If you want to start and run a profitable online store, social media is something you cannot afford to ignore.
In the less than two decades that social media has been around, it has completely overturned how marketing is done.
It has leveled the playing field and made it possible even for small businesses with zero marketing budget to compete with large corporations whose marketing budgets run into millions of dollars.
With over 2.7 billion active monthly users in 2020, Facebook is the king of social media, and as an entrepreneur running an online store, Facebook is a platform that you should definitely be taking advantage of.
Regardless of your industry or the kind of products you’re selling on your online store, a significant number of your potential customers are on Facebook. What’s more, close to three quarters (74{429fc2506e610357e12b2a5665db82631200a2e00b3a1d8839077d76f18e2e8b}) of American adults log into Facebook every day. This makes Facebook a great opportunity for you to put your products in front of potential customers.
It’s good to note, however, that there is a lot of competition on Facebook. If you want to stand out and market your online store successfully on Facebook and scale your business, you need to be tactical in your approach to Facebook marketing.
Below, let’s check out X expert Facebook marketing tips that will help you drive more sales to your online store.
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Take Advantage Of Facebook Audience Insights For Improved Audience Targeting
When it comes to marketing, the more you know about your target audience, the easier it is to come up with a relevant marketing message that they are more likely to respond to.
Most online store owners know a little bit about their target audience. For instance, if you run an online store selling women’s fashion, you already know that your target audience is women.
If you sell gaming equipment, you probably know that your target audience is mostly people under 40 years, with males making up a higher percentage than females.
However, this is very little information to go on. What if you had a way of finding out more about your target audience?
That’s exactly what Facebook Audience Insights allows you to do. With Audience Insights, you can find out more about who your audience are, including their:
- Demographics – age and gender, marital status, level of education, employment status, job roles, lifestyle, and so on.
- Geographical location and language
- Page likes – the top pages liked by your target audience across different categories.
- Purchase behavior – how often they purchase products within your category, their preferred purchase methods, and so on.
- Facebook usage behavior – how often they log onto Facebook, the devices they use to access Facebook, and so on.
By taking advantage of the Facebook Audience Insights tool, you’ll be able to narrow down to who exactly your ideal audience is, create a detailed buyer persona and target them more precisely, which will in turn lead to increased conversions.
Make It Possible For People To Buy Directly From Your Facebook Page
When marketing their products on Facebook, many online store owners post photos of their products on Facebook, with a link back to their online store where people can make the purchase.
While this approach works, there is one small big problem. Most people don’t like being bounced from one website to another. If someone was scrolling through their Facebook feed when they came across the beautiful jacket you’re selling, they don’t want to have their browsing experience interrupted.
By asking them to click and go to your online store, you are interrupting their Facebook experience, and many will not click through to your store. What if there was a way to make the purchase right on Facebook, and then continue checking their friends’ posts?
Fortunately, Facebook allows you to do that. Instead of asking your audience to click through to your online store in order to make a purchase, you can set up a shop on your Facebook page and allow your audience to make purchases from your store without leaving Facebook.
By making this simple addition to your Facebook page, you can massively increase your eCommerce conversions. In addition, you will benefit from better audience insights, because Facebook will be able to track customer purchases.
Don’t Forget Facebook Ads
It’s possible to market your products organically on Facebook and make sales. However, in a bid to continue providing a great experience for its users, Facebook has increasingly been limiting the reach of organic posts by business pages.
Therefore, if you want to get your products in front of a bigger audience, and if you have the budget for it, I recommend using Facebook Ads to promote your products.
According to eMarketer, Facebook provides the highest return on ad spend compared to all other social media platforms. Facebook ads are especially effective for getting prospects into your sales funnel.
Before running Facebook Ads, I recommend that you first set up a Facebook Pixel account. Once you set up your Pixel account, you will be given a code snippet that you need to place on your online store.
This code snippet allows Facebook to track the visitors interacting with your Facebook ads and your online store. This then makes it easier for you to create more precisely targeted custom audiences when running future campaigns, and at the same time allows you to remarket to people who’ve visited your online store previously.
Use Ad Retargeting To Increase Conversions
Most people will not make a purchase on their first visit to your online store. Some will check out products they are interested in and then leave to compare with other stores, while others might even add products to their shopping cart, but then abandon the cart for some reason.
While these people left your online store without making a purchase, this does not mean that they are a lost sale opportunity. On the contrary, it shows that they are already considering making a purchase from you. They are just not ready to purchase yet.
It is still possible to get these people to make a purchase through retargeting. Retargeting basically means targeting a consumer with relevant advertising based on their past actions on your site.
For instance, let’s say someone clicks through to your online store from Facebook and adds an item to their cart, but then they get interrupted and do not complete their purchase.
If you already have a Facebook Pixel code on your online store, Pixel will track this visitor’s actions on your store. You can then retarget this visitor a few days later with an ad reminding them that they have some items waiting in their cart and get them to complete their purchase. According to GrowthBadger, retargeting can boost your conversions by up to 70{429fc2506e610357e12b2a5665db82631200a2e00b3a1d8839077d76f18e2e8b}.
To set up perfect retargeting campaigns, you need to understand why potential shoppers are abandoning your store. This then allows you to retarget them with the right message that will get them to complete the purchase.
For instance, if shoppers are abandoning their cart because of high shipping fees, you can retarget them with a campaign offering them a discount on shipping.
Use Video To Get Ahead Of Newsfeed Clutter
I mentioned earlier that Facebook has significantly reduced the reach of organic posts from businesses. However, this is not the case for video. Therefore, by sharing video content to promote your online store, you can get your store in front of people who would have otherwise missed your content.
Here are a few reasons why using video can help you put your store in front of a bigger audience and drive more sales:
- Studies show that videos posted natively on Facebook have 86{429fc2506e610357e12b2a5665db82631200a2e00b3a1d8839077d76f18e2e8b} higher reach.
- Facebook videos attract more shares and comments than other forms of content on the platform.
- 60{429fc2506e610357e12b2a5665db82631200a2e00b3a1d8839077d76f18e2e8b} of shoppers have made a purchase decision after watching an online video.
- More than half of marketers (51{429fc2506e610357e12b2a5665db82631200a2e00b3a1d8839077d76f18e2e8b}) believe that videos provide higher ROI than any other type of content.
Therefore, if you have not been utilizing video when marketing your online store on Facebook, it’s time for you to hop on the video marketing trend.
There are several kinds of videos that you can use to market your online store and drive more sales – explainer videos on how to use your products and how they work, videos of customers using your products, positive reviews from happy customers, behind the scenes videos of how your products are made, videos of you telling your brand story, and so on.
Ready To Start Using Facebook Marketing To Drive More Sales To Your Online Store?
Facebook is the largest social media platform, if you haven’t been doing it yet, it’s time for you to start using Facebook to market your business and drive more sales to your online store.
However, Facebook can be quite competitive, and if you want your Facebook marketing efforts to be successful, you need the right strategies.
In this article, we have shared with you five expert tips that will help you get the most out of your Facebook marketing efforts, boost your eCommerce conversions, and drive more sales to your online store.
Here’s a recap of the five expert Facebook marketing tips to help you drive more sales:
- Take advantage of Facebook Audience Insights for improved audience targeting.
- Boost conversions by allowing your audience to buy directly from your Facebook page.
- Use Facebook Ads to increase your reach.
- Use ad retargeting to increase conversions.
- Use video to get ahead of newsfeed clutter.
