#22. Best Ecommerce Tools You Should Start Using Today | Podcast

Vira: 0:17

Today, we actually will be talking about the tools, the tools that you can use to bring your e commerce Store to the next level.

Alissa: 0:47

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of email. Einstein, Vira and Alissa. Here we are two email marketers at an email marketing agency called Flowium. We are so passionate about email marketing, and because we love what we do, we want to share our insights with you. Flowium is one of the fastest growing email marketing agencies in the world. We specialize in providing a premium, full service e commerce email marketing experience for all of our clients. And our service is tailored specifically for your business, and we really are designed to help increase your online retail revenue by 20 to 50% which is huge. We deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment, and that’s what we’re all about here. And here we go with today’s episode. I feel like we’ve had a lot of interviews lately, but we’re bringing it back to our roots.

Vira: 1:36

A lot of interviews and a lot of Black Friday’s craziness, right? So I actually, guys, just to give you a little bit of behind the scenes, we have pre recorded a lot, a lot of podcasts, so we can take some time off around the Black Friday, time off for podcasts. I mean, yeah, because their black friday Cyber Monday was so crazy that we had to pre record a lot of podcasts. So we had a little podcast vacation, and it feels weird to be back, but we’re so, so happy. We have a lot of things that we want to share with you, and today, we actually will be talking about the tools, the tools that you can use to bring your e commerce store to the next level. And we understand that if you run an e commerce Store, guys, you do marketing, you do everything. You probably have a lot of plates spinning at the same time. And even though it’s not an easy job, we are with you. We are in the same industry. With the right e commerce tools, you can actually launch, grow and scale your business so much like faster and you can basically scale it with ease. But the problem is that the number of E commerce tools is overwhelming. And the thing is, not every product is like equal not every product works for every type of business. Yeah, it’s true. And there are 1000s. There are gazillion of E commerce tools in the market, and not all of them are inexpensive to be like, to be absolutely honest with you. So to save you some time, to save you some money, we actually came up with the list of our favorite e commerce, email marketing tools. Well, they are not email marketing. They are marketing tools. We are not sponsored. So we will be just talking about the stuff that we use, that we know, and we hope that you might like using them too. Pro Tip of the Week. Alissa.

Alissa: 3:40

Yeah, and I feel like we also haven’t had a Pro Tip of the Week for a really long time, because we had our interviews. This is one that we tend to skip just because of our interviews being so in depth and detailed. And we just love hearing from the people that we get to have as guests on our show. So without further ado, our Pro Tip of the Week. So this is something that I think most email marketers and also some e commerce brand owners, we underestimate a lot because we’re so hyped up and excited from a great Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend. We’re all pumped for the holidays. Everyone’s just filled with holiday cheer anyways, in their personal lives, and then we forget that January is just around the corner. January is actually one of the, and not to be dramatic, one of the deadliest months for an E commerce brand if you’re not in the health and fitness industry. So if you’re not selling some kind of supplements or vitamins, or you’re not promoting something that’s fitness oriented, kind of like in the self improvement zone or industry of things. January is a really, really, really difficult month for a lot of brands, so our biggest pro tip is use December to prepare for January, because as exciting as the holidays are, as excited as we get when we look at how well all our campaigns did from Black Friday and how much revenue we generated, and we’re getting excited to see those numbers on Klaviyo. It’s really important for us to always be looking ahead and making sure that we’re preparing for that first month of the following year, because January tends to be really tough and. It causes a lot of issues for a lot of brands, and it makes them question a lot, but we forget the successes that we had two months prior, and then we get into that slump of like, Oh no, our business is failing. But I mean, the year carries on, you know, so just make sure that you’re prepared. Make sure that you’re proactive. We actually had a brainstorming session internally at flow em about what we’re going to be doing for q1 for campaigns, and how we’re going to continue engaging our audiences, even if we don’t have these special discounts or new product launches or anything like that. We want to make sure that we’re just continuing to engage with our audience so they don’t forget about us, and they’re also continuing to engage back with us by making purchases or referring friends and family and just engaging with us socially. So make sure that you’re prepped for January, because it can really take you by surprise.

Vira: 6:05

So actually, these tools that we will be discussing today, they can be really, really helpful in January. So just listen, take notes, use the links that we will be sharing in the description box, and hopefully this will help you to get through the months of January. Yeah, Alissa, talk about the first big groups of super helpful e commerce tools, because I know that you’ve worked with them a lot. Yeah. So you’re probably the best person to.

Alissa: 6:35

Thank you. Thank you. So the first step we’ll talk about are survey tools. And what I found is that surveys tend to be a really funny topic with a lot of our clients. The general consensus across the board for most brands and most clients that we work with is that everyone knows that they should have surveys, but no one really believes in them or buys into them. They just set up a survey, put it live, ask their customers to fill it out, but they don’t really believe in it, and honestly, personally, for me, from a customer perspective, I can tell when a survey is taken seriously by a brand versus when it’s not, and when it’s not taken seriously. I’m not going to answer your survey. I’m so sorry. So if there’s one thing that you should learn from this podcast episode, if there’s like, one little thing that you take away, it’s that customers want to talk to you. They want you to hear them. They want to be heard. They want an opportunity to stand on their soapbox and tell you how they feel about your products and your brand and their experience. So give the people what they want. After working with us for a few months, all of my clients were so, so shocked that so many of their customers were responding to the surveys that we put in place for them. And not only that, not just filling out the surveys, but also following up with an email to them directly, which, by the way, is amazing for deliverability. So when you send out emails and then you start getting direct customer responses, that is like, all the brownie points, all the happy faces that Klaviyo will give you for your deliverability, the results are always super astounding to clients, because they’re like, wow, people are actually filling this thing out. And yeah, because people want to tell you how they feel about things. And the best part about the surveys is they help you as a company, know what you’re doing really well, and what’s making customers happy, as well as where you have opportunities for improvement, and then also what customers want to see from you moving forward. If there’s a particular product that you sell, but there’s something that’s missing about that product, or an add on product that you’re missing, your customers sometimes have really good ideas, and then it can kind of push you forward and get you to the next level. So the two that we’ll talk about today, and there are so many different survey platforms and programs that exist, but the two that we’ll talk about today are the ones that we’re the most familiar with. So the first is Typeform, and this is a paid survey platform that many of our customers use. They love it, and we think it’s great because there’s a ton of customization capability. There are so many different surveys that can be created, and you can either link them out in your emails or actually embed the surveys into your emails, which is really cool. One of the embedded surveys that I’m thinking of in particular is actually the infamous NPS survey, otherwise known as the Net Promoter Score survey. We actually have a video on YouTube about the NPS survey, so if you’re not sure what that is or not very familiar with it, make sure that you check out that video. It’s super, super useful, and I really don’t think enough companies use it because it helps you understand where you where you stand with your customers within the industry that you’re in as an E commerce brand. Super insightful, super helpful, and it also gives you the opportunity to ask follow up questions after the fact. So overall, if you have the funds and you want to get adventurous, then I would say, sign up for Typeform, your other option. And this is also very popular with a lot of our clients. We’re kind of 5050, like most, use Typeform, sometimes Survey Monkey. That’s another platform altogether. But a lot of our customers or clients also use Google Forms. So this is your free option that, in all honesty, I think it does the job just as well. Your main cons are just that your customization abilities are pretty limited, because all you can really change are the basic background colors of the survey form and then add a logo or an image at the top. Really, that’s it, the survey data that you collect goes into a spreadsheet that you actually need to organize and analyze on a monthly basis. And you can’t embed the form into an email or utilize the NPS survey through Google Forms. You would just need to grab the link and drop it into your email, either via link text, a CTA button or an image so you get what you pay for, essentially. But in all seriousness, this is not a bad option at all for companies that are working on a tighter monthly budget, and really for the customer, the clients that I can feel are kind of hesitant about like the legitimacy of a survey. I always just say, let’s go with Google Forms. Once you start to see the results, then we can get a little more advanced and go into type form. So those are typically the two that I would say kind of rival the most in my mind, where it’s like, do you have the budget? Yes, go with Typeform. If you don’t have the budget and you’re not really bought into the whole survey side of things, then go Google Forms.

Vira: 11:34

Yeah, I totally agree with you on that statement about customers wanting to talk to you. This is so true. That’s why, for one of my clients, we did this thing that every third Thursday of the month is the Get to Know Your Customer day. And like, literally, every third Thursday of the month, we are sending some kind of survey to them. Sometimes it’s like a really information that we need to know, but sometimes it’s more just like a tool to give them the opportunity to talk to us, you know. And we even, like, attach some cute, like, a discount code, something or something like that. And it helps a lot with engagement. It helps with deliverability. I still don’t know how to pronounce this word correctly, and by the way, we have a really, really good episode with Francis Baker where we talked, where we learned, like, everything about deliverability. So yeah, go back and listen to it. But yeah, I think it’s a great idea to be using those, like, surveys. And hey, just like Alissa mentioned, you don’t need to use any, like, fancy, expensive tool. You can go as simple as Google Forms. And yes, it’s free. It’s like, it’s completely free. So yeah. Another big group of the apps that we love are actually their review review apps, and, yeah, I can talk endlessly about them because I’m a strong believer in user generated content and testimonials. Have you guys ever noticed that when we hear like a good recommendation about the restaurant and about the store, we hear a gossip around the water cooler in the office, it actually makes us listen, and it keeps us engaged. It arouses our curiosity, and actually, like, depending on the source, we can actually want to go and, like, learn more about this, like restaurant or recommendation or something, and it is the same for the user generated reviews and content online. User generated content is the secret weapon that big dogs and small dogs of E commerce marketing are using, and it’s powerful. Honestly, people trust other people more than they trust you as a brand. So true. Oh my gosh. Like, I’m the same. I’m an E commerce marketing, but I’m I still I don’t believe what brand tells me about their products. I go, like, straight to the review section, and the word of mouth has always been the most powerful form of the marketing. And in fact, the average conversion rate of visitors who saw some kind of like, user generated content is 166% higher than those who didn’t. And like, 166% it’s like a lot.

Alissa: 14:03

I love these stats over 100 I’m like, what is this

Vira: 14:08

These numbers, they don’t numbers? even like, register in my in my mind first. So when it comes to buying, people look for reviews, videos, photos from other people who have purchased this product before. And shoppers do feel that other customers have, like, no motives, you know, like, no, like, special agenda, therefore their opinion must be, like, legitimate. So yeah, our favorite apps, or not necessarily favorite, but the apps that we worked with the most, and we really like them as the biggest one is the Yotpo. If you are in the e Commerce Industry, you have probably heard about these guys. They are huge. They are pretty old. They I think they launched the brand in like, 2011 or something, which is in E commerce years. It’s like what, you know, like 200 years old or something. So Yotpo is a user generated content marketing platform, and their technology basically enables the customers to leave the reviews and like nicely organize everything and like those star reviews. When you go to the website and you see those, like, three stars, five stars and stuff like that, most platforms are using Yotpo, and here are some highlights about the Yotpo. Well, first of all, they use a smart algorithm, so they basically precisely determine which products to request review for, and when, say, the Yotpo will not send you the request for the review if you place the order but you, like, haven’t perceived it or something like that. So they use, like, really smart algorithm, and that’s what I like about this platform. And they also use this same like logic for the algorithm, back to reminders. So they send you an email reminder to the customers like to leave the review, basically at the perfect timing. So if you are like, in I don’t know, California, they will send you the perfect reminder in, like, the perfect time for California. So this is basically how it works. Sorry, you can see that it’s harder for me usually, because I’m still, I’m like, coming back from my podcast vacation. So and something that is, like, really, really powerful about Yotpo, and that’s actually what makes it different from most of other platforms. Yotpo has actually, like, partnerships with Google and Facebook. Yeah. So when you make yeah, it’s like, it’s like, what makes them the platform, right? So when it is making it easy for the ratings and review budget to include like star ratings in both like your Google Ads and your like product listing ads and Facebook ads and stuff like that. So this is huge, like, this is probably like, what makes it the giant of the industry? The only thing that I don’t necessarily like is that they don’t give you the pricing right away. They don’t put their pricing out there in the open, and they actually make you contact them for it. But hey, it’s like they are. It’s their own, like, marketing strategy. But the platform itself is great. The tool is super, super powerful. You’ve seen it a lot on other customers platforms. But if you are on a budget, or if you’re looking for something just like to start with Stamped is another good one on their website, they actually call themselves Yotpo alternative. I don’t know this, this platforms, they are very similar in what they do Stamped as much, much cheaper. It’s like something around, like $30 per month or something. So another thing that makes it great is that they actually use the net promoter score that you Alissa just talked about. So basically, this is the system that measures customer experience and predict customer predict, like business growth through this like, easy to navigate, how to say, like a table, almost.

Alissa: 17:55

Yeah. It’s like a It’s, it’s weird how they and I don’t really understand like, the intricacies behind it, but it’s like, yeah, it’s like a table, basically where, like, you get placed in there compared to other brands that fit within the industry that you’re in. So it’s, yeah, super, super useful.

Vira: 18:11

So Stamped.io, is like another good, like a good option for you, if you’re on a budget. Judge.me, it’s a great, great tool as well. So the biggest difference is that the app sends out reviews emails to pass customers who can write their reviews directly in the email, like as a response. So that’s what makes it different from other and I think that’s actually really cool, really cool function, because it basically reduces that resistance to reviewing that business to, like, going back to the website and finding the product and stuff like that. So yeah, I think it’s a really cool functionality. So all you need to do is basically to reply to the email request, and if someone did not leave a review, the system can send out reminder and include a coupon, even maybe to push them to complete the process. So their algorithm is super smart. I really like judge me and the highlights of this platform. Well, for me personally, as that will first of all is this, like email reply function that’s like the big one. You can also easily share all of the reviews across all of your social media. So that’s another big thing. And what makes it really, really different is that you can actually request an unlimited number of reviews from your customers. So in like in other platforms, you’re limited to, like, one review per product. I think in this case, you can, like, request unlimited amount of reviews. So I don’t know how fair it is to the like, to the customers, but to us as an E commerce marketers, this is, like, a huge thing, right?

Alissa: 19:48

Gosh, I wonder if that’s if that would be useful, though. Like thinking about that. I’m like, do you would you really want to request a review from, like, multiple reviews from a one person for the same product?

Vira: 19:59

I know all, all of the brands have this, like most loyal fans you know, like your VIP customers, your ride or die fans or so maybe you can request like, multiple reviews from them, just like asking them to talk about the different aspects of, yeah, that’s true. You’re selling the tea like, how did it taste? Like, what are the results and stuff like that. So, yeah, yeah. I think it’s a numbers game, right? Obviously, you will not be bombarding your unengaged customers with those requests, but this is more for your like, VIP fans.

Alissa: 20:32

Yeah, that makes sense. And I guess someone who keeps buying like over and over and over again, they could be like, This is the 17th time I’ve purchased this and I still love it. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense.

Vira: 20:43

Yeah. And I think you can’t really do that with other apps, yeah, so Okendo, or OkendO, I don’t know how to.

Alissa: 20:51

I think you said, right.

Vira: 20:54

Okendo IO, yeah, by the way, we just talked with Alissa what this IO means. Because all yeah. of this, like platforms, they are using this IO thing a band. Well, yeah, it’s another good platform. It’s customizable to your brand standards, and you can ask like, specific questions for better product insights. So that’s what makes it really good. And the main benefits, honestly, is affordability. It’s like super, super inexpensive. So go and check this platforms. Obviously, Yotpo is the most advanced one, Stamped.io, another good one. Judge me, Okendo. They all pretty much do the same thing, but a little bit differently. So go and test it out and pick the one that works best for you.

Alissa: 21:37

And I think a lot of these platforms, they usually do, like demos where you can speak to someone directly. So it might be helpful to, like, really shop around unless, you know, like, Hey, this is what I can afford, and that’s it. Then that, I mean, that limits you, obviously, but if you’re really, like, if you’re really into the research side of things, I would definitely say, hop on, hop on a call with the reps from all of these, or, like, take a demo, or a lot of these have, like, webinars and things like that that you can take as well. So I would definitely investigate in that way, because we base our information off of referrals and things that we’ve seen on the internet, as well as, like, what we see our clients use. But it could be that one client in one industry uses Judge.me, but then another client in the same industry uses Okendo and like, trying to figure out why. I mean, it’s just, it’s a preference based thing so.

Vira: 22:23

But they all are good. All these platforms are tested and loved by us. Yeah. So go with the go with one of them. I know that Yotpo sometimes even like assigning you the account manager, so the person who’s like specifically working with your account. I’m not sure if it’s like for all accounts, or maybe it’s like, depends on the package, almost, but it is super convenient. I Yeah, like, I have the guy that I work with for one of my brands, and oh my goodness, I asked him, like, a gazillion question, and he’s super helpful. Their customer support is amazing. So yeah, that’s something to consider as well the customer support.

Alissa: 23:00

For sure, yeah. And so that leads me into the next one. So the next kind of group of, like, programs or apps that we’re going to be talking about as loyalty programs specifically, so obviously, as consumers, we want to feel seen and valued by these companies and with the companies that we’re most loyal to. We want that loyalty to be recognized, you know, like, Hey, man, I’ve been shopping with your brand every month for the last three years. Where are my perks? Like, do you know that I even exist. And you see, like really big dog companies like Costco and Amazon, they don’t necessarily need to rely on any kind of loyalty programs. They monopolize the market with what they do and what they provide. And actually, funnily enough, they make you pay to be considered a loyal member. So you have to pay 1299 a month to join Amazon Prime and 60 bucks a year to be a Costco member. On the most basic level, you obviously get some perks with what you pay for. But what about getting perks without having to pay extra? You know, like, gosh, if I think about how much money goes to Amazon Prime a year from me, aside from the membership that I pay, I’m like, I could, I could fund Amazon on my own. You know, it’s like, it’s crazy. So this is where loyalty programs actually come into play, especially for smaller e commerce businesses, obviously, because your customers don’t get the face to face interaction with Paula at checkout like they do at Costco. And there isn’t really a better way to do that than to provide incentives and perks for your customers to continue coming back to you. And the best part is you can actually make it extremely cost effective for your brand, where you’re not needing to dish out discounts, left, right and center, $10 off this, 25% off here, et cetera. You basically use a Points Based System, and it’s based on purchases that the person makes, so they have to spend money in order to get the incentives. And it creates a sense of urgency for customers because they have to shop more so they can get more perks. You know, it’s interesting how like the the like psychology of marketing, works with like discounts and perks and things like that. Because in reality, for a lot of customers, a lot of loyalty programs don’t actually make sense for customers, but, oh yeah, they’re framed in a way where our psyche is like, Wow, if I spend $500 I’ll get $5 off this next product. I got to do it. And it’s like, if you do the math.

Vira: 25:10

It’s literally, a story of me.

Alissa: 25:14

Exactly. Or, like, buy buy two, get one free. Why on Earth do you need three of that thing you know, like, unless it’s deodorant or something that you’re gonna be using forever? Like that doesn’t really make sense, so it’s interesting, but it works for companies. And we’re going to talk about two programs that we would typically recommend right off the bat that also integrate very, very nicely with Klaviyo, which is why we love them and their Smile.io we’re back to that.io thing and then also Swell, which is actually by Yotpo, which is one of those review programs that Vira was just talking about. So let’s dive into both before I get started, just so that, you know, I’m going to give you kind of a description of what they both do, because they both do essentially the same thing. There are just a couple of differences between the two when it comes to, like, really, like budgeting, and then also just generally, like, how that how they work. So they’re both great programs because they provide features that eliminate the need for additional programs. So with Smile IO, you can provide rewards to your customers through a point system, same as Swell. And these points can actually be acquired through many different actions, like signing up for the loyalty program, making a purchase, leaving a review, social sharing, celebrating a birthday, there are tons more, and once a member has enough points, then they can redeem those points for whatever makes the most sense for your brand, whether it’s $1 discount, a percentage discount, free shipping or a free gift. You also have the opportunity to create a list of VIP members by providing additional perks for those members, such as a free gift with every purchase, early access to sales and launches accelerated points earnings, and just about anything else that you can think of. These VIP members are actually crucial when it comes to segmentation for future campaigns, just from the email marketing perspective. So it’s really nice to have a program in place that will take care of your VIP segment for you. It basically does the work for you and determines who’s VIP and who’s not. And one of the best add ons about Smile IO specifically is that you can also use it as your referral program, so you can incentivize collect and feature reviews from your loyal members. So this skips the need for an additional platform or program that needs to be integrated. And you can also integrate Smile.io with Klaviyo, providing you the ability to trigger flows and automated emails based on actions that your loyal customers have taken. So it really doesn’t get any easier than that. With Swell, it’s basically the same thing. There are a couple of like, small features that you can’t that you’re kind of limited to, with regards to, like, how you incentivize and the perks or the rewards that you provide. But also, Swell fits in so nicely with Yotpo because it was created by Yotpo, so it integrates really smoothly with Klaviyo, which is a huge plus. But again, it essentially functions in the same way as Smile.io the major differences from what I know are price, because Swell is definitely more expensive, and I think it’s pretty significantly more expensive, and its ability to smoothly integrate with your website setup and design is way better than Smile.io. Swell, you can basically hide on your website so it doesn’t even look like you have another program running at the same time with your website or in conjunction to your website. You can make it look as streamlined as and as on brand design wise as you need it to whereas, I believe, with Smile.io there are some clunky kind of add ons that are put on to your website. And it’s not that it looks bad, it just kind of looks a little out of place if your branding isn’t like right on par with it. So that’s one thing to consider. But again, Swell has that review part of the program because it integrate. It’s integrated with Yotpo. So it’s nice because both small Smile.io and Swell both have that review part as well as the loyalty part. So not to, not to totally move the swipe the reviews off the plate, but what a lot of our clients kind of not complain about, but they’re just kind of like, oh, it’s frustrating. You know, I feel like I need a new platform or new program for every single thing that I want to create. You don’t necessarily need that. There are some that have a lot more combined into one. And Smile.io and Swell are two really, really solid options. And then the other thing just to note is that Smile.io is a much less expensive option for you. I know that they do have a basic plan that is free. You’re very limited to what you can do with that, obviously. Because again, like I mentioned, you get what you get what you pay for, but ultimately you do have that, that, uh, that option for you. So then if you’re kind of balling on a budget with your brand, then you do have something available to you. So those are the two that we would definitely recommend, and I’ve had experience with both, and the automated flows that you can create based on like, the properties that are automatically integrated into Klaviyo. Once you do the integration, it’s so easy and it’s so nice, because you know that they’re taking care of it automatically for you, and you don’t have to worry about, oh, now I have to follow up with this person who just signed up. And now I have to follow up with this person who hasn’t redeemed their points yet. And there’s no back and forth. You just set it up and you let it run.

Vira: 30:04

And Smile, Smile. Io is Canadian. Yeah, so they must have like a super, super nice and polite customer support, because Canadians are known for being, like, super polite. So yeah, maybe that’s something to consider. There you go. Yeah, another big group of them, apps that we’ll be talking about. And this is will be, this will be our last one, actually, the referral programs. And this is, like, a huge one in e Commerce Industry as well. And that’s funny, because few days ago, I actually was talking to one of my friends, and he was like, Hey, do you know what like Dropbox, Uber, Airbnb and PayPal have in common. And I was like, No, they are online. They are in Silicon Valley. And he was actually, no, it’s actually the referral marketing this companies. They were huge on referral marketing. Referral marketing was the secret weapon to their success. Because I don’t know guys, if you’ve used like Airbnb back in the day, and I think they still do have it, like, invite a friend and get like, a $50 off. And same, same with Uber, like, invite a friend and get like, this discount, or this, this many rides, or stuff like that. So this is what actually changed, this brands and referral marketing as something that can actually help you with your marketing a lot. And if it’s good enough for Uber, hey, it’s probably good enough for your brand as well. And if you are not utilizing referral marketing to get more sales, you are just like, leaving money on the table. So the first one and Alyssa, you probably like worked with this guys. I personally never worked with this platform before. So maybe you can tell us more. That’s a famous one, Talkable. So tell us. Tell us more about the Talkable.

Alissa: 31:54

It’s huge. So if you guys remember, we actually had interviews with both Logan and Dale, the co founders of wine awesomeness. So they actually use Talkable, and it’s actually been really handy in their success for speedy customer acquisition, like from already pre existing customers, which is super helpful. They’ve actually set it up really nicely where every customer has their own individual referral link, and that’s essentially how Talkable works. So you basically provide an offer that is really nice for referrals and referees, I guess you would call them, but it’s all shared through a referral link. So you can share that that personal referral link to friends, family and even strangers, which, again, is really nice because it provides your referral the person that you’re sending the link to, an incentive to shop. So in this case, for Wine Awesomeness, which this is pretty handy, you can send $50 off of the referrals first purchase, and when your referral actually redeems the incentive, then you personally get $50 off your next purchase. So it’s kind of this concept of you scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours, that kind of thing. And the guys at Wine Awesomeness, as you’ve all come to know already, if you if you listen to those other two podcasts episodes, they’re kind of sort of like secret email mad scientist geniuses when it comes to, like customization, coding and getting things done to achieve the goals they want. So they have their own form of a loyalty program and referral program in place, like in house. So they’re not really concerned about outsourcing to all these other platforms and programs to get the job done, they can figure that stuff out themselves. But the main complaint that I’ve seen across the board for other brands that aren’t as kind of DIY when it comes to these kinds of things is just paying for an additional platform to take care of your referrals on top of the issue of review and loyalty programs that you want, it really can add up. But as far as it comes to Talkable doing a good job. I’ve seen zero complaints. The only thing I would say is it seems like Talkable is really ideal for the larger revenue generating companies and those that already have a solid, loyal customer base. There’s another program that’s kind of similar to Talkable that’s called friend buy. That’s a little bit better for like smaller companies who are looking for really, really rapid growth, and actually Friendbuy. Talkable integrates with Klaviyo, by the way, so there’s no issue there that’s pretty smooth and streamlined. Friendbuy has now just launched an integration with Klaviyo. So if you have the newest version of Friendbuy, then you’ll be able to integrate with Klaviyo. So that is another option for you. We’re not going to go too much into depth with Friendbuy, but that is something that’s similar to Talkable. It’s just a little more affordable, and I think it’s a little better for, like, smaller kind of ranged companies or companies that are looking for, like, extreme rapid growth very quickly, rather than working with a customer base that’s already loyal, that they know they can rely on for other referrals. So.

Vira: 34:42

Yeah, and the alternative, a less expensive alternative is a Referral Candy, I really like the name of the company. First of all, so shout out to you guys. And just because you’ve started a referral marketing campaign does not mean that you’re instantly like, the next Uber of the E commerce, right? You need to, like, test out different offers and to see to what offers your customers respond the most. And that’s actually what makes Referral Candy so great, is that in Referral Candy, you can test out different kinds of rewards. You can do the percentage discount, dollar discount, cashback, custom freebies, custom gifts and stuff like that. So you have this opportunity to test out different discounts. And you can even do it like while doing the same flow. So you can the system see like, hey, this person, they did not respond well to the percentage. Now. Automatically. Let’s try the dollar or the cash back, or whatever. So that’s what actually makes the Referral Candy different, and that’s what makes it great. And Referral Candy integrated easily with like Big Commerce, WooCommerce, Shopify, of course, Magento and and the wide range of other platforms, so you will not have any issues like integrating it with your platform, and the idea is the same, you’re basically referring someone to the business, and if they are, if they are friend or family or someone purchases, you are being rewarded. But just like, the execution is a bit different, and something that I really love about this tool is that they have a really powerful analytics tool, so you can literally track, like, who opened the discount, how many discounts used. You can better understand the performance of like your brand’s referral program and how your customers are actually interacting with it. And I think this is powerful, because without analytics, email marketing wouldn’t be or marketing in general wouldn’t be as powerful. So this is like, a good alternative to, like, big, big, fancy referral platforms. Again, test them out, do the free trial and see which one works best for you and for your specific business. And yeah, and the main, probably takeaway from this, from this podcast, would be that people want to interact with your brand. They do. They that’s that is the reason why they are purchasing from you. So grow your sales through word of mouth marketing, grow your sales through referrals and and then other platforms, because this is, like, a super powerful and if you’re not doing it, you’re just like, leaving the money on the table. And, yeah, I hope that this platforms will actually be super helpful for you in January, that slow months that you talked about. So, yeah, go ahead and test them out.

Alissa: 37:40

And then. And the nice thing about a lot of these is they’re so like dynamic in the sense of like for different seasons of the year, you can change up what the incentives look like for all of these different kind of forms of like lead, lead acquisition, lead generation, like customer retention, all of that. You can change it. So like for January through March, you can bump up those incentives pretty drastically. So then that way people are like, Whoa, I get triple points when I make any purchase in the month of January, you know, so versus, like, Black Friday. I mean, you can ease off on that. And I would almost be tempted to say, eliminate some of the incentives just because people want to shop. So yeah, it’s nice and definitely something to something to investigate for your brand, for sure. So guys, thank you so much for listening today. Please don’t forget to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. We want to make sure that everyone has the wealth of knowledge that we’re able to share with with all of you, and as the E commerce world expands, we want to make sure that that everyone has a chance. You know, if you have any questions at all that you’d like us to feature on our podcast episodes, make sure that you send them in at flowium.com/ask, and I know Vira mentioned this earlier, just make sure that you go through the description down below and click on any links, all the links for everything that we’ve mentioned, all the resources that we mentioned today, they will be linked in there. So make sure that you go in there and get that info so that you have it handy and can actually start putting some of this stuff into play.

Vira: 39:09

Hey, and don’t forget about our awesome community of email marketers, e commerce entrepreneurs. So you can join us at flowium.com/community, and if you are actually interested in getting some more advice on how to establish a solid email marketing strategy for your business. Just visit flowium.com/contact and sign up for a free consultation.

Alissa: 39:32

Actually, you know what I found out this week is that there is someone who works for Klaviyo. Are actually a few people who actually work for Klaviyo who are part of our community and they actually like stuff. I forgot about that. So it’s, it’s nice to see that Klaviyo is like us, utilizing us a little bit for some for some handy information for their team. So that’s pretty.

Vira: 39:54

Actually, like sharing some. Are some of our, like, videos and stuff internally. That’s cool. That’s really cool. Yeah, we are doing something right?

Alissa: 40:04

Yeah, right, right, not to brag or anything, but we’re just just Klaviyo Masters. It’s fine.

Vira: 40:11

Yeah, that’s it,

Alissa: 40:14

Guys, we do have another interview for you all next week with, I apologize. I’m probably completely wrecking his name. Sina Mobasser, yeah, the founder of Tapcart.

Vira: 40:25

Oh, that’s cool podcast.

Alissa: 40:27

Yeah. If you don’t know what that is, make sure that you do a little research, because this might be the solution for you as an E commerce business owner out there, if you’re debating whether or not a store app is the next move you should make towards a successful 2020, you definitely want using Tapcart. So make sure that you check it out next week, because it’s a brilliant, brilliant episode. So yeah, stay tuned for that.

Vira: 40:59

Thank you for listening. Guys. See you next week.

Alissa: 41:09

Thank you guys. Have a great one.

Vira: 41:17

Have a great one. Bye.