by John Larkin
John runs the blog here at eCommerceLift and is a verified Shopify Expert. Interested in an initial growth consultation? Click here
8 years ago
3 Stores That Enable Their Customers To Be Brand Ambassadors
We are at a stage in eCommerce where customers are more involved than ever. With social media growing and communication becoming instantaneous with customers, we are now in a new marketing era of brands and consumers being interactive with each other. These interactions are also evolving with eCommerce stores relinquishing control of some aspects of their store and allowing their customers to take over.
One of the most evident signs of customers being in control of a brand is in regards to marketing. This has become a popular marketing strategy across the web as merchants are seeing that there is immense power in their customer’s voice. But how do brands get their customers marketing for them? It is in fact very easy. It’s all just about encouraging them.
We have selected 3 eCommerce stores that are enabling their customers to do their marketing for them to show you how it’s done.
One of the most evident signs of customers being in control of a brand is in regards to marketing. This has become a popular marketing strategy across the web as merchants are seeing that there is immense power in their customer’s voice. But how do brands get their customers marketing for them? It is in fact very easy. It’s all just about encouraging them.
We have selected 3 eCommerce stores that are enabling their customers to do their marketing for them to show you how it’s done.
21 Drops
21 Drops are an eCommerce store that aim to help people. They sell essential oils that help people with different ailments and stresses. The 21 oils that they sell are all natural, with each oil assisting a different problem such as No. 8 Pain Relief, No. 11 De-stress and No. 18 Sleep. Their recipes are taking from thousands of years of Chinese and Greek medicine and have been proven to work as 21 Drops state:
“these blends work in synergy to uniquely treat your particular concern or aspiration and deliver every day solutions for a healthier mind and body.”
So how does 21 Drops get the message out there about their products? They use their customers. The brand use their customers as a means to promote the store by encouraging customer reviews and testimonials. On their website they have an opportunity for customers to “Share Your Story” where customers write a review of how an oil helped them. Each product has glowing reviews from people who have bought and experienced the product making it an enticing draw for customers wondering if the product actually works.
21 Drops are an eCommerce store that aim to help people. They sell essential oils that help people with different ailments and stresses. The 21 oils that they sell are all natural, with each oil assisting a different problem such as No. 8 Pain Relief, No. 11 De-stress and No. 18 Sleep. Their recipes are taking from thousands of years of Chinese and Greek medicine and have been proven to work as 21 Drops state:
“these blends work in synergy to uniquely treat your particular concern or aspiration and deliver every day solutions for a healthier mind and body.”
So how does 21 Drops get the message out there about their products? They use their customers. The brand use their customers as a means to promote the store by encouraging customer reviews and testimonials. On their website they have an opportunity for customers to “Share Your Story” where customers write a review of how an oil helped them. Each product has glowing reviews from people who have bought and experienced the product making it an enticing draw for customers wondering if the product actually works.
21 Drops also go a step further by putting customer’s stories on YouTube. Satisfied customers talk about their experience with their products and regale viewers with a tale of how the brand helped them with their particular issue. It’s clever and effective as consumers trust the opinions of others consumers so inserting reviews in on the brands site and social media is a great way to get customer believing these products are right for them.
Black Milk Clothing 
A brand that has fully embraced the idea of letting customers be advocates for their brand is the eCommerce store Black Milk Clothing. This quirky fashion brand has built an unbelievable and enviable brand following by relying on its customers to be its marketers. Their following spread the word about their brand, build up anticipation for collections and show off the brands apparel, making it one of the best case studies for allowing your customers to market for you.
Black Milk Clothing have predominantly used Instagram and Facebook to get their audience marketing for them and it has had great success. They currently have over 920,000 followers on Instagram and over 650,000 on Facebook with each having nonstop interactions with between the brand and its customers.
They encourage their customers, which they affectionately nickname "Sharkies", on social media as well as on their website to share images of them wearing their clothes. Each clothing item has its own hashtag which their audiences uses to get their images noticed by Black Milk Clothing and have their images potentially placed on the companies social media or website.
A brand that has fully embraced the idea of letting customers be advocates for their brand is the eCommerce store Black Milk Clothing. This quirky fashion brand has built an unbelievable and enviable brand following by relying on its customers to be its marketers. Their following spread the word about their brand, build up anticipation for collections and show off the brands apparel, making it one of the best case studies for allowing your customers to market for you.
Black Milk Clothing have predominantly used Instagram and Facebook to get their audience marketing for them and it has had great success. They currently have over 920,000 followers on Instagram and over 650,000 on Facebook with each having nonstop interactions with between the brand and its customers.
They encourage their customers, which they affectionately nickname "Sharkies", on social media as well as on their website to share images of them wearing their clothes. Each clothing item has its own hashtag which their audiences uses to get their images noticed by Black Milk Clothing and have their images potentially placed on the companies social media or website.
If we take the example of the brands Beetle Juice Leggings which they applied the hashtag #beetlejuiceleggings, you can see the hundreds of images of women wearing these leggings on this product page on the brands website. These hundreds of images for just one product are spread all over social media, shared over and over and invaluable marketing for the brand.
Qalo Ring
Qalo Ring are a brand born out of what they say was “pure frustration”. Finding normal metal wedding rings not conducive with the founder’s lifestyle, they decided to do something about it. They designed and made a ring that was made out of rubber so that husbands and wives could exercise, be athletic and adventurous without having to take off their rings.
Qalo Ring are a brand born out of what they say was “pure frustration”. Finding normal metal wedding rings not conducive with the founder’s lifestyle, they decided to do something about it. They designed and made a ring that was made out of rubber so that husbands and wives could exercise, be athletic and adventurous without having to take off their rings.
These rings proved to be remarkably popular with customers as they have received an outpouring of approval from customers. Seeing the popularity and amazing reactions from the fans, Qalo have set up a brand community that promotes the brand. This community posts images on social media with the #qalo hashtag that talk about how great the product is. On Qalo’s website they have complied all of these customer reviews and images that have been posted on social media and are using this to get the word out further that their product is well liked. It acts a way to reassure new customers that they will like their product while also selling the brand. It is clever marketing.
Conclusion
Customers trust other customers reviews and opinions most so why not utilize this. Whether it be through social media or reviews get your customers talking about how great your brand s and hopefully others will follow.
Customers trust other customers reviews and opinions most so why not utilize this. Whether it be through social media or reviews get your customers talking about how great your brand s and hopefully others will follow.
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