Today in Digital Marketing - If TikTok Can’t Figure Out Shopping, Are We All Doomed?

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Tuesday, April 11th. Today, the press room for a new generation, a leading email marketing platform goes AI, TikTok struggles to get shopping off the ground, and why are people's private Twitter posts leaking out publicly? I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead. Today Digital Marketing. It is one of the most famous rooms in the world, or at least one of the most seen, the press briefing room at the White House. The room itself isn't at all what it looks like on TV. In reality, it's small, stuffy, tucked away at the back of the complex. But soon the White House may have a brand new briefing room.

Starting point is 00:00:40 Only this one isn't for the president and his spokespeople. It's for a much more important group to the Democrats, social media influencers. U.S. President Joe Biden is set to enlist an army of social media influencers to boost his campaign for reelection among young voters and potentially counter President Trump's following if he runs for the GOP next year. The campaign aims to target influencers who are not already following the White House or the Democratic Party and those who avoid mainstream media altogether. And Axios is reporting several White House staffers are spearheading the search for prominent social media figures to reach young and suburban voters in an influencer-only briefing room.

Starting point is 00:01:24 Axios noted that it's a move to give influencers more access to the president as he seeks the Democratic Party's nomination for re-election, and a sign that the traditional press briefing room would no longer be the administration's only messaging center. The email marketing platform MailChimp has hopped on the generative AI bandwagon. The company this week launching a new feature called Email Content Generator, which uses OpenAI's GPT tech to generate marketing copy. The tool can suggest copy based on the industry, the campaign's purpose, and samples of your past marketing materials to figure out your tone of voice. Like ChatGPT, marketers can also provide detailed prompts to the AI system. If users aren't satisfied with what the AI generates,

Starting point is 00:02:13 they can ask it to rewrite messages or even just edit the copy themselves. Users, of course, are also encouraged to review the copy for accuracy and appropriateness. Email Content Generator is currently available to select beta users in the U.S. Subscribe to MailChimp's standard and premium plans. TikTok shopping is struggling to gain momentum. Back in November, the company invited hundreds of U.S. merchants to join its shopping service. But the information reported yesterday that as of last month, fewer than 100 of them were using it. Although the U.S. version of TikTok Shop is still in testing, it is live and accessible to any user looking to make a purchase. Merchants

Starting point is 00:02:56 can also set up their own storefronts on a public landing page. So why isn't it gaining any traction? The report points out that TikTok's slow start in e-commerce can be attributed to several factors. First, of course, the lingering threat of a ban in the U.S. has made some sellers reluctant to get involved. TikTok has also banned foreign merchants from selling on its shopping platform in the U.S., cutting off potential businesses since some competitors, like Amazon and Walmart, allow non-U.S. sellers. While other sellers are hesitant to use the platform's new shopping features because they want to branch out into retail stores rather than an online platform that pushes laborious live shopping streams. Finally, other social media platforms have also struggled to successfully implement commerce features. Instagram even recently removed its shop tab entirely. Meta changed

Starting point is 00:03:46 its direction on its commerce plans due to disappointing sales. As a result, brands have become hesitant to invest in social selling apps. Can membership-based free shipping answer retailers' prayers? Shipping fees are the top reason why half of online shoppers abandon their carts, resulting in an annual revenue loss of about $18 billion for e-commerce brands. To tackle this issue, more retailers are offering membership-based free shipping. Under this model, customers pay an upfront membership fee for unlimited free shipping, similar to the Amazon Prime model. A recent study in the Journal of Marketing examined the efficacy of membership-based free shipping

Starting point is 00:04:30 to see if it's the cure for e-commerce's revenue loss woes. The study found that while members may not initially increase purchases, they do over time. At first, customers may take advantage of the free shipping perks by breaking down larger orders into smaller ones without increasing their total spending. As a result, retailers may not immediately gain revenue due to increased shipping costs. But over time, the free shipping benefit builds a switching barrier that encourages customers to increase spend and make more frequent purchases with larger order sizes. The model also changes consumers' purchasing behavior by broadening product categories and increasing impulse purchases. The study found that the model is an effective marketing tool for increasing customer retention, particularly for those who like to purchase from diverse product categories. But the report noted that profitability varies across customer segments.

Starting point is 00:05:28 The study found that light buyers contribute the highest percentage change of revenue after enrollment, while heavy buyers tend to split large orders into smaller ones, resulting in a reduced profit margin. Do you have business insurance? profit margin. and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Twitter Circles is the latest feature

Starting point is 00:06:11 to fall victim to glitches as several users are reporting their supposedly private content is now visible to everyone on the platform. Twitter Circles lets brands and users choose who can see and engage with their content on a

Starting point is 00:06:25 tweet-by-tweet basis by adding select users to an exclusive circle. Some companies use this for marketing, sharing special coupon codes or sales alerts with a specific group of people. Some used it to share semi-confidential information with employees. But for the last week or so, users not in those circles have been able to view and interact with these tweets. One software engineer reported he was able to get a friend not in his circle to like a tweet and that even people he wasn't following had access to some of his circle tweets. He added that Twitter seemed to be failing to filter private content before offering it to users in their For You feeds. In the past, the Circle's feature has been glitchy.

Starting point is 00:07:07 A couple of months ago, we reported that some users weren't seeing the green banner that appears with a Circle's tweet, causing concern that their content might have been public. But this is the first time users report seeing posts that should be contained to their private community. In other news, Twitter appears to have removed restrictions on Russian government accounts a year after imposing them, with the accounts of Vladimir Putin and the Russian embassy now appearing in search results, timelines, and recommendations.

Starting point is 00:07:41 With reports of platform glitches and Musk reinstating the Kremlin account, should you advertise on Twitter this year? Despite Amazon and Apple reportedly spending again on the platform, several big agencies have yet to advise their clients to end their pause. As advertisers continue to reduce spend, a new report from Insider Intelligence today expects worldwide Twitter ad revenues to plummet by nearly 30% in 2023. As a result, Twitter's ad business is projected to shrink to its 2019 size.

Starting point is 00:08:13 Consumer attitudes toward marketing on Twitter are also mixed. A recent Gartner survey found that more than half of U.S. adults said brands should stop or reduce advertising on the platform. The report notes that many brand advertisers are not likely to return to their pre-Musk spending levels this year. That said, Twitter has never been a critical component of most ad strategies, and the platform's content moderation and ad performance issues existed well before Elon Musk's takeover. But as budgets remain tight,

Starting point is 00:08:43 it seems many people believe there's little reason for brands to resume spending on the platform. And finally, Meta continues to push messaging. This time, it's updating the process for sharing a status update from WhatsApp to Facebook Stories. Although WhatsApp users can share a status update to Facebook, the current method requires manual sharing. With the new feature under development, certain status updates will automatically be shared when the option is enabled. Boy, do I feel stupid. All this week, my wife and I have been smelling this really sweet candy-like smell at the front of our desk where our gas meter is. So I figured it doesn't smell like gas, but I better double check.

Starting point is 00:09:27 It smells like candy. So the gas guy came today. Hello, how are you? The gas thing is out at the front of the house. And he poked and prodded and did all sorts of gas guy things. There was no gas leak. It never really smelled like gas. It smelled like cherry Kool-Aid or something.

Starting point is 00:09:39 It was really strong. And we checked the two vents, our dryer vent and our tenant's dryer vent. It wasn't coming out of that. The gas guy pointed out, actually, you have three vents on the outside of your house. And it's not like the third vent is smaller. It's bigger than the dryer vents. In fact, you have to walk by it to get to the two dryer vents. Somehow, neither my wife nor I even noticed this thing.

Starting point is 00:10:03 But the smell is right. It's definitely where the smell is coming from. But we're still not sure what the source of this vent is. It's definitely not the dryers. They have, like, dryer vent smell. You know, the fabric softener stuff. So we don't know. Is it possible we thought that it's the smell of the bathroom of our tenants?

Starting point is 00:10:20 Like, it's probably that fan that runs all the time, the dehumidifier. Do you know the fan I'm talking about? Anyway, I made my wife go stick her nose into it as well. So get under here and... Yeah, that's the humidifier. That can't be the dryer. It does not make logical sense that

Starting point is 00:10:37 they're drying all day, all the time. And when you Google sweet smell outside house, you get all sorts of scary things from dead animals to mold. Anyway, we've mostly figured it out. Points for adulting, I guess. I'm Todd Mappin. Thanks for listening.

Starting point is 00:10:53 See you tomorrow. When I see the trees, the leaves are even greener. The flowers seem to smell a little sweeter now. Each day is radiant and new. Life's a little brighter with you. Life's a little brighter with you.

Today in Digital Marketing - If TikTok Can’t Figure Out Shopping, Are We All Doomed?

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