In today’s episode you’ll learn:
- My strategy predictions for 2023
- The importance of a proper strategy
- Why you need to rethink your retargeting and abandon cart strategy
- What to include other than Facebook in your strategy
- And so much more
Links from the show:
Transcript
[00:00:00] So in terms of what you should be having for your marketing in 2023, I really think we’re gonna move so much more towards video and U G C in the ads that we see. Having those beautiful single shot images just don’t work. As well as having really great video content. And it’s something that we’ve seen for years now, is that that U G C style content, that ads that don’t look like ad content, it shows your product in use by real people.
[00:00:26] Content, I think is just going to be bigger and better This.
[00:00:29] Hi, and welcome to the Bright Minds of e-Commerce podcast. I’m Donna, founder of Bright Red Marketing, and after helping so many businesses in the e-commerce space over the years, I wanted to bring you the best experts in e-commerce from all over Australia, straight to you.
[00:00:42] If you’re wanting relatable stories and actionable advice and the latest Facebook advertising strategies, you’re in the right place. Want help with your Facebook and Instagram ads. Remember, you can always book in a free strategy session at bright red marketing.com.au/free-strategy dashes. We’ll run through your ads, see what’s working and what’s not, and no sales pitch, I promise.
[00:01:04] So let’s get into today’s episode.
[00:01:07] Hello and welcome to a ME Only episode. I know a lot of you have been asking for Facebook specific Facebook and Instagram specific content, and while we interview some incredible guests, I know that you know that my specialty is the Facebook and Instagram ads. So we’re gonna dive in. For the first of these episodes for the year into what’s happening in the world of meta ads, which is Facebook and Instagram for 2023.
[00:01:32] And what other must haves for your marketing? So, Let’s get into it. So I think in 2023, people are really going to start getting back to the basics of marketing. I think we’ve sort of lived in this really fun world where you could just make a pretty ad and it would just work. Obviously there were some testing.
[00:01:51] Obviously we had the iOS changes that sort of. Tore everything apart. It was very sad, but you’ve sort of been able to get away with the photos that you had of your product, the imagery that you had, the videos, those sorts of things, and you could use that to make a really good ad. And I think that’s gonna be one of the biggest things that’s gonna change, because I think the days of just putting some really nice looking content out.
[00:02:15] And that being your strategy, I think those days are long gone. What we really need to focus on, especially moving into 2023, we’re, into March and you know, that first quarter’s nearly gone. We really need to start putting strategy in place. I don’t think that a lot of businesses that are running on Facebook ads really have a, a detailed strategy.
[00:02:36] They kind of come into it and go, oh, we need to reach some new people and. Find our old customers and get to come back and have a retargeting, and that’s my strategy and I don’t think that that’s enough. . . We really need to be building real strategies and real journeys for our customers.
[00:02:51] We need to go back to , the days of having incentives, like what makes your product different. It’s nice that you sell skincare, but soda, 7 million other people. What is different about your skincare? Why should they buy from you specifically? And really working those sorts of details into your strategy.
[00:03:11] The other thing that’s gonna be really important is working about how you introduce people to your brand. We put people on Facebook and we go, oh, they’re new. Here’s a pretty picture, but why your brand? We just talked about this. What makes your brand different? What, what? Why, why you? And you might sit there and go, oh, cuz I like it and I did this and this makes it different.
[00:03:34] One of my favorite quotes of marketing and it’s very brutal, is no one cares. They don’t care why you made it. They don’t care why you like it. What’s in it for them? What’s different and why you? And I think working on those things is gonna be a really big, important thing. And it’s hard, you know, those are not the sorts of things that you can just.
[00:03:55] Throw up. You can’t just chuck that out into the effort of the internet and, and hope for the best. It really is one of those things that you have to work through. Normally, you sort of need a second brain or a second set of eyes for those things because as anyone will tell you, working on your own stuff is really hard.
[00:04:13] You often get too invested. It’s why marketers hire marketers and copywriters, hire copywriters because looking at your own. Stuff is just, it’s hard. It’s why there’s so many people out there helping people to do these sorts of things, but really working on how you can introduce people to your brand, what makes your brand different, um, and why people should care.
[00:04:34] Why people should care is the, the biggest part there. The other thing that I. Think is really important is the, the nurturing part. We put that into a lot of campaigns. I mean, it’s something that we do, but really working out what it actually is that’s going to nurture a potential customer for you.
[00:04:51] Why would they look at your website the first time and not buy? What is the piece of the puzzle that we’re missing there? You know what? What actually takes someone from the person who’s been to your website once to your most loyal customer? That keeps coming back every couple of weeks, every couple of months, every couple of seasons, depending on the, the product that you have.
[00:05:13] What is it that makes a loyal customer? Is it really getting to know you, the person behind the brand? Is it really understanding the behind the scenes? Is it falling in love with the product and the quality and how much it changes their lives? What. Those things. Is it reviews? Is it knowing how to use your product in better in bigger ways?
[00:05:35] What is it that really is going to make that person loyal to your brand and loyal to you essentially, and want to keep coming back for your products? There are so many things that you can do big and small, adore beauty, give you a Tim Tam, like it’s a Tim Tam, but if I need beauty products and they have.
[00:05:55] I will go there because the products that I’m buying are the same everywhere. Some places will, you know, you get that brand loyalty through styling videos and they’re just really good at explaining how to wear their product, or they’re really good at showing you how to make the most out of your product.
[00:06:12] So finding the thing that you can do that’s really gonna build that customer loyalty, that’s really gonna make them go, you know what? I need you to go buy from this person. Insert reason and you need to work out what that reason is. And I think finally is working out what that problem solving is for you.
[00:06:31] So we normally talk about retargeting and you’ll see so many people saying, oh, did you leave this in your cart? Did you forget about this? I have never not bought something. Because I forgot about it. I have not bought something because I didn’t think the shipping costs were in line with what I was buying.
[00:06:52] I have not bought because I wasn’t confident that the size was right. I haven’t bought because. . I didn’t see anything in their latest releases that I lacked just yet, but I’m keeping an eye out. I don’t think many people don’t buy because they forgot. So really thinking about from that retargeting perspective, even from like your abandoned cart emails.
[00:07:15] Why? Why did people not buy it from you? Something like Hot Jar can be really helpful for this to sort of see where you’re losing people, getting friends and family to have a look at your website and see if there’s something that is, is missing. Having really great return and exchange policies if you’re selling anything in the fashion space.
[00:07:33] I’ve seen some brands lately do like online size consultations where they’ll chat to you and make sure you’re getting the right size. What is it that is stopping people from. from feeling confident enough to buy from you. I don’t think that the days of retargeting and, oh, you forgot this, are around anymore.
[00:07:51] Lots of people still do it, but I think the real success is what was stopping them from buying in the first place and how can you ease that for them? And sometimes that’s changing part of your business and sometimes it’s just really communicating the things you already have in place. Maybe you already have a really great exchange policy in place.
[00:08:12] Maybe you’ve got. , you know, a really great sizing quiz that helps people find the right size. Maybe you do personalized skin consultations. Maybe you have a refund on colors. Like, I don’t know what the particular problem is for your business, but really thinking about why someone might have not finished that purchase.
[00:08:33] And it’s not often because they forgot.
[00:08:35] So I think that’s really where we’re gonna go with marketing on Facebook and Instagram for 2023 is really getting back to those basics. Really having a a solid strategy in place and really thinking through the kind of content that you’re putting out there, rather than just, oh, here’s some ads for cold people.
[00:08:51] Here’s some content for people that have never heard about us before in a retargeting ad. Is really thinking through that strategy. Really executing it really well and making sure it’s relevant to your individual business. I see so many people asking, oh, what does this business do and what works really well here?
[00:09:06] And I think the best thing that you can do is work out what works for your business. People do the same thing at budgets. They go, oh, well, how much is everyone else spending? What’s a good return on and spend? And it really does come down to your business. You can’t compare these things, and it’s really about working out what is best for you, your business, and your potential customer.
[00:09:25] Now that we sort of covered the strategic side of what I’m predicting will be most effective for Facebook and Instagram ads in 2023. And yes, it’s not that great of a prediction. Um, going back to basics and putting a really good strategy in place probably is fairly universal. But I do think that those things are gonna be really important, especially as things do get more competitive and the the space that we’re sort of moving into.
[00:09:48] So in terms of what you should be having, For your marketing in 2023. We’re gonna move so much more towards video and U G C in the ads that we see. Having those beautiful single shot images just don’t work as well as having really great video content. And that’s something that we’ve seen for years now, is that that U G C style content that.
[00:10:11] Ads that don’t look like ad content, they’re really, it shows your product in use by real people. Content I think is just going to be bigger and better this year. We already saw a change towards it last year, uh, and I just think that’s gonna become bigger and better. So we’ve got clients that still spend an absolute fortune on professional photography and sometimes it just doesn’t do as well.
[00:10:36] You know, that’s why we really recommend people having that sort of, U G C content, hiring influencers, even just, you know, grabbing out your iPhone, um, and recording that sort of content. Having it so that it doesn’t look like an ad is just one of those things that is so, so powerful.
[00:10:53] The other thing that thinks gonna be really important is the reviews and building trust portion, which I think a lot of people really forget about. Uh, and I don’t think they forget about it intentionally. I think it’s just one of those things that people go, oh, we’ll get reviews later, or, we’ll, we’ll worry about that as we go.
[00:11:08] But people really rely on other people’s experience with your brand to know whether they should trust you or not. You know, it’s one of those things where even just having a couple of reviews really does make people think, oh yeah, okay, other people have bought this. It’s fine. I don’t necessarily believe in those building trust apps that are like Suzy from Melbourne just bought our product.
[00:11:29] They can get annoying , especially on mobile, but if they work for you, they work for you. But really just focusing on those. That build trust, making sure that your messaging is consistent, making sure that your checkout is seamless. If you’re on something like Shopify, it’s normally pretty easy, but making sure that your messaging is consistent.
[00:11:47] You make it as easy as possible for people to purchase. And I think that’s the other thing, having a really. Super simple customer experience in that checkout process, you’ve gotta remember that you are competing against literally every other store on the internet. If your store is clunky, if it gives them red flags, if there’s not enough information, they will go elsewhere.
[00:12:10] Having a really seamless. Checkout experience having a really seamless website. I know that I have left websites because there were 17 popups on the homepage, and I don’t think that that particular brand did it intentionally. It wasn’t malicious. I think they have just. Put a popup and then gone, oh, I should put a popup, and then I think I should put a popup and had never actually taken away the previous popups.
[00:12:35] So really just making sure that every now and then you do go back into your website, make sure it’s a super easy customer experience. There’s no sort of red flags, there’s nothing popping up, and just really simplifying that. There was a guy for a while who was doing drunk user experience reviews of websites, and then he did a version where he was getting his.
[00:12:57] to do it for people. He was a, a UX expert, which is a user experience expert. Sorry, log on to incognito mode, have a couple of glasses of wine I don’t drink, but you know, do what you need to do to make sure that in whatever state people are, in whatever level of education they have, whatever level of.
[00:13:16] eyesight and computer literacy they have, using your website is nice and easy for them. You wanna make it as simple as possible. And the big thing that I think so many people forget is email marketing. Now you might be sending a couple of emails, you might have clavio, you might have a huge, big strategy, but as much as I love Facebook and Instagram, You don’t own them, they’re not yours.
[00:13:41] They can be taken away from you at a moment’s notice, as I’m sure you’ve heard many, a horror story of people getting their Instagram accounts shut down, logged out, those sorts of things. So really focusing on building up your email list. Facebook ads is an amazing way to do that. Competitions is another great way of doing it, but just really making sure that you’re building that.
[00:14:02] It’s just one of those things you own. It’s a really great way to nurture your audience and then using those strategy things we talked about earlier to make sure that your email marketing is as good as it can be. And lastly, just a, a caveat I suppose, that Facebook ads are not the be all and end all.
[00:14:19] Yes, they’re amazing. Yes, they can create some really great traffic. They can do really great things for your business and make you very, very profitable. Reach new people. They’re not a whole strategy. You need to have other parts of your business that are in place to build your business. You really need to have a a solid strategy outside of Facebook and Instagram ads.
[00:14:41] Is it organic TikTok? Is it email marketing? Is it influencers? Is it going to market or trade shows? What other things can you do for your marketing? I think we get really stuck in it being Facebook ads and it’s just. It’s just not it. And I think that’s probably the biggest. Thing for 2023 is making sure that Facebook ads, isn’t it?
[00:15:04] And coming from a Facebook ads specialist, you know, I mean that I’m not trying to take away from my own business, but I want your business to succeed. And if you are relying a hundred percent on Facebook ads to do that, it’s not a very stable way to build a business. So there you have it. Those are my Facebook and Instagram ads predictions slash must haves for your marketing.
[00:15:28] Thanks for listening to the Bright Minds of e-Commerce podcast. As always, you’ll find the show notes@brightredmarketing.com.au slash episode 36.
