Web Design

6 Ways to boost sales through social media

23 Feb 2022

Social Media is taking an ever more prominent place in the customer buying journey and an increasing direct impact on purchasing decisions. With 76% of the Irish population deemed as an active social media user, shoppers are increasingly turning to ‘social’ to discover new brands, products, and services. This is good news for your business and for future prospective sales.

According to recent figures, approx. 90% of consumers will purchase from a brand they have chosen to follow on a social media platform. This ultimately leads to brand loyalty when purchasing future products. Your followers are also more likely to choose your brand over a competitor, visit your physical store and take other actions that push sales in a positive direction.

We have compiled a list of 6 simple steps help boost sales via social media:

1.Organic posting

No, this reference to organic does not mean home grown & pesticide free! It means your run of the mill everyday post on your social media platform – No ads! No endorsements. Just simple posting. Although it may become very tempting to use social media as another platform to constantly push your products at customer it is not what it’s supposed to be about. It is much more rewarding and interesting to try using imagery inspired by real life and examples of your work/product or user generated content if its available for your use. Sell yourself in an interesting way. User generated content is your consumers engaging with or using your products (you must of course get their permission to use this). Always make sure to track how your posts perform on your insights page on each social media platform you are using. Once you find out a method that works for your business, amplify this type of posting style as much as you can. Find some posting tips on our blog – A Retailers guide to Organic Social Posting

2.Use the correct platform for your business

A good tip for making the most of your dedicated social time is to concentrate on 1-2 platforms, rather than using up precious time building multiple accounts which may not be of any benefit to your business. Although you can absolutely be on each and every social channel, remember to err on the side of caution by not spreading your resources too thinly. It is a better practice to do 1 or 2 well than to try to present on all platforms.

Let’s go through some of the most popular platforms in Ireland:

Facebook the most used social media platform with approx. 2.7 billion users worldwide. In Ireland this platform is used most by 25-34 bracket, with 64% using their mobile phone to login
Instagram’s audience typically consists mostly of millennial market. Content should be aesthetically pleasing with a strong focus on stories and reels.
Snapchat focused predominantly on a younger audience. Content on snapchat are mostly short real-life videos.
Twitter is known for short (280 characters) but sweet messages, and in recent years has become increasingly with supermarket chains baiting each other. (Quite entertaining to read)
LinkedIn is used for business professionals, job seekers and B2B connection.
YouTube world number one video hosting website
TikTok unleash your brand’s creative side with attention grabbing informative (under 1 minute) videos.

3.Create a commerce manager

A must have for ecommerce business owners is a commerce manager this is where you will manage your catalog and shop for Facebook and Instagram. Within the commerce manager you can create a catalog to upload your products either from a feed or manually to learn more you can read our previous blog: How do I add products to my Facebook and Instagram shop?

4.Publish your shop

Within your commerce manager there is a shop section. This is where you can personalise how your shop on Facebook and Instagram will look to your consumers. Segment your products into categories, choose a theme and even decide what products your customers see first! Edit the style of your shop to match your brand – including features such as: font size, button colour and accents.

5.Tag your products in your posts

Once your catalog is setup you will gain access to a useful tool called product tagging. After uploading your photo or video simply tap the shopping icon and search your product time, click done tagging and save. This very simple step increases the customer buying experience. They can tap on the tag and see all the relevant info instantaneously along with a direct link to buy from your website.

6.Use paid ads

To pay or not to pay? A question nearly always considered before stepping into the realm of paid social media advertising. If social media is free, why am I paying for it?

Its as simple as the three Rights – Right time, Right Place Right Person. With paid ads you can set a schedule show them in certain places to a specific audience. Although some business can flourish if they build up a dedicated following the majority out there will need the help of paid advertising to help grow their business on social platforms. A combination of good organic posting paired with a strategic ad setup is a good plan to help achieve your business goals.

When advertising with demographic targeting it is very important to assess the success of the campaigns. Quite frequently advertisers get overly focused on ROI (return on investment) for social spend and although this is a big part of, social media exposure means so much more. Where else is it possible for your ad for a brand-new product to be viewed 30,000 times for as little as €1 per day? Although Google ads may offer similar results customers will only see ads if they actively search for what you are selling most of the time. Targeted demographic is suggestive advertising as opposed to reactive advertising. Here are some of the objectives we use to measure success of campaigns:

Click-throughs – How many people landed on your site via the ad
Reach – How many people viewed your ad
Impressions – How many times your ad was viewed
Engagement – how many times your ad was interacted with (like/comment/page click through/website click through/share)

At Dmac Media we have a plain talking, first hand experience of making the very best use of social media. If you have any problems setting up or using any of your social media assets Dmac Media will be happy to help you just contact any of our in house Digital Marketing experts.

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