Last Updated on September 1, 2023 by David
Guest Post by OrangeTwig for Re:amaze. OrangeTwig is a SaaS platform that helps store owners and businesses automate social media marketing. The platform helps to promote your products & discounts across ALL social media channels in one go. Or share your favorite content from around the web.
Social media was once almost exclusively reserved for the world of small and medium businesses. The informal, rather chaotic nature of it all put it out of the reach of traditional marketing teams. But the big boys have caught up.
It’s hard out there now for small/medium sized eCommerce businesses. They have to compete with well organized teams with, what seems like, limitless resources to design, create, post, and promote content. When your small team has to run everything from product design to merchandising and from packing to emailing etc… social media can seem like just another chore to complete.
How do you then attract social media users to your eCommerce store? Once you’ve done that, how do you retain these users?
Tip 1: Always Use Hashtags & Clickable Links
#Hashtags are no longer just an Instagram or a Twitter thing. They are a great way to discover new potential customers and get visibility, and something for your fans to rally around. Or, as a certain President has recently discovered, a way to divide the world into those that get you and those that don’t.
Which hashtags do you choose?
The ones with the most traffic, duh!
Well, sure. If you want to get your post to get buried under all the new posts in seconds.
Instead, pick ones that are relevant to your niche. These may not have as much traffic but you will find people who are more likely to engage with your brand or even better, buy. As a general rule, our recommendation is to avoid hashtags that have over 10 million posts.
If you must use these hashtags, do so in combination with other more niche/locally popular ones. Something we at OrangeTwig recommend to our users is to use the InstaSuccess toolkit to discover related hashtags for the popular ones they might want to use. These have fewer posts on them and the chances of being seen goes up dramatically.
Above all, track everything, see what works for you and make changes as you go along.
Listen to Your Customers
Create a hashtag for your brand that customers & followers can use to post reviews, comments, photos of themselves using your products. Most people trust reviews from other users more than they would ever trust what you, the company say. This can help really drive engagement and purchases.
It helps to create a separate hashtag for support queries & complaints. Maybe something like #<brandname>support or #ask<brandname>. These conversations can sometimes get drawn out and heated. Not exactly what you want all your potential followers to see.
Listening to customers can also come in many different formats beyond social media. For example, real time chat, proactive website engagement, in-bound nurturing, etc. Our partner, Re:amaze, recommends business owners to think about listening to customers and responding to customers in a holistic manner. Even though listening to customers via social media is vitally important and a crucial starting point for many revenue-generating conversations, it shouldn’t be treated in a vacuum.
When customers comment on a post in social media and you’re able to continue that same conversation in email or chat, the act of “listening” becomes much more powerful. — David Feng, Co-Founder at Re:amaze
By effectively managing multiple channels of engagement, business owners can positively impact conversions, decrease cart abandonment, and build loyal users. You can check out Re:amaze’s platform here if you’re looking for a customer communications platform to support, engage, and convert customers.
Making Your Instagram Feed Shoppable
The layout and the visual nature of Instagram can make your feed look quite a bit like an eCommerce store. Unfortunately they don’t let you link your images to your store directly.
With OrangeTwig though, you can instantly turn your Instagram feed into a fully functional extension of your online store. OrangeTwig automatically adds a link into every post you make. Clicking on the link will take the user to the product or collection page on your eCommerce stores.
Tip 2: Use Social Media Communities & Groups
Can you sell on Reddit?
Reddit users are a passionate, occasionally prickly lot. They are among the most engaged social media audiences out there. The average visit to the Reddit platform lasts over 13 minutes. They don’t take too kindly to blatant promotions though. Try that and you might find yourself silenced, shamed and kicked out of the group faster than you can say “subreddit”.
Can you really sell on Reddit? We think so. Here are a few ideas you can try.
- Find fanbases that you can reach out to. Sell coffee? Join the r/coffee subreddit.
- Spend most of your time engaging with users there and not so much on promotions. The 80:20 rule is a good thing to keep in mind. 80 % generic content and 20% promotional content. Although for Reddit we think the 95:5 rule is more appropriate.
- When you do plug your products, don’t link to your products directly. Redirect them some place where they are then likely to see your products. A blog, for example, is perfect.
- Remember, the focus is to expose new users to your brand/store. Once they are part of your funnel, you can then focus on pushing them to a purchase. They are also more likely to buy, given that you’ve spent all this time engaging with them.
- Create a subreddit for your brand. Use it to discuss your products, collect feedback, build a community. Focus primarily on building a community. Promote occasionally.
Selling on Facebook Groups.
A few pointers here.
- People buy with their eyes first. Make sure you upload good quality photos. Include multiple angles so your buyers know what they are getting.
- Include good product descriptions. Here’s how you can write one.
- People often list used products on groups. You don’t want to get lumped into that category. Mention the condition of your product.
- Don’t share too often. Don’t be that guy on every Facebook group who is constantly pushing something or the other. Your audience is likely to get bored or boot you out of the group.
- Spread your content/promotions across multiple groups instead.
Tip 3: Focus on Organic Marketing
That’s right, we said organic marketing!
Sure, reach is declining across many networks. But that’s no reason to stop organic marketing entirely. A few things to remember.
- It’s not always about clicks/purchases. People still use social media to research products. It’s a good idea to try and stay visible. Pinterest boards are a perfect example of this. People use them for product ideas/inspiration.
Change focus from simply posting content to interacting and building communities. Engaged users are likely to remember your brand/products and are significantly more likely to buy.
- Reach varies across networks. Facebook has the lowest while Pinterest and Instagram still have significant reach. Skew your efforts toward those networks.
- Did I mention the 80:20 rule? We’ll do so again. 80% general content that might interest your followers, 20% promotional/product content.
- Mix it up a little bit. Don’t do just one thing. Here’s 47 content ideas you can use.
Creating and scheduling all of this content can be a bit much for many small or medium eCommerce businesses. With OrangeTwig, you can discover, design, create and auto schedule all the content & promotions you need.
You can for example set up an auto publishing calendar within 5 minutes. Click here for more on how OrangeTwig can help change the way you market on social media.
Tip 4: Use Social Media Buy Buttons & Store Integrations
Not all buy buttons are created equal. Just ask the folks at Twitter. Earlier this year they began phasing out their buy button. After years of hype about social commerce, there really weren’t any sales coming through.
So is this whole “Social Commerce” thing dead?
Hardly!
Facebook and Pinterest are still pushing ahead with their shop CTAs. Given that these networks are more eCommerce oriented, you are likely to see better results here.
Set Up a Facebook Shop Section
Facebook lets you set up a storefront on the platform itself. See the image above for an example. For accounts in the US you can enable checkout right on Facebook. Those elsewhere will have to redirect their shoppers to their own website to complete the checkout.
The best part? It’s FREE!
You don’t have to share any of your revenue and you don’t pay for the visitors. Given how widely used Facebook is, this is a no-brainer.
Those on Shopify, BigCommerce or WooCommerce have it much easier. You’ll be able to set a Shop Section on your page automatically during integration. Here’s how.
The “Shop Now” Button
This one isn’t free, but can help push conversions on your Facebook ads. You can now add specific call-to-action buttons onto your ad. Having one clearly communicates what you want your customer to do. The button can also drive more clicks than just expecting them to click on the ad image or the link.
You’ll find these CTAs listed under the “Clicks to Website” and “Website Conversions” objectives.
Buyable Pins
Guess what? Pinterest users use their accounts to research products before they buy. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Did you know that the average order value for a shopper from Pinterest is 80 dollars? That’s DOUBLE THAT OF FACEBOOK!!
With Buyable Pins you can give shoppers a way to purchase your products, right while they are still researching. The best part is that it’s free for the most part. The not so great news? Only a select few stores have access to it right now. Shopify and Bigcommerce users can apply directly.
Tip 5: Incentivize & Reward Loyalty
We all like feeling part of a group and we all like some degree of exclusivity. Well, most of us anyway.
This is why “limited editions” are a thing. Buying a “limited edition” thingamabob makes you feel like you are part of a group and an exclusive one at that.
Tap into this human tendency, reward loyalty! Soon you’ll have people lining up to be a part of your group. Here’s how to do so on Facebook.
Offer Ads:
These are discounts you can create and share with your customers/fans.
Use custom audiences to promote these exclusively to people who have purchased from your store or engaged with your content. Here are a few ideas to help you create such audiences.
- Upload a list of email ids of the users who have completed a purchase on your store.
- Create a custom audience of people who’ve purchased from you more than once. See the image below for an example.
- Create an audience of people who engage with your content differently.
Recognize Key Fans:
See someone actively engaging with your page? Liking all your posts? Interacting with you? Single them out for some praise and maybe a special discount.
That’s all for now folks!
The OrangeTwig Team (along with the Re:amaze Team)
If you’d like to give OrangeTwig a try, sign up for a free account here and receive an extended free trial plus 50% extra posts!
Interested in what else we have to say? Make sure to recommend this article by clicking the heart and follow us for more stories about startup life, customer service, and tips on treating customers right.
You can also find our multi-brand, multi-channel customer service platform at https://www.reamaze.com. Follow @reamaze.