The essence of a thriving e-commerce brand is “a human persona which people feel anytime they interact with that brand,” Kunle Campbell, author of E-Commerce Growth Strategy and co-founder of Conscious Commerce, told attendees at the INMA Media Subscriptions Summit in Amsterdam on Thursday.

With years of experience working with “better-for-you” digital-native brands, Campbell shared seven key principles for selling subscriptions and products in this new media landscape: “Fast-growing consumer brands that find traction in e-commerce follow some or all of these seven principles.”

1. Build an off-line audience and community

Brands need to ensure online optimisation for users but “making sure that the conversion is happening off-platform with human connection” through in-person events is also key, Campbell said:

“Over the past 10 years, what we’ve noticed is that you build an audience into a community, and then they become consumers... . We need to bring people together.”

Giving the audience a space to belong builds loyalty, enables user-generated content, yields product discussions and organic product discovery. Of course, Campbell said, “you have to be a content engine,” but this content must create value by telling a story and inspiring consumers. A product that creates habits also leads to customer loyalty and advocacy.

An educational and empowering marketing strategy will further enable them to make choices for their benefit that they will likely reciprocate by engaging with your brand. “Buying shouldn’t feel like a hard sell,” Campell said, as customers should be nurtured with content that makes purchasing feel like a natural next step.

2. Understand online audience behaviour

The second lesson is to “use on-site behaviour to drive the experience and personalisation of e-commerce sites,” Campbell said.

Successful e-commerce Web sites sort visitors to their Web site into three buckets: non-customers, customers-to-be, and existing customers. These buckets can be tracked and the content that each bucket sees personalised to their different experiences of engaging with the brand.

Campbell suggested the example of a personalisation quiz to match products to the specific needs and desires of customers. This can nudge product browsers into buyers. To track the success of one-off products, Campbell suggested implementing a Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value (RFM) dashboard, which is a “report card” for gauging customer loyalty.

3. Leverage social proof

People are creatures of habit and are influenced by other people. Enter: The Social Media Influencer.

These key people in the online world cause a trickle down effect to smaller influencers and digital communities. Their social media shout-outs are proven to drive sales.

A recent study from Pew Research Center shows up to 37% of adults under 30 years old get their news from influencers. And of these influencers, 77% are not affiliated with a news organisation or trained as journalists.

E-commerce Web sites now need a well-curated circle of influencers to act as representatives of the brand and drive hype with products, according to Campbell. He recommends brands partner with niche influencers with high engagement rates and trust with their followers as a way to generate organic demand through word of mouth. Marketers can work on visual and worded hooks that influencers can use to retain attention online.

4. Invest in social selling

Following this is the core idea that “people buy from people.” Media organisations should focus on humanising their brand and showing audiences who is behind the organisation, Campbell said.

This humanisation adds authenticity to the brand and helps create a genuine connection between the product and audience with sales naturally coming as a result.

Journalists need to be empowered to have their own platforms, too. But for this to work, we have to reimagine the relationship between journalists and organisations and ensure there is trust there.

Founder-led brands are trending, in part due to the personalised business model. For example, Grace Beverly’s fitness empire has seen huge success through generating pre-launch anticipation on social media, which secures demand before the official product release.

5. Clarify the ideal customer profile

Media is facing a shift in the demographics of subscribers and the way people are consuming news. But “all successful brands have absolute clarity on who their ideal customers are,” Campbell said.

“You can’t market to everybody. You need to nail your ICP, look at all aspects of their lives, and find a way to connect.”

In particular, the way Gen Z is consuming media has changed and the media industry has to adapt. He advises media companies to ask themselves: “Where is our ideal customer spending their time? Once you know that, be there.”

A culture-first strategy which speaks directly to the experiences of your customers makes for a more relatable brand.

6. Remember the importance of influence and authority

Using authoritative people to leverage credibility for your brand is also key to success, Campbell said.

This can involve endorsements from scientists, health experts, or cultural heavyweights such as podcast stars who can funnel audiences into customers. Customer codes can be used to track customers further.

7. Optimise for subscriptions

With subscription-based product sales, Campbell advised the entire user experience be tailored toward subscriptions.

The high-water mark for this strategy is Billie — a low-cost, high quality razor brand with the objective of disrupting the “pink tax” which operates an easy subscription model tailored for women.

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