4 Tips On Using Social Media for eCommerce

Everyone has a social media presence, right? That’s not too far from the truth, actually. It’s estimated that 4.5 billion people across the world are on the internet, with 3.8 billion of them having some kind of social media presence.

With those kinds of numbers, it becomes very clear very quickly that an eCommerce business should be advertising their products and website across social media, making it a huge part of their eCommerce strategy.

What Is Social Media eCommerce?

Social media eCommerce encompasses all kinds of selling via social media, whether you use Facebook pages, Instagram, Twitter, or even LinkedIn. More and more companies are waking up to the fact that eCommerce social media campaigns can really convert, and they can see real traction for their products.

Just how do we go about driving sales using social media, though? By studying the trends! Social media eCommerce trends change on what feels like an almost daily basis, just as they do with eCommerce SEO, but they’re not really that hard to work out.

There are, broadly, two types of social media eCommerce: paid and non-paid. For paid eCommerce, you will have the ability to target your audience more specifically and put the products they want right in front of them, which will inevitably increase sales.

Non-paid social media eCommerce is a little more tricky. There is a very fine line between being ‘too salesy’ and ‘not salesy’ enough on social media, and your audience will quickly let you know which side you’re treading on!

The trick with non-paid (organic) eCommerce is to present the products well and answer a need or solve a problem. The way you present your content has a huge effect on how your audience views your product.

The Changing Role of Social Media In eCommerce

For the last few years, the role of social media in eCommerce has shifted. With competition for organic search engine results, more companies are focusing on paid ads for their eCommerce social media marketing strategy.

Paid ads are a great idea, but you will still need to build a decent social media presence rather than just run ads. Building a following and really engaging with your audience is still a great way to boost your eCommerce growth rates and get a good return on your eCommerce social media marketing strategy.

Social media is a really useful tool to have in your marketing strategy because it allows you to speak with your audience directly and engage with them on whatever social media platforms they are used to and enjoy using.

Many customers also use social media, especially Twitter, as a customer service tool and expect shops and eCommerce sites will have a social media presence for them to engage with, whether that’s asking questions or even handling complaints. The role of social media in eCommerce really can’t be neglected.

Driving Traffic from Social Media to Your Website

So how can you use eCommerce and social media marketing to drive traffic to your website? The answer isn’t straightforward, but there are some tips we can share with you here to ensure that your social media and eCommerce strategies are lining up to provide you with the best results.

Create Content That Converts

Content that converts is the holy grail for social media marketing, and it’s no secret that sites such as Facebook have been making it harder and harder to get online shoppers off of the social media site and onto your site.

You’ll need to think strategically about this one and ensure that you’re only giving you users one option. “Learn More” is a great call to action and much better than “click here to find out more, and don’t forget to share it with your friends and like the page”. This will confuse users.

When you’re creating content, stick to eye-catching content that has one simple task, be that a call to action or just brand awareness.

Mix Your Content Up

Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It’s not so much a rule as it is a guideline, but the idea is to only ‘sell’ 20% of the time and use the remaining 80% of your content marketing to drive brand awareness and engagement.

It can be hard to justify this, but by keeping good analytics about how your page and your social presence is helping to grow your business, you can correlate that into website traffic and hopefully conversions.

Run Ads

Ads are important, and in some cases, they are the only way users will see your content, so it’s important to run ads.

When you are running ads, you need to think about your target audience and how long you are running your ad for. If you have a £50 budget, it doesn’t make sense to spread it over the entire month, but if you had a £5000 budget, spreading it over the whole month would be fine.

Likewise, with the targeting, be more niche but leave enough breathing space for your audience’s differences.

Train Your Pixel

The Facebook pixel needs training, just like a dog! We would highly recommend using retargeting adverts for social media because it’s a great way to join together both your website and your social presence while keeping your brand in the mind of your users.

To do this, you’ll need to train your pixel to target the right people and the right users. This can be a tricky task to do, and as such, we’d recommend getting some expert advice on how to properly set up your pixel and get it running most efficiently.

Summing Up

Social media marketing and eCommerce can be a match made in heaven, and a good social media strategy for your eCommerce website can really help to boost your visibility on each social network and help to drive eCommerce sales and conversions.

If you’re interested in building a better eCommerce social media strategy, give the team a call today, and we’ll be happy to help.