Strategies to bring traffic to your e-commerce (and convert) from social networks
Talking about the importance of Social Media for e-commerce is something that no longer seems necessary. We all know how relevant this channel is in a store’s strategy butwhat isn’t always clear is what strategy brings traffic from social networks to your online store. Has your store been able to do it?
The fact that your e-commerce is present on all social networks isn’t synonymous with success. Even if you think you have a lot of visibility or a lot of likes, your goal should always be to get traffic from the platform to your store and, in addition, make conversions.
This doesn’t sound so easy anymore, especially after the study published by the digital commerce company, Sumo Heavy, which states that only 18% of American consumers have made a purchase through social networks. Social-commerce still has a lot to improve on; users are concerned with things like the security and privacy of the ‘buy button’.
We spoke with Jordi Ordóñez, whogave us the factors to take into account:
Nine strategies to bring traffic to your e-commerce from social networks
#1 – Choose your networks and CM carefully
The first recommendation is basic, but it’ll mark the development of everything you do next. It may not seem like a lot of work and you might be able to deal with several profiles, but the reality is that to manage each of them efficiently and effectively takes more time than you think at the outset.
Think very carefully about the nature of your business. How your audience and business model is segmented marks the most appropriate networks. Of course, if your focus is B2B, Instagram or Pinterest won’t be as important as Twitter or LinkedIn, in particular; but this will be the opposite if your e-commerce sells visual products like fashion or home décor.
On the other hand, it doesn’t matter if you manage your presence on social media or if it’s someone else, what needs to be clear is that the person keeps your brand’s image in mind. Make it clear and define specific rules about the tone, content and how to interact with users; even have a crisis plan when faced with a potential problem. The more sectioned off everything is, the easier management will be.
#2 – Schedule the content and actions
Content is your biggest ally in astrategy to bring traffic to your e-commerce from social networks. We have to understand content marketing as a global strategy, coordinated and with a purpose, not like publishing random updates.
I’ll also emphasize that content strategy is more than ‘having a blog’. Obviously, a blog is a key piece within the strategy and promotes traffic capture, but this is all thanks to:
- Organic positioning:published posts become home pages from search engines to expand the number of pages and the web’s freshness (provided the content is real and unique).
- Reference traffic:other pages and blogs will cite us and link to other potential sources of traffic when it brings user value.
- Social: we are providing our followers with a series of assets that are relevant, fun, informative or of service. This is much more attractive than a store’s homepage or a category when it comes to surfing networks.
It’s important that you coordinate your actions and an editorial calendar will help greatly in facilitating that task. Plan all important events 12 months ahead,at the business level as well as seasonally, because they’re important for users in your niche.
Based on this plan, define when you’re going to publish and what content you’ll launch. Like we said, it’s not just a question of the blog, the calendar should collect the specific actions and publication strategy for each social network.
#3 – Be consistent
Seriously, if you don’t think you’ll be able to devote the time and resources necessary for this strategy, perhaps you shouldn’t address it. Networks require a consistency in publication. There’s no use in a tweet a month or an Instagram photo every two months. To have an interaction, you must be present and make sure the user gets used to seeing you regularly.
The same study mentioned before shows that 48% of consumers have purchased products or services they’ve discovered on social media and 58% of those customersare influenced to make a purchase even if they haven’t seen the article on social networks.
And yes, it’s important to be consistent, but with logical recurrence. Users hate spam, so they’ll quickly tire of someone who saturates their timeline. Adapt to the tempo of each network. Three daily posts on Twitter (spaced out) are more than reasonable, but on LinkedIn or Facebook would be excessive.
#4 – Be multi-media
It’s been shown that users react much better at the engagement level when updates contain images and videos. Actually, you just have to think like a user and you’ll realize that when you scroll through your timeline, you stop on a post with a photo or video before any other type of update.
The good thing is that you don’t need to be a professional designer or a designer in the company. Keep tools like Canva in mind that, thanks to customizable templates, make it very easy.
#5 –‘Shoppable’ publications
For some time now Facebook has allowed you to add a ‘store’ tab on your profile and, in addition to uploading products, you can link it directly to your e-commerceif you use platforms like Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce and WooCommerce.
But the novelty of social commerce is Instagram, which allows you to label products in organic publicationsor buy them in a couple of clicks, either in a post orin stories. Your social showcase shouldn’t only serve to inspire and attract users to your store, it should also allow them to explore your products; it’s a much more immersive experience than any other type of advertisement.
As affirmed by the application itself, ‘through product labeling and the store tab in the profile, not only is it easier to discover products, it’s also easier to buy them. For companies, labeling a product is as simple as labeling a person, and for buyers, the tags allow easy access to information.’
#6 – Adjust the tone of your messages
Adapt it to the codes of the networks you publish onwithout losing your editorial line, because that’s what’ll mark your personality. Yourproximity to your audience should be determined strategically: it doesn’t make much sense to address one network formally and keep a distance, and on another one, be much more carefree.
Use each network’s personal characteristics. For example, the ephemeral Instagram or Snapchat stories to communicate specific things that will get deleted immediately;or play with alternating hashtags that are popular for your target audience with their own labels. The first ones help you expand the reach of your publications and the second ones give you the advantage ofmarking all your updates under the same label.
#7 – Give sharing an advantage
More than favor, I mean incentivize it. A lot of times it’sfine to visibly place the buttons and mechanisms to share – but keep in mind there’s more and more traffic from cell phones and these types of elements don’t always work well.
Like I said, you have to give ways to share that can be very attractive and generate visits, not only in blog posts, but also with your own products. Another interesting tactic is to share the purchase once it’s made. If there’s one time the user is satisfied, it’s just after they’ve bought a product, and they’re very receptive to telling their contacts.
#8 – Surveys, contests, and sales
This is as old as marketing, but still extremely valid. If there’s something that keeps attracting users, it’s a contest and the prospect of winning something. The key is what conditions you set to participate.
What I would recommend is that you don’t make it too complicated, because if you ask them to follow you, share a hashtag and picture of them leaving the store with the product, tag 10 friends, subscribe to your newsletter … they’ll stop at the second step.
Surveys are also quite interesting in terms of engagements, you’re tempted to participate in them. If we choose to evaluate two products that we have in our store (and we add their corresponding links) we can concentrate traffic.
#9 – Advertise
Algorithms are wreaking havoc with organic traffic. Twitter can be a bit chaotic and Facebook almost deserves to be mentioned separately. You have to assume that you want to monetize it at the companies’ expense, so if you want your event or your publication to have enough impact in the form of traffic for your e-commerce, you’ll often be forced to check it out.
That said, the platforms offer many segmentation possibilities and you don’t need a huge investment, although each time the costs per click increase a little. Of course, if you’re going to campaign, make sure you choose converting on the web as a target or generating traffic for your online store. After all we’ve commented on, it’s not much of a profit to invest in creating a community if you’re not going to give it enough visibility.