How to Get More Traffic to Your Online Store Using Social Media
The world of ecommerce is an abundant ecosystem of competing businesses, corporate partnerships, and independent sellers. One way to differentiate yourself is to lean into social media.
There are a lot of different social media platforms out there but we’ll focus on the current big 3: Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Here are a few tips to help you reach your audience and grab the attention of potential and existing customers.
Live streams
Live streams allow you to showcase your products and give Q&A sessions that will help you engage with your audience. Are you launching a new product? Take a few days to build up the suspense. Encourage your followers to ask questions. Then, prepare your community to learn more with a live stream Q&A where you can spotlight not only your new products but the community as well!
Another great way to utilize live streams in your social strategy is to include an expert in your industry or an influencer that works closely with your brand.
As we said earlier, ecommerce is highly competitive. So, hire a professional streamer or influencer that has a screen presence and can stick to a script.
Relevant hashtags
It’s all about the hashtag. This is one of the most important tools in your arsenal. Hashtags essentially determine where your content ends up on social channels. Hashtags help social media algorithms understand what you’re posting and who should see it.
On all your product photo uploads, make sure you’re using the right hashtags for each one. You can include general industry hashtags, but we do encourage using hashtags that are niche to your brand.
Reply to users’ comments
A powerful ecommerce strategy is to respond to users who comment on your uploads. Interacting with them will help you to better understand their experience with your brand. Plus, you’ll make their day with an engaging comment.
Reply to every comment, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative. Use the positive comments to keep you motivated while you deal with the negative ones (and remember that you can learn from the criticism).
Time Your Posts
Did you just come up with the perfect CTA for your latest product? Well, as any ecommerce strategist will tell you, patience is a virtue. You want to time your posts to when your customers are online. That way, your posts will have the most impact and reach more of your target demographic.
Posting at peak times will also help you stay on your audiences’ minds and ensure your posts don’t get lost in the mix. On average, across all social media platforms, the peak times of use are between 9 AM and 2 PM on weekdays. Each platform has its nuances in audience engagement. Your target audience's demographics and behavior patterns will play a large role in their social media usage.
The services/products that your brand offers and the industry you're in will also have a huge impact on timing. There is no "perfect time" to post, as this changes with the wind, but getting data on your target audiences can help you pin down the "best time" to post for your business.
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Promote your other Social Media Channels
If you’re on TikTok, don’t forget to mention your Instagram. If you’re posting on Instagram, don’t forget to plug in your Facebook. And so on and so forth. You want your brand to create your own little ecosystem within the grander ecosystem of the combined social media platforms.
Cross-promoting your content on other social platforms gives your audience the chance to follow you on the platform they most prefer. Most platforms have functions built into them now that allow you to easily share videos and uploads between them.
Be a Human
Now more than ever, it’s important to personify your brand beyond your messaging. Introduce members of your company. Tell stories about the origin of certain product ideas. Beyond that, an easy way to include more “human” elements into your brand is by utilizing lifestyle photography.
Use hand models. Full body models. Include a wide variety of different lifestyle scenes to show that anyone can use your products!
SEO is More than Just Copy
An important piece to making sure your images are optimized for the web is by adding alt text (alternative text). It’s an HTML attribute that can be added to images on a web page. An example is: A dog wearing a sweater.
Alt text helps search engines understand your images and categorize them appropriately so that search engine users can find your site. This improves your chances of getting more visitors and more eyes on your products.
You can use more descriptive alt text to improve the way your images are found by search engines. Take the above example and flesh it out a bit: A spotted dog wearing a cable knit sweater.
Also, using descriptive file names is another great way of getting your SEO keywords found by users that are searching for them. So instead of ‘IMG0043.jpeg’, using something more applicable to the image context like ‘custom-dog-sweaters.jpeg’ will net you more visitors.
Product Page Best Practices
The pages that house your products need to be more than just a simple storefront. This is the world of ecommerce after all, you gotta add oomph to everything you do. Check out these best practices and find a way to implement them in your store.
Feature Image
One of the most important elements of your ecommerce product page is your feature image. Surveys conclude that 50% of online shoppers use images to help them determine what to buy.
That’s why your product photography needs to be on point. If you’re using images with bad lighting, bad angles, or bad pixelation your customers are going to quickly move on to one of your competitors.
You want your audience to land on your product page and see an eye-level, mid-range shot that showcases your product in all its glory. Your feature image needs to excite customers so make sure you pick a good one that entices them to investigate further.
When you’re choosing from a host of product images, ask yourself ‘Which one of these most makes me want to learn more about this product?’
Galleries
You’re also going to need to include a gallery of product images to go along with your feature image. You don’t need to go crazy on the numbers, but you should have at least 6-10 additional images featuring your product. You’re probably wondering why you need so many. Essentially ecommerce stores need to supplement additional images to replace what the product could look and feel like if a customer was in-store.
We suggest having a healthy balance of your product on seamless backdrops (either on white or your branding colors), detail shots, and lifestyle images. The variety of angles and environments will help a customer better understand your product.
Information
Aside from the images, you need to offer high-level information on your product right away. Your opening page should include the product title, price, features, dimensions, customization options, and a CTA.
You need to try and give your audience everything they need to add your products to their carts and checkout quickly. It’s not always possible to include all this information up front, depending on your layout. But try your best to include as much information as possible.
Descriptions
Your product description should live on this page as well. You want your customers to fully understand your products, offerings, and any promotions you may be doing. Grabbing their attention is essential, so be sure to keep any announcements or eye-catching images on your landing page.
Also, the more unique your product descriptions are the better. You might be tempted to offer barebones descriptions and just list the essentials, but quirkiness can pay off. Play with words. Dive into storytelling. Embrace emojis if that suits your brand. If your target audience is a little bit older, maybe avoid Gen Z language. Cater your language to who your audience is.
Reviews
The key to increasing conversion rates is building trust. Nothing builds trust quite like reviews and ratings from your customers! More than 80% of consumers look at reviews when purchasing so adding them to your site is key.
Reviews have simply become a new and necessary aspect of modern shopping. Think about the last time you were about to buy something, did you scan for reviews? If you are trying to increase the number of reviews you have, create an email blast to incentivize them to write one. Maybe you offer 10% off their favorite product. Or you create a giveaway for the best review. You can get as creative as you want!
Suggest Similar Products
Using your product page to advertise other products you have is a win-win. You’ll always want to keep your other products close at hand. This way, your customers can easily jump to another product if the first one they investigated isn’t exactly what they want.
Make sure you use high-quality product photography on your other products as well. Consistency and cohesion will make your brand look professional.
It’s Time to Influence Them
Your product photos, your SEO strategy, your brand engagement: All of this should be used to create content that your audience cares about. An incredibly effective way of doing this is to leverage influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing has become wildly popular in recent years. Companies are devoting more time and effort to folding influencers into comprehensive marketing strategies. Influencers operate independently and create their content as well as generate content for businesses and brands.
There is a need for a little caution here because you’re associating your brand reputation with a third party. You must make sure the influencer’s content aligns with your brand image and beliefs. Offensive content created by the influencer can negatively impact your brand’s reputation.
Also, fake followers are another thing to look out for. An influencer can buy fake followers that make their fan base appear larger than it is. Before you sign any contracts, use a tool like InstaCheck to help you sniff out fake accounts.
Don’t leave so soon(a)
The ecommerce marketplace is a great space to make your mark on the world. Using top-quality, professional-grade product photography will help you make that mark in a big way. And that is where we come in.
We have the knowledge and expertise to bring your storefront to the forefront with product photography that grabs your audience's attention. Your goods deserve the attention and care we’ll give them as we shoot, edit, and deliver jaw-dropping photos ready to be uploaded to all your social channels.
Visit soona.co and start building your perfect product photo shoot!
How to Get More Traffic to Your Online Store Using Social Media
The world of ecommerce is an abundant ecosystem of competing businesses, corporate partnerships, and independent sellers. One way to differentiate yourself is to lean into social media.
There are a lot of different social media platforms out there but we’ll focus on the current big 3: Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Here are a few tips to help you reach your audience and grab the attention of potential and existing customers.
Live streams
Live streams allow you to showcase your products and give Q&A sessions that will help you engage with your audience. Are you launching a new product? Take a few days to build up the suspense. Encourage your followers to ask questions. Then, prepare your community to learn more with a live stream Q&A where you can spotlight not only your new products but the community as well!
Another great way to utilize live streams in your social strategy is to include an expert in your industry or an influencer that works closely with your brand.
As we said earlier, ecommerce is highly competitive. So, hire a professional streamer or influencer that has a screen presence and can stick to a script.
Relevant hashtags
It’s all about the hashtag. This is one of the most important tools in your arsenal. Hashtags essentially determine where your content ends up on social channels. Hashtags help social media algorithms understand what you’re posting and who should see it.
On all your product photo uploads, make sure you’re using the right hashtags for each one. You can include general industry hashtags, but we do encourage using hashtags that are niche to your brand.
Reply to users’ comments
A powerful ecommerce strategy is to respond to users who comment on your uploads. Interacting with them will help you to better understand their experience with your brand. Plus, you’ll make their day with an engaging comment.
Reply to every comment, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative. Use the positive comments to keep you motivated while you deal with the negative ones (and remember that you can learn from the criticism).
Time Your Posts
Did you just come up with the perfect CTA for your latest product? Well, as any ecommerce strategist will tell you, patience is a virtue. You want to time your posts to when your customers are online. That way, your posts will have the most impact and reach more of your target demographic.
Posting at peak times will also help you stay on your audiences’ minds and ensure your posts don’t get lost in the mix. On average, across all social media platforms, the peak times of use are between 9 AM and 2 PM on weekdays. Each platform has its nuances in audience engagement. Your target audience's demographics and behavior patterns will play a large role in their social media usage.
The services/products that your brand offers and the industry you're in will also have a huge impact on timing. There is no "perfect time" to post, as this changes with the wind, but getting data on your target audiences can help you pin down the "best time" to post for your business.
{{studio-ad="/external-components"}}
Promote your other Social Media Channels
If you’re on TikTok, don’t forget to mention your Instagram. If you’re posting on Instagram, don’t forget to plug in your Facebook. And so on and so forth. You want your brand to create your own little ecosystem within the grander ecosystem of the combined social media platforms.
Cross-promoting your content on other social platforms gives your audience the chance to follow you on the platform they most prefer. Most platforms have functions built into them now that allow you to easily share videos and uploads between them.
Be a Human
Now more than ever, it’s important to personify your brand beyond your messaging. Introduce members of your company. Tell stories about the origin of certain product ideas. Beyond that, an easy way to include more “human” elements into your brand is by utilizing lifestyle photography.
Use hand models. Full body models. Include a wide variety of different lifestyle scenes to show that anyone can use your products!
SEO is More than Just Copy
An important piece to making sure your images are optimized for the web is by adding alt text (alternative text). It’s an HTML attribute that can be added to images on a web page. An example is: A dog wearing a sweater.
Alt text helps search engines understand your images and categorize them appropriately so that search engine users can find your site. This improves your chances of getting more visitors and more eyes on your products.
You can use more descriptive alt text to improve the way your images are found by search engines. Take the above example and flesh it out a bit: A spotted dog wearing a cable knit sweater.
Also, using descriptive file names is another great way of getting your SEO keywords found by users that are searching for them. So instead of ‘IMG0043.jpeg’, using something more applicable to the image context like ‘custom-dog-sweaters.jpeg’ will net you more visitors.
Product Page Best Practices
The pages that house your products need to be more than just a simple storefront. This is the world of ecommerce after all, you gotta add oomph to everything you do. Check out these best practices and find a way to implement them in your store.
Feature Image
One of the most important elements of your ecommerce product page is your feature image. Surveys conclude that 50% of online shoppers use images to help them determine what to buy.
That’s why your product photography needs to be on point. If you’re using images with bad lighting, bad angles, or bad pixelation your customers are going to quickly move on to one of your competitors.
You want your audience to land on your product page and see an eye-level, mid-range shot that showcases your product in all its glory. Your feature image needs to excite customers so make sure you pick a good one that entices them to investigate further.
When you’re choosing from a host of product images, ask yourself ‘Which one of these most makes me want to learn more about this product?’
Galleries
You’re also going to need to include a gallery of product images to go along with your feature image. You don’t need to go crazy on the numbers, but you should have at least 6-10 additional images featuring your product. You’re probably wondering why you need so many. Essentially ecommerce stores need to supplement additional images to replace what the product could look and feel like if a customer was in-store.
We suggest having a healthy balance of your product on seamless backdrops (either on white or your branding colors), detail shots, and lifestyle images. The variety of angles and environments will help a customer better understand your product.
Information
Aside from the images, you need to offer high-level information on your product right away. Your opening page should include the product title, price, features, dimensions, customization options, and a CTA.
You need to try and give your audience everything they need to add your products to their carts and checkout quickly. It’s not always possible to include all this information up front, depending on your layout. But try your best to include as much information as possible.
Descriptions
Your product description should live on this page as well. You want your customers to fully understand your products, offerings, and any promotions you may be doing. Grabbing their attention is essential, so be sure to keep any announcements or eye-catching images on your landing page.
Also, the more unique your product descriptions are the better. You might be tempted to offer barebones descriptions and just list the essentials, but quirkiness can pay off. Play with words. Dive into storytelling. Embrace emojis if that suits your brand. If your target audience is a little bit older, maybe avoid Gen Z language. Cater your language to who your audience is.
Reviews
The key to increasing conversion rates is building trust. Nothing builds trust quite like reviews and ratings from your customers! More than 80% of consumers look at reviews when purchasing so adding them to your site is key.
Reviews have simply become a new and necessary aspect of modern shopping. Think about the last time you were about to buy something, did you scan for reviews? If you are trying to increase the number of reviews you have, create an email blast to incentivize them to write one. Maybe you offer 10% off their favorite product. Or you create a giveaway for the best review. You can get as creative as you want!
Suggest Similar Products
Using your product page to advertise other products you have is a win-win. You’ll always want to keep your other products close at hand. This way, your customers can easily jump to another product if the first one they investigated isn’t exactly what they want.
Make sure you use high-quality product photography on your other products as well. Consistency and cohesion will make your brand look professional.
It’s Time to Influence Them
Your product photos, your SEO strategy, your brand engagement: All of this should be used to create content that your audience cares about. An incredibly effective way of doing this is to leverage influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing has become wildly popular in recent years. Companies are devoting more time and effort to folding influencers into comprehensive marketing strategies. Influencers operate independently and create their content as well as generate content for businesses and brands.
There is a need for a little caution here because you’re associating your brand reputation with a third party. You must make sure the influencer’s content aligns with your brand image and beliefs. Offensive content created by the influencer can negatively impact your brand’s reputation.
Also, fake followers are another thing to look out for. An influencer can buy fake followers that make their fan base appear larger than it is. Before you sign any contracts, use a tool like InstaCheck to help you sniff out fake accounts.
Don’t leave so soon(a)
The ecommerce marketplace is a great space to make your mark on the world. Using top-quality, professional-grade product photography will help you make that mark in a big way. And that is where we come in.
We have the knowledge and expertise to bring your storefront to the forefront with product photography that grabs your audience's attention. Your goods deserve the attention and care we’ll give them as we shoot, edit, and deliver jaw-dropping photos ready to be uploaded to all your social channels.
Visit soona.co and start building your perfect product photo shoot!
