According to our recent survey of 1,000 U.S shoppers, asking their opinion(s) on private label brands, 43% of respondents say private label quality has significantly improved, offering comparable or even better quality than national brands in many categories. 

Some of the biggest names in retail like Target, Sephora, and Walmart all invest in the development and marketing of their private label products — and see massive success. 

The retailers that push the limits of their private label branding will be the ones that continue to elevate their status and change the generic stereotype. To do that, you’ll need to focus on branding, value, quality, and insights. Discover what your retail business stands to gain from offering store brands and how to develop a winning strategy.

Chapters:

1. What are private label brands?
2. The private label branding opportunity
3. How to create a thriving private label brand in 6 steps
4. Private label brand strategy examples
5. Improve your private label branding with customer insights

What are private label brands?

Private label brands, also known as store brands, are products owned by retailers and sold along with other brands in their product catalog. The retailer is often the sole developer of the brand and its products, or it may come from a third-party wholesale partner.

Some of the most successful private label brands include 365 by Whole Foods Market, Amazon Basics, and a ton of Target brands. 

The private label branding opportunity

The newfound interest in private label brands directly correlates with a struggling economy, an influx of higher-quality store-owned products and options, and an increase in private label-based rewards programs.

Consider these stats from our private label research:

• 40% of respondents say their perception of private labels is positive, they offer good value and they trust the store branding — another 42% haven’t noticed any significant differences in quality between private labels and national brands
• 36% of respondents plan to purchase more private label products next year compared to previous years
• Over half of respondents (56%) have switched their preferred brand for a private label product based on a loyalty program or reward

That’s to say, when it comes to the private label branding opportunity, it’s no longer a “nice to have.” The overall increase in positive sentiment, value, and quality, have made them difference makers for any retailers bottom line.

In terms of specific industries, the most popular categories for private label products are:

Besides a thriving private label branding market, there’s other business benefits for retailers who offer store brands. Some top advantages include:

• Product ownership: In addition to literally owning private label products, retailers also have control over the product design, materials or ingredients, and other manufacturing details
• Higher profit margins: Because retailers own their private label brands, they don’t have extra supply chain fees or higher cost of products from a national brand. This makes their product costs lower, allowing a bigger profit margin — not to mention the added benefit of keeping customers happy with lower prices
• Branding: Just as it owns the product design, the retailer also has creative control over the private label branding, from the aesthetics to the voice and promotion

Leading retailers are leaning into the private label apparel category specifically and partnering with luxury designers, like Walmart’s collaboration with Brandon Maxwell.

How to create a thriving private label brand in 6 steps

Now that you know the potential of private labels, find out how you can breathe new life into your owned brands, or successfully launch new ones, with the following tactics.

1. Build a strong retail brand identity

To have a thriving private label brand, first, you need to have a strong overall retail brand. 

When you earn brand loyalty and the positive public perception that comes with it, consumers will naturally trust and gravitate to your owned brands. 67% of the respondents to our private label research strongly or somewhat agree that the quality and range of a retailer’s private label products positively affect their overall perception of the retailer’s brand and reputation.

So, how do you build brand trust and loyalty to attract customers to your private label products? Some essential methods include:

• Appealing to your target audience’s values and interests
• Providing great customer service
• Offering deals and discounts

But, of course, these community-building efforts will only work if your products are unique, valuable, and serve customers’ needs. Our own research validates this approach, given that the top two reasons shoppers gave for selecting private label products are that they love them and they are well-priced. 

With the right practices in place, your customers will come for your retail experience and stay for your private label brands, creating a sustainable cycle that propels your business forward.

2. Devise a smart product strategy 

Once you have a solid foundation for your retail brand, you can begin to develop your own private label products. Your products need to meet the essential criteria to hook shoppers from the beginning and keep them coming back for more. To make your store brand the preferred alternative to the national name brands, make sure its value proposition is unique.

a) Develop your concept(s)

The formula for creating your store brand concepts is simple. Find the gaps in your inventory selection — what missing products could fulfill a customer need, price point, or variety? That white space will determine what and how many private label products to develop. This will guide your entire product strategy. The process could look something like the following steps:

1. Start by sorting your target customers into different segments and define the needs of each one
2. Research the price points and product features that make sense for each industry category
3. Research your competitors’ products in each category
4. With those insights, analyze your current product catalog to find what’s missing
5. Determine what alternative products your retail business can produce at a lower cost but that are equal to or better quality than the name-brand options

If your business is new to private label branding, you might want to start small with one to a few options within your bigger product categories to test the performance. Once you’ve decided which products to pursue, define the guidelines for your supplier and company stakeholders to follow.

This will ensure that your costs are accurate to fit your price point and profit margin — and that the materials used, functionality, and quality all meet expectations. 

b) Pricing and variety

Since value is the top consumer driver of store brand sales — lower price compared to national brands is the main purchasing influence for 72% of shoppers, according to our private label research — the key is to offer a price that is lower than your competition, while maintaining your target profit margin.

Identify the leading competitors in your store-brand product categories to base your pricing and quality criteria. 

In addition to pricing, variety is a key component of your product strategy. What flavors, pack sizes, format sizes, and other differentiators can you offer in each category? Use an internal system to keep track of your pricing and variety architecture so you can gradually fill in gaps with your store brand offerings.

c) Packaging

Early private label branding strived to mimic the presentation of its national brand rivals. But now, the industry leaders are aiming to stand out rather than blend in. Packaging plays a huge role in purchase decisions, so this is an important area to focus on. The design should ideally be distinct and include the unique and attractive features of the product, whether that’s easy functionality, sustainable ingredients, or something else. 

For example, the packaging for retailer ShopRite’s store brand, Bowl & Basket, stands on its own with a prominent font, clean design, striking product photography, and a pleasant and soft color palette. It has a simple and clear product description that draws the consumer in. 

d) Innovation

The best way to generate interest in your private label brands and be a progressive outlier in the space is to consistently innovate. To pull this off, you need to leverage your store brand as the solution to your customer’s wants and needs.

If you look at leading private label brand retailers, many of their owned products are “value-added lifestyle items.” This is a niche to focus on that will lead to innovation, like Trader Joe’s iconic Everything But the Bagel seasoning.

Sourcing is another point of leverage for innovation. For example, locally sourced ingredients that benefit underserved communities can help your products stand out and satisfy consumer preferences.

3. Collect authentic reviews of private label products 

Product reviews are one of the most effective ways to win consumers’ trust. According to the 2022 Bazaarvoice Summit, 94% of shoppers report needing at least 10 reviews to “consider the product credible.

The recency of reviews is also a top decision-making factor for most (85%) of shoppers. So, you need to actively source reviews to grow your volume and keep them up to date. Luckily, there’s a variety of different ways you can generate authentic reviews. Just ask your customers!

• Request a review with a review request email
• Send an SMS message after a customer’s order is delivered
• Direct customers to leave reviews via your social media channels
• Offer customers a discount on a future purchase in exchange for a review
• Utilize a sampling campaign and exchange free product samples in exchange for honest reviews 

Ratings and reviews don’t just have a huge impact on e-commerce but on in-store sales, too, based on the 40% of shoppers who claim to read online reviews before buying offline. Helpful, descriptive, and substantial reviews are essential, but those featuring media can go even further. Customers’ photos and videos of product purchases make 62% of shoppers more likely to buy.

Reviews also have great search engine optimization (SEO) value because they contain a lot of the same descriptive keywords that shoppers are searching for. So, not only will reviews increase conversions when shoppers land on your e-commerce site, but they can also be the vehicle that gets them there. 

Reviews communicate the value that customers find in your products and the features that are important to them. They give your customers a platform to express their own opinions about your brand, which resonates with other shoppers.

4. Grow awareness and interest with targeted product sampling

Whether you’re launching a new private label brand or product or rebranding an old one, product sampling can help it take flight. We’re not just talking about a taste of kombucha in a paper cup or a cheese cube on a toothpick, but a custom product sampling package delivered to your target audience.

Renowned brand Petco recently rolled out a sampling campaign specifically to bolster review volume for its private label brands and increase SEO impact.

To date, the campaign has led to a 48% increase in revenue per visit (driven by a 28% increase in conversion rate and 15% increase in average order value) for sampled products and an 80% increase in clicks from organic search. Not to mention, that data that sampling provides.

We’ve really seen a positive impact on visits, conversions, and improving the discoverability of new products. From a results standpoint, it’s been a positive experience to see that we can get 10-15 reviews for new products quickly

Hannah Kredich, Category Specialist at Petco

First-party customer data also provides tons of useful information you can use to plan a product sampling campaign. Let’s say you notice customers buying a lot of the same national-brand products in one category, you could send them a sample of your store-brand alternative or a complementary product from your store brand. 

And if you’re starting from scratch with a brand-new product launch, sampling is a great upfront investment. In a survey of over 6,000 Influenster members who have been recipients of a product sampling campaign, 63% purchased the product they sampled. Many also reported buying additional products from the brand and recommending the product to family and friends.

Lastly, another huge benefit of product sampling is the user-generated content (UGC) it can produce in the form of product reviews, images, and videos. This is especially important for new product releases so you can be equipped with the customer reviews necessary to give other shoppers confidence right from the launch. 

5. Optimize your product pages for conversions

One common concern for retailers is the lack of rich content, including product reviews, across all of their product pages on their e-commerce websites. This can be particularly challenging for retailers with an extensive product catalog. This is why it’s crucial to encourage customers to write reviews so you can enhance your product pages with UGC. 

You can set up those reviews to post directly on the product pages they correspond to, which will make a huge difference in sales — nearly 40% of shoppers won’t make a purchase if UGC is absent from the product page. And that includes visual UGC too. As part of our recent Shopper Experience Index, we asked 7,000 shoppers:

Additionally, almost half of shoppers specifically look for customer photos on product pages when considering purchases. Encourage customers to upload their own photos and videos of their purchases to your product pages with a hashtag campaign.

To optimize your private label product pages to their full extent, include: 

• Star ratings 
• Review categories based on product features, positive reviews, and negative reviews
• Detailed product descriptions that highlight your product’s best attributes
• Professional product photos
• Customer-submitted product photos and videos 

6. Attract more customers on social media

Whether it’s Gen Z on TikTok, millennials on Instagram, or older demographics on Facebook, social media is a critical marketing tool for your private label growth. 

Social media content supports a more modern, cutting-edge, approachable, and innovative perception of your store-brand products. Consumers come to social media to discover brands and be entertained, and there’s a ton of features and content types you can leverage to appeal to them. That includes short-form video like TikTok and Instagram Reels, quick and temporary content like Instagram Stories and Snapchat, and even livestream shopping on a number of different channels. 

Influencers have proven extremely successful for brand marketing, and social media is the perfect platform for an influencer partnership. Collaborating with influencers to promote your store brand is another way to drive demand through a public figure whom consumers trust. 

You can also use social media as a tool to generate more visual UGC that you can feed to your product pages. Encourage your followers to share their purchases on social media and tag your brand profile. This will supply you with more content and introduce your products to a wider audience.

Not only can you market your private label products on social media, but you can also sell them, too. With social commerce features such as Like2Buy and social media shops, you can upload your products and sell them directly on your social media channels. 

Private label brand strategy examples

As private label brands have evolved over the years, there’s plenty of retailer examples to draw inspiration from. Take notes from some of these trailblazers who are shaking up the store-brand category. 

Target’s Future Collective

Target might just be the pinnacle of store-brand potential, neck and neck with Amazon. Target has multiple private label brands, but as the retailer says, their Future Collective brand is the “first of its kind.” This fashion-forward apparel brand is “co-designed with a rotating roster of style and cultural influencers with diverse points of view in fashion.”

This innovative approach enables Target to leverage different guest designers and influencers to bring in different perspectives on fashion, while offering a continuous stream of fresh variety for customers. The brand is dedicated to inclusivity, offering something for everyone.

Thrive Market

Thrive Market is a successful e-commerce retailer that specializes in health-conscious products, including name brands and its own store brand. 

Not only is Thrive an excellent private label brands example, but also a great example of how to develop products that meet the needs of target customers. For example, one of its best-selling private label products is its coconut milk. What makes its particular coconut milk unique is that it leaves out a commonly used ingredient, guar gum, which isn’t Paleo diet friendly.

This solved a problem for its Paleo customers, who make up a big chunk of its clientele. 

Foxtrot

Foxtrot, a fast-growing specialty convenience store chain, is another example of a retailer going above and beyond with its owned products. Foxtrot’s goal for its store brands is to beat the well-known national brands in all categories, not just price. 

Just as Target partners with influencers for Future Collective, Foxtrot partners with industry leaders for its food and beverage products. As an example of this, the company has a hot chocolate mix developed by an acclaimed pastry chef and a bourbon made in collaboration with a beloved local Chicago cocktail bar. According to the Washington Post, Foxtrot’s profit margins for its private label products are 10 – 15% higher than those of its external brands.

Improve your private label branding with customer insights

One of the most important steps you can take as a retailer to grow your private label brands and business as a whole is to listen to your customers. Pay attention to the insights revealed in your product reviews, customer satisfaction surveys, customer support conversations, social media interactions, and anywhere else you can find them. 

What do your customers like and not like about your products? What are they saying they need that you don’t currently offer? This invaluable information can help you make store-brand product modifications and improvements that will provide more value for your customers. 

Once you’ve established your private label branding, it’s time to take it to the next level. Learn how to position your private label for continued market success with our new on-demand masterclass: How to leverage new customer insights for private label success.

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4 strategies to achieve private label success

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Let’s channel your inner Don Corleone and learn how you can make consumers an offer they won’t refuse.

Chapters:

1. What is a lead magnet?
2. What makes a good lead magnet in e-commerce?
3. 10 lead magnet ideas for your e-commerce website
4. Optimize your e-commerce website for better lead magnet results

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is simply a trade where you offer something valuable in exchange for contact information or another action. 

Let’s paint a picture for you: you’re browsing online, not quite ready to buy, just casually looking. Then, something catches your eye — a guide on how to choose the perfect pair of running shoes, offered for free. All it asks for in return is your email. That’s a lead magnet in action, a sweet little nudge designed to turn you from a casual browser into an engaged potential customer. 

And once you have that information, you’ll do something with it to further engage the leads and turn them into paying customers. So this interaction is also the first hello in what you hope will be a long conversation. It’s where you start to build trust and show your value to potential customers. 

What makes a good lead magnet in e-commerce?

For starters, your lead magnet should offer immediate value. People have to be able to use it right away so they can experience the benefits of engaging with your brand without delay. This immediate gratification will satisfy the desire for quick rewards (because who doesn’t love those?) and make a positive first impression.

Ideally, what you offer should also solve a problem that your audience is facing. A lead magnet that tackles a real issue provides value and also positions your brand as helpful and authoritative. For example, a “5-Minute Meals for Busy Parents” recipe book from an online food store hits right at the heart of time-crunched families.

Lead magnets should showcase your expertise or the quality of your products. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate why your brand is trustworthy and knowledgeable. Say, a lead magnet like “The Complete Guide to Sustainable Fashion” from an eco-conscious clothing brand can establish thought leadership in that space.

Finally, the best lead magnets encourage future engagement. It doesn’t just end with the download or the discount but rather marks the start of a relationship. 

10 lead magnet ideas for your e-commerce website

There’s a lot of room for creativity where lead magnets are concerned, but we have the top 10 ideas that are tried and tested to get people through your digital door.

1. Discount codes

It’s a classic for a reason. Discounts are simple, yet effective — a percentage off, a fixed amount discount, or exclusive deals in exchange for an email sign-up or another small action. Because of the instant value they provide, discounts make the decision to engage with a brand a no-brainer for most shoppers. 

Why they work:

• Everyone loves to save money. A discount code taps into this universal appeal, offering immediate savings on future purchases

• For those on the fence because they never bought from your brand before, a discount can be the incentive they need to make their first purchase

Best practices:

• Make it exclusive. Your discount should feel special. If products on your website are always on sale, this type of offer could lose its appeal

• Set a time limit. Create a sense of urgency and encourage quick action by making the discount available for a limited time

2. Personalized consultations

Personalization is a lead magnet necessity. Personalized consultations are a golden opportunity to connect with your audience on a deeper level. They allow you to demonstrate your expertise, understand your customers’ unique needs, and provide tailored advice that can make a real difference in their decision-making process.

Why they work:

• Engaging directly with customers establishes brand trust, an essential ingredient for any successful relationship. 

• By tailoring advice to each individual’s situation, you show a level of care and attention that generic information just can’t match

• A consultation is an active, engaging process. It invites potential customers to interact with your brand, creating a memorable experience

Best practices:

• Streamline scheduling: Use an easy-to-navigate booking system to minimize friction in setting up consultations. The simpler it is to book, the more likely people are to go for it 

• Prepare and personalize: Before each consultation, gather information about the customer’s needs to offer the most relevant and helpful advice

• Follow-up: After the consultation, send a personalized email summarizing the advice you gave and suggesting next steps. A follow-up keeps the conversation going and nudges consumers towards a purchase based on the problems you identified

3. Early or exclusive access

There’s plenty of ways to give your potential customers the VIP treatment — chief among them, access to early sales and product drops. This strategy plays on the human desire to be part of an elite group and enjoy privileges that aren’t available to the general public. 

Why they work:

• Knowing they have access to something others don’t elevates the customer’s perception of the value you’re offering 

• The wait for early or exclusive access to products or sales can create buzz and excitement around your brand 

• Customers who receive special treatment are more likely to feel a stronger connection to your brand, helping you build that oh-so-coveted brand loyalty

Best practices:

• Clearly define the offer: Make sure your audience understands what they’re getting access to and why it’s valuable. Whether it’s a pre-sale, a limited edition product, or early access to content, the offer should be compelling 

• Deliver on your promise: Don’t falter. The early or exclusive access experience should be smooth and rewarding. Any hiccups can damage trust and diminish the perceived value of your offer

4. Free shipping

The people have spoken — they want free shipping. So much so that 62% of consumers won’t buy from a retailer if they don’t provide that option. Offering potential buyers the chance to unlock free shipping removes one of the biggest hurdles to completing an online purchase (added costs) and appeals to virtually every shopper’s desire to get more value out of their purchase.

Why they work:

• High shipping costs are the top reason for abandoning shopping carts. Eliminating this barrier can significantly increase your conversion rates

• Shoppers perceive free shipping as an added value to their purchase, making the deal seem much sweeter (there’s that honey again) 

• Often, free shipping is tied to a minimum purchase amount, which can encourage customers to add more items to their cart to qualify and increase average order value

Best practices:

• Set clear thresholds: If your free shipping offer requires a minimum purchase, make sure this threshold is clearly communicated and easily achievable

• Promote widely: Highlight your free shipping offer on your homepage, product pages, and during the checkout process. Also, mention it in your marketing emails and social media channels

• Test and analyze: Experiment with different thresholds for free shipping to find the sweet spot that increases average order value without hurting your margins

5. Free samples

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Offering free samples as your lead magnet is a tried-and-true method to introduce potential customers to your products with no strings attached. This approach not only allows customers to test and fall in love with your products but also demonstrates your confidence in the quality of what you’re selling.

With a product sampling marketing campaign you can even ask consumers to provide user-generated content (reviews, images, or videos) in exchange for the samples. Using UGC to populate your social media feeds and product pages is the best way to generate consumer trust in your brand and lift conversions, so there’s a lot to gain here besides contact information. 

Why they work:

• Free samples allow customers to try before they buy, reducing the perceived risk associated with buying new products

• By getting your products into the hands of potential customers, you’re increasing brand awareness and the likelihood of future purchases

• Offering something for free can create a positive association with your brand, fostering goodwill and a sense of reciprocity

Best practices:

• Easy redemption: The process to claim a free sample should be straightforward and require minimal effort from the customer

• Collect feedback: Use the opportunity to gather feedback on the sampled products and get your hands on valuable insights for product development and marketing strategies. 

• Follow-up: After sending out the samples, follow-up with an email offering a discount on the full-sized product to encourage a purchase

6. Contests and giveaways

The anticipation of possibly winning something cool is thrilling. That excitement is precisely what makes contests and giveaways such effective lead magnets. They speak to people’s natural love for competition and the allure of getting something for free. 

And you win too. By offering a prize that your target audience finds irresistible, you can significantly increase engagement, grow your email list, and boost social media followers, all while creating a fun experience for your audience.

Why they work:

• The interactive nature of contests and giveaways encourages active participation from your audience

• Participants often share contests with friends and family, which helps increase your brand’s visibility and reach 

• You can make following you on social media a mandatory requirement to enter the contest, so you can grow your presence on these channels while generating leads

Best practices:

• Leverage user-generated content: Encourage participants to share their own content related to the contest (e.g., photos using your product) to increase engagement and generate content for your brand

• Reach out to every participant: After the contest, send a thank you email to all participants and offer them a consolation prize, such as a discount code, to encourage them to make a purchase

7. Interactive quizzes

Quizzes are the best of both worlds. These lead magnets combine entertainment with personalization, offering instant gratification in the form of results that feel tailor-made. They keep potential customers engaged in a unique way and provide valuable insights into their preferences and behaviors. What’s not to love?

Why they work:

• Quizzes keep users clicking, engaged, and interested from start to finish, significantly increasing the time spent interacting with your brand

• With personalized results, quizzes make every participant feel seen and understood, enhancing their connection to your brand (and likelihood they’ll buy something based on the outcome of the quiz) 

• Quizzes are an effective tool for collecting zero-party data on your audience’s preferences and needs, which can inform future marketing strategies. With the collapse of third-party cookies upon us, this is a welcomed benefit.

Best practices:

• Shareable results: Make the results easily shareable on social media to increase the participant’s engagement and extend the quiz’s reach

• Follow-up with personalized recommendations: Use the data collected from the quiz to follow up with personalized product recommendations or content, turning engagement into conversion

• Optimize for all devices: Your quiz should be mobile-friendly to get users to engage with it on their smartphones (where they spend a lot of time. Seriously)

8. Exclusive members club

We already talked about the allure of exclusivity, but you know what’s better than early access to a product? Being part of an exclusive members club that continuously offers perks, special deals, and insider information. 

This type of lead magnet elevates the concept of exclusivity to a whole new level, as it creates a sense of belonging to a special community. It’s not just a one-time offer — it’s ongoing value.

Why they work:

• Humans are complex creatures, but when it comes to belonging, they’re actually quite simple. People love feeling like they’re part of an exclusive group, and members-only clubs deliver on that innate desire for community and recognition

• Contrary to a one-off download or discount, a members club offers continuous reasons for shoppers to engage with your brand

• Members are more likely to become repeat, loyal customers, thanks to the ongoing perks and the emotional investment in the brand

Best practices:

• Update, update, update. Regularly add new perks to keep the membership exciting and valuable. Stagnation is the enemy of engagement (Confucius didn’t say it, but he might as well have) 

• Exclusive, but inclusive: While the club should feel exclusive, make joining achievable for your target audience – it’s a lead magnet, after all

• Communicate regularly: Use email newsletters or a dedicated members area on your website to keep people informed about new perks and offers

9. Virtual events

Virtual events have surged in popularity, offering a unique way to connect with audiences from the comfort of their own homes. They entertain and inform, drawing in people with the promise of unique insights, valuable knowledge, and interactive experiences that they can’t get anywhere else.

Why they work:

• Virtual events allow for real-time interaction between the guests, moderators, and viewers, making the latter feel more connected to your brand

• They can attract a broad audience by offering valuable insights, entertainment, or access to experts, depending on the event’s focus

Best practices:

• Promote early and often: Use all your channels — email, social media, your website — to build anticipation and encourage sign-ups well in advance of the event 

• Offer exclusive content: Make sure the event provides unique value that can’t be found elsewhere, such as live Q&A sessions, behind-the-scenes tours, or first looks at new products 

• Make it accessible: Ensure the platform you choose is user-friendly and accessible to people with varying levels of tech-savviness

• Interact post-event: After the event, send out an email to attendees with key takeaways, additional resources, and a CTA, such as a special offer or invitation to sign up for your newsletter

• Record and repurpose: Not everyone who’s interested will be able to attend live. Plus, you’ve put a lot of effort into producing the event, so you should milk every drop of content out of it. Offer a recording to those who registered but couldn’t attend, and consider using parts of the event in future marketing materials

10. Free trials 

Subscription businesses might find it harder to send out samples of their products. Free trials solve this issue, as they allow potential customers to test your service in all its glory. Just like with samples, free trials are effective because they remove the risk from the customer’s decision-making process. People get to see firsthand if your service fits their needs and lifestyle before committing financially.

Why they work:

• Customers can try out your service without any financial commitment, making them more likely to give it a go

• Unlike a demo or a sneak peek, a free trial gives customers access to the entire service, allowing them to experience its full benefits

• By offering a free trial, you’re expressing confidence in the value of your service, which in turn builds trust with potential subscribers

Best practices:

• Clear communication: Make the terms of the free trial clear, including its duration and what happens when the trial ends. Transparency is key to trust

• Engage during the trial: Use the trial period to engage with users, offering tips on getting the most out of the service and highlighting features they might not discover on their own

• Seamless transition to paid: Make it easy for trial users to become paying subscribers, with a simple upgrade process and a compelling reason to continue beyond the trial

Optimize your e-commerce website for better lead magnet results

Your lead magnets are the hook that draws people in, but your website is where the magic really happens. It’s one of the places where initial interest turns into lasting relationships and, ultimately, sales. 

By focusing on both attracting customers with compelling lead magnets and providing an optimized online shopping experience, you lay the groundwork for e-commerce success. 

So, don’t let the momentum stop with the honey. Continue your journey to e-commerce excellence by ensuring your website is as optimized and as effective as your lead magnets. 

Okay, okay, maybe we’re being a bit hyperbolic. Nothing’s as bad as trying to find a half-decent potato while your least favorite Christmas song blares over the store sound system. However, we do know customers love the convenience offered by online shopping. Nearly 70% of consumers factor site speed into their willingness to purchase from an online retailer. And a majority of online shoppers expect a page load time of 3 seconds or less.

If you haven’t given your website a performance checkup lately, it’s well past time. Here’s how to evaluate your current performance, plus some steps anyone can take to optimize an e-commerce site for a speedy shopping experience. 

Chapters:

1. Why website performance matters
2. The 7 main website performance metrics
3. How to measure your website performance
4. How to improve your e-commerce website performance
5. Website performance is all about the need for speed

Why website performance matters

Does it really matter if you don’t hit that 3-second load mark? Yes, it does. Failing to prioritize website loading speed decreases the quality of your user experience, and that’s bad in multiple ways.

First and most obvious, higher load times mean an increased bounce rate. Even users who stick around through the first few slow page loads may give up on your site before making a purchase.

Lower initial conversion rates are likely to be matched by lower loyalty overall. Customers who remember their suboptimal shopping experience are less likely to return for another try — and they won’t want to follow links that direct them to your site. 

Bad website performance also affects your Google SERP rankings. Because the search engine’s algorithm prioritizes user experience, pages with a slow loading speed are pushed down in the search results. Smaller outlets competing for attention might lose out to their faster competitors. 

The 7 main website performance metrics

Page load time isn’t a standalone website performance metric. It’s an overarching assessment that rolls together multiple metrics. Four of these metrics are Google’s Core Web Vitals:

• Largest Contentful Paint measures the loading speed of the largest page element users can see “above the fold” — that is, without scrolling down
• Interaction to Next Paint measures a page’s responsiveness to interactions, such as clicking an “add to cart” button or typing information into a form
• First Input Delay measures the time gap between when a user interacts with your website (say, clicking that “add to cart” button) and when their browser starts to process that request
• Cumulative Layout Shift measures how often page content moves while a page is loading

Google considers these aspects most important because they have the biggest effect on user experience. However, there’s four other metrics that also capture important parts of the user experience: 

• Time to First Byte measures the speed at which your DNS provider starts delivering your website content after receiving the request
• Total Blocking Time measures how long it takes for a web page to load enough that a user can interact with it (as browsers that are in the middle of loading pages cannot process interactions)
• First Contentful Paint measures how long it takes for the first of your website content to render

If you want to dive deep into any of these metrics, Google’s web.dev site explains more about why each one matters and how to measure them. Or, you can just keep reading as we discuss measuring your site’s performance. 

How to measure your website performance

Measuring your site’s performance is easy with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights. This tool assesses your site on the metrics listed above and ranks it as good, needs improvement, or poor. You’ll also get notes on your site’s performance, accessibility, use of best practices, and SEO. 

There’s an option to view how your site performs on mobile vs. desktop devices and tips to help you optimize your site. You get a lot of help for the low price of living in Google’s web ecosystem, and let’s face it — that’s already happening. 

When you’re looking at your report, you may notice Total Blocking Time is excluded from the “Core Web Vitals Assessment” box. Scroll down to the Performance box, then look at the Metrics table to see your results.

PageSpeed Insights makes it easy to understand why your site earned the rankings it did with color-coded graphics and personalized tips. Go ahead and run a test now — all it takes is a few seconds — so you can get a baseline of your site’s performance and see where you have room for improvement. 

How to improve your e-commerce website performance

If you’re still here, we’ll assume your Core Web Vitals Assessment showed you have some work to do. There’s no shame in that. Even Google’s web.dev site doesn’t pass the assessment! Here’s our best tips to help you improve the performance of your e-commerce website and the tools you need to make it happen. 

1. Cut down on HTTP requests

HTTP requests exist at the core of loading web pages. You don’t need to know the technical specifics here — only that a browser must make these requests to load CSS files, scripts, images, and other content on your page. Each request requires the browser to send a message to your web host, which then has to respond with the appropriate content.

The more HTTP requests you have, the longer it will take to complete them all. Imagine if you went to a restaurant and first asked for water and then, when your waiter returned, ordered a soda. When they brought the soda, you asked for an appetizer. And finally, after the appetizer arrived, you had decided on your entrees. It would take a long time for you to get and finish your meal, no matter how fast your server worked.

Give your (web) server a break by cutting out unnecessary HTTP requests. If you don’t need a script or CSS file, don’t reference it in your page’s header. You can also try to cut down on multimedia content to increase your page load speed. 

2. Use HTTP/2

Not all HTTP requests are made equal. HTTP/2, a standard that debuted in 2015, comes with capabilities that help your web pages load faster. For one, it allows developers to prioritize which elements load first, so you can tell browsers to request light resources before larger scripts. It can also serve multiple resources at once. To return to our restaurant metaphor, HTTP/2 allows you to give your whole order at once so the waiter can get your food to you more quickly.

KeyCDN has a free HTTP/2 test to determine whether your site supports the HTTP/2 protocol. Or, if you want a closer look, open your browser’s developer tools, navigate to the network tab, and look for the “Protocol” column. (You may have to right-click the list of columns and add Protocol.) 

HTTP/2 support is determined by your web host, so they’re the resource to turn to if you need to enable the protocol. The process is different for each provider. 

3. Eliminate unnecessary redirects

Many companies employ redirects to bypass link rot during website overhauls. However, each time you redirect a user to a new page, you’re forcing them to sit through another page load. Especially redirects that lead to another redirect — no thanks! By the time the user reaches the actual URL, they’ll already be ready to close out of your page.

Redirects have a habit of piling up over time. That means you need to audit them periodically; it’s especially important to do so after any redesign or re-architecting of your website.

Screaming Frog SEO Spider can help you check your entire site for redirects and even detect redirect chains and loops for you. You could also use the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar to check page-by-page, but we wouldn’t recommend this. Unless you have an obligation you really want to get out of.

4. Limit external scripts

Most developers use third-party scripts to add functionality they don’t have the resources to code in-house. Incorporating external scripts is always risky in terms of page speed, though. You don’t have control over the code, so you can’t do anything if the script is slow to load.

Slow-loading scripts make pages take longer to load and can cause problems like content jumping (measured by the Cumulative Layout Shift metric). 

Check each page to make sure no unnecessary scripts are loading. For instance, you may have a reviews feature enabled on your site as a whole, but you don’t need that script included on pages made for browsing. You may also ask yourself whether you really need that modal to collect customers’ emails or if it’s turning off more buyers than it’s bringing in.

More bells and whistles aren’t always better. A simple website with a good user experience can muscle out an overdesigned store.

5. Enable lazy (asynchronous) loading

When a browser renders a website, its default is to process each request in order, only moving on to the next command after finishing its current task. Large scripts slow up the entire process, as a browser must load the entire file before it can move on to rendering the rest of the content.

Avoid this delay by directing the browser to load your scripts asynchronously — that is, while continuing to render the webpage. Simply add the async attribute to your script tags (your code will look something like this: <script src=”my_script.js” async></script>).

Some experts recommend adding your <script> tags near the bottom of your body content as older browsers may not be able to read the async attribute, but there’s no need to do this. You’d be hard-pressed to find a browser in the wild that couldn’t handle the async tag. 

6. Use mobile-first designs

Website performance optimization needs to include mobile-first thinking. Smartphones are now the source of nearly four in five e-commerce website visits and two in three e-commerce purchases. Unfortunately, the mobile web is still a drag. Most sites have much longer load times on mobile devices. With over 50% of mobile visitors ready to jump ship if a site takes longer than 3 seconds to load, e-commerce retailers are likely losing out on a lot of business. 

Almost every website published these days is responsive, but designers who code for desktop and then later optimize for mobile may be going in the wrong order. Using mobile phone emulators to design for small screens puts the needs of this growing audience front and center. 

Plus, it’s easy — Google Chrome’s Dev Tools allow you to enter “device mode” to view what your site will look like on smaller screens. 

Designing for mobile phones also requires you to make the most of limited screen real estate, which may mean you opt for fewer decorative elements that can slow down a page. You’ll also want to simplify navigation and interactions rather than going for flashy or unique experiences that require external scripts and plugins. 

If you’re working with an existing site, you probably can’t implement this practice right now. Just keep it in mind for your next redesign. 

7. Compress text-based files with gzip

HTML and CSS files may not seem too onerous to load, but when you’re counting in milliseconds, every byte matters. Compression reduces the size of text-based files so they can make the trip from your server to a customer’s browser more quickly. Gzip is the most common compression framework, but Brotli and Deflate also work well to speed up your website. 

This is another feature that’s set up on the hosting side. Most hosts enable it by default, but it’s good to check yours using a free HTTP Compression test. If you find out your content isn’t compressed, it’s time to reach out to your hosting provider. 

8. Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files

Compression frameworks like Gzip aren’t the only byte-savers. You can also minify your text files by removing anything that’s not a key part of the code — things like comments, formatting, or lengthy variable names. Many of these elements are helpful for human developers, but web browsers don’t need them to display your web page directly. 

There’s no need to go through and delete comments and extra spaces and tabs by yourself. Minifier.org offers a free tool that can handle CSS and JavaScript. Google’s web.dev recommends this free HTML minifier. 

If you’re looking for tools that can mass-minify, Google’s PageSpeed Module works with Apache or Nginx web servers and automatically minifies your files. However, installing tools like it or CSSNano may require you to call IT.

9. Optimize images and videos

Multimedia files often decrease website performance simply because they’re so large. E-commerce merchants, who rely heavily on images and videos, must be diligent about optimizing these files to reduce the burden on visitors’ internet connections. 

The easy part of optimizing images is resizing them. No file should exceed 20 megabytes (MB) — but really, only your hero images should be that big. Shopify recommends merchants keep images around 500 kilobytes (KB) if possible, though they allow that some sites need files up to 2 MB in size. You’ll likely have to compress your images to meet these goals. Thankfully, there’s plenty of free image compression tools out there you can use.

Once you’ve cut file sizes down, make sure you’re using responsive design principles to keep things speedy for users loading your site from smaller devices. MDN Web Docs, run by Mozilla, has a nice responsive images tutorial you can follow if you’re new to the subject. 

10. Take advantage of browser caching

Web browsers can store files locally on users’ machines, which speeds up loading times for repeat visitors. Instead of contacting your server for every file, browsers can pull cached assets from the machine’s local memory.

Caching is an excellent solution for most e-commerce merchants, as your assets remain fairly static. If you do a major site overhaul or replace product pictures, you’ll want to make sure browsers have instructions to re-download the new content and replace cached assets. However, this is a rare enough occurrence for most online retailers that setting up caching is the way to go.

Your web host is, once again, the party in charge of your caching settings. You’ll want to find its documentation and follow the instructions to enable local caches and set expiry dates (which instruct browsers how often they should refresh cached assets from your site). 

11. Use a content delivery network (CDN)

Browser caches only help audiences who have come to your website before. Content delivery networks, or CDNs, stash assets as close as possible to each visitor to cut down on load times. 

CDNs don’t rely on local machines to store assets. They simply distribute your assets to a network of servers in various locations. That means instead of having one server in Virginia that answers all requests, you may have a server in Virginia, one in California, one in Illinois, and so on. Companies that serve international audiences can work with international CDNs, so they have servers in multiple countries, regions, and continents. 

Whenever a browser sends a request to load your website, that request routes to the server that’s geographically closer to the user. It may not sound like a huge time-saver, but since page load speeds are measured on a very small scale, CDNs make a noticeable difference. 

12. Regularly audit your plugins

Plugins, add-ons, and extensions are a huge time-saver for most web developers. But, like external scripts, bloated plugins can drag your page speed down. Improve your website performance by revisiting your plugin library to see whether there are any hangers-on that you no longer use. 

Sometimes, you need all your plugins, but your pages are still loading way too slowly. In that case, it’s time to figure out the culprit. Copy your site into a staging environment, disable all your plugins, and test your site load speed. Then, enable plugins one at a time to determine whether a single plugin is tanking your performance metrics. (Make sure you enable, test, and then disable each plugin so you’re not accidentally measuring cumulative effects.)

Thankfully, with so many plugins out there, you’ll likely be able to find a replacement for any sluggish tools. 

One other option is to look for plugins that have been optimized for speed. For instance, our Ratings & Reviews display technology was designed to keep your website running quickly, and our developers shared the steps they took to fulfill that promise. Find tools built in this vein — ones that use best practices like minifying and reducing script files, caching, and lazy loading — to make your audits a breeze. 

13. Remove unnecessary pop-ups

Yes, we’ll say it. Pop-ups are super unpopular. They lead to a bad experience, especially on mobile devices. Even if you think your pop-ups are tastefully done and helpful, internet users are faced with a barrage of modals, overlays, and chat widgets all day long. Everyone has pop-up fatigue, and if you contribute, you’re eroding your consumers’ trust. 

Most pop-ups call outside scripts and reference assets like images and fonts, all of which a browser has to load. Modals that appear conditionally have to gather audience data before triggering, which also takes time. And if your Total Blocking Time is high, users may not be able to close out of these elements as the rest of your site renders. This delay would influence users’ perception of your site speed even if there was no actual slowdown. 

The slowdown is real, though, as is the nearly universal dislike for these tools. Removing them from your site is a win-win. 

14. Choose the fastest services

When a customer clicks a link or types in a URL, they’re telling their browser to query a DNS service to take them to their target site. That DNS service routes the browser to your site’s IP address. Then, their browser starts reading your HTML files and requesting assets from your server or CDN so it can render the website you’ve designed. 

That’s a lot of services coming together to make your site appear. If any one of them is slow, your page speed will be negatively affected. That’s why the cheapest option isn’t necessarily the best option for your technical infrastructure. 

For instance, many base website hosting plans are shared. This means other websites use the same server you do, so a spike of traffic from one of them might slow down your load times. VPS hosting (for growing sites) or dedicated website servers (for those who can afford them) will return better results.

You also want to make sure your domain registrar, which handles DNS hosting, is a high performer. DNSPerf keeps an ongoing log of DNS performance so you can see for yourself how various providers stack up.

Of course, speed doesn’t only matter at the top levels. We talked about finding lightweight and streamlined plugins. You’ll also want to think about services like your security software and other backend tools. Though customers don’t interact with them directly, they can still impact your e-commerce website’s performance. 

15. Monitor website operations

Checking your website performance every once in a while to see if there’s big problems is a smart idea. Constantly monitoring your site so you’re aware the second a problem pops up is even smarter. 

You can invest in tools that collect data on your users’ experience to show how your site performs in the real world. Since many shoppers will be visiting you from setups unlike your own, real user monitoring provides a fresh perspective. 

Other tools pretend to be human visitors, using a series of scripts to navigate your website and test its performance. Synthetic monitoring setups like these are more useful for teams looking to gather data from controlled tests. If you’re in the midst of optimizing your site, synthetic monitoring will help you spot changes that actually make a difference. These systems can also run scheduled tests with the goal of catching major problems before your customers run into them. 

There’s plenty of tools that perform both of these jobs (and more):

• Site24x7 performs synthetic and real user monitoring for you
• LogRocket monitors users and identifies errors and site interactions users typically struggle with
• New Relic is an end-to-end synthetic monitoring system that integrates with just about every infrastructure there is 

Whichever tool you use, make sure you configure the alerts to tell you when something goes wrong. The quicker you can fix the problem, the fewer customers you’ll disappoint. 

Website performance is all about the need for speed

As internet and mobile connections become faster and even more ubiquitous, consumer standards will continue to rise. Providing a fast, convenient experience is a baseline expectation. Companies who can figure out how to excel on mobile and get those loading speeds down to a second or less will have a chance to capture more market share.

The customer experience you provide is directly connected to your conversion and retention rates, and your website’s performance is directly related to that customer experience. Website optimization isn’t a project that can wait for a rainy day. It’s an essential part of bringing customers to your site and making more sales.

Improving your site’s speed isn’t the only way to reach more customers. Check out these ways to increase organic traffic to keep your momentum on the SERP.

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Masterclass: 3 powerful tactics to increase product page conversion rates

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Lately there’s been increased importance to get customer acquisition right because recent shifts in the global economy have put marketers under increased pressure to prove the impact of their efforts. 

Although most understand the need for building an omnichannel experience, focusing on the customer acquisition channels that work best for your brand has never been more important. While some marketers continue to experiment with different tactics, 69% of them say they’re focusing on channels that deliver positive ROI. 

The 7 most effective customer acquisition channels

Identifying and prioritizing your most effective customer acquisition channels is essential to attract more customers and maximize revenue. 

1. Website and blog

Optimizing your website and e-commerce content marketing, and investing in search engine optimized (SEO) content on your blog helps your brand rank higher in search results pages, bringing more traffic (and potential customers) to your website. 

Organic search 

Search engines are the top source for brand discovery, which makes your website and blog a key customer acquisition channel. Organic search results are ranked and compiled by search engines based on factors like relevance and authority. While brands can buy their way onto the first page of Google’s search results (more on that later), landing on page one organically can also be accomplished by implementing best SEO practices on your website. 

A solid SEO strategy for organic search is crucial to appeal to every customer segment, especially for e-commerce brands where the website acts as the storefront. In order for customers to move through the acquisition lifecycle into the conversion phase, they need to be able to locate, access, and navigate your website.

If your website isn’t optimized, it might rank on page two or three, which makes it difficult for potential customers to find you. 

Your blog is another pathway to acquiring customers if it provides valuable content like tips and tricks, how-tos, and product or comparison guides. It can lead potential customers who are researching products or services in your niche straight to your website. If you don’t have an in-house marketing department, you can work with a content marketing agency to ensure your blog is search engine optimized. 

Paid search

Customer acquisition through search also includes pay-per-click advertising (PPC) via search engines like Google or Bing. These ads will place your brand at the top of the search results page, marked as an advertisement. PPC advertising, like Google Ads, is advantageous because it’s targeted, measurable, and customizable. 

It’s also a faster way to get eyes on your website than investing in SEO, but it only covers half of the journey. Once potential customers land on your website via a paid ad, they need a reason to stay there, which PPC advertising cannot accomplish alone.

To do that, you’ll need to employ elements that build authenticity and trust, like user-generated content, and deliver convenience with an optimized website and smooth checkout process. Paid search is an effective customer acquisition channel for specific scenarios like new product launches, inbound lead generation, or limited offers like free trials and discounts. 

2. Social media

According to Dentsu’s 2023 Global Ad Spend Forecasts, social media ad spend increased by 18.8% in 2022, putting digital advertising ahead of traditional channels. There’s multiple pathways to acquiring customers through social media, ranging in budget and effectiveness.

Affiliate and influencer marketing

Affiliates and influencers are core aspects of a typical social media marketing strategy because they can introduce your brand to a large following. Research shows that social media users prefer smaller influencers for product recommendations and advice over prominent celebrities and social media stars.

42% of shoppers would likely purchase a product recommended by a smaller influencer or everyday social media user compared to 7% who would do the same from a celebrity. 

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Working with influencers and affiliates can help generate brand awareness while building consumer trust. Use cases for influencer and affiliate marketing include product reviews, new product launches, and educational content like how-to videos. These content types typically fit the creator’s format and the audience’s expectations.

For example, users who follow beauty influencers expect to see recommendations and product tests, making them a natural fit for this audience and content type. 

User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) consists of images, reviews, and video content created by real customers for your brand. Not only is it considered the most trustworthy source of content by shoppers, but it’s also immensely cost-effective because it’s typically done for free. The exception to this is UGC creators who often create authentic-looking content for a small fee or free products. 

Social media posts featuring visual UGC can range from testimonials to product reviews to unboxing videos that show real consumers opening and testing your products. But UGC can also become a prominent feature of your landing pages and product description pages, providing potential customers with added valuable information and building trust.

Sporting gear brand Le Col, for example, saw a 125% increase in conversion rates after implementing UGC, like reviews and imagery on its website. 

“Our reviews provide social proof to new customers who are discovering the brand for the first time,” said Andrew Longley, Head of Digital at Le Col. “It gives them confidence that the products are the highest quality and we believe reviews are as important to new customers as our own product claims.” 

Organic posts

Organic posts on social media, whether in feeds, Stories, or Reels, reach potential customers naturally through the platform’s algorithm. If users follow topics, creators, or businesses related to your brand, there’s a good chance that they’ll come in contact with your posts at some point. Brands can employ certain tactics to speed up the process, like:

• Researching their target audience’s social media behaviors via Bazaarvoice Insights
• Experimenting with hashtags and consistently using relevant hashtags
• Posting fresh content on a regular basis (ideally, one to two posts per day)
• Varying content types to include branded posts, UGC, and influencer partnerships 

Of course, social media strategy varies across platforms. For example, posting multiple videos per day is the norm on TikTok, while LinkedIn posts should be kept to a maximum of two to five per week to remain effective and relevant.

It all comes down to your target audience and marketing goals, so brands with products aimed at a younger audience might get the most value out of platforms like TikTok and Instagram, while B2B companies should focus on LinkedIn. 

Paid ads

Paid ads purchased through social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok boost your posts so your target audience is more likely to see them. Brands can set specific demographics based on age, gender, location, and more or keep it open to reach a wide variety of users, depending on their goals. 

The best use cases for this customer acquisition channel are targeted ads for a specific audience. For example, a home improvement brand decides to launch a new model of cordless drills. It can boost a product launch ad and set the parameters to include users interested in home improvement, people who work in construction, or audiences who follow other home improvement brands on the platform.

This helps your paid ad reach the right audience, and your efforts (and budget) aren’t wasted on users with no interest in your product. 

3. Mobile marketing

According to Statcounter, mobile browsing contributes to over 57% of all web traffic, signaling a major shift in user behavior. With so many users relying on mobile phones, mobile marketing is critical to the customer acquisition strategy. 

Chatbots

Chatbots are an effective way to ensure customer satisfaction, preventing shopping cart abandonment and keeping customers coming back. According to Freshworks, 47% of online shoppers are likely to abandon their purchase if they can’t find quick answers to their questions or concerns. 

Chatbots can also provide personalized product recommendations to help funnel customers into the conversion stage. Segment’s State of Personalization Report shows that 49% of consumers believe they’ll return to a brand that offers a personalized experience.

Imagine a shopper is comparing your brand to a competitor with a similar product, but you provide personalized recommendations and immediate answers via a chatbot while your competitor doesn’t. The customer will likely choose the brand that shows a commitment to customer care and provides a user-friendly experience. 

SMS and messengers 

Short message services (SMS) and messengers are an effective way to start conversations with customers because they fit seamlessly into people’s natural tendency to check and respond to new messages. Some reports show that SMS open rates are over 90%. 

SMS marketing and quick messages on other platforms like WhatsApp can be used to share promotions, upcoming special events, and discount codes. They can also replace shopping cart abandonment emails, especially if they provide a direct link to your storefront or app to streamline the transaction process. 

Mobile apps

60% of shoppers believe that the ability to shop on a mobile device influences their preferences when it comes to brand selection. While e-commerce brands will likely have digital storefronts, mobile apps can enhance online shopping by providing a customized, highly targeted, personalized experience.

Even brick-and-mortar retailers who lack a web presence can benefit from a mobile app connected to in-store products, which creates a more omnichannel shopping experience.  

Mobile apps can send push notifications about new product launches, inventory updates, and price reductions. They can also act as mobile wallets for loyalty programs. Brands that leverage the best practices to increase in-app conversions can increase the benefits of building and maintaining a branded app. 

4. Email 

According to Segment’s 2022 Growth Report, 83% of marketers agree that email is their primary channel for customer acquisition. Email marketing provides a range of opportunities to reach customers in the acquisition phase of the customer lifecycle.

Since customers in this phase are aware of your brand, targeted emails can push them into the conversion stage by offering valuable information, discounts, or other incentives. 

Newsletters

Email newsletters work well for company announcements, product teases, brand stories, and re-purposed blog content. Focus on content that builds interest and excitement, pushing customers to learn more through your website, a webinar, or any other format that drives them deeper into your products or services.

Newsletters also open up the opportunity to use diverse content, like images, infographics, and videos, to engage and entertain your customers while providing value and establishing positive sentiments about your brand.

Cart abandonment emails

Around two-thirds of digital carts end up abandoned by shoppers, making it a prevalent issue for e-commerce brands. Shopping cart abandonment leads to missed revenue, but it also signals a larger problem. Why are shoppers abandoning their items? There’s a number of potential reasons, like lack of trust or inefficient checkout processes, but cart abandonment emails that address these issues are an effective way to draw customers back to your storefront. 

Open rates for cart abandonment emails were 49% in 2022, compared to 21.5% for general emails across different industries. Cart abandonment emails that pique your customers’ attention and target why they abandoned in the first place can encourage them to complete their purchase. Say your product pages lack ratings and reviews, leading shoppers to doubt your trustworthiness.

Send out cart abandonment emails showcasing UGC, like reviews and photos, to build that trust and provide added value for your potential customer.  

Special occasion emails

There’s a reason the global greeting card industry was valued at over $18 billion in 2020 — people love celebrating special occasions! Sending out personalized, heartfelt, and celebratory emails around special times like holidays, birthdays, and other milestones allows brands to connect with customers on their email list in a way that isn’t highly promotional, which can build positive sentiment around your brand.

Special occasion emails are the perfect opportunity to offer incentives like a special single-use discount count on a customer’s birthday or a 10%-off email the week before Mother’s Day. Sending out these emails a few days to a week prior to the occasion is key because it gives customers time to browse the storefront and make a purchase in time for the occasion. 

Drip campaigns

Drip campaigns — automated emails pre-scheduled to be delivered at specific points of engagement — are powerful tools in your customer acquisition strategy. They can be triggered when customers:

• Abandon their digital carts
• Download content from your website
• Place an order on your storefront
• Communicate with customer service
• Register for an event or sign up for a free trial of a product

Drip campaigns aren’t a singular point of contact but rather a series of emails that engage your potential customers without overwhelming them with information. Let’s say a new lead provides their email in order to download an e-book you offer.

You now have the perfect lead-in to introduce your brand and educate them about your company by sending out a series of short emails that offer a quick look at additional on-site content.

5. Loyalty and referral programs 

Loyalty programs are traditionally used as customer retention tactics, but they can also help brands acquire new customers if they provide enough value.

Imagine Brand A and Brand B offer similar products at similar prices, but Brand A has a points-based loyalty program that allows customers to get free products as they shop. Brand A provides added value while Brand B doesn’t, making it a more attractive option to consumers. 

Referral programs put your existing customers to work by transforming them into spokespeople for your brand via word-of-mouth marketing. Provide an incentive, like a discount or free products, to current customers for sharing your brand with friends and family through a referral code. The code ensures that referrals are easy to track and analyze while the incentives keep existing customers happy and loyal to your brand. 

6. Events

Customer acquisition isn’t just for digital channels — it benefits the physical shelf too. Whether virtual or in-person, events and webinars are valuable tools for connecting with potential customers directly while providing added value via knowledge sharing. 

Virtual events

Virtual events like webinars, conferences, and digital fairs can reach a wide audience at a fraction of the cost of in-person events. They’re also easy and convenient for potential customers to attend from the comfort of their homes, increasing the chances of drawing a large crowd. 

Virtual events are best used to showcase products or demonstrate services, share knowledge or research, and facilitate networking. They’re also a prime opportunity to launch a digital conversation with potential customers since most attendees provide an email to register for virtual events. 

In-person events

In-person events, like tradeshows, networking events, and conferences, can be more costly when factoring in travel, space rentals, and staffing, but they can also facilitate deeper conversations, engagement, and trust-building. Meeting potential customers face to face builds rapport and gives your brand a human touch.

In-person events also give potential customers the opportunity to interact with and explore products and services in real life, which can move them toward a purchasing decision faster. 

7. Traditional advertising

Despite the growth of digital advertising, customers still place trust in traditional channels, making them a strong addition to your marketing channel mix. Traditional methods range from big-budget endeavors like TV commercials and magazine advertisements to smaller-scale efforts like flyers and radio promotions.

The right channels for your brand depend on your target audience, business goals, and marketing budget. 

For example, independent retailers might have more luck with local methods like flyers and radio advertisements to build up a customer base within their neighborhood. Large e-commerce brands with high-priced products might be more successful with national TV advertisements that target a larger population. 

How to lower customer acquisition costs

While acquiring new customers is essential for growth, the costs associated with your customer acquisition channels can be 5x higher than the cost of customer retention. Brands can lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) by utilizing existing customers, optimizing digital channels, defining their audience, and tracking. 

Utilize existing customers

UGC is one of the most impactful ways a brand can lower its CAC. Using the words, images, and videos of existing customers to build trust with potential customers is free but, more importantly, effective. 85% of shoppers rely on UGC rather than branded content when making purchasing decisions because it comes from real people who have real experiences with the product — not a marketing team. 

If a low financial investment with a high ROI impact sounds too good to be true, try the UGC Value Calculator to see how employing UGC will affect your marketing efforts and budget. 

Optimize digital channels

Employing SEO best practices on your website and blog and A/B testing to pinpoint the best user experience can reduce CAC in the long run. An optimized website is more likely to rank higher in search results, leading more potential customers to your products or services. Brands that find success with organic search may find that they’re able to reduce their budget dedicated to paid search. 

A/B testing involves showing different versions of variables, like a landing page or a specific page element, to different audience segments in a randomized fashion. The goal is to determine which version of a variable results in the most positive impact, which can vary depending on your goals. 

Say a SaaS company wants to increase sign-ups for its free trial. It might use A/B testing to place the sign-up button in various locations on the website to find the ideal spot.

According to a study by Forrester, A/B testing that results in an improved user interface can raise conversion rates by up to 200%.

Define your audience

Targeting the right audience with the right channels can significantly lower your CAC because you’re strategically allocating your marketing budget. An in-depth analysis of your target audience will reveal which platforms they engage with most, where they are in their buyer journey, and which tactics they’re most likely to respond to.

For example, advertising products aimed at busy parents on LinkedIn might not deliver the same positive results as investing in SEO and paid search targeting keywords they’re likely to search, like “backpacks for kids” or “best kid’s backpacks.” 

Track results

One of the easiest ways to overspend on customer acquisition is by failing to track your customer acquisition channels and how they’re performing. Investing a sizable portion of your marketing budget in TV ads may not be effective if your target audience is younger and doesn’t typically engage with traditional media.

Tracking the results of your marketing campaigns might show you that your Gen Z audience is much more receptive and engaged on TikTok and Instagram, preferring UGC and small-influencer content instead. 

Transform your customer acquisition strategy with Bazaarvoice

The Bazaarvoice platform works behind the scenes to power your customer acquisition strategy. Tackle SEO by implementing review syndication to boost search engine rankings or gain consumer trust with cost-effective, UGC-powered social posts.

Discover more about your target audience and track the effectiveness of your social channels with Bazaarvoice Insights. Bazaarvoice’s solutions help shoppers discover your brand and transform your customer acquisition channels. 

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More and more brands today are using product sampling campaigns to generate user-generated content (UGC) in the form of ratings and reviews. Why? To boost awareness and increase conversions. Bazaarvoice found that for every 50 samples we send, we get about 45 reviews back. Even if a product has just five reviews, purchase likelihood is 270% greater than for a product with no reviews.

T2 is a brand that aims to turn the traditional art of brewing tea on its head and create a community of tea lovers. They knew they needed to get creative to get shoppers to fill their cups. So, they recently launched product sampling campaigns to put their products right in front of customers. This way they can try before they buy.

The brand sells over 100 teas, and employees travel the earth to find the best quality ingredients for their products. While T2 is a global brand with physical stores in five countries, it’s had to rely on its e-commerce presence and product sampling during the COVID-19 pandemic because brick-and-mortar stores were closed. 

T2: Launching a new tea 

UGC is a brand’s greatest asset. The majority of shoppers (92%) trust peer recommendations more than brands or retailers. Plus, one Bazaarvoice study found that 77% of U.S. online shoppers read reviews before purchasing for more than half the products they buy. When customers understand more about products, they buy more. It’s really that simple.

T2 understands the power of UGC. The brand was set to launch a new tea in 2020 but knew that customers would be hesitant to buy a product they couldn’t actually taste. That’s why they partnered with Bazaarvoice to send samples to their most loyal customers and our Influenster community to gather UGC for the new product. 

In our brand new case study, we detail how T2 executed this product sampling strategy to help customers overcome purchase hesitation. T2 then uses the actionable insights they gain from UGC to inform business decisions. Like which discontinued products should be brought back. 

We also showcase how T2 took advantage of their increase in UGC to upgrade their marketing materials, like in-store displays, website banners, and email campaigns. 

Read the full case study here to discover exactly how the global tea brand increased conversion by 174%. Not to mention a significant increase in revenue per visitor. Read the full success story here. 

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Building sampling into a successful brand strategy

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Product samples shipped to a shopper’s door, handpicked based on their interests, is a consumer dream. And Bazaarvoice has made that dream come true with Bazaarvoice Product Sampling.

And with our latest product sampling offering, Cashback Sampling, you don’t even need to ship samples to the consumer. Consumers go directly to the sample. Now you don’t have to worry about bulky, fragile, or perishable items. They can all easily be sampled too.

Here’s four ways product sampling scales your brand.

1) New product launches

New products deserve the freshest UGC on launch day. Or even better — before. Product sampling gets your products in the hands of your ideal shoppers before you officially launch. Giving them a chance to share UGC after they’ve tried out your new product.

Almost 90% of shoppers always or mostly consult ratings and reviews before making a purchase, so the last thing you want is a bare page on launch day.

And product sampling nets more than just ratings and reviews. It brings in thumb-stopping visual and social content too. Over 60% of shoppers say they’re more likely to make a purchase if they can see photos and videos from other customers.

This has an even bigger impact than any professional imagery could provide — 64% of shoppers would pick visual UGC over your brand’s professional photos any day. 

2) Product development

Are you in the midst of creating a great product but wanting to know how it’ll do in the market? Product sampling can also help you before the big launch day. As you’re perfecting how you’ll introduce products, Bazaarvoice can get you answers to your burning questions.

Our community members can provide insights on what they love and hate about your products and brand so you have time to fix the formula and find success from day one. 

This benefit extends to older products too. As shoppers leave reviews and share photos, your team has the opportunity to dig into what consumers love and hate about your products and brand.

When you share your products through Bazaarvoice Sampling, we work with your team to customize and conceptualize the campaign. This means you’ll get exactly what you’re looking for out of it. Including actionable feedback from real customers.

3) Core SKU support

Your well-loved hero products can benefit from product sampling too. Collecting UGC isn’t just a one time thing. Which means you have to keep up the good work, even when a product has been on the market for a hot minute. 

Not only does product sampling remind loyalists what they love about your brand, it brings in new shoppers to try your products out for themselves. These fresh eyes keep UGC on your product pages optimized too. About 60% of shoppers strongly agree or agree that recent reviews (written in the past three months) are more reliable than older reviews.

4) Entering new markets

Nailing one new market entrance doesn’t mean it’ll be smooth sailing in every locale or with every demographic. Product sampling increases your chances of product adoption from new customers in new markets.

Over 70% of shoppers are looking for perspectives similar to theirs as they evaluate a new product to buy. As shoppers are consuming UGC, they want to see feedback from people like them. And in their own language. Which is why once you’ve collected UGC from your sampling campaign, Bazaarvoice’s translation services enables customers to click to see the content in their own language

Bazaarvoice partners with 6x as many retailers across the globe as our nearest competitor. And our Influenster community includes members in over 30 countries. We make it easy for you to not only sample, but also give you a choice of fulfillment options on how you get products in the hands of consumers across the globe. Have full confidence moving into new segments and leave behind the hassle of not knowing what will happen. 

Product sampling can help you meet your goals. Let us show you how. Request a free demo and see for yourself.

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Building sampling into a successful brand strategy

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Here we’ll explain how boutique brands can get the most out of their marketing dollars by leveraging visual user-generated content (UGC) and reviews on their social media channels, website, and in emails.

In addition to community growth, we’ll demonstrate how focusing on reviews can fuel SEO and CRO — thereby building an evergreen base of qualified, converting traffic (that you don’t have to pay to acquire!)

Chapters:

1. Why do you need digital marketing?
2. Leveraging review content
3. How to utilize visual UGC
4. Social commerce for your small business
5. Email marketing and content marketing tips
6. Calculate your potential digital marketing for small businesses ROI

Digital marketing for small businesses

What if you had an all-volunteer marketing team that created high-quality, engaging content that actually converts? Spoiler alert: You do. Your customers.

Digital marketing is a big investment for small businesses and lean marketing teams. But it’s a necessary one to grow and compete in a crowded market. As a small to medium business (SMB) owner, you likely don’t have the extra time, funds, or expertise to execute a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

The solution to this? User-generated content (UGC). Aka, the reviews, testimonials, and visual media that comes from your customers. You don’t have to let that valuable content go to waste, you can repackage it on all your marketing channels. It’s free, effective, and the customers who also follow your brand online are the ones crafting the content. They’re representing themselves in the best light possible online, and when they look good — you look good.

Approaching your SMB marketing with a UGC-focused strategy will not only allow you to realistically accomplish it, but our research shows that UGC significantly increases conversions and revenue per visitor.

Whether you outsource digital SMB marketing or manage it in-house, these tactics will elevate your strategy no matter your budget.

Why do small businesses need digital marketing?

First thing’s first. Why should small businesses focus their resources on digital marketing? Digital marketing is any way of promoting your business online — whether that be with your website, social media, or email campaigns — and one in five small businesses don’t utilize it. 

This gives the SMBs and lean marketing teams that do so a competitive edge. Because, in case you haven’t heard, we live in an internet-dependent society — 81% of shoppers research brands and products online before making a purchase.

For boutique retail brands, e-commerce is essential — and timely. The Bazaarvoice Network saw a 35% increase in page views and a 39% increase in order count in 2020 compared to the previous year. Furthermore, global online sales forecasts predict a 17% increase year-over-year.

And SMBs are catching on — according to a study by TDA, 70% plan to increase how much they spend on digital marketing. That doesn’t change the fact that 71% of SMBs do their own digital marketing, and every dollar counts. It just means with UGC, it doesn’t have to be expensive.

Customers are looking to two primary sources for their shopping research and inspiration: online reviews and company websites. Reviews are relevant and important for both online and in-store shopping, with 48% of online shoppers consulting reviews. Another 53% of shoppers seek out reviews before going into a brick-and-mortar store.

We know why small businesses need to make digital marketing a priority. Now, how can UGC support digital marketing goals, and how can you apply it to your strategy?

Online customer reviews

Reviews provide shoppers with the social proof and assurance they need to hit that “buy now” button. 81% of shoppers are more likely to buy products if they have written reviews. According to our own research, product views are by far the number one factor consumers take into account:

It’s also a quick and easy action that customers are often happy to take. 72% of U.S. consumers have left a review for a local business, and according to a study by Fundera, 92% of the reviews consumers left for SMBs were positive. Sharing reviews earns credibility through transparency. Plus, it costs businesses nothing. And I know you like the sound of that.

How to earn reviews

Customers can, and do, offer unsolicited reviews, but it requires some work to build up a healthy arsenal. There’s several efficient review-collection tactics small businesses can take that produce results.

• Add a call to action (CTA) in which you request reviews from any customer who has made a purchase. For brands with an e-commerce store, this can be on website order confirmation pages and confirmation emails. Other businesses can include a review CTA in any marketing email
• Source and aggregate customer feedback from brand mentions, tags, and hashtags on social media. Ask the user if you can share their comments about your brand or product. Or ask them to submit it as a review on your website
• Incentivize reviews. There’s several ways to offer an appealing exchange for a customer review. This could be done with a targeted sampling campaign, a percentage off a future purchase, or an “expert reviewer” badge to support aspiring influencers
• Ask customers and clients you have a good relationship with to leave reviews

The very act of engaging with your customers to generate reviews can strengthen your relationships with your customers. As we note in Bazaarvoice’s The Future of Generated Content e-book, “cultivating power reviewers generates a new community that straddles both brand advocacy and consumer champions.”

How to promote reviews

Once you have a substantial reserve of reviews and a system to keep them coming, distribute them as widely as possible for maximum ROI.

Some of the most efficient, easy, and effective channels for reviews are the product display pages (PDPs) on your website. Displaying customer reviews of the product right at the point of purchase is a natural fit and often seals the deal. In fact, according to the Bazaarvoice 2021 Shopper Experience Index, 40% of shoppers won’t make a purchase if there isn’t a review on the PDP. Home pages and category pages are also great website real estate for reviews.

Reviews are excellent material for social media posts, including static photos, videos, and stories on any social platform. Using reviews for social media content is a great time-saving, multi-tasking tactic that, again, is free. Photo editing and graphic design tools like Canva are great for dressing up text posts for social media. You can also just directly repost reviews that customers post on their accounts without editing them at all.

Brand example

This example from boutique skincare and wellness retailer Chillhouse shows how they cleverly use Instagram stories to showcase their in-store reviews, pinned to the top of their profile page as a sticker.

Other great places to promote reviews are in marketing emails and blog posts. Reviews make for compelling content, and you can link them to their corresponding products. Smaller business-to-business (B2B) companies can even turn customer reviews into persuasive case studies to add to their websites. These can then be promoted on various other channels for lead generation.

Reviews drive website traffic and increase search rankings

Reviews don’t just help you come up with content for your emails and social channels. They also do a lot of heavy lifting for your brand’s search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a goldmine if you’re just starting your digital marketing for small businesses strategy. Reviews build your brand’s authority like money in the bank builds interest. You can simply sit back and watch your site visits multiply and your Google position rise.

For local businesses, this is huge because review ratings drive the most clicks for websites in local searches. According to BrightLocal’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, review signals make up 16% of local pack ranking factors. Metrics such as the number, velocity, and diversity of reviews a business has are among the algorithm criteria.

When you gain reviews regularly, they provide a steady flow of fresh content for the search engine crawlers. Reviews on trusted secondary platforms like Yelp, Google My Business, and TrustPilot help support overall SEO performance.

Google also factors in review sentiments in the Knowledge Panel display for businesses. The star ratings are a kind of average taken from all the ratings Google analyzes for a business. Users can click on the rating part of the panel to see a full list of reviews on a separate page.

Reviews not only increase search engine visibility but also add SEO value on social networks as well. When users search for a keyword within a social platform, mentions or reviews with that keyword will come up.

How to handle negative reviews

Some negative reviews are inevitable. But, customers are twice as likely to purchase a product when a brand responds to a negative review. Up to 70% of customers will do business again with a company that solves their complaint. The big takeaway here is don’t ignore tough reviews and handle them responsibly — and quickly. Negative reviews offer a chance to show exceptional customer service by empathizing and offering a solution.

In practice, this means acknowledging the problem, apologizing for it, and offering to fix it. For example, health and beauty brand Boots responded to a negative review about a product that caused an allergic reaction by sending the customer an alternative better suited to their skin type.

By using these best practices, you’ll show other customers your company is trustworthy and resolution-oriented. Businesses should also use negative reviews as a learning experience to course correct and prevent similar issues in the future.

Visual UGC

No digital marketing for small businesses guide would be complete with mentioning visual UGC. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words (or 1000 pictures), but for retail brands, it could be $1,000. Visual UGC photo galleries increase conversions by 54% and revenue per visitor by 80%. Photos and videos created by your customers provide social proof of your brand and products for browsing shoppers. 

These candid shots can be much more effective than a professional brand photo, since 70% of shoppers trust the opinions of other consumers over what the brand presents. When considering two brands, visual UGC is the deciding factor for 85% of shoppers.

How to source visual ugc

There’s lots of UGC out there — you just have to find it. If it’s sparse for your business, there’s plenty of ways to foster it.

• Hashtag campaigns are one of the most convenient ways to acquire visual UGC. Create a branded hashtag specifically for followers to use when posting content featuring your products. Clearly state posts that include the hashtag may be shared on your brand’s channels and website. This way followers will be encouraged to use it for a chance to be featured. Plus, they can also consent to the reproduction of their content

• Search the web. Outside of hashtags, there’s other ways to find UGC with your brand. Search the social channels your customers are active on, like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and Reddit, to find media tagged with or mentioning your brand. Look back at your customer reviews to see if they include images or videos. After you’ve scanned these channels and found UGC you’d like to promote, ask the users if you can share it. Always tag them when sharing content to give them credit and extend the reach of the posts

• Host a contest. Everyone loves a chance to win a prize, especially if the process is fun. Social media contests are a great method to get your online community excited about your brand. They cause followers to willingly — enthusiastically, even — contribute content for you to republish. Execute this with “show us what you’ve got!” energy, encouraging followers to post their best UGC with their purchases using a contest-specific hashtag and tagging your brand. The prize could include a chance to be featured, a free product or service, or an experience. Or anything else would be appropriate!

• Sampling campaigns. Activate the 6 million members of the Influenster community to provide you with a continuous stream of authentic content

How to promote visual UGC

Once you’ve procured quality UGC, it’s time to share it and distribute it on your SMB marketing channels.

Repost UGC on social media. If the UGC is organic and not submitted as part of a contest or hashtag campaign that gives permission rights, ask the user if you can share it. Once they grant permission, repost the content on the best platforms for visual UGC: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok. Instagram stories that mention your brand are easy and fair game to repost — just share the stories you’re tagged in.

When sharing visual UGC to social media, tag the user who created it and give details about the products that are featured. Direct users to click the “link in bio” to go to your brand website or corresponding PDP. Bazaarvoice’s Like2Buy tool makes this a seamless process, linking every post directly to the appropriate web page, by the way.

Syndicate visual UGC on your website. Your company website is a prime location to showcase visual UGC. On your home page, a dedicated gallery page, and especially PDPs so you can capture the 47% of shoppers who look for photos and videos on them. To do this, manually add photos and videos using your content management system (CMS), enable an uploading functionality for users to add media themselves for you to vet and publish, or majorly streamline the process with Bazaarvoice Galleries.

Bazaarvoice Galleries takes care of time-consuming permissions requests with a bulk rights feature that sends a request to the users of selected UGC. Once they approve, their photo or video is automatically uploaded to your media gallery. Brands that use Bazaarvoice Galleries see conversion rates go up to 150% when shoppers interact with gallery images and videos.

Brand example

Apparel brand Tuckernuck feeds UGC with the #tuckernucking hashtag to their gallery and invites customers to upload their images directly on the website. By showcasing this visual UGC on their website, conversion rates increase by 140%, and time on site increases by 160% for shoppers who interact with Tuckernuck’s galleries.

Social Commerce

Social commerce means making your content on social media shoppable. It’s a must-use case for any small business digital marketing strategy. With social commerce, you can turn any business account into a virtual storefront, giving you more opportunities for sales and conversions. Instead of paying for advertising creative, curate UGC for visual media and messaging.

Social media is a popular source for shopping inspiration, research, and discovery. So much so that 90% of shoppers purchase from brands they follow on social media. The amount they’re spending is on the rise, increasing by 12% in 2020 compared to 2019.

Once again, not only does UGC save time and money, it’s a powerful tactic for social commerce implementation. Based on Bazaarvoice surveys, 45% of shoppers say UGC in social advertising impacts intent to buy, and 64% of shoppers want to see visual and social UGC shared on social media.

How to activate social commerce

Once you’ve gathered a collection of visual UGC and reviews, the hard part is over. You can turn the UGC into shoppable media in a few easy steps.

First, identify the top social platforms your business is active on to use for social commerce. According to Bazaarvoice surveys, the most influential platforms for visual UGC in order of highest to lowest are:

1. Facebook
2. Instagram
3. YouTube
4. Pinterest
5. TikTok

Influence of UGC by platform:

Upload your product catalog to activate shoppable posts on each platform. This way, you can assign cart items to any post that features a product so users can click through to the checkout page.

Bazaarvoice tools like Like2Buy and Showroom can make all your UGC content shoppable, giving your social audience easy access to purchase products instantly.

Brand example

Small home goods brand Material shows how to do social commerce with UGC right. This example features a photo sourced from a customer featuring products with links to shop:

Email marketing

Email marketing yields big results for small businesses: The average ROI of email marketing is 122%. Also, it’s a prominent customer retention and marketing driver for SMBs. According to an Emarsys report, 81% of small businesses use email as their primary customer acquisition platform, and 80% for retention.

One of the appealing qualities of email is its versatility. It’s an open space for whatever kind of content you want to use — like all the influential UGC you’ve built up. Visual UGC, video testimonials, and customer reviews are all great content for emails.

Content marketing

Content marketing is any content, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and e-books, used to promote your SMB. It’s also the most cost-effective small businesses digital marketing strategy, making it a particularly attractive strategy for small businesses and lean marketing teams. Content marketing gives brands an opportunity to communicate their value, vision, and message to their customers. You’re reading (and hopefully enjoying) an example of it in action right now. Three clear benefits of content marketing:

• Customers receive more insight and details about your products, services, and industry from an authoritative standpoint
• It improves SEO by driving web traffic and boosting search rankings, increases website visitors’ time on site, and grows brand authority and awareness
• As well as promoting your brand, it positions you as a knowledge expert and thought leader

A great story-telling device is UGC because it shows your products out in the real world. So enlisting the voice of the customer to illustrate how they use your products or services and why they love your brand can guide a lot of your content.

Measure performance with analytics

There’s many ways to assess the results of your SMB marketing campaign. Google Analytics can give you elaborate information about your website performance, including traffic, number of visitors, and most-viewed pages. Many of your digital SMB marketing platforms, like individual social channels and your email provider, have their own consumer insights.

Looking into the results of each channel will show which ones are generating customers and revenue. But also what you should be focusing on, and where you can improve.

The Bazaarvoice Insights and Reports tool tracks the performance of UGC on your social networks and wherever your reviews are with a very user-friendly and manageable interface.

Calculate your digital marketing for small businesses ROI

Does your lean team still need more convincing about the power of UGC for SMB marketing? Use the free Bazaarvoice ROI calculator to show you just how much you could boost your bottom line.

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How lean marketing teams can get the most out of ratings and reviews

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Yep — we’re talking about millennials.

Getting millennial brand loyalty isn’t just useful to your brand — it’s absolutely vital to staying in business long term. But building this loyalty is challenging. Winning millennials’ brand loyalty takes honesty, provable quality, and the courage to make a real statement with your brand messaging.

Don’t be afraid to take a stand on social or industry issues

The saying “silence is violence” might seem like a huge exaggeration for a company selling shoes or luxury scarves, but it’s a critical phrase for marketers who want to understand millennial psychology.

“Silence is violence” means that saying nothing about injustice is the same as supporting injustice. Many millennials endorse this idea and want their brand to have a “take” on the issue of the month. Social issues, global issues, or even just a strong opinion about an aspect of your industry that’s taking public heat.

Millennials care, and so should your brand. The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020 polled over 27,000 millennials and Gen Z’ers across over 40 countries. By an overwhelming margin, most millennials felt an upswing of sympathy, empathy, and a desire to create a better world after the pandemic.

Later in the study, 60% of all respondents claimed they intend to “buy more products and services from large businesses that have taken care of their workforces and positively affected society during the pandemic.” Furthermore, 38% of millennials said they had connected more with businesses that have had a “positive impact on the environment.”

In a different study, Nielsen IQ found that 74% of millennials are more likely to buy brands supporting social issues they care about.

Get comfortable getting uncomfortable

Essential if you want to connect with millennials and earn their trust. If your brand doesn’t take a side on a relevant hot-button issue, you’re still taking a side in the eyes of many young consumers. And maybe not the side you intended to take.

When Starbucks announced they would create 10,000 jobs for refugees, they faced widespread blowback from anti-refugee groups (and President Trump.) However, Starbucks also got plenty of support for this choice. Especially from celebrities and influencers, who went to bat for Starbucks and spread the news to their followers.

Jessica Chastain, award-winning actress, producer, and one of Time’s top 100 most influential people in the world, signal-boosted Starbucks’ new policy to all of her 800,000+ followers.

This kerfuffle occurred back in 2017. Despite an unsuccessful boycott attempt by those opposed to the refugee decision, Starbucks has nearly doubled its market cap since.

Obviously, the controversy isn’t the sole source of this growth. But it certainly did Starbucks no financial harm to stake out a strong position on a sensitive topic.

Market research showed Starbucks wasn’t negatively affected by the controversy. In a public letter from market research firm Kantar Millward Brown, the company’s president Brian James confirmed just how little Starbucks’ public support of refugees damaged the brand.

“After the announcement—we did not observe any substantive impact on Customer Consideration, Future Visitation Intent or Brand Perceptions or any other key performance metrics for the Starbucks brand,” concluded James.

So let your company take a stand where it matters. You’ll likely find that “controversial choices” can earn you lifelong millennial customers without damaging your bottom line.

Three things to remember when entering the public debate as a company

1. The stand you’re taking is important to you and relevant to your industry, product, or service.
2. All voices for the company are well educated on the topic at hand.
3. Real donations, policy change, and notable action must follow any declarations of support.

Keep your promises because millennials keep receipts. When brands don’t follow these rules, they end up with toothless messaging that gets ribbed on social media. Consider this Twitter screenshot as exactly the messaging to avoid:

Millennials value authenticity and honesty. They know how to screenshot a brand statement and call you out if your business doesn’t live up to it. In fact, 82% of consumers say they’ll stop using a brand forever if they feel the brand has broken their trust.

Taking a stand isn’t always pleasant, and it’s true you may suffer criticism from those who don’t agree. But the millennial consumers on your side will back you and your company in the long run. In fact, buying your products and services will feel like a righteous moral choice for those who agree with you. And that’s the kind of customer loyalty you can’t buy!

Share how your products and practices are helping the world

Millennials will pay more for a “guilt-free” product. Three-quarters of millennials have said they would pay more for products if they came from a socially responsible company.

The most popular factors for this generosity are:

1. Sustainability of the product
2. Use of organic/local/natural ingredients
3. Environmental friendliness of the manufacturing/transportation process

A survey by Markstein and Certus Insights found that 44% of millennials believe that every business should be active with environmental initiatives. It’s a stark contrast from the 35% of baby boomers who believe the same thing. And the 28% of Gen X.

Basically, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a correlation with how far millennials will open their wallets. And considering that shoppers are projected to spend $150 billion on sustainable goods this year, those are big wallets.

Brands are winning millennial brand loyalty with sustainable practices

In 2018, LEGO announced it was working on changing its classic block material. They were moving from plastic to a polyethylene material made from sustainable sugar cane. Millennials reacted positively to this news, even though the material turned out to be not quite right for LEGO bricks in the long run. But the positive effect of its dogged pursuit of more ethical manufacturing lingers.

LEGO’s consistent commitment to environmentally-friendly practices has grabbed headlines and kept its brand in the news. It earned goodwill (and good press) after a children’s letter-writing campaign convinced it to nix the single-use plastic bags from its packaging and replace them with recyclable paper bags. LEGO even has its own page at the World Wildlife Foundation dedicated to its sustainability efforts.

According to the LEGO Group Annual Report in 2020, revenue has grown in the double digits across sales and operating profit. With no signs of slowing down. Considering its sustainability research and efforts have cost them hundreds of millions of dollars out of pocket, that’s worth noting.

LEGO didn’t just see higher sales. In 2020 and 2021, the Global RepTrak 100 Survey crowned the LEGO Group the most reputable company on the planet.

Obviously, not every company can afford to throw millions of dollars into sustainability research like the LEGO Group can. Which doesn’t really matter, because it’s not really about how much money you spend. Take KeepCup, for example, that appeals to the millennial love for the environment by featuring an “impact calculator” on its website.

If your brand’s actively working toward a good cause, get that news out into the world to grab millennial goodwill.

Communicate your value beyond price

Living through two major recessions has made millennials frugal shoppers by necessity. Not to mention having less generational wealth than those who came before. And since they’re well-versed in digital shopping, millennials can find a service or product that’s cheaper than yours. From their phone. In about five seconds.

Don’t try to earn millennial loyalty with affordable prices. While this price-conscious mindset might seem like you ought to focus on price, it’s actually the opposite. Your “low” price can always be beaten with a quick online search. A search a millennial shopper has probably already performed. Hooking a millennial with a “low price” is like trying to sell ice to a Siberian.

You need to show millennials the true value of your product or service. Unless you want a price race to the bottom. According to a KPMG study, pricing is the least important factor in creating brand loyalty. The resource you have that they are interested in is quality.

Product quality is still the #1 reason for brand loyalty. As the above infographic shows, value is #2, and “product consistency” is #3. Which is just another facet of “quality” really. If you can consistently deliver a top-notch product and illustrate its value to millennials (regardless of price), you’ll be perfectly positioned to earn their brand loyalty.

Influencers influence millennial brand loyalty

Obviously, “make a quality product” isn’t terribly useful advice. But you do need to prioritize communicating the quality of your product in highly visible locations. For millennials, those highly trafficked areas are going to be on social media. Your medium is going to be influencers and reviews.

Many millennials trust influencers. According to a Fullscreen study (shown below), 55% of millennials believe social media influencers are honest about their beliefs and opinions. Another 41% believe influencers’ recommendations are accurate. Micro influencers are especially trusted sources.

Consider reaching out to influencers online to capture the attention and trust of your millennial audience.

What’s in a review?

You can also communicate your value to millennials through reviews. 85% of millennials say that product reviews are “a must” before a purchase is considered.

Before choosing reviews to showcase, there’s three main criteria to consider:

Here’s a few tried-and-true methods for obtaining reviews for your products:

1. Send automated emails to remind customers to review products they’ve purchased.
2. Reward loyalty-program members who leave reviews.
3. Utilize Influenster’s unique sampling solution. Use hyper-targeted VoxBox’s to trade product samples in exchange for honest reviews (and other visual content, fyi).

After you’ve done this, turn on ReviewSource to give you a continuous source of authentic review content. Always-on content means always-on sales!

Upon securing positive reviews, use Bazaarvoice ReviewAds to share them in ads, on social media, and across the Bazaarvoice Network of over 11,500 retailers.

Once you’ve communicated the value of your product, you’ll see brand loyalty rise naturally from the trust you’ve established.

Design a brand loyalty program that creates its own value

Next up is rewarding the loyalty you’ve worked so hard to acquire—enter the loyalty program. These loyalty programs enforce a feedback loop. Value creates loyalty that creates a sense of value in the member that creates loyalty that creates…okay, you get it.

Brand loyalty programs must provide rewards that are actually valuable. 37% of millennials don’t see the point of brand loyalty without a loyalty program. If you don’t have a rewards program, that’s a huge chunk of your valuable millennial audience just, poof, gone.

Successful loyalty programs with real value have a few things in common

1. Exclusive rewards. There’s nothing more valuable than something other people can’t have. Consider offering a limited-run, members-only product. Maybe even a special customization or feature, or even a unique bit of swag that isn’t available in your store.
2. Free shipping. If your company ships products, your loyalty program members shouldn’t be paying for it.
3. Novelty. Consider adding new rewards quarterly or changing existing rewards to keep young, prone-to-wander customers on the hook.
4. Elevated customer service. Membership has its privileges. So making sure your most loyal customers are moved to the front of the customer service line will engender loyalty and gratitude.
5. Gratitude. Speaking of gratitude, your loyalty program should remind your members how appreciative you are of their loyalty. Little surprise gifts on holidays (or out of the blue), special discounts, and even heartfelt letters of thanks create a valuable personal experience with your brand (which millennials appreciate, by the way.)
6. Rewards for referrals. Referrals reward both the urge for millennials to engage with their network and the desire for value. Companies have found great success with referral programs for their millennial customers.
7. Low barrier to entry. If it takes longer than a minute on a smartphone to join a loyalty program, millennials might falter. Your loyalty program should ideally have an app. If not, it needs to be optimized for mobile users. A simple email and password should get them in. And when you want to gather more data, consider having a prompt that pops up later to add more of their details to your program. 

The more time and energy you put into your loyalty program, the more returns you’re going to see. 81% of millennials say that their membership to a loyalty program increased their spending with that particular brand.

That makes loyalty programs a true double-whammy. You reward/enforce brand loyalty and actually end up making more in the long run. This is an area no company can afford to skimp on.

Assess how much you need millennial brand loyalty

Before sinking every penny into millennial outreach, took a look at the statistics from KPMG’s global survey mentioned earlier about millennial brand loyalty:

If you’re selling shoes, clothes, food, drinks, cosmetics, or personal care products, millennials will likely stick with you if you reach out to them with the techniques we’ve discussed. If you target them in your marketing, you’ve got a decent shot at inspiring brand loyalty.

But if you’re selling luxury goods, sporting goods, or household goods, you’re in for an uphill climb. That doesn’t mean millennial loyalty isn’t worth getting. It means you should calibrate your expectations and your marketing budget to a realistic goal. 

High risk higher reward 

Unless your business is selling avocado toast, winning millennial brand loyalty can be a daunting task. And sometimes a costly one at that. But the reward is far greater than the risk. With a few simple tweaks to make sure you practice what you preach, you’ll have lifelong, loyal customers. Potentially 1.8 billion of them. That’s a lot on your bottom line.

Now you’ve captured the millennial market, read our marketing to Gen Z best practice guide.

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For retailers looking to establish customer loyalty with these discriminating shoppers, rolling out a private label brand may be an ideal solution.

Private label brands are manufactured by a third party and sold under the retailer’s name. In many instances, the products are made with the same materials and/or ingredients as their name-brand counterparts. Case in point: Costco sells private label coffee that’s actually made by  — wait for it — Starbucks.

For retailers, these products are traditionally cheaper to manufacture, which translates to lower prices for customers. But price is just the beginning. They also offer retailers a unique opportunity to deliver a better, more engaging customer experience.

The rise of the private label

Private label products are nothing new. Walmart launched its first store brand, Ol’ Roy dog food, way back in 1983.

But when the Great Recession hit in 2007, private labels saw a new surge in popularity. With the economy on shaky ground and food prices rising 5-6%, consumers needed lower-priced alternatives to their favorite brands. 

Even after markets stabilized, the trend continued. By the end of 2017, private label brands were posting dollar growth of more than 3x the rate of branded products.

Today, with the COVID-19 pandemic heralding a new economic crisis, private labels are back in the spotlight. Purchasing store brands was one of Consumer Reports’ top tips for customers looking to save money on their 2020 holiday celebrations, right up there with clipping coupons and buying in bulk. According to the popular site, private label foods and beverages are 20-25% cheaper than name brand equivalents of the same product. 

While price is a big factor for consumers, it’s not the only one. In our own recent survey, almost 55% of respondents said they’d purchased a private label brand in the past year. Respondents were allowed to pick from multiple reasons for buying the store brands. 51% said their decision was based on price, 56% said they did it because they simply liked the product. 

Benefits to retailers

Beyond staying competitive on price, private label brands have additional benefits for retailers. Because you can control every aspect of the products’ positioning and marketing, as well as the buying experience, you can drive customer loyalty in new ways. 

Some retailers use this opportunity to create stories. For example, Whole Foods’ store brand, 365 Everyday Value, is positioned as a solution for shoppers who don’t want to pay high prices for organic products.

Target’s Everspring household brand caters to shoppers looking for “clean products.” The store also offers lingerie and sleepwear brands that are promoted as being inclusive of all body types. 

Savvy retailers are invested in creating an entire brand around their private labels. And it’s paying off handsomely.

Increased competition equals more innovation

A generation ago, there was a distinct gap between the quality of private label and brand name products.

Today, that’s simply not the case. In a Nielsen study, about 75% of shoppers said store brands were a “good alternative to name brands.” Even more exciting for retailers, almost 40% said that private labels deliver “higher quality than name brands.” 

Only a mere 17% of respondents said store brands were, “for people on tight budgets and (who) can’t afford the best.” 

As consumers embrace the value of private label products, it will drive brands and retailers to find opportunities to lower prices without sacrificing quality. We predict this will drive innovation across the retail industry, leading to better products and lower prices in every vertical. 

Embracing the private label movement

It’s become increasingly clear that private labels are the real deal. Even as the current economic crisis subsides, there will always be a segment of consumers looking for high-quality products at low prices.

To succeed in this space, retailers need to devote the same strategy and resources as name brands do in the product development process. 

Invest in the research to understand what shoppers need (or don’t realize they need). Then create a roadmap for delivering a solution in-house. Offering unique products and solutions customers can only find in your store is one way to guarantee they keep coming back for more.

4 strategies to achieve private label success

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The pandemic cast a spotlight on just how much moms do and how they’ve stepped up recently to take on extra responsibilities. Your relationship with your mom may seem even more valuable and meaningful now, especially if you haven’t gotten to see her over the past year. 

Mother’s Day has long been a popular shopping holiday. This year, 83% of consumers planned to celebrate Mother’s Day, according to the National Retail Federation. Shoppers were poised to spend $220 on average, $16 more than last year and the most in the NRF survey’s history. Cards, special outings, and flowers were the top gifting categories. 

This year, brands embraced the times in their Mother’s Day marketing campaigns. They created relevant content with realistic imagery showcasing the many roles and responsibilities of Mom. Marketing spanned social media posts, TV commercials, videos, gift guides, and more.  

Looking for ad inspo for your brand? Then let’s take a look at five of the best Mother’s Day ad campaigns of the year! 

Walmart turned Mother’s Day into a month long event 

Walmart decided that one day just wasn’t enough to celebrate the “leading ladies in our lives.” So, the retailer extended the holiday into a month long event called Mother’s May. The Mother’s May marketing campaign featured a series of in-store and online events and social media content. 

Walmart hosted Mother’s May Markets, where it transformed some of its Supercenter locations into outdoor markets with crafts, goodie bags, family photos, and other family activities. Online was included just as much as brick-and-mortar, too. Online shoppers could create custom cards, find instructions to make handmade gifts, and shop curated gift lists. Walmart also offered $10 off for first-time pickup and delivery shoppers to promote the service. 

For its Mother’s Day social media posts, Walmart debuted a video featuring real moms, including some of its own employees, in real-life parenting situations with their kids. The video appeared across the retailer’s social channels, because Walmart knows all too well the benefit of utilizing authentic user-generated content.

Carhartt encouraged moms to take a well-deserved break 

Iconic workwear brand Carhartt has been around since 1889, but recently it’s become trendy with streetwear enthusiasts, who are attracted to its authenticity. Realism and authenticity is the approach Carhartt took with its Mother’s Day marketing campaign. 

Celebrating all the moms who are spread too thin, the brand released a video titled “The Shift That Never Ends” featuring real hard-working moms. The video shows the exhaustion that comes with working in fields like farming and construction and then coming home to family responsibilities. It ends with the message, “Take a break Mom, you earned it.”

The brand also created a limited-run “Carhartt Bouquet.” Instead of flowers, the bouquets included pocket T-shirts in different colors rolled up to look like a floral arrangement. It came with the message “work gear off limits (until tomorrow),” emphasizing the need for moms to take some well-deserved time off. 

RITZ celebrated the role of foster parents

For its Mother’s Day campaign, cracker brand RITZ celebrated the foster parents who open their homes and care for the 424,000 foster children in the U.S. The marketing campaign was a partnership with the National Foster Parent Association and will also be a part of the brand’s Father’s Day promotion. 

RITZ released an emotional two-minute video, titled “Foster Welcome,” that will tug at your heartstrings. It shows a family meeting their foster child for the first time and the nervousness and excitement that everyone involved experiences. 

RITZ’s Mother’s Day promotion also includes a series of Instagram stickers that allow foster parents to share family photos while protecting the privacy of their foster children. (Social media photos of foster kids are prohibited by some states.)

To access the stickers, enter #FosterWelcome into the sticker search on Instagram Stories to share family photos disguising foster kids. 

Hallmark honored all the moms who lead by example  

Mother’s Day is a big holiday for Hallmark. You could say, it’s their Hallmark. (I’ll show myself out.) It’s been a go-to for cards and gifts for generations. With this year’s Mother’s Day ad campaign, the brand honored all types of moms. Through a video and gift guide, the campaign centered on moms who lead by example and teach those around them how to “listen, laugh, apologize, forgive, and love unconditionally.” 

In the video, a mother and daughter bond over many of life’s milestones, and it ends with the daughter signing a card and presenting her mom with a gift. The video features the tagline, “Thank them for all that they are.” 

Hallmark’s gift guide highlighted 2,500 or so cards for every kind of mom—biological mothers, grandmothers, sisters, friends, pet moms, mother figures, and everyone else. The guide included gifts to encourage self-care and relaxation and practical items. 

Dick’s Sporting Goods showcased its executives championing their kids 

Dick’s Sporting Goods showcased its female executives as mothers, coaches, and cheerleaders as their kids participate in sports, like swimming, soccer, baseball, and ballet. The Mother’s Day marketing campaign is part of the retailer’s focus on “championing women,” according to AdWeek. 

The campaign included a TV commercial titled “Mother’s Day: Keep Trying.” It stars Aimee Watters, executive director of Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation, reassuring and encouraging her son who’s nervous about playing soccer. The ad also features other executive moms with their children playing sports. 

The brands who nailed Mother’s Day marketing this year acknowledged the challenges of the past year and celebrated how hardworking moms truly are—both ordinarily and during unprecedented times. 

The authentic messaging displayed in these campaigns connects with today’s increasingly mission-driven consumers, in turn growing brands’ social media followings, expanding their shopper base, and ultimately driving revenue. Make sure to bookmark this page for your future Mother’s Day inspo and you too can achieve the same results!

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