Building an Effective Social Commerce Strategy
Social media has revolutionized the way people shop. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook allow businesses to seamlessly integrate browsing and buying into the social experience. This combination of social media and e-commerce, known as social commerce, presents an exciting opportunity for brands to drive sales.
But a successful social commerce strategy takes more than just setting up shop on social media. Brands need a thoughtful approach to optimize the customer experience and growth. In this post, we’ll explore the elements of an effective social commerce strategy.
Why Social Commerce Matters
Let’s first look at why social commerce should be part of your strategy:
1. Huge Audience
The numbers speak for themselves – over 3 billion people actively use social media worldwide. Facebook alone has close to 3 billion monthly active users. This presents a massive opportunity to get your products in front of people where they’re already spending time online.
2. Social Validation
On social platforms, users see what their friends like, share, and purchase. This “social validation” gives shoppers confidence in purchasing. 72% of people trust recommendations on social media.
3. Lower Acquisition Costs
With organic social media, you avoid steep pay-per-click advertising costs. Although you’ll still invest time in growing your followers, your customer acquisition costs can be much lower over the long term.
4. Brand Building
An active social presence strengthens your brand identity and customer relationships. Social interactions allow people to get to know your brand on a personal level.
Key Elements of a Social Commerce Strategy
When leveraging social platforms for sales, brands should focus on these core elements:
Enabling Product Discovery
Your content should spark interest in your products and make them easily discoverable.
- Showcase products in lifestyle imagery and videos
- Share user-generated content like customers modeling/using your items
- Utilize hashtags related to your products so people can find you
- Run targeted social ads to promote new arrivals
Optimizing Shopping Experience
Make it as easy as possible for interested customers to purchase:
- Link directly to product pages from posts
- Have a shoppable profile with your catalog visible
- Use shoppable posts where people can add items to their cart directly on social media
- Offer exclusive social-only deals to incentivize buying
Providing Social Support
Social platforms are a great place to connect with customers and provide support:
- Maintain an active presence by commenting, liking, and sharing
- Respond to comments and messages promptly
- Share sizing information and styling tips
- Answer customer service inquiries publicly to help others with similar questions
Analyzing Performance Metrics
Track metrics to understand what content and strategies convert:
- Look at engagement, reach, clicks for each post
- Monitor sales from social referrals
- See follower growth and demographics
- Compare performance across platforms
- Set benchmarks and optimize based on insights
Developing Social Content that Sells
High-performing social content successfully captures attention while depicting products in an authentic way. Here are some best practices:
- Show products in use – this could be someone wearing/using it in lifestyle scenarios or user photos. Helps people envision themselves with the products.
- Get creative with visuals – shoot flatlays or product closeups from interesting angles. Use props and backgrounds that reinforce your brand aesthetic.
- Tell a consistent brand story – ensure imagery and copy align with your overall messaging and positioning.
- Leverage influencers – collaborate with nano or micro-influencers to broaden reach to new demographics. Ensure sponsored content matches their personal brand.
- Share behind-the-scenes – give viewers a glimpse into your products, team, or processes. The inside scoop builds a connection.
- Inform and educate – sprinkle in some posts that provide value like styling advice or sneak peeks at new arrivals.
- Utilize multimedia – combine photos, videos, Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, and live video for an engaging mix.
Posts should spark interest in your products while capturing attention. Aim for an 80/20 split between lifestyle and direct product images.
Choosing the Right Social Platforms
While a broad presence is great, focus your commerce efforts on 2-3 platforms ideal for your brand. Consider:
Instagram – highly visual, ideal for lifestyle brands with strong imagery. Shopping and product tags available.
Facebook – largest user base and powerful targeting options. Dynamic ads perform well.
Pinterest – the place people go for inspiration. Lead-gen ads can drive sales. Great for planners.
TikTok – vibey platform reaching younger demos. Explore shoppable video ads.
YouTube – video channel ads can garner interest. Product links in video descriptions.
Concentrate on platforms where you can create content your audience most wants to consume. Analyze performance data to see which platforms drive the most traffic and sales. Scale efforts on your best-converting channels.
Measuring ROI of Social Commerce
While vanity metrics like followers and likes matter, you want to track direct business impact. Monitor these metrics:
- Website traffic from social referrals – shows consumer journey from discovery to site visit
- Engagement rate on posts – higher interaction indicates content resonates
- Link clicks and CTR – assess interest in products
- New followers – grow community
- Sales attributed to social – the definitive ROI indicator
- Cost per lead/order vs. other channels – calculate efficiency
Set benchmarks month-over-month and optimize efforts to improve. Platforms like Shopify and Google Analytics make tracking easy.
For paid social ads, look at cost per result and target CPA. Measure beyond the click – ensure conversions result.
Executing a Successful Social Commerce Strategy
Bringing all these elements together, here is an effective approach:
- Audit platforms – Review existing presence and analytics. See where your audience is most active.
- Set commerce goals – What do you want to achieve? More brand awareness? More sales? Lower CPA?
- Focus your efforts – Pick 1-3 core platforms to invest in based on your audience, content style, and goals.
- Create a content calendar – Plan out posts and campaigns while balancing promos, lifestyle imagery, educational content etc.
- Develop content – Produce engaging social content aligned with brand identity. Showcase products seamlessly.
- Promote strategically – Use a mix of organic content, paid ads, influencer partnerships, and targeted hashtags.
- Optimize shoppable experience – Enable in-app shopping for seamless purchases.
- Track performance – Monitor key metrics, optimize what works, and expand on successful initiatives.
With the right strategy tailored to your brand and audience, social commerce can become a significant sales channel and valuable customer touchpoint. As platforms continue to evolve commerce capabilities, the opportunities will only grow. Now is the time to lean into social and get ahead.
Hopefully, this overview provides a game plan to build an effective social commerce strategy for your business. Let me know if you have any other questions!
