AMA with 2H Media: Planning your 2023 marketing budget

[SarahF_Shopify]

Marketing costs are rising, and we want to support you in creating a profitable plan for the year ahead.

Hit reply and post your question now to Shopify Partner and marketing experts, 2H Media.

Co-founders & owners, @MatthewHerchel and @AronMurch join us live on March 21 from 12-2pm EST to answer your questions on how best to reach your audience, which marketing channels to focus on, and how to plan a sustainable 2023 marketing budget. 

Matt Herchel and Aron Murch are the Owners of 2H Media, a marketing agency that specializes in helping luxury ecommerce brands increase sales by building video-driven Shopify websites that reduce confusion and increase conversions. 

As Co-Owner and CFO, Matthew plays an active role at 2H Media managing the overall operations and resources, and running the financial activities of the company. In addition to these responsibilities, Matt acts as the sales and digital marketing lead for the company, providing guidance and strategy to numerous growing businesses.

As Co-Owner and CIO, Aron plays an active role alongside Matt in managing the overall operations and resources, while implementing the information and computer technology systems, and overseeing the development and dissemination of technology for the business. Additionally, Aron’s the design and development lead, overseeing and implementing branding and ecommerce projects.

What’s in scope of this AMA:

• How best to allocate your marketing dollars for 2023 based on your industry
• Which marketing channels to focus on and why for your omni-channel business, such as email, Google, SEO, influencers, affiliates, display or programmatic advertising, SMS, influencers, YouTube, and social media such as Meta, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok
• How to determine whether your marketing efforts are profitable and sustainable 
• North American-focused
• We can’t advise on very specific use cases because technology and integrations can get complex. Please rely on the Community after the event to help guide your use case.  

Rules of engagement: 

Our Shopify AMA hosts can’t claim to know everything. So if there’s something we can’t answer live that’s within the scope of this AMA, we’ll get back to you shortly after the event with an answer.  As always please adhere to our community guidelines and code of conduct.

Post your question now & RSVP for the live event here (so you can get email reminders). 

[Peggy8]

Im interested in this, but will be away that week, will this be recorded? I really need help in this area and I would really love live support with someone who can help me figure out the best way to ship my products, that's very complex.

[Peggy8]

Thank you, Im in PA. 

[SarahF_Shopify]

Hi @Peggy8 , this event will happen right here on the AMA discussion board, so you can read up on the Q&A after. There's no video component, and will be fully text-based. Keep in mind this event will be focused on marketing and not shipping. 

[Wingspan]

Hi,

I sell my own work on shirts, caps, and mugs. I've tried fb ads. 

How much should I be spending on my marketing?

What's my yearly budget supposed to be?

Say if I currently don't have a marketing budget. Where should I start?

[PhilTulz]

Glad I found this! I'm new to this topic and interested in finding out more.  

If I don't have a budget, what should I DIY? And I assume that budgets should contain time and money. How should I prioritize my time?

[Jac_Dan_McL]

Very excited for this! I have a couple questions. 

1. What should I be spending the most on?

2. Are there any trends right now that I should be focused on?

3. Where should I be advertising? Google TikTok Meta? Does it matter what my product is for the marketing platform I focus on?

[FleuRias]

Aktualnie dopiero zaczynam powiedz jeśli nie posiadam budżetu na czym powinienem się skupić 

**Translation by Moderation**: Currently I'm just starting tell me if I don't have a budget what should I focus on?

[FleuRias]

I have a shop still in the making and I thought and first want to start with dropshipping 

[FleuRias]

I don't have it yet, I've been trying to make a shop for 2 weeks but I'm having big problems

[Taxdoo]

Hi, as App developers in the Shopify App store, we would like to see more resources for our Growth. 
How could we increase conversions ?
What are the steps to becoming a featured app?
What are the steps to be featured in a Shopify blog article?

Will there be technical developments or integrations that would allow us to directly transfer the app user data into our CRM?

Thank you!

[Wingspan]

Forwarding my question there, is there a why to determine how much my competitors are spending on advertising? Print on demand can be a bit of crowded market. 

I came cross the idea of customer lifetime value here: https://www.shopify.com/ca/blog/what-is-customer-lifetime-value#:~:text=now%20with%20Shopify-,What%2...

Can you guys speak to that from your experience, please?  Basically, how do I determine customer life time value, CLV?

[Jac_Dan_McL]

I thought of some more questions!

1. What reports can I run in shopify for the most important sales data? It seems like there are so many reports, I'm not suee what's most valuable. 

2. When should I start planning or creating a budget? Does it need to happen before I even start or should I test a few things and see what gets me the best results for the least money?

Thanks again for putting on this great event 🙂