Digital Marketing

How to Nail Social Media for Ecommerce

Your Guide to Ecommerce Social Media Marketing

Having a social media presence is essential to building and increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, and increasing leads and sales.

But your accounts aren’t just platforms for sharing content and engaging with visitors to accomplish those goals. From Facebook to Instagram, social media can be a powerful way to market your products and services to your followers.

Canadians are heavy users of social media. A 2019 report found that 75% of women and 62% of men use it daily. And according to PayPal’s Social Commerce Trends Study, 47% of Canadian users shop on social media, spending an average of $77 per month.

But despite these statistics, many small business owners still don’t understand the value of using these popular platforms to sell. That’s why I created this guide: not only to help you understand how important ecommerce social media marketing is, but also to give you actionable tips to drive traffic, leads, and sales.

Organic Social Selling

First, it’s important to understand that there is a difference between social selling, using paid ads, and actually using a platform as a marketplace.

Social selling means you are organically connecting with sales prospects and nurturing relationships to hopefully convert them into customers. It’s about building relationships and credibility naturally by getting to know your potential customers.

You can do this by asking them engaging questions, answering their questions quickly, and always responding to comments or complaints. The more trust and loyalty you build, the better your chances of turning a follower into a paying customer.

For example, one of our clients, Rose Marie Swanson, asks engaging questions to connect with her audience.

Selling on a social media marketplace

However, actually selling within a platform or marketplace is a bit different. It means using the selling capabilities of the platform to actively market your products. Here are two examples.

Facebook Shops

If you have a Facebook Business Page, you can use Facebook Shops. This new feature allows you to add products, organize them into different categories, communicate with customers, and view data on things like views and clicks.

And because Facebook owns Instagram, customers can access your store on IG too. People can find your Facebook Shops on your Facebook business page or Instagram profile, or through Facebook ads or stories.

READ: Sell on social networks without scaring people away

Social media is one of the best marketing tools out there – you can grow and reach a huge audience with content and ads, and the people who like and/or follow you are your fans, so they’re already your objective group.

However, people may resist selling on these platforms. You really have to approach this the right way or you could alienate your audience, causing them to unfollow or dislike you because they expect two-way conversation and engaging content, not to be marketed.

Read more on our website.

Instagram posts that can be bought

Canada got this cool feature in 2018, which allows businesses to tag brands and products in their organic Instagram posts. Your audience can tap on it to see more details and then click to buy the product.

To take advantage of this feature, you will need to set up an Instagram business account. And, your business profile must be connected to a Facebook catalog.

Use of paid advertisements

In addition to social selling and selling on a marketplace, you can also use ads to drive traffic to your account page or website.

Depending on the type of small business you have, you may choose to run paid ads on:

• Facebook


• Twitter


• LinkedIn


• Instagram


• Google Ads/graphic ads on the Google Display Network


• YouTube (and video ad placements)


Keep in mind that you don’t have to stick to static images when it comes to using these paid advertising options. By using social media marketing for eCommerce, you can integrate videos into your ads to make them more engaging.

Within each platform there may be multiple ad options. For example, on Facebook you can choose between carousel ads, slideshow ads, collection ads, Messenger ads…

One example is Canadian grocer SPUD.ca, which combines social selling (offering valuable insights) with product merchandising in its Facebook ads.

It can be challenging to not only understand all of the ad formats, but also set up and manage accounts and budgets. That’s why it often makes sense to hire a professional marketing company for your small business.

No matter why you’re considering social media for eCommerce, it’s essential to put in the time and effort to ensure your communications are not just engaging, but empathetic. Learn more about using empathic marketing on our website.

I hope my ecommerce social media marketing guide has given you some inspiration to sell your products and services effectively!

For the success of your business,

Suzanne

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