The Importance of Social Media Marketing for Your In-store Retail Business

In this digital age of social media and everything done on the internet, establishing an online presence for your retail business has become crucial. Take for example what Sprout Social has found that more than 200 million posts are tagged around food and drinks in the retail industry. There’s also a high percentage of people being influenced by online reviews and comments.

The traditional word-of-mouth marketing has evolved to likes and shares of social media posts. Even if you’re not doing anything, your customers’ reviews of your place will show through on social media. This will also determine whether more people will come to your door, or people preferring the one next door.

To help you jumpstart your business on the social media scene, or perhaps to boost your brand’s influence in your locality, here are some tried-and-tested tips that will give you that much needed clout in business.

#1 Establish your brand’s profile

Planning your brand’s look and feel is the foundation of how you are going to present your establishment in the public. The logo, colors, themes and other aesthetic aspects of your brand should be consistent all throughout your social media profiles.

Start with the major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. You’ll learn so much more as you go along and know which platforms are highly useful for your business. Make sure that you post detailed information on your social media profiles, as this will be like the easy way to use the yellow pages in this day and age. Make sure that you write the best description of your business in the bio space so that customers can have a more personal view of your brand.

#2 Engagement and Promotional Posts

Mix up your engagement and promotional posts on your social media accounts. Find the right balance between posts that help you engage customers and posts that get customers to buy from you.

Engagement posts are those that are not necessarily promoting or selling anything, but these rather focus on conversation between you and your customers. Engagement posts can be asking a question, get opinions, and utilize user-generated content.

Promotional posts do no not necessarily mean hard-selling or blatant marketing. You can “softly” suggest to your customers how your products and services are being used in everyday life. These can be lifestyle shots, or product shots that take on a creative twist.

#3 Post at Optimal Times of Your Customers Logging in to Social Media

There are various resources online which suggest the best times to post on social media. Some might suggest that every hour is actually the best time to post, but you have to consider your local timezone and the hours on which most of your customers or followers are online.

Take a look at the insights page of your social media accounts (such as the one found on FB and Pinterest) and see when most of your followers are logged in. Focus your social media efforts on these optimal times. You can also use social media tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer to schedule your posts.

In a Nutshell

Great things happen when you continually engage with your target market online. Make the most out of free promotional tools and techniques. And if organic search is dying for you, you have the upper hand in setting the budget for boosting posts on social. Ads or promotional tools in social media can go a long way than traditional marketing.