The only three things you should be focussing on
I work with hundreds of eCommerce stores.
Some that do upwards of $1million per month, and some that opened a week ago and are fighting for their first sales.
The one thing that all of these merchants have in common is that they get stuck in the weeds.
They see a video or read a blog that says they NEED to have *insert some fancy new tech or tool* that will triple their revenue overnight.
The merchants that have 100s of thousands of dollars of monthly revenue can afford to get distracted by shiny objects.
In fact, it’s a good thing that they’re trying new strategies, even if they’re complex and expensive to set up.
That’s because they have dialled in their fundamentals.
But, when a new merchant, who is fighting tooth and nail for EACH sale, comes to me with a fancy new tool they want to implement with the help of a developer they found on Fiverr who says they can have it built by the end of the week, I ask one question:
Me: “Have you sent a campaign email today?”
Merchant: “No.”
Me: “Okay, do that and then let’s talk about this new tool.”
An hour later.
Merchant: “I sent the email! So, this custom product builder will let my customers put their favorite Matlock quote on the inside of their jean pockets. They’re going to love it!”
Me: “Your product descriptions are very thin. Go work on the descriptions of your top ten best-selling products… Then let’s hash out this new tool.
A day later.
Merchant: “My product pages are looking and sounding incredible now! Please, please, please can we talk about the Custom Matlock Quote App?”
Me: “Have you sent a campaign email today?”
And on it goes.
The point, especially when you’re starting out, is that your time and energy are your greatest assets.
You MUST Laser focus them only on the activities that will have a high impact on your business.
There are three activities that I know, without a doubt, that fall into this category:
Email/SMS marketing.
Conversion rate optimization & Offer strategy (having amazing product pages, offers, etc.)
And, once you’ve achieved product-market fit:Paid advertising. (If you’re still testing your product and have zero budget, this can be replaced with organic social posting).
This is the difference between how a tiger hunts and how a kitten hunts (more on this analogy later).
Now, let me ask you a question.
Have you sent a campaign email today?
P.S. No dev project beyond simple code fixes ever takes a week.
