Social Media ‘Buy Now’ Buttons: 3 Action Steps

Still *holding your breath* looking for ways to justify your team’s investment in social media? Breathe out - you’re not alone. Businesses are constantly looking for better ways to measure, refine, optimize, and monetize their social presence. And social media call to action (CTA) buttons are a great way to do just that. Here are a few things to consider before diving into the “buy now” button deep end.

Social giants like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram have all launched CTA “Buy Now” buttons to their advertising platforms. CTA buttons enable consumers to take immediate action directly from their social newsfeed on either a mobile or desktop device. This is awesome for marketers because it enables them to:

Limit the amount of steps their customers take to make a transaction online Help decrease the abandonment rate of e-commerce shopping carts Identify their highest converting social platform Validate their social media investments impact on conversion Track social media ROI

eCommerce software providers like Shopify are seeing huge success since introducing social media CTA’s on their platform. As a certified Shopify Development Partner, it’s promising for me to see that their sales surged in Q3, up 93.4% from Q3 in 2014 since the introduction of social CTA’s.

There’s typically four options for CTA’s. Shop Now, Install Now, Sign Up, & Learn More. The options enable businesses to connect with their audience in new and unique ways. With nearly all social media’s big players on board, there’s more and more ways for businesses and brands to start taking advantage of the new CTA service.

But like anything else, CTA’s are not a sure-fire way to increase sales this holiday season and beyond. Here are a few ways to increase your chances of success.

Focus on Growth

It’s important that you’ve reached critical mass on your social profiles. With Social CTA’s it’s guaranteed that you’re not going to convert 100% of your audience. You’ll likely score a relatively small fraction of that. So focus on growing your audience and cultivating a trusting and engaged user base.

Invest in Social

Growing an engaged audience is rarely (if ever) simple. Try putting your social URL’s and handles/URLs over all your promo materials. Don’t neglect your offline channels. Promote a social culture among your team to help organically grow your brand and build brand ambassadors.

Build Trust

Your audience will buy from you directly on social media if they know and trust you. One great way to build trust is to create and promote amazing content. With 63% of companies planning to increase their content marketing budgets this year, creating quality content will help build trust with your audience, making them more apt to purchase when you launch your CTA campaigns.

Shopping Cart by Fernando Vasconcelos from the Noun Project

Shopify image courtesy of Adlucent