Resources

Social Commerce

Social commerce is like any other type of eCommerce, except that it is handled entirely within the social media platform that is hosting the service.

Though, most sellers will still have an eShop running externally of Facebook. All they’ve done is create a new customer touch point - which can be a very sound marketing & branding strategy.

One of the key issues with typical eCommerce setups is the time between interest & sale. The attention span of many, many consumers does not last throughout the whole conversion funnel. This is why removing the middle-man and allowing customers to complete their purchases directly on social media platforms makes sense.

This direct contact between the sellers and consumers not only allows for a more convenient point of sale, but has the added benefit of relating to consumers on a personal level, through social feeds or network bubbles. This pseudo-organic relationship plays a very significant role on the consumer’s psyche.

As I’m sure you’re all very well aware, Reviews mean everything in the e-commerce space, and what better testimonial than like-minded users who are much more likely to offer an unbiased opinion on the product or service you’re looking to purchase.

Going back to the relatability and trust between seller and consumer, building and maintaining your brand image on a social space or social network is one of the best ways to garner your customers trust and loyalty. The personal touch in the overall feeling of sharing that experience or journey with your customers Goes a very long way as you’re putting money where your mouth is and showing your customers that you are there for them, if they ever need assistance or have any questions.

Last but not least, the fact that you have access to mobile shoppers on a global scale, and in whatever languages they may be using said social platforms, not only drastically expands your customer base but also gives you the appeal of worldwide reach.

Considering that over 75% of social media users access those platforms through their smart phones or tablets, it becomes way easier to guide them down your conversion funnel when the problem of interest period, to sale, is for the most part solved.

The first thing to mention the fact that social commerce is primarily shopper’s market. This means that this entire ecosystem was created around the shopper Experience. Businesses and independent sellers could be impacted negatively, through the loss of web traffic since their store and products are fully hosted on the social platform as well as click through rate (or CTR) which could negatively impact advertising efforts elsewhere.

And let’s not forget about how time consuming the process of building your brand and maintaining your public image can be, especially on a social network, where everything hits 10 times as hard. Creating your eShop on the social platform is simply not enough, part of the appeal and utility of social commerce is intrinsically rooted in that personal touch. Failing to maintain that connection would not only be detrimental but could very well tarnish your brand’s image - and that’s not something you can get back so easily.

And speaking of tarnishing your brand, there is no safer bet than a negative review or negative feedback, especially on the social network. We mentioned how some positive aspects could likely backfire - and this is the most important one to be aware of.

As great as positive testimonials and positive reviews on your social eShop are, it only takes one bad apple to ruin the whole bunch. This plays in parallel with the time commitment necessary to foresee and prevent issues like this affecting your overall brand image and, in result, sales.

Overall, the social commerce pitfalls fall into two categories.

Time and visibility.

On top of the enormous time commitment required to be fully successful in your social commerce endeavors, you should also keep in mind that if you’re going to host an eShop on a social platform, you’ll have to shell out a fair amount of money for advertising.

If you’ve stopped reading and are asking yourself “why would I need to advertise on a social network with so many users and potential customers” that I’m afraid that social commerce may not be for you!

Social platforms host various eShops, and do so without a fee, per se. That fee will be paid one way or another in the advertising costs required to sustain your business on the said social platform. There may be millions of people perusing but the harsh truth is that organic reach is simply unsustainable for an online business.

Date: Wednesday, 12 January 2022

Facebook Ad Copy Tips & Tricks

At the moment, Facebook is still the most popular social media platform for businesses. However, it's too early to know how things will continue in the aftermath of the Meta rebrand, so as it stands, let's assume this to be the case.

Facebook is the most popular social platform for promoting your business, but there is a big caveat. In order to be effective on Facebook, your ad copy must be twice as powerful.

However, writing persuasive copy isn't without its challenges, so without further ado, let's take a look at a few tips and pointers regarding Facebook ad copy.

Headlines

The first thing your audience will see is your ad headline. It may very well be the single-most important aspect of your entire advertisement. Within an ideal 5-word limit, be direct & try to describe what your ad is about. Too much more and you risk sending your audience scrolling.

Furthermore, consider beginning the headline with a number or a percentage. Research has shown that headlines that begin with a number or statistic tend to resonate with quite a large number of users.

Aim to create direct headlines that leverage the essence of importance. This straightforward approach conveys commitment and clarity that resonates with users.

The Yes Effect

"Yes" questions are exactly what you're looking for in order to finally gain the unwavering support of your audience. The beauty about these questions is how they captivate the audience because they believe they are understood.

However, this must be part of a targeted effort as it will not apply to everyone. For example, if you’re advertising your delivery business you won’t go asking a question like:

“Have you ever spent money on an experience you didn’t like…”

You would instead focus on something like:

“Ever waited for your groceries long past your estimated delivery time?”

Because of this specificity, you must establish the demographics and preferences of the audience you’re targeting. Do this correctly and you’ll be able to connect with your audience through this wildly effective method and persuade them to say "yes”, both to your question – and your ad.

Calls to Action (CTA)

Alongside your headline, your call-to-action is one of the most critical aspects of your ad content. It is the advertisement’s job to appropriately direct your audience through the necessary steps required for a successful conversion.

There’s no need to add more than one CTA per post. It’s actually highly inadvisable as it runs the risk of confusing the user with too many variables.

Your Call-to-Action should be clear and direct:

Click here to get your 40% discount.
Sign up for our free newsletter
Claim 2 free massages today.

Follow the headline thought process in making your CTAs short, succinct, and direct!

Trends

There are many ways to go about this. You must keep an eye on your competitors to see if they’re using a piece of pop culture reference that’s working – or simply stay informed with current trends and events by using Google Trends.

A clever quip or integration of a successful trend – or even meme in some cases – can be very effective in bringing your audience closer to your business and brand.

Selling Stories

Using your ad copy to tell a story or feature a testimonial (that also mostly tells a story) is a great way to bring more users closer to your brand. Nothing can quite compare to the effect that a great story can have on the psyche of a customer.

Selling stories or testimonials is for the most part, a way for users to empathize, resonate and connect to your brand and your products or services.

Selling emotions is an old and effective practice — but the real challenge lies in its sincerity.

People can smell an insincere stories from miles away, especially when it comes to advertisements. You won’t succeed in persuading anyone if your heart isn’t in it. Quite the opposite in fact, risking the loss of a big chuck of your already-converted audience.

Some points to consider could be among the following:

Discussing the difficulties that people experience.
Personal experiences within your field.

Evoking emotions is not an easy task and your ad copy should be given the necessary time and energy to discover and address issues that individuals in your field may face and how your copy will successfully illicit an emotional response that is perceived as sincere and genuine.

The Art of Seduction

Even if your ad copy is ready to tackle the online world, there are a few key aspects to consider before posting:

Use images your customers can connect to. As humans, we are very visual beings, so adding an effective image to your ad copy has the power to change everything.
Links are also essential to creating effective ad copy. All it takes, is a single, well-placed link to fool the customer into thinking that the post in front of them is simply yet another post – not an ad – a post.

This gives your readers the impression that they are engaged with any other content on their feed. They are more likely to click on your ‘ad’ if users are under the belief that this is organic content that appeals to them.

Don’t go at it alone. This holds especially true if you have been creating your ad copy by your lonesome. This will without a doubt limit you in a number of ways which could then lead to anything from punctuation mistakes, to glaring omissions in content or information.

Two eyes are better than one!

Before finalizing the copy, have someone go over what you've done or go over it together. This allows for a more objective perspective and a clearer view of the ad’s essence and exactly what it is trying to convey.

By following these guidelines, your ad copy can only stand to benefit.

Date: Monday, 27 December 2021

Tips for high quality product images for marketplaces

How can a single image end up spelling doom for your online store?

It’s simple. One image (or video) ends up becoming the only true touch point – or, point of reference – your customers have to your products.

The eCommerce ecosystem effectively removes your ability (& prerogative for that matter) to touch or examine a product up close, be it an item of clothing, or a piece of tech. Ergo, the product image becomes the consumer’s Alpha & the Omega.

Keep in mind that every sales channel or marketplace has their own rules and regulations in place for acceptable image use – with various specifications and requirements to be aware of. On a general level, the difference between a mediocre image and a magnificent image could mean:

Higher capability in grabbing the shopper’s attention.

Increased CTR (Click-through-rate).
Reduced cart abandonment.
Further driving sales.
Decreased number of returns – therefore, decreased number of unsatisfied customers & by proxy returns, or negative reviews.
Increased consumer trust & increased legitimacy

We have compiled some handy tips & information on marketplace image practices to help make your images into the best versions of themselves they can possibly be.

As previously mentioned, each sales-channel & medium (desktop & mobile) follow their own sets of rules and specifications for product images. Let’s take a look at a handful of specific examples.

Amazon

Amazon is, by far, the strictest when it comes to image requirements and specifications. Though, looking at it from a glass half-full perspective, the benefit you get from optimizing your images for Amazon as a first step in your product image endeavors is quite serviceable.

Because of the level of strictness in effect, you can generally use these images as a quality benchmark and then adjust for other platforms where necessary.

For Amazon then, your main product image must adhere to the following guidelines:

The image has to be a photograph or cover art of the product.
The image must be clear & not contain any additional objects that may confuse the viewer.
The image must be in focus, well-lit & maintain realistic colors.
Music, DVD & Book photos should be of their front cover and take up the entire frame.
Other products should take up 85% of the frame.
The product has to be in full view.
The background color must be pure white (RGB 255.255.255)
No graphic elements or text is allowed on the main product image.

These requirements apply to the images themselves. Also to note, are the file requirements which go something like this:

Only TIFF, JPEG, GIF & PNG file formats are accepted.
Minimum dimensions are 1000×1000 pixels.
Only sRGB or CMYK color spaces are accepted.
The image file name must consist of the product UPC (identifier) followed by a period & then the file extension.

Official Amazon documentation: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202073580

eBay

Ebay is slightly more forgiving than amazon but generally follows a similar template. The main takeaways, being:

Uploaded images can be up to 7MB in size.
You can use images hosted on other websites but make sure that they are HTTPS compliant. Images uploaded through this method can be up to 12MB in size.
Ebay recommends using images that are at least 1600 pixels on their longest side. The minimum resolution however, is 500×500 pixels.
Only TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG & BMP file formats are supported.

Official eBay documentation: https://developer.ebay.com/devzone/merchant-products/catalog-best-practices/content/images.html

Google Shopping

The requirements for Google Shopping are nowhere near the level of scrutiny you’ll find with Amazon & to a lesser extent, eBay. You just need to adhere to the following criteria:

Only TIFF, GIF, JPEG or PNG file formats supported.
Minimum dimensions for all products is 100×100 pixels. (250×250 pixels for clothes).
Max resolution set to 64 Megapixels.
16MB maximum file size.

File requirements & image specs are one thing. Though, if the image itself is lackluster, all of your image optimizations will be for naught. Take the following points into consideration.

As your customers’ only product reference, pristine image resolution & quality is everything in the world of eCommerce. This makes your company/business or brand seem more professional and trustworthy – and with that legitimacy, comes an effective reduction of returns or exchanges, and by proxy, negative reviews or comments.

Make use of the product itself. Use various dimensions, angles & perspectives which showcase & highlight your product strengths.

Take a dress, for example. Consider showcasing a 360 degree view, showing off particularly appealing angles or elements that may be eye-catching to the consumer.

On the other side of the product spectrum, if you’re showcasing something like a hotel room or property listing, select and display photos from various perspectives. Avoid showing the customer the same thing over and over again.

Accurate color & lighting (and in result shadows) are also important in their ability to give your product a more natural feel that generally tends to strike a chord with consumers.

Because of this white-background requirement most sales-channels have in place, you should make the most of the space that you are given & prominently display your product in a way that fills out as much of the white space as possible.

Finally, all images should retain a consistent crop ratio in order to avoid a sloppy overall storefront image.

Official Google Shopping documentation: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324350?hl=en

Facebook & Instagram

While most shopping channels discourage creative ads or creative images, social sales channels, like Facebook and Instagram, flip that restriction on its head & encourage your ads (images) to do the talking.

There are some recommendations that Facebook throws your way, though they feel like obligatory statements. These requirements are as follows:

Ideally, images are on a white backdrop. (Emphasis on ideally).
Showcase the whole product and easy to identify/understand.
Capture the product in real life situation or in-context photos.
Showcase the product in various angles.
Do not include text such as promo codes, or Call-to-Actions.
Do not include images with watermarks.

Finally, as with other channels, there are size specifications to take into account which are listed below:

Instagram Shopping and Carousel Ads:
Must be square (1:1) aspect ratio.
Minimum image size is 500 by 500 pixels.
1024×1024 pixels recommended size for best quality.
For single image ads:
Images display at a 1.91:1 aspect ratio.
500×500 pixels minimum image size.
1200×628 pixels recommended size for best quality.
The file size is limited to 8 MB.

You should make the most of the free rein you’re given when using social sales channels. Standing-out, is one of the most important objectives when advertising on these channels. You want to grab the shoppers attention as soon as possible.

Official Facebook & Instagram documentation: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/686259348512056?id=725943027795860

By including key attributes such as price, product name, and relevant product information on a single slide, customers will instantly have their questions answered, and thus will ensure that more clicks are coming in from qualified customers.

Finally —staying true to the social dynamic — make sure to utilize every tool at your disposal, including customer reviews or special offers. Take advantage of ‘big-budget’ occasions like Black Friday or Valentines day and get creative with special offers or promotions that can fit your desired purpose.

Date: Tuesday, 14 December 2021

The rise of mCommerce

It is safe to say that the technological leaps over the past few years are indisputable. These advancements in tech are omnipresently evident on the physical front — but the an area that is less prevalent in our day-to-day has to do with eCommerce. More specifically, what we are now calling mCommerce.

For the most part, the two are almost identical. mCommerce is a natural evolution of the eCommerce ecosystem and is generally seen as any monetary transaction that is completed using a mobile device.

mCommerce allows people to buy/sell goods or services anywhere, anytime. And the strength & empowerment that comes with that is the biggest strength that this ecosystem now provides.

The rise of mobile commerce is unprecedented. To give you a better image, it has surpassed previous forecasts for 2021 not once, but two times, this year alone.

At the start of the year mCommerce was expected to make up 54% of total eCommerce sales. Now, in a report published around a month ago, it is expected that by the end of 2021, 72.9% of eCommerce sales will be attributed to mCommerce use.

Strictly speaking, mCommerce use falls under 3 general categories:

Mobile Shopping
Mobile Banking
Mobile Payments

To add further specificity, this use (& mCommerce use in general) is related to these types of transactions. Not only that, it has also helped usher in new industries and services as well as allow existing ones to develop further:

Mobile money transfers
Mobile marketing / services
Location based (Geo-location) services
Contactless payments & in-app purchases
Microtransactions
Digital content purchases & delivery
Electronic tickets & travel cards/passes

Think of the effect that services like Apple Pay and Google Pay for example, have had on your everyday life. Half of us are now using our phones for something as trivial as our daily commute.

The mCommerce boom comes as no surprise when you consider that 67% of the global population owns a mobile phone or tablet in 2021.

To give you a little more insight, it is expected that mCommerce sales will reach $3.56 trillion by the end of 2021, with mobile activity accounting for 67.2% of all eCommerce. The mobile wallet market alone is expected to reach $3.5 trillion in 2023 and judging from this year’s forecasts, we predict that number will be much higher in reality.

The numbers don’t lie and are a key factor in the rapid adoption of mCommerce as the de facto ‘E-Transaction’ solution. Though, growth potential aside, lies the fact that this transition has a large number of advantages with very few, very trivial barriers to implement.

Augmented reality, for example, is quickly becoming more widespread in its implementation towards consumers. Companies like IKEA allow you to set up and view their catalogue in your own space, simply by using your phone’s camera.

Chatbots & messenger apps are now being adopted by a number of different sectors, which, engagement aside, are mostly linked to the concept of, ‘now’.

Everything has now become ‘instant-ised’, and these methods sort of act as a pseudo-solution to the consumer/user attention span problem. Though frankly, this looks to be a stepping stone. We suspect that this system will evolve into something much more effective and meaningful in the coming years, possibly with the help of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Because of this novelty, the mCommerce ecosystem comes with its own set of challenges, which, I feel are for the most part simply related to optimisation. Rather, the constant need for optimisation., which brings challenges to an already established way of thinking – and even now, we still have a lot to figure out.

We find that one of the largest factors attributed to the growth of mCommerce stems from the omnipresence of the eCommerce ecosystem. The fact that more and more users are flocking towards mobile is because of the unparalleled ease-of-use, or rather, ease of information.

Because of this, mCommerce offers a true omni-channel experience.

What this refers to is the all-around presence of both online and offline channels. Being everywhere and allowing your users to access information about your company, your products, your discounts, everything.

It’s important to list your products and be active wherever customers are already spending their time, which is what we call, contextual commerce.

Omni-channel means zero doubt. By being everywhere – especially where your customers are – and making it possible to buy what they want. Now.

Setting up a true omni-channel solution can be incredibly taxing however, but luckily, services such as EshopswithIQ, allow you to streamline this process & become even more effective in your marketing strategy.

Date: Friday, 03 December 2021

Selling on Marketplaces: Do’s & Dont’s

The way we sell products online has drastically changed over the years. Single-store online storefronts are increasingly dismissed in favour of platforms & aggregate storefronts or as you may better know them, marketplaces. Some examples include, Ebay, Amazon, Facebook & Etsy to name a few.

Considering that 90% of shoppers begin their product searches on digital channels, this is hardly surprising. What’s even less surprising, is the year-on-year increase of these numbers.

As it currently stands, around 40-50% of shoppers now start out on marketplaces such as Amazon or Ebay. At the current pace, practically everyone has or will have shifted to the marketplace ecosystem over the next few years – if not sooner.

Marketplaces have the innate ability to benefit both the users / sellers / online shops as well as the marketplace itself. By listing your store or products, and depending on your desired goals, marketplaces can help with a plethora of desired objectives such as brand awareness, product visibility, or customer outreach.

Speaking strictly of marketplaces, there are various goals which can apply to different situations, depending on where you are in your seller journey. As such, setting your goals and objectives should be the first thing to work out and consider. For example:

Increase distribution – By offering a wider range of products on the marketplace front and focusing on getting those products more exposure & to a larger bracket of users, you may be able to increase distribution exponentially.
Increase Brand Awareness – By using the marketplace to focus on a specific item – or subset of items – you can largely tailor the experience to complement your brand, rather than focus on sales and distribution specifically. Think of it as a way to guide customers further down your conversion funnel by offering another point of entry.
Access New Customer Segments – By pushing a specific product category that was otherwise restricted to you with brand limitations, etc., you can run experiments and test these products that could allow access to entirely new customer segments.

Ultimately, the goals and objectives you set are entirely up to you and what exactly you want to get out of the marketplace paradigm.

Goals, objectives & set-up only make up one side of the marketplace coin. On the other, lie a different set of elements that should be considered prior to launching on your desired platform. For example, how will you deal with:

Customer questions.
Negative Feedback.
Finance
Legal Issues
Ad Campaigns

These are all the constantly moving parts that make up the core marketplace experience – and like any machine, it will only run as well as the sum of its parts.

Before moving on to the Do’s, it’s worth touching on the Dont’s, which include:

Setting unclear objectives.
We touched on this briefly. Think about your marketplace approach & plan ahead, don’t go rushing into things.

Pushing the Wrong products.
Consider your marketplace audience. Some items may simply be unsuitable for the way the marketplace is structured (or may simply be unsustainable altogether, based on competition, price, or market saturation).

Inconsistency between different channels.
This is arguably the most important factor to be aware of as it pertains directly to your brand image as a whole. If different marketplaces / platforms (Facebook, Amazon, etc.) are managed by different people, it could lead to discrepancies such as brand image inconsistencies, or more importantly, fluctuations in pricing. This is particularly important as the customer journey is now more fluid than ever, often moving from one channel to the next for more ideas and an enhanced experience.

Now, what about the Do’s?

Choosing the right marketplace

We’ve mentioned this a few times already but that’s how important it is. Choosing the right marketplace is integral to your success.

Pay close attention to the entry requirements for each marketplace. Each has varying criteria that you’ll need to follow to avoid possible account suspension.

Next you should very carefully select your products. They should be fewer in number to begin with, easily identifiable to consumers, and should sell well (in a general consumer sens). Ideally these should also be products with low return rates and high ROI.

Creating Your Account

When creating your account, look into all the settings and tools that could help you in any way or give you an edge over your competition. For example, if you are an already-established brand, you can let the marketplace know and they could give you more control or access over your account.

Listing Your Products & Optimising your content

When listing your products, make sure you do everything by the book. Make sure they are in the right category, have appropriate tags and stand out compared to the competition. As you will now be constantly directly competing with other brands & suppliers, you’ll need to establish yourself clearly & as early as possible.

You want to tailor these optimisations (images, titles, keywords, descriptions & tags) to your customers. Specifically towards the audience you’re targeting on the specific platform you are on.

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews!

Reviews are one of, if not the most, integral parts of selling online, especially within a marketplace. You could say that reviews are the currency of online marketplaces.

This means that as soon as you start making sales, it is important to start gathering reviews immediately. This includes finding ways to engage your customers and guide them to various ways to engage and review your products.

Ad Campaigns and You

Once you have reached a comfortable stage in your current marketplace, it’s time to run some ads. No matter how well you are doing, you could always be doing better (especially if your sales are going well to begin with).

By running these ad campaigns and reviewing the overall results, you can then further optimise both your listings and your ad campaigns based on the data you collect. This data is invaluable as it will not only allow you to better your image, but also allow you to bolster your sales, reach a wider demographic / audience and more importantly, allow you to expand beyond your normal/current customer segments.

Reaching this stage is a wonderful thing as it allows you to start experimenting. Maybe you have a new product you’re not quite sure of and want to see how well it engages with a segment of your current audience. Most marketplaces have analytics and tools that allow you to run any test you like & be the judge of what works and what doesn’t.

More is more

There are limits in what you can achieve per marketplace. As each marketplace targets different aspects or may be more focused on certain objectives over others, it’s worth expanding beyond the single marketplace. Do not limit yourself or your products to one marketplace only.

Now that you’ve set everything up, run tests, seen what works and what doesn’t, and optimised your content & products, it will be much easier to take what you have learned – and apply it to other marketplaces that are compatible your objectives.

Date: Monday, 29 November 2021

How to use your brand to capture your audience’s attention

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

It never fails to amaze me how the tiniest phrase can have such incredible effects. How what some may see as something insignificant, others may take to Twitter with pitchforks flying high.

At the end of the day, it largely depends on what resonates with who — and at the heart of that thought, one simple word. Engagement.

Did the title above manage to garner your interest and engage you, as an audience? Were you inclined to scroll down just that tiny bit further to see what the heck this guy is talking about?

If that is the case, I have been successful in my endeavor to pique your curiosity, to bring you in a little closer to my thoughts and by extension the point or image I’m trying to get across.

In that case I have understood my audience well enough to form this amalgam of both topic interest & genuine interest, and at this point may have even managed to sneak in some carefully crafted product placements now that we’ve moved closer to establishing rapport with one another.

And hey, maybe I didn’t. That’s fine too. Marketing is all about trial and error. You see what works – you see what doesn’t. You won’t get anywhere by always playing it too safe, or conversely, being overly risky. I chose to take that risk, as I choose to look at the results of that action.

Create, Target, Risk, Examine.

This is a key stepping stone to finding your voice within the audience you’re building. Your products & content are an extension of you. Of your brand.

This can be applied to everything from website content to your products — and in terms of products, a little rapport with your audience can go a long way, allowing you to start creating specific customer personas tailored to different sub-categories of your target audience.

This meticulousness in your research phase will net you information such as:
- Location
- Gender
- Age
- Interests

...and a lot more based on your acquisition strategy.

Most importantly, it’s integral to find your audience before you can start tailoring your website content or product descriptions to match their personas and maximise interest, engagement, and I guess you could call it a ‘personal connection’.

A MENTAL IMAGE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Finding your target audience and subsequently building you customer personas is arguably the most important part of this whole process. However, nurturing this newly developed foundation is a different story entirely.

Learn to treat all of your content in the same way you would any blog post, or twitter blurb. Insert yourself – your brand – into all the nooks and crannies of your blogs, product descriptions, bios, and start building the image you would like to exude.

Block-by-block, post-by-post, all of this starts to add up, eventually coming together to form this image of your product, brand, of you, that your audience can resonate with.

This content strategy is always a long-term prospect.

The initial content creation push is always the most common roadblock people face when it comes to the consistency that is required in order to brand themselves successfully. However, if you push through that initial slump and get your second wind, you’ll look back and understand how necessary it was to be consistent with both tone and frequency.

Speaking of tone, when building your customer personas, it’s important to look at their buying motivations and issues. By using this ‘flavour text’, you can appeal to the right subcategory of your audience.

Let’s take a pair of black, leather gloves for example. Rather than listing them as ‘black leather gloves’, you could list them as ‘Noir Deerskin, Thick-Leather gloves’. Of course, you should base these titles & descriptions on your prior research. Overall, using a combination of ‘intrigue’ & buyer ‘motivations’ or ‘concerns’ to paint a product image can be a very appealing proposition to the end-user.

Imagine your brand is this massive mosaic you’re building. Bit-by-bit, you’re slowly adding to the whole of something yet unfinished. You can kind of make out bits and pieces and the general image is faintly visible — but it’s still in the making.

Technically, this specific type of mosaic will never be finished as brands are constantly evolving beings of social metadata but once the foundation has been established, that’s it. Everything that comes after that is simply an addition to that which you have built.

NO SHORTCUTS I cannot fathom a marketing-related article without a mention of our dearest friend, the conversion funnel, which in our case holds a very important role in the research phase.

Your content plays a very large role in funneling these customers-to-be through the… well… funnel. However, In order to fully appreciate your audience’s whims and nuances, you have to research what works and what doesn’t. This is where the funnel comes in.

Rather than focusing on a sales conversion viewpoint, shifting that focus to an audience-retention strategy will help you figure out the five W’s. Who. What. When. Where. Why.

Too much, and you risk losing their focus. Too little, and issues of trust and authenticity crop up. You have to keep in mind that the online audience you’re targeting is different to others in so many ways, including focus/engagement retention.

Use that research to understand your limits and always be careful with certain dubious aspects that could have an adverse effect towards your brand.

For example, do not mistake omission for Intrigue. Test out ways to interact and intrigue your audience. See if it works or not. There is a very important difference between leaving stuff out on purpose & leaving stuff out on purpose.

For lack of better phrasing; Leaving stuff out without leaving stuff out can (if done correctly) not only enhance your content – but can even be used as a brand calling card, if you will.

STICK TO YOUR BRAND

The importance of branding cannot be overstated. For example:

When you think ‘Godfather’, you think GODFATHER.

When you think ‘Starbucks’, you think Starbucks.

A brand is not just an image, it’s a feeling.

They say that seeing is believing. Well, if that’s the case then, feeling is knowing.

Building a successful & compelling brand is the culmination of everything we have discussed thus far. Approach your content in a way that sells your brand.

So, you tell me.

Is it simply Compelling Branding…

…Or Does it Become An Offer You Can’t Refuse.

Date: Tuesday, 23 November 2021