Descubriendo los secretos de las empresas DTC exitosas

For e-commerce businesses and retail brands, online returns and exchanges pose a serious challenge.

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For online shoppers that often use Amazon and have been trained to expect free returns for their online purchases, it's important to maintain a positive, no-hassle customer experience. According to Shopify, e-commerce returns occur at a 20% rate, and during the holiday season, that rate can rise to 30%.

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This year, as the coronavirus drives more consumers to do their holiday shopping online, it’s more essential than ever to develop a plan to manage product returns and exchanges. That way, you’ll be able to maintain and grow your profit margins by increasing your conversion rates at checkout and lowering the costs of your bottom line.

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1. Offer clear product descriptions and high-quality product images.

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According to a survey by Narvar, 51% of online shoppers have returned an item because it needed to be described or shown online.

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By providing detailed, accurate product descriptions and high-quality images, you can help reduce the number of returns due to miscommunication or unrealistic expectations. This allows customers to understand the product before making a purchase, which can help reduce instances of buyers receiving items that do not meet their expectations.

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Clear product descriptions should include information such as the materials used, dimensions, weight, colour, and any other relevant details. This helps customers make informed decisions about their purchases and ensures they know exactly what they are getting.

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Warby Parker is an eyewear company known for its clear product descriptions and high-quality product images. Each product page includes detailed information about the frame materials, lens type, fit, and multiple photos of the product being worn. The brand also offers its customers the opportunity to try on their pairs to ensure that they fit virtually. This helps customers choose the right frames for their needs and reduces the likelihood of returns.

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High-quality product images are also crucial in reducing returns. Customers should be able to see the product from multiple angles and get a sense of its size and scale.

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It's a good idea to include close-up shots of any significant features or details and images of the product being used or worn. This helps customers visualise how the product will look in real life and can help prevent them from returning items that do not meet their expectations.

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The online home goods retailer Wayfair uses high-quality product images to help customers visualise how furniture and home decor will look in their space.

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Each product page includes multiple pictures of the item from different angles and photos of the item used in a home setting. This helps customers get a sense of the size and scale of the item and can help prevent them from returning items that do not meet their expectations.

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Overall, providing clear product descriptions and high-quality product images is essential in reducing returns in e-commerce. By giving customers all the information they need to make an informed decision about their purchase, you can help ensure that they are satisfied with their purchase and less likely to return it.

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2. Provide sizing charts or fit guides.

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A study by the National Retail Federation found that almost a third of all returns are made because the item didn't fit or needed to be the right size.

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Offering sizing charts or fit guides can help customers select the correct size and reduce the number of returns due to sizing issues. This can be especially important for clothing and footwear, as size and fit can be significant factors in customer satisfaction.

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Many brands do a great job of providing sizing charts and fit guides to help customers make informed decisions about their purchases.

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Here are a few examples:

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Adidas gives ultra-precise sizing advice. For example, the brand indicates which models fit small and shares recommendations based on a customer's previous orders.

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In March 2022, Walmart announced that it is taking the customer experience further by launching virtual fitting rooms in partnership with start-up company Zeekits.

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This innovative new feature allows customers to try on clothing using a smartphone app virtually. Customers upload a photo of themselves and can see how clothing items will look on them. The virtual fitting rooms are designed to provide customers with a more convenient and personalised shopping experience.

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3. Offer free return shipping.

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A survey by UPS found that 79% of consumers expect free return shipping when they make an online purchase.

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Offering free return shipping can be an effective way to reduce returns in e-commerce and increase customer satisfaction.

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By eliminating the cost and hassle of returning a product, you can make it easier for customers to replace items that do not meet their expectations. This can help reduce the number of returns due to dissatisfaction with the returns process. Many customers are hesitant to make a return because they are concerned about the cost and effort involved.

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To make the most of this strategy, it's essential to make it visible on your website that you offer free return shipping. You can use a banner to promote this feature prominently on your homepage and mention it on your product pages and checkout flows. This will help ensure that customers are aware of this benefit and are more likely to take advantage of it if needed.

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The online retailer Zappos is known for its excellent customer service, and one of the ways it excels is by offering free return shipping on all of its products. Zappos is displaying its free return shipping policy on the homepage, meta description and other important areas of its website.

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4. Allow for easy exchanges or store credits.

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Offering exchanges or store credits instead of refunds can reduce the number of returns and increase customer satisfaction and conversion rate!

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One of the benefits of offering store credits is that they can encourage customers to keep the item or purchase something else instead of returning it. By providing a store credit, you can give the customer the option to try the product again or to choose a different product instead.

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Research has shown that offering store credits can be even more effective at reducing returns than offering refunds. According to our Merchants Scale Study 2022, 43% of buyers spent more money on our merchant’s store when they used their store credit, which suggests that store credits can also be an effective way to drive sales.

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To make the most of this strategy, it's essential to make the process of requesting an exchange or store credit as easy as possible.

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Using a return portal enables FROM FUTURE to offer an incredible return experience to their customers by making it super easy for them to request a return. By providing a simple and convenient way for customers to request an exchange or store credit, you can help reduce returns and improve customer satisfaction.

💙 Bigblue Tip

Over 30% of European shoppers do not have a printer. Make it easy for them to return their order, without having to print, with Bigblue's Printerless Return feature.

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5. Encourage customers to reach out with questions or concerns before making a purchase.

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By allowing customers to ask questions or voice any concerns before making a purchase, you can help ensure that they are fully informed and confident in their decision. This can help reduce instances of customers receiving items that do not meet their expectations, which can lead to returns.

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Unbottled is an e-commerce brand that provides excellent customer service thanks to its chat feature on its website. Located at the bottom right of the website, the chat feature allows customers to quickly find answers to their questions or send a message to the company's customer service team.

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🤜🤛 Bigblue’s friends

Tools like Gorgias and Zendesk help automate and resolve your customer support tickets. Tools like Attentive and Hello-Charles allow you to contact and exchange with your customers and prospects on other communication channels like WhatsApp or per SMS.

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Brands can also encourage customers to ask questions or concerns before purchasing their social accounts.

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One brand that does this exceptionally well is Asphalte, a ready-to-wear brand that only sells its products by pre-order.

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Because customers can only try on the products after purchasing them, Asphalte needs to provide exceptional customer service and encourage customers to reach out with any questions or concerns. The brand does this by engaging with its customers on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where it posts updates and responds to customer inquiries.

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By implementing these strategies, e-commerce brands can improve the customer experience and reduce the number of returns. Overall, reducing returns in e-commerce is important for the success of any online business. Excellent customer service and easy purchase processes can reduce returns, increase customer satisfaction, and boost sales and profitability for e-commerce brands.

Why D2C brands are using Product seeding

Product seeding helps brands connect with audiences on a new level. It makes it easy for businesses to offer a free product that surprises the consumers, gets them excited, and ultimately leads to influencer-generated and user-generated content.

Benefit Cosmetics is an excellent example of using product seeding to its advantage. The cosmetics company started a campaign for its new tint, Benetint, and it's certainly gone viral on TikTok. In this video, the user includes an image of the lip and cheek tint, including a caption that mentions wanting to try the tint because it's going viral. But there are also plenty of other videos on Benetint. If you use the search feature to look up the product on TikTok, you will see hundreds of videos with an accumulated 11.7M views!

Benefit Cosmetics isn't new to using product seeding and influencers to leave their mark. In a previous campaign for their Microfilling Pen, they sent products to an exclusive group of influencers which led to influencer-generated content that helped the brand get over 2M organic impressions.

The benefits of using product seeding as a D2C brand are tremendous. When using product seeding, you can build better relationships with influencers who may look forward to discussing new products from your business as you release them. You can gain brand loyalty from influencers and consumers who trust their opinions and recommendations, which is a big deal. In addition, product seeding is a cost-effective way to advertise your brand and get the recognition you need to keep growing and expanding. If you're looking forward to reaching new audiences while coming off as an authentic and genuine brand that cares about its customers, product seeding is an excellent technique to use.

Influencer seeding: what is this marketing technique?

Now that you're aware of the benefits of product seeding and how companies like Benefit Cosmetics use this technique to their advantage, you may ask yourself, "What is influencer seeding?" The answer is quite simple.

With influencer seeding, you send specific products to a targeted group of people. But, of course, these people are influencers with plenty of followers who pay attention to them and trust their opinions. After sending the product to them, they unbox it, give it a try, and discuss the product with their followers in content uploaded to social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok.

By taking this approach, you're not necessarily worrying too much about building a deep relationship with one influencer. Instead, you're creating a partnership with dozens of influencers who can help spread the word about your brand and the products you offer. It's a fantastic way to get your brand noticed by various audiences instead of one single targeted audience.

Bloom Nutrition is an example of a company that uses influencer seeding to gain recognition from consumers. You can find nearly every influencer on TikTok using Bloom Nutrition's greens at some point or another. And if you search Bloom Greens on TikTok, you will come across hundreds of videos of people using the product. These videos have a combined 590.1M views, helping the company broaden its reach further than ever in no time.

Is it a good idea to use influencer seeding?

Using influencer seeding is an excellent idea if you want to experience growth and appear more credible to consumers.

When you can boost credibility, it's easier to make sales because the consumers will trust your brand. An influencer seeding technique helps you reach out to dozens of micro-influencers, some of whom have excellent engagement rates.

More brands are taking this approach to marketing their products to increase visibility in no time while spending less of their time handling influencer management-related tasks. Some have experienced such success with this seeding technique that several influencers are now working as brand ambassadors for them, often raving about the products the brand offers and building hype over new releases.

So, is it a good idea to use influencer seeding as a marketing strategy for your D2C brand? Absolutely. However, you have to know how to do it right, selecting the best influencers to work with based on different factors, including the types of content they share on social media. For example, if you have a beauty brand, you may look forward to reaching out to influencers who regularly review beauty products or appear to go shopping for items like yours more often than not.

Do I need to pay influencers for their content?

You're probably wondering if you will need to pay influencers to discuss your products and create content surrounding your brand. If you're a smaller brand, you may not have a large budget to work with, causing some concern if you're expected to pay influencers for their opinions. But the whole idea behind influencer seeding is to provide your product in exchange for their content. So, you don't necessarily need to pay an influencer, but there are a few things you need to know beforehand, such as:

• Some influencers receive a lot of free gifts, especially incredibly popular ones with large followings, meaning they might not care as much about the free products you send
• If you want to ensure the influencers will get excited about getting something for free, look for micro-influencers with relatively high engagement rates
• Choose people with personalities that align with yours and the values you've built your brand upon to increase your chances of getting the high-quality influencer-generated content you desire
• Actively pursue relationships with micro-influencers because they will feel more inclined to make content on your products when receiving the items for free
  

If you keep these details in mind, you can succeed with influencer seeding without paying out of pocket for it. Of course, if you want to work with mega influencers, it's still an option. However, you would need to determine how much that influencer would charge in addition to receiving free products and then decide if it's worth it.

In short, do you have to pay an influencer when using product seeding as a technique? No. But if you plan to reach out to mega influencers, they just might charge you!

💡 47.3% of influencers are considered micro-influencers, with around 20,000 followers on their social media platform.

How popular brands are using product seeding to their advantage

Several popular, well-recognized brands are using product seeding to their advantage. They've discovered this is a valuable way to boost marketing efforts and are taking the initiative to work with dozens of different influencers to help increase the visibility of their brands and products.

Leading skincare brand Dermalogica, known for its wide selection of vegan and cruelty-free products for the face, uses influencer marketing and product seeding to strengthen its connection with consumers. The brand started this initiative before the pandemic hit but has since bolstered its efforts to broaden its reach. In one seeding campaign, the company reached out to 140 influencers, with 95% of these individuals posting about the brand on their social media platforms.

But how did they get such a great response rate without paying influencers to post about them? They communicated clearly, provided high-quality products, and gave influencers a two-month window to create their posts, which helped create a true recipe for success.

Impala Skates is another company benefiting from the power of social media. While roller skating is definitely back in, the love for this activity heightened during the pandemic when most were stuck at home, looking for something to do, and browsing through TikTok. It wouldn't take long for the brand to build a massive loyal social media following of people who buy from them and post content to social media of themselves using these roller skates, including influencers! By sending a pair of trusty skates to a few influencers, the brand has managed to connect with a younger generation of people who look forward to roller skating, some for the very first time in their lives.

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Dermalogica continues to connect with influencers by providing a PR haul. In these hauls, influencers are unboxing products and talking about them, detailing what they do or what they're used for, which helps increase engagement. It's easy to find Dermalogica PR hauls on nearly every social media platform, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube!

Sezane prides itself on providing luxury clothing at the fairest prices. It's also a company that has built a name for itself by leveraging the power of influencer marketing. As a digital brand from the start, creating a sense of exclusivity while offering vintage-inspired pieces helped Sezane amass a sizable organic following, with over a million followers on Instagram alone. The love for this brand spread like wildfire from the minute influencers started posting about it. Now, every influencer and their mothers (quite literally) are wearing the brand and tagging it in their photos, which only helps increase visibility even further.

PrettyLittleThing is a prime example of a D2C brand benefiting from working with influencers. Why has the company worked with celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj? Because doing so enabled the brand to experience astronomical growth, becoming the fastest growing e-commerce fashion company.

Many D2C brands, such as Rouje, are following the trend, using this marketing method to help create a greater sense of awareness for their brand that leads to an increase in sales. And, it comes as no surprise that the global influencer marketing industry is expected to experience a drastic increase within the next two years, reaching $24.1 billion by 2025!

Knowing that brands are making a name for themselves using influencer content may inspire you to want to do the same. Here are the 7 main benefits of building an influencer marketing strategy for your D2C brand!

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1. Brand Credibility

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61% of consumers are trusting of influencer recommendations, making any brand that uses influencer marketing appear more credible.

More brands are focusing on building credibility with their targeted audiences by honing in on the power of influencer marketing. It helps them gain more attention and web traffic that converts.

American Eagle is not new to the fashion world. However, what was once considered a dying brand has revived itself by pairing with popular social media influencer Addison Rae. The partnership made it easier than ever for American Eagle to advertise its latest line of Mom Jeans. Haven’t heard of the hype? Head over to TikTok and type “American Eagle Mom Jeans” in the search bar. You will notice Addison Rae and dozens of other content creators showing off their purchases from American Eagle. As a result, the brand appears more credible and relatable than it has in recent years.

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2. Lower Costs (Compared to In-House Content Creation Costs)

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When you compare the costs of in-house content creation to influencer content, you can save quite a bit! If you're looking for a way to reduce advertising-related expenses, influencer content is a fantastic way to do so. Don't think it's possible? Ruggable is an excellent example of reducing advertising costs while still marketing to a large group of people. Best known for its two-piece rug system, Ruggable spent 25% less on influencer marketing and earned a 32% greater return on its investment. Spend less, save more, and see better results – What more could anyone want?

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3. Authenticity

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✨ 60% of marketers are in agreement that influencer-generated content yields better results and leads to an increase in engagement compared to conventional brand posts.

Being authentic helps you resonate with your audience and keep them engaged. Consumers prefer brands that appear transparent, open, and honest with them over those that follow shady or unethical practices. Focus on gaining attention and building a reputation for your authenticity, which you can do by collaborating with trustworthy influencers.

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Rowse is one brand that helped consumers recognize its authenticity by relying on powerful influencer marketing strategies. The brand used popular social platforms, including Instagram, taking an omni-channel approach that helped them connect with an extensive audience. By coming off as more authentic, Rowse managed to gain more organic impressions that converted into an increase in overall sales.

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4. Increased Social Content

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⬆️ The number of people using social media worldwide has increased from 4.2 billion in 2021 to 4.62 billion in 2022. The number is only expected to continue increasing for years to come.

More social content available for people to find and see will play an essential role in helping your brand thrive and survive. As the number of social media users continues to climb, your potential to reach these individuals and convert them into followers and loyal customers becomes even more significant.

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Nike is a popular brand with a massive following consisting of more than 150 million people on Instagram and 35 million on Facebook. The company leverages their following by posting to these social platforms. At times, the company uses influencer-generated content to gain more attention and appear more relatable. The key is to create content that consumers want to view instead of making everything look like a sales pitch.

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5. Connection with Engaged Consumers (Brand Followers, Brand Communities, etc.)

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🔥 85% of business owners believe branded communities have made a positive impact on their businesses. 

Influencer content can help you build a solid brand community consisting of people who love your brand and the products you sell. When people come together to share something they're passionate about, such as the brand you've created and the high-quality products they can use to their advantage, it leads to more sales and more business. You should want to build a brand community that leads to customer loyalty because it will help you increase your profits and achieve tremendous success.

Popular cosmetics store Sephora created its Beauty INSIDER community to connect customers while providing a safe and welcoming space for all. Consumers can choose to join the community to ask questions, receive tips, check out product reviews, and learn so much more. And how does this benefit Sephora? It leads to more people buying from their site!

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⚙ Recommended Tool: Do you want to start a community for your brand? If so, use WeWiink! WeWink simplifies the process of turning your most loyal customers into ambassadors for your brand. You can benefit from relying on this tool to build a positive and welcoming community full of your supporters.

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6. Informed Customers

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💄81% of retail shoppers take the time to research any product they’re thinking of buying before adding to cart and completing the purchase. These people are known as informed customers.

Informed customers don't mind spending extra time researching the details of products they plan to purchase beforehand. It's a task they're willing to take on if it means ensuring they're spending their hard-earned money wisely. The good news is that this can work to your advantage when using influencer content. While researching your products, these informed consumers may see the content created by influencers, ultimately being influenced enough to buy your products.

Studies show that a large portion of well-informed shoppers have decided to buy more store brand products rather than going for the high-end, name brand items, many of which will cost more. This is a good inclination that any brand can get ahead of the competition, even if they’re new, by offering competitive pricing on products that meet the mark.

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💙 Bigblue Tips: Offer something extra to create a buzz surrounding your brand and its products. Known as product seeding, this is an excellent way to increase awareness for your brand and make more sales. 

Unbottled has used this product seeding approach, giving away 100 shampoo products to the first 100 people to visit their establishment. The plastic-free personal care company has just opened a flagship, brick-and-mortar store in Paris, using Miss France, Alexandra Rosenfeld, to help bring in more shoppers. Because Ms. Alexandra Rosenfeld is an influencer, people were excited to see her and learn more about the products, so much so that they were lining up for over an hour to take pictures with her and Unbottled’s founders.

👉👉 Discover Unbottled’s success story with Bigblue

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7. Increased Conversions

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Influencer marketing can boost conversion rates. When developing a marketing strategy, the whole idea is to create a campaign that converts. If it doesn't convert, it tends to feel more like a waste of money, leading to frustration.

The good news is that many companies have noticed a drastic increase in their conversion rates since creating a strategy involving influencer marketing. If you're tired of dealing with poor conversion rates and are looking for a more effective way to reach your audience and turn them from consumers to customers, influencer marketing is an option worth considering.

DMC built a strategy that uses user-generated content and influencer marketing throughout various platforms to boost engagement with the consumers. Using this more modern and trendy approach to marketing has helped the established needlework material company broaden its reach while boosting conversion rates. The company has since had the opportunity to connect with entirely new audiences of people interested in buying from their brand.

When consumers see their favorite influencers praising a brand and its offerings, they often say to themselves, "Wow, that product looks amazing. I need to try it." And then they go to the website and buy it. Because of the difference influencer marketing can make for your conversion rates, it makes the most sense to connect with influencers and use them as part of your marketing strategy to reach your sales goals.

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Influencer marketing can have a lasting impact on D2C brands ready to gain more followers, boost web traffic, and increase sales. It's one of the most effective ways to create awareness for your brand from people who may not currently know it exists. Because it can impact sales and conversion rates, boosting both by making your brand appear more authentic and credible, it's beneficial to work with influencers. In addition, you can leverage an influencer's community for your brand, expanding your reach even further than you thought possible.

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Sézane is a luxury fashion brand collaborating with multiple influencers to extend its reach and get more people interested in buying. The brand has a following of 2.7M on Instagram alone, gaining many of its new followers from influencers who’ve worn clothing from the brand and tagged the company in their photos. Pura Vida, a popular jewelry brand with over 2M followers on Instagram alone, collaborated with mega influencer Charli D'Amelio to create a bracelet pack that quickly became a huge seller! These are just some examples of D2C brands currently using influencer marketing to their advantage.

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What is influencer marketing?

• 4 out of every 5 brands are utilizing influencer marketing on Instagram, with 79% of brands claiming the platform is the most important to them for marketing purposes.
• The influencer marketing industry is expected to reach a value of $16.4 billion by the end of 2022.
• 54% of influencers say they’re willing to work with a brand as long as they're treated respectfully.

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub

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Influencer marketing is quickly becoming one of the best ways for brands to market themselves to targeted audiences. With this marketing method, brands collaborate with influencers, typically sending them free products in exchange for mentions and content created about their products. Influencers will usually show themselves opening the products, testing them out, and even applying them or wearing them to give their followers an idea of the quality and more.

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Because consumers are heavily influenced by their favorite social media influencers and are more likely to take recommendations from them, influencer marketing is worth trying. So, what is the best way to succeed with this marketing method? Conducting research and taking a custom-tailored approach that helps your brand connect with the right people who can benefit from what you're offering. Not sure how to make influencer marketing work for you? If so, you're in the right place. Check out the steps you should take to make the most of this modern and exciting opportunity to expand your reach.

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Types of social-media influencers

On your journey of working with influencers to receive and use influencer-generated content, you will notice that there are all kinds of them available. You have major influencers with millions of followers, like Addison Rae and Charli D'Amelio, but you also have people with smaller followings that still have super high engagement rates. You don't always have to work with the biggest or most popular influencers to spread the word about your brand to others. In fact, sometimes it's better for your brand to work with smaller influencers who are often more relatable and humble than major ones.

Micro

A micro-influencer will have anywhere between 10,000 and 100,00 followers on their platform of choice. These people may be new to content creation and are just getting their feet wet in the world of influencing, hence the lower follower count. However, micro-influencers can quickly become mega influencers in no time, so collaborating with them earlier on is a great way to gain their loyalty and trust. If they make it further and gain millions of followers, they may still refer to your brand as one they love, trust, and support, which is genuinely good for business.

• LaCroix doesn’t mind working with micro-influencers. The company recommends people with fewer followers to post photos of themselves with their beverages to earn a collab opportunity. It doesn’t matter if someone has 10,000 or 100,000 followers to this popular carbonated beverage brand.

Nano

Nano influencers have a following of at least 1000 people and up to 10,000. They don't have the biggest platform but may have high engagement rates. Some nano influencers build super solid connections with their followers, meaning those who follow them are often willing to listen to their recommendations. While some brands don't see potential in this, it can work in your favor if you choose the right nano influencers.

• Magic Spoon Cereal, the colorful low-carb cereal designed to bring nostalgia to the kitchen table without all the excess sugar in traditional cereals, made a name for itself in recent years using influencer marketing as its primary strategy. The company continues benefiting from posts created by all kinds of influencers, including nano influencers, such as Skinny Pig NYC.
• Lindsay Gallimore, a passionate mom blogger, has 7.9K followers and often collaborates with companies creating products for parents and babies. Her followers trust her input because she keeps it real and focuses on using eco-friendly, sustainable products.

Macro

Macro influencers have a minimum of 100,000 followers, but usually more than that! Macro influencers have a relatively large following. Although it's not the same kind of following as mega influencers, these individuals may have better engagement rates.

• Rocio Cervante is a beauty influencer with an Instagram following of 189K people! She partners with D2C brands like Nasty Gal, including content related to their brand in her stories!

Mega

A mega influencer has at least one million followers, but many have even more than that. Some have massive followings of over four million, even if they're not traditional celebrities. When most people think of mega influencers, they think of people like the Kardashians and Jenners, who've seemingly built an empire for themselves through social media. However, there are so many other mega influencers.

• Cardi B has an incredible 144M followers and definitely earns the title of MEGA influencer. She partnered with Fashion Nova with a clothing line that sold out in seconds when first released.
• Brand Papa's Pops, known for its skinless popcorn, collaborated with Hailey Peters, a TikToker with 1.1M followers, to help spread the word about its latest creations. She may not have a massive following like musician Cardi B., but she certainly has more than a million people following her.

Now that you know the difference between different types of influencers, you can start thinking about the people you'd like to collaborate with for your brand. You may make this decision based on a few factors, including your current budget and who you believe aligns best with the values of your business. After all, most brands want to avoid collaborating with someone with entirely different values or controversial content.

How to create an influencer marketing strategy

If you're ready to pair with influencers and extend your marketing efforts, connecting with new audiences and boosting engagement, now is the perfect time to do it. With influencer marketing on the rise, you can take this step-by-step approach to have the most success with this innovative marketing technique.

1. Consider the Goals You’d Like to Achieve

Before pairing with influencers, you must set realistic, attainable goals for your brand. One of the most important goals for anyone planning to use influencer marketing is to reach a new audience. You want to target people you haven't before, turning them into new customers who will likely end up loving your brand. They will become repeat customers if they love your brand and its products, which can also lead to user-generated content posted on social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

Have realistic expectations when reaching new consumers. It starts with connecting with them, which doesn't always lead to automatic sales. However, if more consumers follow your brand because they saw their favorite influencer talking about it, they're more likely to buy from you in the future. 

Although the goals you set for yourself may differ from that of other brands, raising awareness for your brand, reaching a new audience, and gaining new followers are some goals worth adding to your list.

2. Make a List of Your Targeted Audience 

While making a list of influencers you want to work with, it's equally important to consider who you're trying to target. What types of people do you want to reach with marketing content for your brand? Your brand's products may cater to people within certain demographics, such as a specific age range. It can help to consider these things to define your ideal audience for each campaign. In addition, your audience may change based on the influencer you're working with on a specific campaign. If you know who you need to target and why, you can start looking for influencers with an audience similar to the one you're interested in reaching.

3. Know What to Do and What Not to Do

You need to be transparent when working with influencers for marketing purposes. Now, it's one thing if you send a free product to an influencer, and they decide to make content on their own. But if you're paying someone to talk about your brand, you're obligated to abide by the advertising rules in your country. For example, if you own and operate a brand in the United States, you must follow the rules set by the Federal Trade Commission. 

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One of the best ways to stay compliant is to follow the FTC's guidelines and create binding contracts with influencers that include these guidelines in detail. Make sure that when you're paying an influencer to create content, they're including one small detail about the post – it's sponsored. 

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Even if you've started your brand elsewhere, such as in the UK, you will need to follow the advertising rules set forth by The Office of Fair Trading. Each country has its own guidelines to follow, so be sure to research the regulations in your area before you begin working with influencers. Although it may sound complicated, remaining fully transparent is the key to avoiding any issues. Influencers should let viewers know the content is sponsored and include hashtags, such as #ad or #sponsored, to offer even more transparency.

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Does it sound like extra work? Yes. But is it worth it to avoid discrepancies with consumers? Absolutely.

4. Understand the Importance of Working with Relevant Influencers

When you're focusing on extending your reach, finding relevant influencers to work with is a must. Working with influencers with no similarities to your brand makes little sense. For example, if you sell beauty products, you would want to connect with influencers in the beauty niche instead of those within the tech niche. Pay attention to the types of content an influencer posts and their followers.

Before working with an influencer, ask yourself the following questions:

• What relevance does this influencer have within my industry?
• How many people could I potentially reach by choosing to work with this influencer?
• How much engagement does the influencer have?

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Sometimes, people think working with mega influencers is the only way to go. However, some of the smaller influencers have better engagement rates. Most are surprised to learn that their engagement rate is typically 60% higher than larger influencers, meaning working with a smaller influencer can help you increase awareness even further.

5. Make Your List of Influencers to Reach Out to for Marketing

Start making your list of influencers to reach out to for marketing purposes. Remember that it isn't just about the followers but also the engagement rates. You can visit influencers' pages on social platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, to see what types of comments they're getting from the average consumer. Get a feel for how these influencers respond to those who leave comments or ask questions. 

You may look forward to someone who has built a genuine connection with their audience because their engagement rates will likely be much higher. By paying close attention to engagement between influencers and consumers, you can tell who has bots following them and who has built their following organically.

6. Take Your Research Seriously

Always make time for research. If you're thinking about working with an influencer, review their posts and see how many times they've worked with other brands. Get a feel for the content they put out there, which will help you decide if you want to work with them. When influencers constantly post sponsored content, their engagement rates may decline because their followers will feel like they're always advertising something. But if they only work with a few brands here and there, they likely still have decent engagement rates that will benefit your brand.

The research you conduct now will help you in the future. Although it requires extra effort on your behalf, it can lead to you working with influencers with high engagement rates. Use analysis tools to learn more about influencer audiences, such as HypeAuditor and Modash.

7. Connect with Influeners on a Deeper Level

Don't rush into things when you find influencers you're interested in working with because building a connection with them is far more important. An excellent way to work on facilitating and nurturing that connection is to follow these influencers, begin liking some of their content, and then write a personalized message to them. Don't use a copy-and-paste message because it comes off insincere and may be off-putting to some influencers. Instead, when reaching out, let them know what you like most about them and why you're interested in partnering with them.

Being sincere, showing interest in the influencers you're messaging, and engaging in meaningful conversations with them can work to your advantage. Influencers prefer authenticity and may be more willing to work with your brand if you reach out to them on a more personal level.

8. Consider Collaborations

Once you start working with influencers, give them the creative ability to make compelling content surrounding your brand. Of course, you should have a list of guidelines for the influencers to follow to ensure the content aligns with your brand's value. You can still have some say because it's your brand, but the key is to let the influencers, also known as content creators, work their magic. Because these individuals often have such innovative ideas, they may be able to create killer content for your brand that resonates with their followers, helping you get more followers!

9. Keep Track of Your Progress

Keep track of your progress to see how well each influencer campaign is doing. It's easy to get excited over likes, shares, and comments, but there's more to it than just that. For example, you can use UTM tracking to determine how well a campaign does. UTM tracking provides this detailed information based on engagement and the return on investment.

Tracking progress is vital to the overall success of your brand. If a campaign doesn't do well, you may decide it's not worth continuing the collaboration with a specific influencer. However, for campaigns that do exceptionally well, you may want to bolster your efforts and continue teaming up with those influencers to keep connecting with their audiences.

Influencer whitelisting and dark posting are two commonly used marketing techniques that enable brands to interact with the average consumers. A growing number of companies are building strategies that surround one or more of these techniques because of the general return on investment they can get. 

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Roughly 70% of all social media users follow a minimum of 10 influencers, meaning these techniques can work in favour of companies looking to broaden their reach and connect with new audiences. In addition, the ROI is higher with whitelisting and dark posting because brands have the opportunity to advertise to their ideal audience, ensuring the ad displayed will resonate with most of the consumers who see it.

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While whitelisting and dark posting are widely used in the United States, you can still become a pioneer for European brands like yours that want to strengthen their online presence and build brand communities. At least 50% of businesses are taking whitelisting efforts seriously, with many more anticipated to follow suit. Additionally, 90% of influencers believe whitelisting is mutually beneficial, allowing brands to target direct audiences while increasing engagement and helping these individuals get more followers!

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You may wonder whether these techniques are worth trying and which one you should go for first. Before you begin building your strategy, it's vital to understand influencer whitelisting and dark posting and the differences between the two.

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1. Influencer whitelisting explained

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Before properly implementing influencer whitelisting into your marketing strategy, you need to know what it means and how it can help you expand your reach, connect with new audiences, and gain the impressions you want and need!

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1.1 What is whitelisting?

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Whitelisting is a form of marketing that occurs when an influencer allows a brand to run paid advertisements under their account. As a business owner, you would have a legally binding contract with the influencer that allows you to use their account solely for the purpose of running the advertisements. You can create these advertisements in your own ad accounts section, tailoring them to fit the audience you wish to reach. Although best known as whitelisting, some people refer to this as advertising access, which is essentially the same thing. 

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With whitelisting, you're essentially paying an influencer to run advertisements from their page. And while this will cost you money, it's not bad because you can reach more people, get more impressions, and gain plenty of traffic that converts. Influencers are often open to this opportunity because they benefit from allowing the ads to appear under their names and can earn money without putting in any effort.

This is an example of influencer whitelisting seen via a partnership between Instagram Business and plant brand Prick. Sponsored content ran on the official @prickldn account Stories with a paid partnership tag for Instagram Business and focused on how the business got its start on the platform.

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1.2 Where did whitelisting come from?

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By 2010, influencer marketing was on the rise, offering brands an effective avenue for boosting product recognition. The emergence of reality TV shows like 16 & Pregnant, Teen Mom, and Jersey Shore at the same time highlighted influencers with substantial followings. Recognising the potential, brands began seeking ad access from these influencers as a straightforward means to connect with and appeal to their target audiences.

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Whitelisting has since evolved into something spectacular. It has created opportunities for both brands and influencers to get the attention and recognition they need to have more success in the digital age.

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1.3 How to set up whitelisting on Facebook

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Now, let's say you want to set up whitelisting on Facebook. If you don't know how to use it, it's quite simple. First, you will need to have a business Facebook page for your brand. As long as you have that, you can take the following steps to prepare for using whitelisting as a tactic on Facebook:

1. Go to your business settings, click on the “Users” section, and then click on the “Partners” text underneath the “Users” section.
2. Once you click “Partners,” you will see two options – Give a partner access to your assets OR Ask a partner to share their assets.
3. Click to give the partner access to your assets, insert your Facebook business manager ID, and then click “Next.”
4. You should now see Assets and Permissions, which you can choose to allow your brand partner to have access to.
5. Next, you select the Facebook page assets you can use for whitelisting, alter the permissions settings, and begin creating advertisements. Be sure to create custom advertisements for each influencer you plan to partner with to do whitelisting.

It’s a simple, step-by-step process that you can achieve in a matter of minutes to take full advantage of what whitelisting offers. Once you start a whitelisting campaign, you should notice an increase in traffic, impression, and views, which can also lead to a drastic increase in overall sales.

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1.4 What brands are using whitelisting?

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Hundreds of brands are using whitelisting to their advantage. Hello Fresh is a prime example of a company using celebrity Mandy Moore for its whitelisting marketing approach. The company has also worked with famous actress Jessica Alba to create sponsored posts that resonate with the audience.

Quip, a brand known for its innovative electric toothbrush, has also honed in on the opportunity to use whitelisting to its advantage, partnering with social media influencers to expand its reach. These are just two of the many brands that have started utilizing this cost-efficient method of marketing to increase their return on investment. Most brands are realizing the importance of whitelisting and are focused on building a strategy around it.

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2. Influencer dark posting explained

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Dark posting isn't the same thing as whitelisting, although both are commonly used as an integral part of a brand's marketing strategy. With dark posting, brands can create ads on an influencer's page that wouldn't appear on their profile or the news feed. However, these ads appear in the feeds of other people, specifically targeted based on their demographics. Brands use dark positing to provide a custom-tailored experience that can boost engagement rates and help them connect with their targeted audiences like never before. Through these carefully curated posts, they can offer products they feel viewers would be most interested in from a list of their brand's offerings.

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_{Bigblue Tips
Bigblue client ROWSE uses Influencer Whitelisting on Facebook Ads to reduce their CAC by 30% and increase their ROAS by 5X!}

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2.1 How to set up dark posting on Facebook?

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Setting up dark posting on Facebook is just as easy as whitelisting. Follow these simple steps to get started:

1. Start by visiting the Facebook Ad Manager tool that provides direct access to ads-related services, such as page posts and audience insights.
2. Select the “Page Posts” section, and then you will see the option to create an unpublished page post.
3. While creating an unpublished page post, you will see that you can decide how you want to use the post, whether solely as an ad or as an advertisement that gets displayed on the page later.
4. Don't forget to choose your audience. Facebook makes it easy to select who you want to see your ads based on different factors, such as their location, age, gender, interests, and more.

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Getting started with dark posting isn't nearly as complicated as some make it out to be. In fact, if you follow these simple directions, you will be ready to create these posts that can help you target specific people based on their likelihood of buying the products your brand offers. It's a highly effective way of marketing to the right people while ensuring you get the most out of every ad dollar spent. If your goal is to get the best return on investment, dark positing is an excellent option to consider.

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2.2 What brands are using dark posting?

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BuzzFeed, a popular American internet media company known for sharing the latest on celebrities, trending products, and more, is one of the thousands of companies using dark posts to reach their ideal audience. But it's not the only company using dark posting to make its mark in the digital world.

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Plenty of others, such as Rent The Runway, Kate Spade, and Get Quip, are doing the same. In fact, Rent The Runway receives 94% of its customers through its organic approach to marketing, which includes whitelisting and dark posting, both of which have proven effective. Some of your favourite brands are integrating dark posting into their marketing strategy to achieve better results.

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The advantages of dark posting are tremendous, making it a technique worth implementing for brands of all sizes, big and small. With dark posts, influencers can have unpublished posts displayed specifically to certain people that fit within the demographics brands wish to target based on the products they're offering.

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In addition, you can use these posts to conduct split tests, discovering which advertisements connect better with the audience and help you earn a more significant return on your investment. If you haven’t already added whitelisting and dark posting to your marketing strategy, now is the time to do so.

When capturing consumers' attention, you're probably wondering which is better: user-generated or branded content. The truth is that while you can use both, there are pros and cons to each option, so it's important to know what will work best for your e-commerce shop.

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The Pros & Cons of User-Generated Content

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User-generated content has quickly taken the world by storm. As a result, many brands are using it to gain attention and strengthen their online presence. So, what are the advantages of user-generated content?

• User-generated content will cost your brand 50% less than other advertisements, enabling you to cut costs and save money on advertising.
• User-generated content typically boosts web conversion rates by up to 29%. If you want to convert more of your web visitors into customers, this is an excellent way to make that happen.
• Consumers are more willing to trust the opinions of users providing authentic reviews than brands posting content about the products they sell. With that in mind, having user-generated content can make your brand appear more authentic and genuine to consumers, increasing sales.

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💙 Bigblue Tip

‍Like Unbottled your order tracking emails to ask your clients to create UGC

Using branded delivery tracking e-mails has many advantages:

• They have an open rate of 75% vs 20 to 30% of marketing e-mails.
• They are open up to 4 times during the delivery.
• Buyers that receive an email have a better repeat rate (+4%) than buyers that didn’t receive an email
• And reduce bad ratings by -60%: they reassure clients, and overall increase their delivery experience. They are also a great opportunity to help you get more UGC!

While there are many advantages of having user-generated content for your brand, there are a few cons that you need to know about, such as:

• The possibility of having negative content created about your brand. If a consumer doesn't like something, they may mention that in their content.
• You will have to review user-generated content regularly. You need to know what people are saying and whether it's good or not. Of course, this can require more time and effort on your behalf.

Despite the cons, user-generated content is incredibly advantageous. It can save you money, help you increase visibility online, and ultimately make it possible for you to increase sales while strengthening your brand.

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The Pros & Cons of Branded Content

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Branded content is content you can make yourself as the owner of your brand. The benefits of using this type of content include:

• Telling your brand's story! You will have complete control over how to share your brand's story with the rest of the world.
• You can customize the content to resonate with your audience. Because you know them best, it may be easier for you to create the kind of content they want to view.
• You will have more than enough content available to post and share on different social media platforms, which will help you boost your visibility online.

So, what about the cons of branded content? While you can create as much branded content as you'd like, the primary con is that consumers see it as being more salesy and less authentic. As a result, they will prefer user-generated content over branded content every time!

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So, which is best for your brand? It depends on a few factors, such as the size of your e-commerce.

If you're just starting, you need to rely on branded content to build a name for your business and ultimately get people to buy from you. Once they buy from you, they may begin creating content and posting it on social media for everyone to see. But, if you're a mid size or larger e-commerce shop, your best bet is to take a user-generated content approach to advertising. It will make your larger brand appear more authentic and relatable, boosting sales. Companies of ALL sizes are using user-generated content to make waves online.

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What makes a good UGC?

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Good user-generated content is relatable, consumer-friendly, and engaging. People want to watch videos from people who remind them of themselves. It keeps them interested and willing to watch for extended periods, but it can also impact their buying decisions and get them interested enough to want to purchase what your brand can offer.

How to create relatable UGC?

Before you can benefit from user-generated content, it helps to know how to create relatable content. While you don't necessarily want to provide consumers with a step-by-step tutorial on creating the kind of content you'd like to share with consumers and make it easily accessible, these are the things to look for in any user-generated content curated about your brand and its products.

• Does it provide valuable information? Consumers want to learn things about a product before they buy it. User-generated content that offers these details, including what the product does or how it works, can make a difference. Consumers also look forward to how-to and tutorial content that provides in-depth information on using different products.
• Is it relatable? User-generated content needs to be authentic and relatable. Being demanding and/or salesy will turn consumers away and keep them from wanting to buy from your brand. But if they see content from people who create videos that sound more like they're chatting with their friends, they will enjoy the relatable content and stay engaged. It will make them want to buy from your brand!
• Does it create positive emotions? You want the content to evoke the right kind of emotions from the consumers. The great thing about user-generated content is that it captures honest emotions. These are the emotions that people want to see when watching content on social media, whether they're watching videos on Instagram, TikTok, or even Facebook.

There are a few additional steps you can take to create the most relatable user-generated content, such as:

• Create a special hashtag for your brand: Use the power of hashtags to get more relatable user-generated content. You can create a hashtag for every campaign you decide to have. The goal is to get people to post videos and photos of themselves with the hashtag while discussing your products and showing themselves using it.
• Set up a giveaway: Hone in on the opportunity to get more user-generated content by planning a giveaway. You can set the rules and specifications, selecting winners based on meeting specific criteria.

It can take time to create and collect user-generated content. However, once you manage to do so, you can benefit tremendously from it by gaining thousands of new followers, receiving plenty of views, and gaining many additional sales.

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What makes a good brand generated content?

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As previously mentioned, there are pros and cons to brand-generated content. The good thing about this type of content is having the opportunity to make it yourself and have total control over the message you will display to your audience. However, some consumers don’t view this content as authentic as they would user-generated content, so keep that in mind. The good news in all of this? You can still create relatable brand-generated content.

How to create relatable branded generated content

You may wonder how to create relatable branded content that keeps the audience watching. These are a few of the simple things you can do to make branded content that your targeted audience can relate to and enjoy:

• Speak like you're talking with a friend. Don't create a sales ad for your branded content. Discuss the exciting details of your products, go over how those products work, and even offer tutorials. The goal is to make the content seem like you're chatting with friends rather than talking to customers and trying to make sales.
• Answer any questions that consumers might have. Use frequently asked questions to create some relatable content that people will feel more inclined to watch. You can take some of your most commonly asked questions and turn them into video responses where you're offering valuable information that people want to hear.
• Provide real reasons for consumers to buy. If you want people to buy, give them real reasons to do so. Let the consumers know that your products can solve xyz for them, which will likely entice them to try your brand and see if the products do what you've said they will.

You can make branded content that gets views and helps you gain more exposure for your e-commerce shop. It simply requires a bit of creativity.

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UGC vs BGC, which one won?

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When it comes to user-generated content vs. branded content, check out these results for various brands of different sizes.

1. Chanel, the luxury fashion, fragrance, and beauty brand, crafted a branded post for the Les Beiges foundation on Instagram, generating 147K views and 33K likes. BUT Les Beiges’ user-generated content was the clear winner. Danielle's honest review on social media led to 4M views and a massive 1.1M likes from consumers, garnering way more attention.

2. Despite regularly posting branded content to social media, Dunkin' saw a 57% increase in downloads of its mobile app and a 20% boost in sales for cold brews when partnering with social media influencer Charli D'Amelio, showing that user-generated content once again takes the lead.

3. Well-known backpack brand Cabaïa generates 30K likes within 30 days while having its user-generated content shared thousands of times, proving that this brand benefits from UGC more than its branded posts.

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Because brands of all sizes truly benefit from user-generated content, you have the perfect opportunity to do the same. While you can still create branded content, try to emphasize user-generated content more to resonate with your audience and gain their trust.

We are thrilled to announce a record-breaking performance this Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). In the days leading up to and following the biggest shopping event of the year, Bigblue was able to handle an unprecedented volume of orders and shipments, thanks to our efficient and reliable fulfilment services.

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With some of our customers experiencing a staggering 15x increase in order volume on the morning of Black Friday compared to their daily average, it’s safe to say this year's BFCM were incredibly successful for our merchants. And we are proud to have played a part in their success.

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Our team in our five warehouses in the UK, France, and Spain worked around the clock to ensure that all of our +450 clients' orders were fulfilled on time and without any delays, resulting in a record number of satisfied customers.

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2022 Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) Highlights from Bigblue

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Opening your e-commerce shop to British consumers means that you need to adapt your shopfront to connect with them. Localization is the key to winning the trust of your consumers while providing them with an incentive to buy from your website. 40% of global consumers won’t make purchases on sites in other languages!

Several simple and effective ways to adapt your e-commerce shop to UK buyers exist. If you're ready to impress these consumers and get them more interested in what your brand offers, check out the following helpful tips below!

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1. Create a UK-friendly version of your website

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Start by creating a UK-friendly version of your website. Although English is the primary language spoken throughout the country, the British spell many words differently than those living in the United States. You will also need to list prices for products in their currency.

17% of consumers will abandon their carts if the checkout process becomes frustrating, and they’re unable to determine how much they need to pay for the items. In addition, 33% of international consumers won’t consider making a purchase if they notice their local currency isn’t available as a method of payment. It may seem like extra work, but it's worth it in the long run because it shows these consumers you care enough about them to want to create a version of your website custom-tailored specifically for them.

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Here are some steps you can take to easily localize your e-commerce store:

• For Shopify: One way to localize your store is to duplicate your original shop and make necessary modifications to the content and language to cater to a specific market. To do this, you can follow the steps outlined in Shopify's documentation.
• For Woocommerce: Another option is to use the Duplicator plugin, which allows you to clone your existing Woocommerce store and make modifications to suit a specific market.
• For Prestashop: There are also a variety of tutorials available that can guide you through the process of localizing your Prestashop store. One such tutorial can be found at the following link.

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In addition to localizing your e-commerce platform, you may also want to consider using a service like Bigblue to automate your logistics internationally. Bigblue allows you to centralize all shipments for multiple shops on the same platform, giving you peace of mind and helping you focus on growing your business.

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2. Get to know the British consumer habits

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Set realistic expectations when selling to UK consumers by learning a lot more about them and their online shopping habits. 47% of consumers in the UK have made a minimum of six online purchases within the past three months. This proves that the British aren't afraid of ordering online, and will typically do so if they can get what they want and need delivered to them in no time.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, over 60% of British consumers have changed their consumption habits, with a growing number of people preferring to buy online. But, they will only want to buy online if they know they can get the items rather quickly, with many consumers expecting their purchased goods to arrive at their front doors within a single day of ordering. If you can offer the speedy shipping that British consumers love, your e-commerce shop can do exceptionally well within this international market. 

Use this valuable information to target UK consumers, meet their needs, and gain more business for your e-commerce shop.

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Discover the likes & dislikes of British consumers to keep them from abandoning their carts

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Learning more about what consumers like and dislike when online shopping can help you avoid making potentially costly mistakes that would cause consumers to abandon their carts instead of completing their purchases on your website. Some of the most common reasons British consumers abandon their carts when visiting e-commerce shop websites are lengthy deliveries, costly deliveries, and complex return policies.

Consumers in the UK don't want to wait weeks to receive their items, nor do they want to spend extra money to cover the cost of shipping. In addition, if they think they will have a hard time returning something if it's not a good fit for them, they won't even bother putting in an order.

The good news? If you can reduce shipping fees, offer speedy shipping services, and provide an ideal return policy, you can boost sales and see an increase in the number of UK orders you begin to receive. 

The best way to achieve this goal is to provide local shipping from a warehouse in the UK instead of shipping internationally from your location. Let’s face it – international shipping is costly and time-consuming because items MUST go through customs before customers can receive them.

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Offer a return policy that British consumers will appreciate

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A shocking 33% of British consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 have stated that they regularly return items. These individuals aren't afraid to return an item if it doesn't meet their needs in one way or another. Whether it's too big, too small, or doesn't look good on them, they will want to return it and get their money back.

Of course, this means adapting to the possibility of receiving more returns than you usually would in your country of origin. But if you're not willing to accept returns, it can negatively impact the number of sales you will make in the UK. No business owner WANTS to deal with returns, but by creating a fair and convenient return policy, you can receive a drastic increase in sales. There is an upside to this situation!

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3. Include user-generated content on your website

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British customers genuinely care about what others are saying about products and brands, which plays into their final buying decision. A staggering 63% of British shoppers take the time to read customer reviews and opinions before going through with their purchase. While some businesses may consider this a bad thing, it's an incredible opportunity to experience tremendous growth when targeting the UK market. 

You can increase sales by making it easier for UK consumers to find reviews and opinions of your brand and the products you sell. It makes your brand appear even more authentic and gives consumers a good reason to want to buy from you. They will feel like they can trust your brand if they've noticed others say positive things about their experiences ordering from your e-commerce shop.

User-generated content is more influential on British consumers because it feels more open, honest, and authentic. The goal is to get plenty of user-generated content created by UK consumers, so other consumers in the UK will feel like they can relate to the people they see on their screens.

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How to get user-generated content to add to your website

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If you're wondering how to get user-generated content that you can add to your website, try to look on social media for any consumers who may have created posts talking about your brand or the products you sell. Have a relatively new business? It's still not a problem. The key is to provide the most enjoyable experience possible, encouraging your customers to post about their experiences while using a hashtag you've selected.

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Some ways to enhance the experience for your consumers include:

• Providing an estimated time of arrival, so they know when to experience their items in the mail
• Offering speedy shipping to ensure they can receive their purchases as quickly as possible
• Creating a unique unboxing experience by using high-quality, eco-friendly packaging
• Including a Thank You note in packages sent to your customers
• Offering an ideal return policy that sits well with the consumers
• Selling high-quality products that last long or do the job they're intended to do

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It’s the small things that can matter most to British consumers, improving their overall experience buying from your business. If consumers have a genuinely good experience, they’re more likely to create user-generated content and post it on social media.

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4. Provide UK consumers with the option to pay for goods in their preferred way

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You can improve the experience for UK consumers even further by accepting their preferred payment method at checkout. British consumers often prefer paying with digital options, such as ApplePay, compared to those in the United States, who typically prefer paying for merchandise with their credit cards.

Another thing to consider? Offering Buy Now, Pay Later options. There are several to choose from, including Scalapay, Klarna, and Shopify Payments. Giving consumers this option typically encourages them to put in their orders and add more items to their carts. In fact, the average order will increase by up to 45% when customers decide Klarna as their payment method. Many consumers love having the option of getting what they need immediately and having the opportunity to split payments to avoid paying for all their items at once.