How to Grow Brand Awareness on Social Media
02/12/2020 | Share:
Social Media has become a pillar of digital marketing in recent years and ecommerce businesses that don’t leverage its capabilities are seriously missing out. However, it can be difficult to achieve success just by setting up some social accounts and posting once a week. If you’re just starting out, we’ve got some strategies to increase awareness of your brand and get those sales coming in.
Define your audience and speak to them
First of all, you need to make sure you know who your audience is. The content you create and the way your brand behaves on social media needs to reflect the interests of your target audience. Speak specifically to the group of people that matter to your business, rather than anyone and everyone. For example, if your ecommerce store sells real leather, you’re not going to be engaging in conversations around veganism. It’s just not the right fit!
Run a product giveaway
Everyone loves a freebie, especially your ideal customers. Running a product giveaway on social media that encourages people to like, share, retweet, comment and most importantly, follow you, is a surefire way to increase brand awareness. For participants who really care about your product and its value, sharing and following is simply a few extra taps on their device but with something valuable to them on the line. For the cost of a product or two, it can be a decent return on investment.
Encourage cross-channel engagement
Every now and then, you should encourage your social media followers to check out your other channels for more content. For example, you could post a video on YouTube and within the video, remind people to follow you on Instagram, where you post updates on your new products first.
The key to the success of this strategy is having a variety of content across the different social platforms. What is the benefit of doing this? Well, someone who shares your posts on Facebook might have a different audience to share to on Twitter. Someone that discovers you on Twitter may not use the app that often but have a huge following on Instagram to share your products with.
Run a reach ad campaign
Paid advertising is a shortcut to getting results but these come at a price, of course. A reach campaign on any social media platform is designed to show your advert or profile to as many people as possible for the budget you set. You’ll be able to target people with specific characteristics such as gender and age but also interests and habits such as “football” or “frequent travellers”.
Remember though, a reach campaign does exactly what it says – it reaches people. It builds awareness, but it doesn’t guarantee customers, so make sure you follow up on this campaign with other types of advertising.
Connect with influencers who have an engaged follower base
If you haven’t got a lot of followers, find someone who does. Influencers are people who have a significant amount of followers on social media but also influence people within their industry.
For example, a health and fitness influencer might share content on their home workouts that people will then use in their own lives. If your ecommerce store sells exercise equipment, this influencer could make a great match for your brand. In return for a fee or for free products, this person might be interested in promoting your brand.
Remember, a lot of followers doesn’t necessarily mean they have a strong influence. An influencer with a few thousand followers might have more influence than someone with a million followers. What matters is how engaged the audience is.
Leverage trends and news stories
Is it Star Wars day, and you’ve got some merch from a galaxy far far away to sell? Or perhaps it’s Valentine’s Day and your products could double up as romantic gifts? Make sure you use this to your advantage! Leveraging things such as trends, news stories and special days (real or made-up) throughout the year will give your brand a bit of a boost as people read about these.
It will also make you seem more relatable. If you’re more relatable, people are more likely to feel a connection to your brand and consider you relevant.
Keep at it
Finally, don’t give up! Especially when things are new, it can be easy to just throw in the towel and say that social media doesn’t work for your brand. There are brands out there with hundreds of thousands of followers but they didn’t get them overnight. And if they did, they certainly weren’t valuable followers engaged with the brand. With social media, you have to stick at it and recognise that growth takes time.
