Social media is often viewed as a communication or performance-based advertising channel.
But what other ways does a company have to grow its business with social media? Grab three new ideas here to increase sales with the help of social media!
Digitalization moved commerce online. Over the years, companies have invested huge sums in developing websites and digital customer experiences. Now the same transformation is happening on social media. The estimated revenue of "social commerce," which combines social media and e-commerce, was already over 724 billion dollars in 2022. Social shopping has originally been particularly popular in Asia, from where it has spread to the Western world.
With Social Commerce, a brand's own social media channels are rapidly becoming a marketplace that enables not only inspiring and attracting consumers, but also direct sales. For example, through Instagram's Shopping functionality, a company can make its e-commerce products available to consumers directly from the online store. Through social media, a user can explore products within the platform, from where they are then directed to make a purchase on the website. In larger markets, the entire purchasing process can be conducted on social media without visiting the company's website.
Social media should be harnessed for communication purposes as well as at least as a brand showcase and develop a seamless experience for consumers between social media channels and websites.
Influencer marketing is often used in Finland as a tool to increase awareness without major performance targets. It is possible to build influencer marketing into a sales channel that supports, for example, e-commerce sales, by aiming to drive an influencer's audience to the company's online store to make a purchase decision.
The key is to find influencers and distribution channels that produce results for the brand, product, or service to be marketed. Data-driven mapping of different influencers, verification of influencers' action effectiveness (sales, leads, etc.), and continuous optimization of activities are essential.
However, it is important to remember that an influencer's audience may not make a purchase decision immediately, so it is good to consider different ways to encourage users to make a purchase decision as efficiently as possible. This can be assisted, for example, with various discount codes.
To maximize the impact of influencer content, it is worth distributing influencer content through paid advertising using, for example, Meta's Branded Content Tool or TikTok's Spark ad format. On the other hand, it is also possible to distribute content produced by an influencer outside of the influencer's channels as an ad ("dark post") and obtain cost-effective material for advertising.
In social media, relatability and peer recommendations have great significance. According to Sprout Social research, content created by other users is the most influential factor on consumers' purchase decisions in social commerce.
Instead of traditional and expensive ad production, a brand should consider producing authentic advertising content, for example with the help of micro-influencers or highlighting user recommendations. This makes it possible to obtain cost-effective content and influence buyers' decision-making more effectively than traditional advertising.
If you want more ideas on how to increase sales with social media, contact our team.
