Alena Wells

A lot of people talk about how conversational search and genAI will help out consumers. But one of the things I’m most excited about is how it’s going to make merchandisers’ lives better. One of the hardest things about the job today is trying to figure out what a shopper wanted when they landed on your site, and how hard they had to work to find it. With traditional search, you might only get a few words or a short phrase to figure it out, which isn’t much context. The beauty of conversational search is suddenly the merchant will have so much more information - instead of a couple words, they might have paragraphs or even full conversation transcripts they can reference — much deeper insight into what was going through the customer’s mind while they were shopping. Brendan Witcher goes on to explain how that information can then be used to produce more useful product copy and other CX enhancements. It’s one of my favorite parts of our webinar last week. What do you think?🤔

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DTC retention folks will enjoy this. Conversion rate ties in as well. Brand I work with did a test on traffic of 80,000+ unsubscribed(no purchase) customers. Test: Popup VS No Popup - the debate is over! We ran a 30-day test to measure the impact of revenue by those who do, or do not see, our welcome popup. THE TEST: We used @Recartapp to run an A/B test on a revenue-based popup that consisted of 100K visitors. Group 1 saw a 10% off popup for email and SMS signup. Group 2️ did NOT see any popups or offers. We tagged and followed visitors to measure their spending. Group 1 (with popup): Rev Per Visitor $10.13 AOV $214 Email optins +2,880 SMS optins +1,698 38% used a discount code / avg of 12% per discount used. Generating $468K in revenue. Group 2 (no popup): Rev Per Visitor $10.16 AOV $209 Email optins: 0 SMS optins: 0 26% used a discount code / avg of 16% per discount used. Generating $472K. In short - we’re keeping popups! And here’s why … People spend the same amount of money on the website — so showing the pop-up doesn't cause any revenue loss. However, it did result in gaining about 3,000 new email subscribers and 2,000 new SMS subscribers, growing the list significantly quick. Therefore, you can grow your list WITHOUT losing revenue. In fact, we’re not yet measuring the long-term effects of the email/SMS list growth, but we know it’s a big revenue factor for us. So all things considered … we’re letting the pop-ups run. Thanks Soma Toth + Recart our SMS provider

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I interact with a lot of business owners, from small (~$500k/annually) to very large (~$80m annually). A common theme this year - almost everyone is struggling with growth. Particularly when it comes to paid advertising. We've been able to continue to grow Barbell Apparel's online revenue at ~30% YoY - and that's all planned. We could probably grow a bit faster, but we take the excess profits as dividends instead. It's low stress at this point - but that doesn't mean it's low work. I feel like we've had to be five times as skilled to achieve the same results that were easy 3 years ago. For a very long time - digital advertising was cheap enough, that you could simply buy ads and make up for any mistakes in the rest of your operation. In my estimation, those days are gone, and they aren't coming back. We actually have lower CPAs now than we have at almost any point in the last 5 years - but it was a ton of work to get there. And our marketing organzation is heavily diversified across channels (paid digital, paid influencer, ambassador, organic, owned, etc.) Everything gets tested. Everything gets optimized. That's the what it takes these days. People look at their cost of customer acquisition - and think there's something wrong with facebook, google, etc. but really - that CPA is most likely telling you there is something wrong with your business. And if that's off putting to you, it shouldn't be. If advertising is truly not cost effective anymore - then we're all screwed. But if the problem is in the business itself, that is something within your power to fix. I've audited dozens (maybe hundreds) of businesses at this point - and I almost always find the same or similar problems. Lack of optimization in: the offer, AOV, CLV, funnel strategy, creatives, etc. Once those things get fixed - things tend to fall in line when it comes to CPA, ability to scale, etc. Granted - depending on your company, some of those problems could be very difficult or long term to solve. But you have to start solving them. There's nothing wrong with paid advertising - it's working as well as it ever did. But it's not cheap enough anymore to cover up a bunch of mistakes.

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Lessons I learned from working 10+ years in retail: ➡️ Time blocking / scheduling: I've always been pretty "time aware" but working in retail taught me how to view days differently. Learning how to schedule was a weird puzzle with a lot of variables including staff coverage, day of the week, time of year, and more. Of course at the time, I thought this wouldn't translate into any area of my life and I couldn't have been more wrong (lol). Here's what I learned from scheduling: - You can get a lot done in 3 hours - I split everyday into four blocks of time (early morning, morning, afternoon, evening) - What time of the day I do my best work - Everything is a balance TLDR: I learned I don't feel energized in the afternoons #LessonsILearned #Retail -

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Brands need to think deeply about the impact of social commerce and craft a strategy around 1/ CPA-based influencer marketing 2/turn your customers into advocates 3/ building long-term relationships with influencer affiliates in-house. No more one-off campaigns that takes months to launch without predictable returns.

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I have a little gift 🎁 that's gonna help you get through hump day next week... Next Wed. June 12th, GM2 will be dropping the next episode of "The Ecommerce Collective Podcast" with special guest Mick McCarthy! Mick is the Chief Design Officer, brand whisperer and founder of Onward Agency. Here are a few reasons to tune in 🎙 🏄‍♂️ Mick helps break through the jargon and buzz words to gain a deeper understand of what brand storytelling is really about! 🏄‍♂️ Mick explains how Onward serves as a type of brand therapist, disrupting a brand's normal way of thinking of their customer and highlighting the importance of setting your customer as your north star 🌟 🏄‍♂️ Mick explains how Onward helps both brands with a rich organic story AND brands that struggle to produce that compelling organic brand story. Mick's one of my favorite folks in the industry to sit down and chat with, and certainly to dive deep into the most human elements of ecommerce. Keep an eye out for the episode drop next Wed! #branding #ecommerce #brandstorytelling #design #shopify #podcast

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Airbnb is no stranger to cinematic stays (cue: Downtown Abbey stay at Highclere Castle in 2019 https://lnkd.in/gZy2fzSJ). (Sigh, I missed that window.) But today, CNN reported their "icon" experience roll-outs including: >> Pixar Animation Studios's "Up" House (....that floats) >> Prince's "Purple Rain" Home >> X-Men '97 2D ...and more as posted by Creative Director Jay Ward below. What I love about this #OOH experience strategy is how Airbnb leans in on key brand partnerships leading with: >> Emotion 💕 >> Exclusivity 🤚 >> Scarcity 👀 Delivering a unique experience tailored to the super loyal fans who want to go beyond a movie or music performance. Makes total sense to me --- and paves the way for potential endorsements, placement advertising and delivering deeper customer loyalty. Nice move guys. #Airbnb #brandmarketing #Pixar

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My new website is a bodega for five-figure brands that want to become eight and nine-figure brands. On my site you will find the freelancers and agencies that help me build a business with an incredibly high MER and an insane growth rate. I am still working for some Shopify businesses; I can see that certain companies will grow extremely fast and become more corporate. They won’t want somebody like me who doesn’t like to adhere to corporate structure. I’m a startup guy. I like to work and play well with others, but I also want to work in small organizations. So, things will remain the same for the near future, but I could see that I’ll have some significant title/employment status changes at some point in the future. In light of that foreshadowing, I have decided to launch a website. I’m not charging for anything yet. In my opinion, it’s not so easy to find an untapped market these days, a problem nobody solves. Having been the ideal customer for a few years now, I think nobody is solving the problem I aim to solve. What I am creating I do believe it’s somewhat unique: Tool: I looked at the problems I had to solve to bring an American Shopify brand from five to seven and eight figures a month. I don’t know how many of you have been involved in taking a brand from not having its own offices, really many employees at all, at that point to a brand that’s easily recognizable to the most coveted demographic in the world…. American women 25-70( really, it is more significant; I know teens & octogenarians that wear it) Keeping in mind that there’s a lot of stuff I never touched, I pretty much stay in my genre of digital marketing a little bit into customer service as well. Things like returns discounts offer testing, but for the most part, I stay inside of digital marketing; my little palace is a dungeon to the other people in the company, but I like it. Anyway, without further redoing my website, it’s a work in progress. It needs work. Please criticize it so that I can make it better. It’s almost seven days behind schedule already. Someone smart I know asked me the other day to describe what my website will do in as few words as possible. This is what I came up with: “We assist brands in going from making decisions at the kitchen table or in the living room to making decisions in a boardroom without venture capital.” I say that because I’ve driven myself to have the highest MER and YOY growth for every brand I've worked for over the last few years. I never felt like I had to choose efficiency or growth. I always felt you could get both if you just thought it through, executed it, and reviewed the progress and iteration. https://dtcmkg.com

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OK, I've been reading the official statement from the FTC on the new ban on noncompete clauses (link below) and I have to say, this looks like a pretty BIG deal for authors and publishers. A few highlights: • The FTC is legally banning the practice of noncompete clauses in any new contract--including book contracts. • The FTC is also invalidating any noncompete clauses in any previous contract or employee agreement. The only exception to this is "senior executives" (i.e. publishers and VPs). For everyone else, the FTC has declared "existing non-competes with other workers are not enforceable after the effective date." • The FTC specifically named "independent contractor, extern, intern, volunteer, apprentice, or a sole proprietor" as a worker defined by this new regulation. In other words, any author or freelance writer is included. At my literary agency, noncompete clauses have been a source of negotiation conflict for a l-o-n-g time, even causing us to occasionally decline a contract because of them. The fact that the FTC has ruled noncompetes "an unfair method of competition—and therefore a violation of section 5—for employers to, inter alia, enter into non-compete clauses with workers" -- including any existing noncompete clauses currently in effect -- validates what we've been saying for decades. I'm curious how publishers will respond to this new regulation that makes it illegal to force noncompete clauses on authors. And I'm curious how authors feel about it as well. Feel free to comment if you have an opinion. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://lnkd.in/gmUxb_yG

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Hot Take: If you sell a hardlines product and do not invest in branding. You are leaving yourself open to knock offs from the same factories that produce said products. It is imperative to create community around your brand (along with quality standards) or customers will just look for the cheapest alternative. The easiest way to do this is via creative and product imagery. Taking a little initiative and not just going with stock imagery provided by manufacturers goes further than you think.

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Hot Take: Lack of emotion in copy is a quick way to kill customer interest. Customers are scrolling through an infinite flood of content, websites, and reviews all day, every day. Everything’s moving fast. Your copy needs to make people stop scrolling and skimming + carry your customers through a journey to your target CTA/Conversion. Here’s how I do it for brands I work with: 1️⃣ Tell a story: Humans love humans. Share relatable experiences that hit home. Tell your customers who you are, how a new product came to be, or what’s happening behind the scenes at your brand. Build a family/fanbase of the brand, then selling won’t be an issue. 2️⃣ Speak their language: Use a tone and language that feels personal and real. Find the balance that feels friendly, but still educational and intentional about getting them to the CTA. The goal is that customers are excited to read the new emails, posts, and texts that you send them. 3️⃣ Highlight benefits over facts and features: Show HOW your product makes life better, WHY someone should buy it, not just what it does. It’s important to make what customers get when they purchase clear, but it’s equally important to make what they feel, do, or think when they get the product clear and emphasized. Personalization is the way to cut through the smoke. If you can make your audience feel something - they’ll stick around, share your brand FOR you, and then come back for more.

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So DocuSign has a new logo... What are your thoughts? I personally liked the old mark since it worked as a one color, and was very appropriate for the business. It was clear "sign here"! I also prefer it when brands use Capital Letters to break up words. It helps it read Docu Sign instead of docusign (some long word you don't know how to pronounce lol) https://lnkd.in/eia2HTt8

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RE: FORCED LABOR & the UFLPA ❓Did you know... 🙊 If you bought a car in the last five years, it was likely made - at least in part - by Forced Labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Region of China? 🙉 The US has tried to crack down on forced-labor imports from China (#UFLPA), but companies - particularly in fast fashion - continue to find loopholes? 🙈 Companies importing goods into the US are losing more and more money every year to product seizures & fines due to finding forced labor in their supply chains... yet, they keep doing it? REPEAT AFTER ME: "Unless a company can prove the provenance of their goods down to the raw materials, and track the journey of those materials from source to shelf (chain-of-custody), sustainable sourcing claims are un👏sub👏stantiated👏" (and... likely made with forced labor at some point in their supply chain) Anywho, here's a very timely #SNL skit that made me laugh/cry 😂😭  . . . . #forcedlabor #supplychain #sustainability

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Super interesting thread with lots of insightful responses! Thanks Timothy! Here’s my 2 cents. Theme store themes are packaged and distributed for a merchant audience, not agency/developer audience. It’s compiled code. We don’t develop our themes that way, why should you? I build themes with well scoped theme components, Figma files, docs, CI, and workflows. All of these help us ship faster and at a higher quality. Why should you need to do these things yourself when they’ve already been solved or can be iterated from something that already exists? Themes are GIANT projects. Building a world class buying experience that checks all the boxes of quality and functionality from scratch just doesn’t make sense. If there was a design and development environment that gave you everything you needed, without limiting the final product you’re trying to deliver, why would you chose to not use it? If any of this resonates with you, you’re going to want to follow what we’re doing at Archetype Themes 👇 https://lnkd.in/ekQesRAD

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Your product's positioning doesn't magically change when you talk about it differently....Or when you design a slide showing your logo relative to other logos in a market category you conveniently invented. This is "framing" not "positioning." Imagine if, long before D-Day, the leaders of Allied Nations started telling everyone they were the "leading armies in France and Germany" and showed maps of their tank divisions moving towards Berlin. Or if Meta started announcing that "Facebook's original app is now the leading social network for video among teenagers and the future of social media is here." ...and made a slide showing OG Facebook ahead of TikTok on an important strategic dimension. It would be nonsense. Positioning is a strategic reality. It consists of: 1. The position you have today. Where your company and product stands in an actual market category relative to every other company and product in that category. (If you have invented something truly new, this can be an emerging category that you get to name. Otherwise: have fun trying to convince the market that your project management software is actually "AI Workflow Automation Enablement") 2. The position you intend (and hope) to develop over the next "XYZ timeframe." Like Apple with the first version of the iPhone. If, in 2007, Steve Jobs said "iPhone is the leading smartphone in the world..." That would be delusional. Instead, Jobs and his team positioned the iPhone kinda like this: "we're gonna leverage our success with the iPod, our unique synthesis of hardware and software, and AT&T's weak position vis-a-vis Verizon to offer a completely new approach to smartphones and telecom business models.. We, instead of the carriers, get complete control over the interface and installed software, and carriers start selling data instead of call minutes. The interface will be so compelling that everyone...including Verizon...will eventually have to play by our rules. Then we'll expand across the market." If, after 4 years taking a break from the tech industry, doing intense spiritual work, volunteering at ashrams, studying esoteric forms of yoga, I said "I'm the go-to product marketing expert for visionary founders whose tech is ready to cross the chasm" I would be conflating positioning and framing... If, on the other hand, I say: I'm blending my product marketing skills in Series A-B B2B startups, my knack for articulating tech, market, and geopolitical trends years ahead of the curve...and mix in the "fractal" point of view I discovered deep inside my consciousness via traditional yoga and intense spiritual practice... And apply all of it to develop a position as the go-to product marketing expert for visionary founders... Then maybe I'd be onto something.

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Glossier, Inc. searches continue to rise on Amazon...even though they do not actively sell there. Sometimes the best Amazon strategy is not being there...for as long as you don't have to be...and when you're ready you open up the flood gates. And just because your not selling there doesn't mean you have to completely ignore it. Rogue sellers...listings issues...competition. There's a bunch of reasons for brands to pay attention even if they are not selling. It worked well for Native and a bunch of others. My hats off to any brand who can do it with out Amazon initially or forever. And as an Amazon marketer, I salivate for any brand with pent up Amazon demand.

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How does a brand built on "cool" stay relevant when culture's definition of cool changes? I'm talking about Abercrombie & Fitch Co., a brand built on exclusivity between it's prices, sizes, brand campaigns, and signature scent (you know the one). But the Abercrombie of 2024 looks, feels, and smells nothing like this. In fact, according to Business Insider, their stock is beating Nvidia’s. This week on Brandiose, I do a deep dive on Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and how their strategy is something we can all learn from 👀 I also cover: - Charlotte Tilbury Beauty's "leaked email" campaign - Nicole Coughlan for SKIMS - BEHAVE's new celeb investor & advisor - Glossier, Inc.'s new summer capsule - Dunkin'​s new campaign with Natalie (Corporate Natalie) - Acquired's podcast on Hermès ... and more! If you're into it, subscribe for free, and maybe send to a friend who might enjoy it ✨

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Too many apparel brands don't realize they are cannibalizing their sales. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen this happen. I recently took over a Google ads campaign for a client guilty of this. Their branded and non-branded terms were mixed up in the same campaigns. And it messed up the actual cost of acquisition. Because It gave a false sense of security. The client assumed campaigns were high-performing since the ROAS was high. But the reality was very different. They were overspending + paying for customers they ALREADY had. And then cannibalizing the sales with additional media spend. Understanding the cost of acquiring a new customer compared to the cost of acquiring an existing customer is necessary. But if the numbers are wrong, your predictions are skewed, and profits suffer. And this wasn't just happening in their Google search campaigns. It also happened during their Performance Max campaign. Our client was understandably upset; it was all very misleading. Luckily, we solved that issue by separating the campaigns correctly. But the damage had been done. So, hopefully you can learn from their mistake.

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I drove over 113 job candidates to Demandbase. Despite rarely posting about the company. Most people know the value of Influencer Marketing, but not many people talk about the impact it has on recruiting. Lots of brands think there needs to be a clear CTA working with Influencers. "Try our tool!" or "apply here!" But people don't want to feel sold to. So Influencers who are associated with a brand (either an employee or an ambassador) can drive traffic and applicants from 1️⃣ Awareness I drove over 13k Accounts to my LinkedIn page over the past Q. And guess what? The Demandbase badge is on my profile. 2️⃣ Trust People follow influencers because they trust their opinion. 3️⃣ Aspiration For example, you see Brian LaManna hitting p-club each year at Gong, you may have an interest in working there and being successful like him. Having somebody who has authority and influence can make recruiting that much easier. That being said, Demandbase is hiring AEs 🙂 https://lnkd.in/ea4xB-wr

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