We are back with another Affiliate Marketing podcast. This week, Lee-Ann is joined by Cashblack co-founder and CEO, Matthew Addai. Cashblack is a toolbar feature that aims to connect Black-owned businesses with online customers. It’s a great tool for lots of eCommerce start-ups out there.
Find out more about the Cashblack focus and the effect of user activism on social media and affiliate marketing and eCommerce by listening to the podcast here.
Activism in social media marketing is no new idea. Users have been voting with subscriptions, followers, likes, and money for years now. Since the invention of the influencer, users have had the chance to express what they do and what they don’t support, knowing that enough dislikes are likely to affect the brand’s profits eventually. Later, that was upgraded to stopping buying merch, and nowadays it includes informing brands in deals with creators of behaviour they don’t support.
But what about the brands themselves? Well, they are often encouraged to think about how their business operates by their users. This newest generation of users has a lot of ideas of what brands should be doing to gain their money, and with every brand with its own roster of social media platforms and profiles, it’s easier than ever to inform them.
So, how do you appeal to people who vote with their wallets? Well, that’s a problem that Cashblack intends to solve by making it easier to connect users with, at the moment, Black-owned businesses. But Cashblack is expected to expand into other priorities of this new generation, like LGBT businesses and sustainable businesses. Listen to the podcast for more information on that or keep reading to see how you can endear yourself to the activists online.
Build a sustainable business
When you’re starting out, you’re hearing a lot about a sustainable business. A sustainable business to your business loan provider is a business that can sustain itself, whereas, online, a sustainable business is a green business that practices sustainable business operations. So, think about where you can implement recycling, use less harmful materials, make products that solve green problems, and otherwise contribute to a world where Greta Thunberg doesn’t need to make speeches.
Tap into emotions
In October of 2021, Meta was all over the headlines due to a whistleblower that said, among other things, that Facebook was stoking hate to drive engagement. There is something to take from that. First, that hate should not be a factor in driving engagement due to the real-world repercussions that were obvious to anyone reading the news, but that emotions do cause engagement. Bigotry and hate are not something a marketer should stoke to sell products, but perhaps righteous anger, ironically strong opinions about pineapple on pizza, or anything else that you as a brand think needs talked about.
As Lee-Ann says: “Don’t you think that making our marketing very vanilla [isn’t smart]? We are diverse and we are different and we all have different likes, and dislikes, and I think what’s happening, especially in the affiliate space is that we’re trying to do one size fits all approaches. And it’s not really possible to do that if we really want to engage with our consumers because we need to talk to people at the root of where they are and not at where we want them to be.”
Infiltrate communities
A lot of prominent platforms are allowing new users to find their people. Facebook has Groups, Reddit has subreddits, and TikTok has communities or Toks. Algorithms deliver you content that you are likely to engage with, and naturally, a Black user is going to see more Black users, an LGBT user is going to see more LGBT takes, etc.
This is a great way to get a lot of dedicated eyes on you and your brand. If you are an LGBT-owned or targeted business, for example, you can create content directed at the LGBT community, on TikTok, Facebook, etc. and watch a more dedicated audience come to you.
As Matthew says: “Consumers will be often really engaging with regards to which businesses actually care about the environment, care about sustainability for them to be able to shop with them.”
“So yeah, we are looking to be able to tick all of those different segmented boxes while helping users make informed purchasing decisions with regards to where they shop.”
Be your authentic self
Above all else, however, this new generation of users appreciates authenticity. Platforms like BeReal don’t take off because they are appealing to marketers. So this means that you should never go into any of these ventures half-in. If you are touting how your product is plastic-free, but your company is found to be dumping toxic waste into the river, for example, all your credibility will vanish. Users will find out. Users will expose you. Users will vote with their wallet and you will vanish with your credibility.
Matthew’s parting wisdom is: “I suppose brands would have to take risks because it’s not always going to be comfortable and convenient to please everybody. I mean, if I’m promoting Black-owned businesses, by nature some people will be thinking ‘Oh, what about X businesses or Y businesses?’”
If you are interested in more affiliate and social media marketing insights, take a look at our blog for all the latest news and advice. Or for a more personalised approach, book a free call with a member of our team.
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Listen to find out more about:
- Connecting Black-owned, LGBT-owned, sustainable businesses, etc. with customers.
- This new generation of users “voting with their wallets”.
- The affordability of affiliate marketers for small businesses.
- The importance of word of mouth for marketing to communities around the world.
Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune into go direct
[05:00] – How Cashblack evolved into an eCommerce taskbar.
[10:00] – Connecting Black-owned businesses in the UK.
[15:00] – The risks involved in not being able to please everyone.
[20:00] – The importance of small businesses in affiliate marketing.
[25:00] – Creativity over cutting costs in hard times.
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