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Queen and David Bowie collaborated on “Under Pressure” in 1981, and the rock song continues to live on in pop culture. What if you took that approach to your marketing campaigns to achieve lasting influence? Just as two musicians might unite to excite a wider audience, you can enlist the help of others to make an impact. This is the foundation of collaborative marketing and a strategy you can apply across multiple industries.

What is collaborative marketing?

Collaborative marketing is when two or more brands come together to produce content and achieve a common goal. It aims to expand audience reach by leveraging both brands’ existing audiences to produce an ultra-effective marketing campaign. In the best-case scenario, a collaboration between two companies drives powerful results, such as expanded reach, brand recognition, and ultimately, more sales. Brands that join forces may do so because they have a similar target audience, similar values, or aligned goals.

When collaborating with another company, your brand can choose several avenues. Collaboration might entail creating exclusive products or jointly producing videos for social media marketing. It can be as simple as a single post or as extensive as a weeks-long campaign.

5 benefits of collaborative marketing

1. Solve problems faster
2. Reach a new audience
3. Increase brand awareness
4. Create buzz
5. Learn from other experts

In an environment where creativity is the driving force, partnership marketing can lead to faster problem-solving and greater efficiency in producing creative content. By embracing this marketing strategy, your business can:

1. Solve problems faster

Two heads are better than one. When your business faces marketing roadblocks, collaborating with external marketing teams may allow you to take on those challenges from a new angle. The other team can provide new strategies and perspectives on how they address similar issues, helping your team implement new tactics. 

2. Reach a new audience

Is there a company or influencer on your radar that’s reached a target audience you’d like to tap into? Collaborative marketing can help introduce your brand to that audience. In this sense, collaborative marketing functions as a way to increase brand exposure, which is crucial to creating new leads. If you execute it correctly, a brand collaboration will help you reach those target audiences and bring in additional customers or clients.

3. Increase brand awareness

Brand recognition refers to how familiar consumers are with your brand and its products. You want your brand to be the first thing potential customers think of when they need a product like yours. Leveraging another company’s audience can help boost consumer awareness of your brand and boost sales. For example, two brands might collaborate on social media content and then post it for their respective audiences to view, generating new interest for both brands.

4. Create buzz

A great campaign or product gets people excited and talking. To spur your company’s growth to new heights, a marketing collaboration could spark interest in your company and products. Consider partnering with a brand that shares similar goals and values.

5. Learn from other experts

While everyone is an expert at something, no one can be an expert at everything. Collaborative marketing partnerships are an opportunity for your team to learn from the expertise of others. An outside perspective can illuminate weak spots in your strategies and offer new solutions to consider.

Collaborative marketing strategies

A partnership can be a powerful way to drive your bottom line. For example, GoPro and Red Bull made a splash in 2016 when the two corporations teamed up for a multiyear collaboration that included content production, cross-promotion, and product innovation. To form your own marketing alliance, try the following strategies:

Host an event together

Events between two brands can be small, like a webinar, or elaborate, like a conference or festival. Both avenues let attendees network and learn more about the two hosting brands.

Offer bundled products

Customers love to feel like they’re getting great value for their money. Offering two different brands’ products as a bundle makes it possible for new customers to purchase a product they’re familiar with while also introducing them to a product they may have never tried.

Start a joint campaign

Launching a joint campaign can be a great option if you’re looking to participate in an ongoing partnership. Unlike an event that lasts for only a few hours, a marketing campaign goes on much longer and has the potential to reach more people. Your campaign can utilize email, social posts, and other forms of digital marketing.

Tips for collaborative marketing

Consider these tips for successfully leveraging collaborative marketing:

Determine your goals

Before looking for potential partners, sit down with your team and decide what you want from a successful collaboration. Does your company want brand visibility, or are you looking to boost your credibility? What type of response does your company want to see from a new marketing collaboration? Solidifying your goals can help you determine the kind of brand you want as a partner.

Choose a like-minded collaborator

To collaborate effectively, select a company with similar values, a related target audience, and other overlapping characteristics that can benefit your business. Choose a company that will give you the greatest boost in brand exposure and the best odds for your collaboration’s success. This means avoiding brands that go against your company’s vision or are direct competitors. 

Be open to new ways of thinking

Working with a new group of people won’t always be seamless. There might be growing pains as both teams learn how the other prefers to handle tasks such as meetings, brainstorming, and scheduling. While their strategies might differ from yours, partnering with a brand is an opportunity to try something new that could work in your favor.

Set expectations early

Set objectives, goals, and key performance indicators at the beginning of the collaboration process to ensure everyone is on the same page. Discuss the workload and division of responsibilities, and share your brand guidelines to maintain consistent messaging.

Maintain open communication

Communication skills and the ability to establish expectations are crucial to working well with an external team. This is particularly important if you’ll be doing most of your communication through email and online calls. Start each meeting with clear objectives, respond to emails promptly, and thoroughly cover any questions that might come up along the way.

Let’s say you’re running a streetwear ecommerce store for Gen Z shoppers. You decide to build buzz by dropping an exclusive sneaker line. You already have a robust social media plan but don’t want to rely exclusively on TikTok and Instagram campaigns. Your target demographic isn’t opening emails, so where can you turn?

Enter push notifications.

The week before the new sneakers drop, your brand uses targeted mobile push notifications that are personalized and scheduled across user time zones and preferences. Your fanbase gets hyped about the release. On launch day, another push lets them know the sneaker line has dropped, and traffic to your site skyrockets—as do sales.

This is the dream scenario—and one you can work to achieve by following a few best practices.

What is a push notification?

A push notification is a pop-up message or alert that appears on desktop and/or mobile devices. Push messages are brief, informational text notes that users opt-in to receive.

Traditionally, push alerts appear on a user’s device with a title, message, and URL, which may include a call to action that prompts the user to click on the message. Depending on your specific push notification campaign and strategy, these push notifications could include rich media like emojis, GIFs, images, or videos.

Benefits of push notifications

Push notifications can offer myriad benefits to your business. They can be:

• Engaging. Depending on your audience, you might see higher open rates over other text-based forms of marketing like email.

• Highly visible. Thanks to advanced scheduling capabilities, a user can see your targeted messages when they’re actively using their mobile device.

• Personalized. When you send push notifications tailored to specific audiences, you increase the likelihood they’ll stick around and make a purchase they’ve been considering.

How push notifications work

Your business can use push servers to enable push notifications and schedule, automate, and send them en masse. The notifications can be cloud- or app-based and work together with specific application programming interfaces (APIs) and servers to deliver messages based on your business needs.

Once your push notification is ready to send, you can schedule and automate it using an API. Delivery varies across devices, internet browsers, and operating systems. Push notifications on Apple iOS devices using the Apple push notification service technology may look different from notifications on Android devices. Similarly, desktop push notifications may show up with separate formatting on a Chrome browser versus a Safari browser.

Types of push notifications

There are two types of push notifications: web-based and app-based. Here’s how they differ:

Web push notifications

Web-based push notifications appear on desktop or mobile devices and are sent through operating systems and browsers. Most websites can send web push notifications on almost all operating systems, and the alerts will appear at different positions on a web page based on specific browser settings.

Mobile app push notifications

App-based push notifications are the most commonly used alerts. Individual app publishers create them, and app users opt-in on their mobile devices. On mobile, alerts appear as pop-up windows and often prompt further action, such as clicking a URL or making a purchase. Users can adjust their settings to view notifications right away or later in their notification center and lock screen.

How ecommerce brands use push notifications

Push notifications have many uses, depending on your business type, from providing tracking info to delivering time-sensitive offers. Here are some ways you can use push notifications:

• Reminders. Reminder notifications prompt users to complete a particular task, like providing product feedback in exchange for a discount.

• Updates. Updates provide real-time information on everything from order tracking to a new product launch.

• Deals. Your brand can use push notifications to inform users of deals and promotions, helping drive traffic to your website and boost sales.

• Time-bound notifications. Time-bound notifications generate a sense of urgency around a promotional period or limited-time offer.

• Authentications. Authentications are security-focused push notifications that confirm user identity when logging in to a service or making a purchase. They often involve one-time passcodes or a two-factor authentication (2FA) prompt.

• Abandoned cart. Abandoned cart notifications can help drive conversions by reminding shoppers to complete a transaction.

• Transactional push notifications. Transactional push notifications provide customers with updates on their purchases, including shipping status, timing, payment confirmation, and subscription information.

• PSAs. PSAs can include informational alerts like traffic and weather updates. Some of these alerts may include opportunities for brand integrations.

Best practices for using push notifications

While there are many ways to use push notifications, consider sticking to these best practices as you begin to understand what works best for your brand:

Personalize your alerts

Push notifications are most likely to engage users if they include targeted messages customized to personal information, such as the recipient’s name, preferences, or past shopping behavior. By utilizing shopper data with a service like Shopney or PushOwl, you can increase purchase motivation by creating deal notifications tailored to individual shoppers.

Be mindful of timing and cadence

Choosing the right time of day to send an alert is key. Consult data and performance logs to see which time of day yields the highest open rates. Work within users’ time zones and preferences to avoid annoying your target audience.

The ability to send a push notification doesn’t always mean you should. Identify an appropriate cadence that helps the user without overloading them. You may want to start with no more than three weekly notifications and adjust once you understand your target demographic’s engagement.

Be concise

The shorter the push notification, the better. A user is more likely to engage with a concise and clear message. Long messages may also get cut off, so consider other mediums—such as emails or social posts—if you need to share more information.

Standard industry practice for app-based push notifications is from 25 to50 characters for the push title and up to 150 characters for the message, but exact counts vary per device.

Use GIFs, emojis, and videos

Make your push notification more aesthetically pleasing and engaging by using visuals in the form of GIFs, emojis, and videos. These pops of color and movement grab attention and add brand personality.

Experiment with the messaging

Not all push notifications perform equally; what works for one demographic may not work for another. A/B testing is the practice of sending out two different versions to a small group and seeing which message performs better before sending the winner out to the rest of your list. It can help determine the most effective pushes.

Big data is everywhere in business, turning out troves of information and actionable insights about customer preferences, purchasing behavior, demographic trends, and much more. But data is just data—that is, until marketers harness it to build and execute a data-driven strategy.

“You need courage to do stuff with everything that you’ve learned,” Neil Hoyne, Google’s chief data strategist and author of the book Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers’ Hearts, says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “That’s what I think is fundamental to marketing.”

Here’s how to transform all that data into an actionable, informed marketing strategy for your business.

What is data-driven marketing?

Data-driven marketing leverages information collected from customer interactions and third parties to better understand buyer preferences and behaviors. Marketing leaders use these audience insights to make marketing decisions about how they create and tailor messaging, select distribution channels, and optimize overall strategy. This process involves customer data collection, data analysis, content strategy, and performance tracking.

Benefits of data-driven marketing strategies

Data unlocks a variety of digital marketing opportunities and strategies for ecommerce businesses, including:

Tailored campaigns

Data-driven marketing efforts can inform customer segmentation, which divides your target audience into groups based on common characteristics so you can market to each group. You can segment customers by a variety of factors, from age and gender to location and past purchases. For example, one audience segment may be more sensitive to price, while another focuses on the durability and perceived value of the product. 

“What you’ll see when you start grouping customers together is that some are incredibly valuable, while others might come back only if you offer them a great discount,” Neil says. “It helps you be more focused on who to pay attention to with the way you do business, the products you build, and the marketing campaign around all that.”

Higher ROI

Marketing can be expensive, so of course you want a strong return on that investment. A good ROI requires understanding which marketing channels and campaigns have the biggest impact, as well as where money is being wasted. A robust data-driven marketing strategy can help you fully understand the customer journey and guide more leads to conversion.

But not all shoppers are worth the marketing spend, Neil says, citing the following example: “In one case, a particular customer clicked so many times that even though she did—to everyone’s celebration—buy the shoes, in the end, the company spent so much money marketing to her that they still lost money.”

The main question, he says, then becomes: “Was it worth it all the time you spent building that relationship? If this woman turned out to have high customer lifetime value, it was worth our time and our effort. If we never see her again, we might rethink trying to acquire people like her.”

Personalized customer experience

A positive overall customer experience fosters brand loyalty, increases customer lifetime value, and drives word-of-mouth marketing. Customers want to feel that they matter to the brands they support, and they expect a personalized customer experience. Using a data-driven strategy can result in product recommendations based on purchasing or browsing history, retargeting ads, emails with discounts for birthdays or abandoned carts, social ads, relevant content, and VIP-only previews of new products.

Challenges of a data-driven approach

A data-driven strategy is worth the time and effort. But the journey can be challenging in a few ways:

Information overload

The wealth of data available is helpful. But it can also be overwhelming. Consider starting with a few common and rich sources of customer data, such as:

• Sign-up forms

• Website analytics or app tracking

• Social data

• Loyalty program data

• Sales data

• Third-party data like market research and customer demographic data

• Email marketing metrics

• Search engine data

• Customer surveys

A variety of tools can not only gather data, but also track it to produce data-driven insights. For example, Shopify offers several types of in-depth customer reports to gain insights into your customers, including their average order count, average order totals, and expected purchase value.

Short-term focus 

A holistic, comprehensive view of the entire customer journey is essential—and if you focus too much on short-term performance metrics and real-time data, you may miss the forest for the trees. When it comes to data-driven marketing, “The number-one mistake [people make] is that they’re too short-sighted,” Neil says. “They look at the metrics of what happened today, but in reality, consumers take time to build that connection with a product.”

Unnecessary data collection

Only gather data when it’s needed, not just because it’s there. “Don’t collect information just for the sake of collecting it,” Neil says. “Think about how you might use it to personalize your emails and customer experiences or deliver better value to them.”

It’s also important to avoid invading customer privacy by collecting too much personal information. Companies should only ask for relevant data about the shopping journey, and avoid using data for purposes other than enhancing the customer experience.

How to implement a data-driven marketing strategy

Some brands are eager to dive right into data-driven campaigns, but it’s essential to start with the objectives that align with your business goals. “Take a step back before you go into that data,” Neil says. “What do you think you could do to better connect with your customers? What information could change the way that you build products and service customers?” 

Determine which key performance indicators (KPIs) could help you answer those questions. Then, you can dig into your own data, identifying information you already have through Shopify, Google Analytics, and other tools.

Use data management tools and analytics tools to automate data collection processes and help generate insights. Analyze data to determine the messaging, channels, and strategies that resonate most with your customers so you can build more effective marketing campaigns. Finally, remember that this process is iterative: Analyzing data over time will help you design future campaigns and make changes as your customers and business evolve.

Going viral on video platforms like YouTube means reaching a huge audience all over the world. And though luck plays a role in virality, it is certainly possible to increase your odds of reaching more people’s screens. From learning to make engaging content to proper search engine optimization and eye-catching thumbnails, there are many things you can do to help push your videos to more people and boost the odds of your videos taking off.

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What is a viral video?

A viral video is a video that achieves a sudden (and snowballing) increase in views and engagement, becoming popular via shares on social media. There are a few characteristics that define a viral video. First, it gains a lot of views outside of the creator’s existing subscriber base. A viral video also gains a lot of views very quickly. And finally, viral videos typically garner a lot of engagement in the form of comments, likes, and shares.

How to go viral on YouTube

There is no one way to go viral on YouTube, but there are several elements that many viral videos share. Here are a few tips to give your videos the best shot at taking off:

Create high-quality, unique content

The YouTube algorithm prioritizes videos that users watch all the way through. By making sure you have high-quality video content, you’re ensuring that viewers won’t click away because of basic issues like audio quality and video resolution. Whether you’re creating a full-length video or a YouTube Short, quality influences views.

Additionally, your videos are more likely to gain traction with viewers if they’re unique. While it can be fun to take part in popular video trends and styles, be sure to put your own spin on it; no one wants to see the same thing over and over.

Experiment with short-form content

YouTube Shorts, the platform’s new style of short-form style videos, have more than 70 billion daily views. Shorts are vertical videos, up to 60 seconds long, that are targeted toward mobile viewers. You can create Shorts that are wholly separate from your long-form content, or repackage longer videos into a series of shorter clips.

Use eye-catching thumbnails and titles

Often, the first thing somebody will see when interacting with your video content is the title and video thumbnail. The thumbnail of a video is the small image icon that appears on YouTube’s homepage, or in the sidebar of another video. This is also the image people see when they share the video on social media platforms. An attractive thumbnail and interesting title can entice people to click on your video.

Though there’s no one secret formula to get people to click and drive traffic, many creators include three things:

• An interesting visual design with a person’s face on the thumbnail. YouTube’s algorithm seems to reward videos that use faces instead of just text.

• A text headline that is big enough to read on the thumbnail. You want viewers to be able to understand the video’s content.

• A video title that appears beneath the video. The video title should be both informative and intriguing.

You can always change your thumbnail later under the edit tab in YouTube Studio, so the best thing to do is start experimenting to see what works for your channel.

Optimize video descriptions

Include relevant keywords and hashtags in the video description so that your content shows up in search results. For example, if you run an ecommerce soap company, and you’re making a video explaining the difference between natural and synthetic cleaners, conduct keyword research to understand what search terms people use to find videos on soap ingredients.

Hook your viewers

One trick to making videos viral is to include a strong hook that convinces viewers to keep watching within the first few seconds. There are several ways to make an engaging hook, including teasing a payoff that comes at the end of your video, posing a question early on that you answer in the video, or including something funny and surprising to subvert your viewers’ expectations.

YouTube’s algorithm rewards videos with a high average watch time and videos with a high average percentage viewed. For short videos under 5 minutes, an average watch percentage of 50%–70% is good, whereas for longer videos more than 10 minutes, this may be around 40%–60%.

Boosting this number and keeping people watching your video helps expose it to more viewers. So, if you create content with a hook that encourages viewers to stick around, you’re more likely to reach a broader audience.

Post consistently

One of the time-tested strategies that seems to help YouTube creators make viral YouTube videos (and build successful YouTube channels) is posting consistently. Whether you’re making videos in batches, or filming something new every day, keep the content flowing consistently so users don’t get a series of videos all at once, and then nothing for a few weeks. Your subscribers see new videos as you release them, so the more often you post, the more your videos will pop up on their homepage and in the recommendations.

Share on social media

One good way to kickstart virality is to promote your video to people who follow you on other social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

Prioritize engagement and shareability

Virality isn’t just about view count—the YouTube algorithm also rewards engagement metrics like comments, likes, and shares by pushing those videos to more people. Whether you’re responding directly to comments from your YouTube subscribers or even commenting on other creators’ posts and videos, building a community can help your videos take off quickly.

Another way to boost engagement is by creating videos that are likely to be shared often. While long-form videos like how-tos and explainers are a popular genre and get a lot of views, they may not be highly shareable. Mix this kind of content with relatable content like AMAs (ask-me-anything videos), behind-the-scenes clips, and even popular challenges. Just make sure these lighthearted, shorter videos are in keeping with your brand’s style and tone. You don’t want to gain virality at the expense of brand voice.

Keep the audience in mind

YouTube recommends videos to viewers based on what they’ve watched before, analyzing their search history based on both specific channels and topics. Depending on who your target audience is, you’re more likely to have success with some kinds of videos than others. For example, let’s say your business makes custom photo albums for special occasions. You may notice that your most popular videos are those that elicit strong emotions and are on topics like making memories and baby photos. This may influence your decision to make more heartfelt content rather than funny or goofy videos; you’re likely to reach the right audience if your videos are in keeping with what they’re looking for.

How to leverage YouTube virality for your ecommerce businesses

If you run a YouTube channel as part of your ecommerce business marketing strategy, it’s important to know how to leverage that hard-won virality into a real-life business opportunity. There are many ways to do that, but here are a few to keep in mind:

• Use a call-to-action. Tell your viewers what you’d like them to do. If your aim is to gain subscribers, have a card or graphic at the end asking them to subscribe. If you’re looking to boost engagement, you might pose a question and ask them to answer in the comments section. Or you could direct viewers to your website or blog so they can learn more about your brand; in this case, make sure to add a link in the video description so people know where to go.

• Leverage YouTube Shopping. If your goal is sales, you can use YouTube Shopping to showcase your products in your videos, livestreams, and Shorts, and give users the opportunity to buy pinned products directly.

• Build a reputation. Though virality can be fleeting, it is possible to build a reputation on YouTube as a trusted voice in your field. Whether you’re creating detailed how-tos or funny behind-the-scenes content, find ways to showcase your expertise or your brand’s institutional knowledge on your YouTube channel, and when relevant, explain how that translates into your superior products and services.

If you’re curious about starting your own ecommerce business but worried about the upfront costs of manufacturing, storing, and shipping products, consider exploring a simpler ecommerce business model like ghost commerce. Learn more about what ghost commerce is, what unique opportunities and challenges it offers, and tips for running a successful ghost commerce venture for yourself.

What is ghost commerce?

Ghost commerce refers to the practice of running an online business with no physical storefront for shoppers to visit or physical inventory you have to store. You sell products or services online without investing upfront in product development or establishing an order fulfillment process for shipping products to customers.

Key characteristics of ghost commerce businesses include:

1. Having an online store

2. Featuring products from third-party manufacturers

3. Making a slim profit margin

This makes ghost commerce very similar to affiliate marketing, or the practice of promoting third-party products and earning a commission on attributable sales.

Ghost commerce vs. ecommerce

Ghost commerce is a type of ecommerce that involves marketing an online store without developing, manufacturing, storing, or shipping the actual products. Traditional ecommerce merchants produce their own products, handle warehouse logistics, and fulfill orders by packaging and shipping products to customers.

Ghost commerce involves fewer logistics and less overhead, while a traditional ecommerce business lets merchants take more control over the unique products and services they offer online.

Benefits of ghost commerce

There are several advantages to running a ghost commerce company, including:

Low barrier to entry

You can run a ghost commerce business without worrying about product development, warehouse management, inventory management, or order fulfillment logistics. Since you don’t have to manufacture, store, or manage inventory, you can start a ghost commerce company with lower overhead and upfront costs than a traditional ecommerce business.

Flexibility

Ghost commerce business models give merchants the freedom to quickly rotate products and scale up their offerings based on customer responses. For example, imagine your ghost commerce business sells cosmetic products that a third-party vendor sources and ships. If you notice your target audience buys more lip balm than mascara, you can easily adjust what your online store offers to cater to your customer base.

Automation opportunities

With the rise of ecommerce automation tools, you can set up a ghost commerce business that earns money and requires little day-to-day maintenance. You’ll still have to launch and manage marketing campaigns for your online store, but you can use software to automate the process of passing order information on to your partners, who will pick, pack, and ship those orders on your behalf.

Drawbacks of ghost commerce

There are also disadvantages to the ghost commerce business model:

Lack of control

Without control over the quality of your products or the process of shipping products to customers, the success of your ghost commerce business relies largely on your ability to partner with companies you can trust. This arrangement can result in a lack of quality control, which can negatively impact the customer experience.

Competitive market

Since ghost commerce companies have to choose products already on the market through a manufacturer or wholesaler, there is limited opportunity for standing out in the market with a creative or innovative product. Ghost commerce merchants can face fierce competition in a crowded marketplace with several other merchants selling similar products.

Low profit margins

Without control over the production and distribution of products, merchants using the ghost commerce model can only charge a small markup on top of the cost of goods. While a merchant with an innovative, self-made product can use premium pricing strategies to earn a high profit margin, ghost commerce merchants are subject to market conditions and must keep their pricing competitive to earn sales from customers in a crowded market.

Tips for a successful ghost commerce strategy

Here are some tips for running an effective ghost commerce operation:

Choose a niche

Identify a niche your target audience will love to help your ghost commerce business stand out in the marketplace. Whether it’s a distinct brand identity or an uncommon use for a product, a particular niche will help your ghost commerce company reach customers searching for a specific kind of product or brand online. Leverage your own expertise and interests to find unique ways to build a recognizable brand offering valuable products.

Optimize your online store

Prioritize your online store setup to make your offerings as attractive as possible. Research dependable ecommerce platforms like Shopify that you can use to set up a high-quality online store with minimal effort.

Look for a platform with a variety of customizable store themes, secure and efficient payment processing, and built-in analytics so you can track sales and customer behavior. Since ghost commerce businesses don’t manufacture or ship products, it’s possible to focus more energy on creating a distinct and exciting online store that attracts potential customers.

Find reliable partners

Research high-quality dropshipping suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, or retailers, and choose partners with good reputations and reliable customer service reviews. When considering partnering with a particular company, gather as much feedback as you can from clients and businesses that have worked with them in the past. Examine product samples, compare prices, review certifications, and choose partners who communicate promptly and handle potential product or shipping problems quickly.

Focus on targeted marketing campaigns

Develop a strong online presence through digital marketing strategies like search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, email marketing, and influencer marketing. Since ghost commerce merchants need to develop a unique brand to stand out in a competitive market, they can prioritize creating compelling ads for digital marketing channels that work for their target audience.

For example, a ghost commerce retailer who notices that social media accounts are generating a majority of their sales could use an influencer marketing platform to find influencers who can leverage their audience to drive more traffic to their online store.

Prioritize customer service

The success of a ghost commerce business relies heavily on the quality of the customer experience during and post-purchase. Focus on reputation management by encouraging and interacting with customer reviews, offering online surveys, and partnering with brand ambassadors who can leverage their own reputations for your company.

Improve customer satisfaction by keeping your messaging consistent, communicating with your customers promptly, and providing customer support through multiple support channels (like a live chat option on your website).

Whether you’re selling hypoallergenic moisturizer or an e-bike with GPS features, your products offer customers useful benefits that address a particular need or pain point. When you build your sales and marketing strategy, you can focus on customer pain points to naturally highlight how your offerings are a good fit.

This style of selling is what the Sandler Selling System is all about. In 1967, educator and business coach David H. Sandler developed the system as a seven-step sales strategy focused on building rapport with your prospects through collaborative and consultative interactions. The seven steps of the Sandler Selling System include:

1. Bonding and rapport

2. Upfront contracts

3. Pain Funnel

4. Budget

5. Decision

6. Fulfillment

7. Post-sell

The third step of the Sandler Selling System, the Pain Funnel, is where you get to the heart of your prospect’s pain points. You can even use the Pain Funnel outside the context of the system to better understand your customers and improve your sales process.

What is the Pain Funnel?

With a focus on visual storytelling through user-friendly editing tools and filters, Instagram transformed the way we share our lives online. Now, with many Instagram users shopping within the app, it continues to transform how businesses sell their products directly to customers.

Originally, an Instagram business account simply allowed you to showcase photos and videos of your products and reach new customers via social media marketing. In 2019, Instagram launched a new feature called Instagram Checkout, enabling business accounts to sell products directly within the Instagram app.

Here’s how Instagram Checkout works, how to set it up on your business account, and why it’s an excellent opportunity to boost your ecommerce sales.

What is Instagram Checkout?

Instagram Checkout is a feature within Instagram Shop that lets users make a direct purchase from your business. It enables a seamless shopping experience where Instagram users discover and buy products without leaving the app—no need to click an external link and search a website. Instagram Checkout allows you to sync your product catalog with a partner platform like Shopify.

How Instagram Checkout works

First, upload content in any format, like a photo, Reel, or story. Then, tag your product in the post. A shopping bag icon will appear in the bottom left corner of the post, notifying viewers it contains a tagged product.

Interested customers can tap the shopping bag icon or the product tag in the post (similar to tapping the handle of a user tagged in a post). This leads them to the product page, where they can choose size, color, or other product variations.

Customers tap the Checkout button under the product photo to make a purchase. A new page appears where users can input their shipping address and billing information and confirm their order. They only need to provide this information when making their first purchase.

Once the order is complete, Instagram sends shipping and delivery notifications on the app’s notifications page and, if they’ve enabled Instagram notifications, the user’s lock screen.

Why should ecommerce businesses use Instagram Checkout?

Instagram Checkout streamlines purchases for you and your customers and provides these additional opportunities for your business:

Reach new people in tagged posts

Both your business and other Instagram users can tag products. For instance, if you collaborate with a content creator, you can give them permission to tag your products in their posts. This way, creators who feature your products can direct their followers to your product page, where purchases can be made with just a few clicks.

In-app product launches

Instagram offers a product launch tool that lets businesses send followers push notifications, product previews, and timely reminders. You can create interactive campaigns and generate excitement, all within the app.

Dedicated product pages

Highlight your offerings with dedicated product pages, where you can give shoppers all the important information they need to make a purchase. These pages display pricing, photos, and product specs, giving your customers a simple way to browse your inventory.

Product pages are distinct from regular Instagram posts. While products can be tagged in a post, a product page includes pricing and transaction features like Add to Cart and Buy Now. Product pages also list additional products from your shop below the photo rather than user comments.

How to set up a shop with Checkout on Instagram

1. Check your eligibility
2. Connect with a platform partner or Commerce Manager
3. Customize your shop
4. Manage your catalog
5. Inform your followers

Here’s how to use Instagram Checkout with your business account:

1. Check your eligibility

To use Instagram Checkout, you must:

• Be in a supported country
• Comply with Meta policies
• Have product listings available for direct purchase on your website
• Ensure all product information is accurate and transparent

To learn more about your eligibility, read Instagram’s commerce eligibility requirements.

2. Connect with a platform partner or Commerce Manager

There are two options for integrating your business with Instagram Checkout:

• As a platform partner. Businesses using one of Instagram’s supported platform partners, including Shopify, can speed up their onboarding process by joining through their platform account.

• Through the Commerce Manager. If you don’t use a supported partner, you can integrate Instagram Checkout through the app’s Commerce Manager, a place to manage your catalog and sales on Facebook and Instagram.

3. Customize your shop

There’s more to Instagram shops than listing items for sale. With Commerce Manager, your business can create unique visuals for your brand, customize your homepage by uploading branded images, or highlight your top products in a grid. Arrange your product collections for easy navigation, and update your inventory through the settings tab to keep everything current.

4. Manage your catalog

Ensure your product catalog is up to date. Confirm every item in your inventory is available for purchase, has a photo, and has a captivating product description. You can do this through Commerce Manager or a platform partner account. (When items are discontinued or out of stock, you may wish to remove product tags and listings from Instagram.)

5. Inform your followers

Once you’ve onboarded Instagram Checkout, customized your shop, and reviewed your catalog, you can share the news with your followers. Create a story or upload a post telling them how easy it is to shop with your brand on Instagram.

Ensure your products get seen with product tags. This will help future customers find your inventory and allow you to connect your product catalog directly to your posts.

To tag a product:

• Tap the plus icon at the bottom to create a new post.
• Select a photo or video from your camera roll.
• Tap Next in the top-right corner.
• Apply any edits or filters, then tap Next.
• Add your caption.
• Tap Tag Products and select the items in your photo or video.
• Search for the products, then choose them from the list.
• Tap Done and then Share to post.

Successful businesses often add product tags in Stories, Reels, feed posts, captions, and Live to gain more exposure to Instagram users.

Your company’s marketing creatives are responsible for producing campaigns that captivate your target audience and bring in new leads. But how are those leads monitored and shared with your sales team? Who compiles the performance reports and ensures every campaign contributes to the team’s key performance indicators (KPIs)? 

This is the domain of the marketing operations team, the backbone of marketing success. Without marketing operations, businesses may lack a clear path to effectively reach their intended audiences and acquire new customers. Learn how your company can use marketing operations to scale your business.

What is marketing operations?

The term marketing operations encompasses the people, technology, and processes that support a marketing team’s activities. 

• People. In smaller businesses, operations might be a shared responsibility among generalists on the marketing team. Larger teams might have marketing operations managers, dedicated project managers, specialists, and analysts. 

• Processes. Marketing operations processes include market research, campaign planning, execution, and performance analysis. 

Marketing operations, or MOps, aims to optimize and scale marketing efforts, move potential customers through the marketing funnel, and grow revenue. With a bird’s-eye view of every component of the marketing department, marketing operations can streamline processes, set macro-level goals, and effectively achieve those goals.

Those who work in marketing operations need excellent management skills to handle all the moving parts. They should be able to think analytically and communicate effectively with those on their team and external teams. Successful marketing operations professionals should be technologically savvy and comfortable working with analytics and data tools. Moreover, marketing ops professionals should also be able to use this data to inform strategic decisions. 

Marketing vs. marketing ops teams

While the broader marketing team’s responsibilities include creative work like ideation and content creation, marketing operations is responsible for enabling that work. That includes conducting research to inform campaigns, tracking progress, securing support from other departments like IT and sales, and compiling performance analytics and sharing those results cross-functionally. 

Benefits of marketing operations

The goal of marketing ops is to empower your marketing team to do more effective work, therefore improving your marketing return on investment (ROI) in these specific ways:

Improve initiatives with analytics

Without data, marketers make decisions based on personal experience, anecdotal evidence, industry-wide data, and gut instinct. This might be OK in the early stages of a business, when there isn’t ample data to draw on, but using data is imperative as you mature. 

Marketing ops is responsible for ensuring that your valuable data is put to good use—bringing it to the table to inform marketing efforts from the earliest stages of development. Incorporating historical data gained from marketing analytics into decision-making leads to better business outcomes. 

Make real-time improvements

Constantly monitoring performance and analyzing performance data is time-consuming, and marketers often don’t have time to dedicate to this work. But when you don’t keep a close eye on performance, things can fall through the cracks. 

Marketing operations can track how customers are responding to your marketing efforts, and use that data to improve digital marketing campaigns. For example, let’s say you spend half of your marketing budget on social media ads. The ads are successful, and the click-through rate to your website is high. But most of the people who arrive on your site bounce very quickly, without making a purchase. Marketing ops is responsible for identifying problems like this quickly so that the person or team responsible for the website can take action—and get you more value for the money you spent on ads.

Improve efficiency with technology

Digital marketing tools abound—so much so that teams can quickly end up with so many that they hinder, rather than improve, efficiency. Marketing ops is responsible for ensuring that technology usage on your team is seamless. They can help your business choose a CMR or content management system (CMS) with both your present and future needs in mind, and they can ensure that everyone knows how to use the tool properly. Finally, they can ensure everyone is actually using tools properly, so that your business is capturing thorough and accurate data. 

How to develop a marketing operations strategy

1. Set concrete goals
2. Designate the key players
3. Make a plan
4. Bring everyone in

Even if you don’t have the budget to hire a dedicated marketing operations manager or team, you still need a marketing ops strategy. Here are five steps your business should consider when creating it:

1. Set concrete goals

First, decide what you want to achieve in terms of marketing operations this year, half-year, or quarter. Aim to make your goals SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. That could look like:

• Selecting and implementing a new CRM, ensuring that all team members are using it by [date]

• Implementing an analytics tools and reporting process, with a first marketing performance report being delivered by [date]

• Improving campaign delivery time by X%

• Ensure campaigns have a minimum ROI of X%

2. Designate the key players

Your marketing operations team can be as big or small as you deem fit. If a dedicated team isn’t in your budget, you can assign operations responsibilities to other marketers on your team (for example, channel owners). Just make sure you’re clear about who is responsible for which tasks. 

Remember, operations is a different skill set from creativity. Make sure those you hire or task with operational responsibilities have skills such as: 

• Project management

• Data management

• Data analysis

3. Make a plan

Once goals are set and key players are designated, it’s time to outline a marketing strategy to achieve those goals. This is your roadmap to marketing operations success. For each goal, you’ll need to understand your baseline (where you are today), align on the steps to be taken to achieve the goal, and set milestones for assessing progress. Your plan should also be clear about how progress, and ultimately success, will be measured (meaning: which metrics will be used). 

4. Bring everyone in

Your marketing operations strategy will likely impact how many people do their work. Make sure that anyone who will be working with marketing ops is brought into the process early and given a voice. From there, align on how changes to marketing processes or technology will be communicated and implemented. Finally, create a plan for documentation, so that everyone can reference the valuable work your marketing ops manager or team is doing. 

A successful business doesn’t just need a stellar product—customers also want to feel like their voices and concerns are important. In fact, 85% of consumers report that their favorite brand “treats them like an individual.”

Katherine Oyer, owner of modern baby apparel store Francis Henri, is focused on building this kind of relationship.

“If you have a wonderful customer experience and a superior product, people come back,” Katherine says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “I have always felt word of mouth and loving on your customer, turning them into clients, making them friends—I find those are the advertising dollars I’d rather spend.”

Customer communication management is critical to building relationships with buyers. It can improve the customer experience, encourage referrals, and help you garner repeat business.Here’s how businesses communicate with customers, and six communication tips to help you improve your brand reputation and increase customer loyalty.

Types of customer communication

Effective communication strategies involve multiple communication channels and methods. Here’s an overview of common types:

Phone

Many businesses allow customers to contact them by phone, either employing a 24/7 answering service or restricting calls to specific business hours. Phone calls can be an efficient and convenient way to resolve issues and build customer relationships, but you can take only so many calls at once—and customers can become frustrated by long hold times.

You can minimize response time by using call menus to route customers to the correct department, offering call-back services, and including information about self-service options in your recorded greeting.

Live chat

Like phone calls, live chats can offer immediate and personalized support. They also allow agents to field multiple customer requests at once, which can make them a cost-effective alternative to phone support. Some companies also augment live chat services with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, which can answer questions like “Where’s my order” or “How do I start a return” and automatically route more complex requests to the appropriate team member.

Email

Email is an asynchronous communication channel, which can make it a convenient option for you and your customers. Clients can send questions whenever they have them (including at 2 a.m. or over a holiday weekend), and you can reply on the next business day or during whatever time block you set aside for responding to customer emails.

It can be less effective for urgent requests, but you can keep customers in the loop by sending an automated initial response that confirms the receipt of an inquiry and lets them know when they can expect to hear back from your team. You can also include directions to more immediate support options, if applicable.

In-person

You can also communicate with customers face to face or blend in-person and digital interactions. Francis Henri offers a buy online, pickup in-store option that allows customers to come in and talk to store personnel, ask questions, and browse. They also offer curbside pickup.

“If there is a mom who has a sleeping baby, we’ll get messages that say, can you just run my bag out?” says Katherine.

Social media

There are multiple ways to communicate with customers on social media channels. You can accept direct messages on Instagram, X, and Facebook Messenger, reply to social media posts that tag your brand, and interact with customers in the comments section of your business’s posts.

Use social media monitoring tools (also known as social listening tools) to track conversations about your company and take a proactive approach to customer appreciation and support.

How to ensure great customer communication

Great communication can increase customer trust in your brand, helping you attract and retain customers and encouraging existing customers to spread the word about your company. Here are six strategies to improve your customer communication efforts:

Use a varied communication strategy

Do you have any friends who hate talking on the phone? Or a relative who can’t seem to figure out social platforms? Odds are that versions of these people exist in your customer base, too—their communication preferences might be peculiar, but they’re also strong.

Diverse communication strategies allow customers to choose a communication method based on their unique channel preferences—whether that’s email, direct message, live chat, or phone. It involves offering multiple outreach options and providing a unified cross-channel experience.

Unified inboxes and customer relationship management (CRM) systems can consolidate outreach from customers coming from various channels. It stores customer data in a centralized location, allowing your support team to provide a consistent customer experience and efficiently manage multiple channels.

Maintain a consistent brand voice

Your brand voice is a critical part of your company’s identity. It informs your written content, how you show up in online spaces, and how customers understand the value you provide. It’s also not just the marketing department’s responsibility. You can improve customer communication and strengthen your brand image by helping team members adopt your brand voice for sales and support interactions. Use your brand voice in internal communications, and encourage reps to remain consistent across channels.

You can also include service-focused brand voice examples in your brand guidelines. For example, if your voice is upbeat, positive, and playful, you might encourage the use of exclamation points and emojis, and warn against formal language or technical jargon.

Engage your employees

Customer service training can help your employees boost customer satisfaction by offering consistent, high-quality support. Here’s what to include:

• Policies and procedures. Assess your team’s knowledge base, invite questions, and provide them with current copies of your customer service policy guidelines. You can also remind team members where to look when questions come up.

• Skills-building. Live demos, self-reflection activities, and real-life call recordings illustrate situations that can help your reps build empathy, improve communication skills, and form better relationships with customers.

• Tricky situations. Customer service training also prepares your team members to handle customer complaints in a respectful and timely manner. Consider role-playing challenging calls or inviting your team to workshop solutions to a proposed scenario.

🌟 From active listening to improvisation to resilience, here’s what you need to know to develop customer service skills for you and your team.

Personalize customer interactions

Research shows customers expect personalized interactions and reward businesses offering them. To improve personalization, store customer data in a centralized location (like a CRM) and use it to personalize relevant communications, including emails, outreach calls, and marketing messages.

You can also store service call information in customer profiles—allowing your team members to pass service tickets between reps or departments without losing information—or use an AI-enabled virtual assistant to automatically summarize calls.

Solicit customer feedback

Customer feedback can provide insight into customer expectations and experiences, helping you better understand your target audience and identify areas for improvement.

Popular options include surveys, reviews, customer focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with existing customers. You can also use customer service tools to automate requests and identify trends in large volumes of data. Focus on the entire customer journey—not just service communications—and remember that feedback requests are customer interactions. It takes time and energy to provide feedback, so show appreciation with personalized responses or rewards.

Provide a personal touch

Don’t underestimate the value of getting personal. You’re a real person, and your customers are too—so build connections by focusing on the shared human element.

“We send a handwritten thank you card in every package,” says Katherine, adding that she doesn’t cut corners on these details. “The customer experience is so important for me. I wanted the experience of receiving a box to be almost like a gift.”

You can also show your appreciation with personal thank you calls, emails, or invite-only customer events. Communicating effectively is about bringing your authentic self to the table, so don’t overthink it. Ask yourself why a customer’s loyalty matters to you, and say (or type) that.

Customers value a good deal. They may search the web for coupons or wait for sales and markdowns before making large purchases. As a shopper yourself, you probably understand how frustrating it is to purchase an item, only to see prices drop a few days later.

As a business owner, you can help your customers save money while also luring them to your ecommerce site. The key is price-tracking technology. With the help of some user-friendly price tracking apps, you can send your customers price drop alerts—just like the major retailers do.

What is a price alert app?

A price alert app is software—often a browser extension or standalone app—that can track prices and notify users when prices change or fall. Price alert apps help shoppers track prices across the internet, alerting them to the best deals on things like consumer goods, flights, and hotel bookings. As a user, you can set specific conditions, like a target price, and the app will monitor product prices and provide updates, helping you find good deals without constant manual checking.

Business owners also use these tools as price comparison apps because they often aggregate data from multiple stores, offering a comprehensive overview of pricing trends. So if the current product you’re tracking goes on sale at a competitor’s shop, the app will alert you. Let’s say you sell a certain brand of bath towels, and a rival website runs a sale on the same make and model. Your price alert app can flag the new price difference, giving you the opportunity to respond with a bath towel deal of your own.

Why a business should use price alert apps

Offering price alert apps gives your customers the best possible experience while also steering them to your online store. By giving usersprice alerts when you roll out discounts, you offer transparency and potentially increase conversion rates. As a business owner, you should assume that many of your customers already use apps like Rakuten and Capital One Shopping to find coupon codes and watch for price drops on everything from travel services to Amazon products.

Additionally, if you sell price-sensitive products or services, you can set up price watches and track other retailers. Some of the tools can adjust your prices to match or even undercut the competition.

Top price alert apps for ecommerce stores

You can access several price alert apps through the Shopify App Store. These tools let your customers compare prices while helping you draw them away from rival marketplaces like eBay or Amazon. It’s a win for both you and the shopper.

The Watchlyst

The Watchlyst tracks product prices for ecommerce store visitors, and it sends alerts without you lifting a finger. Its many features include a Price Drop Alert button on product pages that lets site visitors take advantage of sales promotions. It can also email users when your price reaches a target figure they can set on their phone app.

Pricing: $5 per month, with a free trial available.

Wishlist Hero

Wishlist Hero lets customers add products to a wishlist. When those products go on sale or reach a low stock threshold, Wishlist Hero emails your customers and encourages them to buy.

Pricing: Wishlist Hero has a free plan with limited features. Paid plans run from $4 per month to $29 per month.

SpurIT

For a free price monitoring tool, consider SpurlT. Its premise is simple: If customers browse your online store and see products that exceed their price range, they can sign up for an email alerting them to price cuts. If any of their desired items become cheaper, SprulT’s discount reminder sends them a notice, and they may return to your site to complete the purchase.

Pricing: Free.

Latori

The latest version of the Latori best price indicator comes with performance enhancements that let you automatically store 30 days of price history. That means customers who use Latori when perusing your Shopify store can see the lowest price for an item during the past month. If you’re already offering the lowest price, they may be ready to purchase right then and there. If the price history suggests they can pay less in the future, they may return when you have a sale.

Pricing: There’s a free plan available, and paid plans start at $9.99 per month.

Pricefy

Why do businesses bother monitoring prices? In part, it’s to make sure that they aren’t losing out to competitors. The Pricefy price monitoring tool keeps tabs on your competitors and helps you adjust pricing. Use the tool to access extensive product data and receive updates whenever a monitored store changes its prices on an item you offer. This can help you stay ahead of the curve so that your price always matches or beats your competitors.

Pricing: Pricefy starts with a free plan, with paid plans ranging from $49 to $189, depending on the number of products you want to monitor.

Branding for online audiences is a bit like telling a story made up of many individual threads. On their own, each thread is intriguing, but braided together into one grand narrative, they become undeniably compelling. Each thread complements and provides context to the others, leaving the listener (in this case, your customer base) fully invested and engaged in the tale.

This type of digital brand strategy helps you stand out from your competitors and earn a positive reputation with your audience. In this article, we’ll cover the benefits of digital branding and how to get started with your own digital branding strategy.

What is digital branding?

Digital branding is the unification of your brand across online platforms, including your website, social media channels, email marketing, and more. Digital branding communicates your brand’s look and feel, vision, values, and product positioning through a digital lens so you can meet your customers where they spend a lot of time: online.

Digital branding is distinct from traditional branding primarily by medium: Where digital branding prioritizes the brand experience across digital platforms like websites, social media, and online search, traditional branding leverages more “traditional” physical media like print ads, billboards, and broadcasting to communicate brand identity.

Benefits of digital branding for ecommerce

Here’s how digital branding can help your ecommerce business:

Cohesive brand story

Done well, digital branding presents a cohesive brand narrative across every platform you use, from your website to social channels to digital advertising channels like email marketing. That consistency fosters confidence and trust in new and existing customers.

Increased brand recognition

A clearer brand story and presence also means more accurate awareness about what your brand is and what it offers in the wider marketplace. Each time a customer encounters you, either intentionally (like visiting your site directly) or unintentionally (like seeing a search results ad), it’s an opportunity to underscore your brand messaging.

Better customer experience

Digital branding sets the tone for many of the real-life interactions you may have with your customers, whether through customer experience or order fulfillment. Being thoughtful about the style of communication throughout all your digital spaces creates opportunities to foster customer loyalty and engagement.

How to build a strong digital brand strategy

1. Standardize your brand identity
2. Craft brand guidelines
3. Invest in great site design
4. Balance flash with functionality
5. Build trust through the user experience
6. Focus on a few social media channels
7. Create engaging content
8. Complement a digital presence with tangible assets

Sara Mote and Rembrant Van der Mijnsbrugge are the creative director and CEO, respectively, of MOTE, a creative agency focused on ecommerce. Here are some of their guiding principles for creating a digital branding strategy:

1. Standardize your brand identity

One of the first steps to take when crafting a digital brand is to decide on a logo, color palette, and typography style. Designing a logo is a branding exercise in and of itself. Once you’ve created the right logo for your brand, all other design elements can evolve from it.

2. Craft brand guidelines

Brand guidelines establish rules for how your business presents itself out in the world—from logo usage to communication tone and style. A brand guide can also include your mission statement and important details about your product portfolio. Your brand guidelines are the unifying foundation beneath all of your digital branding efforts, so keep them handy and refer back to them often to keep things cohesive as your business evolves.

3. Invest in great site design

“Like a conversation, design has the power to captivate an audience, convey information, and evoke emotions which will directly impact consumer decision-making,” Sara says. “Good design increases the quality of those conversations. It helps create a seamless and engaging experience which, in turn, reinforces brand identity and drives performance metrics like sales and customer retention.”

Your homepage should feel like it was designed with intention. Starting with a clean, simple Shopify template allows you to hone your vision and messaging at your own pace.

“The most important thing is to establish a solid baseline. That means a simple website that focuses on performance and cognitive ease while making sure that we establish some branding,” says Rembrant. His advice? Start with a great font. “Typography can convey so much personality very quickly. Good typography is the foundation of all the design we do at Mote.”

4. Balance flash with functionality

As creative director, Sara says she returns again and again to a singular goal: Craft something both beautiful and strategic.

“The challenge of designing for ecommerce is that solutions often require a delicate balance,” Sara says. “Imagery and typography that establish a brand’s unique narrative shouldn’t overshadow or impede the basic functionality on the website. A good ecommerce site is immersive and experiential and represents a brand authentically, but the design also likely shows restraint—because at the end of the day, it needs to function.”

If you’re overly focused on creating an exciting website, you might lose sight of the core functionality. “The goal is to communicate your products and ensure that every single customer has a really clear sense of your offering,” she says. Strive to give customers clarity about your brand, and instead of requiring them to dig for important details, make sure they can easily navigate your site.

5. Build trust through the user experience

User experience is an essential part of web design, and it’s integral to digital branding, too. “When users have a positive experience with a website and it’s both intuitive and enjoyable to use, they’re more likely to trust the brand behind it,” Sara explains. “Sustainably growing a brand requires brand trust, which is built over time with consistency.”

Good user experience, she says, means attention to details large and small to ensure a brand’s overall narrative is conveyed and maintained at all touchpoints. Poor user experience, on the other hand, can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction, eroding brand trust, and damaging a brand’s reputation.

That perception and sense of trust extends past the website. Rembrant, who also serves as Mote’s lead software engineer, underscores the importance of responsive design and cross-channel harmonization. “The experience doesn’t need to be identical, but it does need to feel like it’s the same brand,” he says. This keeps cognitive ease top of mind, especially when your customer might be interacting with your brand in any number of digital settings, jumping from desktop to mobile to Instagram to email and back.

6. Focus on a few social media channels

It may seem like you have to be on every social media channel all the time in order to boost engagement. However, it’s often a better and more realistic strategy to focus on platforms you actually enjoy, especially ones that resonate with the target audience you’re trying to attract.

Forcing yourself to make TikTok videos because you think you should can result in videos that feel disingenuous; instead, find a happy medium between where your customers are and where you like to be. Then you can craft unique strategies for each platform based on that happy medium. Product demos and explainers might perform best on TikTok, for example, while you might devote your Instagram page to lifestyle photography or more polished media content.

7. Create engaging content

Once you’ve narrowed down your social media strategy to a few key platforms, aim to create content that’s most engaging for those channels and that highlights your unique value or message. “Values can be a really interesting way of keeping people engaged with your brand,” Rembrant says. “If people can build an emotional connection with your brand, that is far more powerful and long-lasting than if people are simply purchasing a product to meet a quick need that they have.”

Visually and tonally, make sure that your marketing content feels like a natural extension of (or complement to) your website branding. Many social platforms favor a more playful brand presence, but customers shouldn’t feel a total disconnect when they navigate to your homepage. Essentially, the core of your brand personality should stay consistent, while the tone and flavors of that personality shift depending on the platform.

8. Complement a digital presence with tangible assets

When digital branding leaks into the real world in the form of product packaging or company merch, it can reinforce the identity of a primarily digital brand.

“There’s a brand I like called Sunspel,” Rembrant says. “They’re a very old English company that makes cotton t-shirts and things like that. When you get your package, there’s this little postcard in it. It’s a picture of nature, a pretty landscape. And what happens, at least for me, is it puts me in a good mood.”

This kind of behavioral priming, he explains, means he’s now trying on clothes in a good mood, and is typically much more likely to keep them. “That packaging is great customer experience design. It’s minimal, yet it delights,” he says.

If you can channel the look and feel of your digital brand ethos into the physical product, it solidifies the world you’ve created for your customer.

Social media marketing is a powerful tool for driving business growth. It’s also a ton of work. A single Instagram post requires ideating a creative concept, capturing a high-quality photo or video, sizing it for the platform, writing a caption, selecting hashtags and mentions, scheduling the post, applying tags, and engaging with users in comments and direct messages.

If you’re going to invest in social media, you want to get as much mileage out of your efforts as possible. To do so, you can use that social content across your other channels. This is, in a nutshell, social media integration.

What is social media integration?

Social media integration is the process of connecting your brand’s social media presence to your other marketing channels. This might involve sharing social media content in your email marketing campaigns, embedding featured social media posts in your blog articles, and including clickable social media icons on your website footer. Integration allows users to interact with your social media content even off social platforms, which can increase customer engagement.

Benefits of social media integration

Social media integration offers multiple business benefits. It can amplify the value of your social presence and support your other digital and in-person marketing efforts. Here’s how it can help you:

Consistent brand experiences

Integrating social media across channels naturally ensures that your brand identity is unified. By maintaining a consistent, coherent digital presence, you can boost brand recognition while keeping your brand narrative and brand values aligned. For instance, if a clothing brand partners with an influencer to model a new summer line, they could embed a post from the influencer in a blog post rounding up ideas for styling new items.

Increased content value

Social media integration amplifies the value of your content strategy. Sharing social content on other digital channels wrings maximum value out of every high-quality photo, meticulously edited video, and tonally appropriate zinger—because the more places this content appears, the more people will see it. Let’s say you post a TikTok that goes viral; you might also embed that TikTok in your brand’s weekly newsletter, extending its reach even further.

Social proof

Many social media strategies focus on user-generated content (UGC)—content customers create and publish about your brand on their own channels. Positive UGC is a type of social proof, and it validates your brand’s quality and builds trust with new customers. Social media integrations like social feed embeds on your website (which show the latest social posts that mention your brand) can help you earn more UGC and encourage its sharing across multiple platforms. Research shows that UGC feed embeds can boost social campaign engagement by 50%.

Ideas for social media integration

Here are a few social media integration strategies to improve customer experiences and reach a broader audience:

Use social share buttons

Social share buttons invite users to share relevant content on multiple social media platforms, simplifying the sharing process with auto-generated post previews and a seamless transition from one platform to another. Many companies include popular social media network share buttons on key web pages, like a new blog post, an order confirmation, and product pages.

For example, plant-based nutrition company Press includes social media buttons on its lifestyle and nutrition blog, The Squeeze, allowing users to share an article through their Facebook, Pinterest, or X accounts. Clicking an icon opens a pop-up window displaying an editable post preview for the chosen platform, complete with the article link, embedded image, and sample copy.

Connect social platforms to your online store

Ecommerce-focused social media integration lets users find and purchase products from your online store directly on social platforms. You can share individual products, sync your entire catalog, or create shoppable posts from UGC.

Women’s running brand Oiselle uses Shopify’s social selling tools to promote its items on Instagram. Product posts appear in Oiselle’s feed alongside social media marketing content like runner-friendly memes, branded posts, coverage of current topics in professional running, and sponsored content created by Oiselle’s team of professional athletes.

Enable social login

Cross-platform solutions like social login tools provide a seamless user experience across marketing channels. Social login makes signing up on your site quick and easy, allowing users to skip your account registration process and log in to your online store with their existing social media credentials. This builds trust with potential customers who might otherwise be hesitant to create an account on a new platform.

Build social feed integrations

Social media feed integrations embed your posts into other digital channels, like your website or marketing emails. Feed integrations can boost engagement on social channels and help you earn more social media followers. They’re also a cost-efficient way to refresh site content and add elements from visual platforms like Instagram to enhance text-heavy pages.

You can also use feed integrations for social proof by resharing user-generated content or configuring your feed to display posts that tag your brand. Sustainable apparel company Everlane embeds Instagram photos on product pages under the headline “Everlane On You” and includes a link that lets users easily add photos from Facebook or Instagram.

Tips for social media integration

An effective social media integration strategy enhances user experiences and supports your other marketing efforts. Here are four tips to help you integrate social media across your digital channels:

Engage with users

Engaging with users on social media channels can help you build your social following and boost customer loyalty. Encourage user interaction by replying to comments, liking or sharing reviews and other UGC posts, and responding to customer inquiries by DM. When you happen across UGC content you want to share across your other platforms, reach out to the creator to ask if you can feature their post.

Monitor social conversations

Social listening tools analyze mentions of your business on social channels, helping you monitor your reputation, track conversations about your brand, and provide proactive customer support. Identify and respond to unhappy customers, join conversations with tips and advice, and thank satisfied users for promoting your company.

Track performance

Monitoring marketing performance can provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, helping you measure success across digital channels and optimize your integration strategy. Key integration metrics include social media data like follower growth rate, mentions, and brand sentiment, as well as broader performance metrics like conversion rate and customer satisfaction.

Your specific indicators depend on your overall marketing goals and integration techniques. You might monitor satisfaction and loyalty to evaluate UGC efforts, and you might monitor website visitor behavior to track the effects of social sharing buttons.

Most social platforms offer built-in social media analytics, and third-party analytics tools or social media management software can provide advanced analytics and automated reporting features. Use customer feedback tools to measure customer satisfaction, site analytics tools to monitor site traffic, and your ecommerce dashboard to track sales.

Whether you’re starting a new business or trying to scale an existing one, sometimes you need to borrow money to set the wheels in motion. 

A business loan can help in areas ranging from funding purchase orders to hiring employees to building out manufacturing capacity. And one of the best forms of small business financing is an SBA loan. That’s because these loans are backed by the US Small Business Administration (SBA), which often translates to lower interest rates and fees than other loans. However, SBA loan requirements can be more stringent compared to some other startup business loans.

That said, SBA loan requirements are well within reach for many small businesses. But before you get too deep into filling out an SBA loan application, it’s useful to understand general SBA loan requirements for startups (as well as established small businesses) and how eligibility differs among the various types of SBA loans, so you can focus on the financing that makes the most sense for your company.

Let’s take a closer look at how to qualify for an SBA loan. 

General SBA loan eligibility

First things first: It’s important to understand that SBA loans aren’t a monolith. 

For one, there are several different types of SBA loans, such as SBA 7(a) loans, which are the most common but have several subtypes, and SBA 504 loans, which are geared toward fixed assets like real estate or machinery. Depending on which type of SBA loan you’re applying for, the eligibility requirements vary.

Also, SBA loans are not directly issued via the SBA. Instead, SBA-approved lenders, like some banks, issue loans to small businesses that are partially guaranteed by the SBA. So, while the SBA has certain guidelines that these approved lenders must follow—like limiting loan sizes to between $500 and $5.5 million, depending on the type of loan—each lender can also have their own eligibility requirements that might be stricter than the SBA’s overarching guidelines.

That said, before you start applying for SBA loans from SBA-approved lenders, it helps to understand the baseline SBA loan eligibility standards.

Business size and type

As the name suggests, you have to qualify as a small business to receive an SBA loan. The exact business size requirements vary by industry, but a common guideline is having fewer than 500 employees. 

Certain industries have size standards, usually based on annual receipts, which can vary significantly, even among similar sectors. For example, food service contractors can have a maximum of $47 million in annual receipts to qualify as a small business by the SBA, while caterers can have a maximum of $9 million.

You can use the SBA’s online Size Standards Tool to see if you qualify as a small business. 

Also, only certain types of businesses are eligible for SBA loans. While the scope is pretty broad, certain types of businesses are ineligible, such as those primarily engaged in lending, life insurance companies, and those that earn more than one-third of their annual gross revenue from gambling.

For-profit operation

Another baseline requirement for SBA loans is that you have to be a for-profit business. The only exception is that a for-profit subsidiary of a non-profit could still be eligible.

US-based business

Location also matters for SBA loan eligibility. To qualify, your business must physically be located and operate in the US. This extends to both US states and US territories. Also, businesses generally have to either be majority-owned by US citizens or lawful permanent residents.

Credit score minimums

Credit score requirements can vary based on the lender and the type of SBA loan, and it’s possible to still qualify for an SBA loan with bad credit. However, you should check with lenders about what their credit score minimums are, if any, and know that certain types of loans do have floors. For example, SBA 7(a) small loans require a minimum FICO Small Business Scoring Service (SBSS) score of 155.

Owner’s invested equity

The SBA has loosened some requirements around how much equity a business owner has to have in the company to qualify for an SBA loan. But when a complete change of ownership is made, for example, 7(a) loans above $500,000 generally require a 10% equity injection from the owner, though lenders may have their own requirements that differ.

Collateral expectations

Collateral expectations can also vary by lender and SBA loan type, so you may want to do some digging based on what loan you’re interested in applying for.

To give you a general idea of what to expect, though, consider that the SBA does not require collateral for some loans, such as 7(a) small and SBA Express loans of $50,000 or less. Others, however, like 504 loans, generally are secured based on the assets the funds are used to purchase, and thus 504 loans can’t be used for purposes such as working capital.

Down payment considerations

Here too, SBA requirements vary by lender and SBA loan type. In general, though, you can expect lenders to require around a 10% to 20% down payment for the amount you want to borrow.

Although that might seem counterintuitive, putting in some of your own money to then borrow more helps align you with lenders and can make them more comfortable providing you with the loan, since you have something at stake too.

Credit not available elsewhere

This loan requirement is a bit more complicated and something that lenders can help you with, but in general, SBA loans are meant to support small businesses that can’t find high-quality financing elsewhere. 

Thus, you need to be in a position where you can’t obtain reasonable loan terms elsewhere, such as due to poor credit or simply if other lenders have significantly higher interest rates than what an SBA loan offers. However, you don’t necessarily have to apply for other loans first, as your lender may be able to certify that credit is not available elsewhere for your business in terms of satisfying this SBA requirement.

Personal guarantees

Those who own 20% or more of a business obtaining an SBA loan generally have to sign a personal guarantee, meaning they’re personally liable for repaying the loan if the business can not.

Specific requirements by loan type

Different types of SBA loans offer different maximum loan amounts, usage limitations for funds, application processes, etc. As such, the eligibility requirements also differ by loan type. Beyond the baseline requirements like being a for-profit business in the US, some specific requirements by SBA loan type include the following:

7(a) loans

SBA 7(a) loans are the main type of SBA financing, though there are several subtypes of 7(a) loans. For standard 7(a) loans, some specific requirements include:

• Loan size between $500,001 and $5 million 
• Personal credit score of around 640 or higher with a demonstrated ability to reasonably repay the loan are often required; some lenders have higher requirements, such as a 690 or higher personal credit score
• A 10% down payment is often required
• Funds can be used for most purposes, such as working capital, acquiring real estate, purchasing machinery, and debt refinancing

Some SBA 7(a) loan requirements, however, differ based on the subtype and the specific lender. For example, 7(a) small loans are for loan sizes that are $500,000 or less, and for ones that are $50,000 or less, not including International Trade Loans, the SBA does not require collateral, though certain lenders might. Lenders can also make their own creditworthiness determinations for 7(a) small loans without an SBA review.

504 loans

SBA 504 loans differ from the 7(a) SBA loan program in several ways. For one, the purpose of 504 loans is specifically for financing major fixed assets. Also, these loans are only issued through Certified Development Companies (CDCs), which are non-profits, as opposed to private lenders that issue 7(a) loans. 

In terms of eligibility, some unique requirements of 504 loans include:

• The business must have a tangible net worth below $15 million
• For two years preceding the 504 loan application, average net income each year needs to be less than $5 million after federal income taxes
• Loans can only be used to finance assets that spur business and job growth, such as purchasing or constructing new buildings or long-term machinery, or improving or modernizing assets like existing facilities; in contrast to 7(a) loans, 504 loan proceeds can’t be used for purposes such as working capital or inventory
• Maximum loan amount of $5.5 million
• While varying by lender and situation, down payment may be higher than 7(a) loans, such as requiring a 20% versus 10% down payment; similarly, credit score requirements may be higher, such as requiring a 680 or higher personal credit score, but this can vary

SBA Express loan

SBA Express loans are a subtype of 7(a) loans, yet these leave a lot more up to the discretion of the lender, as the maximum SBA guarantees for these loans is lower (up to 50% versus up to 75% for standard 7(a) loans). As such, the eligibility requirements vary by lender but generally can be considered to be looser than 7(a) loan requirements. 

Some key considerations for SBA Express loans include:

• Maximum loan size is $500,000
• SBA does not require lenders to take collateral for loans up to $50,000, and while collateral may be required based on a lender’s policy for loans above $50,000, Express loans can’t be denied strictly due to lack of collateral
• Can be a revolving line of credit rather than a traditional loan

SBA CAPLines loan

SBA CAPlines refers to a loan program that provides short-term working capital lines of credit (either revolving or non-revolving) through a few different subtypes. For example, Seasonal CAPLines are used to fund seasonal needs, like higher inventory purchases during holiday periods.

Working Capital CAPlines provide credit to those who aren’t eligible for other long-term credit options, with repayment based on converting short-term assets, such as accounts receivable, into cash. 

The main eligibility criteria for CAPLines is that proceeds are used for short-term operating capital, but not uses like financing a change of ownership. There are also some specific eligibility criteria for different types of CAPLines, such as how Working Capital CAPLines borrowers need accounts receivable and/or inventory to qualify for financing.

To see the full SBA loan requirements specific to the loan you’d like to apply for, you can dive into the SBA’s documentation and speak to an SBA-approved lender for more specific guidance. 

Documents you’ll need

In addition to meeting the aforementioned eligibility requirements, small businesses also need to present several documents as part of an SBA loan application. Some common documents include the following, though remember that there can be variances based on factors like the loan type and lender:

Business plan

Showing lenders your business plan can help you meet criteria like demonstrating a reasonable ability to repay the loan, based on your business plan indicating that you have a path for generating income. The level of detail needed and importance of the business plan can vary by lender and based on factors like the age of your business. Startups, for example, may have limited financial statements and thus the business plan may be weighed more.

The SBA has sample business plans available online that you can review if you’re not sure how to create one. 

Financial statements

Lenders also want to see your company’s financial statements, such as:

• Current income statements and balance sheets
• Fiscal year end income statements and balance sheets for the past three years, if applicable
• Cash flow projections, which typically should show positive cash flow within two years

These financial statements may be needed for specific loan criteria, like 504 loans that show your business does not exceed net worth or net income thresholds, or lenders may simply want to see financial statements as part of assessing your creditworthiness. The stronger your financial statements are, the better loan terms you typically can receive, such as qualifying for lower interest rates.

In addition to these business statements, lenders also generally want to see personal financial statements—including from spouses—of those who own 20% or more of a business to assess your creditworthiness, particularly when owners provide personal guarantees for SBA loans.

Tax returns

Connected to financial statements, applicants also typically need to provide tax returns for the past three years, though startups may still be eligible if they don’t have that history. Here too, you may need to supply both business and personal tax returns, if applicable.

Legal documents

Be prepared to provide legal documentation regarding your business, which can vary based on your business structure but may include documents such as:

• Articles of incorporation or articles of organization
• Partnership agreements
• Business licenses
• Legal judgments for or against your business

Alternatives to SBA business loans

While SBA loans offer several positives, such as often having lower interest rates than non-SBA loans, not everyone qualifies, nor do all businesses want to go through the SBA approval process, which can be cumbersome.

Instead, Shopify store owners can turn to alternatives like a merchant cash advance or working capital loan with Shopify Capital. Rather than having to meet certain SBA lender criteria like minimum credit scores or down payments, your eligibility for Shopify Capital is based on several factors that determine the health of your business, including sales history. There are no limitations on how you can use financing for your business needs.

*Shopify Capital loans must be paid in full within a maximum of 18 months, and two minimum payments apply within the first two 6 month periods. The actual duration may be less than 18 months based on sales.

In the early days of the internet, store websites were essentially digital brochures with basic navigation. The advent of Web 2.0 transformed the web from static pages to user-driven content and interactive services. Suddenly, you had new features like responsive mobile site design and ecommerce capabilities.

Today, you can create websites with unmatched flexibility and customization through progressive web apps (PWAs). Built with JavaScript, these sites offer app-like functionality without needing a native app download.

If you’ve ever browsed a website with lots of inventory—like St. Frank or Taylor Stitch—you’ve interacted with a PWA. Ideal for sites with extensive catalogs or bespoke features, PWAs allow developers to custom-code and preload the browsing experience. Plus, they have numerous search engine optimization (SEO) advantages; Google’s enhanced JavaScript rendering makes indexing PWAs straightforward, eliminating the need for special optimizations.

Here’s more about PWAs, how they can improve your SEO efforts, and how to implement PWA optimization tips for the best organic results.

What is a progressive web app (PWA)?

Progressive web apps (PWAs) are websites that use HTML, CSS, and modern JavaScript frameworks to provide an app-like experience with smooth navigation and animations. Although you access PWAs through web browsers like traditional websites, they’re coded to behave like apps, making them fast, dynamic, and capable of working with low-quality internet connections by caching data.

When you visit a PWA site, the entire code base loads, unlike traditional websites that reload code with each new web page. This makes navigation between PWA pages noticeably faster.

PWAs are especially useful for highly customizable sites. For example, an ecommerce platform like Moe’s Home displays real-time stock levels by connecting the site to its warehouse system.

How do PWAs work?

PWAs take an app-like approach to web development by loading a single JavaScript file. Like Instagram, the site loads entirely first, then dynamically updates content based on user interaction.

Traditional websites, on the other hand, rely on server-side rendering, where the main server processes all of the site’s data and sends it to the user’s browser. PWAs use client-side rendering, where the browser processes JavaScript code to load only necessary page elements rather than the entire HTML document from the server.

Benefits of using PWAs

1. Better user engagement
2. Mobile-friendliness
3. Push notification capabilities

Ensuring your site has an excellent user experience is crucial. Implementing a PWA can enhance performance, accessibility, and engagement. Here are three PWA benefits:

1. Better use engagement

PWAs create a fast experience, making it easy for customers to jump quickly between pages, as each page doesn’t need to reload. They also afford high levels of customization with interactive elements and personalization according to the user’s behavior. These features help keep the user engaged for longer, improving session duration.

For example, after switching to a PWA, the kitchenware company GoodCook saw a 30% increase in session duration by implementing ecommerce functionality on recipe pages, letting users directly shop for the cookware needed to prepare their meals.

2. Mobile-friendliness

Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it crawls a site’s mobile version to determine its ranking on search engine result pages. PWAs provide a seamless mobile experience with responsive design (i.e., when your website adapts to screen size) and service workers, which cache frequently used resources like images and scripts for faster retrieval.

3. Push notification capabilities

PWAs can send push notifications to users, similar to native apps, even when the user isn’t openly interacting with the website. For example, sending a push notification to subscribers when a new collection drops. This can increase traffic from returning visitors.

Tips to optimize PWAs for search

1. Submit a sitemap
2. Create custom URLs
3. Monitor and analyze performance
4. Optimize metadata and schema
5. Consider hybrid rendering
6. Test to make sure your content is indexed

Traditional websites usually serve static HTML directly from the server, making them easy for search engines to crawl. By contrast, PWAs use JavaScript to generate content dynamically, which can be more difficult for search engines to process. Here are five tips to optimize your PWA to maintain strong search engine rankings:

1. Submit a sitemap

In traditional websites, content is directly tied to the back-end code. In a PWA, content is dynamically generated by JavaScript. What the user sees doesn’t necessarily reflect the code. This can cause Google crawlers to misinterpret the page, affecting rankings. Simply put, if Google doesn’t understand your page or how to crawl it, it won’t rank.

To mitigate this, submit a comprehensive XML sitemap to search engines, ensuring key pages are easy for Google bots to index. Also, use Google Search Console and its robots.txt tester to check for any blocked resources that might hinder crawling.

2. Create custom URLs

Traditional websites have unique URLs for each page (eg., www.yourwebsite.com/collection/product-1), and the URL changes with the content. PWAs, however, can update page content dynamically using JavaScript without changing the URL or loading a new page. The lack of URLs can prevent search engines from indexing your content because they rely on URLs. To resolve this

• Give each page a unique URL. By using the HTML5 History API, for instance, you can assign a unique URL to each dynamically generated page in your PWA without reloading the page, allowing the user’s address bar to reflect the current content state.

• Remove hashtags from URLs. These are often used in PWA navigation.

• Use canonical URLs. Canonical URLs are the preferred version of a page accessible through multiple URLs; they prevent duplicate content issues.

3. Monitor and analyze performance

Integrate your PWA with analytics tools like Google Analytics to make sure your SEO efforts are effective. If Google can’t crawl or process your JavaScript, it will impact your search rankings and organic traffic (i.e., low to no rankings and traffic).

Audit your website using Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals tool to identify and fix issues like poor interactivity or layout shifts. Google PageSpeed Insights can also give you information and recommendations related to your PWA’s mobile-friendliness. Performance analysis is an ongoing process undertaken quarterly to biannually.

4. Optimize metadata and schema

Metadata helps search bots understand your page, while schema markup provides specific details to search engines. Optimizing both ensures your PWA is easily understood by crawlers and improves content ranking. Here are some tips:

• Give each page a unique title tag, including the target keyword.

• Implement meta tags like “index” and “follow” to guide search engine crawlers.

• Add structured data with schema.org for elements like product review, ratings, and prices.

5. Consider hybrid rendering

Hybrid rendering merges client-side and server-side rendering, giving your PWA the best of both worlds. On the initial page load, the PWA uses server-side rendering, making the entire HTML document accessible to search engine crawlers. Then, as the user interacts with the website, client-side rendering takes over to give the user that smooth, app-like experience that’s so crucial in PWAs.

6. Test to make sure your content is indexed

To see if search engines are correctly indexing your page’s content, copy a string of text from the page. Open the HTML source by right-clicking and selecting “View Page Source” (not “Inspect”). Use Ctrl + F to search for that text in the source code to verify that it’s present. Then, enter the following Google query to see if the content is indexed:

site:[URL] “[text]”

For instance, to check if “cats have nine lives” is indexed on https://www.example.com/cat-facts, use:

site:https://www.example.com/cat-facts “cats have nine lives”

If the search returns your page, especially with the text highlighted in the snippet, your content is likely indexed.

Most salespeople will tell you that not all leads are equal. Although many people might express interest in your product—perhaps they visit your website or sign up for your emails—not all of them are ready or able to purchase. Those that areready and able to buy are called qualified leads.

The lead qualification process can take different forms for different businesses. When a lead qualifies by using your product, they become a product-qualified lead. Here’s what that means and how it can affect your business.

What are product-qualified leads?

Product-qualified leads (PQLs) are potential buyers who qualify as high-priority leads based on their product usage. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses that offer a free plan typically use this approach. Once a user has completed a free trial, they are classified as a PQL. Some businesses designate any user who signs up for a free trial as a PQL, whereas others only label them PQLs once they’ve taken a key action. For example, a potential customer for an accounting software brand could be classified as a product-qualified lead only after they upload a financial document during their free trial.

Sales and marketing teams qualify leads to help them understand what prospects are ready to discuss a purchase. This process is used primarily in business-to-business (B2B) transactions of high value—when the time and effort involved in completing a sale is considerable. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses typically don’t use the lead model because sales are relatively small in value, completed quickly, and often made on impulse.

SQL vs. MQL vs. PQL

The lead qualification process, which confirms that a potential buyer is ready to have a sales conversation, breaks down leads into three broad categories:

Sales-qualified leads (SQLs)

Sales teams start the process by emailing or calling prospective buyers. They ask questions about budget and organization size, seeking confirmation these potential customers have real buying intent and are ready for further conversation. If they are, they’re classified as sales-qualified leads (SQLs).

Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs)

For this type, marketing teams review user activity across channels like the company website and marketing emails to qualify leads. They set criteria, such as company size or number of visits to the website, and then determine if leads meet those criteria through their analytics tools and information-form submissions. When a lead meets predefined criteria, they become a marketing-qualified lead (MQL).

Product-qualified leads (PQLs)

A product lead typically is qualified through the lead’s use of a software service or product. Similar to MQLs, the product team is measuring activity, but they’re looking at product usage instead of marketing engagement. The PQL model is often used in conjunction with a free trial or freemium business model, in which users access a free version of the company’s product. The product team defines a set of actions the user completes to become a product-qualified lead (PQL) that’s ready for outreach from sales reps.

How to identify product-qualified leads for your business

1. Define your product-qualified leads criteria
2. Design your qualifying free experience
3. Implement measurement systems
4. Create systems to engage product-qualified leads

To implement a PQL system, consider strategic, technical, and operational factors.

1. Define your product-qualified leads criteria

Decide which users you want sales reps to contact first. Criteria you might consider include:

• Fit. Many products serve specific industries or types of businesses. For example, if your accounting software only serves Canadian businesses, your team needs to qualify potential customers by ensuring they use Canadian accounting standards.

• Scope. Verify that buyers have the scale to afford your product. Many SaaS companies sell to smaller customers without a sales conversation, while larger customers work directly with a sales team for customized agreements.

• Intent. Does the user’s behavioral data show that they’re willing and ready to buy? Users who derive value from the product are more likely to have real buying intent.

2. Design your qualifying free experience 

A free trial has multiple goals. First and foremost, it should show your product’s value so that users want to convert to paying customers. Secondly, your trial should also qualify the free user to talk to your sales team and enter the sales funnel.

This goal can affect how your free trial is designed. For example, many free trials ask for just a name and email when signing up. To qualify users, you may also ask for their country and number of company employees. Similarly, you can consider how product usage indicates the prospect is ready to talk to sales. This could be a specific button in your online product saying, “I’m ready to talk to sales,” or something more subtle, like trying to access a key feature that’s only available to paying customers.

3. Implement measurement systems

Ideally, product usage data is measured and tracked by your product analytics software and passed through to your marketing and sales software systems, such as your customer relationship management (CRM) tool.

It’s important that your product analytics track overall PQL data and provide analysis, such as the percentage of free-trial signups that become PQLs. Ensure that your CRM can report whether individual leads are product qualified and capture key information such as their country of domicile. A customer data platform (CDP), such as Segment or RudderStack can help ensure product and CRM data align seamlessly.

4. Create systems to engage product-qualified leads

Once you define, qualify, and measure product-qualified leads, you need to engage them. This is a sales process. Sales teams need to have smart systems in place to contact PQLs in a timely and personalized manner.

To do this, your CRM can create a record once a PQL is identified, and automatically assign them to the proper salesperson. The record should contain information about the user’s company and their free trial experience.

Example of a product-qualified lead

Annie is a product marketer at hypothetical SaaS company XYZbites. Its product provides businesses with work-time tracking software. XYZbites primarily serves large law firms that bill by the hour.

XYZbites offers free trials, but it has no PQL system. When a user signs up by email for the service, they can use all of its features free for seven days, and then pay a monthly fee based on the number of users they have. XYZbites finds that it’s not converting as many free users as it would like, and the sales team often wastes time speaking to the wrong people, such as lawyers who don’t work at big law firms.

Annie wants to develop a PQL system to help address this. She makes several changes:

• In the free trial sign-up process, XYZbites asks for job title, industry, company name, and size.

• When a user logs their first hour, product analytics track and send this data to the CRM.

• If a user tries to invite more than 10 other users to their account, they receive a message saying, “Speak to our sales team to access team plans.”

If a free trial user’s title includes “partner,” “operations,” or “administrative,” they say they’re in the legal industry, their firm has more than a minimum number of employees, and they log their first hour, they are labeled a PQL and handed to the sales team. XYZbites also immediately classifies free plan users as PQLs if they try to invite more than 10 users.

Annie’s change creates more high-quality leads and converts more free trial users into paying customers.

Imagine you own a small ecommerce company selling travel-sized electric guitars. Your new model works underwater and stays in tune in –40°F weather. You want to design a campaign to showcase these key features, but you don’t have the budget to stage a deep sea photo shoot, and stock imagery doesn’t suit your rock ’n’ roll aesthetic. You need a way to create custom imagery that reflects your product and adheres to your brand guidelines.

Generative AI might be the solution. Platforms like Midjourney AI are a low-cost way to produce images of all types. Learn how to use this tool to create stunning visuals for your brand’s needs.

What is Midjourney?

Midjourney is an AI tool with image generation and image analysis capabilities. Using machine learning and diffusion technology, the platform can interpret and describe uploaded photos or create custom digital art based on a user’s text prompts.

Midjourney operates within Discord, a social platform with instant messaging channels and voice calling. Creating a Discord account is free, but using Midjourney requires a paid subscription. Subscribers can generate images in public channels or private chats with the Midjourney bot.

Midjourney prompt structure

You can give Midjourney image prompts that are relatively short and simple or long and complex—the maximum input is about 60 words. But when it comes to Midjourney prompting, longer isn’t always better. A simple prompt can be effective if it addresses all the necessary elements. Follow this basic prompt structure to start creating amazing images with Midjourney:

• Command. Use the “/imagine” command at the beginning of your instructions to generate an image.

• Reference images. Including a link to a set of reference images after the command is optional, but it can guide the tone and art style of the output.

• Image description. Next, write a detailed description of the image you’d like to see, including information about the subject, setting, and any actions.

• Parameters. Provide any parameters at the end of your prompt—for example, cues for controlling image details like the aspect ratio, resolution, or art style.

Tips for writing Midjourney prompts

1. Be specific
2. Use visual language
3. Adjust your language
4. Consider the prompt weight
5. Experiment with art style cues

The best prompts are packed with detail. Try these tips to sharpen your prompt writing skills:

1. Be specific

Write a descriptive prompt to explain your creative vision. Try using detailed character design to depict the subject and describe their appearance and any key features. Include details about the environment and any background elements. If the image is set outdoors, for example, you could specify the time of day, quality of light, season, and surrounding plants or buildings. Consider adding descriptors like “moody,” “cheerful,” or “dramatic,” to guide the overall tone.

2. Use visual language

Referencing specific art styles, artists, or photography techniques can get your point across with just a few words. For example, instead of writing, “Generate a smiling cartoon purple dolphin jumping over a psychedelic sea with sparkles, bright colors, a school of friendly fish, and cute animals,” you could use a cultural reference by writing, “Generate a jumping dolphin and a school of fish in the style of a Lisa Frank illustration.” Even though the second prompt is much shorter, it provides more visual information.

3. Adjust your language

If the final image doesn’t match your expectations, try editing your description and resubmitting the prompt. Add adjectives to introduce different colors or textures, or try replacing keywords with synonyms. Practice making one small change at a time and observing how each new detail affects the generated image.

4. Consider prompt weight

Advanced prompts may provide information about prompt weight. Essentially, prompt weight communicates to Midjourney the relative importance of each element in the instructions. For example, if the prompt “a surreal landscape, floating islands, balloons” yields balloons that are too tiny, you could increase the prominence of the balloons by tweaking the prompt weight.

To use this technique, start by placing two colons between the components of your prompt. Using the above example, the resulting text would look like this: “a surreal landscape::floating islands::balloons::.” This instructs Midjourney to consider each element separately.

Next, add a number directly after the closing set of colons to adjust the weight. The higher the number, the more important the element. To increase the prominence of the balloons, you would write: “surreal landscape::2 floating islands::1 balloons::2.” Advanced prompts like these tell the model the balloons are twice as important as the floating islands.

The double colon separation technique, known as multi-prompting, can also help control how Midjourney interprets keywords. For example, the prompt “sandbox” would likely return images of a playground. However, if you apply the markup “sand:: box::,” the model will interpret the terms individually and generate a beach scene with various boxes. If you don’t specify a prompt weight, the model applies a default weight of 1.

5. Experiment with art style cues

Midjourney is programmed to respond to a set of specific aesthetic parameters, including creative, stylize, style, chaos, and weird. Creating prompts with one of these tags will adjust the model’s animation style. Include these parameters at the end of an image prompt, encoding each one as follows:

• Creative. To use the creative tag, add the text “– test –creative” after your description. This instructs the model to generate unconventional, imaginative outputs.

• Stylize. The “stylize” cue controls Midjourney’s default style, which is broadly artistic and cinematic. You write this one as “–stylize” or “–s” followed by a number between 0 and 1,000.

• Style. The style parameter replaces Midjourney’s default art style. Use the tag “–style raw” to switch between standard and raw mode.

• Chaos. Write the chaos parameter as “–chaos” or “–c” followed by a number between 1 and 100. Applying a high chaos value instructs the model to include more variation between images in the initial grid output.

• Weird. Write the weird cue as “–weird” or “–w” followed by a number between 0 and 3,000. Use this tag to explore quirky, unexpected interpretations of your prompt.

Midjourney prompts for ecommerce

Stunning images can make your digital content stand out. These prompt examples demonstrate how ecommerce businesses can use AI-generated images to support their marketing and communication efforts:

Ad campaigns

Midjourney can help your brand generate amazing images that would be difficult to produce with traditional methods. Instead of staging a photo shoot or using generic stock pictures, consider using AI to create beautiful imagery that reflects your brand identity. Here are two examples:

• /imagine a hyper-realistic portrait of a smiling young man standing in a field holding a vanilla soft-serve cone with sprinkles, warm sunshine, summer day, 1:1

• /imagine a mermaid with long curly brown hair swimming through a surreal underwater world, dramatic lighting, moody, surreal art

Social media and blog images

Try using AI art creation to add custom imagery to your blog posts and social media feeds. Add an aspect ratio parameter to size your image according to each platform’s specifications. Here are three examples:

• /imagine a futuristic cityscape, urban landscape, in the style of a pop art illustration, 16:9

• /imagine an art piece showcasing a massive lego cityscape, futuristic city, digital illustration, 9:16

• /image a team of superhero kids eating colorful cereal wearing capes and tiaras, background of cartoon shooting stars, superhero action scene, retro comic book scene

Mock-ups

Mock-ups can give your potential customers a sense of what using your product is like. Mock-ups and renderings are common in the fashion, architecture, and art industries. Here are two examples:

• /imagine a sleek modern office, white minimalist furniture, employees drinking coffee and working on computers, abstract art on the walls

• /image a mock-up of a gallery wall with a variety of art pieces in different sizes including watercolor sketches, Frank Frazetta’s paintings, landscape photography, oil paintings,dramatic lighting

Internal design assets

AI image generation can help build or enhance your internal art style guide. Try writing prompts to find design inspiration, create templates, or generate example images to populate your brand guidelines. Here are two examples:

• /imagine the design for a brand mood board for a modern tech company with geometric shapes and cohesive vibrant colors, bold, exciting

• /imagine a template for a clean, minimalist PowerPoint presentation, use colors 3be8b0 and 1aafd0