Month: August 2021

Moving or migrating a site is an event that promises significant benefits in the long term and equally substantial troubles in the short term. While it is impossible to avoid the latter, there are ways to minimise risk. 

The site is a very fragile system, and changing or moving any part of it can significantly affect the structure of the site and its performance. But it is pretty common for those who make decisions about a site migration to underestimate the complexity of the work and the associated risks.

An example of how easy it is to underestimate a migration can be taken from one of our larger clients. The client had just engaged a developer to work internally to redesign and rebuild their website. The focus of the work was a simple template change to improve the UX and customer journey throughout the website. Our involvement in the project was kept brief, as the developer ensured the client that there would be no significant URL changes as part of the project.

Two weeks before launch, our team happened to ask for the staging site to check in on the progress, and we found that every category page URL had changed, including the placement within the site, causing some 100,000+ URLs to be affected. Luckily, our team was able to get the migration and web build back on track, ensuring that our client’s revenue and business is protected.  

If not discovered, this could have cost the client significantly, resulting in a potential loss of millions of dollars. Resolving this failure may have taken several months, while the business would have continued to lose organic revenue month on month until repaired. See below the keyword rankings of a past failed migration of a prospective client:

Web development and SEO migration are two different masteries and need to work hand in hand. SEO migration is the most common digital blind spot, needs to be taken seriously and requires the right team of specialists. 

When deployed correctly, a new website can be a great initiative and is an essential part of every online retailer’s digital journey. However, an incorrectly managed site migration often has disastrous consequences for immediate and long term financial performance and can set a business back years.

If you’re preparing to migrate, don’t get caught out and call us today. Let our specialised migration team help support your business through this challenging project.

Article by

Leonidas Comino – Founder & CEO

Leo is a, Deloitte award winning and Forbes published digital business builder with over a decade of success in the industry working with market-leading brands.

Like what we do? Come work with us

People are looking for human connection, now more than ever. Being stuck at home, working from home, or just a little isolated due to the pandemic is a reality for most Australians right now. 

Brands that have used in-store experiences to create human connections in the past are now struggling to re-create the same dynamics through online purchases and interactions. 

On the upside, consumers are taking the time to open and read emails; both email engagement and performance are up to when people are stuck at home. This trend is independent of other channels, which may be down due to reduced search volume or increasing competition in paid media. 

“Consumers are taking the time to open more emails from brands. It makes sense, considering people have been spending more time at home and less time dealing with the normal hustle and bustle of daily life.” – Klaviyo.com

There’s also many first-time online shoppers who are not digitally savvy entering the market right now as their usual shopping habits have been disrupted. Personalisation and segmentation matter more than ever (i.e. we don’t want to spam our customers if they’re not engaging with our emails).  

Having the right content, for the right audience, at the right time is crucial to getting your message heard, understood and accepted. The number one reason people unsubscribe is that they receive “too many emails” 46% of people who unsubscribe put this as their reason. One reason this number exists is that many brands just email their whole list – all the time. While there’s a time and a place for this, the more personalised the communication, the better your human connection will be with your customer. Don’t fret, though, unless your unsubscribe rate is higher than 0.7%, you don’t need to be concerned. 

Not sure how you can create human connections in a digital world? Below are some practical tips that you can get started on right away. 

Replicate in-store experiences with virtual tours and consults

OneWorld Collection (we work with them) has the right idea, an upmarket furniture brand with eight stores in Australia. Since most of their customers are in metro areas affected by the pandemic, they’ve created a virtual consult where sales staff can be invited into the living rooms of their customers while still being able to demonstrate products on the showroom floor. They’ve used Calendly.com to schedule appointments to ensure all the customers can be seen and no one is waiting. 

Creating ways for customers to experience your product in new and unique ways is what will keep that human connection alive. 

Multi-channel communications with Gorgias

Let customers reach you however they want. Instagram comments, Facebook direct messages, email, live chat, SMS and any other form of communication you can think of. Gorgias can do it all. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to reach a brand that doesn’t leave another method of communication to reach them with. You may even convert more sales! I’ve personally been able to convert 25% of live chat inquiries into sales, working in an e-commerce team.

Reposition products in terms of value for their new routines

Since many lifestyle changes have had to be made for a lot of Australians, consumers don’t think about products and services in the same way they used to. Suppose you can reposition the way that your marketing; this will increase the connection between your brand and your customers. They’ll be saying to themselves, “they get me and the challenges I’m going through.”

This means for abandonment emails, include product comparisons, how-to-videos, helpful blog content or best practices in using your products. It will help the consumer realise how your product is uniquely positioned to support their new lifestyle. 

Pre-orders and back in stocks have also been one of the most successful email campaigns outside of sales or promotions in the pandemic. Don’t just limit these to auto-generated emails from your pre-order app or Klaviyo’s inbuilt back in stock. Use personalisation and customer behaviours to populate your emails with content that will be relevant and timely. 

Projects that you can do at home (or challenges to I imagine) have worked very well in creating connections with your audience. 

Tighten up your shipping notifications

Lastly, and probably most importantly – shipping notifications! Delays are inevitable while we’re all stuck at home, all shopping online. 

So, be especially clear and empathetic; people are stressed about their packages and where they’ll be, or if they’ll arrive in time. You can read more about Klaviyo’s recommended best practices for communicating shipping delays here. 

Not sure what Klaviyo is, or if it’s the right fit for your brand? Take a free trial via this link. 

Article by

Leonidas Comino – Founder & CEO

Leo is a, Deloitte award winning and Forbes published digital business builder with over a decade of success in the industry working with market-leading brands.

Like what we do? Come work with us

Adaptability and growth is part of LION’s DNA. LION Digital was officially launched in April 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic; this allowed us to build the business to solve today’s challenges. Over the last year, LION has created a unique agency model with a Global reach in response to the current business landscape. 

The model consists of five single channel-focused departments, such as SEO, SEM, Email, Social and Development.

Each is designated a Head of Department, a seasoned veteran with over a decade of eCommerce experience enabling LION to provide channel-specific, specialised services within a holistic digital marketing strategy. This structure and approach hyper accelerates success, generates optimal results and creates the best client experience.

Here are the main strengths of choosing LION Digital as your partner of choice during the pandemic and why we are the better choice as opposed to our competitors:

Our team is remote

This is a huge advantage when stacking us up against traditional digital marketing agencies; we are not prone to having our office shut down due to a sick team member which happened recently to a digital marketing agency in Melbourne where 40+ people were sent home. Or does your agency have a big offshore team in a European office, let’s say North Macedonia? The same concern applies there, but the risk of infection rate is higher in countries that have lower health regulations.  Our team members are decentralised eCommerce specialists from across the globe hired based on their experience, not location, so this risk does not affect us. We offer you the best of both worlds, Senior local Australian based team members leading the strategy and the client relationship who are supported by a global team that works round the clock. 

Decentralised from the beginning

Our processes and systems were chosen and developed for a remote working force, this is a major benefit to the success of our clients. Imagine you’ve built an agency for almost a decade, one that relies on your team coming into the office on a daily basis to function. This then forms the culture, processes, systems and methodologies that are all developed around a physical office. The team is hired for and accustomed to working and collaborating in a centralised environment. Many office workers do not have self-motivation and rely on the nature of the office-based work environment and their leaders to encourage performance and set the pace. Now, imagine that local element is removed; this is like removing the foundation of a building which causes significant efficiency deficits. This issue is not remedied easily because and the older the agency is the less agile they are and let’s face it, most people dislike change. Unfortunately, the loser is the client as their retainer charges remain the same and the output and results are less. LION Digital strives to hire self-motivated individuals who have clear expectations, responsibilities and result expectations set with them at the beginning of their employment and on each project. We use strategies and incentives like performance-based SEM services that have certain ROAS goals in a place where team members who work on the project are rewarded for performance, creating a win-win situation for the specialist, the agency and the client.

Elite tech stack

Not having the expense of an office has enabled us to invest heavily into the best technology stack in the market. From the best project management, CRM, accounting and marketing tools; we don’t hold back when it comes to investing in technology. Investing in good tech allows us to improve visibility across our entire operations, enabling us to scale up effectively and efficiently while supporting the needs of our growing clients. We spend more than $50,000 per year and have over 5 SEO systems that we subscribe to, and that’s only one digital channel. Our internal infrastructure is adept, allowing us to reduce risk, improve accountability and productivity to provide an unrivalled client service experience to better our rivals.

Agency scalability

Let’s face it, digital marketing is on every businesses lips who are (especially those who are late to the party) are throwing money at solving their customer acquisition problems. Most local agencies rely on the local digital marketing talent pool in Australia, which has all but dried up and now their hiring efforts have come to a grinding halt. Digital marketing resources are now scarce, and the market is screaming for more people; we sometimes have contractors asking for hourly rates in excess of $400 p/h which is ridiculous. LION is a global business and we hire based on talent and experience, not location. We are not affected by the same barriers as traditional agencies which means that we can still select the creme of the digital marketing community but on a global scale. Most traditional, local Australian digital marketing agencies are now at full capacity and cannot find staff, and yet they still continue to take on new clients. We know of situations in agencies where individuals are managing over 50 clients causing significant neglect and loss of investment. 

eCommerce specialisation

If your focus is eCommerce then your business does not have time to work with a generalist agency. Is your agency partner a true specialist? Try navigating to the client list or case studies section of their website and you will discover that most are not. Imagine the lack of efficiency of a digital marketing specialist from a general marketing agency who start the AM working on a client generating some insurance leads, then home loans and new house sales, and maybe some retail and eCommerce focused client in the afternoon. As you can imagine this jack of all trades approach does create hyper-accelerated growth. LION’s eCommerce brains trust and partner support network and industry knowledge is all eCommerce. This is why LION is exceptional at helping clients navigate the murky waters of digital marketing by also providing trusted advisor recommendations alongside our suite of services. 

It is crucial to understand that moving to a remote model from a traditional one would require a massive adaptation of the established processes. With such a challenging time for all of us, we are keen on embracing organisational agility and helping businesses not fall apart, develop eCommerce and bring the best to this world. We hope that the pivots we’re making now — will allow us to build our best ideas and provide better support for our clients, users, communities, partners, and customers. We will build a strong foundation and ensure responsible and sustainable growth in the long run.

Article by

Leonidas Comino – Founder & CEO

Leo is a, Deloitte award winning and Forbes published digital business builder with over a decade of success in the industry working with market-leading brands.

Like what we do? Come work with us