Outsourcing branding and marketing to an agency is common. So is outsourcing to an individual. But think about the number of times you\u2019ve heard people come around complaining about how that agency\/ individual was not able to deliver results. If you ask us, we have these conversations every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are brand owners of all business sizes that walk up to us and tell us about how bad their previous branding agency was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or how bad they strategized the marketing and how it led to no sales or ended up being just a big drain of their resources (especially money).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then are times when brand owners walk up to us with a pre-fed notion in mind about how good their branding is. But how their marketing does no justice to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Either way, here\u2019s what we end up telling them all – \u201cYour eCommerce branding and marketing agency has been fooling you. And you\u2019re the first one to be blamed for the poor results!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Come at us all you want. But the truth remains that if you were seeing your branding not make as big an impact or marketing not drive as many sales, did you ask the right questions to who you were working with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agreed, that most of us don\u2019t come with a marketing background. But there are a few gives when you know \u2018clearly\u2019 that your eCommerce agency is doing nothing to help your store grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the most common BS statements you get to hear when your eCommerce branding and marketing agency is throwing darts in the dark<\/strong> or isn\u2019t ready to have a \u2018real\u2019 conversation with you about your conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh no no no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine Amazon branding with the message \u2018delivering smiles\u2019. And then their marketing\/ advertising campaigns showing unreliable products from sellers you wouldn\u2019t buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or Johnson and Johnson. Imagine the baby brand suddenly talking about high street fashion just because that\u2019s an ad campaign that will get you \u2018attention\u2019. Absolutely bonkers right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you ever feel or get a hunch that the campaigns your eCommerce marketing agency is running, are not in line with what your brand stands for, stop them right there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even better, take a step back, ask them to pause your campaigns and communicate these things transparently:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve just started an online store and don\u2019t have answers to the above, read this guide: What is brand identity? How to design and develop a great one<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ha-ha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know the very first thing we do when someone reaches out to us seeking help in marketing their online store?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We conduct an in-depth audit on their website and their existing campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We look through every single detail – right from the home page, product pages, cart page, the checkout process to the thank you page and more. We go through it all to identify where you are or might lose your customer when we start running campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, we point out exactly where your store UI\/UX is losing the brand value. You can\u2019t be promising consumers one thing and leading them to another. You can\u2019t convert visitors into customers that way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, we recently worked on a project with a beauty and cosmetics wellness brand. Their store UX was so poor, that it overwhelmed the visitors that landed on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we personally took on the responsibility of pointing out the leaks with a thorough UX research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We first worked on making their store leak-proof and only then started to plan running their campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to know where you\u2019re losing customers? Reach out to us for an audit<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pfft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Really? Come on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your eCommerce agency just said that all your data is \u2018old\u2019 and \u2018not relevant\u2019, a big BOO to them. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, by store data we mean – data on how your products are performing, the number of sales you\u2019re making and who your customers are. Is that not important? Does that not give you leverage or a baseline to start your marketing and advertising efforts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n All data is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, you get the drift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be it data from your social platforms, your advertising channels, your email marketing tool, previous SMS campaigns or offline marketing, ALL OF IT MATTERS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s just about being able to sift through it all and turn it into actionables that will help you grow your store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ahem ahem. There are so many other eCommerce growth metrics you need to look at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your eCommerce marketing agency has been flashing the number of sales you make every time you ask for a report, time to step back and take a raincheck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to ask them metrics like the reach of your campaigns, the average conversion rate on your campaigns, your average spend, the ROI you\u2019re getting on it and most importantly, the ROAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because if you\u2019re spending a thousand dollars and getting 10 sales worth $10 each, that\u2019s not growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re losing more than you\u2019re earning!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ask your eCommerce marketing agency to give you a better performance report on your campaigns. If they can\u2019t create one, it\u2019s time to move on to someone who can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t like to boast, but we\u2019re focused on data all the time. Here\u2019s a list of some of the analytics tools<\/a> we make use of to give our clients the \u2018correct\u2019 picture with the right metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *Rolls eyes*<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you ever seen Amazon run one type of a campaign and then pause all their efforts to reach new customers or keep the existing ones engaged?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you ever seen Walmart just rely on email marketing and not explore reaching out to customers on SMS?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is NO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your eCommerce marketing agency has been giving you this excuse, it\u2019s time to look into their technology stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If they\u2019re not able to scale your marketing and advertising efforts to grow your business, the real reason is probably that they don\u2019t have the right partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, we know how a growing store will want to explore different marketing channels to reach their customers. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve partnered with leading eCommerce players and solutions like Nosto, Klaviyo, MailChimp and others. You can get a glimpse of our eCommerce marketing stack here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here\u2019s how we did it for American jewellery brand, LACE by Jenny Wu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most common things that eCommerce business owners hear from agencies and professionals alike, is that they\u2019re not spending as much on their campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, throw in a few more thousand dollars and you\u2019ll see sales. Oh, your competitor\u2019s spending hundred more dollars than you – mind giving us more budget?<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are baseless conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re not saying you\u2019re going to get thousands of dollars worth of sales by spending just a dollar. That isn\u2019t true either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if every time your eCommerce marketing agency has this to say when your campaigns don\u2019t work, you know something is wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turn around and ask them what you\u2019re being asked to spend on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If they\u2019re doing things the right way, they probably have multiple analytics tools in place to measure the spend and the most important growth metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another thing that most store owners – disappointed with their agencies or seeking more advice – come to us with, is asking \u2018how many campaigns\u2019 do they really need to set up to drive more sales?<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019ve been fed the \u2018the more, the better\u2019. But is that really the truth? NO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What matters is actually the quality of your marketing and advertising campaigns. It\u2019s about the number!<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could have a 100 ads set up at any given point in time. But if none of them entice the shoppers to purchase from you, you\u2019re only going to end up spending on thin air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or you\u2019re going to end up looking at data that just does not matter when it comes to driving actual sales for your store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PS. We do firmly believe that your campaigns need to be refreshed frequently. This is important so that you don\u2019t exhaust your ad\u2019s audience, and you don\u2019t start to \u2018bore\u2019 your customers by showing them the same thing over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings your eCommerce marketing agency say when they\u2019re lying to you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your branding and marketing\/ advertising efforts don\u2019t need to go hand-in-hand.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Your marketing\/ advertising results have nothing to do with your UX.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Your existing store data has nothing to do with your targeting.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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You just need to focus on the number of sales you make.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You can\u2019t scale your marketing and advertising efforts.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You aren\u2019t spending enough on your marketing\/ advertising.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You need to set up more campaigns.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n