When to colour between the lines

When to colour between the lines

Your website conversion rate is so important, it’s one of the biggest factors when it comes to your eCommerce store being successful or not. We talk a lot about how to be creative and even how to ditch the default to add your own brand and voice to your website. Sometimes, however, it is important to colour between the lines and use the stock standard layouts.

People are creatures of habit, we learn how to use something and then we do it without even thinking about it. When we jump into our Facebook app we know where to scroll the Newsfeed and where to find our profile, but when Facebook makes a change and we can’t find what is normally there we get frustrated.

The same goes for using online stores. We know when we jump on a website certain things will be there and we rely on those things being in the same old boring place so that we can easily navigate the website and find everything we are looking for, without getting frustrated.

Let’s take a look at the typical layout your eCommerce store should follow:

Menu

Your menu should be at the top of your website on a computer, and in a hamburger drop down menu on a phone.

Avoid hidden menus or menus on the side – if someone has to search for it you’re making it harder for them to give you money.

Product Page Layout

When it comes to your product page there are several must haves:

  • Product name
  • Images
  • Price
  • Description
  • Options – size, colour etc
  • Add to cart button

Layout and design vary greatly by theme, however, images on the left and product name, description, options, price and add to cart button on the right is the standard layout. When you switch it up it just feels wrong to the user, even if they can’t figure out why.

This website features large images, but it takes a while to register the product details are on the left.

Category Page

A category page showcases products, all belonging to the same product category such as dresses, tops or bottoms. Just like in a brick and mortar store when things are displayed nice and neat it gives the impression of quality and care. 

When things are mismatched it can create a messy look and give the wrong impression about your products.

Keep your product feature images all the same size on the category pages and, where possible, keep your background consistent.

This site creates a clean, fresh look with white backgrounds.

The two images on the far left look mismatched as they are different sizes to the others. The darker background also looks like it doesn’t belong.

For people (like me) who like things symmetrical, these different size images just don’t look right!

Oh sh*t this page doesn’t exist!

Our tech may have blundered but to be honest, it’s likely a human error (yep, my company is run by humans).

You may be able to find what you’re looking for with the links below. 

Or send me an email and a real person will get back to you.

Karyn x

[/et_pb_column]
Ep. 104 – 3 must have product images for eCommerce

Ep. 104 – 3 must have product images for eCommerce

In this episode Paige shares the 3 types of photos you need for your eCommerce business to create an emotional connection from your audience, gain trust and ultimately answer all their questions so they feel confident purchasing from you.

Our 3 tier content formula

Our 3 tier content formula

Having content that is unique, magnetic and engaging is critical to having a successful online store. But knowing exactly what content to produce can be tricky.

In today’s blog, we are going to share with you our 3 tier content formula that we use to grow our clients’ and students’ online stores. 

Our content formula consists of three tiers:

  1. Discover 
  2. Dream 
  3. Do

Each tier has different types of content that inspires your audience in different ways. 

Discover

This is where your potential customers discover your brand. You also discover who your audience is in this tier as they engage or interact with your content. 

Discover content: 

  • Inspires your audience to connect with your brand
  • Its job is to introduce and make a connection between you and your audience
  • Is at the top of funnel
  • Should make up approximately 40% of your content mix

Types of Discover content: 

  • Share your brand story including your why, your values and the people behind the brand
  • Problem focused education where you highlight the problem your brand solves
  • Engaging, sharable, relatable videos, memes, tips or questions. These don’t have to be brand-focused at all. 

Dream

This is where people start to imagine themselves with your product in their lives. 

Dream content: 

  • Inspires your audience to imagine themselves with your product
  • Its job is to strengthen the connection and create desirability between you and your audience
  • Is at the middle of funnel
  • Should make up approximately 40% of your content mix

Types of Dream content: 

  • Show your product in use in real life (lifestyle / in-context) 
  • Spotlight your products features, advantages and benefits
  • Build trust through reviews, user-generated content, before and after’s  and behind the scenes.

Do

“Do” is all about taking action. They checkout, or don’t. 

Do content: 

  • Inspires your audience to take action. 
  • Its job is to get your audience to purchase.
  • Is at the bottom of funnel
  • Should make up approximately 20% of your content mix

Types of Do content: 

  • Call to actions 
  • Dynamic retargeting showing your audience the exact product they just added to cart (but didn’t buy) 
  • Incentives to purchase (use these sparingly) 

Once you have created your Discover, Dream, Do content you will use them in your organic content schedule using the 40/40/20% breakdown we outlined above, as well as in your paid media. In your paid media you will use the content in your funnel. You can read more about using the funnel here. 

 

If you liked today’s blog you might like to check out eComm Ignitor. It’s our online course where we teach you exactly how to sell more on your online store. Join the waitlist now for exclusive early access to our early bird offer. 

Comment and let us know if you found this helpful or if you have any questions.

Megan Winter

Megan is an inspiring, brilliant and fun digital marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping purpose-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity

Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity

The new financial year is here! Now is a great time to review your numbers and we covered exactly which numbers you should be tracking and measuring in our latest podcast. 

One point I really wanted to reiterate is this: 

Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity.

We often see business owners bragging about their $2million dollar brand. But what does this actually mean…?

What they usually mean is they generated $2million dollars in revenue. And while this is great, revenue doesn’t mean a damn thing unless you’ve got profit left at the end of the day. 

I would much rather own a company that turns over $500k and is left with a net profit of $100k, than a company that turns over $1million dollars but is only left with $20k net profit at the end of the day.

So many business owners are left with little or no profit at the end of the year – or worse – they are left with an unexpected tax bill that they can’t pay. 

This is why when our students join eComm Ignitor the first thing we get them to do is track and measure their important numbers. And more often than not our online store owners realise that they aren’t making much profit (if any). They essentially have a hobby. And while this realisation sucks, it’s so important to understand because you can’t fix a problem you don’t know exists. 

Having your finger on the pulse with regards to your numbers is essential to having a successful business. So instead of focusing on the metrics that don’t matter, focus on those that do. 

  • Instead of focusing only on how many people are coming to your site, track and measure how many of those actually convert into a sale. 
  • Instead of focusing only on how many Facebook fans or Instagram followers you have, track and measure how many of those people actually engage with your brand. 
  • Instead of focusing only on how many sales you make, track and measure how many of those are repeat purchasers. 
  • Instead of focusing only on your revenue, track and measure how much profit is actually left at the end of the day. 

You can read our blog which details exactly which numbers we recommend you track and measure in order to have a successful online store. 

So, instead of focusing solely on revenue, turn your attention to those numbers that actually matter. And remember, revenue is vanity, profit is sanity. 

Megan Winter

Megan is an inspiring, brilliant and fun digital marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping purpose-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

How the iOS 14.5 Update Is Affecting Facebook Ads

How the iOS 14.5 Update Is Affecting Facebook Ads

They say there is never a right time to have a baby, well they were right! As I was giving birth to my beautiful little girl online store owners, marketers and Facebook staff alike were going into meltdown over the new iOS 14.5 update from Apple and what it would bring. 

For a run down on the update see How to prepare your business for the iOS Update.

It seemed like the worst timing but as luck would have it, I’m back from maternity leave and the sky has yet to fall in! 

Last week (26th April), the Apple iOS 14.5 update started to roll out in Australia. For iPhone owners who run the update they will now be able to choose whether an app can track them and retain their data. It’s this juicy data that has allowed Facebook ads to be so effective as we can re-target website users based on the actions they take such as looking at a product, adding to cart, or even purchasing. 

The update includes a pop up from Apple which asks the user if they give permission for the app to track them or not.

“Facebook” would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies. This will allow Facebook to provide you with a better ads experience.” The user can then choose between “Ask App Not to Track” or “Allow Tracking”.

A clever move by Facebook includes a prior screen, which educates the user before the popup appears. Facebook states that by allowing Facebook to track their app and website activity they will “Show you ads that are more personalized”, “Help keep Facebook free of charge” and “Support businesses that rely on ads to reach customers”. I think the only one that may be truly motivating for the every day user is keeping Facebook free of charge.

The biggest unknown waiting for this update is how many users will allow Facebook to continue to track them, and how many will opt out. As the update is rolled out, only time will tell.

So what will the changes mean for your Facebook ads?

 

Expect Changes From Facebook

Facebook has said to expect changes in their business and advertising tools, campaign set up, targeting, delivery, measurement, and reporting.

I expect there will be changes gradually rolled out as it will take time for users to update their devices and they won’t do it all at once. 

Reporting Changes

The update affects how Facebook can report on user behaviour as they won’t have all the data they had previously. 

Any user that opts out as part of the iOS 14.5 update won’t be reflected in your reporting. So if they click on your ad, go through, and make a purchase, that purchase won’t be reflected in your reporting. 

This is one of the biggest challenges we now face. It’s like going back to the old day of TV and radio where we knew 50% of our advertising was working, we just didn’t know which 50%. What I have always loved about Facebook ads is you could account for every cent spent and know exactly how much it was bringing you back in sales. Not anymore 🙁 

It is now important that you monitor your sales through your own platform’s analytics such as Shopify or WooCommerce. This will be a true reflection of your sales and you will need to estimate how many of those sales came from your Facebook advertising, even if Facebook is not telling you the full story. Apple’s changes affect Google too, so Google Analytics will be affected in the same way.

7 Day Window

Another big change is that Facebook is changing it’s attribution settings to 7 day click through and 1 day view. The old 28 day options and 7 day view are being depreciated..

This means that any reported stats on your ads are based on actions taken within 7 days of clicking on your ad, or within 24 hours of viewing it. Keep in mind however, this data shown does not include iOS users who opted out of tracking.

The default for all new Ad Sets and web event campaigns will be 7-day click-through.

Attribution methodology will shift from Impression Time to Conversion Time.

Aggregated Event Measurement (AEM)

Aggregated Event Measurement refers to the new limit of 8 events you can optimise for, mentioned in our previous blog. 

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to verify your domain and set up your web events. You can follow our free guide available here. 

When AEM is fully enforced any ad sets that are optimised for an event that is not selected in your 8 will automatically be paused. Double check your current Ad Sets to make sure they are not optimised for something you haven’t selected in your 8.

Ad sets will also be paused if you don’t have your verified domain selected.

IMPORTANT: If you re-order your events, all Ad Sets using the affected events will be paused for 72 hours. Facebook says this is to help minimize the risk of incorrect attribution.

Targeting

Tracking users has been essential to Facebook’s targeting options. Unfortunately for users who opt out, we won’t be able to re-target them as effectively as we used to. 

This affects not only what individual users do on your website, but also interest-based targeting as Facebook can no longer store information from websites they visit to know that a person is interested in horse riding, baby clothing or planning their next holiday.

Expect some of your audience sizes to go down as more people opt out of tracking. 

Another audience that will be affected by the change is lookalike audiences. Users who opt out won’t be able to be included in seed audiences, but even those who opt in under Apple’s new rules can only be used for 7 days. This means seed audiences will need to be based on actions taken in the last 7 days, not 180. This will result in many small businesses not being able to use Lookalike of Purchases as they need a minimum of 100 people in the same country within that 7 day period. To overcome this use, a larger seed audience such as add to cart or view content, or use a seed audience of an email list of purchases.

What To Expect

While all the changes roll out and there is an increase in users updating their iPhones, expect fluctuations in the performance of your ads. So far, our clients haven’t been dramatically affected, however, I have heard stories of others who have. Just be aware a lot is going on in the background and whenever Facebook makes major changes, things break! 

I expect ad delivery and reporting will be affected and Facebook has warned of increased CPAs (cost per acquisition).

What Should You Do

It’s not all doom and gloom, there are still many effective ways to use Facebook advertising, even for iOS users who opt out. 

Focus On Email

It’s time to double down on your email strategy. Use your Facebook ads to get people to your website but then, focus on capturing their emails when they get there. This way you will be able to email them, and also target them with Facebook ads based on an audience made from our email list. 

We recommend using Klaviyo as it allows you to have a custom Facebook audience made with an email list that automatically updates when new subscribers join your list.

You can also use Facebook Lead ads to collect emails from within Facebook and then add those subscribers to your custom audience, and feed them through an email sequence.

With so many people asking for emails, you need to be more creative than offering ‘10% off your first purchase’. Consider running a competition with a monthly winner or a special offer just for subscribers.

Use Videos

Videos are a great way to capture attention in your Facebook ads, but the other great thing about them is you can create audiences of people who have viewed them. One ad strategy we will be testing is running ads top of funnel (to a cold audience) with engaging videos and then re-targeting middle of funnel ads to people who watch those videos, rather than people who view a product on your website. The premise is the same, you are showing further information in an ad to someone who has shown an interest (by watching your video). Here is a free resource featuring 8 types of thumb-stopping video you can create.

Be Patient

There has been a big build up to these changes and the chaos they are going to cause but things are not going to change dramatically overnight. It will take time to see the full effects of the changes and find the best ways to adapt. Be patient and keep an eye on our blog for the latest updates.

Don’t Panic

Things change. Once upon a time Newspapers were the best way to advertise! Along came radio, then TV. Then Netflix turned up and people stopped watching free to air TV and therefore stopped seeing ads. 

Marketing is always the same – the right message to the right person at the right time. The method is what changes, and we need to continue to evolve as the world does. Privacy is a huge issue amongst online apps so I believe Apple is only the first to make this move and others will follow suit. 

We need to adapt to what is working at the time. I still believe Facebook ads will be a powerful marketing tool for eCommerce, we will just start using them in a different way.

 

Need Help? 

If you’d like help to grow your eCommerce store using our latest eCommerce funnels designed to adapt to the latest changes check out our eComm Ignitor program. We can help you sell more on your online store.

Oh sh*t this page doesn’t exist!

Our tech may have blundered but to be honest, it’s likely a human error (yep, my company is run by humans).

You may be able to find what you’re looking for with the links below. 

Or send me an email and a real person will get back to you.

Karyn x

[/et_pb_column]
Ep. 104 – 3 must have product images for eCommerce

Ep. 104 – 3 must have product images for eCommerce

In this episode Paige shares the 3 types of photos you need for your eCommerce business to create an emotional connection from your audience, gain trust and ultimately answer all their questions so they feel confident purchasing from you.

3 rules of success for all eCommerce Entrepreneurs

3 rules of success for all eCommerce Entrepreneurs

When a new student enrols in eComm Ignitor, they are there to learn how to sell more on their online store. And we absolutely show them how to do this. 

But… it would be remiss of us if we didn’t also share a few guiding principles to get the most out of the course. Today, I’m sharing 3 of these rules of success with you, trusting it’s exactly what you need to hear today. 

 

3 rules for success for all eCommerce Entrepreneurs

1. Give yourself permission to be human

If you’re growing in life, you will feel stretched and challenged and that’s exactly what we want you to feel. Because magic doesn’t happen inside your comfort zone. 

There are going to be moments throughout your eCommerce journey that you may feel overwhelmed or frustrated. Growth brings resistance. A caterpillar can’t turn into a butterfly without struggle and resistance.    

I always tell our eComm Ignitor students, “If you do catch yourself feeling like you are out of your comfort zone, simply use this as feedback to know that you’re evolving and growing. Acknowledge this and celebrate this and know that a little resistance is a good thing. It means you’re growing!”

2. Perfection is the enemy of progress

As high-achieving eCommerce entrepreneurs and business owners, we often set very high standards for ourselves. We strive for perfection. But perfection is an illusion. It’s an unattainable goal. So instead of aiming for perfection, strive for progress.

3. Come with a beginners mindset

Another really common way we humans hold ourselves back is by thinking we know this already. If you hear something that you have heard before – great – now is your chance to either dive a little deeper and make it even better. 

If you dismiss something because you think you already know it, you will miss the opportunity to grow (which is exactly why our students invest in our program in the first place). So, we tell them to come with a beginner’s mind. We want to tell you the same thing and ask you to give yourself permission to learn something new from every single situation. 

Ok, so there you have it. A few simple yet powerful rules to set yourself up for success in this program. They were:

  1. Give yourself permission to be human and acknowledge when you feel uncomfortable use it as a cue that you’re growing and celebrate this. 
  2. Strive for progress, not perfection 
  3. Approach everything with a beginners mindset

So, I trust this was exactly what you needed to hear today. Comment and let me know what resonated – and if you have any rules of success to share with our community.

Megan Winter

Megan is an inspiring, brilliant and fun digital marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping purpose-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

3 amazing benefits of doing the unscalable

3 amazing benefits of doing the unscalable

Begin with the end in mind. It’s something I constantly remind our team when strategic planning and setting up structures in the business. 

And while it’s true that you want to carefully consider where you want to end up, your first action doesn’t always mirror your desired end result.

It can be tempting to setup your online store with big systems and processes and to make sure that everything you do is scalable. But I want to challenge this concept. 

In fact, I want to go as far as saying that you actually want to do the unscalable. Sometimes! 

Why would a system-loving eCommerce growth strategist be telling you to do the unscalable?  

Simple. There is magic in doing the unscalable. 

Here are 3 benefits you can gain from doing the unscalable in your business. 

1. Uncover amazing insights

You can uncover amazing insights by engaging directly with a small group of customers. This can either be your first purchasers if you’re just starting out, or your highest value customers if you have a more established customer base.

Instead of asking people to fill out a survey, email people individually with a personal note asking for insights or feedback. I promise you’ll get a better % response rate and the insights you’ll gain will be much more usable than the responses from a survey. 

Pro Tip: if you are looking for feedback, ask one specific question at a time.

2. Create sticky, long-term relationships

Similar to the point above, you can create long-term loyal customers by simply engaging with them personally, aka in an unscalable way. Think about it… sure, your automated email sequences are there to do the heavy lifting for abandon carts, post-purchase sequences, return reminders, etc., and you absolutely should have these in place, but if you took the time to email repeat customers personally, saying thanks and starting up a conversation… how sticky are they going to become? They will go from loyal customer to raving fan! 

Hint: raving fans do marketing for you by telling all their friends and family about you, so taking a little unscalable time to activate an evangelist could pay off many times over! 

3. Generate memorable experiences and repeat customers 

Your online store needs to be more than an online store. It needs to be more than what you sell. It needs to be magnetic, engaging and unique. Most of all it needs to be memorable. 

Every touchpoint in your online store (meaning every time someone comes in contact with your brand) is an opportunity to make your audience smile, evoke an emotion and create a lasting impression. In fact, you’re evoking an emotion whether you like it or not… sometimes it just might not be a great one. 

Take the unboxing experience as an example. I recently purchased some earrings from Poppy Lane. She could have simply put the earrings in a padded envelope along with the invoice and sent them out. She would have been delivering on her promise. But instead, she packaged the earring in a brightly coloured pink (her brand colour) and instead it was some silver tinsel, a pink fizzer lolly thing, a hand written note (on nice stock) and of course the earrings. 

She made me smile, evoked joy and left a lasting memory… and you bet your favourite hat I’ll be shopping from her again. I loved it enough to do an Instagram story about it. Not only that, but because the experience was so good I now know where to buy gifts from… I have complete confidence that if I ship directly to my friends and family, they will receive a great experience too.  

 

Final word 

So, yes, start with the end in mind but don’t be afraid to do the unscalable to accelerate the growth of your business. Uncover insights, create sticky relationships and go one step further to make people smile and leave a lasting memory. Do the unscalable and I promise, you will discover some magic. 

Megan Winter

Megan is an inspiring, brilliant and fun digital marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping purpose-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact.