In order to market your sports store on Facebook, you need to understand it’s dynamics, and how different it is from other media. You can’t run advertisements on Facebook the same way you do on websites – you have to be a lot more subtle.

This is mainly because people consider Facebook as a primarily social app, where they expect to interact with their friends, and not venture for a new jersey, or a football to purchase. Therefore, hard-tactics like daily advertisement of different products can get obtrusive for the customer, driving them away from your brand.

It’s plain obvious: Facebook simply requires a different approach. Here’s how you can advertise your sports store on Facebook:

 

Create a human voice for your retail store

Build a relatable reputation through your responses – people like talking to other people, not “businesses”. Business jargon can get dull for the customer to interact with, therefore focus on using simple yet smart language when responding to a customer.

 

Encourage comments and quick replies

Make it known through your Facebook posts that you’d love to “hear from them”. This is a direct invitation for potential customers to offer their own words in the comment section. It can be related to the business, about a topic that interests – it can even be about the next match between Barcelona and Real Madrid!

Be quick to reply, so that people know you not only listen, but are also quick to understand others. Humanising your sports store this way creates a humble, positive and popular outlook.

Keep your content varied

Nobody just wants to see posts about shoes, bats and footballs. They want to see lively content – things that catch their eye and leave an impression.

Offers, contests, surveys, etc. – the options are endless. You can even use Facebook’s live feature and show behind-the-scenes footage, Q&A’s with athletes that represent your sportswear (or any fan for that matter!), stream popular matches and more. The point is to give your customers a range of content they can see, interact and stay interested in. You will have successfully created a stable online presence.

Drive in-store sales during key sporting moments

Whether a much-awaited competition is about to start, or the world cup final is about to end, take every sporting moment you get to increase your store’s sales via Facebook.

Here, you need to use a sporting POS software – one like Oscar POS. Use it’s Reporting and Analytics feature to know which product is selling best, and at which outlet (for when you have multiple ones). Set up that popular product line on your Facebook page; you may even boost it as a paid advertisement. Since people are more likely to spend time on their mobile devices, you can garner increased loyalty, and increased sales.

No matter how competitive the sporting industry gets, Facebook is there to give everyone a chance at success. Making a brick-and-mortar presence is necessary, but an online presence makes all the difference between a simple sports retailer – and a well-known sports store.