Yesterday, you laid the foundation of your ecommerce brand by creating a logo and telling your company’s story. Today, you’re going to learn how to speak your customer’s language – to engage your target audience more effectively and increase the appeal of your brand.
I’ll also walk you through the steps you need to take to set up Facebook and Instagram accounts for your store.
Today, we’re going to:
Learn how to use the same language as your target audience, so that they connect with your brand
Create Facebook and Instagram accounts and begin to fill them out
Imagine 5 men and 5 women signing up for the same exercise session. The men are telling their peers that they want to ‘get lean,’ while the women are all saying they want to ‘tone up’ for the beach season. Both genders have a similar goal but speak a totally different language.
If you can figure out what language your customers speak and use it in your branding, you’ll change people’s perception of your store.
Amanda Asks
“How can I know if I’m really speaking my audience’s language?”
My answer: Look at their conversations in Facebook Groups, study their Instagram profiles, and exchange a few messages.
I consider these places to be a ‘language comfort zone,’ where audiences casually (and naturally) speak about their passions, interests, and problems. Here’s a quick look at how each of them can give you an insight into the word and terminologies your target audience regularly uses.
Facebook Groups
People join Facebook Groups to engage in casual discussions with like-minded people. Typically, they find it to be a safe place where they can share their thoughts with others, comment on breaking news, and open up a bit more. This is why it makes sense to observe the conversations that happen there.
For example, if you’re selling eco-friendly items through your store, you can join ‘sustainable living’ and ‘eco-friendly’ groups to see the type of language people use there.
I joined one of such groups to see if I could find any specific words and references for the ‘eco-friendly’ audience. And it worked!
One of the first posts I came across gave me some ideas of the language that could be used for an eco-friendly audience. People selling in the same niche could sprinkle phrases like ‘eco-warriors’ and ‘self-care routine’ in their branding to engage audiences better.
You can take a similar approach by joining Facebook Groups that are relevant to your niche.
Instagram feed
Another place you should explore is the Instagram feed of your ideal customer.
Let’s assume you’re selling wigs, extensions, and other hair-related products through your store. What you could do is search for product-related hashtags on Instagram to find people who are passionate about hair products, and then examine their Instagram feed to see the way they speak.
Here’s what comes up if I search for #wigs on Instagram.
Most of the content is from people who’re passionate about wigs and other hair products.
Digging further into their profiles, I came across a few words that someone selling hair products could use in their branding, like ‘rocking a wig’.
Just like their conversations in Facebook Groups, the Instagram feed of your target audience can help you gain an understanding of your customer’s language – you just need to do a bit of research.
Messages
Lastly, exchange a few messages with people who fit in your target demographic. These could be on Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, or SMS – the choice of medium is yours to pick.
If you’re selling scarves like Amanda, for instance, you could exchange messages with women who’re into lifestyle and fashion.
From this example, you could take the phrase ‘peaceful serene vibe’ and use it on your About Us or product pages.
By using your customer’s language, you’ll be able to create copy and updates that sound like their own, setting the expectation that your brand is familiar with their interests.
Set up Facebook & Instagram
Facebook and Instagram are marketing channels that you simply can’t ignore.
Both enable you to reach the world at large, as well as nurture prospects and respond to customer service queries.
However, you’ll first have to create a business account on both before you can post branded messages and product updates. I’ve provided a step-by-step walkthrough below to help you get through this phase quickly and easily.
You’ll then be asked to choose one of the following Page categories:
Click ‘Get Started’ for business or brand.
Next, you’ll have to fill in the basic information of your brand or business:
Page Name
Category
Address
Write your store’s name as the page name, and choose your business niche as the category. The address can be a random one, and you can hide it later.
Click ‘Continue’ once you’re done.
Next, you’ll be asked to upload a profile image. Put the logo you made on Day 7 in here (most ecommerce brands tend to do this).
The ideal dimensions for the profile image are 360 x 360 pixels, and the minimum size that Facebook accepts is 180 x 180 pixels.
Once you’ve added a profile photo, it’s time to upload a cover image.
The cover image is the first thing that catches people’s attention when they visit the Facebook page of a business. So it’s key to put up something that showcases your brand’s personality and uniqueness.
Facebook displays covert art at 820 x 312 pixels on PCs, and 640 x 360 pixels on smartphones.
[highlight] You can also ‘skip’ the profile and cover image part during the page creation process and come back to upload their contents later. [/highlight] And that’s mainly it. You now own a Facebook Business Page that you can use to promote your store.
By the way, you’ll be connecting your Instagram account to with the same Business page in order to be able to set up a business account on Instagram.
To create a business account on Instagram:
[highlight]I’ve used a friend’s personal Instagram account to demonstrate how to set up an Instagram business account, as my own personal account is already linked to a business profile.[/highlight] Sign into your personal Instagram account and tap the circled profile image at the bottom right of the screen.
On the page that appears, tap the 3 vertical lines at the top right corner of the screen.
Next, tap the wheel icon for ‘Settings’ at the bottom right.
Scroll down and tap ‘Switch to business profile,’ and then swipe left to learn more about the new features Instagram has introduced for business profiles.
When you’re done reading, tap the blue ‘Continue’ button to move forward.
The next screen will ask you to pick a Facebook business page to connect to. Choose your store’s and tap ‘Next’.
You’ll now be asked to enter a phone number, address, and email for your business. You need to fill at least one of these fields to move onto the next step. I just put in my store’s email ID.
Once you’re done, the Instagram app will take you back to your profile, which should now be a business profile.
For consistency, the username of your Instagram business profile should match the name of your Facebook Business Page.
The other things you should pay attention to are your Instagram bio, profile image, and website link.
From my experience, people really look at your Instagram bio. It’s not like Facebook where audiences are unlikely to read the description of the page. Hence, it’s important to come up with a bio that fits with and relates to your branding efforts.
If you’re not sure about what to include in your bio, Oberlo has 200+ Instagram bio ideas you can copy and paste.
For the profile image, use the logo you had created on Day 7, but make sure to change its dimensions to 110 x 110 pixels.
Here’s the Instagram business profile of my sunglasses dropshipping store:
I used the logo I had created for it as the profile image and added a few emojis and lines. Additionally, I used the direct URL of the store as the website link, so that anyone who finds this profile on Instagram can go to the ecommerce site to make a purchase.
That’s all you need to do to set up business accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Post some content on each to make sure they don’t look empty. Also, start liking and commenting on the posts of micro-influencers that you had researched on Day 2.
Then, after a few days of posting content and updates, inform people about the giveaway that you had designed on Day 6.
