How to Build a Customer Growth System With The FUEL Framework

# How to Build a Customer Growth System With The FUEL Framework

[00:00:00]

## Introduction: The Challenge of Rising Customer Acquisition CostsIntroduction: The Challenge of Rising Customer Acquisition Costs

**Matt Edmundson:** How to build a customer growth system that actually works even when paid media isn't.

What a great question that is. Um, I love these kind of questions because we all know people who have been affected by rising customer acquisition costs. And let's be real, I mean, we've probably got those battle scars ourselves as well.

Right? I've certainly got a few, um, like I, I,

I know a company that lost over 20 million in annual sales,

not because their products were rubbish, not because their market disappeared,

but simply because they built their entire business on a single customer acquisition channel.

## The Impact of iOS 14 and Facebook AdsThe Impact of iOS 14 and Facebook Ads

**Matt Edmundson:** And it was back in the time, do you remember it?

Uh, if you've been around a while, iOS 14 changed the rules. Facebook ads just became problematic to say the least. Cost climbed margins got super tight and what was [00:01:00] once a profitable channel became. For a lot of people actually, what I call a slow bleed. Now, a slow bleed is something that doesn't kill you quick because it doesn't look that serious at first.

And you just think, you know what? I just wait it out, everything's going to be fine. And because if you're like me, you're gonna suffer from that eternal blessing slash eternal curse of entrepreneurial optimism. Right. It just, it affects all of us, doesn't it? And you think if you just wait it out, it's gonna be fine.

Then it isn't, uh, and you've waited too long by this point. And the company is, is not in a good place. And in fact, that company actually was liquidated, uh, and sold to investors and the founders, uh, the ones with the sort of the drive and the passion and the care for all of that, they kind of lost everything.

And again, not because they lacked vision, but just simply because they were too connected to a single acquisition channel [00:02:00] for their new customers. Now if you are running an eCommerce business you will know actually that customer acquisition costs or cac as we like to say in eCommerce because we do like to have a three letter acronym for just about everything.

It seems, um, uh, a rising CAC course in England, CAC has a very different meaning. But there you go. Um, but yeah, cac, CAC is rising, uh, as they say. And we're all talking about it, aren't we? And so they've surged actually over the past few years. In fact, according to the data, um, that is before me, they've surged 222%.

222% is a nice repeating number. Not particularly easy to say but if you like pans, it's a good number. But obviously if you are paying for that, well that, that, then that's not so good. Is it really? Um, I think the average loss per new customer has grown from nine bucks in 2013 to [00:03:00] 29 in 2025. Google CPCs or cost per clicks, uh, are up almost 13% year over year and Facebook CPCs, where they're up 40% over the previous three years.

They are what we call scary numbers. Uh, and it seems that we have all been affected by rising acquisition costs.

## The Shift to Customer RetentionThe Shift to Customer Retention

**Matt Edmundson:** And it's one of those things that we do want to think about, which is why I thought this episode on the FUEL framework actually would be quite timely to help us with that because. I think what happens is when customer acquisition costs go up, there's a big swing and a shift over here to customer retention and we double down on retention.

Uh, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it, right? I mean, uh, from what is it typically less than a third of customers buy, again from most e-commerce businesses. So why would you waste time and money chasing sort of expensive new customers when you are losing ones that you already have and they're cheaper to [00:04:00] convert?

And there is definitely money to be made in there. Let me tell you. Absolutely there is. We've done it. We've done it many, many times. But the reality of the situation, and here's the thing, you need to sort of tattoo on the inside of your eyelids.

You still need new customers. you can't get away from that fact.

You know, think of it like a bathtub, right? I love the old bathtub analogy. It was taught to me for cash flow. But you can use it just for, which as well, for customers in that. Your taps coming in. Are your new customers your drain going out? Are customers not buying from you again? You have got to stay customer positive.

So how do we do that, Matthew?

## Introducing the FUEL FrameworkIntroducing the FUEL Framework

**Matt Edmundson:** Well, like I say, this is why I thought it'd be good to talk about the FUEL framework. Um, it's not a hack, it's not a shortcut. It's just my way of sort of describing a framework for digital marketing. Um. The, and, and more than that, actually more about a, an approach to customer growth that just sort of [00:05:00] doesn't rely on a single channel and doesn't assume that what worked yesterday is actually gonna work tomorrow.

And try not to leave us so vulnerable, you know, to all these platform changes with all the algorithm changes. So that's what we're gonna talk about. And before we get started, let me give you a few bits of information, which is really gonna help you if you're listening to this show.

## The Marketing Matrix and FUEL Framework BreakdownThe Marketing Matrix and FUEL Framework Breakdown

**Matt Edmundson:** Number one, let me talk to you about the marketing matrix.

Another beautiful phrase, isn't it? The marketing matrix, in effect, the way I think about digital marketing, there are eight areas. Of digital marketing that I'm really curious about. There may be more for your industry, there may be more for your business. You may think there are more than eight areas, and that is entirely fine for me.

Most of the time, most of the clients I have and for our own businesses. Eight is fine. I don't wanna get too complicated. So these eight areas of digital marketing, things like email, search, paid media, social, mobile, et cetera, et cetera. And then alongside [00:06:00] that we have the FUEL matrix. Um, so sorry, the FUEL framework.

So FUEL is foundations, unlock, elevate, and leapfrog.

We're gonna get into what all of these things mean. And so for me, FUELing marketing, which is what we want to do, is where we look at each of these areas. From FUEL in accordance with the eight areas of digital marketing. Now, if you do the math, that's 32 things to look at.

We are not doing that today. No. I'm gonna pick out certain areas, uh. Almost a bit like a shotgun approach right on this episode. So it's not my usual deep dive on one thing and focus in on that thing. Today I'm gonna go a bit more scatter gun and throw out quite a few things out there because I think every now and again, these type of episodes are really helpful because you're gonna get lots of ideas.

You're gonna get at least two or three because there's gonna be some stuff flying around. So my advice to you as we go through this episode is write them down. Now, if you're listening [00:07:00] to this while you're walking or you're in the car and you're not using the Snipped podcast play, which I also highly recommend 'cause you can just click a button and it, it sort of highlights those notes for you, which is really cool.

Then, uh, then obviously there's gonna be the blog post on the website, which you can get, and the blog post is gonna have more information in. It's gonna be, you know, we've got more space, haven't we, in the text. So we're gonna put more stuff in the blog post. But more importantly, there is a freebie that's gonna come with this episode, a download, which you can access for free.

And that in effect is this marketing matrix checklist. So what we've done is we've broken down the FUEL framework into eight areas. Under F eight areas, under unlock, eight areas under elevate, and eight areas under leapfrog. Right. And we've, we've listed some things which you need to think about in those areas.

So in total there's a checklist of about a hundred, 910 items, I think. [00:08:00] Um, which is really gonna deep dive Okay. Into some of these things that we're gonna talk about. It's gonna take you down lots of rabbit trails. So I highly recommend you get that checklist. It's a really good place to start doing a sort of a marketing audit for your company in terms of where you are at.

In that document. I also outline how I score, um, so how I score on each of the element, on each of the elements in the checklist. I like to give a score, a sort of a score of where we are. Where we need to be in this industry, and then obviously what the gap is, which then gives us our biggest opportunities.

Um, so I outline how to do that and I outline how to then choose from those opportunities. Using my favorite coaching questions. How do identify the top two or three things that are gonna work for you? Okay. So I hope that makes sense. So I'm not being deliberately scatty in this episode. Like, I dunno what I'm talking about.

You could argue, um, [00:09:00] I'm, I'm very intentionally gonna give lots of different. Pieces of information. Hopefully that's gonna spark some juices for you. Like I said, write things down. There's always a blog post and definitely get hold of that checklist. Go download that from the eCommerce Podcast dot net website.

Go to the resources section, which is in the top nav, and click on the FUEL checklist download that is totally free. And go through that. Either just by yourself, if it's your own company, or you can obviously bring your team in and go through that. Go through the scoring system and see where your biggest opportunities are.

I hope that makes sense. Okay. So let's dig into it.

## Foundation: Building Your Unshakeable BaseFoundation: Building Your Unshakeable Base

**Matt Edmundson:** F stands for foundation. Build Your Unshakeable Base that powers every Future Growth Burst.

in other words, there's an old song which comes into my head. An old Sunday school song about a wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish [00:10:00] man who built his house upon the sand in effect.

That's what we're talking about here. And I, if you, I'm sorry if you've now got that tune stuck in your head. If you have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm sure on YouTube there will be somebody singing that song. But in essence, uh, and you should go listen to it. 'cause then you'll have the tune stuck in your head as well.

Right. But this is what we're talking about. We're talking about foundations. And I think it's easy to switch off, isn't it, when we start talking about foundations, because especially if you've been around. For a little while and you think, oh, we started to do all right here, ma, don't need to talk about foundations.

I need something that's a bit more advanced. Please say, if you don't mind. Well, one, we're gonna get to that and two, I think the same way. So I follow you completely. It is, it is. Let's be real though. That is what we call hubris, isn't it? And so I'd like to listen to these kind of things about foundations.

Because it serves for me as a bit of a, an audit, a bit of a checklist, just to make sure we're still, you know, vibing because things move and change a [00:11:00] lot. So all of that said, what do I think you should think about in the foundational section?

First, I think you should start with email. Absolutely. You should start with email.

because I think if you think about it, email generates what, 30 to 40% of revenue for most e-commerce businesses. A third of your income comes from email. So it pays to absolutely get this right now. Why am I mentioning it? Well, let's just say. When I have purchased from some eCommerce sites over recent weeks and months, I dunno if you do what I do, but every time you purchase of an eCommerce website.

Screen, record it and talk out loud while you're doing it. Uh, whether it's on your mobile or whether it's on a desktop. What do you see? What are you thinking? What are you feeling? It's the best way to learn about e-commerce. And you get to buy stuff as well and as if it's cool stuff. That's awesome.

Right? But what I've noticed with my recent research, let's call my buying habits research 'cause it sounds so much better with my recent [00:12:00] research. A lot of, a lot of generic emails are coming into my inbox, chaps, uh, that's what I'm gonna say, right? So if you're using the same generic templates that come with your e-commerce platform like Shopify, I think you need your knuckles wrap in a little bit and you wanna look at those.

Now, I would strongly recommend also listening if you haven't heard it. Uh, listen to the episode a few weeks ago with Ken Rapp from Blue Stream. He talked about this, and actually I really loved his idea. One thing that stood out to me, this rule about not sending any coupons or any review requests in the first five messages.

Um, just deliver value and help customers succeed with their purchase. I thought that was genius. Um, because you're building trust. You are building longevity. And this is something my good friend George Bryant, who's also been on the show, talked about with his Apple email sequences, another episode. I strongly recommend you listen to.

Because that has, has been great for us actually, the whole Apple thing. In fact, we spent going off piece a little bit here. [00:13:00] We spent two hours with George after that podcast. Me and the marketing team, just going through his framework, absolute gold. Love, love, love that. So, I think Foundation was obviously getting the email sent out, but actually.

It's getting the email sent out in a non-generic way, in a way that makes sense for your customers in a way that's gonna build a good customer relationship. Uh, think about the customers leaving, right? This is what we're trying to stop. The other area I think you need to look at is referrals Now. Referral marketing, your referral engine, whatever you want to call it.

Referral customers, uh, or referred customers, should I say, have a, just looking at my notes here, 16 to 24%. They are 16 to 24% more loyal. Then customers acquired through other channels that's pretty high. They have a 16% higher lifetime value, and their acquisition costs are about 17 bucks less than non referred customers.

So it doesn't matter which way you cut [00:14:00] this cake. Referred customers are awesome. and when we're talking about lowering customer acquisition costs. Definitely think about referred customers because making your best customers your best marketing force, that is a stroke of genius every way you could it.

So how's your referral marketing doing? And if your referral marketing is just you having a referral, a friend campaign on your website and get 10 bucks off. I'm gonna say maybe you'd get away with that in foundations, but I think we, we've got moved beyond that now, guys, actually. And, and so digging into that and thinking what is gonna work for your customers, I think is gonna be super, super helpful for you.

Uh, also look at your customer experience. I'm going to regale you with a story. And I think I've told this before on EP I, and forgive me if I have, because I can't genuinely can't [00:15:00] remember what I've said where, 'cause I speak so much all over the place. But a few months ago, I was in my favorite coffee shop.

Shout out to Beynon, uh, in Liverpool. One. I was in Beynon earlier this year. Really? Like Beynon John, the guy that owns it. Great guy. Known him for years. So I had a bit of an epiphany actually, when I was in that coffee shop. I don't get many of those. I'm not gonna lie. I had to lie down. I almost called the doctor.

Oh, here I am laughing at my own jokes. Go mats. Now here's what I, here's what my epiphany was about. Well, I noticed, right? For me, the experience. Was brilliant right up until the point I paid. It was great and they did a good job of making me feel really happy to give them my money. Okay, for overpriced coffee.

Um, not that beans overpriced, but every coffee shop I think is overpriced, but that's another story. And if you own a coffee shop, please don't write to me and tell me while I'm wrong, feel the freedom. I [00:16:00] might not read it. Everything was brilliant and I was happy to give my money, happy to do it right, but then once I paid, the experience went from being brilliant to maybe not so brilliant.

Right. Now, what happened was. Uh, and if you've ever been in a coffee shop, you'll know exactly what happened to me because I'm sure it's happened to you, right? I stood there with a bunch of other people not knowing where to position myself. Where do I stand if I, am I pushing in? If I go stand between those two people, I don't know.

I, what's the etiquette here? And I couldn't listen to my music just in case they called my name. There was no bench to sit on. So I had stand up, no defined system that I could figure out. Just me standing there in awkward silence, like, you know, waiting for, for a treat for my good behavior somehow. And maybe like say you've noticed the same thing in a coffee shop, but whilst I was stood there feeling slightly awkward thinking, what's going on here?

I started thinking. Well, there's 25 different ways to [00:17:00] solve this, to make this better. But then I started to think, well actually, am I doing the same thing in my own e-commerce businesses? And you see, I think as entrepreneurs as. In business, certainly in e-commerce, we obsess over the journey to checkout.

I mean, we obsess over that. We ab test button colors, we track every, every click. We're subscribed to Hotjar and every other system out there, which tells me what's going on. Uh, we look at optimizing landing pages, we are doing all the things that we know to do, and that's good, and that's very good. In fact, and I'm not telling you not to do that.

But as well as doing that we should also carry that same rigorous desire to do well the moment somebody buys from us. Right. Because that's really important.

What happens when somebody buys from you on your website? Do you forget about them? Or worse, do you send them to a [00:18:00] page which says, please give us a review before you leave?

Oh, dear Lord, have mercy. Those things make me laugh. I've not even got my order and you're asking for a review anyway. That's little pet peeve of mine. Let's move on. Um, so. What happens, uh, after they buy now? Uh, click buy Now. That for me, is foundational. I'm really thinking that through every single touch point.

What, what can you do to make that experience better? Again, all helps with referred customers. All helps with repeat customers. I mean, it's a win-win, right? Now,

I would say with e-commerce that the gap between acquisition and loyalty is where most brands lose the game.

Okay. That gap between acquisition and loyalty and building, um, building in that makes a lot of sense.

It helps with your acquisition, it helps with your retention as well. And like I say. A bit of a scatter gun thrown out some ideas. Some of them are gonna stick, some of them are not gonna stick. We've got a [00:19:00] bunch more to come. Like I say, do get that freebie, get that checklist, that free PDF download because that deep dives into everything, you know?

And it's pretty comprehensive actually. I'm, you know, I'm pretty pleased with that checklist. It's a good starting point. Uh, and it's gonna really give you some insight into your marketing.

## Unlock: Expanding Beyond the BasicsUnlock: Expanding Beyond the Basics

**Matt Edmundson:** F foundation, U in the FUEL framework stands for unlock.

Now I'm a big fan of getting the foundations right.

Everyone, including me, looks for the tactics and the tricks, the silver bullets, the shortcuts, because that's what we want. But do not do that at the expense of building foundations. I've seen too many people shortcut this guys and it never. Ends well with those, with the exception of those rarities that then go and do a YouTube video about it.

But for most folk, most of the time it doesn't end well. Once you have your foundations in place, I then think you can start to devote about five to 10% of your marketing resources. To, to this idea of unlocking, [00:20:00] unlocking some of the other channels. Now we're not necessarily expend experimenting too much here.

We're starting to unlock channels beyond the, the key critical ones for us. Okay. And I think I, I thought, when I was thinking about this, I thought, well, let's go through a few, a few ideas that I think still work really well, but often slip under the radar. And so I thought that'd be worth talking about.

## Strategic Partnerships: A Hidden GemStrategic Partnerships: A Hidden Gem

**Matt Edmundson:** The first one being strategic partnerships. Now I get that people feel nervous at the mention of phrases like strategic partnerships 'cause there's a million ways that this can go wrong. And we've had guests on the show talking about it. I'm thinking people like Scott Overbeck, he talked about it.

Really great stuff, what he's doing. And it's worth investigating because I think almost three quarters of companies that do strategic partnerships. I'm just going through my brain. Yes.

Three quarters of companies, that do strategic partnerships report lower customer acquisition costs.

I mean, that's pretty high.

So these strategic [00:21:00] partnerships do lower your cost of acquisition, and I think there's a number of reasons why. Now, if you know me. If you've been around for a while, you may well know that IF I'm, I'm a bit of a fan of Through Doc, which is a clothing company. They're not a particularly cheap clothing company, but they're an interesting clothing company.

I won't bore you with a story as to why I think that, but that, you know, I, I've sort of got into them over the years. In fact, I'm wearing a through dock shirt now. Shout out to through Doc. I should probably get an affiliate link. Anyway, I, I think they're actually doing some quite interesting things online, um, especially for a clothing brand, and so I.

I, I, I study them. If you're listening to the show, you just didn't, you, rather than watching, you would not have seen me put study in quotes. This is me again, shopping online, doing my research. But I, I, I'm intrigued by what they're doing actually, and some, I, I'm, I'm not a, a clothing expert, but I'm intrigued by what they do on their site, and they sent me an [00:22:00] email.

Uh, a while ago now about a partnership they were doing with Elliot Brown, which is a UK watchmaker. And I'd never heard of them actually before. To cut a long story short, I ended up buying one of the Elliot Brown watches as a result of that email. Now, would I have done. That if I'd have just seen Elliot Brown ads, maybe, maybe not, I don't know.

But one of the reasons why I think strategic partnerships work super well is you borrow the credibility of the person referring you. Or the company referring you. So Elliot Brown, I didn't know, but I knew through Doc. And so Elliot Brown all of a sudden had the same credibility as through Doc, which ended like, like I said, I, I ended up buying the watch and I'm an Elliot Brown customer now, and I've recommended those watches to a lot of people.

I really like 'em. I think they're great watches, great value. Um, and so strategic partnerships work fundamentally. And it's definitely worth having to think about that. Who could you partner with? Not necessarily a competitor, [00:23:00] but someone in the same sort of genre or space as you someone in the same, we like to say vertical, don't we?

Someone in the same vertical, someone in the same horizontal, these different phraseologies, whatever works for you. Um, could you do a strategic partnership, um, always worth looking at and dig into that a little bit more.

## Amplifying Content for eCommerceAmplifying Content for eCommerce

**Matt Edmundson:** So the second area here I think is gonna, I, I want to touch on is content and specifically amplifying content.

So I love this strategy as you may or may not have picked up. Uh, I use it all the time. Okay. So the eCommerce Podcast, the show that you are listening to or watching is part of our. FUEL marketing. It's part of our strategy to amplify what we're doing out to the big world. Right. And I get that. I mean, you'll be like, well, Matt, that's great for you and your eCommerce services business, but I run an eCommerce business.

Um, that surely podcasts don't work well. Actually, I think I probably should do an episode one day and how to do podcasts really well for your eCommerce site. We'll do that next year. But I think actually. [00:24:00] Content itself works super well with eCommerce sites, whether that's, um, through blog posts, whether that's through, works super well with email, geez, educational email.

Oh yes, that's a really beautiful thing. But what you can do is you can take a single piece of content, like I take this podcast. So I've got the audio, which becomes the podcast. I've got the video, which becomes YouTube content. I've got the written format, which becomes a blog post. We can create social media reels off the back of it.

We've got multiple emails I could put in. You know, it helps us with our email newsletter. There's all kinds of ways that I can use this content, that could have high intent search keywords in there, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, I'm such a big fan of this to the point now where we have just built a studio.

A three person studio in Nottingham, um, which is where a bunch of our products manufactured. And we've spent two or three days [00:25:00] shooting down there recently, which was just fantastic. I'm thinking of redoing our studio here in Liverpool. I've got this studio, which I'm recording at home at the moment which is great.

We are investing heavily into our studios. Lemme just put it that way because for us, actually, it's a proven idea that works. Now, I'm not saying you should do the same thing. I'm genuinely not saying that at all. I'm just saying it's been proven to us that this form of content creation works well for us.

Whether it's a video, whether it's a podcast, whether it's a studio, whatever it is, whatever makes sense for you. I think putting out content out there and keeping that content engine flowing and doing it well, makes all the sense in the world. Now, I appreciate there's a lot of thinking that has to go around that, um, a lot.

In fact, we've just done an episode, haven't we, about YouTube videos in e-commerce, which was really, really good. And so. Think about your content, think about what's going [00:26:00] on there. How can you use content strategically? Um, because I think everybody can, I think, I think there's always opportunity there.

## Building Trust Through Community EngagementBuilding Trust Through Community Engagement

**Matt Edmundson:** The third area I think you should have a look at is what some people call community seeding. I call it gorilla marketing, which I think is much better. Uh, there's a company, for example, called Beard Brands that I came across, um, and they grew not by, um. Or not just by paid media, but they grew by engaging, not promoting, but by engaging with customers in the beard subreddit.

The founder basically went on there, started answering questions, started offering advice didn't drop any links, just did that sort of authentic. Participation thing. And that built trust, which eventually converts to sales, right? No. Like trust is a big part of, of selling. And so, you can do that with that whole idea of like figuring out where [00:27:00] your customers are.

Like are they on, um, Reddit, are they on Instagram? Where are they, what groups are they in that you can go and connect with? Not to sell, but just to become someone who's really, really helpful. Right? And go and do that. Now, the goal here with Unlock is diversification. Sorry, just throw my mouse across the table is diversification, right?

So when one channel becomes expensive or stops working, your entire business doesn't collapse. Okay? It just keeps growing and growing and growing.

So foundations. Unlock. E stands for Elevate.

## Elevate: Advanced Segmentation and PersonalizationElevate: Advanced Segmentation and Personalization

**Matt Edmundson:** And this is where, uh, to quote Jim Collins, good becomes great. And if you've not read the book, do so. It's a great book from Good to Great.

Now what we're doing here is we're looking at all the levers that are gonna bring in new customers to our business, and we're gonna try and crank those bad boys up, right? We're gonna try and [00:28:00] make it so that we're getting. More new customers in, we we're becoming more efficient in what's going on. So how do we do things like that?

Well, I think one area that I've seen has a big impact on a lot of e-comm businesses is advanced segmentation. This idea that when you reach a certain level if you've got five customers, it doesn't really matter too much, but you know, when you're starting to get thousands of customers. Um, a advanced segmentation starts to become more and more important because not all customers are the same.

Not all customers are equal, so treating them as all the same, I think, leaves money on the table. And you can segment by what makes sense for you in your business, whether that's by purchase frequency, by category, affinity, churn, risk, whatever it is. Okay. Um, you can segment by that. I'm a big fan of something called RFM Segmentation recency frequency and monetary value is what [00:29:00] RFM stands for.

I'm a, I'm a pretty big fan of that, and that's where you track customers in those three channels. How recently did they buy? What's their average order frequency or average order count? Is. As we like to call it, which is in effect, how often does somebody buy from you in a 12 month period? And if I can increase that, I'm doing well.

And then average order value is your monetary value, right? So what's the worth of that customer? How often do they buy from me and when was the last time they bought from me? I'm ranking customers in those three areas. Gives you some really interesting insight on your customers. If you wanna know more about that, I'm gonna recommend you check out an episode that I recorded with Valentin Radu.

Now it is actually episode number 80, so it's going back a while. But what we talked about still stands and it stands really, really well. Um, I learned a lot actually from Valentine as a result of that episode and connecting him with him. That I'm really grateful for. And so do go check that out if you wanna know more [00:30:00] about RFM segmentation specifically.

But I would recommend that you, you do segment in a way that makes sense for your business and finding a way that makes sense for your business and just not treating all your customers the same, because they're all very, very different. So, you know, totally use that. Right. Uh, another area to think about.

I'm a big fan of this Personalisation. Now Personalisation is a big thing at the moment, and let me tell you what Personalisation isn't.

Personalisation is not putting their name in the subject line of your email. For the longest time, we've confused mail merge with Personalisation.

I think it's a bit more than that.

It's about targeting specific customers with specific offers or helping. Specific customers with their journey, right? So customer A might need a very different buyer's journey from customer B. So a good way to think about this is, let's say I come onto your [00:31:00] website and I don't know you, so my trust is low with you and I don't really know.

Solution to my problem. Well, they're gonna wanna have a very different journey to someone that comes onto your website that's been 50 times before, knows exactly what they need, right? And so don't treat them the same, give them two very different experiences. And we can do that now super easy with the technology that we have.

Um, I came across Safari Land, which I think is a great name for a business they achieved. What did they get? A 37% increase in conversions through data-driven optimization. And so this is where I think now with the, the sort of the evolution of AI and data analysis. And technology and the speed of technology, we can start to create some really bespoke journeys for customers.

Um, the Sports sec, I think I mentioned these in the blog post. They saw a 7% conversion lift and a 20% increase in average order value. Uh, after introducing [00:32:00] AI Personalisation journeys I think these things are starting to have a big impact now on the bottom line even with just small changes. So definitely worth thinking about.

But not before foundations are right? Let me just repeat that record. And also whilst I'm talking about Personalisation, let me also mention that I think there is personalizing products, um, to, to think about as well. Now this is becoming easier and easier to do and we're thinking about even things like laser cutters and all that sort of stuff, you know, where you can etch stuff into metal, you can etch stuff into wood, you can do all kinds of things.

They're becoming almost like desktops now and really easy to buy and, and pretty inexpensive. Um, so if I think about another brand that I research often, uh, the brand is Yeti and they make sort of drinkware and coolers and things like that and a US brand that I've sort of been following for a long time.

And they make a big [00:33:00] deal actually on their website. They started doing it more and more. It's one of the things I've noticed what they're doing on their website with Yeti. Um, I mean, how do you make like something like this, which is a drinks bottle? Cool. Well, there's two things you can do. You can change the color of it, but there's only so many times you, I, I need to buy one.

But, and you can personalize it, right? And this is where they're, what I see them doing now, what they're driving at. Every order. It's like they're offering you to personalize it somewhere. You can put a logo on a name or icon or something out there. So much so that I now, I never get a Yeti product from anywhere other than the website because I know I can personalize it, which is awesome.

Right. We have a little sort of house logo that we'll put on there for the people in their house, which is kind of cool. I love buying gifts off Yeti because I can personalize the gift. I can put them, like, I bought one for my future daughter-in-law. Uh, my son and Abby get married in April. And um, so I inevitably bought Abby a, a Yeti because just everyone in the [00:34:00] family has to have a Yetis, just an unspoken rule, I suppose.

So I just had one made with a house logo on and a, I had Abby's name on it and it was great, right? I just liked buying gifts like that. And it's worth thinking about if you know whether or not you can do something like this. Because one, I keep going back to Yeti's website. I don't buy from their, um, distributors.

Not usually, uh, I buy from them because of the Personalisation co. It keeps me going back to their website. And two, what's more interesting about this is. I am willing to spend more on the product. It's already a pretty expensive product for what it is, but I am happy and willing to pay more because I can personalize it.

And the other interesting thing about personalized products is I can't return them. So that's either way this company's winning for actually buying a, buying a piece of equipment that probably costs no more than a few thousand bucks to be able to laser etch the logos on there. Pretty straightforward stuff, right?

And [00:35:00] like I say, there are other things that I talk about in the blog post that accompanies this video. So do check that out eCommerce Podcast dot net, and you'll find examples of how to increase average order value, higher lifetime value, and building predictability into that whole system. There's a whole bunch in there, right?

There's so much you can do to start tweaking and elevating your offering that keeps new customers coming in and existing customers returning. There's a whole field of psychology that covers this. And like I said, I'm only scratching the surface lots of ideas, but scratching the surface of this. So do check out the blog post.

And like I say, the freebie goes into it in a bit more detail. And I, if I'm honest, I probably shouldn't say this but I'm going to, this is probably the area that I like to play in the most, right? Foundations are good, but if you've been around for a while, like I said, it's just, it stops being a bit interesting, doesn't it really?

Um. Unlock is good, um, because that's about diversifying and finding a few more [00:36:00] channels. But then Elevate is about taking what works for you and injecting it. With steroids, it starts to become this and leapfrog. They're just great fun, which is nicely.

## Leapfrog: Experimenting Without FearLeapfrog: Experimenting Without Fear

**Matt Edmundson:** Nicely segmented into our final segment, which is Leapfrog, right?

So what we want,

what we're trying to do here with Leapfrog is we've got the efficiencies, things are working well. Now we are gonna experiment without fear.

We are gonna start to do some of the stuff that maybe we couldn't do with unlock. Maybe we shouldn't do with unlock, right? But what we're gonna do is, in effect, experiment with things that might fail.

Because your business is not dependent upon them working, but if you do get them working man alive, does it make a big difference? Okay. The trouble is, of course, most people want to get here without going through the other three sections first. And I have seen that fail, like I say, more times than I've seen succeed.

So I think you have to fight that temptation. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to build some longevity [00:37:00] in your business now. Again, go check out the blog post. I'm gonna go into more detail, but some of the things that here I think I've seen work well. For example, I saw a beauty brand who was starting out, didn't really have much money to get going, so they went and put a skin analysis booth in farmer's markets.

They just went, did farmer's markets for a little bit and Man Alive, did they grow their email list? Hundreds of high quality email subscribers for an event that actually didn't cost a whole great deal. And more, more importantly, actually, the email list is good, but also you get to meet your customer face-to-face, which I think is, I'm a big, big fan of actually.

If you haven't done it, I would strongly recommend you get out and you spend some time on the road talking to your customers, if at all possible. Get to see them face to face. I think remarkable things happen when you do. Okay. What about also testing [00:38:00] maybe an adjacent niche? Seeing brands do well in this area, things like VIP membership tiers.

And so you can launch things like, uh, secret menu items for VIP members. You know, you only get to see that, that section of the menu if you're logged in and you're a VIP member. I just signed up this morning actually to a website I buy from, I bought from several times and they just popped up and said, listen, we want you to become a VIP member.

It's totally free and this is what it gets you. So I'm getting some free stuff, which is great. And actually it just builds in that longevity. Paul Chambers, who has been on the show, good friend of the show from Sub Sumit, has talked about this recently. And it's all about small bets that could open entirely new markets.

So, you know, do check that out. And finally it goes without saying we've probably had enough of the AI chatter, but there are some really cool things that you can do, um, that really help your business with [00:39:00] ai. Simple things like interactive quizzes, work brilliantly. And Casper the mattress company, they had an upswing of 40%.

Um, over their standard landing pages just by using these interactive quizzes. I mean, that's a massive swing, right? So ai, I think part of me is just like, oh, ai, can we just move on? But the other part of me is like, actually there's some really clever stuff here that's probably not technically ai, but there are, there's some clever stuff.

And there. They're no longer sort of the domain of these sort of massive companies with really deep pockets, and I think some of these tactics and some of this tech now is available to us thanks to ai. Now, one thing you can do. Which I've been experimenting with the last couple days and I've been intrigued by its results.

If I'm honest with you, this was a tip I got from Andy Hooper. Uh, Andy is also been on the show. He's a legend. Well, he's such a great guy. Follow him on LinkedIn. If [00:40:00] you don't do that already create an AI board of directors for your company. Okay. An AI board of directors for your company. So what you're gonna do is you're gonna go into AI and you're gonna create a board of directors and you're gonna add people to your boards that make sense for your business.

So on my AI board of directors, I've got Jeff Bezos, because you know Jeff's, Jeff, I've got Steve Jobs, I've got Warren Buffet to mention a few. I mean, I've got a, a few more as well, but some big hitters on my AI board of advisors. Add in your target customers, adding your biggest detractor, you know, someone who really is not a fan of what you are doing.

Put them all on the board. And I'd like to do this with Claude. I have quite a good subscription with Claude and I, and it's fascinating when you go and present something to your board and just watch them debate amongst themselves and seeing what the outcome is, is quite extraordinary. What [00:41:00] comes out of it?

So, we were doing some work on a website and we've got like 50% of the way there. And I'm it was for the content for one of our, our, our company's Orient. And so, um, I, I went onto the AI board of directors and they're like, what are you doing? And actually, I thought the questions were harsh, but really, really good.

And so go and form an AI board of directors for your company and see what they think fit, help use that to help form strategy. Don't take everything as gospel, obviously, but it's just a really interesting way to do some creative thinking. And another trick that I learned from Dan Co was actually to take your competitors' top, say, I don't know, Instagram posts, for example.

And so you go and you look at your competitors' Instagram posts or their, their meta ads or their whatevers, and you sought that by the most. So it's the most popular, the most engaging first, right? I did this. [00:42:00] Yesterday, no, two days ago. I did this two days ago with, uh, YouTube titles. So there's a company working in our space doing some pioneering work in a field that I'm in.

And I, I kind of, I'm, I. Or a little bit of what they do. They've got deep pockets. They can do a little bit of research and figure it all out. So all I did was I went into YouTube, grabbed their videos, and I ordered those videos in terms of engagement and views. Then I just copied all of the titles from those videos and then I put them in AI and I asked them, I asked AI to do this, and this is the the prompt you want to sort of think about.

I want you to break down the structure of the titles. Or you might say, I want you to break down the structure of these ads or these Instagram posts, whatever it is, right? So for me it was for the titles. I want you to break down the structure of these titles so that I can recreate them from scratch. I want to understand why it works, [00:43:00] the psychological patterns involved, what context is needed from me and anything else I would need to understand, uh, in order to recreate them.

Now I'm not doing this so I can copy the work. I'm doing this so I can understand what is working. And let me tell you the insight just from that simple prompt is brilliant. Okay? So definitely worth a try. You can, like I say, do it with ads. You can do it with anything you, you can even copy and paste your competitors.

Like, if they do product copy really well, for example, just. Give that to ai, what's working here? Why break it down? Help me understand the psychology. And then once you've got sort of three or four of those things, you can put 'em all together and you can say, right now, I want you to create a playbook for me in my brand voice that's gonna help me capitalize on some of this learning.

Right. Just putting that out there. It's really helpful to understand, like I say, not copying you, are not copying your understanding [00:44:00] what's working and then appropriating that to your brand voice, to your brand, to your brand story, uh, and seeing if it has an impact on the bottom line. So as much as we hate ai, it's still around and there's still some really, really good things that you can do for it.

## Conclusion and ResourcesConclusion and Resources

**Matt Edmundson:** Okay, so that's some of the stuff that I would look at. Now, I'm looking at the time here. There's probably about another seven or eight on my list. But, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna probably stop there because I think we could just keep going. Uh, that's a quick snapshot actually of the FUEL framework.

And no doubt, hopefully you've got at least one or two ideas. Write them down, set it in motion. Uh, and a good place to start, I think with that is the un default grid, which is still available on the website. You can go to eCommerce. podcast.net, go to the resources section and click on the challenge, the default grid.

Um, and so whatever ideas you've had, you can [00:45:00] use that to really help you work through them. Uh, and of course, actually you can use to days freebie, the, the download to help you sort of go through a checklist, analyze your own marketing efforts, help you score it, help you pick out the best. Things that are gonna work for you.

And if you do that actually with the challenge of the default grid, I'll be amazed if you've not got three or four really amazing ways to improve your marketing whilst reducing your customer acquisition cost. So what's your big takeaway from this? Write it down and if you're up for it. Message me on LinkedIn.

And tell me better. Yeah, actually, why not come and join the e-commerce Cohort if you haven't done so already? A sort of a, there's a, a community of like-minded e-commerce. Uh, and come tell us all what you're doing and, and hold each other to account. I think it's a, a beautiful thing. Again, that's a free to join thing.

More information on the website. So. I have, like I said, created the FUEL framework checklist. It is a [00:46:00] comprehensive audit that maps all eight areas of digital marketing across the four FUEL stages. It is about 109 items that show you exactly where you are and where your biggest opportunities lie. You're gonna need about half an hour to an hour to go through it.

It's not just a tick box exercise. It's really helpful. And like I say, it's gonna help you score where you currently are, score where you should be for your industry, and then that gap analysis will tell you what you need to prioritize then. You're just gonna answer the two coaching questions. What moves a needle and what can you consistently execute an eight out of 10 level where those things overlap?

That is where you start more information is in the download the FUEL framework checklist. That's gonna help you do that, like I said, 30 minutes to an hour and do it solo. Do it with your team and answer it honestly. I mean, the amount of times people lie on these things to themselves is a remarkable [00:47:00] thing.

Be raw, be real, and then you'll walk away knowing exactly what to focus on next. Not because I told you, but because you figured it out. Using the checklist, you're gonna figure that out. You're gonna become a marketing genius if you are not one already. So hopefully that's help helpful. I really enjoyed this actually.

It's got my brain juices going, thinking about some possibilities actually for my own e-commerce sites. Really, really helpful, but I hope you got a lot out of it. Thank you for joining me on this episode. Next week we'll be back to having a guest on the show. Um, these solo episodes internally, we call them Slingshot.

Um, but these slingshot episodes I'm starting to do once a month deep diving into a few things. We put the downloads which are hopefully are helpful resources with them to really maximize the value of them for you. Let me know what you think. Are these things working for you or not? We put a lot of time and energy into getting these things [00:48:00] right, so hopefully they are.

We've got some really good stuff coming up in the new year, which I'm really looking forward to, deep diving into with you guys. But yeah, so make sure you stay connected with us. Really, really appreciate you being along. Honestly, I say this every week. I'm just so grateful for you guys because the more listeners we have, the more I get to do some really funky stuff because of the eCommerce Podcast.

It's, it's a beautiful thing. And so, I think listeners were up 24%. Week on week when I checked last. Um, I don't, if I'm honest with you, I should check the numbers more. But I'm just like, this is great. We're getting more people, more people from around the world listening to the show and so thank you so much for joining us.

Do hit the subscribe, like, follow whatever button is in front of you. It would really help us carry on doing what we're doing and bringing some hopefully really helpful stuff for you on e-commerce. But that's it from me. Thank you so much for joining us. Like I say, everything on the website, all the links will be in the show notes.

You my friend, are an absolute legend. Thank you so much for joining us. Have a [00:49:00] phenomenal week wherever you are in the world. I will see you next time. Bye for now.