Simon WalkerInstagram is hosting more than 125 million selfies with an addition of 1 million per day. Out of total individual photos shared on Instagram, 1/3rd are from the age group 18-24, all have become selfies now. Big brands like Calvin Klein are prepared to ride in the bandwagon. Have selfies become a new approach to increase conversions? It’s not just about increased conversions, selfies also help tracking ecommerce data, hence facilitate retailers in making right business decisions. The lines below will reveal how this new advertising tool is becoming popular and yielding results.
According to Cameron Parker, sales head of Black Milk Clothing, our business of women’s fashion clothing is successful just because of selfies as these are becoming popular on social media. Our followers at Instagram and Facebook have become our fashion models.
Another example is of Baublebar, an online jewelry retailer. They utilized selfies effectively by integrating them into their overall business marketing strategy. They started a monthly $ 100 spending scheme in which the customers have to share their selfies wearing Baublebar jewelry. The selected selfie was awarded with $ 100 spending at the site. The strategy gave a real boost to their social media presence and helped increasing the revenue.
Selfies To Track Ecommerce Data
How it could be done? The Wall Street Journal explains that specific software is used to scan photos and identify locations and themes. Location data helps understanding the usage of products in a specific location and scanned photos tell how people feel about the brand. Following this strategy, marketing companies, like FmeExtensions, are helping retailers to conduct market research and send targeted ads to the consumers. So, in that way, retailers can use collected data to make decisions related to product marketing and consumer targeting.
Another approach to collect data is asking customers to share photos of your products with a hashtag, which will help you knowing who is sharing your products’ photos.
Use Selfies To Guide Customers And Engage Them
This strategy is used by Zappos, in which the e- tailor is inviting customers to submit selfies on instagram along with hashtag #NextOOTD, means next outfit of the day. An expert stylist looks at the instagram history of the participant, understands his style and taste, and recommends the product accordingly.
You can also browse social media profiles of the shoppers to give tailored recommendations. It helps in two ways: increasing sales and building strong relationships with the customers.
Use Selfies To Help Shoppers In Better Decision Making
For online retailers, this is the best approach and will surely be appreciated by the consumers. Warby Parker, an online retailer dealing in eyeglasses, implements it successfully. The company has placed a virtual mirror on its site and asks its customers to submit their recent photo using webcam. Shoppers can see different eyewear on their photos virtually to know which one looks perfect. However, it depends on the type of business you are dealing in. If it’s possible, allow your customers to wear and test your products virtually.
Selfies Can Increase Conversion Rate
Selfies on product pages can increase the conversions of a business by 2.5 times, according to Photoslurp’s CEO Ben Heinkel. Consumers prefer seeing the same people wearing the clothes on the website, instead of the perfect-figured models. ModCloth, a vintage dress retailer, follows the strategy where the customers are encouraged to leave product reviews along with their photos wearing their clothes.
The selfies can also be used to know how much users are engaged with photos. Photoslurp has many testing tools to know the monetary value of the most popular photos among customers so as to use them in other marketing forms.
How To Convert Selfies Into Sales?
Believe it or not, in future, user generated content will be the most popular way of content marketing. This content can be in the form of reviews, photos, videos, and social sharing. Almost 78% of the consumers are of the view that social media presence of the top brands influences them to make a purchasing decision. Photo is 43% of the total content sharing on social network (Source). The top brands are utilizing user-generated content to
- Strengthen relationship with existing customers
- Engage the potential customers
- Drive more sales
When it comes to selfies, consider the fact that consumers capture one million selfies every day. How do these fans’ selfies could turn into sales? Here are given few tips:
Invite Fans To Share Selfies
Invite social media flowerers and customers’ communities to share their selfies, carrying your product, with you. There should be a hashtag along with the post for easy tracking. As these consumers trust you and your brand, so this engagement model could work well. Do take permission from users if you want to utilize their selfies in marketing of business. Many will agree happily, but many won’t.
Find The Way To Utilize Selfies Effectively
Selfies can help driving sales if linked to products. Ask consumers to tag their appropriate photos for the product, otherwise, you may have to do the task of image tagging and moderation on your own. For this purpose, there should be integration between selfies and the ecommerce platform. This integration could be done in the following ways:
- The selfie and SKU should have a direct link.
- A single click on selfie should take the consumer to the shopping cart.
- Selfie tagging should be done with the same data event structure as found on the website. It will help knowing which photos work well and tracking sales coming from selfies.
Decide About The Right Place Of Selfies
Once selfies come in bundles, it’s time to think about the right place of those selfies. It could be your product pages, home page promotions, search results, mobile site or app, social channels, and outside the online world, in media walls and digital billboards. It will help driving more sales and inviting users to contribute with their own selfies.
Think About Managing The Process
To manage the process of converting selfies into sales, right technology/software is needed. Whatever software you use, make sure it
- Allows easy submission of selfies
- Accepts submission from multiple devices and platforms
- Efficiently manages permissions
- Helps picking the best images for the post
- Accepts submissions from global users
- Helps tracking performance
Conclusion: Selfies are becoming the most powerful form of user-generated content, helping brands in tracking the ecommerce data, making right product decisions, and increasing sales. They also help in building strong connections with the existing customers, attracting new customers, and engaging them effectively.
Are you thinking to integrate selfies into your overall business-marketing plan? Do it now!
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