The Ultimate eCommerce Social Media Marketing Guide

Social Media Marketing has a lot of use. But as I said, you should be specific with your goals.

That's why I will show some social media goals you can set when planning your social media marketing strategy.

So, what are the examples of these?

1. Generate Leads

Lead generation is one of the most usual digital marketing strategies.

And social media can also help you with that. You can create content that indicates the benefits of your products or services, then urge them to sign up for your offers.

But don't forget... not everyone who visits your social media page the first time will immediately sign up.

There are different stages of a buyer's journey. You need to create a social media content strategy based on that, which I will tell you about later.

2. Gain Followers

Followers show how many people "subscribe" or "follow" your page to see your content.

And having a ton of followers makes it look like you have a reputable eCommerce brand on social media.

You should consider it as social proof.

If others see that thousands of people follow your social media platforms, they won't want to miss out and follow you, too!

So, make sure to include increasing followers on your social media goals.

3. Increase Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is not easy on social media, but definitely doable!

Sure, you need to strategize the best content to help you get discovered by more social media users. But due to the popularity of social media, it's easier to connect with other people.

That's why it's one of the goals you should set when creating your social media strategy.

4. Community Management

And as I mentioned above, social media makes it easier to connect with your existing customers.

But wait...

What's community management?

It means nurturing your relationship with your customers. And remember, you should start cultivating the relationship at the beginning of their buyer's journey.

Fostering a community can help you with customer loyalty.

5. Drive Website Traffic

Driving website traffic is an essential metric of digital marketing.

Because the moment people visit your website, it means they're already aware of your eCommerce brand.

And social media is one way to get website traffic because you can drive your followers to your eCommerce site.

Already have ideas which goals to set?

That's great! Don't forget that goal-setting is a vital part of creating your social media strategy because that will determine which direction you're going to take.

And another important thing you should do is know your audience.

To strengthen your audience research, you can visit your competitors' social media pages.

If they have established platforms already, you can check the types of people interacting with their content and their followers.

This will help you identify which social media sites have the most engaged followers. And you can use your findings to kickstart your social media marketing strategy.

I will discuss conducting a competitive analysis later, so stay tuned!

But here's another way...

When you're choosing which social media platforms you need first, it's best to conduct research on each of them.

Then based on your buyer persona or target audience in mind, you can analyze which might work best for your ecommerce brand.

Here are the questions you need to answer:

1. Who are the most active users on this platform?
2. Where is my target audience hanging out on the internet?
3. Is my target audience interested in the types of content this platform has?

To explain the third point clearly... you need to know if they're going to enjoy the kind of content a specific platform has.

For example, Youtube. You want to create a Youtube channel, but are you sure they like long-form videos? What if they enjoy short-form, entertaining ones?

That's the point of researching your target audience.

You can avoid making wrong choices for your ecommerce brand's social media accounts.

Oh, and by the way. Let's dive deeper into competitor analysis!

Another tip to ensure you can convey your message correctly is choosing the right tone of voice.

So, what is a tone of voice?

It's about HOW you talk to your audience with your social media posts.

That's why I'll repeat it... it's crucial to conduct thorough audience research.

Because if you don't know how to talk to your audience correctly, they might not receive your brand messages well.

Before you choose which kind of voice you're going to use, let me tell you some quick tips first:

1. Talk to your audience in their language. Talk HOW they talk. Is your audience more of the professional type? Or they're the type of people who can quickly get puns?
2. Think of your brand identity. Does your eCommerce brand look "premium" or "luxurious?" Then your tone of voice should suit your branding.
3. What are your values? Your tone of voice should reflect your eCommerce brand's mission and values.

And I know you're waiting for this... here are some tone of voice examples.

1. Friendly
2. Funny
3. Casual
4. Formal
5. Quirky
6. Respectful
7. Irreverent
8. Honest
9. Authoritative
10. Humble

Once you find the best tone of voice that suits your eCommerce brand and target audience, you also need to...

What is brand positioning?

It means how you want your target audience to perceive your brand. And when thinking of your brand positioning, your target audience should also be on top of your mind.

And it's how you set your eCommerce brand apart from your competitors.

Let me give you an example.

Let's say you're selling high-quality leather cardholders. They are kind of pricey to people outside your target audience.

So, you might already have competitors trying to beat each other in terms of price.

But your positioning is different. Instead of focusing on how affordable your products are, you can focus on how prime the quality of your cardholders is.

You can position your eCommerce brand as "exclusive." Why? Because you're marketing to a specific target demographic, who can buy your products.

And that's what makes you different from your competitors. You make your customers feel special through the "exclusivity" you offer.

That's the importance of brand positioning.

When creating your social media strategy, make sure to include how you want your eCommerce brand to be seen.

And this leads us to our next tip.

So, based on your research and planning... you need to think of content categories that will help you communicate your message.

And when thinking of your content marketing strategy, here are some things you should take note of:

1. Is this serving my target audience's needs?
2. Does this work well on this platform?
3. Will this spark conversation and curiosity?

There are different content categories, but let me give you five for now.

1. Promotional

Promotional content aims to promote your products or services.

But it's not limited to that. Because you can also promote any materials that have something to do with your eCommerce business. Like promoting a blog, for example.

2. Educational

Educational content focuses on teaching your audience some knowledge about your products or industry.

For example, you're selling healthy desserts. You can share health tips and how you believe your products can help them achieve their health goals.

3. Entertaining

Entertaining content wants to entertain the audience.

It can be through funny images or unique videos. It can also be through sharing a relatable meme that your audience can resonate with and enjoy.

4. Engaging

Engaging content is for your customers to interact with your brand.

You can create interactive content, such as quizzes, games, questions.

5. Community

Community-building posts are for fostering your community or current customer base.

You can create social media posts asking them what's their favorite product of yours. Or, you can take them with you behind the scenes.

It's up to you how many content categories you want to use, but don't overwhelm your audience.

After analyzing the results, you can trim it down to three categories, which I will tell you about later! 🤫

But for now, let's talk about planning your content.

Consistency is essential in social media marketing. Inconsistency is a major turn-off.

And luckily... a content calendar is beneficial to keep you on track with your social media posts. You can plan in advance and make sure you're on schedule.

So, how to create a content calendar?

1. Use any tools. Tools that you're comfortable with. It can be an Excel sheet, Google sheet, or any other scheduling tool, like Trello or Monday.com. Here's a handy guide that covers the different features Trello and Monday.com offer. 
2. Plan a month's worth of content. Always create a month's worth of content in advance to consistently post on your social media accounts.
3. Include the necessary categories. Don't overwhelm your calendar with unnecessary sorts. Just use the most important ones, like date and time of publication, image, status, caption, and channel.

But it doesn't end at creating a content calendar.

Because let's face it... social media marketing needs time to succeed. You wouldn't achieve your goals with just one post. Or two.

You need to analyze your posts to fine-tune your strategy.

Content creation for your social media channel shouldn't be time-consuming. That includes designing your images.

So, to minimize the time you'll spend designing, it's best to use editing platforms with templates... like this:

Canva is a popular online photo editor. You can design your social media posts using their templates to make them less time-consuming.

But remember... always incorporate your brand identity.

Don't forget that social media can be an excellent way to build a social media presence and stand out online. Don't use templates that hundreds of people are already using.

Pro tip: To further enhance your Instagram presence, you can add your Instagram Feed through Debutify's Instagram Feed Add-On!

This way, you can showcase your fantastic Instagram feed to your website visitors.

You don't need to create an alarm and remind yourself to post... because you can use a Facebook and Instagram scheduling tool from Meta itself.

You can go to Creator Studio and log in to your Instagram account to get started.

And here's how to schedule a post on Facebook using Meta Business Suite.

1. Go to Meta Business Suite.
2. Select the page you'd want to create a post for on the left corner.
3. Click on Create post.
4. Write the text, add the photos or videos, and customize the settings.
5. Select Schedule post on the bottom right.

And you've now scheduled your post! Time to focus on the other essential things in your business to achieve more goals. 😉

What are stock photos?

These are images from photographers for specific uses. Under different licenses, stock photos are free for commercial and non-commercial use.

Here are some great photos for resources:

1. Unsplash
2. Pexels
3. Pixabay

But I don't recommend replacing actual product photos and testimonials with stock photos.

Maybe you can use these as backgrounds or designs on your social media posts. But don't mislead your customers.

If you found the competitor analysis labor-intensive... it's best to use tools to get actual data or numbers. It might cost you a bit, but this will also save you some time.

So, what are these tools?

1. Sprout Social

You can compare and measure performance of your social media to your competitors using Sprout Social. You'll get competitive reports on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

This is useful and time-saving!

2. Phlanx

Phlanx is an Instagram Engagement calculator, which is pretty easy to use. Just insert the Instagram username, and you'll see the average engagement rate.

3. Vaizle

Vaizle is another analytics tool for social media. You can insert the links to your competitor pages and compare them to yours.

The best part is it's not just for Twitter. You can analyze Youtube, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Instagram, and there's also an ROI or Return On Investment Calculator!

See how these tools are so helpful? These can totally help you achieve your social media goals and make data-driven decisions.

Not only that, but they would lessen the time you need to spend on social media and focus on enhancing your eCommerce business.

Now that you're armed with resources and social media marketing knowledge...