E-COMMERCE
Shopify adds 10K additional emails to every plan
Hear that noise? That’s the party happening over at Shopify.
The platform just released several new features worth raising a glass to.
Feeling generous: Shopify users now have access to improved segmentation, including filters like last purchase, shopping frequency, and more… no SQL skills necessary.
The platform also added new automation triggers based on purchase history and key milestones.
And as if that weren’t enough, they added 10K free emails per month to every plan.
Why we care: If you’re paying $10K+ for your email marketing provider, and aren’t opposed to switching platforms, Shopify’s update might reduce some of your costs.
Those new features don’t sound too bad, either.
ADVERTISING
You’re probably breaching GDPR and don’t even know it
Are you sitting down? Okay.
We hate to bring this up, but there’s a good chance you’re in breach of GDPR…
… along with 94.7% of websites: According to Usenix, there are 6 types of possible violations. And when they analyzed a random sample of 100 websites with CookieBlock, their machine learning tool, Usenix found that most websites are violating at least one of them.
Time to button up: Now’s a good time to get familiar with the possible violations and adjust your cookie requests.
And if you need some community or just want to scream into a pillow, this Hacker News thread may help.
SPONSORED BY TRENDS
This entrepreneur raised $1.5M for his business by following the right signals
Ever felt inspired by a business idea, then spent countless hours and dollars launching it… only to watch it flop?
Happens to entrepreneurs all the time.
What’s missing is market demand.
When you know how to identify the signals for real market demand, you can launch a profitable business.
The Trends team does it for you. They analyze millions of data points, or “signals,” to identify business trends before they explode—like the rise of non-alcoholic beer and the return of claw clips.
That’s how Narek was able to jump on the indoor plant business trend and raise $1.5M in funding and get valuable business advice from veteran startup founders and entrepreneurs.
And he’s not the only success story. There are many, many others.
You could be the next one!
Follow the signals and try Trends for only $1 for a week.
ANALYTICS
How to migrate to Google Analytics 4 using “The Helicopter Method”
With Universal Analytics (UA) riding into the sunset, most marketers feel overwhelmed and are falling into one of two camps:
A) Scrambling to migrate to Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
B) Procrastinating.
If you fall into one of these camps yourself, you can helicopter out using Jill Quick’s “Helicopter Method.”
Why the fancy migration name? Because GA4 is more complex than its predecessors, it’s more like learning how to fly a helicopter than how to drive a car.
But Quick’s “helicopter method” makes migrating to GA4 much easier to get your arms around.
He recommends following 5 steps, or phases:
Phase 1: Dual tag basic configuration. Set up the basic configuration required to start collecting data.
Phase 2: Customize your setup. Once you have basic configuration set up, start customizing the configuration based on your needs. Some events are tracked automatically by GA4. Others you’ll need to set up yourself.
Phase 3: Compare and review reports. Once data is flowing and conversion events are running, you can start building reports that help you assess your performance.
Phase 4: Enhance set up. When you’re confident in your GA4 configurations, review the data and bring clarity to your analysis by enhancing the setup and adjusting or adding events.
Phase 5: BigQuery. This is like the black box of your helicopter. It stores all your raw data, so you need to understand how it works. Since the data retention time period is 14 months in GA4, you need BigQuery to perform historical data analysis on bigger time ranges.
Sound like a good migration method to you? Jill Quick has detailed instructions for implementing each one of the phases.
Don’t worry. While you will need to set aside some time to do the shift to GA4, go at your own pace and remember you’re not alone: lots of marketers like you are doing it, too.
SPONSORED BY DASH.FI
Solve these two painful advertising limitations with the help of dash.fi
Two common problems for advertisers:
- Fixed spending limits on your card means failed payments and campaigns paused. Happened to us this year!
- Just one card to use across multiple ad platforms and ad accounts. Bad if your ad account gets banned. That puts all your ad accounts at risk!
Dash.fi solves both these problems:
- Liberal spending limits designed for digital advertisers.
- Unlimited virtual cards.
- Up to 3% cashback.
- No annual fee.
Use dash.fi to scale your campaigns with peace of mind.
THE CREW’S INSIGHTS
Why you should use negative reviews in your marketing
What’s your first thought when you get a negative review? Sad? Disappointed? Excited to improve?
Sometimes a negative review can be the most compelling message your marketing could ever send. Here’s why.
While it’s important to know who your product is for, it’s just as important to know who your product is not for.
Negative reviews can help you clarify your positioning—for both yourself and your customers.
Here are two great examples:
Liquid Death. This brand is renowned for using bad reviews and critical social media comments to show who they are not for.
As they like to say, Liquid Death is “proudly not for everyone.”
The Economist. They often pull quotes from negative reviews, then attribute them to people like Management Trainee, Aged 42, who said, “I never read The Economist,” to position themselves as the publication for intelligent, ambitious readers.
The Crew’s take: That reminds us of a negative review we got from someone who recently unsubscribed. Their reason for hopping off? “The content is great but is creating FOMO in me.”
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
AFFILIATE MARKETING: Need to scale your affiliate business? A4D creates white label offers for you, gives you dedicated campaign strategists (not just affiliate managers), and they provide exclusive offers with high EPCs. They’ve helped 20,000 affiliates grow their businesses… they’ll help you scale your business, too.*
GOOGLE: Supporting refugees? Google My Business just added emergency help attributes for businesses in the accommodation category. If that’s you, go to your profile now and look for them under “Attributes.”
ANALYTICS: Some users report being able to link Google Analytics with Google Merchant Center in their Google Analytics 4 properties. Do you see this when you log into your analytics, too?
SEO: Three months isn’t long enough. If you’re planning to move your site or have done so already, John Mueller says you should keep redirects active a little longer… at least one year, and longer if you can.
BUSINESS: Your audience might be older than you think. According to the WSJ, consumer spending may get a boost from consumers 65+. Most boomers have their wealth in stocks and housing, and with those going up, they’re eager to travel internationally again.
INFLUENCER MARKETING: It was bound to happen. Unlicensed Instagram and TikTok creators who offer financial advice could be in trouble with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
COPYWRITING: Who said robots can’t feel? Just type in your product info and this AI produces emotional copy. The future has officially arrived. We just hope Skynet is nowhere near…
*This is a sponsored post.
BRAIN TEASER
We give you a group of three. One is sitting down, and will never get up. The second eats as much as is given to him, yet is always hungry. The third goes away and never returns. What is this group of three?
You can find the answer here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
The robots are here and they’re already running our lives
It sounds too fictional to be true.
But this MediaInsider post goes into some interesting examples of how the robots who live on the internet are shaping our lives.
Not convinced? Here’s a fun quiz. Do you think robots decide:
- Whom you will date?
- If you can eat out during this pandemic?
- If you can get into college?
- If you can rent an apartment?
- If you will get the job?
- When you go to work?
You may be surprised.