5 Lies that eCommerce Marketers Tell Themselves
I asked the experts hiding in my LinkedIn connections list about the most common lies they knew marketers told themselves.
These are my top 5:
1. We have a positive ROAS on channel X
The ugly truth is that:
How to stop this lie?
Do the math - determine correctly the gross margin, track correctly the CAC vs CPA, use post-purchase surveys to validate your attribution model to track ad performance, and monitor the CLV: CAC ratio
2. We know why our customers buy from us
“The customer rarely buys what the business thinks it sells him.”
I simply love how Peter Drucker nailed this truth.?
Time and time again, I realized on my own entrepreneurial skin that I don’t know what I am selling. And that happens because we’re all hypnotized to think that acquisition is what we should be after.
And that is not only happening to small companies.?
Big companies such as Blockbuster, Kodak, or Thomas Cook have fallen into oblivion due to this lie they told themselves. The connection with their customers must be maintained. And in order to do so, you must monitor the customer's voice + continuously do customer research.?
That activity that most marketers neglect because they think they know WHY their customers buy from them.?
How would you call a doctor that is getting you in the surgery room without a diagnosis??
Crazy, right?
However, most companies continue to trust these (doctors) marketers and keep them on their payroll.
How to stop this lie?
Customer research: Jobs-to-be-done methodology + qualitative research + NPS
3. Our customers are happy
Yep. That’s a classic.
That happens because the whole world assumes that if someone pays the money to acquire a product, that means they will automatically use and make progress thanks to that product.?
How do they know they are happy if they don’t even monitor customer satisfaction?
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How to stop this lie?
By continuously monitoring the pre and post-delivery NPS and continuously fixing and optimizing the customer experience and the products that you sell.?
One way to do this on autopilot is to use automation - we have recently have made an incredibly effective integration between Omniconvert and Gorgias - check it out here>?
4. We have strong points of difference.
Warren Buffet has opened my eyes when I read about his moat model.?
The “economic moat” refers to a company’s ability to maintain competitive advantages over its competitors in order to protect its long-term profits and market share from the competitors. Just like a medieval castle, the moat serves to protect those inside the fortress and their riches from outsiders.
If your company truly has a moat, hat off to that.?
If it doesn’t or you think that better price or prettier ads are a point of difference, think again.?
How to stop this lie?
2. Analyze the whole customer journey & the value chain: apply the blue ocean strategy
3. Use your brain to identify where you could innovate to build real points of difference.?
5. Our customer journey is thoroughly crafted.
This is also a big and fat lie.?
Few companies have been doing customer journey mapping.
And that happens because all they do is revenue optimization, not customer value optimization.
That means the company has a journey, while the customers have their journeys, but they are not meeting again after the first purchase.
How to stop this lie?
Analyze the touchpoints that the company has with the customers. Get from the “As is” to the “To be” version.?
Of course, prior to that, you should have got who's your ideal customer with RFM segmentation and customer research, got feedback from the customers with NPS, and all that dance.
Food for thought: what would you add to this list?
Fellow at the Field Bell Institute | Author of The Customering Method
3 年Awesome post Valentin. A few bits we could jive on but two I’ll suggest: Journey mapping - aka journey dictation (which is what that really is) has been obsolete for around a decade. Doesn’t work. One other myth: “we know why people abandon cart!” ?? Keep doing your thing :)
Product Leader | Driving Growth through Customer Engagement | Advisor | Speaker | Angel Investor
3 年Great article! I am curious Valentin Radu how do you differentiate customer journey mapping and customer lifecycle when it comes to CLV optimisation?
Martech specialist at Escape Digital Agency
3 年Love it ;)
Decentralized governance cypherpunk. Romanian Cyber Space Initiative conduit of efficient outcomes. VeterinaryDAO advisory board member. Unreal Engine metaverse experiences creator.
3 年Good points. Pricing should be part of a follow-up article, as far as I am concerned. I really think that most of "us" marketers who think that they can influence pricing, have nothing to say about this strategic decision. Even if it may be one of the key aspects when it comes to conversions. So, it may seem like a very neglected lie that we tell ourselves. We can do so much, however, so little, unless we can at least change the font of the discount price. Or at least the position at which it is being displayed. Few pixels upper or lower from the full price can influence conversions greatly!