The Winning Playbook: Leveraging Athlete Influencers for Successful Black Friday Campaigns

Posted on by Amanda Levine

The anticipation of Black Friday reminds us of the electric energy that surges through a stadium before the kickoff of a critical NFL game. Retailers and marketers worldwide brace themselves for this adrenaline-pumping event, seeking innovative strategies to score big with their Black Friday campaigns. As marketers for Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands, your quest for fresh and dynamic tactics to distinguish your brand in this competitive field might just end on the sports field. Yes, you heard it right – athlete influencers can be your star quarterbacks for the Black Friday season. This blog post delves deeper into the playbook, revealing how athlete influencers can spearhead your Black Friday marketing strategy, leading you to the end zone.

 

Why Athlete Influencers?

The Fan Factor:

Athletes are more than just sportsmen; they are icons revered by fans worldwide. Their influence extends beyond the playing field, creating ripple effects on social media platforms, where their followers number in the millions. When athletes endorse a product or service, fans perceive it as a seal of trust and quality. Harnessing this influence can boost your brand’s credibility, leading to increased consumer confidence and sales during the Black Friday sales rush.

 

Stories that Resonate:

Beyond their impressive feats on the field, athletes possess personal experiences and journeys that strike a chord with their fans. Sharing these stories through blog posts, social media, and video content can strengthen your brand’s emotional connection with consumers, making it relatable, authentic, and trustworthy. For instance, an NFL player who overcame physical adversity through hard work, resilience, and your brand’s products can inspire consumers, driving them towards purchase during Black Friday.

 

Amplifying Reach and Engagement:

A potent combination of fame and the internet puts athletes in an influential position, connecting brands with millions of engaged fans. This wide-reaching influence means your Black Friday promotions can touch a wider audience, surpassing the reach of traditional marketing tactics. Moreover, an endorsement from a beloved athlete can spark interest and engagement among fans, thereby increasing your brand’s visibility.

 

Boosting Product Endorsements:

Partnering with athletes allows you to amplify specific product promotions during the Black Friday season. Athletes’ testimonials and recommendations bear significant weight among fans, enhancing their confidence in your product. Consider launching limited-edition, athlete-inspired collections or exclusive merchandise, which can create a sense of urgency and exclusivity, compelling consumers to participate in your Black Friday sales.

 

Creating Buzz through Social Media Challenges:

Black Friday can serve as a unique platform to engage your audience through social media challenges, driven by athlete influencers. Innovative brand-related quizzes, user-generated content, or creative videos can form part of these challenges, encouraging participation, and generating buzz around your Black Friday deals. Increased engagement boosts the probability of conversion, transforming casual consumers into loyal customers.

 

Hosting Exclusive Events and Collaborations:

Add a layer of excitement to your Black Friday campaigns by organizing exclusive events featuring athlete influencers. Virtual Q&A sessions, meet-and-greet events, or joint product launches with athletes can generate anticipation among consumers, motivating them to participate in your sales.

Preparing for the Big Game:

Now that we’ve explored the benefits of leveraging athlete influencers for your Black Friday campaign let’s discuss some key preparation steps to ensure a smooth and successful season.

Choose the Right Athlete:

Choosing the right athlete is crucial. The chosen athlete’s personality, values, and lifestyle should align with your brand’s ethos. A mismatch could confuse consumers and dilute your brand message. Opensponsorship makes this process easy by allowing brands to search 18,000+ athletes based on a wide range of search criteria and filters.

Create a Game Plan:

Like any good coach, you need a strategic plan. Outline your marketing goals, key messages, and deliverables. Coordinate with the athlete to ensure they understand and resonate with your campaign’s objectives.

Collaborate on Content:

Work with the athlete to create authentic and engaging content. This could be in the form of product testimonials, behind-the-scenes footage, or even a day-in-the-life video. Ensure that the content is appealing to the target audience and accurately represents your brand.

Monitor and Adjust:

Keep track of your campaign’s performance and be ready to tweak your strategy if necessary. As in sports, flexibility and adaptability can be the keys to winning.

Partnering with Kickfurther:

While preparing for your Black Friday campaign, you might face budget constraints that limit your marketing initiatives. This is where Kickfurther comes into play. Kickfurther offers a revolutionary inventory funding solution that allows brands to free up capital traditionally tied up in inventory. This can help you access the necessary funds to create more impactful and successful Black Friday campaigns.

With Kickfurther, you can fund your entire inventory order(s), giving you the flexibility to invest your existing capital in crucial areas like marketing… There are no immediate repayments, giving you control over your cash flow. Importantly, Kickfurther’s funding model is non-dilutive and not a loan, meaning it does not put debt on your books, nor does it take away your company’s equity. With quick access to funds, Kickfurther can help you keep up with the speed of Black Friday preparations.

Conclusion:

As we approach the Black Friday season, leveraging athlete influencers can be a game-changing move. Athletes offer a unique combination of influence, authenticity, and emotional appeal that can set your brand apart from competitors. Whether it’s creating meaningful connections through storytelling, extending reach and engagement, or boosting product endorsements, athlete influencers can add a compelling dimension to your Black Friday marketing strategy. By aligning your brand with the right athlete and preparing effectively, you can ensure a successful campaign that leads to increased sales. Meanwhile, partnering with Kickfurther can provide the financial flexibility to invest in impactful marketing campaigns, taking your Black Friday strategies to the next level. Gear up for the big game and make this Black Friday season your most successful one yet.

 

What is the difference between cash flow, revenue and profit?

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Cash flow, revenue, and profits are three financial measures that are important to understand. Managing business finances is no easy task, but the more you know the better you can manage. As a business owner it’s critical to understand operations and pay attention to details, thus always looking for ways to improve. 

At Kickfuther, we’re committed to empowering business owners and helping them maximize the potential of their company. Through our platform business owners can obtain inventory funding to improve cash flow. Before we dive into the details though, let’s invest some time reviewing cash flow, revenue, and profit and the differences between them. 

What is cash flow, and how does it differ from revenue and profit?

As a business owner, or future business owner, you’ll need to understand finances – or hire a trusted party to take care of them. Whether you manage them or hire someone else, at the minimum you should know some key measures: cash flow, revenue, and profit.

First let’s review revenue vs. profit. 

Revenue is business income, plain and simple. A business can have large amounts of revenue, and while it’s important to know what revenues are, revenue does not mean a business is profitable. 

Profit is the income of a business after deducting expenses from the revenue or net earnings. Obviously, profitability is a key metric and it’s what will keep businesses afloat and growing. 

Now, let’s review cash flow and how it’s different from revenue and profit. Cash flow is the net amount of cash that comes into and out of a business. A bit more challenging to manage, but probably the most important thing to manage on a day-to-day basis. A business needs a healthy amount of cash flow to cover expenses on the day-to-day. This can get tricky as accounts receivable can be slow to come and expenses need to be covered on-time. Oftentimes businesses use loans or financing to improve cash flow. 

Why is cash flow important for businesses, and how does it impact their operations?

Businesses need cash on hand to cover day-to-day expenses as well as growth and expansion, and everything in between. When businesses make sales the money usually does not just appear instantly in their account. In some cases it may not even come through in a few days. 

For example, a construction company may sign a project, but only receive a deposit to start working. Therefore, they will need funds to cover materials, equipment, labor and everything else necessary to carry out the project. While they may get paid in milestones as they go, you can see where the cash flow dilemma can come into play here. 

Businesses that do not have healthy cash flow may fall behind on expenses, miss out on opportunity, or potentially even fail. Business owners must find ways to maintain a healthy cash flow. One way to do so is by utilizing inventory financing.

How is revenue defined, and what does it represent for a company?

Revenue is the total amount of money generated from business operations, typically measured in set time frames such as annual or semi-annual. Revenue is defined by profit and total earnings. It represents the total amount of financial gain from sales and or services for a business, but does not represent profitability.

What factors can influence a company’s cash flow and revenue?

Revenue is primarily influenced by sales and or services whereas cash flow is influenced by a variety of factors. Below is a list of factors that can influence cash flow.

  • Accounts receivable 
  • Inventory 
  • Accounts payable
  • Operating expenses 

How is profit calculated, and what does it indicate about a business?

While it’s exciting to watch revenue grow, profit is a whole different ball game. When profit starts to grow you are really in the green. Profit is revenue minus total expenses. It indicates how much your business has earned after expenses. 

How do cash flow, revenue, and profit contribute to the overall financial health of a business?

First off a business needs to have healthy revenues to start. If they are not generating revenue from sales, they will struggle to turn a profit. While there are several variables between the revenue and the profit, you’ll want to track these high level measurements to ensure finances are healthy. Whether you have profits or not you should always monitor expenses as well to ensure your business is operating efficiently. Improving efficiency can increase profits, and even revenues too. The last part of the equation is cash flow. Healthy cash flows are an extremely important part of a financially sound business. Just as your personal account needs to have funds in it to cover your bills and expenses when they are due or needed, business accounts are no different. However, the money coming into a business is not as simple as getting paid every Friday. Cash flows typically need to be constantly evaluated to ensure they are properly managed. A cash flow deficit can cause financial hardship for businesses.

Common challenges businesses face in managing cash flow, revenue, and profit

Managing cash flow is an art. It can take time to perfect the formula, so be patient. Becoming more aware of ways to improve cash flow is a proactive way to manage cash flows. Here are some common challenges businesses face in managing cash flow which can trickle down to revenue and profit. 

  • Lack of cash reserves
  • “Wing it” approach (no plan)
  • Growing too fast
  • High expenses and or poor management
  • Inadequate pricing models
  • Delayed payment processing
  • Late payments from accounts receivable or customers
  • Too much inventory 

What are some strategies businesses can employ to increase their revenue and profit while maintaining a healthy cash flow?

Healthier revenues and profits can contribute to healthy cash flows. Here are a few strategies to consider to increase revenue and profit while maintaining healthy cash flow.

  • Evaluate pricing models (if possible raise prices to boost revenue and hopefully profit too)
  • Analyze expenses (determine where you can cut back)
  • Get inventory funding (stock more inventory to drive sales and use funding to free up cash flow)

How Kickfurther can help

CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies often encounter cash flow inconsistencies or deficits due to high inventory costs. The action to counteract this challenge is often inventory financing. While inventory financing can be a smart solution, you may already be aware of the high costs and strict requirements that come along with it. Frustrated yet determined, our founder once struggled to obtain affordable inventory financing that worked for his small business. As a true entrepreneur, he decided to solve the problem he faced for other business owners facing the same one. 

Kickfurther funds up to 100% of your inventory costs on flexible payment terms that you customize and control. With Kickfurther, you can fund your entire order(s) each time you need more inventory and put your existing capital to work growing your business without adding debt or giving up equity.

Why Kickfurther?

  • No immediate repayments: You don’t pay back until your new inventory order begins selling. You set your repayment schedule based on what works best for your cash flow.
  • Non-dilutive: Kickfurther doesn’t take equity in exchange for funding.
  • Not a debt: Kickfurther is not a loan, so it does not put debt on your books. Debt financing options can sometimes further constrain your working capital and access to capital, or even lower your business’s valuation if you are looking at venture capital or a sale.
  • Quick access: You need capital when your supplier payments are due. Kickfurther can fund your entire order(s) each time you need more inventory.

Kickfurther puts you in control of your business while delivering the costliest asset for most CPG brands. And by funding your largest expense (inventory), you can free up existing capital to grow your business wherever you need it – product development, advertising, adding headcount, etc.

Closing thoughts

To recap, revenue, profit, and cash flow are all different, but are equally important to monitor. Inventory funding is one way to drive sales thus increasing revenue and profit all the while contributing to healthier cash flow. We encourage business owners to dive in and understand where money is going and coming from. It’s important to invest in ensuring your business maintains healthy finances. If inventory funding can help, visit Kickfurther today to create a free business profile. 

A How To Guide For Zero & First-Party Data Collection and Use

Posted on by Amanda Levine

In today’s digital age, customer data has become a driving force behind e-commerce growth, empowering businesses to make informed decisions, understand customer behaviors, and gain a competitive edge. Whether you’re a small start-up or a DTC giant, the ability to capture and effectively use data for growth and retention has become a crucial aspect of omnichannel success.

In this blog, we’ll dive into the world of zero and first-party data and explore how ecommerce businesses can use it to build more effective marketing strategies. We’ll explore the difference between the two types of data and examine the various sources of each on your website.

Then we’ll cover how to collect, store, and analyze zero and first-party data, and how to use it to create personalized customer experiences that drive engagement and revenue.

Data Collection: Defining Data Types

Let’s start with the easy part—deciding what kind of data it is that you’re wanting to collect:

 

Zero-Party Data: Is anything that a visitor intentionally and voluntarily shares with you. Examples include:

  • Product preference indicator (i.e. cat vs dog toys)
  • Polls, surveys, quizzes (i.e. Where did you first hear about us?)
  • Comms preferences
  • Email/SMS signups
  • Birthday

Think of zero-party data as conversational data, like something a friend explicitly tells you. This is commonly mixed up with first-party data, which, while still “owned,” has distinct differences.

First-Party Data: Is anything about a visitor that is passively gathered from interactions and behavior. Examples include:

  • Browsing data
  • Purchase history
  • Offsite channels (i.e. email clicks)
  • Discounts used
  • Social data (i.e. follower count, influence)

Think of first-party data as implied data, like something a friend shares with you indirectly. Still important, still useful—but different from zero-party data in how the user grants consent.

Data Collection: Zero-Party Data

Zero-party data collection strategies are a careful mix of providing a more relevant, personalized experience without asking too much of your visitors. So let’s get into some of our favorite ways to do this on your website:

 

  1. Enhanced Pop-Ups: These are lead captures collecting more than just an opt-in. Add a secondary piece of zero-party data to these to immediately personalize a new subscriber’s welcome experience, like birthdays, product preferences, zip codes, etc. Make sure to actually use this data to provide them with the right user experience right from the start not just collect it and forget it
  2. Quizzes or Surveys: Quizzes/surveys are such an engaging way to interact with customers and can be something you do at the start or leverage in an exit offer to help them find the right item. Finish with a product recommendation that makes it easy for them to continue moving toward the point of conversion.
  3. Comms Preferences: Zero-party data isn’t just a set it and forget it thing, it can evolve over time. Allow customers to change their preferences so they continue to receive the content they want, where they want it, and especially when they want it.
  4. Create an Account: We don’t encourage forcing shoppers to create an account to check out. However, accounts are a great way to continually collect zero-party data and provide additional touchpoints to engage consumers with. For example, a loyalty program, membership, or product subscription program. Gamify data collection for these customers by rewarding every piece of data they share with you while simultaneously providing increasingly more personalized/effective experiences.
  5. Reviews: Product reviews are important to have on your website no matter what since 95% of shoppers read them before making a purchase. But they’re also a gold mine for zero-party data that can be linked up to individual customer profiles or to understand trends for segments as a whole. 

All of these zero-party data collection strategies will help you understand customer needs, their preferences, and why they’re shopping with your brand. The key, though, and what so many brands are lacking in their zero-party data approach, is the next step of properly using that data to personalize communications with subscribers to both delight them and provide value beyond the initial flow. But lucky for you—-we’re going into that below!

Data Collection: First-Party Data

Now collecting first-party data on your website is helpful for predicting trends and inferring likely behaviors to trigger onsite messaging AKA pop-ups.

 

Here are some of the most effective examples for when to use and collect first-party data onsite

  • Upon add to cart— show product recommendations and curated exit offer
  • Time on site—trigger pop up based on percent scroll, pages traveled, time on specific page
  • Previously ordered—highlight reviews AND UGC of the collection/product
  • URL-based— target a referring URL or opted-in status (aka gave you their email and/or SMS)
  • Location-based—show certain messaging based on locale

 

Use first-party data to get ahead of conversion objections and frictions. Combine your onsite experience data like that listed above with heatmaps or session recordings and you’ll be able to unlock a whole new level of customer understanding. All without asking anything more of your customers.

 

Putting Your Zero & First-Party Data To Use

Now that you’ve started gathering zero and first-party party data using one or multiple of the above methods, it’s important to actually use it.

Customers are providing this with the expectation it will be used to better their experience, not just sit in the backend of a database somewhere. And that’s where automation comes in.

The welcome series based on the data points collected in the opt-in is a great place to start. It’s small, but it makes a big first impression since so few brands are doing it. Justuno customer, Premama, does this extremely well via a drop down selector in their lead capture asking the subscriber’s parenthood stage. The stage selected determines which branch of their welcome flow they go down, with content tailored precisely to the right products and resources someone would need. 

Subsequent campaigns feature different product recommendations, educational content, etc. for a continually personalized experience.

 

Then they check in again with consumers to see if they should update their stage and adjust their messaging accordingly. There’s that always-on approach to data collection coming into play!

Once you’ve created a strategy for initial use it’s important to keep collecting and feeding subsequent data points collected into more advanced automations to maximize the value of your campaigns.

But beyond that it’s important to think about your data application strategy within the larger context of your customer journey. Map out all the touchpoints a visitor might have and where you can collect or use existing data to improve it. From clicking a retargeting ad with the same item they browsed before and reading product reviews with UGC and customer attributes, to not asking existing email subscribers to sign-up for your newsletter and beyond. The key is to create a seamless look and feel for consumers that effortlessly guides them towards conversion. 

It’s important to note that while we’ve really only covered the collection and use of zero and first-party data in the context of your website it’s use isn’t limited to just that. It can extend to the other aspects of your business like:

  1. Inventory Forecasting: Build a better understanding of what customers are shopping for and when to avoid sell-outs and excess inventory. Something Kickfurther can also help with!
  2. Product Development/Improvement: For example, if you have a trend of bad reviews that a product breaks often or wishing you made XYZ item.
  3. Feature Implementation: Zero-party data can help dictate where to focus new retention efforts, like introducing a loyalty program or adding a product subscription option.
  4. Content Marketing: Improve performance by understanding what interests customers the most and how they interact with it.

It all comes down to establishing trust by using the data shared with you to power personalized experiences. Once you start, it will have an exponential impact on your business in almost every area.

 

Final Thoughts

The key to scalable zero and first-party data collection/use is organization–make sure that you’re using the data you are collecting, finding gaps in your program, & adjusting strategy accordingly.

Unorganized data can lead to major no-nos like not actually personalizing the flow (or worse, sending the wrong one).

Finally, you’ll want to tie together how you’re using this data elsewhere throughout your MarTech stack. Take the zero and first-party data you collect elsewhere via channels like loyalty programs, subscriptions, memberships, etc. and feed that data back into your website experience & continuously refine and personalize your campaigns.

Interested in applying some of the zero and first-party data strategies we outlined? Try Justuno free for 14-days to see what kind of data you could be collecting from your website visitors!

Customer Satisfaction and Order Fulfillment – How to Get it Right

Posted on by Amanda Levine

In the world of eCommerce, things change quickly. But one fact remains constant – order fulfillment and customer satisfaction are inseparably tied together.

In this blog post, we’re going to talk about why this is, with specific details and examples. This is no abstract concern – customer satisfaction is a necessary ingredient for retention, which is what separates the most successful companies from the average ones. Then we’re going to talk about how you can optimize your order fulfillment processes to maximize your customer satisfaction, and along with it, revenue.

Customer Satisfaction & Order Fulfillment Are Tied Together

Defining customer satisfaction might seem simple on the surface. Everyone intuitively understands what it means – it’s a measure of how well a company’s products and services meet, exceed, or fall short of customer expectations. But how do you measure that? And furthermore, how do you optimize for that? That’s where the simple definition falls short.

Customer satisfaction is a recipe with a lot of ingredients. On the kitchen counter, you’ll find customer service, ease of purchase, product delivery, and even the company’s overall reputation. The seamless blend of these factors, combined together, eventually bakes into a satisfying customer experience.

Think about the experience of ordering a book online. The quality of the book itself is only part of the satisfaction equation. It doesn’t matter if the book is a classic of the entire Western literary canon or if it has five stars on Goodreads if the book is so damaged from rain that it’s unreadable.

If you order a textbook online and a shipping delay leaves you doggy-paddling through the first two weeks of lectures with no text material to reference, that’s not a great experience either.

It’s no accident that both of these examples of bad customer experiences involve shipping issues. Order fulfillment is make or break in eCommerce.

Why Order Fulfillment Is (Sometimes) A Magnet For Customer Satisfaction Issues

Every eCommerce order has to be shipped, and order fulfillment itself has a lot of steps that can go wrong. When a customer places an order, that specific product must be picked from inventory. Then the item proceeds to the packing stage, where the item is carefully wrapped and prepared for shipping. Postage is printed and applied, then a local carrier delivers it to the customer’s home.

If inventory levels show a product in stock when it’s not, the experience goes sour. The same is true if the wrong item is shipped or if the order is shipped to the wrong address. And if the local USPS carrier has a bad day and kicks the package across your customer’s lawn, that’s a problem you’ll have to deal with too (even if it’s not your fault)!

Consider this – according to OptimoRoute, 84% of consumers are unlikely to shop with a brand again following a poor delivery experience. This statistic underlines the tremendous impact of order fulfillment on customer satisfaction.

Imagine the frustration of receiving a long-awaited product, only to find it damaged due to poor packaging or late due to sluggish delivery. Such instances tarnish the overall customer experience, lowering satisfaction rates.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact, good order fulfillment processes can increase your odds of satisfying customers.

Strategies for Improving Customer Satisfaction Through Order Fulfillment

Improving order fulfillment might seem difficult and all-consuming, but there are a handful of broad strategic changes you can make that will have a disproportionately large and positive impact on the ultimate result.

Here are six that come to mind:

1. Streamline Order Processing

If you want to ensure a seamless customer experience, order processing needs to be very smooth. Whenever a customer places an order, the information needs to be sent to a fulfillment center through a software integration. That way, the people shipping orders will have everything they need to get started with no manual intervention.

It sounds simple, but a lot of businesses still manually process orders! Even if you’re shipping from home, you can configure your Shopify store to help you quickly create the postage you need so all you need to do is pack, print postage, and slap on the label.

2. Master Inventory Management

“Out of stock.”

No customer wants to see these words and you need to do everything in your power to make sure they never do.

Avoid such disappointments by implementing real-time inventory tracking and predictive analytics. These strategies will help maintain optimal stock levels, preventing inventory shortages and fulfilling customer orders promptly.

This is fairly complex to do, so here is a more detailed guide on the subject.

3. Pick A Reliable Fulfillment Partner

Once you’re shipping about 100 orders per month, it’s time to hire a fulfillment partner. At that point, the cost of shipping on your own is likely to exceed the cost of hiring someone to help. And even if it doesn’t, outsourcing will save you a bunch of time.

However, hiring the wrong fulfillment partner can create a lot of problems. Do your due diligence and choose one with a great reputation for timely delivery and communication. It’s an arduous process at first, but it pays off in the end when packages start going out faster than you could ever manage on your own!

4. Communicate Often

From sending order confirmations to providing delivery updates, proactive communication can help manage customer expectations, build trust, and enhance satisfaction. To give you a concrete, and somewhat silly example, Domino’s does this with their Pizza Tracker!

Even delivery delays and mishaps can be made better by taking a proactive approach to communication. Getting a package two days late is bad. Being completely in the dark about why the package is late is worse.

5. Have a Generous Return & Refund Policy

No one likes returns, but they are inevitable. Making the return process easy and transparent will help maintain customer satisfaction, even when things go wrong.

Be clear about your policies, offer free returns when possible, and process refunds promptly. This way, even a return experience can become a positive touchpoint for your customers.

6. Offer Personalized Experiences

Personalization is key to winning customer loyalty. Use customer data to offer personalized product recommendations, special offers, and communication. This can make customers feel valued and appreciated, enhancing their overall shopping experience.

 

Keep in mind, however, that as good as these strategies are, in order to truly achieve success, you’ll also need to track your performance and identify areas for improvement. The next section talks about how you can do that.

4 KPIs to Track to Ensure Great Order Fulfillment

If you’re looking for a way to gauge your progress, you’ll need key performance indicators (KPIs). In order fulfillment, four KPIs stand above the others.

  • Order Accuracy Rate: The proportion of orders delivered without errors, highlighting the effectiveness of your order processing.
  • Order Cycle Time: The speed from order placement to delivery, providing insights into your process efficiency.
  • Rate of Return: The quality of delivered products, with a lower return rate usually indicating satisfied customers.
  • Customer Feedback: Though not quantitative, it’s still really important. Surveys, reviews, or direct interactions can serve as critical indicators of customer satisfaction, pointing towards areas needing improvement.

What gets measured, gets done. Pay attention to these four KPIs when making changes to your order fulfillment processes. If you make a point to monitor these indicators and act on them, your odds of meaningfully improving your order fulfillment processes go way up, and that paves the road for improved customer satisfaction and, ultimately, revenue. 

 

You can’t decouple order fulfillment and customer satisfaction, especially not in eCommerce. Bad order fulfillment processes can frustrate your customers, but good order fulfillment processes can delight them.

Remember, the goal is not just to meet customer expectations but to exceed them, turning each order fulfillment into a memorable customer experience. 

Final Thoughts

Outsourcing fulfillment to a 3PL can be tremendously beneficial for your growing eCommerce brand. With the right 3PL partner, you can reap numerous benefits, such as reduced shipping costs, improved efficiency, and the ability to focus on your core business activities.

Finding the right 3PL is a daunting task, to be sure. However, once you know why outsourcing makes sense, you can follow the ten steps in this guide to find the right 3PL and get off to a great start.

Don’t hesitate to explore your options. The right 3PL partner is out there, and once you start working with them, it will be well worth the time put into finding them!

An Introduction to Amazon Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Paid Advertising

Posted on by Amanda Levine

It only takes a few minutes for your brand to reach millions of people all over the world. Amazon Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has amazing potential, with a massive reach and the ability to target specific audiences.

What can you do to make the most of it?

Investing in PPC can provide a great return for your eCommerce brand, but it’s also a simple way to lose money if you don’t approach it wisely.

Here’s an introduction to Amazon pay-per-click marketing to help you make sure you’re doing it correctly.

What is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

Amazon Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising is a part of Amazon’s internal ad system. Brands, agencies, and third-party sellers can use Amazon PPC to create advertisements for their products that appear in Amazon’s search results and competitor product listings. 

Sellers can then present Amazon customers who are ready to buy with relevant products at the point of sale, and then measure the performance of their ads to determine which specific ads are driving conversions. It’s a highly effective marketing strategy used by many smart Amazon sellers 

How Much Does PPC Advertising Cost?

When you make an investment in advertising, you want to know how much it will cost you. This is a little more difficult with PPC.

Online advertising is not the same as placing an ad in a magazine, where you pay a fee and receive a full-cover page. Instead, you only pay when you get results with PPC (someone clicking your ad).

However, with offline advertising, you typically pay a flat fee regardless of the results. You have more control over how much each truly engaged consumer costs you with PPC.

This is accomplished through an auction system. Unlike a traditional auction, however, there is no single product with a single winner — you are bidding on how high up and how frequently your ad will be visible. “Losing” the auction doesn’t mean you get no PPC space; it just means you get less.

The main takeaway here is that it isn’t just about how much you bid. The quality of your products is also important.

However, if your maximum bid is unrealistic, your ads will not be shown frequently enough to be worthwhile. The average cost per click for different keywords varies, and this should influence your bidding strategy.

AI-powered tools like eCommerce growth tools can help you estimate how much your ads will cost, so they should be used in your keyword research.

Is PPC Marketing Right for My Business?

Pay-per-click advertising, like any other form of marketing, has advantages and disadvantages. PPC should ideally be used as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy to maximize its strengths and minimize its weaknesses.

Advantages of PPC Marketing

Immediate results: Your products will reach your target audience with immediate effect.

Highly targeted: You have complete control over who sees your ads. 

Simple to monitor: You can quickly monitor the success of your campaign and calculate your ROI. 

Great Exposure: Paid advertisements are prominently displayed, with the potential to reach an almost infinite number of people.

Disadvantages of PPC Marketing

Long-term cost: You must pay for each click, putting you at the mercy of advertising pricing. It will add up if you do this for months or years. 

Not creating an asset: When you invest in content marketing or building an email list, you are creating a valuable asset. Your success with PPC is dependent on ongoing ad spend

Steps to Launching a Pay-Per-Click Marketing Campaign

Starting your first PPC marketing campaign may feel fairly straightforward- you could do it in just a few simple steps. Remember that product and content quality is critical to the success of your campaign, so take your time and focus on each step.

  1. Determine Your PPC Budget

How much money do you want to spend on pay-per-click advertising?

To begin, you must establish an initial budget to allow you to test the waters. You can use some industry benchmarks as a rough guide to determine how much you’re likely to pay for each conversion.

Once you’ve determined your overall budget, set daily and lifetime spend caps for your campaigns. This is an important step in developing a PPC campaign because your budget will have a significant impact on the success rates of your ads. 

If your budget does not allow you to achieve meaningful results, it may be worth considering alternative marketing methods.

  1. Establish Campaign Objectives

Different businesses will have different pay-per-click campaign objectives.

For example, if you’re planning a pre-launch for a new company, your goal may be to drive traffic and raise awareness. Conversions may be your primary goal if you’re selling a product on Amazon.

Because each goal has a different value, the goals you set will have a significant impact on your marketing campaign. A click isn’t worth as much as a lead or a conversion, so your cost-per-click should reflect that.

Setting the right goals for your campaign allows you to better target the right audience and accurately measure your return on investment. When you use PPC, you pay for the click, not what the customer does afterward — the click costs the same whether they buy or not.

Consider who you want to click on your ad and what actions they should take. When you understand this, you can optimize your entire campaign to encourage people to take those actions, which will reduce your costs.

  1. Research Your Keywords

Keywords are one of the most important tools for targeting your audience, and keyword research can make or break your campaign. While you most likely have a good idea of how your customers search for your products or services, you must narrow it down to those that result in people taking action. 

Keywords that attract people who are further along in the purchasing process will generally cost you more, but they will also lead to more conversions.

  1. Bid On Your Keywords

For example, a customer searches Amazon for “running shoes.” The auction is won by the seller with the highest bid, and Amazon will display the winning ad. Your goal is to rank first for your keyword in order to drive sales to your product. It’s a simple idea that allows sellers to put their products in the best position to succeed. 

The great thing about Amazon PPC is that it uses a second-price auction system, so if you win the auction, you only pay $0.01 more than the second-highest bidder. Assume you bid $1.80 on the keyword ‘running shoes,’ and the second-highest bidder bid $1.30. When you win, you’ll only pay $1.81 each time a customer clicks your ad.

 

Conclusion

Pay-per-click advertising is an excellent way to quickly reach a highly targeted audience. When you strike the right balance with PPC and optimize your ads properly, it can provide an excellent return on investment and become an important part of your digital marketing toolkit.

If you don’t have the time or expertise to manage your PPC campaigns, consider using AI-powered eCommerce growth tools that will help you handle everything related to Amazon PPC Advertising. Leveraging AI for growth could help you save considerable time and money.

How to Continue Your Review Momentum After Amazon Prime Day

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Prime Day 2023 was a success for shoppers and sellers alike – no surprise there! Last year’s event saw customers purchase over 300 million items, making it the most successful Prime Day in Amazon’s history. Will this year’s event exceed that record? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, you have more work to do. We know that you put a ton of time and effort into preparing for Prime Day, but the days and weeks afterward are just as important. Now is the perfect time to ramp up your review requests and position your products as best sellers heading into Q4.

Keep reading to discover how to continue your review momentum post-Prime Day.

The Relationship Between Reviews and Prime Day

In the leadup to Prime Day, many sellers have more than just sales on their minds. They’re also very eager to gather more product reviews. Participating in Prime Day means your products will be given prime real estate on Amazon’s homepage and other high-traffic locations, which translates to increased visibility and a wider reach.

To make things even better, when customers buy your products at a lower price (hopefully you ran a few coupons!), they’re more likely to be satisfied with their purchases because they feel like they got a good deal. This happiness often results in better reviews, as happy buyers are more prone to leaving positive feedback.

Following the usual surge in order volume during Prime Day, it’s essential to have a well-planned strategy for acquiring more reviews from buyers. (Need more proof? Just a few short years ago, we saw a 32% increase in the number of reviews received by a random selection of FeedbackFive users.)

Key takeaway: Take advantage of the sales boost during Prime Day and set yourself up for future success by actively seeking reviews for your orders. 

3 Tips for Maximizing Your Review Potential Post-Prime Day

Prime Day is over, but your review potential is not. Here are three tips for maximizing your post-Prime Day reviews.

Be Proactive with Your Review Requests 

You may have already seen a natural uptick in the number of reviews that you’re received, but by being more proactive, you can turn that slow trickle into a steady stream.

All third-party Amazon sellers have the right to proactively request reviews (and seller feedback) from buyers. You can reach out to them through various channels in Seller Central, including Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging Service and the Request a Review button. You may also use third-party software that integrates with the Amazon API and automates your review requests for you.

No matter what choice you make, it’s important to streamline the process for customers to leave reviews. Without guidance, they may overlook the opportunity altogether or struggle to figure out how to proceed. By sending a courteous review request to their inbox, you’ll likely receive more responses from satisfied shoppers who appreciate the ease and convenience provided.

Follow Amazon’s Review Guidelines

Now is not the time to get suspended by Amazon because you didn’t abide by its review policies. Here are the biggest rules to remember:

  1. Send one product review request per order within 30 days of the order being completed.
  2. Always include the order ID in your requests and translate the message into the buyer’s preferred language.
  3. Do not offer any incentives in exchange for a product review, including 

monetary compensation, freebies, significant markdowns, coupons, or other rewards.

  1. You, your family members, and your employees are prohibited from reviewing the products that you sell and those of your competitors.
  2. Never explicitly ask buyers to leave a positive review. Requests should always be neutral in manner.
  3. Requests shouldn’t contain marketing messages, promotional language, or links to any websites.
  4. Never create a variation relationship between products in an attempt to manipulate reviews.
  5. Do not divert customers with negative reviews away from Amazon while asking those who’ve had a positive experience with the product to leave a review.

Be sure to brush up on Amazon’s review policies and Communication Guidelines to stay compliant and keep your account in good standing.

Send Your Review Request at the Right Time

Timing is everything when it comes to requesting reviews. Even if you’ve been diligent in following Amazon’s guidelines, sending your request at the wrong time can be counterproductive. To ensure optimal open rates and conversions, the timing of your review requests should be tailored to the type of product and the average time it takes for buyers to form an opinion of it.

Here are some general guidelines that have proven to be successful.

 

  • For larger items like furniture and appliances, it’s best to give buyers time to get comfortable with their purchase and see how it performs. Waiting two weeks to a month after delivery is recommended. 
  • When it comes to products with long-term benefits, such as vitamins and supplements, it’s crucial to take into account the time it takes for buyers to notice results. To increase the likelihood of receiving a review, it’s ideal to wait for a period of one week to a month before sending a review request.
  • If your product falls under the category of outdoor supplies or leisure items that people enjoy in their spare time, it’s helpful to ensure that at least one weekend has passed before requesting a review. 
  • For seasonal items like holiday decorations and costumes, try sending your request between delivery and the relevant holiday or event, or just after the holiday, if possible.
  • If you sell small, everyday products like dishes, office supplies, toiletries, phone accessories, or food items, requesting a review 5-7 days after delivery is usually sufficient. You want to reach buyers when they’re still thinking about the product.

If you sell across a wide range of product categories, it’s highly recommended to segment your buyers and tailor your review campaigns based on the specific SKUs or ASINs purchased. 

FeedbackFive Makes Sending Review Requests Quick and Easy

Having a post-Prime Day strategy is just as vital as prepping for the big day itself. Make sure that you continue to run review request campaigns in the days and weeks after the event. This helps you secure additional sales and make the most out of the brand exposure you gained from Amazon’s biggest sales event.

Leveraging Amazon email automation is the ultimate strategy for requesting reviews efficiently. Whether you prefer crafting customized templates for your customers or relying on Amazon’s Request a Review feature, FeedbackFive by eComEngine streamlines the process for you by scheduling and automating review requests to maximize your chances of getting more ratings.

With just a few clicks, you can personalize your messages to target audiences, including repeat buyers or everyone who purchases a particular SKU. FeedbackFive also helps you manage your seller reputation by excluding orders that didn’t meet expectations. The tool’s auto-exclusions tab allows you to exclude orders that are late or sent out of the country with just a few clicks.

Finally, in addition to automating review and feedback requests, FeedbackFive also sends listing alerts for negative feedback, listing suppression, content changes, and possible hijacker activity. 

screenshot of the FeedbackFive interface displaying the number of offers
See what else FeedbackFive can do for you by starting a free trial today. Free 60 day trial for our Kickfurther community. Use coupon code KICK60 to redeem the exclusive offer!