14 Actionable Social Media Marketing Tactics For eCommerce Sites

Social media platforms can be used as potent tools for digital marketers aiming to boost small businesses, startups, and online sellers.    

A recent survey from Datareportal indicates that 58.4% of the global population uses social media platforms—translating to over 4.6 billion individuals. On average, a user spends 2.27 hours on specific connection-driven digital apps, with 424 million new users registering in the last 12 months before January 2022. As digital marketing agencies aim to optimize their clients’ reach, so is the need for available online marketing experts like WebSuitable. These tools will help businesses reach their goals despite fierce competition when paired with the right strategies. Find out how in this article.

How eCommerce Sites Work

Ecommerce sites allow companies and business owners to sell tangible goods, intangible products such as services, and other digital items on the internet. Entrepreneurs can either maintain or use these to expand their physical stores’ reach—allowing quick global transactions.  

Besides accepting and processing orders, businesses can take payments, monitor, arrange shipping, engage with customers, or provide after-sales support. Ecommerce sites can also be used to boost marketing and sales processes.   

Below are some key social media strategies entrepreneurs and online marketers can use to reach their goals.  

1. Link your social media accounts to your eCommerce site 

Creating a local business listing account can help your brand reach out to local buyers. By complementing this strategy with an omnichannel social media presence, startups and small companies can increase brand awareness, attract more buyers, increase revenue streams, and provide timely customer service.  

Users can also receive real-time information about your products and promotional offers, which helps compel buyers to purchase your goods, especially when paired with effective call-to-action techniques.     

2. Launch a share-worthy blog

Most do-it-yourself or budding marketers may think that social media marketing tolls only refer to popular platforms. They fail to realize that before the advent of social media, blogs were used for the same purpose. If your business doesn’t have a blog yet, consider making one immediately and start selling your products and services more subtly.  

Your blog articles must employ specific search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and be engaging so that users can share them online, comment, and react to your post—just as they would in social media apps. Besides boosting a business’s online presence, an engaging blog can be used to show your brand’s expertise and authority, building trust among your prospects and existing customers.    

3. Use shoppable posts

A shoppable post refers to any content that enables consumers to purchase your offers directly from your post. Common examples include placing ‘buy now’ buttons or a shopping link to your caption. Embedding such links to your post allows buyers to purchase your products or services without logging out from their social media accounts to complete a transaction.

4. Craft SEO-friendly posts

Even if you’re offering a life-changing product, it’ll be useless unless your consumers can find it over the internet. Search engine optimization is one of the best tools marketers can use to increase their clients’ visibility in the digital realm. Use highly-searched keywords and integrate them naturally to broaden your reach. Craft attention-grabbing headlines, but be conscious of click-baiting. You can also use link-building strategies for optimal results. 

5. Create content with social media use in mind  

Content is king, whether online or in print. But making great content isn’t the only thing to consider. Whether making a blog, white paper, webinar, newsletter, or any marketing tool, you should ensure that your content is valuable and relevant to your audience. Make your posts interactive and engaging. It doesn’t have to be a long post. If your audience can take something of value from it or at least be entertained by it, they’d be willing to share it with their network.

6. Integrate video into your content

Videos are more effective in grabbing and keeping users’ attention. The most popular micro-blogging site revealed that users incorporating videos experienced a ten-fold increase in engagements. Additionally, video-integrated posts in all social media networks have reported less spending in their cost-per-engagement expenditure.     

Use how-to videos, webinars, and customer testimonials for an engaging post. Highlighting manufacturing or packing processes is also a good idea. Moreover, uploading live rather than canned videos may be more effective and engaging. Because it’s impossible to integrate videos in all of your posts, embedding an image or moving images may have the same impact. Live selling is also an emerging trend for entrepreneurs worldwide, especially those selling clothes and other items.

7. Highlight stellar customer reviews  

Lack of trust in your brand is one of the reasons buyers don’t push through with the purchase. Use customer reviews to establish trust and convince buyers that your product or service can address their challenges and pain points—and share them in your posts.  

This effective social media marketing strategy can lead your prospects to seal the deal. Besides word-of-mouth advertising, stellar client reviews and testimonials help attract more buyers as 88% of consumers revealed they trust online reviews as much as referrals. 

If your customers don’t agree to share their reviews, encourage them to like your page and products. Asking them to share their comments or reviews can also help attract more consumers. Some sellers take images of their shipments while blurring the recipient’s details as proof of legitimacy.     

8. Boost follower engagement

Besides crafting engaging posts, it’s best to interact with your audience through social media networks. Optimize the platform by asking questions, initiating a survey, replying to queries, and thanking them for positive reviews. You can also host a live event about a pressing issue affecting your business and the consumers. Also, handle negative reviews nicely and refrain from being combative or aggressive. Showing your followers that they’re valuable and that they’re being heard can go a long way in building trust and boosting your reputation.

9. Highlight your advocacies

Create a community where you can discuss your advocacies and issues that impact your industry niche. For instance, if you’re a local coffee-making business, tap community farmers and be active in pushing for sustainable practices. This holds especially if you’re trying to capture the millennial market.  

According to market research firm Nielsen’s 2015 Global Corporate Sustainability Report, 73% of millennial consumers are willing to purchase more products from sustainable and ethical companies. This figure shows a higher percentage than the 66% of those surveyed across all age brackets.

10. Share user-generated content 

Besides highlighting customer reviews, companies can encourage and share their subscribers’ content. Whether a blog, review, image, or video, the content must show your followers’ positive experience using your product. Launch a competition to see whose content gets the most engagement or ‘likes’ and offer prizes to the winners. In addition, have them tag their friends and your account. Doing this increases engagement and helps build your reputation as a brand capable of delivering results.

11. Figure out the best time to post  

Understanding your target audience is critical to a successful marketing campaign. As mentioned above, users spend about 2.6 hours on social media networks daily. Finding the best time to post—when most of your audience is online—will ensure that your content is seen and consumed by your intended viewers and readers, increasing the chances of engagement. Uploading content outside these times will lead to missed opportunities and wasted effort.

12. Choose hashtags strategically   

Initially spawned by the world’s most famous micro-blogging site, this trend is not being used on almost all popular social media platforms. Using hashtags enables your business to broaden your reach yet target consumers are most likely to engage in your content. 

The leading image-sharing platform allows up to 30 hashtags in one post. In practice, it’s best to limit your content to three, as doing more will not help your intention to target the right market. To know which appropriate hashtags to use, choose popular and specific terms. In addition, opt for related and clickable hashtags to increase the chances of post-sharing.  

13. Study or collaborate with influencers  

Influencer marketing is also a valuable tool for businesses hoping to expand their reach in the shortest possible time. You can use specific tools to determine who these personalities are in your chosen niche. After knowing who they are, take time to understand their strategies, study the patterns and find out why they click. Incorporate these elements into creating your content.  

Otherwise, reach out to them to see how you can collaborate. Note that these social media giants have busy lives and may be hesitant to partner with startups or local businesses. Still, it doesn’t hurt to try. 

14. Pay for social media advertising

To increase the chances of conversion, set aside a budget for paid advertising. Social media platforms offer different costs for displaying your ads above other posts, ensuring that your brand gets seen. Thousands of offers pop up on these platforms daily, and your exposure isn’t always guaranteed, no matter how good your content may be.  

Paid social media is one way to grab your target market’s attention, as some channels allow advertisers to tweak their campaign settings, targeting the most relevant users. Additionally, your business can use pay-per-click or PPC ads, which use algorithms to show your ads to users based on their interests, search history, and demographic profiles.

Conclusion

Ecommerce merchants must think beyond using their websites to offer their products and services. As social media use continues to rise dramatically two years following the pandemic, businesses must catch up and use these digital networks as a marketing tool to stay competitive.  

With the right strategy complemented by other digital marketing tools, social presence can be a powerful force in increasing brand awareness, building trust, expanding your reach, and increasing revenue streams.