Your social media marketing strategies have a profound impact on your digital marketing campaign, and can even be the difference between its success and failure. Social media platforms have emerged as some of the most effective and significant channels for digital marketing. Needless to say, the competition is sky-high on these channels. In a survey conducted by Statista, 44% of the respondents were found to carry out social media marketing. This makes social media the most widely used digital marketing channel as of July 2023. Companies need to come up with well-crafted social media marketing strategies to get an edge over the tough competition.
14 strategies to help boost your social media engagement
The level of engagement offered by social media is the biggest reason to use it as a marketing channel in the first place. Effectively connecting the masses, social media platforms enable businesses to engage with their target audience in creative ways and strengthen their relations. This is especially important in the eCommerce industry, which is witnessing the constant introduction of new trends and technologies. E-commerce companies need to shape their social media marketing strategies with engagement as a primary goal. Here are some tips to help you in this regard:
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Choose the right platform
To engage effectively with your audience, you need to choose the platforms that your target audience uses the most. Your social media marketing strategies can vary from one platform to another. Facebook and Instagram are the most popular social media marketing platforms as of January 2023, with a share of 90% and 79% of global social media marketers respectively. Instagram is an ideal choice for online apparel stores, since their marketing content would comprise heavily of photos and videos. Facebook is great for marketing software and tech products, and can help you target your ideal audience with precision.
2.Omnichannel marketing
Multichannel marketing is quite popular and has been around for a while, but omnichannel marketing takes it a step further. This marketing strategy involves the seamless integration of different online and offline marketing channels, including social media platforms. Omnichannel marketing is a much more personalized approach, which makes it far less likely to irritate your target audience. Most importantly, it ensures a high level of engagement by synchronizing the different marketing channels.
3.Influencer marketing
As far as engagement goes, influencer marketing is one of the most important social media marketing strategies to consider. Let’s face it – you need to reach out to a large target audience, and influencers can help you break the ice. All you need to do is collaborate with influencers followed by your target audience. Building relationships with influencers can go a long way in helping you engage more with existing and potential customers. However, make sure to carefully pick influencers whose content and principles align with your company’s values.
4.Organize contests and giveaways
One can’t possibly overemphasize the importance of organizing events like contests and giveaways on social media. It’s the perfect way to build strong relationships with your customers. This has grown into one of the most crucial social media marketing strategies in recent times, adopted by numerous leading companies. The logic here is quite clear – when people have a shot at winning something, they’d actively participate and engage as needed. This is also one of the best social media marketing strategies to collect information like email IDs, which you can use for more personalized marketing efforts.
5.Make use of instant messaging
What can possibly be a more engaging way to connect with your customers than through instant messaging apps? Facebook Messenger boasts 988M monthly active users, while two billion people use WhatsApp. Messenger is a particularly popular tool for marketers, and can be of great help when integrated into your social media marketing strategies. Allowing customers to connect with your brand via instant messaging makes communication swift and convenient. Besides, a company can use instant messaging to reach out to its customers about product updates and special deals.
6.Check out unconventional social media marketing channels
Have you been wondering if you can tap into WhatsApp’s two billion-strong active user-base for an engaging social media marketing campaign? Well, while WhatsApp is far from being the most popular marketing platform, there’s no harm in thinking out of the box. Other uncommon yet effective platforms like Quora and Pinterest can be good options too. For instance, you can use Quora answers to influence the opinions of your target audience without appearing salesy. Comprehensive social media marketing strategies that cover different relevant channels would have relatively high success rates.
7.Build a community
Don’t keep your social media marketing strategies limited to direct communication between the brand and the audience. If possible, build an online community surrounding your brand and the type of products and services you offer. A community brings together your target audience, fostering a healthy relationship with the brand. Getting people to talk about your brand and share related posts ultimately translates into free marketing.
8.Leverage user-generated content
This goes hand-in-hand with creating an online community. Encouraging your audience to publish posts with pictures and videos of your products is a great way to get free content for marketing purposes. Meticulous social media marketing strategies that make use of user-generated content can quickly earn the trust of the audience, since the content is created by real users rather than the brand. You can always organize contests that require users to post specific photos or videos with branded hashtags.
9.Ask questions
Not all your posts on social media need to promote your products and services. Effective social media marketing strategies are well-balanced and aim to engage with the audience through non-promotional means. Once in a while, you could just post a question aimed at your audience. Sounds too simple, right? It is, but the right questions can be quite thought-provoking and inspire the audience to share their opinions on your products, services, and policies.
10.Offer discounts and coupons
This is a rather old-fashioned marketing technique, but still remains one of the popular social media marketing strategies. Offering special deals and discount coupons is a great way to keep your audience engaged and interested. People are more likely to follow a page if the business uses it to post these coupons and promo codes. This, in turn, grows your audience and allows you to reach more people through future posts.
11.Keep up with current topics
You don’t need to rack your brains trying to think of a new topic for every post. Just jump into current topics like ongoing events and trends. Cost-effective social media marketing strategies involve keeping up with the latest happenings and publishing timely posts to engage your audience. E-commerce companies that operate primarily in their home country can cheer for their teams during major sporting events. Maybe someone has achieved an impressive feat? It’s a perfect opportunity to show your values and spirit by posting engaging, informative, and inspirational content praising the person. Such social media marketing strategies can go a long way in creating a good brand image.
12.Schedule posts at the right frequency
Your engagement with the target audience on social media relies largely on your online presence. At the same time, posting too frequently might cause the brand to come off as too irritating and imposing. Publishing posts at the right frequency is a crucial aspect of well-managed social media marketing strategies. If needed, you could use social media management tools that can help you with streamline your social strategy and schedule your content.
13.Publish blogs
Blogs are a common digital marketing tool adopted by businesses of every scale. Sharing informative blogs on social media allows you to build engagement by guiding your target audience on relevant topics. Besides, you can integrate a blog with links to your eCommerce website and product listings, thus driving sales directly. Check out this blog on how to develop a quality wardrobe within a tight budget – it’s a perfect example.
14.Make use of analytics
Thanks to modern analytics tools, it’s easy to gather valuable user data. Gathering such information can help you understand your audience better. These tools will reveal details like their interests and behavior, which play a crucial role in determining how they’d respond to your marketing efforts. You can then personalize your social media marketing strategies as per their tastes and preferences. This, in turn, fosters greater engagement as your marketing efforts are aligned with their interests.
Endnote
Coming up with successful social media marketing strategies isn’t easy, and you’ll have to work with skilled experts. However, once you pull it off, the results would be well worth the effort. Companies that engage regularly with their customers and maintain healthy relationships are far more likely to succeed, for obvious reasons. Hopefully, you can incorporate most of the above-mentioned social media marketing strategies, if not all, and make your marketing campaign a success.
