For retailers worldwide, the value of marketing has never been better. Since the heyday of billboards and newspaper clippings, marketing techniques and technology have come a long way and businesses are better for it.
The internet has been a big driver of this growth of course, with social media and search engines doing the heavy lifting for a lot of businesses who can’t quite fund more traditional marketing means.
When you dive into the world of influencers, paid advertising, web traffic and SEO agency partners like OtherBirds can be a godsend as we guide you through the labyrinth of pitfalls and power that comes with digital marketing.
For today, however, we will focus on content marketing and how much of the work can be taken off your shoulders with some savvy strategy.
User-generated content (UGC), shoppable content, and localised content can all ensure your products are flying off the digital shelves.
If you need to know more about the trends that are shaping our industry, get in touch and the OB team will set you up for success.
User-Generated Content Amplification
If you hadn’t noticed already, trust and loyalty are a vital part of any retailer’s success. You need your customers to relate to your brand and feel a strong affinity with your products, values and vision.
With most markets being saturated by an increase in new businesses, customers will quickly move along to the next if they decide your brand isn’t trustworthy or relatable.
That’s why UGC is such an important part of many brands as it puts your products on display without the need for pushy ads or sponsored content. More importantly, potential customers are increasingly likely to trust word-of-mouth over the brand itself, and UGC is simply the modern-day version of this.
To give you an example, UGC could be as simple as someone posting a photo to Instagram wearing your dress and tagging your brand. Whether they do this of their own volition or as part of a competition you’re running is up to you.
If your brand isn’t in the business of making particularly photogenic products, you may want to focus on reviews and testimonials instead. These can then be posted on social media, your website, and in email marketing.
The cumulative result is that your audience will see an influx of like-minded consumers choosing your brand and trust will beget trust — how you convert this trust into traffic and sales is another story.
Shoppable Content
Once consumers have seen your products in the hands of other customers, they’ll be positioned to convert. This is where you put shoppable content (also known as ‘social commerce’) in front of them and make the purchasing journey as seamless as possible.
Shoppable content includes any kind of digital content that can be clicked to make a purchase — often without having to leave the current platform.
Such seamlessness has been enabled by the increasingly efficient eCommerce functionality of social media platforms. Instagram and TikTok have become particularly good at this with the ability to tag specific products for purchase, complemented by succinct and distinct call-to-action buttons such as ‘Shop Now’ or ‘Learn More.’
The Influencer Marketing Hub’s State of the Market report from 2022 indicated that social commerce was estimated to grow by more than 130% over the next few years, reaching $2.9 trillion by 2026.
So how can your business leverage shoppable content for the best effect going forward?
- Get visual: Modern consumers respond best to high-quality content. Video content does extremely well, but you can start with well-designed imagery in real-life scenarios if that’s more your speed.
- Tailor your platforms: The flashy short films you post on TikTok aren’t likely to receive the same response on Facebook, so understand how each audience consumes their social media and what kinds of products they’re likely to buy online.
- Pair social commerce with UGC: Build some social proof at the same time as you encourage consumers to buy. This will kill two (Other)birds with one post and push them down the marketing funnel even faster.
Content Localisation
The OtherBirds team knows the importance of this one all too well, having expanded across Australia, New Zealand and the United States in 2022. Copying and pasting content across locations is a sure way to lose trust and relatability with your audience.
This involves more than swapping Zs and Ss across the Pacific, it’s about understanding what kinds of content will resonate with each region and highlighting it accordingly.
If your brand sells swimwear and you’re blowing your budget on an American audience in mid-December, you’re highly unlikely to experience any overwhelming traffic.
Likewise, if you’re an American business trying to break into the Australian market, the first thing you should know is our currencies absolutely do not line up. Make sure your website displays accurate, localised prices before you do anything else.
Contact OtherBirds
Whether you found us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Google or good old word-of-mouth, we hope you’re here to stay! OtherBirds is trusted by businesses across Australia, the U.S., and New Zealand to deliver a full suite of marketing services.
Get in touch to learn more about the content marketing trends that will probably affect your business in the near future. We’ll help you stay ahead of the curve and take advantage of technology as it develops.
