Digital Darts

Each year I see the same common mistakes made, predominantly a lack of omnichannel strategy with little-to-no thought given to discounts, creatives or budget. BFCM is increasing every year. This year, Shopify generated a whopping $11.5 billion in sales. That was a 24% increase on last year. Yet many advertisers failed to grow this year. Most of our clients took our advice and saw significant increases this year. 📈Increases of 14% to 79%. For those that either didn’t participate or didn’t embrace an omnichannel approach, they either remained steady or saw a decline. Here is how we help our Shopify clients prepare to get the most out of their BFCM campaigns. ✅ Plan early. Like two to three months early. A successful campaign can’t be thrown together a couple of weeks beforehand. Each of your marketing partners (Meta, Google, TikTok, Klaviyo, etc) need time to plan, produce creatives and build campaigns. ✅ Decide on your goals before deciding on the size or type of discounts you will offer. Do you want to clear stock or attract new customers with the goal or repeat purchases. A BFCM strategy needs to benefit both you and the customer. The last thing you want is to either run at a loss or break even when your goal is to make a profit. ✅ Go big on the discount or go home. 5% and 10% discounts aren’t going to cut it. Consumers expect deep discounts. If you can afford to, go 30%, 40% or bigger. ✅ Embrace an omnichannel approach. Attempting to run a campaign without other channels backing you up is a formula for failure. Brands that promote and nurture sales across multiple channels like Meta, Google and Klaviyo are more likely to see better results than those that go all in on just one channel. ✅ Invest enough budget to reach your goals. If your goal is to clear all of your stock for example, and your always-on budget clears a portion of it, then you need more budget. You also need to account for higher CPMs during the BFCM weekend due to increased competition. Simply, be prepared to invest more. ✅ Launch early. If your goal is to clear stock, then offer it to your existing free or low cost audiences first a few weeks out from the event. Do some early bird EDMs and social organic posts. Back it up with promoting the sale on your website. If your goal is to attract new customers, update your email pop up on your website to encourage email sign ups. A couple of weeks before the event, launch or scale up some paid media campaigns promoting samples of the stock you plan on promoting (using images of bestsellers is advised) to build up those remarketing lists. ✅ Keep an eye on stock levels during the weekend. If you run out of stock for anything make sure you tell your marketing partners. You don’t want to be spending money on ads for products you can’t actually fulfill. Next year, start early, use multiple channels and invest an adequate budget.

Shopify slammed us with dozens of new releases on December 11 after a code freeze in the lead up to BFCM. Watch their Shopify Editions update: https://lnkd.in/gpryFNFJ Subscriptions and subscription management has become more friendly for customers. I think more brands need to be pushing for account creation and management now, which lets you collect more quality information in post-purchase email sequences for marketing like accurate audience building (more data = better matching) and message marketing. I found out The Ridge do this well after getting one of their wallets for a Christmas gift. In the announcement link, you can read the updates or watch "boring TV" to get every update delivered to you by an AI video. The updates are delivered in a clever way. Clever often leads to a bad user experience, but they've done well with a text summary to support the AI audio as well as channels on the TV that correspond to the update number.

🎯 Chinese Ecommerce Giants Are Dominating This Holiday Season 🎯 While major U.S. retailers brace for modest growth, Chinese ecommerce platforms like Temu, Shein, and TikTok Shop are lighting up the market with impressive sales figures. 📈 Here’s what’s happening: 🏪 US Retail Slowdown: Moody’s Ratings predicts only 1-3% growth in holiday sales, down from last year’s 3%. High costs of essentials are curbing consumer spending. 🛍️ Chinese Ecommerce Surge: Platforms like TikTok Shop saw sales triple compared to last year, Temu grew by 18%, and Shein by 16%. These brands are capturing U.S. shoppers looking for unbeatable deals. 💶 Price Wars Intensify: Temu is offering Black Friday deals up to 90% off, forcing giants like Amazon to respond with their own discounts. Can local retailers keep up? Chinese ecommerce sites are expected to capture 21% of global e-commerce sales outside China, translating to $160 billion. Meanwhile, U.S. retailers like Amazon and Target are seeing flat or declining sales. Despite longer delivery times and product quality concerns, these Chinese platforms are thriving. Why? Because in times of inflation, value-driven shopping becomes paramount. Price wars have always existed. If you can't undercut their prices, and you shouldn't, deliver on value. Here's what we're recommending: 1️⃣ Differentiate Your Brand: Develop a unique brand identity that offers high-quality products. Use the StoryBrand method to hone in on your niche markets and build a loyal customer base. 2️⃣ Enhance Customer Experience: Provide exceptional, personalized, responsive customer service. How can you streamline your shipping and returns to be faster and increase satisfaction? 3️⃣ Leverage Advanced Digital Marketing: Utilize personalized marketing campaigns like hyperspecific email segments, engage with your audience on social media, and invest in SEO and content marketing to drive traffic and establish authority. Want to learn how we scale Shopify stores? Check out our course Clear Cut Growth https://lnkd.in/gCtNWuU4

This strategy helped a Shopify client with 2 flagship products (and accessories) generate 895 organic search clicks in just 3 months with 3 new collection pages that took less than 2 hours to create. Let’s talk about squeezing every drop of SEO juice (not link juice) out of your existing content and small product range. Most agencies play it too safe with keyword research, sticking to basic stuff like “best X” "what is Y" or “cheap Z.” If you really want to fast-track results and stand out, you’ve got to think differently. That means taking the time to do thorough keyword research. Here’s a no-nonsense, super-simple way to do it: Target solution-based and compatibility searches in 2 steps. 1️⃣ Stop Trying to Rank for Obvious Keywords Obvious keywords = tons of competition and low ROI. If you’re selling cleaning products, don’t target “cleaning products”—it’s competitive and hard like climbing Mount Everest. Instead, think about the problems your product solves. Ask yourself: - What are people frustrated with? - What are they Googling when they need help? - Can I be their solution? If your product works with another brand or product, use that as your angle. For example: - “Compatible with [Competitor Product]” - “Best [Product] for [pain point]” - “Alternative to [Competitor Product]” For example, if you’re selling cleaning products, you don’t just cleaning products—you solve problems for people who want to clean specific areas in their home. People might not search for your brand yet, but they’ll search for: - “best cleaning product for bathroom” - “grout cleaner for marble tile” - “grout cleaner for natural stone” - "what to put in mop water to make house smell good" - "what to put in ocedar mop" These searches are laser-focused on solving a problem. And if you’re the solution? Boom. Rankings and conversions. 2️⃣ Create the Right Kind of Content Once you’ve found those juicy solution-based keywords, here’s the next question: What kind of page should you create? Always check the top 4 Google results for your target keyword to see what’s ranking. If Google is showing: - Product pages, create a product page. - Blog posts, write a blog post. - Collection/Category pages, build one of those instead. For a query like “grout cleaner for marble tile,” Google is prioritizing product pages. That’s your sign to focus there instead of wasting time on a 2,000-word blog post no one asked for. 🥇Why This Works This strategy is gold because: You’re creating helpful content that helps people solve real problems, which makes them trust you (and hopefully Google). It’s easier and faster to create product or collection pages than a fancy blog post. Prioritise the lower funnel opportunities first. You’re targeting potential customers who are ready to buy. Ready to rank smarter? Get your Shopify SEO audit here https://lnkd.in/ghy-shAJ

Here’s why your customer avatar sucks (and how to fix it). You’re told to dream up “Susan”—a picture-perfect customer who loves yoga, drinks matcha, and secretly fears she’s not living up to her potential. She's a 40-something corporate gal with a credit card limit the size of a small economy and not afraid to max it out on the latest health trends. Every piece of copy is supposed to be a love letter to Susan so she gets all the feels, clicks, and buys. 💌 Here’s the thing: that advice isn’t wrong—it’s just incomplete. Because Susan isn’t just a personality. She’s a shopper. And if you don’t understand how Susan shops, you’re missing the bigger picture. When it comes to growing your business, you need to ask the questions that matter: 🛒 How does Susan shop? Where is she most likely to find you, interact with you, and ultimately convert? 💳 How much is Susan worth to your business? What’s her long-term customer value, and will she stick around for the long run? Start thinking of every dollar spent acquiring a new customer as an investment into a blossoming long-term relationship with your brand. It’s not just about what Susan wants. It’s about how she buys. ✅ Where is she discovering your brand? Social media, search engines, word of mouth, or offline channels? ✅ How does she interact with you? Sliding into your DMs, reading reviews, or late-night scrolling on your website? ✅ Where does she convert? One-click buying on Instagram, your website checkout, or in-store? When you know the answers, you can show up in the right places at the right time. You can create a frictionless experience that feels effortless for her—and profitable for you. This is why we love tools like Triple Whale that help paint the full picture and do just this. The truth is, your most important customers have habits, preferences, and patterns. The deeper your understanding, the easier it is to meet their needs—and grow your sales. P.S. We love you Susan 🫶

I’ve been using a campaign that’s opposite to 99% of Facebook Ads advice and it’s something only the top pros use to 10x the scales of ecommerce brands. In this video, I’ll show you every detail of the campaign and strategy so you spend less time managing your ad account. You’ll see how to use this campaign to avoid ad fatigue, audience fatigue, and campaigns dying. This saves you so much time and money. Plus you’ll learn the biggest mistake Facebook advertisers make with their ad account that stops a store from scaling.

Traditional financing can slow innovation, creating barriers like rigid repayment terms and endless loan approvals. Shopify's newly launched Shopify Finance is built for entrepreneurs who want fast, flexible, and growth-focused access to capital. Here's why you should consider it: 🖥️ Unified Finance Home: Manage all your business finances, and see your business clearly in one powerful dashboard 💸 Faster Access to Funds: Tools like Shopify Capital, Credit, give you access to up to $2 million in fast funding, regardless of size and financial maturity— with no credit checks or impact on personal credit score. It's available within your Shopify admin panel. Get paid as soon as the next business day! 🎁 Automatic Rewards: Earn annual percentage yield (APY) rewards and cash back on Shopify Balance and Credit cards - including marketing, wholesale, and fulfillment purchases. 🤝 Flexible Repayment Terms: Repay from daily sales—no payments required on slow days. 🧾 Simplified Tax Compliance: Easily stay tax-compliant with state and local regulations with just a few clicks Barriers of traditional systems are gone, leaving you free to focus on what matters most—growing your business on your terms. You can learn more here: https://lnkd.in/g2DmYreu

Connectively/HARO is dead. Good. Here’s how we land better media features EVERY month for ecommerce brands. With journalists still actively seeking expert voices, there’s never been a better time to position yourself as a go-to resource. By leveraging these 4 platforms and delivering authentic, high-value contributions, you can secure meaningful media features and backlinks to grow your authority like never before. 1. Qwoted Qwoted’s sleek UX and transparency make it a standout platform for connecting with journalists. It features the highest quality of online publications where journalists actively work and request expert insights. You can see how many pitches a journalist has received, helping you gauge your chances of being selected. With two free pitches per month, it’s accessible for beginners, while premium plans start at $99/month. Once selected, journalists can communicate directly through the platform’s inbox, streamlining collaboration and ensuring clear communication. 2. Featured Featured offers a clean interface to track pitch status—reviewed, selected, published, or not selected. Users get 3 free pitches per month, while pro seats start at $39.80/month for unlimited pitches. However, a downside is that some journalist requests are directed to Featured's own network of websites. Still, it remains a valuable tool for getting your expertise noticed. 3. SOS (Source of Sources) Launched in 2024 by Peter Shankman, the original founder of HARO, SOS is the newest player in the game. This free platform provides daily emails with journalist queries. However, with no filtering or barriers to entry, expect high competition. 4. Help a B2B Writer This niche platform focuses on matching sources with B2B writers creating highly targeted industry content. As a source, you simply register, select your areas of expertise, and receive relevant queries via email. Only sources with matching expertise criteria get notified, keeping pitches focused and effective. While its focus ensures better matches, like SOS, there’s no barrier to entry, meaning higher competition and varying pitch quality. And a bonus tip. 5. Focus on Building Relationships, Not Transactions Don’t just pitch when you need something. Share their articles, comment on their posts, or send a quick note of appreciation for their work. Building genuine rapport pays off in the long run. Offer to be a go-to resource for future stories in your area of expertise. Journalists are more likely to reach out directly if they know you’re reliable and knowledgeable.

It's your offer and changes on your website that increase AOV—not tighter targeting, higher ROAS targets, bidding higher on specific devices, or changes to ad scheduling. Here are 3 ways most brands can increase their AOV: 1️⃣ Increase your product prices. Price boosts can be hard as DTC is the ultimate commoditization of pricing because of the speed that ecommerce entrepreneurs find and take advantage of arbitrage in markets. Test price changes from a determined date then compare product sales and conversion rates, against the prior period and prior year. You must keep offers in ads consistent to reduce advertising being the influence. Be aware of other influential conditions like trends. Use a statistical significance calculation tool to get an honest test. Getting 100 product sales over a week is unlikely to be enough for a test. 2️⃣ Create a bundle of your hero product. Your hero product is what gets purchased first and sells well, and it generates the highest customer lifetime value. Ask yourself what products compliment each other that usually sell well as individual items? Maybe a cleanser and moisturizer together? A Sankey diagram of the product journey helps. You can always bundle with bonus items that support the hero product's usage. Manscaped have a toiletry bag and boxers. A bonus item can have an extremely low COGs that you wouldn't otherwise sell alone, but bundling it makes it valuable. 3️⃣ Increase your free shipping threshold the right way. By definition, your AOV is an average. To raise it, you have to strategize off of the "mode" value: the most frequent number in a sequence. Look at the products purchased. Then you can increase your AOV and improve your free shipping threshold. What have you done to increase your AOV?

Amazon has stepped into the low-cost fast retail game, taking direct aim at Shein and Temu. The ecommerce giant has launched a new mobile-only storefront that features super-affordable fashion and lifestyle products all under $20! Here's what you need to know: 📱 Available only on mobile in the USA 💸 All items priced $20 or less, some as low as $1! 📦 $3.99 shipping or free for orders over $25 🔖 Order $50 save 5%, Order $75+ save 10% ⏱️ Typical delivery times: 1-2 weeks 🔄 Free returns on items over $3 within 15 days 🛡️ Backed by Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee With Amazon Haul offering ultra-low prices and expanding its reach, how are you planning to differentiate your Shopify store to retain customers and compete in this increasingly price-driven market?