How to increase sales online through social media platforms Instagram and Facebook : Case study: CastleStudio

This Bachelor’s Thesis was created to help a small Finnish handmade business, CastleStudio, increase its online sales through the use of two social media platforms Instagram and Facebook. The case company primarily focuses its online marketing through these two social media platforms which is why they were chosen and because of their relevance and popularity among the target market. The case company has had a very minimal amount of sales on its online store and due to its primary sales being at the markets during the summertime it needs a steady flow of income throughout the year. The research begins with the assessment of the case company’s marketing plans which include a thorough situation analysis on their customers, target market, competitors and internal and external strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This information is continued to use in the research as a content marketing plan is formed and further strategies specifically meant for the social media platforms are created. Due to the authors experience working with the case company most of the information in this thesis is prior knowledge that has not been written down before. The conclusion this thesis comes to is that there are multiple strategies and ways for the case company to approach its objective of increasing online sales. However, the most important one is the need to create consistent, valuable, good-quality content that is vital to plan ahead and focuses on the target market’s needs. The research recommends ways in which the content can be created and methods on how to drive traffic on to the social media accounts