Social Media Marketing

6 Social Media Techniques To Drive Sales

Rahmi Ozcan, London, UK
The rise of social media has reshaped how companies interact with their customers and market their products and services.

You can build a community around your brand and uniquely showcase your products, generating more sales, and contributing to the success of your business.

Insights into consumer behavior gained from social analytics and increased access to data enable skilled social marketers to return impressive results.

Social media is a crucial tool at your disposal.

Here are six techniques to help you unlock the potential of social media for your business.

Facebook:
1.2 billion users – 56% male and 44% female.

1. Target the Platforms Your Customers Use

The first step to any successful social media marketing campaign is to determine which platforms your target customers are using.

Concentrate your efforts on key platforms, instead of spending your time and resources building multiple accounts.

While Facebook is still the most popular social platform, it’s not as dominant with younger generations as it once was. If your targeting millennials, you might want to focus your campaign on Instagram and Snapchat.

According to the London School of Economics and Political Science:

Facebook: 2.4 billion users – 56% male and 44% female.

Instagram: 600 million active monthly users – 68% female and 32% male.

Twitter: 328 million users with 37% of users aged 18 – 29.

LinkedIn: 500 million users with 61% aged 30 – 64.

Snapchat: 301 million active monthly users – 50% of users aged 25 or younger.

 

Go where your target customers are. If you’re targeting middle aged home owners, don’t focus your efforts on Snapchat.

 

2. Publish Compelling Content

Aim for quality over quantity when it comes to your content. Social media users are increasingly adept at judging quality.

Focus your efforts on creating compelling quality content, rather than a lot of average pieces.

That way, your audience will be looking forward to your next post, rather than scrolling past it and letting it disappear into the rest of their feed. People use different social platforms for different purposes.

A Facebook user has a different intent to a Pinterest user.

People like and share things on Facebook that they find amusing, interesting, or shocking. Whereas a Pinterest user is generally looking to learn something new, to get inspired, or plan something.

Focus your efforts on one platform at a time and make sure your content efforts align with the user intent of the platform you are publishing on.

“Building brand awareness is about reaching the right people, attracting their attention, and making the right impression.”

3. Make it Easy for Customers to Purchase on Social

Social-driven sales are growing faster than any other online retail channel, with buy buttons playing a pivotal role. Traditional social advertising requires a user to click on a link and navigate to an outside checkout page to complete a purchase.

Buy buttons enable the user to complete a purchase without navigating away from the platform, and offer a great opportunity to provide a hassle-free buying option to your customers.

Facebook Buy Button Facebook has buy buttons on their website and messenger app. Allowing you to sell your products within the platform.

Pinterest Buy Button After a year or so of experimentation, Pinterest has made the option available to all businesses using the platform.

The key to successful checkout optimisation is making the process as smooth as possible. Enabling users to purchase your products on social media simplifies the process and encourages sales.

Instagram: 600 million active monthly users – 68% female and 32% male.

4. Use Instagram to Drive Leads to Your Landing Pages

Before you start an Instagram campaign, you need to identify the metrics that will inform your strategy and help you judge the success of your efforts. More sales is the end goal, but you’ll need to keep an eye on several metrics to help you get there:

  • Sales – Keep track of your total sales.
  • Referrals – Use your website analytics to note how many referrals are coming to your web pages from Instagram.
  • Conversions – You’ll need to measure how many of your visitors from Instagram are purchasing products.

Once you’ve set up your analytics to measure your campaign, create an Instagram profile that is designed with sales in mind.

Include clear information about your company, a link to your website, and profile photo that highlights the positives of your brand. Instagram is an image-based platform.

To stand out on people’s feeds, you need to create compelling, appealing, and high-quality photos. If you have some photography skills, invest in a good quality camera.

Otherwise, hire a professional photographer to create high-quality images of your products. According to a study of 8 million photos on Instagram, images with the following elements see the most engagement:

 

  • Bright images see 24% more likes than darker images.
  • Clear and simple background.
  • A single dominant hue.

5. Build Brand Awareness with LinkedIn

LinkedIn offers an excellent opportunity to generate leads, build brand awareness, and showcase your experience and expertise.

Create a company page so users can find out more about your company, view your social content, and read your articles and blogs.

Building brand awareness is about reaching the right people, attracting their attention, and making the right impression. By growing your LinkedIn network, you’re expanding the reach of your business and your ability to develop relationships with potential customers and others in your industry.

If you sell a B2B product or service, LinkedIn could be the social platform for your business:

 

  • 61 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers.
  • 40 million LinkedIn users are company decision makers.
  • LinkedIn is the number one platform B2B marketers use to distribute their content.

6. Facebook Ads

Facebook has over 2.4 billion active users. No matter what industry you are in, there’s going to be a large number of your target customers using the platform. However, Facebook’s constantly evolving algorithm means it can be a challenge to connect with your audience organically. Which is where Facebook Ads comes in to play.

While Google Ads are based on a user’s search term, Facebook ads enable you to get your products in front of users that are most likely to make a purchase – based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location. Another advantage is the ability to use Facebook remarketing.

You can advertise your products to Facebook users that have already interacted with your business. This is a powerful tool for retargeting people that have abandoned purchases previously or shown interest in your products.

Conclusion

The above techniques are some of the most effective ways you drive sales through social media. In a competitive online marketplace, ensuring that your business is visible to your target audience is crucial.

Social media provides the perfect platform to engage your potential customers and encourage them to purchase your products and services. It’s also vital that you make it as easy as possible for potential customers to complete a purchase.

That means making use of social buy options if they are available and optimizing your product pages and landing pages to convert. The aim is to reduce the number of steps involved and remove any obstacles that might cause people to abandon their purchase.

 

If you want to learn how social media can increase sales for your business, schedule a free consultation today.