Pouring up a pint of practicality

How good is it when a company constantly bombards you with marketing material and promotions? Retargeting offers, discounts, flash sales… Just for me? Nah. I’m just not that into it. At least take me out for dinner first.

This week I will delve into the concept of ‘maven-ism’ and how companies utilise this a ‘soft-sell’ approach by offering practical value through social media and email.

So first things first… What is a market maven?

According to an article titled ‘The Market Maven: A Diffuser of Marketplace Information’, a market maven is defined as a someone who holds general marketplace knowledge and expertise. They are typically an individual who has a vast amount of information on a range of products, places and other facets, rather than specific product-related expertise (like opinion leaders). The characteristics and behaviours of a typical market maven demonstrate that they often gather and share valuable information that may be useful to the shopping community or provide the basis for conversations. Malcolm Gladwell adds to this in his book titled ‘Tipping Point’, by suggesting that mavens can start “word-of-mouth epidemics” through their wealth of expert knowledge and ability to communicate.

So we know that market mavens can positively impact their community through obtaining and distributing valuable information, but what if companies acted in the same manner?

In ‘An investigation of how the Australian brewing industry influence consumers on Twitter’, researchers studied and compared the degree and influence of Australian craft and multinational breweries when using a variety of variables. Their findings suggested that acting like a market maven, by sharing valuable and relevant information, bodes positively for a company interacting with its followers on social media (in their case; twitter). The findings also suggested that organisations should speak the ‘native platform language’ and employ a soft-sell strategy in order to influence audiences to retweet.

These articles got me thinking… What companies do I follow or subscribe to and what techniques do they utilise to engage my attention?

As I have recently subscribed to the e-commerce development platform Shopify, let’s analyse their approach…

Shopify utilises a subscription business model (if you don’t know the benefits of using a subscription model check out last week’s blog post) and hence Shopify’s overriding goal is to increase the amount of people using their platform to build online stores. Similar to how a car dealer uses a ‘test drive’ as a primary tool to convert leads or the weird chilli man at the markets gives out free samples, Shopify encourages its prospective customers to engage in a 14-day free trial. But instead of pushing this directly, Shopify promotes useful content that relates to the functions, techniques, or opportunities of running an online business.

This strategy can be classified as a ‘soft-sell’ approach; as they generally don’t push the platform itself as being superior in comparison to its competitors, but rather offer advice and content on the e-commerce industry as a whole. They don’t push product-specific content, they push industry-specific. This fits in with our definition of being a market maven.

On Facebook, a quick scroll through Shopify’s news feed reveals the type of content they share as well as its engagement rate.

 

 

Out of Shopify’s most recent 30 posts on their Facebook page, 18 posts involved learnable content; including tutorials, marketing and conversion advice, trending product areas, analytical measurement and other ‘how-to’ guides. According to Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, there are six STEPPS involved in generating more buzz around messages. Considering Berger’s six STEPPS, this type of content promotion can be classified as ‘practical value’, as it provides relevant information that users will value. This makes up the majority of Shopify’s content creation and offers an integral insight into the way they acquire engagement and exposure. Their Facebook strategy seems clear: Give a bucket load of free stuff (in this case, knowledge). If followers receive consistent, relevant and actionable content, they will be much more likely to become loyal supporters of Shopify and continue (or begin) their subscription.

Another of Berger’s six STEPPS is the use of ‘Stories’, which Shopify used 8 times out of the 30 most recent posts. From my analysis of the brand’s Facebook page, Shopify often promote stories from successful or inspiring individuals or small businesses who have turned their passion into a profitable online store. Exciting and inspirational stories allow Shopify to shine the spotlight onto their successful users, indirectly promoting the opportunity the platform provides. Not bad ey?

 

 

The same goes for Shopify’s email campaigns, with the majority of emails I receive being something related to providing relevant advice or tips in the e-commerce realm. Some examples of emails I have received over the past few weeks include:

• Make Your Pins Count: 7 Ways to Drive Sales and Traffic with Pinterest
• 7 Effective E-commerce Product Pages: How to Turn Visitors into Customers
• “Worked with an influencer, here’s how it went…”
• Create logos in a matter of minutes with…
• Here’s 50 minutes of free drop-shipping training
• Referral Marketing 101: 7 Tactics to Launch Your Own Referral Campaign
• [Free Guides]: Facebook marketing, finding a product & more

I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m a bit of a rookie in the e-commerce industry, or whether I just hate people trying to sell me anything I don’t actively search for, but this strategy resonates with me. Shopify is taking it old school; give as much value as possible, earn the trust of your followers, then do the deal.

Thanks for reading crew! Let me know what type of content you respond to most. Do you think more companies should act like market mavens and employ a more the ‘soft-sell’ approach?