How to use social media to market your deals

Everyone is on the lookout for a great deal these days, and using sites like Facebook and Twitter will help you grab your customers’ attention before they’ve even set foot through the door.

1. Don’t be too pushy

In-store promotions are a great opportunity to start conversations, but this needs to be done carefully on social media, says Matt Rhodes, director of social media consultancy FreshNetworks – nobody wants a brand to be endlessly pushing a competition or offer. Social media is a place for stories and to engage with customers. Promotions provide a great vehicle for this if they move from just advertising the deal to talking about the products and their benefits.

2.  Make it visual

Social media gives you the chance to market and to talk about your deals, so photos of the products on promotion, or of any in-store theatre, are a great way to show your audience what you are doing and what the promotion is really about.

3. Blend it with traditional marketing.

Global media consultant John Stanley advises that you integrate traditional marketing and social media marketing. This means putting Facebook signs up in-store to remind customers that you are using social media.

Action for the experts

If a product is on promotion, get customers to talk about it in-store, take their photo, get a quote and upload this. Create discussion and content about the products and what customers can do with them rather than about the detail of the offer itself.

Click on the next page to see how two leading retailers are using social media to market their businesses