Teri’s take: shoppable Pinterest, record breaking mobile sales & customers as influencers
The Article: What to know about shopping on Pinterest
The summary
Today, Pinterest has more than 320 million monthly active users. According to a recent report from the company, 83% of users have purchased a product after seeing it posted to Pinterest by a brand, showing a big opportunity for brands to drive sales. Brands have already seen success advertising on the platform. For instance, when Inkbox ramped up spend 1,000% earlier last year, the company saw conversions increase over eight times. This article lays out the details of each shopping feature on Pinterest, including Product Pins, Shop the Look ads, Shop tab, and visual search.
Our take
Most Pinterest users join the platform for one thing. And that’s shopping. Making it easier to buy products directly from the app is not only an excellent way for impulse buyers to put a dent in their wallet, but for brands to get their products in front of an audience with extremely high purchase intent. You might be thinking that you don’t have the resources to add yet another channel to your marketing strategy. However, repurposing content from other social channels, such as Instagram and your website, can cut down on the time and effort it will take to create content for Pinterest. Plus, unlike Instagram, you’ll see that content posted on Pinterest has a much longer engagement life because browsers are constantly looking for inspiration. Some posts see engagement years after they were posted, meaning your catalogue can generate sales and website traffic for much longer than other forms of digital content.
The Article: This holiday season, U.S. online sales grew to $142.5 billion
The summary
Adobe Analytics recently looked into sales from November to December for its holiday report. During this time, online sales in the U.S. grew to $142.5 billion, a 13% increase year-over-year. Average daily revenue also grew to $2.3 billion versus $2.1 billion in 2018. But the real shocker was that smartphone purchases claimed more than $50 billion in sales for the first time. Mobile phones also accounted for a 58% share of visits, representing a 14% growth year-over-year. Sales from smartphones grew 37% year-over-year, accounting for 84% of the $16.4 billion in growth and a 36% share of the revenue.
Our take
Considering the average American spends 5.4 hours a day on their phone, it makes sense for brands to meet consumers where they are. Shoppable apps like Instagram, Tiktok, and now Pinterest have made it easier for brands to push sales in a way that seems natural for consumers. Unlike banner ads and pop up windows, it does seem that consumers are open to shopping on their favorite apps and their most used device. This report found that two-thirds of dollars earned for social platforms were made on smartphones. This means that brands now have ways to generate sales without needing to push users directly to their website. As we see mobile sales increasing, we will also see consumers willingness to shop increase, even on days when retail locations are closed like Thanksgiving and Christmas. By investing in mobile-friendly content you can make shopping experience seamless for your customers and profitable for your business.
The Article: Acne brand BioClarity uses real customers in its latest digital campaign
The summary
BioClarity, a DTC acne brand, will roll out a digital campaign featuring six of its real consumers as a bid to make the brand appear more authentic. The participating customers were not paid, but did receive free air travel, hotel stays and a meal stipend, following an open casting call. BioClarity will run paid video and photo advertising featuring the women discussing their skin-care struggles and the inexpensive price of the products. BioClarity recruited the women in its campaign by posting a casting call to its 120,000 Instagram followers and 30,000 Facebook followers and received approximately 300 applications and narrowed the pool to 40 people. The brand plans to use the campaign as an opportunity to expand its marketing tactics beyond bottom-funnel conversion.
Our take
BioClarity knows that a brand story isn’t created for consumers. It’s created with them. Modern brands such as this are changing the way they build products, serve experiences, and tell their stories by co-creating with their customers to resonate with other like minded individuals. And a brand that values and promotes its customers will soon find that happy customers will do a lot more than purchase. Customers, employees, professionals and other contributors are a critical part of a brand’s community, and as a collective have the ability to power brand growth. They generate sales, leave online reviews, and spread organic word-of-mouth recommendations that other prospective customers factor into their purchase decisions.