Marketing is one of the major concerns of e-commerce businesses to promote the brand and grow sales.

Here are some of the best e-commerce marketing campaigns from popular brands that you can consider for your eCommerce business marketing. 

1. Dollar Shave Club: Our Blades Are F***ing Great

The most effective e-commerce marketing campaigns don’t rely on tricks; instead, they concentrate on excellent content. You want something that promotes value, makes your brand stand out and makes customers think about your product differently.

Dollar Shave Club outperforms the competition on all of these fronts, thanks to hilarious and amazingly viral video campaigns that got men talking about razors.

The most well-known example is Dollar Shave Club’s initial commercial, “Our Blades Are F***ing Great,” in which the company’s creator argues for $1 razor blades while touring a bizarre workplace. The fundamental product is always presented in the best possible light; the candid approach is simply a strategy to attract your attention, while the commercial is fully tongue-in-cheek.

Dollar Shave Club received 12,000 conversions in two days as a result of this promotion. Meanwhile, the video’s popularity continues to grow, with over 27 million views on YouTube alone. Startup marketers may learn a lot from Dollar Shave Club’s success in providing entertaining and informative content.

Dollar Shave Club’s ad on YouTube

2. Blue Apron: Referral Marketing Campaign

Blue Apron is another excellent example of an e-commerce marketing campaign that you can utilize to get ideas for your own. This meal kit service launched a referral scheme in order to gain more users.

Blue Apron used email marketing and other techniques to persuade current subscribers to invite their friends to use Blue Apron as part of this referral program. New subscribers would get complimentary meals and delivery, while the referrer would get referral credits toward their subscription.

Along with the main means of referral marketing, the brand used the marketing strategies like display ads and podcasts to get more subscribers. 

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As a result, their referral program was responsible for 34% of their new client acquisition.

Blue Apron used the strength of its customer base to help them sell its brand and gain new subscriptions. It’s a highly successful approach to generating new leads for your business.

Hence, you shouldn’t be afraid to use the power of your existing subscribers! Your customers can frequently function as your best salesperson with the help of your referral program and user-generated content. 

3. Beardbrand: Content Marketing

One of the finest e-commerce marketing initiatives is Beardbrand. Beardbrand focuses on giving good information on its variety of beard, hair, and body products to its audience as a men’s grooming firm.

We’ll use Beardbrand’s content marketing strategy as an example. Their content marketing strategy is critical to their success. Beardbrand is a successful e-commerce business because it creates content that its customers want, such as why or not to grow a beard or why to have a buzz cut.

Beardbrand is an excellent illustration of how content can help you acquire qualified leads and convert them into sales. Leads are more likely to choose Beardbrand’s items if you provide them with useful grooming knowledge.

The main takeaway from this is that don’t underestimate the importance of a well-thought-out, industry-specific content strategy! Providing excellent information about your sector to your audience will help you stand out from the competition and generate more sales.

4. Barkbox: No Dog Left Behind

Barkbox is BARK’s monthly subscription service, which includes snacks, toys, and chewies for customers’ fluffy companions. BARK’s marketing is best in class, in addition to developing a good idea and executing it successfully. The company excels at creating attention-getting social media campaigns and masters the art of large-scale customization.

Because dogs, like people, are individuals, personalization is critical for a service like Barbox. There are over 120,000 breed and size variations alone, not to include allergies and temperaments. Because of this variability, sending the proper goods to the right dog can be difficult, such as an extremely sturdy chew toy for an aggressive puppy.

To that purpose, BARK created the “No Dog Left Behind” initiative, which actively reaches out to clients in order to obtain and verify vital information. This program, according to BARK, communicates with up to one-third of its consumers every month, collecting data points to meet individual requirements.

BARK developed and produced higher-quality chew toys, manufactured snacks with unique ingredients, and more as a result of this. Customers can also share their data with BARK in a way that emphasizes the value it can provide in return.

This strategy increased brand awareness and allowed brands to better serve their customers, resulting in high customer loyalty and referrals.

Key takeaway for you is that you can also create such campaigns to get crucial information from your customers and provide better quality products accordingly. 

5. Nike: Dream Crazy

Nike’s “Dream Crazy” campaign, which features footballer Colin Kaepernick, was published in June 2019. This came after his very publicized kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. The video for the campaign, which is narrated by Kaepernick, is full of inspirational stories of sportsmen who overcame adversity and achieved great success.

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While the campaign was contentious since the firm took a political stand, it was plainly successful: Nike gained 170,000 Instagram followers as a result of it, and the YouTube clip had more than 27.4 million views.

That’s not all, though. The Women’s Soccer World Cup began later that month, and Nike leaped at the chance to refresh its “Dream Crazy” campaign with “Dream Further”.

Despite the fact that Nike is not an official sponsor of the competition, it contributed to the discussion by spotlighting prominent athletes who will compete in the games.

With a storyline identical to their last campaign, this video traced the path of a young soccer player who aspired to compete in the World Cup and the company’s belief that she would succeed.

Nike’s ad on YouTube

6. Aerie: Aerie Real

Emotional marketing is effective because emotions have such a strong influence on our decisions; advertising that tugs at our heartstrings has had a lot of success. This features the “Aerie Real” campaign by American Eagle.

In 2014, American Eagle’s Aerie brand was one of the first to guarantee consumers that in their “Aerie Real” campaign, they would utilize un-photoshopped, un-airbrushed models with the purpose of highlighting real women.

And it paid off: by the end of 2015, sales had increased by 20%. The campaign’s execution and the emotional relationship spectators had to it were the reasons for its success, not just the promise.

Aerie not only used unedited models but also highlighted visible and invisible infirmities and problems that are overlooked in the fashion industry.

They weren’t finished yet. Using social media to expand their reach, Aerie created the hashtag #AerieREAL to empower and inspire customers to upload images of themselves wearing Aerie clothing. This made their present customers feel supported and also extended the retailer’s reach to women who may not have been aware of them before.

Therefore, the basic idea of this campaign is to connect with the customers emotionally, and you could also try this for your next e-commerce marketing campaign.

7. ASOS: AsSeenOnMe

ASOS is a popular online clothes retailer that made a big statement with its #AsSeenOnMe social media campaign. We all know that celebrity-endorsed products sell well because we enjoy seeing the individuals we admire utilizing products that the ordinary person does. User-generated material, on the other hand, has performed just as well, if not better.

ASOS invited its customers to use the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe to upload photos of their clothing and accessories on Instagram. The hashtag had over a million mentions after that. ASOS launched a dedicated Instagram account for the hashtag because the social media campaign was so successful.

You can try reaching out to your customers with your campaigns to engage with the brand and spread awareness. Social media is a great place to run such marketing campaigns. 

With the help of such an amazing e-commerce marketing campaign, you can improve your customer relationship and spread brand awareness to earn new customers. 

Key Takeaways

These are some of the top e-commerce marketing campaigns from popular brands that you can consider to take ideas for your e-commerce business marketing campaigns.

All these campaigns performed exceptionally and helped the brand achieve new heights. Analyze which marketing campaign idea is right for you, and start designing your brand’s campaign.

If you aren’t competent with marketing, then you can always consider a digital marketing agency to deliver you fruitful results. Marketing needs expertise, and a marketing agency can give you that expertise to fetch the potential results and ROI.

Good luck, marketers!

Guest Post by Gajendra Singh Rathore

Gajendra Singh Rathore is a digital marketing expert and is associated with a digital marketing agency in Toronto. He is always eager to learn, experiment, and implement. Astronomy is his escape from the outside world.

Gajendra’s Twitter

The post 7 Best E-commerce Marketing Campaigns of All Time appeared first on Social Commerce.

However, if you’re not convinced that you want to purchase Tapfiliate, you may be looking for a similar affiliate software to use for your affiliate business. Luckily, there are some great options! If you are looking for Tapfiliate alternatives, we’ve compiled a list of them that you might consider in your software search.

PRO TIP: One of the best methods to examine whether the software is good for your business is to try the vendor’s free trial or demo period. This will give you a direct experience with the features and components of the affiliate software and you will see if it meets your expectations.

DirectScale

The first Tapfiliate alternative of our list is DirectScale, an Exigo company. It’s the perfect cloud-based solution for data-driven companies that want to manage, track, analyze and optimize their business activities to increase revenue.

This software offers smart dashboards, trend indicators, and models like any other MLM provider. In addition, DirectScale allows MLM leaders to model and test-drive hypothetical changes in their comp plan to see the hypothetical changes & consequences. There is no other platform on the market that offers such a feature.

With DirectScale, you can easily track enrollment orders, sales history by order type or country, autoship orders, new associates, rank counts, and more.

Moreover, after acquiring DirecTech Labs, DirectScale started adding new revenue-generating features and applications to their already robust platform, including RevCapture Alerts.

RevCapture Alerts can bring you up to an 11% lift in monthly revenue, a 6% reduction in monthly and 90-day churn, and an average ROI of 25x.

Enjoy modern eCommerce choices with DirectScale, including Shopify, seamlessly integrating with the other DirectScale commission and back office software applications.

Here are some of the best features of DirectScale:

• User-friendly & flexible software. DirectScale is user-friendly, and anyone with basic internet knowledge can operate it.
• Easy & self-managed commission payouts. Auditing and modifying your commission payouts and compensation plans will be easier than ever. Users can modify and audit their compensation plans and commission payouts independently and without extra costs.
• Scalable business operations. DirectScale is a cloud-based MLM software that will keep up with your momentum as you go. It will grow alongside your business and scale back when you’re going through slower times so you can save money and never worry about updating your platform.
• Unmatched MLM analytics & BI. DirectScale blends a deep understanding of direct sales behavior with data science to improve distributor engagement and lifetime value. Amplify your sellers’ engagement with DirectScale.
• Unmatched ecommerce management. Update product offerings and info on the go to easily manage your online business.
• DIY configurability. You can create a personalized web office experience that fits your needs and allows you to target distributors at every step of the sales funnel. In addition, it is easy to provide them with training and support that allows you to create a loyal staff that makes a profit.
• Custom branding. Make your branding noticeable and always at the top of your user’s minds by creating unique login and landing pages. The platform comes with custom branding colors and logos. Building brand recognition and loyalty are easy to do with DirectScale. 
• Up-to-date REST APIs. Updated REST APIs allow users to modify the platform and reconfigure it to suit their needs better.
• Unlimited & free customer support. Reach their customer service anytime, free of charge.
• An unmatched self-serve help portal. Get help, tips and tricks, how-to video tutorials, checklists, articles, a user community, and more. It even includes direct access to content only developers want to see, like complete API documentation and examples.

Here are some testimonials of the happy customers of DirectScale:

1. Mari Jo, Founder: “I can manage all my sales ambassadors in one place. Whether it’s paying out commissions, sending messages, setting up social tracking links, or educating my team with new resources, DirectScale does it all.”
2. David Nemelka, CEO: “Most other platforms are stuck in the past so their flexibility and adaptability is really poor. But with DirectScale, in sharp contrast, our company is more stable and scalable than anything we’ve ever worked with.”
3. David, Exec Director of Technology: “DirectScale did not miss the mark on any of our concerns. We’ve been able to do [everything] on schedule. And we’ve paid all commissions on schedule since then, and we’ve even scaled the business considerably.”
4. Scott, VP of Operations: “I’ve worked with three of the main industry commission engine system providers. I’ve noticed something very different with DirectScale. The service and support I’ve received with DirectScale has helped me to feel like they are genuinely interested in the success of our company.”

Request Free Demo

Post Affiliate Pro

Post Affiliate Pro is another powerful tool that allows online business owners to track and monitor their affiliate networks. It is intuitive, fast, effective, infinitely expandable and scalable, which makes it a solid Tapfiliate alternative.

The development team behind this software solution placed a special focus on the periods when the affiliate network grows and it becomes difficult to manage. Post Affiliate Pro is trusted by over hundreds of companies globally.

Post Affiliate Pro stands out with these awesome features:

• Customizable interface. An easily customizable signup form and affiliate panel allows you to tailor the application to compliment the look and feel of your corporate website design.
• Multilingual support. As of now, it is translated into 36 languages, with new languages added regularly.
• Private campaigns. By default, all campaigns in Post Affiliate Pro are public, which means that all affiliates can view and promote them. Private campaigns feature allows you to create private campaigns, which will be visible only to selected affiliates.
• Multiple comprehensive reports. You can compare the side-by-side performance of affiliates, banners or campaigns, and much more.

Affise

As the third software, Affise is a performance marketing platform that helps you to manage, track, analyze and optimize online advertising campaigns in real-time. As one of the TOP Tapfiliate alternatives, it is very popular between leading companies all over the world. Affise is great at driving their business forward with conversion-based costs instead of paying for clicks.

Like other solutions on this list of the best Tapfiliate alternatives, Affise has some amazing features:

• Affiliate management and tracking. The software offers configurable dashboards, smart targeting & cap systems, along with data breakdowns and reports.
• Finances under control. Affise offers multi currencies and flexible payouts, among others.
• Customization. Take advantage of tailored UI design, feature-rich API, 3rd party integrations or custom landing pages.
• Anti-fraud detection and other optimizations like AI smartlinks.

Scaleo

The last Tapfiliate alternative on our list is Scaleo, an award-winning affiliate marketing software that allows you to track, analyze, and optimize your affiliate business and affiliate marketing campaigns in real-time, utilizing cutting-edge AI technology.

This software was made in Europe and is the perfect solution for advertisers (brands), affiliate network, media buyers or ad agencies.

There are many reasons why Scaleo might be a great solution for your company, but let’s focus on these features:

• Customizable & user-friendly platform to fit your brand perfectly.
• Anti-Fraud Logic™. Eliminate fraudulent traffic using their in-house anti-fraud solution.
• Data analysis & insights. Access real-time data combined with instantly generated reports.
• Ad performance optimization. Using their AI-tools, you can monetize every click using smart traffic redirection or automate the marketing performance.

Key Takeaways

The right software can help affiliate businesses streamline the critical functions of multi-level marketing business model. It helps automate the management of member networks and member compensations. Moreover, affiliate software helps businesses manage sales and process payments and much more.

Choosing the best affiliate software solution for your business is not an easy task indeed. Don’t rush the decision. Take a look at your priorities, needs, budget, among others. Knowing about the key expected benefits of the software will help you understand the impact of the tool on your business.

Make sure you start some free trials and check live demos of the software you like the most. Every business is unique in its own sense and that is why many business owners take their time when choosing their MLM affiliate platforms.

Yet, one option on this list stands out. Our personal favorite is DirectScale as it is probably the easiest-to-use and most comprehensive MLM software on the market. It helps MLM businesses empower their employees and field as a whole. With its advanced configurability, automated scalability, payout management, and other important features, it is clear that no other software can match its level.

Request Free Demo of DirectScale

Read more:

• MLM Affiliate Software: 8 Best Options for 2022
• MLM Commission Software: 4 Best Solutions for 2022
• 4 ByDesign Alternatives to Consider for Your MLM Business

The post 4 Tapfiliate Alternatives to Consider for Your Affiliate Business appeared first on Social Commerce.

Influencer-based campaigns can be very successful for companies, as businesses are making an average of $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. Anyone in the fashion business can especially benefit from this type of marketing, as social media is filled with fashion influencers.

If you’re looking to make your own campaign, you can find inspiration in these examples of successful fashion influencer marketing campaigns.

Lil Miquela for Prada Fall ‘18

Lil Miquela is a computer-generated virtual influencer who was based on a 19-year-old from Los Angeles and currently boasts over 600k Instagram followers.

Prada partnered with her to promote their Fall 2018 collection through Instagram Stories via animated GIFs. These GIFs were inspired by Prada’s current collection, but also gave nods to some old-fashioned pieces such as the SS11 banana print and the SS10 flame shoe.

Miquela announced this partnership alongside Prada’s Milan Fashion Week runway show by posting a series of short Instagram videos that featured the GIF. The posts were paired with a caption that read “Go off!! #pradagifs are live in stories! Start posting and tag me.”

When users went over to Prada’s account, they were given a mini-tour of the show space by the CGI avatar

H&M

H&M is a fashion brand with one of the largest Instagram followings because they know how to get influencer marketing right. They only partner with influencers who reflect the style of their brand themselves and whose followers will most likely take inspiration from their posts.

The company did just that when they partnered with the model Ela Velden and fashion blogger Julie Sariñana for their fall 2017 catalog. In fact, Sariñana enjoyed the partnership and loved H&M’s clothing so much that she posted pictures of herself wearing them on her own Instagram account.

Revolve

Revolve took fashion influencer marketing to the next level in order to improve the visibility of their clothing brand and made a somewhat non-traditional advertising campaign. The brand invited key opinion leaders to travel the world and promote their clothing at the same time.

These people would go to parties wearing Revolve outfits, get photographed in them, and then later post those pictures on their social media accounts using the #RevolveAroundTheWorld hashtag.

Not only that, but Revolve also rented a huge villa during the extremely popular Coachella festival and invited influencers that were popular among Millennials. After several Snapchat stories and Instagram posts, the hashtag blew up and was used over 6,000 times during just one weekend.

The end result was more than successful, as the brand made over 3 billion impressions and significant growth in sales.

Daniel Wellington

Daniel Wellington is an impressive example on this list because the brand’s only type of marketing is fashion influencer marketing. This watch manufacturer managed to build brand recognition around a careful selection of influencers and a fixed hashtag structure.

Some of their regular tags such as #DanielWellington and #DWPickoftheDay are very popular among Instagram’s fashion-related tags. They also incorporated sponsored posts from influences into their campaign, which led to engaging and rewarding content followers could trust and relate to.

Since the people they partner with only post genuine images without too much photoshop, Daniel Wellington comes off as a community-respected brand that knows the value of their products.

Brandy Melville

Brandy Melville is a fashion label whose target audience consists mostly of teenage girls. Seeing as how Instagram is the most popular traditional social network among U.S. teens, it’s no wonder why they used this social media platform for their marketing campaigns.

The brand worked with influencers who have a following that consists mostly of teenagers and posted pictures that celebrated free-spirited millennials. Ultimately, the campaign proved to be a huge success and during one month, they acquired 53,000 new followers, their fan base expanding to 3.3 million.

Not only that, but they also managed to set the record for most likes on Instagram in March of 2016 with 9.3 million likes.

Zara

Zara is a high-street retailer that wanted to show their items can be both stylish and accessible at the same time, so they launched the #iamdenim campaign. For this campaign, they partnered with popular fashion influencers to get their message across and they did this with regular Instagram take-overs.

One of the influencers they partnered with was Teesh Rosa who created raw and honest content around their pieces. This way, Zara managed to show that their jeans and denim jackets are fashionable and well-liked by popular influencers, but also that they are for everyday people to wear in everyday situations.

By putting an emphasis on accessibility, this campaign brought Zara 4.6 million new followers in just eight months.

Fashion Nova

Fashion Nova’s strategy for their marketing campaign was to pair up with as many influencers as they could. However, they didn’t sacrifice quality, but they partnered with almost every fashion blogger with a significant following.

Not only that, but they also formed partnerships with many influential celebrities, including Kylie Jenner, Amber Rose, and Cardi B. This type of no-holds-barred marketing approach may be ambitious and it certainly isn’t affordable, but it shows results.

In just three years, Fashion Nova managed to increase its sales significantly and reach six million followers on social media.

Yeezy

Getting recognition and attention for a product before it’s even released can be a challenge, but Yeezy managed to do this with carefully thought out fashion influencer marketing. Before the shoe was even released, the brand carefully selected a small number of influencers to be their representatives.

Adidas decided to collaborate with Kanye West and this saw the launch of the Yeezy Boost campaign. Instead of sending boxes of shoes to a variety of popular influencers, Yeezy decided to show exclusivity and that not everyone can get these shoes easily.

This made customers realize that Yeezys weren’t average Adidas shoes, so the waiting list to purchase these shoes was endless. Adidas managed to establish Yeezys as a sought-after product, and influencers who managed to get their own pair posted pictures of them without any monetary compensation.

Forever 21

Forever 21 decided to engage social media audiences with a fashion influencer marketing campaign that doesn’t revolve around a classic photoshoot. The brand partnered with established influencers who were known for having great communication with their followers to create a unique campaign.

Instead of taking pictures where they would show off clothing from Forever 21 in traditional poses, influencers created content that revolved around the process of trying these clothes on. They later provided both positive and negative feedback, both of which the brand welcomed and didn’t edit.

These efforts proved to be successful, and 21 was able to show off their new collection while also creating an atmosphere of shopping with a close friend.

Coach

Many brands are under the impression that this type of marketing only works for companies that are trying to target a younger audience. However, a high-end brand Coach still managed to create an amazing fashion influencer marketing campaign on Instagram by partnering with Selena Gomez.

In 2016, this actress and singer became a brand ambassador for the company and their collaboration paid off for the brand. Reportedly, this campaign cost Coach less than 25 cents per impression.

Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs is a world-famous fashion designer who took a different approach to influencer marketing. Instead of finding another famous person to represent his brand, Marc decided to do it himself and started the #CastMeMarc campaign to find new faces for the upcoming campaign.

The only thing aspiring models had to do to be entered for consideration was to tag a photo of themselves on Instagram with this caption. Unsurprisingly, the campaign was an instant hit and spread like wildfire while Marc Jacobs managed to find new faces for their upcoming fashion season.

Another positive outcome that came out of the campaign was that Marc Jacobs created a real sense of agency and engagement, and #CastMeMarc was named Marketing Week’s campaign of the year.

Final thoughts

There are many different ways you can engage fashion influencers to promote your brand. As social media marketing keeps evolving, it’s becoming more obvious that it’s not enough to have regular sponsored posts. If you truly want to stand out, you need to be unique.

To ensure your campaign is successful, you need to implement all the best practices. This means you need to know where to find the right influencers, go high if your budget allows it, but still put more focus on quality over quantity, keep it visual, and encourage and enforce disclosure.

The post Fashion Influencer Marketing: 11 Stylish Brands Doing It Right appeared first on Social Commerce.

Image by Malachi Witt from Pixabay

Social selling is all about using social media to connect with prospects and provide them with value in an effort to ultimately sell your product or service.

It’s only logical to engage with your audience where they spend a lot of time. And for better results, you should reach them where they consume content on a daily basis: online.

Successful social selling is similar to lead nurturing in the way that you have to engage buyers on an ongoing basis. Fortunately, this effort pays off. According to a study, 78% of social sellers outsell their competitors who don’t recognize the power of using social media. 

It’s easy to see why every business needs social selling strategies to achieve great results. And when you consider the fact that 90% of decision-makers claim they never respond to cold outreach, it’s clear that social selling really is the future. 

If you don’t want your team to fail at social selling, keep reading. Below you will find essential tips for training your team to become experts at social selling. 

Lead by Example

If you want social selling to work for your business, you must clearly define it to your team. They need to know social selling trends and how they will affect business. 

You should give your team members some tips to help them get started. Share examples and results of your own social posts with the people you want to encourage. This can be done with the assistance of reflection models that offer a bridge between your past experience and future progress. For instance, you should show them a good example of your social post that got a lot of exposure, likes, shares, and comments.

Finally, make sure to give your team members opportunities to reiterate the power of social selling to each other. Celebrate small wins and give credit where credit is due. 

Dedicate Clear Roles

Image by Werner Heiber from Pixabay

Every team works better when everyone onboard knows and understands their individual roles. 

It is important for every member to know how exactly they contribute to the greater cause. From frontline sellers to team managers and high-level sales leaders, each member has to know what and how they are contributing if you want them to function as smoothly as a Swiss watch. 

Bear in mind that frontline sellers play the most critical role in any sales organization since they have the most influence over what sales representatives sell, where they sell, who they sell to, and even how they sell. 

Be sure to establish the roles within your sales teams with clearly-defined objectives so they can work effectively.

Give the Right Tools

Even though digital and social selling is not only about technology, you have to provide the right tools to your team members if you expect them to be effective.

Enable your team members with the right tools so they can connect with prospects at all stages of the buying journey. 

LinkedIn is the most popular B2B social selling tool, but most consumer sales happen on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, which is the place customers most commonly engage with brands. Consider third-party tools like HootSuite and TweetDeck, which can help you and your teams manage and optimize social media use across all channels.

It’s important that all sellers have their social marketing and social selling strategies aligned to tell a consistent story about your products and brand, which allows for a greater degree of penetration using social channels. 

Optimize Social Profiles

Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay

When optimizing social profiles, start with your company’s accounts. Make sure you provide consistent information across LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other networks. 

Include a link to your website, a short description of your company, your office address, and other relevant contact information, in addition to compelling photos and profile pictures that match your brand. 

Once you are done optimizing your company profile, put together a framework for your salespeople to use when updating their own profiles.   

Here are some key aspects to focus on:

• Profile picture. Professional photos are best, but any clear photo will do. Friendly faces make better connections, but be sure to avoid blurry pictures, group images, or inanimate objects. 
• Headline. Some networks allow customizing your headline description of yourself. So, use some keywords that highlight your role and passion for the products, brand, or associated lifestyle. 
• Bio. When writing your biography, try focusing on your audience and not on your accomplishments. In other words, you need to present yourself as a solver of their problems.
• Company. For instance, LinkedIn allows you to link to your company page. This is a great way to highlight your company’s presence further.
• Website. If you can, include a link to your personal online shop.

Finally, you should be aware of the fact that each social platform is different. So, keep in mind that you should optimize each profile according to the individual platform— each has its own algorithm for presenting content, image sizing structure, and post character limit. 

Focus on Customer Journey

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

You increase deal win rates when you align the customer’s journey with the sales approach. Win rates can be improved by 15% when sellers align their process with the customer journey. 

Social selling allows sellers to engage with customers at all points of the customer journey, from the early stages of research all the way to the purchasing point.

To better understand the customer journey, consider using social listening tools like BuzzSumo or HootSuite to discover where people are in the lifecycle – from looking for recommendations on social media to stating an intention to buy a particular product. 

Your team members should always keep the customer in mind when selling. The customers’ wants and needs need to be carefully considered if you want great results. Always remember that your job is to solve problems for customers, and your selling tactics should reflect that goal.

Insist on Collaboration

Studies have shown that the key challenges for aligning sales and marketing are:

• communication
• broken/flawed processes
• inconsistent use of metrics
• lack of accurate data on target customers
• reporting challenges

It is essential to break down the walls between salespeople and the marketing support they receive, encouraging collaboration from team to team and person to person. 

At first, aligning sales and marketing can be challenging, but the benefits of telling a consistent story across all your channels are critical. If you manage, your teams will win more deals and keep customers returning for more.

To bridge the gap between the two teams, try to involve your sellers in the content creation process. 

Share Relevant, Quality Content

If you want to connect with new people, you have to share relevant and quality content or risk actually losing followers— it’s also the best way to stay in front of your audience and position your salespeople and your company as the authorities of your industry. 

Try to push educational content about your industry and other areas that might be relevant to your prospects.

Use the content your marketing department is creating to support your sales team. If your content isn’t aligned with your sales team’s needs, get together with your marketing department to align your goals and see if they can help support your content needs.

Remember not to be overly promotional. Find other people’s content that is useful and share it with your followers. Yes, sharing your company content is good, but don’t make your efforts should start with education rather than selling. Be sure to mix in content from other sources to build your credibility. 

Finally, take advantage of visual content. Use high-quality images, record videos, and even create infographics to grab your audience’s attention.

Connect and Reach Out

Image source

Make sure to encourage your team members to find and connect to new contacts through social media. 

Twitter and similar networks make this less awkward since most of the accounts are public. You can also search for relevant accounts to connect with through hashtags or keywords.

On LinkedIn, this process can be a bit more difficult. Especially if you don’t really know the person, you are trying to connect with. To make connecting easier, try joining relevant groups and commenting on posts.

Also, blog using the LinkedIn platform. This way, you will have a wider reach and become an industry authority if you manage to provide content that adds value. 

Finally, connect with people who have engaged with your content or forum posts, or even those who just looked at your profile. 

Make It a Long-term Commitment

It is fair to say that the success of all selling strategies ebb and flow. Don’t get discouraged and constantly try to reinvent the wheel; focus on a defined set of activities if you want long-term success.

A consistent strategy doesn’t mean your tactics can’t evolve based on new products, time of year, or things you learn along the way. Be sure to share new social selling tactics in regular team communications. This way, you will educate your team members about new trends, tricks, and tactics so that they can up their game. 

Curate a list of content assets your team can share, whether blogs, ebooks, or even simple post templates. Ask your marketing department to update this list with new assets when they become available, and be sure to let your teams know when new content is ready.

Finally, use your messaging platforms and corporate social channels to announce new blog posts and exciting content that should be shared. 

Wrap-up

Now it’s time to get your sales team fully acclimated to social selling. 

Be sure to share the strategies you develop with all the key stakeholders in your organizations so they can all be successful. 

By empowering your salespeople at every level, you are increasing your chances of establishing a deep and long-lasting impact on your sales figures with their loyalty and that of their customers.

The post How to Train Your Team for Social Selling appeared first on Social Commerce.

The concepts of “business disruption” and “disruptive innovation” are certainly not new. Since they came into vogue in the mid-1990s, these terms have been widely discussed, analyzed and applied to dozens of companies and industries—from the effects of the cheap, mass-produced Model-T Ford on twentieth-century transportation to the impact of tech disruptors like Amazon, Airbnb, Uber and others on well-established companies and industries.

Of course, as much as these big business disruptions have impacted different industries and changed how we live, none of them can hold a candle (or high-efficiency LED light bulb) to what we’re all experiencing right now.

The world is still in the beginning stages of a new kind of disruption that is having a massive, unprecedented impact on every business, industry and economy simultaneously. It has already fundamentally altered how we work, play, travel, shop and socialize. And as much as we’d like to believe this is all temporary, whatever new normal we end up with will look substantially different than the old.

In other words, the past few months have forced all of us to re-examine our relationship to disruption—in business and everywhere else. Virtually every organization is grappling with how to think about the current global disruption, apply the right mindset and approach, and emerge stronger and healthier on the other side. Although major business disruptions can be difficult and destabilizing, they can also lead to groundbreaking opportunities for young, agile and entrepreneurial businesses that are prepared to take advantage of them.

Well-known entrepreneur Mark Cuban calls this idea “Infrastructure 2.0.” In a recent interview on Fox News, he said, “Somebody has a vision out there of what we are going to look like on the other side. And when we look back in five years, we are going to realize that there are… amazing companies that were started that just changed the world and led us through all of this to a brighter future.”

So what will it take to be part of that brighter future? What kinds of amazing companies will lead the way? And will direct selling businesses have new opportunities to step up as the next “disruptive innovators?”  Right now, no one has definitive answers to these questions. But looking at how businesses have prepared for and adapted to past disruptions—and what smart businesses are doing today—can provide some valuable insights.

Build Agility into Your DNA

It’s a familiar story. An unexpected disruptive innovation starts to transform a market or industry. Established companies try to respond, but their structures and processes are simply too rigid and entrenched. By the time they manage to “turn their battleship,” it’s already too late. The market has passed them by, and they’re either extinct or sitting on the sidelines.

To avoid becoming a victim of this common pattern, you have to focus on agility every day. And that’s not easy. True agility requires asking uncomfortable questions, interrupting successful processes and workflows to try untested theories, and expending extra effort and expense. It’s a culture and mindset that most successful and established companies lose as they mature. But those that actively work to stay nimble are in a much better position to survive, reinvent themselves and thrive through all kinds of disruptions.

Turn Direct Selling into Disruptive Innovation

Make no mistake, the current situation—and the toll it is taking on millions of people—is unequivocally tragic. But as habits and behaviors shift, direct selling companies are in a unique position to provide people with products that improve their health and enhance their lives in ways that don’t involve crowded retail stores. The direct selling model also offers people safe, flexible, at-home options for building new careers and supporting their families. As society continues to change and adapt in ways we can’t predict, make sure you are actively searching for disruptive innovations, even small ones, that meet the changing needs of your field reps and customers in ways no one else has thought of. Because that’s how smart businesses turn challenging disruptions into new opportunities and success.

Pick Your Lane — And then Own It

The past few months have obviously upended successful businesses around the world. But even in markets where sales have increased—like meal delivery services,  online apparel, health, and cosmetics businesses—the most agile and innovative players are finding new ways to break away from the competition.

Lululemon sales have grown more than 200 percent since March 15^th, compared to mostly flat sales from MeUndies, Stitch Fix and others. (See Figure 1.) Even more surprising, Target’s e-commerce sales have exploded by nearly 400 percent in the same time period, significantly outpacing both Amazon and Walmart. (See Figure 2 below.)  How are these companies outperforming their larger, more established competitors? Despite the challenges every business is facing right now, they have found ways to tighten their focus, respond more quickly to changing markets, and anticipate what their customers need most from them during a difficult time.

If you embrace this same mindset—and put the tools in place to make your business more agile and responsive than your competitors—you can create similar opportunities that shake up your market and help you break away from the pack.

Start Preparing Now

Disruption is always difficult, especially at today’s unprecedented scale. But through it all, the best and most innovative businesses are already planting seeds for the brighter future Mark Cuban described.

For example, US-based DirectScale, and Exigo ecommerce company, wants you to have the technology tools and support you need to stay agile and turn disruption into innovation and opportunities, so all of us can be part of that future together.

Sources:

• https://www.foxnews.com/media/mark-cuban-infrastructure-2-0-plan-after-coronavirus
• https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/13/technology/online-shopping-buying-sales-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
• https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/13/technology/online-shopping-buying-sales-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

The post How to Innovate and Thrive appeared first on Social Commerce.

Let’s face it: cold calling doesn’t work like it used to, and direct sellers are turning to other tactics to reach more people.

It’s even more frustrating when you consider that consumers are savvier than ever in today’s selling landscape and the vast majority are skeptical of brands who come at them with the “sell, sell, sell” mentality.

Instead, consumers are looking for trustworthy relationships with brands they can relate to and connect with. For businesses, this means meeting customers where they are rather than forcing them to leave their comfort zone.

As a result, we’ve seen a dramatic rise in social selling in the multi-level marketing world.

This simply refers to the act of selling your products via social channels through educational, entertaining, and engaging content. These are the platforms where consumers are already hanging out and interacting with their friends, family, colleagues, and brands.

The Power of Social Selling

According to an Aberdeen Group study on the impact of social selling, sales teams that use this tactic find 45% more opportunities than those that don’t. Social selling also helps cream of the crop companies to achieve a 16% gain in year-on-year revenue.

If you’re thinking “not another marketing technique to implement!” you’re not alone. It really does seem like there is a new, “must-do” method popping up every day, and it can be overwhelming trying to fit them all into your strategy.

However, social selling is quickly pushing its way to the top.

In fact, it’s the third most important priority for sales teams this year according to the Aberdeen Group study – if you lag behind, you’ll miss out on prospects that are ready and waiting to buy from their social channels.

Here’s the catch: only one in four marketers know how to use social media for sales, leaving the vast majority floundering on platforms they don’t fully understand with no return for their investment.

So how can you make sure you’re one of the few salespeople that does know how to use social media for selling? How can you rise to the top and win customers over with this activity?

There are five key elements involved in creating a successful social selling strategy that wins customers over:

1. Target market research and identifying key social platforms
2. Creating engaging, valuable content that tackles consumer problems
3. Building credibility through thoughtful discussions
4. Creative campaigns that stand out and make a difference
5. A consistent strategy that continues to bring in new customers

We’ve put together a handy guide to help you carry out each of these steps.

1. Choose the Right Social Media Platform

It’s no secret that different social media channels attract different audiences. Snapchat and Instagram are renowned for being favored by younger demographics, while Facebook is predominantly used by older generations and decision makers primarily log in to Twitter and LinkedIn.

The key to finding the right platform for you and your business is getting to know your audience and identifying which platforms they hang out on the most.

This means you can join them there, start conversations with them, and contribute to discussions in a place that they’re already comfortable with.

If you’re not sure where your audience hangs out, try the following simple approach:

• Determine your top two to three competitors
• Check out which social channels they’re most active on
• Voila! If you have the same audience as these competitors, you can copy the social platforms they use the most
• After a while, you’ll get a feel for where you’re getting the most interaction and can increase your time spent on those channels

2. Create Engaging, Useful Content

Gone are the days where marketers could simply tout their products on social media over and over again.

You know the ones: they’ve just launched the new “best thing ever” and they’ve already shared fifteen Tweets about it in the last hour. They’ve crammed the post with hashtags and haven’t even bothered to change the copy in each Tweet to make it unique and different.

Somehow, this method used to work. Now, it doesn’t.

Instead, brands are striving to build a loyal following of prospects who will consistently buy from them. This involves establishing a sense of trust, which can be sparked by sharing engaging content that solves a key problem the audience has.

Try the following to get started with this technique:

Step 1: Check out what kind of content your audience is already interacting with on social media (stalk your competitors for inspiration here if you need to)

Step 2: Identify your customers’ key pain points by scouring forums, listening to questions they’re asking on social, and digging into reviews of products like yours or similar

Step 3: Create content (or find content to share) that provides a solution to their most pressing pain points

Beauty brand Kate Somerville tackles dry skin in cooler temperatures – a struggle their customers are likely facing.

3. Build Credibility

Once you’ve got your baseline of useful content for your audience or consumer, it’s time to start cementing that trust and building credibility – in the end, this is what will win over customers on social media.

Think about it: say, for example, you’re looking to buy a course that shows you how to effectively use email marketing.

Are you more likely to buy it from someone you’ve never heard of before or someone who regularly posts content about the biggest struggles you have with email marketing and offers a solution to those problems?

We’re willing to bet it’s the latter.

Although this is a very basic example, you get the gist of how important credibility is in winning over customers on social media.

So how do you create a credible image of your brand?

• Demonstrate your understanding of your industry on social media by sharing relevant articles and adding thoughtful insights to conversations
• Participate and engage in discussions that are already taking place to prove your authority on the topic and simultaneously spread the world about your brand
• Share case studies, testimonials, and reviews from other customers who can vouch for your business

This realtor shares client testimonials on Instagram to boost their credibility.

4. Get Creative

Just like cold calling doesn’t work any more, neither does sharing generic fluff about your products Remember those old-fashioned brands we mentioned before? Don’t use their example as an excuse to shout into the void about your products on social media.

If you want to win social media users over, you have to create customer-centric campaigns that really resonate with them – and don’t be afraid to get creative here.

People are far more likely to remember a brand that went all out with their social strategy and did something different than a brand that followed the crowd and played it safe.

Thankfully, social media is packed full of features that can help you bring your brand to life and make it stand out:

• Tap into the power of Instagram Stories to share the “human-ness” of your brand and to go behind the scenes (consumers love to take a peek behind the scenes)
• Use features like Facebook Live or IGTV to share in-the-moment announcements and snapshots of advice that provide quick wins to your audience
• Re-share content that your audience have posted themselves to create a sense of community and encourage more of your followers to get involved

5. Be Consistent

If you’re looking to win over customers with social selling, the most important thing is that you show up regularly.

Consistency is king.

Once you start showing up in user feeds regularly with quality content and useful, credible information, your followers will start to actively expect you to pop up. As a result, they’re more likely to interact with you as they become more familiar with who you are and what you’re selling and, to top it off, are more likely to buy from you.

Don’t Miss Out On the Power of Social Selling

Social selling is one of the hottest marketing trends right now – and for good reason. It gives brands the chance to meet and hang out with their customers in a place they’re comfortable with and join in conversations.

Selling is no longer a game of who can shout the loudest; instead, it’s about nurturing audiences, showing you understand their struggles, and providing solutions to those pain points that enrich their lives.

Tap into the power of social selling by ensuring you’re visible on the right social platforms, sharing relevant, engaging content, and getting involved in discussions. The more you show up and cement your credibility, the more trust you’ll build, and the more customers you’ll get flocking to your products.

The key is to keep things consistent. If you follow this super simple strategy, and you’ll be winning over customers in no time at all.

The post How to Win Over Customers with Social Selling appeared first on Social Commerce.

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In a world where social media is becoming more and more important, failing to implement a concentrated strategy on social platforms can lead a business to ruin. Too many businesspeople rely on their gut feeling when it comes to their social selling strategy without considering the data that should drive their decisions.

We’ve compiled a list of social selling statistics to give you important insights and help you approach your followers the right way: Social selling is the latest wave in the tech-driven consumer revolution, and you should be part of it.

General Social Media Statistics

1. According to Statista, 22% of the world’s population has a Facebook account.

2. More than 600 million people have LinkedIn accounts across 200+ countries. (LinkedIn)

3. According to PEW Research, Facebook is still the most widely used social media platform with 79% of American internet users. 

4. A staggering 80% of the time spent on social media platforms happens on mobile devices. (ComScore)

5. More than 56% of internet users have more than one social media account. (PEW Research)

6. Almost half of the entire world’s population (3.03 billion people) has at least one social media account. (Hootsuite)

Crucial Social Selling Stats to Keep in Mind

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7. 73% of sales representatives using social selling as part of their sales process did better than their colleagues who didn’t use social selling. On top of that, they exceeded quota 23% more often. (Aberdeen Group) 

8. Salespeople who use social media as part of their sales methods outsell 78% of their peers. (A Sales Guy)

9. 90% of top-performing salespeople now use social media as part of their sales strategy. (LinkedIn)

10. According to SalesforLife, companies who have consistent social selling processes are 40% more likely to hit revenue goals than non-social sellers.

11. 50% of revenue is influenced by social selling in 14 common industries, including computer software, healthcare, and marketing & advertising. (LinkedIn)

12. 90% of decision-makers never answer a cold call, but 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make purchasing decisions. (LinkedIn)

13. 54% of sales agents using social media are able to track their social media usage back to at least one closed deal. (A Sales Guy)

14. 77% of B2B buyers claimed they did not talk with a sales agent until after they had performed independent research. (DemandGen)

15. 53% of sales agents want help in understanding social selling better. (Adam Global)

16. Sales agents with high social network activity achieve 45% more sales opportunities and are 51% more likely to hit their sales targets. (LinkedIn)

17. Employee-generated content receives 8 times more engagement than content shared by brand channels. (Social Media Today)

18. Brand messages reached 561% further when shared by employees compared to the same messages shared via official brand social channels. (Marketing Advisory Network)

19. 93% of sales executives have not received any formal training on social selling. (EveryoneSocial)

20. According to EveryoneSocial, a good social selling program can drive 16% better win rates, 2x pipeline, and deliver 48% better deals.

21. 89% of top-performing sales agents claim social networking platforms, such as LinkedIn, play a major role in closing deals and are part of their sales strategy. Moreover, 70% of sales professionals are active on LinkedIn for business purposes, compared to 64% on Facebook and 43% on Twitter.https://www.youtube.com/embed/L2y8wCZ9JVY?feature=oembed

22. 64% of sales agents that invested in social media hit their quota. On the other hand, only 49% of sales agents that don’t use social selling hit the quota. 

23. Social selling leaders manage to create 45% more sales opportunities than their peers.

24. 97% of consumers go online to find and research products and services.

25. 47% of buyers view at least 3 to 5 pieces of content before they contact a sales agent, according to DemandGen.  

26. Baylor University’s Keller Center for Research reports that the success rate of cold calls to appointments stands at only 0.3%.  

27. 75% of B2B buyers are impacted by social media when making a purchasing decision.  

28. 31% of B2B professionals claim that social selling has allowed them to build deeper relationships with clients.

29. More than 10% of social sales agents have closed 5 or more deals due to being active on social media. 

30. 76% of buyers are ready to have a social media conversation with potential providers.

31. A staggering 92% of B2B buyers are willing to engage with a sales professional who is a known industry thought leader. 

32. 53% of customer loyalty is driven by a salesperson’s ability to deliver unique insight, which is easily done through social media.

33. 39% of B2B professionals claimed social selling reduced the length of time they spent researching potential leads.

34. 84% of C-level executives use social media to make purchasing choices.

35. 33% of users prefer to contact brands through social media over making a phone call.

36. 80% of companies believe their salesforce would be more productive if they had a greater social media presence, but two-thirds of companies have no social media strategy for their sales organization.

37. 50.1% of social sales agents spend 5-10% of their time on social media. (A Sales Guy)

38. According to HubSpot, 61% of US marketers use social media for lead generation. 

B2B Social Selling with Twitter

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39. 92% of employees’ Twitter followers are new to their brand. (A Sales Guy)

40. 74% of B2B marketing companies use Twitter to push their content.

B2B Social Selling with Facebook

41. 81% of people find unsolicited Facebook messages from sales agents creepy, and 78% are turned off by friend requests from sales agents.  

42. The reach of 135 employees engaged in employer advocacy is larger than that of a company page with one million Facebook followers, likes, or fans. 

B2B Social Selling with LinkedIn

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43. 98% of sales agents with over 5,000 LinkedIn connections meet or surpass their quota.

44. 65% of people on LinkedIn wouldn’t find it awkward if a sales agent sent them a message and they had mutual connections.

45. There is a grand total of 154 million LinkedIn users in the US alone.   

Social Selling Efficiency Statistics

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46. IBM increased its sales by 400% thanks to its inbound social selling program.

47. Sales agents who took a look at the profiles of at least 10 people at each of their accounts were 69% more likely to exceed quota than those who viewed 4 or fewer.

48. Social sellers create 38% more new opportunities than traditional sellers.

49. 90% of top-performing sales agents use social selling tools, compared with 71% of overall sales professionals.

50. Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing.

51. 63.4% of social sellers reported an increase in company sales revenue, compared to 41.2% of non-social sellers.

52. Sales agents who leverage social selling in their sales process are 79% more likely to attain their quota than those who don’t use it.  

53. 77% of B2B purchasers claimed that they would not even talk to a sales agent until they had done their own research.   

54. 55% of all buyers do their research by using social networks.

Ultimately, leveraging your social network when selling is critical to your success. Use insights from these 54 stats to inform your social selling strategies using LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter: Doing so will meet potential customers where they are, leading to better relationships, impactful discussions, and more sales.

The post 54 Mind-Blowing Stats about Social Selling appeared first on Social Commerce.

For high-end brands like Rivera, giving customers the chance to see what their products look like in situ is an important step in the sales cycle. In the past, this would mean hiring a professional photographer to capture a few studio-style shots for the website.

Today, the possibilities have been blown wide open.

Riviera Maison shares photos from customers that have already bought their signature velvet sofa, mahogany sideboard, or luxurious winter blanket to provide endless decor inspiration for future prospects. 

And this isn’t a one-off.

In fact, the rise of social commerce shows us that shopping is (and always has been) an inherently social experience. Social commerce sales are on the rise even in spite of a dropoff in in-person shopping. Ultimately, conversations about brands and products are still happening— in fact, they’re happening more often than ever before with social media.

Source

In the current digital landscape, brands have a wealth of tools and opportunities at their fingertips. Savvy brands leverage their social power and build deeper connections with their buyers through social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. And YouTube ad agencies are helping brands implement this . Starting conversations and engaging with customers online doesn’t just generate valuable feedback and loyalty; it inspires current consumers to share what they love about the brand.

With more than 50% of all shoppers following their favorite brands on social media for the sole purpose of seeing new products, there’s no point denying the impact social can have on sales. 

Social Selling In Action: Examples From 5 Real-Life Brands

1. “Shop Now” Insta Ads from Bombas

Bombas Socks taps the power of Instagram ads by encouraging shoppers to buy products directly through the social media app itself. 

Each ad is designed to stand out in a prospective customer’s feed, employing bright colors and quirky styling, and using the “Shop Now” call-to-action banner that Instagram ads provide. 

As a result, shoppers can make their purchase in one window, without ever having to leave Instagram, reducing friction that might otherwise decrease the likelihood of a sale. Once the purchase has been made, they can continue to scroll through their feeds.

The in-built nature of buying through social media demonstrates just how much online shopping has become a part of everyday life. Consumers can now impulse buy like never before with just a few clicks.

Key Takeaway From Bombas

Studies show that 60% of users learn about new products through Instagram. Online communities have evolved, and consumers are now open to purchasing through channels that were originally reserved for interacting with friends and keeping in touch with family.

In fact, one-third of Instagram users have actually bought something through the platform while on their mobile device. 

Take Bombas’ example and serve stand-out ads that link directly to a in-app purchase window, making it as easy as possible for potential customers to make a purchase while going about their everyday activities on Instagram. 

2. Shareworthy Giveaways by Friend’s Beauty

The main goal for social media savvy eCommerce brands is to generate engagement and interaction. The more buzz that’s created, the more chance they have of reaching new audiences and creating a loyal following that continues to buy their products.

Increasing engagement is the exact outcome Friend’s Beauty wanted to achieve by hosting a giveaway. They encouraged their Facebook followers to comment and share their giveaway post, ultimately increasing its reach on the platform.

As a result, the brand created a digital version of word-of-mouth marketing (which still remains one of the most effective forms of marketing ever). 

Source

Today’s consumer relies heavily on peer recommendations simply because there are so many brands out there to choose from. (Read more on consumer decision fatigue in the latest from Rodger Smith, CEO of DirectScale, an Exigo company.)

They tend to lean toward companies that come recommended by friends and family, because they trust those people more than the word of businesses themselves. 

Key Takeaway From Friend’s Beauty

Sharing is a core part of social media. People who use Facebook are primed to share content with their friends list that either makes them look good, is entertaining, or has some kind of potential personal benefit (in the case of the Friend’s Beauty giveaway, the chance to win an eyeliner and brush set). 

Take advantage of user’s innate need to share on social media by generating posts that encourage word-of-mouth marketing. 

This might come in the form of a giveaway, or it might simply be a “tag a friend” post, like Sephora does here: 

3. Customer Created Content by Batoko

In an age where consumers are cleverer than ever, creating human connections has never been more important. 

Brands are turning their backs on highly-polished marketing campaigns and are instead showcasing content that’s been created by their very own customers. 

93% of shoppers note that user generated content helps them decide whether to buy a product, and brands like Batoko are tapping into this powerful trend.

The recycled swimwear company exclusively shares customer photos on their Instagram feed. 

Not only does this show their products in a range of different environments and on a range of different bodies, but it also works as unbeatable social proof. It says “hey, look at all the people who’ve bought from us already and love our product!”. 

Key Takeaway From Batoko

Steer clear of highly-polished campaigns that consumers are becoming more and more skeptical of and instead showcase content that’s been created by your loyal fans. 

Encourage users to send in and post their photos using a specific hashtag, or bring influencers on board (like Au Revoir Cinderella have done below) to solidify your social proof. 

4. Getting Real With Stories by Zit Stick

Instagram Stories are on fire. 

They inject a sense of “realness” into a platform that is renowned for intensely edited images that show only the best parts of life.

Source

Since their introduction to Instagram in 2016, Stories have become a tool for eCommerce brands to demonstrate the human side of their business and forge deeper connections with their audience.

In fact, Stories are so successful for online shops, that one in four millenials and Gen Zers actively seek out Stories that feature the products and services they want to buy. 

Zit Stick buys into this need by populating their Stories with customer testimonials and real-life stories that lead into a call-to-action (or a “Swipe Up” to buy image). 

Their Stories show the products in action and share testimonials from customers who have bought and enjoyed the product (which again acts as a form of good old word-of-mouth marketing). 

Key Takeaway From Zit Stick

Let customers do the talking for you and incorporate their testimonials and experiences into a Stories thread. 

Once viewers are invested in the outcome, add a call-to-action that encourages your audience to “complete the story” by making a purchase. 

Stories are a great way to show the behind-the-scenes of your brand  (which ultimately builds relationships with customers), so don’t be afraid to share silly moments, the making of your products, or other raw, unpolished aspects of your brand. 

5. Shop Spring

With so many options available today, it’s important for eCommerce brands to stand out – and a huge part of that involves making sure your customer service is spot on.

Think about it:

If a consumer lands on your site and has questions about one of your products but can’t get an answer, they’ll go elsewhere to a place where they can get the answer in a timely manner. 

To combat the challenge of site abandonment, many brands are implementing Facebook Messenger or other chatbots to answer simple questions and to personalize the online shopping experience, suggesting products the customer would like based on their interactions with the bot. 

Shop Spring’s Facebook bot is a prime example. 

By using a machine-learning powered “robot,” Shop Spring answers immediate objections or questions consumers have to keep sales flowing. 

Impulse buying is becoming hotter than ever, and if a shopper is in the mood to buy right now, you must be able to accommodate that. Otherwise, the critical moment of impulse will pass, and you’ve lost a sale. 

It’s also worth noting that Shop Spring’s chatbot is used on a platform that most of its customers are familiar with. 

It doesn’t ask them to submit a form on a page they’ve never seen before. 

Instead, it turns up in their Facebook Messenger inbox amongst threads from their friends and family. 

Key Takeaway From Shop Spring

In addition to implementing a customer service portal on a platform that your customers are familiar with, the Facebook Messenger chatbot allows you to personalize the shopping experience. 

If you can recommend products they might also like based on their interactions with your chatbot, you are ultimately going to encourage more sales. 

Social Selling to Get More Sales

The evolution of free and paid social media services means it’s no longer just a place for keeping in touch with friends and family. Instead, it provides a platform where users do many other everyday activities without having to leave the safety of a platform they know and love. 

As a result, eCommerce brands must grow their social presence and interact with their customers, through mediums like authentic Instagram Stories, YouTube Ads AI-powered Facebook Messenger chatbots, or customer-created content.

If you’re not already engaging with your customers on social media, you’re missing out on chances to build your brand, create royalty, and even make sales directly. 

–

The post 5 Brilliant Examples of Social Selling appeared first on Social Commerce.

Image by Pixelkult from Pixabay

It’s more than obvious that social media networks hold immense power in the world of business. Customers and prospects spend a lot of their time on these platforms, socializing, commenting, liking, and sharing.  

For a start, you should know that:

• Facebook shares have a huge impact on Google search rankings. 
• 53% of people recommend companies and products on Twitter. 
• The average user spends 89 minutes per month on Pinterest. 

And did you know that 5 million images are uploaded to Instagram every day?

It’s clear that you need to make the most out of social media platforms if your goal is to generate more sales and boost revenue in your business. Take a look below at six effective strategies that will help you increase revenue through social media.

Drive Referrals to Your Website

Photo by Jens Johnsson from Pexels

Referrals need to be among top priorities when building and promoting social media content. 

It’s very simple – you can’t drive or track conversions with no referrals. On top of that, you need to make sure that the landing page you drive referrals to is optimized for conversion. 

Here are some tips that can help you drive referral traffic:

• Include links to your products or services in your social media posts. Customers usually don’t like to browse through the entire website to find a product. Help them buy from you by adding a specific link.
• Comment on your audience’s posts and answer their questions. Engaging with your customers builds trust and shows that you care. Plus, you can always add a link or two to your comments.
• Share your content in Facebook groups, but don’t spam. If group admins allow you to sell products in their groups, then include a referral link.
• Reach out to influencers. Social media influencers can be a great source of referral traffic, just make sure to find the right ones. 

Generate Leads Through Social Media

Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay

When driving referral traffic from social media, you should focus on turning those individuals into leads instead of trying to convert them directly there. If you run a business with a typically long sales cycle, it would be especially wise to put this tip into practice. 

Every collected lead from social media networks can easily go into your regular sales funnel. 

And when it comes to the contact collection process, try directing social media traffic to a page that collects emails for an opt-in to your newsletter or a giveaway. 

It’s worth noting that you will need an email capture tool to collect emails from social media visitors. You won’t have a hard time finding a good tool of this kind, since there are many such tools online. Setting up a basic form that feeds into your CRM pays huge dividends in the long run.

Build Relationships

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Engagement is one of the most impactful marketing tactics that can get you more sales leads. When you connect the dots, it’s quite clear that social media makes it easier than ever to interface with your audience in real-time. 

Once you establish a presence on various networks, you will need to connect with your current and potential consumers by getting involved in discussions that are happening online, commenting on customers’ posts, answering your audience’s questions, and so on.

You should reply to both good and bad reviews. Never ignore or try to delete someone’s review if it’s negative. Instead, ask your customers what you can do to make things better and fix the issue. It shows that you’re approachable, that you care, and that you’re a customer-centric brand.

Don’t forget to respond to messages that arrive in your inbox or Direct Messages. There are a lot of businesses that never check their social media DMs, but those who do really earn extra points with customers. 

When you develop a relationship with your consumers, you will not only win their respect, but you will also better understand their needs and expectations. And critically, you will also find ways to sell your products without coming off as too pushy. 

Remember: Social media networks are all about meaningful connections that lead to strong, mutually-beneficial relationships. 

Give Customers a Reason to Buy

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It doesn’t matter if you are in a service-based or product-based industry, you can always boost revenue by encouraging customers to make purchases more often. 

For service industries, this may include promoting add-on services, upgrades, or premium offers. On the other hand, for product industries, this often means encouraging customers to come back more often. 

But how can your social media support loyalty and upselling?

Well, for a start, you can offer special deals and exclusives to your social media followers based on the level of customer engagement or the frequency of purchase.

For instance, if you are a software company, you could offer exclusive discounts to your user conference for social media followers based on the number of software licenses they are using. 

On the other hand, if you are a product company, you could offer coupons for social media followers that provide a discount on their fourth or fifth purchase. 

Another strategy is to get your customers to spend more on each purchase. Let’s say that your average transaction is $35 and the goal is to get your customers to spend $50 each. Try giving an exclusive deal like free shipping for purchases over $50 to social media fans and followers. Consumers are loss-averse: If you give them an opportunity to earn something like free shipping, even if they end up spending more in total, they don’t want to lose it.

Can the same approach work in service industries? You betcha. Service industries can look to promote package deals for their services that bundle offers together or reward loyalty for repeat purchases.

If you have a significant online following, you can use your social pages to drive awareness of the offers with a clear CTA.

Get Reviews

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There’s no doubt that satisfied and happy customers only bring in more happy customers. It’s a concept as old as selling, but the medium has changed. 

According to the latest research from Yotpo, sharing customer reviews generated 40% higher conversion rates on Facebook, 8.4 times higher for Twitter, and 5.3 times higher for LinkedIn. 

The concept of sharing good reviews is intuitive; when people hear about you, they research your reputation online, and they’re bound to end up reading customer reviews. Be sure that when someone starts looking for your company online, they like what they see. 

At the same time, do not shy away from seeking feedback. Yes, the process may be a bit painful, but without reviews, your brand remains a secret you wish people wouldn’t keep.

Not sure how to go about generating reviews? Consider sending a review request link in order confirmation emails. Or, if you are new, try emailing your network and asking for a boost. After all, people love to be a part of a success story.

Educate Your Followers

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People are always on the lookout for new information. Always keep your page active by posting relevant and consistent content about your brand to educate customers and prospects.

The content you push should not be overly promotional since people are skeptical of ads. Address the struggles your prospects are facing and show how your business can add value to their lives. 

Post content that improves the lives of consumers, and make sure that whatever you’re presenting is clear, informative, interesting, and easy to read. 

If you manage to push valuable content on a regular basis, you will become an authority in the eyes of your followership. But to get there, you have to be authentic, your content has to be meaningful, and original. 

And when promoting your content on social media pages, always ensure that it has something to do with your products or services. 

For instance, if you want to let customers know of the other types of your services or products, you can feature a product or service of the week, thus promoting premium services and explaining why customers should care about them.

Final Thoughts

Social media networks are powerful tools that can help you market your brand above and beyond the tried-and-true channels of promoting your business and boost revenue.

When you use different social media platforms, you can significantly boost your sales without investing much money. But to reap maximum results, you need to be active, consistent, and authentic. 

Don’t forget to measure the results, too! It’s important to measure a control group, so you can compare these metrics for social media and non-social media customers, which will help you see how social media is aiding other channels you are using.

Last but not least, we recommend exploring other online marketing channels, such as PPC or SEO, to improve your revenue. I recommend reaching out to an seo agency specializing in a niche like b2b agency or best youtube seo agency..

The post 6 Smart Ways to Boost Revenue with Social Media appeared first on Social Commerce.

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Most influencers have social media to thank for their popularity and authority status in the eyes of so many followers. These famous individuals have the power to change behavior through social media. And that behavior often involves buying a product or service. 

After all, the influencer marketing industry has ballooned to $10 billion for a reason. That’s precisely why businesses across the globe are building relationships with influencers who can help them with social selling. 

How Influencer Marketing and Social Selling Go Hand in Hand

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Many industries leverage influencers regularly to promote their products. But why does influencer marketing look so different than the celebrity endorsements of days gone by? The answer lies in a cultural shift fueled by social media.

Demographics

As baby boomers retire, millennial consumers are slowly becoming the most powerful consumer group globally. Correspondingly, the biggest target market for influencers and influencer marketing, in general, is millennial consumers. 

According to a study by LaunchMetrics, millennials focus 76.4% of all influencer strategies. And when you consider that 90.4% of millennials use social media, the model makes sense. Millennials are often reluctant to trust what brands say in ad campaigns. Instead, they would much rather trust a popular figure on social media and then make a purchasing decision.

It’s worth noting that Gen Z is also maturing and joining the economy. Therefore, the companies that survive the consumer transformation will be the ones that cater to these two groups. 

Platforms & Perks

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have millions to billions of users. But if a marketer wants to take advantage of these individual online communities, they must be aware that each platform is a different story. 

For instance, Instagram is an image-centric social platform, making it great for the fitness and clothing industries. Influencers can present new clothing garments through photos or videos, and fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders can show off their bodies, explaining their diets and routines using visually-driven content.  

3 Reasons Why Companies Work with Influencers

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More and more brands today are deciding to work with influencers. Let’s look at why so many companies want to leverage an influencer’s follower base to sell their products. 

Influencer Marketing is not Pushy

Many experts claim that this is the most significant benefit of this marketing method. This kind of marketing is radically different from traditional marketing methods because it doesn’t feel pushy to consumers. 

Followers on social media willingly follow influencers and look forward to their posts. Content influencers share isn’t spam; followers actively seek their advice and recommendations. 

And even when influencers post sponsored content that is clearly designed to generate revenue for a particular company, followers don’t mind as much.  

Influencers like Nichole Ciotti, whose claim to fame started with a popular set of photo filters, promote various brands. But, like Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie, her clothing sponsors are already popular with her audience, and those followers appreciate curated recommendations. 

Social Influencer Marketing is Credible

The most popular influencers had to spend a lot of time and effort in winning the trust of their followers. As a result, most of them seem true both to themselves and their audience. 

Such a feat cannot be achieved throughout a single night. To be viewed as a credible source or an authority, that individual has to be consistent and authentic. In addition, their story has to be engaging enough to attract followers. 

Once that kind of trust is established, everything becomes more accessible. And companies have recognized that. 

Brands have to spend years to gain this kind of trust, so they turn to influencers who have already made that investment to work their magic on social media platforms. And it works. One study by Twitter revealed that consumers rely on influencers almost as much as their friends. 

In fact, a whopping 40% of consumers have claimed that they have made a purchase based on an influencer’s tweet.   

Good for Brand Awareness

Influencer marketing can expand your reach online and position you as a modern, engaging brand. As a result, social users will start noticing you more often. They will learn more about your brand, about your story, and ultimately, about what you offer.

However, the key to reaping influencer marketing results is to provide valuable content that adds to their social media presence. 

Everyone gets something out of the campaign by ensuring value for the company, the influencer, and the audience.

Influencer Marketing Case Studies

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Finally, let’s look at the examples where businesses have found the perfect formula for influencer marketing. 

Fiji Water

Fiji Water used the face of Danielle Bernstein to spark more interest in their message. 

Bernstein runs a trendy blog called ‘We Wore What.’ Fiji joined forces with her on Instagram to spread awareness about the importance of water for human health. 

Bernstein appeared in short videos that promoted the significance of water for staying healthy and fit. Her followers were quick to respond, and soon enough, we’re drinking more water to stay healthy, all while Berstein and Fiji made more sales. 

Subaru

This car giant has been experiencing significant growth during the past few years, and influencer marketing played an essential role in this growth. As a result, Subaru’s sales increased by 10% in 2016 alone.

Their influencer marketing campaign, called ‘Meet an Owner,’ was a significant success, improving brand awareness and brand sentiment.  

A total of 20 influencers were contacted for this campaign across various categories ranging from fitness to art to generate a broad appeal of relatable ambassadors. 

GOODFOODS

GOODFOODS had the goal of raising brand awareness for their natural guacamole and dips and eventually driving sales.

GOODFOODS assembled a team of 60 influencers with expertise in food, parenting, lifestyle, and home goods to accomplish their goal. These individuals had to create original recipes and stories that featured products from GOODFOODS.

The influencers created more than 2,000 pieces of content, ranging from blog posts and recipes to photos and videos. The campaign, which was a resounding success, had 32 million potential impressions, 71,000 engagements and returned a conversion rate of 34.2%.

Wrap-up

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Novelties and shifts in the digital landscape are the new norms. And all ambitious companies who want to stay at the top have to keep up with those trends. 

Though strategies constantly change, influencer marketing is here to stay (just like social media platforms). As long as you work closely with influencers who have a trusted reputation, relevant appeal, and a community of loyal followers, influencer marketing can be your new secret to success.

The post Understanding the Relationship Between Influencer Marketing and Social Selling appeared first on Social Commerce.