incorporating elements such as customer reviews, user-generated content, and influencer marketing can help gather social proof to share with your target audience. In the case of platforms like Facebook that offer review features, it is advantageous for businesses to enable customers to leave reviews. By consistently requesting more reviews from your customers, you will enhance your social proof. Furthermore, managing and responding to reviews as a brand further amplifies their impact.
5. Use social listening
Social listening has the potential to bring advantages to every department within your organization. However, when it comes to sales, it can be particularly valuable in terms of identifying weaknesses in your competitors’ strategies and gaining insights into the conversations happening among your industry’s customers. These discussions can pave the way for the development of innovative products, improved strategies, and enhanced customer service.
For companies operating exclusively online, social listening becomes even more crucial as your strategies heavily rely on interactions and online activities. This enables you to differentiate yourself from others in a social space that is becoming increasingly crowded.
6. Use analytics to guide your e-commerce sales
We have previously discussed the concept of social listening, but there are other analytical tools that can be utilized when engaging in social selling. By leveraging social media data to inform your sales strategies consistently, you can significantly enhance your return on investment (ROI).
From social media analytics, you can find a multitude of e-commerce-related data:
- Website clicks
- Profile visits
- Social shares from your website
- Mentions from customers
- Ad offers and click-throughs
- Mentions of new products or campaigns
Certain analytics, such as Instagram impressions derived from the Explore page, form an integral component of an organic e-commerce social strategy. Conversely, metrics like website clicks or social-exclusive promotions offer more targeted insights that can effectively determine your social return on investment.
Create your social media e-commerce strategy today
There are many tactics an e-commerce or DTC company can use on social media. But what most would agree with is that a social media presence is necessary to elevate your marketing. Social media helps your customers discover your brand, look at reviews, receive referrals from trusted sources and shop.
Hue Digital’s expertise in digital marketing can significantly contribute to brand growth by implementing tailored strategies across various platforms.
- Market Analysis: We would begin by conducting a comprehensive analysis of your brand, its target audience, competitors, and industry trends. This understanding forms the basis of all subsequent strategies.
- Targeted Campaigns: Leveraging their knowledge of consumer behavior and market trends, Hue Digital will create targeted campaigns to reach your ideal audience. These campaigns might include SEO optimization, PPC advertising, email marketing, and social media advertising.
- Social Media Strategies: With social media being a key driver of brand visibility and engagement, We would develop customized social media strategies tailored to your brand. This might involve content creation, community management, influencer partnerships, and paid social advertising.
By partnering with Hue Digital, your brand would benefit from its expertise in digital marketing strategies, enabling you to reach and engage with your target audience more effectively, ultimately driving growth and success.