The Ecom Show

Choosing the Right Attribution Model for Your Ecommerce Store

Attribution Models are becoming an increasingly popular way to track the customer journey and conversion rates. Due to the upcoming changes in data privacy, it’s crucial to understand and implement every tool in your digital marketing arsenal.

We’re delighted to welcome Sofía Vargas Sandoval onto The Ecom Show podcast to tell us all about Attribution Models and how to use them.

With over 7 years of experience as a Digital Marketing Consultant, Sofía has managed digital marketing strategies for teams all over Latin America, the US, and Australia. We’re very happy to say that Sofía is also Budai Media’s Senior Account Manager!

Join Sofía and our CEO, Daniel Budai, for episode 61 of The Ecom Show for a discussion on:

✔️Attribution Models

✔️Google Analytics

✔️ Understanding Email Marketing and Conversion

✔️ Facebook Messenger Marketing  

So What Exactly is an Attribution Model?

An Attribution Model is a rule or set of rules that determine the customer touchpoint for conversion.

For example, if you’re using Klaviyo and a customer arrives at your store within 5 days of opening an email campaign or flow, their conversion is credited to Klaviyo. Every Attribution Model is of course adaptable; some businesses will attribute conversion to Klaviyo when a customer arrives at their store up to 60 after opening their email.

Sofía advises that narrowing attribution windows does not make your conversion data more accurate. It’s unusual for a customer to convert as soon as they see one form of advertisement. It’s likely that they’ve seen your product or brand across several different channels before arriving at your store.

Daniel and Sofía agree that choosing the right attribution model for your ecommerce store is an ‘art’. Unfortunately, we can’t always attribute conversion to your customer’s ‘last click’, nor can you simply choose a random model and stick with it.

Take a deep dive into your data and analytics across your marketing channels before trying out different Attribution Models. It’s a long process, but it’s worth it.

Talking of analytics…

Tracking Omnichannel Marketing on Google Analytics

Google Analytics supports most ecommerce apps and cross-channel data tracking, making them a fantastic resource for understanding assisted conversions.

Sofía observes that when people monitor conversions on Google Analytics they go to their Conversion Tab without noticing that there’s an option called ‘Assisted Conversion’, where you can set up and test different Attribution Models.

Here you can play with different scenarios, compare your customer’s first click with their last click, evaluate time decay, and more. There are tonnes of options available for tracking customer data and analyzing their journey.

Understanding Email Marketing and Conversion

Now, it’s been made very clear that we can’t get enough of email marketing and Klaviyo at Budai Media. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t take a holistic approach to digital marketing.

If you only use Klaviyo analytics, you’re not going to get a full picture of your customer journey which won’t help you select the right attribution model. Still use Klaviyo analytics - they’re great! But take a look at your other traffic sources too.

Sofía observes that a few years ago the conversation around marketing revolved around inbound vs outbound marketing. Now, the conversation is about how you merge and sync outbound traffic strategies and sources for a holistic retention marketing strategy.

Facebook Messenger Marketing

With the upcoming iOS 15 update and data protection changes, Sofía highly recommends Facebook Messenger Marketing and ReCart.

Sofía says that the open rates for Facebook Marketing Messages are “amazing”. It’s easy for customers to subscribe with a simple click, and what’s more, Instagram will start allowing sponsored messages this year. If you want to maximize your conversion rates, keep your finger on the pulse for this one.

And the best part is? ReCart integrates with SMSBump and Klaviyo for that all-important holistic approach.

Connect with Sofía on LinkedIn or visit her website to find out more about Attribution Models and understanding conversion rates.

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Supercharge Your CRO With Octane AI

 Ecommerce is changing. Recent changes in data privacy, such as the upcoming iOS 15 update, mean that ecommerce store owners need to adapt quickly to keep up to date with their customers.

 Introducing Octane AI. The all-in-one platform for direct data collection and CRO via Shop Quiz, personalized Messenger and SMS automation, and Opt in tools. Octane AI is transforming the customer and merchant journey.

 Ben Parr is the President and Co-Founder of Octane AI. Thousands of Shopify and Shopify plus merchants use Octane AI to engage, convert, and retain customers through innovative data collection and a personalized shopping experience.

We’re delighted to hear Ben and our podcast host Daniel Budai discuss CRO, personalizing your customer journey and:

✔️ Octane AI’s Origins

✔️ Octane AI’s Key Features

✔️ Engaging Quizzes for your Ecommerce Store

✔️ Getting Attention to your Ecommerce Store

Where did Octane AI Begin?

Ben Co-Founded Octane AI in 2016. Initially, Octane AI was primarily concerned with Messenger chatbots. Five years down the line, Octane AI’s main focus is now Zero Party Data.

Ben maintains that Octane AI’s founding principles remain the same:

“Helping customers and brand owners communicate is at the core of everything we do.”

Messenger Chatbots are still very important to Octane AI, but so are Shop Quizzes, personalized SMS automation, and omnichannel marketing. Like any digital entrepreneur, Ben is all about adaptability and evolution.

What does Octane AI do?

Octane AI does two main things:

1. Collects Data
2. Leverages Data

Octane AI uses Zero Party Data. That is, it collects data directly from customers via Shop Quiz, Messenger, and SMS communication. Ben warns against relying on third-party data. You don’t own third-party data, and it could be taken from you at any time. When you quiz customers on what products they’re looking for, you engage them in brand communication and collect direct data.

Octane AI then leverages this data to personalize the customer experience. Octane AI works perfectly with Klaviyo to segment your customers according to Octane AI’s data collection. This allows you to run targeted marketing campaigns.

Ben and Daniel agree that retaining customers is even more valuable than gaining customers. In Ben’s experience, the lifetime value (LTV) of customers who take quizzes usually goes up anywhere between 10 - 50% depending on the brand.

Shop Quiz Sounds Amazing - How do I Make My Questions Engaging?

Both Daniel and Ben say: Keep it Simple.

Your Shop Quiz doesn’t need to be 10 - 15 questions long. Keep it short and sweet. Ben’s advice is to imagine your ecommerce store as a physical store. When a customer walks in, what are they going to ask?

If you own a shoe shop, for example, it’s likely that your customers will ask about shoe size, width, material, or brands. So if you own an ecommerce shore store, it makes sense to quiz your customers on what shoe size, width, material, or brand they’re looking for. It’s really as simple as that!

Just one question can make all the difference. Ben gives another example of an ecommerce pet store asking its site visitors, “Cat or Dog?”. Just that one question drastically streamlines the customer’s journey towards conversion.

Getting Attention to Your Ecommerce Store

Ben has written an entire book about the science and psychology of capturing people’s attention: Captivology. So if you want a deep dive into grabbing your customer’s attention, we recommend checking it out!

Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet for capturing attention. But Ben does have a couple of tips for us:

✔️ Know what attention stage you’re at

If you’re just starting out in your ecommerce business, capturing attention is a different ballpark to someone who already has brand attention and wants to cast their net wider.

If your aim is to attract new customers, your strategy will be different to the aim of capturing and keeping the attention of existing customers.

Capturing attention will also vary according to different sub-sects of customers. That’s why it’s so important to segment your marketing strategy using detailed customer data.

✔️ Know your product

Your marketing will vary according to your product and buyer persona.

Beauty brands, for example, tend to really benefit from influencer marketing. If you’re selling high-end furniture, on the other hand, your focus would be better honed in on SEO and online ads.

Don’t try to capture attention from everywhere. Know where you’re going to get it first.

So What’s Next for Octane AI?

Ben is always alert to new trends in ecommerce. He says it’s not long before we see the end of 3rd party cookies. Octane AI is paving the way for Zero Party Data and innovative data collection and customer personalization tools.

Octane AI is always evolving. On the 14th of July 2021, Octane AI announced a brand new feature: Conversational Pop-ups. These integrate with Octane AI’s Shop Quiz tool to create an interactive pop-up that gathers additional customer data and recommends products.

It’s really no surprise that the Shopify Team voted Octane AI as the Best Store Front App. And that was before Conversational Pop-Ups!

Connect with Ben on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter; and visit Octane AI to supercharge your conversion rates.

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ReConvert: The Best App for Post-Purchase CRO

Shopify’s post-purchase thank you page has a 100% open rate. Not only that, it doubles up as an order update page. That means that your customer is very likely to return to this page several times to check their order status.

A great page right? Imagine all the post-purchase optimization you can do on that! The trouble is, that you can’t edit this page on Shopify by default.

That’s where ReConvert comes in.

Ruth Even Haim is the Co-Founder of StilyoApps and Creator of ReConvert, an app that allows you to customize your thank you page for personalized post-purchase optimization. Ruth has revolutionized the way we think about customer retention.

We’re very excited to hear Ruth and our podcast host Daniel Budai discuss customer retention, upselling, and:

✔️ ReConvert’s Origins

✔️ ReConvert’s Key Features

✔️ Using Pop-Ups Correctly

✔️ Maximizing Multiple Marketing Channels

✔️ Ruth’s upcoming projects

Where did ReConvert Begin?

StilyoApps began as a small family business at the end of 2018. Ruth, and her brother Eric, both had their own Shopify store and noticed something: their thank you pages weren’t being optimized. As Shopify thank you pages are also used as order-update pages, they saw a lot of wasted potentials.

They decided to change this. In comes ReConvert. Ruth and Eric created an app that allows you to edit your post-purchase page any way you like. Add upsells, product recommendations, pop-ups, post-purchase surveys, and even videos!

It’s no surprise that Shopify quickly picked ReConvert as one of its star picks. The rest, as they say, is history! Ruth says that every happy customer is another great milestone for ReConvert.

ReConvert’s Features: Let’s Break it Down

ReConvert’s features fall into three categories

1. Communication with Customers

These include text, images, and videos. These act as branding tools to build customer trust and retention. You’re free to add personalized thank you messages and creative ads.

2. Receiving Information from Customers

Here you can collect customer data. Add a post-purchase and product comment widget for immediate feedback. You’re also able to collect customer birthdays and sync this data to Klaviyo, SMSbump, and a range of different marketing platforms.

3. Upselling

This is by far ReConvert’s most popular feature. Upsell and cross-sell with recommended products, customizable Call-To-Action buttons, and pop-up discounts with timers.

Talking of PopUps - How do I Use Them?

Ruth and Daniel both love a good popup - when they’re done well.

Getting too carried away with upselling and popups can ruin your customer’s experience and put them off your brand entirely. Ruth says that whilst you don’t want a popup every second you also don’t want to waste their potential.

Daniel ran a popup A/B test with one of his clients last year. He found that if a customer sees a popup immediately upon arriving at your site, they’re not going to be receptive to your offer. If a pop-up appears, later on, they’re far more likely to check it out.

Ruth and Daniel agree that finding out the average time a customer spends on your website is a great way to figure out when your popup should appear.

As for exit-intent popups? They’re a no-brainer: go for it. Your customer is leaving your site anyway so there’s nothing to lose from giving them one last chance to convert.

Maximizing Multiple Channels

So if you’re using ReConvert, do you need to bother with Email, SMS, and Facebook Messenger Marketing?

Ruth and Daniel couldn’t be more confident with this one: YES.

Ruth says that customer retention is crucial to brand success. So you shouldn’t limit yourself to one marketing channel. ReConvert isn’t a replacement for Email, SMS, and Facebook Messenger Marketing, it is a fantastic addition.

It’s very rare to make a sale from one channel. People use multiple devices and platforms. Your customer may have converted at your website because they saw your brand in social media ads, emails, SMS, and Facebook Messenger. Successful branding is all about creating patterns of familiarity.

Don’t rely on one channel: concentrate on integration. Omnichannel marketing is your best friend.

So What’s Next for Ruth?

Ruth doesn’t want to stop at ReConvert. Now she wants an app for the top of the funnel.

This will run complementary to ReConvert to complete your sales funnel. Its focus? Upselling before that thank you page.

And boy does Ruth know her popups and upselling! We’re definitely keeping an eye out for this one.

ReConvert is a powerful yet easy-to-use tool that does wonders for your conversion rates. We couldn’t recommend this app enough.

On the next episode of The Ecom Show, we’re welcoming another fantastic guest to tell us all about Octane AI. So stay tuned!

In the meantime, check out our other episodes to find out more about branding, conversion, omnichannel marketing, and much much more.

Connect with Ruth on LinkedIn and download ReConvert to revolutionize your CRO.

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Selling on Amazon in 2021. What’s Changed?  

Amazon is the largest online marketplace. According to Statistica, Amazon reached 200 million paying Prime members in the first quarter of this year. With 1.6 million active sellers, selling on Amazon is a whole different ballpark to Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce.

What can we learn from someone who’s earned millions of dollars for several ecommerce brands on Amazon?

Liran Hirschkorn is the Founder and CEO of Incrementum Digital, an Amazon Focused Marketing Agency. He’s been working closely with Amazon for the past 7 years. A lot has changed since 2014, and Liran has a lot of wisdom to impart.

We’re delighted to hear Liran and our podcast host Daniel Budai discuss the importance of data-driven selling, adapting quickly to changes in ecommerce, as well as:

✔️ How Amazon has changed

✔️ How to stand out in Amazon

✔️ Using other ecommerce stores with Amazon

✔️ Developing a connection with Amazon customers

Amazon’s Fast-Paced Changes

Liran says that the Amazon sellers of today are a heck of a lot more sophisticated and knowledgeable than those of 2014. While advertising on Amazon wasn’t really important in 2014, you can’t do without it now.

In 2016 Amazon stopped allowing incentivized reviews. Even if your customer states that they received your product for free in exchange for their honest review, Amazon simply doesn’t allow it. This really mixed things up for Amazon marketers, because, as Liran points out, reviews are fundamental to making sales.

We all saw how Amazon sales absolutely sky-rocketed with the onset of COVID-19. Amazon gained 50 million new Prime customers and ecommerce soared.

It’s no surprise that Liran can’t overstate the importance of adaptability and knowing your data.

Reviews on Amazon: Are They Everything?

Short answer: Not quite, but they are important.

The more positive reviews you have, the more protection you have over your competitors. Of course, this depends on what you’re selling. If you have lots of competitors selling similar products to yours, reviews are going to be a lot more important than those for an original product.

But there are other ways to stand out. Liran says that creatives - specifically good images with infographics - are great for sales. Customers are unlikely to read a wall of text about your product, so highlight (in a few keywords) its best features in your images.

Talking of keywords that sell - make sure you know them. And we’re not just talking about one or two here, Liran wants an extensive list. Daniel and Liran strongly agree that Amazon is used as a search platform much like Google, so SEO couldn’t be more crucial.

Knowing Your Goals

When you decide to sell on Amazon, your 1st goal should not be to generate profit immediately. It should be maximizing sales velocity, engaging your customers, and working to generate enough reviews for people to consider your product.

A fantastic way to develop a relationship with your Amazon customers is to put inserts in their products thanking them for their purchase and providing incentive for them to leave a good review and/or head to your landing page. This could be an email or text sign-up to a coupon, giveaway, or a limited-time offer, whatever works best for your brand.

Selling Your Product on Multiple Channels

If you’re a Shopify seller, you might feel worried about launching a product on Amazon. Don’t be. You just need to do your research. Some products won’t do as well on Amazon as they do on Shopify, some will do even better! It’s just a matter of knowing which.

There are 200 million Prime customers who do most of their shopping on Amazon. At the same time, there are lots of people who don’t shop at Amazon at all. Being on multiple channels gives you the opportunity to appeal to different customer bases. With the right strategy, this will do wonders for your sales.

Selling on Amazon in 2021

Amazon favors new products. So make your first sale count. Liran cannot emphasize enough the importance of product research and knowing your data.

Liran recommends Helium 10’s tool X-Ray for checking branded traffic, understanding the best keywords to use, and digging into competitor data.

There’s still so much to learn about Amazon. Liran’s podcast, Ecommerce Mindset is filled to the brim with fantastic advice for succeeding on Amazon and Shopify. Check it out on Spotify and iTunes.

And while you’re on a podcasting kick, why not take a look at our other episodes for more expert advice on ecommerce? The Ecom Show has well over 50 episodes now, so you’re certain to find something perfectly suited to your business goals.

Connect with Liran on Linkedin and visit Incrementum Digital to keep up to date with Amazon’s latest advertising strategies.

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Think Small to Think Big: Developing a Growth Strategy that Works

To say Aistis is an expert in ecommerce growth would be an understatement.

Aistis Matulaitis, the Co-Founder and CEO of Kandy Agency, got into digital marketing when he was just 15 years old. What began as a side hustle turned into a passion. He now channels his digital marketing expertise into Kandy Agency. Kandy Agency helps ecommerce businesses diversify their streams of income, improve customer retention, and increase their revenue to 7 and 8 figures!

We’re very excited to hear Aistis and our podcast host Daniel Budai discuss how to build an effective ecommerce campaign using:

✔️Cost-efficient creative video marketing

✔️Offer testing

✔️Competitor research

✔️A good product-market fit

Research and Brainstorming

Kandy Agency is all about research. Data mining, review mining, competitor mining, the works. This is crucial to those all-important brainstorming sessions where marketing strategists propose different ideas and strategies for their client’s video ad.

Then comes the fun part - the shoot! Kandy Agency chooses their locations, models, color palette - everything, with the client’s buyer persona in mind. When it comes to the final cut, Kandy Agency hones in its focus by referring back to their proposed strategies for edits and re-edits.

Test, test, and test again!

Putting out different video ads is essential to A/B testing. When you don’t know what works best, you’re not going to be able to scale your ecommerce, simple as that.

Kandy Agency A/B tests several video ads per client. When they see what works best, it’s back to brainstorming.

Aistis says the biggest challenge in video marketing is not the shoot itself, or even the editing, it’s entering the first step of the marketing funnel: research. Once you’ve mined your data, narrowed your focus and come up with the best ideas for your videos, the rest is relatively simple. If you’re advertising on Facebook, you’ll get some great data on what works and what doesn’t that you can use to advance your digital marketing strategy.

TikTok vs Facebook

We’re all aware that TikTok is a massively expanding platform. With 1 billion users, it’s no surprise that Kandy Agency has started launching TikTok ads for their clients.

Aistis notes that creating TikTok ads requires a different approach to creating video content on Facebook. For starters, you have more stylistic freedom in Facebook video ads. TikTok ads, on the other hand, have a very distinct style. Keeping up with music trends, for example, is far more important to getting noticed on TikTok ads than it is to Facebook ads. If an ad works on Facebook it’s not going to necessarily work on TikTok, and vice versa.

The plus side to running video ads on TikTok is that all you really need is an iPhone. TikTok favors simple editing already built into the platform.

The Blue Ocean Strategy

Both Daniel and Aistis are massive fans of the Blue Ocean Strategy - creating an uncontested marketing space. Creating and capturing new demand is one of the most effective ways to scale your ecommerce.

One of Aistis’s favorite examples of a product that utilized the Blue Ocean Strategy is the false magnetic eyelash. Magnetic false eyelashes took a popular product (false eyelashes that are glued on) and modified its features. It appeals to people who already wear false eyelashes and to those who don’t because they find them difficult to glue on. By modifying one feature of an already popular product a whole new product was made - one that not only appeals to an existing audience, but also creates an entirely new one.

Aistis and Daniel agree that your product needs to be unique; it needs to be a problem solver, and it needs that ‘wow’ factor for your buyer persona. Kandy Agency it’s all about narrowing focus so that their clients are presented with exactly what works. Your ecommerce strategy should be no different.

Daniel’s best advice? “Dig into your niche as much as you can.” If you try appealing to everyone, you’ll appeal to no one. In other words, scaling your ecommerce is about narrowing your focus.

Digital marketing can seem like an absolute maze of emails, video content, and website optimization, but Aistis assures that these are all strongly grounded in three principles:

“When you have a good product, good content, and a good offer, you have every piece in place.”

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves Aistis!

Make sure to connect with Aistis on LinkedIn and check out Kandy Agency to discover even more ways to scale your ecommerce.

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Branding is fundamental to marketing yourself and your business. For this episode of The Ecom Show join Graphic Designer and Design Consultant Jerry Bravo and Daniel Budai to hear all about:

✔️ What branding is

✔️ What branding isn’t

✔️ Branding elements

✔️ Strategizing long-term brand growth

The Cambridge Dictionary defines branding as “the act of giving a company a particular design or symbol in order to advertise its products and services.”

Jerry disagrees. This may have cut it two years ago, but as branding develops, so does its definition.

That’s why Jerry prefers Tom Goodwin’s definition of branding:

“Brands are essentially patterns of familiarity, meaning, fondness, and reassurance that exist in the minds of people.”

Branding is not about logos, jingles, and slogans - it’s about what the customer feels when all these elements and more come together.

Map out your best branding marketing strategy with Jerry’s best advice on:

Brand Substance - The Essence of the Brand

Purpose

• Why the brand or the product exists
  

Vision

• Image of the brand for the future
  

Mission

• What the brand is known for

The purpose, vision, and mission are the core assets for any brand.

Brand Positioning - How the Brand is Positioned in the Market and for the Consumer

Values

• Guiding the behavior of the brand - its speech, marketing, and morals

Audience Persona

• Creating the most detailed audience persona. This will guide every aspect of your brand development.
• Brands can have multiple audience personas. If they sell multiple products, for example, they may want to develop different personas for each product.

Competitor Research

• This is crucial to positioning your brand.
• It’s very important to understand what your competitors are doing and where they are in your industry.

Differentiation

• This comes hand in hand with competitor research.
• Differentiating yourself from your competitors.
• Creating a unique brand affirms your position in the market.

Positioning Statement

• This goes hand in hand with your vision, mission, and statement.
• A concise statement that gives the brand direction.

Archetypes

• Based on Carl Jung’s 12 personality archetypes. Jung created 12 archetypes to describe innate models of personality that guide behaviors and human identity.
• Every brand will fall into one of these archetypes and use it to guide its brand substance and positioning.
• Disney, for example, uses the ‘magic’ archetype.
• Nike uses the ‘hero’ archetype in all its marketing. They address the consumer as a ‘hero’, the main character.

Brand Persona

Personality

• Comes hand in hand with archetypes.
• How your brand speaks and behaves in the market.
• How your brand addresses its consumers.
• Defining the personality of the brand enables you to use all its assets effectively.

Language

• Formal or informal
• This should be consistent with your brand. If you have an informal brand, you don’t want a formal voice, and vice versa. This creates a dissonance in the minds of your audience persona and your brand.

Tone of Voice

• This speaks to the core of your audience persona.
• Are you playful or serious? Poetic or blunt? The tone of voice is very important to developing a close relationship with your audience.

Brand Communication

Name

• Your front-line. Your name is the first thing your consumers will see and memorize the more they’re exposed to it.
• This has to be memorable and consistent with your branding assets.

Tagline

• Not all brands use taglines, but this is a good element to consider.
• Much like a catch-phrase. For example, Nike’s ‘Just Do It’.
• The more you use your tagline, the more your target audience will associate it with your brand without even needing your logo or your name.

Key Messages

• Define your key messages and how you will be using all your brand assets.

Brand Identity

Storytelling

• One of the most useful assets for constructing your brand - it creates an experience for your audience.
• Your brand’s journey.
• Storytelling to engage your audience persona. Its genre depends on your audience persona and your brand’s communication style.

Logo

• This is not a synonym of branding.
• A graphic representation of the brand.
• Based on your audience persona.

Typography

• Formal or informal.
• Very important to define as this will be in every aspect of your brand.
• This will influence your brand’s character and image.

Brand Persona

Color

• Often influenced by Color Theory - the theory that certain colors evoke certain emotions.
• If you put all brands into a color spectrum, you’ll often find that they’re grouped into certain colors in accordance with their brand substance and identity. For example, medical brands often fall into the blue spectrum, and this color is associated with cleanliness, formality, and trust.
• Color is very important to consider, as using an unusual color for your brand puts it at risk of being associated with a different industry.

Image Style

• Establishing an image style for every representation of your brand establishes consistency.
• Branding is all about consistency so as to make your brand familiar and memorable to your target audience.

Iconography

• Creating a brand experience through cohesiveness.
• Establishing icons that you will be using throughout your brand.
• If you’re not consistent with your iconography, you’re not allowing your audience to create patterns of familiarity.

Graphic Illustrations

• Graphic representation of the brand.
• It’s crucial to stay consistent. As always, not staying consistent damages your brand in the minds of your consumers.
• This doesn’t mean you have to keep the same graphic illustrations indefinitely, but make sure to keep any changes within your brand strategy as it evolves. If you change your graphic illustrations every couple of months, you’re not allowing your customer to associate certain graphics with your brand.

Presence

• How your brand behaves in the media - what values does it represent in blogs, podcasts, and shows, for example?
• For example, if your brand does a lot of charity work, it will begin to build an association with certain values.

Website

• Having a website is essential.
• In 2021, if your brand doesn’t have a website, you’re telling your consumer that you’re not 100% on the market.
• A portal of information for your brand. Where people can consult, see, and buy your product or service.

Social Channels

• How your brand behaves in social media.
• Very useful for establishing your brand image.
• Make sure that your social channels are consistent with your website.

Content

• Your marketing strategy.
• You must create a marketing strategy for your brand. If you do not create a strategy it will be impossible to define consistency.
• Just by defining your brand assets, you will start to see a marketing strategy.

Physical Space

• Not all companies have a physical space, but if yours does, you need to create a unique and tangible experience for your consumer.
• Your customer service must be top-notch.
• Consider using scent in your space. The smell is one of the closest senses to memory.

Fundamentally, creating a successful brand is about applying these elements well and applying them consistently. This allows your customer to experience those all-important patterns of familiarity and fondness - you just have to know the difference between being consistent and being static. That’s why Jerry and Daniel are so focused on brand development.

Developing your brand is developing your business. So make sure to connect with Jerry on LinkedIn for more wisdom on branding and graphic design.

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Agile and Adaptable Ecommerce: The Power of Omnichannel Marketing and the Nurturing of Customers Across a Variety of Platforms

What can we work from the marketing genius behind one of America’s fastest-growing cosmetics brands?

Margaux Vallino Reese has helped her company, Colorescience, reach new heights over the last few years, masterfully navigating through the perils of COVID in 2020 to not only stay afloat but thrive as well!

We’re thrilled to hear from both Margaux and our podcast host Daniel Budai to discuss the importance of adapting to circumstances that are out of our control, as well as:
✔️ The effects of COVID in ecommerce

✔️ Shopify vs. custom websites

✔️ Consistency in an omnichannel strategy

✔️ When to use an agency vs. when to hire in-house

✔️ Succeeding in the second half of 2021

The Rise of Ecommerce

For most online brands, COVID-19 brought with it a wave of new customers, including millions of first-time shoppers who were completely new to online shopping. Due to the nature of Colorescience’s business model, it was tougher to make things work despite having an online presence.

Colorescience sells many dermatological products with the help of physicians they partner up with, which was obviously disrupted with more and more people confined to their homes. Margaux explained the importance of “staying agile” and adapting to the circumstances, which was why they chose to pivot into more online sales during 2020 while still supporting their partners and giving them access to the same deals.

Choose Your Website

With the rise of platforms like BigCommerce or Shopify, brands no longer need to expend endless time, money, and other resources to maintain their website. Margaux realized that switching over from a custom website to Shopify would ultimately save time, make it easier to add integrations, and address the costly bottleneck of website issues that often occur with custom websites.

Now Colorescience is in complete control with their new Shopify website, which allows them to allocate their time for better use elsewhere on the creative side instead of fretting about website issues. Shopify also makes it a whole lot easier to optimize for mobile, which is essential when brands like Colorescience receive upwards of 80% of all traffic on mobile.

Omnichannel Consistency

Colorescience is unique in that it has various channels, including offline partnerships with doctor’s practices across the United States. It’s a careful walk along the razor’s edge to keep these partners happy when prioritizing the growth of their online presence and not cannibalize the business of these doctors helping sell their products.

Maintaining consistency in voice, style, and deals across all channels is crucial for big ecommerce brands, especially if you want to hold the trust of your community and partners.

Agency vs. In-House

Aside from media buying, Margaux and her team prefer to keep all reactive marketing in-house. A company needs to take ownership over its voice, brand, and creatives because, ultimately, no one knows the brand better than them.

You can hire for specific channels and use agencies to scale accordingly, but the true essence of a company comes from within!

Thrive in 2021

We’ve heard it before, but it never gets old… knowing your customer is the most important thing you can do as a business. If you don’t take the time to learn about your customers, you can expect they will eventually jump to other brands.

With the rise of customer acquisition, it’s more important than ever to focus on retention. Run surveys, give incentives, and never be afraid to ask the customer what they expect and want from your brand. The answers will make or break you!

Reach out to Margaux on Linkedin, or check out Colorescience for incredible skincare products!

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Immutable Management Principles to Grow a Team of 80

We’ve spoken to plenty of ad buyers and agency owners, but never before have we gotten such good insight into team building!

We’re blessed to welcome Scott Seward into the mix this week as he sits down with our Budai Media CEO and podcast host Daniel Budai!

From poker player to ecommerce brand owner to master marketer and co-founder of Right Hook Media, there is plenty we can learn from a talented person like Scott like:

✔️ How ecommerce has changed over the last decade

✔️ Unconventional paths to ecommerce

✔️ Finding Talent

✔️ Figuring out who is and isn’t suitable for your team

✔️ Advice for ecommerce for the rest of 2021

2011 vs 2021

Scott has been around for ages, so he’s got enough experience to recognize the ever-changing landscape of ecommerce. Back in the day, Facebook Ads were just creative posts checked for basic stats by savvy marketing minds; Engagement was driven before data could be attributed. Email marketing was also crucial for building lists of leads and bringing in traffic.

Now things have come full circle, at least with email marketing! Despite the constant worries that email marketing is dying, this media channel hangs around! Now it’s more important than ever to get on multiple channels instead of just buying Facebook Ads.

How to Get Started

A common theme in ecommerce is that there are lots of bold, savvy entrepreneurs starting businesses. Scott got his start after linking up with some poker friends into affiliate marketing and studying it early in the morning before heading to work.

That studying has paid off for Scott, but there is no reason why more people can’t follow in his footsteps. Now he is a significant marketing maverick at a lucratively successful company, so don’t lose sight of your goals and never rest until you see progress.

Talent Acquisition

We always talk about customer acquisition, but no one ever talks about finding talent! Both Scott and Daniel agree that you shouldn’t just post job openings as they roll in. Instead, see what they can do and judge accordingly.

Suppose you find someone with undeniable talent (especially somewhere where there isn’t much intelligence, bring them in. You can also make room and see how it goes if you want to add someone truly special, but there is a time and a place for everything.

Team Limitations

Got a Head of Culture? That’s great! It pays to set a great working culture within the company, but what should you do if you’ve hired the wrong person for a position?

Hire slow and fire quickly is the conventional advice! You can tell a lot by someone based on their work ethic, learning abilities, etc. Still, there is one thing that is important among all companies, and that is being motivated and free enough to achieve your goal without taking energy from your boss. If Scott doesn’t see that, it’s likely they won’t be with Right Hook Digital for too long.

Rest of the Year

IOS is changing the landscape this year thanks to Apple, and with a renewed focus on security, people want to complain about how hopeless the project will be. Finally, Scott believes you shouldn’t grow too obsessive over the past data, because there is no need for you to get the whole picture from a limited data pet. Don’t ever be too proud to take advice or listen!

Reach out to Scott Seward and Right Hook Media on both Facebook and their own website!

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Evolution of Ecommerce Platforms: From the Early Days of the Internet and Bespoke Websites to Easy to Use Software like BigCommerce

Ever wonder what the early days of ecommerce looked like?

Jim Herbert from BigCommerce is one of the original online marketers from back in the day when bespoke ecommerce websites were the only way for merchants to establish a web presence!

From coding as a youngster to studying computer science in university to owning an agency and becoming the Vice President at BigCommerce for the entire Europe and Middle East regions, it’s safe to say there aren’t many people more qualified in the world to discuss the nuances of ecommerce.

Join our loveable podcast host and CEO, Daniel Budai, and our fantastic guest Jim as they discuss topics like:

✔️ Evolution of ecommerce

✔️ BigCommerce origin story

✔️ The difference between ecommerce platforms

✔️ Importance of partnerships and integrations

✔️ What’s next for BigCommerce

Then and Now

Back when the internet was relatively new, Jim Herbert was already working on the bleeding edge of ecommerce! Without ecommerce platforms readymade for shop owners, early “digital marketers” were more like coders.

Today’s marketers stand tall on top of the shoulders of these early internet pioneers like Jim, allocating a lot less time on tech and focusing more energy on building their brand. Now, the price of hosting and building an online ecommerce shop is a tiny fraction of what it once costed, leveling the playing field and making the dream of owning an online business that much more accessible.

Birth of BigCommerce

In 2009, Eddie Machalaani and Mitch Harper saw a need for an all-encompassing platform that would enable business owners and merchants to run their stores online. Since then, BigCommerce has grown into a multi-national company, moved its headquarters to Texas in the USA, grown its team to over a thousand people worldwide, and flourished in the ecommerce space!

Aside from helping countless merchants establish their brand online and giving them the tools to succeed, BigCommerce had its IPO back in 2020 to become publicly listed, all but guaranteeing it’s here for the long haul.

BigCommerce vs. Competitors

When it comes to “competitors,” Jim has a unique thought process. While Shopify is a household name and admittedly larger than BigCommerce, there is no need to compete with one another in the classical sense.

Shopify is fantastic with great software and easy to use interface for customers, which is why BigCommerce has opted to go in a different direction. They’ve managed to keep the process as simple as possible while still providing tons of freedom and options to choose their payment methods, apps, and other features for their store.

Integrations and Partnerships

One of the main differences between BigCommerce and Shopify? The amount of available third-party apps. BigCommerce believes in a more closed ecosystem with heavily vetted, high-quality apps for its users to choose from. Only the best tools and additions can be leveraged on BigCommerce, while Shopify allows its users to choose from an endless array of apps with varying levels of quality.

It might sound like an advantage to have a wide variety, but Shopify doesn’t guarantee the quality of all the third-party apps available. At the same time, BigCommerce makes the decision as pain-free as possible.

What Lies Ahead?

The world is constantly changing, so it’s impossible to map out the next 5 years or a major company, but Jim and his team have their eyes on the future of ecommerce.

That means better understanding how users interact with online platforms, figuring out what technology will be relevant in a few years, offering more native language services in different countries, and improving core features like SEO or UI/UX so customers can improve their conversion and average order rates.

If you’re eager to start your brand off on the right foot or switch to a different platform, check out BigCommerce or reach out directly to Jim via email at [email protected]!

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The Secrets of Scaling an Ecommerce Business and the Three Most Important Metrics to Focus on 

He’s been in scaling up companies in the ecommerce space for years now, and we’re thrilled to welcome Chase Clymer on to The Ecom Show!

From marketing agency to ecommerce agency, to Shopify specific ecommerce agency, Electric Eye has been growth hacking brands for long enough to know the secrets to unlock maximum potential and raking in more dough in a sustainable way.

You can hear all about the origins of Shopify over twenty years ago, or the three pillars of scaling straight from our company founder and podcast host Daniel Budai, and our esteemed guest Chase in addition to:

✔️ The secrets of scaling

✔️ When to focus on acquisition

✔️ The importance of a strong conversion rate

✔️ Building a Content Machine

✔️ Most important metrics to focus on

Three Pillars of Scaling Up

At Electric Eye, they aren’t afraid to tell the customer they’re wrong. After all, why would you hire an expert only to say to them what to do?

Often times Chase and his team are given instructions, and they’re used to telling their clients no. Using the Socratic Method, you can quickly uncover the motivations and ambitions of a brand owner and deduce what they are after. The answer is usually always the same: to make more money!

It’s essential to make sure all your affairs are in order before you even considering bringing in a marketing agency, so be sure to take care of that low-hanging fruit first!

Is it Time?

Chase has heard it all before… Especially clients begging to push the “magic button” and help bring lots of traffic to their store. The thing is, focusing on the acquisition of customers is a lot like setting your cash on fire if your store isn’t equipped to deal with the customer’s needs!

Chase recommends fine-tuning the website and improving the customer experience before you ever purchase a single social media ad because that money won’t be put to good use otherwise. Waiting until the opportune moment is the move, and at that point, your website is poised to take off into the stratosphere.

Convert, Convert, Convert

If you think of your website as a machine, and your conversion rate as your output for a given amount of time, would it make sense to keep giving that machine more to do when it’s clearly broken?

If you can’t manage to find a healthy conversion rate for your ecommerce brand, new customer acquisition should take a backseat! Focus on low-hanging fruit like website speed, layout, graphics, photos, and other simple ways to improve the customer experience. You can theoretically double your business size just by doubling that conversion rate, so every business owner should be focusing on that!

Start From Scratch

If you’re starting from nothing at the very beginning of your ecommerce journey, Chase has a simple piece of advice for you.

Pump out high-quality content regularly, depending on your size. A small company can afford to release monthly content that is engaging and trust-building, while significant brands should be doing this daily!

That means high-quality creatives, advertisements, articles, and other engaging content to bring more value to customers. Building content on a repeatable cadence is a lot of work, but it’s more than worth it. The brands refreshing their creatives and pumping out 20x more content are making a heck of a lot more money than the brands neglecting to do so.

Fewer Words, More Meaning

AOV, Conversion Rate, and Sessions are critical indicators for success in ecommerce, and we also can’t forget about Lifetime Customer Value either. Average order value is a fantastic barometer for success, while lifetime customer value hets you know how much you should be spending on advertising and acquisition.

If you can manage to rein these items in, there’s no telling what you can achieve with an influx of traffic spurred on by some Facebook or Google ads.

Check out more on Chase’s LinkedIn or his podcast, Honest Ecommerce.

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