Generating Sales and Growing Customer Retention with Social Mediafor eCommerce

There are three important markers in the following presentation

Information: all that useful data, stories, contexts to help us visualize, understand and grow our knowhow.

Idea: that one in a million dollars money maker insight or innovation that is already there but we haven’t tapped into to it already.

Practice: probably the most relevant part of this presentation. Do it now or save it for later, but keep in mind that only practice makes perfect.

This is a story about the social media and the shopping cart

Revenue and profits matter the most for creating sustainable small and medium businesses.And getting them from social media is not an easy task.

‘Cause, while your fans might have liked/followed your brand to stay current with your updates…they just aren’t in the mindset to press the ‘buy’ button.

Social networks, therefore, are essentially a means of brand exposure and a top of the funnel contender.

But how do we make them BUY?

Globally, You can reach 1 out of every 5 humans on earth through Facebook. Yes, that’s where the number of currently active monthly users stands on the social platform giant.

In Romania, we have over 9,3 Million Facebook users. That makes about 45% of the population and over 85% of the active internet users.

That IS your sales pool out there. But who are they, really?

And what do they do all day in social media? And how do we get them into our sales funnels?

This is a story about the social media and the shopping cart

Social Mediain Romaniameasured by

Facebook Focus: looking into socio-demographics

Facebook Focus: localizing

Facebook Focus:Top behaviors

Where is my brand in the mind of this social (media) being?...

Facebook Focus

Facebook Focus:Key Take Away about the social (media) being Respect their behavior.

Learn to maximize your exposure into their “brand related” time with Organic (Editorial Plan) and Paid Content (Boosted Posts, various Facebook Ads Types).

Learn who to keep them more in your universe, with Facebook Engagement Growth techniques & Website as hub of Communication

Practice 1:

PRACTICE 1: Let’s understand our consumers to be able to target them. Let’s give our brand a BUYER PERSONA.

Define, in four lines, your buyer:

1. Key Socio-demographics: 2. Key interests and behaviors: 3. Key online & offline place: 4. Cross brands/companies/products:

10 Steps to Sales Generation from Social media & Great Social Media Customer Care

1. Create a social media community to engage with

Key steps to follow:

● Define and gather your target audience from Facebook ● Define a Brand Value Proposition, Tone of Voice, Frequency of Content

Publishing, Editorial & Promotional Calendar, Key Life Moments to Celebrate in Social Media

● Talk about what matters to them - create content that’s relevant for your target! ● Be positive, polite, open to experiments and social media active● Be their expert friend, not their public speaker ● Be present HERE & NOW - real time marketing, live videos, short How To videos,

anniversaries are important micro-moments of consumer engagement

2. Know your KPIs

Key Performance Indicators to follow:

● FanBase & relevance for my brand ● Reach - organic vs. paid ● Engagement rate - Likes / other Reactions / video views + Comments (2) + Shares

(3) + Website Clicks (3) / FanBase ● Traffic Generated from Social Media ● Conversion Rate from Social Media ● Balance between PAID / OWNED / EARNED media

3. Earn media from social media

What to do?

● Create content that’s easy to share / easy to engage to ● Research! Today, tomorrow, every day. Know your competition, know your

consumers, value their experiences and shape them into content ops for your brand ● Talk to your fans like they were your best friends. They may not be perfect, but they

are your brand’s survival in the market BFFs● Use Influencers that fit your brand. ● Create promotions and packages that are relevant for your consumer profile and

useful for your business objectives

4. Create promotions, contests, lists of exclusive Social Media benefits and Attractive Packages with Deadlines

1. When you build them, remember that your most important aim is to GET them to YOUR website with the INTEREST to Buy.

2. Find ways to store data from each promo activity, learn a little more about how your target behaves: when do they engage, what drives them to click

3. Gather your DATA-BASE4. Remind them of you. As hard as it may seem to believe, you are not the most

important think they think about when they get out of bed… :-)

5. Measure your results for each conversion action

1. Maximize your tracking possibilities 2. Spend time to understand what went well and what went wrong with your

promotion, contest, campaign: the targeting, the mix of products, the shopping cart value expected to cover costs, the conversion rate, the retention rate

3. Create a Key Take Aways list after EVERY campaign or selling initiative

6. The age of Facebook Contests

● Create contests that are relevant for your type of people. ● Remember that a 100,000 fanbase with 0.5% engagement rate means nothing to

your sales objectives. But a fanbase of 10,000 fans with an overlap of website buyers of 20% means that you may actually get something out of Zuckerberg’s universe for your business

● To grow, create partnerships, barters with relevant social media communities and value every qualitative interaction your fans have with you

7. Make your customers your ambassadors

● Value purchases or messages received from clients with public recognition in social media

● Ask for feedback in social media and be ready to handle it and grow from it● Isolate crisis and conflicts from your social media public place but not without

making it firmly and politely clear that you are here to help and solve problems ● Remember that every talk you have on your page wall with your fans gets you

earned media. And fans writing about you and tagging their friends gets you even more earned media.

8. Find your Key Opinion Leaders

It’s OK to partner with influencers that are relevant for your business and benefit from their online experience and community. Try to create lasting partnerships rather than affiliate BOOMs that are less believable to the consumer.

Trust them.

Work together with them.

Cherish their partnership.

9. Understand how Facebook Advertising Works

In a world where billions are spent every month to advertise, you will not cross the bridge of “family & friends generated income” of your business without ads.

But use them smart. And for that, understand them.

In a mix with the Facebook Ads platform, learn how to read your Google Analytics data. And work on funnels to see where your conversion system is leaking.

Test! A-B testing, split targeting by socio-demographics & interest, Lookalike audiences and Custom audiences will help you get closer to your Gold Fans - the ones that have actual Buyer Potential.

Practice 2:

Define a clear mapping of our SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MIX and CONVERSION FUNNEL.

1. What is your communication hub? 2. Where do you: create awareness / generate engagement / draw traffic (exposure to

products) / close & follow-up sales / re-engage 3. What are your 6 Ps? 4. What are your most important 5 Stages of the Conversion Funnel generated from

Social Media?

10. The 5 Facebook Ads Features to Use for your eCommerce

1. Tell Stories that make sense for your consumers, not for you

Don’t sell products, sell the experience, the consumer benefit, the value for life, the super-powers of your products and services.

Follow the RAVES standards of content and advertising:

● Relevant and Respectful ● Actionable ● Value Generating ● Exceptional Experience ● Share worthy Story

2. Use Carousel Ads for Variety, Lookalike Audiences and Custom Audiences for Relevance

Using Carousel Ads, you can leverage:● Up to 10 images or videos● Headlines (for each image/video)● Links● A Call to Action

Using Lookalike Audiences, you get more fans like the ones who have already engaged with your page in your community.

Using Custom Audiences you can grow your sales favorability and deliver targeted content to a pool of users from a customer lists and the match between them and the Facebook users base.

Custom Audiences from : Website Visitors, Contact Lists, App Users

3. The Mighty Facebook Pixel

There are a handful of certainties in life. Death. Taxes. The first snowflake will first be seen on Facebook. Oh, and if you’re not using the Facebook pixel, you’re wasting your time and money on Facebook.

You need to use the Facebook pixel as this is how you measure conversions, optimize your ads and targeting, and gain insights about the Facebook users who visit your website.

4. The Conversion Campaigns

Once you've implemented your Facebook pixel, it’s time to start running Website Conversion campaigns.

The objective of a Website Conversion campaign is to get people to take a specific on-site (or in-app) action after viewing your ad - click on a specific area, add to cart, complete the purchase, fill in a form, etc.

5. The Trio of Targeting

Target users by interests, behaviors and socio-demographics.

Create different sets of Ads for different potential targets to make sure you know what works best in delivering you sales.

Take a close look at your competition’s target and cross communities. When they are not on their Facebook profile or your page, that’s where your consumers are.

Facebook Focus: Behavior, Interests, Socio-demographics

Two More Things

Follow the leaders. They did not get there by doing nothing right

eShops:

1. MadCloth 2. Zappos 3. Nasty Gal 4. Mr.Porter 5. Etsy 6. Asos 7. Walmart 8. Amazon

Social Media Marketing well done:

1. Net-a-porter & Mr. Porter2. Domino’s Pizza 3. KLM 4. Made.com 5. OREO / Taco Bell 6. Pret a Manger 7. Pampers 8. Netflix

“People want to do business with you because you help them get what they want. They don’t do business with you to help you get what you want.” – Don Crowther

Thank you. Looking forward to more talks with you,about digital marketing and more:linkedin.com/in/ioanabarbufb.com/ioana.barbu twitter.com/ioanabarbu_instagram : @ioanabarbu