Top 3 WooCommerce Pre-Launch Social Media Tips To Explode Sales

Social media and online shopping are staples of our modern lives. It’s hard to imagine being without them. Whether for personal or business use, we’re online each day for hours, sharing, liking, commenting, uploading content, and buying products and services.

Social media isn’t a “nice to have” for our businesses either; it’s become indispensable. It crosses every demographic and use case, too. It’s a bit like LEGO – while we’re talking about online shopping. From 9- to 99-year-olds, those plastic bricks are being used in classrooms, kids’ bedrooms, offices, movie theatres, amusement parks, and in Design Thinking workshops. Wherever you are, LEGO is probably somewhere close by, and always visible on social media and online shops.

From TikTok to Insta, from YouTube to X, social media is just as popular as those little plastic bricks. Social Media is free, people are there, and businesses are there – 24/7 and around the world. There are even free social media plugins you can add to your online shop. Got something better for your eCommerce marketing? Show us what you’ve got!

“WooCommerce is the world’s most popular open-source eCommerce solution. Thanks to an almost endless list of extensions and more than 50 themes, WooCommerce is a great place to start your eCommerce journey.”

Rocket.net – The Top 10 Best WooCommerce Plugins for Your WordPress Online Shop

The Secret to Social Media Marketing: Choosing What Not to Do

Before you launch your WooCommerce store, you’ve probably already got some sort of social media presence happening in the background, right? You can leverage that. If not, it’s crucial to establish a strong social media presence. You need to create excitement and anticipation for your store’s opening, and social media is the best way to do that. Why?

• Social media offers a direct line to your audience,
• it’s a two-way conversation,
• it’s authentic and relatable,
• it’s an integral part of your SEO; and,
• it’s affordable – as in free.

However, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. You can bore people with too much excitement. “Just 3 weeks, 5 days, 12 hours, 19 minutes, and 27 seconds until we open! Like and share to win our hourly bonus 10% coupon!” Unless you’re Taylor Swift at a Chiefs Game, you can see how these sorts of posts are annoying.

How to do it better? Think about your relationships. Think about how your customers would like to be treated. Think about how you like to be treated. Do you like that waiter coming up after every forkful to ask how your linguini is? No. Just like a relationship, you can get too close. Get too needy. Top of mind is one thing, but creating hourly reels? There is such a thing as too much marketing.

Social media is a relationship, and like a relationship, you need to focus and be the best version of yourself. You need to listen. You need to be mindful. You need to respond. Most importantly, you need to be with people who help you become great. Your followers are your best advertisers. Get them onboard and don’t forget to say thank you!

“Networking is a great SEO strategy for new online shops. Instead of considering others in your niche as competitors, think of them as potential partners. Don’t be afraid to reach out, leave comments on their blog posts and social media platforms, and share their content.”

Rocket.net – 8 Effective SEO Strategies for New Websites

3 Out-of-the-Box Pre-Launch Social Media Ideas for Your WooCommerce Store Opening

The temptation is to do your pre-launch marketing in a very big way. You’re excited! We get it. You want to differentiate your new online shop from the competition and create a buzz!

But you don’t want to suffocate anyone. Tease them, but don’t give away the farm. And don’t get them bored of hearing about your store before it even opens. Honestly, you don’t want to be in people’s faces, and you don’t have the time either; you’ve got a store to open.

You’re going to want to push out to every platform around the clock, but let’s be honest, it’s not possible to do everything. When you try to be on TikTok and Insta, all the while giving TED Talks on LinkedIn and tech advice on X, you’ll only end up doing something poorly.

The best advice we can give you is to focus on a few key social media goals; eliminating tasks and platforms that aren’t important. It’s not that difficult. Start with asking yourself, where should I be on social media? Where should I be spending my time? What should I be posting? The answer is easy: where are your customers and what content are they watching?

WooCommerce Pre-launch Idea #1: Utilize Instagram Stories with Interactive Elements

This strategy is relatively straightforward to implement and can be highly effective in engaging your target audience. You can use surveys, questions, sliders, and other interactive elements in your stories to encourage viewers to participate and share. 

• Product Introduction with Countdown: Create a countdown story with a link to your website to build anticipation for your product launch. The goal here is to create hype and curiosity.
  
• Product Showcase with Sliders: Highlight your most popular products through a series of Instagram Stories, featuring individual items. Sliders help you gauge viewers’ interest and preferences. Encourage users to rate their favorites and suggest products they would like bundled.

Exclusive Discounts and Giveaways: Promote exclusive discounts or giveaways for your products, too. By saving this to right before your opening date (you can make it the exact minute of opening), you can emphasize the limited-time nature of the deal.

“Nike’s Instagram Stories feature interviews with prominent athletes who use Nike products. During the interviews, the athletes talk about their career accomplishments, rather than focusing on Nike products.”

Hubspot

WooCommerce Pre-launch Idea #2: Host Livestreams to Showcase Your Products and Engage with Customers

Livestreams offer customers a more personal and engaging experience. You can utilize this strategy to promote specific products, provide live demos or tutorials, and answer customer questions in real time. This is How-To content and has high visibility on any platform.

• Live Shopping Event: Host a special shopping event where viewers can pre-order during the livestream. Collaborate with others to boost engagement and reach a broader audience. Add polls and Q&A sessions to engage viewers and gather their feedback.

• Product Tutorials and Demonstrations: Show viewers how they can effectively use your products. It’s that simple. Provide step-by-step guides, tips, and tricks. But – you can also encourage viewers to experiment and share their own use of your products. Showcasing real-life examples helps demonstrate their relevance while connecting with your audience. It’s a win-win!

“The end goal of any digital marketing tactic is to drive sales and increase conversions. Livestream marketing can boost sales intent among your target audience by 97% and solidify brand association by 139%.”

Business News Daily

WooCommerce Pre-launch Idea #3: Create User-Generated Content (UGC) Contests to Encourage Social Sharing

This strategy provides an excellent chance to leverage the power of social proof and influencer marketing. By organizing contests where people are encouraged to share photos or videos featuring your products, you can generate high-quality and authentic content that attracts others to your online store.

• Product Selfie Contest: This is a simple way to generate a large number of posts and can be tailored to various products or product categories.

• Product Challenge: ‘How do you use our product?’ This contest can generate more creative and engaging content than a product selfie contest and appeals to a broader audience of consumers. (Tajin is doing this very well on Instagram.)

Product Review Contest: This competition can yield authentic reviews of your products, helping to build trust and credibility with potential customers.

“LEGO Ideas launched in 2015. LEGO fans are invited to create an original build. The fan gains public support (similar to crowdfunding) on the LEGO Ideas website. This campaign took UGC to the next level by turning customer ideas into an actual line of retail products.”

Meltwater

Level Up Your Online Store Marketing Game with Social Media

Social media isn’t just for posting pics you wish your friends had never taken. It’s a powerful platform for connecting with potential customers, building brand awareness, and generating leads. For WordPress agencies and WooCommerce store owners, social media can be a real game-changer when it comes to boosting sales and upping your marketing game!

By following our strategies, you’ll build a strong social media foundation before launching your WooCommerce store – and have fun doing it!

“The first step for your social media strategy should be to define your goals. What is your strategy? With a sophisticated social media concept, your agency can realize or support a variety of marketing aspects.”

Rocket.net 7 – Social Media Marketing Tips for Agencies

Rocket.net are eCommerce Experts – We’d Love to Show You What the Fastest WordPress Hosting Actually Means for Your WooCommerce Store!

Customer delight means excitement from the time your visitors land on your shop page. You can’t deliver the air-conditioned mall experience, but your styling skills can turn an online shop’s tired Dollar Store look and feel into an Apple Store wow! Let us show you how all your CSS craftsmanship needn’t be lost to slow page load.