We have had a great response so far for our next #Toolkit webinar: “Ireland 2023: How Deep are the Changes?”
On Tuesday, October 31st at 9am, Margaret Gilsenan will be joining us to examine the findings of new research carried out by Boys + Girls into whether Ireland and the Irish have genuinely changed forever or are the differences superficial. This research set out to explore across a number of areas how deep and embedded change is in Ireland; have we in fact changed, changed utterly and if so what sort of beauty has been born?
Content is great, but user-generated content (UGC) is better. User-generated content allows publishers to tap into their audience’s interests, creating engaging content that resonates with them.
Studies have shown that UGC can influence purchasing decisions, with 79% of consumers acknowledging its impact on their purchasing decisions. Furthermore, 80% of online shoppers are more likely to buy a product when the website showcases genuine reviews and unfiltered customer media.
While many brands have embraced UGC in their content marketing strategies, there are still misconceptions. Let’s debunk the top five common myths I’ve encountered around user-generated content and offer solutions.
1. Social media is always the best platform for engagement.
Reality: Social media may not always be the best option for engagement due to limited content visibility and unreliable engagement metrics. On top of that, social media users typically have short attention spans, and the intense competition on these platforms can make it challenging to create content that truly resonates with a target audience. So monetization options are somewhat restricted.
To tackle these challenges, consider redirecting your social media audience to your website or app. Enhance their experience by incorporating features such as like and comment buttons. Take it a step further by gathering email addresses and tracking users’ interests. This way, you can send targeted emails whenever you publish new content aligned with their interests, fostering direct engagement and loyalty.
Based on what I’ve seen over the years, I’m confident that the future of social engagement lies in exploring specialized communities that cater to users’ specific interests. I’ve been presenting the concept that “the future of social is distributed, and it’s not siloed in the walled gardens” at speaking events and publishing conferences, emphasizing the potential for social experiences across distinct communities.
It’s crucial to find communities where your voice is eagerly embraced by like-minded individuals. Leveraging specific communities allows you to connect with individuals genuinely interested in your chosen topics, enabling you to gauge their interest, refer to your existing content and create meaningful interactions.
By adopting this approach, you can overcome the limitations and short attention spans associated with social media platforms. Instead, you’ll engage with a targeted audience that shares your interests, fostering loyalty and meaningful connections. The key is to create social experiences beyond the confines of traditional platforms and directly connect with people who genuinely resonate with your content and brand.
2. User-generated content is easy to curate and moderate.
Reality: Curating and moderating UGC can be a time-consuming and challenging task. Publishers need to align UGC with their brand standards and legal requirements, which can require significant time and resources.
I firmly believe that AI plus humans will be the go-forward approach for curating and moderating user-generated content. While AI technology continues to advance, it will take time before it can effectively handle the majority of moderation tasks.
To address this challenge, I recommend focusing on your content moderation efforts within your community. For instance, when managing a commenting section, it is beneficial to align user comments with your brand guidelines. This approach helps eliminate spam and maintains a clean, engaging environment for your community.
3. User-generated content is free.
Reality: Let me be clear, as someone who knows this industry inside-out: User-generated content is not free. It is usually either funded by advertising revenue or paid subscriptions, which is important to keep in mind in the current reality.
To address this, publishers should view UGC as a valuable addition, not a replacement for professional content. Encourage engagement through meaningful comments and transform standout comments into new content. This approach generates fresh ideas without extra cost.
By balancing professional and user-generated content, publishers can enhance engagement, attract a wider audience and enrich their offerings without relying solely on traditional content creation methods.
4. User-generated content is only valuable for engagement, not revenue.
Reality: When you focus on driving engagement, you’re also increasing brand awareness, making your presence known across various social platforms and publishing sites. It’s a powerful way to boost your brand’s name and exposure.
Engagement goes hand in hand with revenue when you seize advertising opportunities. When you’re driving engagement, you’re driving more brand awareness. It’s about leveraging advertising partnerships and product promotions to propel sales and revenue.
To tap into the revenue potential of UGC, I recommend exploring partnerships to enhance user engagement and unlock revenue streams through advertising opportunities.
5. User-generated content is only relevant to certain industries, like travel or food.
Reality: UGC holds value across industries. It’s the beating heart of any community—whether it’s centred around travel, food, sports, books or even flying a plane—and the key catalyst that breathes vibrant life into these spaces, driving the pulse of any group.
In my experience, user-generated content fuels digital human connections. Across all industries, it’s the core of online interactions. For instance, if you’re a B2B publisher, you can leverage it in case studies or white papers to showcase the effectiveness of your products or services.
To determine the suitability of UGC for your business, I recommend testing various ideas with your team and implementing them to gauge their effectiveness. This approach will help you identify the best way to harness it for your audience and industry.
Well-known brands such as Google, Apple, Uber, Nike and Amazon didn’t become extraordinary by accident. It’s taken a strategy and an approach that too many emerging or challenger eCommerce brands try to bypass in their desire to experience rapid growth.
Extraordinary brands require an extraordinary growth framework. And the most effective frameworks involve four major things: extraordinary marketing, optimization, intradepartmental workflows and analytics.
Here are four lessons from extraordinary businesses that have built some of the most well-recognized brands and actionable steps you can take to apply to your own models in lowering your acquisition costs.
1. Extraordinary companies understand the importance of brand-driven performance marketing and how to find the balance between brand and conversion that works best for them.
Some performance marketers often refer to brand marketing with dubious and derisive undertones. But for emerging and challenger brands, this perspective can prove itself fatal. Peak efficiency in advertising doesn’t take place in eCommerce without a strong brand.
Brand awareness, a powerful way for companies to attract their tribes, creates powerful brand recognition over time. As the brand becomes familiar to the market, some of the biggest obstacles to purchase virtually vanish—especially when the brand has taken the time to build trust and authority.
Brand has never been merely about sleek fonts, pretty pages and an appealing aesthetic. The heart of brand marketing lies in the experiences consumers and prospects alike have with it. When most think of brands such as Fenty Beauty, Apple, Tesla and Skims, they think of reliable and quality products, consistent customer service and excellence in what they provide. When they hear brand names such as Uber or Airbnb, the reaction in consumers’ minds may be mixed, but the companies still enjoy the benefits of brand recognition. Familiarity is powerful.
Anyone running sophisticated paid media programs sees that power play out in the performance stats. Challenger and enterprise brands alike who employ brand marketing and compound awareness, goodwill, credibility and trust enjoy not only lower costs per acquisition, lower CPCs, and higher conversion rates but also better customer retention and improved LTV.
As long as they have great products and provide great experiences, of course.
The biggest myth in marketing for emerging brands is that the answer to successful advertising and growth lies in performance marketing alone. It doesn’t. Companies need a hybrid of both if they intend to thrive amidst the current climate.
And you don’t need to be Nike or Coca-Cola to build the kind of brand awareness that sets the foundation for effective and efficiently run performance marketing.
Companies in the eCommerce space, in particular, don’t often have room to slip up in their marketing efforts, being such a cashflow-driven type of business. But extraordinary outcomes depend on how well teams can marry brand-driven principles and approaches with more direct-to-conversion, performance-driven initiatives.
This is no simple feat; it often requires extraordinary planning, communication between teams, tight execution, and a treasure trove of insights gathered from performance analytics, A/B testing, social media listening and so much more.
2. Extraordinary companies are much more about evolution than revolution.
Launches and pre-order models can be powerful, especially for limited-edition products and variants. But the key to smooth, predictable scaling lies in what happens between launches. Stop-start marketing systems, where the brand experiences massive peaks and valleys along its revenue curve for the year, are rarely sustainable beyond low seven figures.
To experience extraordinary growth, like the world’s largest brands do, the marketing model you need to adapt is one that allows for constant, granular optimization.
Which headlines resonate with which audiences? Which version of creative nails it when it comes to scroll-stopping and share ability? Which first three lines of copy compel ad viewers to read the next few lines and so on to get the click-through? What site elements require optimization to move the needle on AOV, LTV, and conversion rates? It’s these granular, incremental improvements across digital assets on owned media, earned media and borrowed media alike that lead to staggering results over time.
What drives acquisition at peak efficiency is the implementation of a comprehensive marketing plan that’s structured to run steadily and consistently, day in and day out, and is constantly being optimized with new information.
This consistent evaluation and optimization also applies to the way you hire and manage teams, work towards peak operational efficiency, improve cashflow and otherwise pull levers that will best drive marketing, operational and departmental efficiencies needed in order to be able to scale and grow in virtually any economic, market or channel climate.
3. High-efficiency marketing comes about from a series of efficiency-driven, channel-specific growth strategies over time, that work with one another rather than isolated in a silo.
Most companies are running their marketing in silos where teams aren’t talking to one another, data isn’t being shared, and strategies are being executed in isolation. The most successful brands know that’s not the road to cost-efficient marketing.
In order for marketing channels to ideate and innovate smart strategies for maximum growth and efficiency, they need to be given all the contextual data related to the strategy, performance, and insights on the other marketing channels, as well.
That means, for example, understanding what messaging, angles, headlines, and offers are being run elsewhere that are and are not resonating with their respective audiences. Moreover, who is being targeted, where, and what the nature of that digital conversation looks like from the point of first interaction all the way to post-conversion.
For emerging or challenger brands, this often proves a daunting task, especially if there’s no CMO or growth strategist to connect all the dots and lay out a cohesive, synergistic strategy.
However, understanding how the channels can and should be helping one another is the key that unlocks a marketing ecosystem that is more efficient than the sum of its parts.
4. Understanding mission-critical metrics, data, and KPIs can help catapult your brand to great heights over time.
The extraordinary brands we know, buy from, and love have teams dedicated to understanding what data is important to make decisions off on and when. They’re not throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. They don’t have tunnel vision on ROAS when that KPI is fourth or fifth-tier priority at best.
Instead, they’re intentionally using deeper marketing and operational data to evolve and establish a new genetic makeup of the business that can withstand economic, market, channel, and platform volatility.
Extraordinary brands let metrics such as their CAC/LTV ratio, their OPEX as a percentage of revenue, their cash conversion cycles, and their front-end profitability metrics guide where they should focus next in order to better optimize and run at peak efficiency. For the more efficient a brand is, the faster and smoother it can scale.
Understanding how each metric pulls a lever in your business’ profitability and scaling endeavours, shaping your marketing and advertising strategies around those levers, and monitoring those movements regularly in partnership with your CFO or accountant, is critical.
Build An Extraordinary Brand, One Ordinary Step At a Time
Your e-Commerce brand can reach its full potential and stand the test of time by diving deeper into data to better understand how all of the dots connect in optimizing the foundation needed for seamless growth and scaling.
This way, you get more granular about how, when and which conversations with your consumers need to happen along the buyer consideration process.
Having spent, analysed, and optimized over $130 million in ad spend to scale brands across industries, I am passionate about diving into all the ways small…read more
Researchers found 37 websites that appeared to use AI to “scramble and rewrite” stories from mainstream publications and republish them for ad revenue.
Online content farms are using AI chatbots to “scramble and rewrite” thousands of news stories from major publications like The New York Times and republish them to earn advertising revenue, according to a new report from misinformation monitor NewsGuard. The stories, which often repurposed entire lines directly from other articles without credit, were found on 37 different sites. In some cases, NewsGuard notes, those sites appeared to be completely automated, no humans involved.
NewsGuard, which makes a browser extension rating the trustworthiness of news websites, says the content farms it identified used chatbots to rewrite stories first published in CNN, Reuters, and other mainstream outlets. That explicit reliance on the text of already edited and published stories means the quality of the writing in the plagiarized AI articles marked an improvement from past cases where content mills simply instructed AI models to generate stories without any source material. The result, NewsGuard said, were articles that would appear nearly indistinguishable from an authentic story to the average reader.
The report identified 37 sites repurposing news stories, but NewsGuard says the actual number could be much, much higher. NewsGuard was only able to identify the sites in question because each of them featured at least one article with a common chatbot error message, like “As an AI model I cannot rewrite this title.” But other sites that take a moment to remove those tell tale signs could go totally undetected.
“There are likely hundreds—if not thousands —of websites that are using AI to lift content from outside sources that NewsGuard could not identify because they have not mistakenly published an AI error message,” NewsGuard wrote. Gizmodo could not independently verify the 37 sites identified. NewsGuard didn’t immediately respond to our request for further comment.
These sites varied widely in terms of subject matter, with some focused on science and space and others on sports and politics or breaking news. Several of the websites featured names like DailyHeadliner.com and TalkGlitz.com. One of the sites, called WhatsNew2Day.com, appeared to have written an article about AI based on a June 21 article in The Verge, ironically, about ads running against AI-generated news stories.
In many cases, these plagiarized articles are being used to generate advertising revenue from major brands. NewGuard claims it discovered programmatic ads from 55 blue-chip companies running on 15 of the 37 sites analysed. That means brands, knowingly or not, are directly funding these works of AI plagiarism. NewsGuard did not respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment seeking the names of the blue-chip brands identified.
“Because the programmatic ad process—which uses algorithms to deliver highly targeted ads to users on the internet—is so opaque, the advertising brands likely have no idea that they are funding the proliferation of these AI copycat sites,” NewsGuard added.
It’s unclear exactly what AI models were used to create these plagiarized works, but Gizmodo confirmed it can be easily accomplished using the most popular tools available from Google and OpenAI. In a test, Gizmodo asked Google Bard to rewrite this recent Gizmodo story about a near collision in the airline industry to be more SEO-friendly. Bard quickly responded by saying “Sure, here is the rewritten news article” before providing a shortened 258-word story. NewsGuard found similar results when it asked ChatGPT to rewrite a New York Times article.
Both OpenAI and Google have policies prohibiting users from using their models to engage in plagiarism or aid in the “Misrepresentation of the provenance of generated content.” But those policies, for now, feel like mere suggestions. Neither OpenAI nor Google responded to Gizmodo’s requests for comment.
News industry grapples with AI
News aggregation and content mills aren’t new and far predate the current wave of hyped-up, quickly developing large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Still, the speed with which these models can recreate stories, usually in a matter of seconds, means bad actors looking to quickly fill up sites with copied content can generate hundreds or thousands or articles in a day, all potentially sucking up some advertising revenue.
Traditional news publishers, meanwhile, are grappling with the impact AI will have on newsrooms. Tech publications like CNET, and others, have been caught using AI to generate articles without clearly explaining how they are created. Some, like Insider, have begun working with AI tools to brainstorm story ideas and propose interview questions. Not everyone is onboard the AI news train though. Last week, the Associated Press said any output generated by an AI should be “treated as unvetted source material.” Even the best AI models are known to hallucinate facts and are almost certainly trained on copyrighted material, making them a nightmare for ethical journalism.
Elon Musk didn’t seem shaken by actor James Woods’ threat to stop using X if the social media platform moves ahead with a plan to eliminate a feature that lets users block others. “Then delete your account,” the billionaire tweeted.
The brusque reply, which the X owner posted to the site on Sunday, came after Woods, a one-time Musk supporter, vowed to leave the platform (formerly known as Twitter) if Musk stripped users’ ability to bar certain accounts from viewing and interacting with their posts.
“In the midst of a libel suit I was targeted by thirty trolls the defendant enlisted to harass me,” Woods said in a post last week when the news came out. “If [Musk removes X’s blocking feature], I will have no choice but to retire from this site.”
Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, announced in a post last Friday that X would end users’ ability to limit their interactions with certain accounts except for direct messages, adding in a later post that the block feature “makes no sense” for the platform.
The planned change caused an uproar among some users, some of whom have also vowed to leave X if the feature is removed.
“I will absolutely delete my account and leave this app if X attempts to even *test* this policy, wrote one user. “It’s absolutely sick and disgusting.”
“As a female climate scientist, blocking is the only thing that makes my engagement here on Twitter/X possible,” another user said.
It remains unclear if or when X might remove its blocking button. If the change goes into effect, X could be removed from the Google Play and Apple app stores, potentially deepening the social media platform’s financial troubles. Both digital storefronts require apps involving user-generated content to offer a blocking feature.
X responded to CBS MoneyWatch’s request for comment with an email saying, “We’ll get back to you soon.”
Boosting free speech — or revenue?
In another post, Woods challenged interpretations of X’s policy change as a step toward promoting free speech on the site, speculating that the decision had more to do with boosting the site’s ad revenue.
“Users of X are mere pawns to turn the site into an electronic shopping mall,” Woods said in a post on Saturday. “The man I thought was a defender of free speech is just another greedy capitalist.”
Thank you. If @elonmusk removes the ability to block concerted harassment by trolls or organized political entities, how will “X” be any different from Jack Dorsey’s horrid Twitter?
Musk, whom I once championed, is only doing this to protect his advertisers anyway. Users of X… https://t.co/bR3oMU4f2P
Last month, Musk revealed the social media company’s advertising revenue had plunged roughly 50%. X also faces competition from alternative blogging platforms like Meta-backed Threads and Bluesky.
In today’s fiercely competitive higher education landscape, colleges and universities must implement innovative marketing strategies that can efficiently attract and convert potential students. And, with the advent of the digital revolution, there has been a fundamental shift in the way marketing works. No longer is it enough to rely on traditional methods such as generic websites, print ads, brochures, flyers, and info sessions. In education institutions, YOU, therefore, need to embrace digital strategies like content marketing.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a type of marketing strategy that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. It provides your potential customers/students with information in a way that has traditionally been seen as non-intrusive and non-salesy.
This type of marketing is often used in the form of blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, e-books, emails, white papers, webinars, and other forms of content to create a powerful and consistent connection with customers and prospects and to build lasting relationships. It is not about selling or pushing your products, but rather about sharing and providing helpful information to build trust and create brand loyalty.
Why is Content Marketing Important?
By delivering valuable information that resonates with your intended audience, you can build connections with potential clients, boost website traffic, and generate leads. Moreover, it is an economical way to consistently promote your education institution’s message and an evergreen strategy that can be recycled and repurposed.
Content Marketing SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, involves developing web-hosted content to make it more visible and relevant for searches by prospective students, parents, faculty, and other stakeholders.
SEO work is a long game, so some marketing teams looking for quicker wins sometimes overlook how powerful it can be. But once an institution sets up a blog and optimizes its webpages for search, it lays a foundation to significantly increase web traffic and inbound leads. Though it’s time-consuming, SEO work requires a relatively low financial investment, especially when compared to strategies like paid ads, events, and out-of-home ads (i.e., outdoor advertising). The low upfront costs and high success rate makes it one of the highest ROI channels used by marketers. And once it’s up and running, the sky’s the limit.
Benefits of Content Marketing for Education Institutions
Content marketing can provide a variety of benefits to your educational institution. Here are some of the most important ones:
1. Cost-Effective and Measurable
One of the primary reasons why you should invest in content marketing is that it’s good value-for-money. Unlike traditional marketing methods, content marketing requires little to no investment. By creating expertly crafted content, you can change the perception of your brand and attract potential students without the need for costly advertisements and promotions.
2. Build Authority & Awareness
Creating and disseminating educational content can be a great way to establish yourself as an authority in the education industry. By providing valuable information and insights into the topics and challenges that are relevant to your target audience, you can build trust and open the door for continued dialogue.
This type of content marketing helps demonstrate the capabilities of your institution, its thought-leadership, strengthen its brand and reputation and highlight its unique features and differentiate it from other institutions.
Tailoring content to specific keywords relevant to your institution’s offerings can boost its search engine success, leading to increased traffic and engagement. By optimizing content and keeping it up-to-date, not only can you attract new viewers, but you can also retain their attention and interest.
To create a lasting connection with your audience, your content should be easily digestible and engaging, while also being optimized for the relevant keywords and up to date with the latest trends. This will make it easier for your audience to find and share your content across both traditional and social media platforms.
4. Generate More Qualified Leads
By offering informative and valuable content, potential students are given the tools to make informed decisions. This builds trust in your institution and sets you apart from your competitors, resulting in an increase in qualified leads and higher conversions.
Creating high-quality and original content can significantly boost your institution’s SEO rankings and visibility. Search engine algorithms prioritize content that is up-to-date and relevant to your target audience, so it’s important to provide comprehensive yet concise explanations of important topics. To ensure your content reaches the maximum number of potential students and other relevant audiences, utilize effective search engine optimization techniques such as keyword research, link building, and website optimization.
When educational content provides valuable and informative solutions to students’ problems, they are more likely to share it with their friends and family, leading to increased exposure and visibility for your institution. By showcasing your institution’s values and beliefs and sharing news updates, student achievements, and faculty accolades, you can build a passionate online community of students, alumni, staff, and faculty who, in turn, become brand advocates. Make your content zippy (i.e., short, easy to consume, and readily available), which will make it more likely to be shared across social media platforms.
7. Increase Conversions
By providing potential students with informative and insightful content, your educational institution can increase its chances of being chosen as a provider. Through targeted content at various stages of the decision-making process, you can guide potential students through the sales funnel and nurture their interest and engagement. Effective content marketing strategies can ultimately lead to an increase in student enrolment.
Challenges and Solutions for Implementing Content Marketing in Education
Despite the clear benefits of content marketing in education, there are several challenges schools face when implementing an effective strategy.
1. Lack of Resources and Budget
With the increased focus on digital marketing, you may find yourself in a situation where you have to do more with less. In fact, many educational institutions are operating on a tight budget, and may not have the resources to fund an effective campaign or hire a full-time content marketing team or community manager.
The solution is to find creative ways to use your existing resources, like leveraging current staff, faculty, students, or alumni. Schools can work with blog contributors or set up an intern program to produce content. It is important to think creatively about where such content can come from. Sources for your pipeline could include the alumni network, student projects, faculty news, etc.
2. Limited Buy-In From Leadership
Another obstacle may be that leadership may not see the value in content marketing, either because they don’t understand its value or because they don’t believe or see immediate results. Without strong leadership support, it’s difficult to put together a cohesive strategy and ensure it is fully implemented.
The solution is to collaborate with internal stakeholders and establish a long-term strategy. Start by communicating the value of content marketing to your management team and make sure they understand how it can benefit your institution. Provide data and examples to show how content marketing has worked for you or your competition so far, while pitching clear and measurable goals for the future.
To summarize, content marketing is a cost-effective way to increase an education institution’s reach and visibility, while also highlighting the in-depth knowledge and expertise of its team. It helps build relationships with potential students, and strengthen the brand’s reputation. So if your education institution has not yet invested in content marketing, now is the right time to incorporate it into your marketing strategy.
Amazon’s Buy with Prime gives sellers the best of both worlds, integrating Amazon’s Prime benefits into their own brands’ websites.
Amazon Prime has become associated with a level of consistency and dependability. It’s a brand over 200 million subscribers trust globally. Ecommerce sellers can tap into that subscriber base by adding Amazon’s Buy with Prime service into their websites’ checkout process.
All the customer has to do is log in to their Amazon Prime account and all their payment and shipping information are available. Amazon says that Buy with Prime’s ease of use, free shipping and familiar checkout experience have increased shopper conversion by 25% on average. If you’re a brand, that’s conversion on your website.
When a customer buys your brand’s product on Amazon, they’re Amazon’s customer. It’s hard to get around that — especially when tapping into Amazon marketing capabilities like Amazon DSP — you’re targeting Amazon customers on Amazon. Anyone using Buy with Prime is still your customer. By the time a customer gets to that checkout option, they will have interacted with your brand’s marketing funnel and website, but they get the convenience of Prime to boost their experience.
Buy with Prime merchants can also showcase reviews from Amazon. If your brand has a positive following on Amazon, it’s easy to tap into that consumer trust. Online shoppers depend on reviews when making their decision, and seeing reviews from both Amazon and your website helps to clinch that conversion.
This is most useful for brands with an established Amazon presence, especially because of fulfilment. For Buy with Prime to work, you must have inventory in Amazon fulfilment centers. When Buy with Prime was first rolled out in 2022, it was only available to Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) businesses by invitation only. Now any third-party merchant can use it — as long as they “pay for what they use, and all fees, except for those incurred for storage, are charged only after merchants make a sale,” Amazon notes in a FAQ section on the Buy with Prime page.
For those prices, Amazon will deliver on delivery. Amazon has been bolstering its delivery process using artificial intelligence and “regionalization,” keeping inventory in areas closer to customers. Online shoppers prefer value over speed when it comes to delivery. In a survey, shipping cost was found to be 2.85 times more important than shipping speed. If they are already Prime subscribers, not having to pay for additional shipping along with fast delivery reads as the ultimate value—value that becomes associated with your brand.
Overall, Buy with Prime integration is relatively easy, with minimal code to be added to your brand’s website, even if you use ecommerce platforms like Shopify. Sellers can choose which items are Buy with Prime compatible and their pricing. You can create bundles with higher price points, even varying from your prices on Amazon. Your website must have Amazon Pay integrated for Buy with Prime to work, though.
Buy with Prime does come with some endorsed integrations. No code is necessary for integration if sellers use a BigCommerce website. BigCommerce sellers can automatically sync their catalogue across platforms and monitor orders and returns. If you’re a Klaviyo user, Buy with Prime also comes with integration for syncing purchase data to reach customers with targeted messaging. Klaviyo will allow you to reengage shoppers, encouraging Prime members to return and complete checkout using Buy with Prime on your site.
Your brand gets access to the shopper information, including name, email address, shipping address and phone number. Amazon will also get that customer data about Prime, but they won’t get any data concerning your non-Prime orders on your site.
At my company, ChannelOp, I love to see brands excel using Amazon’s tools to boost their brand. Amazon’s greatest strength comes from having a diversity of sellers in its marketplace. However, there are sometimes disparities between how inventory moves on Amazon and its websites. We’ve found that when certain products sell well on a brand’s website and not on Amazon, Buy with Prime can move that Amazon inventory. It’s just another tool in your brand’s toolbelt.
I do look forward to improvements from Amazon on these tools. One feature I hope to see is a Buy with Prime basket. Currently, it’s a single-unit checkout process, limiting online shoppers to single transactions. The margin will increase if three products can sit in a checkout basket instead of just one.
I hope to see more brands tap into online shoppers’ trust in Amazon Prime. Whether you’re already a Fulfilment By Amazon business or a third party, Buy with Prime adds value to your customer’s journey.
I’m the founder and CEO of Channel Op. Channel Op’s goal is to take Amazon off your plate so you can focus on other important aspects of your business. Channel Op is a full-service Amazon agency with experience in every category on Amazon. Over the years, we have worked with over 200 brands.
We catch up with the rental app’s marketing boss, Hiroki Asai, to hear why he shifted its strategy so dramatically and how he’s confident it has now found a winning long-term formula.
An Airbnb ad launched today spotlights the perks of staying in one of its rentals rather than traditional hotels. In one of three playful, animated short films, a group of friends is ready for a relaxing, kiddo-free vacation – only to find the hotel pool teeming with screaming children. Luckily, the travellers find solace in a picture-perfect thatched-roof Airbnb with a peaceful, private pool. “Get an Airbnb and get a place to yourself,” a voiceover chimes.
The spot is part of a new brand campaign that will roll out across the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and a handful of other markets across the globe throughout the coming weeks.
It comes on the heels of the brand’s multichannel spring campaign, which spotlighted Rooms – Airbnb’s newly-rebranded offering of private rooms within shared homes – by telling the story of individual hosts from across the globe and the unique experiences that can come with a Rooms stay.
These and other Airbnb marketing efforts of the last few years evidence a broader paradigm shift in the way the brand aims to connect with and engage audiences everywhere. It’s a shift that began with the Covid-19 pandemic.
A strategic shift
When the pandemic upended the travel and tourism industry in 2020, Airbnb lost about 80% of its business overnight. As Brian Chesky, the company’s chief executive, told entrepreneur and ‘This Week in Startups’ podcast host Jason Calacanis: “We were staring into the abyss.”
Although the existential disruption may have easily sunk the business, Chesky and his team were determined to tackle the crisis opportunistically.
The challenge wasn’t in the remit of product, operations or finance alone. Marketing, too, would play a critical role. “It basically turned the company upside down – but it was also an opportunity to reimagine Airbnb a little bit and take a look at what the next iteration of Airbnb would be,” chief marketing officer Hiroki Asai tells The Drum.
The company’s founders, including Chesky, chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharczyk and chairman Joe Gebbia, sought to make Airbnb “a much simpler company” says Asai – one that was “creatively driven,” with brand and design at the heart of the corporate story.
For Asai, who has been at Airbnb for about three and a half years, the approach felt natural. The executive began his career as a graphic designer before spending 18 years on the marketing team at Apple. A core focus on design and brand-level storytelling is in his DNA.
Pre-pandemic, Airbnb’s marketing strategy was primarily performance-driven, with much of the brand’s marketing budget dedicated to digital advertising. But when the pandemic flipped the business on its head, performance marketing wasn’t delivering what the brand needed. Asai tells The Drum: “The problem was that Airbnb wasn’t able to put its own message out into people’s minds and out into the market, so the messages were being driven by reactive PR and comms and basically what the world and what social media was talking about. Airbnb kind of lost control of the brand a little bit – and of the message and the narrative.” To regain control of the narrative, Airbnb decided to dial back its investment in performance marketing significantly.
Instead, Asai says, the plan was to “go back to the core of what Airbnb was about – which is about core hosts, primary homes and guests.” The brand poured marketing dollars into communicating this message with big, bold brand campaigns instead of performance-driven buys.
It was a much-needed strategic adjustment, in Asai’s view. “As Airbnb was growing, pre-pandemic, it was losing its differentiation. There were a lot of competing options for travellers out there and Airbnb … was losing its uniqueness. It was losing its sense of brand and who it was. So, coming out of the pandemic, the decision was to really focus on the core business and to focus on creating experiences, creating features and creating a product … to differentiate ourselves – and then to use brand to actually communicate and teach people what those differences are.”
Keeping product and brand in dialogue at all times
The brand began to invest deeply in developing and highlighting specific features and tools that set its product and experience apart. For example, a key focus of the last few years has been building out Airbnb Categories – classifications of home types, styles and locations that help users find inspiration, discover unique stays and narrow down their search. Last year, Airbnb launched a campaign showcasing its range of over 60 Categories to explore on the platform – from treehouses and off-the-grid cabins to private islands and luxe mansions. It told the stories of travellers staying in some of the platform’s most unexpected and exciting homes, like a giant potato in Idaho and a cave home in Utah.
As Asai explains: “At the core of what we need to do is to create a product and experience that’s different than any other service. And to do that, we need to innovate on the software, on the technology. And we want to use brand not just to advertise our values and what we’re about – we also want to use brand to help explain what these features are and how they make for a different experience.”
And the shift change has largely paid off. Following the decision to reduce performance marketing spend, Airbnb’s traffic levels reached 95% of what they had been in 2019 before the pandemic. Chesky said in 2021 that the brand would never again rely so heavily on performance marketing. And two years after the decision to reallocate marketing spend, the company reported its most profitable fourth quarter on record in February 2023. Revenue jumped 24% year-over-year, helping Airbnb reach an Ebitda of $506m for the quarter.
Since the strategy is proving effective, Asai and his team are only digging deeper into ways to communicate product differentiators through a brand-first approach. Airbnb’s Rooms campaign earlier this year, he says, has been a successful example. “Our approach is that product development and marketing should go hand-in-hand. We’ll work off of one central customer insight that then feeds what we do on the product – and that same insight also feeds how we market it and how we talk about it in paid media and in PR.”
With Rooms, the central insight was that many Airbnb users were interested in more cost-effective stays but were sceptical of staying in a shared home where they knew very little about the host. “The barrier that’s keeping [users] from booking Rooms is that they really don’t know who that host is and need some insight. That led to this idea of a Host Passport and adding more than just kind of dry facts [and instead adding] more insights into the space, who the host is, the hosting journey, why they’ve decided to rent the room, the story of their home. Then that same insight fed the advertising in a way that put the experience [front and center].”
The in-housing philosophy
Airbnb is able to keep product and marketing so tightly interwoven in large part due to the brand’s in-housing model, according to Asai. Not only is all product development and technology design done in-house, but so too is the company’s marketing and advertising. As the executive puts it: “What that allows us to do is to have a very, very tight system for all customer-facing things, from marketing down to product – and to work off of one insight in an extremely integrated and consistent way.”
Operationally, too, Asai says, in-housing makes sense for Airbnb as it helps the company run a tighter ship. “It’s so much easier to not deal with multiple agencies and to not deal with what the agency wants to do versus what you want to do – plus timelines, cost, just the layers of management you have to have to keep those relationships going. More importantly, I think you get a much better creative product when you have the people that create the advertising sitting literally right next to the people that make the product.”
It’s an approach Asai believes in wholeheartedly. “I’m really bullish on in-housing creative because I’ve worked on both sides of the fence – I’ve worked on the agency side, on the design firm side, then as an in-house creative and then ultimately on the marketing side. I’ve seen all ends of it and I really think people with a creative background get short changed working on the service side – I think amazing work happens out of agencies, but I think for creative to grow, they really need to be exposed to everything that happens upstream … and everything that happens downstream. Being in-house really gives you that visibility in that breath. Ultimately, it makes you a better designer, makes you a better art director, makes you a better writer.”
Nonetheless, he acknowledges that in-housing may not be the appropriate model for every brand. He admits it can be “a very difficult thing to manage.” Airbnb, in his opinion, is uniquely poised to benefit from the model because of its roots in commercial creativity. “The reason it works for Airbnb is because we have creative founders and creative leaders. Our CEO was trained as a designer, so he has a unique understanding of the creative process and can champion it and make it work and he is really involved in the work.” But in-housing, Asai says, “is really not for everyone.”
Mapping out new frontiers
When it comes to the brand’s future, Asai is confident that the continued integration of product and marketing will be a boon to the brand’s success.
As it looks to the future, a major focus for the brand in the near- to medium-term is expansion into new markets. It’s a goal Chesky spoke about openly on the company’s latest earnings call earlier this month: “The next big focus for Airbnb is reliability. If we can make Airbnb even nearly as reliable in many markets as hotels, I think you’re going to open up a whole new generation of travelers to Airbnb.” In particular, the company is eyeing Asia Pacific, which Chesky says represents “a huge opportunity for growth.”
It’s a plan that Asai is eager to take part in, adding: “It’s also super exciting to be able to introduce Airbnb to whole new audiences and cultures.”
As the company aims to expand, a focus on brand-centric marketing will remain a key part of the growth strategy, with Chesky saying during that Q2 earnings call: “When you invest in a brand, when your brand’s a noun and a verb, and you have something unique, you get a lot of … benefits. And I think it’s going to be consistent and we’ll have pretty consistent marketing spend as a percent of revenue over time because of the strength of the brand.”
As concerns over data privacy abound, Vero is doing social media a little differently
Unlike Threads, Vero has been focused on steady, rather than exponential growth.
When Mark Zuckerberg launched Threads as a competitor to Twitter, it broke ChatGPT’s record to become the fastest-growing social network in history, gaining 100 million users in just a few days. But in the weeks since its launch, Threads’ daily active user count has fallen by significant margins, dropping 82% as of July 31.
Vero, on the other hand, has been growing slowly and steadily for years, flying mostly under the radar as it seeks to build a strong base from which to change the social media landscape. The app, which now has a user base numbering about 6.5 million people, proposes a different, more real, version of social media, one that is importantly lacking the incentives for addiction and vitriol that are present on other platforms.
“People are becoming more and more aware of the problem of platforms mining their data, and then using that data, selling it to advertisers,” Ayman Hariri, the co-founder and CEO of Vero said in an interview with The Street. “We’re definitely seeing people that do come onto the platform organically come because of those concerns.”
Vero is ad-free, subscription-based
Vero was designed to be a completely ad-free, subscription-based social network. Though the company has yet to activate the subscription model – and hasn’t said when it will do so – the result of this ad-free network is a platform without incentives, and therefore, without an algorithm.
“When people talk about data and data mining, it’s really about having enough information on somebody to know what their habits are, and whether or not there’s a way to design things to fit within those habits,” Hariri said. “It’s a negative thing in that you can make the product more addictive. You can potentially manipulate people’s behaviour. And that’s a red line we don’t want to cross.”
These problems of algorithms and misaligned incentives were at the centre of Meta Platforms’ (META) – Get Free Report Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s complaint against the company in 2021. The computer scientist said at the time that “Facebook makes more money when you consume more content,” adding that the platform designed its algorithms to prioritize profits in a way that incentivizes hate speech.
Vero has no such incentives.
“There’s no advertising. Therefore, it isn’t an algorithmic feed,” Hariri said. “Therefore, we’re not looking for content that gets any reaction. We’re not in that world at all. I don’t believe in it.”
It provides users with a chronological feed that, according to Hariri, gives people complete access to their entire following, something advertisement-based platforms have not been able to promise.
“There’s no place for hate speech on our platform,” Hariri said. “We’re not looking for people to be okay with that nor to train people that that’s okay.”
Vero currently employs a human content moderation team, but is looking into tools to bring that effort up to scale.
“I think that free speech and what X is particularly going after is a noble cause, but just the practicality of daily life makes it difficult to achieve something that will work for everybody,” he said. “We’re doing things in different ways.”
And where other platforms, such as YouTube and now X (formerly Twitter) incentivize their creators to make content by sharing percentages of ad revenue, Vero’s approach is necessarily different. There’s no ad revenue to share; the app, instead, will grant creators equity ownership in the platform itself.
Vero users own shares of the company
“If you choose to come to Vero and bring your following, you own shares in the company. It’s got nothing to do with discussions with me or anybody else,” Hariri said. “We’re looking very intently at the regulatory aspects and we’re making bold moves that nobody else has done because we truly mean what it is that we’re saying. We want to be different. And we want to have a different impact on people that join us.”
To that end, Vero acquired Tokenise Stock Exchange International in June, a regulated stock exchange for tokenised securities that was founded in 2018.
“It’s a challenge to go down the path of educating a market and selling to them,” Hariri said. “That’s why our product has to stand on its own two feet as a product that delivers you value. That’s what we’re focused on. That’s why it takes us so long.”
Ian Krietzberg is a breaking/trending news writer for The Street with a focus on artificial intelligence and the markets. He covers AI companies, safety and ethics extensively. As an offshoot of his tech beat, Ian also covers Elon Musk and his many companies, namely SpaceX and Tesla.
Imagine you’re standing at the edge of a bustling marketplace where billions of potential customers are shopping. In this digital age, that marketplace is none other than Facebook, a vibrant hub of connections, interests and endless possibilities. It’s here that businesses big and small vie for attention, hoping to captivate the hearts and minds of their target audience.
But amid the flurry of ads competing for attention, how can you ensure that your Facebook advertising campaigns stand out from the crowd? How can you unlock the secret to maximizing your return on investment and turn your advertising efforts into a flourishing success story?
Below I’ll share three proven strategies that will help you navigate the dynamic realm of Facebook ads. My agency uses these strategies to guide our clients toward success.
1. Change Your Creative Frequently
Frequently changing your creative is important for keeping people engaged with your ads and getting more clicks. It helps keep things fresh for potential customers, so they will not get ad fatigue from being bombarded with ads featuring the same message or visuals every time they scroll through their social media feeds.
Changing your ads up also provides you with the opportunity to experiment with different types of content and gain valuable insights into what works best for your target audience. Try creating several variations of your ad creative, testing each one for a period of time and then switching it out for something else.
This will allow you to make more informed decisions when creating future campaigns, which will ultimately lead to higher ROI from your advertising efforts. By regularly modifying and testing different ad content, you can ensure that you are always making the most of your campaigns and getting the best possible results.
2. Use Strong Calls To Action
Effective calls to action can increase your click-through rate and drive conversions. They help guide potential customers through the sales process and encourage them to take actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for an email list. So make sure to include a CTA in every ad you create. This could be something as simple as “Sign up now,” “Learn more today” or “Get started here.” Make sure your CTAs are clear, concise and direct. Keep them simple, but use powerful language to encourage people to take action.
Another key tip is to create urgency. Include phrases like “Get it now,” “Limited time offer” or “Ends soon” to prompt people to act quickly before the opportunity passes.
Try experimenting with different CTAs and tones of voice in order to see what resonates best with your target audience. Remember, a strong CTA can be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful campaign.
3. Scale Your Budget Incrementally
If your ad campaigns are successful, you may be tempted to scale up the budget quickly. However, it’s usually best to take a slower approach and test each budget increase before committing fully. This will help ensure that you don’t overspend on campaigns that aren’t performing well and will also give you a better idea of the budget you need for maximum success.
Start with a small budget and gradually increase it as you get more data on the effectiveness of your campaigns. Analyse the data to identify areas where you can improve, and then adjust your budget accordingly. Scaling gradually by 10%-20% is a good rule of thumb we use at my agency.
As you start to see results, you can increase your budget more aggressively. Remember, digital advertising is a science—take your time and be patient to maximize your ROI.
Stand Out To Make Your Ad Dollars Count
In the vast virtual marketplace of Facebook, where billions of potential customers roam, it’s critical to make your advertising campaigns stand out. Refresh your ad creative frequently, and experiment with various visual styles and copy techniques to discover what works best for your audience. Use compelling CTAs to motivate users to take action. Lastly, don’t overlook the importance of strategically scaling your budget over time. Make every ad dollar count.
