Ecommerce Growth Ideas 2020 Last
Ecommerce Growth Ideas 2020 Last
Ecommerce Growth Ideas 2020 Last
Featuring
To help you level up your game in 2020, we’ve joined forces with 53 internationally
renowned experts in fields like positioning, conversion optimization, advertising,
eCommerce management, entrepreneurship, and many more.
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BOB MOESTA
President & CEO of the Re-Wired Group
1
Bob Moesta, innovator and new venture expert on creating, developing & launching new products &
services, is a pioneer of the Jobs-to-be-Done theory. A visual thinker, teacher and creator, he has worked
on & helped launch more than 3,500 new products, services and businesses across nearly every industry.
8. Personal growth comes first whether they’re our own products or we’re
selling somebody else’s products, we like
The less obvious kind of growth
to talk about how great those products are,
is personal growth.
and that’s a good thing. But often, it’s more
- Are you developing new skills, important to identify what the customer’s
new understanding? pain point for that product is, and simply
- Is this part of what you’re doing? point out how that product is going to
- Are you improving as a manager solve it.
or as an entrepreneur?
- Are you learning other kinds of more The next thing is to use the great variety of
technical skills or specific skills? non-conscious triggers out there. There
are some companies that do this very well.
This is one kind of growth that If you go to many travel websites such
is really important, and it’s easy as booking.com, there is so much social
to make it like that when you’re psychology. Their pages are getting people
managing a business every day. to book now; they show how many people
You manage all day, and each day is pretty book the property. They use scarcity:
much like the previous one. So, focus on “There’s only one room left at this price.”
that growth. In some cases, that may mean When they show up, all of a sudden, they
taking advantage of outside opportunities can’t believe that 50 people have booked
to learn, while in others, it might just this in the last two days. That’s social proof.
involve creating those opportunities Scarcity and Social Proof are part of the
yourself inside your business. fundamental seven principles, of which
there used to be six but now, with Unity,
9. Understand the user’s there are seven. So many things are like
this.
pain points
Look at what the user’s pain points are. This science has been around for 30+
These are important for whatever product years, but many businesses just haven’t
you’re selling. When we have products, bothered to use it.
ROGER DOOLEY
Marketing author and keynote speaker
3
Roger Dooley is an expert in the use of brain and behavioral research into improving marketing, sales,
customer experience, and corporate culture. Roger has worked with a number of Fortune 500 firms and
entrepreneurial start-ups, providing insights on building high-traffic and customer-centric businesses.
15. Start with your customer extremely important, but you should
always start with the customer.
There is a study from the Rockefeller
Group where they found out that the
If you look at the rise and fall of all
main reason 68 percent of all people stop
companies, they turn from a customer-
being a customer – or don’t even become
centric company into a business-
a customer – is because they have the
driven one, and they fail to see the
feeling that the company doesn’t
frustrations and goals of their customers.
care about them. That’s way more
Usually, e-commerce businesses
important than customer service or your
spend more money on customer
competitors having a better price. That’s
acquisition because they view it as
one problem. People have the feeling
a quick way of increasing revenue.
that companies don’t care about them.
That’s wrong! Customer retention is
a more effective way of growing your
Then, there’s the second study, by
revenue because you don’t need to
Bain & Company, showing that 80
attract, educate, and convert them.
percent of all companies say: “We are
customer-centric!” The clients of those
companies were then surveyed, only
eight percent of whom said, “Those
companies are customer-centric!”
What are the benefits of different. If you’re doing the same thing
customer retention? as your neighbor, if you’re just copying
the most popular websites, why should
Loyal customers are: I buy from you? You’re just a copy, and
a copy is never as good as the original.
5 x times as likely to repurchase
5 x times as likely to forgive You must find your own tone of voice,
4 x times as likely to refer your own DNA. That is so important!
7 x times as likely to try The smaller you are as a company, the
out a new offering more important it becomes to have
your own tone of voice. Be yourself!
Many businesses turn from customer- When they’re young, most people
centric companies to business-driven want to copy everything, and you have
companies. They lose connection posters of film stars, movie stars, and
with their customers, and they enter rock bands, and you wonder, “I want
a vicious circle where they constantly to be like that!” I don’t have posters
need to bring in more customers from events hanging in my bedroom
so they don’t go out of business. anymore. I want to be me! And, I think,
as a company it’s the same. You should
16. Find your own tone of voice just be you, not a copy of someone else!
Your website is not the other (person’s)
website, and your product is not
what the other company is selling. It’s
more important to understand the
principle, the psychology principles,
the guidelines, and the way we do
research than the perfect outing of it.
A lot of people love tactics, and these
are important, but you have to really
try to understand what makes you
SEAN ELLIS
Founder at GrowthHackers
6
Sean Ellis coined the term ‘growth hacking’ in 2010, after using it to ignite breakout growth for several
companies including Dropbox, Eventbrite, LogMeIn, and Lookout.
17. Learnings from doing getting a product market fit and to scale
up. Some other places have become more
growth hacking
advantageous than Silicon Valley due to
Before jumping into growth hacking, the lower cost of hiring people and the
figure out who needs the product and knowledge that you can find everywhere.
why they need it or, even, if they need it. Entrepreneurs should not leave their
homes and communities for Silicon Valley.
The most important lesson that I’ve
learned from my previous business
experiences is that the natural
19. Entrepreneurship
organic word of mouth is the biggest is romanticized
driver of growth in any business. And so it should be, in the sense that
entrepreneurs who navigate through all
The acquisition game has become very the challenges that they encounter are
competitive, so companies can only really special human beings.
be efficient at acquiring customers who
really need the product, and making them What people underestimate is the
spread the word both through referrals implications of being an entrepreneur.
and staying active. A lot of eCommerce Entrepreneurship means not working for
businesses are set to fail because they someone, but working for a million bosses:
are trying the same product at a cheaper your employees, your employees’ families,
price than the other guy. It is very easy and your customers.
to compare prices on the Internet.
20. Entrepreneurs should end of the day, your brand is what other
people say when you are not in the room.
always be curious learners
Entrepreneurs need to be not just the 22. Think about your
chief executive; they also need to be product positioning
the chief learning officer - somebody Focus on identifying where your product
from whom you can quickly and fits into the market as quickly as you can,
effectively learn. You have to love the and spend most of your time there. The
most objective truth possible, and you speed of decisions is of the essence when
have to care more about the market doing a market-fit test or when preparing
than about your product. In order to for a product launch. Staying objective
avoid becoming blocked, entrepreneurs and cool-headed, and caring more about
should embrace a continuous state of what the feedback from the market is than
curiosity and be permanent learners. the product itself, are critical attitudes in
Being an entrepreneur means doing ensuring the success of the company.
the 0 to 1, then the 1 to n and, from
there, teaching someone else to do the
23. Be aware of your
1 to n. Entrepreneurs should define their money allocation
super-power and apply it to something How an entrepreneur allocates the
meaningful. limited amount of money and resources
is, in many cases, the deal breaker for
21. Stay close to your customers the entire business. Running out of
One thing about geography is that when money too quickly, or being afraid to
launching a product, it is important to invest properly, are two unbalanced
be close to your early customers. Even situations that are all too frequent.
if you are not close, you should go there Getting help from a financial counselor
and find out what their needs are, and is, for the inexperienced, the best
understand how to solve their problems. investment when it comes to dealing with
After you figure that out, try to build your complex budgetary allocations, cuts, and
brand through word-of-mouth, because investments. If you haven’t been through
everybody wants to use and buy things it, you don’t realize how quickly those
that their family and friends trust. At the resources can run out if you’re not careful.
WIJNAND JONGEN
CEO of Thuiswinkel.org
8
Wijnand is the co-founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee of eCommerce Europe, representing
over 75,000 online shops, and is also the founder and CEO of the Dutch eCommerce association,
Thuiswinkel.org. He has represented the eCommerce sector for more than 20 years.
24. Customer retention what you want to accomplish, not just this
year but also looking ahead to the next
is crucial
two, three or even five years.
Customer retention is vital for any
business. You want to keep your most Such a strategy is critical!
loyal clients, and I think that retail is a
data game. Data are at the basics of
26. Invest in your employees
customer retention, and indeed, at the
heart of our e-commerce industry. Rely on the innovation of people. I think
people are vital to our business! We all
I would say to any entrepreneur, you know there’s a big war of talent going on
should get your data straight and rely in the world of retail and e-commerce. So,
on them, because data are the basis find the right people!
of your business both now and, even
more so, in the future. I fully support the Make those people come to you and, that
idea of keeping those customers and way, you will be able to get the best out of
making them more loyal. The loyalty of your business. Then you should give the
customers is hard to get, and even harder best to the consumers that you want to
to keep, but data will help you to do so. serve.
32. The customer should compare two online stores selling the
same merchandise in two different
be your North Star
countries. The best you can do is collect
For Customer Experience, the people the best cases, analyze the conditions in
inside an organization, the senior that market, and extract and use what is
executives, the CEO, CFO, and CMO, really valuable. In the rush to earn new
all need to be customer advocates. clients and a greater market share, and
Opinions, while interesting, are ultimately to get ahead of the competition, many
immaterial, and it is the data that will tell entrepreneurs are adopting other success
you what your customers are doing, and recipes without analyzing the conditions.
whether putting the button here or there Before investing in the next fad, you
makes for a better experience. Change the should carry out a proper test and find out
experience to match the behavior of the whether it’s really working for your niche.
visitor. Rather than segmenting by age,
geography or time of day, you might want
to organize and compartmentalize your
visitors by behavior.
37. Make your website faster away from, “How many people have been
forced through our funnel this week on this
Google is obsessed with speed, and
channel?” then they would be a little bit
so are users. Speed has a direct
braver and might see that they’re winning.
correlation with conversion, with user
experience – all the good things. Make
it faster! Make your site and upload 39. Create a unique
experience better, faster and sleeker, brand story
and take advantage of best practices. The big thing e-commerce marketers
are missing out on is differentiation.
38. Double down on They’re just selling the same kind of
customer retention stuff at the same kind of prices. When
Customer retention is a hugely overlooked we look at it, we can see the world has
area. I think there are many challenges changed. In the next few years, we’ll
with modern capitalism, especially in the have a proliferation of driverless cars,
digital economy, the biggest one of which 3-D printers, and drone deliveries.
is everything being channel-centric and You can’t compete on price, location,
tied to month-to-month performance. or same-day delivery, and in a lot of
That kind of thinking makes it really cases many e-commerce retailers have
hard to care about anything other than built businesses based on those USPs;
acquisition - an acquisition by channel they’re five percent cheaper because
at any cost. Every business is fighting to they’re a little bit closer, but someday
reacquire the same lost consumers from all of those things will just go away.
other places. If just one of them was
brave enough to say, “We understand the What they really need is a brand story
value of consumer loyalty. We understand and a reason why people should shop
the value of storytelling and that people do with them and not their competitors.
have preferences when they shop and make People are leaving it too late to get
post decisions” and to be able to just step up to that, and they’re going to fail.
KRASSIMIR STANKOV
Fashion stock trader
14
Krassimir Stankov is an expert fashion trader and entrepreneur with a lot of experience in both wholesale
and classic retail, as well as in e-commerce. Thanks to his wide experience, he has expanded his business
all over Europe, in the process becoming globally renowned as a leading consultant in retail and e-tail.
40. Keep in mind your clients who will probably never return
to buy from you again. Failure to offer a
price margin
quality product, in line with your brand
One important thing to always keep promise, is one of the fastest ways to lose
in mind is the price margin. Keeping customers, who not only will never come
margins between correct and balanced back, but will likely not recommend you
values, neither too high nor too low, is to anyone else either. Taking care of the
important both for driving sales and for customers and giving them value is where
supporting the continuous marketing any e-commerce should primarily focus.
actions needed to attract and keep
customers. Dropping prices just to keep
customers interested has a negative
impact on margins, and negatively
affects the budgetary arrangements
for many future marketing actions.
Likewise, keeping prices low as a unique
differentiator for the business invariably
affects the quality of the products.
46. Quality content means and hang around for longer. This, I think, is
because there’s a real linkage between the
higher lifetime value
content and the product.
One of the great things about investing in
content is that it’s very different to other
forms of marketing. If you are spending on The kind of content we create is where we
Google Ads, it ramps up really quickly, but really try to be relevant to the brand. While
the minute you stop spending, the flow of we try to share a lot about our culture
people stops. and values, we also try to share what we
believe is in the product.
47. First things, first. Fix the a prerequisite for companies that want
to survive and thrive. How do we do
management’s mentality
this? Internal politics. Workshops. Data
There are four forces in online retail: hygiene. Proper insights. Persistence!
> Traffic
> Product
> Price 48. RFM segmentation reveals
> Customer more than you think
Any company thrives by improving the
According to Forrester, we’re ratio between lifetime value (LV) and
transitioning from the information customer acquisition cost (CAC).
age to the age of the customer. In That means your eCommerce
effect, customers are becoming the operation has two main functions:
most vital force to be considered.
- Decrease the CAC
DTC brands are the living example that - Increase the LTV
this trend is now accelerating. However, RFM segmentation helps in
shifting the whole of an established achieving both of these.
company towards becoming customer-
centric means changing the main factor How RFM helps acquisition:
that decides the internal balance between In the last five years, Facebook CPC
those four forces: management mentality. has increased by 800%. This means
that acquiring new customers is
Strangely enough, that is the hardest thing more expensive than ever.
to change, since these people are usually To decrease customer acquisition costs,
accomplished individuals with a solid track you need better targeting, along with a
record, and their tried-and-tested ways of better understanding of your customers’
managing a company is what has brought real needs and decision-making systems.
these companies to where they are today.
That’s a job for RFM segmentation:
As a result, an update in their senior- using Recency-Frequency-Monetary
level decision-making systems becomes scores, you can easily identify the best
VALENTIN RADU
CEO and Founder of Omniconvert
17
Valentin Radu is an entrepreneur, data-driven marketer, CRO expert, and keynote speaker. He has spoken
at over 100 International events over the last six years, including Mobile Web Congress, Growth Marketing
Conference, MeetMagento, Conversion World, Webit, WebSummit, GPeC, HowToWeb, and IceeFest.
and worst customers. Correlate this DNVBs are customer-centric from day
data with your ad and email campaigns, one. These are agile organizations, having
and start acquiring customers that you data at the core of their DNA. Instead
really want, diminishing media waste of finding customers for the products
and finding lookalikes that match not
they sell, they craft & ship products
with your average customers, but with
according to the expectations of the
different clusters of customers.
customers that they constantly listen to.
How RFM helps retention:
To improve the lifetime value, you need to According to eMarketer.com, 40%
understand & eliminate the barriers that of US Internet Users aim to make
prevent your best customers from coming >40% of their purchases from
back. This is where RFM segmentation direct-to-consumer companies.
helps in improving lifetime value:
- Identify those who truly love you To compete with this new breed of
and their reasons for buying data-driven companies, you have to
- Eliminate the toxic products that differentiate. In effect, you must run away
are selling well but are putting
from the game of just moving boxes from
off your top customers
A to B. Of course, that means a lot of work:
- Under-promise & over-deliver, but
only to those who deserve it giving a voice to your customers, finding
your voice as a brand, crafting or finding
products aligned with real needs, finding
49. Either you differentiate, new markets, and creating UVPs that can
or you give up. provide you with genuinely steady growth.
Or, change your job! :)
According to CB Insights, sales of Companies such as Casper, Warby
private-label products are growing three Parker, or AdoreMe are the real proof
times faster than branded products. that the market is now going that way.
BRAD GEDDES
Co-founder of Adalysis
18
Brad Geddes is the author of Advanced Google AdWords, who both teaches and practices SEO, PPC, CRO,
affiliate marketing, product development, product positioning, and much more. His agenda is always
packed with workshops in Advanced Google and Bing Ads, and in AI and machine learning.
Ann Stanley is a digital marketing trainer and consultant at various events and seminars, with long
experience in paid media, search and analytics. She has developed a platform called A10 Digital Marketing
Framework, ideal for designing digital marketing strategies for their company’s clients.
69. About ‘indistractable’ reach out for something to take your mind
off the problem. If you can break out of
company cultures
that and ask yourself “What am I escaping
There are company cultures where
from here?”, you should get to the root
distraction is not a problem because
cause of the problem. It’s the fact that
they exhibit three traits of a company
you don’t have a method, a technique,
that are ‘indistractable’. Number one,
or a tool to deal with that discomfort
they give people psychological safety,
in a healthier manner. That’s why time
meaning you can talk about a problem
management is pain management.
without getting fired. Secondly, they
give people a forum for talking about 71. Change the way you talk
those problems, and number three,
with yourself
management exemplifies what it means
We tend to talk to ourselves in a
to become ‘indistractable’. For example,
very critical manner. Sometimes, the
companies like Slack don’t suffer from conversations in our head can become
distraction like other companies do, very self-critical and that is definitely
because they follow these three traits. not helpful. Instead, we can change that
They even have a statement on their walls conversation with ourselves in order to
saying, “Work hard and go home.” The real acknowledge that when we mess up,
problem with distraction is that people it’s a growth opportunity as opposed to
cannot actually talk about distraction. trying to batter ourselves, which doesn’t
This happens because in some company help us to grow at all. We cannot escape
cultures, that would be associated with ourselves. You are an individual, and if
instantly getting fired.Problems can you say, “I am bad” you cannot escape
only be solved by talking about them. that. Instead, when you say, “What I did
was bad” and learn from that, that is
70. Find the root cause something you don’t have to encounter
of your distraction time and time again, because you
Distraction relates to the moments when can change your future behavior by
you feel pain, when you feel lonely, approaching conversations with yourself
stressed, anxious, or fatigued, and you with compassion rather than criticism.
MARIA CACIUR
Head of Managed Services at Omniconvert
25
Maria Caciur is a professional who combines vast marketing knowledge with an amazing business
approach. Assertive and pragmatic, she has envisioned various important steps in order to make
businesses grow better and faster. Maria helps eCommerce brands with CRO and RRO.
74. Talk to your customers once you get started, you will notice that,
in most cases, your visitors are more
The constant question that should be
willing to give you feedback than you
asked in eCommerce is, “What is the
think. Your main concern here should be
easiest way to find out what people think
to find the right approach to make them
about your products/services?” The answer feel like you actually care about their
should always be, the customer. opinion. The classical line “We really care
about your opinion, please help us improve
From my experience, a lot of digital our services/products for you” has become
marketers are afraid to use powerful tools outdated. “No really? What’s in it for me?”
such as surveys or customer interviews - you will receive as a justification for
because they don’t know what to ask and your poor response rate. Instead, based
how to make sure that they get relevant on segments and behavior, you can try
findings. My suggestion is to hire experts to find out what’s the need that you are
to do this job if this is the case. Otherwise, actually solving for your customers.
TIM KILROY
Digital Marketing Agency Coach
26
Tim Kilroy’s deep experience in search and in social media has allowed him to create new business
processes in a successful effort at driving massive revenue growth. Tim has been the creative force behind
a number of companies, including the retailers Wayfair or Karmaloop.
76. The only way to scale don’t have a right to the next purchase.
82. Don’t get too obsessed you’d be very upset. This is about
expectations. The only reason that we
about the ROI
talk about something is when it has
There’s still much more within the
disappointed us, it did worse than we
business person’s control that they
expected, or it made us very happy.
could do, but they’re simply not paying
attention and are waiting for somebody
Allocate a portion of the budget
to tell them, “Let’s try this” or “Let’s try
towards word-of-mouth. Some portion
that.” Just think about the customer and
of your budget has to be to make
about what’s important to him, and you’ll
the thing that you are delivering
start to find out what truly is important.
better than the customer expects.
People always want to know the return
on investment. They’re asking for ROI. To
Promise ABC but give them D as well
the question, “What’s the ROI of smiling at
- the surprise that people talk about!
your wife or your husband in the morning?”
Real reviews talk about things such as,
the answer is very simple: if you stop
“I really had a problem and they solved it”
doing it, the relationship deteriorates.
or “I found something that was so much
There is a correlation that cannot be
better than I expected.” Reviews very
measured. It’s not a causation, but what
rarely say, “Yeah it was okay, hey you did
the lack of smiling will probably do is
make it work.” So, it’s all about shifting the
cost you the rest of your relationship!
psychology of that. Now, this is a problem
of not looking at it at a product level. If
83. Make someone
you have a team that is responsible for
responsible for customer acquisition and another team responsible
experience for retention, and all these different
If you went to McDonald’s and you teams have different motivations, then
had wanted to go to McDonald’s, that’s how can you have a different outcome?
okay. On the other hand, if you spent In effect, you have to have one person
a lot of money at a fine restaurant who’s ultimately responsible for
and they gave you McDonald’s food, the entire customer experience.
AARON ORENDORFF
Founder of iconiContent
29
Previously the Editor in Chief of Shopify Plus, Aaron Orendorff is now the founder of iconiContent, where
he’s busy “saving the world from bad content”. Named by Forbes as a top-ten B2B content marketer, his paid
work has included the likes of Facebook, PayPal and Google. Aaron is also a regular contributor to Mashable,
Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Lifehacker, Business Insider, Success, and many more.
85. Growth tools are as not only creates a good feeling about,
and memory of, the shopping experience,
effective as their operator is
but it also gives an online store the
No matter how good and how effective
opportunity to create an upsell program
growth tools can be, they are only as smart,
and to leverage every relationship
as good or as effective as their operator,
with every one of its customers.
which in most cases means the marketer.
Marketers are emotional beings who
are actually trying to help other humans 87. Observe your customers’
find what they want and need in the behavior trends
best possible way. If marketers miss the
Observe the customers more closely
empathetic aspect of the entire shopping
and observe their patterns and behavior
journey, then they miss the most important
trends. Consumers are savvier than ever
point. Data is just an effect, a causality.
these days. Everybody is looking for the
The most important thing is creating
best products at the best prices, with the
the right trigger. And, the right trigger is
best services included. Even if customers
always emotional. Data is the easy way
out, but real marketing means real human find exactly what they were hoping for,
experience and willingness to be of service they will always make comparisons in their
at your very best. search for that better deal that fulfills their
need to win the so-called shopping battle.
86. Focus on your customers’
journey 88. How to win the price battle
Every e-Commerce wanting to grow must The difference an eCommerce business
focus on customers, particularly on how can make in terms of winning the price
they feel about the products and the battle lies in storytelling and branding.
shopping experience before, during and There are no price tags or comparisons
– especially – after that experience. The between stories. No-one can doubt a price
after-sales process, with all the messaging, on something that already shows value.
WIL REYNOLDS
Founder and Vice President of Innovation,
31
Seer Interactive
Wil Reynolds has over fifteen years of experience in search ads. He has worked across every vertical, from
pharmaceuticals to e-commerce and SaaS. Wil uses big-data tools to look at search, he researches how to
disrupt silos between divisions, and he speaks about ways to run a growing agency.
97. Understand
customer behavior
Defining the path of customers’ behavior,
and finding out what their triggers are and
what interests them in the short term, as
well as understanding their evolution in
order to continue to serve their needs, is
what all eCommerce businesses should
start doing. The fast-paced technological
age we live in offers a plethora of
inexpensive and easy-to-use digital tools
that help marketers see and understand
customer behavior so as to be able to
provide better products, services and
offers, and to ease any friction points.
GERRY MCGOVERN
Founder and CEO of Customer Carewords
35
Gerry McGovern has spoken about digital customer experience in more than 35 countries and has written
seven books. He has appeared on BBC, CNN and CNBC television, participated in various radio shows,
and appeared in a number of print media publications. Microsoft, Cisco and Toyota are some of Gerry’s
commercial clients.
You’ve got to think from the customer’s The relentless focus must be on the
point of view. If you are an Amazon Prime principle that the longer the customer
customer, you get free delivery within stays with you, and the more business
a day or two. You get better service they do with you, the better you treat
than if you’re not an Amazon Prime them - not on seeing them as a potential
customer. The ethos is, “If you spend customer, to make even more profit!
a lot of money with me, I will treat you
better than if you don’t spend so much.” The best way to build your business is an
obsession with your current customers,
So, the more they spend with you, you’ve not an obsession with your potential ones.
GERRY MCGOVERN
Founder and CEO of Customer Carewords
35
Gerry McGovern has spoken about digital customer experience in more than 35 countries and has written
seven books. He has appeared on BBC, CNN and CNBC television, participated in various radio shows,
and appeared in a number of print media publications. Microsoft, Cisco and Toyota are some of Gerry’s
commercial clients.
playground where everyone is welcome should change our mindset at the same
and where the impossible is becoming time, with more small and medium-sized
possible. businesses entering the digital marketing
area. The demand is increasing not
Data, or more importantly, the lack of because existing customers are growing,
proper data, is still the most important but because a lot of new ones are entering
barrier to be overcome for any small or the digital market.
medium-sized business, and its key lies
in the creativity of communication, a new This will be the greatest challenge,
vision, and a new way of building interest. because machine learning is based on
With the explosion of digital business, data and newcomers have no data. You
skills in digital marketing are in higher have to do some manual things to collect
demand than ever, with a new wave of the proper volume of data in order to feed
tools and technologies imposing the rise them again in a new way.
of 2.0 digital marketing.
We don’t know how things will develop,
Small and medium-sized companies that but with new people entering digital,
could not afford to have a national TV this will be their first point of marketing
campaign can afford a national digital activity. It will not be radio or television or
campaign. As the industry changes, we newspapers as it was before. That is one
MIROSLAV VARGA
Integrated data analyst at Escape
37
Miroslav Varga is a search engine advertising expert, professor, and MENSA member, who is experienced
and specialized in Google Ads account optimization and statistical analysis. Miroslav is a Google AdWords
Certified Trainer – GCT - and online marketing lecturer at several schools and institutions.
reason why this industry will grow very We don’t want to change. It’s hard for us
fast: a very great volume of new presence to change, because finally, we understand
will change the industry. how it works, and now, somebody is
saying, “This is not working anymore. This is
Our mindset is still based on old CPC not the way you should go.”
models and these models are not bad, but
switching as fast as possible is strongly That, in a way, is the proof of the maturity
suggested. of the industry, the fact that now we are
mature and we don’t want to change. It’s
When digital appeared, it was very not because Google is changing or people
nice, very interesting, and it was a fight are changing, or that we’re not willing to
between the traditional marketing and change. It’s just that the guys who will
digital marketing experts. Now, we in the use these new methods, techniques and
digital industry, we are now the traditional strategies will be more efficient, and that’s
ones. the reason you have to run this race.
Without it, in the long term, you will lose.
THEODORE MOULOS
CEO of Growthrocks
38
Theodore Moulos has over 15 years of experience in running profitable software products. One of his
major career achievements was creating i-Docs, an international product in Customer Communication
Management, and SegmatiX, a product on marketing automation, mainly used in large European markets.
video blogging are the first things to put in perceive the online store and the way its
a content development plan. Also, getting products are visually presented. High-
into channels that generate leads and quality visuals are almost always the
getting on sales platforms like Instagram deal-breaker in the eyes of a potential
or WhatsApp, or taking on conversation customer.
marketing through instant-messaging
platforms, is one of the best marketing In addition, high-quality imagery,
tactics. presented in an organized and harmonic
way, creates an undeniable appeal for a
visitor to look for more, to explore more
109. Think about your USP of what the online store is offering and,
One of the most urgent matters for ultimately, to start a purchase.
eCommerce players is how they create
their Unique Selling Proposition and Denying the influence of high-quality
unique differentiators. One important visuals is like opening a store and
consideration is the way customers shutting down the lights.
ROD BANNER
Agent of Change at 3LA.com
39
Rod Banner has founded businesses and mentored various tech industry luminaries. Rod has been
acknowledged as part of the TechCity Insider 100 list, the Fresh Business Thinking Power 100, The Maserati
100, The Smith & Williamson Power 100, and GQ’s list of the 100 Most Connected Men in Britain.
Here are three ways to become more so as to reward employees for meeting
customer-centric: customer needs rather than meeting
targets.
1. Start with the big picture.
Ask yourself, as an organization, what is 3. Listen to, and understand, your
important to you and your customers? customers.
What differentiates you from your You have access to an abundance of
competitors? How do you want to be
customer feedback, which you just have
perceived by your customers? Once you
to listen to in order to really understand
have answers to all of these questions,
your users. This can be done via customer
you can create customer-centric values
service call logs, Net Promoter Scores
that are tied to your organization’s goals.
(NPS), reviews, complaint logs, and
2. Get everyone on board. social media comments. Customers are
These values should be shared across the voluntarily giving us feedback and telling
organization, and strategies created for us what they want, or what frustrates
driving this transformation internally. A them. Use this to inform your strategies
good one to try is to shift ways of working and create a better experience for them.
LUCAS WALKER
Strategic Partner Manager at Gorgias
42
Serial entrepreneur with a focus on revenue growth. Currently working to make dogs happier and
healthier through Treats Happen, and helping B2B sales teams use modern selling techniques to win more
at Sport of Sales
ways you had no idea about? Are they answered and communicated clearly
happy with one thing in particular? in a way that your best customers
will understand. This will help you
Once you’ve read through and started reduce costly returns, and time spent
to see the trends, run your text of answering questions - which leads to a
tickets and responses through a word better overall customer experience.
cloud generator. This will show you the
words, phrases, and trends that your Product descriptions
most satisfied customers are using. The copy on your product description
pages, is one of your most powerful sales
3. Produce User Generated Copy tools there is. However, many people
Once you’ve discovered the words, leave without adding to cart or purchasing
phrases, and new users of your because they had an objection you
products, it’s time to put them to work. didn’t bust! Analyzing the questions your
Here are some of the ways you can customers have, and addressing them
use this new user-generated copy. on the product display page, through
copy or images, is one of the best ways to
Ad copy increase your on-site conversion rates.
This might be the most obvious, but use
the language of your best customers to Macros for your customer service team
attract more. Maybe they give you a gem Macros are your secret sauce to efficiency
like, “On a plane full of crying babies, all and automation. They also help keep
I could hear was Netflix.” This is great your cx team on brand. By doing a
for selling your headphones to new deep dive into what your customers are
customers who are frequent travelers. asking, you can be ready to answer them,
and with a bit of machine learning, you
Knowledge Base can even automate those responses
Are there tickets, or questions that are for your customers. This will save your
constantly coming in? Use this data to company resources, and also bring a
make sure your questions are being better experience to your customers
MARK IRVINE
Senior Data Scientist and Analytical Lead
43
at Wordstream
Mark Irvine researches trends in the changing SEM market for the company’s engineering, product
development, and marketing teams. He is recognized as the 5th Most Influential PPC Expert by PPCHero in
their 2017 Rankings, among other honors given to him by Hanapin Marketing in the previous years.
129. Structure your account Google Ads is always in sync with what
you actually sell in your merchant feed.
so you can do PPC
These are inventory-driven campaigns
We believe that you need to have a and inventory-driven product groups.
grip structure – groups of individual
products, one SKU per product group
131. Shift your attention to
– because this enables you to do
smarter bid management. What that
where your customers go
means, for example, is that if you have Go to where the customers are. There is
a finding one day about the size, you all this money shifting towards Amazon,
can actually act on that, because each so if you’re not doing that yet and you’re
size is a different product group. Or, still just on Google Ads, go ahead and shift
maybe the next day you figure out, over to Amazon as well.
“Hey, we’re getting into spring and the big
PPC is one of the quickest ways of
color this year is purple.” We didn’t know
seeing positive ROI, so it’s no wonder
that last year, but now we can actually
eCommerce is one of its fastest-growing
say, “Let’s find all the purple products,
fields. Google is dominating the pay-
because they’re each in one product group,
per-click advertising game now, but with
and just increase the bids for those.” The
Amazon joining in, marketers have a
grip structure is really important.
new opportunity to engage customers
throughout their buying journey. This is
130. Sync your Google Ads both an opportunity and a threat. While
When you create a Google Ads product some retailers fear the ever-growing
group structure, and the products in eCommerce giant will push them out of
your merchant feed are changing, it the market, others take it as a challenge
actually gets out of sync. Google Ads and an opportunity to strengthen their
suddenly put all of these new products brand. Take voice search, for example: for
in the bucket of everything else. Those companies that sell on Amazon, getting
are generic bids. That’s not a good Alexa to choose your products when
performance or a controlled one. you have a purchase history sure is an
Figure out a way to make sure that your opportunity one cannot miss.
FREDERICK VALLAEYS
Co-founder of Optmyzr
47
Frederick Vallaeys is a leading influencer in PPC and search marketing, and is one of Google’s top 500
employees. Today, he and his team continue to shape and influence the industry through deep automation,
driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Surviving in the eCommerce arena is Artificial Intelligence is the next big thing
getting harder and harder. Numerous and online businesses should start
stores with similar products appear taking advantage of its tremendous
all the time, giving customers various capabilities. One of the best AI features
alternatives. Having your customers that every eCommerce store needs to
taken away by competitors is a usual consider is Product Recommendations.
If you think about it, the age of
phenomenon. That’s where marketing
recommending your best-selling products
automation comes into it, to give
is unfortunately over. Now, customers
eCommerce businesses the high ground.
need to see recommendations that
Marketing automation is not just a
match their purchasing behavior and
tool, but a weapon that will save you
their interests. For this, you need to
valuable time, simplify tedious tasks,
spot your customers’ regular orders and
and help you deliver the best customer
recurring purchases. You then use the
experiences out there. Because hyper-
data to craft the perfect recommendation
personalization is on the rise, marketing campaign that will be tailored to their
automation will help you to deliver more needs. For instance, if a customer buys
personalized experiences that speak to staples regularly, you can recommend
your buyers. In order to do this, you need relevant products such as new staplers
the power of segmentation to divide your and paperclips for targeting possible
customers into groups with common future needs. Your recommendations
interests. Then, set up an automated need to be smart, so instead of trying
workflow and send them a personalized to promote random products, try to
message that suits their needs. predict which products they’ll need next.
NICK DIMITRIOU
Head of Growth at Moosend
51
Nick is the Head of Growth at Moosend. When he’s not writing articles, you’ll find him running his SEO
magic sitewide or making friends from blogs and companies discussing the expert power of email
marketing
141. It’s no longer just about sequence. After three weeks, we send
people one email and then after six
getting more traffic
weeks, we send them another mail.
The business is becoming much more
People are much more complex than
critical in its thinking. It’s no longer just
that, and so is the way we buy. Until we
about getting more traffic – the market is
can meet the customers on their own
already saturated and you are not going
terms, it’s going to be a challenge.
to get more people to come online. It’s
I see personalization as the key thing in
a competition for the people who are
already there, not just about growing and building your relationship with people;
getting more people there. You could have to personalize, we need to know who
been really amazing in e-commerce five people are. Segmentation is the first
years ago, but that doesn’t help you today. step toward personalization – more
like pseudo personalization, because
142. Multiple customer it’s not really personal – but if it’s close
enough, no-one’s going to notice.
journeys
Improving lifetime value is about
segmentation and understanding the users 143. Understand your
you have, in the sense that we see a lot business in the long term
of people running their business. When People’s bottom line is really defined
you talk about this, you hear about this by how they run their business. The
customer journey, but just saying ‘customer
only thing that is likely to improve your
journey’ in the singular, is actually where
bottom line is selling products with
their first problem lies. It’s not one customer
a margin that is high enough, so that
journey; you actually have multiple
it’s higher than the cost of running
customer journeys. Some of them will
overlap, some of them you can cluster and the business. But, very often, if you go
you will have similar patterns, but there are to most systems today, they look at
very few organizations if you look at it on a optimizing for turnover, which in reality
lifetime basis, that have just one process. could just be killing you as a business.
We tend to underestimate the complexity It comes down to understanding that
of the customer. We just set things up this is about money and being able
to having marketing automation – one to be a business in the long term.
CLAYTON WOOD
Digital Marketing Consultant
53
at ClaytonWood.org
Clayton Wood has over 10 years’ experience in digital marketing, coaching, personal branding and SEO. He
has built two multi-million-dollar marketing brands without any investment, managed thousands of online
marketing campaigns worldwide, and has helped startups to become profitable in three different countries.
155. Show the visitor why helping visitors to choose a product. The
wording, the navigation, and even your
they have come to the right
tagline can all have a bearing on that.
eCommerce website
Although we’re all pretty good at buying However, what people see when they
things online, you may have a really poor
first come into a page - be it a home
checkout and cart process. Even things
page, category page or product page
that have worked over and over again
- needs to tell them very clearly that
for other e-commerce sites are no longer
they’re in the right place, why they
working. People are seeing through
them. As an eCommerce site, focus should be there and, ideally, how you’re
very strongly on your value proposition, different and why they should consider
on how you’re communicating that you over all the other companies on
value proposition, and on how you’re the planet that sell what you sell.
VASIL AZAROV
Founder of Growth Marketing Conference
59
Vasil Azarov is a marketing expert with the mission of connecting professionals in growth and start-up
marketing, and nurturing the community with the best international know-how. Vasil founded one of the
biggest growth-marketing events around, and is building a valuable community at Startup Socials.
156. Find the right niche the entire market is a waste of resources,
especially in the early stages of an
and the right message
e-commerce business. It’s important
After finding the right market, the to set a clear target and really go for
next important step is defining the conquering that specific market niche,
right niche and creating a complete all while establishing the brand in the
marketing strategy around it. Going for eyes and minds of the consumer.
JOE DOVETON
Founder and CEO of Binary Bear
60
Joe Doveton is the official CRO trainer for CIM, IDM, and Brighton SEO in the UK. One of the UK’s top
consultants on cultural and international approaches to CRO, Joe has extensive experience, being drawn to
display advertising, social media, SEO, PPC, and App Store Optimization.
157. Abandon ‘short-termism’ the fact that you can imagine your design
There’s a kind of general short-termism - a assets in real-time – or close to real-time –
one-upmanship on a short-scale basis - based on customer information.
with people jumping on the bandwagon Yet, people still don’t get the fundamentals
for a topic or an idea for a very short time. right. You still go to organizations in local
This is part of the way the world is now, power bases and not all teams are equal,
with Twitter, LinkedIn and other kinds of so maybe the acquisition team has more
social media platforms. influence than the merchandising team or,
perhaps, the paid search team has more
People leap onto something, and there’s influence than a social team.
a huge amount of debate in a small
period of time rather than people taking You need a structure that is flat, and a
a long-term view; people just want to be very strong senior sponsor on the board
controversial for the sake of it. that’s going to run this whole process.
I think that’s the big thing: people don’t
The reality is that SEO is not dead. It’s still recognize it’s not really about a set of
there. CRO isn’t dead, and it’s not going tools; it’s a mindset change.
away. Personalization is a journey. It’s not
the kind of thing you switch on just like
that. It’s maybe time for people to take
more of a long-term view.