Chlo?'s 3 Things: Here We Go / Events / Paying Guests
Chlo? Thomas
Follow for eCommerce, Marketing, and Sustainability stuff + LinkedIn Top Retail Voice 2023
Hello!
Hope you've had a great week.
This week's 3 Things:
Let's get stuck in...
Thing 1: Here We Go ?? The Summer Snooze is officially over
On Monday I posted about the switch from 'summer mode' to 'everyone's back at work' mode - read it here.
Including asking whether it was going to start this week... or hold off until September proper.
Well, that clearly was an error - because we are GO GO GO. ??
Not that I'm really complaining... but I did have a plan at the start of the week to take today (Friday off) ?? silly Chloe.
?? The inboxes are much busier
?? Sales pipeline has sped up - Proposals that have been drifting for weeks have been signed off, and lots of new proposals to do
?? Clients have started getting active about their Autumn activity
?? Guests are booking their recordings
?? LinkedIn seems to be a little slower - but there's definitely been more activity this week.
It's all kicked off!
So I'm in the office all day, getting everything up to date before the weekend.
AND re-jigging our marketing plans for September to kick off next week.
Here we go, everyone!
?? Do you agree? has it switched this week? And what are you doing about it?
Thing 2: Events ?? here's where I'll be... will I see you?
The other big story for the end of the Summer is... Autumn Conference season is very VERY close.
This week alone I've turned down invites to 3 events I just can't fit in.
But there is space for more...
Event Strategy...
Regular readers will know I'm always trying to improve and adapt my event strategy to make sure I get the most out of the time, energy, and costs of being there.
Haven't yet finalised my strategy for this season, but so far it's looking like:
Work in progress... but feels right for this year...
?? Here's where I'm going to be, what else should I put in the diary?
??? Elevate Affiliate Conference by Affiverse (16/17 Sept - I'll be there day 2)
??? eCommerce Expo (18/19 Sept - there both days, busy on stage day 1)
??? Re:Imagine SHOPLINE EMEA 's event (2 Oct - there all day)
??? IRX (2/3 Oct - I'll be there day 2)
??? eCom Collab Club?? (9 Oct - there all morning)
??? Lunch event with Real Agency (17 October - not London! Bournemouth)
?? What am I missing? Where's the hot ticket?
?? AND... if you're at any of those and fancy a catch up let me know
Thing 3: Paying Guests ?? our latest sponsorship evolution
OK, so this is the biggest news story in this week's newsletter.
You can now PAY to be a guest on our webinar series and BOTH our podcasts.
??????????
Yes that means...
领英推荐
Why are we doing this?
?Content quality
Since 2015 I've been fiercely "you can't pay to be a guest on our podcasts" because I didn't want it to impact content quality.
Last year with eCommerce Explored Webinar series we started testing paid guests - and... they were just as great quality as the non-paying guests.
So my content fears have been slightly dissipated.
?Advertiser Demand
We're increasingly being asked if we take paid guest slots. I even had one PR agency looking to strike a deal for all their clients to get on the shows (note to self - must find that email!!).
So why not satisfy it?
?We've been giving away the most desired thing for free
Rightly or wrongly the thing people want most right now is to be a guest.
So why weren't we monetising that?
?The Customers Have Budgets for Guesting
And they're paying BIG fees for panel slots at events, and speaker sessions at expos.
So it's a P&L line we should take advantage of.
?We're oversubscribed
We get SO MANY more people wanting to be on our podcasts and webinar than we can fit in.
2 points to this one...
Read that list and tell me I'm crazy for testing this...
Content Quality ??
My greatest fear.
3 ways we're planning to tackle that on the podcasts
??? First (before deals are done, or invoices are raised) we need to agree on a topic that fits the show and delivers for the audience.
??? Second, we're putting a MASSIVE caveat on it that if the episode isn't good enough we'll refund and not put it out.
??? Third, there are many awesome people I'd love to have as guests for whom it wouldn't make sense to pay the fee, but I still want them on the show. PLUS we need to keep the overall topic mix on point. So... we're restricting paid guests to 1 in every 5 episodes on eCommerce MasterPlan and 3 in every 5 episodes on Keep Optimising Marketing Podcast .
I think those 3 will keep the audience very happy.
On the webinars - it's a panel, with me chairing - so it's pretty easy to keep the panellists in line ??.
Extra Value for Paying Guests ????
On the webinars, the paying guests are also sponsors, and get the data afterwards.
On the podcasts... I'm adding a couple of extras in that 'free' guests don't get. Designed to help make their episode even more powerful for the guest:
?? First, a pre-call to firm up the topic, check recording quality etc etc
?? Second, the option to do a video podcast rather than an audio one. We'll release the video on YouTube AND create video snippets for social too.
--
It's all going to be an interesting test...
Want to join me on the journey - drop me a DM or an email and let's make it happen. More info in this post
?? Honest opinions please... am I mad? Is this a great idea? Is there something you'd like to see added that would make it fit your needs? Let me know in the comments.
And huge thanks to Judith van Dijk for this lovely reshare of the post yesterday:
That's it for this week
I'd love to engage with your comments, so please do add your thoughts below.
Have a great weekend everyone!
I help companies of all sizes double their peak trade season using sales campaigns.
2 个月Not mad at all, I’ve been waiting for this moment!
eCommerce Strategy, Marketing, M and A
2 个月Business is certainly on the up. Won some cracking business very quickly post election
Ecommerce Strategy + Technology Selection (Replatforming) Consultant ?? Fractional Ecommerce Director + Host of Inside Commerce Podcast ????
2 个月The 'Paying guest' bit naturally grabbed my attention. We've discussed it too for Inside Commerce but ran away as we had that same concern - the people coming on would end up being salesy and hijack the conversation. Really interesting to hear you've found it hasn't impacted quality. Hope it works out well for you, I'll be watching this space keenly!
Managing Director at Look Fabulous Forever
2 个月If you've got more guests than you need, it makes to offer paid slots. And you're leaving yourself enough flexibility to choose guests based on their fit or expertise. I think it sounds eminently sensible!
Helping eCom Businesses sell more online by compounding small wins to Key Growth Metrics like Conversion Rate and AOV. Email me at [email protected].
2 个月Chlo? Thomas love the pay to play option ?????????? Also "??? eCom Collab Club?? (9 Oct - there all morning)" - yesssss you going to love it!!!