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If there’s one thing that Social Media holds, it’s the power to share information with anyone anywhere in the world. With millions, if not billions of people on multiple platforms, no one can miss the barrage of information. Thus, it has become an essential tool for people young and old to express opinions, facts, likes, and dislikes. Most importantly, it plays a huge role in commercial marketing and making a profit for businesses everywhere.Here, we look at social media retail techniques that could help any business take advantage of its power to win more customers.
To understand everything else that follows, we have to establish why Social Media is vital for retail. To do that, let’s take a look at some facts. Infoplease states there are 209,128,094 adults in the U.S, and nine in ten American adults use the internet. According to the Pew Research Center, 69% are on Facebook, 73% are on YouTube, and 37% are on Instagram. CNBC also says that TikTok, one of the most mildly used app nowadays, says it has about 100 million monthly active U.S. users.Studies show that these adults, who can spend, go to whatever social media platform they savvy to learn more about a particular brand they are interested in. In fact, a Deloitte report states that 29% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product on the same day using social media and that consumers who are influenced by it are four times more likely to spend more on purchases.Stating these facts would only prove how crucial social media is to retail, most especially during these times. A retail business operating in the U.S. has the potential to reach millions of people through social media, and that means the potential to convert a significant percentage of that into loyal customers or repeat customers of whatever product is being sold.Whether it’s a retail business with an eCommerce site or not, social media and building a strategy and a Following signal a potential for brands.
Sprout Social Index shows that 91% of customers visit a brand’s website or application when they follow brands on social. Eighty-nine percent would buy from that brand, 85% would recommend that brand to a family or friend, 84% would choose that brand over a competitor, and 84% would visit the brand’s physical retail store. So what are the social media retail techniques that are proven to work?
It’s not enough to be on just one platform. Retailers can benefit more if the brand is present on multiple platforms. If you think that putting all your efforts into one platform would save time and money, doing this means you lose the opportunity for more profit. While Instagram has proven to be powerful for retailers, being on multiple platforms is still the way to go. What you need is a social media strategy that hits every segment of your audience or target market and a way to promote content between these platforms.
The thing about social media is everything happens fast. What can be trending now can change in hours, a day, or a week depending on how big it blows up. To become relevant in social media, you have to look out for trends where you can jump on to promote your product or brand.To do this, you should monitor hashtags or keywords that can keep track of what people are talking about on these platforms.
While this may be obvious, social media can boost marketing campaigns you already have for your brand. Whether it’s launching a new product, running a promotion, or doing time-sensitive offers, you need your followers to know about it. And since millions of them are on social media, you put the word out there using different methods that work for a particular platform.A tip here would be to publish codes, discounts consistently, or special offers to encourage impulse buys. You could also go for soft sell using photos or any other content that wouldn’t come off as too sales-y. Another tip would be to take advantage of the retailer’s email list and social following. This allows them to reach out and nurture customers.
The best thing about social media for retail is that retailers can engage with customers at any point. A big part of this is getting feedback from a brand’s followers. The idea is to not look at social media as just a tool to boost marketing campaigns but to ultimately go beyond that and instead create that connection with customers. Asking them what they think about your product is the first step.This would make them feel that you aren’t just a brand. You’re a brand that actually cares for them. This is what makes them loyal customers. Plus, question-based content that encourages customers to reply would do well for social algorithms.
According to the Sprout Index given earlier, 74% of users follow brands on social media to reach out for customer service or support. It’s fast, and it’s easy. Because of that, customers expect that when they send a message, they get a reply in minutes.Effective social media for retail is listening/reading to concerns and responding with care. Genuine concern means addressing them by their first fame and responding promptly. Involve customers in your content by giving them shout-outs or sharing their content on your platforms.Doing these would mean you get to keep that customer for longer. Customer service is an absolute must for all retailers.
Retailers should always be on the hind for user-generated content (UGC). These are content shared on social media platforms created, published, or submitted by users or customers. UGC is highly effective in increasing engagement among followers and encourages them to purchase whatever it is shared.Whether it’s partnering up with influencers or just sharing user-generated content, creating a hashtag for a brand or a campaign would organically aid in promoting and increasing social media presence.
Being present on social media platforms would mean being ready to create a seamless shopping experience for customers. When they follow your brand on these platforms, they expect to see and buy your product quickly.Consumers wouldn’t want a complicated way of getting what they want. A retailer needs to have a system that brings them from Point A to Point B. Part of this system means having a clear call-to-action, scrollable and mobile-friendly pages, and taking advantage of the business features available for each platform.
While organic posts are the best, paid ads would allow retailers to reach out to customers without having the risk of spamming them. One helpful feature of running social media ads is your ability to target customers based on their platform interactions.Running ads is a great way to reintroduce your brand and create product retention.
How you look on social media should also be the same as your product’s physical packaging. Many users follow brands on social media and see a color scheme or a theme that creates a lasting impression. When people like what they see, they expect to get the same thing.Ensure that whatever impression you have on social can be matched with your physical packaging, from stickers to business cards to whatever box or paper bag it comes with.
As mentioned earlier, social media shouldn’t just be a tool to promote sales, discounts, or any other offer you have. It should be a means to nurture customers and make them loyal customers.There’s no other tool that could do that. Reaching out to millions, having them in one platform, and having the power to send a message, like a photo or share content in seconds, is a power that retailers should maximize to create that relationship with customers, which could ultimately bring in more profit in the long run.