The modern marvels that we all have seen grow in front of us is the influence of social media and E-commerce on the public. As both these entities grew, we realized more and more that we are in a generation of convenience and next-level comfort. I mean, think about it. Through social media, we are connected to a digital ecosystem that loosely mimics our own, where we can interact with more people, businesses, and public figures, than we could ever have in our actual physical space.
Similarly, E-commerce adds an extra layer to this virtual world since it brings physical goods to our doorstep, including things we can’t find in close proximity. We don’t really spare a second to think about how amazing this is! If you were born at any time before the 2000s, you have seen the development of both these fields in all this time. If you are a business from this perspective, you must already be aware of all the amazing things you can do in terms of marketing and selling products online.
Shopify allows you to make an E-commerce website where you can have a catalog of your products. You can make this website on your own without requiring any previous coding or web development knowledge. Your store can have all necessary features like a shopping cart, different product pages with rich information, payment and shipping options, and a ton of visual customizations. After you have set up your store successfully, you can start promoting your products on social media by integrating your businesses’ accounts with Shopify.
Social media is a good place to figure out and build your target audience and then keep them engaged. Usually, people in the E-commerce business lack a lot of content to interact with their target audience, i.e. consumers, with more than just offers and product releases. So, it is important to sit down and draft a social media strategy to make the best of your resources. These resources include creative and intellectual property, money, and time.
Creating a Social Media Marketing Strategy
The first order of business is to draft a social media marketing strategy. It is done by identifying your marketing needs and how you measure success. Using social media, you can fulfill all kinds of business goals, like creating awareness, driving traffic, generating sales, establishing a database of potential and active users etc. This wide channel allows you to target people at all stages of their careers. There are five essential aspects of a social media marketing strategy.
- Goals: Define what you want out of a campaign and how you are planning to measure your efforts.
- Target Audience: The process starts with researching and profiling your ideal customer to target the masses accordingly.
- Content Mix: This includes all types of content, including text, images, videos etc.
- Channels: Different businesses do well on different social media platforms. Identify yours and strategize accordingly.
- Process: After figuring out everything else, it is about drafting an action plan and following through with the process.
These pillars of a strategy are interchangeable depending on your personal needs, but most social media marketing campaigns start like this. Let’s look at these aspects one by one.
- Goals
Using social media, you can fulfill many marketing needs like spreading the word, strengthening brand recall value, and getting more sales. Here are some goals you could pick and choose from.
- Driving brand awareness
- Creating demand for products through exciting content
- Acquiring leads to pursue
- Getting sales during high purchase seasons
- Driving traffic to your Shopify store
- Building a loyal customer base
- Establishing social proof
- Providing quality customer care
- Target Audience
Any form of marketing requires you to understand your ideal customer first. With the power of social media, you can do that with even more precision. Developing this ideal customer profile might take time since all of us are learning new things about business every day. The best way to run broadly targeted campaigns and then recognize the most influenced and responsive group of people. After segregating them, you can repeat this process till you have a more refined profile. The profile is based on…
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Interests
- Career/Industry
- Income level
- Relationship status
- Favourite/most used apps/websites
- Motivation to make purchases
- Buying concerns
A combination of these aspects will help you determine your ideal target audience.
- Content Mix
The content finally defines your brand’s image in the eyes of your following. The kind of language and aesthetics you establish help create awareness and recall value for your brand on social media. These days, content has expanded well beyond images and videos and has a lot of interactive content which can be used to engage your following. It’s important to keep up with the times and make use of the latest trend. Social media ad campaigns are all about fulfilling certain goals, but there should be a balance with organically posted content. Some ideas include…
- News and information
- Inspirational content
- Educating the people about pain points that your products or brand solve
- Product/brand promotional posts
- Contests and giveaways
- Community events
- Q&A
- Behind the scenes content
- Relative and relevant humour
- Posts of your products being in use
There is much more that you can do in terms of regular posting. It’s all about being creative and current. Another thing to make sure of has high-quality content in all aspects.
- Channels
There are many social media platforms out there, all slightly different from each other, with a different user base. Depending on your business’s niche and category, you will find ideal customers on various platforms. It is all about exploring and seeing what’s best for you! Each platform demands different content types, and each requires various ways of building your presence on to them. Since you will also have limited time only, it is natural that you spend your time on only the most relevant platforms. Let’s explore some common but highly relevant platforms.
- Facebook: Facebook is the most famous and most used social media platform that has something for everyone. Here you can pay-to-promote any kind of business which also has added features like messenger integration and a very well-designed advertisement module. The downside here is that you can’t create an organic presence here anymore since it isn’t very fruitful. Most Facebook users are millennials who don’t use the app much anymore, and the other half is older people for whom this is the only relevant social media platform.
- Instagram: Another component of the Facebook family of apps (now the Meta group), Instagram is opposite to Facebook in terms of an engaged audience. Here the users are very active, and it is the best place to create a well-connected online presence. Facebook advertising also allows you to advertise on Instagram. Like Facebook, most people on Instagram are also millennials.
- Twitter: Another famous platform is Twitter, a place for networking and getting news firsthand. This is where all the leading voices in the world speak, including high-profile celebrities, politicians, and even the world’s leading brands. Marketing on Twitter is all about listening and connecting to these various voices.
- LinkedIn: This is the platform that is famous for being a job hunt station. But LinkedIn is much more than that! It has transformed into social media for companies and professionals to connect and share their expertise. It is said that LinkedIn is a good channel for B2B businesses, but even as a Shopify store owner, it is great to have a healthy presence on this platform.
- Content Marketing Channels: Content marketing channels include places you own and can publish content according to your liking. You can then promote this content on all your other social media profiles. This includes a blog section on your Shopify store or a YouTube channel.
It is important not to get carried away with this part of the process. There are many social media channels, but all of them might not be fruitful for you. It is important to identify the right ones and focus on them individually. It is also important to optimize all your profiles professionally and make them well-informed. Cross-linking is also an important thing to remember.
Make sure that people can easily find a link to your Shopify store, where the actual business happens on all your platforms. It is also a good idea to include links to all your other social media profiles so that interested people can connect with you on a platform of their choice.
- Process
Now that you’ve done all your research and preparation, it is time to organize a plan and concentrate your efforts. The best way to do it is by forming a content calendar, in which you can make agendas for content to be created and then eventually published on certain pre-defined dates. After you have made a content calendar, go ahead and start executing your plans and growing your audience!
There are many tools that you can use to execute these content plans and automate the entire process. These tools also offer many other options like monitoring and tracking your campaigns, nurturing the performance of your posts etc.
Sometimes, the best thing to do for your business is hiring the right people for the job. Creating a Shopify store, managing it, and then marketing it on social media is what anyone can do. But to do it well enough to be competitive is a whole different thing. A great way to go about it is to partner up with a company like BM Consulting. We have a dedicated team of experts for all your needs. Not only can we build your Shopify store from scratch in a stunning fashion, but we also have a team of marketing experts to take your business one step further. Contact us today!
For getting more information regarding Shopify Web Store, you may contact us or visit our website www.bmconsulting.in