With online shopping now being the go-to method for many people, Shopify (among other platforms) has become a way for businesses of all sizes to sell their products online with no hassle.

Although, once your Shopify store is set up, you’ll need to put in the effort to generate traffic and sales. The best way to do this is to use social selling.

Social selling is an effective way to connect with potential customers and eventually turn them into paying customers. In this article, we’ll give you some tips on how to use social selling to drive Shopify sales.

What Is Social Selling?

Social selling refers to connecting with potential customers and building relationships with them by using your brand’s social media channels. This sales strategy uses organic social media growth and engagement to help you become more visible and offer value.

Social selling is not social advertising or social marketing. It works like inbound marketing. Connecting and engaging with your customers on your social media keeps you on their minds. This makes it easier for them to choose your brand when they are ready to buy. 

It helps businesses reach sales targets over some time. You can also avoid the problem of cold calling that comes with outbound marketing methods. 

Why You Should Care 

Here are some reasons you should consider social selling. 

Your Customers Are Already Social Buying

With 4.7 billion people spending their time on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other platforms, there's a huge potential to make sales on social media. 

As more Americans move towards online shopping, brands with a large online presence will have an advantage. Statista reports that 74.3% of Americans purchase goods online, and this is expected to increase to 80.4% by 2025. Brands with a large following will be in a good position to capitalize on this trend.

Putting your business before customers in a way that reaches them is the same as displaying your brand on a set stage. 

Competitors Are Use Social Selling

Many brands maintain social media platforms to stay visible to potential customers. Facebook and Instagram are two popular social media sites where Americans often make purchases.

As seen in the sales statistics above, many businesses are making new customers, getting leads, and hitting targets. Social selling is a way to stay competitive.

Social Selling is Effective

The statistics on social selling show that it's one of the most effective ways to sell your brand and hit your target. It helps to make long-term customers and attract new ones. 

Here are a few numbers that support this: 

• 78% of sales reps that use social media as part of their sales technique outsell their peers.
• 64% of teams using social selling hit their quota compared to 49% that don't. 
• 76% of buyers are ready to have a social media conversation with possible providers. 
• Social sellers are 51% more likely to reach their sales quotas. 
• 33% of users prefer to contact brands through social media rather than phone calls. 

Social Selling Helps Brands Connect Better

Since 2020, sales and business patterns have become less rigid. The ability to make sales now depends on building an organic and original relationship with your client base. 

Social selling lets you speak to customers on their turf, using their preferred languages. You can also rely on social tools like in-app analytics to find the customers and potential investors already talking about your brands, making targeting the right and interested people easier.  

All Hands on Deck

The best thing about social selling is that everyone on your team can get engaged. While social selling sounds like sales, it requires the connection and interaction of the marketing team. 

The content you give your followers can also be very diverse. For example, you can show them aspects of production, get retailers involved, and provide insight into your workplace culture. 

Your team has to develop the right context for your brand. Social selling works better when people feel a genuine connection and can understand what your brand represents.

Benefits of Social Selling 

Here are some benefits you can get from social selling as a professional or personal brand: 

• Build Trust: Trust is a huge part of the sales process. Social selling helps you build trust by providing a long-term avenue to do so. You can communicate and establish personal relationships so that customers feel comfortable buying from you. 
• Long-Term Results: Social selling is an organic process, so it's not likely to drive impulse sales. You can attract potential buyers and keep your business on their minds until they make a purchase. You can also stay in contact and provide after-sales services. 
• Consumer Insight: Social selling helps you learn about your customer sales. You can converse with your customers and analyze what drives them based on likes and post engagement. This valuable information provides insight into the right customer strategy. It also helps you know if there's a sales aspect or a product that your brand needs to improve. 
• Social Proof: You can get social testimonies and direct consumer feedback through social selling. This creates positive media for your business, which drives more sales in return. 
• Thought Leadership: Social media helps you create a consistent voice. You can contribute to important conversations, discuss public concerns, and raise awareness. This helps make your brand credible and bold. 
• Customer Service: Many people prefer to contact brands on social media.  Social selling will help you answer customer inquiries and receive complaints. You can improve your response time with customer service personalization to satisfy customers. 
• Acquire Leads: Social selling can help you get leads for your business. People who come across your content on their feeds may gain interest and make a move by followership or leaving a comment. 
• Form Partnerships: Instagram has made it easier for brands to collaborate on social campaigns or work with an influencer to get newer customers. You can use social selling to partner with like-minded brands and influencers to drive sales. 

Social Selling Strategy 

Social selling helps you build connections and trust with your customer base. Here are some strategies to make social selling impactful. 

Choose the Right Platforms

WhatsApp is a great platform for small business owners to tap into existing connections. You can reach a large number of people through WhatsApp template messages.

Reddit and YouTube followers are often more engaged and give insightful comments. You can reach younger audiences with witty content on Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. 

Facebook and Twitter are more formal but are also considered the biggest sales platform. 

Third-Party Tools

Several third-party tools make social selling easier for salespeople. For example, companies like Zoko and Salesforce have tools that let brands communicate better with their customers on social media platforms. 

Social Listening

Social listening is defined as paying attention to online conversations, comments, and complaints. This helps you define your messaging and build a more authentic brand. 

How to Use Social Selling to Drive Shopify Sales 

Driving your Shopify sales involves paying attention to the right things. It takes more than adding the link to your Shopify store on your company's profile. 

Here are simple ways to make it work. 

Identifying Your Audience

Spend some time on research and to better understand your customer demographics and psychographics. Visit the pages your customers often visit and check competitor websites to know what content their customers engage with more. 

Focus on location, age bracket, gender, industry, income level, buying concerns, relationship status, etc. Anything helps. This information will help you create a buyer persona.

Knowing who will value your product most helps you create relatable content and the right voice. Creating meaningful content will increase the number of visits to your Shopify storefront and lead to sales conversion.

Important Metrics And KPIs

Numbers are important in sales and marketing. Check out the analytics tool for each platform you are on regularly. 

It's important to keep track of engagement. Engagement helps you see what content your customers enjoy more. You can check the number of likes, comments, clicks, shares, and retweets. 

Studying your brand awareness is equally important. You can do this by viewing impressions, sentiment, reach, account mentions, etc. 

Create Content

Great content will increase the number of clicks to your Shopify store. Ensure you create content that provides value to your consumers and puts them first. While going with trends can be good in the short run, keeping them in line with your brand tone is best. 

Allocate your resources properly and make your page attractive to first-time visitors. Also, determine your content mix and create a schedule. Consistency is half the job when building a strong social media presence. 

Key Takeaways

Shopify has several apps to help you grow your business, which makes social selling easier than you think. This will drive sales and increase your customer retention rate. 

• Identify your audience and set a tone/brand image correspondingly. 
• Set your KPIs and study your metrics regularly with in-app analytics tools. 
• Create genuine and valuable content that's built around helping your customers. 
• Build a customer journey map to keep track of your Shopify sales from social selling.