Marketing Strategy: How influencers repel customers

Marketing Strategy: How influencers repel customers

by | Nov 2, 2021 | Digital Marketing

Are you scrambling to find influencers for your brand? Are you seeing competitors using bloggers and other content creators to drive social media shares and traffic to their site? And you think “hey if it works for them—it’ll work for me too. Right?”

Not exactly right. 

In this blog post, learn some of the reasons influencers turn off customers, the shifting world of the influencer, and how to spot the right spokesperson to drive sales and crush competition so trust isn’t lost in your brand.

Influencer marketing and the history behind it

Social media is fairly new as a marketing tool, but it’s already seen many trends come and go in its relatively short lifetime. One of the most popular social marketing techniques from the last few years, influencer marketing, is going strong—but it’s also gone through a lot of changes already as brands have experimented with how to best leverage its power. 

Influencer marketing is the latest version of a well-worn tactic: compel the audience to buy through positive word-of-mouth marketing – one of the most powerful sales tactics of all time. The purpose of using an influencer is to help businesses grow brand awareness, build new leads, and convert prospects into customers and it’s expected that by 2022 brands will spend around $15 billion to leverage the power of ready-made audiences with influencer marketing. 

So how did we get here? Where did influencer marketing come from, and how did it start commanding such a huge share of the economy’s marketing dollars? Here’s a quick recap.

But first, what is an influencer?

When it comes to marketing, an influencer is someone who can sway the decisions of potential purchasers. It could be a celebrity, athlete, prominent society figure, a friend whose advice you trust, or in some cases (like the Marlboro Man), a fictional character. Simply put, an influencer has the power to impact the purchase decisions of your customers.

How Influencer Marketing Emerged and Evolved

To find the origins of influencer marketing, you don’t have to look far. Facebook, which is still one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, can claim the roots of influencer marketing, thanks to the analytics and insights it was offering to its customers from the beginning of its advertising program. Data collected from Facebook ad campaigns helped advertisers learn more about what their audiences were looking for. As online advertising grew, though, so did pushback. People began installing ad blockers and backlash against Facebook’s monopoly on digital social media advertising caused shifts in the social media landscape and dropped the effectiveness of traditional ads. As businesses explored new options for advertising – they quickly found the power that peer-to-peer reviews had on brand awareness and sales. People trust their friends and family more than celebrities to give them product recommendations. This is why influencer marketing on a smaller scale is on the rise—it’s just more effective this way if more labor-intensive.

Micro & Nano Influencer Marketing

When influencer marketing was in its infancy, brands typically didn’t bother with accounts that had less than a hundred thousand followers – they either worked with macro or celebrity influencers. These influencers were thought to be the biggest source of ROI since their reach was larger than people with smaller accounts.

Over time, however, brands began to notice something: these macro-influencers and celebrities weren’t necessarily the best source of engagement and ROI. They had larger audiences, but those audiences weren’t necessarily receptive to sponsored posts. Why is this? Consumers, especially the younger generations like millennials and Generation Z, began losing trust in paid influencers and instead began looking to organic grassroots communities where their like-minded peers were sharing content and commentary about brands and products they actually love. From this discovery, the trend of “micro” and “nano” influencer marketing emerged. Brands found that often, smaller audiences were more engaged and trusting. These small influencers were often speaking directly to family and friends, groups with high levels of trust and engagement.  Read more about nano influencers in our blog post, The Rise and Power of Nano Influencers.

To stay on top of these influential generations’ purchasing power, influencer marketing strategies should evolve, not unlike any other marketing strategy. Start looking for more authentic engagement models and influencers that tap the true voice of your consumers to unearth new insights you can use to develop new products and boost engagement and sales; which we will explore in more detail.

Why are consumers losing interest in influencer marketing?

First, to keep things in perspective, we should note that influencers are still very much on the upswing, growing in popularity and gaining more influence over how we shop and buy. But after years of influencers buying fake followers, hiring click farms, and promoting products that they don’t even use, consumers feel that they can’t trust much of what influencers say because it is so easy to see whether an influencer honestly cares about a brand or product or if they are just promoting it for the money. Let’s take a look at some of the underlying reasons for this behavior change.

Saturated or not: Trust in online influencers has been increasingly steady for years now.

According to Google, 70% of YouTube users say they trust the recommendations of their favorite YouTubers above those of celebrities, and Twitter found that their users trust online influencers almost as much as they trust their friends. It’s not all that surprising that we’d eventually reach a limit in how much people are willing to trust influencers. Whether we’ve reached that peak now is difficult to say. But to say we’ve reached a saturation point in how much you are paying attention to social media influencers doesn’t sound like a stretch to us.

Blurred lines between sponsorships and authenticity: The influencer landscape has become increasingly commercialized in recent years to the extent that the lines between sponsorships and authentic recommendations are blurred. And a steady increase of influencer posts that people see on social media is sponsored. While the FTC publishes guidelines for disclosure on such posts, these guidelines are far from perfect and they are sometimes ignored or implemented incorrectly, adding to the confusion. While these guidelines may help, modern buyers are savvy enough to see who is paid for reviews and who is providing an authentic product recommendation. Trust can be quickly lost in your brand if they realize it before you do. 

Your influencer became too large and unreachable: A few years ago, when people followed their favorite fashion blogger on Instagram, they may have enjoyed an intimate, authentic connection with that influencer. Today, that same blogger might have millions of follows and have a staff of 20 people managing their posts, which begin looking more like a celebrity, elevating their content to a place that’s no longer relatable. This in part makes connections no longer close and personal, which can negatively impact your brand.

Your influencer doesn’t align with your brand: Your influencer strategy should align with your customers’ wants and aspirations while also building out your marketing funnel. Choosing an influencer solely on their follower count is no longer enough. Instead, start thinking, ‘how does this influencer fit in with our customer demographic?

Because things are always changing, it is important to keep an eye on this trend, but just remember—trust is key for word-of-mouth marketing, even online.

What can be done to restore trust in the influencers?

Gen Zers and millennials are influenced by authentic content provided by people they trust, and they are looking to members of the small, tight-knit online communities they’re part of for information about products whereas 75% of Generation Xers are influenced by events or people of the past and look towards YouTube for their information. These groups enable them to engage with each other, and with brands and products they love, in a meaningful way, and brands have a great opportunity to build these communities and deepen their relationships with their customers through them.

Rebuilding this trust should be a collaborative effort, involving both the influencer and the brand. Below are some basic guidelines to help identify influencers who are, in fact, real and could potentially help build authentic relationships:

Audit influencers: You should conduct a careful audit of each influencer you’re considering partnering with to avoid using one who is fake who might tarnish your brand reputation instead of helping it. Certain influencer marketing platforms, such as Dealspotr’s Influence Score can help with this research by providing you access to algorithms which filter out false patterns and give you a more realistic score of an influencer’s true reach.

Create long-term relationships instead of one-offs: The most successful influencer relationships should extend beyond a single post, and often involve a long-term ambassadorship where the influencer will continue to mention a brand over an extended period. Establishing these longer-term relationships is an effective way to maximize trust and authenticity in your customers when working with influencers. How do you find the right influencer who will partner with you long-term? Look for your superfans – people who are already telling your brand story online. These “superfans” are creating user-generated content and already sharing it with others in their niche communities across Instagram, Facebook, video game platforms, and dark social channels. Once you find these individuals and understand who their followers are and what demographic they represent (engagement, follower-to-following ratio, geotags, aesthetics, and hashtags) to ensure they have an audience that aligns with yours is when you can start building that authentic and official relationship together.  

Craft partnerships that go beyond monetary compensation: While the norm in the influencer marketing industry these days is to compensate influencers with some form of up-front payment in exchange for a mention or a review, these one-time setups often don’t align well with the interests of brands since the influencers lack an incentive to promote you over the long-term. When you are looking for someone to collaborate with and represent your brand look for an influencer who is doing what they do because they are passionate about it, and less about receiving a paycheck. When this happens, you have a better chance they’ll have a true connection with their fans and thus greater trust and recognition with your brand.

Adhere to FTC guidelines: When you are evaluating or auditing an influencer to collaborate with, you should do a scan of their prior sponsored posts. For instance, have they marked their posts as sponsored? Proper adherence to the FTC’s guidelines is a must, or else the influencer might have already eroded trust with their fans. When it comes to this type of evaluation, we recommend partnering with a marketing firm that has experience in this field, because the rules and regulations could sink a business and it’s not worth the risk when you do it alone.

These are just some of the tips we recommend when looking for influencers who genuinely love your product. By implementing some of them, it will help open up new opportunities for your brand to connect with existing and new customers and build a stronger online presence.

Bringing it all together

Attention for the younger generation and consumers alike is still shifting away from traditional forms of marketing towards digital, mobile, and social, and in this world influencers reign supreme. By investing in relationships with trusted influencers, you have an opportunity to navigate this increasingly complex landscape and increase mindshare by partnering with the leading voices to help build a strong community for your brand.

Are you ready to get invested in trusted relationships with influencers to help showcase your brands’ integrity to customers, and drive more sales? Connect with one of our experts today

How to Run a Successful Mobile Marketing Campaign

How to Run a Successful Mobile Marketing Campaign

by | Sep 30, 2021 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Technology

SMS Marketing has become an incredibly powerful marketing channel for retailers and it is precisely what it sounds like – a way to connect with customers at every stage of their purchasing journey using text messages.

Retailers can use texting to send customers special promotions, mobile coupons, announce a special or event or simply encourage them to come back to your store. 

In our previous blog, Conjure Sales & Build Trust – The Magic of Mobile Marketing, we addressed some benefits and best practices of SMS marketing for retailers, including how to stay compliant. As a follow-up to that article, we will outline how to run a successful campaign and provide some examples of customer texting done well in this blog.

How to run a successful SMS campaign

Starting an SMS marketing campaign is not just a matter of deciding you want to get into this type of marketing. These campaigns require thought and attention to yield amazing results. Follow these best practices to get the most out of your next SMS marketing campaign to boost sales.

  • Get permission: Encourage people to sign up for your campaign with reminder prompts, just ensure you ask for permission separately from email marketing requests.
  • Keep it to the point: All of your SMS messages should stay under 160 characters as additional characters will be automatically cut off. Try AB testing to find the right mix of messaging and see what works best for your audience, but be concise. For example, do your customers like emojis, or do they find them annoying? Do they respond well when you include their first name? If so, try pairing personalization with a unique offer linked to a landing page and see if your conversion rates increase. If on the other hand, you do not see conversion rates increase, try another format until you get it right.
  • Start a drip campaign: Drip campaigns are a form of marketing automation where pre-made messages are fired at specific customers when they meet your defined parameters. For example, if a customer has been subscribed to you for six months, an automated message with a special deal could be used to reward them. These types of campaigns are simple to set up and require almost no ongoing maintenance, so it’s a great way to bring automation into your business and a first step at creating a good customer experience for your customers.
  • Get a short code for mass text messaging campaigns.
  • Stay professional, respectful, clear, and on-brand.
  • Make it clear exactly how your shoppers can benefit from your offer.

How to stay compliant

Once you tackle getting your SMS marketing automation in place and building up your list of subscribers you can start to focus on the type of campaigns you want to run. Below are a few common SMS campaigns to get you started.

Welcome your newest shoppers with a quick text. Typically, these should also include a promotion or coupon intended to encourage the shopper to return soon.

Customer service follow-up: this might be the safest and most direct way to integrate SMS marketing into your plans. It gives you the chance to check in on a recent experience or purchase to see how the customer is doing while also providing them the space to address any issues that they may have with a purchase before they take it to a review site or simply abandon shopping with you altogether. It also gives your customers the chance to select if they would like to receive SMS updates on their order once completed. When customers opt-in to receive fulfillment text messages, you can continue to upsell to boost conversions and bring in more sales, just keep it consistent and do not overdo it.

Product updates: Send shoppers updates about your most popular products or new items you have in stock. Add some urgency and combine these with promotions.

Loyalty notifications: Merge your SMS marketing with your loyalty program. This gives you the ability to notify shoppers when they earn points, redeem points, or provide exclusive benefits like flash sales, member-only events, and special offers. It also creates a sense of belonging and special treatment which means subscribers are more likely to come back to your store and make a purchase.

Personalized notes: Your SMS marketing campaign can also nurture existing client relationships by offering your shoppers personalized notes about birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Bringing it all together

If you are looking to expand your market share while also offering your customers a faster and more secure way to receive updates about your products and events immediately, SMS marketing could be the answer you are looking for.

Keeping up-to-date with this trend will help you to adapt your eCommerce strategy quickly and get ahead of the competition. Ready to take the next step to grow your business efficiently and cost-effectively? Connect with one of our experts today to discuss your needs!

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Conjure Sales & Build Trust – The Magic of Mobile Marketing

Conjure Sales & Build Trust – The Magic of Mobile Marketing

by | Sep 29, 2021 | Digital Marketing, Technology

It’s no secret that developing relationships with your customers takes a lot of work. If you want to reach them, you can’t simply just wait for them to come to you – you have to be proactive and go where they are. We are not suggesting that you start going door to door to all of your prospective customers – that would be madness, but you could implement the next best marketing tactic out there – send them a text.

Whether you own a clothing business, a small boutique, or sell products of any kind, sending your customers a text through SMS marketing is a great way to attract and connect with customers while standing out from your competition. The one thing to keep in mind though is not to overdo it. And you must ensure to strike the right balance and tone of voice when sending prospects a text.

In this blog, we will outline the benefits and best practices of SMS marketing for retailers, including how to stay compliant with examples of customer texting done well.

What is SMS marketing?

Short Message Service (SMS) Marketing uses permission-based mass text for promotional campaigns or transactional messages. These messages are designed to communicate time-sensitive offers, updates, and alerts to existing and potential customers, locally and internationally, who have consented to receive these messages from your business. These messages appear on your customers’ phones within seconds. Depending on the user’s mobile phone settings, they may receive a push notification as soon as your message is delivered. 

It is important to note that there are different types of SMS marketing that retailers can consider. These include mass texting for campaigns and transactional texting.

  • Campaign SMS – focus on reaching a mass audience with a single message. They come in the form of promotions, updates, alerts, coupons, tickets, surveys, polls, event invitations, and so on. These are a staple in mobile advertising
  • Transactional SMS –  “one-to-one” messages that are triggered by a certain event or behavior from your customer. An example of this would be an order confirmation or shipping notification for a purchase on your website and/or to communicate relevant and timely information to an individual.

How to stay compliant

It can be frustrating for businesses and marketers alike to spend time and effort collecting cell phone numbers with the hopes of sending them text messages only to find out that the way they went about collecting their data is not ‘carrier compliant’ or compliant with the new Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) guidelines.

Why is it so important for retailers to remain compliant? Because breaking the rules can cost you up to $1,500 a message. This is one of the main reasons a lot of business owners have shied away from SMS marketing and although SMS does perhaps seem more intrusive than other common marketing channels, it’s no more regulated or difficult to navigate or comply with. Still, there are certain laws and regulations that businesses must follow to avoid costly fines and penalties. Let’s outline some of them below: 

Make sure your contacts have opted in to SMS: receiving permission from your contacts to send them SMS messages is the most important rule to remember. SMS has an extremely high open rate, but this won’t help you if you’re sending messages to people who don’t want them or who have never asked for them. And it’s important to note that consumers have to opt-in to SMS separately from email subscriptions.  So, you should always  try to get email addresses when asking customers for phone numbers for SMS. This way, if they unsubscribe from text messages, you’ll still be able to communicate with them via email campaigns. 

Be mindful of the timing of your messages: Unlike email, which is only checked a few times daily (at most), people open text messages almost immediately. This is great for urgent messages, such as tracking information about a customer’s order or a limited-time offer that expires soon, but you don’t want to abuse this power by disturbing contacts at odd hours in the day. For instance, is your customer running out to use a coupon that just woke them up at 2 a.m. on a Wednesday? Most likely not. In fact, this would not only get you removed from a prospect’s ‘mailing list’, but it would also likely earn you a very unpleasant communication from an unhappy person. In addition, if your business is international in its scope, some countries have laws about when you can send marketing text messages (e.g. France does not allow SMS marketing on Sundays, holidays, or anytime after 10 PM) and the United States does not allow texts between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the recipients’ time zone as they are considered “quiet hours.”

Include your company’s name in your SMS: When sending bulk SMS messages, most providers send them through a shortcode, which means your contacts won’t know it is coming from you. Therefore, it is important to not only mention your company but to explain to your customers what types of messages they will receive and give them an option to opt-out, if they choose to do so. 

Failure to follow these guidelines can lead to not only fines, as mentioned above, but consumer complaints and messages getting flagged as spam. Telecom companies can also audit you or cut off your messaging campaigns entirely. 

The benefits of incorporating SMS marketing into your business plans

Using text marketing has many benefits as it allows you to reach your audience via a device they are already using rather than making them go outside their comfort zone to read a billboard, poster, or even email. Here are some benefits of SMS marketing to consider:

  • Provide best-in-class customer service: retailers can use SMS to respond to customer service questions to drive more revenue. Many apps can be integrated into your campaign to assist with this, such as WeSupplyLabs and DotDigital, to not only help improve your workflow but also form a two-way conversation with your customers to make the return or order tracking process easy and build brand loyalty if the experience is effortless for them.
  • Enter an unsaturated market: According to MobileMonkey, about 61% of marketers still don’t use SMS as a form of marketing, so being an early adopter can help you gain a competitive advantage in customer service and engagement.
  • Increase your open rates:  This is one of the key benefits of text marketing. Compared to other digital marketing techniques like email newsletters, SMS offers have a much higher open rate. For instance, SMS open rates are 98% when compared to 20% for email, at best. And unlike email campaigns, SMS messages have zero bounces because even when a user’s mobile phone is turned off, they’ll still receive your text.
  • Lower your advertising budget: Traditional forms of advertising like print ads, TV and radio tend to be expensive and their effectiveness is difficult to quantify as there is no way to truly pull statistics. SMS marketing is less expensive and offers full reporting capabilities to understand click-through rates, conversion rates, and more.
  • Segmentation made easy: An SMS campaign needs to have its target audience. Therefore, to get the proper demographics, businesses perform market segmentation which increases the effectiveness of each of their campaigns. Proper targeting and segmentation also ensure that you are sending tailored messages to the right recipients. Five segmentation categories you can consider include location, customer behavior, SMS engagement, order information, and customer attributes. Analyzing this information can help inform you what and when to send your customers text messages.
  • Complements Other Marketing Channels: SMS isn’t meant to replace all other marketing efforts – it’s the perfect companion to other marketing channels, especially for updates post-sale.
  • Meet newer generations where they are at: A large demographic of consumers have abandoned email and have turned to text messages. Show your client list that you are keeping up with the technology by sending targeted promotions via text. It will give your company a head start in winning the battle for the next generation of shoppers. This can be a great strategy for smaller businesses that are looking to create a buzz locally.

Bringing it all together

Check back for Part II where we will dive deeper on how to build a successful SMS campaign with plenty of examples.

If you’re interested in making the most of your marketing efforts and expanding with new opportunities hit the link below and contact us today.

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Apple’s iOS15: privacy & marketing strategy

Apple’s iOS15: privacy & marketing strategy

by | Sep 14, 2021 | Digital Marketing, Site Development, Technology

Apple’s iOS15 Update: One man’s privacy is another’s marketing strategy.

That’s a cold, hard fact in the digital age for those engaging in eCommerce. Tracking, the electronic following of activity by those who have engaged with your brand, has become such a norm in how commercial ecommerce activity operates that companies hardly bat an eye over engaging in it at this point.

But privacy concerns for users are real, and Apple is about to strike a blow in how business is done that could change the marketing landscape in a major way.

Apple’s new releases this fall on its Mail app on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey devices will offer a Mail Privacy Function. According to a recent report 13.3% of respondents said they used the Mail app to open and read their personal emails. With a flip of a switch, tracking the activity of these users without their permission becomes virtually impossible. As they so often do, Apple has highlighted their commitment to innovation in this area with a humorous and engaging commercial. The introduction of such functionality could be the most substantive move yet in giving consumers control over who collects their data, but it surely won’t be the last.

Let’s look at what is ahead with these changes and what strategies you can consider for your eCommerce marketing so you can adapt.

Anti-Tracking and iOS15

A bedrock tool in digital marketing that involves tracking is the inclusion of an invisible pixel in email that is accessed by consumers. With the Mail Privacy Function in iOS15, those who open emails will determine whether that tracking data should be shared back to the source. Information like whether you opened an email, how many times it was viewed and if it was forwarded will no longer be available from any readers who choose to block them.

The Mail Privacy Function also will block the email receiver’s IP address, so digital marketing strategies that rely on mining information that way to discern the user’s location and online activities are also going to be shut out.

Another Apple innovation that is going to throw a wrinkle into established marketing tactics is an option known as Hide My Email. Users will have the capability to have Apple create an artificially-generated email address when they do things like make a purchase. That new email address will then forward to the user’s actual email, keeping knowledge of that email address away from eCommerce companies and others who would want to use it for marketing purposes.

Measures such as these that are coming with iOS15 are going to require an adjustment in tactics for those who have built their marketing around gathering intelligence about customers through these channels.

Preparing for Change

So, with these changes in the offing, what can you do to keep your eCommerce marketing efforts moving forward? A great place to start is making sure your fundamentals are in order so that you aren’t causing yourself difficulties in places that ought to still be strengths. It’s unlikely  that there will be a magic bullet approach for dealing with the changes that Apple is introducing into the market.

One good thing you can do immediately is making sure your email lists are as clean as you can make them. Don’t clutter your marketing efforts by allowing bad information in from the start. You want your marketing hitting with people who already are customers or who have shown very strong signs that they could be customers.

Another route you can take to strengthen your marketing results is moving from an approach  less reliant on email tracking to one with a more engaged approach. If you aren’t already doing it, try introducing pop-up windows on your site for visitors who may be willing to share their information because they are finding your product offerings and/or blog/articles content attractive to their desires. This kind of first-level information is always going to be better than the results you see from a tactic like tracking because you will know the user is open to receiving information and updates from you. You also have some advantage that can be used in setting up effective pop-ups in that you know what channel has brought the visitor to your site in the first place. Use that information to inform the tone and character of the pop-up you are asking the visitor to respond to.

How closely are you looking at how you communicate with your customers? People are savvy enough to know when they are being targeted by mass marketing, and are less likely to respond. By improved analysis of your market segmentation, you can create messaging that feels more personal to the target, thus increasing the chances they will be willing to respond. Apple’s efforts are meant to cut out involuntary marketing activity that potential customers are being subjected to. A great counter-strategy for you to consider in light of this is using what you do know about proven customers to create messaging to which you strongly believe they are going to be receptive.

Additional Steps to Try

The changes from iOS15 will have impacts on how you market beyond what is first apparent when you initially think about this subject. Consider, for instance, your email funnels. These funnels operate on a series of interrelated decisions involving the monitoring of how targets are responding to previous emails. If Apple’s new tactics are telling you that a prospect isn’t engaged with one of your emails when in fact the opposite is true, that is going to throw a major wrench in how your email funnel is supposed to work.

If your marketing falls utilizes these techniques, you are going to need to consider reconstructing the rules that your email funnels use for their internal decision-making.

Related to this type of approach, the need to rely more heavily than ever on testing is made apparent by this change in the market. Even with these new developments you are not going to abandon email marketing at this point. Even if Apple’s tactics are taking a segment of your customers out of the data you are making evaluations from when you test subject lines or send times, you are still going to see valid results from trends in the market overall from non-Apple users and those Apple users who aren’t using the new privacy software.

Your overall open rates and other metrics may go down from an impact from these new factors, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still effectively identify those email marketing practices that are performing best for your business, and that is still important information to operate from in figuring out your best strategies.

Conclusion

Users like the idea of having their data protected. Apple isn’t the only company working to roll out solutions on this front. Staying on top of these developments will require diligence.

What goes on in this space of the marketing world is a conversation that is just taking off. It’s going to be worthwhile for you as an eCommerce provider to stay on top of this topic and adjust accordingly, as it has the potential to significantly impact future business results.

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Harmonic Convergence: Creating Customer Bliss Through The Perfect Giveaway

Harmonic Convergence: Creating Customer Bliss Through The Perfect Giveaway

by | Aug 18, 2021 | Adobe/Magento, Digital Marketing, Technology

Successful growth in eCommerce is an art form.

Doubt it? You can find thousands of sites out there that are perfectly competent when it comes to what they sell and how they operate, but they fail to find the magic key that opens the door to sales success.

The difference, in many cases, comes down to failing to capture the imagination of would-be customers. Building a brand comes by making an impression. One approach that has helped many brands get past this challenge is the use of viral giveaway campaigns.

A viral giveaway campaign is when a brand uses its social platforms to, well, giveaway a promotional item to select participants, often  requiring social engagement and/or a participants contact information. You know those fishbowls at checkout counters that collect business cards for a free item? It’s a digital version of that. Viral giveaway campaigns can do wonders for building your customer list — if they are executed in a smart and disciplined way. Outgrow reports on a number of impressive results tied to these campaigns in 2021 alone, such as promotions that cost just 18 cents per click, contestants spending 2 minutes plus on the contest app and more than 62% sharing the contest with at least one friend.

That all sounds great, but viral giveaways have been around for a few years now, meaning there’s enough known to show there are right ways and wrong ways to go about this process. In the rest of this blog, we’ll explore what has been learned.

Building Brand Through Giveaways

The operational pieces in creating a successful viral giveaway campaign should be built on two principles:

  1. Make participation for the customer as simple as possible
  2. Make desirability of the contest align with the customers you are seeking

No matter how compelling your offer, it is always going to have to compete in a marketplace teeming with content vying for people’s attention. Once you are fortunate enough to grab that interest, you need to make action steps as simple as possible, and the benefit those actions could lead to as desirable as possible.

Giveaways can take many different forms. For the vast majority of eCommerce sites, the scope of viral giveaway you will be considering will be modest. The total value of prizes being offered could be in the range of $1,000 or less. Even at that level, you can still produce great returns from your campaign in terms of growing your customer base. Key factors which will play into the chances for success are if the promotion of the giveaway is creatively appealing (i.e. not the “same old same old” that every other contest is pushing), if it has elements which make it fun to participate in and if the appeal of the giveaway is genuine enough that people will feel good about sharing it with their friends. You want your giveaway promotions to be easily shareable.

The site Startup Bonsai offers a very good observation that you should keep in mind as you conceive of how your viral giveaway could work: People don’t necessarily like buying from brands, they like buying from personal recommendations. That is a key part of the appeal to consider in how you can make your giveaway a viral experience.

If your giveaway has a gamification aspect — that is, people’s participation is incentivized so their chances of winning grow by becoming more involved in the giveaway — you may consider creating a social share site for users. They can track their progress and see how they are faring as they pursue rewards that are part of the giveaway.

Another aspect that has proven value as viral giveaway strategies have matured is the use of a deadline element to drive participant action. You can keep prospective customers thinking about your brand longer if the appeal of the giveaway offer has hit home with them, but they also know that they only have a limited amount of time to act.

One other good point to keep in mind — don’t think just because your viral giveaway is designed for your social channels that you shouldn’t also be supporting it through your more conventional assets. Promote the giveaway through your email contact with existing customers — it still produces the best percentage in response rates of any outreach. You also need to consider the best ways to promote the giveaway to visitors landing at your site. A pop-up welcome mat message is a tactic that many companies use.

Tips for Deciding on the Right Offer

A successful viral giveaway will have at its heart an intriguing prize offer. Deciphering what this will be for your giveaway is a true make-or-break decision in how you will succeed in connecting with the customers you most desire.

Designing a giveaway is really an opportunity to demonstrate to  targeted customers that you understand what they are looking for. This is how brands connect with customers. From your perspective, it is a prime opportunity to identify interested potential customers that you know will have a specific area of interest that could be developed into a buying opportunity. From the customer’s perspective yours is a fresh voice whose potential lies in offering a product that will solve their problems in a responsible way.

An important point to consider as you think about how your viral giveaway will be structured is that the contest is not necessarily limited to only what you offer. Exciting and creative offerings often come in the form of a package of products centered around a theme. Think in terms of partners who offer related products to what you sell. You may already have existing relationships with some of those brands, or it could be a matter of reaching out to a company that you feel has this element of commonality.

It can also pay to think creatively when envisioning partnership possibilities. These case studies can give you some ideas on just how effective thinking creatively can be in generating exceptional amounts of response to your campaign.

Along with who else you might try and partner with, you are also going to have to make some decisions about what social channels are right for your offer. Here’s an article and accompanying infographic that gives you an overview of how other companies are deploying viral giveaway techniques as they go down this same road.

Do Something With the Data

Once you reach the end of your viral giveaway, you are going to be sitting on a pile of results generated by the contest. Don’t just assume all of it is equal. Contests are going to produce returns that are mixed in quality. You’ll need to take the right steps to make sure you are getting out of the process what you hoped for going in when it comes to adding on to your customer base.

Screening for returns with fake data, such as a bogus email address, will be a must. Plenty of guidance is out there already in terms of best practices for eCommerce merchants to make sure they are dealing with actual verifiable customers. You also will want a screening process in place to make sure you are not just adding duplicate emails that are already in your database. Applying the same kind of guidelines you use for keeping your existing list healthy makes sense for the new data churned up by your viral giveaway.

A few final points for closing the loop when it comes to your contest is following up with offers of discounts and other benefits to those new potential customers you’ve just gained. You know something specific now about where their interests may be directed. For instance, one of our favorite formats we’ve seen for viral giveaways is known as the wish list format — that is creating a contest where those who enter will be choosing among a series of products to tell you exactly what they are most interested in. That’s the kind of opening you were hoping for when you started down the road of creating a giveaway. Be active, be persistent and be creative in trying to court these new potential sources of business. 

Just like all endeavors you need to protect your company from any legal issues when running a viral contest campaign. There is a lot of grey area and you need to make sure that any contest you host isn’t going to put you in the crosshairs of any regulatory group. We recommend working with a legal or marketing company that has familiarity with this world and can best set you up for success long-term. 

Viral giveaways are a path for creating new business that go hand-in-hand with eCommerce. People who are seeing your offer are already engaged in accessing that information through some kind of electronic device. They are in your realm. Come up with a great offer with true appeal for them, and the returns could be just the catalyst that drives your sales results to the next level.

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Marry Your Customers: Subscription Sales Lock up Long-Term Success

Marry Your Customers: Subscription Sales Lock up Long-Term Success

by | Jul 9, 2021 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Technology

Why do people get married? Love is the obvious answer, but a number of other pragmatic factors play into it, as well. You just realize it is the best fit for you in so many ways going forward, and you choose to formalize the long-term arrangement.

Long-term relationships driven by the same dynamics can similarly blossom between eCommerce vendors and their best customers. Those “marriages” come in the form of a  Subscription Sales Model.

Almost everyone recognizes this model, even if you don’t know it by name. Dollar Shave Club enjoys huge sales as a Subscription Sales business. So do dozens of other brands like BarkBox and Blue Apron.

You may already be having substantial eCommerce success. But do you know how to add on to your existing business by embracing this emerging, lucrative channel? With the right eCommerce platform in combination with the right expertise, it can be easier than you think.

Growth Through the Roof

Conceived of and executed properly, adding a Subscription Sales option for your customer base delivers efficiency and satisfaction to both seller and buyer. According to Zuora’s Subscription Economy Index, subscription business revenue has grown 437% over the last nine years. That kind of growth, made possible by improving eCommerce models and technology, only results from an idea whose time has come.

So how can you tap into that model from your current eCommerce efforts?

Build from Strength

The search for answers begins by identifying the core parts of your business where results are strong and opportunities are apparent for regular, recurring sales. Those areas produce proven demand, and they mark the sweet spot of opportunity in the market that you can build from. The fundamentals of the value of your product and what you offer that others can’t match become the foundation for Subscription Sales successes.

Adding a successful Subscription Sales component to your eCommerce menu can feel like a trip to the promised land – it becomes a recurring revenue stream that makes customers happy and, once operational, requires little additional management oversight.

Identifying Key Functions

Settling on a pricing model that works efficiently for you and appeals to your customers may be the biggest decision that will determine your success in this process. There is no “one size fits all” option. The four most-common Subscription Sales pricing models, according to ProfitWell include:

  • Fixed/flat-rate model
  • Tiered pricing model
  • Per unit/user model
  • Usage model

What choice you make that fits best with your business operations and the products and services you offer within that selection are your business – literally. You need to make these decisions, though, with an eye to what makes the arrangement easiest for your customers while at the same time not putting you in a position to have to completely reinvent your existing business operations.

Keeping Your House in Order

If you are up and running as an eCommerce merchant already, you have made arrangements to address essential business functions. Ideally, you want the decisions you are making while implementing  your Subscription Sales offering to be compatible with how you handle those functions currently, and also to fit in smoothly with the software platform that is the foundation for your eCommerce site.

Finding the right Subscription Sales model that will integrate with operational areas like inventory control, customer data management, billing and payment options will go a long way in determining just how much benefit this new arrangement will produce for you.As a sampling of the many ways these areas can interact and produce benefits for your business, Quora has identified nine key areas that all impact how you proceed. Reviewing these,  you’ll notice how interrelated they all are as the questions that underpin eCommerce in any form. Offering Subscription Sales gives you a chance to consider the relationships in these areas if they could be in optimal alignment so you could offer your best service levels to your best customers.

Making It eCommerce

Once you commit to pursuing a Subscription Sales offering, you’ll need to look at one final major question: How will this work from the perspective of how you are doing things now?

If your operation currently runs on a platform that is open source or an SAAS offering, you have options for taking that last step to joining the ranks of Subscription Sales providers. In Part Two of this blog, we’ll discuss what those options are and what factors can help you make the best decision for your continuing eCommerce success. 

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Cryptocurrency Potential: Loyal Users, Instant Payments and Low Fees

Cryptocurrency Potential: Loyal Users, Instant Payments and Low Fees

by | Jul 7, 2021 | Adobe/Magento, Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Technology

Interest in cryptocurrency is growing, and fast. With some major brands like Visa recently announcing their adoption of this digital payment method, it is getting harder to ignore the impact crypto and blockchain technology could have on your eCommerce business.

Whether you’re just starting to learn about cryptocurrency or exploring how to accept this method of payment in your online store, it is important to keep on top of the trend that is unfolding. After all, awareness and understanding could help forge a valuable opportunity for your business in the future.

While some retailers might be skeptical about accepting crypto as they see it as a risk to their business, some see it as an opportunity to increase their bottom line. In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits and drawbacks that cryptocurrency presents, while also taking a look at how to accept them as payment on your online store.

Before diving into the pros and cons, it is imperative to first know what cryptocurrency is and why it is growing in popularity around the globe.

What exactly is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is decentralized digital money, based on blockchain technology. Unlike the U.S. Dollar or the Euro, there is no central authority, like banks or governments, that manages and maintains the value of a cryptocurrency. Instead, these tasks are broadly distributed among a cryptocurrency’s users via the internet; which is part of why it is growing in popularity with corporations around the globe.

The cryptocurrency that started them all, is the one you are probably the most familiar with, Bitcoin; which was created in 2009 in a bid to decentralize the financial sector. Up until 2011, it was the only cryptocurrency in operation, but there are now more than 5,000 different cryptocurrencies in worldwide circulation, according to CoinLore. Some of the most noteworthy ones you might want to be aware of include Ethereum, Litecoin, and the living meme Dogecoin.

Cryptocurrency and the technology behind it are gaining traction in the eCommerce industry, and fast. But what are the benefits you should be aware of when considering accepting this type of payment on your online store?

Key benefits for considering cryptocurrency

A lot of trends come and go, but crypto seems likely here to stay, in some form. Not only can it help your eCommerce business expand its customer base but it can also increase its target audience, streamline your customer experiences, and more.

  • Fast transactions + user checkout experience smoother: Blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrency, is a distributed ledger that allows for quicker, more direct transactions that can help streamline your business cash flow. And for consumers, the immediate processing of cryptocurrency means orders can be shipped instantaneously and arrive sooner. Let’s walk you through an example. You are considering purchasing an SUV from a dealership. If you want to pay for your new vehicle the conventional way with cash or a credit card, you would have to deal with a financial institution; which comes with a lot of potential frustrations and wait time. However, if you choose to pay with a cryptocurrency, not only is it convenient and secure, but there is no middle man, no hold on the transaction and the payment is transferred instantaneously. This is already happening at independent dealerships around the country as customers are paying in full for their vehicles, instantly with cryptocurrency. 
  • Increase in traffic + opportunity to widen target audience: While many people buy cryptocurrencies as an investment instead of an actual payment method, others love buying products with cryptocurrencies because of the lower costs associated, more secure checkout, and the ability to have full control over their funds. By embracing crypto transactions you can widen your target market to these buyers leading to an increase in new customer traffic. It will also make it easier if you are looking to expand globally since crypto is not tied to a specific country’s exchange rate. This allows you to sell to merchants no matter where they are in the world with a single digital standard.
  • Lower transaction fees compared to other options: The industry standard transaction fee from third-party gateways is normally 2.9% + $0.30. This fee is significantly reduced for cryptocurrencies to 1% if not lower; which is good news for you and your bottom line as it can help make your business more profitable.
  • Clean, secure data: Blockchain technology not only increases accuracy but also decreases fraud. Unlike most traditional financial institutions, crypto transactional and consumer data is never saved on a single centralized service making it very difficult to steal or counterfeit. Also, crypto transactions do not require customers to input personal identifying information, which reduces the risk of fraud in digital transactions. You might find this beneficial for your marketing efforts. It might also help to avoid wasted spending.
  • Crypto users are also very very loyal: The flexibility of having this payment option on your site enables customers to pay the way they want to, which provides a better all-around shopping experience and helps to increase conversion rates and reduce cart abandonment.
  • Rise in value: Some of you might see the volatility of cryptocurrencies as a risk, which we will go into more depth in the next section, whereas some might see it as an opportunity for growth. The pie graph below from CoinMarketCap is just one example of how quickly Bitcoin, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, has risen in value over the last couple of years:

Potential Setbacks of Incorporating Cryptocurrency Are Low

Despite cryptocurrencies being the latest trend in the online retail sector, there are pitfalls and reasons to be skeptical.

  • Price volatility: We mentioned above that cryptocurrencies are currently on the rise in value, but the uncertainty of whether that upward trend will continue poses a risk for both businesses and consumers. In addition, if the value of a cryptocurrency has fluctuated since the time a consumer purchases and returns a product, things could get tricky.
  • Customer confusion: According to a survey by Cardify, only 17% of investors that have bought cryptocurrency “fully understand” the value and potential of cryptocurrency. Not only do customers not fully understand the value, but they don’t understand how to use them. For instance, most consumers see cryptocurrency as an investment instead of an exchangeable asset. This perception will start to shift itself as more companies start incorporating crypto as a payment option similar to Tesla and Visa.

Payment Gateways Options for Accepting Cryptocurrency on Your Site

If you are considering accepting cryptocurrency on your site, here are some options to think about:

Magento 2 Payment Processing Service Options: ShapeShift is the newest third-party service offered on Magento 2 that processes transactions on your behalf. It aims to provide a fast, private and convenient way of swapping cryptocurrencies. This payment method allows you to accept Bitcoins, Ethereum, Litecoin, and over 300 other digital currency options.

Shopify Payment Processing Service Option: BitPay automatically converts payments to a currency of your choice (eight currencies available) and sends them directly to your bank account. A couple of cons of using BitPay is that they charge a relatively high transaction fee of 1%; which you will not see with ShapeShift and they only accept Bitcoin.

BigCommerce is also looking into developing an app that accepts crypto. Be sure to keep an eye on their progress in the event it meets your needs.

Bringing it All Together

If you are looking to expand your market share while also offering your customers a faster and more secure way to pay for your products and services, cryptocurrency could be the answer.

Keeping up-to-date with this trend will help you to adapt your eCommerce strategy quickly and get ahead of the competition. Ready to take your eCommerce site to the next level and incorporate cryptocurrency as a digital payment option? Connect with one of our experts today to discuss your needs!

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Stuck with a Supply Shortage? How to Keep Customers Happy During Disruptions

Stuck with a Supply Shortage? How to Keep Customers Happy During Disruptions

by | Jun 28, 2021 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Technology

“Disruption” is a painful and ugly word anywhere in business, but particularly if you are in the world of eCommerce. Often, customers turn to eCommerce brands  because of the perceived convenience factor that comes with shopping online. But as an eCommerce merchant, what position are you in if supply chain trouble is beyond your control and is affecting your ability to fulfill orders?

COVID repercussions, the Colonial pipeline ransomware attack and even an immense cargo ship becoming wedged in the Suez Canal are all recent examples of a world experiencing uncertainty and delays as it seeks to get back to the normal we used to know. The threat of a disruptive crisis won’t ever go away, but there are smart precautions you can take to protect your customer from the worst impacts of the unexpected.

In this blog, we’ll offer tips for you that can keep disruption to your business from unraveling to the point of chaos.

It’s Still True: Forewarned is Forearmed

Most disruptive events usually have some lag time before they reach a supply chain. Being able to take advantage of even a little lead time can be a saving grace for your eCommerce operations.

If your sales strategy involves campaigns or specials, that is particularly dangerous terrain if it becomes clear that outside events are going to impact your ability to deliver. Promoting a product heading into a shortage is just throwing the door wide open to creating dissatisfied customers. When it comes to sales strategy, you need to make sure all decision-makers are on the alert for disruptive events. It would also be wise to establish a process, if you don’t already have one, for sharing red-alert information appropriately across all segments of your operation if a sudden supply issue is forming for your near-future. Market giants like Amazon are digging in hard to adapt to this mode . There’s a very good chance your eCommerce operation needs to be considering the same factors.

Be Ready with Alternatives

It’s a slippery slope if a popular mainstay product suddenly comes into short supply because of an outside event. Well-established eCommerce sites can speak from experience that customers expecting a product delivery don’t have much patience for any excuse, no matter how valid the reason may truly be. However, you can minimize this kind of trouble by being the best kind of manager for your site.

If you’ve ever been in a brick-and-mortar hardware store and come in seeking a solution to an urgent problem at home, you may have left that store holding it in even higher regard if a knowledgeable employee took the time to listen to you and then was able to recommend an even more effective alternative you were unaware of that addressed your problem. This mindset applies to digital storefronts as well. If you have developed a flexible and responsive eCommerce platform to operate from, you should have the ability to create messaging to let customers know when they encounter a popular out-of-stock item what alternative options you do have in stock that could work as a substitute. The customer may be unaware of that item or not thinking of it in terms as being a suitable alternative – if you unexpectedly fill that role for them, like the hardware store example above, you have a chance to strengthen that customer’s loyalty to your brand.

Embrace Their Problem By Helping to Own It

If no other product but the one that has been impacted by supply problems will do, strive not to just leave the customer out in the cold. If you have an expectation on when a product is likely to be back in stock, be conservative in how you deliver that information, but also if your site has the flexibility to do so, let the customer know the time frame of when you expect to have the product back in inventory. Out-of-stock events happen even in normal times and it’s estimated that when they do, it costs retailers across all channels up to $1 trillion in lost sales per year.

Even better, if your platform has the capacity on a permanent basis to capture individual customer information and preferences, investigate whether or not you have the capability to set up an alert system for the product. Promise the customer if they leave necessary information such as their name and email address, you will notify them promptly as soon as the product does become available.

The customer wins by feeling like they have at least taken one positive step towards securing a product they have a strong need for, and you win by gaining the information that not only does this customer purchase this item, but that it is a high-priority item for them. You could even turn it into a goodwill opportunity in the future, at a time when the product is back in regular supply, to offer it back to the customer at a discount as a special, acknowledging their previous painful experience. Finally, don’t forget to recognize the universality of the problem – once the supply issue starts to clear up, there will be untold number of potential customers who were missing the product for every one that you know about and can contact. Promote a restoration of product supply on your site and in your email/social media efforts. P % Co. has a great example of this. 

Not All Supply Chain Issues are Created the Same

Once you have your whole operation on alert about the acute issues caused by supply disruptions, you need continued vigilance throughout the operation as to opportunities to mitigate the problem.

Although both are likely based on logistics and transportation, an inbound supply problem can have a different solution than an outbound supply problem. Make sure your back office is looking for opportunities to clear up supply issues through all means possible. Optimally, you would rather not have to dig down into the dirt to alleviate such detail-related issues, but being unable to supply a popular item is not an optimal situation. Other companies already understand they need to do this. If you have your staff on alert for potential work-around solutions and it pays off, you’ve got a chance again to please a customer through demonstrating extraordinary effort.

Shortages for Retailers Can Be Opportunities for Etailers

A final key point is to not lose sight when a widespread product supply issue develops:you  have natural advantages by being engaged in eCommerce. Short-supply products almost always have some availability somewhere. The impacts of the pandemic over the last year have already shifted buying habits in a favorable direction for eCommerce in many sectors.

As an eCommerce brand, you aren’t tied to an operation in a fixed location. Look for opportunities to exploit that edge, and when they are solidified, don’t be shy about promoting that information on your eCommerce platform.

Conclusion

You can’t stop supply-chain disruptions from cropping up. But you can be better prepared for them. Proper planning, dexterity throughout your operations and knowing how to best utilize the flexibility built into your eCommerce platform to help customers navigate these episodes are all important solutions to be aware of as you look to keep your site’s reputation as stellar as possible for your valued customers.

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Introductory Emails for Connecting with New Customers

Introductory Emails for Connecting with New Customers

by | May 26, 2021 | Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Technology

Welcome emails are one of the 8 types of emails you must be sending your customers, but many brands only send one welcome email—if they send one at all! On average, sending a series of introductory emails yields around 51% more revenue than a single welcome email. People are at their peak interest level when they sign up to receive emails from your brand, and eight out of ten expect to receive a welcome email after they sign up for a mailing list. Capitalize on this new-subscriber momentum by creating a compelling series of introductory emails that convert these people into customers. Here’s how to do it.

Say Hello and Send an Introductory Offer

Your first email should be pretty short and sweet and obvious. Thank your new subscriber for signing up, and welcome them to your newsletter or offers/discounts emails. Tell them what to expect in a couple of sentences, how often they should expect emails, new products, great photos or subscriber-only deals. Ban.do is one example of a brand that sends colorful, visually exciting and engaging emails.

If you offered a discount upon signing up, now is the time to share it. Usually brands offer 10% or 15%, but it’s up to you! It’s never too early to start converting your subscribers to customers. Include a call to action to “Update Your Email Preferences” or “Update Your Information,” where your subscriber can click and be taken to a page to provide their demographics such as age, gender and location. This will help you segment your audience and you can then send more specific emails. It’s also advantageous for the subscriber, as they can get emails that are more tailored to them.

Introduce Your Brand

Most brands stop at the first welcome email—if they get there at all. Apparently only 39% of brands even send a welcome email at all. So you’re already ahead of the game if you’re at this point. Keep going! Create momentum with your new subscribers and build a relationship with them by sending a second email to properly introduce your brand and provide an interesting backstory.

This could include a photo of your brand’s founder and a short quote, to make the email more personal. It could also include a short story on the origins of your key products. Highway Robbery entices people to sign up with the chance to “win a free robe,” and then gives subscribers an interesting history of the brand in their welcome emails, by telling the story of the founders and how they got started. It’s clearly worked, as they get new subscribers every day.

Remind Subscribers About the Discount Code

Once you’ve got your subscribers, you need to put in the work to keep them engaged. That means sending more emails—personalized ones. Use those segmented audiences to send targeted, personalized emails that remind those subscribers who haven’t used their sign-up discount to do so. An appropriate time to send might be seven days after subscribing. Take this opportunity to include information about your loyalty program too, if you have one.

Showcase Your Best Products, With Social Proof

There’s a good chance that your best, most popular products are what encouraged your subscribers to sign up to your newsletters or offer emails in the first place. But in case it wasn’t, you need to make sure your subscribers are aware of your top sellers. This could mean sending a simple image-based email with a call to action driving readers to the popular item’s product page to explore it further and purchase. It could also include social proof in the form of customer reviews with short quotes and star ratings, social media posts featuring your products, or blog posts about your products.

Re-Engage With More Unique Offers

Remind your readers why they signed up to receive your emails to begin with and reinforce the benefits they bring. Your email newsletter is where you provide all of your exclusive offers and content, so be sure to live up to the promise you made in your first couple of emails. Highlight your special offer, whether it’s free shipping or unique items. Fashion retailer SSENSE includes prominent information on their “Price Protection Policy” in their welcome email, ensuring subscribers know about their price-matching and price-adjustment policies.

Conclusion

A series of well-timed welcome emails can do wonders for your brand, but of course it shouldn’t be the only way you stay in touch with people. Encourage subscribers to follow your brand on social media by demonstrating the value that that engagement will give them—for example, even more special deals, styling advice and interesting brand stories. Welcome emails are an excellent base from which to build strong engagement across all of your communication channels. They’re a crucial tool that deserve care and detail. For help solidifying and executing your welcome email strategy, reach out to us today.

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Subject Line Tactics Proven to Get Your Emails Opened & Read

Subject Line Tactics Proven to Get Your Emails Opened & Read

by | Apr 20, 2021 | Digital Marketing, Nutraceuticals/Supplements/Vitamins

Sending promotional emails for your online store is extremely valuable. When sent to your existing audience, emails can increase exposure, brand loyalty and sales. When sent to people who aren’t yet familiar with your brand (but who might have given their contact information for a similar brand or promotion), emails are a great opportunity to turn these people into new customers.

But before any emails can have great results, they must be read. And before they can be read, they must be opened. It’s your job to create a subject line that is enticing enough to capture your recipient’s attention and convince them to choose to open the email. For this reason, subject lines are extremely important, but are oftentimes overlooked aspects of a brand’s marketing campaign. Keep reading to learn the top five best practices for email subject lines.

Keep subject lines short and sweet.

In general, keeping subject lines between 30 and 50 characters is ideal. This may not seem like a lot of space to work with, but it’s actually the only way to ensure that your entire subject line shows up, no matter what kind of device your recipient is using. There are numerous devices, browsers and email clients, all of which visibly show different subject line lengths. And, if your recipient is on a phone (which most people are these days), they’ll be able to see fewer characters in the subject line than if they were on a computer. That’s why subject lines should always be 50 characters max.

Realize the power of personalization.

Now more than ever, people want content tailored to them. They don’t want generic emails that could be for anyone. They want to feel that companies take time to get to know them and customize content for their specific needs.

With this in mind, it makes sense that subject lines that are personalized with the recipient’s first name are opened significantly more often. People love seeing their unique name and feeling that the content has been created specifically for them. However, because not every subject line can be personalized with the recipient’s first name every time (or it would lose its effectiveness), other great ways to personalize a subject line are to add the recipient’s location or specialty in the subject line.

When sending pretty much the same email to different groups of recipients, try being more specific in the subject line. For example, you can have the same subject line but start it with “Vitamin e-retailers” or “Nutraceutical sellers” to appeal more to these unique subgroups.

Keep your emails out of the spam folder.

Just as there are certain things to do when creating subject lines, there are also certain things to avoid. That’s because doing certain things with your subject lines sends them straight to your recipient’s spam folder.

Using all caps, excessive punctuation or multiple exclamation points are surefire ways to get your emails sent straight to spam. In addition, if certain words — including “RE:,” “FW:,” “free,” “money,” “win,” “deal,” “help,” “reminder,” and “percent off” — are in your subject lines, it’s almost 100% certain that they’ll head straight to spam.

Tell, don’t sell.

You don’t have a lot of real estate in an effective subject line (see #1 above), so you really have to be direct and quick while also being powerful. Make sure that your subject line clearly conveys what your email contains and why the recipient should open it. Give an idea of what’s inside the email without giving everything away. Be direct — and don’t try to do too much in a single subject line.

Test, test, test.

Testing subject lines pays off in a big way. First, it’s important to use one or more of the very valuable subject line tools that are available. These include SubjectLine.com, Email Subject Line Grader and Email Subject Line Tester. Each of these services allows you to insert your subject line and receive feedback about what’s working well and what’s not — and then tailor accordingly.

Once you’ve come up with some great subject lines based on these services, test your subject lines with sample audiences to determine which ones are the most effective before sending the emails to the bulk of your recipients. The more you test, the more you’ll learn your audience’s preferences — and the higher your open rates will become.

Conclusion

At InteractOne, crafting powerful emails for eCommerce stores is one of our specialties. To learn more about subject line best practices and how we can help you increase your email open rates, contact us.

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