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In order for your eCommerce business to thrive, you need to sell products. But you can’t sell products if consumers can’t see what they’re buying.  It’s one thing to provide product images, but if your images are low-quality or don’t do a great job of depicting the product, then no one will be buying that…
The post How to Create Top-Notch Product Images for Your eCommerce Store appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Fall in soldier… you take point submitted by /u/GirlsGoneRowdy [link] [comments]

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Hey all, As a small business owner, I am interested to know what are the biggest problems you face in your content marketing efforts. For example, finding the time to deliver content marketing, resource and budget etc. Any responses are much appreciated! submitted by /u/Morgan0217 [link] [comments]

Many creatives become business owners because they want to bring their ideas to life in the world. The problem is we can get stuck in our own heads and end up developing products and services that we think are brilliant, only to put them on the market and find that nobody wants them. In addition to being the co-founder of Caeli—a slow-living brand that helps people feel more relaxed and inspired in their homes—I am a certified business design consultant who helps other founders avoid this trap. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, business design is a process through which you thoughtfully design new businesses right alongside your customers. It can be used to ensure you’re releasing something they’re truly excited about, pricing products correctly, and marketing in the most effective way possible, essentially de-risking the aspects of a business launch.Thanks to the process of business design, within six months of launching Caeli’s Evening Rituals Meditation Box, the product is already in ten retail stores and has become our best-seller—without us spending a dime on marketing.Below, I’m going to walk you through how my team developed this product, step by step. Follow the process next time you’re developing a new product, launching a new service, or making any business decision, and you’ll be guided to the right path by the very people you’re here to serve: your customers.1. We learned about customer needs before we even started brainstormingThe impetus for the Evening Rituals Box came at the start of the pandemic when we noticed the levels of anxiety in our friends and customers skyrocketing. As a slow-living brand with a focus on wellness, we felt we were in a position to help. I already had plenty of ideas spinning in my mind, the forerunner being a kit that would help people develop a morning ritual to start their day off on a grounded, relaxed note. But, instead of diving straight into product development, we started with customer research. We posted on our Instagram that we were looking for people to help us with developing a new product, outlining exactly what would be required of them and offering incentives in return: a 20€ (about $22) gift card, ten percent off the site for a year, and free product. We had anyone interested fill out a survey to apply with questions related to their experience with slow living, their current wellness practices, the challenges they currently face when it comes to slowing down, and some demographic data. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Caeli | Slow Homewares, Art & Wellness (@caeli.deco) We chose 12 customers who expressed interest in slow living but were facing significant challenges in practicing it. Some were more advanced than others in terms of their “mindfulness” practice; we selected a range to be able to compare the needs of different user personas. To kick off the process, I had a 30-minute call with each of them to understand who they were, their current practices, and what was contributing most to their stress.We immediately learned that most of our customers already had some sort of wellness practice in the morning, but were struggling to disconnect and wind down after a long day of working from home. That clued us into the fact that we should instead be developing something for the evening.2. We shared prototypes at every stepWith a clear customer need in mind, we started brainstorming and had lots of ideas. But instead of spending time mulling over the various directions this product could take, we turned to another key aspect of business design to help us out: rapid prototyping. By getting our ideas in front of customers as quickly as possible, we could make decisions based on their feedback. Through our interviews, we learned that our customers loved rituals, so we decided to explore the idea of an evening ritual. We picked an idea to start with—a box that would pair incense with music to help customers relax or reconnect with themselves—and got to work on creating something we could put in front of customers. I’m not even talking about a sample box at this point: We kept things really simple to start by creating a digital prototype.This essentially amounted to some mock Facebook and Instagram ads that showed a sample picture of the product along with a short description of the value proposition. We wanted it to feel real enough that customers could imagine it was a product they were considering buying, without us having to put a lot of time or effort into development before we verified the idea was interesting to them. We sent this along with a short survey with questions like:How would you describe the product or service?Who do you think it is for? Who is it not for?Is there something that appeals to you?What are you unsure about? What could make it better?Which of the two ads resonates more with you? Why?One of our main doubts was that people would perceive incense as something that was too “hippie” and wouldn’t be open to using it. This digital prototyping step helped verify that customers were willing to try a more modern take on incense, so we felt confident moving onto the next stage: building a physical prototype.3. We asked specific questions to help shape the productBy the time we were building out a physical prototype—essentially a sample product—we felt confident in the core direction of our idea. We wanted to use this phase to verify that our idea would help our customers in practice, and then hone every detail to make our product as perfect as possible.We pulled together a draft box with a lot of options so we could get a variety of feedback: every participant would receive five different incense smells from two different brands (in total we were testing 12 smells), with QR codes to three guided meditations of varying styles, and two different music selections. We asked our test customers to use these for about a month and keep a diary of their experience, experimenting with the different smells and sounds and sharing how they felt after. Then, I had another call with them to dig into all their thoughts.We learned a lot. We learned what kind of scents they liked and didn’t like. We learned that the meditations had to be around ten minutes or else people wouldn’t use them regularly and build a real ritual. We learned what styles of meditation people connected with (and which they hated). We learned that they loved the glass tubes and valued our eco-friendly packaging.Most importantly, we learned that the box was achieving our goal of helping them create a daily habit of slowing down. Before we started developing the final box, we just had one more thing to verify with our customers…4. We used this process to inform everything from pricing to positioning Business design can be used for all sorts of things outside of core product development (you are actually designing the whole business!). For instance, the last survey we sent to our customer testers was about how much they would be willing to pay for the box. This helped us verify that we could make a profit from this product before we invested in manufacturing it.We also used the data we collected during user interviews to create customer personas and help us determine the best positioning. For instance, we had two customers who hated the prototype. We had enough other participants who loved it that this didn’t turn us off from launching it entirely, but instead helped us identify the types of people the box was and wasn’t a good fit for. Common questions or doubts that customers had during the testing phase also helped inform our marketing copy, allowing us to alleviate those up front. For instance, we still had some customers who weren’t sure if they would like incense, so we made sure to frame our product as modern incense and encourage buyers to put their past perceptions aside. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Caeli | Slow Homewares, Art & Wellness (@caeli.deco) And the business design process never stops. We’re still using it as we test various sales channels, comparing selling in places like yoga studios to more high-end, concept boutiques to see what works best, and even to think about ways we could improve the product.Ultimately, it’s about always looking for ways to quickly test, learn as much as you can from your customers, and constantly analyze so you can move forward with confidence that your idea will truly create an experience beyond their expectations.Business design could seem like a bit of extra work, but taking this approach can help you avoid costly mistakes and ensure your product or service meets your customer’s needs. And the results speak for themselves — after launching the Evening Rituals Box in September, our Q4 revenue jumped up 195 percent compared to the previous year. I’ll take that over going with my gut on business decisions any day.

Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team.
Is there anything more satisfying than getting a great deal on a more affordable version of a popular product? Fans of the beauty company e.l.f. don’t seem to think so.
Founded in 2004, e.l.f. (an acronym for eyes, lips, and face) was created to offer high-quality cosmetics at a low cost. At the time of its launch, most of e.l.f.’s products cost between $1 to $3.
In its first decade, the company experienced a period of steady growth, expanding its product line, opening its own retail spaces, and finding some success in digital marketing. But by 2018, e.l.f. was experiencing a plateau in sales, and closed its standing retail stores, priming the brand for a marketing pivot.
E.l.f.’s shift to TikTok
In 2019, the hashtag #elfcosmetics had over 3 million views on TikTok before e.l.f. even had its own presence on the platform. With this in mind, the company shifted its marketing strategy to focus on TikTok’s user base (which was overwhelmingly Gen Z), leveraging short-form video and user-generated content in its #EyesLipsFace campaign.

Alongside Brooklyn-based agency Movers + Shakers, e.l.f. commissioned an original song that was catchy enough to go viral and encouraged TikTok users to feature the song and the hashtag #EyesLipsFace. The campaign was among TikTok’s most viral and cemented e.l.f.’s newfound focus on a Gen Z audience.
To keep the buzz going, e.l.f. centered its messaging on key points that Gen Z values when making purchasing decisions:

Social responsibility: 50% of Gen Z consumers won’t purchase products from beauty brands that aren’t cruelty-free.
Affordability: Gen Z may also be more frugal than other generations. 80% of Gen Z consumers will wait until an item goes on sale to buy it, and 60% of Gen Z buyers said the price of a product was the number one factor they consider when making purchasing decisions.

These are two areas e.l.f. cosmetics can deliver on. Since its founding, e.l.f. has been cruelty-free and continues to center this point in its messaging. Compared to other beauty brands, e.l.f. continues to be among the most affordable options.
Bring on the dupes
Capitalizing on its reputation as an affordable brand, e.l.f. began introducing more budget-friendly alternatives to viral beauty products, also known as dupes. 
Some of e.l.f.’s dupes that have gone viral on social media include:

Halo Glow Liquid Filter ($14): a popular dupe for Charlotte Tilbury’s Flawless Filter ($49)
Power Grip Primer ($10): a makeup primer that has drawn comparisons to the Hydro Grip Primer by Milk Makeup ($38)
Hydrating Camo Concealer ($7): a concealer product that users have compared to Tarte’s Shape Tape ($31)
Halo Glow Beauty Wands ($9): blush, highlighter, and contour sticks that are reminiscent of Charlotte Tilbury’s Beauty Light Wands ($42)
Brow Lift ($6): an eyebrow gel that’s considered a dupe of the Brow Freeze product by Anastasia Beverly Hills ($23)
Whoa Glow ($14): a tinted facial sunscreen that is similar to Supergoop’s popular Glow Screen product ($38)

From the packaging to the formulations, it’s clear that e.l.f. is hoping to capture budget-conscious customers who are looking for affordable alternatives to these higher-end products. When these customers share their findings, it often results in user-generated content that has high reach and engagement potential.

@katiehub.org elf, KEEP DOING WHAT YOURE DOING. IM HERE FOR IT!!
#fyp
#dupe
#makeup
#charlottetilbury
#elfcosmetics
♬ Awkward Silence – The Elevator Music Jazz Trio

In addition to creating dupes of popular high-end products, e.l.f. has also launched a series of high-profile collaborations designed to catch the attention of Gen Z including:

A December 2022 holiday-themed campaign starring singer Meghan Trainor in collaboration with The Weather Channel.
A 2023 denim-themed collection in partnership with American Eagle Outfitters (which is also a popular brand among Gen Z shoppers).

How effective was e.l.f.’s pivot to focus on Gen Z?
Based on the information available, these tactics have certainly been effective. According to Piper Sandler’s spring 2023 survey, e.l.f. is the generation’s top cosmetics brand, and this finding is reflected in the sales numbers.
E.l.f. reported a 49% increase in sales from 2021 to 2022. Furthermore, e.l.f.’s growth outpaced the overall growth of the cosmetics industry. In 2021, the cosmetics industry saw an 8% year-over-year increase, while e.l.f. grew by 36% and the momentum is expected to continue. Earlier this year, e.l.f. raised its 2023 outlook by nearly $100 million.
That’s a lot of concealer.
Elsewhere in Marketing
The latest marketing news and strategy insights.
Google announces plans to include conversational AI elements in its search results.
Gone sour: makeup company Tarte is making headlines again for its latest influencer trip.
Microsoft introduced a new API that would allow companies to run ads in AI chat experiences.
Amazon recently launched Inspire, its TikTok-inspired shopping platform.