7 Social Media Tactics to Drive Traffic to Your eCommerce Site
In 2019, the number of people using social media hit a whopping 3.484 billion, a substantial increase on the previous year’s total. The number of business taking advantage of the powers of social media are also on the increase. Companies are using social media as a central pillar of their marketing because of its ability to drive traffic to their website and increase visibility online, and that’s just the start!
However, there’s a big gap between using social media, and using it WELL! It can soak up a great deal of time and effort without growing your sales.
With that in mind, here are our seven tips on how to use social media to drive traffic to eCommerce sites:
Know your ecommerce audience and social media platform
Research your audience in correlation to the social media platform you are working with.
Randomly posting across all social media platforms is a rather scattergun approach to connecting with your customers. Instead, you need a clear strategy. This includes breaking down which social media platform is best for your target consumer.
Each outlet has its own demographics and advantages. For example, Facebook has a mature audience among its 2.27 billion monthly active users. Instagram and Snapchat lean more towards younger people, who love to communicate via imagery. Twitter appeals to a wide cross-section of ages but is the go-to for quick snippets and online conversations. LinkedIn is for business connections.
Also, know the best times to post on social media to hit the right audience with enough impact.
Boost with strategic paid for content
Ensure your PPC ads are focused, brand-specific, fresh, optimised and engaging.
Generic social media content – backed by a clear strategy – is a powerful marketing tool for eCommerce businesses. However, bolstering this with well constructed paid for posts can be invaluable. Pay Per Click or social media ad campaigns must follow the above guidelines; focused, brand-specific, fresh, optimised and engaging!
Otherwise, you pay a hefty price for website traffic that does not actually generate any sales.
Set goals and timeframes
Remember when scheduling your ultimate aim is to drive more traffic to your eCommerce site.
Your social media strategy needs clearly defined goals, that support measurably effective content.
Of course, the ultimate aim is to get more traffic to your eCommerce site. However, that must be engaged and interested potential buyers. Not just random ‘clickers’!
What do you need to achieve from social media? Set that in a monthly framework of what you are going to focus on, and the content needed to support that.
Keep in mind that ‘Likes’ and follows on social media are not the ‘be all and end all’. Your goals should include a good level of outreach, achieved by people sharing, commenting and clicking through to your website. Watch your insights and analytics for what works well on social media, to make sure you do more of the same!
Optimise posts for ‘searchability’
Don’t forget to add those few hashtags at the end of your posts to increase your business’ visibility.
Social media content can still fail to boost sales if your potential customers never see it! Making your social media profiles – and individual posts – easier to find is vital.
Use social media buttons on your website and promote your addresses everywhere. Add social media ‘share’ buttons to blogs, news and promotions on your website.
You must create social media content with keywords in it, that people use in searches.
A few relevant hashtags at the end of posts can help people to find, but not too many! #socialmedia #turnoffs.
Create a Content plan
A successful content plan involves a mix of different types of posts.
To get your levels of outreach and engagement up, your Content needs to be varied, vibrant and relevant. Posts can’t all be product profiles and advertising speak!
This includes a good mix of types of posts – from industry news, and know-how tips, to special promotions and reviews of your products and service.
Within your strategy, use publishing tools on social media to space out and schedule posts. This helps keep your profile up, and your content will appear on people’s newsfeeds more efficiently.
Having a social media strategy and content plan will help get you ready for specific promotions too, such as Easter, Mother’s Day and Christmas.
Use quality imagery
High quality images will encourage users to navigate around your site, remember this is your ecommerce aim!
Modern consumers love visual media – photos, videos, illustrations and infographics. Using imagery in your social media posts makes them more visible, but also increases the chances of customers reading the wording.
A constant stream of ‘same-ish’ photos of your product range can switch your audience off. Vary your visual content regularly and keep it fresh and engaging. For example, if you sell gifts, instead of items on shelves, show someone happily unwrapping a product or using one. That gets an emotional response.
Make it a conversation
Connect on social media with other relevant business’ and ecommerce sites. Become the conversation starter.
Social media as a dynamic, fluid and personal way to conduct digital marketing. A series of timetabled and impersonal posts could generate eCommerce traffic, but not as much as a responsive campaign would.
So, connect on social media with relevant non-competitive companies, comment on other posts, re-post from other profiles and generally make your social media a conversation. This includes responding personally (and positively) to any comments and reviews.
For social media campaigns done right, attracting the right traffic, contact the team at Factory Pattern – on all social media platforms or by picking up the phone!
