Social media can be a great way to market your Shopify store – but only if you know how to use it.
You can reach new customers, build relationships, and grow your brand – but only if you go in with a plan.
That’s why a good social media strategy starts with understanding what social media can and can’t do for your brand. You can create awareness and drive traffic, but you can’t magically turn every visitor into a buyer. If you’re looking to grow a brand quickly, there might be better ways.
Even with these limitations, social media can still be a wonderful marketing tool for Shopify stores. The trick is making sure your actions on social media are strategic, and that you’re not just posting for its own sake.
To create this guide, we reached out to over a dozen eCommerce experts to ask them how they use social media to grow their stores. We then took the best answers and condensed them into 5 specific strategies you can use to market your store on social media.
What Social Media Can & Can’t Do For Your Shopify Store
Social media is powerful, but it’s no silver bullet. It works best when it’s part of a larger marketing ecosystem.
In fact, when asked what marketing methods work best for eCommerce, every single expert we talked to mentioned search engine optimization (SEO). They stressed repeatedly how important it is to rank high on search engines like Google, how much traffic that can bring, and how high the return on investment can be.
A close second was email marketing. Almost every expert we reached out to said that email marketing was incredibly valuable, and their anecdotes are consistent with the data. According to email marketing firm, Litmus, email marketing makes an average of $36 per every dollar spent.
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising was also commonly mentioned. With many experts citing its ability to quickly drive sales and increase visibility, albeit at a comparatively high cost.
All of these types of marketing have one thing in common – they either reach people who have a high chance of purchasing (SEO, PPC) or who already know your brand (email). That means the path from outreach to purchase is shorter.
Vukasin Ilic, Co-founder and Marketing Consultant at software firm, Linkter, aptly summarized the difference. He stated that “while majority of eCommerce store owners focus on social media like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, I [have] found that it’s a lot harder to acquire customers on discovery platforms, because most people are not in a buying state. They want to be entertained, rather than sold to.”
For most use cases of social media, it’s likely that most people you reach will not be in a “buying state.” But you may be able to get them into one – and that’s what the majority of the strategies to follow will cover.
5 Strategies To Market Your Shopify Store On Social Media
Now that you understand how social media fits into a larger marketing plan, we’ll talk about five specific strategies you can use. These are courtesy of the many Shopify experts who kindly contributed their knowledge to this article.
1. Go where your audience is and adapt to the platform.
There is no single “right” platform when it comes to social media. “It largely depends on your target audience and what you’re selling,” says Nate Banks, Founder of Crazy Compression. “For stores like us who sell products that rely on visuals and showcasing unique designs, Instagram [has been] the best choice.”
Justin Christopher, Manager of Ecommerce and Marketing at Klatch Coffee echoes this sentiment. He says, “the most effective use of social media could vary wildly based on the product offered and customer demographics. Social media managers should go where their audience is engaged on social – for example, TikTok for young women’s cosmetics.”
Based on these quotes, it’s clear that marketers need to choose platforms where their audience already spends time. This is far more effective than trying to pull their target audience onto platforms that they do not currently use.
“You will have to tailor the content for the platform,” says Anthony Barone, Co-founder and Managing Director of StudioHawk UK. “These are long-term channels to focus and build on organically while giving a boost with paid [advertising] at times (if your budgets are smaller and you’re just starting out).”
Put another way, every social media platform prioritizes different types of content. You will want to spend the bulk of your effort on platforms where a) your audience already spends time and b) you are able to make content that people genuinely want to see.
14 Major Social Media Sites
You can’t focus on all social media sites at once. It’s a good idea to pick the ones where you are most likely to succeed. Below, you will find a list of common social media sites that are prominent as of the time of writing:
- Instagram: Extremely popular, especially with younger buyers. Excellent for branding and advertising.
- TikTok: Good for quick tutorials, comedy, and unguarded behind-the-scenes moments. The platform recently rolled out TikTok Shop and have generally been investing in their eCommerce capabilities.
- Facebook: The largest social media network in the world. Great for advertising, reaching a large audience, and collecting reviews.
- X (formerly Twitter): A popular social media network based on short messages. It’s very fast-paced. It’s good for networking, reaching out to the press, and customer service.
- LinkedIn: A great network for finding B2B leads and potential employees. Otherwise, very formal and may only be a fit for very specific types of stores.
- YouTube: Great for videos, which may include tutorials, demonstrations, and other educational or entertaining content.
- Pinterest: Ideal for sharing products, especially more artsy or crafty products.
- Reddit: Great for product or content research, as well as finding extremely specific niche interest groups.
- Snapchat: Ideal for promoting time-sensitive events.
- Tumblr: Very difficult to market on, but good for reaching a younger audience.
- Nextdoor: Highly localized social media, good for serving local businesses.
- WhatsApp:An extremely popular messaging app – good for reaching out directly to customers.
- Messenger: Similar to WhatsApp, good for reaching out to directly to customers. Plays well with chatbots.
- Quora: Great for asking and answering questions in fields where expertise is valued.
2. Use paid ads to grow your brand quickly.
So far, you may be left with the impression that social media is a long game. This is largely true, but it should be noted that many social media platforms – including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and others – allow pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. This allows you to select a specific audience and run ads that only they can see.
PPC advertising comes with a learning curve, but it can be wildly effective if you use it correctly. “Facebook has been great for our niche ‘garden plants.’ With high conversions and ROAS it’s a close second to Google Ads,” says Tammy Sons, Founder & CEO of TN Nursery.
Sons goes onto make the case for using PPC advertising to bootstrap a business, saying that “organic takes time; work on it while paying for services. Once your organic audience builds, the spend will be less for PPC and ad media costs.”
Technical SEO consultant, Micah Albert also made a similar statement to this effect, saying “I would suggest using a combination of social ads with organic social to promote products and ensure campaigns are ran on Instagram and TikTok.”
3. Focus on building a community.
Another big benefit of social media is in the name – social. You have a chance to truly connect with your target audience.
Through social media use, you can build real relationships and nurture prospects to eventually turn into clients. You can connect with current buyers and convince to shop again.
Mark Ainsworth, Digital PR and Marketing Director at Maxweb Solutions advocates for using social media to build a community. “Social media is a powerful tool, but it’s not just all about posting your products and hoping for the best. The biggest success we’ve had is through building a community around your brand.”
Anthony Barone concurs, saying that “building a brand and community on these channels through carefully tailored content can help build a customer base.” He goes on to state that “as these channels grow, they can help funnel more people through to your Shopify store.”
Building a community is a multi-step process that differs based on your target audience. But two things are certain – directly conversing online will help start the process and once a community is built, it is very likely to make the cash register ring.
4. Lean into visuals.
Most social media is fundamentally driven by visuals, be they photos or videos. This is especially true in eCommerce, since every purchase is an act of trust. The customer, after all, can’t walk into your Shopify store and inspect the products.
Cofounder of Fortunata, David Mason, had some good advice for Shopify store owners which you can find below in its entirety:
If you have a limited budget, you want to do as much as you can with every pound or dollar of your spend. You’re probably going to need video content to sell products and it’s nice to share content of people using your brand who aren’t you. This can all help the social content plan.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Make video content to add context to your product pages – how to use it, how big it is etc., but also share that content socially, so people of the same demographic can resonate with your brand.
It’s social proof, it can encourage FOMO, and it works.
There’s something more honest and raw about non influencers making [user-generated content] for smaller brands. It’s cheap, it’s useful for your business and you can start immediately.
The old adage is true – seeing is believing.
5. Learn to use Instagram and TikTok.
Up to this point, we have shied away from giving specific advice on which platforms to use, since understanding strategy is far more important. Plus, every audience is different.
But in general, if you are running a Shopify store, the two most important platforms for you are likely to be Instagram and TikTok.
To quote Nate Banks again, “there are a ton of influencers who’ve made Instagram their main platform of choice and where they grew most of their following, allowing us to tap into those audiences easily.”
Ben Duffy, Client Development Manager at Quirky Digital, states that “for Shopify sellers, TikTok and TikTok Shop are increasingly effective, especially with their focus on short, dynamic content that can go viral.”
He further states that “creating engaging, authentic videos that showcase products can lead to instant sales, especially with TikTok Shop allowing users to buy directly within the app. Collaborating with TikTok influencers or running targeted ads can help build brand awareness quickly. Linking your Shopify store directly to your TikTok Shop can create an easy customer journey, turning engagement into conversions.”
It should be noted that Instagram and TikTok were frequently mentioned in our correspondence with experts, aside from the quotes above.
Final Thoughts
Social media is a powerful tool, provided you use it with a clear plan. You can’t simply post and hope for sales. You need to understand your audience, pick the right platforms, and tailor your content for each one. This is how you turn engagement into traffic, and in due course of time, sales.
Many people listlessly scroll through apps for entertainment. They might not be in a buying mood. But if you use visuals effectively, work to build a brand, and consider some ads, you may be able to get the “scroll stopping” effect every brand hopes to achieve. And that can put you on the path to sales.
Remember – social media works best as part of a larger social media strategy. It works best when you combine it with SEO, email, and other methods to reach buyers when they’re ready to act.
