Hello! Hope your coffee is perfection and that you've been having a good week. I'm not sure about you, but I felt some FOMO for the in-person events, such as Expo West and Grow NYC. If you went, let me know how it was!!
Todays Agenda:
Competition
New app category ads
A Shopify app spotlight
Competition
Let's talk about competition, shall we?
I was talking to someone recently about running their Shopify ads. During the conversation, someone else who does marketing for Shopify apps came up. They are a well-respected person in the community, were once a part of the App Collective when they worked at an app a few years ago, and are someone I talk to regularly.
I was taken aback when they mentioned the word "competition" in relation to me, as I guess I don't see them as that. I told them they should use my services and theirs and even mentioned another person to use. Why not gain perspective from across the board?
Did any of you watch Jason Kelce's retirement speech from the Eagles football team this week? In it, he said a bunch of great things, but he mentioned that he felt selfish for wanting to win the Super Bowl while, in parallel, wanting his brother to win who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. That's the spirit. We should all be rooting for each other while wanting to win ourselves.
Hey Deb, this all seems fairly obvious..why are you talking about it?
I've seen some stuff in the industry that gives me pause/cause for concern. Some apps feel the need to constantly mention the divide in what their app offers in relation to their competition on social media. They say things like "Good morning to everyone but my competitors…" They take every opportunity to dig in on comments on socials regarding how they are better or cheaper or more this or that than their competitors. I am all for a comparison - in fact, I strongly believe in using the US vs THEM strategy in content marketing. There is a way to be tactful about the approach that shows the clear differences in the solutions while highlighting your competitor's strengths and weaknesses as well as your own. I think it's great for SEO, it's a fun read, and it helps shoppers make informed decisions on what they are purchasing. When I was on the performance marketing creative strategy side, US vs THEM was a winning strategy for products in Facebook ads all of the time. If done in a clean and clear way, it's really effective.
This week, Klaviyo rolled out a version of enterprise-managed services for merchants. There is some concern that Klaviyo did this without respect to their agency partners, which can cause a divide in the relationship. Maybe I'm naive, but I think there is enough business to go around. Even at the enterprise level, how much business can your agency handle relative to the business available? Let's not forget that Klaviyo is a public company, much like Shopify, and they must continue to grow sales channels and revenue streams. It's the nature of the business. And just like Shopify, which is constantly building out features that compete with apps, it's usually not something that will destroy your business if you're strong in your niche anyway. Also, remember when Shopify offered managed services for Plus stores? Guys, let's not freak out this soon in the game. Be good at your craft. Stay in your lane.
In Jason Kelce's speech, he referenced a famous quote from the Philadelphia Eagles player Jalen Hurts, "Hungry dogs run faster."
Stay hungry. Stay humble. Stay in your lane.
Category placement ads
Shopify just rolled out category placement ads on the Shopify App Store this week.
Just like the home page ads, there is still very little control over what you can do in terms of country targeting or keyword targeting. So far in my testing of home page ads, it seems like a branding play that doesn’t seem to convert well so I’m interested to see how these perform since they are category specific. Are you going to test these out yourselves?
An app spotlight
Submarine is built for Shopify Plus stores doing hundreds of thousands of orders and was founded by veteran Shopify Partner Gavin Ballard. The solution has multiple features, including preorders, subscriptions, crowdfunding, and memberships. It sits outside the Shopify App Store, so unless your agency recommends it or you work with their parent dev agency, Disco Labs, you might not know this is available. There isn't a direct install option, so you have to fill out a form to start the convo about implementing the platform.
Until next time,
Deb