In this series, we are talking about selling physical products online. We have gone over sourcing stock, finding suppliers, building relations, setting up the website, building up logistics, and more. Go check out the past three articles if you haven’t read them as they have a lot of useful information that will be needed for today’s article.
So by now, you should have your website set up, stock ready, logistics ready and relations with suppliers sorted. Now it’s time to validate your product by building up the social network and seeing inf people will actually buy it. If you have already validated your product but you still haven’t set this up, read this.
This article is all about social media today. At this point in time in 2020 social media marketing is the number one way of getting leads and sales for your business. The reason why is because everyone is on social media. Everyone. Plus a lot of social media networks have developed some very complex code that tracks users about their information and their behaviors across the internet. From this, you can accurately target your ideal customer via their interests, locations, behaviors, age, mobile device, and so much more.
Social media marketing is so important in this day and age because your customers are not roaming about the streets anymore looking at billboards or watching TV ads. The rate of standard TV watching has decreased due to Netflix and the radio listeners rate has also decreased due to things like Spotify. Yet the rate of social media use is always increasing every single year. Therefore, this is where your customers are at. Your ideal customer whoever they have a social media account of some sort.
Another thing you can do is use search engine marketing. Things like Google ads or Youtube ads are a great shout too. Also, you can use influencer marketing too which is whereby someone well known with many followers will promote your product to their followers for a fee.
Setting Up Your Social Media Accounts
Let’s start with setting up your social media accounts first. This is the first step into the world of social media marketing. There are many platforms out there for you to market on but it is important that you prioritize each one for your needs. You should have a voice on most platforms but things like Instagram and Facebook are the most important because their advertising algorithm is the most advanced plus they have the most users on both.
You should first make a Facebook page because you cannot advertise on Facebook’s platforms without one. It will also allow you to access business analytics on Instagram as well as opening an Instagram and Facebook shop. To make one you simply go onto Facebook, then you go onto the menu page and click “create a page.”
What Your Facebook Page Needs:
- A good page profile picture (preferably your logo)
- A good cover photo (a layout of your products, custom made banner, etc)
- All information sections such as location and information filled out
- To Be Connected to Your Instagram Account
- Buttons such as web links set up
- Privacy settings set up
- Connected to Your e-Commerce store for Facebook/Instagram shop
If you need help setting up your page then Facebook can assist you. They know best and they have the most up to date information regarding setting up your Facebook page.
Then you need to set up an Instagram page. This is quite easy at first. You need to download the app first and then sign up for an account preferably under your companies email address. You then want to make it into a business account optimized for an eCommerce shop. To do this you need to first link it to your existing Facebook page. After this, you need to select what category your store is in whether it’s beauty, sports, etc. You can find out how to access this via the Instagram help center. They will provide you with the latest way of how to do it since the app is always updating.
Things You Need for Your Instagram Page
- A solid profile picture
- A bio explaining what you do
- Keywords in the name section (such as best eyelashes etc)
- Your first 9 to 12 posts should define your brand and color scheme
- Post Planning (what time etc- must be every day at least once)
- Highlight covers (for your stories e.g. behind the scenes, orders, information, etc)
- First post explaining who you are
On getting more followers here is a simple trick. Find similar pages to yours, ones with a good amount of followers but not too much. Maybe up to 100,000 or so. Make sure they’re posts are getting a good amount of likes. Preferable at least on average 2.5% of their followers liking and engaging with their pictures. Choose their latest photo and follow all more majority of those people who have liked the photo.
You can use Snapchat and Tik Tok if you want. These two platforms are actually a good shout if you want your brand to be a bit more unique or if you want to share your core values more. For example, if you are selling dance gear then you can advertise it potentially on Tik Tok because that platform was made for dancing etc. You can even open a Youtube channel if you want to review your products, going behind the scenes, etc.
How Can I Utilize Social Media Marketing
This is where things get complex Social Media Marketing isn’t as easy as you think especially if it’s Facebook. Marketing on Facebook is a skill since it is so vast and there is so much data you can play around with. On Facebook you really can target your ideal customer however, this comes with great difficulty because what you think your ideal customer is interested in etc isn’t always correct. It involves a lot of money and testing Facebook ads do if you’re new.
The first thing you need to do is make a Facebook business account. Quite easy to do this. Simply search online Facebook Business Manager and if you haven’t got one it will walk you through of how to set it up. After this you need to learn how to do ads or pay someone to do them.
Where Can I Learn Facebook Ads?
- Youtube: search how to start Facebook ads as a beginner
- Facebooks own course
- Shopify Academy Facebook Course
- Udemy
- Purchasing an Individual Course
- Mentorship
Learning Facebook ads can be quite difficult. It can also be very costly so if you don’t know what you are doing but you want to move as quickly as possible then hire an agency to do your ads. It’s far better because they have the needed experience and they can tell you what you should do to improve your business etc.
Finding an ad agency is like finding any other freelancer. Refer to the previous articles on what you should do when looking for a freelancer.
Where to Find a Credible Ads Agency?
- Upwork (make sure at least 4.5 stars with loads of reviews)
- Local Ads
- Forums
- YouTube
Each agency will specialize in different things. From Facebook to Pinterest. Make sure you outline your needs with them so they can offer the best support to you. It may be expensive but in the long run, these agencies will save a lot of time and money.
Make sure you have a decent budget for Facebook ads and also good content. You should not invest in a good camera to take photos of your product. Reason why is because unless you know photography using a camera can sometimes be the worst idea yet as if you don’t understand a DSLR or so the images can come out awfully. Instead buy yourself a good phone like an iPhone 12 as the camera quality on that is sublime. Or hire a photographer.
WE will continue on this topic in the next article.