Morning all,

Apologies for the late posting, it has been another crazy week in the land of digital.

The next #EcomChat will be on Monday 20th May at 1pm UK time. The topic will be ‘Ecommerce & Marketing Churn Rate’, an interesting topic suggested by @willdymott, who heads up ecommerce at Lyle & Scott.

This may sound dull at first glance but understanding and measuring churn, or attrition as some people refer to it, is really important. What’s interesting is there doesn’t seem to be a standard for doing this and how people report on churn varies considerably. So this chat session aims to reveal what we understand by churn and the different ways people slice and dice data to reveal the numbers. And can we agree on a standard definition?

As ever – there are 3 loose conversation starter questions:

• What are the different ways in which you can measure churn rate e.g. churn rate by marketing channel?
• What metrics should people use to measure/monitor churn rate e.g. volume/value?
• What are the benefits to businesses of understanding their churn rate?

Do spread the word to anyone you think may be interested, do join in if you’re free at 1pm UK on Monday, or simply follow the #EcomChat hashtag on Twitter. If you’re wondering “what is this all about?” there is an about page to help show that we’re not mad, yet.

Thanks!

Dan & James.

The next #EcomChat will be on Monday 13th May at 1pm UK time. The topic will be ‘Personalisation & Segmentation’.

As ever – there are 3 loose conversation starter questions:

• Do personalisation & segmentation matter for Ecommerce, and if so why?
• What are the best ways of personalising or segmenting the experience on websites?
• What are the best ways of personalising & segmenting within digital marketing? Which particularly good examples have you seen?

Do spread the word to anyone you think may be interested, do join in if you’re free at 1pm UK on Monday, or simply follow the #EcomChat hashtag on Twitter. If you’re wondering “what is this all about?” there is an “about” page to help.

Thanks!

Dan & James.

The next #EcomChat will be at 1pm UK time on Monday 29th April. The topic will be “Important Ecommerce Processes”. It sounds dull but in our experience, when you start talking about the role of process and what processes are needed & how they should work, the discussion often becomes quite animated! Often it’s the processes that get left to rot as people focus on the sexy side of ecommerce – the money.

The aim of this week’s chat is to pull apart the processes that ecommerce teams need to have in place and share insight and info on how to plan, map, implement and manage processes across ecommerce teams.

This week’s 3 conversation-starter questions are:

1. What are the most important processes that have to be in place for an ecommerce team to function?
2. What are the common errors and issues that ecommerce teams face and how do you tackle them (e.g. not evolving a process as the team expands)?
3. What tools & techniques can people use to manage processes (including visualising process flows)?

Do join in if you’re free at 1pm UK on Monday, or simply follow the #EcomChat hashtag on Twitter. If you’re wondering “what is this all about?” there is an “about” page to help.

Thanks!

Dan & James.

This week’s #ecomchat was on Working With Agencies – no, not the sequel to Dances With Wolves but a chat discussing the trials and tribulations of selecting and managing business partners for ecommerce.

The chat was based around 3 key question as usual and below is a summary of the key points and discussion threads.

There were lots of comments and some brilliant discussion threads, so thanks to everyone who took part and apologies we didn’t include every single comment in this write-up. What’s interesting is there were common themes from most chatters and these were:

1. Treat your agency as a valued partner to get the most from them – don’t allow a Client vs. Agency mentality to creep in.
2. You need to have clear requirements and a structured approach to finding an agency.
3. Make sure you test the waters to find out each agency’s core skills and knowledge based – don’t assume they know everything.
4. Put clear communication at the heart of the partnership – being transparent and honest helps build trust.
5. Incentivise your partners to deliver above and beyond the core targets.
6. Make sure you measure what’s being done and hold agencies to targets so there is a clear structure and expectations.

Question 1 – How do you select the right agency (separating the wheat from the chaff)?

• @ahmed_Khalifa suggested it’s useful if the agency has experience of working with ecommerce sites before as well as other industries for a broad-based experience.
• @aattias recommended having a good brief and/or tender, giving the potential partner as much insight in to your business goals and challenges.
• @therustybear commented that the first question you should ask is “”What do you think we need?”.
• An interesting point from @magique83 is that the business needs to have at least some understanding of the work being carried out. If not, it should enlist the support of an external specialist. @LALYdesign agreed that projects can go wrong if the Client has no idea what is possible or what they’re trying to achieve.
• A good suggestion from @aattias was to speak to each agency’s Clients – not just the testimonials but other Clients who you can approach direct and ask about tangible results.
• @s1m0nc also raised an important point – you should actively seek out agencies that are willing to challenge Client ideas constructively e.g. an idea that will be detrimental to the Client’s business and customers.
• @montsecano raised the issue of resources – you need to ensure that the agency can deliver so assess them based on capability to deliver according to your required timescales.
• Some wicked cunning from @magique83 – he has set-up tests before by asking for something that is clearly not best practice and evaluating the response.
• @redstar_digital recommended you make sure the agency is guided by people, not technology.
• @jamesmdoman raised an interesting point about the type of agency you need to work with. It’s really important to define this – do you need a specialist, a generalist, T-shaped, technical, design etc. Be clear upfront on the type of agency that best matches your needs.
• @leebenecke has been asked the question before, “Should a client meet whole agency team before appointing them?” His answer – ABSOLUTELY.

Question 2 – How do you ensure successful relationships e.g. effective communication/managing issues?

• @ahmed_khalifa suggested making sure that both the agency and client have project plans where they could work side-by-side to meet the Client’s goals.
• @aattias recommended agreeing responsibilities/line of coms at start of relationship and using collaboration tools/ticket systems e.g. Basecamp, Sharepoint. He also recommended looking for evidence of good project/account management skills. Without them, you’re doomed to fail.
• @redstar_digital explained that a partnership approach is a must with agencies – so open communications, regular updates and meetings are important.
• @magique83 agreed that you must treat one another as partners and not as a client/agency (read parent/child) relationship.
• @therustybear suggested having each party take turns to chair the weekly meeting gives a different perspective to the campaign.
• @leebenecke made an interesting distinction: from a brand perspective, the client has to be clear on what they want but the agency has to lead the strategic thought.
• An interesting question from @danbarker was “How about when working with overlapping agencies (eg. seo/ppc/ecommerce platform) – any useful practices there?” Dan has worked with some Clients who have occasional ‘all agencies’ meetups that seem to work well.
• @melaniemackuk agreed that the best solution is multiple specialist agencies who share at “all agency” meetups, without negativity.
• @james_cornwall added Clients must take control and set the models by which all agencies work by. Integrated approach is key.

Question 3 – What can you do to ensure your agency partners deliver results?

• @kieronhughes suggested making sure the expectations are set in stone from the outset, avoid any potential disconnect in perceived results.
• @danroche27 explained that you need to set reasonable/achievable targets. Nothing worse than trying to hit a pie in the sky target from an agency perspective.
• @magique83 suggested that goals must be clearly defined, unconditionally understood and set out prior to any work starting.
• @blowerknows explained that wo way communication is vital. SMART KPI and objective setting, evaluate together what did / didn’t work, repeat.
• @willdymott recommended structuring their fees so at least part of it is paid on results. Either bonus or commission.
• A great point from @danroche27: work with the agency and not against them; if there is a problem, find a solution, don’t jump the gun.
• @walkerama said that for effective communications you need single point of contact, but they need to be more senior consultant level than just ‘account manager’.
• @magique83 suggested that if things aren’t progressing as they should then the client needs to ask what THEY can do to help instead of just shouting.

Thanks again to everyone for joining in, we hope to see you next week.

James & Dan.

The next #EcomChat will be at 1pm UK time on Monday 22nd April. The topic will be “Working with agencies”. Thanks to @aattias for the suggestion.

This week’s 3 conversation-starter questions are:

1. How do you select the right agency (separating the wheat from the chaff)?
2. How do you ensure successful relationships e.g. effective communication/managing issues?
3. What can you do to ensure your agency partners deliver results?

Do join in if you’re free at 1pm UK on Monday, or simply follow the #EcomChat hashtag on Twitter. If you’re wondering “what is this all about?” there is an “about” page to help.

Thanks!

Dan & James.

The next #EcomChat will be at 1pm UK time on Monday 15th April. The topic is ‘website speed’

This week’s 3 conversation-starter questions are:

1. Is website speed critical for ecommerce sites, or is this an urban myth? How does it impact results?
2. What are the key things websites should do to improve website speed?
3. What can websites do to track and benchmark their website speed or their competitors’ site speed?

Do join in if you’re free at 1pm UK on Monday, or simply follow the #EcomChat hashtag on Twitter. If you’re wondering “what is this all about?” there is an “about” page to help.

Thanks!

Dan & James.

This week’s #EcomChat will be at the later time of 17:30 on April 8th (UK time), and is on the topic of ‘Customer Reactivation and Increasing Lifetime Value’. LTV is a much maligned acronym and many people discuss LTV without finding a clear definition of what it is, how it can be measured and what you can do with the info. So this week’s chat will be based around reactivating existing customers, looking at the tips & tricks to get people to come back and stay active.

This week’s 3 conversation-starter questions are:

1. What are the best techniques to encourage existing customers to come back and place additional orders?
2. How can you track the behaviour of return customers and what can this tell you?
3. What are the tips & tricks around measuring and validating LTV?

Do join in if you’re free at 5.30pm UK on Monday (12:30 Eastern US), or simply follow the #EcomChat hashtag on Twitter. If you’re wondering “what is this all about?” there is an “about” page to help.

Thanks!

Dan & James.

This week’s #EcomChat will be at 13:00 on March 25th (UK time). The topic is “Competitor Monitoring”!

Here are the 3 rough conversation-starter questions:

• Is it important for Ecommerce sites to keep an eye on their competitors?
• Which tools, techniques, or other tips are there for monitoring & analysing competitors? (list as many as possible & we’ll put together a list of all)
• How much time & effort should site owners put into this, and where should they focus it?

Do join in if you’re free at 1pm UK, or follow the #ecomchat hashtag on Twitter.

Thanks!

Dan & James.

ps. If you’re wondering “what is this all about?” there is an “about” page to help.

This week’s #EcomChat was on the topic of Building Online Brands, looking at how small businesses can and should go about creating their brand presence.

There was a lot of cross over in comments this week and Dan summarised the key points neatly, with a few additions from James:

1. Define your brand – a very big part of this online is about voice, so you need to know what your voice is, what is sounds like etc.
2. Make sure your customer service is excellent when you’re on the way up & that you’re proactively listening.
3. Amplify positive customer experiences and fix negative experiences.
4. Use ‘money’ channels like PPC & AdWords for video for quick, predictable reach.
5. Produce as much great ‘on-brand’ content as possible for SEO & social.
6. Make sure your email & social channels *do* keep drip-dripping your overall story to customers – keep your values & key services front of mind.
7. If in doubt, build ‘brand’ into other areas, rather than spending time on it specifically & spreading yourself too thin.n
8. Find influencers and use them to support you e.g. bloggers.
9. Don’t lose sight of what your customers want the brand to be – it’s easy for small business owners to become obsessed with their own brand vision but essential you take customers with you on the journey.

There were a few examples provided for businesses that have successfully built brands online, either through unique approaches or clever use of content and marketing:

• Onedollarshaveclub
• Orabrush
• Accessories Online
• Wiggy Wigglers

Thanks to the following for contributing comments and suggestions:

@Jamie_Farrelly
@aattias
@BrightDM
@JocelynKirby
@CraigWSoftCat
@DanielJTruman
@hitreach
@ChinaShopBull
@trbaldwin
@gcharlton
@cocketman
@montsecano
@koozai
@georgeioannou
@markbolitho
@bdmbenmer

And don’t forgot to send us suggestions for future topics via Twitter.

Cheers, James & Dan.

This week’s #EcomChat will be at 13:00 on March 18th (UK time), and is on the topic of ‘Building Brands Online’. Branding is a big subject area, so we’re be looking at tips and tricks for businesses that want to establish an online reputation and encourage people to buy-in to their vision and values.

This week’s 3 conversation-starter questions are:

1. What can smaller ecommerce sites do online to grow their brands?
2. What are some good examples of brand building campaigns?
3. What can you do to protect your brand online? (eg. from crisis issues / social media meltdowns / etc)?

Do join in if you’re free at 1pm UK on Monday (08:00 Eastern US), or simply follow the #ecomchat hashtag on Twitter. If you’re wondering “what is this all about?” there is an “about” page to help.

Thanks!

Dan & James.