How to Increase Online Sales Through Social Media
There are over 4.88 billion internet users around the world, and more than 4.5 billion of them are active on social media. 45% of internet users said they use social media to search and learn about products.
Do you think your brand should also be on social media, but don’t know where and how to start? How consistent you should post, and what should you post? What’s more powerful, a shoppable post or a paid ad? Here’s what you need to know about the most popular social media platforms for business, and how to boost sales using social media channels.
Social media was used just for entertainment, but not anymore. Now businesses used it for brand awareness and not only that, they consider social media to be one of the best ways to connect with their audience and drive countless numbers of prospective customers.
If the right techniques and strategies are used, you can easily drive sales for your business. With these figures increasing every day, it means there’s a ton of growth for businesses on social media. Promoting a business and its products on social media can significantly increase business reach and boost sales!
However, not every social media channel has the same audience. With so many platforms out there, it’s important to invest in the right one, so you’re not spinning your wheels.
Follow these guidelines on how to generate revenue through social media:
But first, what is social media?
Social Media is an interactive platform that allows users to quickly create and share content, ideas, thoughts, and information with the public efficiently. Social media is the most important marketing tool for businesses, and anyone with internet access can sign up for a social media account.
Then they can share whatever content they want on the account, and those who visit their social media profile or page are potentially reached by the content they share. Increase sales using this feature called Social Selling. With social selling, you’ll find that people will be more likely to buy from you.
That’s why, in this blog, we’ll be sharing a few expert tips on how social media can increase sales.
Ready to get started? Let’s go through the list to know the benefits of social media for business.
How do you sell online using social media?
Know your target audience and use the social platform they use
The first rule of Social Media marketing is to know your audience and use the social media platforms that they use. You can’t just jump on the social channels and create an account and expect to find your target customers there.
You have to go through your target demographic and try to identify where they’re most active. Don’t try to be everywhere like on every other social media platform, because that might be a bit too time-consuming.
As there are a lot of social media channels to post, here are a few general tips on how to use each social media platform as a sales tool for your business:
- Facebook: Strong platform for storytelling, so content should be longer in terms of video and captions.
- Instagram: Considered as a visual platform where all the content should revolve around eye-catching photos and stories to showcase your brand’s personality.
- Snapchat: Short real-life videos that have entertaining content.
- Pinterest: Provide more detailed information about products and best at sharing tips, recipes, DIYs, etc.
- Twitter: Best for short messages, videos, text, images, & updates via a tweet.
- YouTube: Any kind of content can be posted on YouTube but should be in the form of videos that are informative, entertaining, educational, gossip, tutorials, funny videos, etc.
You need to understand your brand in order to effectively use social media, and which platform is more likely used by your target audience. Only then can you choose the best suitable platform and create content that is relevant to it. Because if you prioritize and invest in the right platform to reach the right audience, the chances are more of an increase in your sales as you reach the right audience.
Use Instagram stories and posts to advertise on Instagram and get a chance to increase Instagram followers. Also increase conversion using ad campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Recommended Read: What is Contactless Commerce?
Encourage and Share user-generated content
Promote your product with user-generated content if you want people to pay more for your product. Because people tend to read the feedback, reviews, and experiences shared by other customers before buying something online. This ensures that the product they want to purchase, and the brand, are trustworthy.
When it comes to social media marketing, you can encourage your customers to share their photos and videos online so that you can make the most out of it by sharing this user-generated content on your social media profile to drive more sales. To keep track of all this UGC content and make sure it won’t end up harming you, you can use content moderation software and establish brand guidelines.
Starbucks is a great example of a brand that encourages User Generated content by reposting customers’ content on a regular basis. This brand often shares the photos of drinks submitted by their real customers.
Create valuable and interactive content
Quality over quantity is always a better idea, so remember to create valuable and interactive content that helps to educate and entice your customers into making a purchase.
Here are a few ways to find a good balance between promoting your products and making content engaging:
- Try to post interactive content like giveaways or contests
- Create and post content that is inspired by real-life situations
- Post content that includes tips on how to use your products
- Share images and videos of prospects using or engaging with your products.
Give your product a broader context by using this kind of “informational” content, and educate customers about how to use it.
Use Shoppable posts
Do you know that businesses use social media for selling products also? Yes, you heard it right. Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook are perfect examples of this. They offer a feature called Shoppable posts, using which people can buy your products straight from your social media post.
This feature is an effective way to increase sales through social media. You just need to tag products in your Instagram or Facebook stories and posts. And on Pinterest, there is a feature called buyable pins. This helps your customers view and buy products with social media only. The tag or pin has the product name, description, and price.
Let’s look at an example of the Levis brand, who has used the Instagram Shopping feature to integrate product catalogs and tags into the Instagram feed to create a seamless shopping experience.
Invest in social media paid advertising to attract more eyes
Once you find out the perfect social media platform, you can invest in the most suitable strategy of social media paid advertising to engage more audiences and make the most of your social accounts. Every social media channel has its own advertising abilities that allow you to create ads or promote your content. This will ensure your brand visibility among the target audience and improve your chances of driving sales using social media.
Use Instagram stories and posts to advertise on Instagram, but take note that these days there are tools that allow you to view instagram stories anonymously. Increase conversion using ad campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Using Facebook ads, the content posted by businesses can achieve any of these 4 objectives: Reach, Click-throughs, Impressions, and Engagement. Thus, depending on your goals, your results can be customized.
Recommended Read: How to Retain Customers in Retail?
Post often and stay consistent with a posting schedule
People are constantly looking for new information on social media on a daily basis. That means you should post regularly in order to keep your page active and to get the most out of your social media marketing. The lifetime of a social media post can vary from just minutes to hours, as social media platforms make changes in their algorithms anytime. So try to surprise your customers now and then with fresh, creative, and unique content to attract more audiences.
The power of Social Media is in our hands now!
As you can see, the impact of social media marketing on sales not only promotes your brand but also increase conversions. Take advantage of the various social media platforms to boost sales without spending tons of money!
Use the above-mentioned tips to skyrocket your sales!
