How’s your social media marketing working for you? If yours is like most businesses, it’s fallen a little short of expectations, or a lot short.

If your social marketing has been a let down, consider these three points:

1. Stop thinking of social as a straight-line sales or lead generation channel. If you’re trying to sell directly on social, you’re missing the point. ‘Social’ means ‘human interaction’ and without that interaction, your social will fail.
2. Stop thinking of social as a popularity contest. If you consider your social to be a failure because you have fewer ‘likes’, ‘followers’ or ‘connections’ than you hoped, then you were doomed from the beginning. The point of social media marketing is the same as the point of all marketing, to promote sales and/or generate leads. As you know from your website, traffic (likes, followers and connections on social) is only part of the equation. Conversion is another, just as important part.
3. Lots of companies use social to drive lots of sales and/or get lots of leads. You can too. One of the great beauties of the internet is that it is a giant open book. If there is a huge sales success story on the web, you can find it, study it and learn from it. Then you can adapt those lessons to your business, test them and see what works.

If one point above is more crucial than the others, it’s number three. By following it you will automatically accomplish the other two points. You’ll realize that social isn’t a straight-line proposition or a popularity contest. And you’ll find new ways to measure your success, like with better conversion rates.

Three Ways Social Media Can Improve Your Conversions

E-commerce, lead gen, conversion optimization and social media, and how they work together, are all incredibly complex topics. Your social media might not be up to snuff because your social accounts aren’t optimized, or your product images are blurry, or your landing page doesn’t live up to the promise of your tweet.

The examples below show how three companies use social to overcome some of the obstacles that stand between them and converting their customers. But if yours is not a well rounded digital marketing campaign, then what these companies do, or anything your company does, will be less likely to work.

1. Relieving the FUDs (fears, uncertainties and doubts)

GoTire is a mobile tire service franchise operation that received over $200,000 investment capital on TV’s ‘The Dragon’s Den’; Canada’s equivalent of ‘The Shark Tank’.

One GoTire franchisee uses instagram and twitter to post images of the operation in action.

Take a look at GoTire Vaughan’s instagram page and you’ll see a variety of vehicles, receiving a variety of services, in a variety of locations. And most of the shots feature the Go Tire truck in the background for branding.

These are not professional shots, but taken by the franchise owner or an employee.

How can this improve conversion? Go Tire is the first of its kind in its markets and many potential customers have questions about how it all works, what services are offered, etc.. By providing visual answers to these questions, the franchisee quickly removes many of the concerns and uncertainties that might prevent a customer from converting – before the customer even gets to the site.

2. Infusing Social Proof

It’s no secret that Pinterest drives sales. A Shopify study shows Pinterest delivers higher average order values than Facebook, Twitter and even Google. And there are no shortage of ecommerce retailers trying to get in on the action.

But if there is anything more surprising than the Pinterest’s sales potential, it is the number of etailers who use it merely as an extension of their product pages; a click on one of their pins goes straight (straight line?) to their web page.

But not for Mod Cloth, while some of their pins lead to their landing pages, many don’t. Clicking on Mod Cloth’s pins will just as likely lead to a third party site, one that features a Mod Cloth product.

How can this improve conversion?: When customers click on an appealing Mod Cloth pin and land on an independent blog or site, it shows that their choice is popular and they are not alone in their opinion. While we all like to have our own fashion sense, we also like to know that others find our style attractive too. It’s called social proof, and leading your customers to it before they get to your site increases their chances of converting.

3. User-Generated Content

If there is a ubiquitous social media headache, it is finding and/or generating good content. Most ecommerce businesses have an edge on other sectors because they at least have product shots that they can use for content.

But what about the ongoing grind of finding great shots, well-written blog posts, video clips, etc., etc., etc.?

User-generated content (UGC) lets you turn your customers into never-ending sources of great website and social media content like testimonials, blog posts and images.

How can this improve conversion? UGC might be the golden nugget of digital marketing. One simple solution scores lots of marketing goals. UGC inherently provides the often-elusive social proof that can move lots of product and it relieves the pressure to keep finding worthwhile content.

Better yet, if you do what Yogarat does, you can directly link your UGC to your product pages. Imagine a potential customers seeing another customer enjoying your product and being one click away from buying the item.

(Oh no! That’s a straight line!)

The post 3 Ways Companies Use Social Media to Increase Conversion Rates appeared first on Invesp.

If you have ever visited a tradeshow, you probably experienced a very clear example of the effect of social proof. Think back to the time you spent strolling the trade show floor, not with any particular booth destination in mind, but just looking to see what’s what.

Which booths caught your attention? Chances are you were drawn to those that had visitors and avoided those where the booth representative stood alone.

Yes?

The thing that attracts you to the busy booths, or crowded stores at the mall, is the social proof demonstrated by the mass of people.

According to Wikipedia, social proof is:
“a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation. This effect is prominent in ambiguous social situations where people are unable to determine the appropriate mode of behavior, and is driven by the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation.”
(emphasis is the author’s)

When you were just looking around the trade show floor, you didn’t know which booths were worthy of a visit. You assumed that the people visiting the busier booths must know something you didn’t, and you were drawn to those booths.

Now Think About Your Ecommerce Customers

They ‘stroll’ across the web looking to make a purchase. Sometimes they know exactly what they want and where to get it. But most often they are unsure what to buy, where to buy it and sometimes even why they want it.

Take for example digital cameras. Shoppers face an incredibly wide range of choices and options online. How are they to know which model is best suited to their needs? Which site offers the best value? And does the average shopper really need a 15 mega pixel camera and a 50X optical zoom?

More and more studies show that online shoppers depend on social proof to guide them in making a purchase.

• 70% of shoppers consult online reviews and ratings before making a purchase (BusinessWeek)
• 63% say they are more likely to buy from a site that has product ratings and reviews (Search Engine Journal)
• 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals (Invesp)
• Online reviews are the most popular user-generated content (Forrester)
• Reviews generate 21% higher purchase satisfaction and 18% higher loyalty (PowerReviews)

It is undeniable that social proof works to generate traffic, conversions and sales.

How to Improve Your Social Proof Marketing

Compared to trade show booths, the problem facing ecommerce sites is that it’s impossible to show new visitors the crowd of shoppers on the site. But using the tools of social proof marketing tools will get the point across:

1. Customer Reviews and Ratings – the numbers outlined above prove the power of using reviews and ratings. If you want more proof, look around at the major online retailers. You’ll search for a long time to find one that does not have some form of customer reviews and or ratings.

Many ecommerce sites hesitate to use customer ratings for fear of getting too many negative responses. But fear not, 75% of reviews are positive. (PowerReviews)

And negative reviews carry two major benefits. First, they add authenticity to the positive reviews (no company gets 100% positive reviews, so customers will tend to dismiss those that claim to do so). Second, they give you the opportunity to address customer concerns and demonstrate a high level of engagement and customer service.

2. Testimonials – Sometimes forgotten in the tide of newer technology, testimonials are no less valuable than in the days when they were just about the only social proof tool in the shed. If you’ve ever received a thank you note or compliment over the phone, get permission to use it on your site. While ratings put a numeric value on your company and products, testimonials give them a story.

3. Images and Videos – We all like pretty pictures and, to meet demand, the web becomes more visual every day. Five years ago there was no Pinterest, Instagram or Snapchat. And Youtube is the second largest search engine on the web.

Your testimonials are more likely to be believed when accompanied by a corresponding picture, especially when it’s from a recognized brand advocate. (KISSmetrics)

With the ascendency of image-based sites, customer-generated images and videos have been one of the biggest social proof trends of the past couple of years.

According to visual commerce platform developer GetCandid.com, people who look at user-generated photos are five times more likely to buy online than those who don’t.

Conversion-optimized social proof: GetCandid.com takes social proof to a higher level by letting ecommerce sites to create galleries of ‘shoppable’ customer-generated images. That means not only will your customers be able to see lots of images from other shoppers just like them, but each image carries its own call-to-action button that means viewers are just one click away from buying what they see in the picture.

4. Social Sharing – Social media marketing has its fans and detractors, but, regardless of your opinion, there’s very likely a conversation about your products, brand or something very close to them going on right now on social media. While you may not want to pursue an active social marketing campaign, the numbers show that it’s folly to not let your customers share your content and products to their social networks or let them login to your site with their social accounts.

• 65% of adult internet users have an account on at least one social network
• 40% of consumers prefer using a social login over setting-up a new account or using a guest account
• 68% of consumers use social sites to read product reviews
• 50% use social networks to provide product feedback
• 131% more time is spent on your site by consumers can comment and share using their social accounts
  (monetate)

The Bottom Line: Social proof works. On the trade show floor and for ecommerce.

• It fosters powerful word-of-mouth advertising
• It’s an endless supply of content (“Content marketing is the only marketing left.” Seth Godin)
• It adds credibility. How? Just ask yourself: what’s my impression of a site that has no testimonials, social sharing icons or customer reviews?
• It improves you site’s user experience (UX) – we all want to know what our friends and neighbors are doing
• And social proof shows your customers that you are focused on them

The post Boost Your Ecommerce Conversion Rates with Social Proof appeared first on Invesp.