ABOUT COBBLE HILL

Cobble Hill specializes in digital marketing strategy, creative execution and implementation and financial forecasting. They provide digital advertising on social and email marketing with strong creative execution.  With over 14 years of experience, Austin provides strong e-commerce in the luxury space.

Austin’s wife, Carter, and her background in copywriting provides an element of detail and analysis from the brand perspective that is invaluable.

They provide two core services: digital advertising and email marketing with strong, creative execution.

“The Marketing Factor”, a successful podcast produced by Cobble Hill, dives deep into the  world of e-commerce and hospitality.   The discussions and in depth conversations with the guests have proven to be a key component to Austin’s continued insight into what businesses are needing in the world of marketing to premium brands. www.themarketingfactor.tv

THE EVOLVING LUXURY LANDSCAPE

• Shifting consumer behaviors in how people discover luxury brands
• human connection, personal feeling of “discovering” the brand
• Digital transformation in the luxury sector
• Importance of precision in marketing strategies

HOW WE DISCOVER LUXURY PRODUCTS

• Social media Platforms
  • instagram posts featuring the item
  • TikTok videos showcasing the product in use
  • “Day in the life” vlogs featuring the item 
• Targeted social media ads based on user interests
  • Personal Recommendations and Experiences
• Word-of-mouth during casual conversations
  • Seeing a friend use or wear the item
• Physical Retail Experiences
  • Spotting the item in a luxury hotel gift shop
• Email Marketing – Drives 20% of Revenue for E-Commerce Businesses
• Search Engine Results
  • Organic search results for “best luxury [item]” through SEO
• Content Marketing
  • Blog posts about “Top 10 Luxury [Items]”
  • Lifestyle articles featuring the product
  • PR, influencer assist

THE POWER OF CONTENT

• Importance of high-quality, engaging content
• repurpose content, change up how you share the content
• Various content types: visual, written, video
• Connecting with the brand: learn about the founders, how the product is made. This provides the consumer a personal connection.
• Learn about the founders, learn how things are made, gives consumer personal connection and an “edge” in the luxury space.

DIGITAL ADVERTISING STRATEGIES 

• Focus on Instagram and Google, the more “visual” platforms.
  *Start with these two platforms, best way to find new clients with smaller budget
  Ex: Facebook ad needs at least $100/day to be effective for conversions
• Minimum budget recommendation: $5K
• Targeting specific customers and audiences
  • 60% Meta (Facebook and Instagram)
  • 40% Google 

The shopping panel on Google is important, you want to target specific customers, retain past customers, and expand your audience by finding “look alike” customers by integrating your newsletter list.

CONTENT FOCUS IN ADVERTISING

Four key content pieces:

1. Evergreen content: content about your brand (Ex: Nordic Wave Ice Bath) 
   *highlight the benefits
2. Bestseller highlight: create a few ads or pieces of content around your bestsellers.
   *most effective way to find your best customers
3. Seasonality/launch: example: Moving into Fall – season wardrobe changes, types of product launches coming up, where are we going to shift the focus?
4. Special offer: What is the hook? How to get people engaged through an ad. (discount code/incentive)

Importance of iteration and optimization: If you see an ad doing well, continue to put money  into it, the system likes continuity.  Create different version of this ad or “hook” and double down on what is working.

CHANGING SEARCH LANDSCAPE:

• Google’s declining market share
  • They recommend running google ads on the performance max platform.
  • Google’s AI tool (Gemini) is becoming more prevalent at the top of a search page
• Rise of Amazon in search advertising
  • Amazon has almost 30% of search share, Austin doesn’t recommend his clients use the Amazon platform, they encourage buying direct from the brand for their clients.
• Emerging competitors: TikTok, AI powered search

EMAIL MARKETING FOR LUXURY BRANDS

• Targeting brand loyalists:
  • Don’t be afraid to email 1x week, know what your going to talk about, keep it simple, highlight old or new product, keep message simple
  • Think about ways that worked well on organic social media posts and integrate that in an email.
  • Email most important piece for capturing recurring revenue from customers.
  • What are difference aspects of the brand, what are key pillars we want to get across through email?
  • How can we improve the site design, trim down content, less is more.  What are the flows going to look like?
• Recommended platforms:
  • Klaviyo
  • Omnisend
  • Shopify
• Key email flows:
  Build out something that is an extension of the brand, tell your story
  Create a thread, why you built a product a certain way. Expand on that in a welcome email.
  • Welcome
  • Abandoned Cart
  • Browse Abandon
  • Post Purchase: Ask them how it was, what do they think? Get a few brand loyalists to start, think about sending a hand written letter

BUILDING YOUR EMAIL LIST

• Importance of email marketing in luxury sector
• Strategies for list building (Example: Lake)
  • pop ups 
  • exclusive offers: always include an offer (free shipping, 10% off)
  • SMS: VIP’s, new product drops
• Balancing growth with brand image

INCREASING YOUR CONVERSION RATES:
anything above 1.5 is good

• Importance of the customer journey
  • (Example: Lake) knows their customer, great page navigation and transitions
  • Does your product page feel cluttered? What is going on aesthetically?
  • You want the shopping experience to be simple and easy on the eyes, don’t clutter your navigation.
• Optimizing the cart experience
• A/B Testing and continuous improvement

EXPANDING YOUR ADVERTISING CHANNELS

• YouTube influencer ads for long-term benefits
• TikTok Spark Posts
• Native advertising alongside Meta & Google
• Exploring non-traditional channels: radio, out of home, events, podcasts, TV

CONTENT STRATEGY FOR LUXURY BRANDS

What are top client questions you get? What are client’s struggling with to make the purchase? You have to be true to the brand itself, not follow trends. Think about how you are communicating your brand, be unique.

• SEO-optimization blog content
• Repurposing content across platforms
• Addressing top customer questions through video content

BRAND BUILDING FOR DIGITAL

• Creating a desirable brand identity
• Building emotional connections with customers
• Balancing brand awareness and performance marketing

LEVERAGING INFLUENCERS AND EVENTS

• Combining influencer marketing with events
• Driving engagement and FOMO: Integrating someone we follow already, micro influencers more effective than macro influencers
• Measuring effectiveness with tools like Haus, Triple Wale

TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION

• Pre-launch landing pages
• Testing organic content before paid advertising
• Continuous updating and improvement

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

• Implementing post-purchase surveys
• Incentivizing data collection
• Customizing follow-up based on purchase behavior

E-COMMERCE STRATEGIES FOR LUXURY

• Tactics for Black Friday Cyber Monday – Start early, bundle products, create a promotion that feels exclusive
• Strategies for low average order value products (AOV)
• Address balancing promotions with maintaining brand exclusivity

THE FUTURE OF LUXURY MARKETING

• Balancing traditional luxury values with digital innovation
• Focus on scarcity and exclusivity
• Adapting to changing consumer preferences
• Embracing new technologies and platforms

Questions:

1. Is boosting effective?
   Saving it and running separately as an ad in addition to boosting
   Start small $50/day, let Meta optimize for you
2. Black Friday question:
   – Libba, MBR-German skin care brand, everyday item…feels ok to spend now
   – Pop Up’s in person, email capture: Send a personal email, coupon code, personal note
   – Instagram/Facebook shops over 10% business, strong, Apple Pay

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