eCommerce MasterPlan

#supportUkraine podcast episode notes 💛💙

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This bonus episode is our response to what’s happening in Ukraine.

It’s VERY low-fi – no jingles, no ads, and edited by me!!! Because I wanted to get it out fast (this is hitting the airwaves a mere 2 hours after we recorded it) because we’re putting it out on multiple podcasts AND because it just feels totally wrong to put ads in an episode like this.

So what’s this episode about?

Earlier this week someone with brilliant eCommerce experience reached out to see if I’d be up for sharing what he and his team are doing to help in Ukraine – in his words “to help the professional network to fight this war”.

So we’re going to talk about how those eCommerce skills are being leveraged to help

And we’re also going to share how you can help Matteo and his team, AND I’ll share a couple of other clever ways to help that I’ve come across recently.

Now, yes, we are doing an episode on a war. BUT if you’re a regular listener you’ll know my way of coping with big scary things is to get practical – so this is not going to be a ‘guilt-trip you into donating’ infomercial – more a celebration of some of the amazing people and things that are happening in response to the awfulness.

My aim is for this to be an inspiring and hopeful episode, not one that will make you sad. None of us needs more sadness.

Links:

Things you can do to help:

Chloe’s Guide to Planning – How will you maximise your sales this year?

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Watch the webinar:

Useful links:

Podcast episodes & other resources Chloe mentions:

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300 Behind the Scenes – how we create and market our podcasts – your questions answered

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This episode is number 300.

Thank you all! Whether you’ve listened to 1 episode or all of them if you weren’t listening, and letting me know how the show helps you – I wouldn’t have kept doing it for the last 5 years!

In celebration of meeting this milestone I’m bringing you a behind the scenes the look at the show.

So if you’ve ever wanted to know:

  • How we find guests
  • How we record
  • What happens between recording and this final version you get to hear

This is the episode for you!

I’m also going to get into some areas that are directly relevant to you whatever sort of business you’re running:

  • How we market the show – including advertising, social media, email and more
  • Outsourcing – the specialists I use, how I found them, and how I keep track of all these moving parts

Below are the notes and links to all the tools I mention – but there’s a LOT more mentioned in the episode – so my recommendation is to listen!

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Useful FREE resources (for these unusual times…)

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There is a wealth of content being created, but not all of it is worth paying attention to. So here we’re trying to only share the most useful so as not just to create a huge heap of links…

Whenever we find something new we shout about it in our weekly newsletter (sign up here so you’re first to know when we add something).

I hope they’re useful! if you’ve got something you’d like to add just get in contact.

You may also want to have a look at our Interesting Stuff

Chloe

2021 Planning

The Complete Retail Marketing Calendar 2021: All the Dates You Need to Know

The awesome Martin Heubel has pulled together all the dates you need to know about for 2021 planning (and a lot more!).

Including all the big dates, AND cool details like when the BAFTA’s is, and when Love your Pet Day is.

Check out the calendar

Oracle’s Quartlery Checklist for Planning a Successful Holiday Marketing Program

A bit late to the party on this one.

Throughout the year Oracle CX Marketing Consultants publish quarterly checklists to help you get your marketing ready to maximise your Q4 sales.

One of the first guests on the Keep Optimising Podcast (launches tomorrow!), Chad S White, introduced me to it this week. And I just HAD to pass it on to all of you.

Chad’s one of the authors, and it’s an excellent resource for making sure you’re on top of your Q4 prep. Tough in any year, and even harder this year where there’s so much to distract us.

You can grab the Q3 checklist here (you don’t even need to give an email address, just download it!).

AND grab the Q1 and Q2 too.

Clever People Sharing their Experience / Thoughts

There are a lot of people creating content about how to handle the changing customer behaviour we’re seeing at the moment. This section is for those articles I think are worth sharing (and I’m being very harsh with what I’m allowing in…)

Luke Carthy – Preparing eCommerce for the Post-COVID Bounce Back [blog]

Very clever eCommerce consultant Luke Carthy has written an EXCELLENT piece for Moz about how to make sure you’re doing everything you can to succeed in the post-covid world.

It’s a great read with some great examples and tips.

Read it here

David Williams

We had David on the podcast last year, and he is really astute when it comes to seeing the bigger eCommerce picture.

He’s sharing a series of articles on LinkedIn – starting with this one – where he’s sharing the key things you should be considering, and options for how to deal with them.

Definitely worth Following him on LinkedIn to make sure you get the next updates.

Direct Commerce Magazine

I’ve been a subscriber to Direct Commerce Magazine for over 10 years. Normally it’s a paid-for paper magazine packed with interesting articles about eCommerce and Mail Order selling.

This month it’s a free online magazine (with pages you can turn!) packed with interesting articles about eCommerce and Mail Order selling.

Well worth a read – check it out here

Chloe wrote a blog!

“How to make your brand look awesome when you don’t know what you want!” – read it here

Get Organised

5 Copy and Paste SOPs

Getting the systems and SOPs (that’s Standard Operating Procedures) right is essential to accelerate growth.

Recent podcast guest Trent Drysmid offered all my listeners (and all of you) his “Growth Accelerator Pack” for FREE (he usually sells it for $299).

It’s 5 copy and paste SOPs to get you started – and totally worth grabbing.

10 Most Common Outsourcing Mistakes

Outsourcing is hard work, hugely rewarding – but anyone who tells you it’s easy is lying.

Freeup are the experts at it – and they’ve written a VERY useful guide to the common mistakes people make, and how you can avoid them.

It’s available for free here

Logistics

Carrier status updates

Veeqo are keeping this page up to date with the latest news on each carrier’s operational abilities.

Facebook Ads

Christmas 2020: Crunch Time for the Overcrowded eCommerce Market – Report

On the Keep Optimising Podcast Sarah from Nest talked about this report (and got into some super cool Facebook Ad audience targeting strategies). 

Nest have looked at all the data and variables to identify the best Facebook Ad Strategies for Q4. It’s a must-read – so get a headstart and download the report now.

Google Ads

Getting the most from your Google Ads

Former Podcast star Becky Hopkin of Digital Gearbox has put together 11 recommendations to get the most from your campaigns – read the blog here

SEO

Free Recorded SEO Audit

Adam Bastock (great SEO guy) Adam is offering free SEO audits for any eCommerce company struggling in the current climate.

He’ll send you a short video that walks you through your website and highlights errors and key improvements you can make to increase organic traffic.

Whether you’re on Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce or something else – this is for you!

An example can be viewed on YouTube

These are available to established and new retailers, especially those who may run local physical stores and are rapidly trying to get set up online.

Get in touch with him via LinkedIn or complete the form on his site here

Websites

Shopify 90 day free trial

Shopify are offering a 90 day free trial – so if you’re thinking of setting up online for the first time, or always wanted to have a login test the platform out… now’s the time.

Sanity

Mindfulness Matters​

Staying focused is super-hard at the moment. There’s so much distraction. Different working environments, constantly changing rules and regulations, changing consumer behaviour, and the whole threat of catching covid. 

Meditation and mindfulness are a great way to reduce stress, and worry, and help you get focused on what matters.

Whether you’ve never tried before, or a regular practitioner you should check out the excellent series of training videos led by specialist Lily Parkinson.

Watch the first video here

OR sign up the whole thing here

Are you going to White Label World Expo this year?

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The White Label World Expo is the leading online retail sourcing show, making it the perfect destination for manufacturers to showcase their products to a rapidly growing market. Based in four countries over three continents, it truly is a global event reaching a truly global audience. 

On November 27th and 28th, the White Label World Expo will be held at the ExCeL in London for two days of unmissable action for the white label industry. Thousands of global business leaders, entrepreneurs, online sellers, retailers, and distributors come together for the White Label World Expo in order to meet top representatives from the likes of Amazon, Ebay, and Shopify to further their business and make long lasting relationships with suppliers that will benefit their business long term.

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Why I wanted to include these books in my eCommerce Book Event

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Today and tomorrow I’ve bought together the authors of a selection of awesome eCommerce books.

We’ve each reduced the price of our Kindle ebooks to just 1.99 (be that $,£, Euros or whatever it is on the other Amazon sites!), and we’re busy promoting the offer page so we can help 100s, if not 1,000s of eCommerce businesses to find their path to growth and success.

Here is why I chose each of them to be a part of the event.

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225: Sir Gordon Bennett’s Neil Elliot shares the pleasure and the pain of their first months live

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Neil Elliot is the founder of Sir Gordon Bennett a retailer dedicated to helping us all buy better, and buy British. Stocking a range of gorgeous brands the business launched in November 2018, and after half a year of trading and a lot of testing and measuring they have achieved sales of £7k to date, and are on the cusp of launching a big marketing campaign.

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