After setting up your online business, you need to promote your online store and the next big thing is to grow your online sales and revenue – getting in touch with potential consumers and convincing them to buy your stuff. Quite hard it is, but the fierce competition in the eCommerce industry and that’s also amidst pandemic make profitable business success more difficult. Leverage these tried-and-true eCommerce marketing tips to get an edge.
Integrate Instagram: With billions of users, Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most influencing eCommerce marketing platforms that brings a phenomenal rate of engagement. There is no surprise that people use their Instagram feeds to discover new products and brands. Instagram Stories play a vital role in eCommerce marketing – giving your followers a direct path to buy that’s critical to accelerating your online sales.
Create entertaining and visually stimulating advertisements perfectly aligned with your organic content to convey your brand’s voice, expand your reach, establish credibility, target customers and eventually to boost conversion rates. Here’s a few tips to get the best out of Instagram.
Use excellent quality, consistent photos to show off your products.
Build a well-planned feed strategy and then publish the images accordingly.
Use videos mindfully and IGTV generously to tell a compelling story.
Facebook Audience Insights: With the cross-section of targeting (including demographics, language, location, interests, etc.), Facebook allows you to reach and engage with the highly segmented audience. Unlike other digital marketing solutions, Facebook audience insights closely match the targeting details, and therefore the personalized advertisements incredibly increase the CR (conversion rates) and decrease CPC (cost-per-click).
With more detailed targeting, your audience will be smaller and it’s not a downside in eCommerce marketing in any way. Well, with specific targeting you will get a more responsive list that will lower the ad spend – CPA (cost per action) will be decreased because you are driving qualified leads only.
Moreover, Audience insights help you expand the sphere of your ideal audience. Having successful audiences can be used to broaden your search for related topics and audience interests to reap the campaign benefits at best.
Google Shopping Campaigns: One of the essential players in the growing e-commerce marketing realm and online sales is Google Adwords. You should direct your focus to Google shopping ads that’s far more effective than conventional text ads. The retail search ad spending is now aggressively shifted to google shopping ads. Active shoppers get all the required information (product image, short description and price) through these ads, which makes the purchase decision easy for them.
With the significant visual space in search engine result pages, people are more likely to buy because the intent to purchase instantly is already there. You can easily manage these ads from your Adwords account without requiring keywords management. Your shopping ads strategy must be aligned with your business goal – for instance, brand awareness, conversion maximization.
Last but not the least is launching the retargeting campaigns as your backup strategy to other online marketing methods such as social media marketing and paid search, etc. This cost-effective eCommerce marketing method helps you persuade the website visitors who have shown interest in your stuff, but left without purchasing anything.
Final Thoughts: With the changing storefront platforms, quickly shifting social networks and constantly improving Google search algorithms has greatly evolved the eCommerce growth strategies. These powerful eCommerce marketing hacks will give you a great head start for accelerating growth in 2021 and beyond.
Social media is not just for interacting with friends and acquaintances. It acts as a vigorous marketing platform if utilized adequately. From growing your audience till acquiring customers, it is there to help the businesses to double up revenue and profits. Though internet marketing overlaps with traditional marketing but still you need to devise a social media strategy.
In this document, we will walk you through the procedure you need to adopt for creating a successful social media marketing plan for your business.
Let’s begin the voyage.
1.Decide Achievable from Social Media
The first step in creating an SMM plan is to identify a goal. This goal could be brand awareness, website traffic, generating leads or even gaining customers. As per statistics, a layperson dedicates almost two hours on social media daily.
So, you could use these platforms to expand your audience reach and hold customer’s consideration. Once, the SMM objective is defined, a pathway will be defined to carry out the course of action.
2.Create Buyer Persona
Next step is to define your business audience. These are the potential customers whom you have to target through marketing. Your marketing efforts will move into the right direction by selecting the appropriate audience. It is mandatory to get to know about your audience since they are the ones who will be generating value for your business.
For defining the audience, describe demographic factors, interests and buying behavior of them, etc. By generating a buyer persona, you could shape up your efforts from their perspective and gain a better ROI.
3.Perform Competitor Analysis
After creating a buyer persona, learn what your competitors are doing. By performing competitor analysis, you will be able to get a clear picture of the industry trends and consequently you could plan your targets in a proper way.
In order to find out competitors on social media, you could track the hashtags relevant to your industry. Further to this, using the similar keywords in search engines, you could also find the competitors. Lastly, observe the audience behavior for what brands they follow and why they prefer them.
4.Develop Branded Pages
After finalizing which social networks you want to use for digital marketing, your subsequent step will be to create business accounts. Create a username and provide the necessary description of what your business is all about. Use high-quality pictures across all the channels.
Create Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest pages, etc., as required and post useful content on these channels. It is better to formulate a content posting schedule so that you maintain a consistent presence on the social platforms.
5.Generate A Content Posting Schedule
Your content has the power to convince the audience to take an action. Keeping in view this fact, you have to create and curate engaging content on social networks. Using a content posting schedule for social media is a must. This is because content is the key to interact with your audience. You have to post, if not frequently, but daily to ensure your audience that you are there for them.
Equip yourself with a social media management tool to schedule posts before time. Observe date and time for posting content like videos, infographics, blog posts and images etc.
Pro Tip: Adhere “Rule of Thirds” for content posting in which one third content should be used for advertising your business and driving sales, one third for interaction with the audience and one third for sharing meaningful information.
6.Conduct A Social Media Audit
Take a look at all of your social media channels and figure out any significant missing details e.g., business description. Check out whether profile photos and cover photos are showcasing brand personality or not? Moreover, examine your pinned posts and observe their appropriateness and up to date.
Additionally, you need to track the performance of all the social media platforms with the help of key metrics in the analytics segment. For instance, you will observe page likes, views, reach and engagement, etc., and analyze what works and what doesn’t. Accordingly, you will rehash your strategies for future social media marketing plans.
Wrapping Up: After taking a tour of this comprehensive discussion of the social media marketing plan, we are sure that you will be tweaking your social media strategy very soon. Further, you could also connect with ArhamSoft (Pvt) Ltd.if you like to have professional and effective social media marketing and adwords managementservices.
Entering into another decade calls for new business planning and marketing strategies. Digital marketers should gear up to execute the new methods to acquire leads and conversions. The continuously changing social media trends aren’t shocking at all. All you need is to stay updated about what’s trending and act accordingly with a smart and quick approach. Plus, modify your content to make it perfectly aligned with the latest social media marketing trends. Focus on each and every stage of customer lifecycle by adopting the below-mentioned trends expected to grow exponentially in 2021.
Let’s have a look at it.
1.Instagram Reels
This year, brands will continue to spend more time on Instagram to get in touch with the world around them. As a marketer, share meaningful content through IG reel with your audience to engage them – ensure that they will get true value from your brand. IG story disappears after 24 hrs but this short-form, entertaining video content (3-15 seconds long clips) remain in your account. If you are having a public account and share it in the explore section, then you can reach a broader audience. Reels (in 9:16 portrait mode) are pretty much everywhere now, but currently, this is a mobile-only feature.
2.Facebook Shop
In mid 2020, Facebook introduced its shopping feature as a tool for small businesses to help them display and sell products through Marketplace (launched in 2016). Much like craigslist, initially Facebook allows users to sell personal belongings online to others. Now, in 2021, Facebook shops are primarily aimed at businesses. From SMBs to global brands, it empowers people to boost consumer engagement and ad sales by setting up customized digital storefronts accessible through Facebook and Instagram. Likewise, the trend of shops on Instagram will continue to prevail in the coming months.
3.Twitter Fleets
Following the footsteps of Snapchat, FB and IG, Twitter has unveiled its very own version of short-lived stories called Fleets. These actually are the tweets that appear on your homepage with a lifetime of 24 hours. Fleets cannot be retweeted or liked, or receive public replies by other users. The only way to reply to any Fleet is a direct message. You can Fleet existing tweets (that could be text, photos, GIFs or videos), similar to Instagram stories. Moreover, the upcoming months may see the updated Fleets incorporating features like stickers and other tools, Twitter claimed.
4.TikTok Marketing
No matter what the nature of business is, TikTok marketing is for you if done right. Why? Because it continues trending in 2021 since its user growth rate is escalating at the highest pace. Observing the statistics, it has 800 million active users. Make your brand available on this platform and reach more audiences all over the world. It is not like Facebook & Instagram marketing. You have to know what features, effects, hashtags and music you have to use for your brand awareness, business promotion and increased revenue. Even you can hire an influencer to work on your objectives just like you do for other social channels.
5.LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is not something entirely new when it comes to social networking and targeting the right consumers – the most relevant prospects. You may have already seen its implementation to find the right business prospects and make social selling easy through Linkedin. However, you still experience this trend marching ahead in popularity this year. This is your surefire way to capture qualified leads and build trusted relationships necessary for business growth and development.
Wrapping Up :
You might have heard “easier said than done”. This becomes true in case of a digital marketer. You have the option of joining hands with ArhamSoft (Pvt) Ltd. and can shape up a social media marketing plan in a better way.
Digital marketing is essential for every business. Integrating social media into your strategy will help you build your online brand with greater visibility and increased connections.
Whether organic or paid social, you need a holistic approach necessary to balance brand awareness with conversions. It pays to know which platform is the right choice for your business growth. And, it all depends on your business goals and bottom-line.
For deciding which network you should focus on, you need to know the market trends and what your competition is doing. So let’s dive into the industry trends, making it easier for businesses to select the right platform to develop and improve their social media presence.
Platform Use: B2C Marketers:
Nearly all B2C marketers focus on Facebook and Instagram, as shown in the chart below.
Source: Social Media Examiner Industry-Report-2021
Interestingly, B2C marketers reduced their use of Twitter (down from 53% in 2020) and increased their use of LinkedIn (up from 50% in 2020).
According to Statista, “Facebook is the top platform used by marketers worldwide as of January 2021. Additionally, 93% of global survey respondents for social media marketing use Facebook for business promotion, while another 78% marketers use Instagram to promote their business.”
Platform Use: B2B Marketers:
This chart shows that most B2B marketers use Facebook to promote their business, and a significant percentage use LinkedIn.
Source: Social Media Examiner Industry-Report-2021
Future LinkedIn Plans
B2B marketers place more value on LinkedIn ads (17% B2B vs. 2% B2C). On the other hand, more than half of the digital marketers (54%) have future plans of increasing their LinkedIn organic activities over the next year. They found more interested in learning about LinkedIn (72% B2B vs. 55% B2C).
Moreover, 74% of B2B plan on increasing LinkedIn organic activities, compared to 45% of B2C.
Now, with these numbers it can be assumed that businesses may not be harnessing the power of LinkedIn the right way to build their online brand – making it the top social media platform for B2B marketing activities.
Some mistakes on LinkedIn that can make or break your business
1. Self-Focused Content
Being too self-obsessed is a deadly slip up while using this marketing platform. Facebook is that kind of channel where someone can self-focus – talking mostly about personal stuff.
LinkedIn is for ‘we-focus’ approach.
When you are creating content and posts inside LinkedIn, it should be a collective team and peer energy voice.
Consider people on LinkedIn your colleagues and think how you would talk to them in real. This should reflect in your LinkedIn posts.
Impact your LinkedIn strategy by thinking of LinkedIn as a leadership community where you provide value and support people in order to get the same in return instead of thinking of it as a professional place to put your content.
Create peer-related leadership voice for a successful LinkedIn content strategy.
Treat LinkedIn like a support network instead of self-boasting and your connections will grow exponentially.
Give people what they seek and what you want in return – support.
Be a supportive peer to other professionals that are in same industry as yours and dealing with the same problems and concerns as you.
2. Content Strategy Categories
Another mistake is not thinking about different content strategy categories.
You need a comprehensive strategy for successful LinkedIn marketing. However, you should make your posts in different verticals. Be as specific as you can.
Industry Insights:
Talk about relevant news in your target industry. How to add value to it? Share your additional opinion as a brand or company. Focus more on creating action-oriented posts.
Refer to relevant events and conferences related to your business.
Storytelling:
Share the behind-the-scene experiences of your business. See what your team is doing and what’s happening in your professional space.
People love hearing new experiences and stories that add value to their lives. Create posts about your teams attending the conference or a business solution with ‘before and after’ results.
Relatable Interests :
Create posts that can relate to your audience. For example, it could be something humorous, or you can relate to them through books you read or podcasts you listen to.
A point to recognize here is giving your every single post a human element. People should feel connected to your brand and the lessons learned through your business.
Recall all the categories, and you will see this valuable element at the core of each category.
Takeaway:
Give people access to your business insights. Share your professional experiences and thoughts in the most personal way possible.
3. No Post Formula
Just like playwrights develop a plot for an appealing storyline, marketers and content creators should have a simple formula for writing catchy posts that will grab readers’ attention.
Here’s a quick post formula for your LinkedIn network.
Start with a hook – this value-based introductory statement tells the readers why this content matters to them.
Add intrigue line – give your readers an enticing call to continue reading the post by clicking on the ‘See More’ button.
Deliverable – The expanded post contains the main content you want to deliver to your audience.
Call to action – This last part is the most important one. Give people something valuable so that they take your desired action.
4. Content Types
This is what most people do not think about. As a result, they do not leverage all types of content. It doesn’t mean they do not post different content, but they are clueless about what content can bring value for their audience and business.
Commenting:
Do not overlook the significance of commenting out in your newsfeed as your company brand.
This is what many marketers do not realize and fails to engage with the audience through comments. First, respond to comments on your posts and then reply to the content people tag you as a company or brand. The final and the easiest way to reach out to people is to comment on posts featuring your hashtags.
In this way, you can get visibility for your brand within community hashtags you generated and that are now trending on LinkedIn.
Sharing:
Next comes sharing your content on LinkedIn. Again, adding your opinion to your post will make a tremendous difference because it will help your content get more visibility.
As you share your opinion or a team member’s posts, you increase the chances of giving your ideal clients the value they are looking for. In addition, they are more likely to follow and engage with your company page after reading your shared content.
Images:
Always use images with text. And show authentic pictures of real people, places, and products with your company branding instead of stock photos.
External Links:
LinkedIn is different from other platforms, but you can still share external links through it. You can direct these links to your product features, blog posts, and press releases.
Documents: Adding a document (PDF, Word, PPT) to your post is the most powerful way of sharing as much information about your company brand as you want that cannot otherwise deliver through simple text-only and expandable posts.
Video:
This is the fastest way of connecting visually with your target audience, connections or followers, and potential customers. It’s easy to get clients through it because this content type is still under-saturated.
Live video is the next thing, but you need to be LinkedIn’s authorized broadcaster.
Pro Tip: Keep video content short (1-2 minutes) and feature people (influencers) for better reach and engagement.
Last are LinkedIn polls, articles, and events to attract your ideal clients, connect with new people and convert them through powerful content strategy.
In brief, work systematically and do not post on LinkedIn just for the sake of posting or because your competitors are doing so. Don’t let your content sit there and bring your company brand no value in return. All the things mentioned above seem simple but require dedicated resources and time to get the required results.
Do you want to learn how to diversify your social media strategy or need a better action plan for your posts? Wondering what type of content will help your company brand grow? Just book a call or drop us a message to talk to our digital marketing experts. ArhamSoft (Pvt) Ltd. is determined to make businesses grow.
