Marketing Experts Reveal Top Strategies To

Welcome back to the podcast everyone. Thank you for joining us today on the e-commerce marketing podcast. I am your host Arlen Robinson. And today we have a very special guest Emily Murphy who is responsible for product marketing at po w. So that’s power without the powr it which is a San Francisco startup whose mission is to provide customizable easy to use and affordable solutions to help small businesses grow online with over 50 website plugins available that are mobile responsive and work on any platform from Shopify to WordPress and more power plugins are trusted on over 8 million websites worldwide originally from England and working.

In product marketing for a corporate software company Emily made the move to the US and to the startup world to help small businesses achieve their goals. Welcome to the podcast Emily. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, not a problem. Yeah, they uh, quite a diverse background that you have.

Why don’t you Enlighten our before we get started and talkin about how Ecommerce. Businesses can benefit from plugins in general. Why don’t you tell our audience a little bit about yourself how you got started? Yeah, of course, so I actually started out with a background in languages. So I studied French and Spanish and then went on to do a master’s in translation.

So didn’t really start out in marketing a tool. It’s my first job was working as a project manager in a translation agency. And from then I from there I moved on to product marketing for the translation software company that you mentioned my background a little in the introduction. So that was all in the UK and that’s really where I discovered my passion for marketing and I’d say that’s really fueled by my language my language background and the studies that I did because ultimately mark.

Is a lot about communicating a message in a way that’s meaningful and that resonates with your audience. Sure. Yeah, um and then a little over a year ago. I moved to San Francisco and started managing marketing for for power. Okay, great. That’s that sounds awesome. And I can imagine that your language background it can help in your industry because you deal with a lot of messaging and when you deal with messaging a lot of people don’t really realize you really have to get into the.

Nitty-gritty with regards to communicating with your customers and your prospective customers. So there’s a lot of fine details that you have to pay attention to where you know as being a language expert or language person you’re accustomed to doing that so I know that helps you out. Yeah, definitely.

Yeah. So today, of course, we’re going to be talking about how you Commerce businesses can benefit from the multitude if you will of website plugins that are out there that. Can really help them out. So what I want to ask you first is really what are some of the top marketing plugins that e-commerce businesses should be taking advantage of today.

Of course. It depends what your goals are for your business. But for example, if you’re looking to increase sales, which I’m sure is one of the goals that any Commerce business has I would say using a sense of urgency is an excellent tool when it can actually some businesses businesses have reported that it can increase sales.

I over 300 percent so urgency is important because it makes us act more impulsively so psychological studies of shown that we suspend rational thought and make more emotional decisions when we’re under time pressure. So this is a great tool for marketers in getting people to take action, you know on your eCommerce site.

So to achieve this in terms of plugins, you could use for example a countdown timer. So we’ve I’m sure many of the listeners have seen these used on unpopular eCommerce sites like Macy’s for example, that’s one that I always see or even you know, when there’s a sale on so there are a lot of different ways of using a countdown timer plug-in as well.

So you could use it to count down. The number of days remaining on a sale for example or even just Target new visitors to your site and use it to offer a limited time offer that’s exclusive to new visitors or even use it to count down the number of items left in stock to urgency. So these are popular ways of using a countdown timer and actually the countdown timer.

We have a power also counts up. So as well as counting down counting up can be used for. Proof, for example, so this is a great marketing tool because essentially it’s saying hey this many people have already bought this product or downloaded this ebook or whatever it is that you’re trying to get your your visitors to do right?

It’s another way of using psychology again to get people to think. Hey, everyone else seems to be buying this I want it to right right. That’s the keeping up with the Joneses there. I guess you could say that’s a little phrase. We typically hear but yeah, you’re. You’re totally right. I never really thought about the countdown timers working in that way counting up but I’ve started I’m starting to see a lot more of those types of apps and plugins.

The reason I really like those countdown timers. A lot of times you mentioned Macy’s they’re really very effective because they, you know, unlike some of the pop-ups that will appear across the middle of the screen or in certain areas. These countdown timers are typically you’ll see it as a. Bar across the top of the screen that would just stay there.

Of course, the end user has the ability to close it out, but it stays there it’s not as intrusive. But if you’ve got the right messaging the right colors, it’s definitely something that can draw attention to you know, I’ve purchased some things from Macy’s before and I have seen that even during the.

Black Friday, actually they had a I think something similar and I actually purchased something and I do remember it caught my eye and I think that’s something you know, you Commerce businesses can definitely take advantage of and you know, one of the things that’s we’re talkin about some of these different plugins what I always talk to my guests about and what I’m usually always told is that it’s just like with anyting it’s really going to come down to to trial and error, you know, there’s certain things that may.

Resonate with your customers as opposed to others. So it’s just a matter if you going out there and you know and really just trying these things now, you know since the audience that’s listening e-commerce companies. There are some companies that may have some solid developers that are working with them.

They may have a development team but there’s others that, you know just could be, you know, one man shops or one woman shops and you know pretty lean on that side. Does what does a company really need a web developer in your opinion the setup and manage a lot of these plugins or the too technical or what’s usually required?

Uh, no and actually that’s the beauty of plugins so really, I mean, I guess I should mention if anyone’s unfamiliar with what a plug-in even is. It basically allows you to add something to your website to give it extra functionality. So, I mean, let’s we talked about the countdown timer, but. So supplies, we need a contact form.

Let’s say for your website can add it using a plug-in if you wanted to display like your Instagram feed or an RSS feed on your website. You can do it with a plugin and really this is possible without the need to hire a web developer. So you mentioned the power mission in your introduction. So part of that is really to ensure that our plugins are easy to use and a plugin is.

It’s easy to customize as well. So you can completely you need no coding experience whatsoever. You can go into a plugin editor choose your fonts customize the text buttons colors sizing at any images so that it can really match the design of your website. And also your business is brand and then it’s you can decide where you want to put it on your website.

And how this is done does depend on the website builder that you are using and so all of them work slightly differently. Some of them are Dragon drop some of them you might need to do a copy and pasting some It’s actually an HTML HTML code that sounds scary, but it’s actually just a copy paste copy and paste it to where you want it, you know within the website builder.

And then you’re good to go. Okay, and also how we provide step-by-step tutorials for each platform. So you definitely don’t need to know any code to install them and in terms of managing them. There’s definitely no need for a web developer because the cool thing is actually you can edit them directly from your website.

So once you have it installed on the page, there’s a little edit button that would only be visible to you not to your website visitors and just click indirectly and edit. Change anyting change a color change the text. If you wanted to test a different call to action, let’s say so that plugins in general and certainly the power plugins.

I’ve built to be user-friendly and straightforward. And yeah, that’s really good to hear. I I recall early on in the I guess the early days of the internet. It was really a whole different game when you were trying to add functionality to your website, you know here at Omni star we’ve been around for quite a while.

20 years now and you know at the early day in the early days any good tool that you wanted to add to your website could consisted of possibly installing software on your web server that went in conjunction with your website. Setting up a database. I mean it was a whole project just to get additional tools and functionality.

But now the game is totally changed with the of course with the the rise of the fast Solutions the software as a service solutions, you know, all of those days of installing bulky software Solutions on web servers are gone, you know, everything is remotely hosted. So it makes it a lot easier and that’s that’s really good to hear and it’s something that I think will help encourage the e-commerce business owners.

Really just take advantage of it because there’s so many tools out there that that can truly add value. Now when I read your intro and you mentioned earlier in your response, you talked about a variety of you know, e-commerce platforms and in the variety of builders that are out there and you know, what I really wanted to know is are there certain e-commerce platforms that typically work better in your opinion with 3rd party plugins and apps yeah, so I would say actually.

Stays many if not, most eCommerce platforms have built-in app stores. So some of the popular ones include Shopify Weebly Bigcommerce, and we’ve also partnered with others that may be less known such as bookmark Webster light speed. I mean really it depends. How comfortable you feel. With setting up a website when choosing your eCommerce platform.

So I mentioned before some e-commerce platforms have drag-and-drop editors. So then you can simply drag the plug-in where you want it on the page and then edit it as appropriate or as as you need whereas others may require you to copy a little snippet of HTML. Paste it appropriate place in in their web platform editor.

Right? Right. That’s that is the beauty of it. Like you said, I think just about most of the major e-commerce shopping cart platforms have their own internal web store or web Market. I mean you mentioned Shopify. There’s Weebly there’s Bigcommerce even some of the larger. Players that are fairly new to the game but are making a big impact have their own app stores that have recently seen and that includes Wicks.

Actually they have their own app store Squarespace. I believe has something similar as well. So, you know, these companies really do realize that what they have what they provide internally doesn’t necessarily may not necessarily meet all the needs of their clients and opening up their platform to these other.

To be able to sell their app or upgrade through in-app storage is really a kind of a great a great invention. I don’t know where the initially started but it’s really something that can benefit both sides, you know, not only the shopping cart platforms, but the actual business owners as well that are running the stores now with these apps, you know, there’s a lot of concern these days because uh, You know security Everybody’s Talkin about security web security and data, you know, there’s a big thing, of course going on now these days with with Facebook and they’re supposed to data breach or I don’t know if you call it a breach but the way that data was handled.

So do you think there are there really any issues? Any security issues that our business should be concerned about when installing these third-party plugins. And if and if so, you know, what are the things that they can do to to prevent any issues? Yeah. Well, I would say adding a plug-in to your website is.

Kind of like letting someone into your home right? You want to be sure you trust them before you open the door and let them in the same applies with plugins that are excellent tools for adding functionality to your site. That doesn’t come out of the box. So to speak it and if you don’t choose your plugin provide a wide wisely you you could come across problems that affect the performance and security of your site.

I mean, for example some unreliable plugins could crash your site. Or make it difficult to use on a mobile device. And at worst you mentioned data breaches. I mean, it’s possible they could be used to steal information from visitors or make it easier to for visitors to steal information from you.

So I mean at Power we take security very seriously and we make sure that all our plugins are wrapped in a secure container which ensures that any critical data won’t transfer between your site and the plugin and vice versa. Really? That’s the best one of the things I would say when you’re looking at plugins.

If you’re unsure about The credibility of a plugin provider look at their website look check their terms of service and the Privacy policies and make sure that everything. You know that they even have one in the first place and that you’re happy with you know, their own credibility and that you think that they’re trustworthy right for sure.

Yeah, you definitely have to do your due diligence. I mean one thing that you can rest a little bit easier when you’re dealing with the apps that are within these major. Ecommerce vendors platforms like the app store’s Shopify Bigcommerce, because those platforms they do your they do their due diligence.

I know because here at Omni OSI affiliate software. We have a an app in the app store and you know, when you get listed they they don’t just let any vendor go in there and list their apps. So you do have to make sure that your code actually adheres to certain standards. So there’s certain things that you really have to do.

And so that that’s one. Where you can West rest a little bit easier, you know, I’m not saying that there’s never a chance that you can get an app from one of the major e-commerce shopping cart vendors app stores and not have an issue but you’re a little less likely just because they do a lot of the due diligence up front to make sure you know, the companies that are in there have gone through the correct protocols to make sure.

The data is handled properly and they were not going to be any, you know security issues. So yeah, those are those are things that you can you know, rest assured on now with all of these plugins and these these apps that are out there these days, you know, everybody of course listening the number one goal with most businesses is to constantly increase sales increased revenue and increase profitability now, tying that to actual plugins, you know as a final.

Question for you. What is one plug-in that you think our listeners can install today and really start seeing an increase in traffic and sales within 24 hours or is that even possible to pick one? Right specially because if you think about you know getting traffic to your site this goes hand-in-hand with user engagement.

So there are so many different ways of uh, you know, achieving those goals. I would say. A great marketing plugin is a form right there fantastic ways of collecting valuable feedback and information and I mean one of the great ways of using a form is to grow your email list and email marketing is such a valuable tool grow.

Continually growing your list keeping. It clean is very important. So you can use a form for example to get newsletter signups, but then. Of course, you actually want to people to to fill out your form. So maybe you have some exclusive offer that you accompanied with a countdown timer or whatever the case may be.

There are many different ways of getting your message across and creating that that sense of urgency that I mentioned earlier that helps your visitors actually take action. Yeah. It’s making sure that the content on your site is engaging right? That’s definitely the case and you mentioned a form. I think that’s it makes sense in these days.

One of the things that I would also add on to that is offering some type of incentive because these days, you know, you can offer the newsletters sign up you can get people to try to join your list and try to grow your community. But you know, we have to understand that people are typically inundated with their email and their spam and the amount of lists that they’re on so a little bit more cautious these.

To join a list. So if you can really provide them some value in exchange for that email whether it’s maybe monthly discounts whether it’s valuable information about your product line or about your services or just about your niche in general that they can’t really get anywhere else then, you know, they’re going to be a little bit more amenable to providing the email and joining.

So you want to definitely keep that in mind that it is an exchange, you know people these. Is there not going to usually just give give up their email without getting something in return and trying to see where they can get value for it? So I would say you want to definitely keep that in mind as well.

Yeah, of course and I mean forms also a useful for collecting feedback and if you didn’t want to use a form it’s worth considering, you know enabling comments on your site or like a reviews type tool. This is a great way of getting feedback not only on your product and your service and things you can you know improve for your whole business, but it also kind of creates a sense of community around to your business.

And this is what gets people to come back to your site, you know and engage with other users and really feel like that kind of part of something bigger. So yeah, that’s definitely true. And you mentioned reviews. That’s also another very very popular. Review apps review plugins are very popular these days because the bottom line is these days people have a lot of options whenever they’re purchasing a product or service and they need that type of social proof.

I guess if you will that will help to make a decision and if you’ve got ratings the more the better and that’s definitely something that can help. Well, well Emily why we definitely appreciate you joining us today on the e-commerce marketing podcast. I think your information was invaluable to our users and our listeners if anyone wants to get in touch with you, how do they do it so you can go to my website. It’s. Okay, that sounds great. Well, thanks again for joining us Emily, and we appreciate all of the advice that you provided. Thank you so much. All right. Take care. Thank you for listening to the e-commerce marketing podcast to access Ecommerce videos and other resources to help your business.

Grow. Please visit get forward slash videos subscribe to us on iTunes by searching for e-commerce marketing podcast, and please leave a rating and a review. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Podcast Guest Info

Emilie Murphy
Head of Product Marketing at POWr