Shopify

With more than 150 updates to Shopify, the latest Edition is all about smoothing out the rough edges of routine tasks and dialing in integrations so businesses can focus on what matters most: growing sales, satisfying customers, and fostering innovation. Learn about the key updates below.

Customer accounts: Elevating logged-in experiences

Now you can elevate the customer journey with extended account features like subscription management and loyalty programs, easier navigation through customizable header menus, and consistent branding that flows seamlessly from the checkout and accounts editor to the login page. Introduce new features tailored to your buyers’ specific needs so they can self-serve more of the order process online in customer accounts.

Product bundles: Enhancements for improved selling

The latest updates to product bundles (86% of merchants offering bundles say it increases their average order value) include new reporting features that give you deeper insights into bundle performance, and an updated grouped view, which represents your bundles more intuitively.

If you’re using the Shopify Bundles app, you can now also publish to Shopify POS, enhancing your average order value right in the store.

Fulfillment logic: Unifying order management across platforms

Streamline fulfillment processes with a unified logic that simplifies order routing, inventory management, and fulfillment constraints across all platforms, from checkouts to subscriptions.

POS: Make the sale anytime, anywhere

Accept payments anywhere in your retail store, even when connectivity is down, with offline payments capability and the wider availability of Tap to Pay on Shopify POS.

*Offline payments and Tap to Pay available on iPhone (US, CA, UK, AU, NL, IT, FR) or Android (US, UK, IE, AU, NZ, DE, BE, DK, FI, NL, ES, IT, FR, SG).

Sidekick: Boost productivity with AI-enabled features

Add Sidekick, an AI-powered commerce assistant, to your toolkit. Sidekick is rolling out in English only, for all merchants, to boost productivity and support your business. Your input shapes the future of Sidekick. We’re constantly shipping updates, so the more you interact with Sidekick, the faster we can refine and improve its capabilities.

*Sidekick operates only in English

Unified analytics: Making data-driven decisions easier

Make confident, data-driven decisions with newly enhanced analytics tools that are faster, more flexible, and intuitive, providing all merchants with granular and actionable information to help you improve store performance.

Centralized finances: Comprehensive financial management built into your business

Manage your finances seamlessly with real-time insights and comprehensive tools for financial product management, expense tracking, bill payments, and tax management—all within the Shopify admin and Shopify app.

*US only

Taxonomy: Custom category metafields to fit your store

Create custom category metafields that can be applied to specific product categories to better fit your store’s unique needs with the enhanced taxonomy features, including new capabilities for customizing category metafields.

Shop campaigns: Expanding growth potential

Unlock new marketing opportunities with Shop Campaigns, a risk-free acquisition program that allows merchants to acquire customers at a set cost while paying only when the customer converts. Shop Campaigns is now available for all Shopify plans, empowering every merchant to reach a wider audience with easy-to-run marketing campaigns.

*US/CA and Shop eligibility

Flow: Automating and enhancing processes

Automate your workflows with new updates in Shopify Flow, which now supports exchanges, returns, marketing automations, and segment triggers, and works seamlessly with metafields, enhancing efficiency.

Checkout Blocks: Now on more pages

All plans can now make simple customizations on the thank you and order status pages with the free Checkout Blocks app, no coding required.

These incremental updates collectively create a significant upgrade to Shopify for all merchants.

Visit the Winter ’25 Edition to see how these updates can transform your business.

Every so often, a customer testimonial goes viral: A local bakery creates a custom rocket ship cake for its youngest regular’s fifth birthday, or a bookshop owner tracks down an out-of-print classic for a grandmother wishing to share it with her first grandchild. 

These businesses put human connection over profit margins, bending company policies in service of their clientele—a display of true customer obsession. This doesn’t guarantee social media fame, but it cultivates something more enduring: a loyal customer base that returns often, spontaneously shares their experiences, and gladly reaches into their wallets knowing you’ll exceed their expectations. 

Here’s what defines customer-obsessed organizations and how to integrate this philosophy across every facet of your business—from product development to policy making to daily customer interactions.

What is customer obsession?

Customer obsession is a company’s commitment to solving customer problems and improving their experiences at every touchpoint—from first click to post-purchase support. It means prioritizing long-term brand loyalty and high customer lifetime value over quick profits. 

This ethos permeates every role in the organization. For instance, product developers shape offerings around customer feedback, support teams stay with issues until fully resolved, and marketers create helpful content that serves rather than sells. 

In ecommerce, where products are often similar and competitors are just a click away, standout service is one reason customers stick to a brand. In fact, 80% of customers now value experience as much as the product or service itself. Today’s consumers expect you to understand and anticipate their needs across every interaction.

Qualities of customer-obsessed businesses

Many companies claim to put customers at the center of their business, pointing to annual surveys or quarterly focus groups as proof. But truly customer-obsessed companies go further, weaving customer perspectives into every aspect of their operations. Here are the qualities that set them apart:

Shaped by shoppers 

Customer-driven companies create constant feedback loops. Customer data flows through every level of these organizations. For instance, mining support conversations to refine return policies, analyzing review patterns to improve products, or using social listening to shape product roadmaps. 

This allows products, policies, and operations to evolve based on direct customer input rather than boardroom assumptions or industry trends. Customers guide decisions before they’re made, they don’t just critique them afterward.

Put people before policies

Rigid adherence to company policies often signals a business that’s lost sight of why these policies exist in the first place—to serve customers, not to create barriers. 

For example, when trying to return an item, few things frustrate shoppers more than hearing, “Sorry, you’re three days past our return window.” A customer-obsessed culture recognizes that enforcing policies too strictly can cost more. Accepting a $50 return past the deadline might seem like a loss, but this small gesture can build customer retention, turning a one-time shopper into a lifelong customer.

These gestures create a reputation that spreads organically—from lunch conversations to group chats—amplifying your business through word of mouth.

Solve now, sort later

In traditional customer service, representatives often rely on fixed processes, making customers jump through hoops before addressing their concerns. 

Customer-obsessed culture flips the script. You resolve issues immediately without bouncing customers between departments. If a product arrives defective, you send a replacement right away, skipping the usual demands for photos or return labels. 

Internal documentation and processes can wait. Your priority is minimizing inconvenience and showing customers you trust them and value their time. 

Every detail matters

Many businesses focus on the big-picture customer experience, often overlooking the small moments that shape how people feel about a brand. 

True attention to detail means every touchpoint has a purpose—from intuitive website navigation that anticipates shopping patterns to package inserts that feel like a gift to welcome emails that sound like they were written by a human, not a bot. 

These details might seem minor, but together they form a cohesive experience that shows customers you’ve thought about every step of their journey. When every decision revolves around customer needs, the result is an experience that consistently manages to exceed customer expectations.

Adopting customer obsession for your business

A customer-obsessed company has distinctive policies—like lifetime warranties that demonstrate unwavering product confidence or return policies that outshine competitors. But developing a customer obsession strategy isn’t about copying other approaches; it’s about creating a culture that reflects your brand’s unique relationship with its customers. Here are key strategies:

Document every customer touchpoint

Every interaction is a chance to show your dedication to the customer experience. From the landing page that addresses specific questions to a package insert that makes unboxing feel special, every touchpoint counts. Work with your team to map these moments and identify friction points. 

When Francis Henri founder Katherine Oyer launched her modern children’s shop, she insisted that scaling would never compromise care. “The customer experience is so important to me. There are things that I will not cut corners on—we send a handwritten little thank you card in every package,” Katherine says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “I wanted the experience of receiving a box to be almost like a gift.”

Francis Henri’s meticulous attention extends beyond packaging—every interaction, from offering to run purchases out to cars for parents with sleeping babies to choosing a location with easy stroller access, proves that true customer care means anticipating needs before they arise.

Empower frontline teams with decision-making authority

Teams often unyieldingly adhere to policies—not by choice, but due to lack of empowerment. If you evaluate your customer service department solely on metrics like response time and ticket volume, it can’t prioritize genuine problem-solving. Rethink these incentives and trust your team’s judgment. 

For online support, this might mean allowing expedited shipping after delays or extending return windows during holidays. In stores, it might mean permitting price-matching without manager approval or offering exchanges without receipts for loyal customers.

Create real-time feedback loops across channels

Instead of capturing customer preferences in a quarterly customer satisfaction score or measuring them in an annual feedback survey, let them flow continuously through your organization. 

Think of your business like a product in perpetual beta testing. Gather insights through social listening, analyzing reviews, and collecting direct feedback. Just as software companies test features before a full rollout, test new products or services with small customer groups first and gather feedback to refine the experience before releasing them widely.

Rework policies starting with your most common customer requests

Frequent complaints aren’t just irritations to manage—they’re opportunities to increase customer loyalty. If customers consistently mention short return windows, expensive shipping, or underwhelming loyalty programs, view these not as minor grumbles but as signals for change. Refine your policies through ongoing dialogue with customers, not just internal decision-making.

Bedding company Brooklinen has an industry-leading 365-day return policy that lets customers live with their purchases—even after washing and using them—before deciding if they’re the right fit. Brooklinen partners with Good360 to ensure returned items find new homes through donation centers, proving that customer-first policies can align with broader corporate social responsibility.

Build customer insights into your product development cycle

Don’t let market trends alone drive your product development. Adopt a customer-obsessed mindset by listening to and acting on customer feedback. Observe their purchase patterns and requests before expanding your line.

Lingerie brand ThirdLove shows what putting customers first means by gathering intensive feedback even before a launch. The company placed Craigslist ads to have hundreds of San Francisco women test its products and provide sizing data. This led to its innovative half-cup sizing, addressing a major customer pain point. 

ThirdLove’s commitment to customer obsession extends to its Try Before Buying program that lets customers test bras at home for 30 days, showing its commitment to helping customers find the right fit. 

With many social media platforms available and new ones emerging, vying for attention online can be daunting. The goal of a social media marketing strategy is to boost brand awareness and drive users to your website, but how do you gain attention without burning out?

Once you create quality content for your brand, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel for every social media channel. Cross-posting strategic, streamlined content will help you reach different target audiences, meet your followers on their preferred platforms, and maintain consistent messaging. 

Here’s how to use social media content across your channels without doubling, tripling, or quadrupling your workload.

What is cross-posting?

Cross-posting is the practice of posting duplicate or similar content across multiple social media platforms. Instead of spending time creating a post for only one platform, cross-posting across social channels is a practical way to reach a wider audience with the same message. Cross-post text, images, videos, and polls by manually copying content into each platform or by utilizing a cross-posting tool. 

The primary benefit of cross-posting is that it saves time while growing your social media presence. Creating unique content for multiple social media platforms can be time-consuming. By cross-posting, a social media manager can focus on strategy and analytics rather than planning individual posts.

In addition to saving time and getting your content in front of a wider audience, cross-posting creates continuity across channels. Small teams, brands with a limited marketing budget, or brands with limited content can benefit from a cross-posting strategy.

How to effectively cross-post for your ecommerce business

Leverage the strengths of each platform audience to increase impressions and engagement. Here’s how to add cross-posting to your social media strategy: 

Create content that is relevant across channels

If you are pursuing a cross-posting strategy for your ecommerce business, design social media marketing content that is—at its core—appropriate for multiple platforms. If you are already posting on social media for your brand, you are likely already creating content that will resonate with audiences. Think about what your target audience values most so you can focus on creating content that serves them—no matter the platform. 

For example, a quick video demonstrating how to use your product could be appropriate across the board for TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Invest the time and effort in making this video once, then reap the rewards from the cross-posted content. 

By contrast, a lighthearted video of your employees doing a TikTok dance challenge might not be appropriate to cross-post to LinkedIn. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t participate in TikTok trends; simply center the bulk of your strategy around lasting messages over fleeting fads. 

Tweak the details 

Cross-posting exists on a spectrum. You can post duplicate content word for word across all your channels or customize the text of a video to suit each platform’s core audience. Either way, you can promote your content without starting from scratch. When making tweaks for cross-posting, consider social media content best practices, such as character count limits and image size guidelines. 

Consider the varied requirements across different platforms when planning your cross-posted content:

• Audience. Learn the demographics and interests of your audiences on various channels to tailor your posts to meet their expectations.
• Messaging. The voice and tone of your messaging may need to change depending on the social media platform. You’ll likely aim to craft more professional, authoritative content for LinkedIn than for Facebook. 
• Character limits. Consider character limits that might restrict your use of text, such as the 280-character limit on X for free accounts. 
• Aspect ratios. Prioritize the correct visuals for each platform, such as aspect ratios or video length limits. 
• Clickable links. To drive clickable links on each platform, adjust your call to action or approach. For example, clickable links aren’t available in Instagram posts in the way they are on X posts. But you can use a clickable link in Instagram Stories to drive traffic to your website. 
• Hashtags. Even if hashtags are available and users apply them in the same way across channels, refining hashtags on different social media platforms is a quick way to tailor your posts to the audience on that account. 

Use a cross-posting tool

When cross-posting, save time by using a social media management tool to schedule posts. Scheduling tools can help you publish your posts at the optimal time for each platform, in order to reach each audience when they are active. This can also help avoid over-saturation in case users are following your brand on multiple channels. 

Social media scheduling tools—like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or Social Pilot—make it easy to schedule your posts in advance. This is extra helpful if you are targeting users in various time zones. They also allow you to share content across many channels with only a few clicks. 

Learn the best times to post on each of these social channel:

Monitor the results

A benefit of cross-posting is that you can quickly and easily increase the volume of your content on more social platforms. Maybe you’ve always been dedicated to your Instagram account and followers there, but you’d like to target new followers or different audiences on Facebook. Cross-posting can help you establish an initial social media presence, although it might not help you achieve maximum engagement. 

While establishing your presence on a specific platform, dive into social media analytics. Utilizing social media analytics tools while cross-posting will help you pinpoint any cross-posted content that flopped on a specific platform. Use these advanced analytics to gain insights on when cross-posting is worthwhile versus when it would be best to invest the time crafting a new post. Social media optimization will be unique to your brand and audiences.

Common cross-posting mistakes to avoid

Cross-posting has benefits, but it also has drawbacks. Avoid these mistakes when deciding to utilize a cross-posting strategy:

Expecting the same performance across channels

With so many social media platforms, there are varied content requirements and trends in what will perform well or poorly. Each social channel has different characteristics, so it’s best to tweak your content for each platform, when possible. This can help you maximize your cross-posting strategy. 

If you have a goal of expanding your reach on a specific social media platform, you’re best off creating a specific strategy and posts optimized for that channel. Focus on the specific target audience and tailor the features of the posts to the characteristics of that platform. 

Cross-posting specialized announcements 

When sharing important announcements or specialized information, take the time to craft a post strategically for each relevant channel. Important messages can get lost in social algorithms if you haven’t optimized the post to perform well, so it’s worthwhile to thoughtfully craft your messaging so that even loyal followers won’t miss an update.

Cross-posting identical content across all channels

If loyal customers follow your brand across multiple social media channels, repetitive content may bore them. This could cause them to ignore your content, unfollow your account, or lose respect for your brand—outcomes that aren’t worth the time savings from cross-posting. 

Cross-posting is a practical way to publish your content on social platforms, and all brands use cross-posting to some extent. But don’t get complacent by posting the exact same thing on all your accounts, even though it can be tempting to postidentical content across your social media accounts with just a few clicks. 

If a customer had a negative shopping experience with you, they would tell you. Right? 

Not always. Research shows only 16% of customers use social media to air their grievances, and only 22% write something on a third-party review site.

But just because the majority of customers aren’t publicizing their thoughts doesn’t mean you can’t learn how they feel about your brand. Through a customer sentiment analysis, you can uncover what your customers think about your company and get better insights into the effectiveness of your customer service team. 

What is customer sentiment?

Customer sentiment is a metric that captures your customers’ positive, negative, or neutral attitudes toward your brand and products. Customer sentiment can also include how your customers feel about your industry and competitors—even current events and trending topics. Improving overall customer sentiment for your brand can lead to more satisfied customers and long-term customer loyalty. 

You can track customer sentiment in various ways—through surveys and social listening tools, for example—to better understand how elements of your shopping experience influence customer attitudes. For example, a time-consuming checkout process can garner negative customer sentiment, while customer interactions with a knowledgeable, patient representative can result in positive customer sentiment.

Why measure customer sentiment?

Customer sentiment is a qualitative customer service metric that can be as powerful as sales data when it comes to boosting brand loyalty and overall satisfaction. Here’s why businesses gather, measure, and analyze customer sentiment: 

Improve the customer experience

Customer sentiment reveals where you’re excelling and where you can improve. For Gyve Safavi, cofounder of the toothbrush brand SURI, measuring customer sentiment was an opportunity to enhance its product offering, from font size to checkout. As Gyve describes on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, all of those improvements come from customers describing their pain points.

Identify competitor strengths and weaknesses

Knowing why customers have a negative sentiment toward a competitor can reveal gaps in their strategy that you can aim to fill. On the other hand, learning why customers have a positive sentiment toward a competitor can illuminate where you might be lacking and provide a blueprint for exceeding expectations.

Tap into customer interests

When you gather customer sentiment data, you’re learning what your audience cares about and why. Use customer sentiment analytics as your North Star to discover what sparks passion in your customers and what would lead them to purchase.

5 ways to measure customer sentiment

1. Surveys
2. Social media listening
3. Messaging apps
4. Shopping customization
5. Customer sentiment scores

Getting a pulse on how customers feel about your brand might seem difficult since you can’t just read their minds. Luckily, there are several customer sentiment analysis tools and techniques at your disposal, including: 

1. Surveys

Some of the best customer data comes from customers themselves. Ask customers to fill out feedback forms or take customer satisfaction surveys to share their opinions with you. This is a common practice for gaining insights into customer service interactions. You can also use surveys to receive direct feedback on the quality of your support interactions, customer journey, and overall products and services.

Gyve used customer feedback surveys to measure customer sentiments on other electric toothbrush brands. “We realized there was a dominance of a few brands in the category, but nobody actually loved them,” he explains. “Half the time they couldn’t name [the brand],” he says. It identified a huge opportunity for the SURI team to develop both a better product and more effective brand messaging. 

2. Social media listening

Customers share their opinions, views, and feelings on social media platforms, and social listening tools allow you to keep tabs on all of them. With the help of social media monitoring tools, you can analyze the tone of customer comments that mention your brand, track the overall sentiment of online reviews, spot issues before they become major PR disasters, and address customer questions in a positive, constructive way that builds brand trust. Both positive and negative customer sentiments can open up new opportunities to build community and fix any weak spots in your customer experience. 

3. Messaging apps

Sometimes, gathering customer sentiment can come down to good, old-fashioned chats. Nadya Okamoto, founder of the period care company August, started out talking to her target audience members over Zoom calls and texting. “I was using iMessage and just literally texting people,” she says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. This can give you an intimate look into how customers think and feel.

Messaging your customers is an invaluable form of direct feedback that can lead to actionable insights. Focus on messaging platforms relevant to your core customer demographics. If you’re a physical business, find city or local platforms where locals chat and share current events and tips. 

For online businesses, find the forums and comment sections where loyal customers live. And remember, this isn’t the place for marketing campaigns—customers don’t always want their personal online spaces or private chats overtaken by brand marketing. Instead, focus on listening, building relationships, and gathering customer opinions to use as data points. 

4. Shopping customization

As customers shop, there’s a huge opportunity to gather customer sentiment data about what they want and why. What they gravitate toward and add to their carts reveals a lot about their preferences and what they are willing to spend on a product—but so does what they aren’t adding to their cart and what they abandon. When you add customization to the mix, you can get a sense of what customer expectations are.

For example, Nadya uses a series of product customization options to let customers tell her exactly what they’re looking for in their subscription. “Consumers can come on and tell us exactly what they need, the assortment of tampons, pads, different sizes,” she explains. She can then use this information as a foundation for ideal customer profiles and future product offerings.

5. Customer sentiment scores

If you want a more quantitative approach to help you improve customer sentiment, use modern software that evaluates customer sentiment through customer sentiment analysis algorithms and natural language processing. 

Analyzing text, audio, and video of customers talking about their feelings toward a topic or brand, customer sentiment analysis tools assign a score on a scale of 100. For example, a 90% sentiment score is positive and 50% means it’s mostly negative. You can use this sentiment analysis score as a benchmark. So, when you implement a new checkout flow or more detailed protocols for your customer service team, you can check back in a few months after implementation to see if it improved your customer sentiment score. 

Have you ever been peckish at the grocery store, tried a free sample, and left with a two-month supply of cookies? Or bought custom shampoo because an Instagram ad captured your hair care journey to a T? If so, you’ve seen shopper marketing at work.

To get a potential customer’s eyes on your products in today’s fast-paced world, you need to meet them where it matters most: in the moment. The goal of any shopper marketing strategy is to offer people just what they’re looking for at just the right time. These strategies mix data, creativity, and opportune timing to drive sales and build lasting brand loyalty—all good things for a growing business.

What is a shopper marketing strategy?

Shopper marketing is a strategy that leverages behavioral insights to influence a consumer’s purchasing decisions at critical points in their customer journey—from the moment they first learn about a product to the time they make a final purchase decision. While traditional marketing has myriad goals—including brand recognition, sales, and engagement—shopper marketing focuses on the experiences that influence customers to buy something. 

In a physical retail space, this can mean enticing customers with tactics like flashy window displays or point-of-purchase displays. For ecommerce businesses, shopper marketing tactics can include creating personalized ads and recommendations and designing attractive product carousels.

Understanding shopper behavior

Understanding shopper behavior is critical for creating a shopper marketing strategy. To understand consumer preferences, gather and analyze many sources of shopper data, including transaction histories, web browsing patterns, social media interactions, and demographic information.

With artificial intelligence (AI), you can create predictive models that forecast shopper behavior and personalize the shopping experience for various customer segments. For instance, a shopper’s past online behavior can trigger personalized discounts and product recommendations, or in-store sensors can track foot traffic to optimize product placement. 

You can also use data-driven insights to find your target audiences, understand how they discover your store, and learn what influences their path to purchase. 

Effective shopper marketing tactics

You don’t need to hire an expensive shopper marketing agency to boost brand success. Use these tricks of the trade to entice shoppers, improve customer satisfaction, and build a brand identity that increases sales:

Visual merchandising 

Visual merchandising is a powerful shopper marketing strategy that targets customers who have entered your store. Think about the last time you were at the supermarket. Did you see flowers near the point of purchase on Valentine’s Day? Candy on Halloween? School supplies in September? 

Studying in-store consumer behavior can tell you what products are popular at certain times of the year, where certain items are likely to be most successful, and the prime locations for certain products. Use visual merchandising techniques such as endcaps, aisle displays, and free-standing signs to entice shoppers into making a sale.

You can use similar tactics on your online store as well, by showcasing seasonal products in carousels at the top of high-volume pages or as part of collections and recommendations.

Free samples

Few shopper marketing efforts have a more effective and immediate return on investment (ROI) than free samples. This strategy is a showstopper for brick-and-mortar stores that sell consumer packaged goods (CPG), but it can also drive sales for online retailers. Allowing potential customers to try your product before purchasing takes the pressure off the buying process and generates goodwill.

For retail brands, work with retail partners to offer free samples at a booth in the store or have store personnel offer free samples during checkout. For online purchases, send customers trial-size products with their purchases, a tactic that’s particularly popular for skin care, cosmetics, and fragrances. If your products are too big for a free sample (a furniture brand, for example), send free swatches of fabric, paint, or anything that will help your potential customer get a tactile experience. 

Interactive demonstrations 

Interactive demonstrations are a classic shopper marketing strategy brands and retailers use to create meaningful, personalized experiences for potential customers. Demos show customers what your product can do; plus, a well-trained representative can answer questions, give suggestions, and nudge shoppers to make a purchase. Products that need some explaining or practice to get the hang of—like specialized cookware, pizza ovens, skin care tools, etc.—typically benefit from demos.

Demo videos can benefit online shopping experiences just as well. Whether you do interactive livestreams, use virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) so customers can get a hands-on feel for your products, or share demonstrations on your YouTube channel, there are many ways to educate customers. For example, clothing brands use virtual fitting rooms so customers can see themselves in an outfit before adding it to their carts, and furniture companies use AR to help shoppers see pieces in their own living spaces. 

Dynamic advertising

Physical stores can’t develop a brand marketing campaign for every demographic that might waltz by a storefront, but social media algorithms have become the perfect vehicle for personalized experiences. Dynamic ads automatically interpret user data to generate personalized content based on interests, behavior, and demographic information.

For example, you can create relevant, geo-targeted ads on Facebook and TikTok that show up on the For You pages of target shoppers in your specified geographic region. 

Customer loyalty programs

You don’t just want to influence shopper behavior the first time around; you also want your customers to come back. Customer loyalty programs target repeat customers, encouraging them to choose a brand they’ve tried and enjoyed already when they want to make another purchase.

Offer a loyalty program with exclusive discounts and bonuses for members like a punch card for a free 11th coffee, points they can earn and redeem at your online apparel store, or an extra 15% off for becoming a member and signing up to receive your email newsletter.

Influencer marketing campaigns

Shoppers tend to trust user-generated content (UGC) more than the polished ads brands pump out, making it a great, cost-effective strategy for small businesses. If your current customers aren’t generating a lot of content you can use, partner with influencers to stimulate highly authentic UGC.

Influencer content can build trust and meet potential customers where they are. If your target audience uses or shops on social media channels, influencer marketing campaigns are a great way to reach them. With features like TikTok Shop, Instagram Shopping, and YouTube Shopping, you can publish content that’s both entertaining and allows customers to shop directly on their preferred platform.

Example of shopper marketing

OSEA Malibu, a brand that offers seaweed-based skin care products, was founded in 1996 but has gained a global presence in recent years thanks to influencer marketing campaigns. Today, in addition to its online Shopify store, the brand is sold at retailers like Ulta and Nordstrom and in thousands of spas worldwide.

OSEA Malibu’s CEO, Melissa Palmer, approached influencer marketing carefully with an eye on what would resonate with the brand’s target audience. When brands started working with Instagram and TikTok influencers, OSEA decided to seek out content creators aligned with its brand values. Instead of partnerships with the expected beauty influencers, it worked with nutritionists and healthy-living influencers.

“We went for non-typical content creators,” Melissa explains on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “In 2016, you didn’t see a lot of nutritionists posting about what skin care products they were using.” This strategy allowed OSEA to tap into niche communities like nurses and flight attendants and influence purchase decisions among health-conscious consumers.

Have you ever stopped a stranger in the street to ask where they got that stylish jacket or delicious-looking treat? Seeing an item in use can increase its appeal—and if you’re lucky, your fellow shopper will share their insight.

Shoppable content digitizes this experience, allowing customers to purchase a product they see in an inspiring image online. By making discovery and acquisition seamless, you can turn visual interest into direct sales.

Here’s how to use shoppable images to showcase your products and increase conversions.

What are shoppable images?

Shoppable images are interactive photos with embedded product links and product tags. They provide a simple, intuitive shopping experience on social media, websites, ecommerce platforms, and emails. When a customer sees an item they like, they can access more information by interacting with the image—mobileusers tap, while desktop users click or hover. Using shoppable images can encourage user engagement and create new conversion opportunities to drive sales.

Shoppable images typically feature small graphics, like dots or plus signs, to indicate that the image is interactive. When users engage with the image, product tags appear showing details like the product name and price. Clicking or tapping on a tag directs users to an ecommerce store—typically a product detail page, though it can link to any URL.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer built-in tools to create shoppable images. You can also use apps or widgets to add shoppable images to your online store without any coding. Shopify merchants can find a large selection of compatible tools in the Shopify App Store.

How using shoppable images can benefit your business

Shoppable images can be effective marketing tools. Working with shoppable images can improve the customer experience and benefit your business in the following ways:

Shorten the purchase journey

Shoppable images offer a direct path to purchase, shortening the customer journey by reducing the number of steps required to buy an item. Using interactive shoppable images on social media also makes cross-platform shopping more efficient by eliminating the need to leave the app.

For instance, with a shoppable post, social media users can browse items and access product details without leaving their content feed. Clicking or tapping the image takes them directly to an ecommerce page, eliminating the need to search for the product. This short customer journey encourages spontaneous purchasing.

Increase engagement and traffic

Links and shoppable tags introduce an interactive element to images. This incentivizes engagement—tapping or clicking provides useful product information, such as the name or price. By sharing shoppable content with links to product pages on visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, you can guide more visitors to your website.

Improve product appeal

Shoppablephotos don’t have to be product shots, they can also be lifestyle images or photos showing your wares in use.Use stylish, high-quality visuals to inspire shoppers and showcase your products in appealing settings. Helping customers visualize your products in their own lives can make the items look and feel more relatable. This can increase engagement, which increases the likelihood of a purchase, contributing to higher sales and revenue.

A toy company, for example, might share an image of a happy child playing with its signature block set in a warm, inviting home. This image can emotionally resonate with customers, helping them envision how the product fits into their lives.

Promote multiple products at once

A shoppable image can include multiple links, allowing you to feature several complementary products within a single photo. For example, a dinnerware company might share an image of an elegant tablescape with links to glassware, plates, and utensils. Similarly, a clothing brand could display a stylish outfit and link to each individual piece.

Multiproduct photos can amplify brand awareness by showcasing a cohesive look or theme, enticing customers to browse related items and your product line. They can also improve marketing efficiency. Group shots, for instance, reduce the need for individual product photos, saving time and introducing potential customers to multiple products at once.

Enhance data collection

Collect and analyze shoppable imageengagement data to identify which products and content types resonate with consumers. For example, data analysis can reveal whether lifestyle images outperform product images and whether shoppers focus on items in the center of the photograph.

Tracking your high-performing content can help you make data-driven decisions to refine marketing strategies, fine-tune your product assortment, and align inventory orders with consumer preferences. This can help minimize waste, maximize profitability, reinforce your brand image, and boost customer satisfaction.

Improve user experiences

Shoppable content offers an effortless way for customers to discover and purchase new products. These images reach users wherever they’re browsing, turning various platforms into a smooth shopping experience. The intuitive tap-and-shop interface makes it easy for shoppers to identify items and access product detail pages.

A positive user experience encourages repeat customers, who tend to spend more and recommend brands to others.

Where to leverage shoppable images

Interactive shoppable images appear in various digital settings. Different platforms provide access to unique audience segments at distinct points in their shopping journey. Here are the most popular platforms for shoppable content:

Ecommerce sites

Ecommerce platforms often displayshoppable imagegalleries on home, product, and inspiration pages to reach their broad customer base. Displaying shoppable content on online stores helps new users discover your products. Since visitors are already in shopping mode, promoting your items while they’re actively looking to buy can encourage them to add extra products to their cart.

Use apps or widgets to add shoppable images to your ecommerce store—no coding required.

Social media platforms

Social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest support shoppable images. This makes it easier to monetize your social media following by offering an interactive shopping experience where users can purchase products without leaving the app. Brands can engage followers by tagging products in their organic posts or running shoppable ads to reach a broader audience.

Sharing interactive images on social media sites can enhance brand visibility and increase sales, aligning with users’ expectations for visually captivating content. Stunning lifestyle photos and high-quality images naturally fit these platforms.

Emails

Email subscribers have already demonstrated interest in your product. Adding shoppable content to emails offers an easy shopping experience to an engaged user base. Shoppable images can increase email engagement rates and provide additional performance data. You can use shoppablephotos in various marketing emails like announcements, promotional messages, and newsletters. Including shoppable imagery in newsletters adds a conversion opportunity to content marketing efforts.

Web pages

Ecommerce stores can add shoppable images to their websites, enabling customers to identify and purchase products directly from marketingimages. Traditional static photos may attract customers’ interest but don’t provide an opportunity to shop, while lifestyle images can also miss sales opportunities. Shoppable content resolves these issues, transforming existing website imagery into conversion tools.

A knowledge base is a tool for your business to centralize the important information that your employees or customers need. With the addition of artificial intelligence, knowledge bases are transformed into dynamic, smart systems that can sort vast amounts of information, saving you time, effort, and money.

What is an AI knowledge base?

An AI-powered knowledge base uses AI to powerfully and efficiently manage this library of essential information. Your business’s knowledge base is a centralized repository of important information covering everything from your brand story to accounting practices to IT instructions. The knowledge base can serve either internal or external users and makes it possible for them to easily find what they need. 

How to use an AI knowledge base in ecommerce

If you’ve ever gone to a company’s website and had a chat box pop up asking if you need help, you’ve encountered an AI system that’s plugged into the business’s knowledge base. If you run an ecommerce business, an AI knowledge base has several different applications:

• Streamline customer self-service. AI can free up your customer service agents from solving common and simple problems, allowing them to focus on more complicated customer issues.
• Identify knowledge gaps. An AI-driven knowledge base with a chat function can find needed information, point out what’s missing, and suggest ways to incorporate real-time customer feedback.
• Identify out-of-date information. AI can identify old or outdated information for review.
• Train employees. An AI knowledge base can help train new employees on your company’s current policies and procedures.

How do AI knowledge bases work?

A traditional knowledge base depends on individuals to manually input information. Though the human touch is sometimes crucial, AI can use machine learning and natural language processing to constantly increase and adapt your knowledge base to user needs.

Once a knowledge management system is integrated with AI functionality, the information repository is continually updated through customer and user interactions. The AI uses natural language processing to identify patterns in the words and phrases users search on your site, and updates your knowledge base accordingly. Then, it uses machine learning to generate more accurate and useful results for future users.

Types of AI knowledge base content

There are three main content categories of an AI knowledge base:

Structured

A structured knowledge base is the category most similar to an appliance’s user manual. Structured knowledge content includes articles, guides, and answers to common questions that the AI selects based on relevant predefined parameters. The hierarchy of organizational knowledge will ideally show your customers the most relevant information first, helping them find the answer quickly. This structure has traditionally relied on human intervention to organize the content into a useful format.

Unstructured

Unstructured content in a knowledge base is more like a sprawling collection of information outside of the organizational knowledge hierarchy. This can include entire emails, user call recordings, social media interactions, and any other uncategorized information. Historically, unstructured data has been notoriously difficult to categorize, store, and access efficiently. AI can use natural language processing to organize this data without a human having to read through and qualify it.

Automated

An AI knowledge base can use generative AI to process real-time issues from customer queries, content updates, or customer interactions, and adjust the knowledge base as needed. For example, if several customers struggle with the same troubleshooting tutorial, your AI knowledge base can flag that recurring problem. These systems can identify user intent, then respond directly to customers in a chat with accurate and relevant information from the knowledge base. It can also conduct data analysis, flag issues, and suggest changes to a business’s administrative processes.

AI knowledge base apps for ecommerce

If you’re looking for AI knowledge base software, there are a few apps that offer seamless integration into your Shopify store:

HelpCenter

HelpCenter is a popular Shopify app that uses ChatGPT to power an effective AI knowledge base. HelpCenter includes powerful customer-facing features, like an AI-powered search engine that uses natural language processing to understand user queries, then deliver relevant information through an FAQ page or live chat. This allows for advanced search functionality and immediate responses with minimal human intervention.

Pricing: HelpCenter offers a limited free plan. Costs for other plans are $4.99 per month for the basic plan, $19.99 per month for the standard plan, and $49.99 per month for the advanced plan.

BetterDocs

BetterDocs is an AI-based knowledge base with key components geared toward your users’ customer support experience. The core of BetterDocs is its responsive FAQ page and instant chat options, which can interpret human language, and let customers access up-to-date company information like service updates, new FAQ articles, and troubleshooting guides. BetterDocs integrates with Messenger chat and WhatsApp and uses natural language generation so customers feel like they’re getting help from a friendly customer service rep.

Pricing: BetterDocs offers a free basic plan and a pro plan for $9.99 per month.

AskTimmy.ai

AskTimmy.ai is a knowledge base software with an emphasis on a chatbot feature. AskTimmy.ai appears on your site as a search box or “quick ask” box. It can act as a customer service rep, giving relevant data and links to useful web pages, or as a shopping assistant. It can promote specific products based on user input, so the customer experience feels helpful and natural. Plus, the chatbot can generate human language so customers don’t feel like they’re chatting with an AI.

Pricing: AskTimmy.ai offers a free basic plan and a standard plan for $49.99 per month.

As a business owner, few things beat the satisfaction of seeing customers return to place another order. Sometimes, however, they come back sooner than expected—placing multiple orders on the same day. They might be preparing for a vacation, buying a swimsuit in the morning and deciding they want those perfect sunglasses by the afternoon.

When customers make separate orders in quick succession, one of the best moves for your business is to merge them into a joint shipment. Although this takes some logistical coordination, it creates a win-win. You get a smoother order fulfillment process and your customers get a better shopping and delivery experience.

What is a joint shipment?

A joint shipment refers to combining multiple orders from the same customer into a single package, reducing shipping costs and packaging waste. The online apparel retailer SHEIN popularized this specific term with its 24-hour joint shipment policy for same-address deliveries. However, other online retailers refer to this same practice as order consolidation, package consolidation, or combined shipping.

Joint shipment is possible when items are stored in the same warehouse and can ship within your processing time frame. The practice helps online stores simplify order fulfillment, minimize environmental impact, and provide customers with a more efficient delivery process.

Benefits of joint shipments

Implementing joint shipments in your ecommerce operations can deliver value across various aspects of your business in the form of:

• Improved cost efficiency. Consolidating orders into one package reduces your shipping expenses by eliminating multiple packages and separate deliveries. This efficiency helps online stores offer competitive pricing while protecting their profit margins.

• Streamlined transportation. Combining multiple orders simplifies warehouse picking and packing processes so you can have fewer shipping labels, packages to track, and delivery attempts.

• Reduced environmental impact. Joint shipping reduces the use of packaging materials and minimizes delivery trips, decreasing your carbon footprint. This approach also appeals to environmentally conscious customers who want to patronize businesses aligned with their values.

• Increased convenience. Receiving multiple orders in one package prevents tracking fatigue and means customers don’t need to wait at home for several deliveries. For many customers, a single delivery is a more convenient shopping experience.

How to handle joint shipments

1. Define your consolidation policy
2. Configure your ecommerce platform
3. Update inventory systems
4. Optimize warehouse processes
5. Coordinate shipping and refunds

Implementing joint shipments successfully depends on creating clear policies and ensuring your tech systems can support order consolidation. Here’s how to approach this:

1. Define your consolidation policy

Establish specific criteria for order combination, such as a 24-hour window for multiple orders and a single shipping address. Make sure both employees and customers can access and understand these rules.

For example, when you email a customer’s receipt for the first item ordered, you can include a note that they can consolidate shipments if they make another order in the next 24 hours.

2. Configure your ecommerce platform

Modify your order management system (OMS) to identify and flag orders from the same customer that meet your criteria, and ensure your checkout process communicates the joint shipment option clearly to customers.

You may need to reconfigure your settings or install a plug-in, depending on your OMS. For example, every Shopify account comes with a built-in order management system so you can track, manage, and fulfill orders from one dashboard.

3. Update inventory systems

Configure your inventory management software to accurately track stock levels for combined orders, supporting proper deduction across all relevant SKUs (stock keeping units). Set up real-time inventory synchronization between your warehouses and ecommerce platform to avoid consolidating out-of-stock items in customer orders.

4. Optimize warehouse processes

If you store your inventory in your own warehouse, create standardized procedures for selecting box sizes, arranging items, and packaging material requirements. Program your warehouse management system (WMS) to group picking tasks for combined orders and establish dedicated staging areas for orders awaiting combination.

5. Coordinate shipping and refunds

Work with your shipping carriers to guarantee that labels are generated properly and that there’s a single tracking number for all combined contents. Issue partial refunds or credits for shipping charges when merging multiple same-day orders so customers aren’t charged duplicate delivery fees for a single package. Also, track key metrics like consolidation success rates and cost savings to ensure your joint shipment policy is resulting in a smooth customer experience.

Customers today have become used to the convenience of multiple payment methods, whether they’re shopping for supplements in-store or sneakers online. One practical tool you can add to your payments options is virtual terminals. This web-based solution lets you accept payments without the need for a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, making transaction management more accessible for businesses and diversifying payment options for customers. 

What is a virtual terminal?

A virtual terminal is an online payment processing platform that turns any internet-connected device into a payment center, letting your business process transactions without specialized physical hardware. This web-based option handles payments through a browser, where you can manually enter payment details, such as cardholder information and transaction amounts. Payment platforms such as PayPal, Stripe, and Square offer virtual terminals in addition to their other payment options. 

Virtual terminals are ideal for phone orders, email payments, mail orders, and in-person transactions. They’re commonly used by freelancers, service providers, and restaurants taking orders by phone. But they also have their place in retail and ecommerce operations. Beyond accepting credit and debit cards, many virtual terminals also process ACH transfers and digital payments, making them a flexible hub for different transaction types.

How do virtual terminals work?

Virtual terminals allow you to easily accept credit and debit card payments from customers who aren’t physically present, or when you don’t have a POS terminal. While the technology behind virtual terminals is sophisticated, the process itself is straightforward: 

1. Access your virtual terminal. Log into your virtual terminal through any device with an internet connection—that might be a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. 

2. Input transaction details. Enter the customer’s payment information, including name, card number, expiration date, CVV, and billing address.

3. Submit for processing. Once you’ve entered the payment details, the system initiates the transaction through secure channels. The virtual terminal encrypts sensitive data and routes it through your payment processor for authorization.

4. Await authorization. The payment processor communicates with the customer’s bank to verify funds and approve the transaction. This verification process typically takes just seconds, providing quick confirmation for you and your customer.

5. Complete the transaction. Once the transaction has been approved, you’ll receive confirmation and can send a digital receipt to your customer. Funds are then automatically deposited into your business bank account, typically within one business day.

Benefits of using virtual terminals

Depending on the kind of business you have and how you receive customer payments, virtual terminals may be an option for you. Here are some benefits to consider: 

• Process payments anywhere. Virtual terminals eliminate geographical constraints by allowing businesses to accept payments through any internet-connected device. 
• Reduce hardware costs. By using existing computers and mobile devices, businesses avoid investing in POS equipment. And because a virtual terminal is web-based, you don’t pay for maintenance costs or hardware upgrades.
• Set up recurring transactions. Most virtual terminals include features for setting up scheduled payments and storing customer information securely. This automation makes it easier to predict cash flow while reducing manual processing time.
• Expand payment options. Beyond standard card processing, virtual terminals often support various payment methods, including ACH transfers. This versatility helps businesses meet different customer preferences.

Risks of using virtual terminals

The primary consideration when implementing a virtual terminal is security; manually entered transactions typically carry higher error and fraud risks than in-person payments. 

For instance, a retail clothing store might take phone orders from customers who missed an in-store sale. Staff members collect credit card information over the phone and manually input it into their virtual terminal to process the transaction.

This scenario introduces a few potential vulnerabilities:

• Staff may write or store card numbers temporarily, which presents a security risk
• Connection issues may require repeating sensitive data
• Card details could be overheard during phone orders
• Manual entry bypasses card reader security protocols
• Remote transactions complicate cardholder verification

The convenience of virtual terminals also comes at a cost: Manually entered transactions generally carry higher processing fees, often adding nearly a full percentage point to standard card-present rates.

To mitigate security risks, consider built-in security features like the address verification service (AVS) and card verification value (CVV) codes to validate cardholder identity. These verification methods are valuable for card-not-present transactions, where the business cannot physically verify the payment card or customer identity. 

Some virtual terminal providers also offer tokenization and end-to-end encryption, protecting sensitive data throughout the transaction process. Implementing two-factor authentication and regular staff training further strengthens your security posture.

Imagine your best friend is about to run a marathon and you want to make the perfect sign to cheer her on. You’re unsure, however, which of three possible messages your friend will like best, so you poll 10 people via text. The results show seven favored, “Pain is just the French word for bread.” Decision made.

Your informal poll is an example of the kind of test marketing that marketers and business executives use to help with everything from product design to social media campaigns. Curious how you can use test marketing to better reach consumers? Here’s a breakdown of different types of test marketing, along with steps you can take to conduct your own.

What is test marketing?

Test marketing is a trial run that allows you to gauge how real customers might respond to your new product, service, or marketing campaign. This process, also frequently known as a marketing effectiveness test, lets you make adjustments as necessary and avoid any disastrous outcomes before an official campaign or product launch. There are many ways to go about it, but in each approach, test marketing lets you examine the viability of a new offering on a small scale before spending heavily to bring it to a wider market. It involves collecting data and analyzing positive and negative feedback to inform the development or rollout of products, services, or marketing strategies before they reach your target audience.

Types of test marketing

There are several different test marketing methods to explore:

A/B test marketing

Also known as split testing, A/B testing examines the performance of two variations of the same element to determine the best result. For example, your soda company might test two different packaging designs for the same product to see which resonates most with a test market.

Multivariate test marketing

Multivariate testing compares several variations across multiple elements to identify the best mix of attributes. Designing a social media test marketing campaign, for example, may involve collecting data on engagement rates and conversions across shoppable posts on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

User test marketing

User testing tactics involve consumers directly through focus groups, surveys, interviews, and field studies. User testing helps your company better understand consumer behavior, demand, and product improvement opportunities by collecting feedback straight from the source.

Content test marketing

Content testing is designed to test your company’s written copy. This might include the text visible on your product packaging, website, or Instagram bio. Content tests may take the form of customer surveys, polls, or supervised interviews. During these tests, you evaluate the quality of the content itself as well as its visual appeal, including factors like font, color, and placement.

Alpha and beta test marketing

Alpha and beta testing involve previewing your product with internal employees first (alpha testing) and then collecting feedback from actual customers or other external stakeholders after making initial improvements (beta testing). Alpha and beta test marketing is common among tech companies because it’s an easy, cost-effective way to gather early feedback on apps, software, and other digital products.

Sales wave test marketing

A sales wave market test involves giving discounted or free samples of your product to the general public to test its acceptance and viability on the market. This helps you get a general feel for how a product may perform while also letting you collect feedback from real consumers in different markets.

Standard test marketing 

A standard market test involves rolling out your campaign in select regions or cities before opening it up to the national market. This is an effective way to test your wider marketing strategy, track sales, conduct surveys, and collect feedback across test markets. A common example is releasing a movie in a few cities before launching it in theaters nationwide.

Simulated test marketing

A simulated market test typically involves inviting a focus group of customers to your store or website and giving them exclusive discounts for certain product categories. In simulated testing, you might also place new products alongside older products to see which performs better.

How to conduct test marketing

1. Select your audience
2. Set the parameters of your test
3. Collect data and feedback
4. Use your findings to make improvements
5. Launch your product

Let’s say you’re a marketer for a women’s fashion brand with a national audience. You’re launching a new product line of outerwear and would like to take your social campaign strategies for a test run. These are the steps you would take:

1. Select your audience

Choose a representative audience and strategic testing groups that reflect your target market. Select the right mix of cities and geographic regions for your test markets, with a demographic breakdown that mirrors your national market. Since you’re specifically marketing outerwear, you decide to select a handful of cold-weather locales to test, skipping cities like Los Angeles and Miami.

2. Set the parameters of your test

Next, set your test marketing parameters, including identifying which elements you specifically plan to analyze and the duration of your experiment. For your digital marketing campaign test, you may decide to track conversions and engagement on one social media platform, such as Instagram. You opt to share two Instagram posts that communicate the same message but with different visuals and copy to see which generates more sales.

3. Collect data and feedback

Once the test is live, begin collecting your data: Track likes, engagement, followers, conversions, and sales to determine which version performs better. While the duration of a test will vary depending on the company and its specific objectives, you should allow for sufficient time to fully track progress against your benchmarks or selected competitors.

Given the seasonality of outerwear, you select one month—from mid-November through mid-December. You track conversions by post and per region using spreadsheets, charts, and detailed reports to understand which pieces of content perform best. As you’re tracking the data, you conduct focus groups in each market for direct feedback from consumers about the social media posts and which one they prefer.

4. Use your findings to make improvements

Once you have your data, use it to decide between the two campaigns. One of your posts clearly has higher engagement, more conversions, and stronger anecdotal feedback, so this is the one you build on for your national campaign.

In the case your data is inconclusive, you can use your findings and customer feedback to develop new concepts and run the test again. And if both perform equally well, you may decide to stagger your posts or save one concept for later in the season. Not every test will be a conclusive home run the first go—practice makes perfect.

5. Launch your product

Now that you have a data-informed social media marketing strategy that your target audience supports, you’re ready to launch your campaign. Push out the sponsored Instagram post nationally. Continue to track engagement, followers, and sales to help inform future campaigns.

An example of test marketing

Ahead of the launch of its Dasher running shoe in 2020, Allbirds wanted to create an Instagram campaign to spotlight the new product. The company took a multivariate testing approach and developed four different concepts: The first three videos separately focused on brand storytelling, product benefits, or innovation. A fourth video combined elements of all three.

Allbirds teamed with Instagram to set its parameters. The social media platform shared the ads with US adults above the age of 18 for two weeks. All the ads had a Shop Now button to facilitate measuring conversion rates.

The findings indicated a 48% increase in purchases across the creative and a 46% gain in purchases for the video focused specifically on brand storytelling. Allbirds used these findings to inform its broader social media advertising strategy.

Posting viral content on social media platforms is one of the most affordable ways to earn free publicity. Yes, it takes dedication and a bit of luck, but knowing which types of posts succeed on each platform can help your brand grow. For example, short videos perform well on Instagram and TikTok, but business-focused articles have a better chance of trending on LinkedIn.

On X, formerly known as Twitter (and still called Twitter by many users), incorporating relevant keywords related to breaking news and trends can increase your visibility on the platform. One way to join the discussions on trending topics is to use popular Twitter hashtags.

Here’s a guide to using hashtags on X, with tips for leveraging popular hashtags to gain followers and generate attention for your business.

What are Twitter hashtags?

Twitter hashtags, or X hashtags, are words and phrases preceded by the “#” symbol. They appear in users’ tweets as links. Clicking an X hashtag directs you to a search results page displaying other tweets with the same hashtagged keyword or phrase. Hashtags are also used on other social media platforms, like Instagram and TikTok, where they work similarly.

When users see these posts, they can engage by responding or retweeting, which shares the post with their followers. Therefore, using relevant hashtags—or better yet, trending hashtags—can get you in on more conversations, drive more traffic to your account, and increase awareness of your brand.

There are some limitations, however. You can only use letters and numbers in hashtags—no punctuation or symbols allowed. Hashtags are only clickable in public posts, meaning a hashtag does not become a hyperlink in a direct message. Using whole words is often effective because their meaning is easy to decipher, but a hashtag may include an acronym. You can turn phrases into hashtags, but consider capitalizing each word in the phrase to improve legibility.

How do brands use Twitter hashtags?

Incorporating hashtags into your Twitter marketing strategy is an easy way to maximize engagement on the platform. Here are common ways brand accounts use X hashtags:

• Increase visibility. When you use X to share messages with both followers and new audiences, adding hashtags to a tweet can enhance its visibility and boost brand awareness.
• Join trending conversations. Marketers engage with trending keywords and topics by using targeted hashtags. If you notice that thousands of accounts are posting with a specific hashtag, join in by writing your own posts using the hashtag.
• Foster community engagement. Many businesses create branded hashtags to build community and connect with customers. For instance, you might develop a unique phrase, like #FiredUp and #Ready2Roll, and encourage users to include it in a tweet when mentioning your brand. You can offer rewards for those who posted, like free products or exclusive discounts.
• Establish an industry niche. Hashtag your slogan to differentiate your business from competitors. For instance, a tool company might promote product longevity by adding the hashtag #ItJustLastsLonger to their tweets.

Tips for using Twitter hashtags

Looking to maximize your hashtags’ impact on X? Here are four essential tips:

Find hashtags in trending topics

To find trending topics in the app, tap the magnifying glass icon and select the “Trending” tab at the top of the screen. You can also type words and phrases into the search bar and see what X’s autofill tool serves up. Trending topics might relate to seasonal holidays or current events, so engaging with them can boost your exposure. Examples include:

• #NYE
• #ElectionDay
• #GrillingSeason
• #BestPicture
• #IceBucketChallenge

Search popular hashtags in your industry

Every advertiser wants to connect with people who are naturally interested in their products and services. To create targetedcontent for your most promising customers, use hashtags related to your work. In many cases, these are simple words and phrases your prospective clients are already searching for. For instance:

• #SkinCare
• #HomeTheater
• #Vegan
• #Offroad
• #Hawaii

Use hashtags for promotions

Boost an existing promotion, like a flash sale, with a series of tweets ending in hashtags. These hashtags serve as a calling card for the promotion and can expand your organic reach across the platform. Be sure to create hashtags that specifically highlight your promotion. For instance:

• #BlackFridaySale
• #BOGO
• #FriendsAndFamily
• #SpruceUpForSpring
• #SaleOfTheCentury

Claim unique hashtags for your brand

Rather than using overused hashtags created by others, create novel ones unique to your brand. Ideally, these hashtags resonate with your target audience’s interests while being distinct enough to associate solely with your brand. Using an unusual combination of words can help you pull this off. For example:

• #FriendsSplashFree
• #MyVibeMyShoes
• #BlueKitchenLife
• #AugustFreeze
• #WhyNotToday

A realtor might say, “This apartment is going to be perfect! It’s got all the bells and whistles, and it’s near the best clubs in town. You’d better jump on this offer— at this price, you’re not going to get better!” While this sounds appealing, it doesn’t consider the needs of a family of five looking for a suitable home.

This type of sales approach is common, with professionals using tactics to push products, often without regard for whether they truly meet the customer’s needs. 

Solution selling turns this strategy on its head, by putting the customer first. Learn about how solutions selling works, and how you can use it to grow your business.

What is solution selling?

Solution selling is a holistic sales methodology that focuses on evaluating potential solutions for customer pain points instead of pushing a product or service regardless of what the consumer needs. This sales strategy requires a deep understanding of product features. Sales and marketing teams must take the time to understand a customer’s problems, and advocate for the product that best suits them. 

You can use solution selling in almost any industry, but this method is particularly valuable for companies:

• Offering solutions to complex problems
• Offering high-value services
• Selling big ticket items that require customers to do research

Think of businesses that offer products where one size doesn’t fit all, or where specialized knowledge can help the customer make the right decision. For example, customizable HR software, business-to-business (B2B) firms vying for large contracts, or specialized skin treatments for different conditions.

For an ecommerce company where sales personnel don’t typically interact with customers, solution selling can include tactics like: 

• Giving personalized product recommendations based on search history and keyword use.
• Using quizzes and surveys to understand personal needs more thoroughly.
• Having knowledgeable customer service staff that can answer user queries in detail.

Product selling vs. solution selling

Although they are both conventional sales techniques, product selling and solution selling differ greatly in approach:

Product selling

As the name suggests, product selling means deciding on the product (or service) first and then finding ways to market it to your customers. 

Let’s say you run a beauty brand and have recently released a new shade of lipstick you’re keen to promote. Whether your customers come in looking for a bold lip, a nude shade, or even a tube of mascara, using product-selling techniques means you’ll encourage them to check out the color you want them to buy. This can be a high-pressure selling tactic, whether done in person or online. 

Solution selling

By contrast, solution selling focuses on building trust-based relationships with your customers. This is a form of consultative selling, a tactic that encourages sales reps to actively listen to the needs of the client and add real value to the transaction.

In the lipstick example, a customer may come in looking for a subtle pink lipstick and tell your sales rep that they’re prone to dry lips. Based on this information, your rep may suggest a hydrating lipstick, or demonstrate how adding a layer of balm before applying the shade can prevent cracked lips. 

Pros of solution selling

Picking the most effective selling methodology for your business is an ongoing journey. Here are some benefits of using a solution-oriented sales strategy:

Lasting customer relationships

The personalized nature of the solution-selling process is more likely to foster lasting consumer relationships because you are looking to serve each customer’s long-term vision. When clients see that you’re listening to their problems and genuinely trying to find solutions, they are more inclined to trust your products, be loyal to your brand, and become repeat customers. 

Tailored experiences 

Leading the buying process with an understanding of each prospect’s pain points allows you to holistically tailor your product or service to their needs. The more questions you ask to clarify the issue, the better you can exceed buyer’s expectations by providing an ideal solution that was specifically created for their individual scenario.

Cons of solution selling

A solution-selling strategy may not always work for your business. Here are a couple of drawbacks to be aware of:

Longer sales cycles

Because you’re taking time to build trust with your customer, solution selling is often a much longer sales process than traditional selling. After you have become well-acquainted with customers, it can take an extended period of time to evaluate pain points and extract valuable insights that will lead to the right solution. 

Increased training time

To implement a solution-selling strategy, you need to first train sales reps to ask the right questions, actively listen to your customers, and have an in-depth knowledge of your product specs. This can require implementing numerous sales training protocols, which increases the responsibilities of sales managers. If you have limited bandwidth for sales enablement and creating new processes, this may be a tall order for your business. 

How to implement a solution-selling methodology

1. Get to know potential customers
2. Understand your products
3. Present your product’s value proposition
4. Close the sale and follow up

Solution sales techniques take a similar approach regardless of your industry, target audience, and specific product or service. Here’s a step-by-step system you can use to start implementing the solution-selling methodology, plus a few real-world examples to illustrate these tactics in action:

1. Get to know your potential customers

Selling solutions is all about getting to know your customers. For online sales, it’s important to gather as much data as you can on your customers and understand what they’re looking for. For example, you can conduct keyword research to understand how they find your products or services. 

Cocofloss is a dental hygiene company that centers its user experience around tailored dental subscriptions. Potential buyers are given a quiz that starts with questions about their age, dental history, and preferred flavor. As they continue, questions are tailored to specific preferences, ensuring each client is recommended a product that works for them. 

If you’re meeting clients face to face, it may be helpful to do some research first. For example, learn about the specific climate of an area before meeting your customer for a landscaping project, or learn about the market landscape of an ice cream parlor before you sell them a shipping solution. Based on this research, you can create a list of solution-selling questions so you can get on the same page quickly. 

2. Understand your products

Once you have a full picture of your customer and their needs, the next step is knowing your products inside-out to avoid simply repeating a canned sales pitch. 

Suppose your company offers personalized design consulting services. To sell them effectively, your teams need to know the details of each package, the different kinds of design solutions you offer, and what your limitations are. For example, your firm may be able to design logos and merch, but they cannot help with printing and manufacturing. Knowing your limitations is just as valuable as knowing your strengths, so you can avoid overpromising and under-delivering. 

3. Present your product’s value proposition

Providing undeniable value to your customer is a key stage in the solution-selling process. Whether in product descriptions or face-to-face meetings, clearly define how relevant aspects of your product can alleviate pain points. 

Avoid simply stating features, and instead frame your value in terms of return on investment (ROI) and the amount of money or time they can expect to save. Make use of customer testimonials; if a previous customer had similar issues and found great success, share how beneficial your services were and why they are the ideal solution for their needs. 

Pot Gang, a service that helps novice gardeners learn how to grow fruits and vegetables at home, uses a mix of personal anecdotes from previous clients. The brand also leans on its strong pool of five-star reviews to demonstrate how it helps customers. These personal success stories speak to specific scenarios and ways the brand and its products have assisted others in learning to garden at home. 

4. Close the sale and follow up

When it becomes clear that your product and the client’s needs align, it’s time to close the entire sales process. Ensure that you and your client are clearly aligned on expectations and that this is the best move for both parties. Once the deal has been made, send a post-purchase email to the customer to see how things are going, and ask if there are ways in which you can offer further assistance. 

As a business owner, driving revenue growth is always top of mind. Year over year, increasing revenue demonstrates your business is able to retain and attract new customers and produce products or services that are competitive within your industry.

Of course, it’s not always exponential. More often than not, you’ll see incremental revenue changes. “It starts with putting one foot in front of the other, day by day,” says Brad Charron, CEO of Aloha, on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. When you learn how to increase revenue one step at a time, as Aloha did, you can set your business on a path to success.

What’s the difference between revenue and sales?

Within the context of business operations, revenue is the total amount of income a business takes in from sales, investments, partnerships, leases, and other business arrangements. Sales, meanwhile, refers to the volume of products or services you sell to consumers. Generating more sales can increase revenue, but sales volume is just one variable to consider when you’re striving to boost revenue generation.

How to increase revenue for your business

Regardless of the size of your business, there are many ways to drive revenue growth. Here are seven strategies successful ecommerce brands have leveraged: 

Set clear goals

To achieve business growth, it is imperative you set specific and achievable goals. For example, you may aim to increase sales revenue by 15% over the next year or double your existing customer base. Try setting both short-term and long-term goals so that you can see steady progress toward your objectives.

Ridge, an accessory brand known for its metal wallets, regularly sets goals for incremental revenue growth. One such goal was to grow Ridge to $100 million in revenue per year. By implementing smaller strategies like price changes and expanding to new markets, it eventually hit and exceeded its goal.

Optimize pricing strategies

For your pricing strategy, you might try increasing prices to boost your average transaction value, decreasing prices to gain a competitive advantage, or offering promotional pricing to increase sales.

Frequently reviewing your prices is a good way to ensure you are maximizing your profit margins, ultimately leading to more cash flow. Study consumer spending habits to understand how much wiggle room you have to work with and settle on the price that you believe could lead to the most increased revenue. Some trial and error may be necessary.

By implementing pricing scripts (i.e., code that alters prices based on membership length and sales trends) into their ecommerce shop, Tamburlaine Organic Wines was able to increase its online sales by 88%. The slight differences in price, combined with strategic promotions, were able to shift the company’s revenue dramatically. 

Widen your consumer base

In simple terms, more customers means more revenue, yet finding potential customers can require you to try myriad business tactics.

Customer acquisition, or the process of finding new customers, may take the form of improving SEO practices to appear more frequently on search inquiries, creating targeted marketing campaigns that align with the interests of your audience, and expanding into new markets to create new customer segments. If digital awareness is your goal, you could also partner with influencers or run pay-per-click (PPC) ads on social media platforms.

Noel Mack, chief brand officer for Gymshark, an athletic apparel company, advises taking note of which online platforms your audience uses if you want to widen your customer base. Gymshark partnered with several fitness influencers after Noel noticed they were promoting their daily gym outfits on TikTok. This move expanded the brand’s reach to potential new customers, helping to increase its following to 5.7 million users on the platform. 

Encourage customer retention

Gaining new customers is essential, but keeping existing customers is equally as important. Foster customer retention by providing exceptional customer service throughout the purchase process. One way to bolster customer satisfaction is to utilize a customer relationship management (CRM) system.

A CRM lets you track customer preferences and automate marketing campaigns that target customers by promoting products or services that are similar to their previous purchases. Additionally, you might create loyalty programs like membership benefits or personal discount codes that incentivize repeat purchases.

After Aloha determined it needed a better system in place to improve customer relationships and drive repeat business, it replaced its static, outdated website with a Shopify Plus shop. With the new ability to customize its subscription options, personalize email marketing efforts, and better showcase its products, the brand saw a 289% increase in sales and a 254% increase in total orders. 

Leverage data

To leverage the value of data analytics, aggregate your consumer data related to purchase behavior, customer feedback, market demand, and other key metrics. By analyzing market trends, you can gauge how well certain products are selling, generate ideas for future offerings, and optimize your marketing and sales strategies.

When shoe brand Rollie Nation examined its page refresh time and bounce rates, it observed that it wasn’t keeping up with the speeds of competitors’ websites, causing many customers to leave the shop before arriving at the point of sale. To counter this, the brand switched its online store to Shopify Plus, which led to an increased conversion rate of 3.5%. 

Develop new products and services

Developing additional products can be an effective way to create new revenue streams, especially if doing so lets you tap into new markets. Start by using available data to evaluate emerging trends or unmet customer needs—ideally, you want your product to fill a gap your competitors haven’t yet. “It has to be new and novel and interesting. It has to be compelling. But it also has to meet the needs of the consumer,” Aloha’s Brad Charron says. Ensuring your product adds value to your customers’ lives will help you maintain or even increase customer loyalty. 

Bundle offerings

Creating bundles of products or services can be a great way to increase sales volume and yield the most revenue from paying customers. Bundles can add an incentive by discounting each individual product, encouraging customers to increase their average transaction value (ATV). Try bundling two similar products or cross-selling from different categories to showcase products to new customer segments.

Tropeaka, an all-natural nutrition brand, launched a promotion to include a free gift from its product line with every order. This simple incentive increased the company’s average order value by AU$5 across 15,000 sales per month, leading to an unprecedented boost in sales revenue. Consider employing these types of sales strategies in your slower seasons to mitigate anticipated dips in revenue. 

Twitter—or, technically, X—is a social media platform where people discuss trending topics from pop culture to politics. And if you can get them to pay attention to what you want to say, you may be able to make some money. 

If you work in ecommerce, you can use Twitter/X to communicate with your loyal followers. You can also use it to direct new customers to your ecommerce store and inspire new sales. If you’re not selling products, you can make money on Twitter as a content creator.

While there are many ways to use Twitter to generate revenue, the good news is they’re all intuitive and relatively easy to kickstart. 

How to get started making money on Twitter

1. Create a professional Twitter profile
2. Meet monetization eligibility
3. Set up your account for payouts
4. Post regularly
5. Engage with your Twitter audience

Twitter monetization takes time and effort, but millions of people have done it successfully. As with all the other biggest social media platforms, Twitter’s ad revenue flows to the accounts with the most followers and the most engaging content. 

Here are the steps you’ll need to take in order to monetize Twitter:

1. Create a professional Twitter profile

You can register for a professional Twitter account for free. Make sure your account features a clear and engaging bio, a profile picture, and a header reflecting your brand identity. Include a link to your website.

2. Meet monetization eligibility

To access Twitter’s monetization features, you typically need at least 500 followers and a subscription to X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue). If you want to start making money via ad revenue, the rates for X Premium start at just $3 per month.

3. Set up your account for payouts

Twitter uses the third-party payment service, Stripe, to issue payments. Enter your bank information to set up your Stripe account. Once you’re up and running, the platform will deposit payments automatically. Once eligible, activate the X Ads revenue-sharing program.

4. Post regularly

If you’re committed to making money on Twitter, your top job is to create engaging content that resonates with your audience. The key is choosing topics your user base is genuinely interested in. While you don’t have to post hourly, it’s wise to create content consistently, because the X algorithm values your total number of impressions.

5. Engage with your Twitter audience

Respond to comments, direct messages, and other interactions to amass a loyal following. As you build rapport with Twitter users, you can then leverage your Twitter presence to steer more traffic to your own website. Focus on beefing up your total number of followers, which may let you command a higher rate when you post sponsored tweets.

Strategies for businesses to make money on Twitter

There are hundreds of millions of active users on the Twitter platform. What’s true of other social media platforms is also true for X: The more Twitter traffic you drive to your profile, the more chances you have to earn money. 

Here are some proven strategies for monetizing Twitter:

Post content consistently 

The monetization process starts with creating consistent content to build a killer Twitter profile. On a daily basis, post compelling tweets, threads, and media to showcase your products or services. Frequently provide direct links to your ecommerce site or product pages.

For example, your fitness brand could post before-and-after transformation photos on its Twitter account, which you can edit using the X Media Studio (formerly Twitter Media Studio). The posts can include links to your brand’s workout gear or supplements. You can also post educational Twitter content, such as how-to videos, to help your Twitter audience grow.

Leverage Twitter ads for marketing campaigns

Use X Ads to target specific demographics or interests on this popular social media platform. For instance, your online bookstore could run Twitter ads promoting a seasonal sale, directing users to your website. 

Tailoring ad content to align with audience preferences in your Twitter marketing campaigns helps ensure higher engagement and conversion rates. Make sure the website URL in each ad directs users to a landing page optimized for conversions. It should be easy to buy products once a prospect is on your website.

Utilize X Creator Revenue Sharing

You can also earn ad revenue by participating in the X Creator Revenue Sharing Program. 

To earn month revenue with the program you must:

• Subscribe to X Premium
• Have at least 500 Premium followers
• Create content that generates at least five million organic impressions over three months

You’ll receive a cut of the money from ads that display between your posts or in the replies. If you’re regularly posting valuable content and getting significant engagement, you can earn a modest income.

Drive website traffic with influencer marketing 

Partner with influencers on Twitter to promote affiliate products through their established follower base. Also known as sponsored content, this approach helps you tap into highly engaged and relevant audiences. 

For example, your skin care brand could collaborate with beauty influencers who try your products and share their impressions. You can also encourage content creators to post about your products by offering affiliate links, where they earn commissions for every referred sale. Note that they may post these links on other social media accounts beyond Twitter. 

Promoting affiliate products is another option. You can post an affiliate link for someone else’s product and both get a cut that way. This works in the inverse of the prior example, where brands use your Twitter account to reach a broader audience.

Add relevant hashtags to your posts

A relevant hashtag can help your posts show up in more feeds. Starting a phrase with a hashtag (#) turns it into an internal hyperlink, and the text becomes blue. When a user clicks on a hashtag, they’re taken to a search results page featuring all the other posts that use that same hashtag. 

As a business owner, you can use trending hashtags to your advantage—they might make your account a stop on a user’s Twitter journey. Once they’re on your page, you’ll want them to engage with your brand, so you may want to pin some compelling content at the top of your feed.

Sell digital products or subscriptions

If your ecommerce business offers digital products—such as online courses, templates, or memberships—you can utilize Twitter’s monetization features like Subscriptions or Ticketed Spaces. These features allow you to sell tickets to live audio events on the platform. 

For instance, your graphic design shop could sell exclusive design packs or host paid workshops. Your pottery studio could roll out ongoing video lessons in exchange for a monthly subscription fee. To fully monetize your feed, these digital products should feature exclusive content that cannot be accessed on any other online platforms.

Host exclusive events and giveaways

Use Twitter to promote events, such as product launches, flash sales, or virtual Q&A sessions. For example, your brand might run a giveaway campaign where participants retweet posts for a chance to win, generating buzz and increased visibility. 

Events like live discussions can also create buzz, attract new followers, and drive traffic to your ecommerce store. Given the sense of exclusivity, this form of social media marketing may have better odds of breaking through with your intended audience.

With old-school advertising—radio, TV, newspapers—you can never be certain how many people see your ads and decide to take action. These campaigns also tend to be expensive—you’re paying for broad exposure, and there’s no way to pay only for the audience who engages with your content. That’s where pay-per-click (PPC) advertising shines. 

You can make money from PPC ad campaigns by attracting potential customers at minimal costs. If you’re selling a product or service, PPC ads can help you reach an interested audience, and it only costs you when a lead actually clicks the ad. Here’s how to use a PPC advertising strategy to generate more revenue.

What is pay-per-click (PPC)?

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time a user clicks on their ad. This category includes text-based, photo, or video ads. PPC ads appear on various platforms including search engine results pages, social media platforms, and websites. The ad content and format depend on your advertising platform and campaign goals. 

Advertisers place bids by specifying a maximum fee per click. PPC advertising platforms use algorithms to compare bids and determine ad placement. How much you finally end up paying depends on how competitive the keyword is, the ad quality, and bid amount. Users see your ads when they search for one of the keywords you’ve bid on.

PPC advertising enables precise targeting by letting you bid on specific keywords, user behaviors, or audience interests. For instance, your athletic apparel brand could bid for the keyword “retro sweatbands” as well as tennis as a general interest group. 

Platforms like Google Ads offer segmentation tools to further refine these ad groups. You can use them to target niche audiences using parameters like demographics and location to ensure that ads reach the most relevant users.

Elements of a successful PPC campaign

Building and managing a PCC ad campaign involves selecting an advertising platform, allocating ad spend, and developing a bidding strategy. Here are some of the essential elements of a strong campaign:

Clear goals

Set clear goals to help develop and deliver effective advertisements. PPC campaigns can have a variety of objectives, like increasing conversions, driving awareness, or generating leads. Each of these objectives requires different messaging and focus on a different target audience. 

Robust keyword research

Identifying relevant keywords is a key element of successful PPC campaigns. PPC ad placement is based on keyword selection, so a strong keyword strategy ensures your ads reach the right audience. 

Start by defining your target audience by mapping their interests, pain points, and search behaviors. Then, use keyword research tools to select keywords directly connecting potential customers to your product’s unique value proposition. For example, if you sell simple handmade leather wallets you might target the keywords “handmade wallet” and “minimalist wallet” to attract design-conscious customers.

PPC advertising platforms view ad relevance as a component of quality—ad content is ideally related to target keywords. If your chosen terms aren’t connected to your ad content, your ads are less likely to receive placement. 

High-quality ad content 

Create engaging ads that resonate with consumers and align with your campaign goals. Depending on the ad type, include a headline, tagline, call-to-action (CTA), and imagery. Focus on clear communication and showcasing your product’s appeal. Ensure images are sharp and the ad copy is free of errors. Consider creating multiple versions of your ad content and use A/B testing techniques to identify high-performing assets.

Optimized user pathway

Where do users go when they click your PPC ad? Choose a destination that supports your campaign goals. Common pathways include product pages, lead-capture forms, or dedicated landing pages. 

A targeted landing page amplifies ad effectiveness by continuing the advertisement’s narrative and guiding users toward a specific conversion goal. For example, if your ad is meant to drive sales, you could create a landing page with a purchase link and a call to action encouraging visitors to “Buy Now.”

Performance data

Monitor PPC ad campaign performance by tracking metrics like cost per click, click-through rate, and return on ad spend to optimize your ad spend.

Use your advertising platform’s analytics tools to identify high-performing keywords and ads. This data can help you decide if you need to adjust your keyword strategy or reallocate your budget to place more money behind top terms.

How to make money with PPC ads

PPC ads generate revenue when they successfully drive purchases. Here are some of the strategies you can use to start making money with PPC campaigns: 

Product advertising

Brands can use PPC advertising to promote products and drive sales. Conversion-focused campaigns use clear CTAs like Shop Now or Add to Cart to encourage purchasing. Target keywords related to your product’s category or intended use. For example, a Bluetooth-enabled toaster company could bid on search terms like “smart toasters” or “how to brown bread.”

Awareness campaigns 

Brand awareness campaigns can drive long-term growth by introducing products to new markets. These campaigns focus on creating memorable impressions through broad, engaging messages that spark curiosity. Awareness campaigns don’t always ask consumers to purchase right away. Instead, they may use CTAs like “Learn more” or “Sign up for the waitlist” to intrigue potential customers, and target keywords that encompass broad product categories or niche interests.

Remarketing 

PPC remarketing, also known as retargeting, allows you to focus on converting users who’ve engaged with your website or products in the past. They’ve already shown interest—a well-placed ad can remind them to finish the job and make a purchase. Remarketing ads often show users products they’ve previously viewed or related items, and can increase conversions and reduce cart abandonment rates.

Lead generation

Build your potential customer base with a PPC lead-generation campaign. This strategy focuses on collecting user contact information and demographic data. Instead of immediately asking visitors to make a purchase, lead-gen campaigns often offer a discount or perk in exchange for specific actions like email sign-ups. The goal is to build your email list, which can help you generate more revenue over time. 

Ad extensions

Increase paid search ad engagement through ad extensions. These additional content pieces appear below the paid search ad, expanding their real estate on search engine results pages. Extensions provide valuable supplementary details like product specifics, pricing, business locations, or contact information, turning your basic search ads into more informative, compelling marketing assets. 

The more room your ad takes up, the less there is for competitor information. You can add ad extensions on Google (called assets) for free, though whether they’re displayed depends on the algorithm.

Pay-per-click affiliate programs

PPC affiliate programs allow website owners to earn money by hosting ads. Affiliate marketers earn money each time a visitor clicks on an advertisement. Popular affiliate programs include Google AdSense and Skimlinks.

PPC affiliate marketing can be a good fit for bloggers and other content creators. For ecommerce businesses, displaying advertisements from other brands on your blog could distract customers from your own products. If you decide to join a PPC affiliate program, consider setting strict parameters to prevent low-quality or competing ads from appearing on your page. 

Imagine searching for a flannel shirt online and finding yourself on a page with pixelated images, eye-watering animations, and fashion tips inspired by Saved by the Bell.

Unless you’re specifically looking for a throwback moment, this likely isn’t what you need. Luckily, search engines like Google favor up-to-date and optimized content, so this page from the 1990s is unlikely to top search results. Website owners know that to keep viewers coming in, their content has to be a lot more relevant and timely than this.

Content optimization is the process of doing just that, and it’s a crucial strategy for ensuring your content performs consistently. Learn more about this content marketing technique, with insights from Kevin Espiritu of Epic Gardening.

What is content optimization?

Content optimization is improving your content so it can better achieve its goals, whether that means topping search engine results pages (SERPs) or converting readers into customers. Whatever the objective, the content optimization process is vital to putting your best foot forward—and ensuring people see it.

When you publish a piece of web content, you’re reflecting what users are looking for and competing with the top search results at that time. Six months later, your advice might be outdated, the keyword intent might have changed, the weighting of search engine ranking factors may have tipped, or other publishers might have overtaken your rankings with more comprehensive content. To maintain your search engine rankings, you need to be proactive.

Why is content optimization important?

Continual optimization keeps your content fresh and findable on SERPs. Search engines reward up-to-date and unique content by looking at comprehensiveness, freshness, timeliness, and uniqueness—the key ranking factors for Google.

Updating your content also builds your reputation as a trusted adviser to your target audience. It makes your content more quotable, potentially earning you more website backlinks (i.e., other websites linking to your page). And since more eyes and traffic mean a wider audience of potential buyers, you can see increased conversions from your content over time.

How to optimize content

Optimizing content requires a wide array of strategies. Some help improve rankings on SERPS, while others help nurture people down the sales funnel. Use content mapping to identify your top priorities, then use these 10 methods to optimize your content accordingly:

Review user intent

For each piece of content you have, reevaluate your customers’ search intent. Why are they searching for the keywords you’re targeting? What value can you provide in that moment?

For example, if your article targets the keyword “best running shoes for flat feet,” the intent would be to find detailed information to make a well-informed purchase decision. You might consider including comparison charts, pros and cons, or product reviews to help consumers compare their choices. Ensure your content is high-quality and useful; providing real value to readers will make it more likely for them to trust you.

Fact-check for accuracy

Keep your material updated and factually accurate so consumers can trust you as a source for high-quality information. Kevin Espiritu, founder of the popular blog and ecommerce brand Epic Gardening, highlights the importance of this for his company. With a mission to help 10 million people worldwide learn how to grow plants, Epic Gardening needs to ensure its existing content is consistently helpful and fresh. “We go backwards year-over-year and say, ‘Do we need to refresh that blog?’ Let’s go ahead and see if we’re still accurate,” Kevin says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.

Build fact-checking and refreshing into your content strategy by setting calendar reminders each quarter for pieces you need to revisit. Use your best judgment to determine the best cadence for reviewing blog posts. Some topics that evolve quickly (like AI technologies) may need to be revisited every few months, while others (like the history of hair dryers) may need a review every year or two.

Add relevant keywords and metadata

Once you know what your users are looking for, it’s important to build ways for your content to show up at the top of SERPs. Use keyword research to understand what the important related keywords are for your topic, and incorporate them organically into your blog posts, product descriptions, and titles.

Avoid cramming in as many words as possible without taking any interest in readability. Keyword stuffing like this often has a counterproductive effect. It turns on Google’s spam filters rather than triggering its algorithm to prefer your page. Make sure you still prioritize breaking up your content with headings, using short paragraphs, and implementing the results of your keyword research in content your site visitors will enjoy reading.

Use title tags, image labels, and meta descriptions to improve search engine rankings. These simple tips can make it easier for search engines to understand what’s on each page of your website and better recommend it to users. Using alt tags for accessibility is another way to get keywords on your page and increase your chances of capturing search volume.

Incorporate video

Research shows that video increases dwell time (i.e., the amount of time users spend on a webpage), which helps boost search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. It also increases conversions. Adding high-quality informative videos such as explainers can boost page performance dramatically. If possible, consider adding closed captions. This can make your video accessible to those who have hearing issues or prefer to watch videos without sound. Unlike audio, video transcripts are also indexable by search engines, so having transcripts can boost your rankings further.

Improve technical SEO

When search engines crawl your web content, it’s not just the content that matters. Search engines also assess how well they can read your site and the overall user experience. In addition to updating the on-page SEO elements like keywords and metadata, consider the technical SEO elements like:

• Site speed
• Mobile-friendliness
• Crawlability
• Site architecture/navigation

You can assess your technical SEO using Google’s Core Web Vitals, which prioritize loading times, responsiveness, and visual stability. Use Google Search Console or another web analytics tool to check your tech health and track key metrics like site speed and performance.

Review site navigation and internal linking

Internal links help search engine bots understand your content and how it fits in the broader ecosystem of your website. Contextual internal links allow bots to find and rank your pages more easily, passing authority between pages. They also allow users to navigate easily around your website, meaning they’ll spend more time engaging with your brand.

As part of your link-building strategy, list all of the existing content that relates to the piece you’re optimizing. Content optimization tools like Ahrefs’ Link Opportunities can help simplify this process. Ensure that your new article or blog post links to those related pages. Similarly, update existing pages so they link to your new and improved content. Check for broken links and update them with relevant internal links.

Build brand affinity

Whether or not your content is high quality depends on the value it provides the reader. Improve the quality of your offerings by bringing something new to the conversation. Share expert insights and dig deeper than your competitors. This content optimization technique builds affinity with your readers and positions your brand as an authority in your realm.

For example, Epic Gardening’s content marketing strategy relies on educational content. People discover them through research and build a relationship with the brand before they purchase seeds and tools. The company uses quality content rooted in regional specialization and horticultural expertise. “We bring on other creators in different areas of the country because gardening is so regional,” Kevin says. “They’re all trained in some kind of gardening, so we’ll pick the right writer for the right topic. But then we also have all articles passed through a horticultural review for accuracy.”

Optimize content for conversions

Every piece of content should have some stage of the buyer’s journey in mind. For example, educational articles about gardening basics may help bring curious prospects into the funnel. By contrast, a comparison blog post about different types of mulch could aim to drive sales.

When optimizing content, ask yourself what the next step should be for the consumer, then map content to the different stages of the customer’s journey. Speak in your audience’s language—you wouldn’t use niche gardening jargon when speaking to someone who’d never touched dirt before.

Finally, ensure that your calls-to-action (CTAs) are clear and well-positioned, accounting for where readers are in their journey. Pepper CTAs throughout your content where they make sense—not just at the end of a page.

Encourage social sharing

Content amplification through social sharing increases your chances of reaching a broader, more diverse audience. This doesn’t just have indirect SEO benefits like increased referral traffic and backlinks, it’s also valuable for increasing brand awareness. When users share your content, new audiences engage with your brand without you having to pay for ads or rank high on Google search results.

Create shareable moments by calling out expert quotes or original research. Bring them to life with compelling visuals and social media sharing icons to help drive social exposure.

Improve readability

Improving your content’s readability increases the time people spend engaging with it, improving metrics like session duration and bounce rate. Use clear headings to grab attention and make your content skimmable. Simplify your language with shorter sentences and break up big blocks of text with bullet points and infographics.

Apps like Hemingway and Grammarly can help you tighten up your writing and ensure your spelling and grammar are on point.