How to boost Shopify sales? 5 social media marketing tips

What is social media marketing?

Social media marketing can assist you in developing engaged audiences in places where they’re already spending their time. It can also generate multiple sources of traffic that bring in customers on a consistent basis and put your company in front of 3.78 billion people online—nearly 48% of the world's population. Brands are still riding the social media marketing wave, with 73% of marketers believing their efforts have been "somewhat effective" or "very effective" for their business.

Every day in 2020, more than 1.3 million new users joined social media and they each spent more than two hours on social media and messaging. In this expanding market, a good strategy will assist your brand in finding the right customers, whether you're new to social media or simply updating your 2022 strategy.

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How important is social media to e-commerce?

E-commerce is, essentially, online sales. This means that online branding, ease of discovery, product demonstration, convenient checkouts, and payment security are all extremely vital in providing the best customer experience. 

Everyone repeatedly emphasises the significance of social media management to e-commerce businesses, but what is it actually for?

Increase the number of qualified leads

You know you're reaching a qualified demographic when you market to users who are already fans of your company. They already want to know more because they follow you on social platform sites. This means they'll react more positively to your posts than any random ads. It also increases the likelihood for them to read your posts or click your links, leading to desired actions such as on-the-spot purchases.

Expand your audience on a modest budget

Social media advertising has to be one of the least expensive methods of digitally marketing your business. The best part about social media marketing is that you don't have to rely on advertisements or ad tools to market your brand. In contrast to most traditional (and even some online) marketing initiatives, you can build positive relationships with both current and potential customers by simply being consistent and posting interesting and relatable content for your audience on social media networks.

Build the reputation of your brand

This can be accomplished by implementing proper social media marketing strategies and content marketing campaigns that will imprint your brand name on anyone who uses any of the social media networks you choose to use. You will notice your targeted audience relating to your brand or the content you create more frequently once you have made people aware of it and created a positive image of it. And unlike traditional marketing, social media also allows your company to respond to negative reviews and overcome negative publicity.

Promote products and services 

It has also become a popular method for entrepreneurs to market and promote the products and services they provide. Promotion of products and services on social media platforms such as Facebook is much easier in the digital world, where you can post professional images of your product and its details and allow the audience to interact with these albums.

You can choose to only show your ads to the most qualified demographics on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This means you only pay for highly targeted ads and don't waste money having your ads displayed to users who are most likely not interested.

Explore your competitors

With all business profiles on all social media networks available to the public, this could be your opportunity as an entrepreneur to get to know your competitors better and understand the strategies they are using.  You'd be able to see the content they're posting on their social media profiles and determine which posts are performing better. By that, you can conduct analyses of your competitor's profile and look into all of the questions asked by their audience.

Why integrate social media with Shopify?

Enhances brand awareness

As of Q4 2021, 48% of the global population used at least one social network, giving you access to over 3 billion potential customers. You can reach as many potential customers as possible by implementing a multi-channel social media marketing strategy.

Monitoring of your competitors

While social media exposes your brand to the rest of the world, it also allows you to assess your direct and indirect competitors. YouTube analytics, for example, can provide insights into your competitors' best practices in video marketing. You can also use social listening techniques to identify popular hashtags and trends.

Engage directly with customers

76% of consumers are found to prefer brands using social media, as they feel more connected and will be willing to spend more with these trusted brands. This just further proves that social media will make your Shopify store more trustworthy and reliable, building stronger customer relationships while strengthening their loyalty.

8 best social media for your Shopify stores

1. Facebook 

With over 2.7 billion users, Facebook is an excellent platform for increasing the loyalty of your existing customer base.

As the world's largest social media platform, it is an excellent social media marketing platform for: 

• Building relationships with current customers 

• Announcing changes in operating hours, events, and milestones 

• Holding discussions and live streams

• Targeting young generations

The business features provided by Meta are also fantastic for marketing and boosting sales. Product catalogues can be incorporated for customers to browse through products more easily, ad campaigns can be created to target those with high intent, and auto-replies can be utilised for better customer support.

2. Instagram

Instagram is one of the fastest-growing platforms, with 1.21 billion monthly active users, making up over 28% of the world's internet users. Since it focuses on photographs or videos for communication, this platform is ideal for businesses that rely on visuals.

Besides that, users or influencers who enjoy your products are also extremely likely to become your resellers as they share more about what they like. This is another effective way to reach out to more customers without spending a cent.

3. Snapchat

Snapchat is a platform that focuses on the local community. While the platform does not allow you to create connections, you may build an audience with entertaining photographs and short videos. Snapchat is mostly used for location-based marketing, app marketing, and distributing feel-good materials.

4. Pinterest

Pinterest is used for "scrapbooking," or preserving material by "pinning" photographs and videos to a virtual bulletin board. The Pinterest demographic is dominated by women. Because Pinterest is a visual medium, excellent visuals are required to captivate users. As a result, Pinterest has been connected to increased retail sales.

5. Twitter

Twitter makes use of the hashtag to arrange conversations around a word or phrase. You may learn what others are talking about by searching hashtags, and then structure your tweets to participate in popular topics. Furthermore, because Twitter is frequently used to offer real-time information to an audience, many businesses integrate it with offline interaction, such as events.

6. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional network, and also a motivating community that rewards leadership, education, and basic values. In addition to networking, finding prospects, and sharing industry knowledge, it's a terrific platform to showcase your corporate culture and establish your personal brand alongside your business identity.

7.YouTube

YouTube allows you to submit videos to your channel, share, comment on, and like other videos, and follow other accounts you enjoy. In addition, you get a curated feed with recommended videos on your homepage. The key to social media marketing on YouTube is to give value rather than try to go viral.

8. TikTok/ Douyin

TikTok is well-known for its short-form video content. TikTok, like Pinterest and Instagram, is great for visual companies such as art, cuisine, retail, beauty, and certain service sectors. TikTok's demographic is quite young. The platform is great for reaching out to the 18-24 age demographic and increasing brand exposure.

How to choose the right social media?

There are a few questions to consider before getting to the right social media for your business. Of course, it would be best to have more, but if time and manpower is not sufficient, the best decision is to go for the ones that are most aligned with your business goals.

What is your business nature?

It is determined by whether the firm is a business-to-business (B2B) or a business-to-consumer (B2C). 

For example, Facebook and Instagram enable B2C businesses to acquire awareness, visually connect, and communicate with customers. LinkedIn helps B2B companies reach existing and new clients while also establishing a personal connection. Furthermore, every company should use YouTube to communicate and share. It is Google-friendly and provides legitimacy to your brand.

Who is your target audience?

Examine your target audience more closely. You can't generate material that will appeal to everyone on social media, but it should pique the interest of your target audience. You may give relevant materials that will resonate with your audience by finding the sites they visit and categorising them into distinct categories. Segmenting your audience into distinct personalities is an essential component of good social media marketing.

Where are your competitors?

Investigate all of your primary competitors. Examine their social media pages to see what they're posting, how frequently they're posting it, and how many people are connecting with them. Once you've discovered which social media platform offers the greatest results, start exploiting it. However, before you begin, you should set goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) that correlate to those goals.

What is your social media goal?

It is critical to initially outline your social media goals as part of your entire marketing plan. You may start by understanding how to raise brand recognition, promote event attendance, and improve customer communication.

Set clear and quantifiable goals for yourself on social media based on your responses and objectives. When you create objectives for yourself, you are more likely to achieve them. They hold you accountable and help you plan your budget.

How many resources do you have?

Leveraging the existing resources, even if it’s a minimal number of tools, will be the smartest thing to do. Aiming too high without having the resources or support can worsen the failure and take a toll on yourself and the employees. Take it a step at a time, maybe by starting with the social media platform that is easier for you. For example, if you are most familiar with Facebook, open a business account from there. Slowly, as you gain more understanding over time, you can begin to explore other social media channels and expand to a wider audience.

How to use social media for e-commerce?

Businesses are following suit as social platforms boost their investments in commerce solutions—86% of CEOs believe social commerce is a growing element of their marketing-driven revenue plan.

Social commerce encompasses the whole customer experience, allowing customers to go from discovery to purchase through a single platform. Consumers are more inclined to make purchases at the moment when they have a seamless shopping experience and a quick checkout procedure.

Connecting your product catalogues to a social commerce system also allows businesses to construct collections that correspond to broader campaigns.

Discover the 8 best CRM Shopify integrations that fit your business' needs.

Chat, sell, and get paid

An omnichannel all-in-one platform combines all chats from various social media channels for faster, easier, and clearer communication. The seamless workflow is tailored for businesses to offer customers robust support while saving time to scale the business. With extra time and manpower, actionable plans can be accomplished to maximise sales revenue.

From personalised broadcast messages and refined targeting, you can start selling more effectively to existing and prospective customers. Ease the checkout process and truly connect with your customers on SleekFlow. Get paid instantly in chat as easy as that.

4 tips to create the ultimate social media strategy

1. Use interactive posts to entice and educate your audience

You may provide material that stimulates interaction, such as events or giveaways. These messages may quickly expand beyond your own social media following, especially if you make sharing or tagging friends a requirement for inclusion. This is the simplest approach to exposing your business to a larger audience.

2. Make use of shoppable posts

Shoppable posts are a fantastic method to improve sales on social media. People may buy your items or services directly from your social media post when you use shoppable postings. Instagram is an excellent example. Products and services can be tagged in Instagram stories and posts. With a simple swipe on their screen, your customers may view the product they desire and immediately go to your website to buy it.

3. Create hashtags for your brand

Hashtags draw attention to your brand by making it easier to find. You may take it a step further by establishing and using distinct brand hashtags. They help people comprehend your content, promote interaction, and raise the visibility of your company. Hashtags are also an important way for consumers to find user-generated material relevant to a brand.

4. Maintain consistency in your posting schedule

People are always on social media. That implies you should be as well. A social media post's lifespan might range from minutes to hours. These lifespan numbers indicate when you will see the greatest engagement or, in the case of an Instagram story, when the post will disappear. However, you should not publish all the time. This might either overwhelm or irritate your viewers.

How can social media integration apps help?

Post scheduling

Posting regularly to ensure that the social media accounts are active can be a tedious task. By using social media management apps, you can schedule postings all at once without logging in and out all the time. 

24/7 customer support

Fast responses are much valued by customers these days. It would only be beneficial for businesses to have social media integration that provides advanced automation rules. This is because automated chatbots on various social media channels are able to equip you with the ability to provide 24/7 customer support, cultivating happy and loyal customers. These satisfied customers can then help build brand reputation and may even accelerate sales as they promote your products or services to their friends and families.

Sync product catalogues 

There is no need to re-upload each item in your product inventory to the social media shops. Shopify has written a guide for sellers to sync products onto Facebook, which will also be accessible on Instagram shops. As long as you follow the specific requirements and avoid publishing errors, the products will be approved by Facebook and you will be selling on these channels in no time.

Cross-channel marketing

A good online shopping experience comprises ease and convenience. One of the main aspects of convenience is to provide customers with as many options as possible, so they can use channels or apps that they prefer. You may think that marketing on multiple social channels is time-consuming, but the rewarding results will make it worth it. Besides, cross-posting can be made simpler with tools such as Sendible, and the effort is aimed to bring in more opportunities with a larger pool of customers. 

Highly targeted marketing campaign

Gathering Marketing Qualified Leads is one of the main goals of marketing campaigns. Businesses need to connect and interact with customers or prospectives with intent and interest to obtain the highest efficiency as they attempt to boost conversion online.

Integrating platforms like SleekFlow allow businesses to create accurate refined targeting on top of highly targeted marketing campaigns with personalised broadcast messages. Abandoned cart reminders can also be sent to regain lost customers. All of this combined will surely push more sales and increase the revenue in the long run.

Explore how SleekFlow-Shopify integration can improve your business.

SleekFlow: Implement social messaging effortlessly

Once your social media management is on track, the increasing popularity of your brand will surely get you more enquiries and messages across various social channels. This is when you must leverage advanced automation features to handle the conversations.

Especially on a well-favoured social messaging app like WhatsApp, the enquiries can be overwhelming. Also, let’s not forget that messages from qualified leads can come in from multiple social media accounts on different channels. The manpower and time required will then be too costly if not managed well.

SleekFlow, an omnichannel chat management platform, is the best solution to this problem. Apart from organising conversations with the all-in-one inbox, businesses can drive sales with marketing strategies such as personalised broadcast messages, automated workflows such as auto-replies for comments on Facebook, Facebook Lead Ad integration and more.

You can even get paid in chat within a snap of fingers. SleekFlow brings social messaging to a whole new level by allowing for businesses to lead customers top down into the purchase funnel. From product discovery to checkout and payment, make online shopping easier than ever for your customers.