With Millennials and Generation Z holding great amounts of purchasing power, it is important to market where they are. Not only are they online constantly, but they are also all over social media. In order to reach your potential shoppers, it is imperative to be where they are. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to have a smart social media strategy. We have compiled the top 5 reasons to invest in a social media strategy for your eCommerce site. We also have some tips to help your brand build a successful platform.
Top 5 Reasons to Invest in a Social Media Strategy
- Today, 93% of shoppers turn to social media to help make their buying decision. The word of mouth reigns supreme when making buying decisions with 90% of shoppers saying they trust the product recommendations from their peers. This could benefit your brand in 2 ways. First, when users like your product and choose to recommend it on their own, tagging your brand in their recommendation is simply free publicity. If your brand doesn’t have a reputable social presence, the tag will go to a subpar page which is a negative follow-up to a positive first impression.
- The average person spends nearly 2 hours browsing social media daily. Those 2 hours could include landing on posts about your business that could entice new and returning shoppers to your site.
- Paid advertisements allow for some customization in who sees advertisements about your company based on age, geography, preferences and other likes the profile has. While it can’t tell you if they are in-market for your products like our advertisement data, it can be beneficial in introducing your brand to new potential shoppers or bringing your site top of mind to returning shoppers whose attention you could catch to be a return buyer. Don’t believe social media ads’ popularity? Businesses spent over $7 billion in Facebook advertising in 2016.
- 78% of consumers said that a brand’s social media posts influence their purchases. Whether it is showing how the products can be best utilized, current customers using the products, announcing promotions or a variety of topics in between, social media can influence additional purchases. In fact, at least 1 in every 10 eCommerce purchases comes from social channels. Why? 61% of shoppers are more likely to buy if a company delivers custom content. Set your brand apart!
- Video is huge in marketing today and video on social media is no exception. Live video is a great way to build brand awareness and bring light to what is big now. On average, a Facebook video receives 135% more organic reach than a Facebook photo. Imagine if a video had paid advertising behind it?! Online videos will account for over 80% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2020 and 10 billion videos are watched on Snapchat every day. Get your company in the shopper’s eye with creative, honest videos about what is going on.
Now that the numbers have hopefully proven the definite benefits to social media for an eCommerce site, let’s talk tips to best set your site up for success.
Social Media Tips
- Use your positive customer reviews to your advantage! We already know that shoppers trust personal reviews at an incredibly high regard. 88% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Post loyal shopper reviews on your social media pages or ask shoppers to share them with you and in return they can get 10% percent off or be entered into a raffle for a prize.
- Use images on your posts. Image-based content is more likely to get looked at than posts without an image. Catch your readers’ attention! For example, tweets with images get 150% more retweets than tweets without images. Facebook posts with images got 2.3x more engagement than those without images.
- Interact with your social media followers! Having members of your marketing team interacting with shoppers and participating in the conversations will clue your site into what is important to your shoppers. A few minutes spent here and there can assist in building trust, cutting your sales cycle and better understand what your shoppers want.
- #Hashtag! On more informal social media platforms, hashtagging will help connect your brand to others speaking on the same topic. Clicking on a hashtag will connect viewers to others using the same hashtag. Your site can coin its own hashtag and try to grow a following and/or use hashtags that are already building a following.
- Use paid advertising especially as you are building a following. Target those who could be in your target market with “like campaigns” and grow your pages.
- Integrate contests into your strategy. Often, with eCommerce sites, contests will help build you database and introduce your products to new potential shoppers. By asking those entering the contest to give their email address on a form and tag other interested friend on social media, not only can you build your newsletter database with in-market shoppers, but also introduce to potential new shoppers.
- Consistency is key. If you decide to dive into social media, being consistent in your posts will ensure your site keeps its following. When shoppers don’t see consistency in your posting, they won’t be as likely to check your page as they will be unsure if there will be anything new.
- Determine the key platforms for your market. Not every social media platform will be right for your target shopper or your products. When you invest in social media, find the best platforms to show off what your eCommerce site has to offer and do it well.
Not all marketing has to cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. With today’s big spenders being constantly on social media, it only seems fitting to incorporate social media into your eCommerce marketing strategy. Being consistent with the right platforms can only benefit your brand. Get your brand’s name heard as the average shopper peruses the social media each and every day.
About Hivewyre:
Hivewyre is a forward-thinking programmatic advertising company. Their private data cooperative allows advertisers to share first-party audience data and build targeted campaigns for prospecting new customers based on their competitors’ unconverted shoppers. Hivewyre advertisers have access to fresh, exclusive data that will never be sold to a third party. With over 500 retailers and over 100 million monthly in-market shoppers in our co-op, our distinct advertising strategy allows you to combat rising search engine PPC & PLA costs and the ever-expanding online marketplace growth. In addition to access to the exclusive data, co-op members benefit from full-service account management and detailed reporting of the return from advertising spend. To learn more about Hivewyre, visit www.hivewyre.com.
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