Brands also need to strongly consider the social media space when creating content for conversion. Hair care company Bask & Lather, which went viral for an Instagram post after launching in December 2020. Shaina Rainford, founder and CEO of Bask & Lather, shared that while the digital-first brand uses storytelling and social proof in its content, one challenge was moving from Instagram to TikTok, given TikTok’s restrictions on product claims.
“We had to find different ways to be inspiring, to tell the brand story,” shared Rainford. “We were able to replicate that in a different way on TikTok,” a platform where you only have a few seconds to make an impact. Bask & Lather invests heavily in brand content and relies on its 400,000 TikTok affiliates to show its customers solutions to problems they sometimes didn’t realize they had.
Offer solutions and think full funnel
To get consumers to take action, offering a solution is key. “It’s easy to just hand somebody a product. But what does it do for you? How does it help you?” asked Jonathan Adashek, SVP, marketing and communications at IBM. The company ran a small test last year, going deeper into the product level to see the results. “And it totally missed, because we weren’t giving that solution to people,” he explained.
Part of this movement to help consumers buy earlier in the funnel is to break down the artificial silos. Many organizations keep departments separate, said Alan Moss, VP, global advertising sales at Amazon Ads.
“Success really comes when you think full funnel, when you think holistically about how you orchestrate your communications, you execute, measure, and optimize around it. The folks winning in the marketplace are thinking full funnel,” said Moss. “They’re getting a brand lift from their advertising, and they’re also able to pay for that by seeing actual transactions from it. Why wouldn’t you do that?”
