If you’ve struggled to promote your eCommerce product on social networks in a way that grows social referral traffic, keep your target audience engaged and increase conversions, don’t fret. Unlike the content on conventional websites/blogs, the content on eCommerce product page is not vast in length which means it doesn’t do well in search engines when customers are searching for long-tail keywords.
With search engine traffic difficult to attract (unless you’re spending thousands on search optimization or consumers are searching for your product with exact keywords), social media traffic is the best alternative to drive traffic to a product page.
That said, many eCommerce store owners wonder about the best way to use social media for promoting a product. If you’re someone asking the same question, you should read these 10 helpful tips to using social media for product marketing:
1. Offer a value proposition
You might have a big social media following but low conversions. Running discounts or competitions (web-based treasure hunts, guess then name, etc.) on your product can get people to take notice. However, keep the value propositions strictly on your social networks and don’t place them on your website. That way, your site visitors will also check out social media pages and engage with your content.
2. Post branded product visuals
Visuals spark the greatest engagement on social media and posting visuals of the product itself and its packaging is a great way to market your brand. You can use custom packaging to ensure your brand gets in front of consumers’ eyes when your posts are shared. Custom corrugated shipping boxes come in a variety of styles, from regular to more specialized ones, and can be customized for any brand. With such options, it’s possible to make your brand stand out in images as well as when a customer orders and receives a product.
3. Notice the trends
Your product needs to follow customers. Check analytics to see which social media platforms receive the highest visitors, and then place your product on these platforms. Perhaps your product is geared towards the B2B industry; in that case, you might have better results when promoting on LinkedIn, rather than promoting it on Pinterest.
4. Post user-generated content
In this case, it would consist of customers using your product. User generated content encourages engagement and reduces the effort on your part (your creative/copy team has to come up with less content). Your customers get a chance to shine while the social media audience will respond well when they see someone who they can relate to.
5. Offer previews/behind-the-scenes
If you’re going to promote a new product, you can use previews to create some buzz on social channels. Instagram and Vine can be used to create quick snapshots of the item. Make it creative and splash your brand’s logo at the bottom so that both the product and the brand get popularity during engagement. Behind-the-scenes looks can be offered when promoting existing products.
6. Take help of a trending hashtag
Hashtags can help increase the visibility of your product, so once in a while, you can use a trending hashtag in the content of your post. Sephora did that with the #manipediday hashtag and used it in just the right context. Not only they received a lot of engagement but the brand was introduced to a lot of new audiences.
7. Use a simple and clear call-to-action
Make sure that the call-to-action in your social media post is to the point; don’t use a variety of them as a multitude of CTAs could leave the audience confused. Remember to use a Bit.ly or another link shortener if you’d be placing the link alongside the CTA to make the whole line look cleaner. You can A/B test CTAs to see which one gets the most attention.
8. Ask creative questions related to your product
Questions can be a great tool to win the engagement of fans and followers. For a product, you can ask questions related to its features, or the design. These questions can also give you insights on what you might need to modify in your product/service to ensure it remains competitive against similar products offered by other brands.
9. Use the right language
Talk to your social media audience in a language that they love hearing the most. You can adopt a fun tone for your product. ThinkGeek does that in its communication with social media audience and that’s why it receives a lot of shares, comments and overall engagement. This strategy has the potential to increase brand loyalty and sales substantially.
10. Use a mascot
A mascot can be a great product promoter, and studies point out that mascots can sometimes give better results than celebrities on social media. ThinkGeek have the monkeys, M&Ms have their characters, your product can have one too.
