Why is Social Media a Must for your E-commerce Start Up?

There has been a sea of change in the way consumers buy in India; where a boom in e-commerce start ups is on the pipeline, due to the fact that smaller towns have started embracing this concept. So let’s take a look at where social media fits into the e-commerce equation.

Awareness:

Social Media is a great tool to build brand awareness. Even though Social Media may not have a direct impact on your sales, it does influence the decision making path of your customer. It is a great way to reach out to your prospective customers and grab their attention much earlier in the sales process.

When you interact with a potential customer through social media you make him/her aware of your brand before they would like to buy the product from your e-commerce store. SM will help your customers to become aware of who you are and what you do. If you keep them engaged, they will keep your brand in their minds, so that eventually when they are ready to make a purchase, they will choose your brand over others.

So it is the first step that helps your potential customers to get to know your brand before they actually experience it first-hand which will ensure that you are in their list of potential considerations and help you to build a loyal community base by grabbing eye-balls.

OfficeYes.com, an e-commerce firm for B2B Office Supplies, recently introduced a new range of School Stationary Products and launched it via social media. They ran a Campaign on Twitter with the hashtag #SchoolMemory. The campaign generated a buzz around it and subsequently helped in driving sales for their new range of products amongst the right TG. Office Yes reached-out to over 1.6 Lakh Twitter Users in 20 days and saw a 50% hike in the number of followers as well.

Thought leadership:

Social media is a great way to establish thought leadership. It acts as a platform to get experts on board to share their knowledge. Blogging about the latest trends builds trust amongst readers who get to see you as an authority in your field. Later down the road when they need more advice or when they are ready to make a purchase, they’re going to turn to someone they trust first, and that will be you!

A good example of thought leadership in action is Tushky.com, an online marketplace for leisure planning. They blog about a wide range of activities from Weekend getaways, to exploring adventure activities, historical places, etc there by establishing that they are the go to place for recreation planning.

Sales Referrals drive traffic to your site:

Make sure that you generate Sales Referrals through Social Media Platforms. Leverage your social media following to generate more website traffic and get maximum hits. Also ensure that you have ‘Call To Actions’ (CTAs) options on your posts.

Product discovery:

Whenever your potential customer wants to buy something, they will check your social presence by reading reviews, online blogs, and tweets about you. They will start asking for opinions and use the digital space to research before they make their purchase decision.

Whether they tweet to you or tweet in general. I’m sure you would want to reach out to them. They will compare you with your competitors on social media and ask for peer recommendations before opting for your product/service; which is why you need to have an active social media presence.

Study who your ideal audience is and the best ways to target them. See where they are. Identify what platforms will work best and then work on your content strategy.

Coupons and Promotions/ Lead generation:

Another reason Social media is lucrative is that it also gives you revenue generating opportunities. SM is a platform from which you can spread the word about your sales and promotions. This will give your customers an extra incentive to follow you, so that your message goes viral!

Next, measure your offers and redemptions effectively, using unique offer codes. Once they click on your offer, they can be taken to a landing page and asked for their name and email to receive the offer. That’s how you generate leads!

Feedback and Customer support:

After your customers purchase from your ecommerce site, they might have a feedback for you. It is important for you to listen and learn from their comments. Understand your consumers’ need and try to provide a solution. You’ll learn more about what your customers like and don’t like on social media. It will enable you to immediately resolve any customer service issues that may occur.

Listening on social media can reveal a lot about buying habits and interests.

Once your internal teams zeros in on problem areas for improvement, you can execute solutions in your day-to-day operations.

The battle is not yet won:

Yes, it doesn't end there. Once a consumer buys a product, he/she will form an opinion about you and share it with their peers. If they like it, they will spread the word about the product/service. If they don’t, you better give them excellent after sales service.

Repurchase Intention and customer retention:

Your existing customer is your doorway to a successful future. So place customer satisfaction first and last by ensuring good after sales service. This is the start and most crucial part of your CRM strategy. Always strive to make your after sales service more personalized and relevant to the customer’s needs and grievances. You don’t want them to swap you for you for your competitor. Do you?

How do I go about it?

To help such start ups ensure that they glean real business results out of their social media activities, Social Samosa is organizing a private one-to-one mentoring session for start ups.

How will it work?

You can select any of the available speakers and slots . On the selected time and date, log on to the Google hangout that we will set up for you.

What will you get:

A 30 minute one to one session with the expert where you can ask him/her any question related to using social media for your start up’s business goals. He/she will guide you and help you build a broad social media strategy, which the expert will understand better because we will be briefing him/her about your start up before your session.

You will be the ONLY start-up in the session/slot you have chosen, hence you will get the mentors’ complete attention and time. Do make the most of this opportunity!

You can look up the speakers, slots and sign up from here. www.school.socialsamosa.com