Happy Sunday!
If you’re reading this, I hope you’re sitting back in a comfortable couch, have your feet up, and you’re gripping a cup with a tasty beverage inside.
Today’s newsletter is going to answer a question I got at GROW, twice. But, before we get into that, a couple of golden links to share with you:
I took all my best nuggets from the newsletter last year and put it into a 54 page deck to share with you. Click here to see that deck for free.
We’re hiring for three roles at Sharma Brands right now... if this is you or someone you know, please use the links below:
This past week, Moiz and I also released our latest episode of Limited Supply. We discussed Facebook catalog ads, Klaviyo's new agency offering, and how to increase your subscriptions. Check us out on Apple Podcasts or Spotify!
Lastly, here are some amazing upcoming events:
ShopTalk — If you plan to be in Las Vegas for ShopTalk, DM me, email me, or text me. I’ll be there, and Sharma Brands is hosting a handful of events there.
SheInnovates — I won’t be there as this is a women-only event, but if you’re a woman in eCommerce, I highly recommend going! Dillon and Jess, two of my dear friends, are organizing this event, and I’m proud to be a sponsor. Sharma Brands is 90% women, so you’ll find a few of our team there too!
Okay, let’s get into the meat of today’s newsletter...
For this week’s newsletter, I got a suggestion at GROW: Write about the funnel when working with influencers. I think so many brands get it wrong, especially when they spend big money.
Whether you spend $100,000, $100, or even just seed product in exchange for them sharing content, you always want to make sure you have a great funnel for these people. The people who click are highly curious about what you’re selling and you want to make sure you can deliver the value they’re looking for — education or an opportunity to try.
If you’re a long-time reader of the newsletter, you know that I believe every link that is shared should be a landing page, or optimized like one. The problem with just sharing the homepage is that speaks to one problem, one persona, one need, etc. A landing page can be customized for that specific journey.
For sake of making sure you understand why a homepage isn’t sufficient, imagine you sell flavored water, like Hint. When a mommy blogger affiliate writes an article about Hint and links to the site, the experience you want to show that audience is much different than what is just on the homepage. You want to educate that reader in the context of the ingredients, is it great for kids, why it’s better than juices, etc. Your homepage is likely not speaking to those benefits — that’s why you want a landing page. With this type of setup, you should have around a 9-10% conversion rate with a good landing page.
Ok, now that we have the context of why, let’s talk about what goes on this page. Every good landing page answers the same few questions over and over again through different sections of content. Those questions are:
- What are you selling?
- Why should I care?
- How fast can I get it?
- How will it make my life better?
- How does this compare to other options on the market?
The other thing to recognize is that if it’s coming from earned media-like channels (influencers, publishers, affiliates, newsletters, etc.), that is a higher intent user. Something to think about setting up the email pop-up timing, the offer to display there, and how you position the messaging of the product.
In no particular order, below are all the sections I’d recommend having on landing pages getting traffic from influencers or earned media channels. With all of the sections, you want to ensure consistency of context—meaning, your choice of what goes in the comparison chart or what reviews get displayed should ladder back up to the angle of the page, not just what sounds good in isolation. You also need to have amazing copywriting—good copy is a turn-on and builds trust.
Hero Section
In your hero section, it’s pretty much the same as your other landing pages, but with a few updates. You still want to have attention-hooking copy at the top, with a great angle, social proof, and a compelling CTA. If it’s coming from an influencer, ideally, the influencer has their own photo with the product in the hero too. If it’s not coming from an influencer, then find a piece of creative that closely resembles the creative direction of the traffic source — I’ve found this to help with conversion.
Within the hero, you need to make sure that the copy at the top directly addresses the problem that you’re solving or the angle. The page will convert better if the hero section is really teeing up the problem like a soft pitch, so that the rest of your page can use that soft pitch to knock it out of the park when talking about the solution.
Social Proof
All throughout the landing page, you want to reinforce people’s trust by displaying different forms of social proof. This can be customer UGC, embedding a TikTok video, featuring written customer reviews, or showing logos of publications that the brand was featured in.
I decide what to put here based on the traffic that is going to come. If someone is coming from an influencer, a publisher logo probably isn’t going to trump the impact of real customer reviews. The influencer or blogger or affiliate is a real human review, so what’s stronger than that? That’s what we’d want to display here. I would probably either highlight customer reviews that demonstrate the benefits of the angle of the page well, or customer videos embedded from places like TikTok or Instagram Stories. People seeing that format, will know that it’s not doctored in any way, and therefore have a bigger impact in building trust.
Shop Section
The Shop Section is where you can get more custom when coming from influencer traffic. In a perfect world, you always want the creative that got someone to your page to match the merchandising on the page they get to. If they saw a blue colored blanket, when they land on the landing page, they should first see the blue blanket, not the red one.
Similarly, let’s say the influencer is promoting a supplement from Orgain Protein. The landing page they arrive at should have the products they feature in their content. This is hard to do at scale on your own, but companies like Superfiliate make it really easy to do it. This page is my page for Beam — their software lets me prominently feature the product I was talking about before someone clicked the link, the Beam Dream sleep powder, and also has a custom headline up top that I wrote in. Pretty sweet software that I discovered Dr Squatch uses with all their influencers too.
If you aren’t using Superfiliate, then you want to make sure you have something great being merchandised in the shop section. It should correlate directly to what the influencer is talking about before someone clicks. Even better would be if you had a bundle, introductory offer, or a new customer special they could purchase. This way, their first purchase offers them a discount to try the product, and they get to sample multiple products.
At Hint, I made a 3-case new customer offer (still the same on they use today), and it was great for a few reasons:
- It allowed us to increase the AOV for new customers from 1 case at a discount at $15 to 3 cases at a discount for $36
- The second order rate was higher, because people got to taste more of the product, which increased the intent to buy again.
- The 3 cases let people sample a variety of flavors, so they could focus on something that was catered to their flavor palette.
- With the way our shipping fees worked, whether we shipped 1, 2, or 3 cases, it was the same price. So why not maximize the ratio of hard costs to AOV?
In a similar vain, you should think about what that introductory offer is. Whether it’s a shower head, a beverage, a deodorant, or a mattress, it should thoroughly let your customer sample the product. Adding a GWP (gift with purchase) is also a great lever here to add perceived value to the first order. That might be a free tote bag, tumbler, or carrying case.
Overall, the shop section should be merchandised well. You also want to make sure you don’t forget:
- Reinforce the benefits of the product, as it relates to the angle of the landing page, near the add to cart button.
- Reinforce social proof — include review stars for the bundle or product, add a quote from a customer addressing the benefits, or add something like, “Over 100,000+ sold!”. My favorite sneaky one is what airlines do; it says, “6,734 people purchased this in the last 24 hours.”
- Add a guarantee for those who aren’t sure that they’ll enjoy the product. Magic Spoon has a “Happiness Guarantee” that promises a refund within 6 months if someone doesn’t like the product.
- Call out the true value of the pricing. When I worked with a supplement brand years ago, I realized that the 30 day supply for $29 was better worded as, “Less than $1 per day!” It increased conversion rate dramatically.
Comparison Chart
The comparison chart isn’t an opportunity to speak poorly about your competitors, but it’s rather a way to give someone who doesn’t know your brand an understandable point of reference. This helps personify the benefits your product brings to the table.
There are two ways to leverage the comparison chart:
- Use brands — If you sell Black Wolf Nation (men’s personal care), then you might use the comparison chart to compare yourself to Dove, Axe, and Old Spice.
- Use generics — If you sell Cha Cha Matcha, then you might just compare it to a generic product like Coffee, that people know. You can see that example toward the bottom of this page.
In both cases, don’t lie! It would be a shame to have the funnel work so hard, only to lose trust in a silly comparison.
Catalog
You’ve now fully delivered on what your brand/product could do for someone. The best thing you can do is just display alternate products that someone can browse. If there’s one thing I’ve realized with consumers on mobile, they love scrolling a catalog of products.
Add other product options for them to click on if that’s applicable to your brand.
Product / Brand Detail
This is an ordinary landing page section — just explain more in detail about the product, the ingredients, where it comes from, why it was started, what technology/science/innovation sets you apart, any interesting founding story for the brand, and anything else you’d want someone to know.
The readership on this section will be low, as a percentage of those who get to your landing page, but for those who want to continue to learn more, give them what they want.
FAQ
This is an incredibly underutilized section on a landing page. Most brands have a separate page on their site dedicated to FAQ, but why not eliminate the need for someone to leave in the first place?
Add FAQs on the site that relate to the products or bundle you’re selling. Include the return policy, any questions about the ingredients, and information about shipping. You can also look at what are the most common questions you get from customer service and Instagram DMs, and incorporate those answers into this FAQ section as well.
How It Works / What’s Inside
This section should be somewhere in the middle of the page. If you sell something like Nood, the hair removal device, then you need to also talk about what all comes in the box.
If you’re selling 3 cases of Hint water, it’s pretty easy to know what’s coming. But with Nood, it’s important to note the charging cable, a carrying case, and anything else that comes in the box.
On the one hand, you don’t want someone to abandon the purchase journey because they aren’t fully clear on what’s coming inside, and on the other hand, explaining what all comes inside can help justify your pricing.
Those are all the main sections I’d add for a landing page that stems from influencer traffic. Hopefully this was helpful for you to understand my thinking and the why behind some of the sections, versus just what the sections are. Reply with anything else you’d add too!
Now, onto some fun stuff...
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That's all for this week
I hope today’s newsletter was insightful and one of those you can print out, highlight and get to work on right away. I’ve been doing more deep diving into catalog ads, and have a deep dive I’m working on for next Sunday.
Did you notice the time changed overnight? Make sure you make up for that extra hour you lost last night by sleeping early tonight. Get those 9 hours of sleep and start the week on the right foot!
Have an incredible upcoming week. I’ll see you next Sunday, and if you plan to go to ShopTalk, please hit me up!
Check out the program here.