How do Social Media Help Increase Sales
Social media is everywhere and it has got enough power to make anything viral in no time that you can even see that soon on news channels. Social media has become life and most of us can’t even imagine our lives without it. We spend hours scrolling social media feeds and watching what friends have posted and what are the new updates by those whom we follow. The first thing most of us might be doing after picking our smartphone in hand is opening a social media app, be it Facebook, Instagram, or any other. This is how important social media has become for us. But when we talk about businesses, it holds equal or a bit more relevance and importance. Yes, you read it right, social media platform is vital for all businesses to grow and stand strong in this tough competition. You might be surprised to know that social media can also help businesses drive sales and generate revenue. After reading this post, you will get to know what you can do to increase sales through social media platforms and how they will reciprocate to the efforts made by you. Ways to Increase Sales Through Social Media Learn, learn, and learn There is no age of learning thus, you should always have a zeal to learn more. In the context of social media, it is important for you to learn more about social media marketing (SMM) before you think of changing your strategy. Why we are saying this is because without having knowledge of SMM you might end up implementing another wrong strategy and in the end all your efforts will be wasted. Thus, to change the marketing strategy and implement it in the right way and right time, you must know about the latest trends, interests of your target audience, and tactics adopted by your competitors. To learn more about the current strategy and it’s plus & minus, you can use dedicated tools available on the internet and re-plan your next strategy to get a better outcome. Define the right social media channels What will you do on social media platforms where your target audience or followers are not present? The only thing you can do there is waste your time and resources. Thus, it is important to wisely choose social media channels where people that are right for products or services are present. That is the way you can get attention and generate sales. Before starting social media marketing, you need to know that not all channels are for everyone thus, you must do enough research to find the ones that are best for you. For example, if millennials are best for your business, that your main focus should be on Instagram while you can give less attention to other ones like Facebook. While on the other hand, if your brand is more suitable for professionals, then you might go for LinkedIn to promote. Focus more on customers Now when you know which social media channels are the best ones, it’s time to target customers and that too focusing more on them not your products. The tactics focusing on only selling the products might annoy people now as such tactics have grown old. It’s time to ask people what they like or what they think is better for them. So, you need to give people options on what they feel about the products and which could be the right fit for them. In this way, they will be more engaged with your brand and you will know which of your products are trending. Thus, you can deliver what your customers are looking for and this is the right way to increase sales. Great content great results You cannot keep the content aside as, without it, any of your strategies are incomplete. So, while targeting customers on social media, it is necessary to create a beautiful, engaging, and all in all great content. The key here on social media is to be a bit informal, rather than using a strict formal tone you must try using a friendly one. This way, the target audience will connect emotionally to your brand and when this happens, businesses get loyal customers. One of the best things you could do before posting any image is to click it on your own, and if it is of your happy in-store customers, it can do wonders. Try posting such images regularly to show the worth of your customers and tell your followers how much you care about them. Another best thing you could do is post videos about tips for using your products in the right way along with benefits and some real-life examples. Seeing results would create more interest in people to try your brand and you will see it through increased sales. Ensure ease for people to buy through social media Most of the people want to buy products they like right from the platform they are on, be it an ad on any website, an application, or while scrolling social media feed. Thus, when we are talking about social media, it is important for you to make it easy for customers to get directly on the page from where they can buy the product in need. For example, if someone likes your post or ad showing linen shirts and he/she made the mind to buy one then & there. Now, if you don’t have any ‘shop now’ or similar kind of button/link on that post, the potential customer might drop the idea of purchasing the shirt at that moment, as for that, he/she needs to close the social media app and then search for your site on the internet to buy. But, if the direct button is there, all the customer needs is to click on that and he/she will be directed to the landing page to buy that product without any hassles. In this way, there will be lease chances to lose customers and the highest chances of
Starting from scratch? Here’s how to build a social media marketing strategy
We cannot even imagine the promotion & marketing of businesses without the help of social media. It has become an important pillar of digital marketing and there is a reason why it is called so. One of the goals of all businesses is to get the attention of the target audience and social media is one such platform where they can get that. Almost half of the world’s population is using social media and the approximate numbers are around 3.8 billion. So, you can imagine what exposure businesses will get with their presence on this platform. But we must say that it is not that easy as it looks and it is important to create an effective strategy to get the success you want. There is no doubt that social media is one of the best platforms for business promotion and it could do wonders if used in the right way. A structured plan is always the best to get success. If you are planning to start social media marketing then this strategy might effectively work for you. How to build a social media marketing strategy Set appropriate goals Before implementing anything for social media marketing, the first and foremost thing to consider is the goal. You must know what you want to achieve through social media marketing because that will define further steps in this strategy. Your goals must be crystal clear and that is necessary for any business to stay on track till the end. If your goals are not clear then your efforts and resources will go in vain and what you’ll get in the end is nothing. Depending upon your business’s niche, social media marketing goals could be to increase website traffic, increase brand awareness, generate leads, generate revenue, and increase community engagement. Focus is most important and that could only be done if your goals are clear. Select social media networks There are many social media platforms that we know but, it is also important to know that not all are appropriate for each business. So, while creating a social media marketing strategy, every business must define which social media platforms will be appropriate and best for them for promotion. Selecting the right network will depend upon the segment of the audience you want to target and their behavior on different social media platforms. The audience is what you want to get engaged with on social platforms thus, targeting the right one is a must. For that, you are required to consider what is mentioned in the next point. Audience research Yes, audience research is part of social media marketing strategy and it plays a vital role in defining the success of any business. With this, you cannot rely on your perceptions or assumptions as it could be really harmful to your entire marketing strategy. The audience is always important because all businesses rely on their actions for revenue and growth. Thus, you must properly analyze the segment of the audience under your radar and know their interest. This is the only way to please them with your marketing efforts and convince them to buy your product or service. The type of audience you want to approach will decide which social media platforms you should choose. For example, if your target is millennials, platforms like Instagram & Facebook could be the best choice for you, while on the other hand if your focus is solely on business owners and other companies then promoting your brand on LinkedIn will be the best. Provide your complete information If you want to gain the trust of your audience, then you must disclose all the key details about your business online. The details we are talking about include the name of your business, its establishment year, the correct address of your physical presence, and the products or services that you provide. If possible, disclosing your company’s registration number will play a vital role in earning the trust of your audience. Thus, it is not only about having a presence on social media but showing your true identity is also a must. To try your product or service, the audience must ensure that your brand is genuine and providing key details might be of great help. Define your important social media metrics For those who don’t know, it is necessary to know that there many metrics of social media that play a key role in digital marketing success and every business must keep a close eye on those metrics to get success. Considering these metrics will help businesses measure their success and optimize strategies to do better. Let us see the social media metrics that we are talking about. Post reach- As we know, the audience decides the success of any business and it will depend upon how much attention a business gets after posting content. Post reach is the key metric that will show the popularity of your post on social media. In simpler terms, it will tell the numbers of how many people have seen your post. Thus, you can analyze the quality of the content posted. Number of clicks- Another metric that should be considered is the number of clicks that you’ve got on your single post. More are the clicks; more is the exposure that you’ve got. The number of clicks will also give you an idea of visitors coming on to your website plus will tell you what kind of content is liked by your target audience. Number of likes- It is another factor that tells how much people are liking the content you’ve posted on social media. For likes, you must analyze how many you’ve got organically and how many with the help of paid strategy. One thing that you can see here is that if you are getting more likes organically when compared to a paid advertisement campaign, then you can redefine your budget and cut the cost of paid promotions. Hashtag- Hashtags have become so popular that they can make any
Importance of Hashtags in Social Media Marketing
In this world of millennials, hashtags are everywhere in your social media. Be it Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, you will find ‘#’ in a maximum number of posts. But have you ever thought of what it is or why it is? No? Not a problem, let us briefly discuss the hashtags that are so popular these days. What is a hashtag? Denoted by the number sign ‘#’, the hashtag has gained popularity for a different reason that no one would have thought of. It is used in front of words without any spaces in between and placed in captions of posts made on social media. It won’t be wrong to say that hashtag has become an important part of social media communication, especially for the young generation. We must say that hashtag serves as a label for your posts and make it easily discoverable for other users. Why you should use the hashtag? Believe it or not, hashtags can significantly increase the visibility of your social media posts and grab the attention of your target audience. With hashtags, not only your followers but anyone interested in your hashtag can view the content you have posted. This will play a vital role in building your brand stronger and exposing it to the larger audience than you think. Importance of hashtag for your social media marketing Before we move on to the benefits that hashtag will deliver, let us see the platforms that support it. You can use the hashtag on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and Google Plus. Below mentioned are some of the benefits hashtags will provide you: Better user engagement This might be surprising but it is completely true that hashtags increase user engagement. Now you must be thinking that how this happens? Don’t worry, we will clear it for you. Using # in your social posts gives a tag to them or we must say make them prominent. Thus, when a user makes a similar hashtag query, your post will be visible to them and the chances are high that it will be relevant. So, consider giving it a try at once if you haven’t yet and see what impact it creates. Increased online visibility The fact that there are millions of users online is not hidden from anyone and more are the number of posts present. So, while running the social media marketing campaign if you post something about your business’s niche, there will be numerous posts available about a similar niche. Now, it will be a tough ask to make your way through those posts and get the visibility you desire. In this scenario, hashtags could make a difference. Using relevant & trending hashtags in your posts can help them get discovered by the target audience and gain the amount of visibility you want. Reach to a wider audience Now you must be thinking that social media marketing itself is done to get exposure to a broader audience, what role do hashtags play in that? Yes, if you are thinking so you are right but, with social media, you get exposure to the people that are present there, while on the other hand using relevant & trending hashtags will give you exposure to the right people. There is a big difference between people and the right people. With hashtags, you will come in contact with the right people when they search for the related hashtags as mentioned by you in your posts. No doubt that it might increase the organic visibility of your site as well. Strengthen your brand Content is always important, no matter which technique you are using for digital marketing or social media marketing. With hashtags as well, you are required to focus on the content you are delivering. If people who searched for the hashtag you used to find the content relevant, informative, and unique, it will create a positive impact on your brand value. Delivering the right and important piece of information with relevant & trending tags is a great way to make your brand stronger and more reputable. These are the benefits that you’ll get using hashtags appropriately and smartly. They could become a defining tool for your social media marketing strategy and deliver more than you would have thought. Let us put some light on how hashtags work on different social media platforms along with the importance: Twitter Twitter is the social media platform from where the trend of hashtags ‘#’ came. While using Twitter, you can search for any hashtag keyword that you are looking for and you’ll get relevant results to your raised query. Being the originator, we must say that Twitter is the best social media platform to make effective use of hashtags. Doing this will improve your engagement with the target audience and will have a direct impact on the visibility of your post. One of the best hashtag strategies is to use more than one in your single post and see the difference it makes. Doing this will surely increase your engagement and build your brand stronger. Instagram Especially for posting photographs, Instagram is the first choice for most of the people across the globe. Not only individual users but a huge number of businesses are also there on this social media platform to promote their brand and get the desired attention. In this race to become a popular brand on social media through Instagram, hashtags can lead you to better results. Posting images about your business with relevant hashtags will make it easy for people to find you. One of the best things about hashtags is that not only your followers but those who don’t follow will also see your post when they’ll search for the hashtag used in your post. You will be glad to know that on Instagram, you can use as many as 30 hashtags in your single post. Now you can imagine the exposure you will get using relevant hashtags on social media platforms like Instagram. Facebook Facebook