1 00:00:04,840 --> 00:00:07,200 Hello and welcome to another episode of the winning Shopify 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:09,400 Podcast. If you've never tuned in before, 3 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:11,520 you've tuned into my first episode of the year. 4 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:15,760 Happy New Year everybody. It is the 1st of January 2026. 5 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:18,800 Would you believe it? And so much going on. 6 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:21,240 There is so much going on. So last week on what's called 7 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:23,040 Tuesday tea break talks, although it's actually a 8 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:26,400 Thursday right now, don't tell anyone, but obviously we're not 9 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:28,800 working loads of Christmas, Christmas and holiday season. 10 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:30,640 So hence why we're doing less podcasts at the moment. 11 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:33,560 But we'll be back-to-back to two a week as soon as we hit the 12 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:35,960 ground, probably next week, I think Tuesday, Friday next week. 13 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:37,640 But yeah, there's been so much going on. 14 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:41,480 We, I did an episode last week, I believe it was on Tuesday 15 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:45,520 about washing up 2025 and what actually happened in 2025. 16 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:47,520 Some things we need to be aware of, some of the things that were 17 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:49,680 quite scary and also some of the things that were quite good. 18 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:52,360 And we spoke about this thing called AI, not sure if you've 19 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,080 heard of it and if it's the first time tuning in, there's my 20 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:56,960 sarcastic British humour. But anyway, we've got quite a 21 00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:59,560 few bits to go through. I've got the iPad of info here 22 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:01,400 today. My team have been very busy 23 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:02,600 getting bits and pieces together. 24 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:05,720 And also a massive shout out to Daisy who does most of my notes. 25 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:09,920 She chases the team for stories and things going on across our 26 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:11,880 industry, our clients and across the business as well. 27 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:13,800 And also obviously across Shopify. 28 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:16,640 So tea of choice is how we always start these. 29 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,280 But this year I'm going to drink more water, so I've got a pint 30 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,120 of water in my hand, which I'm sure we'll be grabbing in a 31 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,440 minute because it's winter and everybody in the UK currently 32 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:28,600 has cold or flu. But yeah, happy 2026 to 33 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:30,040 everybody who's been tuning in for a while. 34 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:31,160 It'd be great to have you on the journey. 35 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:33,520 And we've got some very, very exciting things coming up this 36 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:35,520 year. And I'm going to announce 37 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:38,600 probably on Tuesday next week, something I've been building up 38 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:40,400 a little bit. Hype, probably no hype, but it 39 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:42,800 feels hype full to me and something we're going to be 40 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:44,960 doing later this year, 1st of September, it's going to go 41 00:01:44,960 --> 00:01:45,880 live. And on Tuesday, I'm going to be 42 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,920 announcing what that is and how you guys can get involved, 43 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:51,480 whether you're a tech company, you work on shop fire and 44 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:54,440 agency, or whether you're a merchant brand tuning in to try 45 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:56,680 and work out how to grow your business better and faster. 46 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:58,600 So that will be happening on Tuesday. 47 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:01,480 Let's talk about quote or fact of the week. 48 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:03,480 I feel like we need to get a Jingle on that at some point. 49 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:06,280 But we've got some interesting bits and pieces here that have 50 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:10,400 come to you late #1 there's a recent study done, one in three 51 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:15,080 businesses don't currently have a marketing plan for 2026, and 52 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:17,600 the date is the 1st of January 2026. 53 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:19,440 And one in three businesses omitted on this survey, there 54 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,640 were, I think about 15,000 businesses surveyed on this 55 00:02:22,640 --> 00:02:23,880 thing. So one in three don't have a 56 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,200 marketing plan yet. So Daisy's written in the notes 57 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:29,080 because Daisy wrote these that obviously before today. 58 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:30,400 So we record a few days in advance. 59 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:31,720 Daisy's written in the notes as well. 60 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:32,840 It'll be here sooner than you think. 61 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,840 And she's absolutely right. Actually, it is here now if 62 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:38,000 you're watching this. So you need a marketing plan for 63 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,360 this year. One of the fastest ways to get a 64 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,760 marketing plan together is actually just to have a look at, 65 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:46,120 go on Google and search up or even ask ChatGPT. 66 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:49,000 You're one of the AI bots, Go and ask for a marketing plan 67 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,200 template and also find out some of the things like International 68 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,640 Women's Day, International, there's Pancake day, there's 69 00:02:55,640 --> 00:02:58,000 Valentine's Day, there's loads of international days. 70 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:00,600 So depending on what space you're in, what kind of products 71 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,080 you sell, it might be like International Turtle Day if you 72 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,680 do things to do with endangered turtles as a turtle owner, 73 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:09,320 massive advocate, advocate for that. 74 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:10,280 He turned up in the post one day. 75 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:11,720 I wasn't expecting him. He was a gift. 76 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:17,120 Second thing, interesting quote or fact of the week, focus on 77 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:19,720 the three big blind spots. And again, this was from the 78 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:22,680 same study that people very honest in this study saying 79 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:24,680 these are three things they don't do enough of. 80 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:28,320 And I'm going to explain number one in particular detail. 81 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:30,760 I'll read all three out and then we'll come back to #1A lack of 82 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:34,640 focus on customer retention #2 is an inadequate budget 83 00:03:34,640 --> 00:03:38,080 allocation for testing things, and #3 is the crucial need for 84 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:40,000 alignment between sales and marketing teams. 85 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:41,800 I'm going to go back to one. I'm going to comment on two and 86 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:43,160 three as well. But number one, I want to 87 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:45,680 emphasize and underline this. So if you're sitting there 88 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:47,040 thinking what am I going to do this year? 89 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:49,640 What is, you know, what are some of the challenges coming up? 90 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,800 If you don't focus on customer retention, your profit and loss 91 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,160 report at the end of the year is going to look rubbish compared 92 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:59,440 to if you do focus on retention. Statistically, and it's almost 93 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:02,280 unanimous for every single business, it is more expensive 94 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:05,040 to pay Facebook, pay Google and pay all these advertising 95 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:07,400 platforms to acquire a new customer. 96 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:11,320 And often when you change phone networks, broadband, energy 97 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:13,760 companies, all that sort of stuff, they give you a discount 98 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:15,880 for the first year and then you don't get your discount after 99 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:17,680 that because you're just kind of with them now and people just 100 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:20,399 renew and sort of stay. And it's all very tactical from 101 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:22,720 a, from a financial profit perspective. 102 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:25,400 And the reason it is, is because it's harder to acquire that 103 00:04:25,400 --> 00:04:28,040 customer or more expensive to acquire that customer and harder 104 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:31,360 than to get a second, third, 4th, 5th, 6th order from the 105 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:33,280 same customer. So you need, I think we 106 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:36,360 mentioned it again a bit later, we need to focus on that. 107 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:40,280 The second one, inadequate budget allocation for testing. 108 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:42,600 I'm a massive fan of Rory Sutherland. 109 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:44,880 I don't know if you've ever come across any of his podcasts. 110 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:48,160 He's been on talks he's done. He talks so much about this push 111 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:50,920 and pull between creativity and the marketing department, where 112 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:53,800 a lot of the creativity sits, and also the finance department 113 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,240 that people don't take creative risks because they're too scared 114 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:00,160 of them going wrong. And that is a problem because 115 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,000 actually, if you look at the success of any business, it's 116 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,200 because at some point they took a creative risk. 117 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:06,520 They said, do you know what, We're going to RIP up the rule 118 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:08,760 book and do something completely different on this campaign or 119 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:10,120 with our products or with our branding. 120 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:12,960 And it's a risk, but if it works, we'll be the only ones 121 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:14,240 doing it. We'll be The Pioneers, the 122 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,040 founders and we'll we'll rake in all of the revenue as a result 123 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,720 of doing that. So make sure you allocate enough 124 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:22,480 budget for testing because you need to test to find new things 125 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,480 to keep up. If you don't test new stuff and 126 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:26,680 you don't optimize and move forwards, your business is going 127 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,520 to fall apart at some point. There is no such thing in 128 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:33,000 business as consistency and there in some areas there are, 129 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,320 but generally speaking there is no space for consistency in a 130 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:37,840 business. You need to be redefining your 131 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:40,280 sales, your marketing, who your customers are. 132 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:42,960 We'll talk about customers a little bit in a second as well. 133 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:45,840 On our final quote. In fact of the week that I, I 134 00:05:45,840 --> 00:05:48,480 love the last one and the number 3 just on this list, the blind 135 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:50,880 spots, the crucial need for alignment between sales and 136 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:53,480 marketing teams. We work a lot with B to B 137 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:56,480 companies and we find the marketing team are trying to get 138 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:58,760 leads in and once a lead has come in, somebody's filled out a 139 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:01,680 form and a website and gone, hey, I'm interested in this B2B 140 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:04,000 service or this HR support, whatever it might be. 141 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:06,720 Once someone's filled out that form, marketing wash their hands 142 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:08,640 of it and the sales team are like, Oh my gosh, getting all 143 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:11,200 these leads. We actually focused as an agency 144 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:14,920 on targeting the sales teams where this makes a bit more 145 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,080 sense. I think for you guys as 146 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:20,440 ecommerce brands, actually it's thinking about when you do 147 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:22,480 marketing, you're bringing people to the site, but the 148 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,440 sales engine is the actual merchandising and positioning of 149 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:27,440 products. The USP is the product and 150 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:29,880 actually trying to understand what the customers really want 151 00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:31,760 and sometimes it's not what they want or need. 152 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:33,520 It's actually just giving, giving them something they 153 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,040 didn't know they wanted or needed, but resonates with them 154 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:37,760 and causes them to want to purchase. 155 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:38,920 And that's really, really important. 156 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:41,400 We've got endless case studies where we've done again, going 157 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:44,160 back to the testing things, radical tests on sites and 158 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,760 actually made the offering for things sometimes even seem a a 159 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:49,360 bit odd. I mean, actually customers are 160 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:50,960 not paying a bit more, but they feel like they're getting better 161 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:53,520 value, for example, because that's the thing they wanted is 162 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,360 they wanted to feel valued. It's not so much about the price 163 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:59,080 they actually pay. So many brands think everything 164 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:01,720 is just price driven and it's this is not, this is not how 165 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,040 consumers operate and I can prove that with data. 166 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:08,500 So the final quote or fact of the week is looking at re 167 00:07:08,500 --> 00:07:13,680 evaluating this target customer. As I just mentioned, in 2025, I 168 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,520 would be surprised if your target customer didn't change. 169 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:20,240 And this is in two ways. 1 is that customers have changed. 170 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,400 So they could be the same actual group of people you're trying to 171 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:25,840 target. So you might be targeting 40 to 172 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:29,880 50 year old men with particular style of clothing for example. 173 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:32,440 Their buying habits will have changed over that year. 174 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:35,160 So if you're going into 2026 going well, that was a good year 175 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:37,240 everybody. We had a 5% growth, bit more of 176 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:39,080 the same. Please don't be shocked if you 177 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:42,640 get to August, September and go, we're down 20% year on year. 178 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:44,760 People are being fired. The business is in a really bad 179 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:46,480 state that we're not making profit at the moment. 180 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:49,080 You should be re evaluating your target customer all the time. 181 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:52,040 But 2025 we saw probably more behavioural change than we saw 182 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:55,080 since the Internet was invented. And that is thanks to the 183 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:57,920 introduction of AI and the ability to find information so 184 00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:00,600 quickly. And this comes onto something 185 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:01,600 I'll talk about in a minute as well. 186 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:04,760 Some of the big changes going on this year in in the next section 187 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:06,920 where we are going to talk about. 188 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:09,320 So I'm just checking my notes. Which bit was it? 189 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:14,040 And that's it. Answer engine optimization. 190 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,200 So not search engine optimization, but answer engine 191 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:19,440 optimization, AEOA, new acronym, as if we didn't have enough 192 00:08:19,440 --> 00:08:21,560 already, but there's a new acronym and we'll come into that 193 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:23,320 in a minute. So that target customer, it 194 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:25,760 might be that your existing customers are still the same 195 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:28,240 people and still the same group, but they've changed and they've 196 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:29,560 changed the way they shop, the way they behave. 197 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:31,760 But it also might be that actually your target customer 198 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:35,400 demographic needs to change. Lots of more established 199 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:37,840 businesses that have been running for decades, they'll 200 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,840 reach a problem at one point where they've kind of grown up 201 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:43,480 with their customer base and now their customer base. 202 00:08:43,799 --> 00:08:46,320 To be blunt and frank, they're starting to die. 203 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:48,200 They're getting old. And actually that brand now 204 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:50,560 needs to redevelop itself. I've been involved in quite a 205 00:08:50,560 --> 00:08:52,400 few of those transformation projects over the years and 206 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:54,000 we've worked with quite a few brands doing that. 207 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:55,840 It's painful, It's really difficult. 208 00:08:55,840 --> 00:08:58,200 And trying to convince someone young that actually your brand 209 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,600 is still cool and funky and, and can be good for a younger 210 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,800 demographic, it's a real challenge, a real challenge. 211 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:08,120 So again, reidentifying who your target customer is, what they're 212 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:09,440 doing, and actually, should we widen that? 213 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:11,400 Should we change it? Should we realign it slightly? 214 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:14,080 It becomes a bit of a North Star, which means all the 215 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,480 decisions you make about all the things that you do can start to 216 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:20,760 realign around that. All right, so 2026, let's talk 217 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:23,080 about some of the big topics then coming up in 2026. 218 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:25,680 And in the next bit after that, I'm going to give some of my 219 00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:28,840 predictions and, and you might have seen in in the notes or 220 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:30,600 title, depending on where Byron's put it this week. 221 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,760 But I'm grumpy but optimistic and we'll talk about that in a 222 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:35,760 minute. It's not because I'm a parent of 223 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:38,800 a young child and lack of sleep. I got 4 1/2 hours last night. 224 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:40,720 It's my wife. Let me have a lovely nap this 225 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:43,800 morning, but I'm grumpy. I'm grumpy about things going on 226 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:45,280 in the industry and we'll come on to that in a second. 227 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:47,160 But let's talk about some of the big topics, some of the big 228 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:49,400 things going on that my team have put together here and, and 229 00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:50,560 some of the things I've found as well. 230 00:09:50,560 --> 00:09:54,840 And marketers, I love this as a quote, marketers are becoming 231 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:57,880 product managers. And again, going back to where 232 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:00,800 we were talking a second ago about sales and marketing not 233 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:04,280 aligning as a strategy or in some B2B or lead Gen. companies, 234 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:06,760 we work with the actual sales team that go out and pitch 235 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:08,320 things. They're not aligning with the 236 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:10,640 marketing team. They're generating that enquiry 237 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:12,440 in the 1st place. The sales team now need to go 238 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:15,120 and convert and, and, and kind of get that, get that deal over 239 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:16,440 the line and get that contract signed. 240 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:18,680 But marketers need to become product managers. 241 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:21,840 It is now as well the amount of information available in the 242 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:25,200 world, especially online, for products, for what you might 243 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:27,320 need for. You can you can search by your 244 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:30,440 condition, you can search by your needs, you can search by a 245 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:32,920 question, you can search by a problem, you can search by a 246 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:35,880 colour scheme, by an environment, by a technical 247 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:38,440 specification, if it's a part for a car or something. 248 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:40,600 There's so many ways for people to shop. 249 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:43,480 So actually, if the marketing team aren't also the product 250 00:10:43,480 --> 00:10:46,480 managers, you see the problem. So if the marketing team don't 251 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:49,120 actually know the USPS of that product to do their job 252 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:51,640 properly, which is what's the right USP for this target group, 253 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:55,280 this advert, this situation, this placement of ads copy or 254 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:58,240 this, whichever way people are actually get acquiring their 255 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:00,800 customers, the marketing team don't know enough about the 256 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:02,480 product. You can just forget it. 257 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:04,400 It's going to be absolutely useless because another brand 258 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:07,400 will be there with that that that bridge, that bridge in 259 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,640 place. The second thing I love this SEO 260 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,360 blogging is making a massive, massive comeback. 261 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,560 And this is what I was talking about a EOI keep one of you call 262 00:11:16,560 --> 00:11:20,040 it AOE, which is Age of Empires, one of my favorite games when I 263 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:23,680 was growing up. Yeah, AEOSSEO blogging is making 264 00:11:23,680 --> 00:11:25,960 a comeback and it's called answer engine optimization. 265 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:28,600 So the way people use ChatGPT is you don't say, you don't go on 266 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:32,560 to ChatGPT and say men's trousers, blue 34 waist, which 267 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:34,640 is a small insight to some of my search terms over the last 268 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:37,520 couple of couple of weeks after a very heavy Christmas of eating 269 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:40,840 and drinking. But the but with the blogging, 270 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:43,280 it's about conversational contents, people asking 271 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:45,240 questions. The other thing that I found 272 00:11:45,560 --> 00:11:48,560 absolutely fascinating about the way people use AI as well is 273 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:50,680 which is different to a search engines. 274 00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:53,040 On a search engine, you tend to make one search, then you might 275 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:54,760 add a word or two to that search. 276 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:57,080 With AI, it's not how you use it at all, is it? 277 00:11:57,160 --> 00:11:58,960 You use it completely differently. 278 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:02,520 You'd ask it a question like this celebrity. 279 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:04,040 I think I mentioned Ryan Reynolds a while ago. 280 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:06,480 I saw a picture of him at Wrexham Football club. 281 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:08,440 I followed football here a lot here in the UK. 282 00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:10,720 I'm a Chelsea fan. If that causes anyone to 283 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:11,920 unsubscribe I totally understand. 284 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:14,400 We're having a terrible, terrible few years at the moment 285 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:17,560 with a couple of successes. But I saw Ryan Reynolds, the 286 00:12:17,560 --> 00:12:19,240 actor who owns Wrexham Football club. 287 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:21,400 I saw a picture of him and thought that's a good look. 288 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:25,160 And I, I asked AI Ryan Reynolds outfit, you know what, what, 289 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:27,000 what are some of his outfits? Where does he shop? 290 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:29,280 And it didn't come back and say, this is where he shops came back 291 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:31,000 and said, are you looking for more casual, more smart? 292 00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:34,880 And I had a quite an interactive conversation with it, drilling 293 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:37,720 then down to a few products, which happened to be on four O 4 294 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,640 pages. So obviously the I, I don't 295 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:42,920 think it was open AII was using at the time, obviously, because 296 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:44,680 it would have known that those pages were 404 because it would 297 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:47,080 go and check them for me. But it just said in my database, 298 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,840 this is a hoodie AT shirt, a pair of trousers, some shoes, a 299 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:51,800 hat that he's wearing. It did actually link me to 300 00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,240 Wrexham's merchandise store because you're wearing a Wrexham 301 00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:56,520 hat and the picture I gave it. But you see how I uploaded a 302 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:59,440 picture in the conversation. So when we think about blogging 303 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:03,560 and we think about FAQs on our website, we need to do a lot, a 304 00:13:03,560 --> 00:13:05,840 lot of writing. We need to Shakespeare the heck 305 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:07,960 out of this thing and make it way more conversational. 306 00:13:08,800 --> 00:13:10,640 And if you're not doing that, if you're still just writing blog 307 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:13,840 posts going like the fashion trends for 2025, you need to 308 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,640 make it more conversational. What are the top fashion trends 309 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:20,480 for this year #1 and this is the group it's for #2 this is the 310 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:22,600 group it's for #3 this is the group it's for. 311 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:25,120 That's a piece of AI indexable content. 312 00:13:25,560 --> 00:13:28,640 And we're not doing this just for ChatGPT, Grok, Perplexity, 313 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,240 Gemini, and all the other AI agents that people use and talk 314 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:32,800 to. We're also doing this for 315 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:35,240 Google. So Google's AI overview, people 316 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:37,640 are asking more and more questions now and there's a 317 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:40,720 fantastic tool use which I think you can do three, maybe 5 318 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:42,760 searches a day. That used to be the case. 319 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:44,560 My team use it quite a lot on the paid version. 320 00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:47,960 It's called Answer the public. So you put in a topic and it 321 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:51,080 runs every, every possible matrix of question. 322 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:54,160 So if you gave it a topic and said men's trousers or men's 323 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:56,840 black chinos, for example, it would then run things. 324 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:58,840 What are the best men's chinos? What are the trending men's 325 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:00,200 chinos? What are the sizes for men's 326 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:01,280 chinos? What are the different colours 327 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:02,800 for black? What are the places to buy men's 328 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:04,320 chinos? And then it also gives you the 329 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:07,040 Google search volume as well. So it tells you which of those 330 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:10,520 things people looking for on Google on average per month in 331 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:12,480 your location. So super useful tool. 332 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:15,640 So a few other things going on. Some of the big topics, 333 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,720 marketers are becoming internal influencers as well. 334 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,480 So actually, lots of brands now have marketing people that are 335 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:26,840 the face of the blog, the advice on some of the video content. 336 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,000 Certainly some of our clients, when we go and see them, they 337 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:30,800 have a team of two or three people running around with a 338 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:33,680 camera and just shooting like, hey, so we're in the T-shirt 339 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:35,000 department for the warehouse today. 340 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:37,400 And this is Frank. Frank puts all the T-shirts in 341 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:39,480 boxes Monday to Friday. Frank talk us through what 342 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:41,600 happens when somebody actually orders a product and Frank talks 343 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:43,920 about the quality, quality control check. 344 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,120 That's a piece of TikTok content right there, super easy to make, 345 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:49,520 but you see how the marketeer has become the influencer. 346 00:14:49,800 --> 00:14:52,640 So the marketing person, he or she is actually the one 347 00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:55,560 presenting that goes out on TikTok video, which is quite 348 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,120 fun. AI video ads keep getting 349 00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:00,400 better, which is a big one. And the last one on the big 350 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:03,880 topics as well is design. Taste becomes the number one 351 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:07,360 marketing skill. So design taste, your taste in 352 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,280 design has become the number one marketing skill, right? 353 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:13,400 So let's get on to my thoughts for the year then. 354 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:18,520 So I am grumpy but optimistic. A lot of my team are spending 355 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:20,720 their time at the moment forecasting for 2026. 356 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,440 And forecasting is something we tell clients we should do and we 357 00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:26,160 offer to do. And clients say, yeah, let's do 358 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:28,040 some forecasting. Let's get a forecast of how much 359 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:31,040 we should spend month or month, how much we should be expecting 360 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:32,880 revenues to go up on SEO and all that sort of stuff. 361 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:34,640 It's great. It's a bit like a business plan 362 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:37,000 just for those two channels. The good thing about it is it 363 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:40,040 gives us a line in the sand, say are we going faster or slower 364 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:42,720 than we planned to? Therefore, do we need to punch 365 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:45,200 it harder or actually we go in pretty good at the moment? 366 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:46,480 We need to keep keep this momentum up. 367 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:48,240 The things we're doing are working or we need to change the 368 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:49,520 things we're doing. It's the idea of it. 369 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:51,840 The hard thing of it is you're making numbers up. 370 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:54,680 So we use some of the data like previous years, and we look at 371 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:57,080 different ranges and go, well, that range used to sell really, 372 00:15:57,080 --> 00:15:58,960 really well and it's now discontinued. 373 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:01,080 So that's an 8% drop in total revenue. 374 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:02,800 And we factor in all those kind of things. 375 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:06,360 So they're busy doing that. Why am I grumpy? 376 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:09,680 OK, so got a list of things and they're all really boring adult 377 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:12,760 topics. There's tariffs, there's taxes, 378 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,920 there's economic slowdowns in, in, in lots and lots of 379 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:19,120 countries, Not all, but most countries, certainly countries 380 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,160 that we interact with as a, as a business with our clients, 381 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:24,800 possible recessions, absolutely everywhere. 382 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:28,360 There's more data protection and cookie regulations coming on. 383 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:31,520 There's a, there's a lot of talk about the AI bubble is about to 384 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:33,080 burst as well. People are going to realise 385 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:36,320 actually there's been a lot of hype about AI and it's cool, but 386 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:39,280 it's not as good and as far fetched as we thought it would 387 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:40,680 be. Like we're not just sort of 388 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:43,880 having full on conversations with AI now to make buying 389 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:45,840 decisions. It's it's supporting some of the 390 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:49,080 research and maybe the place to find something that people 391 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:50,760 traditionally are still, you know, they're looking at the 392 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:52,960 retail sales over Black Friday and it's Christmas. 393 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:55,600 People are still going to shops and purchasing products. 394 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,280 When you physically go into a shop, there's not much AI there, 395 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:00,120 is there? If if anything, there's none. 396 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:04,359 So that AI bubble might be about to burst coming into 2026. 397 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:08,560 There's laws and tax probably coming on AI. 398 00:17:08,599 --> 00:17:10,599 So AI is probably going to get more expensive and it's going to 399 00:17:10,599 --> 00:17:12,599 get more complicated and more restrictive about how you can 400 00:17:12,599 --> 00:17:14,480 use it. I'll give you an example, and 401 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,119 this is this feels inevitable. I'm not saying it is coming. 402 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:20,160 I've not seen anything saying this coming, but it feels to me 403 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:21,880 like it's inevitable. This happens with every new 404 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,800 piece of technology or new methodology or new products. 405 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:27,599 It's hardware, software that come come out and people start 406 00:17:27,599 --> 00:17:30,840 using it starts off and it's all a lovely big frenzy and everyone 407 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:33,640 gets all very excited about it and a warm fuzzy feeling in 408 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:37,360 their, in their tummies. And then people abuse it and 409 00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:39,280 find actually there's loads of holes in it and it causes loads 410 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:40,520 of issues. You think about when credit 411 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:42,640 cards first came out, like it was like, wow, you can just 412 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:45,280 spend money and pay it all back later and suddenly people ran up 413 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:47,000 loads and loads of debt. There was loads of fraud going 414 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:50,080 on and other stuff. So this feels inevitable. 415 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,000 I, I think the best example to give actually is about, I think 416 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:55,960 they're called deep fakes where people can just take your face, 417 00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:58,760 put it on anything they want. And there's been some horrific 418 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,280 things made actually. And it's really, really sad to 419 00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:03,400 see. And so some of that is already 420 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,240 illegal and was illegal, but I can see more laws coming along. 421 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:09,960 The problem is I always find that the lawmakers in most 422 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:13,360 governments, they make a law to try and protect consumers or 423 00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:15,600 people about something. And we can see, see this with 424 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:17,960 all the cookie laws and GDPR and things that have come out across 425 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:20,760 across the EU and UK. And I know the US have adopted a 426 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:22,800 lot of that as well. They've come out to try and 427 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:25,640 protect consumers. What they've actually done as a 428 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:29,080 as a kind of downside of this, whilst consumers have been a bit 429 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:32,440 more protected, it's been really hard for the governments and 430 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:35,400 regulators to actually regulate that people are following the 431 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:36,800 rules. And the second thing is it's 432 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:39,840 massively restricted trade. It's meant that actually just 433 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,080 just to have a website and have people put their e-mail address 434 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:44,960 in to order something. Even if you've got the best will 435 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:47,680 in the world of keeping that data safe, you now have to pay 436 00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:51,080 more money and have cheques and use certified systems and 437 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:53,840 everything else to even just just trade as a business. 438 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:56,360 It's made trading as a business more expensive, more 439 00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:58,160 complicated. And that's lead to things like 440 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:00,480 inflation and things getting more expensive. 441 00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:03,280 So it feels like that's coming to AI and I think some of it 442 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:05,520 will be positive and some of it swipes from a grumpy list would 443 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,760 probably be negative. There's another one that is 444 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,200 really interesting. I've been keeping not a real 445 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:11,680 close eye, but a little bit of an eye on this. 446 00:19:12,360 --> 00:19:16,720 AI is blooming expensive to provide AI because it uses so 447 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:18,840 much server capacity. So even when you're playing 448 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:22,280 about on ChatGPT or Grok or something for free, one of the 449 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:24,920 craziest things I find is actually the amount of servers 450 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:28,000 that need to get used for that. And there's stories of places 451 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,400 running out of water because they're using so much water 452 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,280 trying to cool the servers down there. 453 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:35,120 There's at least one, possibly two data centres. 454 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:38,320 I I know of two, but I think one of them I probably opened 455 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:40,080 already. There's two data centres in the 456 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,840 UK ready to run and have servers in for AI. 457 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:46,400 But the, the grid in the UK, the electricity grid can't provide 458 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:49,280 enough electricity to them. So there's a whole data centre 459 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:51,280 sitting there of all the equipment waiting to be turned 460 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:52,840 on. And they actually think all the 461 00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:55,080 computers will be, I think one one of them is, is run by 462 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:57,320 Google. The computers will actually be 463 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:00,080 old and need replacing before there's enough power for the the 464 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:02,840 thing to fully come online. Bits of it are online and you're 465 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:05,880 like, OK with the world actually has a resource problem to try 466 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:09,080 and resource enough for AI. It's a bit like batteries for 467 00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:12,000 electric cars. There's only so much lithium in 468 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,360 the world, so they're having to try and find other things to 469 00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:17,320 make batteries out of. Anyway, that's my grumpy list. 470 00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:20,120 I feel like there's a lot against us in the world at the 471 00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:21,880 moment. Us e-commerce people and 472 00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:26,200 marketing people, however. However, however, I am 473 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,160 optimistic and the reason I'm optimistic is I started working 474 00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:33,920 in this industry in 2007, maybe 2008. 475 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:36,160 It was a long time ago. Now I'm a little bit older than 476 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,040 I look, although I'm looking more old now. 477 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:39,600 I've got a baby because I don't sleep as much. 478 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:43,360 But when we started out, it was the financial crash and 479 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:45,280 businesses were going under left, right and centre. 480 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:49,000 And there's me starting out as a little PPC executive managing 481 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,440 PPC accounts on Google Ads long before Shopify and other things 482 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,440 that come out. And but then I went through 483 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:58,080 there was another kind of economic slowdown as well. 484 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:00,720 We had a thing in the UK called austerity, which is where we 485 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,560 basically cut public spending and increase tax a bit. 486 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:05,240 And taxes have just kept increasing since. 487 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:08,240 And then I also went through obviously COVID, which was 488 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,080 recently. And now we're going through this 489 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:13,640 kind of economic slowdown, which for lots of reasons, I won't get 490 00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:15,840 in some today because I'm not an economist and I'm probably not 491 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:16,960 qualified to comment on these things. 492 00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:19,200 But there's been a lot of those things. 493 00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:21,840 And actually I'm optimistic, which might sound bizarre 494 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:23,960 because I've just gone through my grumpy list, but I'm 495 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:26,760 optimistic because the hard times always result in things 496 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:29,360 like, and I've got a little list of made here, innovation, 497 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,080 efficiency. And actually businesses have to 498 00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:36,880 work harder to get through, which means all the bad 499 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:39,280 businesses that probably were kind of, you know, running on a 500 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:41,760 bit of a whim anyway. They can't make profit anymore 501 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,160 and they die. Those companies, they fall apart 502 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:46,440 and get liquidated or go into ministration and then go under. 503 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,880 And whilst that's sad, it could be really, really painful for 504 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,360 the staff and other stuff. And we've had clients go under 505 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:54,280 in the past and it's, it's scary. 506 00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:56,200 You know, we had, we had one go under that we pitched here. 507 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:57,760 We won the contract. We're about a week away from 508 00:21:57,760 --> 00:21:59,160 starting. And I got a phone call saying, 509 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:01,480 hey, I've just left. I've just been told I'm not 510 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:03,240 getting paid, nor is anyone else in the business. 511 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:05,320 They've got stores all up and down the UK. 512 00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:06,520 And we're just, we're going under. 513 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:08,280 We've got nothing. So we won't be doing this 514 00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:09,560 contract. Thank you very much. 515 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,080 I was really sad. Like I know all those people 516 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:15,240 suddenly are unemployed. Whilst that's sad, the ones that 517 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:17,960 prevail become stronger because they've had to weather 518 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,360 themselves through the storm, they've had to become more 519 00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:22,760 efficient, they've had to cut where they're wasting money. 520 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,480 They've had to tell their staff, right, we need to be X percent 521 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:27,520 more efficient, more profitable this year. 522 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:29,920 And we're going to, we're going to grow through this thing. 523 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:32,760 And actually the more competitors go under and I've 524 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,000 been watching how many other SEOPPC agencies, my competitors 525 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:38,120 go under. Whenever one goes under, I, I 526 00:22:38,120 --> 00:22:40,320 start phoning up all the clients and saying, hey, you've probably 527 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:41,960 seen the news, your agencies just gone under. 528 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:44,840 Do you fancy chat actually needs some more work for us. 529 00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:49,840 And we found we're a small team of nearly 20 people and we got 530 00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,160 one of the biggest podcasts about e-commerce in the world, 531 00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:54,480 which is incredible. And we work with some amazing 532 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:56,160 brands. And actually some big brands 533 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,320 have been downsizing save agency fees, but we're we're more than 534 00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,640 competent to take on a big global brand. 535 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:03,800 It's a bigger risk for them working with a small agency than 536 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:06,280 it is with a big one. But it also, you know, with a 537 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:08,440 bigger risk comes a lower fee working with us. 538 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:11,160 So there will be opportunities in this. 539 00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,040 Then this also when we look at AI and productivity as as an 540 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:19,000 economic and physical term about how productive businesses are 541 00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,160 and teams are. When you look at this kind of 542 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:24,200 what I call labour versus technology arm wrestle. 543 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,640 This isn't the first one, is it? Like we shut all our coal mines 544 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,400 in the UK in the 70s and it caused I've wouldn't live them. 545 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:33,360 I've read about it and watched many, many documentaries about 546 00:23:33,360 --> 00:23:36,480 it because I find it fascinating and my parents have told me lots 547 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:37,920 about it. And so have other people that 548 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:39,480 that lived through it or worked through it. 549 00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:42,440 We shut all our coal mines, our steel mills and everyone's like, 550 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:46,200 you know, it's cheaper to import stuff now and technologies 551 00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:48,400 replacing our jobs. Where I used to stand there, 552 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:50,680 throw in a pickaxe at a coalface, they've now got a 553 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,160 machine somewhere else in the world and then it brings all the 554 00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:56,120 coal here on the ship and that's cheaper for the UK to get its 555 00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:58,280 coal than it is for us to to mine it ourselves. 556 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:02,280 The reality is we've never had, I mean, it's slightly different 557 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:04,920 in the last 12 months, you know, all political reasons, I won't 558 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,280 get into it today, but generally speaking, the more technologies 559 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:10,520 advanced, the more people we've needed because things have been 560 00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:13,240 moving faster, which creates innovation and technology 561 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,200 growth, which creates more profits in those more profitable 562 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:18,760 businesses to then hire more people and grow faster. 563 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:22,080 So actually this labour technology arm wrestle when 564 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:23,320 people say, oh, we're all going to lose our jobs. 565 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:25,520 It's awful if people can reskill. 566 00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:28,000 And I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but 567 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,240 if people, if people can reskill and actually get into other 568 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,240 similar industries and, and, and ways of doing things, then 569 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,120 actually there's some real opportunity right now. 570 00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,960 Say if I was, if I was sitting there going, I'm nervous my 571 00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:40,880 company's going to go under work from I'm going to lose my job. 572 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,200 I'd be on, I'd be on every possible audio book I could, 573 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,480 listening, training up, learning new stuff, looking at what's 574 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,000 going on the industry, finding out who else has gone from a job 575 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,360 like mine into another job. Like, what other job are they 576 00:24:53,360 --> 00:24:56,360 doing right now? There are some things as well to 577 00:24:56,360 --> 00:24:58,240 be excited about this year. And then we're going to close 578 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,960 with Quivia, which is a question about trivia, which yeah, I 579 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:03,440 made-up that word. I'm very, very excited. 580 00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:05,920 One of my highlights, 25 coming with that because I'm not very 581 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:07,200 creative person, I'm much more out. 582 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:09,040 Show me the data, I'll show where it's wrong and show what 583 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:11,720 we need to do. And creative banners are, sorry, 584 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:14,760 not creative cookie banners. Cookie banners are changing in 585 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,200 the UK and the US is probably going to follow suit. 586 00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:19,640 I've been saying for a while that we can get rid of cookie 587 00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,080 banners in the UK. There are a few ifs and buts on 588 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,120 that, a few TS and CSI. Am probably going to do a little 589 00:25:25,120 --> 00:25:26,720 snippet on that in the next couple of weeks. 590 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:29,880 The DMA, which I think is the Direct Marketing Association, 591 00:25:30,120 --> 00:25:32,880 the DMA are sending me a few bits and pieces to read out on 592 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:34,520 the show for free, which is amazing because they're the ones 593 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:38,120 that have been lobbying the UK government for, for, for 594 00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:39,480 changing things. That's going to be cool. 595 00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,240 So we might better get rid of cookie banners, which are, which 596 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,600 means we're going to get much better data into GA 4, which 597 00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:46,760 means we make better decisions. We can grow businesses faster. 598 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:49,600 And naturally, again, it could be loads of brands that don't 599 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:51,680 remove the cookie banner or they'd leave it on or they don't 600 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:53,240 act quickly enough. I'm not. 601 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:54,360 Again, I'm not saying you can take it off. 602 00:25:54,360 --> 00:25:55,840 I'm going to talk about that in a bit more detail. 603 00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:58,160 But there are ways we can now have more data. 604 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:01,040 And if you are one of those brands that takes 612 or even 605 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:04,720 2-3 years, 612 months or two, 2-3 years to, to actually make 606 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:07,440 that change, then your loss. Because all of our clients are 607 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:09,400 going to have a conversation with us in January about getting 608 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:11,680 rid of it. And AI for advertising and 609 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:13,320 marketing, I think is really exciting. 610 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,440 I mentioned about AI, video ads keep getting better and better. 611 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,160 There's so much new tech. There's loads of new ways of 612 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:19,800 doing stuff, stuff. There's never been more things 613 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,160 to test and to do tests you need people. 614 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,480 So going back to that, what I call the labour, labour and tech 615 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,760 arm wrestle, where technology and people skills and time, 616 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:32,640 which is the labour bit and labour and tech are having this 617 00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:35,240 arm wrestle. Actually, we need more people to 618 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:36,400 be testing stuff. Right now. 619 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:40,560 I'm super excited about two things on ChatGPT and I know 620 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,240 other AI bots will follow suit. ChatGPT is clearly the biggest 621 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:47,200 and I'm interested to see how ChatGPT merchants takes place. 622 00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:50,120 If you're in the US, you should get on that as fast as possible. 623 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:52,760 I think it's in beta in the US. It's going to come to the UK as 624 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:54,760 reading room. It's all rumours in hearsay with 625 00:26:54,880 --> 00:26:56,320 AI. One thing I hate about it, I 626 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:57,880 like facts. I like to know things going to 627 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:01,320 change. But the ChatGPT merchants are 628 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:03,840 where somebody can have their credit card, almost Apple Pay or 629 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:07,800 Shop Pay stored in ChatGPT. ChatGPT will recommend a product 630 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:10,160 and you can click 1 button and it's already got your address, 631 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:12,520 got your credit card details and you've bought that product and 632 00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:14,960 it's on its way. So you can shop literally like 633 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,360 in TikTok shop, you could shop products within ChatGPT. 634 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:21,240 I think it's genius. Whoever at ChatGPT has come up 635 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,680 with that deserves A knighthood, absolute genius. 636 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:26,720 And the second thing as well with ChatGPT is they're going to 637 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:28,520 release advertising on it at some point. 638 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:32,000 That merchant platform is clearly step one to basically 639 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,760 having Google shopping within ChatGPT, which my PPC team are 640 00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:38,280 very, very excited to be getting their hands dirty with that in 641 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:40,160 January, February, March of this year. 642 00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:44,080 And finally, there are loads of and I called the winning with 643 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:46,760 Shopify podcast, but please don't shoot me for saying this 644 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:49,760 when I this is going to be a non Shopify related piece of news. 645 00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,080 There are loads of new e-commerce platforms emerging 646 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:54,000 all over the world. There are quite a few that we've 647 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:55,920 been playing with. There are a few that used to 648 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:59,200 just be like WordPress alternatives where it's like you 649 00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:01,400 can plug in a kind of e-commerce arm. 650 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:04,440 There is some really exciting e-commerce platforms at the 651 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,120 moment that are like, for example, writing all of your 652 00:28:07,120 --> 00:28:09,480 product data automatically as soon as you add a product for 653 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:10,800 you. I know Shopify does some of 654 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:12,120 that. There are some exciting 655 00:28:12,120 --> 00:28:14,880 platforms coming out and actually 1 of Shopify's biggest 656 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,640 drawbacks for some of the big bigger brands that we work with 657 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:19,920 is the fact that it is all locked within Shopify's. 658 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:23,440 You can't access the servers, which means innovation often 659 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:27,080 relies on Shopify or Shopify app innovating rather than you being 660 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,520 able to customise stuff yourselves, make a lot of 661 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,200 workarounds to make that work. Whereas if you've got a Shopify, 662 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,920 a system like Shopify, but it's on your own server, you can 663 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,760 access every single file and function and piece of code and 664 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:41,840 all the scripts and everything. So you can modify whatever you 665 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,680 need to within it. So there are pros and cons of 666 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:47,240 both, believe me. And I think actually in not 667 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:49,600 having access to that is often the biggest blessing, even 668 00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:51,320 though it feels like a curse to a lot of people. 669 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:55,560 Anyway, let's talk Quivia. On average, this is the first 670 00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:57,080 bit of Quivia. Then I have a quick sip of water 671 00:28:57,080 --> 00:28:58,480 because I haven't drunk any at all. 672 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,400 It's my New Year's resolution. I haven't drunk any since we 673 00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:02,440 clicked record, what, nearly 30 minutes ago? 674 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:07,720 And on average, how many loyalty programs is each consumer from a 675 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:09,640 recent study? Study part of? 676 00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:17,760 How many loyalty programs is each consumer Part of it is 10. 677 00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:20,640 So let's master this this year, please. 678 00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:23,320 If you don't have a loyalty program, it's one of the best 679 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:25,640 ways to get people to come back. 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th time. 680 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,520 And actually some of the loyalty programs I'm involved in or our 681 00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:30,920 clients involved in as a consumer or our clients actually 682 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:34,280 run, they don't give monetary discounts, they don't give money 683 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:36,760 off, they don't give vouchers, they don't give cash back. 684 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,800 They have other benefits. So actually you can make more 685 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,200 money by adding people in some sort of exclusive club. 686 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:45,360 So what can we do that makes, what can we do better this year 687 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,160 that makes people remember us better? 688 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:52,120 And the second and final thing from me is which company does 689 00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:55,360 not do marketing? And if, if you honestly, if you 690 00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:57,160 can get this, I will send you a free cup. 691 00:29:57,160 --> 00:29:59,800 So be honest with me, send me an e-mail and say, Nick, I did get 692 00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:01,320 this. I knew this, I've read this fact 693 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:03,000 before. Which brand? 694 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:05,880 And he said, I, I, I don't know if they have, they must have it 695 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,160 in the US. They must anyway, I've got 696 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:09,960 cupboards full of the stuff here in the UK. 697 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:14,880 The company, which does not do any marketing and grows every 698 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:19,200 year, was launched in the early days of the sorry, even in its 699 00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:21,720 early days in the 1950s when it first launched. 700 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,280 The company is Tupperware. So if you don't have Tupperware 701 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:28,120 in your country, Tupperware they are, they're absolutely 702 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:30,040 brilliant. They're basically plastic boxes 703 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:33,280 and they have like a, they have different sizes matching lid and 704 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:35,520 you basically just store stuff, often food items, but you can 705 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:37,440 store pretty much anything in a Tupperware box. 706 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:41,000 But they launched in the 1950s. They've achieved great success 707 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,080 when virtually no traditional marketing strategy whatsoever. 708 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:47,560 It's it has its own website and social media profiles, but it 709 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:50,320 never relied on traditional marketing even when it first got 710 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,360 in the 1950s. They just made some good 711 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:54,320 products and the people that bought them said these are 712 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,120 fantastic products, going to tell everyone and let everyone 713 00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,320 buy them. That has been, I think, the 714 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:02,640 longest Tuesday tea break talks on a Thursday that we've ever 715 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:04,800 done. Thank you so much for last year, 716 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:06,560 everybody. I'm so excited about this year 717 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,200 and Tuesday. We're going to make a very, very 718 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:10,840 big announcement. And once we've announced it, we 719 00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:12,920 have to do it. So we're going to announce it on 720 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:14,560 Tuesday. And then I've got a lot of work 721 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:16,960 to do and possibly one or two people to hire as well to make 722 00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:18,440 it happen. So super exciting. 723 00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,640 I hope you guys have the most incredible new year. 724 00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:23,240 I hope you've had an amazing Christmas or whatever faith, 725 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:25,720 religion you, you are a part of. If you've just had a break or 726 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,280 you've been working, I hope everyone's an amazing time and 727 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:30,800 found some time to just take some time out and to chill out. 728 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:33,720 We'll be back again next week and our Friday episodes will 729 00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:35,080 restart next week as well, I believe. 730 00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:37,160 I haven't checked the diary because I'm currently off work. 731 00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,280 I'm just doing this quickly between between while the baby's 732 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,040 asleep. That's why I'm talking quietly. 733 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,640 So have an amazing year. If I don't hear from you, if 734 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,800 you've got any questions, we might actually share a couple of 735 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,800 those marketing plans or even just a template or framework. 736 00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:52,760 So if you want to copy that, just send a quick e-mail 737 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,680 hello@winningwishshopfight.com. We'll try and get back to you or 738 00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:58,520 send it to me nicknick@winningshopfight.com. 739 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:00,800 I really regretted last time I let my e-mail out on the show 740 00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:02,920 because I got over 20 emails and and I had to reply to all of 741 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:04,720 them. That's my policy and I get OCD 742 00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:07,360 when I got unread emails. Have an amazing day and we hope 743 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:08,920 you can join us and hit subscribe. 744 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:10,400 You have already. Thanks so much for tuning in.