But customer acquisition cost isn’t just about direct conversion. It encompasses the total cost to ensure that each stop along the customer’s purchasing journey produces the highest conversion rate possible. 

Chapters:

1. What is customer acquisition cost?
2. How to calculate customer acquisition cost
3. The key to lowering your customer acquisition costs
4. Putting customer acquisition cost on the chopping block

What is customer acquisition cost? 

Customer acquisition cost is the total amount brands pay to obtain new customers and attract a larger audience.

While every brand has varying customer purchasing paths and uses different acquisition strategies, expenses generally include advertising, salaries for marketers, commissions, sales overhead costs, and more.

For example, art and entertainment e-commerce brands with less than four employees have an average customer acquisition cost of $21, while electronic e-commerce brands have an average of $377, according to Shopify. As a result, acquiring new customers is an inevitable and often painful expense for e-commerce brands.

Looking for more efficient marketing strategies is the one of best ways to get the biggest band for your buck. 

How to calculate customer acquisition cost

Calculating customer acquisition cost uses a standard formula. Divide the total cost of acquiring customers (cost of sales and marketing) over a chosen time period by the total number of customers acquired during that time

The formula for calculating customer acquisition cost is:

Customer acquisition cost = (total cost of sales and marketing) / (# of customers acquired)

Make sure to include every sales and marketing expense used (think salaries, ad spend, marketing tools) to acquire new customers and the exact number of new customers acquired. Let’s say your expenses totaled $44,000 and you acquired 1,000 new customers, your customer acquisition cost would be:

Customer acquisition cost = 44,000 / 1,000 = $44

The key to lowering your customer acquisition costs

To make every dollar count, you must identify solutions for lowering your customer acquisition costs. 

Want the key to doing so? User-generated content — content such as videos, photos, and reviews created by unpaid contributors rather than a brand. If implemented correctly, your brand will see a significant return on investment. In other words, by using UGC, you’ll let your brand enthusiasts do the heavy lifting for you. 

You trust the opinions of your friends and family members. So, if you’re like most consumers, your network influences your purchasing decisions more than an ad you see on social media. In fact, 85% of consumers say UGC more influences them than brand content itself. 

Brands that implement a UGC strategy see a 29% increase in conversion. Take Tuckernuck, for example. The US clothing giant saw conversions skyrocket 190% after implementing a gallery of UGC on its website and displaying influencer photos on its product pages. 

UGC is undeniably powerful. But, to make it worthwhile for your brand, you must efficiently find and source content to use for your acquisition efforts. 

Ways to source UGC

Sourcing UGC doesn’t have to cost you a single penny. So where do you source UGC? Here’s some initiatives you can use to start driving more purchasing decisions with UGC. 

Offer incentives 

Consumers love to share their opinion. But sometimes they need a little persuasion. You can easily incentivize customer reviews by offering your shoppers a small reward in exchange for an honest review. The same goes for visual UGC too.

Global luggage brand Samsonite incentivized UGC submissions with a giveaway of $2,500 worth of Samsonite goodies. Using the #takewhatsyours hashtag, they encouraged followers to submit their best OOO replies for a chance to win the prize.

The campaign generated 27,000 submissions, which helped the brand achieve a 254% increase in revenue.

But your contests don’t always need to offer a material prize tied to it! 60% of consumers prefer to share UGC simply to have their content shared by a large brand. 

Ask for it

Spoiler alert: You can literally just ask your customers for UGC. Try a simple customer satisfaction survey, which will not only provide you with valuable UGC but also aid you in improving products going forward.

Or the easiest way to ask for UGC, especially written reviews, is with a review request email. These automated emails enable you to easily solicit feedback from consumers and display it across your channels. Our own research shows that they can lead to a 4-9x increase in review content.

Using customer reviews is extremely useful for lowering your customer acquisition cost, as you don’t need to spend (as much) to win over customers. 88% of shoppers already use reviews to discover and evaluate products, you just need to make sure you have the quantity and quality that consumers want.

When you do ask for reviews, be clear and concise about what you want. 53% of customers want brands to provide clear and concise guidelines for the type of content they desire, yet only 16% of brands do so, according to our research.

Engage with your community 

Building solid relationships with your brand communities doesn’t just happen out of thin air. It takes some effort to engage with your audience. To do so, reply to comments with personalized notes or create some fun banter, so they gain a sense of authenticity and connection. 

Engaging with your audience is purely to build relationships. This way, your followers will be more likely to offer up UGC in the future.  

Identify other ways to gather UGC 

Hashtags and brand-associated tags are great ways to quickly identify and source UGC. However, they’re not only solutions for sourcing UGC. Luckily there’s plenty of other ways to do so, like:

• Reading product reviews
• Editing event photos 
• Discovering YouTube mentions 
• Looking at tagged locations if you have a brick-and-mortar 
• Browsing Pinterest, Twitter, Tik Tok and other social sites 
• Using Google Analytics 

How to distribute UGC

Distributing UGC on social media platforms may seem like the most obvious choice, but there’s countless cost-effective ways to implement your UGC. Plus, repurposing UGC will help you lower your customer acquisition cost. 

Take a moment to identify all of the channels you can use UGC on. Then, pepper a little UGC everywhere you can think of. Here’s a few examples to get you started. 

Carousels and galleries 

Highlighting customizable UGC photo carousels and galleries inspire shoppers to discover products and shop simultaneously. Brands using this type of imagery see a 141% conversion lift and 15% value increase on purchases when shoppers engage with this type of content on their website, according to our research.   

Your brand can quickly build customizable carousels and galleries from user-generated content.

On product pages 

Your product pages are the last thing your customers see before making their purchasing decision. Using UGC on your product pages enhances the buyer’s experience and assists them in making more product discoveries. 

Say your site has a question & answer feature. Pinpoint the most frequently asked questions. This way, you can create a Q&A section on each product page that answers consumers’ most plaguing questions, essentially reading your consumer’s minds and aiding them in the purchasing journey.

As the questions change, you can alter this section of the product page to ensure it’s updated to your customers’ liking and provides more relevant content.  

To take your Q&A to the next level, Bazaarvoice’s Insights & Reports product suite can aid you in identifying common themes without all of the manual labor required for these efforts. 

Ads 

Adding UGC to your Google ad campaigns keeps your brand relevant, relatable, and current. When we spend months and months developing ad campaigns, they could quickly expire and not ensure the happenings within the market. After all, trends change course fast, so UGC can help you keep a pulse on the industry landscape and not waste precious ad spend on outdated content.  

But, always make sure to ask permission before using any UGC in an ad campaign. 

Emails

Consumers crave visual content at every turn. Displaying UGC on email campaigns helps engage subscribers and showcase your products as authentic and unique. After all, shoppers would rather see real people using your products than a model that they can relate to. 

For example, fashion retailer Monsoon started displaying UGC in its email campaigns, which resulted in a 4% increase in revenue and a 14% increase in click-through rate.  

For folks just getting started curating UGC, it’s also wise to learn the best practices for creating and curating your UGC campaigns. This way, you can avoid the mistakes of brands who paved the way for you. 

Putting customer acquisition cost on the chopping block 

Your customers are already creating and sharing content on social media. They’re expressing their thoughts and opinions about your products within their communities, whether that’s friends, family, social media, or wherever.

So why not use this content to your advantage to not only create stronger relationships with your customers and audience but to lower your customer acquisition cost. After all, 75% of shoppers are already making purchasing decisions from products they’ve seen on social media. Your products should be some of them.

For small marketing teams with limited bandwidth, an amplified UGC strategy is one of the most effective ways to boost conversions — without breaking the budget. 

The power of user-generated content in amplified marketing

First, a quick review: UGC is content created by real people to promote your brand. This includes ratings and reviews, photos, videos, and audio that your brand’s customers, followers, ambassadors, or even employees create and share online. 

As the #1 user-generated content platform on the market (in the words of G2) we’ve written a lot on the power of UGC: what it is, why it works, and how to build a UGC strategy for your brand. 

Amplified marketing is the process of collecting and marketing all that UGC to position your customers as the experts of your product and build brand credibility.  

Amplified marketing is like a megaphone for your UGC

Instead of spending precious resources writing content from scratch, building new promotions entirely in-house, and generally reinventing the wheel, amplified marketing hands the mic to a credible source customers already listen to: each other.

Why user-generated content is perfect for lean marketing teams

Combining amplified marketing and UGC offers the most marketing bang for your buck. It’s cost-effective and authentic. It’s also one of the most effective ways to drive customer engagement. Even with limited resources, UGC-focused marketing strategies can achieve incredible results, including:

• 90% increase in average visitor time on your website 
• 50% increase in social engagement for campaigns featuring UGC 
• 20% increase in repeat visits to your site 
• 203% increase in conversion rate after shoppers interact with UGC 

Why reviews are so important in modern amplification marketing

For successful amplification marketing, UGC is king — especially UGC in the form of customer reviews.

95% of shoppers rely on reviews to learn more about products. 85% of consumers say they consider online reviews just as trustworthy as recommendations from friends. So encouraging authentic reviews from your customers is crucial for your brand’s credibility.  

There’s another major advantage to customer reviews: A nearly infinite supply of low-effort, high-impact content for your marketing team (with strategic repurposing, of course). Think of UGC as the printing press for your brand’s ultra-engaging content library. 

How to source high-quality UGC and reviews 

Before implementing an amplified marketing strategy, you’ll first need some UGC to amplify. There’s three main ways to find and create high-quality UGC:

Invite customers to leave reviews

This is often easier than you think — customers love to share their opinions with their favorite retailers and brands. Nearly 70% of shoppers are willing to provide feedback when asked. Request reviews from your customers, just make sure you’re not cherry-picking feedback or review gating. Authentic feedback, even if it includes negative reviews, is important to consumers.

Host contests or campaigns on social media.

You can generate quality UGC by hosting targeted social media campaigns. Start by searching hashtags associated with your brand. This will reveal any enthusiastic customers who have already posted about your products.

Reach out to those users and offer discounted or free products in exchange for more UGC. If your brand has limited organic UGC, you can generate it by simply asking your customers to make content featuring your products with a contest or giveaway.

For example, say your cosmetics team plans a social media contest to generate more video UGC. Advertise the contest on your Instagram stories and feed. Create a hashtag for the promotion. Tell your followers what requirements their videos have to meet and what the prizes are. It could be a free gift or early access to a new product you’re about to launch.

The contest will generate buzz on social media as your customers post submissions and share their videos with followers. And longer term, you’ll have a new cache of UGC to repurpose into amplified marketing material for product pages or paid ads.

Collaborate with micro-influencers or loyal customers for content

To drum up even more chatter on social media, consider partnering with relevant influencers and your most loyal customers — especially if your target audience is younger. According to a Morning Consult report, over 50% of Gen Z and millennials say they trust influencers’ advice about brands and products. You can send influencers samples of your new product and ask them to use a specific hashtag when posting about the product on their social channels. 

How to amplify UGC with easy content creation

You asked, and your customers delivered. Your team now has an abundance of reviews and other UGC to utilize. Now what? It’s time for a little content creation — but there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Marketing amplification is all about using what you have.

• Turn your positive reviews into testimonials, social media posts, or case studies
• For specific user feedback, incorporate the information into relevant blog posts and FAQ sections
• Don’t forget the visual element. Mine your reviews for UGC well-suited to infographics, illustrated testimonials, and video clips

Amplified marketing in action: How to distribute your UGC

After you’ve built a library of UGC, you’ll need to strategically distribute and amplify this valuable content. To make the most of their power, highlight customer reviews at every customer touchpoint, whether it’s paid or organic. This means sprinkling UGC throughout your brand’s social media, emails, website, and product pages. How to amplify UGC in:

• Paid advertising. When your advertising budget is modest, UGC offers the most engagement bang for your buck. Reviews are easy and inexpensive to collect and display across channels. Ads with UGC have 4x higher click-through rates — which leads to a 50% drop in cost-per-click rates. Cost-effective advertising for the win!
  
• Social media and email campaigns. Regularly monitor your social media mentions and hashtags to find organic UGC. Then, share and repost the content with the customer tagged. It’s free and always has the potential to go viral. You can also keep your content calendar stacked with featured testimonials and customer case studies
   
• Websites and product pages. Don’t forget about enhancing your website and e-commerce shop with prime UGC. Shoppers are 6x more likely to make a purchase if the product page contains social content — especially for apparel, food and beverage, home furnishings, health and beauty, and pet products

How to know if your amplified marketing is working 

To accurately measure the success of your brand’s UGC-centric amplified marketing, you’ll need to know what you’re looking for — and the right tools. There’s 3 important metrics to monitor for UGC success: engagement rate, conversion rate, and reach.

1. The engagement rate shows how much your audience loves your content based on the number of likes, shares, and comments — it’s all about the buzz
2. Conversion rate is how successful your content is in turning the engagement into desired customer actions, like making a purchase or opting into newsletters
3. Reach measures how far your content travels and who’s tuning in

Keep in mind these numbers are just starting points. For a deeper dive into other metrics like ROI, CTR, ROAS, and more, check out our primer on metrics for digital marketing success.

Bazaarvoice’s UGC Value Calculator quickly shows you the impact a UGC-amplified marketing strategy could have on your sales. Using 12 months of benchmarking data, the calculator predicts how UGC will increase your brand’s revenue, conversion rate, SEO impact, and even in-store sales. 

Adapt your amplified marketing strategy with UGC-based insights 

UGC amplified marketing is well-suited to lean marketing teams for many reasons — including its flexibility and adaptability.

With basic data from metrics like engagement, conversion, and reach, you unlock valuable insight into which content performs best for your brand. This builds into a positive feedback loop, in which your UGC engagement metrics guide your content refinements for continually better results.

For example, if one type of UGC gets loads of likes but not so many sales, that’s a good indicator that you need to tweak the ‘ask’ or how the product is presented. 

Best practices in UGC amplification

Do maintain authenticity. Don’t gate reviews. We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: when it comes to using UGC in your amplified marketing, authenticity is of the utmost importance. Sharing the good and bad customer reviews is one of the most important things you can do for your brand. Negative reviews offer a fair counterbalance to positive reviews, which builds credibility with customers.

Stay updated on UGC rules and regulations. Legally, UGC is considered a form of advertising when used by brands and retailers. This means it’s regulated by the following consumer protection laws:

• In the US, there’s the FTC Act (and recently issued proposed rules on updated Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising), Lanham Act, and Consumer Review Fairness Act, among others
• The UK has Unfair Trading Regulations
• Australia has the Australian Consumer Law
• As of 2022, the EU has a new Omnibus Directive that specifically relates to consumer reviews in the context of advertising

While each of these laws have different specific details, they all aim to protect customers from fraudulent, deceptive, and misleading advertising. Violations of these laws can be costly — not only financially, but to your reputation as well.

Amplified marketing in action: Real-world examples

Check out these examples of brands amplifying their UGC.

1. Fresh

2. Midland Radio

3. Villeroy & Boch

Key takeaways for your amplified marketing strategy

Remember that your customers are your greatest asset. By harnessing the power of UGC and implementing an amplified marketing strategy, even the leanest of teams can achieve remarkable engagement and sales.

• The vast majority of shoppers check reviews and trust them as much as personal recommendations. This means reviews and other UGC are pivotal for e-commerce brands. Amplified UGC marketing is a cost-effective and powerful strategy for lean marketing teams
• Centering high-quality UGC in your marketing strategy significantly boosts key metrics
  like website visit duration, social engagement, repeat site visits, and conversion rates
• To cultivate effective UGC, set up a system to solicit customer reviews. Host social media contests and campaigns. Collaborate with influencers and loyal customers
• Get the most from your UGC by distributing it throughout all customer touchpoints. Repurpose reviews into content you can use in paid ads, social media, emails, websites, product pages, and more 

It’s all about making the most of what you already have and turning it into a conversion-boosting powerhouse. Here’s to supercharging your marketing efforts without stretching your budget!

LEARN MORE

Masterclass: The future of marketing: creators and communities

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After all, retailers and consumers know the importance of product reviews and ratings — 88% of shoppers read reviews before making a purchase. As the ultimate in user-generated content (UGC), ratings and reviews are an integral part of building your brand’s credibility.

But when it comes to review gating, we’re here to say: don’t do it.

Review gating isn’t worth the legal or reputational risk — and companies who gate reviews miss important opportunities for growth and revenue. 

What is review gating? 

Review gating is the practice of filtering out negative reviews or only publishing positive feedback from customers. Given the importance of customer reviews for e-commerce — especially for small and medium businesses — many brands feel pressured to use review gating to achieve or maintain a glowing online image.

Some companies even take it a step further by paying for fake positive reviews or attempting to silence potential negative reviews by burying non-disparagement clauses in their terms and conditions. This is thankfully now illegal per 2016’s Consumer Review Fairness Act. 

The importance of authentic reviews in the digital economy

So what’s better than a perfect slate of 5-star reviews? Authenticity.

It may seem counterintuitive. But sharing the good, bad, and ugly feedback from your customers is one of the most important things you can do for your brand. This is because negative reviews offer a fair counterbalance to positive reviews, which builds credibility with customers. 

Trust us. As a pioneer in the ratings and reviews space, we’ve seen thousands of negative reviews over the last decade — and we’ve witnessed how clients who embrace the feedback ultimately see more success than those who try to avoid it. 

Why do some businesses use review gating?

There’s no doubt about it — with a crowded marketplace and high consumer expectations, brands and retailers are under enormous pressure to maintain a perfect online image. For some companies, especially smaller companies, this pressure can make review gating tempting.  

Usually, this comes from a well-intended — but unnecessary — fear of negative reviews. In our experience, the companies that resist review gating and instead welcome authentic feedback see more sales and customer loyalty over time.

Instead of trying to suppress negative comments, brands and retailers should embrace them as an opportunity to learn and improve. 

The direct consequences of gated reviews

Review gating isn’t just bad form — it’s a real legal risk. Review gating clashes with the Federal Trade Commission’s stance against restricting negative reviews and soliciting biased ratings.

Additionally, companies that gate reviews are likely in direct violation of the terms of service for most review hosting sites. If caught, your business risks having content removed or the account suspended.

Beyond platform penalties, inauthentic reviews erode customer trust. Your prospective buyers expect to see positive and negative reviews. When they don’t, they’re skeptical. In fact, products with at least some negative reviews are known to have higher conversion rates than products with only glowing feedback.

The unexpected benefits of negative reviews

Consider the case of MeUndies. The underwear startup makes it a point to respond to every single one-to-three-star review customers leave. 

“We’ve noticed that plenty of customers would leave a negative review and then would not reach out for help, even though their problems could be pretty easily solved, for example, if they received the wrong size or style,” said Ross Houslander, Senior Retention Lead at MeUndies. 

So Houslander’s team monitors and responds to every review. When a customer sees these responses, it fosters trust and confidence when shopping with MeUndies. Shoppers know that if they ever encounter an issue, the brand will proactively resolve it. By effectively managing negative feedback, MeUndies:

• Boosted customer engagement with new review collection strategies
• Fostered long-term loyalty by establishing its reputation as a responsive and customer-centric brand 

How to handle a negative review 

Sooner or later, you’re likely to receive a negative review. When this occurs, stay calm. How you respond is the most important part. Think of negative reviews as direct instructions from the customer on how to earn their loyalty in the future.

When addressed properly, negative reviews can fuel growth. Respond professionally to customer complaints by apologizing for the letdown and outlining a plan to get things right next time. 

By embracing negative feedback and addressing concerns head-on, your customers will notice and reward you with long-term loyalty. 

Review gating isn’t worth the risks

Gating reviews doesn’t just stunt your growth —  it can directly harm your brand. If your ratings are exposed as biased or fake, expect a major backlash from customers. This can lead to long-term or even permanent damage to your brand reputation. 

The unique vulnerability of small businesses

For small e-commerce brands dependent on word-of-mouth marketing, authentic reviews are even more important. Compared to the robust resources of larger brands better suited to weather PR crises, small businesses usually:

• Have more direct relationships with customers 
• Are more reliant on online reviews for sales and credibility 
• May not have the resources to recover from the fallout of a review gating exposé 

Alternatives to review gating

So, how should a small business handle reviews?

With vulnerability and authenticity. To start, invite and encourage all your customers to leave reviews. Welcome the opportunity to build constructive communication with your customers. And resist the urge to censor or react defensively to negative feedback — there’s a more productive way to respond. 

To build your small business’s authenticity, skip the review gating 

Building an authentic brand starts with reviews. Small and medium businesses are particularly vulnerable to the legal and reputational risks of review gating. But these brands also have the most to gain from constructive handling of negative feedback.

Sharing honest customer reviews is one of the most important things you can do for your small brand. Authentic reviews offer valuable insights into how to better serve your customers, highlight unique growth opportunities, and build your brand’s reputation for transparency and integrity. Ironically, how you respond to your negative reviews can make your positive reviews even more credible to your customers. 

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Masterclass: Navigating the proposed FTC regulations – Episode One: Reusing reviews

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The marketing tools small businesses use to attract and retain customers can make or break them. Advanced marketing tools that maximize efficiency, productivity, and ROI are instrumental. They level the playing field between large and small businesses, making up for limited resources and budgets.

That’s why we’ve identified 12 of the best marketing tools for small businesses, keeping these major factors in mind:

• Price: Affordable pricing with different tiers depending on budget
• Usability: Approachable enough for anyone to jump in and start using with speed and ease
• Use-cases: Most relevant for small businesses

Marketing tools for lean teams and small businesses

Learn about these tools and how they can fit into your small business marketing strategy in our quick guide.

Mailchimp

• Specialty: Email marketing
• Small business benefit: An affordable way to reach customers directly with personalized messages and promotions
• Top features: Email builder, templates, AI tools, analytics, A/B testing, predictive segmentation
• Price: Various plans: Free, Essentials ($13/month), Standard ($20/month), Premium ($350/month)

Email marketing is a valuable tool for small or any sized businesses. Mailchimp customers, in particular, receive impressive results with the tool, including up to 39x ROI and $1,700 earned per campaign, on average.

Mailchimp has plenty of templates and intuitive drag-and-drop email builder tools accessible to various skill levels. The platform allows you to create segmented lists of different groups of customers so you can send them personalized campaigns based on their preferences and demographics. You can also A/B test emails based on different send times, subject lines, and body content. 

Canva

• Specialty: Content design and creation
• Small business benefit: Streamlines and expedites the content creation process to lower talent costs and foster more efficient workflows
• Top features: Templates, Magic Write AI text generator, Brand Management
• Price: Free: limited access for individuals, Pro: $120/year for upgraded individual plan, Teams: $300/year per five users with additional features

Canva is a design platform that enables anyone, regardless of skill level, to create visual assets for a wide range of content types and presentations. Teams can use the tool to design anything from social media content to videos, presentations with audio and animation, entire websites, infographics, and more. 

It has robust team collaboration capabilities, including a whiteboard brainstorming feature, centralized media library and brand kit, social media content scheduler, and content approval feature. 

Some of their results for small businesses include: 

• Increasing content creation by 60% 
• Reducing external design workload by 30%
• Decreasing turnaround time by 90% 
• Reducing design costs by 50%

Bazaarvoice

• Specialty: User-generated content (UGC) marketing
• Small business benefit: A cost-effective way to maximize the reach and impact of customer feedback and advocacy
• Top features: Retail Syndication, Social Commerce, Ratings & Reviews, Sampling, Questions & Answers, Creator Marketing
• Price: See pricing page 

Bazaarvoice takes one of your brand’s most precious organic resources and turns it into rocket fuel for growth. User-generated content — any content like reviews or social media posts created by your customers and creators — is so effective because it inspires trust and confidence in shoppers, much more so than branded content.

Our Shopper Experience Index found that 78% of shoppers have more confidence in purchases after seeing customer content, and 74% trust UGC over branded content on product detail pages (PDPs). 

The Bazaarvoice platform is multifaceted, but the collection and amplification of UGC are central to each feature. Bazaarvoice collects content like product reviews and visual UGC from social media for you and distributes it across your e-commerce site and retail partner sites. UGC is great for SEO, helping you potentially triple website traffic and reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 75%. Sharing UGC across marketing channels can also increase conversion rates by up to 4x.

Compared to main competitors on G2, Bazaarvoice has been voted the #1 in UGC for 12 consecutive quarters and is the Leader in the space.

Webflow

• Specialty: Website and e-commerce site builder, content management system (CMS)
• Small business benefit: No-code, easy-to-use website builder tools to reliably run your e-commerce site and create new web pages
• Top features: Templates, SEO tools, e-commerce email automations
• Price: Standard: $30/month, Plus: $74/month, Advanced: $212/month 

Webflow’s intuitive, drag-and-drop, no-code website builder makes it easy to launch and maintain your e-commerce site. Everything is customizable according to your branding, including how you display and highlight products and layout your website pages. An added benefit is the ability to send and design branded transactional emails, including order and shipping confirmations. 

Zoho Social

• Specialty: Social media management
• Small business benefit: Easily manage, create, schedule, and measure content for all your social media channels in one place
• Top features: Scheduling and Publishing, Monitoring, Analytics, Collaboration 
• Price: Standard: $10/month, Professional: $30/month, Premium: $40/month 

Zoho Social is an intuitive, user-friendly social media management tool that anyone can learn, regardless of social media expertise. It offers integrations for all the most valuable channels for brands, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more. It helps lean teams save time and money with its scheduling and automation features. Zoho also has helpful collaboration features, like the ability to chat with team members about campaigns and pieces of content. 

Compared to its major competitors on G2, marketers prefer Zoho Social across the board. Small business owners on G2 call out Zoho Social’s ease of use, time-saving benefits, great customer service, and batch-scheduling capabilities as top qualities.

Notion

• Specialty: Project management, database, and notetaking 
• Small business benefit: Whole team has more visibility and better collaboration and can assign and track tasks in one centralized workspace
• Top features: Wikis, Projects, Docs, Notion AI 
• Price: Free limited plan for individuals, Plus: $8 per user per month for small groups, Business: $15 per user per month for several teams within a business, Enterprise: Request a demo to run entire, large organizations

Notion is a productivity tool that has a vast amount of use cases, so you can make it work however you need it to. Businesses of all sizes use it to create and store internal documents and resources, create and track project workflows, create and maintain databases, and even use it as a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Its responsive interface with automated functionality makes it user-friendly, customizable, and efficient. 

Notion is highly rated on G2, and the reviews by small business owners credit the tool with saving time and money.

Copy.ai

• Specialty: AI-powered content creation, lead development, and analysis
• Small business benefit: Boosts efficiency and productivity at low cost by expediting the writing process and automating processes
• Top features: AI Marketing OS, AI Sales OS, AI Chat
• Price: Various plans: Pro is best for small businesses at $36/month or Team at $186/month

Copy.ai is an AI platform built specifically for marketing. It can generate content for emails, blog posts, and social media based on your unique brand voice and tone. Its marketing capabilities include competitor analysis, optimizing content using SEO best practices and knowledge, refreshing content, and creating briefs from transcripts. It’s also a good sales tool that can integrate with your CRM to produce lead scores, personalized outreach materials, and develop lead enrichment. 

The small businesses that have implemented AI as a growth tool have experienced positive results. According to Constant Contact’s Small Business Now report on AI, 91% of small businesses say that AI helps them be more successful. Additionally, 60% report saved time and better efficiency, and 25% expect to save more than $5,000 in the next year from using AI for marketing.

Google Analytics

• Specialty: Website performance analytics
• Small business benefit: Free tool to measure and optimize website performance and gain insights on visitors and content
• Top features: Website sessions and engagement reports
• Price: Free

Google Analytics offers real-time data analysis and insights into your website’s performance. You can look at your number of organic visitors, audience demographics, top visited pages, top pages for conversions, Google Ads performance, and much more. 

Small businesses can use this valuable free marketing tool to identify top-performing pages with the most views, low bounce rates, and high times on site. Likewise, you can find the weakest pages with low views, high bounce rates, and low times on site. By analyzing both, you can see where and how to optimize your website for better results. 

You can also evaluate your traffic sources to see where to dedicate your efforts. For example, if you have low organic traffic, you should prioritize improving SEO. If you have low traffic from email or social media marketing, you can focus on driving more traffic from those channels.

Ahrefs

• Specialty: Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Small business benefit: Fast competitor analysis, easily find what customers are searching for online
• Top features: Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker 
• Price: Plans starting with Lite at $99/month (best for small businesses)

Ahrefs offers a variety of SEO tools to analyze your website’s keyword rankings, look at backlink growth, and discover the value of different search terms you could target. Likewise, you can do a deep dive on your competition to compare the same data. For example, you can find out the top search terms your competitors rank for and what pages rank for those terms.

Ahrefs can show you which keywords have low competition and significant search volume to determine which ones you should target to secure a top search results ranking. This information will inform which product pages you should optimize and how and provide ideas for new content, like blog posts and landing pages.

Wistia

• Specialty: Video creation and marketing
• Small business benefit: Leverage the impact and popularity of video marketing, save costs on expensive video services and outsourcing, collect leads directly from videos
• Top features: Video creation and editing, live event and webinar hosting, marketing CTAs, lead generation, built-in SEO
• Price: Plans starting at $19/month (best for small businesses) up to $319/month+

These days, video is one of the most powerful content formats. If you’re not leveraging video for marketing, you’re behind the 91% of companies that are.

Wistia offers a user-friendly platform that eliminates or reduces the need for small businesses to outsource expensive video marketing. In addition to being a video creation tool, Wistia offers A/B testing, analytics to measure performance, lead generation capabilities, channel distribution, and more. It provides the best quality for the price for small businesses that have lean teams that wear multiple hats.

Zapier

• Specialty: Automated workflows
• Small business benefit: Creates connected, seamless, efficient workflows that save time, enable more revenue-generating work, and ensure you don’t miss customer leads and interactions
• Top features: Zaps (automated workflow prompts), Paths (tasks performed based on assigned triggers), Schedule (recurring task scheduler)
• Price: Free (for individuals with limited features), Starter ($20 a month), Professional ($49 a month), Teams ($69 a month)

Zapier is an automated workflow tool that connects all the apps your business uses for internal and customer-facing communications. 

It saves a lot of time for small teams to get them out of the weeds of lots of small — yet important — daily tasks. It’s easy to use and requires no coding, so anyone can jump in and start using it at any time. The tool allows you to set up a trigger that performs a designated task, like adding a new Shopify customer to your Mailchimp email list for example.

SimpleTexting

• Specialty: SMS marketing
• Small business benefit: Affordable and easy-to-implement customer acquisition and retention tool
• Top features: Contact list builder, text sender, 1:1 texting, mass texting, trigger-based automated and personalized campaigns
• Price: Customized, volume-based pricing

SMS marketing is a powerful conversion-driving tool for e-commerce and retail brands. According to Attentive’s 2023 SMS Marketing Benchmarks report, SMS is a top-three revenue-driving channel for 53% of marketers. SimpleTexting is a texting service tool specifically designed for small business success.

With SimpleTexting, you can improve your customer support, promote special offers, and reduce cart abandonments with direct customer interactions. Matykos Beauty is an independent beauty brand that captures shoppers’ attention over its many competitors using SimpleTexting. By requesting customer reviews for one of its key products through SMS, Matykos Beauty boosted its search presence and brand awareness.

Your customers are your most important asset

As a small business, your time and money are especially valuable — these marketing tools are designed to save you both. Keep in mind that UGC from your customers is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase brand awareness and conversions. Whichever tools and marketing strategy you have, make sure UGC is a central focus for greater impact. 

If you’re not sure where to start, watch our on-demand masterclass: How small businesses can maximize shopper content and ROI.

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Masterclass: How small teams can drive e-commerce growth with UGC

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Shoppertainment is more than a buzzword. It’s an emerging method for boosting shopper engagement, driving conversions, and creating customer loyalty. 

What is shoppertainment?

Shoppertainment is the art of combining e-commerce (the “shop”) with engaging activities that surprise and delight consumers (the “entertainment”). It’s the digital equivalent of an in-store special event or, for those who might remember, the sign spinners that used to dot the side of the road.

And for smaller teams, shoppertainment can be a more cost-effective and rewarding approach to marketing, opening doors to innovative strategies that can significantly enhance the customer experience.

The value shoppertainment brings to e-commerce 

As most retailers and brands know all too well, online shopping is always changing. Finding ways to stand out and make the shopping experience more engaging for customers is a top priority.

Shoppertainment helps brands and retailers get more customers’ attention. It also creates customer loyalty and more personalized buying experiences. 

Even better, it can inspire consumers to create and share user-generated content (UGC). When you encourage people to share branded hashtags on social media or update followers on the results of an online competition, it creates organic word-of-mouth marketing, which is priceless when it comes to building trust. 

Shoppertainment examples

Set your shoppertainment strategy on the right path with these actionable examples.

Live shopping streams and real-time product showcases

Some might say shoppertainment’s roots go back to the 1980s and ’90s when TV channels like QVC and HSN were in their heyday. 

These channels aired live shows that featured engaging hosts talking about a product or service. Shoppers could call in with questions or share their experiences in real-time. Often, the products were incentivized with a sale that only lasted as long as the show. 

Today, livestream shopping streams that showcase products in real time offer the same experience on a more modern channel: social media. Consumers can watch live streams of brand ambassadors promoting their favorite products, from anywhere they are. It’s what they want to see too, with 51% of consumers saying live shopping is the shopping experience they’re most excited about.

Instead of calling in with questions or recommendations, consumers leave their feedback in the comments. Brands and retailers can then use those comments to guide other consumers’ purchasing decisions.  

Shoppers can buy directly through links provided during the livestream, using coupons that expire when the livestream ends. Like QVC and HSN of yore, these live shopping streams and real-time product showcases are engaging and interactive. They put the “entertainment” in shoppertainment. 

Virtual try-ons 

Virtual try-ons tap the power of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to allow consumers to “try on” clothes, accessories, and makeup before making a purchase. 

This form of shoppertainment is also popular in the home decor and furnishing space, where consumers can virtually see items like couches and tables in their homes before making a major purchase. (And, for anyone who’s ever bought the wrong couch knows, a major regret.)

As the above chart shows, 74% of consumers are excited that brands are enhancing online shopping experiences with AR and VR

The immersive shoppertainment experiences that VR and AR offer are practical — maybe bright orange isn’t the best shade of lipstick for you. They’re also fun. Who doesn’t want to see what a green velvet sofa would look like in their living room?

Virtual try-ons can create an emotional connection with consumers, boost sales, and drive brand buzz. When consumers interact with products linked to AR experiences, brands can see 94% higher conversion rates.

Gamified shopping

Gamified shopping is a form of shoppertainment that encourages consumers to participate in branded contests for a chance to earn free products or discounts. These experiences can range from “spin to win” pop-ups to sophisticated video games.

Like other forms of shoppertainment, gamified shopping is fun — and an effective channel for boosting brand loyalty. 

• 70% of shoppers want gaming elements incorporated into online shopping
• Gaming features also help attract younger shoppers — over 80% of Gen Zers play mobile games often, and 70% of millennials play daily

The key is to give shoppers a reason to play. Based on our research, the top driver for participation is the opportunity to unlock a discount or reward. Other shoppers want to join and engage with communities that share their interests or connect directly with the brand.

Gamification marketing is great for getting consumer attention, but it also delivers valuable data that can be leveraged throughout your marketing efforts. You can offer an exciting reward in exchange for a customer’s name and contact info. Shoppers’ feedback about your products is also powerful UGC that can be used throughout the buying cycle. 

Interactive quizzes and personalization

A quiz funnel asks website visitors to answer questions relevant to a brand or retailer’s product line. The answers then generate personalized results based on the shopper’s needs.

A vitamin brand, for example, might ask shoppers about their health concerns and goals. The final result could be a list of product recommendations — and maybe a coupon code. 

For customers, the product recommendations deliver personalized content, which is important to today’s shoppers. (More on that in a minute.) For brands, the quizzes are an affordable way to collect valuable data that can be used to segment customers, guide future campaigns, generate better leads, and increase conversions. 

Shoppertainment collaborations

In this form of shoppertainment, brands and retailers bring their customers and brand ambassadors into the content-creating experience. 

This can include letting a select group of influencers take over your social media channels for the day. You could also interview customers and feature their insights on your blog and social media. 

If you think you need to join forces with a big-name celebrity, think again. Keep reading to see why you don’t need to partner with a major influencer to have a major impact.

4 shoppertainment ideas for small teams

Shoppertainment works for all marketing teams, but here’s some ideas for those on leaner budgets.

Curate and showcase existing UGC

UGC is unique in that it goes beyond just shoppertainment to deliver engaging content that helps people make better shopping decisions. 

Almost 90% of consumers read reviews when shopping online, and 78% say reviews are the “most influential” factor in their purchasing decisions. According to our Shopper Experience Index:

• More than half of shoppers say they’re unlikely to buy a product that doesn’t feature any type of customer opinion-sharing content
• Over 75% of consumers say reviews and Q&As affect their purchase decisions 
• 69% agree photos of products taken by other shoppers have an impact on their purchases 

This content can be used throughout the funnel to build trust and improve engagement. What’s even better, your customers are creating content for you, making it a relatively low-cost investment. 

So how do you get UGC?

Sampling. Establish a user-friendly program for customers to receive samples and provide reviews. Encourage customer engagement and gain insights by offering free products for honest feedback. This builds a community of brand advocates, amplifying your brand’s reach

Reach out to recent customers. Email customers who’ve recently purchased your products and invite them to share their feedback. We’ve seen brands increase their review volume by as much as 50% with these simple email requests. Emails are also the perfect opportunity to thank customers for their purchases and build brand loyalty

Share content that already exists (with permission, of course). If people are already posting about your brand on social media, you can comment or message them to ask for permission to use their content in your marketing. More than a quarter of shoppers report that companies have done this — so you’re not alone

Host UGC-driven contests

Another way to increase your UGC collection? Make it a game. Tapping into the power of gamified shopping makes it easy to build a stockpile of user-created reviews, photos, videos, and more. 

You could host contests on your social media channels to get customers to create content in exchange for free products or discounts. Boost your exposure and engagement further by incentivizing shares and reposts. 

Work with micro-influencers to create shoppertainment content

As we mentioned earlier, in today’s influencer marketing world, you don’t need to partner with big-name celebrities or people with massive social media followings. These types of influencers don’t resonate with shoppers like they used to. 

Instead, consumers tend to favor the opinions and advice of real people, who are often more open to participating in campaigns with smaller budgets.

• 64% of people want brands to partner with everyday social media users more than anyone else 
• 33% of consumers say their trust in regular social media users has increased over the past five years

Use UGC to create personalized shopping journeys

Personalization is leveraging customer data to deliver tailored messaging about the products and services they care most about. 

Shoppers have become more willing to share their information in exchange for deals and exclusive offers. Consumers appreciate that brands and retailers take the time to learn about their needs — and then take steps to meet them. 

• 25% of consumers say they’re interested in personalization in shopping

What kind of personalized experiences are shoppers looking for? Loyalty programs, discounts, and free samples all go a long way in turning customers into repeat customers. 

Shoppertainment: Helping small teams do more with less

UGC-driven shoppertainment helps small teams create experiences to stand out from the competition and build customer engagement. In addition to boosting customer satisfaction, these experiences also help reduce return rates, increase sales and conversions, and drive customer loyalty.

Best of all, because many of these experiences leverage content created by your customers, they’re also more affordable — and sustainable — for teams with small budgets. 

More sales for less money? Win-win. 

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A retail marketer’s guide to satisfying experience-hungry shoppers

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When it comes to advertising, they want messaging to be genuine and not too salesy and images not to be too perfect. They want you to share the same values they hold dear and appreciate their feedback. The more authentic you can be, the more you’ll build relationships with consumers. 

Review marketing can help you achieve all of these things. It’s especially a game-changer for smaller marketing teams looking for efficient, yet effective marketing solutions. 

What is review marketing?

A review marketing strategy refers to collecting user-generated content (UGC), such as customer reviews, photos, videos, or anything else created by an individual and not your brand, and using the content in your marketing campaigns. 

Consumers consider UGC to be the most authentic type of marketing content and trust it as much (if not more) as recommendations from friends and family. 88% of shoppers consult product reviews before buying anything, and 78% say reviews are the biggest influencer on their purchases. 

Retailers and brands find UGC to be useful for improving customer service, products, and marketing messaging. For marketing teams with tighter budgets, tapping into review marketing can give you the biggest impact. Here’s why — and, some guidelines for how to do it. 

UGC and its place in modern advertising

Shoppers want to see UGC wherever they encounter your brand. That’s why review marketing is so powerful. Plus, 86% of brands and retailers recognize the impact of UGC. 

Ads featuring UGC experience 4x higher click-through rates, and they help retailers and brands reduce their cost-per-click rates by 50%, according to our own research. You can also increase consumer trust when you feature UGC in ads. 

Reviews are the king of UGC. 22% of consumers say ads that feature reviews increase the likelihood that they’ll purchase a product. And among brands and retailers, 64% rank reviews as the most influential aspect of their sales and advertising strategies. 

How small teams benefit from using reviews in marketing ads 

Reviews from real-life customers are some of the most valuable content you have. To harness their power, you need a review marketing strategy to collect and feature them in your advertising. 

Highlight customer reviews at every touchpoint — on social media, in emails, in stores, and on product pages. Consumers appreciate having easy access to this content wherever they shop. 

When you have a smaller marketing team, using reviews in ads is crucial. Here’s how you can benefit from review marketing. 

1. It’s cost-effective

Many marketing teams have been dealing with lean budgets lately. UGC is the solution. Reviews are easy and inexpensive to collect and display across channels. When you feature UGC in ads, you have the potential to see a 50% drop in cost-per-click rates. 

2. It resonates with consumers

Your customers are already talking about you. Developing a review marketing strategy to use review content in your ads will boost the authenticity factor. With authentic reviews, you can create impactful ads that resonate without the need for extensive creative resources. 

3. It enhances credibility and trust 

Shoppers trust the opinions of their peers. Using reviews in your marketing shows that you value consumer feedback and makes shoppers feel confident buying your products. Leveraging genuine user views can help smaller brands or businesses establish trust and compete with bigger players. 

4. It boosts engagement 

Ads containing UGC see 4x higher click-through rates. That means better engagement and more bang for every advertising buck. Consumers will take notice when they see that you’re showcasing reviews. 

Guidelines for choosing the right reviews 

A successful review marketing strategy depends on showcasing your most compelling reviews. These tips can help you encourage your customers to leave reviews and use them in a creative way to inspire shoppers, boost engagement, and drive sales. 

Engage with your community

The most effective UGC comes from real people who love your brand and products. These reviews feature high-quality, honest, and authentic content. The best way to collect it is to build a community, and there are several ways to do it: 

• Host a sampling campaign, where you offer consumers a product in exchange for a review, to increase reviews and sales
• Create branded hashtags on social media that are catchy and consistent with your brand. This helps consumers easily reference you in their posts.
• Comb social media platforms for mentions of your brand or product names, use Google Analytics to track on-site traffic, and look for instances where someone tagged their location at your brick-and-mortar location
• Send a review request email soon after someone makes a purchase with a link to make leaving a review easy. 
• Run a social media contest asking consumers to create content about your brand for a chance to be featured in your marketing

Note that whenever you use a customer’s feedback in your ads, you need to ask them for permission. It’s not safe to assume that just because they tag you in a post or use your hashtag that they want their content used in your marketing. 

Integrate reviews creatively

Consumers consider ads that feature UGC, including testimonial ads, to be authentic and relatable. They trust reviews from their fellow shoppers — mainly because of social proof, which is the idea that people often replicate the behaviors that they see from others. 

While it’s tempting to just include positive reviews in ads, 60% of consumers say negative reviews are just as important to them when making a purchase decision. Putting a creative spin on negative UGC and including it in your ads will make consumers take notice and make you seem more relatable. 

Just look at Snowbird Ski Resort. After receiving a one-star review saying the resort didn’t have enough easy-to-ski areas, the company repurposed the content into an ad targeting advanced skiers and thrill-seekers.

The ad was a hit — it attracted lots of attention, and the brand features these ads on its website. 

Follow UGC advertising regulations 

Review marketing is cost-effective, easy to put together, and gets results, but it’s still advertising. Therefore, it must follow certain consumer protection regulations and laws. Making sure everything you do is on the up and up heightens your authenticity and trustworthiness. 

Your UGC advertising strategy must follow these guidelines: 

• Treat all reviews equally. That means you shouldn’t just collect, moderate, and display only positive reviews. All honest, authentic reviews — negative and positive — should be treated the same. Don’t discourage or reject negative reviews, or only ask for positive reviews. Be sure to publish negative reviews, even when you don’t agree with them 

• Never allow or post fake reviews. Doing so is the epitome of inauthenticity. Fake reviews include those written by bots or real people who never purchased or tried your products, or that have been edited to appear more positive

• Disclose any material connection between reviews and a merchant. Consumers expect reviews to be written by real people who purchased an item and shared their feedback. If you have a relationship with a reviewer (they’re an employee, for example), you must disclose it. Otherwise, you risk losing credibility, and you could potentially violate consumer protection regulations

• Divulge any benefits provided to the reviewer. If a reviewer received anything in exchange for a review, it needs to be disclosed. That includes sampling campaigns or paying influencers to post or write reviewers

• Display disclosures prominently. Make sure these disclosures or incentives are clearly stated and prominently visible. There’s no standard wording that should be used, but it should clearly convey information to anyone reading the review and stand out enough for the reader to notice it 

Monitor and iterate

Your review marketing strategy doesn’t end after creating and running a review ad. You need to track metrics to gauge its effectiveness and make tweaks based on what you learn. Plus, the ad will most likely inspire others to leave reviews, and you’ll have fresh UGC coming that you’ll want to use in your review marketing. 

Using Bazaarvoice’s Insights and Reports gives you access to an easy-to-use dashboard where you can track different types of UGC for your brand, including reviews and social media posts. Bazaarvoice also has a UGC moderation program to help prevent low-quality, fake, or fraudulent from getting through our network. 

Monitoring data related to your review marketing campaigns will ensure they’re striking the right notes. You’ll know what type of UGC resonates most and is generating the best results. You can use these insights for future campaigns. 

Creating your review marketing strategy

Consumers trust reviews, more so than traditional marketing messages. They read reviews just about every time they purchase something and rely on this content to provide accurate, credible information. Collecting UGC and creating review ads appeals to shoppers — they feel confident buying from you, and they’ll tell their friends. 

Review marketing is a cost-effective, convenient strategy for small marketing teams with lean budgets. Consumers are already talking about you online and sharing their feedback. Capturing and displaying this UGC drives results, builds trust, boosts engagement, and inspires shoppers.  

To get started, join expert speakers Matt Phillips, Director of Customer Success at Searchspring, and Ashlee Meerscheidt, Technical Account Manager at Bazaarvoice, as they share their insights and tips on leveraging reviews for optimal results in this on-demand masterclass: How to boost product discovery with reviews.

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Retail Talk featuring Petco: Increase conversions with quality reviews

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But this vulnerability is also what ignites innovation, resilience, and adaptability. The agile nature of small businesses allows them to shift gears faster, spot opportunities in niches, and foster a closer relationship with their customer base. The duality of vulnerability and agility characterizes the strategies of small business growth.

Small business growth strategies

To take advantage of the strengths inherent to their size and structure, small businesses need a set of growth strategies tailored to their unique needs. Let’s dive into six business ideas that have the potential to transform your challenges into stepping stones toward success. 

1. Elevate your brand with exceptional customer service

Quality products alone aren’t a guarantee of success. The experience surrounding them plays an essential role — Zendesk’s CX Trends Report shows that 70% of consumers are willing to spend more with businesses that provide fluid, personalized, and seamless customer experiences. 

Exceptional customer service establishes trust, encourages repeat purchases, and can help you turn casual shoppers into brand evangelists. For small businesses, where a personal touch and positive customer relationships often matter most, delivering stellar service can be a key differentiator.

Be proactive in helping customers solve issues, educating them about your products, and anticipating their needs and concerns. Make it easy for them to provide feedback, and regularly analyze it to make meaningful improvements to your products and the overall shopping experience. If your budget allows, adopt automation technology like chatbots for immediate responses or CRM systems to maintain a history of customer interactions. 

When the opportunity arises, exceed expectations and go the extra mile for your customers. Surprise them with gestures that showcase your appreciation, whether that’s a personalized thank you note or occasional loyalty rewards.

2. Maximize content reach with syndication tools

The internet is saturated with content. Trying to reach new customers often feels like screaming into the void, especially when working with limited resources. Enter content syndication, a strategic approach to republishing content across various platforms, magnifying its reach and potential impact.

Syndication tools are like a megaphone. They allow you to broadcast content more widely and make it work harder, capturing audiences that might otherwise be left untapped. The right tools also help safeguard your reputation, ensuring that syndicated content is authentic and compliant.

For example, Bazaarvoice’s Retail Syndication product helps businesses worldwide amplify the impact of their reviews and product images. Thanks to syndication efforts, Andi-Co’s Falcon products saw 690x reviews on retailer sites, and 81% of Samsonite’s products now have high-quality, moderated reviews across different sales channels.

3. Boost local presence with SEO optimization

For many small businesses, the local community is the primary market. Local search engine optimization (SEO) is a prime strategy to drive brand awareness and establish a foothold in that community — 77% of consumers in Germany, France, the UK, and the US turn to Google for local business information. 

It’s not just about showing up in search results but also ranking high. The top three Google search results get nearly 55% of all clicks, so landing a spot in the top results increases traffic, both online and offline.

Start by conducting local keyword research. Tools like Ahrefs and Google’s Keyword Planner help you find terms your competitors rank for or keywords relevant to your business. For example, a bakery in Berlin might focus on keywords like “best Berlin bread” or “gluten-free pastries in Berlin.” Once you identify the most relevant terms, incorporate them into your website content, meta descriptions, and titles.    

Update your Google Business Profile with accurate data about products, business hours, and contact information to show Google your business is authentic and provide a seamless experience to searchers.

Also, make sure to optimize your website for mobile. Google research reveals that “Where to buy” + “near me” mobile searches are increasing exponentially, so make sure your design is responsive, the fonts are readable, the CTA buttons easy to spot, and the navigation menu a breeze to use.  

Don’t forget to optimize your social channels for SEO, either. Social media is fast-becoming the new search engine, with younger generations using it ahead of Google to find products. You can learn more about social media SEO here.

4. Improve customer retention and acquisition with email marketing

For all the proclamations about its demise, email is one of the best strategies to drive small business growth. Email marketing continues to rise from the great beyond and help businesses expand, engage, and retain their customers. According to Statista projections, email marketing revenue is on track to surpass $13 billion in 2025.

Email is a direct line of communication to your target audience, allowing you to deliver personalized content, offers, and updates right to the inboxes of current and potential customers. And unlike digital ads, email campaigns can be executed on a shoestring budget yet yield impressive results.

The first step is building a quality email list. Create an opt-in form for your website where you provide compelling reasons for visitors to subscribe. This could be exclusive offers, discount codes, or early access to new products. The sign-up process should be straightforward, so keep form fields to a minimum.

When building your campaigns, remember that segmentation is key. Split your email list based on criteria like purchase history, website behavior (like abandoned carts), or demographic data to keep the content relevant to the recipients and improve click-through rates (CTRs.)  

Check out these top email marketing tips for a complete rundown of the strategies that lead to higher conversions.

5. Build resilience with diversified revenue streams

In the world of business, the adage “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” translates to the importance of diversifying revenue streams. Spreading your sources of income helps you mitigate risk and ensure stability. If one revenue stream underperforms or collapses, others can compensate, shielding you from economic downturns or seasonal fluctuations.

This strategy also helps you remain nimble. In a rapidly changing business environment, having multiple revenue streams allows you to pivot and adapt more easily to shifts in market demand. Some approaches to consider include:

• Product diversification and expansion. Introduce new offerings that complement your existing products. For example, a coffee shop might sell a product line consisting of branded merchandise or start hosting events
• Online/offline ventures. If you’re brick-and-mortar only, consider establishing an online presence or offering digital products, and vice-versa
• Subscription models. Offer subscription services to ensure recurring monthly revenue
• Passive income streams. Consider avenues like an affiliate marketing strategy, licensing, or investing in assets that can generate ongoing revenue.
• Strategic partnerships. Collaborate with complementary businesses to co-create products, sponsor events, or share retail space

6. Harness the authenticity of user-generated content

Authenticity is the distinguishing factor that captures consumer attention. User-generated content (UGC), which encompasses any form of content created by existing customers rather than brands, is how you build that authenticity. It provides a relatable and trusted perspective on products, crucial to driving growth — 77% of consumers are more inclined to buy from a brand that incorporates UGC into their marketing. 

A UGC strategy can be implemented at little cost, but its impact on brand trust and conversions is substantial. Sourcing content is often the most challenging part, but you can launch initiatives like branded hashtags, product sampling campaigns, and review request emails to get the ball rolling. There are also UGC creators you can partner with for faster results.

Integrate this rich UGC across various touchpoints in the customer journey to maximize its effects. Product pages come alive with real reviews, photos, and videos from customers. Incorporating UGC into email campaigns can elevate conversion rates. UGC is also be a powerful element in social commerce, lending authenticity to promotional social media content. 

The engine that powers small business growth

One of the best strategies to drive growth as a small business is to partner with the right platform. Bazaarvoice isn’t just a leader in UGC  — we’re a dedicated partner for small businesses. We understand the unique nuances, opportunities, and challenges that SMBs face. Our approach is tailored, ensuring that our expertise becomes a tangible asset in your growth journey. 

From seamless implementation to round-the-clock support, our commitment is unwavering. Request a demo today, and let’s chart a growth plan to your next level of success.

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Masterclass: How small businesses can maximize shopper content

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Chapters:

1. What is e-commerce growth hacking?
2. Best e-commerce growth hacking strategies
3. Hack e-commerce growth with Bazaarvoice

Growth hacking. It’s not just another buzzy term making its way across the internet — it’s the secret weapon that pushes brands into the spotlight. 

By 2027, worldwide e-commerce business sales are gearing up to cross the $8 trillion mark. How do you ensure your brand isn’t just a spectator but actively working to take a slice of the multi-trillion-dollar pie? Especially when you’re running on the horsepower of a lean marketing team, time is of the essence, and deep pockets might not be a luxury you have?

You unlock the potential of e-commerce growth hacks strategies.

What is e-commerce growth hacking?

Growth hacking is a subset of marketing that involves finding the most effective, innovative, and cost-efficient ways to rapidly grow your business. In the fast-paced and hyper-competitive world of e-commerce, it’s the difference between being a small fish in a massive pond and becoming a dominant force in the market

Let’s dive into effective, quick-to-implement hacks that are friendly on the wallet and perfect for brands that want to make an impactful mark. 

Best e-commerce growth hacking strategies

Here we have 15 of the best e-commerce growth hacks that are all relatively cost effective to implement, but will have a significant positive impact on your ROI.

1. Create a sense of urgency with limited-time offers

Fear of missing out — coined as FOMO — isn’t a new phenomenon, but social media has significantly magnified it. Creating urgency taps into that basic human emotion. When customers see an offer with a finite window of opportunity, it becomes a now-or-never decision. The consideration time shortens, and the push towards an immediate purchase strengthens.

Limited-time offers aren’t just about slashing prices or throwing in a nice extra perk. They’re a psychological nudge urging shoppers to take action before time runs out. By strategically placing these time-sensitive offers on your site or sharing them via email, you’re providing a fleeting chance that many won’t want to let slip by. 

It’s also a remarkably low-lift strategy. With a few tweaks to your e-commerce store’s visuals and timely communication, you can set the stage for increased conversions without investing countless hours or resources.

2. Capture leaving visitors with exit-intent pop-ups

Step out of the digital environment for a second and picture someone leaving a physical store empty-handed. Before they go, a friendly staff member offers them an unexpected discount or asks for feedback. That’s the role an exit-intent pop-up plays in an online business setting. It creates one last opportunity for you to engage a visitor. 

Pop-up tools trigger exit-intent pop-ups when a user’s cursor movement indicates they’re about to close the tab or navigate away. They can serve many different purposes, too. Looking to grow your email list? Offer a subscription invitation. Do you want to clear stock? Flash a surprise discount. Keen on gathering insights? Prompt a quick feedback form.

This strategy works because it re-engages visitors who’ve already expressed interest by landing on your site, compelling them to stay or come back soon. Subtlety is key — no one wants to be bombarded with too much information. Make sure your pop-up provides value related to what the visitor was viewing, with a clear message and a straightforward call-to-action (CTA). 

Implemented wisely, exit-intent pop-ups become a valuable tool that can significantly reduce bounce rates and improve conversions.

3. Build authenticity into product pages with UGC

There’s something profoundly impactful about raw, real testimonials from everyday people. User-generated content (UGC) is precisely that — photos, videos, and customer reviews from actual users showcasing or discussing your products in their own unique ways. 

Social proof from genuine users offers transparency. It’s a window into how the product fits into everyday life without the gloss of professional setups. And that might just be the final push a visitor needs to buy from you. According to our Shopper Experience Index, 53% of shoppers say UGC makes them more confident in their purchase decision than professional photography.

Reach out to your customers and encourage them to write product reviews and create content using your offerings — you can launch brand-specific hashtags or give them discounts in exchange for their contribution. Then, display that rich UGC on your product pages to foster trust and help customers feel more confident about their decisions.

UGC is a powerful and easy growth hack — your customers are already talking about you, you just need to utilize their content.

4. Lean into the engagement of quizzes

Quizzes have leaped from the pages of magazines and secured a spot in the e-commerce world. At the intersection of entertainment and personalization, quizzes offer both an engaging user experience and valuable insights into your customers.

In a digital environment, where shoppers are surrounded by choices, a quiz acts as an assistant, helping to filter options based on individual preferences. Whether it’s finding the perfect shade of lipstick, the ideal pair of running shoes, or a tailored skincare routine, quizzes guide users toward products that best suit their needs.

The most obvious use for quizzes is offering tailored product recommendations, increasing the likelihood of a purchase. But they can also help you glean valuable insights about your target audience and inform future personalized digital marketing strategies. 

5. Turn social engagement into sales with social commerce

Social media channels aren’t just for sharing vacation pictures or fawning over celebrities anymore. They’ve turned into powerful marketplaces of their own accord, an invaluable stepping stone in the modern consumer buying journey. 

A study conducted by We Are Social, in partnership with Hootsuite, revealed that more than 4 in 10 working-age internet users visit social networks specifically to research brands and products they’re considering for purchase. This number jumps to half when we zero in on the 16 to 24 age bracket. The line between socializing and shopping has blurred. 

With features like Instagram shoppable posts and Like2Buy, brands have the opportunity to remove friction from the customer experience and turn engagement into sales with just a few clicks. 

Social media is also the perfect stage to distribute user-generated content and amplify authentic voices, allowing potential customers to see real-life applications of products and build a genuine connection with your brand. By merging social interaction and commerce, you can foster a community of loyal customers while lifting sales.

6. Re-engage customers with abandoned cart emails

Online shopping is fraught with distractions. One minute, a visitor is adding products to their shopping cart, and the next, they’re sidetracked by an email, a phone call, or a sudden change of heart. While it might seem like a lost cause, these abandoned carts present a golden opportunity for re-engagement with a little help from email marketing. 

Abandoned cart emails serve as gentle nudges, reminding customers of what they left behind and encouraging them to complete the purchase. And the numbers back their efficacy. After analyzing millions of these emails, Klaviyo found they yield a 41.18% open rate, a 9.5% click rate, and $5.81 in revenue per recipient.

To maximize this strategy’s efficiency, strike while the iron’s hot, and offer incentives. Send the first reminder within a few hours of the cart being abandoned, and include discounts or free shipping to make the deal irresistible.

7. Clarify and inform with FAQs and Q&As

Information is the bridge that connects potential hesitations to confident purchases. More often than not, customers come to your online store armed with questions, and how efficiently you answer them can mean the difference between an abandoned cart and a closed sale. 

FAQs (frequently asked questions) and Q&As (questions & answers) sections are trust builders. They reassure visitors that you’ve anticipated their concerns and are ready with answers or took the time to answer similar queries from fellow shoppers.

While a comprehensive FAQ can deflect a good portion of routine customer service inquiries, an open Q&A section shows transparency, suggesting that you’re not shying away from customer questions, no matter how tough. Both play a part in reducing barriers to purchase and driving website visitors towards conversion.

Regularly update your FAQ section based on questions people ask repeatedly and allow customers to answer each other’s questions (the latter has the added benefit of feeling more genuine). 

Also don’t bury these sections deep within your e-commerce site. Make them easily accessible, perhaps even built onto product pages, so visitors can quickly find what they need to assuage their concerns. 

8. Expand your customer base with referral programs

Word of mouth continues to be the most effective and powerful form of marketing. The essence of sharing a good thing with friends and family has taken a strategic turn with referral programs. It’s simple: if your customers love what you offer, why not incentivize them to spread the word? 

Referral programs operate on a win-win model. Existing customers get rewards — be it discounts, freebies, or exclusive access — for bringing in new customers, and in turn, your brand reaches fresh audiences, primed to trust you thanks to a recommendation from someone they know.

This strategy’s main selling point is cost-effective business growth. Because you’re only rewarding successful conversions, you’re likely to see a higher return on investment. You just have to execute a referral program that’s worthwhile — whatever rewards you offer, they should genuinely resonate with your customer base. And the easier you make it for customers to refer and claim rewards, the more likely they are to participate.

Once you settle on what your referral program will look like, don’t let it sit idly by. Promote it regularly through email campaigns or social media posts to keep it top of mind for customers.

9. Offer real-time guidance with chatbots

Scouring through dozens of product pages can sometimes overwhelm or frustrate visitors and lead them to give up on the shopping journey altogether. But what if every potential customer had their own personal shopper, ready to help at a moment’s notice?

Chatbots offer immediate assistance, answer questions, suggest products, and even guide users through the buying process. These digital helpers can significantly impact your bottom line — according to Intercom, 35% of business leaders said chatbots helped them close sales. The allure of chatbots isn’t just their 24/7 availability. It’s their ability to provide timely, accurate, and consistent responses when a visitor hits a wall and there’s no physical sales clerk to help them out.

The modern shopper expects convenience, speed, and clarity. Integrating conversational commerce into your site helps you meet those expectations and even exceed them, paving the way for smoother customer journeys and, ultimately, more sales.

10. Facilitate speedy checkouts with one-click purchases

Growth hacking is so effective in e-commerce because it inspires revolution. For example, after braving through the process of selecting a product, few things are more frustrating than being bogged down by a lengthy checkout process. Baymard data reveals that 18% of visitors abandon their cart because the checkout process is too long or too complicated. This has led to a rapid rise of quick commerce.

Your checkout process should feel like a smooth transition, not an endurance test. One-click purchases streamline the payment process, allowing visitors to bypass repetitive form fillings and offering a near-instant path from cart to confirmation. 

This strategy will only work for customers that have already bought from you once and given you their information. But once they do, store it safely and allow subsequent purchases to be seamless and painless with one simple click.

In e-commerce, friction is the enemy. While a comprehensive checkout might seem thorough, it often acts as a deterrent. By adopting one-click purchases, you’re telling your customers, “We value your time. Let’s make this quick.” 

11. Maximize value with upsells and cross-sells

Every customer interaction isn’t just a chance for a sale, but rather an opportunity to enhance the value of that sale. If someone’s buying a new laptop, it’s logical to suggest a complementary laptop bag or a higher-end model with better features. That’s the essence of upselling and cross-selling, two strategies that can amplify your average transaction value significantly. 

Upselling involves encouraging customers to buy a more expensive version of the item they’re considering. It’s about highlighting the benefits of the premium choice: better functionality, longevity, or overall experience. Cross-selling is about recommending complementary products. If they’re buying shoes, suggest a matching belt or a shoe care kit.

Upsells and cross-sells have the added benefit of enhancing the e-commerce shopping experience by suggesting products that align with a customer’s needs and, in some cases, simplifying their search. The key is to keep suggestions relevant to the product and not go overboard with the number of options you present to avoid decision fatigue. 

12. Re-capture attention with retargeting ads

It’s a familiar scenario in the world of e-commerce: a visitor lands on your website, browses a few products, maybe even adds something to the cart, but then — poof. They’re gone without completing the purchase. Thanks to the magic of data, these potential customers aren’t lost to the wind, and you can snare them again with retargeting ads.

These ads are all about re-engaging visitors who’ve shown interest in your brand, and gently pushing them back into the sales funnel. According to research from Ascend2 and Sharp Spring, retargeting ads are 70% more likely to convert compared to their standard counterparts. That’s a lot of potential for reclaiming lost sales.

You can set up retargeting campaigns directly on Facebook, using an ad platform or a Customer Data Platform (CDP). To tailor your ads, use these tools to segment your audience based on behavior, like browsing a specific product or abandoning a cart. You also need to set a frequency cap so the ads don’t become intrusive, and use catchy visuals, compelling CTAs, and personalized content to make sure you get that click.

13. Boost sales with attractive bundle deals

It’s hard to resist the allure of getting more for less. Bundle deals — a combination of products sold at a discounted rate when bought together — can be a game-changer for both customers and brands. For the former, it’s the excitement of snagging a bargain, and for the latter, it’s an opportunity to increase the average order value and move inventory.

Successful bundling hinges on two factors: relevance and transparent pricing. The products you bundle should make sense, whether they’re used together, like a camera and a memory card, or complement each other, like a dress and matching accessories. 

To really drive home the point that customers are getting more bang for their buck, clearly showcase the savings they stand to make with the bundle deal. A side-by-side comparison of individual vs. bundled prices, for example, accomplishes this effectively. 

14. Entice bigger baskets with free shipping thresholds

The word “free” has a nice ring to it, but when it’s paired with “shipping,” e-commerce magic happens. A recent study by Inmar Intelligence revealed that 78% of consumers are willing to buy more just to get free shipping. Clearly, the desire to save on delivery can drive purchasing decisions in a big way.

By setting a purchase minimum for free shipping, you’re giving customers a tangible goal. More often than not, they’ll strive to meet or even exceed it. And even though you’re covering shipping, the additional purchases often make up for the cost. You maintain healthy profit margins and feed into customer goodwill that can lead to repeat business and retention.

A good rule of thumb to determine your free shipping threshold is to look at your average order value and set it just above that to encourage a slight increase in typical spending. If you do adopt this strategy, remember to showcase it prominently. Whether it’s a banner on your homepage or a reminder in the cart, make the offer hard to miss.

15. Personalize the shopping experience with product recommendations

McKinsey said it best: consumers don’t just want personalization, they demand it. The era of generic, one-size-fits-all shopping experiences is long past us. Today’s discerning consumers want a touch of familiarity that makes e-commerce shopping feel tailored just for them. 

Personalization takes many forms, chief among them new product recommendations. This dynamic strategy uses past behaviors, preferences, and data analytics to suggest products that a customer is likely to be interested in, and make it that much more probable that they’ll buy them. It’s yet another way to simplify the shopping journey and signal that your brand understands and caters to your customers’ unique preferences.

You can weave these recommendations into several stages of the journey. For instance, while customers are exploring products on your site, showcase related or complementary items. Before they finalize their purchase, highlight a few products they might have missed or might want to add.

In review request emails or even as part of regular newsletters, personalized product suggestions can re-engage customers and prompt them to revisit your site.

Hack e-commerce growth with Bazaarvoice

Tapping into the potential of the e-commerce landscape requires more than passive participation, it needs active growth hacking. It’s all about innovating, iterating, and understanding the needs of your ever-evolving customers.

Bazaarvoice’s solutions are shaping the future of online retail. From leveraging the authentic voices of your customers to unleashing the power of social commerce, our products we’re designed to supercharge your e-commerce growth and carve a niche in a saturated market.

Not sure where to start? Experience the transformative power of Bazaarvoice for yourself. 

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If you’re wondering exactly how to compete with Amazon, look no further. In this article, we explore four powerful and effective ways for retailers and brands to compete head-to-head with large marketplaces.

4 ways to compete with Amazon

From embracing social commerce to removing shopping friction, these strategies can help your company build awareness and loyalty in the face of formidable competition.

1. Use social commerce to reach a wider audience 

To compete with giant marketplaces, it’s important to work on expanding your reach beyond your website or physical stores. Enter: social commerce. 

Social commerce allows brands to reach larger audiences, specifically within the social media environment and everywhere social media extends to. Social media platforms boast billions of active users worldwide, offering an enormous potential customer base for your brand. In our recent apparel-related survey, 21% of respondents said social media is one of their main channels for online apparel shopping. 

With advanced features like shoppable posts and integrated checkout processes, social media platforms are streamlining the path to purchase. Customers can seamlessly move from product discovery to checkout without having to leave the platform. These best practices will get you started:

• Be intentional with the platforms you choose to sell on. Not all social media platforms are suitable for every brand. Research and identify the platforms where your target audience frequents the most and that align with your brand’s identity. For example, on TikTok, the largest user age group is 18-24-year-olds, whereas on Facebook, it’s 25-34-year-olds 

• Promote your brand and products through UGC. User-generated content (UGC) includes social imagery, product reviews, and videos created by an individual rather than a brand. Partnering with influential personalities to promote your products can significantly increase visibility and credibility, attracting new customers to your brand. Consider creating an influencer marketing program by identifying influencers whose values align with your brand and reaching out to them about collaborating

• Make your social profiles and product posts shoppable. Many social media platforms offer built-in shopping features. Use shoppable posts, product tags, and integrated checkout options to provide a seamless shopping experience. When you use these features, and someone sees your post, they can instantly explore and purchase your products without leaving the app

When you’re able to harness the power of social commerce, you’re better equipped to level the playing field and establish a competitive edge. Then you can more successfully compete with Amazon and other dominant marketplaces.

2. Leverage first-party data to deliver personalized content

Providing personalized content and experiences has become a crucial strategy for retail businesses to gain a competitive edge against Amazon and other marketplaces. 71% of consumers expect some personalization. Moreover, companies that excel at personalization often see higher revenue than those that don’t.

The key to personalization lies in first-party data, which can offer valuable customer insights into behavior, preferences, and interests. First-party data includes various customer touchpoints — such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and interactions with marketing campaigns — and demographics. Analyzing and understanding this data gives you a comprehensive view of your customers so you can deliver highly relevant and personalized content and experiences.

To leverage first-party data, start by adopting a tool to consolidate all your customer data, like a Customer Data Platform (CDP). A CDP is a centralized system that collects and unifies customer data from different sources to create comprehensive customer profiles for personalized experiences. From there, you can collect and track insights from sources like: 

• UGC posts. UGC provides valuable insights into customer preferences and sentiments. Feedback and commentary left on UGC posts are generally authentic to real-life product experiences. Integrating UGC into marketing campaigns and product pages can significantly influence purchase decisions 

• Website analytics. Analyzing website behavior and interactions provides valuable information on customer preferences, popular products, and areas of interest. This data can be used to optimize website design and content for a more personalized experience

• Email marketing data. Email interactions and preferences offer insights into individual customer preferences. Segmented email campaigns based on these preferences can drive higher engagement and conversion rates

You can also incentivize customers to provide more data voluntarily through loyalty programs, surveys, and ratings or reviews.

3. Use loyalty programs and rewards to encourage repeat purchases

Loyalty programs are structured marketing strategies designed to incentivize and reward customers for their repeat business and loyalty. These programs typically offer various benefits, such as discounts, exclusive offers, early access to new products, or points accumulation for future purchases. 

Loyalty programs cultivate customer loyalty by rewarding repeat purchases. McKinsey found that top-performing loyalty programs see 15% to 25% more revenue annually from customers who redeem their points. Customers who feel appreciated and receive benefits for their loyalty are more likely to stick with a brand over time, reducing churn and boosting customer lifetime value and retention. 

These programs are also flexible for the brands who offer them. You can tailor the program depending on your profit and revenue. For example, Amazon offers a one-tiered paid loyalty program through its Prime Membership. Customers who buy this subscription get discounted two-day shipping on specific items plus limited free access to other perks. 

To compete with Amazon and other marketplaces, you can develop your own loyalty program to encourage customers to keep coming back and bring in a recurring revenue stream:

1. Define clear objectives. Set specific goals for the loyalty program, such as increasing customer retention, average order value, or overall revenue 
2. Design the program structure. Once you set the objective, you can structure the program to meet it. For example, if your objective is to increase overall revenue, consider using a points-based structure where the more customers spend, the more points they get. Or you can offer tiered paid subscriptions where one option is free and the others are paid  
3. Choose the rewards. Determine the types of rewards that will appeal to your target audience. These could include discounts, free products, access to exclusive content, or early product releases
4. Simplify the enrollment process. Make it easy for customers to enroll in your loyalty program, either while they’re checking out or through a simple registration process. If there are too many steps or you ask for too much information, they may be deterred from signing up 

Once you’ve established your loyalty program internally, create awareness about it across different platforms, including your website, email newsletters, social media, and on packaging. Then continuously monitor the program’s performance and gather feedback from customers to improve and optimize the program over time.

4. Remove friction to make shopping more convenient 

One of the reasons it’s so hard to compete with Amazon is because they’ve mastered the art of removing friction from their shopping experiences. With an intuitive app interface, one-click ordering and reordering, and quick delivery options, customers can shop at Amazon with ease. 

Friction points can occur at various stages. Think of a complicated checkout process, lengthy account creation, slow-loading pages, or unclear product information. Frictionless shopping removes these obstacles that can impede a customer’s journey from product discovery to purchase completion. 

Frictionless shopping can even result in less cart abandonment and a boost in overall purchase rates. One report shows that 17% of shoppers have abandoned their carts due to long or complicated checkout processes. But when people can shop with your brand easily and conveniently, they’re more apt to be satisfied with their experience. 

Removing friction from shopping starts with understanding your customers’ journeys. Evaluate the entire customer journey from product discovery to post-purchase support to find where customers are experiencing the most friction. These are points where customers drop off or contact customer service for help.  

Once you’ve identified these friction points, you can work to remove them. Here’s a few ways to remove shopping friction:

• Shorten your checkout processes. Simplify the checkout process by cutting down the number of steps to complete a purchase. Offer guest checkout options for first-time buyers and enable one-click ordering for returning customers

• Make account creation easy. If account creation is necessary, make it quick and straightforward. Offer social media or Google login options so they can quickly sign up with an existing account. If third-party sign-up isn’t an option, try to keep the information needed to a minimum (i.e., name, email address, and password) 

• Optimize website and app performance. If people are dropping off before your web or app pages load, work with your web developers to ensure your website and app load quickly and are responsive across various devices and internet speeds 

• Clear product information. Provide detailed and accurate product information to reduce uncertainty and answer potential customer questions. If people aren’t able to get the information they need from a product page, they may drop off. For example, if you’re an apparel company and your product pages don’t include sizing charts, it’s hard for people to know which size to buy, and they may just opt out

Once you’ve implemented changes, track and monitor their effectiveness. Ideally, fewer customers will drop off from the specific points on your app or website and go on to complete their purchase. 

If you can’t compete with Amazon, join them 

While implementing effective strategies is essential, there’s also wisdom in the adage, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Rather than compete with Amazon, collaborate with them and other established marketplaces to harness their vast reach and engage a broader audience. 

By combining strategic competition and smart partnerships, businesses can find the winning formula to thrive in the dynamic e-commerce landscape. 

For example, Bazaarvoice Retail Syndication serves as a powerful ally in this endeavor, enabling you to showcase your best UGC at critical decision-making moments, reaching customers where they love to shop. With content syndication across Bazaarvoice’s extensive global retailer network, you can drive channel sales, expand your brand presence, and foster stronger connections with your target audience. 

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Chapters:

1. What is agile marketing?
2. Benefits of agile marketing
3. Best practices for adopting agile marketing processes
4. Examples of agile marketing
5. Work with collaborative tools and vendors that support agility 

E-commerce marketers and leaders are taking cues from product teams to adopt leaner, more agile techniques for their marketing campaigns. In one report, 41% of marketers said they currently use agile tactics. 51% of marketers who don’t use agile tactics plan to start doing so, and most plan to adopt them in the next year.

If your team is looking to cut back on excess resources, be faster and more responsive, and cater your product and offerings to your target market, agile marketing is your answer. Let’s explore how agile techniques will change your marketing impact.

What is agile marketing?

Agile marketing is a dynamic approach that thrives on flexibility, adaptability, and iterative progress. Unlike traditional linear marketing tactics, agile marketing breaks down complex strategies into manageable, bite-sized tasks that are executed in short cycles.

This method values collaboration, open communication, and quick decision-making, ensuring your e-commerce team swiftly responds to changing market dynamics, customer feedback, and emerging trends. 

E-commerce leaders are leaning toward agile marketing tactics because they make it easier to streamline processes in a fast-paced market. Agile marketing fosters a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement that allows teams to refine their strategies based on real-time insights from their marketing campaigns. 

How agile marketing works

The agile marketing approach enables e-commerce teams to navigate competitive digital marketing landscapes with responsiveness and efficiency. There’s several components and characteristics of agile marketing that make this happen. 

• Task breakdown: Marketing strategies are divided into smaller tasks that can be completed within short timeframes, often referred to as sprints. These tasks are prioritized based on their importance and potential impact

• Sprints: These are short work cycles where teams focus on completing specific tasks and fostering collaboration and adaptability. Each sprint is a focused cycle, typically lasting one to four weeks. During a sprint, the team concentrates on completing just one specific project or task, aiming to deliver tangible results by the end of the cycle 

• Regular check-ins: Regular check-in meetings keep your team aligned. Each member provides updates on their progress, highlights any roadblocks, and discusses their immediate goals. Regular meetings ensure team alignment, quick adjustments, and open communication

• Iterative approach: Agile marketing encourages iterative processes. After each sprint, the team reviews the completed tasks and gathers insights from the data and feedback. Teams learn from their successes and failures, which helps inform planning for the next sprint and allows your teams to adjust their approach based on actual results

• Data-driven insights: Agile marketing relies heavily on the constant collection and analysis of data, feedback, and trends to guide decision-making. Performance metrics, customer feedback, and market trends are monitored closely to guide decision-making and optimize strategies throughout the process 

• Responsive to change: Agile marketing embraces change as a natural part of the process. It empowers teams to be proactive in addressing shifts in the market, customer behavior, and internal priorities

By embracing the components of agile marketing, e-commerce teams give themselves more opportunities to improve their products and campaigns. The iterative nature of agile marketing tactics leads to campaigns and projects that are constantly being refined, resulting in more effectiveness and better results over time.

The ability to respond promptly to market shifts ensures that e-commerce teams remain at the forefront of their industry, delivering impactful campaigns and driving business success. 92% of fully agile marketing departments say their team effectively contributes to the success of their business. This number decreases to 76% for teams that are partially agile. 

Benefits of agile marketing

Agile marketing isn’t just a buzzword — it’s a game changer. By embracing agile marketing tactics, your teams will reap several benefits that will help you make a bigger impact with your campaigns.

Adaptability to market demands

Customer demands are constantly changing, and sometimes, it feels impossible to keep up. This is where agile marketing helps. Agile marketing’s core strength lies in its adaptability. If unforeseen challenges arise, your team can quickly adjust their strategies during the next sprint rather than waiting for a major planning overhaul. 

Agile marketing creates adaptability by breaking down marketing strategies into manageable tasks that can be adjusted during sprints. When teams can adjust as needed, they’ll be able to quickly pivot their efforts in response to changing market dynamics, customer behaviors, or competitive pressures.

Plus, with your daily check-ins and regular evaluations, you ensure team members stay aligned and informed about shifts in trends or consumer preferences.

Faster delivery of marketing campaigns

Getting marketing campaigns out to the public quickly is important when demand is constantly changing and competition is high. When you can quickly launch campaigns, your e-commerce teams can seize timely opportunities and respond to current trends, capturing consumer interest when it matters most.

Agile marketing achieves faster time-to-market by emphasizing the delivery of campaigns during short sprints. E-commerce teams prioritize executing and launching core elements of a marketing campaign quickly.

This approach allows teams to gather real-time feedback and insights from initial releases, leading to refinements and enhancements in all subsequent iterations.

Increased competitive advantage

Because agile marketing promotes adaptability and speed, it helps teams adjust their campaigns accordingly to resonate better with customers. Teams that engage with their audiences and incorporate feedback into their strategies create offerings that align precisely with customer needs.

This customer-centric approach boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty, helping the business stand out from all the competition. 

Best practices for adopting agile marketing practices

Agile marketing is flexible — you can start small, and you don’t have to overhaul all your marketing processes and procedures at once. Instead, use these six best practices to get your team started with agile marketing. 

1. Identify goals and areas needing improvement 

Clarity is key to delivering successful marketing campaigns. When you start by identifying clear goals and pinpointing areas that need improvement, you’ll lay a strong foundation for agile marketing success. 

Set your goals before you begin to employ agile marketing tactics. When you need to pivot or take a new approach, you’ll always be striving to meet the same common goal. 

Knowing your goals and improvement areas helps you allocate resources effectively. Agile marketing often involves short cycles of work, and having a clear idea of priorities ensures that the entire team is investing time and effort where it matters most.

Evaluate your current marketing strategy and performance. What are your strengths? Where do you notice gaps or underperformance? Look for bottlenecks in your processes or systems. For example, if there’s a certain step or stage that the team gets caught up in and delayed, identify what you could change or adjust to make things move more quickly and efficiently. 

Next, set SMART goals — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound — for your campaigns. Whether you want to boost website traffic, increase conversions, or engage a certain target audience, defining these goals and recognizing areas that need improvement help your team gain a clear sense of direction. Agile marketing tactics should then be tailored to directly address these goals and areas, making your efforts more focused and impactful.

2. Foster cross-departmental collaboration

Different departments within your organization — such as product, sales, and customer service — all have valuable insights to help create and deliver the most impactful campaigns. Collaborating with these teams ensures that your campaigns are aligned with the latest product updates, feature releases, and customer needs.

Ongoing regular meetings are key to an agile process. You should create a schedule for meetings, establish clear channels for communication between all teams, and regularly share updates, insights, and objectives to make sure everyone is on the same page. 

During these regular meetings, gather input from other teams, like sales and customer support. These teams interact directly with customers and provide insights into customer pain points and trends. You should also use these regular meetings as brainstorming sessions to generate innovative campaign ideas that leverage insights from different areas of the business.

3. Prioritize delivering value early (and often)

The goal of agile marketing is to launch campaigns or components quickly to provide value to your audience rather than trying to make everything perfect before you release it. 

Waiting for perfection can lead to delays, missed opportunities, and excessive resources spent on minor details. With an agile approach, you’ll prioritize launching versions of campaigns sooner and more frequently, so you can engage with your audience right away and implement feedback faster.

This approach not only prevents the waste of valuable assets but also enables you to pivot in case a campaign doesn’t resonate with your intended audience. 

The first step in delivering value early and often is identifying the essential elements of your campaign that provide value to your audience. These could be key messages, unique features, or benefits that you already know resonate with your target customers.

Then you can work on developing a minimum viable version of your campaign with these core elements. Remember, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Instead, focus on delivering the most value to your audience with your messaging, visuals, and benefits.

By delivering value early and often, you’re continuously learning from your audience’s responses. This knowledge informs your decisions, allowing you to improve your campaign for the next iteration. 

4. Perform iterative testing 

The goal of iterative testing is to refine and optimize a campaign over time. It involves distributing the campaign, analyzing the results, learning what resonates with your target market, and making incremental changes in any newer versions. Each iteration builds upon the insights gained from the previous one.

Iterative testing involves testing multiple components within a campaign — such as messaging, visuals, and user experience — and adjusting them based on feedback. Consider starting smaller rather than testing across all platforms, channels, and mediums right away. You could start by testing copy and visuals on two or three social media platforms. Once you’ve mastered iterative testing on a smaller scale, gradually expand to other platforms and channels.

The iterative cycle of agile marketing ensures that campaigns evolve quickly so you can capitalize on trends, preferences, and customer demand before you lose relevance.

5. Create a process to collect ongoing feedback 

In agile marketing, your strategies and campaigns need to evolve alongside changing market dynamics and customer preferences. Feedback is your compass, guiding you toward what works, what doesn’t, and what your customers truly want. 

Agile marketing thrives on data-driven decision-making, and feedback is the most direct source of data you can tap into. It offers invaluable insights for making informed adjustments, optimizing campaigns, and ensuring that your marketing efforts genuinely resonate.

Make sure your business owns your listings on sites like Yelp and Google so you can collect reviews and ratings. You should also collect feedback from social platforms and online forums like Reddit or Quora. 

Once you’ve established easy, convenient places for your customers to review your products, you have to encourage them to actually leave a review. You should send out post-purchase surveys after a customer makes a purchase or interacts with your brand. Ask about their experience, satisfaction level, and areas where you could improve their journey. 

You can also try incorporating rating scales in your communication touchpoints. These could be in email signatures, on your website, or in post-purchase follow-up messages. Customers can quickly rate their experience on a scale, providing you with valuable quantitative feedback.

6. Use data to implement effective changes

Using both quantitative and qualitative data empowers you to navigate the evolving e-commerce landscape with precision. It’s about transforming assumptions into certainties, intuition into strategy, and reactions into responses.

By analyzing patterns, trends, and insights, you can pinpoint exactly where your efforts are paying off and where improvements are needed. This approach provides a solid foundation for iterative testing and ensures your strategies are aligned with audience preferences and market shifts.

After you’ve collected quantitative and qualitative data — from reviews, online discussions, industry research, and more — analyze the data to identify recurring trends, patterns, and correlations. Then you can prioritize the data and insights. Rank feedback and other data points based on their impact and relevance. Focus on insights that align with your marketing goals and objectives.

For example, if you have constant feedback about your slow site speed and also notice that a high percentage of people tend to leave the site after just a few seconds, you should prioritize making your website load faster. 

Create a plan that allows your teams to constantly implement the appropriate changes based on data and insights. Remove bottlenecks like inaccessible knowledge or a lengthy approval process so your team can make improvements quickly and continuously. 

Examples of agile marketing 

Many companies have successful agile marketing stories that your team can learn from. These examples showcase how brands have harnessed agile tactics to navigate challenges, streamline processes, and ultimately elevate their market impact. 

Mozilla embraces agility for predictable growth

Mozilla, an open-source web browser, needed a way to make its marketing initiatives more impactful with less guesswork and inconsistency. It faced a common dilemma in marketing — lots of ideas and projects stuck due to the absence of effective processes and systems. To address these challenges, the team began working in an agile way, implementing lean practices similar to those used in product or engineering teams.

Mozilla’s adoption of agile marketing allowed it to overcome the unpredictability that often plagues marketing efforts. By implementing agile practices, it transformed its marketing team into a well-coordinated and adaptable force, enabling them to predictably contribute to business growth and respond effectively to changing market dynamics.

Fresh quickly pivots to UGC to build awareness 

Fresh, a natural cosmetics brand, faced a significant challenge in raising awareness and fostering engagement among its customers both online and offline. The company collaborated with Bazaarvoice to embrace agile marketing tactics that would reshape its customer engagement and enhance its impact.

Using Ratings & Reviews and Retail Syndication, Fresh created an enticing shopping experience while leveraging user-generated content. By capitalizing on the power of authentic feedback and visual content, Fresh improved its online engagement and customer satisfaction.

Fresh’s partnership with Bazaarvoice to adopt agile marketing tactics enabled it to overcome challenges and achieve substantial results. By emphasizing authentic user-generated content, agile decision-making, and strategic review syndication, Fresh redefined its marketing impact, enhanced customer engagement, and witnessed a remarkable revenue impact of $1.48 million.

Work with collaborative tools and vendors that support agility 

To truly harness the potential of agile marketing, it’s crucial to leverage collaborative tools and vendors that support this mindset. By adopting solutions like ratings and reviews and retail syndication offerings, you’ll streamline your processes, drive customer engagement, and scale your marketing efforts efficiently.

Bazaarvoice also has a team of experts who are here to be your personal champions. Our Client Success Directors partner closely with you, developing tailored strategies, sharing expertise, and ensuring your business achieves its goals.

With 24/7 global support, white-glove implementation, and managed services, we offer a holistic approach to help you fully capitalize on agile marketing’s potential.

FEATURED RESOURCE

A guide to user-generated content for lean marketing teams

Read here