5 Simple Ways to Increase Online Sales Through Social Media in 2022
It is likely that you already know the answer to the question, “Can social media help us achieve our sales goals?” is a resounding yes. Now we are going to inform you how you can increase online sales by using an Expert in Digital Marketing.
Social media has become an integral part of the customer experience and plays a direct role in purchasing decisions. Consumers increasingly use social media to discover brands, products, and services at the top of the funnel, which contributes to awareness as well as sales prospects. Consumers in discovery mode who click the follow button are serious about their business.
A study conducted by Best Montreal SEO Agency found that 90% of consumers who follow a brand on social media will make a purchase from it. You can also expect your followers to choose your brand over a competitor, visit your physical store, and do other activities that will increase online sales.
Consumer shopping habits are shifting to social platforms, and social platform developers are also working to bring social marketing and sales closer together through new or improved social commerce solutions.
To increase online sales and turn a profit with social media, consider applying these five simple tactics.
1. Start selling directly on social media platforms
A pandemic of accelerated digital transformation has led to a boom in social commerce. The closure of physical spaces has led to the opening of digital storefronts. The social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest announced revamped social commerce tools in 2020, and Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok announced they were exploring social commerce.
As social platforms invest more in commerce solutions, businesses are following suit – 86% of executives said social commerce is a growing component of their marketing-driven revenue plans.
Social commerce encompasses the entire customer journey, enabling consumers to go from discovery to purchase all in one place. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase when they have an easy shopping experience and a streamlined checkout process.
Brands can also curate collections that align with their larger campaigns by linking their product catalogs to social commerce solutions.
Sprout’s dedicated integrations with Shopify and Facebook Shops make social commerce easy for your business. By uploading their product catalogs into Sprout, users can add product links to social content or reply directly to consumers.
2. Find your highest converting social content—and make more of it
Visual content and social best practices suggest marketers are more successful on social media than text posts, but your audience may be different. Only by tracking your own social success and digging into the data can you find out what works for you.
You should analyze owned content that includes information about your products or services, promotions, and links to your website in order to understand how social media can increase online sales. You should make sure that those links include UTM parameters so you can track the behavior and path of people who click on the links using Google Analytics.
Which data is most important? The following are the key performance indicators you should keep an eye on.
- Organic: Engagement, click-through rate, referral traffic from social media, actions are taken on your website (e.g., form submissions, purchases)
- Paid: Conversion rate, return on advertising spend (RoAS), and cost per conversion
The ability to conduct granular analysis is provided by marketers who diligently tag outbound content. One fashion retailer tracks qualitative insights like consumers’ preferences for UGC content rather than official brand photography with 160 active tags.
By analyzing and comparing tag performance, they can allocate budgets to creative assets and advertising campaigns.
Identifying your audience’s preferred content formats will help you to create shoppable content. Social media platforms are becoming more functional, so everything from video to UGC can be turned into a conversion opportunity.
3. Use conversational commerce to nurture buyers on social
Social media provides convenience, accessibility, and a convenient way to communicate between consumers and businesses. In fact, 78% of consumers say social media is the fastest and most direct way to connect with a brand.
Consumers can make purchases from brands using chat or voice assistance through conversational commerce, which combines messaging and shopping. The founder of the term, Chris Messina, says it’s all about “delivering convenience, personalization, and decision support while on the go.”
We’ve all experienced conversational commerce in direct messages, booking haircut appointments through Facebook Messenger, or asking questions about products on WhatsApp. By offering more personalized recommendations across platforms, messaging allows digital marketers to deepen customer relationships.
However, conversational commerce isn’t solely about generating net-new sales. The ability to provide solid customer service is equally important and pays dividends since it is the top-quality consumers associate with best-in-class brands.
In every stage of the sales funnel, social marketers must manage inbound messages and provide efficient, effective support. Customers seek support through social media primarily for MeUndies, one of the world’s leading underwear and loungewear brands. Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox lets MeUndies tag, analyze, and respond to customer inquiries with ease using Messenger. Customer experience teams can use Message tags to analyze what types of inquiries they receive most frequently, and share this information with sales teams and leadership.
The proof is on social media – their top-tier social customer service strategy drives sales and incredible customer loyalty.
4. Use social listening to find which topics resonate with your audience
Knowing your audience pays off. 43% of consumers will buy from a brand that understands their wants and needs over its competitor if they demonstrate that understanding.
With social listening, businesses can learn more about their customers, industry, and competitors by tapping into public conversations. You can gain insight into trends your users are engaging with, reveal sentiment around specific brand campaigns, and differentiate your brand from competitors. Business’ burning questions can be answered by social listening, and knowledge is power.
Using content analytics and customer service channels, combine social listening findings with data-driven marketing messages that convert.
Your brand can also benefit from social listening by discovering leads and sales opportunities, but you have to be ready to seize them. A reference to Black Girl Sunscreen, for instance, did not appear in the original Tweet. Due to social listening, their team was able to identify the relevant prompt and respond accordingly.
When you use tools like Sprout Social that do the heavy lifting for you, it’s much easier to harness the power of social listening. Take your sales team’s social listening skills to the next level with this step-by-step guide.
5. Check that you’re posting on social at the right time (for your audience)
A timely post will usually mean more impressions, engagement, and conversions. You can find out, for instance, that Saturday is the worst day to post on Facebook. You can’t generalize based on others’ audiences. Develop a publishing schedule based on the times that work best for you, then analyze your own social platforms.
If you use Sprout Social, your own best times will be calculated by the ViralPost® feature.
Jonathan Jacobs, Vice President of Social Strategy at Accelerate360, spoke with us about ViralPost®’s success with them. Here’s what he said:
- Facebook: Content sent to optimized audiences had 62% more impressions and 135% more engagement
- Twitter: Impressions were up 59% and engagement jumped 97%
- Instagram: 44% more impressions, 65% more engagement
Your brand will receive more exposure when you publish at the right time, resulting to increase online sales.
Increasing sales with social media will prove your ROI
Some of the techniques we outlined above may not result in sales, but the sum of these efforts can.
We are here to increase your business ROI within a short time. Feel free you can contact Montreal SEO Agency to get bits of help from our experts. Our experts will help you to grow your sales and reach your targeted audience by using their own expertise and experience.
