Q&A With Melissa Eisenberg
Melissa Eisenberg specializes in building brand narratives, partnerships, community, and content strategy in early to mid-stage startups. She has experience developing and managing a wide array of projects, from editorial calendars, customer-facing content to social media campaigns, and community events. She's also developed content and topical materials to connect with offline communities through meetups, hackathons, and large-scale networking events. Building both online and offline communities has contributed to multi-channel distribution and promotional efforts in her work with B2B/B2C audiences. She also values working on teams with collaborative people and projects that require the utmost attention to detail.
We sat down with her for a chat about marketing strategies through COVID-19. If you're interested in discovering some new tactics and how you can improve your online performance this is the absolute place to read it
With so much noise on social media during COVID-19, how can entrepreneurs develop a content marketing strategy that resonates?
With the noise comes opportunity. See what others have been doing that works and try to apply similar strategies to accomplish your goals.
Figure out your audience demographics and curate your most popular items at different price points to cater to various demographics.
There are always shoppers that will have more (and less) to spend considering the circumstances. Test out what price point works to convert shoppers into customers. You may have an item that is $50 and another one that is $150, but the brand messaging, positioning and differentiation stays the same. It is how much the brand resonates with the audience overall.
There are also plenty of tools out there from embedded insights from a social network to Instagram measurement tools like Minter.io.
Produce a content strategy where shoppers can relate to you. Whether with engaging copy or lifestyle shots that show real life use cases, the shopper may be able to see themselves more with the product.
The resources are limited right now, what can designers do during shelter-in-place to improve their online performance?
Without a ridiculous ad budget, inspire shoppers with new ideas and innovate.
Get a gauge on what customers are into. What are they reading, who are they engaging with on social networks. I would recommend tapping into the major trends of this shelter-in-place order. What do they have to do from home that they didn’t have to before?
You can relate to them with thoughtful content, targeting various trends going on right now. For example, “What should you wear for your Zoom interview” or “Stay organized while working from home.”
Also target evergreen holidays (as you would normally do), like Mother’s Day. Adapt your messaging to something that addresses what is going on but in a gentle and subtle way. For example, you could say something like, “Show your Mom love from afar.”
But don’t forget about measuring your progress. Whether social or email, you can figure out what is not working, so you can change it to have a more effective strategy.
There are many platforms to share your content, and it is challenging to make an appearance in each one of them. Name three social media platforms to invest your time in:
Shoppers now have more time to be on social than ever before. They live there, and you are essentially in their living room. I would recommend the same networks that brands typically use, like Instagram or Facebook, and potentially YouTube. For YouTube, it can serve as an extension of your product description page. It is really nice to have product videos so customers can get a better idea of color, size or fit.
You have experience building offline communities. Because social distancing limitations have prevented organizers from throwing events and meetups, what can they do during COVID-19 to increase their awareness and build a community?
I for one am very bummed that I cannot attend events, especially in the fashion community right now. Being inclusive during this time is the way to make people feel more connected to your brand. All of my events have gone online, and brands also need to be there.
For example, if you produce activewear, send some over to the local fitness instructors in your area hosting online classes and encourage your community to join. They can also wear your brand to the class, of course. Partnerships are worth exploring to increase your reach to bring more people into your community.
Come up with new and fresh ways for your community to connect. You could host a shopping video call on Zoom, where people can share their screens with what’s hot right now, or you can use an app, like Shopify’s “Shopping with Friends.” Offer them some of the things they love to do IRL, online.
Due to the current amount of uncertainty, it's more challenging to come up with a long-term strategy. Nevertheless, there's still competition. How should brands adopt?
One big issue that we all are facing with ordering online is shipping times. While we do have more time to wait now, we also want more visibility into when it will arrive, increasing our anticipation and interaction with a brand.
Before they even buy, make sure that they have the appropriate expectations for delivery dates. Put a banner on the top of your website and checkout pages to make sure they know approximately how long it will take to get to them or delay information. Also be mindful of shipping costs. You may want to provide free shipping to customers that spend over a certain amount to compete with the likes of Amazon Prime.
Follow up with emails to communicate where their package is each step of the way. In those emails you can also promote any type of content like we discussed before, or highlight your brand value and how you are addressing COVID in general. If you have Shopify, you can automatically integrate into apps like Arrive, which is a centralized place to track your order with real-time notifications. Simply, provide a better customer experience when it comes to shipping to set proper expectations and reinforce transparency and care for the customer.
Diving into philanthropy is also a huge opportunity to better connect with your audience. FISF Brands like Cotton the First are catering to COVID needs, producing masks and other items to make shoppers feel safer (and fashionable). You can always stand out for doing the right thing.
Thank you melissa!