Some of the most common questions that we get when speaking to potential clients are about marketing, and how much we help with it. Does WBX Commerce, for example, run your Twitter and Facebook page for you? Do we design your ads or help with branding? Will we stand out on a street corner dressed as a giant tomato to sell your product?
This post is all about laying to rest some of the misconceptions about what services we offer. Though we certainly do not take over your marketing for you, you might be surprised to hear some of the things we love helping our clients do.
To help with understanding the ins and outs of WBX Commerce’s services, I’m going to use a sports analogy (I promise it’s going to help you). In this case, WBX Commerce is the coach, your product is the team, and marketing is the game. As we move through this post, try to keep WBX Commerce in your mind as a coach – a nice, passionate, motivating coach, who doesn’t verbally abuse you but can get a little overly excited sometimes – and all that marketing stuff as the game.
We can’t play that game for you.
Sometimes, the easiest way to understand what services are offered is to begin with the services we DON’T offer.
If you are selling online, you know how much social media matters – heck, even WBX Commerce spends a good chunk of our time promoting our services on SM (case in point, right here). However, WBX Commerce does not manage your social media. We aren’t going to tweet, use Instagram or manage your Facebook page for you. And no, we won’t dress as a tomato. #SorryNotSorry. However, if you read a little further, you’ll see that we are certainly willing to chat about marketing strategies for your brand.
A good ad campaign is a huge asset for any company looking to bring in new customers. Here at WBX Commerce, we absolutely love reaching out to potential clients with all sorts of ads – but we don’t run social media ads on behalf of our clients. Once again though, we are always here for guidance.
The one type of ads that we do run for you are Amazon sponsored ads. These types of ads are both affordable and super-effective, so they’re one of our favorites. You just give us a daily budget (even $5 will do!), and we will work on getting your sponsored listings to show up on page one of search results, where organically, you may not have shown up – yet. This is the type of marketing we specialize in – operational marketing (i.e. Amazon ads, keywords, listing optimization, etc.).
Remember, we are the coach, and marketing is the game. We’re on the sidelines, yelling at you to watch your back or push yourself that little bit harder, but you’re on the court, and ultimately in charge of how well you perform.
… But we sure can whip your online selling into shape.
So, if we don’t run your social media or make your ads… how do we help your marketing at all? Well, first off, we give you one invaluable thing: time. All that time you spent managing shipping, tracking inventory and responding to customers can now be spent thinking about your product. Go team!
Extra time aside, WBX Commerce does offer some help that is more directly related to marketing. First off, like any good coach, we are always willing to chat. Our advice comes in a lot of forms, and it will vary depending on your product.
To help you think about advice in a more concrete sense, here are some examples:
There are those ideas that will boost your sales – like multi-packs for lower-priced products. We might suggest the inclusion of descriptive insert cards with your product – as we did with Glee Gum – to add quality to your product, build brand loyalty, and boost customer satisfaction. Also, with the holidays around the corner, WBX Commerce often gives suggestions on promotions that fit your product and customers.
Occasionally, we do offer more direct help. For example, we’ve connected clients for cross-promotional opportunities that did very well. Recently, we set up the private WBX Commerce Amazon Review Group on Facebook. This connects clients with customers who are willing to review the product for a discount – which can be a big help for clients looking to gain more customer reviews and get customer feedback.
If you take one thing from this post (besides the fact that we won’t dress up as tomatoes), remember: data driven advice is our jam. We love to capture data and help you put those numbers to good use. We like keywords, and we love listing optimization…
If this data confuses you at all, never fear! We’d love to set up a screen share to help walk you through how you can best make use of the data. Even though we don’t run your marketing department for you, knowing your audience means your ads will be vastly more effective. And, we can keep an eye on those numbers to be sure the ads are doing their job.
Just like a good coach, WBX Commerce loves to see our clients thrive. We offer advice and strategy. We do the shipping and behind-the-scenes grunt work, giving you more time to create brilliant marketing campaigns, build your brand, and be innovative.
But, remember – we are just the coach. We can show you the techniques, but it’s up to you to play the marketing game. You’ll have to make the leap into running those social media campaigns and pushing out your product, and we will be cheering you on along the way.
