黑料门

Jesse and Rich give their predictions for ecommerce in 2019 that you can apply right away. Automated marketing is the main topic where they discuss how to launch dynamic remarketing on Facebook and Google Shopping campaigns. Both tactics are from integrations built into the 黑料门 Control Panel and use your product information to drive the ads so they are very simple to do on your own.

Transcript

Jesse: Richard, Happy New Year!

Richard: Happy New Year to you! Had a good one?

Jesse: I did. Sleeping by probably 10:30 or so.

Richard: You watched the New York ball drop instead of San Diego ball drop.

Jesse: That鈥檚 the New Year鈥檚 for me. New York ball drop. The kids weren鈥檛 even awake. It鈥檚 all good. But with the New Year comes time to reflect and plan for a new year. And I鈥檝e been hearing all, I mean, I鈥檓 obviously a podcast junkie, we make podcasts. Everybody else is done their 2019 predictions for the year. I want to make sure we got our couple of predictions out there, put them onto tape so we can look back a year from now on. See if we can pat ourselves in the back or be like “Man, totally missed that one.”

Richard: We going for the for sure win. Here we go in for the most tough one, the one that no one else was talking about, a little bit of both.

Jesse: We get there for sure win in there. Video will become more important. We got a guaranteed win on the board. All right, OK, Rich, let鈥檚 get risky.

Richard: I say conversational commerce in many forms, let鈥檚 narrow it down to get some more specific, will become more and more relevant. Not just a thing you heard about, what I mean by that is either bots, automation via bots in messengers, whatever, and or, more specifically, voice. Voice commerce will become a thing.

Jesse: You got bots and voice there.

Richard: Conversational commerce, basically. We鈥檝e got into this entire time and I don鈥檛 want to go too deep, like “we鈥檙e going to see more Instagram or Facebook or Google, we鈥檙e going to see more videos.” We know all that. We鈥檝e heard everyone talk about these other predictions. We want to go into a little more specific. Two years in a row, Alexa and Google Home have been the number one sellers at Christmas. So now I think there are enough devices in the home. We鈥檙e going to go through a few parlor tricks for the rest of the year. You and I own these already, we鈥檙e already junkies for them, but we also know they鈥檙e mostly parlor tricks like “Put the timer on”.

Jesse: Timers and music for now.

Richard: Alexa gets to be the bad guy to the kids when the timer鈥檚 done instead of us. But yeah, more specifically, it will be a thing. I think three鈥�

Jesse: Percentage of e-commerce in 2019 comes from voice. Everything will be conversational.

Richard:Oh shoot, if you let me throw in bots too鈥�

Jesse: Yeah!

Richard: Oh my gosh, if you let me throw in bots. I could say and especially if it鈥檚 not just America, it鈥檚 crazy numbers. I think you could end up being 25%. But if you let me throw in bots.

Jesse: We鈥檒l write that down.

Richard: They鈥檙e buying cars in China, it鈥檚 really high. If just in the world of voice alone like “Alexa, buy my soap”, somewhere between 2 and 3 %. I still think I鈥檓 guessing high but even if it鈥檚 a half a percent right now, that would be a lot of percentages higher.

Jesse: I do think you鈥檙e high on that one (laughing.)

Richard: Not literally (laughing.)

Jesse: Pretty sure not high, but I think you鈥檙e high in your predictions. But I love it. I love voice commerce, I think that鈥檚 good for people to be thinking about like, “How do you integrate into that world”? It doesn鈥檛 mean pull over your car right now and write down voice commerce. That鈥檚 not what we鈥檙e saying, but think about it. All right, so I can be quite as bold with that. But I鈥檓 going to say my prediction is that Instagram will be the number one social media of 2019. 袨bviously it鈥檚 already kind of getting there but I think that everybody has this negative feeling about Facebook. Whether it鈥檚 their continued privacy problems or the hangover of the election of 2016 or just in general people are negative on Facebook. But they totally love this totally different company called Instagram which is owned by the exact same company Facebook.

Richard: It鈥檚 amazing, isn鈥檛 it? What makes you realize: “Should I delete Facebook? Should I have more?”

Jesse: “I deleted Facebook, and I鈥檓 using just Instagram now”. Really, you鈥檙e still using Facebook. And Facebook is going to put all their attention, all the power of their advertising and targeting in Instagram, but I think that鈥檚 why the founders left in a few months ago as their Facebook execs just kept pushing, pushing, pushing more. I wanted more the real estate on Instagram cuz that鈥檚 where the group is coming from but for marketers and for e-commerce people out there, this is actually good news. Because now Facebook advertising is super powerful, super targeted and you can do a lot of it on Instagram, but I think there鈥檚 going to be more now and then kind of part of that, obviously. If you guys are regular listeners of the podcast we talked about Instagram Shopping right now that is still free so Instagram shopping is free. Pretty much guarantee that in 2019 there鈥檚 going to be some sort of paid option to probably boosted posts or some way to, give me some way that they鈥檙e going to monetize Instagram shopping. Right now it鈥檚 free. Get on there, get Instagram on. More with Instagram stories. I don鈥檛 love Instagram stories. I hate vertical video, but I know these kids these days hold their phones up with their thumb on it. That鈥檚 the weight of vertical video. I guess, you can鈥檛 fight it. In general, I think to boost your Instagram game for 2019 is good to take away from that. What we鈥檙e seeing from that is we鈥檙e going to have a lot more people online. The barrier to entry is going to be a lot easier with Instagram and Facebook. So you don鈥檛 even really need a full store. There can be a lot more people online. Which means for everybody listening to the show, you have to up your game a little bit. The good thing is we give you all the tools here. That鈥檚 what I want to talk about today. The topic of today is automated marketing for 2019. Hopefully, if you guys are going to get your workout plans your diet plan for January, let鈥檚 get what you鈥檙e going to do for your business. I think today we talk about two strategies. These are your workout plan and your diet, things that you should Implement in 2019 and they鈥檙e both automated so鈥�

Richard: It won鈥檛 even take the whole month to do this.

Jesse: You can do this today. This is a one-day thing, this is where you can pull over and write down a note. We鈥檙e talking about specifically Google Shopping, PPC and then Facebook remarketing, which is also PPC. They are both paid marketing things. If you鈥檙e you鈥檙e like, “I won鈥檛 pay”, then this is probably not for you. These are both paid options for traffic and what I like about them is that if there were not automated options available right now, I would advise people that I know, friends of mine, and in e-commerce world: “this is what you should do.” You should have Google Shopping set up and you should have dynamic remarketing on both Facebook and Google.

Richard: Yeah, they could literally other than having your product photos in the store, and your descriptions, and your prices, other than the basic store set up. Maybe Google Analytics then, and then these two.

Jesse: This is the first month things. This is not like “when you finally made it you should do it”, this is not like a fancy bell later on. This is blocking and tackling. These are the evergreen marketing strategies that everybody should have. Every e-commerce owner should at least have tried this for several months. If you really intend to make this a good solid business, if you just playing around like “you don鈥檛 have to do this”, but if you鈥檙e doing this to make money, these are the things you should do.

Richard: We won鈥檛 go super deep on it. But let鈥檚 just say this one thing. When you spend money on Google or Facebook, do they help you sell things? Yes. Yes, bottom line. You may not totally understand it yet. You might not totally get why we鈥檙e saying this but these guys aren鈥檛 in a business to just spin our money and not send us customers back.

Jesse: They鈥檙e not ripping you off, this is not a scam. They take your money and they send you customers back. That鈥檚 their whole business model. So, these are the best options. I would say there鈥檚 a lot of things you can do. What to start with Google Shopping first? There鈥檙e a lot of things. I鈥檝e done all sorts of text ads for 10 years, but Google shopping for e-commerce is kind of the cream of the crop. A couple of years ago this was really hard. You hired an agency or a developer to set it up for you unless you can do XML feeds or know how to download a product feed into CSV. It鈥檚 out of date now, so forget about those acronyms. It鈥檚 very easy now, you can take your product feed inside your store, this is with 黑料门, if you guys are on other platforms there鈥檚 maybe an option, maybe it鈥檚 not that is easy, but you should be doing this. If you鈥檙e any e-commerce no matter what platform you鈥檙e on. With 黑料门, we have the ability to sync your product feed into a Google Shopping account. That鈥檚 fully automated. So the syncing is automated and then the running of the campaign is automated. There is more detail on some other podcasts. Search back for those. But the gist of it is everybody has created a product feed. If you any e-commerce, you have the name of the product, you have a description, you do need a fairly big description, you can鈥檛 just have five words in your description of the product. But this app takes those words and when people search, it matches up to another鈥檚, all sorts of AI behind the scenes here that match up when people are searching on Google. If your product matches their search, you鈥檒l be displayed on the top of Google. By the top of Google I mean it鈥檚 the picture of your product and the price and the name of the product right underneath, it鈥檚 magical.

Richard: And to be clear. It鈥檚 the picture of the product, the title that you鈥檝e already done the work for.

Jesse: Correct.

Richard: We鈥檙e going to let you know in a few minutes how to do this. It鈥檚 literally like three steps. I think it was and that鈥檚 it like your stores already set up. This is 30 minutes and that鈥檚 only cuz鈥�

Jesse: That鈥檚 probably putting your credit card and your address.

Richard: The whole thing from start to finish.

Jesse: I think about this too. It was advanced level feature a couple years ago, but now it鈥檚 not, it is for newbies as well. If you were like “I launch this store and do my sales, where鈥檚 my traffic”? Well, you probably don鈥檛 have any traffic cuz it鈥檚 not like Google just send people, just send traffic to your store. You have to get the traffic to it.

Richard: We won鈥檛 go deep on this but you鈥檙e either spending money because it鈥檚 taking you a lot of time to go to the organic route, you create a podcast, you could you do whatever, all these little things to make sure they come back to you but that still takes time. Someone is going to sit there, they鈥檙e going to do it, they are going to put it all together, or you pay money. The advertising and the people who are looking for that thing that comes back to one another. Anyway, you鈥檙e going to be spending money, the difference between, why we鈥檙e talking about this specifically is that you can鈥檛 just turn on the spicket of SEO. You can鈥檛 just turn on the spicket, but you can turn on the picket of I pay $5.73 and they send me a customer, whatever, I made up a number there obviously.

Jesse: The beauty is that you can do this right away. So if you have a product, I happen to be holding a water bottle right now. It鈥檚 insulated wood covered water bottle, is that how he described it? I don鈥檛 know, but if I had a store selling wood covered insulated water bottles and you Google that right now that would be the picture of this product that would show up. It鈥檚 pretty amazing. It would take a lot of time and other ways but maybe that wasn鈥檛 the best example of a product but people can take that in right now and you can pay to have your product displayed and it鈥檚 on the top of Google with the price right there. If they don鈥檛 like it, then they think the price is too high. They鈥檙e probably not going to click on it. Just a very quick test of your store, is this going to work or not? And it鈥檚 really good for new people. To me, that should be a basic strategy for getting that first amount of traffic to your site. Definitely something to do. If you do want to do this right now, just let me tell you where I go here. So we鈥檙e inside of 黑料门, go the All Sales channel on the left, go to Google Shopping. Depending on when you listen to this, there鈥檚 going to be some sort of promotion. As your learning, you鈥檙e getting some free money from Google on that. Definitely, want to encourage people, if you鈥檙e thinking you just need some traffic to your store, to see if it鈥檚 going to work or not. That鈥檚 the way this is done.

Richard: I love free money.

Jesse: That鈥檚 a basic strategy. You should put this in place. Watch the numbers, etc. The second step you want to talk about is ok, you got some traffic to your store. How do you close the deal? How do you get people coming back? So the second strategy is a bit of a mouthful but it鈥檚 dynamic product remarketing. You knew this both with Google and with Facebook, we鈥檙e going to focus a little bit more on Facebook with this. You can cover the two big traffic networks, but kind of backing up a little bit on Facebook marketing. If you鈥檝e read about it or heard a podcast and things, you might be thinking “Hey, Facebook advertise, it鈥檚 kind of hard.” And it is, there鈥檚 a bunch of different options. You have boosted posts. You have to trade images, videos, carousels, instant experiences, Instagram stories messenger. Targeting options look like all this stuff that you鈥檙e supposed to know for Facebook marketing. If you鈥檙e going to be a working agency to do Facebook marketing, you have to know all that stuff. For now, forget about all of that. You don鈥檛 have to know those terms, may be an in-depth podcast another day. You can do it. We鈥檙e just going to skip to the very most productive in the best ROI like a gem of all Facebook advertising which is dynamic product remarketing. But what that means is when somebody goes to your store and they go on to the product page for the insulated water bottle with faux wood covering and they don鈥檛 buy it. When they go to that. A visitor could be that same day, could be a week or two weeks later, there on Facebook and Instagram and they see that product with the same price right in their newsfeed or there are all sorts of different ways. You can see this product.

Richard: And it鈥檚 not because they鈥檙e listening to your phone. It鈥檚 because you went to the site, and they were pixeled.

Jesse: People a few years ago: “It鈥檚 creepy, they鈥檙e on my phone”. No, this is very simple technology, it鈥檚 a pixel. I think people are used to it now. Everybody鈥檚 seen and they know, when you visit a product, it鈥檚 likely you can be targeted with later and they think it鈥檚 not like you had this giant agency behind you doing this. No, it鈥檚 actually very simple to do.

Richard: You are going to try to buy this, right, but with the reason why this retargeting is so useful is most people that go to your site — not trying to sound disheartening — but most people aren鈥檛 going to buy, correct. Like what is it, the 1 to 2% maybe?

Jesse: 1 to 3% is normal.

Richard: When there will be conversational commerce. Where I鈥檓 going with that is we鈥檝e all heard it whether it was our old sales manager grandfather. Whoever, it鈥檚 5 to 10 touch points. So what did that mean back in the day? You had to make a cold call, you had to send a snail mail, you had to do all these different things. They see it on a billboard, they see it, and eventually, they鈥檇 see it enough times, they come buy it. But this is a way you don鈥檛 have to do all those things. This is what I love about these two tactics. It鈥檚 yeah, I鈥檓 going to have to do something. I鈥檓 going to go click a couple of buttons. I鈥檓 going to spend half an hour to an hour to do these two things and I鈥檓 going to spend a little bit of money, but they鈥檙e going to send me traffic cuz their business more or less, both their models are advertising and here鈥檚 something that — again I鈥檓 not trying to make people seem like that鈥檚 all bad. But it鈥檚 free and good news or bad news. If something is free, you鈥檙e probably the commodity.

Jesse: What you mean is using Google is free.

Richard: Exactly. I bet you, no questions asked if all of a sudden people say “I鈥檒l pay $50 a year to use Facebook” and never have to ask that be all over it. Cuz I think they only average like $34. I won鈥檛 go deep in that but I think the average I saw a number like $34 per user, that鈥檚 amazing. They鈥檙e getting that ads cuz they鈥檙e sending people business. They鈥檙e sending people business. So, take advantage of what everyone else is doing to you and do the same thing.

Jesse: You鈥檙e just tapping into鈥� these are two giant companies. They run the advertising world and what we talked about here was not just figured out how to go to Facebook and figure it out. These are like the gems of both of their advertising models. Right? Like this is the ones that automatically work and you don鈥檛 have to do the work. You don鈥檛 have to create an ad, you already took a picture of your product and put it in your 黑料门 catalog. Right? So we鈥檙e just taking that same data and blasting these photos. Blasting photos bad word, but like we鈥檙e showing these photos to targeted people that looked at them, had some sort of interest and maybe didn鈥檛 buy it right then, but maybe later on, maybe a week later there is a buying mood. I think they鈥檙e better ads to me personally than other random ads. You know, I鈥檓 like, okay I was looking at鈥�

Richard: At least you could know it鈥檚 the ad. One way I鈥檝e been feeling about these days either do creative stuff that鈥檚 helpful for your clients or maybe an ad. Don鈥檛 try to like try to make it be both, this kind of weird.

Jesse: Or do creative stuff, get people to your site and now they鈥檙e pixeled and they鈥檒l be remarketed, right? So this is why you want to do this. I know we talked about this earlier like all the other things you can do, we talked about another podcast, you just know, you want to get people to your site, but if you don鈥檛 have remarketing set up, you鈥檙e going to pay to get people to your site and then you鈥檙e not taking advantage of the fact that maybe they didn鈥檛 buy right then. These are two good ways, one brings new people to your site. The second one brings those same people back to your site to buy and these are evergreen strategies. Both things. You should be doing throughout the year. Have Facebook and Google, definitely get out there and take advantage of these.

Richard: It鈥檚 just as easy to set up. So go into the 黑料门 control panel.

Jesse: This is probably going to change in a couple months. If you鈥檙e hearing this later on in 2019, we鈥檙e going to elevate this cuz we believe so strongly in it. But right now you go to the app section, the app market, you look for the app called Facebook and Google Retargeting, then follow the process. They鈥檙e going to be linking up some catalogs and there鈥檚 a Facebook pixel that needs to be in there, that鈥檚 kind of the magic secret sauce for Facebook.

Richard: But again, you鈥檙e not running any code. You鈥檙e not doing anything.

Jesse: Don鈥檛 be scared by that. But you need to follow the process there. It鈥檚 gonna take a couple minutes, but we made this very simple because we want to help people out and we know this is one of the best ways to help people out, get their store going. So that鈥檚 how you do it. These are two strategies for 2019. This is the workout, right? Like you didn鈥檛 get out in a jog. This is what we need to be doing for 2019. Our first request for you, we don鈥檛 really make many requests on this podcast.

Richard: We gave you two tips. We鈥檙e going to have two request now.

Jesse: The first one is just please do both because we believe it will make you successful. The second one. We would like to pay for 2019. Please if you鈥檙e listening to this, go subscribe via your favorite podcast player. We鈥檙e on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud. We pretty much have all the podcast players. If you listen to this on the website, please go to your whatever favorite podcast player because we want to be able to be in touch with you regularly and help you out, and that helps us know that we鈥檙e doing the right thing here right now.

Richard: It鈥檚 also good to get feedback. We鈥檇 love five-star reviews and all that stuff. You think we deserve, give it to us. You want us to cover certain things, you like when we cover certain things. We still have the email as well.

Jesse: Please, subscribe but we definitely want to get your feedback. If you think it鈥檚 a five-star, please give us a five-star review, or the comment if you have any requests for us, as you can go to ecwid.com/blog/podcast and there are comments there. You can say “Hey, I want you to cover this topic”, or we actually also have the button there. There鈥檚 a button to sign up if you want to be on the show. We鈥檝e had a few guests on right now. We need a few more. If you want to be a guest on the show, please tell us why you think you鈥檇 be an interesting guest: you have an interesting product or a great story. You know, what else we are looking for.

Richard: We just want to help, right? It鈥檚 partially why you started at first, please go do this. We鈥檝e been horrible at asking in return, but we just figured every time someone subscribes, rates, gives reviews, we get more info on what you like, what you would like us to cover more, all that. We just wanna keep in touch with you. We want you to be successful.

Jesse: All right guys, it gets pretty good closing thought there. 2019 blocking and tackling it out there and get these marking things going and make 2019 a year.

Richard: Sounds good. See you later Jesse.

Jesse: Happy New Year!