Using social media sites to sell your products is hands down one of the best strategies you can use to grow your e-commerce business.

I mean, sure, you can do guest posts, publish articles, or get your site listed in business directories. However, when it comes to bringing in sales and leads — all things being equal — chances are, you’ll still get better results if you sell on social media platforms.

(There’s a reason why most successful e-commerce entrepreneurs invest in social media marketing out of all other marketing methods — it’s a gold mine for e-commerce entrepreneurs.)

If you’re looking for tried and tested social media marketing strategies to sell your products online, then you’re in the right place. We’re going to share with you several social media marketing best practices that can get you more sales.

Do you like what you’re reading so far? Let’s jump right in.

1. Identify your social media marketing goals.

When developing your social media marketing campaign, it’s vital that you identify your goals first. The goals are going to be your guiding compass when deciding which content to publish, how much budget you’ll allocate, and deciding which aspects of your marketing campaigns you should measure.

Here are some questions you can think about when putting together your goals:

How much traffic do you want your social media pages to get?
How large do you want your follower base to be?
How much engagement do you want to receive from your social media posts?
What kind of conversion rate do you want to have?
Etc.

You can also benchmark your targets with the findings in Hubspot’s Social Media Benchmark Report. It mentions that ecommerce store owners, on average, have 370,000 followers, six posts each week, and around 11 interactions (likes, shares, etc.) for every post.

You also need to measure the internal aspects of your marketing campaigns.

For example, if you have a team of social media marketers, you need to be able to track their billable hours and output (among other things) to determine if the social media marketing campaign you sought to pull off is feasible. The good news is, there are reliable online tools you can use to monitor your team and improve their productivity.

One such tool is Track.ly.

With Track.ly, you can observe the time and effort that your team spent on social media marketing and compare it with your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as the level of audience engagement and number of posts published.

This enables you to track not just the external aspects of your campaigns, but also the internal side of things.

This gives you a better view of how much value you're getting out of your marketing efforts.

2. Interact with users.

Social media is a great place for marketing your ecommerce store. It allows you to increase people’s awareness of your brand as well as your sales.

However, since social media sites are primarily networking sites, they’re also ideal for interacting with users.

Interacting with your audience is essential to marketing your ecommerce store on social media. Doing so makes your followers feel a more personal connection with your brand, resulting in user loyalty and patronage.

As an example, take a look at how Cinnabon interacts with its Twitter followers:

Cinnabon replies to its audience’s tweets and replies on its #SweetTalk Twitter chat and other tweets. Similarly, you can interact with your users in your posts, events, polls, and direct or private messages. It’s also good practice to monitor your brand mentions frequently so you can respond and engage accordingly.

Don’t forget to be polite and use the appropriate tone when responding.

For a personal tone in your conversations, imagine that you’re responding to a friend or new acquaintance. Be personal while maintaining professionalism at the same time.

3. Publish valuable content in dynamic formats.

Once you’ve gained the right followers on your social media platforms, you need to serve them value in an exciting package.

Valuable content is essential to get your business started on social media, attract and keep your followers, and expand your audience reach. To offer value and catch your audience’s interest, publish informational or inspirational content in dynamic formats. Visuals and audio-visuals are an excellent examples.

Here’s a sample by Nas Daily:

Nas Daily posts engaging and moving videos about a specific topic.

He integrates his meaty content into a dynamic format.

You can also put present valuable content in other formats, like infographics, images, podcasts, and more.

While dynamic formats are catchy, don’t forget that content is still supreme in marketing your ecommerce store. Talk about your customers’ pain points or share experiences they can relate with, and show how your products and services can help them.

4. Find the right platform.

There are several social media platforms you can choose from.

However, especially if only one person is managing your store’s social media, it may be best to focus on one or two platforms to be effective.

Finding the right platform will depend on several factors, like your target audience, marketing goals, your competitors, content format, and the platform’s advertising features.

Here are some platforms you can consider:

Facebook. Facebook supports almost all content formats, including GIFs, polls, and stories. It has the highest number of monthly active users among social media platforms. Over 65 million businesses also have Facebook pages. As such, it’s a good choice for establishing your social media presence.

YouTube. YouTube is perfect if your main content format is video. It’s also the second-largest search engine, so you can optimize your channel and gain online visibility.

Instagram. Instagram hosts visual content like photos and videos, including stories, Boomerang, and IGTV. You can also have a business profile, get analytics, and schedule posts using third-party tools.

Twitter. Twitter is best known for letting you post real-time updates in 280 characters and customer service support. It also enables you to display different content types, including polls.

LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a lot to do with business and career. It is ideal for introducing your industry’s expertise, products, and services. You can also advertise through content boosting, personalized ads in LinkedIn mails, and ads displayed on the side of the website.

When choosing your platform, remember that you have to be where your customers primarily are. Consider this, along with the other factors mentioned previously.

5. Display consistent branding.

Consistently displaying your branding is essential in social media marketing.

Consistent branding helps users know that your page is the legitimate page of the brand that they want to follow. By using the same attributes in your posts, you solidify your trustworthiness and cohesiveness with the branding identity on your website or product packaging.

Take Cadbury, for instance:

Cadbury displays hints of gold and purple in their posts to show their subscribers they’re following the right company.

Bottomline

The hundreds of thousands to billions of users on social media now provide a golden opportunity for you to market your ecommerce store on such platforms.

It’s critical, hence, that you become active on social media to boost your online visibility, and eventually, your conversions and sales. Following these practices will help you jumpstart and enhance your social media marketing campaign, and spell a difference for your brand that you wouldn’t want to miss.

Was this guide useful? Do share this with your friends and colleagues. Cheers!