4 Social Media Marketing Tips for E-Commerce Businesses

The internet has changed the way marketing was used in the past, and businesses all over the world are focusing more on online marketing than any other type of promotion. While this entails a lot of different types of promotion, one of the most important channels has to be social media. Globally, over 3.6 billion people use social media, which is something numerous businesses have used to their advantage when coming up with marketing strategies.

If you want to start an e-commerce business of your own, there are various steps to take, such as choosing your niche, building a website, sourcing your products, and so on. However, you need to know some social media marketing tips if you want to succeed in the increasingly competitive world of e-commerce.

Be on multiple platforms

There’s no one right answer to the question of which social media you should focus on, as they’re all equally important. It’s good to do research to see which platforms your ideal customers use the most, but your best option is to open profiles on the most popular social media platforms.

This includes Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, but bear in mind that your advertising efforts will differ based on the platform you’re posting on.

• Facebook. In 2018, Facebook added an e-commerce tool for Facebook Live that allows pages to advertise their products during live streams. This means you need to focus on these streams, but it’s also good to invest in Facebook ads that will appear in your target audiences’ feeds.
• Instagram. The most popular way to advertise on Instagram is through Shoppable post, which is a functionality that was added to the platform in 2018. These posts can be in the form of stories or regular posts, and when people click on them, they will be directed to your e-commerce website.
• Pinterest. This image-focused social media website is ideal for e-commerce stores to show off their product images. The ‘Shop the Look’ Pins you can add to your posts are ideal for e-commerce, as they work similarly to Instagram’s Shoppable posts and direct your followers to your website when they click them.

All of this may seem intimidating for you, especially if you’re new to social media marketing. This is perfectly normal, as it can be complicated to keep up with all of these platforms by yourself.

That’s why it would be smart to hire a social media agency and ensure your advertising efforts are successful. With experts who have experience in social media marketing, you’ll achieve your goals faster and thrive in the world of e-commerce.

Keep your followers engaged

Social media marketing is not only about posting advertisements. While you can and should advertise your products, you need to do much more. Keep in mind that your followers don’t want to see ads from you 24/7 because social media is more about connecting with people.

If you truly want to have a successful social media marketing campaign, you need to keep your followers engaged with the content they want to see. Here’s how you can do that:

• Know your audience. First, to create truly engaging content, you need to know who you’re trying to engage. The tone, language, and resources you use will differ based on who your customers are because the same message won’t appeal to someone in their 20s and 50s, for example.
• Be creative with your posts. The content you post needs to invite your follower to interact with your brand, and you can do this with polls, animated gifs, and contests. In addition, it’s good to ask questions that will not only increase engagement but also allow you to collect invaluable customer data.
• Talk about social issues. People take notice when a brand is talking about pressing current events and social issues that interest them. Consumers love to do business with brands that support issues that are important to them, as they feel like they’re supporting the issue itself when they buy from that brand.
• Respond to comments. It’s good to keep a conversation going, so whenever someone posts a comment or mentions your brand on social media, you need to respond. Answer every question, thank customers for positive comments, and ask anyone who posts a negative comment how you can resolve the issue.

Post user-generated content

If you take a look at the profiles of successful e-commerce businesses on social media, you will probably notice there is a plethora of user-generated content. This is any type of content, whether it’s text, images, or videos, which was created by customers of a company instead of the company itself.

When you repost something a satisfied customer posted, it sends a good message to your followers. With it, you show that your loyal customers enjoy your products so much that they’re willing to post about them. There are many reasons why you need to focus on user-generated content, but these are the main ones:

• Helps promote authenticity. Let’s say you’re a fashion brand and want to post a picture of an item from your new collection. It will seem much more authentic if you post a photo of a customer smiling and wearing one of your pieces than a staged photo of a model wearing it in a studio.
• Creates trust. It’s much different when a brand boasts about its products as opposed to when a customer does the same. As much as 93% of marketers agree that consumers trust content created by customers more than content created by brands, so if you want to build trust, this is how you do it.
• Drives purchasing decisions. Due to the two reasons listed above, it’s much easier to get a customer to complete a purchase when they see a product via a user-generated post. When you’re an authentic and trustworthy brand, you’re also a profitable brand.

Work with influencers

Finally, we can’t talk about social media marketing without mentioning influencers. As the name suggests, influencers are influential people with large social media followings that play a large role in purchasing decisions and brand promotion. Businesses all over the world partner with influencers whose following consists of their ideal customers.

One of the ways to partner with an influencer is to send them a free product from your store, and they will talk about it on their social media. However, some influencers require monetary compensation as well.

The more followers someone has, the more expensive it is to partner with them, and so the perfect solution for e-commerce brands is to partner with micro-influencers. These individuals have an audience between 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers and are actually responsible for at least 90% of successful influencer marketing.

Partnering with a micro-influencer is a good strategy not only because they’re more affordable but also because they have a higher engagement rate due to the fewer followers they have. Additionally, most micro-influencers specialize in niche markets, so you can be sure that their audience consists of your ideal customers.

Final thoughts

Getting into the world of e-commerce can be very exciting and profitable, but only if you know how to approach marketing. While there are other marketing channels that are important, if you don’t put enough effort into social media marketing, you can’t hope for much success.

Social media is here to stay, and smart brands focus a lot of their attention on creating the best possible campaigns by being active on as many platforms as possible. It may seem hard at first, but as long as you follow the tips you just read about, you’ll be a social media advertising pro in no time.