I hope you've seen the latest Instagram post from Shopify covering:
- Shopify Magic
- 3D Scanner
- Automation
- Bundle App
- Marketplace Connect App
Are you using these in your store?
Seeing this post, I wanted to share my quick recommendations on FREE Marketing tools, specifically for new or smaller Shopify stores.
As a new Shopify store, I can't emphasize enough the importance of making the most out of the Marketing tools (mostly FREE) provided by Shopify itself.
🔗 https://www.shopify.com/marketing-tools
If you do these before launch or at the earliest when your store is new, your business will be impacted positively:
✅ Setup Lead Capture with Shopify Forms (FREE). If you can't sell, at least capture your traffic to build trust and sell via email.
✅ Use Shopify Email (10,000 Emails FREE per month) for Email Marketing, before jumping into any advanced or costly platforms
✅ Setup the essential email flows automation: Welcome, abandoned browse, abandoned cart, abandoned checkout, order confirmation, feedback/review request after fulfilled order, win back etc
✅ Enable Shopify Inbox, setting up Instant Replies.
✅ Setup Shopify Shop Channel. Pay attention to what % of products are not getting listed for missing categories. Update them.
✅ Setup Facebook & Instagram Sales Channel (Meta Business Manager, Ad Account, Pixel, CAPI, Catalog etc)
✅ Setup Google & YouTube Sales Channel (Google Merchant Center, Google Analytics, Google Ads, YouTube)
✅ Setup TikTok Sales Channel
✅ A Review Plugin
✅ Shopify Collab for partnering up with Creators
✅ Discount (Tip: Avoid sitewide discounts & deep discounts that might burn money, attract low-quality customers. Improve AOV discounting for higher order value)
✅ Ensure cost, inventory etc are up-to-date for all products
✅ Integrate Triple Whale's FREE Founder Dash (Add other expenses beyond Inventory cost). Measure the metrics that matter.
Now full disclaimer. Even as a Shopify partner, I have to admit that some of the FREE Shopify apps have issues and the support team struggles to help. I sincerely hope that Shopify team is taking the negative reviews on their FREE apps seriously and taking steps to improve them.
There are 3rd party FREE alternatives as well.
What apps do you use or recommend others for Marketing?
I always recommend new DTC brands keep the tech expenses minimum and rather spend more on customer acquisition.
I have seen 7/8 figure brands drowning with subscription fees from platforms, that they barely use or get reasonable returns from.
Another important recommendation is to use a Shopify theme that you or any non-developer can customize just by dragging & dropping sections & blocks.
There are great FREE themes & then feature-rich paid themes like Debutify that you can customize yourself.
You don't need a developer or designer to start with. Researching the top e-commerce sites in your niche will give you pretty good website layout ideas.
Good themes make it easy to create those layouts by any non-developer or designer.
Let me know if you've found some value.
May your store have an incredible 2024.
All the very best.
