Integrating a clever social media strategy, which can attract visitors to your eCommerce website, can become one of the biggest catalysts towards the success of your business.
If you’re selling a product or service online and you want to improve the overall brand perception, social media is the right way to do it. Before you plunge in and post online, you will have to come up with a few smart social media strategies first.
Today, eCommerce is not just about pitching your product online, and hoping it will sell. You have to earn your customer’s trust first and nurture it second after they’ve purchased a product from your e-store.
This means that you have to apply a lead generation-focused approach to your social media strategy.
How Lead Generation and eCommerce Work
There are lots of ways to generate leads. But if you want to increase the number of leads for your eCommerce store, you will need a steady flow of web visitors.
The thing is, not every visitor to your website will want to buy what you are offering at that precise moment. This is where lead generation steps in.
With the help of a proper strategy, you will draw quality traffic to your eCommerce store and steadily convert this traffic into loyal fans or customers.
In this post, we’re going to cover several social media tactics that you can use to generate quality leads.
Related: 5 Reasons Your E-commerce Store isn’t Performing
Social Media Strategies for eCommerce to Boost Lead Conversion
- Get to know your audience first.
- Prepare your social media profile.
- Optimize your social media posts.
- Engage your social media visitors.
- Design and optimize your landing pages.
- Generate more product reviews.
- Increase your email subscribers.
- Advertise your best products.
1. Get to Know Your Audience First
You might have a big choice of products on your eCommerce site and these products might appeal to a wide range of people, but again, it’s not a smart move to market to everyone on the Internet.
Your business needs to have a target audience that can narrow down your sales and lead generation approach.
You will need to do your due diligence and research the people that really want and need what you’re offering. Segmenting your audience means that you will sell to a targeted group of people, and successfully use social media strategies to attract this group of people to your eCommerce business.
First, make sure that your products fulfill someone’s need or solve a problem in the marketplace. When you know that, it will be much easier to polish your target market segmentation.
See what type of people have bought your products already. Define the demographics, sex, age, hobbies, income level and any other data that can help with your segmentation. Also, look at your most successful competitors to get more data for your target clients.
Readers Also Enjoy: 10 eCommerce Strategies to Reach More Customers [Infographic] – DevriX
2. Prepare Your Social Media Profile
After you’ve done your target market segmentation, the next thing to do is prepare your social media accounts. Your social media profiles are where you can engage with your target audience and attract them to your website.
Every social media profile has its own unique preferences and advantages, but first thing first, let’s start with the biggest social media networks out there.
A Facebook page can provide you with tons of opportunities for your eCommerce business. For starters, when you create your Facebook page, it is really easy to choose and set up the Shopping theme template that fits your eCommerce strategy the best.
When you create your Facebook fan page, go to the About section and then to the Mission part of that section. This is where you need to describe the purpose of your eCommerce business and how you plan to help your target audience with your products.
After Mission, next up is the Company Overview. This is the section of your Facebook page where you can explain who you are and what you have to offer.
Don’t over promote here, just explain how your products will solve your target client’s problems. Also, add your website URL to make it easier for your audience to click on your webpage.
With the Shopping theme template, Facebook offers your business a place where you can showcase your Products. You don’t have to list every product from your e-commerce website here, though it is advisable that you list your top products. You can also insert the product URL here so that people can click on the product link.
Then, we have the Contact Info section. Here, you can provide your visitors with your phone and customer support number, and an email address where customers can contact you.
Last, but not least, on your Facebook page About section is your Story. This is where you can share more information on how you started your e-commerce business and how your team has developed so far. You shouldn’t pitch your products and offers here. You should sound as human as possible, and you want your story to resonate with your target audience.
Facebook also gives you the option to customize your CTA button with the Shopping theme. The principal choice is “Shop now” but you can also customize this further.
Next, you have the visual aspects of the page. Make sure that your profile photo is your business logo. Don’t experiment here.
If you really want your eCommerce business to stand out on Facebook, use a Facebook cover video that reflects your brand and its image.
Before you jump on the Facebook cover videos bandwagon, let’s look at what Facebook requires to successfully upload a video cover for your page:
- Facebook cover videos dimensions should be at least 820 × 462 pixels.
- Cover videos should be anywhere from 20-90 seconds long and can loop in any way you want.
- Must be MP4.
Do you need some inspiration for your first Facebook cover video? Here are examples from different online retailers that can bring out your creativity:
eBay
One of the giants of eCommerce and retail, eBay is where to go if you want to find new, used, luxury or rare products. Their mission is to be the number one online destination where consumers can find value, good prices and uniqueness all in one place.
Ebay is not like everyone else, so why should you shop like everyone else?
Showpo
Started literally in a garage back in 2010, Showpo became the go-to place for girls and young women to shop for fun and trendy fashion items at an affordable price.
To capture the upcoming prom season, Showpo posted this creative cover video that is a combination of static images and a motion picture in the middle where we can see how the model shows us their latest occasion dresses. Simple, beautiful to watch and guides us to click for more.
Athleta
A woman’s athletic apparel shop, Athleta is all about movement, action, health, and instilling confidence and empowerment in woman, and girls of all ages.
And what says more about movement and than travel? To prepare the consumers for the upcoming spring/summer trips, in their latest Facebook cover video, we can see how Athleta empowers women to feel more comfortable and enjoy more of our adventures.
Dollar Shave Club
A company that has revolutionized the male shaving and grooming products industry with their business model, Dollar Shave Club delivers high-quality razors and grooming products straight to your door at an affordable price – that’s where the name comes from.
If you sell beautiful packaging and practical grooming products, why not show us what you offer with a cover video of your product supply? Which is what Dollar Shave Club did with their Facebook cover video. Simple and highly effective marketing.
Instagram is the current hottest visual platform. With more than 2 billion active monthly users and an insane engagement rate, Instagram is a no-brainer when it comes to promoting your eCommerce business.
When you open the app, your Instagram bio is the only place where you can include a link, so it’s mandatory that you include your web URL there.
Never insert a link in an Instagram post because it will only appear as a text and nothing else. Your bio will be the key to driving traffic to your eCommerce business.
Just like on the other social media channels, your profile picture has to be your company logo. Instagram doesn’t have cover photos yet because the entire UX of the app is made entirely for a smartphone. So you will have to get creative with your photos and video posts here.
The content that you create for Instagram has to be attractive, and it has to be optimized for mobile. This requires the usage of vibrant colors, clear and big font and pure background.
Your company Twitter account is still one of the best ways to attract your target audience. Twitter is the ultimate social network, you can post tweets as micro-blogs, links to your products, articles and case studies, live videos, images, GIFs, and the most important thing of all, it’s easy for your audience to engage with you on the platform. Just like Gary Vaynerchuk once said in one of his keynotes:
“Twitter is the cocktail party of the internet.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
He is totally right! There are several areas that you must optimize in your Twitter account in order to improve the engagement and lead score for your eCommerce business.
Your Twitter username and handle should be the same as your business name. You can use up to 50 characters for your username and not more than 15 for your handle. So, if you have a really long business name, you will have to be creative with this one.
Next up, your Twitter bio. This is the place where you can insert your mission statement, keywords or any description that can be used to lure your target clients. But remember, you only have 160 characters to use, so you will have to get creative in your approach.
Under your Twitter bio, you have space to include your website. Use the full URL of your eCommerce store. Under the web link, Twitter offers you space to include your business location. You can write the location where your business is registered, global location or whatever you want.
Now on to the visuals. Again, just like on Facebook, your profile picture should be your logo. And the cover image can be applied in the same manner as on Facebook. You will also want the Twitter verified badge too.
Twitter will verify your eCommerce business if you fill out the form and follow the official rules and guidelines as requested by Twitter Inc. That blue checkmark will show your customers that you’re a legitimate and trustworthy business.
Readers Also Enjoy: 10 Reasons Why Twitter Is the Best Social Platform for Business – DevriX
In order to use Pinterest for your eCommerce business, you will have to optimize your website for the Pin button first. And more specifically, the Pinterest Buy button.
Pinterest is a great way to bring traffic to your eCommerce website. It’s a highly personalized social network and one of the best search engines on the web.
People online are getting tired of getting word results, and now they want the visuals too. Pinterest makes that happen.
That is the main reason why Pinterest is perfect for your eCommerce business. You can showcase your business and your products on this platform. If your customer loves your visual on Pinterest, they will click on it and it, will take them directly to your product page.
Again, just like on Instagram, your posts on your Pinterest account must be mobile optimized. Choose great visuals as well. When users scroll using the Pinterest app, they stop when they see something they like visually. So if you really want to sell your products, you will want to create imagery that will stop people from scrolling and make them click.
Make your products look professional on Pinterest by removing unnecessary clutter from the background of the product images. If you sell sneakers, you want the target customer to focus on the kicks, not the gravel.
If your eCommerce business operates in the B2B market, then LinkedIn might be your best bet! It’s easy to create a company page on LinkedIn.
You can display your brand logo in the profile picture as well as create a custom cover that will make your target customers want to visit your eCommerce website.
On the LinkedIn company page, you can list your type of business, the number of employees in the company, links to your best offers blog articles, and even pictures and videos that work well on the platform.
LinkedIn is a great channel to build your personal brand. Take advantage of that to increase the trust of your followers in your company. Make sure to be active on your personal LinkedIn profile, especially if you are the public face of your eCommerce business.
Snapchat
Snapchat is yet another great social media platform for influencers, who want to communicate with their audience on a personal level. It is a great way to get real-time insights while talking directly to your clients.
Before you decide to plunge into Snapchat with your eCommerce business, you need to determine the amount of time that you or your marketing team can spend on the platform. Just as in using Facebook Live Videos, the content on Snapchat has to be recorded real-time, and your team has to constantly monitor the network.
Here are links to some of the best Snapchat examples and tactics on how to do it – from the biggest Snapchat advocate, the man himself, social media mogul Gary Vaynerchuk:
Community Accomplishment: Using Only Snapchat To Sell Real Estate
How Photographers Can Use Snapchat To Sell Their Art
3. Optimize Your Social Media Posts
One of the coolest things about social media is that it has opened every possible door for eCommerce businesses to promote their products to their target audiences. Your potential customers and leads are already on social media, interacting and waiting for their favorite brands to come along.
For that purpose, as an eCommerce brand, you need to create a fan page or a profile on at least three of the social networks mentioned above. You shouldn’t just be present on these platforms, you need to provide valuable and visually appealing content as well.
You should always include images in your social media posts to showcase your products and let the consumers decide whether they want to click on your landing page or on your product page. If you have a video of people using your products or services, that will work even better for your eCommerce store.
Whenever possible (and it’s always possible), ask questions in your social media posts. Ask your target customers a question is closely related to the products and services that you offer. Ignite the engagement and discussion on your fan page.
If you want to sell more products and convert more leads into customers, you will have to include a subtle, or even better yet, a clear CTA (Call to Action) in your social media posts.
Make sure that the CTA is not the same on every social network. What works on Instagram may not work on LinkedIn or Pinterest. Also, Twitter has a 280-character limit, so you can’t post a long-form CTA here like you can do on your Facebook page.
Speaking of long CTAs, it’s much better if you use concise and to the point copy for your call to action. You need to talk directly to the consumers when you pitch your product because you’re selling to human beings, and people want to buy from a brand that sounds human to them too.
Furthermore, your target customers don’t want to read a call to action that is written in the third person. Using a direct and actionable voice is one of the best persuasion techniques that you can implement to increase the number of product sales and lead conversions.
After every social media post, make sure that you test your CTAs. See which one brought the most clicks to your website and what copy brought the least clicks to your website.
This is of a huge importance when it comes to lead generation because your ultimate goal is to bring people to the website and make them want to sign up for your offers and make a purchase. The CTA that works the best needs to be used more on your website.
4. Engage Your Social Media Visitors
Want to know the secret to generating loyal brand followers and customers? Engagement is the answer. People want to ask you questions, want to answer your questions and want more information from you about products or services, and you have to be ready to provide that information.
We cannot emphasize this more.
That’s why you have to be active and continuously watchful of your social media channels. As an eCommerce business, you have to listen to your customers, listen to their product questions and reviews, and reply to every negative comment constructively.
If you want to answer customer questions and send people regularly to your eCommerce website, one of the best ways to do that is to blog regularly. Many of your customer’s questions can be answered in a blog post.
When you blog on a regular basis, you establish yourself as a thought leader in your eCommerce market. You become someone your target customers turn to when they want to educate themselves on a product that they want to purchase.
5. Design and Optimize Your Landing Pages
This is where the lead conversion happens. Every social media post and every call to action should lead to your product(s) and landing pages. So when you post something about a topic or product, you want to have a page that is related to that topic.
Your landing page should be optimized for mobile devices in order to offer a perfect UX to your customers. Landing pages will include important information such as CTAs, product visuals, forms, and shopping carts.
That’s why it’s imperative to offer your customers a good, fast responsive page and quality and attractive design.
Designing the Landing Page
Your landing page design should have the same tone as your social media designs. With that, you can take the entire experience from your social media page to your website.
When designing your landing page, focus on the writing, the colors, and the formatting of images and videos. Use a simple color scheme and emphasize your proposals and call-to-action buttons.
Landing Page Purpose
Make sure your social media headline tells your customers what to expect. Be careful not to trick them with click-bait headlines and takes them to a landing page that offers them something completely different.
This is a sure way to increase your website bounce rate and lower your brand reputation in the process too.
Make your message clear. Ask for your customer’s information, but tell them exactly what you offer in return for their email address.
6. Generate More Product Reviews
Product reviews can boost your eCommerce revenue by 93%! And why do product reviews help product sales?
Firstly, you get a better social proof which is showcased on your fan pages and on your website. Every product review is an individual statement, a testimonial for your e-commerce business and for your products.
When you look at product reviews, you see what people are saying about your brand.
Two, your SEO will skyrocket! Having product reviews, especially positive ones, on your eCommerce page can do wonders for your Google rankings.
This increases the number of keywords on a page and gives the page higher authority! As a result, Google ranks the page higher when the user searches that specific keyword.
For that reason, you should encourage every customer or follower to leave a review on your website.
7. Increase Your Email Subscribers
An email can be among the best mediums that you can use to convert more leads for your eCommerce business. It has the power to bring traffic to your e-store, it’s the perfect vehicle to bring your content to your consumers and can outshine social media on any given occasion. Email marketing still works.
Why is that? Because there is too much noise in social media. Too many tweets and too many Facebook posts (organic and paid). That is the reason email marketing can work better than social media. An email message provides you with the necessary space to devote yourself to your target customer and personalize your message for their attention only.
Readers Also Enjoy: 12 Ways to Increase Your Email Marketing Conversion Rate – DevriX
In one of his many articles for authority sites such as Business2Community, our CEO Mario Peshev, an expert in developing eCommerce systems, listed inefficient email marketing as one of the critical threats that kill eCommerce businesses. And he is absolutely right!
You need to create a strategy to try, and add every new customer to your email list. Prepare an automated email sequence for new clients that revolves around the onboarding process and the possibilities of your relevant products.
“Utilize your email marketing strategy by sending regular campaigns, upsell opportunities; one time offers, promotions, discount code for registered users or anything else that is in line with your business plan and will target your customers.” – Mario Peshev, CEO, DevriX
So promote your landing pages and encourage people to subscribe to your newsletter. You can do this with different lead magnets such as contests and freebies (guides, product samples, e-books).
Test and improve your email marketing campaigns in the process. You will probably not generate sales with one or two emails per month. You need to create mailing list segments, test different types of contents and visuals, and monitor what your subscribers are responding to most.
Send people welcome emails and offer them something special to get started. If they order a product, email them saying their product is coming. Educate them about products, give them updates, and post fun news related to your products or brand.
8. Advertise Your Best Products
Your social media promotion efforts should be towards attracting your audience to your key products, offers, loyalty programs and product demos (trials).
Advertising on social media is an excellent way to reach your target audience and to promote your products. But, advertising on social media is different for every platform. This is especially true for Facebook.
Having a prepared targeted audience will help you warm up the prospects that are already familiar with your brand and reach new customers.
For the purpose, Facebook created one of their greatest features – Lookalike audiences that you can use to advertise your product to your exact target customers that are on the platform.
If you have not found your audience yet, you can start small, test, measure your results, track your campaign metrics, your conversions and your actual sales.
Before you start to use Facebook, you will have to insert the Facebook pixel code on your website. This is a piece of code you put on every page of your eCommerce store.
It allows Facebook to identify which visitor has visited which pages on your site. Installing Facebook Pixel on your site will give you immense opportunities to segment your custom audience by user behavior or purchasing history.
When you decide who you want to target with your Facebook ads, you will have to come up with an effective advertisement. Before you decide what images, fonts, and graphics to use, make sure that what you offer is compelling.
The people that will see the add already know about your brand and your e-commerce website, so you will need to come up with a unique offer (discount, special promotion, an improved product etc.).
Bottom Line
Social media and lead generation success requires time, hard work, analysis, testing, and patience. From this rule, there is no exception for eCommerce businesses.
Keep monitoring what the internet and social media are saying about your brand. Listen to what the industry experts and customers have to say about your e-store. You have to measure and analyze your strategy to see where you do well and where are your gaps for improvement.
The entire process is an investment that will pay off for your eCommerce business in the long run. It’s not something you can throw together and hope it will work out. So, it is very important to stay focused and consistent in your efforts to sell more products and convert leads into loyal fans.
Team DevriX
This article is crafted by DevriX's seasoned marketing team, boasting over four decades of collective expertise in crafting sophisticated marketing funnels, devising comprehensive content frameworks and pillars, implementing engaging email campaigns, and creating impactful social media content designed for scalability.
Our marketing experts specialize in the complete spectrum of inbound marketing strategies. As an accredited HubSpot Agency Partner and a Semrush Partner, we engage in meticulous research, blending our extensive experience with the unique insights of our highly skilled team.
We set benchmarks in content creation by incorporating cutting-edge marketing trends, leveraging in-depth industry research, and utilizing state-of-the-art AI tools for data segmentation and captivating content hooks. Our proficiency extends across a diverse range of sectors, including working with SMEs, Fortune 1000 companies, global B2B brands, major publishing entities, WooCommerce platforms, business directories, and affiliate networks.
