E-COMMERCE
Shopify is making their own ad network
Shopify wants to help you promote your products, not just sell them.
Dennis Hegstad, an angel investor, shared a few screenshots of what seems to be Shopify’s new advertising network.
How it will work: One of the screenshots shows Shopify inviting you to join their exclusive “data exchange” network, implying that this is related to Shopify’s ecosystem of millions of websites. The company will probably “borrow” the traffic of several reputable ad exchanges as well. Some people in the thread suggested that Shopify might partner with Google or Facebook.
The Crew’s take: It’s unclear where the ads will be shown. Or if there will be ads at all, or it’s just a data exchange between merchants. But if Shopify does this right, we could have another major acquisition channel on our hands. (Plus a nice boost to Shopify’s revenue.)
ADVERTISING
U.S. ad spending is up by 56% in May
When people spend more money, advertisers follow suit.
This is the conclusion of The Standard Media Index study, where they looked at spending patterns across several media buyers.
Distribution channels on the rise: The biggest resurgence is in out-of-home advertising and radio. This makes sense, given that people are traveling and resuming office work.
Magazines on the decline: One thing that people don’t seem to do is read print magazines. Ad spending has decreased in this segment.
What this means for you: If you have a reasonable budget and are spending it on online channels, consider adding some offline channels as well. If a lot of advertisers spend money on something, it’s usually a good indication that something is working.
SPONSORED BY TRUENAME
Is your domain name an asset or a liability?
Choosing a domain ain’t an easy job.
Your domain name is the most powerful foundation of your online identity. The wrong one can have a long-term, negative impact on your brand, ranking, site traffic and customer recall.
This is part 3 of a multi-part series that looks into the best practices for choosing your brand name and your domain name. Read part 1 and part 2.
TrueName™ domains are next-gen, descriptive domain names that are true to your identity, true to who you are and why you matter to your audience.
Before you jump to grab a domain for that new idea you have, here are a few points you should take into account.
Dos:
- Choose a memorable domain: Your domain should reflect your brand and product or service offerings. Example: realdope.coffee or sexy.pizza
- Answer both “who” and “what”: Who are you and what do you do? Encapsulate this in your domain, if possible. Example: streams.live
- Keep it short: Taking advantage of new TLDs can save characters by moving a word to the right of the dot. Example: dxctechnology[.]com vs dxc.technology.
- Think about your keywords: Include the SEO keywords you want to rank for.
- Be safe and secure: The domain extension you choose may or may not have security vulnerabilities. TrueName domain extensions block all homographic variations of your domain, free.
Don’ts
- Long domains with a hyphen (or more). For example: bad-idea-for-your-domain[.]com.
- Hide: Don’t get lost among the competition with a domain name that doesn’t match your brand or services. How to do it right: drink.haus
- Compromise: Your brand name should be as unique and uncompromised as the product or service you offer. Don’t add modifiers to your name when you can be creative and true to your name with new extensions. How to do it right: smash.money
- Be ambiguous or vague: Use the space to the right of the dot to extend your branding and tell customers who you are and what you do. Represent your anti status-quo positioning and lead the pack with a novel TLD. How to do it right: positive.news
Ready to get a domain? Find your own TrueName domain here for $2.99* with promo code STACKED.
* Applies to most standard TrueName domains.
WRITING
Your blog posts don’t have to be boring
Ross Simmonds wrote some blog posts that have been able to reach thousands of people and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What if you could do the same?
For Ross, the key is copywriting and content marketing fundamentals. And in this Twitter thread, he shared how he’s done it:
- Keep the skimmers hooked: Some people will go through each sentence of your post. Others will just skim through it. Create content for both.
- Use bucket brigades often: Hear me out. Here’s the thing. But that’s not all. You might be thinking. You’re probably wondering. These small sentences keep the reader hooked. Just don’t overuse them.
- Build up the pain early on: Use the first paragraph of the post to describe the pain you’re going to solve and establish credibility.
- Speak with certainty: Don’t water down your opinion. Use power words and strive to maintain authority in each sentence.
- Step away from a one-to-one voice occasionally: It’s important to mix up your content with third-party quotes, stories, data, and anecdotes. It builds credibility.
- Break the 4th wall every now and then: This means stepping down from the narrator’s voice and interacting straight with the reader.
- Make them feel something: You must be compelling. Both to the head and mind of the reader.
Did you find this stuff interesting? Then share Stacked Marketer with your friends. There’s a quasi-4th wall break for ‘ya.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
SEO: If you’re an SEO geek, this is for you. This post goes into technical detail on how Google may classify sites as low-quality.
FACEBOOK: Facebook Stories are getting public comments. We bet Instagram Stories are next.
E-COMMERCE: Shopify will now allow you to edit your robots.txt file.
INSTAGRAM: Drops are the new hot on Instagram, with the platform actively pushing them to users. If you’re into e-commerce, we definitely recommend getting familiar with drops.
GOOGLE: The search company wants to make local businesses more discoverable. They’ve just rolled out a few updates to help with just that.
AMAZON: The company is using the banhammer on more big retailers. The reason: buying reviews.
PODCASTS: Spotify wants more people to discover your podcasts. They’ve just acquired Podz, a podcast discovery platform.
BRAIN TEASER
What turns everything around without moving?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Ronaldo might have tanked Coca-Cola’s value by $4B
Cristiano Ronaldo is becoming the Elon Musk of soft drinks.
During a press conference, the football player removed two Coca-Cola bottles from their place and pointedly raised a bottle of water instead.
The video went viral and many people found it pretty hilarious.
Some people even say this caused Coca-Cola’s stock to drop. And while this is almost certainly not the case (the whole S&P 500 was down on the day), it sure paints a good story, right?
Why did Ronaldo do this? Apparently, it was for his son. “Occasionally my son drinks Coca-Cola or Fanta and eats crisps and he knows I don’t like that,” Ronaldo said during past conferences.
We wonder if Coca Cola is gonna blacklist Ronaldo’s son from consuming their products after this. (We’re sure he wouldn’t have a problem with it, anyway.)