Social media is an integral part of any business strategy, helping you to become a thriving and successful business. Planning ahead of time with considered content so that you can post regularly across all your different social media platforms is a great way of ensuring you’re engaging with your followers and customers. It also gives you the kind of footings you need for social media success. Once you have all the dates set in your calendar and you know what you’re going to say on each post; now you have to ensure you say it with eye catching graphics, imagery and text. Here is where you need to focus on ways you can enhance and build your brand identity. Simplicity is key; you only need to change subtle elements of each post thus ensuring you keep your overall brand identity.
Nike posts are always actual live pictures of people, they are not staged studio pictures.
Whereas, Chanel posts are staged subtle pictures.
It’s also really important that with lots of talk about social media you don’t neglect your website. Too many businesses are of the opinion that the cost and time required to make regular website changes to reflect product, service and market changes are not worth the effort or cost. However, more people will visit your website during certain periods (especially first time visitors) so failing to optimise your site means you’re failing to provide your customers the experience that you want them to have.
Enhancing your site doesn’t mean a complete overhaul, it means strategically going through it any ensuring any upcoming sales or events are not missed opportunities for your audience and that all your products descriptions and photos are appealing to your buyer.
For example at Christmas time a simple red bow on an item is maybe all that is needed. If you work with a designer give them some templates or images that you like so they can work from them. Or if you’re working on your own, canva.com is a great place to create great graphics.
Below are some optimisation ideas which are good to look at every so often to ensure you keep on track.
- Theme your homepage at different times of the year, Christmas, summer and New Year etc
- Add a countdown timer for any sales or new product launches
- Highlight your return policy & guarantees
- Add testimonials
- Refresh your product pages
- Clearly communicate shipping details (especially around Christmas)
- Make sure you don’t have any broken links on your site