Vladlena Mitskaniouk

9am. Slack pops up Website down. Emails down. 123.reg saying the domain has expired but someone else has it. Technically savvy co-founder in Canada. 😫 Luckily it was just a billing details update. I'd like to say I was super calm...luckily my daughter is only 1 and not repeating bad words, yet 👀 But after having 'my moment' I took a deep breath (literally), joined the team call and then rang our web agency. This is what followed: 1. The team had already contacted clients for alternative methods of communication 📞 2. On our weekly scrum they helped brainstorm what to do (and supported their non-techy founder navigate what to do) - LOVE THEM 😻 3. Our web agency (Identify Digital) were super calm, said quickly it was just new billing details needed and luckily had access so could do that there and then ⛑ 4. We were back up and running with lot's of high fives 🙌 Nothing and nobody is perfect behind the scenes. But what I learn everyday is how important it is to hunt for the solutions, not live in the problems. Happy Monday to anyone building a business. I see you!

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Is the shipping free or not? 🙄 I see so many examples of poorly configured shipping options with merchants running on Shopify. These UX issues might seem minor, but they create confusion for the consumer in the checkout. In this example, the "ground shipping" appears twice - one is free the other is $8.75 and why show a Hawaii option when my address is not in Hawaii?

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How do you change Shopify's checkout to increase purchases? 🛍 If you're using Shopify, you know the checkout is pretty standard - limited flexibility - change a logo here, tweak colour swatches there. But since this page is one of the most impactful pages on your store, you have to push within it's boundaries by implementing these changes. 1. Simplify checkout steps to reduce friction and boost conversions. 2. Offer diverse payment options to cater to a wider audience. 3. Use free shipping incentives to increase order values. 4. Implement Google Autocomplete for faster and error-free entries. 5. Enable 1-click checkout for seamless repeat purchases. 6. Display security badges for customer trust. How are you guys improving your checkout?

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Regarding the Shopify agency landscape… As Shopify continues to move into the enterprise space, a handful of agencies will peel off from the crowd and thrive while the rest get stuck servicing the long tail of smaller customers. Agencies I talk to are quickly learning that the buying journey for enterprise clients is so different than small brands where senior leadership is part of every conversation. They’re also learning that other agencies aren’t their competition, the big system integrators are. My advice? Don’t think about the agency next door holding a better happy hour than you, worry about Deloitte’s partners that have existing C-suite relationships that started when they were getting their MBAs together at Stanford and how to meet them where they’re at. Focus on smaller projects with champions from specific departments to get in the door, not big bang re-platforms or digital transformations. Bring them enterprise-grade technology with partners that move the needle, not a shipping calculator. Prepare to show up with humility and justify your existence every day, they likely employ people smarter than you and your goal is to stay ahead of their next questions, not deliver the same old advice recycled from smaller engagements. Agencies that learn how to engage with enterprises are about to make a ton of money, the rest are going to flounder for a while as the Shopify Plus landscape shifts under their feet. Also, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with smaller brands. They move quickly, usually pay their bills on time, and you get to help the backbone of the economy (small companies and entrepreneurs) be successful.

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5 Takeaways + Actual Live Demo Numbers Yesterday, I hosted the first public DEMO of "NEW" Bucket. (Our brand new "intelligent" quiz / assessment funnel software.) I also made what Ash Maurya would describe as a "Concierge" offer - limited to 10 businesses. Price point = $2K with a $100 application deposit. ------------ Here Were Our Numbers: ------------ AM Demo: * 450 Registrations * 255 Attended (56.7% Attendance) * 59 Paid Applications (23.14% Conversion) PM Demo: * 340 Registrations * 135 Attended (39.7% Attendance) * 21 Paid Applications (15.56% Conversion) AM/PM Totals / Average: * 790 Registrations * 390 Attended (49.37% Attendance) * 80 Paid Applications (20.51% Conversion (Complete stats attached....) Today I'm reviewing the 80 applications - with the difficult task of narrowing down to just 10 businesses to work with (this round)... In the meantime, I thought it might be helpful to share a few takeaways from yesterday's sessions. ========== 5 Big Takeaways ========== ------ 1: Keep Your Tech Simple We didn't create a fancy webinar page, sales page or check out page. Literally: * Zoom reg page. * Evernote detailing the offer. * Stripe checkout page. That was it. ------ 2: Lean Into the "Un-Sell" I spent about 10 minutes "unselling" people on signing up. Long Game Move: Greatest Customer Fit > Greatest Number of Customers. ------ 3: Leave the Door Open I also knew that this offer wouldn't appeal to everyone. I'm a BIG believer that there is no such thing as "no". Only "not this" or "not now". So I made sure to also let everyone know there will be other offers (at different price points) coming soon... ------ 4: Transparency FTW I've been working on being more and more transparent, publicly. This is not always comfortable for me. But in a world filled with more artificial EVERYTHING... This is what we're CRAVING. More authenticity. More transparency. More vulnerability. On yesterday's DEMO, in a moment of vulnerability - I shared that I was embarrassed to admit some of the faults of our current software... And that some of what I am sharing in the NEW Bucket demo is still at the prototype stage at this moment. But to quote Reid Hoffman: "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late..." ------ 5: Make it a "Mafia Offer" In the days leading up, I kept asking, how can I make this offer SO good, that it's impossible to refuse?? When you have a "mafia offer" - you don't need any hype or fake urgency. All that was required: Super low-key delivery. Stripe link in the Zoom chat. And that was it. ------ BTW - If you'd like to see the details of the actual offer, comment with the word "Offer". If there is enough interest, I'll provide a breakdown and share... In the meantime, let me know if seeing my actual numbers and takeaways are helpful? I'm experimenting with sharing more like this in public. Let me know if you'd like to see more of this.

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While I have yet to read in detail why Shopify's stock is down 20% post earnings, a not widely talked about recent event did catch my eye. That is Shopify’s recent acquihire of Peel Insights. Analytics is a tough category, and has long been afterthought within Shopify as there’s not a clear monetization strategy. Yet Shopify’s Triple Whale investment and deal with Peel point to a large theme that may be at play. Demand generation has long been Shopify Achilles heal, instead relying on the likes of Meta, Google, and TikTok to drive traffic. But in the wake of privacy related issues the efficacy of media platforms in driving DTC sales is in question. This leads to a spiraling effect, as with questions comes: ** Lack of confidence of where to spend ** Lack of confidence means tighter budgets ** Tighter budgets means less revenue growth ** Less revenue growth means lower payment processing revenue for Shopify (e.g. ARR) And where does Peel’s team come into play? Tools like TripleWhale that are pixel-based are having a hard time with tracking in the wake of privacy issues. I see this as a hedged bet to work with a team that is more familiar with compliant first-party data from Shopify as well as showing impacts from external marketing sources. This is another reason why Shopify has worked so hard to in-house data feeds from the likes of Amazon Buy With Prime and TikTok Shops. While analytics may be a loss leader, smart measurement is a critical piece of confidence building both for brands and investors who fund budgets.

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Last week, I made my way to Google's Montreal office for an event on Marketing Analytics & AI. In a session rich in learnings, here were my top 3 takeaways 👇 1. Marketers need to understand the difference between predictive and generative AI, as well as when and how to use each type. JL Maréchaux did a great job reminding the audience that while they serve very different needs, predictive and generative AI are ultimately deeply complementary because predicting and optimizing won't do the trick if you can't also be creative and efficient.  2. The best marketing orgs are AI-first. Gregory Saget-Rudd from fellow Montreal proptech company nesto showcased how to leverage #AI cohesively, end-to-end, from generative AI to accelerate campaign creation and reduce associated costs to predictive AI for segmenting, forecasting, and automating. I fully expect this type of architecture to become table stakes in the coming years. 3. We looked back at some of the announcements made at Next last month. Anthony Meyer showcased some cool new #Imagen 2 features, but I particularly loved Houda Kaddioui's sneak peek into what a marketer's future could look like with the Gen AI for #marketing interface. In a world where personalization has become the name of the game but marketing budgets have been drastically reduced, generative AI will provide the scalability organizations need to keep growing in a lean, efficient manner. Marketers, you must pay attention. #ArtificialIntelligence #GenerativeAI #PredictiveAI

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Email unsubscribe landing pages fall into a few categories: * Impossibly complex trees of various sublists that I was involuntarily added to that I need to opt out of * The 'sad cat' gif that guilts me into staying * Broken Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua, etc. pages that were never designed properly in the first place * Or this one... from my second favorite app, Cornell's bird-call identifier (tweet! tweet!). Super simple, and it makes a surprising sweepstakes offer for re-subscribing. Which I did. What could make it better? Would adding something about the mission of the app or something about the quality of the content have been better or just noisier?

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If I were to turn back time, I'd approach my VP of Marketing role differently. I used to think the job was all about strategy canvases and metrics munching. It is some of that. However, I'd have far more impact had I invested in high-leverage tactics. When B2B SaaS marketers take up such a leadership role, there's pressure to impress the higher-ups. That sometimes leads them to over-index on bold decisions like: - changing the branding - overhauling the website - going through a marketing reorg That's not to say these are necessarily "wrong" decisions. In some scenarios, they might be what's required. Better judgment should prevail. However, such moves require strong "buy-in" and are often met with high internal friction. They also take time to complete which "waterfalls" impact. Then, you have the usual suspects. Talk to customers. Attend sales calls. Meet key accounts. All useful. But apart from that, if I were to do it all over again, I would focus on: 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀-𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲. - Identify core pages that are failing to convert. Frame a hypothesis based on available analytics. - Tweak sub-optimal copy and key visuals to quickly lift CVRs. - Consider adding high-fit landing pages. 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 - Create category evangelism content on social media. - Convert topics that resonate with audiences into live webinars. - Record those webinars and distribute snippets across video mediums. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝗣𝗥 - Get leadership to share on LinkedIn. I've realized that a CEO that speaks the customer's language bolsters their B2B brand. Helps with inbound too. - How? Record a call with the CEO for 30 minutes every 1-2 weeks on a focused topic, transcribe it, and solicit a writer to turn it into a series of posts. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 - To improve lead gen, I'd need to understand lead quality, objections, ICP issues etc. - so, when aligning with sales/CS, I'd pivot conversations more toward key questions than discuss mere wishlists. 𝗣𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗯 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 - If tracking has gaps, I'd prioritize fixing that and instrumenting full funnel metrics. - I'd build a looker dashboard to consolidate multi-channel reports that I can tell a story with to leadership. 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘀 - Arming sales with anything that helps them close deals is a top service. - I'd listen to their go-to talk track, read call summaries, hop on calls, talk to customers. - then, for areas where it would help, I'd build out a targeted slide deck, battle card, or interactive demo to better quip them for future deals. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗲𝗱 I'd drop the cost per MQL by working with ad specialists to turn off non-performing campaigns till we figure out the right experiment to run. What are your tips?

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I just posted a mildly controversial question asking how Adobe could value Figma at $20B while SalesForce valued Informatica at $11B. I got the usual handwringing attempts to rationalize followed by the honest truth that beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to business assets. That said, Tesla just reported a HUGE sales slide yet it's up after hours. Taking that a step further, at the very least it's P:E multiples have at least come down to be comparable to tech companies like MS, Oracle, Apple and Meta. It's now around 33:1 whereas a year ago it was in the 70s. Rewind, I was watching a snippet of Elon Musk's Don Lemmon interview where he boasted he created a car company that's worth as much as the entire category. But this is only because car companies fetch significantly lower multiples than tech companies. Ford trades at 11:1, GM at 6:1 and Stellantis trades at 4:1. So, knowing beauty is in the eye of the investor and knowing how electric is slowing generally, low cost Chinese alternatives are eating Tesla's largest market opportunity and that his cult of personality has been shown to drive away domestic prospects, at what point does the market begin to value Tesla as a car company?

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Feeling lost in website data? You're not alone! But what if you could transform those numbers into a roadmap to success? That's the power of SEO, website analytics, and call tracking. This ultimate guide dives deep into these essential tools, helping you: Master SEO: Attract more Ontario searchers to your website. Crack the Analytics Code: Understand how visitors interact with your site. Turn Clicks into Calls: Convert website traffic into phone calls. Ready to dominate Ontario's online space? Download the free guide today (link in bio) and see the magic happen! ✨ #SEO #WebsiteAnalytics #CallTracking #OntarioBusiness #DigitalMarketing #GrowthStrategies #WebsiteTraffic #LeadGeneration #SalesConversion #PhoneCalls #DataDrivenMarketing #LocalSEO #ContentMarketing #Ecommerce #OntarioMarketing #TorontoMarketing #FreeGuide #DownloadNow #BusinessGrowth #DigitalTransformation #MarketingTips #MarketingAutomation #OnlineSuccess #AvonMarketingMedia Esha S. Avon Marketing & Media Inc.

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🎉 It’s here! The can't-miss 2024 Shopify Personalization Report 😎 We chatted with five of the Shopify ecosystem's brightest minds about creating marketing efficiency with zero-party data, resulting in a 4,287-word treasure trove of eCommerce wisdom. Presenting the first edition of "DTC on Easy Mode" by Digioh! In it you'll find: 📈 Why marketing efficiency is crucial for long-term engagement and conversions 📲 Tips to boost engagement across email, SMS, mobile apps, and ads 👎 Personalization myths to avoid 🤝 Why guided selling quizzes are a must-have 💪 And much more! Featuring insights from: - Joshua Behr, Founder & CEO at AMB - Caitlin Elgin, Head of CRM & Lifecycle at Fluency Firm - Mariel Bacci Kilroy, Co-Founder at Sticky Digital - Wiehan Britz, CEO at Magnet Monster - Justin Buckley, Co-Founder at ATTN Agency - And my partner in Partner Marketing crime, Blake Imperl 📌 Want a copy? Here you go! https://lnkd.in/gMGRaTN4 Making personalization easy and effective for DTC shoppers is our goal, and this report shows you how to achieve it effortlessly 🤝 PS: Digioh is dedicated to sharing knowledge with the DTC community! If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming edition, send me a message 🙂

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Has your H1 B2B advertising performance dwindled down in the last month? Here’s what I’m seeing. For parents, summer is already here. Kids are home but work continues. The majority of families that take vacations do so in the summer months. Decision makers are not concerned about onboarding new software. Unless that software will yield a greater return than a 5.6% ABV than that beer they’re drinking right now. ^my attempt at a joke. Also a lot of companies start their fiscal year in H2. This could be why the demand for software sales has slowed down. A great place to check is Google Trends. A free tool where you can see the search demand for your headterms in the last month or year. If search demand has decreased, so has demand for your product. #b2bmarketing

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I’ve gotten 8 inbounds from CMOs in the last week. What are they asking me for? …… Content help “Do you have a really good content writer you’d recommend?” “I need to create so much content this quarter I need some extra help” I’m going to venture and say scaling content production (volume and speed) is one of the top priorities CMOs are grappling with! 💡 (Myself included 🙋🏻) #content #marketing

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I'm a firm believer in CTV ads. While there are multiple providers of CTV out there, with LinkedIn's new ad feature, it's only going to explode. Within the next year or two you will see more B2B ads on your favorite streaming channels. It's a perfect fit for your Brand and ABM strategies. And yesterday, I gave three ideas to subscribers of Account-Based Marketing Tactics for how to leverage CTV for their ABM strategies. Read more to get the inside scoop --> https://lnkd.in/gFtt7ymf #abm #b2bmarketing #CTVads #gtm #gotomarketstrategy

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A week ago I anecdotally "noticed" that perhaps there is less Reddit in the Discussion & Forums SERP Feature. Brian F. noticed the same. (Just saw Lily Ray has some nice data on this as well!) Anywho... I asked the folks at Semrush to pull data to see if I was crazy or not and the answer is... maybe? There is a slight yet consistent downward trend in both Reddit and Quora URLs being used in the SERP feature. Conversely, other forums have seen the inverse trend and are seeing more placement. Is this of real significance? Hard to say that this is any sort of HUGE shift on the SERP. However, the trend does continue across other data points. For example, the number of Discussion and Forum features with multiple Reddit URLs is also down slightly over the past months So I would say, perhaps we are starting to see a crack in "Reddit's Armor"?! Would be interesting to track this and how/if the trend continues. For the record, here is the market share for the top 15 forums beyond Reddit and Quora within the SERP feature: Tripadvisor ·What To Expect Forums ·Wedding Wire ·RealSelf.com ·City-Data.com ·Bogleheads ·Rick Steves Travel Forum ·Google Help ·Lawn Care Forum ·ResetEra ·Lipstick Alley ·Microsoft Community ·Stack Overflow ·Ask MetaFilter ·DC Urban Moms and Dads · Only Trip Advisor gets over 1% of market share (2.29%)- which I guess kinda makes sense since there are so many verticals on the web dealing with so many different topics.... #SEO

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