Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 29
Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 29
Inspiration from across the world for retail enthusiasts, e-commerce professionals, marketing lovers and technology fans.
🇨🇳 Luckin Coffee and features in Chinese apps
When I was back in Shanghai a few months ago, I bought a coffee at Luckin Coffee in a large shopping mall. Luckin Coffee has a grab-and-go model, something that isn’t available in most of Europe. They have very few seats -if any- and they emphasize on convenience and mobile ordering. I share it here because, for every product manager, it is so interesting to see how an app like this in China works, what features are in there, what data is collected, and how these loyalty programs work. There is so much to learn from Chinese (mini) apps.
That model included offering cheap but good takeout coffee. The company prides itself on keeping its operations lean so that it can charge low prices.
With all its discounts, Luckin charges an average of $2 a cup versus more than $4 at Starbucks.
Talking about China, one of the things I miss after leaving China is the way payments work. The mobile payment system works so smoothly and has so many features that make payments fun.
The problem always was, that tourists could not have the same experience as people who live in China. When I was back recently, I did not have my Chinese bank account anymore, but luckily the major payment providers (WeChat and Alipay) now have the option to connect a credit card. The setup process worked but was not as smooth as it could have been, I was able to figure it out, but there were some annoying aspects of that journey, like validations, verifications, limited translations, and payment limits.
It’s good to read that now they make it more easy for foreigners(tourists) to use the payment systems so more people can try it for themselves. It will also help boost China’s retail.
Identity verification will be simplified for travelers to link international credit cards, including Visa and Mastercard, to Alipay and WeChat.
·The single transaction limit for overseas travelers using mobile payments will be raised from $1,000 to $5,000, and the annual cap from $10,000 to $50,000.
·Ant Group will resolve difficulties regarding foreign visitors using Alipay to take subways/buses in major Chinese cities.
I can recommend every product manager or product owner, to do research into Chinese UX and Chinese apps like Luckin Coffee, WeChat, and more.
Let’s hope one day, a coffee chain like Luckin Coffee comes to Europe, so more people can experience it.
Details: https://www.shine.cn/biz/finance/2403015586/
🇨🇳 AI disruptors at a glance
First, there was the browser application era, then the mobile application era, then the LLM models, and now the (first) AI disrupters show up. It will transform business a lot. A useful infographic to understand the direction business goes.
📖FB Ads in 2024: beyond regular campaigns
Some people regularly post on FB Ads. How to scale them, how to set up, how to optimize. Badal Pandey is one of them. He shares his insights and they often go beyond just setting up a regular FB campaign. It also goes beyond standard agency thinking, helping you to be more profitable.
I found this popular threat of him, that I summarize for your (and my own) convenience:
Run Advantage+ Shopping campaign This campaign type eliminates manual steps of ad creation. You just need to give creatives & AI does all the work
No more than 3-4 Campaigns at a time, even if the Ad-Account is spending above $5k/day in Ad-spend. It’s a lot easier to scale with a simplified Ad-Account structure & make decisions in the Ad-Account.
Engineer Ads that don’t look like ads. Creatives are the biggest lever you can pull to improve the performance of any ad account. We test anywhere between 2-15 creatives/week in Ad-Accounts.
Start with a clear visual hook. Your video should be scroll-stopping & should make your audience curious enough to watch the rest of it. In 1ST *frame* you need to give the audience a compelling reason to watch the video further & till the end.
The first 3 seconds of the video should hook your audience (e.g. Show a relatable experience) Create a custom metric in Facebook Ads to check this. If your first 3-second video view-to-impression ratio is above 30%. Then your hook is great & you're able to catch people's attention.
You need a pattern interrupt to get someone to be like, “Oh, I'm gonna look at that.” e.g.:- "Discovering THIS has been an absolute game changer" >Did You Know? [STATISTIC/FACT]. "I can't believe what I did until I did THIS." >[System, etc] has been lying to you for decades!
Make your video engaging & worth your viewer’s time. Even if they buy the product or not, they should feel like it was a good use of their time to watch the video Elements that make a great ad: - 4:5 aspect ratio - Add subtitles - Bright Lighting - Compelling graphic - Right Text
Spice up your ad with some social proof. Show them testimonials, and reviews how 100’s of how people are benefiting from it If everyone is buying and loving a product, others will too We're all slaves to social proof Make it relatable(ex."Everything changed since I used this product)
The ultimate hack to Facebook Ad is *testing*. But randomly testing 10 creatives won’t make a difference, Instead, make a process to consistently test 3-5 creatives/week. Make a list of 5-10 competitors for ad inspiration. Don't copy, model format that's working for them
Consistently learn from the data. If any ad has been working, try to find out why it’s working & what’s making it different. Double down on similar kinds of creatives. Change the first 4-5 seconds of the Videos, Change the Thumbnail & test different iterations for the same.
Influencer Whitelisting Campaigns. In these campaigns, you’re running ads using an influencer’s page instead of your brand’s page & for some of the brands, we get much lower CPAs & CPCs. Here’s an exact process of how you can run these campaigns:
Success with Facebook ads is more about the effort you put into strategy. We used Influencer whitelisting campaigns, Let’s understand it & why is it powerful. Every day on your feed you see 100’s of ads from brands that you don’t even know & as usual you're gonna ignore them.
As humans, we buy from someone we know & trust. What if you see an ad running through an Influencer’s FB/IG account you know & follow? Also, Influencer endorses products in ads that can be helpful to you You’re much more likely to pay attention to those ads & also buy products
Normal Influencer marketing isn’t enough to win. Whenever you pay an Influencer to post, then the organic reach is very limited. It reaches a very limited number of people in their following, sometimes it’s just 2-3% of their Following.
Influencer whitelisting helps you to reach majority audience of influencer. You can take access to the Influencer’s page & run ads, particularly to all people who follow & engage with them It’s a very powerful tool, As you can also show ads to their Look-alike audiences as well
How to set up Influencer whitelisting campaigns? While working with any Influencer ask them, If they are willing to allow you use their profile to run ads. It's upto you, How well you can negotiate but most will agree with extra cash & conditions like ad-frequency & creative
How to get access to the Influencer’s profile to run ads? For this Brand & Influencer, both will need to have a Facebook Business Manager Share your Business Manager Id with them & ask them to add you as a partner & give you access to their Facebook Page & Instagram account
Once you’ve access to the Influencer’s profile. Start with custom audiences of people who have engaged with their profile, Saved posts in the past 365 days & 30 days & run ads to them. Make sure, you use Influencer video ads about your product.
Make your video engaging & worth your viewer’s time. Even if they buy product or not, they should feel like it was a good use of their time to watch the video
Do not irritate or burn the Influencer’s Audiences Make sure the Frequency of your Ads doesn't go beyond 2-3. otherwise, you’ll irritate the Audience of the influencer. The Ad-results will decrease too, which is not good either for you & for the Influencer.
Challenges:- One of the challenges we faced was managing comments. You’ll not be able to manage comments on ads run from the Influencer’s page directly. To Tackle this either give the Influencer's list of answers to the most asked comments or onboard them to a platform like https://www.gorgias.com/
What can be replicated, can be scaled. If you find success with it, then start developing an SOP around it. Once you've data on what works, double down on that. It will help you to find & collaborate with more profitable Influencers & utilize their Audience to the best.
Start with custom audiences, But test further. Once the Influencer’s custom audience is exhausted, Make a Look-alike audience of engagers & test other cold audiences as well. Also, you can start retargeting using a custom audience of people who watched more than 50% of the first ad.
Knowing your number is key to success with Facebook Ads. You should always know what you can pay to afford a customer, anything above that should be turned off. Your main metrics for making decisions are Cost per Action/purchase, ROAS, CPC, and CTR.
No tool can provide 100% accurate data, But the right tool can help you make better decisions. For Accounts on a low Budget, we use UTM parameters & Google Analytics to make better decisions And for Brands with a high budget, we use TripleWhale to make better decisions
Ads are like dating, the landing page is where they say "yes". My checklist: Intriguing hero section, How does it work, Why you, Social proof, Clear the doubts & CTA.
Details: https://twitter.com/Badalpandey_/status/1630939354632802306
₿ Marc van der Chijs: spend time understanding Bitcoin
I listened to quite some interviews with Marc van der Chijs in the past, and he is one of the people who inspired me also to go to China. Marc set up Tudou simply said, the Chinese YouTube, and in the podcasts with him, I listened to there is always something to learn or to dig further into. His recent blog post on crypto is worth reading as well.
The only advice is to spend time understanding Bitcoin and why it is still around despite governments and traditional media trying to stop it. I have been writing about Bitcoin for 11 years now on this blog, I hope you will trust me if I tell you that it is not going away anymore.
Therefore the reason for setting up WLD for him is not to make money (although it may net him billions once again), but mostly to help the world to create a Proof of Humanity.
Basically Proof of Humanity means that in a world dominated by AI this might be the only way to prove that you are a human being. Just that fact could eventually lead to a multi-trillion dollar company, we just don’t see it yet
Details: https://www.marc.cn/2024/03/crypto-thoughts-at-the-start-of-a-bull-market.html
Greg Eisenberg: The future of building startups
Greg Eisenberg recently published a newsletter on the future of building startups. A post that makes the reader enthusiastic and useful if you are thinking about starting a business or if you want to set up a startup within a corporate environment. Below is a summary, it’s not the complete post.
MVP speed (1x per month)
It's entirely feasible to create a fully functioning product each month. By creating MVPs, you discover what speaks to customers and what doesn't. More MVPs mean more shots on goals.
Superniche is the new niche
2024 and beyond build super niche products (aka very vertical products)
AI-accelerated is the norm
Look at your entire way of conducting business. Where can you use AI to accelerate your workflow? How can you use AI to build your products faster?
AI is caffeine for your business. Fuel for the tank.
Community 1st, software 2nd
Start by building a community first, and then build software (or a product) to sell them.
Start by building an internet audience on social, convert to a free community on a platform like Skool, Facebook Groups, or WhatsApp, and then build a product for them.
No-code 1st, some code 2nd
Your first version should have no code. If you have custom code in your minimum viable product, you’ve launched too late.
10x more automated
How you automate dictates how you are able to grow and scale.
Global teams, localized products
Hiring just in your town makes sense if you own a restaurant, but if you’re building a business powered by the Internet, it almost always makes sense to hire globally.
Popup apps
Popup apps are about to make our online adventures way more interesting, making sure you stay on your toes for the next cool thing to pop up.
More of this great content via Greg Eisenberg:
🧦Crappy brands
They must have figured out from their ad portal, that people who drive BMW also like Apple and prefer grey socks😂
That’s all for this edition.
Thank you for reading,
Alex