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In 2015, more than 50% of small businesses were into social media. Fast forward to 2018, and it jumped to a whopping 71%, with another 16% gearing up to join the social wave. It’s evident that businesses of all kinds need to ride the social media train to strengthen and expand their reach, or they might get left in the dust.
In this article, we’ll dive into how SMBs can use the power of social media to grow their retail business.
Social media is not just about getting people to notice your business; it’s a way to build credibility and trust with your target audience.
When people are looking for information about what to buy online, they will often research different brands and products on social media. If your business has a strong social media presence, it shows potential customers that you are a credible and reputable business.
The freedom to research on their own terms gives your prospects peace of mind and makes them more likely to choose your business.
Social media allows retailers to:
Social media is a powerful tool if used properly and can help retailers increase customer engagement, which will increase website and store traffic, and eventually sales.
SMBs can use their size to their advantage by creating a personalized shopping experience for their customers. In fact, according to a recent survey, 53% of shoppers prefer to shop at small businesses because of the personalized service they offer.
As a retail business owner, you can leverage this advantage by creating a strong social media presence. Unlike larger businesses, which may be overwhelmed by customer interactions, SMBs can typically respond to customers more quickly and effectively.
This is a major advantage, as 80% of customers expect a response to their query within 24 hours.
It’s important to remember that social media is not just about posting content, but also about engaging in meaningful conversations with customers.
SMBs can invite customers to join the interaction by asking questions, running contests, and sharing customer feedback.
Did you know that search engines like Google are increasingly taking into account social trends when ranking websites? Having a strong social media presence can help you drive more traffic to your website or blog.
The goal is to create high-quality content, to then promote on your social media platforms, driving clicks and website traffic to your blog. And when the content is engaging and educational, you’re more likely to get your audience to share your posts and links to your site.
All of this online activity can help improve your overall Google ranking of your website, which will ultimately help you show up higher in search results for potential customers.
The important factor is that SEO and social media go hand in hand. When people see that your website or blog is being shared and discussed on social media, they’re more likely to trust it and become interested in what you have to say.
Social media can be a powerful tool for boosting sales, especially when integrated with your eCommerce website.
By integrating your website with social media platforms, you allow your customers to easily share your products on social media, directly from your product page.
Then, you can track how popular your products are with your customers, and also their social networks, and view recent social media posts on your website.
Ensure your eCommerce software provider can offer integrations to social media, such as FaceBook and Instagram, which can help get your retail business in front of more new customers, and increase traffic to your site by having your customers share their favorite products that you sell.
Everything we just discussed in this article is organic advertising, also known as free. In many cases, this type of engagement can drive even more business than paid advertisements, since this is all done from your social platforms and the help of your network. The goal is to continuously grow your network, to grow your shares and engagement.
From there, you can choose to even invest in social media advertising to promote your products directly to your target audience- but we’ll save that for its own article.
Interested in seeing how Celerant’s all-in-one SaaS Retail System can help?
