The Ecom Show

#71 Looking to the Future of Ecommerce: What to Expect 

Ecommerce has never just been about selling. With ever-evolving digital technology, emerging social platforms, and changes in data privacy, ecommerce has always been about adaptability. 

Casey Roeder is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skylab Media, an omnichannel marketing agency that looks to the future of ecommerce. Skylab media not only covers lifecycle marketing, SMS, paid social, and paid search, it strategizes crypto advertising campaigns, NFT marketing, podcast marketing, and more. 

Tune in to hear Casey and our podcast host and CEO Daniel Budai discuss: 

✔️ Casey’s Journey into Entrepreneurship

✔️ Casey’s Business Approach

✔️ New and Emerging Marketing Channels 

✔️ The Future of Ecommerce 

✔️ Casey’s Tips for Q4

Casey’s Journey into Entrepreneurship 

Casey began working in marketing in 2013. In 2016-2027, Casey worked at Hawke Media, one of the biggest names in D2C (direct to consumer) marketing. Casey and his team oversaw Hawke Media’s growth into the company it is today.  

At the forefront of management services and advertising, Casey worked in email, paid search, SMS, and collaboration with Octane AI for Facebook Messenger Marketing. 

Fast forward to three years later, Casey was working at MuteSix when he was approached by another agency on LinkedIn with a VP Marketing job offer in Hollywood. At that time, Casey was watching a lot of Dave Ramsey videos on getting rid of debt, developing financial literacy skills, and learning how to be financially independent. One of Ramsey’s pieces of advice was to ask for a raise and/or get a second job if you’re not making as much as you’d want to. Casey, however, didn’t want to leave his job at MuteSix, so offered to become VP of Marketing only on a freelance basis.

Over the course of the following year and a half, Casey dived into the hustle. One of his co-workers said that he was surprised that Casey wasn’t running his own business. 

“That’s where the wheels started turning. I’m like, maybe I can do this. Because in order to be an entrepreneur, you have to have the hustle, you have to be able to work under pressure, you need that grind.”

Having that foundation and skillset, Casey took a leap of faith and founded Skylab Media. Two years later, Skylab Media is thriving as an omnichannel marketing agency that offers futuristic services in NFT, cryptocurrency, and podcast marketing.

Casey’s Business Approach  

So now that Casey’s running an entire agency, what’s his approach? 

In terms of the hiring process, Casey is all about transparency. He makes it very clear that his employees and potential employees shouldn’t expect an average 9 - 5 workday. But hard work will be rewarded. 

The most important thing for Casey is not entry or senior levels, it’s about who’s willing to put in the work. 

New and Emerging Marketing Channels  

Social search, lifestyle, and influencer marketing are what Casey describes as the “new age” of print and TV marketing. 

Skylab Media offers services in paid socials, paid search, SMS Marketing, and Email Marketing. But what sets Skylab Media apart from its competitors lies in its services in newer (and very hot) markets: cryptocurrency, NFT, podcast marketing, Spotify. Well beyond what your average DTC agency provides. 

“It’s cool, it’s new, it’s something that people aren’t doing. And it’s really fun. And why not enter that market as one of the leaders?”

A lot of investors right now know that cryptocurrency is something that should be taken very seriously, especially when we think about the rollout of 5G and new technologies. 

Casey believes that most marketing agencies also aren’t thinking about AR, VR, and Oculus. When these innovations become increasingly present in our everyday lives over the next couple of decades, customers will want to bring them into their digital experiences. Casey is already thinking about this - pointing out that AR and VR will give so many more opportunities for brand-customer interaction than the 2D realm.  

The Future of Ecommerce 

So what does Casey expect to see in the future of ecommerce?

As many of us know, the iOS15 update is taking a huge hit on many small business owners. Enterprise accounts are not as affected because they have an entire plethora of different services going for them. It’s really hitting home for those who are just starting out and mid-sized agencies that rely on advertising longer than a seven-day window period.

Casey advises diving into TikTok, influencer email marketing, and SMS marketing. When done well, these should offset the dip in performance on longer attribution window cycles that used to be available on Facebook and Instagram. SMS Marketing especially, Casey assures, is your “best friend”. What other advertising platform can reach the palm of your customer’s hand with a 90 open rate and a return on average greater than 10x? Nothing other than SMS has the ability to do that.  

And TikTok?  

TikTok is a fantastic platform for going viral - you’re more likely to go viral on TikTok than Facebook and Instagram. TikTok isn’t as moderated and CPM rates (cost per mille - price of 1000 advertisement impressions) are under $3 on average. TikTok is also rolling out a lot of advertising features very similar to Facebook, such as a storefront and tagging your products for sales. 

A lot of big players are now advertising on TikTok. If you’re not on it, Casey advises, to hop right on it. Its algorithm is fantastic and you can get returns from day one. Just make sure that you are as organic as possible and stay very mindful of how you portray your brand. Brand loyalty, identity, and perception on TikTok are very different from how they are on Facebook and Instagram. The two main demographics on TikTok are Gen Z and millennials. The way Gen Z will interact with a brand is completely different from that of any other demographic, including older millennials.

As for other advertising avenues? 

Casey says that Snapchat is a very underrated platform and well worth exploring. 

Podcast marketing is key to building and growing a dedicated audience that will listen to your brand. In terms of influencer marketing, getting your ads on podcasts you know your audience would be interested in is a fantastic way to get through to them. 

Casey’s Tips for Q4  

Plan ahead. You don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute to approve Adsense or creatives. If you’re a small to midsize business, make sure all your Black Friday plans are planned by October. 

If you're a Gen Z brand, consider donating some of your profits to a charity or a cause - your audience will really gravitate towards that. 

Take a holistic approach: what platforms are going to work for your brand? If you don’t have the budget for a huge omnichannel marketing venture, think outside the box. Can you give influencers a product in exchange for content? How can you encourage UGC? 

Whatever you do, don’t miss the opportunity. November and December will be your best time for profit. 

TL;DR: Look to the future of ecommerce. Use TikTok and SMS marketing, prepare, prepare, and prepare some more for Q4. 

Visit Skylab Media or follow them on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to take your advertising light years ahead of everyone else. 

Connect with Casey on LinkedIn for all things startups, growth, and omnichannel marketing. 

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Sometimes we can get so obsessed with lead generation and conversion we actually forget that one of the most lucrative channels for return on investment (ROI) lies in average order value (AOV).

Kiril Kirilov is the CEO and Co-Founder of Rush, a Shopify shipment software company that automates the shipment process, allows ecommerce store owners to create branded tracking pages, and integrates with Klaviyo, Reviews.io, Loox, and more to guarantee 6 times more revenue from post-purchase flows.

Tune in to hear Kiril and our podcast host and CEO Daniel Budai discuss: 

✔️ Kiril’s adventure into digital marketing

✔️ What problems does Rush address?

✔️ What does it mean to have a branded tracking page?

✔️ Going beyond the first click

Kiril has actually been a track and field athlete for most of his life. In 2008, he found himself needing an income stream to support his sports endeavors. 

Like many ecommerce entrepreneurs, Kiril began exploring eBay, then started looking into Amazon. This, Kiril believes, led to a ‘natural progression’ into Shopify. In 2016, Kiril saw an opportunity in Facebook ads, and worked on those before entering the world of dropshipping three or so years later. 

So it’s safe to say that Kiril has a well-rounded resume in digital marketing. He’s familiar with customer pain points, and, indeed, those of the business owner. In particular, Kiril identified a gap in brand-customer communication: from order to unboxing. This led to dissatisfaction for the customer and frustration for business owners losing customers after their first purchase. With his partner taking care of the technical side of things, Kiril co-founded Rush, an app designed to improve the customer experience post-purchase, therefore significantly increasing AOV and customer retention.

“We want to help businesses grow and retain their customers for as long as humanly possible.”

Rush was founded to address knowledge gaps. Kiril says he didn’t set out to reinvent the wheel, but to create a better one. 

Before he started Rush, Kiril was running a dropshipping store in the pet niche. He scaled a product from zero to almost half a million in a matter of 45 days. Great, right? Well, Kiril faced the challenge of very angry customers who weren’t being notified of their order because the store and its dropshippers had become completely overwhelmed. 

This led to Kiril and his partner sitting down with a pen and paper to figure out how to provide clarity to shipping carriers and customers. Kiril decided that customers needed to be notified on every step of their product’s journey, including delays. Knowing what to expect is crucial to customer satisfaction. 

That’s where Rush came in. Rush supports brand-customer communication throughout the entire shipment process - not only making ecommerce store owners more money in the short term but dramatically increasing AOV and customer satisfaction. 

A single buyer is going to go back to their tracking page at least 3 or 4 times before their parcel gets delivered. 

This is therefore a fantastic page to display brand banners, call to action (CTA) buttons, social proof from review apps, and showcase complementary products for their purchase. Branded tracking pages are possibly the best place for upselling. Kiril asserts that click-through rates on upsells are between 20% to 30% on order status pages. Now that’s a heck of a lot of extra revenue. 

Acquisition, conversion, and retention go way beyond your customers’ first click. Kiril warns against focusing solely on the first click your customer makes and ignoring the dozen or so clicks after that.

Focus on your knowledge gaps, and make sure you understand your customer persona inside and out. What songs do they like? What do they like to eat? What kind of content do they consume online? Once you understandeverything about your customer persona, you fill those knowledge gaps. 

Kiril also advocated strongly for tone of voice (TOV) consistency. When they read your offer, it has to connect with what they’re going to see after the click. Provide social proof both on your ad and product page. As so many of us read emails on mobile, make sure to really make use of the 40% of space you have above the fold (what’s visible without scrolling). 

“It’s about making sure that you provide as much information as humanly possible to push people to your cart.”

TL;DR Focus on the entirety of your customer journey, and provide as much clarity as possible, and use that order update journey!

Download Rush to increase your AOV by 25% and follow Kiril on LinkedIn for more fantastic advice for maximizing your ROI. 

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Maximizing your ROI is all about knowing how to use your digital marketing tools. And there are a lot of them! We’re going to keep it simple this week by focusing on Facebook, Google, User Generated Content (UGC).

Well...and a little bit of Tik Tok. 

As the Founder of OXG Media, Jonathan has increased the ROI for a ton of brands, including Hollywood Mirrors, EATs, SKYN.io, and many, many more. Jonathan’s MO is getting a baseline income of $50 - $500k a month for his clients. 

We’re very excited to welcome Jonathan to the Ecom Show. Tune in to hear Jonathan and our podcast host and CEO, Daniel Budai discuss:

✔️ Making a Facebook Ad That Converts

✔️ Collecting UGC

✔️ What Does a High Converting Google Ad Look Like?

✔️ How to Advertise on TikTok

✔️ Jonathan’s Advice for the Rest of the Year

Jonathan’s advice: “Tell people what they want to hear.”

The first step is conveying clearly how your product will meet their needs. The second step is removing the risk of disappointment. Finally, end your offer with a guarantee. Sounds simple right? It’s all about making your offer as strong as it can be. As Jonathan points out, basic and vague photo or even video ads simply don’t cut it any more. 

Jonathan favors longer story-based copy. If you’re telling a story, you’re selling on emotion. Try not to rely solely on product features alone. No one can quantify a price on emotion or experience, so this is an especially useful tactic for products that are on the more expensive side of things. 

And if you can launch a video ad, do it! Video is a very important part of ecommerce because people want to see the product they’re buying and hear reviews and testimonials for themselves. A video with 6 - 7 customer testimonials is a fantastic way to utilize UGC. Not only do you sell powerful experiences or emotive stories, you provide proof that your product delivers results.  

Jonathan recommends using snippets of several testimonials on your Facebook ads, and putting the complete video with every testimonial in full on your landing page. 

So how do you go about collecting customer testimonials? 

Jonathan says to hit that email list! Sort by customer lifetime value, and reach out to your repeat customers for a recorded testimonial. Make sure to provide incentives such as a discount or giveaways to really sweeten the deal. As these are your most loyal customers, they’ll probably be more than happy to provide a testimonial. 

Even better, organize a Zoom call with the customer and company Founder. Not only does this show respect to your best customers, it gives you a lot of video material to work with. 

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to create a successful Google Ad. Again it’s all about differentiating yourself from the competition. Make sure to research data and trends, but keep that irresistible offer. 

Jonathan’s best advice is to take full advantage of Display Remarketing. Google’s remarketing feature lets you customize your ad campaigns for people who have previously visited your site but have not yet converted. This is invaluable for building brand familiarity and reminding potential customers of the pain point or need that drove them to your site in the first place. 

Now we can’t talk about video marketing without mentioning TikTok. Heck, we can’t even talk about the internet generally without talking about TikTok! Jonathan reasons that while the traffic on TikTok is super cheap, not every product is going to be a hit. 

Products that work best on TikTok tend to be direct to consumer (DTC), and very visually appealing. DTC products that tend to do well on Facebook tend to work well on TikTok. If this applies to your brand, head on over there! 

If your product is expensive and difficult to explain, TikTok may not be the platform for you. 

Facebook continues to be the best social media platform for driving traffic to your brand, so don’t be afraid to use it.

And, “you better do email!” Email is the best way to analyse customer behaviour and get to that all-important customer lifetime value. Figure out your value ladder, what people will buy, how much they’ll buy, and what your next upsell is. Generate organic traffic as much as you can.  

TL;DR Collect UGC, sell stories and emotions, and know your customer!

Follow Jonathan on LinkedIn and visit OXG Media to find out more about taking your ROI to the next level.

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Becoming a household name is all about building an emotional connection with your customers. And the best way to do that? Storytelling. 

Benton Crane is the CEO of the Harmon Brothers, the multiple award-winning marketing agency behind groundbreaking ad campaigns for Squatty Potty, FiberFix, and Orabrush, and many more! Their ads have been seen over 1.4 billion times and driven over $500 million in sales.

We’re honored to welcome Benton to The Ecom Show for a fantastic conversation with our CEO and podcast host, Daniel Budai about:

✔️ The Harmon Brothers: What’s Their Story?

✔️ Which Ad Formats Work?  

✔️ Effective Storytelling

✔️ The Best Ads Out There 

✔️ What You Need for Video Advertising

✔️ Turning Your Brand into a Household Name - Benton’s Advice 

Benton says that the Harmon Brothers’ “Genesis event” occurred in 2006, when Google bought YouTube. Prior to 2006, YouTube lacked any business application. Google, of course, had visions for turning YouTube into an advertising platform.

Benton’s partners, in particular, Jeffrey Harmon, was one of the very first creators to put an ad on YouTube. 

When Jeffrey was working on an ad for Orabrush, he chose what his colleagues considered to be a really odd ad length: two and a half minutes long. At the time this was unheard of: TV spots were usually 30 - 60 seconds and infomercial spots were 20 - 30 minutes long. But Jeffrey persisted. He reached out to YouTube and asked them if they could give him a “Skip Ad” button, so that those who want to watch the ad could do so and those who didn’t, well...they can skip it!

No one knew what a big deal the “Skip Ad” button was at the time. It was a giant shift in power from advertisers to viewers. Since the viewer was first given this choice 15 years ago, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok news feeds evolved and continue to operate on the same principle: if you don’t want to watch something, you scroll right past it. 

“Everything we’ve ever done since then has been all based on the principle of giving the viewer something that they actually want and something that they can really enjoy.”

As Benton points out, a lot of people have not heard of the Harmon brothers, but almost everyone has heard of their clients. After Orabrush came Poo-Pourri, which, with help from the Harmon Brothers, grew from about $7 million per year to $30 million per year. Then came Squatty Potty which grew from $4 million per year to $30 million per year. Then Purple Mattresses which grew from $3 million per year to over $100 million per year, then Chatbooks, then FiberFix. The Harmon Brother’s most recent client is Lume Deodorant, starting off with $1.5 million earnings in 2018 to breaking $40 million in 2021.

It’s safe to say that the Harmon Brothers know how to scale. Every campaign operates on the same principle of adding value to viewers. This helps brands on their journey from what Benton calls their “poop to gold journey”. Taking them from obscurity where all entrepreneurs start, and helping to build trust over time to turn them into a household name. 

Benton advises that ads need to be “as long as it needs to be, but not a second longer.” The Harmon Brothers are very careful about getting rid of fluff. It’s all about getting the rhythm right. When it’s a good ad, your viewer could watch a five minute long ad without even realizing how long it is. A 30 second ad, however, if lazily done, can drag on and on because it’s boring. 

The longest ad the Harmon brothers have ever created was 11 minutes, and their ads range all the way down from there. They also make shorter 15 to 30 to 60 second versions of two to four to five-minute ads. On average, Benton says a successful ad usually runs from two to four minutes. 

One of the most effective but easiest to implement ad formats is what Benton refers to as the “explainer testimonial ad”. It starts with your elevator pitch: one - two sentences about what your product is and why it’s different, or why it matters to the customer. Then it’s a very simple case of providing five - eight customer reviews. Your customers essentially write the ad for you! You just need to go in and find ones that are compelling, entertaining, and make sure to include some variety. 

This can be as simple as putting dynamic typography over images, or product shots. Or product shots while a narrator is reading your reviews. Or, if you want to make things really authentic, you may want to feature your customers actually giving their reviews on camera. 

An explainer testimonial ad the Harmon Brothers created for Lume Deodorant was phenomenally successful, driving $3 million in direct trackable sales. 

Another simple but fantastic ad format is a product demonstration video. A stop motion video of a product in use is a creative but clear way to convey value to the customer. 

Benton advises that in the early stages of startup, all investment needs to go into making sales. It doesn’t make too much sense to focus on storytelling investments and character development before sales are coming in. Once you’ve grown your business to $1 to $2 million a year then you should start thinking about storytelling, character development and building a brand universe.

“We believe that we’re an organisation of storytellers. And we’ve become famous for the ads that we make.”

Storytelling is so important to advertising because humans are wired to transmit knowledge through storytelling. We remember stories, and we connect with stories. So when a brand taps into that, it makes the brand more memorable and trustworthy. 

Essentially, Benton argues, a brand would be crazy not to be thinking about storytelling and making it a core part of who they are. 

Benton's favorite advertising series of all time is Apple’s “Get a Mac”, or “Mac Vs PC” ad campaign. The video series follows a standard but highly effective template: two men appear in a minimalist all-white background. The young man in casual clothes introduces himself as a Mac and the other, wearing a more formal suit and tie introduces himself as a PC. The PC is more of an “old timey” nerd, often frustrated with the Mac’s creative but effortless abilities. The series solidified Apple’s “cool”, “artistic” and “young” branding. 

Of course, Benton holds many Harmon Brothers video ad campaigns close to his heart. One of his all-time favorites was their campaign for ‘FiberFix’, which involved throwing cars off a cliff (yes, really, check it out on YouTube!).

Benton confirms that yes, picture quality, lighting, and resolution are needed for great cinematography. So yes, having the right equipment does make a difference. 

However, in the storytelling world, the story comes first, and art comes second. If you don’t have a great story, or even a great sales pitch, none of the expensive gear matters. Benton recommends starting by experimenting with cell phone footage. It’s a great way to experiment with your stories and learn what works and what doesn’t work. Remember: an expensive camera can shoot bad footage and a lackluster story. 

Benton advises that every entrepreneur should have a roadmap on how to become a household brand that people love and trust. Having a holistic picture is going to be very valuable on what you need to prioritize and identify. 

Knowing your strategy will help you identify your toolkit. You may need Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or you may find that social media does not actually suit your personality and skill set. It all depends on your brand and strategy. 

TL;DR - Nail your story, cut down the fluff, and make an ad your viewer wants to watch.

Join the Harmon Brothers University to get the knowledge you need to create ads that brand and sell, connect with Benton on LinkedIn , or visit the Harmon Brothers to get a crap-ton of eyes on your ads. 

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Apple’s upcoming iOS 15 update is going to change the way in which ecommerce owners communicate with their customers. And us email marketers need a change of strategy. 

Valentina Rasello is an absolute champion at email marketing. With extensive experience in outreach strategy, lead generation, content creation, building marketing campaigns, and more, we’re very fortunate to have her as an Account Manager at Budai Media. Valentina always has her eye on the ever-changing world of ecommerce, so has she done her research on the upcoming iOS changes. 

We’re delighted to welcome Valentina to The Ecom Show for an expert’s guide to iOS15 and how it affects email marketing. Valentina and our CEO and podcast host, Daniel Budai discuss: 

✔️ Valentina’s Psychological Approach to Marketing 

✔️ What is the iOS 15 Update

✔️ How Should Ecommerce Owners Prepare for this Update

Aside from her linguistic interest and prowess in Italian, Spanish, English, and Chinese, Valentina has always been interested in psychology. How the brain works, and why people make some choices and not others. 

This evolved into an exploration into why people choose to buy and why they don’t. Always one for learning new things, Valentina took a deep dive into the world of marketing, taking online courses on content creation, lead generation, outreach…you name it! So began Valentina’s journey into marketing, eventually leading to her current position as Account Manager at Budai Media. 

Valentina loves what she describes as her “dynamic” job, especially enjoying the many opportunities it provides to analyze customer behaviour.

Apple’s iOS 15 update is set to be released this Fall. It’s going to impact two main areas: email marketing and ecommerce. 

iOS 15’s Mail Privacy Protection feature will allow users to hide their IP address. This means that senders will not be able to see whether Apple Mail users have opened their email or not, impacting the effectiveness of A/B testing in all areas. 

Valentina warns against catastrophizing, however. This change only applies to those with Apple devices, who use Apple Mail, and have decided to opt in to Mail Privacy Protection. Mail Privacy will not be in effect on other email apps, such as Google Mail, even if accessed on an Apple device. 

The next iOS feature to think about is ‘Hide My Email’. Users can use ‘Hide My Email’ to direct marketing emails to an Apple generated randomized email. In other words they can create a ‘burner’ email.  

Focus especially on open rates, as they will be most affected by iOS 15’s Mail Privacy Protection Feature. Also test subject lines, previews, send times, pretty much everything before the update is implemented. 

A/B test like there’s no tomorrow.

Also make sure to clean that email list! When the iOS 15 updates arrive, it will be more difficult to know who is opening emails and who isn’t. We generally recommend list cleaning once a month, but now is a better time than any to remove unengaged customers from your list. 

Following A/B tests and list cleaning, ecommerce owners need to begin shifting their focus to other metrics. Valentina recommends closely analyzing click rate and shipping recency and frequency. Get a microscope on customer behaviour. How often they buy, how they interact with your brand, what their favourite products are. All the good stuff. This will be instrumental in creating targeted campaign plans

TL;DR - Don’t panic! But make sure to A/B test, clean your list, and focus on click-through rate and customer behaviour.

Connect with https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentina-rasello-770954168/Valentina on LinkedIn if you’re looking for digital marketing or linguistic expertise. 

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Facebook is changing. The emergence and rapid growth of TikTok and the disappearance of 3rd party data calls for a shift in marketing strategy.

The CEO of BlitzMetrics, Dennis Yu, argues that there’s no better time to run Facebook ads than now. It’s just about putting out the right content. As an internationally recognised lecturer in digital marketing with over 20 years of web analytics experience, Dennis knows ecommerce, and he knows how to teach it.

We’re very excited to welcome Dennis to the Ecom Show for a deep dive into Facebook Video Ads and what makes them successful. Dennis and our CEO and podcast host, Daniel Budai discuss:

✔️ Dennis’s Unusual Introduction to Ecommerce

✔️ The Rise of TikTok and Why it Matters to Ecommerce

✔️ How to Advertise Successfully on Facebook

✔️ The Importance of Storytelling to Customer Acquisition and Retention

Dennis describes himself as a “maths person”. Web analytics have been an integral part of Dennis’s career development. Over 20 years ago, Dennis built Yahoo’s internal analytics.

“Behind business, success, and the algorithm, there’s always maths to figure out what’s going on.”

And in an ecommerce world of marketing, sales, and business people, Dennis brought a different perspective to the table. Dennis works to bring the connection between maths and human psychology to the heart of marketing.

So why has TikTok seen such a rapid rise of popularity over the last few years? Short answer - its highly sophisticated algorithm.

Dennis says that while TikTok engineers won’t reveal their algorithm, it’s clear that they’re willing to collect a lot more data based on user activity, including image recognition. Dennis recalls a TikTok made at YouTuber Jake Paul’s house. TikTok recognised Paul’s house and showed the video to his fans. Facebook and Instagram, Dennis points out, are not going to get to that level of image recognition anytime soon.

Beyond this, TikTok recognises when a user watches a video multiple times, collecting data even on where they stop watching their current video and return to previously viewed content.

TikTok has incredible potential for ecommerce owners. The traffic is cheap and conversion is great if you have the right kind of content. TikTok adverts are all about entertainment and personality based selling.

Facebook is one of many social media channels, including not only TikTok, but also Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. If we’re talking about video ads, ecommerce owners also have YouTube to contend with.

Facebook is the number 1 online platform for generating sales. Advertising on Facebook is simply a different ballpark to what it used to be. Brands can no longer rely on 3rd party data, so their video content has to be primed for conversion.

• Use a short form ad structure. The average watch time on Facebook is 6 seconds. So make those first 6 seconds captivating and keep your ad 15 seconds to a minute long.
• Repurpose your Facebook content. If you keep your ad short, you can use it on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.
• Use vertical video.
• Don’t use your phone’s built in microphone. Make sure your speaker is properly miced up.
• Add captions.
• Only batch test 3 - 4 ads at a time. When you find a ‘winning’ ad, it’s time to pump more money into that rather than waste your budget on new ads. When a winning ad works, it works time and time again. Spend 80% of your budget testing and improving your winner.
• Have a storyline: what’s the hook, what’s the pain you’re reigniting, how do you introduce your solution, and what’s your CTA?

And Dennis’s number one piece of advice? Collect customer stories.

“Customers write the best copy.”

Your number one job with Facebook ads is to collect user-generated content (UGC) and fine tune it into an ad.

Dennis cannot emphasise enough the power of customer storytelling. To put it simply, a good Facebook ad is a video featuring your customers. It isn’t a testimonial, it’s a story about how they feel about your product. People convert because of the why.

When reaching out to your customers, ask their story via video. Find out what inspired them to buy and how your product made them feel.

Dennis maintains that if you’re the face of the company that you need to personally collect UGC from your best customers. In a video interview you build rapport, create more energy, and have the freedom for follow-up questions.

If you have thousands and thousands of customers, it is not, of course, possible to get on the phone with every single one, but you can do it with a few hundred and have virtual assistants help you out with the rest.

Consider sending your customers fun gifts with hand written notes. This will encourage them to create their own content and engage with their brand. It’s simply a case of being receptive and fine-tuning their content.

TL;DR - The best Facebook ad is a customer story. Collect as much UGC as you can.

For all things branding, scaling, and digital marketing, follow Dennis on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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Facebook Advertising is changing. At a time when data analytics are becoming increasingly uncertain due to the upcoming iOS15 update, the quality of creatives (creative advertising) is more important than ever.

Sufian Asghar is the Founder of SZN Media, an agency that boosts ecommerce growth with ROI (Return on Investment) driven advertising. Its team of Facebook specialists dramatically scale their clients' customer acquisition through creative advertising. Sufian has a lot of wisdom to share about Facebook creatives!

We’re delighted to hear Sufian and our CEO and podcast host Daniel Budai discuss:

✔️ How Sufian Became a Founder

✔️ The iOS15 Data Changes

✔️ Branding That Works

✔️ The Key to Facebook Advertising Success

Sufian began looking for new ways to make money in his final year of university as a newly married man. As he was starting out with no capital, a business model that required as little start-up investment as possible made the most sense.

So Sufian began offering marketing services to local businesses. Initially working for free, a make-up brand started paying once they saw his amazing CRO (conversion rate optimization) results. This turned into a string of referrals to Sufian, which enabled him to start hiring. To this day SZN acquires clients almost solely from referrals and social proof.

Now you can’t work in Facebook advertising without being acutely aware of the upcoming iOS15 changes. Sufian points out that Facebook is pretty quiet about the data they own because they don’t want to raise concern, but the reality is they currently have data on several million people.

So how are the iOS15 data changes going to affect this? The question remains as to the long-term implications for the iOS changes, but the update could entail a huge loss of data for Facebook if its users opt-out of data tracking. This means the Facebook algorithm will get a lot less sophisticated at finding relevant customers for its ads.

The solution? Daniel and Sufian agree that the quality of creatives needs to be amped up more than ever before. As ecommerce has to rely less and less on Facebook data tracking, marketers need to really take advantage of the creative control they have over their own branding.

A key problem that Sufian finds in ecommerce and Facebook advertising is a lack of congruency.

Sufian cannot stress enough the importance of having a consistent brand voice across ads, your website, emails, and customer communication. If you have several different voices for multiple channels, it will become near impossible for your customers to connect with your brand because they will not know what to expect from you.

Branding is not an entity in itself, it's the feeling your customers get when they resonate with your brand because their principles align with yours. GymShark, Sufian provides as an example, was founded on the basis of providing high-quality and stylish gym clothes. Even with their huge expansion, they haven’t lost touch with their initial incentive. And that’s been key to their success.

So know your brand principles. Without them, it will be difficult to communicate effectively with your employees, partners, and customers. They may gradually evolve over time but make sure that your brand stands clearly for something.

So aside from consistent and confident branding, what’s the key to Facebook advertising success?

Sufian shares a research technique SZN uses that he recommends anyone who wants to get into Facebook advertising to do:

• Every day SZN’s in-house designers do at least one hour of Facebook ad library research.

Use keyword research to see what your competitors are doing. Then scroll through Facebook’s ad library to see what active ads have been running for a long time. If you see an ad that has been running for at least 2 months, you know that it’s effective. That ad will provide great inspiration for your ads and content.

After conducting this research, SZN’s in-house designers share their concepts with the team to get feedback. This means that the entire team learns more every day about what makes a good Facebook ad and designers get to make tons of content to test and qualify.

TL;DR: Consistent branding + competitor research + good creatives = successful Facebook Advertising.

For more fantastic advice on Facebook Advertising, reach out to Sufian on LinkedIn, follow him on Instagram @sufian.asg, or visit https://szn-media.co/.

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It’s no secret that ecommerce has absolutely skyrocketed over the last couple of years. But what about retail? As shops are opening up again, more and more customers are craving that in-person shopping experience.

International retail executive and consultant, Stephen Rector, has extensive experience leading merchandise strategies in both retail and ecommerce. In 2017, Stephen helped establish Macy’s supply chain in China, creating a multimillion-dollar international expansion business. Now he works with several startups to accelerate growth for digital and in-store businesses. It’s safe to say that Stephen knows how to scale!

We’re very excited to welcome Stephen to The Ecom Show. Our CEO and podcast host Daniel Budai chats to Stephen about:

✔️ Stephen’s Journey into Retail and Ecommerce

✔️ Ecommerce Retail

✔️ Building Brand Awareness

✔️ Breaking Into Retail

Like many marketers, Stephen didn’t study digital strategy and marketing at university. Instead, he studied Political Science and International Relations at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Writing papers and preparing and delivering presentations, although unrelated to retail and ecommerce, proved invaluable to Stephen’s communication skills. Stephen says that he’s been utilizing the skills he acquired at university throughout his entire career.

Whilst in university, Stephen worked full time in retail as a Manager in a music store. When he graduated, his experience attracted companies in...you guessed it, retail!

Since then, Stephen has worked in merchandising, branding, sourcing, and pricing, swiftly honing his skills in retail to ecommerce in the 2000s

Huge ecommerce stores have an interesting relationship with retail. Amazon, for example, implements ecommerce tactics for data collection in all their physical stores. Cameras and shelf stock collect buyer data, behaviour, and conversion rates.

Stephen also points out that many Amazon stores across the US don’t have a checkout. Instead, customers are automatically charged when they add items to their basket.

Amazon isn’t alone in its efforts to enter the world of retail. The Founder of Gymshark, Ben Francis, speaks openly on his YouTube channel about opening physical stores with gyms where customers can work out and try on clothing.

If you’re thinking about moving your ecommerce store to retail, make sure to continue using all that valuable data you’ve been collecting!

Stephen points out that it’s harder to get brand awareness in-store than it is online because retail is saturated with brands that so many people are familiar with.

Stephen advises that the vast majority of sellers need to build brand awareness online before even thinking about trying to get into a retail store.

And brand awareness building doesn’t stop once you get to retail. Stephen praises Casper Mattresses for having a fantastic ecommerce strategy and partnering with Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond. In order to scale, it’s clear that you need as many eyes on you as possible both online and offline.

Daniel and Stephen agree that building brand awareness online is the first step towards breaking into retail. Other than this, Stephen identifies the 2 biggest challenges of doing business with retailers:

1. Breaking through the wall to get through to them
2. Managing costs correctly

Getting through to retailers isn’t a walk in the park. Aside from online branding, use your network as much as you can. If you have anyone with retail connections - get in touch! You can also find specialists on how to enter retail relationships or partnerships on LinkedIn.

Evaluate how much it costs to make your merchandise before meeting your retailer. Your retailer will be aggressively pushing down costs on their end as much as possible. Know your stuff, and know your profit margin. Take a look at your competitors in your chosen store, their price point and category. What’s your differentiation? It’s all about presentation and profit.

TL;DR - If you’re thinking about going into in-store retail, your first step is ecommerce.

For more advice on retail, ecommerce, and merchandising strategy, reach out to Stephen on LinkedIn.

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Innovation is the go-to word in ecommerce. Not only do ecommerce brands have to adapt to changing marketing trends, they also need to stay up to date with rapid technological progress.

Damiano Raveenthiran knows a thing or two about innovation. As the Founder and CEO of Startup Slang, Damiano has worked with design development services for over 2000 merchants including brands such as Dyson, Panasonic, and Glu.

We are delighted to welcome Damiano to The Ecom Show. Tune into episode 63 to hear our podcast host and CEO, Daniel Budai, and Damiano discuss:

✔️ Damiano’s Entrepreneurial Journey

✔️ Choosing the Right Marketing Agency

✔️ Using Innovative Technology

✔️ Startup Slang’s Checkout Boosters

✔️ 3 Steps You Need to Succeed in Ecommerce

Like most entrepreneurs, Damiano began freelancing. He’s always been interested in websites and technology, but it was only after he finished school that he began seeing how he could create a career in ecommerce.

After Damiano describes it as a ‘lot of trial and error’, he joined Fiverr as a freelancer in 2016. From learning how to build Shopify stores on YouTube, to developing his skills and experience on Fiverr, Damiano began earning 6 figures in his first year of joining the platform.

Damiano says he’s very grateful to Fiverr for getting him to where he is today. In 2017, he founded Startup Slang. What began as a design services platform evolved into the ‘full stack’ ecommerce agency it is today.

There is a heck of a lot of marketing agencies out there. There are pros and cons of those who offer more specific services and those who have a more generalist approach.

Damiano says that any agency that has the full ecommerce supply chain will have some services that are better than others. Startup Slang, for example, began with design and development, so naturally, their design and development is the strongest in their stack. Coupled with Damiano’s focus on automation, Startup Slang had strong foundations for its evolution into a growth package for startups.

Damiano’s advice is to look at company structure. It’s not about knowing if something is ‘better’ or ‘worse’, it’s more about discerning whether their strengths are channeled towards the processes you’re looking for.

One of Damiano’s proudest ventures involves a furniture store. Furniture ecommerce, Damiano explains, is one of Startup Slang’s strengths. Once you solve problems for one store, you’ve solved most of the problems for the others.

Startup Slang connected one of their furniture stores in the US with a mobile game where users can design their own home decor. This allowed players to purchase in-game furniture using in-game currency. The app has about 3 million players per day, so it’s been a fantastic extra source of revenue for Startup Slang’s client.

Damiano’s case study gives a clear message to any merchants looking for agencies: look for agencies who have an innovative approach. Thinking outside the box in terms of marketing channels and technology really pays off.

Talking of innovation, Damiano chats to Daniel about Startup Slang’s new checkout boosters.

When you run a marketing campaign, you’re going to have a lot of people that don’t go through the entire funnel. That is, there are a lot of abandoned carts.

Damiano noticed that many of his clients had millions of dollars waiting in abandoned carts. An ecommerce store has the option to send out abandoned cart flows via email and SMS, but that’s usually where the touchpoints stop.

Startup Slang experimented with calling up customers who abandoned their carts. An abandoned cart call generally had 3 outcomes:

1. Return to cart and completion of the transaction
2. Customer is upselled
3. The customer doesn’t wish to complete their transaction but they offer a reason for doing so.

Even if a customer didn’t complete their transaction, their reason for not doing so offered great data for sales funnel improvement. Startup Slang saw fantastic results for their merchants, even doubling conversion rates in many cases.

Watch this space for StartupSlang’s upcoming Abandoned Cart Caller app!

Over the last 3, Damiano has worked with over 2000 merchants. It’s safe to say he knows startups, and he knows ecommerce. Damiano advices that failed ecommerce startups miss 3 crucial steps:

If you don’t figure your product out, you’re doing a disservice to your brand and customers. Don’t start with anything else, not even your website, until you know your product.

Once you know your product. Make sure your content - videos, photographs, text, design etc is top-notch. Use everything necessary to talk to your audience.

Now we could talk about CRO until the cows come home. Once you’ve done the initial work of making sure that your customer/product experience is perfect and the content is really speaking to your audience then you’ll have a much higher success rate. Also - never forget good customer service.

Thank you so much for joining us, Damiano. If you want to find out more about ecommerce and web development, connect with Damiano on LinkedIn or visit https://startupslang.com/.

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In the ever-evolving world of ecommerce, it’s time to go beyond customer satisfaction. You need to understand what your customer is seeking.

This is the philosophy behind Raj De Datta’s best-selling book, ‘The Digital Seeker: A Guide for Digital Teams to Build Winning Experiences’. Raj is the Co Founder and CEO of Bloomreach, a leading Digital Experience Platform for ecommerce. Bloomreach combines unified customer data with AI predictive decisions to create a winning digital experience for ecommerce customers, or should we say, seekers.

We’re very excited to hear Raj and our podcast host Daniel Budai discuss:

✔️Bloomreach

✔️Understanding What the Customer is Seeking

✔️The Effect of COVID-19 on Ecommerce

✔️Using Customer Data Effectively and Responsibly

Raj Co-Founded Bloomreach in 2009. What began as a data-driven search engine evolved into a platform that utilizes the full spectrum of ecommerce data and customer personalization.

Raj splits Bloomreach’s multiple features into three pillars of the customer journey:

1. Engagement
2. Inspiration
3. Discovery

The engagement pillar focuses on personalized marketing campaigns. Bloomreach uses first-party data to personalize every email, SMS, and brand-customer interaction.

Next comes inspiration. Bloomreach inspires customers to buy. This is all about content - creating beautiful creative ads that seek to address deeper customer motivation.

The third pillar, discovery, is aimed at navigation. Once a customer has decided to buy a particular product, a couch, for example, Bloomreach helps them discover the right one for them.

Essentially, Bloomreach addresses what the customer is seeking.

As a CEO of a company that powers nearly 25% of all ecommerce in the US and UK, Raj often has digital entrepreneurs call him and ask, “So what makes the winners win, and what makes the losers lose.”

So he wrote a book about it! The Digital Seeker is number 4 on The Wallstreet Journal’s business bestseller list. It’s safe to say that it's fantastic insight into what it takes to win at ecommerce.

Its thesis? Successful ecommerce and the best digital experiences are built for the seeker, not the customer. Winners don’t stop at customer satisfaction, they ask the question, “What is the customer seeking?”. 

People don’t buy dresses for the sake of buying dresses, they’re interested in expressing their style. If someone wants to buy some wood, it’s not for the sake of owning wood. Among many reasons, it could be to build a deck to entertain their friends, for example.

Ecommerce winners, Raj argues, study the underlying motivations behind customer conversion and build their digital experiences around them. The Digital Seeker is a guide on how to do exactly that. And of course, Bloomreach designs the customer experience around these principles.

It’s no secret that the COVID -19 pandemic has had a huge impact on ecommerce. Daniel and Raj discuss both its immediate impact and long term implications for ecommerce.

Raj describes the first few months of the outbreak as an era of ‘complete panic’ for ecommerce. People were worried about team members getting COVID, supply chains were breaking down, websites were crashing, international deliveries were seriously delayed, and ecommerce owners began to wonder what was going to happen to their cash flow.

In late Spring to earlier Summer 2020, Raj observed that people were beginning to realize that ecommerce was really taking off. Everyone was going online and ecommerce was struggling to keep up with this burst of customer interest and conversion.

As the pandemic continued, consumer behavior changed rather rapidly. At one phase, for example, everyone seemed to be interested in toilet paper, at another phase, it was egg and milk, at another, it was hair cutting equipment. The rapidly shifting spurts of interest were somewhat difficult to track. Two things seemed to define ecommerce during 2020: growth and unpredictability.

Daniel and Raj believe that the COVID-19 pandemic pushed ecommerce forward by 5 - 7 years. As of Summer 2021, we still don’t know when things will return to normal. One thing we can be sure of, however, is that ecommerce is here to stay. Not only has the industry seen incredible growth, but its sustainability has been well and truly established.

Now we can’t talk about ecommerce change without talking about Apple’s upcoming iOS 15 update. Raj for one is very excited about it.

Raj points out that the new update is not forbidding ecommerce stores to collect data, they’re stopping them from collecting data without permission and using it for spam. In other words, the iOS 15 update is one element in an ecommerce future that relies almost wholly on 1st party data.

Daniel and Raj agree that third party data is ineffective data. People don’t want to hear from stores they haven’t signed up to or even heard of. If anything, collecting data in this way is detrimental to brand reputation.

Another interesting point Raj raises is that generally Facebook users have a strong aversion to the data being collected. Spotify users, however, do not. The difference? Facebook uses its data collection to run ads; Spotify uses its data collection to recommend its users some fantastic music.

Spotify is a shining example of how customers are comfortable with data collection and usage as long as:

1. It’s collected with their permission
2. It’s used to create a good digital experience

The rundown? If you’re not using predictive AI technology in your ecommerce business you’re probably out of date. The scale of its reach has the potential to offer personalization to millions of customers. At the core of your ecommerce, you need to ask yourself, “What is my customer seeking?” and use that to choose an AI-driven platform that creates the best possible digital experience for your customer.

If you want to learn more about delivering a magical customer experience, connect with Raj on LinkedIn, visit www.bloomreach.com, and check out his book, ‘The Digital Experience’.

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