Ep 48: The First 5 Marketing Tasks for New Shopify Stores

So you have a shiny new Shopify store, but you don't know how to start marketing, you're in the right place. That's what we're talking about today.

Hey everybody, this Jim Lastinger. Welcome to another episode of Marketing in 10, where we talk about a specific marketing topic or strategy or tactic every single week and do it under 10 minutes or less. So today, we're going to talk a little bit about Shopify. I've talked about Shopify quite a bit, and that's what I built my agency upon. Shopify stores are a super easy way to set up and get your products online, but that's kind of where the easy part ends. You have to start marketing if you ever want to make any actual sales. So this week on Marketing in 10, I'm giving you the five to that you have to do to start promoting your new Shopify store. Okay. Number one, the very first thing that you need to do is create a Google Analytics account and make sure that your store is connected to Analytics and configured correctly.

So being able to tell where your visitors are coming from is a table stakes item. Google Analytics needs to be in place for the moment that you launch your store. You need to be able to tell where your visitors are coming from, what marketing efforts are paying off, all that kind of stuff. There are plenty of tutorials out there for setting up Google Analytics and connecting that to the store. So I'm not going to bore you with the details about that. But make sure you have your e-commerce tracking turned on and Google Analytics so that you can see actual purchase amounts, product information, all that stuff. You want all of that to flow from Shopify into Analytics. And as your store operates and you start to get some sales, you'll know what marketing channels are actually working for you, which marketing channels need to improve, you'll also be able to use Google Analytics to create remarketing audiences that want to be using at Google Ads.

Item number two, just like Google Analytics, you're going to want to track everything with a Meta Pixel as well. And I'll probably always call this thing a Facebook Pixel, but I'm still trying to get used to the new name. The Meta Pixel is used for tracking customers that come to your store. It doesn't really do much for reporting, but critical to building remarketing lists that you will be able to use on your Facebook Ads. Even if you never plan to run a Facebook Ads, you might as well still use the Pixel for tracking just in case you never know what you want to do six months from now. Okay. Item number three, you're going to want to set up a Google Merchant Center. So Google Merchant Center is where you store all of your product data that's going to be used for your Google Ads, the smart shopping campaigns.

It's actually pretty easy to set up. For the most part, you can do this through the Google shopping app and Shopify. So install the Google shopping app in your Shopify store and follow the onscreen instructions in there. And that will let you create your Google Merchant Center account or connect to your account if you already have one. You'll have to have a Google account set up so make sure that you already of those before you get started. Pretty much everybody already has a Google account, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. And once you've done everything on the Shopify side with the Google shopping app, you'll be able to log into Google Merchant Center itself and finish setting up the things like the taxes, shipping rates, verifying your domain, that kind of stuff. Those are all things that you have to do before your account's actually up and running.

And once your account is set up and complete then all of your product data is showing correctly, you'll be able to run shopping ads in your Google Ads account, which is something that almost every Shopify store needs to be doing. Okay, number four. So every Shopify store needs some sort of email software. You have to have an email marketing plan. Once you actually start making some sales, then you're going to want to be able to get those customers to make purchases again in the future. And that's where your email marketing efforts are going to come in. I recommend using either MailChimp or Klaviyo. Never been quite sure how to pronounce that one. But those email providers, they sync up nicely with Shopify. They automatically import your customers and their purchase information. I recommend using those. I use them both for various client accounts out there.

I'll have links to MailChimp and Klaviyo in the show notes, and they'll be at JimLastinger.com/48. So once you have your email software set up, you'll want to email your previous customers every few months. Encourage them to come back and take a look at your store, show them new products, et cetera. Having a customer re-engagement campaign is something that every single Shopify store needs to be doing. Item number five, the last one we're going to talk about today. So you'll want to make sure that you start thinking about SEO and getting some organic traffic. So the first step for SEO is setting up a Google Search Console account for your site. I'll have a link in the show notes for where you go to register your site for Google Search Console. You'll want to claim a domain level property so that you cover all the different versions of your URL, such as HTTP, HTTPS, the www and the naked domains.

To be able to claim those, you'll have to be able to add some DNS records. So make sure you either have access and know how to do that yourself, or have someone on your team that's able to do that for you. Once the DNS records have been added and your domain's been claimed, you'll be able to start seeing actual search terms that people are using to find your site. And you'll be able to see where you're ranking for various keywords, which landing pages are ranking for which keywords, all that kind of stuff. It's really invaluable information. And it's stable stakes for getting started with your SEO. Without a Google Search Console, you're kind of flying blind.

So there you go. If you do these five tasks, set up these things that we've talked about today, then you'll be ready to start marketing your store and driving some actual revenue. Something I've always seen that's absolutely true is the old adage that if no one knows your business, or in this case, your store exists, then they won't be able to buy anything from you. So start marketing as early as you can. I'll have show notes and a transcript available at JimLastinger.com/48. If you have two minutes to take and rate and review the podcast for me, that would be most helpful. I would appreciate that. That helps me grow the show and reach more people so that I can help them as well.

As a bonus for all of you loyal listeners, I've created a free guide that shows you exactly how to manage your Google Ads accounts in just 30 minutes a week. This is the process that I teach my coaching clients and includes everything you need to be able to run a profitable and sustainable Google Ads account. You can download this thing for... It's completely free at JimLastinger.com/guide. That's JimLastinger.com/guide and I'll have a link to this in the show notes as well.

And that's it for this week's episode of Marketing in 10, I'll be back soon with another episode. Until then, take care, have a great day.