Instagram is turning into an affiliate network
Instagram wants to turn influencers into affiliate marketers.
The company has announced that creators will soon be able to tag products in their posts and earn commission when people buy. This will all take place within the Instagram app.
Starting small: For the time being, Instagram will test this with a small group of US-based creators before expanding to more people and businesses.
Why should you care: If you use influencer marketing, this can completely change the negotiation dynamics. Conversions could shift from “hey, we’ll give you $X if you promote our product” to “we have a proven X percent conversion rate on our product, give it a shot.”
This is great news if you’re a performance-driven marketer.
E-COMMERCE
Alibaba wants you to easily add livestream shopping to your website or app
Alibaba Cloud is a small fish in a large pond when compared to Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure. However, they’ve recently attempted to gain market share by releasing features that are great for marketers.
One of the new features announced today is the ability to add a livestream shopping experience to your website or app.
Why use something like this: Flexibility. Yes, you could use Instagram to stream your live event, just as you could create a Facebook page instead of a website. But the moment you want to add something more advanced, you’re out of luck.
Using cloud providers to add features to your e-commerce website is like building a website instead of just creating a Facebook page. You give up convenience but gain power. Plus, you are not reliant on a single platform.
The Crew’s Take: We wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon, Microsoft, or Google quickly follow suit and announce a variety of e-commerce livestream offers soon.
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FROM THE CREW
Extra! Extra! Hear all about it!
That’s right: We’ll be back on Clubhouse this Thursday to chat about the biggest marketing news from the week.
Just like last time, the legendary Soumeya Benghanem will be joining us. We’d love to see you there: Here’s the link to save.
We’ll break down the best news from the week and explain why it’s important for marketers. And if you’re not on Clubhouse yet, no worries: We’ve got invites. Just shoot us a reply to this email and we’ll get an invite your way.
7 subject line formats to steal for your emails
Let’s start this post with a not-surprising-at-all fact: The more people open your emails, the more sales you get.
And one of the important variables of the equation is subject lines. These can be sometimes tricky to create. Because you want to generate as much curiosity and interest as possible. But at the same time, you don’t want to be clickbaity.
For new ideas, Chase Dimond shared 7 subject line formats on Twitter you can use:
1) Lists: BuzzFeed has made millions of dollars using listicles. However, adding a number to a headline won’t cut it. If you check the BuzzFeed website, you’ll see that it’s not just about a list. They also expand on it, touching an emotional angle.
“7 marketing tools you need”, for instance, isn’t the best subject line. But “7 marketing tools that will make you feel like you hired a team of 7 VAs” will probably get more opens.
2) Urgency: If you’re sending a sequence promoting a product, one of the emails might leverage urgency in the subject line. This might move the needle of the lazy prospects. But don’t abuse it, and make sure the urgency is real.
3) Curiosity: Subject lines that open loops in the mind of the reader and push them to read the whole message can make for big sales! Here’s one of the examples that Chase gives: “We have a special offer for you”.
4) Questions: Our brains are hard-wired to respond to questions. “Are you prepared for the next iOS14?”
5) Discount and offers: When your audience is already aware of your products and they just need a final push, being straightforward and including an offer in the subject line will get opens. For better results, combine this with urgency.
6) Personalized: Every now and then, you can use the name of the recipient in the subject line. However, do not abuse this practice.
7) Stories: Share a transformational story with your audience. Some examples are:
- Rags to riches
- A great discovery
- How someone achieved something epic
For the full Twitter thread from Chase, head here.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
ADVERTISING: Apple is giving more power to advertisers. Instead of relying on networks like Facebook and Google to receive aggregated data, advertisers can now get that data directly.
INSTAGRAM: The social network wants you to know how its organic ranking algorithm works.
INTERNET: Reddit, Pinterest, Twitch and many more sites were down yesterday. The reason: A hosting provider they all use.
GOOGLE: The search engine is testing showing “trending searches” for certain e-commerce keywords.
EMAIL: It looks like Apple Mail will report 100% open rates if users enable Apple’s “Mail Privacy Protection” feature.
E-COMMERCE: Shoppers can’t wait to get outside of the house and shop, according to a new YouGov report.
SEO: Google made it clear: If you want to reverse your manual link penalty, disavowing links may not be enough. You’ve got to manually remove those links too.
BRAIN TEASER
What’s red and smells like blue paint?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Google can’t pass its own page speed test
You know someone’s setting a high standard when they can’t pass it themselves.
That’s the case with Google, where most of its sites are failing the Core Web Vitals test.
Where are they failing: Mostly in cumulative layout shift and contentful paint. If you’re unfamiliar, cumulative layout shift is measuring whether a website can shift around while it’s loading.
Who’s failing: YouTube, Google Trends, Google Translate, Google Flights, Store, Cloud…
Hey Google, if you can’t pass your own tests, cut us some slack if we can’t do it, either.