Reach your target audience with effective social-media promotions

Marketing via social media is still essential for building up name recognition and increasing the size of your audience. And innovative methods have increased not only your ability to reach more new customers than ever before, they’ve considerably increased the potential impact of social-media marketing.

If you’re looking for ways to stimulate sales via social media, consider creative promotional tactics that create the necessary ‘buzz’ through a feeling of urgency that leads customers to the checkout. 

The following social-media techniques have proven successful for both SMEs and major brands. They vary from simple, easy-to-perform promotions to complex ones that demand a little planning and skill. 

1. Flash sales

One of the simplest and most effective sales strategies for both physical and e-commerce retailers is the ‘flash sale’. These ad hoc promotions create a sense of urgency, encouraging customers to decide quickly to avoid missing out on great deals. 
To build up momentum, you announce your upcoming sale a few weeks in advance, but without sharing the exact start date. By adding this little touch of excitement to your promotion, your customers will keep returning to your page for new details so they don’t miss anything.

2. Exclusive discount coupon for followers

Encourage potential customers to ‘Like’ your page or to follow you on social media. This means any subsequent promotions will reach an even larger audience, creating a positive snowball effect. The execution of this promotion is just as simple as offering an exclusive discount coupon on your social-media post. On Facebook, for example, followers click on a button and gain access to a code. Go a step further by cross-posting to encourage your followers on Twitter to ‘Like’ your Facebook page or to follow you on Instagram, or having Instagram followers ‘Like’ you on Facebook and Twitter. Finally, increase your reach with a clear call to action and hashtags. 
TIP: By using different codes for every platform, you can see which platforms generate the most involvement. 

3. Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a very effective strategy for increasing your sales on social media—and it doesn’t need to cost a fortune. 
You don’t need the Kim Kardashians of the world to recommend your products online. There are enough local influencers with smaller but highly involved and loyal audiences. They’ll rate and/or recommend your products for a reasonable price. 
As soon as you’ve set your budget and attracted relevant influencers, there are a few ways to put them to good use: 
●    Send them samples for product reviews 
Let them create content in which your products play a role 
Offer a discount code that is exclusive to their audience 
Arrange for influencers to promote your products through competitions and giveaways.
Give them early access to upcoming product releases to stimulate engagement before your product hits the market. 
Whether you focus on one of these marketing tactics or experiment with all these promotions, the key is to find out what works for your company and what best corresponds to the audience of your influencers and your brand.

4. User-generated content (UGC)

While there are benefits, you don’t need to rely on influencers to attract new customers on social media. 
Why not tap into your existing customer base for high-quality content that encourages other potential buyers to try your products? Start a campaign and ask your fans and followers to post a photo of you with your product or brand. 

Ask your fans to tag your posts with thoughtful hashtags
When hashtags that are linked to campaigns generated by users, they make posts easier to find, and make it easier to analyse the results afterwards. 
Share your best submissions on your social-media profiles. Think about using UGC to make marketable/clickable posts. This means other followers can buy the products in your images by simply clicking on the photo. Some brands even make entire landing pages that are dedicated to presenting user-generated content with a click-to-buy function. 
‘Share’ buttons make it easy for your visitors to share your content, including your products, with a single click. Reach more potential customers by making it easy for your customers to share their favourite products. 
This sharing also provides social proof; at least 93% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family. 

5. Shoppable content on Facebook and Instagram

Shoppable content can include brand content, user-generated content, or a combination of the two. 
In-feed advertisements are the most efficient. You reach your target group with advertisements that perform strongly. The idea behind this type of content is to show potential customers an advertisement, image or video featuring a product they instantly fall in love with—and can immediately purchase. 
To respond to the demand for a seamless shopping experience, more and more social-media platforms are introducing functions for advertisers that enable customers to buy products without even having to leave the platform. 

Instagram shoppable posts

According to Instagram, 90% of users follow at least one company. 
In other words, Instagram is one of the best platforms for e-commerce companies that want to grow their turnover on social media. 
As such, it’s not surprising that Instagram offers several different ways to sell to your followers.

Instagram Shop      

An adaptable, in-app display window where your followers can shop directly from your business profile page.

Product detail pages

These pages focus on one single product, show all relevant information and extract all media on Instagram in which the product is tagged, helping the customer to find out about all possible applications for the product.

Shopping advertisements

Reach a broader audience by promoting your existing Shopping posts in Ads Manager. These advertisements help lead users to your website or the native checkout on Instagram. 
A study cited by MarketingWeek indicates that 26% of online shoppers go to Facebook to look for products. 

Facebook & Instagram shopping tags

As with Instagram, you can make purchasable posts by tagging any images and videos on Facebook that feature products. 

Instagram & Facebook live shopping

Tag products from your Facebook store or catalogue before you go live so that viewers can also make purchases in real-time. Products appear at the bottom of the live video and viewers can tap to find out more or make a purchase. 

In short, social-media marketing offers an effective and especially cheap way of reaching potential customers. It’s a great promotional tool for increasing website traffic, stimulating sales and building up brand recognition. Companies should make the most of this strategy by taking the time to research their target groups and make promotions that will attract their prospects. 

Furthermore, companies always need to analyse the performance of their campaigns afterwards to make sure their efforts are paying off with a sizeable return on investment.

HighCo DATA can also help you with the distribution of e-coupons on all these platforms, landing pages and more! Contact us for an obligation-free chat.