The WSJ on How Brands Can Stand Out Online

The Wall Street Journal put out a great article on June 17th 2021 titled: "Online Brands Try New—and Old—Ways to Stand Out to Shoppers" with the subtitle of: "Sellers create communities with free content and send out print catalogs in an effort to find and keep customers."

Anyone who has talked with our founder, Brett Bernstein, before or have heard us on the Privy Pod, Chase Dimond's podcast, Justuno webinars etc will see a lot of parallels to what The Journal is reporting on and the premise behind Gatsby.

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Problem: "the lower entry barriers and rising cost of online advertising are making it harder for existing and new sellers to cut through the crowd and find more customers"

Solution: "brands must take the more elaborate steps of developing community among customers or an identity that consumers deem authentic."

The Journal is reporting on how it's easier than ever to launch an online store, but as a result, it's harder than ever to acquire customers at scale, and stand out from the pack. It's harder to get ROI and be successful.

Just creating a product people want and pumping out ads on Facebook and Google aren't enough anymore. The economics of keyword bidding and Facebook ad targeting are getting increasingly competitive and expensive. Brands need to find another scalable acquisition channel, one that is more in their control, a new spigot so to speak that they can turn on and off like they're accustomed to with ads.

It's not going to be as quick and easy as Facebook ads, but that's what gives this new option staying power and defensibility. The new option is micro influencer marketing at scale. It's building a community of authentic customers, advocates, fans etc who are encouraged to talk about the brands and products they genuinely love and buy from.

This means the brand's entire business needs to be involved in fostering this growth channel. From the leadership and R&D teams who develop a product that customers want, to the design teams who present it beautifully, and to the marketing, support and all customer facing teams who engage with and nurture the community. And everyone in between.

Put all these pieces in place, and you'll find continued growth with lower acquisition costs and higher authentic, organic and enduring growth.

This is what Gatsby is all about. Helping you build, manage, reward, and measure that community.