10 Smart Tips for a Profitable Social Commerce Strategy

If you love online shopping, you've probably seen social commerce in action at some point. Since over 2.5 billion online shoppers are active right now, your business needs to use the online market to boost its sales. Of course, while you will benefit from so many consumers, you'll also be up against much competition. Social commerce can help you thrive on social media platforms.

Most consumers spend a lot of time on social media. Your audience will, too. Adding online shopping to your social channels lets you meet customers where they are.

If you're a small business new to social commerce sales, this blog post is for you. We're teaching you how to create your own social commerce strategy, which will help you tap into a new market and boost your profits.

What is a Social Commerce Strategy?

Traditional e-commerce relies on using online stores. Most businesses will combine this with targeting social media users to boost their sales.

Have you seen other businesses selling their products to customers with shoppable posts? That's a social commerce strategy! It's a way for companies to expand their reach. It makes it easier for consumers to buy products through social commerce platforms. The most popular are Instagram and Facebook.

Customers can buy things quickly without ever leaving the app, which improves the shopping experience overall.

When Might You Use It For Your Business?

With a social commerce strategy, your target audience is social shoppers. They enjoy buying products through sites like Instagram. Social commerce can boost your sales and your brand's visibility.

It also works great if you sell visually appealing products and want to improve your  lead generation efforts. It's particularly useful for:

• Product launches
• Seasonal promotions
• Special events

Here, live engagement and direct buying can drive sales faster. They also build customer loyalty.

10 Tips For Your Next Social Commerce Strategy

It's hard to know where to start with your very own social commerce strategy. This is especially true if competitors are taking up a lot of online space. But, with these ten tips, you'll be on great footing to boost your sales and revenue and turn leads into customers (read this for the difference between leads vs prospects). Let's get started!

1. Set a Budget Early On

Setting a budget early on is crucial for any successful social commerce strategy. Know how much you can allocate for:

• Advertising
• Content creation
• Influencer collaborations
• Other expenses.

This helps you plan effectively and avoid overspending. Consider all costs and add funds for each. For better cost effective plan consider using project budgeting tools.

2. Focus on Creating a Detailed Plan First

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

Before diving into social commerce, it’s essential to have a detailed plan in place.

As you sit down to draft your ideas, have these key things in mind:

• Your goals
• The target audience you're aiming to reach
• Key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Strategies for content creation and promotion.

A good plan acts as a roadmap. It guides your efforts and ensures that all team members share your business's vision.

3. Use the Right Social Platforms For Your Audience

Choosing the right social commerce channels is a big part of any strategy for social commerce. It will set the foundation for where you'll focus. It will also guide how you plan content going forward. Shopping content for Instagram will be very different from TikTok, for example.

Each platform caters to different groups. So, find where your customers are active. Try doing a survey or checking Google Analytics. They will give you a good idea of which social media apps will work best for you.

Younger audiences like Instagram and TikTok. Facebook and Pinterest are better for reaching an older demographic.

4. Put Out Engaging Content For Your Audience

Engaging content is at the heart of any successful social commerce strategy. Think content that is:

• High-quality
• Visually appealing
• Relevant

These elements will grab your social media users' attention. They will also encourage them to interact with your brand.

Use a mix of photos, videos, stories, and live streams. It will keep your audience engaged and excited about your products.

5. Make Sure Your Content is "Shoppable"

Ensuring that your content is "shoppable" is key to converting social media users into buyers. But what do we mean by this?

"Shoppable" refers to making products as easy to buy as possible for social buyers. They can simply click a link and checkout. To do this properly, take advantage of features like:

• Product tags
• Shoppable posts
• In-app purchase options

These are all designed to make it far easier for customers to buy directly from your social media marketing content. Platforms like Instagram Shopping and Facebook Shops offer easy tools for this.

6. Optimize Your Social Media Content

Optimizing your social media content should revolve around using:

• Relevant keywords, which you can find by doing a bit of SEO research. Look for high-volume, low-competition words.
• Hashtags that will help internet users find your products as they search
• Metadata, which increases visibility and reach.

This helps your content appear more often in search results and recommendations. It makes it easier for all potential customers to find your products. Make sure that your content is mobile-friendly, as a large portion of social media users access platforms via their smartphones on the go.

7. Use UGC For Better Social Proof

User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool for building trust and credibility. There are lots of different layers to UGC, which we're exploring below.

First, you can encourage your customers to share their great experiences with your product through:

• Reviews
• Photos
• Videos.

There are a couple of ways you can encourage them to do this for you. You can either offer discounts or give shoppers visibility on your channels.

Featuring UGC on your social media channels provides great social proof. It shows potential buyers that others are happy with your products. This encourages them to take a chance and make a first purchase with you.

8. Collaborate With Influencers

Collaborating with influencers can amplify your reach and drive even more sales for your business.

Influencers have already done all the hard work by establishing trust and rapport with their followers. Their recommendations are, therefore, highly influential. You should partner with influencers who closely align with your brand values and target audience.

Asking them to promote your products through real and engaging content will boost your reach. It could happen practically overnight. Give them product catalogs so they can choose what to try out and promote on your behalf.

9. Answer Customer Questions Quickly

These days, customers’ expectations from brands are high and so are their tech skills – from  knowing how to send a fax from iPhone to using social media for product reviews and complaints.

So, it's more important than ever to answer all customer queries quickly. You also need to show you care about consumers, which you can do by chatting directly in social media post comments.

Another way you can engage with your customers is with an email marketing strategy, encouraging an open dialogue.

Quick responses show that you value your customers and are dedicated to providing excellent service. If you don't have time for social media interaction, you can always use monitoring tools to help you stay on top of customer queries.

10. Try Paid Advertising

If you've tried all the methods above and you're not getting the engagement you hoped for, then paid advertising is the holy grail. It boosts your visibility and reaches a broader audience. Targeted ads work wonders for reaching the demographics you want. They show them content that matches their interests and behaviors.

To prevent yourself from wasting money with poorly paid advertisements, consider hiring a professional agency to do it for you.

If you do decide to go down this route, make sure you experiment with different ad formats, like:

• Carousel ads
• Video ads
• Sponsored posts

This will help you to see what resonates best with your audience and drives the highest conversion rates overall.

Final Thoughts on Social Commerce Strategies

Implementing a successful social commerce strategy lets you use the power of social media. It requires careful planning and creativity. You need to take your target audience demographics. Then, turn them into high-value content that will figuratively turn heads.

Now, you can create a smooth and engaging shopping experience. This experience meets customers where they are rather than chasing them.

Remember to set a budget and plan before you publish. Don't get carried away and spend too much on your sales channels. Then, you can focus on making engaging and fun content. It should be optimized and shoppable.

Work with influencers. Use user-generated content for social proof. Consider paid ads to expand your reach. Use these ten tips, as they will help your business leverage social commerce fully and drive tangible and profitable results.