THE TUMBLR OPPORTUNITY

120,000 signups12 billion pageviews7 million visitorseveryday.Tumblr’s young audience has over $200 billionin discretionary spending power.

BRANDS ON TUMBLR

Many brands use Tumblr to engage the 18-34 year old crowd that is very difficult to reach any other way.

It’s working, Tumblr users are engaged. They spend more time per visit on Tumblr than on any other social media site — even Facebook.

COMMERCE ON TUMBLR IS A MISSED OPPORTUNITY

Some aren’t sure how to approach social commerce, so they don’t.

Some display items for sale, but make you leave Tumblr to visit an external commerce site, creating a complicated path that leads to abandonment.

WHAT MAKES SOCIAL COMMERCE SO HARD?

Selling in a personal space

The amount of information being processed

Selling without disrupting the social experience

Selling to an audience with a short attention span

Selling to an audience with a low tolerance for friction

WHY IS TUMBLR COMMERCE DIFFERENT?

Tumblr is about discovery, sharing, inspiration, and entertainment.

It’s focused on what you like rather than on friend, family, or professional updates so commerce feels more natural.

MAKING TUMBLR COMMERCE WORK

Selling on Tumblr still has many of the challenges of social commerce.

For you to be successful, you must:

DOES TUMBLR + YOU = AWESOME?

Tumblr’s audience is young, cool, creative, and often irreverent. Do you have an angle, a product line, a perspective that will appeal to them?

Niche tumblrs can be more interesting and attract a more specific audience.

Consider multiple blogs for different themes, product lines, or events.

GIVE THEM MORE THAN PRODUCT SHOTS

Show your inspiration and explain your process.

Show photos of your products in different environments.

Reblog other people’s take on your products.

KNOW YOUR FOLLOWERS AND KEEP THEM HAPPY

Quality of followers matters much more than quantity.

Influencers will introduce your posts to lots of new people.

True brand advocates care about your brand and will champion it in any way they can.

Treat them well — give them access to exclusive products and offers.

SOCIAL MOVES FAST

There’s not a lot of decision-making time so products should require little or no research from customers.

Products need an I-have-to-have-it factor: limited supply, limited edition.

The best thing to sell on Tumblr is something you can’t get anywhere else.

DO YOUR PRICES MAKE SENSE FOR SOCIAL?

Lower-priced items require less decision-making time.

Remember your audience when thinking about price point.

Offer special pricing just for your Tumblr audience.

NOTHING MOTIVATES LIKE A FLASH SALE

Consider 24-72 hour sales to get people to react quickly.

Try choosing one day per week to offer a product or a category of products: Thursday Purse Day, T-shirt Tuesday, etc.

Brand the sales so your followers recognize the posts and look for them.

PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE

You need to connect with the right person at exactly the right time.

Use all your social channels and include a link back to your posts.

Post often to remind people and reach them at different points of their day.

Post the same product in different ways to attract different people.

DON’T BE SUBTLE

Let people know it’s for sale.

Post in a way that users will recognize as commerce posts and look for them.

Choose images that clearly show what you’re selling.

MAKE YOURSELF EASY TO FIND

Unlike most social posts, Tumblr posts come up in internet searches, extending the life of your posts and expanding your reach.

Use tags, both broad and narrow, for the different ways people search.

Tumblr has recently improved its tag search to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.

MAKE CHECKOUT EASY WITH BLKDOT

Tumblr users want to stay in Tumblr.

Let them check out with as little disruption to the experience as possible.

BlkDot is the only commerce platform that lets customers checkout from your theme, their dashboard, and from Tumblr’s mobile apps.

Customers aren’t required to sign in or register.

Here’s how BlkDot works.