With the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic leading to canceled plans & lots of time at home, digital attention has never been higher. One study showed that Americans are spending as much as 4 hours a day scrolling online.

In addition, the pain points & needs of all businesses’ ideal customers have changed. The people businesses are selling to now are not the same people they were marketing to in February 2020.

This leaves online stores with a need to develop an ecommerce digital strategy that speaks to how their product or service uniquely fits customers’ needs & provides them with solutions to problems…

…not to mention getting a little creative to do it.

One company that made engaging content & relevant offers a significant part of their Customer Value Journey during these challenging times is Kitsch, a hair & beauty boutique.

Founded in 2010, CEO Cassandra Thurwell started the company with nothing but 2 maxed out credit cards & tupperware containers full of homemade jewelry & hair ties. 10 years later, the business has grown into a multi-million dollar brand that spreads a message of positivity & female empowerment.

The business is known primarily for selling hair accessories like hair ties, scrunchies, clips & absorbent hair towels to wear after showers. However, during the summer of 2020, it became known for a brand new product: colorful cotton face masks.

And in doing so, they reached customers using a whole new strategy that spoke to a real customer need.

The Customer Value Journey & Kitsch’s Ecommerce Digital Strategy

The introduction of face masks as part of Kitsch’s lineup makes for a timely tripwire offer—a super low dollar offer that exists for the purpose of turning leads into customers.

The key to tripwire offers is that they can’t be “cheap”—they have to provide real value that gives customers a low-risk entry point to their products.

For $12.00, buyers receive 3 cotton face masks in assorted colors. However, the masks themselves are comfortable, fit well & deliver more than just a $4 value per mask.

Introducing the Offer

The Awareness stage of the Value Journey—where customers learn your business exists—occurs for Kitsch through a Facebook ad promoting the masks.

Kitsch uses a 2 frame video ad to grab viewers’ attention. The first part shows a video of a model putting on the mask, demonstrating how it looks & fits. They also superimpose a quote from a customer, creating both social proof & authority by letting customers see it in action. 

The video then fades to an image of the 3 for $12 offer.

In general, video ads are effective because they stand out more than static images. This particular ad gives a creative demonstration of the product by not just creating awareness, but advancing customers into the engagement stage as well.

Clicking the ad then takes customers to the product page, where a pop-up box gives them the chance to opt in for a 10% off coupon that is emailed to them. They can then use the coupon to purchase the masks.

The Value Journey advances customers through the first 4 stages of the Value Journey relatively quickly, which means they generate more subscribers & customers quickly as well.

The company is providing customers with something they need, advertising it though an attractive ad & offering a discount on a product that is already a great offer.

Building Excitement & Making More Sales

Once you place an order, Kitsch doesn’t stop there. You get not only a confirmation email, but a welcome email that tells you a little about Kitsch’s values & showcases additional products you might be interested in.

The company doesn’t just sell products—it gets customers on board with its mission of empowerment, & in the case of the mask offer, it does this by providing customers with something they need.

Now that customers have made the tripwire mask purchase, they are introduced to the core offer—Kitsch’s hair products. Kitsch uses email marketing to make customers aware of offers through weekly messages containing new discounts, offers & promotions of their hair products.

The genius of this strategy is that by tapping into a real need—face masks that are attractive, comfortable & fit well—they can create an affordable offer that converts customers, creates interest & enthusiasm & brings them back to buy the core offer.

Engaging Social Media Posts

Once customers like Kitsch’s social media page, they encounter videos of their hair products being used & incredible before & after results. But that isn’t all. The company continues to speak to their customers’ current pain points with humorous, relatable posts.

The objective is of course to bring the mask tripwire customers to the point of buying hair products. But Kitsch’s social media also builds goodwill by bringing emotional appeal & humor to customers’ news feeds.

What To Learn From This Ecommerce Digital Strategy

Kitsch’s Customer Value Journey uses a unique ecommerce digital strategy to create new customers that is timely, fun & representative of the value the company’s products bring. Here are your takeaways for creating an ecommerce digital strategy of your own to boost sales & bring more people to your online store.

Develop a Relevant Tripwire Offer

Find a real need related to your business that your ideal customers might have, & then meet it with an affordable entry-level offer.

While your tripwire might directly connect with your services, it also can be only partially related. For example, during the COVID-19 shutdown in March, one Ohio restaurant sold its extra toilet paper & cleaning products that were not being used.

This example obviously relates to a brick & mortar business rather than ecommerce digital strategy, but it illustrates a principle of using a product you don’t typically promote or that you don’t even always sell as a possible solution.

Think about what your target demographic is facing right now & how your tripwire offer might help to solve a problem.

Use Facebook Ads & Automated Email

Regardless of what situations your customers are facing, Facebook ads & email marketing are must-haves for relating to customers through an ecommerce digital strategy.

Getting started with Facebook ads is simple & costs less than the amount of your daily cup of coffee. It lets you pinpoint your specific audience by demographic, region, interests & more. (If you want to get started, but aren’t sure how, we even have a complimentary Facebook ads evaluation where we’ll walk you through it!)

The ads themselves must be attractive & engaging, with images or videos that will stop viewers from scrolling & compel them to pay attention to your message. Find a way to promote your business through videos that show what you do in action.

Be Authentic On Social Media

Don’t just use Facebook to promote products—post content that will make viewers laugh, comment, like & share. Content that inspires conversations is always the most helpful because it builds an audience, providing social proof as people interact with your posts.

Content like this will ultimately make viewers more receptive to learning more about your products, so when you share images of products, reviews or other promotional materials, they’ll be even more likely to pay attention.

Want some help getting started with an ecommerce digital strategy? Your website is a great place to start. Schedule a Smarter Website Evaluation & learn how your online store’s website is the gateway to getting more customers & making more sales. Just click the link to grab some time on our calendar!