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Presentation created for FedEx Connection Conference Keynote Address.
Raleigh, NC
7.30.14
DownloadGo Live

Connection: The New Ecommerce

Published on Nov 06, 2015

Connection, our human ability to listen, share and respond, is the new ecommerce. This Haiku Deck is in support of Marty Smith's Keynote talk at FedEx Connection Conference 7.30.14.

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

connection

The New Ecommerce
Presentation created for FedEx Connection Conference Keynote Address.
Raleigh, NC
7.30.14

Untitled Slide

If you asked me to name ONE reason teams I've managed have made so much money online, over $30,000,000, besides hiring great people I wold say it was because we did what Google told us to do.

Life will NOT be that easy for "new ecommerce" merchants. Google remains a valuable ally in building any online business, but competition for the 3 to 5 slots that matter on any keyword is not a red ocean where sharks eat one another with ravenous hunger.

This presentation is about finding the vast BLUE OCEANS that we see in content, community and conversations.

Untitled Slide

http://www.ted.com/talks/joi_ito_want_to_innovate_become_a_now_ist

What I love about what Joy Ito from MIT is saying in his NOWIST TED Talk is our lives are more important than our marketing. Marketing is about RESUME values not EULOGY lives (to quote David Brooks).

I wrote about the shock of the new when I heard cancer and my name in the same sentence. I realized all at once my life was devoted to "resume values" and so was unheroic.

I decided to begin living a eulogy life by quitting my job and riding a bicycle across America. Turns out that helped my resume prospects too...who knew :).

Here is my post on David Brooks Resume vs. Eulogy life
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140717125545-13925622-are-you-...

Untitled Slide

This is the Origami tree at UNC Lineberger Cancer Center. Made by volunteers and given to cancer patients these beautiful swans remind us that anything is hard until we have a little help to watch one, do one and teach one.

Those three steps is how we trained the doctors who treat me (and you) and so can't be all wrong. Powerful idea online too since DOING is much more valuable than thinking about doing.

There is almost NO mistake you can make EXCEPT not playing. If you just BLOW SOMETHING UP you can beg forgiveness and, if you are sincere, chances are good people will understand and forgive.

People are more generous than you imagine and more kind and ready to share than we give them credit. Read DRIVE by Daniel Pink because he talks about the "surprising" things that REALLY motivate us. Turns out doing good is a big one.

Ecom Today

Connect To Make $, Was Other Way Around
Site is the background is Curagami's beta partner Moon-Audio.com, a high-end headphone and audio cables company located in Cary, NC
http://www.Moon-Audio.com

The slide introduces the difference between MY generation of ecommerce (1999 - 2010) and what's happening now. Now, thanks to the ubiquitous social / mobile web, a "red ocean" of shark biting shark competition and the need to find "blue oceans" of online opportunity the process has changed.

When I started we could afford to win the hearts, minds and loyalty of customers AFTER they purchased. This made the chase always about the next set of customers.

Today its more important to create an engaged tribe of people willing to contribute, advocate and buy. The shift means you must win hearts, minds and loyalty BEFORE money.

This new process makes social media marketing a CSF (Critical Success Factor), listening more than your talk and curating more than your create keys to winning in the "new ecommerce".

Untitled Slide

Wrote about Red Bull Branding Lessons on Curatti:

http://curatti.com/red-bulls-branding-lesson-media-companies-now/

bit.ly/1rVVHDk

This chart came after two videos. One video was of a 1950s TIDE ad that presumed to teach young mothers how to be good mothers (by using Tide of course).

Red Bull makes no assumptions about teaching their extreme athletes and pop stars anything. They follow, brand and curate them as fast as they can knowing anyone can make caffeine water but few can win Hearts, Minds and Loyalty.

Red Bull is the MASTER curator of Other People's Content (OPC).

love

Win Hearts, Minds & Loyalty BEFORE $
Rare to see the L word in a business context, but that too will change. In a time of infinite choices and were all choices are good to great we buy from those we love.

We don't love people, brands or ideas that don't "love" us back in some meaningful way. One of the most important subtext of our work on creating the Curagami tool set is to develop TRUST by using tools that listen, define and reward.

We need new Key Performance Indicators for the social / mobile ecommerce happening now. We need new tools to connect, listen and curate so LOVE isn't such a strange word in our business context.
Photo by geezaweezer

Untitled Slide

David Edelman wrote a pair of important articles for Harvard Business Review:

Aligning To The New Consumer Decision Journey
http://hbr.org/web/ideas-in-practice/aligning-with-the-consumer-decision-jo...

is where this "new funnel" = circle of evaluation followed by purchase and advocacy.

Branding In A Digital Age: Your Spending Your Money In All The Wrong Places is the other important HBR post from 2010:
http://hbr.org/2010/12/branding-in-the-digital-age-youre-spending-your-mone...

Untitled Slide

The problem with the traditional online funnel is there is no room, motivation or gamification for my friends. We do all the work ABOVE the funnel to drive traffic in. We don't allow for, support or empower users to help, form community and engage in Friends of Friends marketing.

100,000 in to get 54 out seems CRAZY to me now. Schwan's, the best converting but lowest Curagami score, converts 42% of their traffic. WHY?

Because they aren't afraid to ASK FOR THE ORDER and because the web is only a part of their ecosystem. Schwans delivers frozen food in those big yellow trucks and they are a multi-BILLION dollar company.

Untitled Slide

What If...
As we modify our goals, expectations and power our web marketing with "Empathy Engines" we get more for less. We receive help from our Ambassador Layer.

That help means instead of pouring 100,000 into our funnel to end up with 54 now we pour 54 in to get `154 to convert thanks to Friends-of-Friends marketing.

This got GOOD to me late last night. I realized that we can take the OLD funnel and look at it different. What if we put in FEWER people than we take out...NOW that is "Friends of Friends" marketing.

Untitled Slide

Friends of Friends marketing creates a movement others want to join and then uses that leverage to create an "Ambassador Level" where you hand your site's "keys" over to 1% Contributors and 9% Supporters.

Empowering the Ambassador Layer and they recruit, defend and help you and your brand market, convince and convince.

Untitled Slide

Friends of Friends Marketing
When one of your customer pulls a friend, someone you don't know, from across the filter bubble's barrier.

The Filter Bubble is discussed in an excellent TED video: http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles

There is a reason this video has been seen by 3M people. The way we create a barrier to commercial entry combines with how search engines show us what we want to hear to create a "Under The Dome" like filter bubble.

The next effect of the flter bubble is marketers don't have direct access to customers andymore. Our commercial messages are rejected or ignored.

We win by convincing others of the merits of our cause, movement and manifestos.

Untitled Slide

The never-ending sale feels over. When choice is infinite we buy from those we love. Sales are something, much like drugs, that feed our short term dopamine levels. We love to save, but we don't JOIN movements to save money.

Or most of us don't as Daniel Pink discusses in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth Behind What Motivates Us.

Social / Mobile Web

Why Ecommerce Different & Getting More So
Important to note how social media and mobile are in a ballet dance with feet so fast the fire is doubling and then doubling again. As social drives smart phone engagement (and sales) so too do smart phones drive Tweets, G+ conversations and Facebook photos.

We think of social and mobile as married with one feeding and multiplying and amplifying the other.
Photo by Enthuan

Untitled Slide

This chart shows how Google's search volume is slowing. One BIG contributor to organic search slowing is smart phones and how they power the social / mobile web.

Ever been in line at Starbucks and noticed how fast the phones come out? Something is always cooking on the social web and our smart phones are the game consoles we use to tap in and tap out.

Our Curagami co-founder Phil Buckley calls this the "Death of Free Time". I call it the gamification of free time since the more game-like your content the higher the engagement.

Higher the engagement, the more social shares. More shares mean more traffic, winning hearts, minds and loyalty.

Winning Ecom Today

  • Conversations - Red Bull.
  • Money - Zappos.
  • Overt & Covert - REI. 
  • Disrupt Don't Copy - Monster.
  • Design - Blue Nile, Ecosystem - Schwans.
In 5 seconds tell me your life story. Mine might be:
Preppie survives cancer to start new life and startups.

Your website must do something similar. In seconds you need to communicate a world of information via:

Design
(content or Ecom? Trusted?)
Money
(pricing, shipping, return)
Signals
(overt v covert, CTAs, ASK, Share)
Conversations
(listen, value, UGC)
Empathy
(like me)
Photo by danielbroche

Untitled Slide

Wrote about Red Bull Branding Lessons on Curatti:

http://curatti.com/red-bulls-branding-lesson-media-companies-now/

bit.ly/1rVVHDk

The idea Red Bull gets, the "branding lesson", is we are all media companies now. Red Bull follows their audience FIRST. They look to brand exceptional and amazing content that, without their amplification, might get lost.

As the "authority" creating the brands Red Bull has the high ground. When Monster tries to copy Red Bull's now scaled advantages make Monster an also ran, an Avis to Red Bull's Hertz.

I wrote a Curatami post about where Red Bull is vulnerable - community. Red Bull may be the best content curators on the planet, but they don't encourage or create community (interactions between customers and features):

http://www.curagami.com/featured/curagami-scores-reports/

Untitled Slide

Zappos was built as a "social brand". Their fee shipping out and back (on returns too) destroyed the "will it fit" objection buying shoes online had to overcome. If you can try shoes and return 'em that objection is over.

Zappos also gets amazing service. There is the Zappos "buy out" where they offer cash for people who haven't joined their movement to leave and go do something else (don't know if this buy out idea still exists after Amazon purchase).

Zappos used to be a huge believer in video too. Seems like that has cooled since the Amzzon purchase. Video on content that changes so often can be tough.

Video on the evergreen ideas of TRENDING and COOL never go out of style.

Untitled Slide

REI
I love REI because they understand ecommerce. They aren't afraid of a CTA (Call To Action) and they know how to point their images at what they want you (visitors and customers) to look at (note the look right at the shoes here).

I also like how you never have to wonder about Free Shipping because their trigger is large and in charge. REI, like most, will play with their Free Shipping trigger through the holiday season. REI has also adopted the Deal of the Day concept or the Woot-ization of the web.

Deal of the Days are great content because they have short and obvious deadlines (one day) and so you are creating content that works great on Twitter and the concept works great on Facebook.

Next generation of this idea is what Screaming Owl does. Screaming Owl is a "social" retailer with an ask before customers qualify for the "Deal of the Day" or week. That qualifying action creates a tribe eager to share their luck or cry over a missed opportunity.

Woot.com is a famous "Daily Deal" site, but that isn't all they are. Woot is really a great content play with a unique voice and great merchandising THEN stunning deals. Stunning deals isn't a movement, but Woot.com's open, honest and funny approach is. We JOIN movements we don't BUY them :).

Untitled Slide

Wrote about Red Bull Branding Lessons on Curatti:

http://curatti.com/red-bulls-branding-lesson-media-companies-now/

bit.ly/1rVVHDk

Monster isn't a slouch. They are a $2B competitor to Red Bull's $5B, but they ape their bigger competitor too much. Key to winning against scale is disruption not duplication.

If Monster was our account we would advise them to "hand the keys to the kids" buy involving their community and allowing their community to become more involved with each other and in the site's content direction Monster would win more hearts, minds and loyalty away from Red Bull.

By aping and looking just like Red Bull they do two not such good things:

1. They confirm Red Bull as the authority in the space.
2. They accept the AVIS role.

You may need to accept the AVIS role to, for a bit, but never create plans that keep you there. Create plans that tap into the 50% market share always up for grabs.

Untitled Slide



What I LOVE about Blue Nile is how crafty they are with Free FedEx Shiping. FedEx is the RIGHT shipper for high-end trust like Blue Nile needs (to buy diamonds online).

They are crafty because their Free FedEx is GROUND and not without a trigger for all customers everywhere. They are brilliant about they way they introduce both of those ideas.

Domestic US customers find FedEx Ground in their Shipping selection, thus the GROUND idea is introduced IN THE CART. Sure they tested the heck out of that and its brilliant.

Leaves the ability for BlueNile.com to UPGRADE to Free 2 Day too. Simply brilliant use of Free Shipping. BTW, if you are ordering from Australia or Japan they give you a trigger to get free shipping such as order $200 or more. Brilliant.

Untitled Slide

I met Marvin Schwan in Minneapolis and he offered to give me a ride to his company's HQ in Marshall Minnesota. Little did I know we would be flying in a 4 seater over thunderstorms. Cazy and sure I was going to be an "also died". You know when a famous person is killed and there are less famous people in the car too they become, "And also killed a man from North Carolina".

Marvin's family farm started to fail so he tossed cheese, ice cream and milk into his car and sold door-to-door. From that old idea now made new again a multi-billion dollar home delivery business grew.

Schwans.com is the highest converting site in the world with conversions estimated at 42%. Why so successful? Schwans website is well designed and they know what a CTA is (Call To Action), but the site isn't the best we've ever seen or anything either.

Schwans is a massive multi-channel play. Their Red Baron brand of frozen pizza is in the grocery stories and they have a fleet of home delivery salespeople who you may have seen driving their distinctive yellow trucks.

Schwan's massive mult-channel approach is why their website converts so well. Ironically they convert best because they aren't focused on site conversion. They are focused on their business and their site is one way they sell...certainly not the only way.

Schwans

Untitled Slide

The Curagami Score is a model of 11 different metrics. Some metrics such as pagespread (pages in Google) and inbound links are common and easily available via free tools such as Alexa and Moz.

Other pieces of our calculation are metrics we've developed such as Link Efficiency Index (how efficient your content is at generating inbound links) and Get It or NOT social media metrics.

The hardest idea to understand, when marketing online, is everything is a model. The associative principle of math says as long as you treat equations on either side of the equal sign the same your conclusions are valid.

We aren't as worried about "validity" as we are about understanding trends and macro-themes. By creating a model based on a common score, the Curagami Score, we can model comparisons between websites where no such comparison would seem helpful.

Not so much as it turns out. By seeing Red Bull's Curagmai score we can dissect what they are doing and adopt or test similar ideas. The WEB is a common medium, so tactics that work for Red Bull should work well for your website (again based on the associative principle of math).

INSTEAD, what many web marketers do is look at their immediate competition and try to beat them with tactics. DON'T DO THAT (lol). Compare OUTSIDE your box to find DISRUPTIONS you can bring home. Trying to win a keyword or organic listing away from a competitor may seem like what Internet marketing is, but it isn't.

Or it isn't that anymore. Your winning a keyword may or may not have anything to do with winning hearts, minds and loyalty. When asked to make a choice win LOVE and everything else takes care of itself. NOT true for tactics. Tactics are an infinite loop. They go on and on toward the land of diminishing returns. Don't go there since that is the land of broken toys and forgotten websites :). M

Empathy

Create An Empathy Machine
Going to have more notes about what an Empathy Machine is later tonight.

Untitled Slide

Create An "Empathy Machine"

  • Content.
  • Collaborate / Curate / UGC.
  • Conversations = "the new links".
  • Community = 1:9:90 Rule.
  • Friends, Advocates & Friends of Friends.

content

Create authority then SLOW DOWN.

collaborate

ASK for & Curate User Generated Content

Conversations

Conversations Are The New Links, New SEO

community

We Don't BUY Brands, We JOIN Them

Friends

Friends, Friends of Friends, Advocates

Do less Get More Tools

  • Google Analytics & Web Master Tools.
  • Paper.li (create community).
  • Scoop.it (test content & community).
  • Optimizely (test design & landing pages).
  • Curagami (find & empower 1:9:90).

Tomorrow

  • Create / Enhance "Authority" Content.
  • Develop an Ambassadors program.
  • Ask visitors & customers for help. 
  • Listen & Be Present (curate UGC).
  • Compass, Community & Friends.
Photo by Petr Ocasek

Marty & Curagami.com

  • Cell 919.360.1224.
  • email: martin@Curagami.com
  • @Curagami & @Scenttrail on Twitter.
  • Martin W Smith on G+.
  • Martin Marty Smith on LI, Scoop.it