Happy Monday!
It’s just me (AL) today because Alexa is actually in London for this past weekend’s Taylor Swift concert! Check out how close LoudCrowd’s (and maybe the world’s) biggest Swiftie was to Taylor herself!
You could say Alexa is doing All Too Well right now!
Anyway, here’s the DTC / influencer marketing developments that you need to know:
The FTC announced new rules on deceptive influencer and AI marketing practices:
The new rules put restrictions on fake reviews, testimonials, follower counts, and content engagement stats. Read more below in Industry News
Amazon is experimenting with removing review stars and counts from its search results pages:
The hypothesis is that consumers will have an easier time combing through its massive catalog of products. Read more in Brand of the Week
The Amazon Influencer Program added a tiered reward structure to its program:
Creator Stars is Amazon’s new tiered benefits program for its social creators. Creator Stars awards points for: sales ($$$ driven) and content engagement (link clicks). Once a certain number of points is hit, the creator moves up a tier. Learn more here
Instagram is testing vertical profile grids to replace its dated square grids:
Citing that the vast majority of content being uploaded to Instagram is now vertical rather than square, the social media giant believes its profile layouts need updating
The White House hosts the Creator Economy Conference:
Despite literally being the ones to pass and sign the TikTok ban, the White House presented itself as very pro-creator.
Keep reading below to see some new LoudCrowd content from our CEO, Gary!
Cheers,
Al
Industry News
🚩 New FTC crackdown on influencer and AI marketing!
This week, the FTC unanimously voted on several new rules impacting marketers, influencers, and brands:
1. Ban on fake consumer reviews and testimonials: this includes AI-generated reviews, reviews from non-customers, or reviews that misrepresent the real experience of the customer. The goal is to remove disadvantages for fair and honest competitors.
2. Ban on exaggerating influence: like purchasing fake followers or engagement bots to misrepresent influence. Basically any influencer or creator that intentionally exaggerates their reach for commercial gain violates the new rule.
Among those two biggest developments:
- ban on buying positive & negative reviews
- ban on insider reviews
- ban on review suppression
These moves follow the FTC’s broader mission of cracking down on deceptive advertising practices that have become pretty commonplace in today’s digital commerce landscape.
Brand of the Week
Amazon is testing a version of product search results that doesn’t show star ratings or the number of reviews. The hypothesis is that consumers will have an easier time scanning its massive catalog of products.
The current product search results page on both mobile and desktop contains each item’s star rating (from 0 to 5), followed by number of reviews. In the version being tested, both of those details have been removed. Instead, consumers will need to click into the product detail page to find those details.
This move is surprising to me as reviews are a key part of how I navigate Amazon’s search results for very commoditized products (certain supplements and health & beauty products).
I typically:
- Look for products with a ton of reviews (at least 1000+)
- Of those, mentally filter for products with better reviews
- Purchase product by balancing price with review quality
As eCommerce continues to grow, especially through mobile devices, smaller retailers and brands will carefully look to Amazon for best practices when it comes to reviews. This is not Amazon’s first or last experiment with reviews. It has a history of industry-changing experiments and updates:
– One-tap ratings: Amazon made it easier for verified buyers to leave a rating without requiring a written review. This was to combat the many merchants abusing its existing rating system (in a variety of ways)
– Earlier this year Amazon dropped an AI-powered review feature that summarized customer feedback, directly on its product detail pages
Content of the Week
LoudCrowd founder and CEO, Gary Garofalo shared some key insights into influencer scale, retention, and engagement last week.
Don’t worry if you missed it last week, we’ve got you covered:
Influencer scale vs. Influencer retention, what should you prioritize?
Tip #1: You can’t achieve scale without strong influencer retention. Just like your business, if your influencer program is a leaky bucket… it will always be 2 steps forward and one step backward.
Tip #2: The cost of acquiring a micro-influencer is about 3x the cost of retaining one. Same principle applies for larger influencers and nanos. You’ll achieve more scale for your budget if you’re retaining vs. acquiring.
Tip #3: Your consumers are smart. If your influencers post about you this week, and another brand the next week… that is way less compelling than if the influencer shows loyalty.
Check out Gary’s full post and video here.
Influencer engagement techniques
Not getting enough engagement out of your creator program? Here are 3 must have tricks to drive community in your creator program:
1) Creator Group Chat. Recommend Instagram for programs <250… WhatsApp, Discord, Slack for over 250.
2) Quarterly Zoom Call. Talk about what’s new, what’s coming, and let creators share best-practices.
3) In-Person Events. Especially if your creators are clustered in a certain area. Throw a party, it’s a great content and community building opportunity.
Check out Gary’s full post and video here.
LoudCrowd Updates
LoudCrowd is constantly optimizing our brand partners’ eCommerce conversion rates, especially through our Creator Storefront product.
Over the next few weeks, you’ll see LoudCrowd’s Creator Storefronts get EVEN FASTER.
Please reach out to your dedicated client strategist or [email protected] if you have any questions
