How cool is it when you, as a Dutch partner, are invited to speak in London. Pretty cool if you ask me. My talk was about 'my favorite': branding, customer journey and content marketing and that of course around e-commerce. Oh yes, all that in 30 minutes + 15 minutes Q&A. Difficult, but it worked! What a roller coaster.
Last week we walked in a radiant sun through Hyde Park. Today I am typing this blog post. What a week! From a VIP dinner to the Pursuit event, met a lot of people, made good contacts, gave my talk and then a day in London. In one sigh until you're back on the plane with your butt. Here's a small report with three handy tips that I noted and included for you at Shopify 's Pursuit event.
TIP 1 - Automation
Look for (logical) automation to save time and money. The most obvious solution may seem like a Facebook Messenger bot. But that's probably because you suddenly hear it a lot. I think the solution to automation that works for you definitely lies in using smart apps and applications that you set up once and then do 'the work' for you.
Example
Think of something as simple as an automatic mailing/newsletter that is sent out on your customer's birthday. For example, all you have to do is set up an automatic mailing with MailChimp, have your customer fill in his or her birthday and voila, MailChimp sends discounted gifts to your customers all year round. And that, of course, is converting.
How about the phenomenon of 'abandoned shopping cart'. Also something that you should not ignore and that you can automate.
Tip 2 - Remote teams
Michael Shannon from Pixel Union gave an interesting talk about this. Do you provide and/or develop services and do you want to expand your company, but rather not with (permanent) staff? Then you can expand with freelancers, virtual assistants, etc. Have you put together a nice team that has to work together on a project but all live somewhere else and don't come together IRL? This is called a 'remote team'. Remote teams are super useful and may be something very common in the future, but there are some elements that are super important to keep a remote team running smoothly. One of these elements is 'connection'. It is important to continue to see the person behind the work. That is why Michael regularly recommends a video meeting. Do you work together on an extensive project on a daily basis? Then starting daily with a video recording of 2 minutes is a good idea. The remote team member explains what he or she is working on, how things are going and some small talk. If you don't work in the same time zone, you can still see it later and that keeps the team spirit good and the feeling of isolation a lot less.
Are you (soon) working with someone remotely? Then 'connection' is something that you will hopefully include in the method.
Tip 3 - Content marketing is key
My talk was about 'Build your brand with content marketing'. Is that a 'new trending tip'? Maybe not for you anymore, but for the audience I had on Pursuit, partly certainly. Many app developers and partners had heard of it, wanted to get started, but haven't applied it yet. Unfortunately I could not point them to our Content coach program , because it is in Dutch. There were also a number of people who asked for an English Sell your stuff online workbook , unfortunately I also had to disappoint them.
lucky you
How nice is it that -if you are reading this- you can use the Content coach program . Lucky you ;-) You can ensure that your customer is presented with an optimal customer journey and therefore finds your webshop/company more easily and orders from you earlier. You now know why you use content, right?
Useful apps
We have made many interesting new contacts, some of whom are founders of very useful apps! A few of these are highlighted below.
Shogun - the app that ensures that you provide your Shopify webshop with useful extra pages with numerous functionalities in a very simple way. Also suitable for landing pages.
Weglot - finally found a good app for multilungual Shopify webshops!
NS8 - one third of all (!) retargeted ads are fraudulent. And NS8 detects these before you place the ads. Useful!
Big thanks to Shopify for this opportunity, invitation, new contacts and another completely fresh perspective. We had a great time in London and are back home full of inspiration. Get started for new Shopify webshops, app ideas (!) and fresh course and program material. Thanks!
Here on Instagram you will find the 'Shopify Pursuit' highlight (below the profile), where you can see the London trip back in succession.
👉 Want to try Shopify yourself? click here
Image report Pursuit 2018
The location was Tobacco dock, a perfect place for an event like Pursuit.
As always: 'branding on fleek'!
Nice audience!
Delicious lunch and snacks in between :)
Build your brand with content marketing!
And finally a panel discussion. It was awesome!
Photo source: Shopify, click here for more
