The series of interviews prepared by Adnews to give tips and information to entrepreneurs during the Black Firday period continues. This time, who participates is Stephen Soaresauthor, entrepreneur and consultant specializing in paid media with a focus on high-performance campaigns.
1- For the first time, the World Cup will happen together with Black Friday. How much should this affect the market and drive sales of specific products, in addition to leveraging promotions and campaigns for this year’s brands?
[ES] “The impact exists and it has greater intensity depending on the product or service. It is also necessary to consider that both Black Friday and the World Cup are events that impact not only the country, but the entire planet.
Entrepreneurs may be wary of overlapping big events at first, however, they represent an incredible opportunity to amplify a brand and contextualize offers to drive sales. This can be done by contextualizing the content with moments and micro moments that are aligned with the brand’s narrative in the channel used.
Sometimes specific content will look great on TikTok but not on Linkedin. Eventually, a moment can be associated with an offer and boosted on Instagram, for example. During this period, actively pursuing these opportunities can represent a gain in reach, brand exposure and consequently an increase in sales.
In practice, you have a calendar of content and offers that already considers both Black Friday and the World Cup, but keep an eye out for events that take place that can serve to boost your brand.
To keep an eye on high-volume events, any business can use Twitter’s Trending Topics, check out what’s trending on Tiktok, and use tools like Google Trends (to see what’s being searched for the most at any given time.
More generally, companies should seize opportunities to amplify both their brand and their offerings.”
2- About the journey and shopping experience of consumers, what are the main challenges and next steps to be successful and consistent results during Black Friday?
[ES] “The biggest challenge is getting your audience’s attention.
The competition during this period is even greater. This is because during major events, entertainment-oriented content is also considerably amplified. The production of content in general increases, which can make it difficult to gain the attention of consumers.
Thinking about it, I thought of 4 tips: direct access to consumers, ads, memorable creatives and adequate frequency.
- Work with first-party data. Work a good list of emails, Whatsapp groups and even SMS. During periods of high competition, your business cannot rely on a social network to communicate a good offer.
- Working with paid media is essential to ensure your brand is seen during a period of high competition. The production of organic content is important, if you want to guarantee results, you need to guarantee exposure to your offer.
- Just being seen is not enough, it is necessary to be remembered. To be remembered, you have to be memorable. During this time it is easier to be memorable if it is contextualized with current events. Remember to always expose your brand/offer. Having amplification content isn’t going to help much if it isn’t referencing your brand or product.
- Frequency is one of the key metrics to track and during periods of high competition it should be measured with a KPI. People need to see your offer multiple times, on different channels, at different times, to be encouraged to buy.”
3- From a marketing point of view, how advantageous is it for brands to extend their promotions for several days or even weeks, as has been seen in recent years?
[ES] “It is not only advantageous, but necessary. Limited offers and opportunities need to keep appearing to the consumer before and after Black Friday. Allocating the entire sale to such a short period or a single week can represent a vulnerability for any business.
There are also limitations regarding credit. A credit card that expires after the Black Friday period, lack of limit and other credit related issues can be mitigated with post Black Friday promotions.
Before Black Friday there is tension where consumers may question whether this is really the best offer. After Black Friday, it is the ideal time to consolidate the opportunity for the consumer and demonstrate that the offer was really valid.
So yes, definitely extending the sales period is something to consider.”
4- What advice would you give to e-commerce entrepreneurs who want to use Black Friday to boost their business?
[ES] “I have 3 tips in this case: use up/cross selling, work with the marketing funnel and influencers/content creators.
- Strategy for Up selling / Cross Selling.
You don’t have to put all of your products on sale. Having a coherent strategy and placing strategic products with deep discounts can be enough to attract the public and sell more, without sacrificing the company’s profit margin.
In practice, using up selling and cross selling strategies will ensure that you can increase your margin, reduce the acquisition cost and increase the average ticket of products.
This will require prior organization, but it will definitely bring even more positive results.
Let’s imagine a scenario together:
You can separate a group of aggressive offers that will distinguish your products in the market. As you want to ensure visibility, you will shoot via email and also paid media (Facebook Ads, Google Ads, etc).
On your side, as a seller, you will set up both upselling (an upgrade to your order) and cross-selling (complementary offers) made specifically for the products that have had the greatest discount.
The level of aggressiveness can be changed after the first tests. If your business achieves high levels of up/cross sell conversion, you can further reduce the initial product price to ensure a higher volume of consumers are exposed to these opportunities.
- Using the Marketing Funnel
Let’s simplify and consider 2 types of audience: those who don’t know you and those who do.
If you want to sell faster, talking to someone who already knows you and has had previous contact is usually very efficient. In addition, designing specific strategies for those who are already customers is a way to reward the relationship and increase revenue. If a customer has bought from you before (and had a positive experience), there is a high chance that they will buy again depending on your product. Explore this, don’t just think about the external, think about the audience and the customers you conquered during your uptime.
For those who don’t know you, I recommend focusing on the public that is already ready to buy, but doesn’t know that your company has the solution. In practice, this can be done through top-of-the-funnel campaigns, but where the creative is directed towards immediate conversion, with the advertising text focusing on the immediate benefit added to an incentive (discount for example).
- influencers
Influencers and professional content creators typically already have a captive audience and rely on recommendations. There are still many opportunities in this regard.
Do a search for influencers who talk to your brand and preferably who have already had experience with a product / service. This will help cut a corner on the “brand trust” issue, which is essential during this period.
Make exclusive and specific promotions so that exclusivity is clear. Align the format with the content creator and be open to experiences like: live shopping and affiliates.”
5- Thinking about the digital journey, the new consumer profile has as one of its characteristics the relationship with brands through multiple channels. It is at this point that companies that optimize their digital and physical channels gain an advantage, as customers are looking, above all, for experiences. How is this concept in practice and what are the main demands of consumers in their shopping experiences?
[ES] “I would sum it up in 2 words: connection and convenience.
People who have a genuine connection to your brand may be willing to pay more for a product or service. Convenience, however, makes you sell more and consistently.
One of the biggest villains of conversion is friction at the time of purchase. Some points here are:
- the type of payment that is not accepted,
- the checkout process which is much longer than necessary,
- the page that takes time to load,
- the lack of optimization for mobile devices
- the lack of credibility of the page (no security seals for example)
In an ideal scenario, your brand has communication that generates connection while making the buying process as convenient as possible.”
6- What are the main trends and challenges for e-commerce in the coming years?
[ES] “Despite all the technological changes we are exposed to, which bring even greater weight and urgency to adaptation, loyalty seems to me to be one of the biggest challenges.
Global trade is consolidated. Throughout Brazil, your brand is not only competing with the nearest store, but with the biggest retailers in the world, including in China.
When your cost doesn’t matter to the customer, because in the end he is looking at the price, what can be left? Your brand, your personality, your story and the community you’ve created around your product or service. These are some irreplaceable and unique factors that a company can develop.
If you have a strong community around your business, you guarantee an increase in the purchase rate, new opportunities to increase the average ticket with up/cross sell, open up opportunities for research and co-creation, among several other positive factors.
Staying up to date, using organic and paid content to reach your audience, working in partnership with influencers to gain more credibility in the short term, adapting to new market tools, omnichannel, mobile experience, considering privacy, all of this is important. But you can get carte blanche for many technology failures if you have a community around your brand.
Beyond the community, having direct access to people with first-party data strategies and access to specific behaviors with zero-party data strategies is sure to ensure longevity for any business.
So focus first on true connections and the community around your brand. Then you can use any new technology to improve the experience your business offers.
Focus on people first, then use technology to generate and amplify new experiences. You can’t go wrong if people are the priority of your business.”
Want to know more about the news? Don’t forget to follow ADNEWS on social networks and stay on top of everything!
The post Black November: Estêvão Soares gives tips on marketing the brands appeared first on ADNEWS.
