192 What is your top marketing tip for success in 2019? Hear our experts’ answers

This is the second podcast in our 2019 eCommerce MasterPlan Growth Series sponsored by Omnisend, the all-in-one marketing automation platform that empowers ecommerce marketers to boost sales with omnichannel tools.

As we do every year on the show we’re starting the year by asking a handpicked group of experts their thoughts for the coming year.

This year’s question is: “What is your top marketing tip for success in 2019?”

Omnisend – marketing automation platform tailored for eCommerce.

Alex O’Byrne

Alex O’Byrne, founder of WeMakeWebsites, says that focusing on customer experience is going to be key for businesses looking to differentiate themselves from the Marketplace giant Amazon in 2019.

Alex focuses on Amazon because he says that the company regularly disrupts or takes over every industry it expands into.

The best survival tool to deal with this is to focus on creating strong brand identities and carefully crafted customer experiences. Designating a team or an individual to focus solely on this mission is well worth the effort and expense.

Consumers will continue to go to Amazon to get everyday, boring goods, but when they want to use shopping as a form of entertainment, they will be looking to brands that have strong philosophies, lifestyle qualities, and market expertise.

Salena Knight

Salena Knight, from The Bringing Business to Retail Show insists that marketing success in 2019 will come from brands really getting to know their customers.

She says that generic email campaigns sent out to everyone on a mailing list are a thing of the past. Companies looking to succeed in 2019 will need to meet their customer in the right place at the right time with the right offer.

Her marketing tip is an analog one. Using a large piece of paper and a pen, sit down and map out the entire customer journey. Salena recognizes that the phrase “customer journey” is overused and not taken seriously anymore, but she encourages people to dig deep into what that journey is truly like–step by step.

The goal is to understand where and how you are going to get customers to stay with you, what the buy-in is going to be and ultimately understand how to make customers into brand ambassadors.

This exercise allows businesses to get to the core of understanding where and when you are asking people to trust, buy-in and convert.

Chloe Thomas

Chloe’s top marketing tip for 2019 is to stop pretending to take marketing seriously and actually start taking marketing seriously.

In 2019, everything is more competitive, the eCommerce market has matured and there is no more land to grab. Businesses have to stop knee-jerk reactions, last minute marketing activities and the habit of never finding the time to optimize ads.

To be competitive, eCommerce entrepreneurs need to get clear on the message they are putting in front of their customer at each stage of the journey.

Ask yourself:

• How are you using email marketing?
• What email tactics are you using for each group of customers?

(substitute any marketing platform for the word email in both questions)

Test, analyze and optimize. Start a campaign of continuous testing.

For more guidance, read Chloe’s book on the subject: .

Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson of Tamebay says that 2019 is going to be the year for exploring new marketplaces. In the US and the UK, Amazon and eBay are the de facto marketplaces for consumers, but Chris reminds us of a time when people started an online search using an actual search engine before turning to one of these marketplaces.

2019 is set to be a partial return to that as consumers look for other platforms to purchase from. Besides new marketplaces like Fruugo, social sites like Instagram and Facebook are increasingly adding features to enable shopping behavior.

Chris says that social selling is powerful because the process relies on telling a story and becoming a part of customers’ lives. Chris says that it’s also time to look outward at other markets in which Amazon and eBay aren’t online leaders and begin considering opportunities on a global scale.

Justin King

Justin King from B2X Partners has an unconventional marketing tip for 2019. Don’t market at all. This advice is primarily for B2B companies but applies to B2C companies as well. Instead of spending the time, effort and money on expensive marketing campaigns, Justin wants companies to create brand ambassadors out of every single one of their employees.

He says that everyone, from the sales team to customer service representatives need to do more than understand the product–they need to evangelize it. Having the product bring value to employees’ lives is the best way to accomplish this goal. Justin recognizes that creating an internal culture that is customer-centric is a change management task.

Bringing legacy thinking up to speed takes time and effort, but Justin argues that working with people on the inside is the best marketing investment a company can make.

Listen to hear each of the answer in detail