Tech news, Referral Marketing Tips, Paid Media Updates & Useful Resources

Part one - Tech News

Fyxer AI

An AI coach for executives with a mission to save people time each day on managing inboxes and responses. It’s already used by thousands of companies including the FT and Apple Music.

Some cool features:

• Organises your email inbox into folders
• Drafts email responses, in multiple languages
• Machine learning to improve the quality of response
• Auto joins video calls to record notes and distribute afterwards
• Remembers call data to use in future email replies!
• Plugs into Gmail or Outlook, connects to Slack and Zoom

Having already reached $600K ARR, they aim to hit $1million soon. Hit up Richard Hollingsworth for more info on the 14-day free trial. https://www.fyxer.ai/?

Part two - Video: Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is an important acquisition channel and integral part of an ecommerce loyalty strategy. In this 10-minute video, ???? James Gurd explains 10 tips to do referrals the smart way.

1. When to ask for a referral, and when not
2. Quid pro quo: making the value proposition about more than ï¿¡ discounts
3. Getting customer notifications right
4. Incentivising quality referrals not just volume e.g. Wise pays out only after 3 successful referrals
5. Making it easy for people to track their rewards
6. Running seasonal promotions
7. Encouraging repeat referrals: targeting lapsers & working with influencers
8. Should you promote your program actively, or discretely?
9. Tracking and reporting accurately - include Finance!
10. Keep it fresh ??

Part three - Paid media news

A few weeks ago Paul Rogers and Josh Duggan headed to Dublin for the annual 谷歌 Partner Summit, which brings together top agency partners across EMEA to explore emerging trends and areas shaping the future of our industry.?

Over the two days, there were some really insightful discussions and learnings. Below are a few of Paul’s key takeaways:

Rishad Tobaccowala delivered an impressive keynote (recommend following him on LinkedIn)? As with most of the talks, Rishad’s core focus was AI, and a few points really stuck:

• Talent is your main differentiator. Invest in your team and foster a continuous learning culture. Rishad suggested allocating at least 1 hour a day to learning. With technology now widely distributed, talent is what allows companies to stand out.
• Technology and AI can be used to accelerate, but its real power is to reinvent. The best agencies aren’t thinking about how to use AI to drive greater effectiveness and efficiency, but how to use it to re-imagine the business model. We must be willing to embrace new approaches.
• ?? Human intelligence and AI is better than AI alone. It’s never a fight of AI vs HI; human capabilities and intelligence will amplify AI. Our jobs will change, as will the skills required, but our role as humans remains crucial for success.

Rachel Melgaard , Director of Global Search Ads, discussed how AI is powering search ads and transforming the SERP:

• We’ve all heard this before, but 15% of searches are new each day. The way in which users search is now more long-form and descriptive, and AI is driving stronger results and matches to your queries. The new AI overviews, for example, are helping to provide consumers with concise overview of topics, along with further links to learn more.
• Rachel also discussed the importance of leveraging value-based bidding along with simplifying campaign structures to allow AI to deliver the right message to the right user.
• ?? The evolution of Google Lens was a hot topic. With visual search as one of the fastest growing query types on Search, particularly across younger users, Google is focusing efforts on this technology and recently announced new video and voice understanding capabilities of Lens, which I’ll be checking out

Other key insights:

• Rion Austin spoke about YouTube and the power of creators, with YouTube helping to drive longer-term ROAS. The recent partnership with Shopify will be key here.
• Changes to Demand Gen are coming, which will make this product far more accessible to a wider range of brands, with more control over audiences and platform placement.

Part four - useful resources

Centra guide to omnichannel features for fashion & lifestyle brands, including case studies from Nudie Jeans and Eton.

https://centra.com/hub/omnichannel-guide?

Bahadir E. on key considerations for ecommerce brands due to a Trump presidency:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/big-changes-ahead-ecommerce-trumps-win-german-collapse-efeoglu-otkfc/?

Major brands are already putting in contingency plans. For example, Steve Madden’s CEO has talked about plans to reduce dependency on Chinese imports by up to 45%, and shift sourcing to alternative countries.

Chlo? Thomas eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast podcast discussing how to create personal connections in ecommerce with author John Sills

https://ecommercemasterplan.com/john-sills-human-experience/

Check out the latest podcast

In this episode of the Inside Commerce podcast, Paul Rogers and Joe Fletcher discuss the critical aspects of ecommerce reporting, focusing on the importance of data measurement, key performance indicators (KPIs), and the challenges posed by new tools like GA4.