Marketers, brands, and businesses everywhere are trying to harness social media to improve customer experience, increase brand awareness, and sales.
That is primarily because social media provides easy access to communicating your message to billions of people.
In fact, 71% of Internet users in the United States actively use social media platform.
Meaning you can get more awareness, sales, and traffic all from a post that required 1 min to release.
Online retailers are also using social media to drive revenue big time.
A family-owned running gear business increased online sales by 7X using Facebook ads, which helped it grow from a small home-based operation into a fully fledged manufacturer in just 18 months.
This is not out of the ordinary either. This is happening every day and brands and business are pulling in some heavy profits.
For example, we have 7X some of our clients' revenue through Facebook ads as well.
The point is this stuff works.
So, to help you increase sales for your business, I’m going to show you how to use social media to drive sales.
To begin, you have to use the right social media channels to reach the right people.
As much as we’d all love to master every social platform it's just not going to be likely.
If you spread yourself to thin you're going to have a hard time making progress.
Because the preferences, demographics, and interaction styles change between each.
Facebook may be the leader of social media in terms of growth and frequency of use, but that doesn’t it might be the right choice for your business.
Most important platform for B2C.
The possibilities of Facebook are endless. Starting with organic growth to endless advertisements with the business manager.
This is the platform for highlights.
If your business just held an event locally, had it’s 2 year anniversary, or had your chef create his favorite dish, then you should consider Instagram.
Serving as another B2C platform, Instagram can benefit you with the large range of consumers buying daily.
Ranging from customer service to searching for other business leaders for B2B, this platform is very versatile.
Twitter can be also known as the testing center for most companies as the news feed is constantly moving. Feel free to experiment with tweets and reach out to other pages by giving your input and starting a conversation directly on the feed.
Although advertising on Snapchat is relatively new, there is much potential for this platform.
With people under the age of 25 using Snapchat for 40 minutes on an average day, this can benefit many companies looking to target a younger active audience on the internet.
With LinkedIn being the largest professional online network, you could see why this is the #1 platform for B2B.
Any professional looking to grow his or her network must include this platform in their marketing methods.
A great platform for sharing ideas and spreading information fast, Pinterest is the go-to platform for educational information and popular DIY posts for consumers.
Advertising on this platform can benefit companies targeting consumers as 87% of Pinners have purchased a product because of Pinterest.
Paid promotion programs vary between networks in terms of delivery and cost.
For example, 57st. design, a high-end furniture design house, and retailer use Pinterest to generate 35% of their sales.
The American men’s clothing retailer ran Facebook ads to increase consumer visits to its retail store locations and boost sales, resulting in a 3X increase in offline and online purchases.
So not only can you increase sales online with ads but you can as well drive in-store sales too.
The marketing platform for small businesses ran Facebook and Instagram video ads to boost and measure brand awareness, which resulted in an 18-point lift in ad recall.
So, if a paid social media strategy is not apart of your marketing strategy then you need to reconsider.
Some businesses who use buyable pins have boosted sales by 300%, and 95% of pin purchases were new customers.
So if you're looking to acquire some new customers then Pinterest could be an option.
Every social media platform has a paid advertising program that can result in a massive profit if done right.
So make sure you increase your ad spend on social media and get a team of professionals who know how to generate real results for your brand or business.
Content with high emotional impact is 3x more likely to achieve success than campaigns without it.
And, it’s not just for B2C organizations. Emotional marketing can be hugely profitable for both B2C and B2B organizations.
Which is also why branding is an important piece to your business.
Emotional marketing, at its core, is storytelling.
And, it’s powerful enough to boost your customer loyalty substantially.
Emotional marketing is taking real-life situations and using them to drive a point home.
We might love stats, but consumers typically respond better to emotions.
Which is part of the reason why some commercials you have no idea what product or service they are trying to get across until the very end after the story.
Subaru was nothing special a few years ago. But their “Love” campaign changed that.
Subaru rose from the bottom to the top and is currently riding a momentum wave of sales ever since breaking monthly records for almost 74 months in a row.
Emotional marketing is effective for sales, offline, and online, especially when used on social media.
In order to execute a campaign similar to the ones we just discussed you are going to need to know your target audience.
If you want to reach massive amounts of potential customers on Instagram, then by far the fastest way to do so is through influencers who have already built that mass following.
Every day more people are starting to buy products and services from what they see on their feeds. It’s mainly from influencer posts that purchases are made.
If you find the right influencer that matches your target audience that will make a post for you. Then you can see major upside results on your page and site.
The first thing you need to do is try and find a few influencers that have an audience that is most relevant to the product or service you offer.
Here’s an example of how Airbnb used the influencer blankitinerary to promote their brand on her Instagram page.
The post generated thousands of likes and got a great deal of engagement.
Airbnb has gotten a lot of their success and customers from social media. They have been using influencer marketing and user-generated content to fuel their growth.
If you look past just the short-term gains and direct sales that you can make from an influencer marketing, there are many long-term-benefits as well.
Partnering with influencers build long-lasting relationships, long-term brand awareness, increase your brands’ trust, and visibility.
Now influencers typically are not free, they can be costly. But… you can get posts from people who have posted photos of your brand.
Want an even savvier way to drive users to your products without having to create a lick of content for it?
Let users generate your content instead.
Better yet, use an influencer to net content, sales, and engagement.
The ROI on influencer marketing has been estimated up to as much as eleven times higher than traditional marketing techniques.
If you can't afford a larger influencer you can always reach out to pages who have smaller followings but still can yield you great results.
Social media can drive sales and generate leads, but you have to be involved and get the right players on the board to see the profits start to pour in,=.
Reach out to your users, get involved in the community, and work with influencers to drive your online sales, bulk up your content, and elevate brand engagement.
The most important aspect of using social media for online sales is going where your customers already are. Different demographics like different networks.
Find your target demographics and build your presence where they’re already comfortable.
Use paid promotion to get some serious ROI and sales. The “buyable pins” on Pinterest are also a great option for online retailers.
Want your products to stand out in the sea of social media? Leverage emotion to engage with your customers.
Although at times social media can be quite time-consuming and may even be a new method for some companies.
Social media marketing is rising exponentially and is playing a very large role in today’s age of digital.
Marketing with social media allows for more in-depth strategies and campaigns.
If you implement what I went over with you today these simple steps above will pave a great foundation for your success in with social media.
Leveraging your social media to get people invested in your products requires one simple but pivotal action: be social.
How are you currently using social media to increase traffic and business?