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10 Ways to Market Your Ecommerce Store on Twitter

August 8, 2015

It’s a confusing world out there! Tweet all the time or tweet only occasionally? Promotions only or a strong mix of material? A narrow focus or a broad approach? There are so many options available when working with a social media site such as Twitter, it seems like anything goes. So how do you make the most of your time and budget when promoting your ecommerce store on Twitter? These 10 tips will help you increase your market share in no time!

How do you make the most of your time and budget when promoting your ecommerce store on Twitter? (Tweet this)

1) Have a plan. There’s a commonly repeated quote that failing to plan is planning to fail. It’s commonly repeated for a reason. Beyond Twitter and social media, not having a plan for your business is like starting a trip without a destination in mind; it may be fun, but you’ll probably find that you’ve really gotten nowhere fast. Instead, spend a little time each week figuring out where your business is going and plot a course to figure out how to get there.

2) Stay on top of what’s happening on Twitter’s back-end. All social media sites have particular quirks, changes and adaptations to how things are done. By staying up to date on these issues, you’ll be a step ahead of your competition by moving with the changes instead of reacting to them.

3) Have a budget, whether it’s time or money, and stick to it. In any business venture or just life in general, it’s almost always a given that there is never enough time or money to accomplish everything you want to. Instead of spending all day spinning your wheels and micromanaging your Twitter account, schedule an hour to take care of all your social media needs and when the hour is up, finish the current task and move on. If it’s a budgetary issue, try to figure out creative ways to save a few dollars, such as having a college intern in to help with your new ad campaign.

4) Variety is the spice of life. Sure, it’s great that you’re having your 23rd sale of the year on your knitting counter app, but what about the new world record that was just broken for stitches per minute? Your potential customers want to know what’s going on with you, but they also want to know what else is going on in your industry. Don’t be afraid to rehash a great news story, event or happening in your life; social media marketing is all about making your business unique and personal.

5) Research, research, research. Is your market of amazing 20-somethings starting to die down? If it is, you can either change your approach to seduce them again or figure out what other markets are developing or underserved to find new customers. Why restrict your research to what you’re seeing? If you’re on good terms with a competitor, asking if they’re seeing the same issue will tell you whether it’s a problem with the market or a problem with your approach to it.

6) Set some goals. Are you trying to reach more potential customers or better quality ones? How many do you want to reach and in what amount of time? Do you want to see a particular improvement in your return on investment? By setting goals, you’re setting a benchmark to achieve, whether it’s through friendly competition within your company or a drive to be the top business in your specialty.

7) Don’t forget the hashtags. By creating categories for your tweets, you can reach a particular audience and make it easier for them to find tweets that are related to their interests. You may sell sheepskin car seat covers, but you may have racing fans, long-haul drivers, grandmas with sensitive derrieres and natural living fanatics watching for your tweets. Help them find the information that matches their interests instead of making them wade through a sea of tweets.

8) Start conversations. Everyone hates hanging out with the person at the party who insists on stealing the spotlight and ruling every conversation. Instead of simply telling people what’s up with your business in tweets, ask a few questions! Whether it’s which model or color is best, good dates for your next big event or what information they need to make a purchase, asking questions shows prospective customers that you care about their opinions.

9) Make a connection. Sure, you’ve already done that with people viewing your tweets, but do they know where to go for the latest blog post/product/contest entry that you’re promoting? It seems like a pretty simple thing, but much like a call to action, a link to where you want them to go helps stop frustration when somebody wants to check out what you’re tweeting about.

10) Newton had it right all along. Bodies at rest remain at rest and bodies in motion remain in motion. If you’re spending all your time working on email, discussing next week’s potluck or trying to avoid the telephone, your business is going to do just that: nothing productive. On days when it’s hard to get motivated, commit yourself to spending just 15 minutes working on your Twitter campaign. Whether it’s planning your strategy, creating new tweets or responding to them, getting started is the hardest part. You’ll probably find that once you’ve started, it’s easy to keep going!

Now that you’ve had a chance to expand your Twitter reach, why not take that momentum and run with it? After implementing these 10 ideas, register for our free newsletter to help keep you on top of your game with posts that keep your business in the loop.