Beginning Boutique director Sarah Timmerman has revealed five tips for online retail success.
Beginning Boutiuqe has over 500,000 followers on Instagram and another 500,000 followers on Facebook.
1. Find the best platform for your brand
Of course it can seem daunting with so many mediums available to leverage but to truly get the best ROI for your business you simply need to be where your customers are. The first step to assessing which social media platform to utilise would be to see where your traffic is coming from and focus on these mediums.
2. Ask questions!
Social media provides you with the platform to ask your customers anything, which is something a lot of brands don’t leverage. It's free research! Beginning Boutique uses Pinterest to get followers to vote for their favourite item with a like or
comment and Shapchat to send followers sneak peaks of new styles. Involving your customers in a constant conversation will keep them engaged as well as provide you with valuable insight into the content and products they want to see.
3. Find out what works
Find out when your customers or followers are online most, find out what they are engaging with most and tailor your content strategy around this. Don’t post 10 times a day if you aren’t seeing any interaction with half of these posts. You can use Iconosquare to see your optimal posting times on Instagram and Facebook through the insights panel.
4. Have others make beautiful content for you
If you are not a writer, photographer or graphic designer, don’t put pressure on yourself to produce flawless content for social media. If you are in the position to hire a professional to create your content then I highly recommend this. You can still have creative control over the style and products featured, however you know the content will be of a high standard. You can also reach out to bloggers and influencers to create content for you.
5. A content strategy is a must
Everything comes back to content strategy – with the time and effort you need to invest into social media, you need to have a strategy to back this up. Social media is a promotional gold mine and can be a cost effective online growth opportunity if you understand the importance of creating a comprehensive posting schedule.