Social media advertising budgets doubled globally from 2014 to 2016, with analysts predicting a 26.3% worldwide increase on social media ad spending for 2017 (HootSuite, 2016). These figures suggest social media ad spend will exceed $35 billion this year which would make social media advertising represent 16% of total digital ad spending worldwide (HootSuite, 2016).
As spend on social media advertising increases, so do internet users (10%), active social media users (21%), unique mobile users (5%) and active mobile social users (30%). All of these statistics demonstrate that social media channels are a lucrative platform for retailers to monetise.
Source: Smart Insights
Classic marketing practices combined with modern consumer behaviour research suggests social media can facilitate three stages of the customer experience – product discovery, product selection and product referral. Therefore, if social media channels are used strategically, retailers can boost brand awareness, accelerate the decision making process, and encourage brand advocacy. Discover how you can monetise your social channels for your retail business with our tips and advice below.
- Know Your Audience
First and foremost, you need to know your audience inside and out to determine which platforms are best for your target market. For example, Snapchat’s biggest user segment is 16-24 year olds (57%), whilst the most popular platform for 55-64 year olds is Facebook (Smart Insights, 2017). To make the most of your social channels, don’t be afraid to use a platform outside the typical platforms – Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. If you know who your audience is, then you can post relevant content to them on the most lucrative social channels to maximise your ROI.
Source: Smart Insights
- Use Social Media Exclusives
Once you know which social channels are most beneficial to your retail business, you can start building an audience with relevant, shareable content. The early days of a social account are not the time to post hard sales-focussed messages, only after gaining a social following should you start implementing more direct tactics to acquire customers and encourage advocacy. One way to achieve this is to play on consumers heuristic-thinking. For example, if you increase the scarcity of a product or offer, consumers automatically value that product or offering even more than before. Several methods to do this on social media include offering early access to sales for social followers, providing social channel exclusive vouchers, and announcing product launches on social accounts first.
- Video, Video, Video
Another way to monetise your social channels is to post or launch live videos. Video is a marketer’s dream, as a well thought-out video can be informative, engaging and entertaining – the perfect combination to encourage conversions. You can use video for teasers, detailing product features, announcing sales and much, much more. Get creative!
Top tip: Ensure you vary content across all platforms. Whilst there’s no reason to assume your customers follow you on all channels, it’s best to avoid posting the same content on the same day on all accounts. Doing so wastes an opportunity to show a single customer (that follows you across channels) a variety of messages in one day to increases the chances that they’ll find one that resonates with their needs and desires.
- Make a Mini Social Shop
Be straightforward and put your products directly onto Facebook’s shop. Most steps to creating a shop on your company’s Facebook page are simple and easy to follow, but if it helps, here’s a guide with helpful tips and information on how to get started.
Thinking ahead, it is rumoured that Instagram could start implementing shop features in the near future. Considering Instagram has recently introduced business accounts and live video, following in Facebook’s footsteps, we wouldn’t be surprised if this is the next natural step for Instagram.
- Experiment and Evaluate
For every social channel you put time and money into, track and measure how it’s performing for your retail business. If you don’t measure your results and set realistic goals, you’ll never know if your efforts are well spent and achieving your desired ROI. Use a combination of the analytics tools built into each social channel with Google Analytics (if you have your account set up properly) to evaluate the success of your social media marketing.
At AlphaGraphics, we help retail businesses run end-to-end marketing campaigns covering all channels to improve lead generation – including social media. To find out more, visit: https://retail.alphagraphics.co.uk/
