How retailers use social media and social media engagement

Online flower retailer records highest-ever revenue day

Abbas Haleem — Mon, 22 May 2023 19:16:56 +0000

More people have reason to send a gift on Mother’s Day than on Valentine’s Day, said Katie Hudson, content director at online flower retailer UrbanStems.

And whereas UrbanStems typically sells five times more than a usual week in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, it sells 10 times more than a usual week leading up to Mother’s Day, she said. Moreover, conversion for UrbanStems Mother’s Day sales increased nearly 50% compared with the retailer’s average conversion, she said, without revealing specific figures.

The UrbanStems homepage, captured Friday, May 12, shows a Mother’s Day promotion of up to 30% off for double bouquets.

UrbanStems Mother’s Day sales

The retailer had its best revenue day ever on May 11, the Thursday leading up to Mother’s Day, Hudson said, without revealing a dollar amount. That coincided with its highest site traffic on the same day. Hudson said the retailer has yet to determine if this was its best Mother’s Day period to date, “but most likely. We are still figuring this out due to refunds and redeliveries.”

UrbanStems site traffic in the week leading up to Mother’s Day increased more than 400% compared with non-holiday weeks. Its average order value also increased more than $10 during the sales period.

“Typically we’ll see a spike,” Hudson said. At least for Mother’s Day, people are more likely to do gift sets, which are more expensive with us, or to do add-ons.”

That led Hudson and her team to do A/B tests to determine whether offering add-ons at checkout boosted AOV. She said the retailer did not see a difference in having add-ons appear during checkout, so going into Mother’s Day, it removed the add-on upsell opportunity to improve site speed.

“What we found was that when the add-ons were being shown in checkout, it would cause the site to load a little slower because it was having to call to see what add-ons were in inventory,” Hudson said. “So we removed that, and even then, some people were choosing add-ons before they got to checkout.”

A/B testing

The overall boost in site traffic made Hudson realize she could squeeze in some last-minute testing to optimize landing pages.

“So many people were coming to the site that we could get a result we knew we were 100% confident in — in half the time we normally would,” Hudson said.

On May 11, just three days before Mother’s Day, UrbanStems tested versions of its landing pages from social media with and without customer reviews. But when the retailer removed reviews, it saw conversions decrease 25%, Hudson said.

From there, Hudson said, UrbanStems better understood how much its customers care about reviews.

“They want to see how the actual product arrives,” she said.

Optimizing social media and digital marketing with APIs

UrbanStems also runs design feature experiments using web design vendor Zmags’ Fastr Frontend interface, which connects to the platform via an application programming interface (API).

About 10% of sales during the period came from Zmags custom pages for podcasters and influencers UrbanStems worked with. Those pages averaged an 8% conversion rate, Hudson said.

Hudson said UrbanStems also tested its paid landing page made using Zmags against the Mother’s Day product landing page, which runs on the retailer’s Shopify-powered ecommerce site.

“With that, we saw a 200% lift in conversion when we drove people to the Zmags experience versus just our normal PLP when they’re coming through paid social. We’re constantly testing,” Hudson said. “The conversion rate numbers that week of Mother’s Day in general were insane and not the norm, but we were able to keep testing and getting it better and better.”

The UrbanStems Mother’s Day product landing page on May 12 shows how soon shoppers can receive bouquets.

The UrbanStems Mother’s Day product landing page on May 12 shows discounts, overnight shipping options and an out-of-stock bouquet.

Countdown timers

UrbanStems also used Zmags to include countdown timers across its site, including on product landing pages, even before Mother’s Day. The retailer worked with Zmags to automate the timers to count down to 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in cities where it offers same-day delivery, then automatically update each day to count down again. UrbanStems offers same-day delivery in Washington, D.C., New York City and Los Angeles.

Hudson said UrbanStems had never used the countdown timer on its homepage before Mother’s Day, so it ran an A/B test in which 25% of the site traffic had a timer on the page.

“We just wanted to make sure because our homepage was already converting so well,” Hudson said. “We didn’t want to mess with it too much.”

It increased conversion 2%, which Hudson said “wasn’t huge, but it was enough to say it was a clear winner.” Then, the timer went to 100% of UrbanStems’ audience.

UrbanStems also uses Zmags for its landing pages for site visitors coming from social media platforms. Some of those pages touted 11% conversion rates the week of Mother’s Day. Hudson said even though that’s when purchase intent is highest among UrbanStems shoppers, she and her team had not seen an 11% conversion rate for such a page.

Post-Mother’s Day

Hudson said UrbanStems did not run any paid social ads the week after Mother’s Day. Instead, the retailer is using the post-holiday time to reflect on what it has learned.

“We need to have customer reviews,” Hudson said.

Furthermore, UrbanStems must develop a landing page that prioritizes customer reviews higher on the page.

“Taking some of the testing we did and iterating on it after Mother’s Day is going to be really important,” Hudson said.

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The No. 1 reason you need to deploy digital self-service technology

Kristina Harrington — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 13:00:50 +0000

Kris Harrington

The most important reason you need to implement digital self-service technologies now is that we live in an increasingly digital-native world. This shift is quickly changing customer expectations and how they want to do business.

If you don’t adopt some of these new ways of doing business, you will exclude a growing population of customers and employees.

According to a recent report by technology research and advisory firm Gartner Inc., “Digital-native expectations will influence every industry, and companies that ignore them will be left behind.”

In order to stay competitive and meet the expectations of your customers, you must implement digital self-service solutions that provide convenient, accessible, and efficient information to your customers.

So, what do we mean when we talk about digital natives and living in a digital-native world?

To explain this trend, it’s crucial to understand the differences between a digital native and a native analog. A digital native (or person born after 1995) is typically defined as someone born after the widespread adoption of digital technologies, such as the internet and mobile devices. This means that they have grown up with technology as a part of their daily lives and may be more comfortable using digital tools for a variety of purposes.

A native analog (sometimes called a digital immigrant and a person born before 1995) is someone who was born before the widespread adoption of digital technologies. They may have had to adapt to using new technologies as they were developed rather than growing up with them as a part of their daily lives.

Please note these terms are not concrete. There are many factors that can influence how comfortable someone is with using technology, such as access to digital tools, education level, and personal preferences. Generally speaking, these terms help us to understand the changes we are experiencing in the world today.

If we think about the rise of digital natives, we can use various examples to illustrate how a digital native may behave differently from a native analog.

Think about how you’ve changed your business to adapt to these new behaviors:

1. Shopping habits

Digital natives are more likely to shop online, using their smartphones and other digital devices to research and identify the right products, compare prices, and make purchases. Native analogs, on the other hand, may prefer to shop in a physical dealership or depot and use printed manuals or brochures to research products.

2. Communication

Digital natives are more likely to communicate via digital channels, such as social media, instant messaging, and email. They also prefer short-form content, such as memes and emojis, over longer-form written communication. Native analogs, by contrast, may prefer face-to-face conversations, phone calls, or even written cards and letters.

3. Education

Digital natives often learn differently from analog natives, using digital tools like online courses and interactive educational software. They may also be more comfortable with self-directed learning and less reliant on traditional lecture-style instruction. Analog natives may prefer a more structured, teacher-led approach to education.

4. Work style

Digital natives often have a different work style, favoring remote work, flexible schedules, and digital collaboration tools (Slack, Zoom, Teams, etc.). They may also be more comfortable with a less hierarchical work environment and less formal communication. Native analogs may prefer a more structured in-person work environment with clear hierarchies and more formal communication.

5. News consumption

Digital natives often get their news from online sources, such as social media and news websites, and are more likely to fact-check and verify the information before sharing it. Native analogs may be more likely to get their news from traditional print media and may be less skeptical of the information they encounter.

6. Entertainment

Digital natives consume entertainment differently from analog natives, often streaming movies and music online. They also tend to prefer short-form content, such as YouTube videos and social media stories, over longer-form content, like feature films or albums.

One example of how the world has become increasingly digital is the widespread adoption of smartphones and mobile devices. According to a report by Pew Research Center, 85% of adults in the United States now own a smartphone. This figure is even higher among younger generations, with 96% of adults aged 18-29 owning a smartphone. The adopted use of smartphones and other mobile devices has fundamentally changed how people interact with each other, with businesses, and with the world around them.

These are just a few examples, but they illustrate how the rise of digital natives has transformed consumer behavior, workplace culture, and even how we learn and communicate. They also demonstrate that if you don’t adopt some of these new ways of doing business, you will exclude a growing population of customers and employees.

Digital self-service solutions are essential in today’s digital native world. It’s more important than ever to implement these solutions now.

About the author

Kristina Harrington is the co-founder and CEO of GenAlpha Technologies, which provides digital commerce technology for manufacturers. Prior to GenAlpha, Kris worked for more than 10 years in leadership positions at two large multinational original equipment manufacturers, Bucyrus International and Caterpillar, supporting the mining industry. In her various positions, she worked with internal stakeholders, dealers, and customers to deliver business results both in aftermarket and equipment sales. She can be reached at kharrington@genalpha.com.

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LinkedIn lead generation: How to build your sales network and pipeline

Michael Mayer — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:00:05 +0000

Mike Mayer, CEO, Main Event Digital

LinkedIn is a business professionals’ platform highly focused on the individual. For c-suite executives, company leaders, and team managers, this means conducting prospecting from your own profiles, and not the business you represent.

Once marketers know who to pursue, they can automate personalized drip campaigns to their prospect list.

Many executives prospect from their LinkedIn profiles because they know the value of generating leads for their company’s sales pipeline. These executives must commit a lot of their time if they want to be successful and develop a marketing strategy that maximizes leads. Butthat approach doesn’t work for most executives.

Executives who are a bit more resourceful find a way to automate their prospecting. But that approach doesn’t typically work either, as we all know the feeling when you receive a message in your LinkedIn inbox asking you to connect with a random stranger with a message that reads something like, “Hey, I have a nice shiny object to sell you. Let’s connect!”

That’s not a good way to start a conversation, online or off. Imagine yourself sitting at a bar and someone walks up to you and immediately starts to sell you something. I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to give them the time of day. Similarly, when someone takes this approach online, you’re not typically going to respond and probably won’t even establish a connection with them. The bridge is burned.

But digital marketing experts are starting to flip the script on that narrative, as some skilled professionals automate highly engaging LinkedIn prospecting campaigns.

Innovative ways for lead generation

Over the past five years, automated emails and phone calls have experienced lower levels of engagement than ever before, as recipients have grown tired of poor messaging. Many recipients now partially or completely ignore these very noisy channels. This trend has forced marketers to think through new, innovative ways to connect with prospects and drive leads. One of the solutions they came up with is lead generation through automated LinkedIn prospecting.

LinkedIn is the de facto standard to identify potential leads. The tool provides literally dozens of filters that marketers can use to build laser-targeted prospect lists, such as the industry a prospect is in, the type of company they work for, their job title, who they are connected to, and a lot more.

Once marketers know who to pursue, they can automate personalized drip campaigns to their prospect list. They can personalize by dynamically using the data that the prospects have provided on their LinkeIn profile and their connections. For example, marketers can automate an invite with a message that reads “Hey Tom, I see we both know Jennifer over at XYZ Distribution. How do you know her?”

But just being “personal” isn’t the holy grail. Savvy marketers set up a series of drips to touch their prospects on LinkedIn repeatedly in order to get a response. With every touch, the LinkedIn user receives a notification, encouraging them to pay attention to the “ask.”

Typical — and more aggressive — LinkedIn drip sequences

A typical drip sequence will include a profile view, profile follow, invite, dynamic message and continue with the marketer liking the prospect’s content. The most aggressive marketers will share and even comment on the prospect’s content.

Once a prospect accepts the connection with the executive’s account, the marketer can send additional dynamic messages until the prospect responds. Upon the connection, the prospect’s contact info can be automatically pulled into a CRM or email marketing automation platform. From there, the best practice is to automate an email drip sequence to inform the lead and gather more information from them with a clear call-to-action.

This process is also effective in “outreach” campaigns that aim to keep in touch with existing connections. For many B2B companies, maintaining clients is as important as finding anew. And because “outreach” campaigns target people that you probably already know to some degree, the message needs to be personalized.

Identifying targeted audiences by dozens of traits

Since LinkedIn is so highly focused on professional individuals, the process for prospecting starts with optimizing, refining, and building out one’s own LinkedIn profile. From there, C-suite executives, leaders, and managers can use LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator.

Sales Navigator is a tool designed to enable users to identify their target audience or prospects by considering dozens of traits, such as title, industry, company size, geography, etc. Sales Navigator users can use this information to build lists of targeted prospects.

Perhaps best of all is that LinkedIn users can automate processes such as “liking” a post, or “following” a new lead. Sales Navigator users can take up to 250 actions per day. Imagine all the outreach you could do with 250 messages, follows, invites, endorsements, or likes every day!

Maximizing marketing outreach via automation

But in order to maximize this outreach, business leaders may find it more time-saving and cost-effective to use automation software to manage the workflow.

Drip campaigns created by marketing automation software still take time and commitment from c-suite executives and leaders. Because LinkedIn lead generation is all about crafting messages that create a conversation toward conversion, someone will have to respond to personal messages that you receive. Marketers have found that their clients don’t mind this too much, as they’re quick to remind them that these personalized messages are leads.

Organizers can use marketing automation software for a variety of campaigns. But with LinkedIn, marketers have a huge advantage in the amount of data available. While you can automate email campaigns, for example, you cannot tell much about your client when all you have is their name and email address.

With personalization, messages remove the cringe-worthy language and give potential customers something that speaks to them. Within that message is what your company can do to meet their needs. That kind of personalized message sounds like something worth reading.

About the author:

Mike Mayer is founder and CEO of Main Event Digital, a digital marketing agency for manufacturers and distributors. Prior to Main Event Digital, he worked as a B2B ecommerce executive at companies including U.S. Electrical Services, Crescent Electric Supply and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

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Natori invests in livestreaming to appeal to new generation of customers

Gretchen Salois — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 19:45:54 +0000

Will livestreaming ever be as big in the U.S. as it is in China? “Absolutely not,” says Ken Natori, president of The Natori Co.

“But, for us, from an ecommerce perspective, it is important to be an early adopter of livestreaming,” he says.

Ken Natori, president, The Natori Co.

The conversion rate during Natori’s inaugural live selling event on Oct. 6, 2022, was more than double compared to a typical day. This includes shoppers that viewed the stream live or as a replay. The average visitors to the site also doubled during the livestream event (live and replays).

The retailer’s second livestreaming event on Oct. 22 featured stylist Engie Hassan, who promoted her favorite looks. Viewers were able to live chat during the session and ask questions about products. While Hassan presented, Natori employees answered shoppers’ questions in real time via chat.

During Natori’s Oct. 22 livestreaming event with stylist Engie Hassan, shoppers could chat and ask questions in real time.

Livestreaming to connect with new customers

Hassan has 159,000 followers on her Instagram account, EngieStyle, and has tagged Natori on various posts where her clients are wearing the brand’s items among other designers.

“It was great to have an outside stylist come on and cross-promote in front of our respective audiences,” Natori says.

Online sales were slightly lower than the first livestreaming event. But that was to be expected, Ken Natori says, because the first event featured founder and CEO Josie Natori, Ken’s mother.

Average order value did not change much between the two sessions. But, conversion for livestream viewers remained higher compared with non-livestream viewers, Ken Natori says.

Natori is investing in livestreaming to connect with a new generation of shoppers. The brand selected video commerce vendor Firework to launch livestreaming. The retailer livestreams events from its own website. Natori continues commissioning social media influencers to help shoppers connect with the brand.

Live shopping isn’t a go-to option for U.S. consumers. But that’s starting to change, according to the Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights post-holiday survey of 1,023 online shoppers in January 2023. 9% of surveyed holiday shoppers watched livestreaming of products. And 4% of respondents said they’d like more livestreaming from retailers in 2023 to lead them to buy more online.

An evolving livestreaming plan

The next phase for Natori is to simulcast live on its own website and via Instagram Live and Facebook Live, he says. This is particularly helpful when appealing to younger shoppers, Natori says.

“These last couple of months have been about getting the technology right and figuring out execution,” he says. “Once that’s more of a smooth running ship, we are certainly going to try to promote it more.”

The retailer wants to expand its brand from its sleepwear, bras and underwear to become an East-meets-West lifestyle brand, Ken Natori says. Influencers are tasked with getting the word out, he says.

“Whether it’s Josie, myself, our employees, or influencers doing livestreams, we’re trying to evolve into more categories,” Natori says. “People don’t know about our men’s loungewear, décor, bedding or footwear.”

Natori launched its Holiday Gift Picks livestream on Dec. 8 featuring Josie Natori.

“It was the best show since launch in terms of sessions and [online] revenue,” he says. “It also had the highest conversion rates.”

The brand plans to feature some of its newer categories, such as footwear, on Jan. 12 and a fine jewelry livestream on Jan. 26.

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Mobile traffic data for retailers in the Next 1000

Digital Commerce 360 Staff — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 13:57:32 +0000

Mobile traffic from social media to Next 1000 sites registered a median 7.8% share of traffic in 2021. That’s down slightly from an 8.1% share of mobile traffic in 2020. Merchants still find advertising on social media a valuable tool. Mobile traffic continues to grow in popularity among Next 1000 merchants. These merchants are most […]

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Retailers dedicate more dollars to digital marketing

Digital Commerce 360 Staff — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 18:47:08 +0000

In this year’s Digital Commerce 360 digital marketing survey, 73 online retailers weighed in on budgets, tactics and their successes from email to social media. A look at how this stacks up with the 2021 findings based on 143 companies provides insights into where marketing may be headed.

Digital marketing budgets are wide-ranging and continue to grow

44% of respondents said they’re dedicating more than 50% of their overall marketing budgets this year to digital advertising. That’s up from 33% who said they invested more than 50% of their overall marketing budgets last year.

Meanwhile, the percentage of those who said they plan to dedicate 11% to 50% of their budgets to digital advertising was about the same (32% this year versus 34% last year). 16% this year (compared with 25% of respondents last year) said they plan to spend 10% or less of their marketing budget on digital advertising. Both years, 8% of respondents said none of their budgets were dedicated toward it.

Retailer digital marketing budgets are on par with prior years

Furthermore, 66% of respondents said their digital marketing budgets have increased this year. That compares with 62% who said the same last year. About the same portion of respondents (23% this year versus 24% last year) said their budgets for digital marketing would go unchanged.

More than half of respondents (56%) spend 30% or more of their marketing budget on customer acquisition. That compares with 49% who said last year that they spent 30% or more of their digital marketing budgets on acquisition.

More than half of retailers use social media advertising to drive sales and increase brand awareness. However, in both cases, the percentage of respondents decreased. 66% of retailers in 2021 said they use social media advertising to drive sales. That compares with 58% in 2022. And 55% this year said they use it to increase brand awareness, down from 62% in 2021.

44% said this year that they use social media advertising to drive traffic, a slight uptick from 42% last year. And 42% use it this year for audience engagement, down considerably from 55% last year. Similarly, only 40% this year said they use it for audience growth, compared with half last year.

The influencer’s role is multifaceted

Brands look to retailers to help build awareness and drive traffic to a brand’s website. This year, 26% of retailers said they use influencers to help generate sales. That compares with 22% in 2021.

And a quarter of retailers said in this year’s digital marketing survey that they were concerned influencers might be too expensive. That makes sense, as 21% said they found online influences to be interesting but did not see the return on investment they desired. Both figures are up from last year, when 15% said influencers were too expensive and 18% said they were not achieving the desired ROI.

A growing issue this year: 23% of retailers said it’s difficult to find influencers who would be a good fit. That’s up from 18% last year. Similarly, 14% said influencers are not a good fit for the company (up slightly from 13% last year). Also, 29% said last year that they would spend time to understand how (or if) their business should use influencers. That dropped to just 10% this year.

Retailers rank themselves on analyzing digital marketing data

Last year, more than two-thirds (69%) of retailers surveyed ranked themselves as above average at analyzing marketing performance data and attribution. Just 61% this year ranked themselves as above average.

This year, 41% of retailers said their biggest challenge is analyzing their digital marketing efforts. And 40% said companies constantly changing rules and algorithms (making it difficult to maintain performance levels) was their biggest challenge. That was the top-ranked challenge last year, which 37% selected.

Also this year, 36% found it challenging to diversify their marketing mix beyond Facebook and Google. That’s up considerably from 22% last year. Similarly, 32% cited difficulty ensuring their marketing strategies this year are profitable. That’s up from 24% last year.

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Marketers plan early for thoughtful discounting as costs increase

Gretchen Salois — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 11:05:58 +0000

Retailers take note: Plan now for the holidays. Supplements retailer My Obvi is experiencing triple the lead times for receiving merchandise this summer compared with 2021. “We’re figuring out how to move forward,” says Ashvin Melwani, chief marketing officer. It’s not as though the retailer can easily switch manufacturers, Melwani says. Switching suppliers could impact […]

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My Obvi plans for the holiday rush earlier this year as lead times triple

Gretchen Salois — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 11:00:08 +0000

It’s never too early to think about the holiday rush, says Ashvin Melwani, chief marketing officer at My Obvi, a supplements DTC brand.

“The biggest thing we’re looking at right now is our lead times,” he says. “Last year, they were four weeks out, and this year, it’s tripled to more than 12 weeks. We’re figuring out how to move forward.”

According to research firm Kearney, over the next five years, inefficient supply chains will cause more than half (52%) of all consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies to either shrink in size or grow below the market.

Obvi supplements are manufactured in California and shipped to its warehouse in Wisconsin. Both the formula and production of My Obvi products are produced in the U.S., Melwani says.

Not easy to switch manufacturers

Ashvin Melwani, chief marketing officer, My Obvi

My Obvi sells supplements toted to “make you feel younger.” Ingredients include collagen, biotin, vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, iron, iron E, among other ingredients. The powder supplement is promoted to support gut health and claims to provide other benefits such as helping customers with their weight loss goals as well as improve skin, hair and nails.

As lead times increase, Melwani says it isn’t as simple as switching manufacturers.

“It’s difficult because we are producing supplements, and it’s not easy to replicate the formula,” he says. “Flavoring has to be perfect because if a customer gets a product that tastes slightly off, it becomes a customer-service nightmare.

“Switching manufacturers late in the game is not easy,” he continues. “So right now, we’re trying to compare what we did last year and see how to move forward.”

Omnichannel helps boost My Obvi revenue

Despite supply chain challenges, Melwani says My Obvi expects to double its revenue through its online channels. Melwani says DTC sales are flat compared with year over year 2021.

“I think we’ll actually end up doubling revenue just from our in-store retail efforts,” Melwani says. Earlier this year, My Obvi started selling its products in the Vitamin Shoppe. The brand also sells at GNC as well as smaller “mom and pop” brick-and-mortar shops, he says.

“We’re trying to almost mimic forecasts based off last year’s data and incorporate the growth we have this year,” Melwani says.

The average order value (AOV) on My Obvi’s website is much higher than in store at about $75. GNC and Vitamin Shoppe sell My Obvi’s best-selling items in-store and online.

“With GNC and Vitamin Shoppe, we offer our three bestsellers,” Melwani says. AOV for those retailers is around $55 to $60 dollars on those retailers’ websites. He did not disclose in-store AOV.

My Obvi wants customers to be able to add beyond its bestsellers to their carts, so Melwani says the goal is always to drive customers to the DTC website, through frequent promotions and a rewards-points loyalty program. Melwani says conversion is higher compared with third-party sellers or a marketplace like Amazon. He did not disclose My Obvi’s conversion rates.

Attribution in a post-iOS world

Apple’s iOS changes allowed people to opt out of tracking when browsing online.

“We were doing pretty well before the iOS changes,” he says. “Our average cost for acquisition (CPAs) was around $30,” he says. “After the iOS update, we quite literally hit a peak of $93 to acquire a customer. That wasn’t sustainable.”

Cost per acquisition refers to the fee a retailer pays for an advertisement that results in a sale.

My Obvi reassessed how to move forward.

“We’re testing more creative content than we’ve ever tested in the entirety of our business,” Melwani says. “We’re testing 30 to 40 pieces a week, with multiple offers and ads on landing pages to find that winning combination again.”

Creative content includes everything from its landing-page designs, offer pop-ups and other advertising content.

My Obvi offers varying promotions throughout the year and plans to gear up for a bigger Black Friday promotion this year.

To see what works and what doesn’t, My Obvi invested in Triple Whale ecommerce software that allows Shopify retailers to track ads and how they perform on different platforms. The cost varies depending on factors like traffic and revenue volume. My Obvi spends anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million per month on its overall advertising. Triple Whale costs the retailer about $2,000 per month.

“That $2,000 per month for Triple Whale is really a drop in the bucket when it comes to our overall budget,” Melwani says. “And it gives us peace of mind. You can’t trust what these social platforms [like Facebook] are telling you. It’s good to separately reassess.”

In practice, Melwani says My Obvi learned that while Facebook was telling him ads were giving a 5x return, Triple Whale refuted that data. Triple Whale also allows Melwani to see how it’s faring on different social platforms like TikTok.

“I’m not saying you live and die by third-party tools, but it helps validate what’s actually happening in the ad platform,” Melwani says. “We realized that our blended costs looked good, and I am able to make adjustments where necessary.”

TikTok outreach to consumers

TikTok has proven to be a worthwhile venture for My Obvi, Melwani says.

“We’re still figuring things out on TikTok, but it’s there in people’s hands,” he says. “They’re opening up their phones and wanting to be entertained. They want to consume content, whereas on Facebook, it’s more about scrolling or you’re part of a few groups, and you’re looking at news. It’s not as engaging.”

TikTok is another opportunity to reach customers, he says.

“People go onto TikTok to watch videos. We want to catch them in a moment where they’re willing to go away from watching videos to check out our website,” he says. “They might check it out, but they’re in a mood to consume content and might get back to it later.

“Maybe they search for our brand and there’s a level of discovery, and right now it’s not easy to track if they found us on TikTok and later searched for us on Safari or ended up coming back through Google,” he continues. “Over time, we expect better attribution tracking with TikTok, but it’s still a volatile platform.”

Melwani says it’s important to keep in mind that people looking up recipes might happen to come across their powdered supplements, which can work well into a smoothie-type recipe.

“There might be content about how someone lost 10 lbs. in 30 days using our protein,” he says. “You’re not just trying to attract your audience. You want to sell. Make a story out of it. You can’t just say, ‘Buy this.’ Nobody wants to watch that.”

My Obvi reaches out to content creators or micro-influencers after reviewing that person’s content.

“We offer to send them some of our supplements to try, no strings attached,” he says. “If they end up posting, it’s because they actually like the product and you can tell in the videos. We don’t want someone to just push the product.”

My Obvi on Amazon

Amazon helps My Obvi get in front of customers, Melwani says. This year, My Obvi offered a Prime Day deal on its Super Collagen Protein Powder.

“Prime Day is like another version of Black Friday,” he says. “We obviously want to play into that promo where the traffic and visibility is much higher. Why not?”

Melwani says Amazon Prime Days give a boost in rankings and reviews.

“We send out a promotion to our customers and let them know there is Prime Day two-day shipping and a certain percentage off,” he says. “We let them know it’s time to stock up and include keywords and URLs where we can rank a little bit better with certain keywords.”

He says more orders translate into more reviews, which, if positive, help give the brand a boost on Amazon. Meanwhile, on its DTC website, Melwani says My Obvi offers customers rewards points. This year, customers are able to show My Obvi their Amazon receipt and earn two- to three-times more rewards points on MyObvi.com.

“That way, customers that are diehard fans but wanted to take advantage of the promo, we let them know they’ll be rewarded,” he says. “And we also ask that they provide a review.”

Amazon Prime Days TikTok strategy

This year, My Obvi supported its Amazon Prime Day Deals with marketing solely from TikTok, Melwani says. Last year, without any marketing toward Amazon, My Obvi nearly doubled its daily sales average during that period.

“This year on day one, our sales quadrupled,” he says.

During day two, “we had another trick up our sleeve,” he says. My Obvi launched a surprise product exclusively on Amazon and shared it with the brand’s Facebook community, which has more than 50,000 members.

“Because it’s a new product launch, ranking on Amazon is quite difficult initially,” he says. Melwani says by emailing and texting My Obvi’s customer base and alerting its Facebook community, resulted in six times the daily average sales on Amazon.

Selling giftable supplements during the holidays

My Obvi plans to use social media to help it bolster holiday sales this year, Melwani says. He anticipates customers being a bit more careful with their spending this year.

“I would like to think that we’re a little bit recession-proof being a health and wellness product,” he says.

Melwani expects to lose retention and recurring revenue during November as people start their holiday shopping.

“But we’ll still run offers on a daily basis,” he says.

My Obvi plans to get shoppers excited for its Black Friday deals as well as offer giftable bundles and accompanying free gifts with purchase. It also plans to appeal to its loyal customers already interested in My Obvi by reaching out to groups like its Facebook community.

“We want to hype up new product lines or flavor expansions,” he says.

The retailer plans to offer free samples to that community so they can post online and share the new products.

“I want to avoid the fatigue that hits consumers by Black Friday and instead bring back some of that excitement about a sale launching at 12 a.m.,” Melwani says.

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Shade-finding selfies? ILIA Beauty forgoes AI for human-based approach

Gretchen Salois — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 11:00:13 +0000

“Everything I can explain, I’ve learned firsthand. It’s not like agencies are telling us what to do,” says Albert Chong, vice president of digital marketing at ILIA Beauty.

Chong runs the digital marketing arm of ILIA, a cosmetics brand that’s gained traction online among loyal followers. Chong says the brand’s in-house approach to digital marketing allows his team to learn how to retain customers and understand its lifetime customer value.

Albert Chong, vice president of digital marketing, ILIA Beauty

“I’ve learned that follow-up with customers is key,” Chong says. “When customers buy [skin tint and foundation] after learning from our skin tips or after first visiting the site, we ask ourselves: how are we following up with them?”

ILIA’s tech stack is in-house. Over the last year, the cosmetics retailer has seen DTC web sales increase by low triple-digit growth, Chong says. Average order value (AOV) has grown more than 55% in the past two years because of its investments in technology and customer-centric marketing strategies, he says.

“In addition, our first-time customer AOV is 10% higher than the AOV from a returning customer — something I believe is unique to see,” Chong says. “But it shows that we have a good understanding of communicating value to customers even before they’ve tried our products. We hope that after they try the products, they will be customers for life.”

ILIA Beauty skin tint quiz

ILIA offers shoppers a quiz. Shoppers select which models they believe resemble their skin tone and receive the shade recommendation via email. The quiz is an opportunity to capture first-party data.

“We’re providing a service by emailing that result,” Chong says. “But it’s also an opportunity to suggest products that match or complement, such as concealer.”

Shoppers can submit selfies for ILIA’s team of customer service agents to review and follow up with personalized recommendations.

But ILIA started receiving selfies in emails from shoppers asking for them to suggest their shade. Customers also sent selfies via DMs (direct messages) on Instagram. That prompted ILIA to offer shoppers the ability to upload a selfie image for review on its website. What started as a one-person team to review selfies has grown into a team of 15 customer service employees.

“They can read comments, answer questions or read product reviews,” Chong says. “And the number one question to our team is ‘What is my shade?’”

By giving shoppers access to a human team of trained customer service agents, Chong says ILIA gets more than an email address. Agents are able to follow up with customers. They can provide assistance or answer questions regarding returns or exchanges and handle product issues, he says.

“It’s an opportunity to interact directly with customers,” Chong says. “This is not AI-based.

“Plus, it’s less wasteful for us because getting the right shade the first time is really important,” he continues.

Shoppers can also take a quiz by answering questions after reviewing images. The shopper is prompted to enter an email to receive results.

Augmented reality and artificial intelligence technologies

ILIA hasn’t launched any technology-based shade finding. Chong says when talking to customers, he says they want a personalized conversation with someone knowledgeable about the brand.

Chong has perused stores in person to listen to shoppers as they search for their foundation share.

“No one likes talking to a chat bot,” he says. “No one likes going through an algorithm. The conversations I overhear tell me that the technology just isn’t there yet. There’s disappointment.”

Chong has visited competitors that offer the service on their websites.

“It can lead to disappointment or being left without a clear option,” he says. “The shopper wants to ask someone questions. So that’s why I want to scale up the ILIA team and continue to find problems that customers have.”

Other problems surface for customers when customers try to determine which foundation color swatches best match their skin tone, and how a lipstick shade or a blush will truly look on different shades of skin. “Because they can all look very similar,” he says.

In response to this problem when shopping online, Chong says ILIA offers a comparison shades module — another suggestion from customers.

“I read every single review and comment, and I look for ideas to increase our performance marketing,” Chong says.

“We wanted to show how this color blush looks on six different models,” Chong says.

Social media channel flexibility

Chong says ILIA will continue to optimize its digital budgets “to where our customers are,” whether on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or Facebook.

“The best part is that we’re seeing these percentages change daily based on a unique incremental marketing attribution approach in real time,” he continues. “One day, we could be very heavy on TikTok and the next day we could shift to Instagram, then YouTube. [It] all depends on real-time performance.”

ILIA declined to disclose what percentage of its web sales come from which channels. Chong says in addition to keeping track of social platform feeds, email growth, SMS growth and Google-branded search, ILIA is also feeding its other channels, including Sephora.com and in-store Sephora traffic.

“This means our social platforms drive increased awareness and performance to every [company] we work with, including our own,” Chong says.

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SEO is key, but don’t rush into it

Paul Conley — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 12:35:58 +0000

When Anya Cheng decided to launch an ecommerce company, she had a distinct advantage over most other entrepreneurs: she knew her way around digital marketing after holding senior ecommerce roles at Facebook, eBay, McDonald’s and Target.

And one thing she knew was to not rush into search-engine optimization. Taking a slow approach to SEO is something she recommends to anyone who launches an online store.

“Forget about search for now. You should go back to your user journey,” Cheng, Taelor co-founder and CEO, said in an interview with Digital Commerce 360. Taelor is an apparel-subscription service for men that uses stylists and artificial intelligence to select clothes for individual customers.

Cheng, also an adjunct lecturer of product management, marketing and entrepreneurship at Northwestern University, likes to tell a story from her days at the world’s largest social network.

“When I was at Facebook, we sold Facebook Wi-Fi in different countries,” Cheng said. “We found that people don’t search for ‘Wi-Fi’ right away. They search for ‘free NBA games’ or ‘free cricket’ or ‘Netflix shows.’ When they find what they’re looking for, they realize they need good, fast internet, so they start searching for ‘fast internet.’ Then they realize that Wi-Fi is faster than the internet where they are. So they search for ‘free Wi-Fi” and they realized they couldn’t get free Wi-Fi at high speed, and they start looking at paid Wi-Fi and they heard about Facebook Wi-Fi.”

SEO is about searching for searchers

Anya Cheng of Taelor. (Photo Credit: Candice)

For a flat, $88-per-month fee, Taelor customers get up to two boxes of clothes per month. In each box are four items: dress shirts, jackets, polo shirts, henley shirts and more. Dry cleaning and shipping are free both ways, making renting and returning clothing effortless.

In 2021 when Cheng launched Taelor, she knew she needed to understand the buyer’s journey before she could understand how potential customers might find Taelor in search. And to do that, she needed to understand the potential buyers.

“The first thing to do is identify your personas,” Cheng said. “If you’re a small company, you can do this on your own” by researching and talking to industry leaders until “you get a sense of where the industry is going, where’s the opportunity.”

Next, Cheng suggests entrepreneurs interview about 20 people to understand their pain points. Then, create a survey of a few hundred people to get a sense of how broad the audience is that experiences those pain points.

Usually, this process will yield about 20 pain points and a handful of personas. Cheng advises that startups initially market to two personas at first and ignore the rest.

From there, an entrepreneur can start creating messages and positioning aimed at reaching those select personas.

Don’t get confused

At this point, the new ecommerce company is ready to optimize for search. But be cautious, Cheng advises, because it’s common for entrepreneurs to confuse their company’s value proposition with the target personas. And that will be a disaster in search.

A model poses with a Taelor subscription box. (Photo Credit: Jabbar Luo)

Taelor’s customer base is men 25 to 35 years old. Some 60% of them are single. They are heavily represented by engineers and salespeople, Cheng says and “we know they are not into fashion.”

That’s where things got tricky.

“When I first started Taelor, we realized a lot of our customers were guys who were very ambitious and aspirational, which means they were like, ‘I want to get a date.’ ‘I want to close a deal.’ ‘I want to get a better job.’ They wanted better things. They want to achieve.”

So Taelor’s first marketing campaign told potential customers they could “look good and be confident” by using the service.

“We thought it was great,” Cheng said. “It was perfect. But it didn’t work.”

It turned out that improving your appearance and boosting your confidence were the perceived needs of the target personas. But they were not value propositions that would convince them to subscribe to Taelor’s service.

After some more experimentation — using paid search to learn what terms led to conversions more quickly than she could by using organic search — Cheng found a proposition that the personas valued enough to make them buy: “No shopping. No laundry.”

Personas and the women who love them

Cheng calls herself a “mini-influencer” with more than 70,000 followers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Clubhouse and more. She’s also a constant presence at events for Asian-American entrepreneurs, women-led companies and computer engineers.

By talking to people online and at events, Cheng found a key bit of information to perfect her SEO strategy for reaching men who need a better wardrobe: women.

“Lots of women have tried a subscription service. So most of our guys were influenced by their female counterparts,” Cheng said.

Those potential subscribers, prompted by the women in their lives, do a Google search and find Taelor’s content marketing, news coverage and website.

SEO tips from a search marketer

If you already have an SEO plan in place, it’s not time to rest. There’s always more work to do with SEO.

“The first tip for any small to medium-size ecommerce company looking to improve its SEO strategy is to start with keyword research to successfully set the foundation for your digital strategy and better understand how consumers search for your products. A great trick is to use Amazon or Google Suggest,” Eric Ritter, CEO of search agency Digital Neighbor, told Digital Commerce 360. “Once you’ve clearly defined your keyword goals, set a practice to follow 2022 website best practices through under-the-hood technical SEO tools built in your CMS — whether that’s WordPress, Shopify, or something else.”

In addition, Ritter reminds entrepreneurs that “getting specific in your product descriptions is a practice that can set your business apart from the competition. Many other sites might sell similar products, but if your descriptions connect with potential customers, they will be more likely to purchase from you. Plus, as a bonus, if you pay close attention to creating detailed product descriptions, you will see an improvement in your website’s SEO.”

Ecommerce companies see the value in SEO

Retailers know that optimizing well for search pays dividends.

That’s why, as the following two graphics illustrate, search gets a large portion of marketers’ budgets.

Search never sleeps

In June 2021, Google unveiled what it called Core Web Vitals: three activities measured by how long they take to complete on a page, which the search engine said would have a profound effect on how it ranked pages:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – loading, target 2.5 seconds.
First Input Delay (FID) – interactivity, target 100 milliseconds.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – visual stability, target 0.1.

One year later, Search Engine Land, citing SEO platform provider BrightEdge, said retail scores have improved 58%. That’s particularly impressive given that retail sites had poor scores when Google announced the initiative, according to Search Engine Land.

Search brings success

Today, Taelor uses a search-marketing consultant who once reported to Cheng at Facebook, as well as a small team in India to optimize pages.

Her company also has a new line of business in which companies provide a Taelor subscription as a benefit for employees (Google is a customer). Taelor is also now a data analytics firm that lets clothing brands and retailers test products and predict trends based on how a product performs among subscribers.

And the finance community has noticed Taelor, too. In April, the company closed a $2.3 million pre-seed round of funding led by Bling Capital. Bling is a venture capital firm founded by Ben Ling, an early executive at Google and Meta (formerly Facebook). It has previously invested in more than 10 unicorn companies, including Lyft, Instacart and Square.

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