5 quick tips for leveraging social media for online sales

by Tom McGrenery (Content Lead)

1. Interact with customers

Social media is a powerful tool for building a relationship with customers. Reply to queries in good time to make them feel valued and to show your professionalism. Satisfied customers create good word of mouth on social platforms, too.

2. Let customers get to know you

Your social media channels are the best way to build users' trust in your brand so they turn into your customers in the future. Tell your brand stories to let people understand you better, and show the faces and personalities of the people behind your brand to increase relatability.

3. Invest in social ads

Generally speaking, content that performs well organically is desirable – it means people in your audience like it. But today’s social media is fundamentally a pay-to-play landscape. You will only achieve significant reach with paid promotion.

Social media ads help to build a large, targeted following. The major social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all offer paid ads. You can use these to increase your content views, clicks, and engagements, which can lead directly to online sales but also, in the longer term, to new subscribers and leads.

Promote your content to specific demographics and, where possible, run A/B tests to get a better understanding of what your target audience engages with.

4. Link to your blog posts and other content

Content marketing is the top inbound marketing priority for at least 53% of marketers thanks to its increased effectiveness over traditional outbound marketing methods, according to digital marketing experts Smart Insights.

Use your posts on social media to drive your followers to your blog or website, providing more information through your long-form content and increasing your site traffic. Include a CTA in your social media posts to nudge the reader into clicking that link. This improves engagement, offers lead-generation opportunities and can tempt visitors to make a purchase.

5. Collaborate with Influencers

Online influencers offer a valuable pseudo-third-party perspective. Consumers find it easier to relate to non-celebrity bloggers and therefore trust their opinions. By vouching for you, influencers provide social proof of the usefulness of your products.

Be careful to identify the right influencers for your target customers – it’s no good reaching even a million people if none of them is in your target market.

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