How to Spy on Your Competitor’s Facebook Ads!

The first thing any good marketer does before beginning a campaign is research what is already working for competitors. Your own ads don’t need to reinvent the wheel; that’s probably not the best use of your time anyway.

Lawrence Apointe from the Marketing Mansion figured out a great trick to spy on your competitors’ Facebook ads using the Facebook app. This is helpful for identifying the creative content other brands are using to generate massive revenue on Facebook. You can use these insights to inform your own campaigns.

While you shouldn’t directly copy the creative, it’s a great resource for informing what type of content, quality of content, and copy resonates with a particular audience before implementing and spending money on your own Facebook ad campaign.

Watch the 1-minute video demonstration (click the image):

Follow these instructions:

1. Open the Facebook app on your mobile device
2. Scroll through your news feed until you see a sponsored post
3. Click the downwards arrow in the top right-hand corner
4. Click ‘Why am I seeing this?
5. Click ‘Manage your Ad preferences’
6. Select an interest (try a few)
7. Observe your competitor’s ads

We hope you find this a useful trick for developing your own marketing strategy!

If any of your competitors are using Shopify for their online store presence, you can also look at what items they’re actually selling the most of with our trick to spy on the top Shopify stores and stop spies in your own store.

Need to build your e-commerce business? Having trouble with organic search visibility or converting visitors into customers? Logic Inbound is an SEO and web design marketing agency with e-commerce expertise that can help drive real sales with unmatched ROI. Fill out our discovery form and find out what we can do for your business.

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1 Trick to Spy on the Top Shopify Stores + How to STOP Spies in Your Store!

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How to Reverse Engineer Your Competitor’s Facebook Ads To Make More $$$$

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20 Incredible Shopify Stores to Inspire Your Own e-Commerce Design

Like it or not, people always judge the book by its cover. This is true for websites, food, clothes, people, and actual books. Online stores are especially in the line of fire. If you want a successful e-commerce business, you have to make sure your design is attractive, neat, and easy on the eyes. Here are 20 Shopify store designs that will inspire you to create your own unique and awesome online store!

Au Lit Fine Linens

The page design reflects the crisp freshness they advertise for their products and gives the warm and comfy sense essential to a successful home furnishing business.

Beardbrand

Wherever you go on their website, the trademark mustache-and-beard icon along with the brown and black theme keep the purpose of their main products (beard grooming) prominent and maintains a strong, earthy atmosphere.

Ratio

Whether it be the actual grain or any related houseware, coffee is featured everywhere on Ratio’s modern and minimalist webpage.

The Ghostly Store

Although they trade in a vast number of product categories, the trademark ghost face clip art is present everywhere, keeping the website rounded and giving it a dash of cuteness.

Telegramme Paper

Their unique prints are featured in all product categories and arranged in a way that maintains vibrancy and a positive feeling across the platform.

Uproot

Uproot’s modern page design mixes a sense of reliable technology with idyllic vineyard scenery, which matches their miscellaneous wine palette.

Old Faithful Shop

True to its name, Old Faithful Shop’s page design features a rustic sense of home and cozy autumn warmth in all sections, be it pantry supplies or home decor.

Cultiver

Cultiver’s shop design matches its motto; the homepage gallery selection gives off a sense of subtle elegance and rich texture.

Jane Motorcycles

The store’s webpage features a dynamic and powerful design, just like the vehicles it deals in.

Pop Chart Lab

Pop Chart Lab’s design is as varied as its offer, and each section reflects the overall feeling of the given product category.

ufmann Mercantile

Mixing attractive snapshots of its merchandise with bold, plain backgrounds and playful slogans, Kaufmann conveys a feeling of elegance and professionalism sprinkled with a hint of adventure.

Sugarfina

Befitting a candy store, the whole website is sugary and cute, featuring cheerful pastel colors and playful photos, which adorably stand out on a simple white background.

Pencil by 53

True to its mother brand, 53’s Pencil store features a simple, strong design with friendly nods to technology at every turn.

Tori Murphy

Keeping with its offer of woven merchandise, Tori Murphy went for a warm, homey design, and kept it minimal, to bring its merchandise fully to the forefront.

Leif

Leif’s choice of soft pastels and neatly arranged elements goes perfectly with its nature-themed products.

Helm Boots

Helm’s homepage features a slideshow, and each photo represents a different style they have on offer while maintaining simplicity and elegance.

Ugmonk

Although they might seem boring, Ugmonk’s plain white pages are a clever move, because they allow the merchandise to command full attention.

Common Deer

The whole website keeps to a rustic, woodsman sort of atmosphere brought on by the choice of photos and emphasized by the plain white background.

Victoire Boutique

Everything, from its name, through the colors palette. To the patterns and fonts, comes together to give this store’s website a wonderfully rich atmosphere of vintage glamour perfect for attracting customers.

Death Wish Coffee

The simple homepage form has all the information about the brand, all you need for ordering the product, as well as links to the rest of the selection, while the minimalist, bold color theme emphasizes their main selling point.

We hope this roundup of stellar Shopify stores was useful to you. These brands are out there making customers happy with pleasant on-site experiences that feel connected with the brand. Has this inspired you to design your own store in a more strategic and compelling way?

Need to build your e-commerce business? Having trouble with organic search visibility or converting visitors into customers? Logic Inbound is an SEO and web design marketing agency with e-commerce expertise that can help drive real sales with unmatched ROI. Fill out our discovery form and find out what we can do for your business.

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How to Do SEO Step By Step – by Hayk Saakian cofounder of Logic Inbound Live Stream

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4 Simple Tweaks You Should Use to Increase Your E-Commerce Conversion Rate

If you have operated an e-commerce website for very long, you know that you can’t put it on autopilot and forget about it. Instead, you have to make tweaks from week to week and month to month in order to reach your business goals.

Getting more conversions is likely one of your biggest business goals, and there’s a good chance you keep coming up short. You are far from alone. With the average e-commerce conversion rate sitting at 1.33 percent, there are lots of people struggling.

If you make a few tweaks, though, you can break free from the pack and start raking in the money. These four simple tweaks will give you the boost you need.

1. Simplify the Process

Did you know that 70 percent of Americans don’t feel like they have enough time to get everything done?

If you take up too much of their time, they will shop elsewhere. After all, they are already stressed out. They don’t want to make matters worse when buying a pair of shoes.

If your checkout process is overly complicated, you will distract the consumers and put too much work on their shoulders. If you aren’t sure how to simplify your checkout, think about the retailer Amazon. This retailer has added one-click checkout to its site. People don’t have to fumble around to find their credit cards and then enter the information. They don’t even have to select a payment method. They just need to click and check out.

It’s that easy.

Uber is another great example of how you can simplify the process for consumers. It turned the cab industry on its head by letting people easily order a ride via an app. That’s so much easier than hailing a cab or calling a switchboard. Uber even made paying easier by having people add payment methods to the app and then automatically deducting the money.

The lesson is clear. The more you simplify the process, the more money you can make. Think about ways you can make purchasing your products easier, and then put those ideas in motion.

2. Add Live Chat to Your Site

Forty-four percent of consumers state that getting answers to questions via live chat is among the most important features that a website can offer. E-commerce solutions like Shopify and Magento have taken notice and offer plugins and extensions so their customers can add live chat to their sites. Still, some businesses are resistant.

If you find yourself on the fence, you just need to think about Wells Fargo. The financial institution doubled its conversions after adding live chat. You can expect an increase around that number if you follow suit. This convenient feature will help your customers make decisions, and it will help you boost customer satisfaction. With the help of the live chat box, you can communicate value and push your visitors through the purchase funnel. You will also position your company as innovative and open to change. Those aren’t bad labels for the 21st century.

3. Be Smart About Shipping

Your shipping policy could be driving down your conversions. Seventy-three percent of consumers drop items in the shopping cart with the hopes of finding a free shipping offer when they make it to the checkout. While some of those people will still buy if you charge for shipping, they might not if they have to wait too long to get the item. Almost 40 percent of consumers will abandon their shopping carts if they have to wait more than a week to get the item.

You also need to think about guaranteeing your delivery. Sixty percent of shoppers believe that online stores should guarantee their delivery dates. They don’t want to see that the estimated delivery is between tomorrow and next week. Use a shipping service you can trust and offer your customers reliable and affordable shipping.

4. Use Product Videos

The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. You can take that a little bit further and say that a video is worth a thousand bucks, at least when you’re going for conversions. Retailers with videos on the majority of their product pages experience 79 percent more conversions than retailers with videos on 25 percent or fewer of their product pages, according to a survey of Liveclicker’s customers.

You’ll get more than better conversion rates when you use a video. The average order value will also increase, so you will get more customers, and those customers will spend more money.

Boost Your Conversions Today

Now you have some handy tools you can use to boost your conversion rates. You just need to implement them, and you can reap the rewards immediately. Use all four of these tweaks so you can take your conversion rates to the next level. If you’d like us to take care of improving your conversion rate, fill out our discovery form and see what our Conversion Rate Optimization services can do for you.

Need to build your e-commerce business? Having trouble with organic search visibility or converting visitors into customers? Logic Inbound is an SEO and web design marketing agency with e-commerce expertise that can help drive real sales with unmatched ROI. Fill out our discovery form and find out what we can do for your business.

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What Is a SERP? What Does SERP Stand for?

New marketers often ask: What does SERP Stand for?

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page and refers to a page which contains a list of websites (search engine results) that is normally produced by a Search Engine website after a users enters a search.

This is an example of a search engine results page

This is an example of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

Search engine results page contain many common elements. A scientific paper published on Penn State University explains SERPs in more scientific detail. In this article we’ll cover the basics.

What are the different parts of a search engine result page (SERP)?

• Ads for websites which pay for the placement
• List of relevant websites produced by an ‘organic’ algorithm
• Featured Snippets
• Maps
• Videos
• Local business listings
• etc.

This Screenshot shows a Search Engine Results Page with all the different parts labelled

Where are the different Ads That You See in Search Results?

Google and other search engines place their paid ads at the top of the search results pages. Google’s advertising search engine advertising is known as Google AdWords.

Some Google searches show unique ad formats that don’t appear on other types of searches.

Businesses and Non-profits will often hire an Search Engine Advertising company in order to assist them in buying, and improving their advertising on Google

Local Business Ads on Google

Recently Google began showing a carousel of ads featuring local businesses. If a business wants to appear in this section, they must advertise on Google AdWords by targeting a local geographic area. There isn’t a particular setting or option to appear in this section. Google will place advertisers who are bidding on local keywords and link their Google Business page to their AdWords platform.

Google Local Business Maps Ads

Another ad format that is really popular with people selling products online is known as Google Shopping campaigns via Google AdWords.

Google eCommerce Ads – also known as Google Product Listings Ads or Google Shopping Campaigns

Google Ecommerce Ads “Shopping Campaigns”

Google Shopping Campaigns were formerly known as Google Product Listing Ads (Google PLAs). These are special advertisements that feature a product image, pricing information and product name in the same ‘spot’ as a normal Text ad.

These ads use the same keyword bidding auction system as Google AdWords, but the design of the ad unit is much more limited. Businesses provide a data feed or upload their products to Google Merchant Center, and from there Google AdWords consumers the GMC data to produce these ads.

To learn more about how this works, we recommend a podcast that Hayk Saakian spoke on: Getting Started With Google AdWords for eCommerce business owners; with by Bob Dunn, the owner of BobWP.com.

Traditional Google AdWords Text Ad Units

Traditional Ad Units (Left) with Shopping Ads on the right hand side

These Text Ad Units are the most commonly known ads that people see on Google.

Google’s Organic Search Results

Organic search results are the listings that are produced via Google’s patented Search Algorithm. Google scans the entire internet for new web pages, and shows results linking to those pages for keywords which are relevant and authoritative for whatever someone searches.

Some of the organic search results are maps listings from Google’s map database, while others are more traditional text and simple links.

What are “Traditional” Organic Search Results?

These results are simple links to websites which include a Title and Description to help users decide which results to click on.

Here is an example of Organic Search Results

The Title and Description that you see in Organic Search Results is often times written by the website owner. Website owners will specify a ‘title tag’ and a ‘meta description’ in their website code. Sometimes Google will show those two pieces exactly as they are specified. Other times, Google will replace the Title or Description that the website owner wrote with one of their own.

Google Search on mobile devices, and Google Voice Search draws from the same database as “traditional” organic search.

Aside from ‘normal’ search results, you can also see Organic maps listings in Google searches. These listings use the data that you would see in Google Maps by performing the same searches. To improve their rankings in search engines, local businesses will often hire an SEO company.

What Are Google Local Listings? Google Organic Local Listings Example:

Google Local Listings are Google Maps search results which are presented directly inside a normal Google.com search, often in the form of a ‘3 pack’. The 3 Pack usually includes an interactive map on top, along with information about the 3 most ‘relevant’ businesses for a particular search.

Businesses can provide their information to Google using the Google My Business platform. “Google My Business” is very similar to Yelp and other review websites, and competes with them directly.

Example of Google Local Business Maps Results

These maps listings will often times show up ahead of links to businesses’ websites. Yelp and other competitors have complained that by giving preferential treatment to Google My Business data, Google is behaving like a Monopoly.

What are Google Featured Snippets? [Updated 2017]

Google Featured Snippets are short answers that are shown directly within Google search results. The information in Featured Snippets is extracted from 3rd party web pages that Google crawls every day. Paragraphs, Lists and Tables are three of the most common types of snippets.

This is an example of a Featured SnippetFeatured snippets are highly coveted because they tend to attract the most attention and the most clicks compared to any other feature in a search engine results page.

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If you found that this article was helpful, please tell us in the comments. I intend to expand it to explain every other type.

• Click to Call Ads on Google
• Videos in Google Search Results
• “People also Ask” box
• Recipes in Google Search

If you have any questions about search engine results pages, on Google, Yahoo, or Bing we’re happy to help. Ask in the comments section below, and one of our experts will answer.

If you have a question that you would like to ask privately, feel free to email us, contact us on Facebook, call us, or fill out our contact form on this website.

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Shopify vs WooCommerce: What You Need to Know

Thinking about venturing into the world of e-commerce or making the switch between Shopify and WooCommerce? We break down some key differences between the two.

Online business, or e-commerce, has turned the world into a global community. Connecting with people from all over the world has become easier than ever, and that same connectivity is true for online stores.

There are a number of platforms for e-commerce, each with its own pros and cons. Your decision on which to use needs to be based on a variety of factors including security and management, ease of use, and SEO, to name just a few.

Let’s compare two of the biggest platforms: Shopify and WordPress plugin WooCommerce.

Shopify

Shopify assists users in creating their own storefront without the need for any coding or design skills. This platform offers the user a place to sell anything from physical goods to digital products and services and is often used for “drop shipping.”

Shopify offers a range of features like offline use, a unique Shopify URL, responsive design, customizable preferences, blogging capabilities, expandable limitless bandwidth, and unlimited product listings. In addition, Shopify supports over 700 modes of payment globally; it supports global taxation, allows for shipping options and hosts a 24-hour support service.

Themes

Shopify offers users a wide variety of themes among free, purchased, or third-party options. The majority of these themes offer responsive design, pull-down lists, a newsletter service integrated into the theme, allow products to be sorted into sub-categories, and a zoom function that ideally suits the images. Themes are each created carefully to fit specific industries, such as photography, sports, recreation, gaming, jewelry, health or electronics. Popular themes include Storefront Pro, Vintage, and San Francisco.

Extensions

Shopify offers an array of apps on their specialized Shopify app store. These allow you to customize both the form and function of your store at varying levels of cost.

Advantages

• Easy to get started
• Simple to use
• Shopify is responsible for updates and security
• Shopify membership and toolset is expandable

Disadvantages

• It can become costly over time
• The user lacks direct ownership of the site
• It is operated by a single host
• It is not as customizable for unique products
• It does not integrate well with blogs and other content strategies
• People can spy on top Shopify stores (including yours)

WooCommerce

Rather than a stand-alone platform, WooCommerce is an open source plugin for WordPress that allows a site to function similarly to an e-commerce service. Use this plugin to handle payments, inventory, and shipping without affecting your site’s normal functioning. Features of this plugin include working well with all themes available on WordPress, allowing unlimited amounts of products in the store, supporting numerous payments and shipping methods, making coupons and taxes easy, and a robust reporting service.

Themes

The themes available for WooCommerce can be bought or are available for free use, and work very well with this plugin. Notable themes include Storefront, Estore, Styleshop, and Divi.

Extensions

Anyone can expand the functionality of WooCommerce with extensions. There are 320 extensions available in a variety of categories depending on the industry and sections of the store. For a quick rundown of some of the best extensions available, check out “6 WooCommerce Extensions That Make Your Life Easier.”

Advantages

• Highly customizable preferences
• Expandable for many different functions with extensions
• Entirely free plugin
• Supports various channels of payment
• Owner of the store has actual ownership rights for the entire site
• Uses WordPress, the most powerful and ubiquitous website creation tool available

Disadvantages

• Requires WordPress development skills and persistence to customize properly
• Not as easy to create a functional store compared to Shopify
• No guarantee for maintenance and security

Comparison between Shopify and WooCommerce

Looking at the advantages and disadvantages of each is a good starting point for choosing the right tool. The most basic difference is that Shopify is a standalone e-commerce tool and WooCommerce is a plugin. In terms of hosting, Shopify is a hosted platform while WooCommerce is self-hosted. This means that with WooCommerce the user will need to seek out their own hosting service.

Shopify is easy to operate, with software updates, maintenance and security being handled by the Shopify service itself.

Difference between the inception and usage of the two platforms

With Shopify, you can sign up at Shopify.com and follow the setup procedures and nothing else is required. With WooCommerce, you need to go through a longer and more difficult process before the store is ready. First, you need to purchase web-hosting and a domain, followed by integrating social media, SEO, and a theme. Then you can integrate WooCommerce into your site, followed by setting up the payment methods, details of the store and adding products.

In terms of support and security, Shopify provides these while WooCommerce does not. In terms of hosting, WooCommerce is self-hosted, allowing more flexibility as compared to the limitations experienced with Shopify. Self-ownership is another positive aspect of WooCommerce that is not possible with Shopify. In terms of expandability, both options allow for expansion through extensions with WooCommerce and apps for Shopify.

Conclusion

After comparing Shopify and WooCommerce, the user must choose which will be better suited to the business type, client base, and purpose of the store. Both options are good for an e-commerce site, and the choice of which to use will depend on the characteristics of the business model and personal preference.

Need to build your e-commerce business? Having trouble with organic search visibility or converting visitors into customers? Logic Inbound is an SEO and web design marketing agency with e-commerce expertise that can help drive real sales with unmatched ROI. Fill out our discovery form and find out what we can do for your business.

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3 Email Automation Strategies That Will Save You Time and Money

Email is a technology that has revolutionized the way people communicate both personally and professionally  Exceptional email marketers now utilize a variety of different email marketing platforms to personalize messages for their audiences, such as Mailchimp and Constant Contact.

Huge Growth Opportunities

For those not yet using email marketing, you could be missing out on huge potential to grow your business.  According to Statista, the number of email users is projected to increase to 244.5 million by the end of 2017.  And that number isn’t expected to slow anytime soon.  By 2010 that number is forecasted to grow to 254.7 million.

While email is certainly a time and money saver, especially when compared with traditional “snail mail,” there are some important must-know automation tricks that can save you even more time and, as a result, more money.

Create Workflows by Topic

When planning out workflows within your email marketing software of choice, you can find yourself listing what seems like endless numbers of automations.  Of the many different types of email workflows you should be using, topic workflows are on the top of my list.  Topic workflows are a simple but highly effective way to engage the recipients of your emails. Organize your email content into different groups, such as “Product Reviews” or “Equipment.” For each topic you designate, create an email workflow to accompany it. By utilizing this feature, you can send out email content to recipients based on “triggering events,” such as a reader who views a blog post on one of your “equipment” options, then signs up for your free e-book on the same subject at the bottom of the post. This recipient can be targeted by specific content within your organized topic workflows. This is more effective and preferable than sending emails on topics that have no interest for the reader. By utilizing email marketing automation tools, you can create marketing automation workflows that identify subscriber interests, then automatically sends them more personalized content. 

Your Blog Could Be a Powerful Asset

Blogs are an easy-to-use, yet powerful marketing tool. While blogs are a standalone technology, they can take full advantage of email tech

nology in a powerful way. Blogs can allow readers to sign up for email notifications, such as any time you post a new blog or on a particular topic of interest to the reader. Within the context of your blogging platform, you can use your email automation software to identify which blog topics generate the most interest from your subscribers. Armed with this knowledge, you can send these subscribers more content on that subject. You could also send new blog subscribers a welcome email which gives them the opportunity to inform you of their preferred topics of interest, which can then trigger an email funnel focusing on them.

Pay Attention to Your Audience

When engaging in e-commerce, your email is the main line of communication between you and your clients. When a client purchases a product or service, you should have an automated email that, at the very least, conveys your gratitude for their purchase. The message should use an effective call to action and offer them a way to re-engage with your website.  It is a good idea to include customer support and contact information as part of this process. You want your customers to feel like they are getting the best customer service and treatment, and that their purchase from your business was a good decision.

An automated email to your customers can also include access to an “exclusive members club” with special offers or offer a place for your customers to write a review of their purchase and/or experience.

As you take advantage of the many automation tricks available through your email platform, you will find that your business benefits from it with minimal time and energy put in on your end. Utilizing automation tricks, like the ones above, will save you time, money, and help drive engagement for your business.

Article provided by Fremont College School of Digital Marketing

About the Author

Chris Foerster is a digital marketer with nearly a decade of experience helping businesses improve their online visibility.  In his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar or gawking over classic cars.

 

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