You can’t escape it; Social Media has become a large driving force for business development. And when it comes to optimizing Social Media for E-commerce, it's all about the data.
If used correctly, this data can become an undeniable accelerator for your social sales funnel.
But businesses often are stuck with useless data, vanity metrics, and misinterpreted analytics.
So what causes this disconnect, and how can you ensure your e-commerce business isn’t trapped in this cycle?
In this article, we’ll dive into the three main components of Social Analytics for E-commerce growth and provide a simple roadmap for implementation.
First, It all begins with understanding your customer:
Are you reaching your ICP?
To attract and resonate with your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), you must first understand them. Sure, you might have a developed clear buyer persona, but are you tailoring your content based on the right data?
It’s time to operationalize the data you gather from your social media, so you can create targeted content that is impactful and useful to your potential buyer. Because the more you know about them, the more you can help them. Trevor Ferree, Co-founder of TSV Analytics, stated, “Your results will only be as good as the content your posting for your audience. You need to appear as a thought leader by understanding what’s trending and using that to resonate with your audience’s interest.”
With the appropriate tools, you will be able to create data-driven responses to questions that will serve as a guide in the content creation process.
To get better answers, we must ask better questions. It's time to become curious about the details of your customers.
- Where is your customer having conversations with others in their industry?
- What questions are they having trouble finding the answers to?
- Who do they consider an industry expert/who do they frequently listen to?
- Where do they currently go for information?
- What are they struggling with?
By effectively answering these questions, you can place your focus on what you can give to your customers rather than what you can get from them. Establishing your company as a resource for relevant information can only be done if you have useful data. Data that tells you what your audience is looking for and when.
Once you have identified pertinent information about your potential customers, it's time to understand how to use this data to create better content.
Optimizing your content for E-commerce growth
Gathering data is the first half of the equation; it's what you do with it that makes the difference. To stand out in the world of e-commerce, your content must not only be relevant and relatable, but it should also trigger an action from your customer.
Ask yourself these 3 questions before sharing your content:
- Identify the goal: What action would I like my customers to take?
- Identify the metric for success: How will I know if it's working?
- Analyze and adapt: How could I adjust based on the information I gather?
Fueling the purchasing stage:
Once you have answered these questions, you must focus on nurturing the bottom-of-the-funnel customers. These customers are in the consideration stage and are making the decision to buy your product or service. But all too often, interested buyers disengage once they reach the purchasing stage on the website. Robert Carroll, VP of E-commerce at Aptimized, offered his advice on this common sticking point “You first need to analyze where you are seeing high drop-off rates and then develop a plan to combat this. This might look like creating a responsive mobile design, enhancing your web copy structure, or updating your UI/UX Design.”
Essentially, an effective social strategy is not complete without an effective website.
The two need to work together for optimal results, now more than ever. As stated in the 2023 State of Marketing Report from Hubspot, “Web traffic was overall down 6% in 2022 compared to 2021” This means that e-commerce companies will need to optimize their social profiles to drive traffic to their website and, ultimately, increase sales.
If data is used strategically to optimize your social and online presence, traffic will increase, sales will climb, and your customers will be more likely to repurchase. By reaching the right audience, creating valuable content, and developing a strategy to enhance your website performance, your e-commerce business will see undeniable growth in 2023. If you're ready to enhance your e-commerce performance and catapult your success, click here to take the first step.