Bob’s Weekly Reading Picks

2019.4.28 volume 16

Content

1.Telling stories through affiliate marketing
2.The Ultimate Guide to RFPs by HubSpot
3.Macro vs. Micro Influencer Deals and How to Negotiate Them
4.Push Notification Essentials from Zeropark
5.How to Get Your First Sale in 30 Days: A Marketing Checklist 
6.The Future of Shopping Is Already Happening in China
7.Britain strikes an artful compromise on Huawei and 5G

1.Telling stories through affiliate marketing

You only need to look at recent event agendas to see the breadth of topics that now take centre stage. Influencer strategy, incrementality, building performance cultures, product marketing and consumer psychology are just some of the buzzwords that drive engagement and generate ideas to reinvigorate the industry scene over the following year.

Pitching a campaign that kept the food-to-go brand at the front of mind from the moment they woke up until the time the Eurovision show started, involved email, retargeting, segmented offer alerts, Facebook advertising and, finally, a push notification 30 minutes before the start of the live TV broadcast.

2.The Ultimate Guide to RFPs by HubSpot

What is an RFP?

Companies may issue an RFP, or a request for proposal, when choosing a vendor or service provider to work with. This document outlines project specifics such as scope and price and asks potential vendors to come back with a bid for the work. Multiple bids are then compared to help determine the best choice.

RFP VS RFQ
While an RFP includes a price quote (along with several other specifics), an RFQ does not detail anything other than price.

The RFP Process

In these proposals, vendors generally include the following items:

• An action plan of how they’re going to solve the issue
• A timeline of what you can expect
• Any necessary background information
• How much they expect the entire project to cost

Why Issue a RFP?

• Option #1: Spend time finding the perfect vendor on your own.
• Option #2: Use an RFP to get potential vendors to come to you.

How to Write an RFP?

• Project Overview
• Your Company Background
• The Goals of Your Project
• Project Scope
• Target Deliverable Schedule
• Possible Roadblocks
• What You’re Looking For in Potential Vendors

RFP Tools

PandaDoc
Nusii
Loopio

RFP Template

3.Macro vs. Micro Influencer Deals and How to Negotiate Them

Crafting your influencer marketing strategy

a.Hone your brand’s message

who you are, what you’re all about, and what makes you different from the competition.

b.Decide whether macro or micro influencers are right for you

c.Identify potential influencers to partner with

To get a sense of the fit between your brand and an influencer, ask yourself these questions:

1. What is this influencer interested in or passionate about?
2. Does my brand share their interests or passions?
3. If not, does my brand relate to the influencer’s interests or passions?

Your ideal partner should have an engagement rate of at least 0.5%

d. Decide on a possible arrangement

• One-off deals
• Unofficial deal (send free products to a variety of different influencers and ask for a shout-out on social media)
• Product placement
• Creative partnership

e.How (and how much) should you pay an influencer?

1）Licensing/rights

2）Pay-per-post (a “link-in-bio” deal）
Here are some ballpark figures to help set expectations:

• Instagram: Influencers generally charge $10 per 1,000 followers for a sponsored Instagram post, but there is typically a minimum price tag of $150 per Instagram post, even for influencers with less than 50,000 followers.
• Snapchat: Snapchat campaigns are a bit different. Since follower counts aren’t made public on Snapchat, brands pay influencers based on the number of views in a 24-hour period. Rates typically begin at $500 for 1,000 – 3,000 unique views, but can go as high as $10,000 or more 50,000-plus unique views.
• YouTube: The starting price is about $20 per 1,000 subscribers. Making a video about a brand or product is much more labor-intensive than an Instagram post, and if an influencer’s audience is willing to watch an in-depth video, they’re more likely to follow through on the influencer’s recommendation. 

3）Free product as payment

Hi [name],

My name is [your name], and I am with [company name with hyperlink to site and quick overview of your brand]. We’ve followed you on [channel] for a while, and we think our brand could be a great match for you.

We’d love to send you a complimentary [product name with hyperlink to the item on your site] so you can try us out for yourself. Or, if you see something else on our site you would like to try, we’d be happy to send a sample of that instead. If you love it as much as we do, it’d be great if you could share it with your audience.

Is there a business address where we can send the complimentary sample?

Thanks,

[Your name]

4）Commission

f.Connecting with an influencer

For macro-influencers/celebrities
you need to work with their representatives, most likely their agent and their manager.

Tool: celebrity contact info databases

Hi [agent or manager name],

I am with [your company], and we’re interested in working with [influencer] on a marketing campaign. The campaign would be centered around [describe what the campaign will look like and what the influencer would do], and we think [influencer] would be a perfect fit.

We’re targeting a kick-off date of [target date] for the campaign, and I wanted to see if this opportunity is something [influencer] would be interested in. I would love to discuss this in greater detail and answer any questions you may have.

Is this campaign something [influencer name] would be interested in?

Thank you,

[your full name]

[your phone number]

[your company with link to your website]

For micro-influencers
You can just reach out to them directly without going through their representatives

g.Following up and following through

A good rule of thumb for following up is 5-7 business days after your first email

h.Executing the partnership

contract
payment(pay influencers an up-front deposit (usually 50%, but it can be negotiated), and the leftover balance is paid once the work has been completed)

4.Push Notification Essentials from Zeropark

What Are Push Notification Ads and Why Are They Effective?

Web push notification ads are short, clickable messages delivered in the form of alerts directly to the recipient’s desktop or mobile device. 

Recipients pay immediate attention to the ad they receive and since they voluntarily agreed to receive notifications, they are also pre-motivated to interact with your ads.

What Offers Work Best With Push Notifications?

Push ads operate on the CPC basis, meaning you only pay when your ad receives click. In the US for example, some premium sources have a starting bid of $0.15.

The most popular verticals for push advertising include 
sweepstakes, mobile downloads, and gaming, as well as dating and E-commerce.

5.How to Get Your First Sale in 30 Days: A Marketing Checklist for New Entrepreneurs

Before you begin

Set up Google Analytics in advance and keep a close eye on traffic as you implement each marketing tactic.

Free traffic sources

Personal Networks
Share your store on your personal Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts to announce it to your entire network.

Online Communities
Reddit,  Facebook Groups

• r/Entrepreneur
• r/ecommerce
• Shopify Entrepreneurs Facebook Group
• Grow and Sell Facebook Group
• Bright Ideas and Entrepreneurs LinkedIn Group
• Shopify Ecommerce University

Paid Advertising

• Facebook advertising ( Store owners that have a clear idea of who their ideal customers are and what they like)
• Instagram advertising (Fashion, food, fitness and any verticals with strong visuals is a must)
• Pinterest marketing (Fashion, home decor, food, artwork, designs and other verticals where visuals shine, particularly if you’re selling to a female audience)
• Google Ads (Trending products, local businesses and products/services with high search volume)

Outreach: Connecting with existing audiences

Reach out to bloggers

• Write and submit a guest post.
• Ask for product reviews.
• Pitch a news story.

Seek out strategic partnerships

• Run a contest with your product as a prize.
• Package samples of your product or exclusive discounts with complementary products (e.g. a drink mix sample with every order of your partner’s water bottles).
• Sponsor an event.
• Create a product together.

Work with influencers
Fashion and technology products. There’s also ample opportunity for lifestyle brands to promote their products in the context of lifestyle photography by working with Instagram influencers in particular.

Guerilla marketing
Anyone near a place where groups of people with similarities gather offline. It especially helps if you’re a people person with no problem putting yourself out there.

Analyze: Reflecting back to optimize

So now you can begin diagnosing the potential problems with your store by looking at your analytics dashboard as well as the feedback you’ve gotten from actively promoting your store.

6.The Future of Shopping Is Already Happening in China

Generation Z (born after 1996)
They are starting to upend China’s sprawling retail industry. They’ve been raised on mobile devices, and social media isn’t just where they spend time—it’s where they spend cash.

They’re buying goods suggested by social media influencers known as wanghong. And they’re using messaging, short videos, livestreaming, and social media apps as gateways to making those purchases.

More than $413 billion of goods will be sold through social e-commerce in China by 2022, an almost fivefold increase from $90 billion in 2017, according to researcher Frost & Sullivan.

Social commerce drew $16.94 billion in the U.S. in 2018, according to market researcher Technavio. That’s 3 percent of the $513.61 billion in online sales estimated by the U.S. Department of Commerce last year.

7.Britain strikes an artful compromise on Huawei and 5G

Huawei has, after all, become one of the most controversial firms in the world and sits at the centre of a geopolitical storm.

Huawei has annual sales of $105bn from 170 countries. It is a leading supplier of equipment for new 5G networks that will connect a vast array of devices and become deeply embedded in the economy. 

The easiest option for Britain would have been to ban Huawei from 5Gnetworks, as Australia has. But that would be wrongheaded. 1.One reason is technical. Refusing to use Huawei hardware does relatively little to eliminate the risk of cyber-attacks by hostile governments.
2.A ban would also have geopolitical costs. If an open system for global commerce is to be saved, a framework has to be built for countries to engage economically even if they are rivals.

For a calibrated policy to succeed, Britain and other countries will need to observe three principles. 
1.The first is continual monitoring for hidden back doors and bugs.
2.The second principle is to limit the scope of Huawei’s activities. 
3.The final principle is that a U-turn is always possible.