Table Of Content

How to Leak-proof the Social Media Marketing Funnel for eCommerce

Table Of Content

‍Learn how to maximize your ecommerce success with a winning social media marketing funnel!

With the average person spending 2 hours and 29 minutes daily on social media, it's no surprise that brands are using these platforms to promote their products and reach their target audience.

‍85% of brands use social media to boost brand awareness, and 71% of consumers say it influences their purchase decision.

But does that mean they discover a product and purchase it right away?

Despite the discovery of new brands and products on social media, consumers still go through different stages in the buyer journey before making a purchase from the brand. And to move them along the different stages, it requires more than just being present on social media.

Businesses must think through the customer journey, taking into account what influences or enables them at each stage and create a social media marketing funnel to optimize their shopping experiences.

In this blog post, we'll dive into how to create a successful social media marketing funnel for eCommerce and explore tactics that can help you optimize it for maximum conversions.

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What is a social media marketing funnel?

A social media marketing funnel is a strategic framework that guides potential customers through the different stages of the buying process either on social media platforms or when their journey starts from them.

It involves a series of steps to acquire, engage, and convert leads into paying customers. Also known as the stages of the social media marketing funnel, these steps have specific goals and a set of actions that companies can take to move customers down the funnel - towards making a purchase from their brand store.

Key stages of the social media marketing funnel

Awareness - It is also known as the top of the social media marketing funnel. At this stage, you attract the attention of your target audience through engaging content, ads, influencers, or organic reach.
Interest - Once you have your audience’s attention, generate interest and build relationships at this stage of the social media marketing funnel. Thus, you provide valuable content at this stage, interact with your audience, and encourage them to explore your brand further.
Consideration - At this stage of social media marketing funnel your potential customers are actively considering your products or service at this stage. Here you reinforce customer decisions by showcasing the unique value proposition, highlighting benefits, and addressing any concerns or objections they may have.
Conversion - The conversion stage of social media marketing funnel is where potential customers take the desired action, such as purchasing, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting more information. Thus providing a seamless and optimized user experience is important for quick conversion.
Advocacy - The social media marketing funnel doesn’t end at conversion. You should maximize the lifetime value of your costumes by retaining them and turning them into brand advocates. This involves nurturing relationships, providing excellent customer service, and encouraging social sharing and referrals.

What is an eCommerce funnel?

An eCommerce marketing funnel is the series of steps or stages a customer goes through when purchasing on your website or online store. A funnel represents a visitor's journey, from discovering a product or website to completing a purchase.

Key stages of the eCommerce marketing funnel

Site Visit - Initially potential customers visit your eCommerce website. This can be done through various channels such as search engines, social media and referrals. At this stage, the visitor usually aims to explore and find products and information.
Product View - When visitors land on your website, they start browsing various product pages. They view product details, images, descriptions, prices, and all other relevant information. During this phase, the visitor expresses interest in one or more of your products and spends time exploring these products in detail.
Add to Cart - When visitors find a product of interest, they can add it to their shopping cart. This action indicates a higher willingness to buy. The shopping cart allows customers to review their selections, change quantities, and continue shopping if desired.
Enter Checkout - Once the visitor finishes adding products to their cart, they proceed to the checkout stage. Here, they enter their shipping and billing details, choose a payment method, and review their order. This stage is critical, as it signifies the customer’s commitment to purchase.
Purchase - The final stage of the eCommerce marketing funnel is when a visitor submits an order and completes a purchase. Your customer's payment will be processed, and you will receive an order confirmation. Once the transaction is completed, the customer becomes the buyer.

How do the eCommerce and social media marketing funnel come together?

Integrating eCommerce and social media platforms is called social commerce, where users can discover, browse, and purchase products directly within the social media environment. It is what brings the eCommerce and social media funnels together.

Here’s what a typical buyer journey looks like when social media and eCommerce comes together:

Brand awareness - Surveys have shown that more than 60% of consumers today find new brands and products on social media through their own content, social media ads or influencer collaborations.
Research and discovery - This is when consumers start to explore the social media profiles and pages of the brand to get to know them better. It can include seeing content they are tagged in, reading reviews or checking out the influencers they have collaborated with.
Consideration and evaluation - At this stage, customers are evaluating the options they have, comparing similar brands or products. This includes engaging with the brand via comments or direct messages to get more information.
Conversion and purchase - When a consumer has evaluated the brand or the product to satisfaction, this is where they take the decision to either subscribe for alerts or follow the brand, or complete a purchase from them.

Why is the current social commerce funnel broken?

We have been conducting surveys to continually understand the changing eCommerce and social media ecosystem. While it is evident that brand discovery and research on products has moved to social media across a majority of demographics, online shopping is still not happening on these platforms - 47% of online shoppers navigate to brand sites despite the commerce features that the likes of TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms have to offer.

One of the key reasons is the desire for a secure interface to transact over.

Consumers value the trust and security provided by brand websites as found in our State of Social Commerce Report, which often offer secure payment gateways and a familiar shopping environment. As a result, when presented with the option to make a purchase, they click through to the brand's website, leaving social media behind.

However, this shift from social media to the brand website doesn't guarantee conversions. Despite the initial interest, not all social traffic on a website makes a purchase. The average conversion rate on eCommerce websites ranges from a mere 1-4%.

Why is the conversion rate so low?

The answer lies in the disruption caused to the consumer's interaction with the brand. When users transition from social media to a website, they experience a break in continuity. They lose the context of what initially caught their attention on social media, making them more susceptible to distractions and easily bouncing off the website.

The disconnect between the social media experience and the brand website experience is a critical factor. Customers may have been captivated by a compelling social media post, a video, or an influencer's endorsement, but the transition not just interrupts their journey, but also the content context that interests them.

Think about the number of times you found a product on social media, but felt it wasn’t the same on the brand’s website.

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How can brands reduce drop-offs from the social commerce funnels? Edge Storefronts.

Despite making social media platforms a key channel for brand discovery and engagement, consumers are going to continue buying from brand websites - and that’s where the change needs to happen.

Instead of taking consumers from social media to the brand site, it’s time to reverse their journey and streamline the number of steps they need to take at each stage of the funnel - with Edge Storefronts.

Edge storefronts blend social media content with the eCommerce experience and set up brands to create a consistent experience for online shoppers. Their ability to turn all social media content shoppable eases the journey of a consumer at each stage - be it awareness, research, discovery or making the purchase.

But that’s not all.

Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, edge storefronts are designed to be able to identify multiple intent and interests of social media users, and personalize the storefront page to meet their preferences.

Let’s explain this with an example.

You see the following post on social media and instantly take a liking to the overall outfit. So you click through the link and land on a page that only shows the t-shirt; the jeans are nowhere in sight - you came in looking for an outfit, but found none. Worse, if you came looking for the jeans, you’re going to walk away disappointed. That’s how the transition from social commerce to brand site usually happens!

Now when you have an edge storefront, the technology is able to identify all the visual elements in your social media content. So when a shopper clicks through, they land on a page that displays products related to each of those elements.

As you can see below, the technology can identify three clear visual components, creating a storefront page that gives the buyer an option to buy the jeans as well as the t-shirt, and also explore other similar products.

Simply put, edge storefronts bring the branded site experience to social media - conversion elements like product recommendations, included!

So no matter what stage of the funnel a buyer is at, you get to offer them a personalized shopping experience instead of limiting their options of how they discover products of their interest!

Interesting?

It sure is. But what it is more, is converting!

Book a demo to learn more about edge storefronts.

Ruth Peters

Chief Marketing Officer