The last decade has made it extremely clear that social media has changed how today’s customer finds and interacts with a business online. Not only are social channels a critical element in the journey of brand discovery, but they’ve also made customers move from e-commerce to the age of social commerce.
Social Commerce allows the brands to sell directly through the social channel without navigating out of the ecosystem. This makes the social media marketing effort far more streamlined. With chat-bot integrations and autofill on payment and delivery, the purchase takes just a couple of minutes, contributing to a high conversion rate.
Different researches have shown us that customers spend nearly two and a half hours per day on social media on average in the Asia Pacific region. This makes it imperative for B2C brands to reach them when they are most engaged.
Social commerce is still growing, it’s making a huge dent in the eCommerce market and how businesses are growing their customer base online. We’ve got a quick peek into some of the best practices that brands can follow to integrate social purchasing into their consumer journey
1. Integrate social into your homepage and your products into your social channel
A homepage feed is a visually beautiful and eye-catching way to bring your products to life on your website. It makes your brand feel more human and real.
The thing to keep in mind when moving forward with this is to manage the aesthetic of the social feed. It must look of a certain quality that really shows off the best of your brand.
2. Deploy social sharing buttons
The easiest integration possible is to connect social sharing with products to promote social commerce. Especially with WhatsApp, the easier it is for a consumer to share a product to get feedback from friends and family, the faster the conversion can be.
3. Build out a clear and consistent paid media strategy
Have a clear budget and strategy to achieve your social commerce goals. Use paid ads to boost reach and engagement. Consider running occasional Influencer Campaigns. These add credibility to the brand and can be done in an affiliate manner to ensure sales spike. Make sure to give your organic strategy a boost with some paid media doe maximum return on investment.
4. Use social proof in the form of reviews
Even in the modern age of marketing, what works best is word of mouth, knowing that your near and dear ones trust what you are about to invest in. Ask for reviews of your products, use those reviews to showcase credibility. Encourage consumers to be part of your brand ambassador program; it’s easy validation for you and the customer both.
5. Rely on analytics to guide your spending and even product level discussions
Harness the power of social listening tools and of platform-level analytics to see what is working for the brand. Using this data to inform your marketing plan and will help you streamline your ROI
Make sure to keep an eye on –
– Reach
– Engagement Rate
– Website clicks
– Profile visits
– Comments and mentions
– Feedback from customers
If your target age group is 18-34, the Millennials and Gen Zs, then they’re already online and looking to click that ‘Buy Now’ button. All you need to do is reach them at the right place and right time. With the wealth of online data, you can now hyper-target this audience segment and convert them into loyal customers.
