The social media scene has hit an all time high. Social media provides a way for consumers to connect with each other, discuss brands, product reviews and much more information. If you own an ecommerce store, you may not be realizing the tremendous potential that social media marketing can bring you.

Huge wave of traffic

One of the primary advantages that social media brings to an ecommerce site is the huge influx of traffic. When consumers like something about your product or brand and spread the word through social media sites, it can bring in a huge volume of traffic into your ecommerce store. Not just that, but statistics reveal that these consumers are more likely to purchase products from your store simply because of the positive feedback provided by other consumers.

More recurring sales

Social media has its own set of advantages and one of them is to retain existing customers. It is far easier to get new customers than retain existing ones and social media marketing can play a huge role in sustaining customer loyalty. It has been found repeatedly that the more is your ecommerce store presence on social media sites, the more will customers be likely to purchase products from your store repeatedly.

Valuable insight

Social media also provides an invaluable way to determine consumer preferences and opinions. It can also reveal what customers think of your brand, whether they are inclined to purchase products from your ecommerce store again as well as what aspects of your brand they think can be made better. It’s like going through an enormous feedback form from a customer – minus the bore! Social media can be a fun way to discover your customer’s preferences and use these findings to tweak future marketing strategies.

Social media news sites

Having a particular page on your ecommerce store getting StumbledUpon or Digg-ed is an honor of sorts. News sites like Digg do not digg just about any site. Hence, customers and the press take any site recommended by such social media news sites, seriously. People sit up and take notice of your brand and the result is that more people visit your ecommerce store to see what your brand is all about!

Blogging – recurring customers

Blogging is a cost effective way to add your brand value and enhance the visibility of your ecommerce store online. When you regularly update your blog, consumers keep coming back to your blog to see what is new. This creates a steady influx of recurring customers. When you add your blog to your ecommerce site, the chances of a sale happening from these customers automatically goes up!

Perception-based sales

This is what you can offer to your target audience and customers through a blog. No matter what product you sell on your ecommerce store, it represents the way customers perceive a certain thing. People who love buying toys have fond childhood memories of their toys and have different ways of interpreting what these mean to them. If you sell antique furniture, your customers would most likely be collectors and have a sense of art in them. You can address these points through your blog. This creates an instant connection with your customers and it fosters loyalty and trust. Most ecommerce store owners take years to build this kind of customer trust. You can do it in a fraction of the same time through a blog!

Customer comments

The main thing about a blog is posting fresh content regularly else it can quickly lose its charm. The idea is not just to post new content but also unique, innovative and interesting content, which enthralls your readers and makes them come back for more! You also need to keep a close watch on the customer activity on your blog. Like for instance, if a customer has posted a complaint you need to respond to it soon so that your customer know they have been heard.

Identifying keywords

Browsing through some of the popular social media news sites like Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon etc. can provide vital clues on the kind of keywords you should be using. You can check this by searching through these sites for related content pertaining to your niche. Once you find these news stories you can see which strategic keywords have been used. You can use these on your blog content as well as your product descriptions, meta tags etc. to gain more targeted traffic, enhanced visibility and getting noticed by such social media news sites as well.