Top Tips on Developing Your Business Using Social Commerce
As explained in my previous article titled ‘Easy Guide to the Meaning of Social Commerce’, you can vastly boost consumer confidence in your brand by using online social media to get people talking about your products and services.
Social commerce helps shoppers to share their experiences and buy goods, while online retailers gain direct customer feedback and an enhanced way to increase their sales.
The following guide presents some expert advice to help ensure your business harnesses social commerce in an effective and successful way.
Targeting Your Audience
In order for social commerce to form a successful part of your marketing and sales strategy, it’s crucial to clearly define and understand the customer audience you are targeting. You need to know their age group, where they ‘hang out’, what types of products they frequently use and how they prefer to engage. For example, the behaviours and tastes of the 20-30 age group will be vastly different from the 40-50 age group.
An Effective Website
It is also highly important to have a clear and effective customer journey on your website – consumer experience can make or break an e-comm site, since online users are only one click away from a competitor if they find it troublesome to use your site or find products. To understand whether any improvements are needed, it’s advisable to pay close and consistent attention to your visitor stats.
Approach
There are six main ways that you can utilise social commerce to boost your sales – carefully consider which ones will work for your particular business:
1. Ratings & Reviews – as proven by the success of sites such as Amazon, having ratings and reviews of your products is a key way to boost sales, since it provides independent third party evaluation that consumers trust.
2. Social Shopping – allow people to share the act of shopping together by discussing their experiences, which enhances the desire to buy.
3. Recommendations & Referrals – promote personal recommendations and referrals within social circles.
4. Forums & Communities – connect people with each other, with the added advantage of being able to moderate their communication.
5. Social Media Optimisation – add Twitter, Facebook, Blogs etc to your website to promote fast sharing of information.
6. Social Apps – create branded online applications that facilitate social interaction, such as allowing people to jump directly from their Facebook page to an e-comm checkout.
Choosing the right tools will be dependent on what your goal at each stage is i.e. whether you want to enhance product discovery, product selection, product referral or overall brand confidence.
Clear Communication of Value
Be mindful of the fact that customers are sold on benefits, not features. You need to be crystal clear in communicating who you are and what differentiates your business from competitors (your Why Choose Us).
Thereafter, you need to ensure an excellent customer experience by keeping your message consistent and also by ensuring a quality journey from first point of contact to after sales customer service.
Finally, always remember that social commerce only truly delivers business success when it provides real value to the people using it, so it’s critical to give consumers a compelling reason to engage with social media.
Monitor the Marketplace
A good social commerce strategy will begin with being clued up on social media activity in your industry i.e. what are your competitors doing and with which tools? You can also learn about what’s out there by signing up to social shopping portals. Then, once you begin your own campaign, consistently monitor the reputation and reach of your brand in social media.
Strategy
It’s best to begin by trialling a number of small-scale campaigns and then adjust them according to the results. For example, if you already have social features on your website, extend these into social network platforms. Also make sure to take advantage of solutions that have been proven to be effective and don’t require too much investment, such as customer testimonials, ratings and reviews, user forums, social media optimisation and referral programs.
Conclusion
Never forget that social commerce is about conversation, so it’s vital to listen closely to consumer feedback and respond quickly as needed. If you’re really looking to maximise the power that this medium can offer, it’s also an excellent idea to utilise a reputable social commerce company since they specialise in generating consumer discussion that users trust.
About the Author: Michael Dehomme is an independent adviser on choosing a suitable social commerce company.
Processing your request, Please wait....
