Last November while at Web Summit in Lisbon, we hinted the rollout of our "M+ Brand Pages" portal which is one of our steps towards building a fully-fledged marketplace and online marketing solution dedicated to sustainable brands.
Despite 9 in 10 consumers saying that they want to shop from sustainable brands, the reality is that they aren’t. Why? It’s not convenient for one, and it’s very expensive for the other.
The benefits for consumers
Starting with consumers, the process of finding sustainable brands for the products they want is extremely time-consuming. They need to spend hours searching on Google (or other search engines), deal with the mixed and limited search results they receive (most of which won’t be brands), and then click through different pages or links (e.g. About Us, Sustainability, etc) usually at the footer of most brands’ websites (we know this because we’re manually reviewing about 19,000 of them) just to read their story, understand their impact, and determine if that brand’s ethos fits their values.
What if there was a way to aggregate all that information from different brands into a single destination for consumers to, well, consume? Glad you asked!
The benefits for brands
For purpose-driven brands, targeting socially conscious consumers, you know, the ones who care not just about your products but also your story and mission, is expensive because they rely on the same oversaturated and poorly converting channels as non-sustainable brands. Do we need to argue that a 0.02% CTR or a 2% (or even 10% for those lucky to get that high) conversion rate is nothing to be excited about? But somehow, it seems people have come to accept it.
With M+ Brand Pages, we are providing sustainable brands with a simple-to-use tool to take their story, purpose and impact at the forefront of the eyes, minds and hearts of consumers, and alongside similar brands - we believe in the power of the network effect. Consumers will no longer have to jump through numerous websites to find the relevant information they want – just a single location – Miigle+.
Likewise, sustainable brands will also have a dedicated platform to connect directly with conscious consumers, supported by a unique ‘A-la-Carte SaaS’ subscription model. One of the benefits of the ‘A-la-Carte SaaS’ model is that brands will have traffic redirected to their website but not worry about paying commissions for sales generated, unlike the typical affiliate model which requires teams to manage and is often plagued by accounting and tracking errors.
A more cost-effective business model for brands
The M+ Brand Pages portal has been designed to lower the barrier of entry, particularly for smaller sustainable brands that need to build visibility, and to be a cost-effective, flexible alternative to the highly priced existing CPM (Cost-per-Impression), CPC (Cost-per-Click) models. The subscription plan starts at $25/month (discounted 20% with an annual plan) and includes a no-obligation 90-day free trial that can be cancelled at any time. Click on the following link to learn more about the pricing: https://www.miigle.com/submit-your-brand
Conscious consumers care passionately about the stories behind ethical brands’ purpose and work, and we believe that enabling brands to easily showcase their cause and values will help form an emotional connection to customers, engendering greater customer loyalty and lifetime value for these brands.
The features that the M+ Brand Pages provide to sustainable retailers include:
- Real-estate with their own branded storefronts - to tell their story, share their social impact mission, results, seasonal promotions, merchandising trends, and content (i.e., images and video).
- Publishing capabilities - one relevant article with up to 1,000 words a month.
- A preferred listing on the Miigle+ Chrome Extension, and thus its search results.
- A branded gateway for consumers to go to their websites, and soon, shop directly from our platform.
- A self-managing tool - to make it quick and easy to create and update their M+ Page. Here is an example of a M+ Brand Page for Ace Rivington: https://www.miigle.com/brand/ace-rivington
The M+ Brand Pages portal is available as a self-service, which is also integral to our larger product development strategy; to have the largest directory of ethical brands, which will consist of over 5,000 brands across various product categories by the end of 2023.
Hear it from an 'M+ Brand Pages' brand - Ace Rivington
To wrap up, here are quotes from our Founder, Luc Berlin and Beau Lawrence, Founder of Ace Rivington, an early adopter of M+ Brand Pages:
“Simply put, offline, a good shop-front merchandising is the best 'silent' salesperson. We want to equip ethical brands with the right online merchandising tools,” said Miigle+’s Founder & CEO Luc Berlin. “Yet both offline and online, socially conscious brands are increasingly relying on expensive marketing channels which are saturated by bigger brands. Until now, there has been no dedicated online marketing technology that allows brands to affordably target socially conscious consumers.
Berlin concluded, “CPC and CPM models are a death trap for ethical sustainable brands. You pay a lot for traffic that doesn’t convert. Likewise, the affiliate model is cumbersome and inefficient for both retailers and affiliates. I know this because I have been in Tech Marketing for more than 15 years and these models are chosen reluctantly by advertisers because there’s no alternative. Miigle+ wants to work for brands, not against them by providing integrated marketing and sales tools. Therefore, I intend to introduce a new paradigm, for the better, in the sustainable shopping category.”
Beau Lawrence of Ace Rivington said, “It is incredibly difficult and expensive to find socially conscious consumers when relying on existing marketing channels like paid search or social media, where there’s a lot of noise to rise above. Secondly, the conversion rates are quite low, in average below 10%, which means there’s a lot of money spent that doesn’t really impact our revenue. This creates a very challenging environment, especially for sustainable brands like us in a space saturated by traditional brands. I love the way Miigle+ is helping to bring qualified customers to our very own page, which we have control of, and the flexibility of their business model removes barriers of entry and allows us to leverage the platform as we see fit, for our objectives.”
Submit your brand now
If you’re a sustainable brand, you can submit your brand for listing here.
The full official press release of the M+ Brand Pages launch can be read here.
