eCommerce - Mason Interactive

Email marketing is without a doubt the most effective marketing channel for emerging D2C brands. Now, email has a new sidekick: SMS marketing. By pairing email with SMS, eCommerce marketers have the potential to double the sales figures. We asked Mason’s Director of Email, Brian Poole, to share his insights and SMS marketing tips for emerging D2C brands.

Email + SMS = The Power Duo in D2C Marketing

Is SMS already part of your D2C marketing strategy? It should. “It’s 2021, every eCommerce brand must use SMS marketing to stay relevant. It’s not a matter of whether you should do it – you definitely should – but how to do it”, Brian said, “You’ll be able to leverage SMS more than you think. My advice for emerging brands is to start collecting SMS early. Pop ups and landing pages are good ways to collect mobile numbers. Or, collect them at the checkout.”

Number one marketing tip for emerging D2C brands: start collecting mobile numbers early.

SMS marketing is an extension of email marketing efforts, and it works best when aligned with your email strategy. Essentially, SMS is very similar to email in terms of tracking, segmentation, and scheduling campaigns. There is one significant difference, however. Volume. How many promotional emails do you get to your inbox every day? 10, 50, even more? Would you like to receive the same daily number of text messages directly to your phone? Probably not. Brian recommends sending no more than two text messages per month. Sending messages too frequently, you’ll run a risk of bothering people.

Only Send Worthwhile and Relevant Content

Before hitting the send button, always ask yourself: Is the message worth sending? Am I giving the recipient something worthwhile? Brian shared an important piece of advice, “Use SMS marketing to announce new launches or other exciting events. And, share the announcements on SMS before any other channel. Early access will add exclusivity.”

90% of all text messages are read within 3 minutes of being received.

Consider using text messages also for customer service. SMS is a personal and highly effective channel to have direct conversations with your customers. According to Gigaom, 90% of all text messages are read within 3 minutes of being received, making it a great way to communicate in real time. The same study shows that text messages have an average open rate of 98%, whereas the average open rate for email is 22%.

“SMS marketing is very cost-efficient and has great return on spend. In fact, I’ve never seen anyone spend more than they make with SMS, ” Brian sums up his email and SMS tips for D2C brands, “In addition to new launches, use marketing automation to send SMS shopping cart abandonment reminders and resell to existing customers. Just as you would through email marketing.“

Ready to launch your SMS marketing campaigns? Klaviyo is a great platform for seamless email and SMS marketing. For expert advice with your email marketing strategy, book a consultation with our digital marketing experts today.

Search engine optimization is a critical tactic for a D2C brand. Search engines originate a big chunk of online sales. You may ask, how big? 65% of all eCommerce sessions are generated through search traffic and 33% through organic search. Mason’s Director of SEO, Jenna Vaccaro, shares her search engine optimization tips for emerging D2C brands.

First, let’s drill down to the meaning of SEO, what is it and how does it work? “Simply put, search engine optimization is the process of driving more organic traffic to your website from search engines. Skillful SEO professionals focus on both, the quantity and quality of that traffic”, Jenna explains, “It’s a healthy mix of delivering content that potential customers are looking for now, ensuring the site is free of critical technical errors (hello page speed!), and implementing ongoing offsite strategies (including local SEO for eCommerce with physical locations). All the elements must work together in order to improve the most valuable KPIs. More traffic doesn’t always equal more sales.”

Step #1: Begin with Keyword Research

Any successful SEO journey starts with in-depth keyword research. Think of what your customers type into Google to find your product, or any kind of product in the same space. If you’re in a highly saturated direct-to-consumer market, it’s crucial to think of the entire competitive landscape. Thoughtful curation of content, from a user and from a search engine stand point, is the key. This applies across the website from the ‘About Us’ page to Product pages and everywhere in between.

Jenna recommends direct-to-consumer brands to focus on how the product is described. “The way you talk about your product doesn’t necessarily match what users are searching for. You may describe your product as X, but the masses search for Y”, Jenna said.

“It’s important to keep searchers’ intent in mind and optimize content to your ideal customers.”
Jenna Vaccaro, Director of SEO, Mason Interactive

Don’t Over-Optimize With Too Many Keywords

Now, what makes a good product description? From an user standpoint a good product description is descriptive, gives enough information about the product, and clearly describes why your product sets itself apart from competitors’ products. From a search standpoint, a good product description is written in a way that someone who is searching for keywords would be able to find your product. Jenna reminds D2C brands to maintain a good balance between SEO and brand identity. “Keep your brand in mind and avoid tarnishing the content with too many SEO keywords”, she recommends.

In addition, make sure all your website elements like structured data, reviews, rich snippets, and stock availability, are searchable and in Google’s preferred language (JSON-LD). Search engines might not be able to find you if the backend is not optimized for search.

SEO is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Jenna reminds eCommerce business owners and marketers that SEO is an ongoing effort, “it’s a common myth to think that SEO is a “one and done” strategy. But if you don’t maintain your SEO, you’ll lose your position on search results. Stay on top of Google’s algorithms that change several times each year. On top of that, direct-to-consumer brands can’t forget about seasonality changes and keeping up with competitors.”

Regular SEO audits are a must in your toolbox to identify possible errors and bugs. Let’s imagine a couple of scenarios of such errors for D2C brands:

You received a lot of good PR that links back to your site (Google likes, yay!). Since, you have made changes to your website and those links are now broken. As a result, all that press becomes worthless for SEO purposes.
The required fields are mislabeled in your organic shopping feed and Google won’t find your products. As a result, you risk losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in conversions.

Doing your SEO right will have a positive impact on your holistic D2C marketing strategy. “Always focus on omnichannel success. SEO gives you tons of findings to use for cross-channel marketing. Align the strategies and identify keywords that work best on all channels”, Jenna adds.

Are you ready to put these tips into action for your direct-to-consumer brand? A thorough SEO audit is a great place to start. Claim your free SEO audit here or contact us today to talk with our SEO experts.

Mason Interactive recently partnered with Facebook to host a webinar on Facebook Discovery Commerce. The goal of the webinar was to teach attendees how to create a seamless shopping experience from discovery through purchase. The event was hosted by Karly Surman, Agency Partner Manager at Facebook, and Mira Valjakka, Director of Growth & Marketing at Mason Interactive.

Karly and Mira get down to the recent changes in the modern shopping journey and discuss how Facebook Discovery Commerce helps businesses engage with the new mindset of consumers. Continue reading for highlights and to get a better understanding of the four elements of Facebook Discovery Commerce:

Personalize – Set your business up for maximum value
Inspire – Embrace and master the dynamic surfaces where your creative shows up
Convert and retain – Optimize the paths you create to serve people and your objectives
Learn and optimize – Leverage tools to learn, sharpen and evolve your practices

Why Facebook Discovery Commerce

The shopping experience has changed in a fundamental way. The past model of shopping was intent-based; shoppers took action and made plans to make their purchases. The new model of shopping is serendipitous and integrated into the shopper’s daily life online. This has never been more apparent than it’s become in the last year.

In 2020, eCommerce grew by 30% and 57% of adults said they would spend more money online than in brick and mortar stores.

This change to the way customers view shopping means that the customer’s journey no longer starts at intent. Instead, it starts long before they consider buying something. Businesses now need to prioritize that personalized experience that nurtures customers in everyday life, not only when they’re actively seeking to purchase.

The new consumer journey starts well before intent. Image: Facebook.

The Four Elements of Facebook Discovery Commerce

Facebook advertising offers great conversion for eCommerce. 86% of shoppers who use Facebook weekly purchase fashion, beauty, furniture, and consumer electronics that they originally discovered on the platform.

Using the four elements of the Facebook Discovery Commerce system lets your business take advantage of this powerful modern shopping journey. The four elements are:

Personalization engine
Engaging surfaces
Advertising & conversion tools
Measurement & optimization tools

For marketers and eCommerce businesses, now is the perfect time to start thinking about the Holiday season. Getting a step ahead with Facebook Discovery Commerce will help you personalize the experience to get you in front of your customers now, so you don’t miss the small window coming up. With summer weather and everyone enjoying their vacations and activities, it might seem a little early. But, we all know that the Holiday season represents a large portion of yearly revenue.

As shoppers move to an always open to purchasing mindset, it’s never too early to engage and interact with your target audience on Facebook.

So let’s get into how the system works.

The four elements of Facebook Discovery Commerce. Image: Facebook.

The personalization engine

Facebook’s personalization engine is all about connecting with your customers. This tool helps you to connect with the exact people who are likely to love your business and products. That means more efficiency in your marketing and higher ROI. It also helps you to connect with your target audience across borders. There’s no limit to where you can find your audience. Facebook Discovery Commerce ad solutions help you create a completely personalized experience for your audience to capture engagement and propel conversion.

Engaging surfaces

With engaging surfaces, you can create a truly impressive user experience. Facebook’s mobile-first technology means that your audience gets responsiveness and easy-to-use features on any device. With images that pop and buttons that respond, you never have to worry about design that doesn’t fit the screen or features that frustrate your audience.

Advertising and conversion tools

Did you know that 88% of shopping carts were abandoned in March of 2020?

Nothing will make your customers abandon shopping carts as quickly as a complicated buying process. With Facebook’s advertising and conversion tools, you reduce the obstacles that cause customers to abandon ads and carts. Your dynamic ads drive action. Leveraging Facebook Discovery Commerce, you can say hello to a frictionless customer journey that’s not disrupted by slow loading pages, checkout errors, difficulties with reaching customer service, or any other issues that might turn your customers to a competitor.

Optimization and measurement tools

Advertising on Facebook, you get real-time measurement and optimization tools that let you perform testing, improve your campaigns, and truly measure growth. Advertising for today’s shopper isn’t a one-and-done event. You need to keep measuring how your ads are performing and make improvements. You also need to be able to add to your messaging as times and customers change.

Facebook Discovery Commerce gives businesses a versatile tool to propel ROI with modern shoppers. To learn more about improving your Facebook marketing efforts, and to prepare your marketing strategy for the Holiday sales, contact us today.

Worldwide eCommerce is estimated to approach $5 trillion in 2021. What does this mean for emerging brands? Invest in digital marketing now because the market is going to become more saturated than ever. It’s great to look ahead, but what you’re doing today has the real impact on future growth.

Misaligned goals, prioritizing creatives over data, and not staying on top of the advertising trends may prevent emerging brands from reaching their goals. If your brand is in its early stages, you might be working with a limited budget, less historical or first-party data, and an incomplete marketing strategy. We listed a few life-saving digital marketing strategies that can help emerging brands scale their business without breaking the bank.

Emerging Brands Should Focus on Short-Term Goals

If you’re a start-up or an emerging brand, embrace the fact that most of your initial marketing efforts will be about learning. You might have a budget and a return in mind, but it’s more likely that you’ll go through some testing before finding a baseline. There is no magic formula, cure, or button in digital marketing that guarantees you will hit your goals from day one.

The best thing you can do is build brand awareness by focusing on top-of-the-funnel tactics. Begin generating leads, building awareness, and attracting your target audience by using excellent storytelling and a social-heavy media mix. Set achievable, short-term goals such as “Increase brand awareness by 15% in 90-days” or “Reach a ROA of 1.0 in 90-days”, and remain flexible.

Balance Creatives and Data for Optimal Performance

Yes, appealing creative assets will have that thumb-stopping effect. But, beautiful visuals mean nothing if they don’t entice clicks, website visits, or convert viewers into customers. When choosing an agency or prioritizing marketing tactics, strike a balance between excellent creatives and metrics. The best way to do this is to make data-driven creative decisions. Use A/B testing to make decisions about enhancing your creatives, investing in videography, photography, modeling, and animations based on performance.

But, how can emerging brands use digital marketing data to inspire creative direction? You can start by analyzing customer data to discover new segments and opportunities within existing segments. Determine the appeal you’re going for, emotional or informative, and make sure your creatives send messages that align with your target audience’s psychographic and demographic data.

Not convinced about data-driven creative yet? Read how Wander Beauty tested video ads against photo ads and achieved a 4.4X increase in sales.

Be Where Your Competitors Are and Aren’t

It’s worth exploring platforms your competitors are advertising on. Let’s imagine you perform a competitive marketing audit and discover your top 5 competitors are advertising on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest. In that case, you should be there too (Note: you can find out where your competitors advertise by clicking here). Even if your budget is limited, stay in the game by using some ad spend to access the unique audience insights available on each platform, so you’re prepared to scale when it makes sense.

But, don’t make decisions based on your competitors alone. The digital market changes frequently, so it’s smart to jump on trending platforms that your audience is spending time on. For example, ad spends on Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart are increasing as consumers look for simple and convenient shopping experiences. Team up with a digital marketing agency who will keep you informed about industry trends, and has the know-how you need to scale your emerging brand.

For many brands, their 2020 digital strategy was all about survival mode. By building on short-term wins, syncing data and creatives, and placing ads strategically, you go from mere survival to full-throttle thrive. If you need help with your 2021 digital marketing strategy, contact us today to book a free consultation with our digital experts.

While festive cheer is spreading all around us, eCommerce retailers have their eyes set on holiday sales figures. And the expectations are high; 2020 Cyber Monday has already set the record as the biggest U.S. eCommerce day in history.

But what happens when the holidays are over?

Often underestimated, post-holiday marketing campaigns are a great way to stand out in the less-crowded market. When your competitors go quiet and slow down their marketing efforts, continue your sales success long after the new year with these simple marketing tips.

Drive conversions with remarketing

Remarketing is not just for the holidays, it is an effective marketing tactic all year round. Thanks to seasonal shopping behavior, eCommerce retailers typically see an increase in website traffic during the holiday season. That traffic is made out of returning customers, new customers, and “window shoppers” who visit the website but leave without completing a purchase. Through cost-effective post-holiday remarketing campaigns you can increase conversions as much as 147% and turn window shoppers into first-time customers.

Take advantage of low CPMs

It’s no surprise that CPMs skyrocket over the holiday shopping period. When the season ends, however, a so-called post-holiday slump occurs and CPMs show a noticeable drop. This happens when businesses decide to significantly lower, or even freeze, their advertising spend. Not a good idea. Why, you may ask? The reason is simple; shoppers still continue shopping after the New Year. A smart marketer continues running paid campaigns post-holiday and takes advantage of low advertising costs.

Engage new subscribers with email

The festive season is a perfect opportunity to collect email sign-ups through pop-up forms and discount initiatives. If you have followed email marketing best practices, you have already built an automated welcome email series that triggers immediately when a person signs up. That’s a step one in nurturing potential customers through email marketing. The next step is to enhance your relationship and start marketing to new addresses you harvested over the holidays. Good attention-grabbers are personalized coupons, exclusive discounts, or free shipping.

Build brand loyalty

Holiday shoppers are more willing to buy from new brands, and as a result online stores see a spike in first-time customers during the festive season. Post-holiday campaigns are a great way to deepen your relationship with new customers, and turn them into loyal, returning customers.

Don’t forget to shift your messaging. When the holiday season ends, even your most loyal fans may feel a little overwhelmed by sales focused emails and advertising. Post-holiday marketing communication should provide respect and appreciation towards your customers, no matter if they are looking to purchase products or not. It’s a good time to draw attention to your rewards program and the benefits of joining it.

Entice gift card holders to your store

Year after year, gift cards remain as one of the most popular items on people’s holiday wish lists. According to a survey by Inmarket, 68% of shoppers plan on purchasing gift cards more than any other items this holiday season. Talk directly to gift card holders post-holiday and give a reason to visit your store. A good starting point is to remind gift card holders that now is the time to treat themselves after shopping for others pre-holiday.

Gather feedback and reviews

Gain insights from holiday shoppers with post-purchase email campaigns. Consider sending a quick survey about their shopping experience, or request product reviews. These insights are valuable assets that help you improve and drive sales in the new year.

Start planning your post-holiday approach now so you are ready to hit the launch button when the festive season ends. If you need help with your 2021 marketing strategy, schedule a free consultation with our digital experts, or wrap up your year with an in-depth marketing analysis.

Instagram has recently introduced a new shop feature, Shops on Instagram, in order to support businesses with their shift to e-commerce during the COVID-19 crisis. Shops on Instagram, currently in alpha stage, brings users an immersive experience and a full-screen storefront, that enables businesses to build their brand story and drive product discovery across the platform.

In this article, we explore what Shops on Instagram does, and what are the benefits for businesses, as well as for Instagram users.

What is Shops on Instagram?

With Shops on Instagram customers can visit a brand’s shop from the Instagram profile or through Feed and Stories. Once in a shop, customers can browse products, explore collections and even purchase products. All this happens seamlessly through Instagram’s in-app browser, or from a web browser where checkout on Instagram is enabled. Keep in mind that this is an upgrade to the current shop experience that exists on Instagram.

With shops, Instagram wants to give customers a place to experience the joy of shopping versus the chore of buying. Businesses can customize the shopping experience through collections, and curate products into themes that tell the brand story.

What are the benefits?

This native shopping experience provides users a personalized, streamlined experience with the ease of browsability, and safety to explore products without having to worry about security risks. For businesses, Shops on Instagram is an easy way to improve the digital storefront, and get their brand and products found by customers.

The real benefit will be long-term when customers can shop and checkout on the platform. Essentially, it will shorten the length of time from product introduction to sale and that way improve the buyer journey. By removing a click from a platform like Instagram or Facebook to your website, you will also remove possible issues with load time, site speed, website user experience (UX) hiccups, and bugs on the checkout – all of which can have a negative impact to the buyer journey. Especially small businesses that don’t have website development teams, often struggle with creating seamless UX experiences. For them in particular, an in-app shop feature will be a game changer.

What better way for a small business to migrate online and adopt a storefront on a platform like Instagram that already has millions of users engaging and consuming both content and brand experiences.

“What better way for a small business to migrate online and adopt a storefront on a platform like Instagram that already has millions of users engaging and consuming both content and brand experiences.”

At Mason Interactive, we are most excited about the potential to turn this into new ad units and objectives for optimization related to these new shop experiences. Once Shops on Instagram develops, we hope to use shops as a new objective to optimize and focus our investment towards those users that are more inclined to interact with and shop within these experiences.

Who is eligible?

Facebook has begun a phased roll out of shops to all businesses globally. For now, Shops on Instagram is available only for the brands that have been hand-selected by Facebook’s product team to participate in the alpha, but it is expected to be expanded to all businesses over the next few months.

At Mason Interactive, we are continuously monitoring the latest updates and performance of our clients who are already opted in to the alpha stage. Talk to our e-commerce experts today to learn more about Facebook and Instagram shop features and the best ways to drive online sales.