Businesses and brands are feeling the heat amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Global economies have hit rock bottom, and businesses are mulling over steps that can help them in growing their revenue in the post COVID world.
Businesses of all sizes are under severe strain due to the loss in demand and highly restricted cash flow. Moreover, the pandemic has put a huge question mark on whether the small businesses would survive in these extraordinary times.
However, one point is abundantly clear; businesses will require a well-thought-out approach to their marketing strategies once this pandemic subsides. This is where social media platforms come in.
Social media platforms have altered the entire marketing landscape for small businesses and opened up new horizons in the way everyday trade is conducted.
With the introduction of features such as Facebook shops, businesses can now establish their digital footprint, entirely free of cost!
In this post, we will be talking about a few amazing features provided by social media platforms along with some useful tips that can help you in growing your business post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leveraging Social Media For Business Growth Post COVID-19
Moving forward, we will be looking at a few small businesses supporting features provided by social media platforms and how they can be leveraged to grow your business post the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s begin!
1. Pay attention to Facebook Shops
Facebook’s new Shops feature enables businesses to establish a digital presence for themselves and sell their products or service on the Facebook platform.
Since the pandemic has forced most of the businesses to shut down, the Shops feature might just prove to be the holy grail for small businesses.
Small businesses are increasingly looking for setting up online sales channels, that usually comes with a cost attached to them. However, the Shops feature is completely free, and users just need to pay a small transaction fee to Facebook for purchases made on the platform.
Facebook already has a marketplace model where individual sellers can list their products for sale. But, this approach was primitive and mostly revolved around peer-to-peer transactions.
However, the Shops feature encourages businesses to register their digital shops on the platform and run a full-fledged online store, complete with a payment system, and everything.
Shop owners now also have the ability to promote their digital establishments through Facebook Ads and garner additional consumer reach. If you are a small business looking for digital platforms to establish your online shop, Facebook Shops might be an excellent choice for you.
2. Leverage the YouTube video platform
Video marketing has emerged as the next best thing in recent times. Fueled with the rising consumer demand for video content and the advancements in video creation platforms, it has become easier for businesses to create and send out high-quality video ads effortlessly.
You can easily create outro & intro videos using a video maker and send it out as an ad or publish it on the YouTube platform.
Advertising on the YouTube network comes with the integration of Google Ads that displays the advertisements to relevant users only and ensures an effective ROI on your video marketing spends.
Video ads have massive reach and are highly suitable for audiences of all age groups. Since videos are self-explanatory and memorable, they are perfect for pushing out promotional content, which can be made using a promo video maker, and garnering enormous reach that helps you to grow your business.
3. Utilize Pinterest’s new shop features
Pinterest has added new products on its shopping front that are sourced from 21 small and medium-sized businesses from the US.
The motive behind the addition of new products is garnering increased visibility and exposure to these businesses in what are now, extraordinary times.
Another new addition is the ‘Pinterest Verified Merchant’ program that provides pre-vetted shop owners with a blue tick beside their business name.
This program also provides other benefits as well, such as increased product distribution, and advanced data-driven metrics such as conversion reporting.
Additionally, products from verified shop owners are displayed on dedicated pages such as ‘related products,’ and they get access to crucial data such as a customer’s average order value.
Hence, verified Pinterest shops can be very effective in enhancing the exposure that your products get and driving customers to your digital selling portal.
4. Instagram’s sticker feature for businesses
Instagram has released a new feature to help small businesses in increasing their sales and generating awareness among customers. Instagram’s stickers come in the form of gift cards, food orders, or fundraiser stickers that users can share on their profile page or as stories.
Various parts of the globe are still under the COVID induced lockdown, which makes it difficult for businesses to serve their customers.
However, Instagram stickers can help your customers in showing solidarity with your business by ordering takeout, making purchases, or purchasing a gift card that can be redeemed at a later date.
This feature aims at generating new business opportunities for small businesses and facilitating some form of earning and exposure amidst this global pandemic.
Moreover, this feature opens up the doors for businesses to get support via the Instagram platform during these extraordinary times.
Wrapping Up
Social media platforms have come to the rescue of small businesses in these uncertain times. This has provided a ray of hope to small businesses, many of which are struggling to survive in this lockdown period.
If you are a business owner and want to enhance your sales and exposure effectively in this period, the above-mentioned features of these social media platforms can help you do just that and grow your business even in these uncertain times.
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