Chloe Thomas – Founder of Ecommerce MasterPlan Shares Her Wisdom

In this episode, we will be interviewing Chloe Thomas, a keynote speaker, author, and the founder of Ecommerce MasterPlan.

Chloe also runs a successful podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs, and chairs the Ecommerce Conference annually. She has been in the ecommerce industry for the last 18 years – even before most search engines – and has witnessed the changing digital landscape first-hand. Read what Chloe has to share for our readers.

Hi Chloe! Thank you for your time.

Cloudways: From History major to banking to digital, you must have had an amazing journey. Please share some of the highlights of your extraordinary life.

Chloe: There are so many, but I’ll drill it down to FOUR for you. Studying History at Oxford was definitely a highlight, such an amazing THREE years!!! I wish I could go back and do it all over again. Then, getting my first taste of direct marketing at Past Times was eye opening – the way results could be tracked, and then activity optimized was thrilling and still is to me even after 15 years.

Going out on my own in 2007 was a big – but very natural – move, and not something I’ve ever regretted despite many of the problems that have come along the way. Finally, selling my marketing agency nearly three years ago, and then being able to focus full-time on helping ecommerce business owners solve their marketing problems through all the things I do at Ecommerce MasterPlan, has been just brilliant. It took me five years of planning and actions to find a way to leave the agency without affecting the staff or the clients, it was worth all the effort.

Cloudways: What was it like to work at Barclay as a Marketing Manager in the early 2000s? Tell us about internet marketing in the pre-Google/Facebook era.

Chloe: Frustrating! I am not someone made to work in a big company where things move slowly. To get a single piece of direct mail out of the door, we had to work with two external agencies and three different departments within the business. It was very inefficient.

I worked at Barclays before they really did any digital marketing at all. It was all either big brand campaigns or direct mail campaigns. When I moved to Past Times though, we were already in the Google era, and getting to work with all the new digital channels was thrilling. Back then, we were trying to do many of the same things with internet marketing that ecommerce marketers of today are trying to do i.e. segment, personalize, automate. The big difference between then and now is how much it costs in time and money to do anything ‘clever’. Back then it was £1,000s and month-long lead times to do things you can now do with just a few clicks for £10s or even for free.

Cloudways: How do you see the transition from email to keywords to paid marketing? You were a part of Digital Gearbox for almost 10 years. Was it always focused on ads or did you guys dabble in organic traffic?

Chloe: Digital Gearbox went through multiple incarnations and name changes. When it first began, the idea was to create an outsourced online marketing team for mail order businesses, an extension of what I’d been doing for six mail order businesses for the past years. At that point, we did everything including tendering and managing new website projects, including Google Ads, SEO, Affiliate marketing, online merchandising, email marketing, and anything else digital.

As the years went by, fewer clients wanted to work that way, and we found it was easier to create packages of specific marketing channels and just do what each client wanted us to do. At that point, it drilled down to email, SEO, PPC, and affiliates. Then we realized it was easier to just focus on one method – which was PPC, then as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter came on board we dabbled in them, but the big one for me was always Google Ads.

Cloudways: Your ‘Ecommerce MasterPlan Marketing Virtual Summit’ is an important industry training. What value does it offer to mid-level and veteran ecommerce marketers?

Chloe: The Summit brings together training from experts in many different ecommerce marketing disciplines. From email to push, from viral marketing to Facebook ads. In each session, there are tips and ideas that help improve the performance of channels you’re already active on, or give ideas for how to successfully test the next new channel for your marketing. It’s a great resource to dig into as and when you need it.

Cloudways: Your book ‘B2B eCommerce MasterPlan’ is a bestseller on Amazon. What made you write this book? What user pain points did you target with this ebook?

Chloe: I’m really pleased you picked that one to ask me about. I’d always found B2B ecommerce fascinating and enjoyed working with many B2B ecommerce businesses over the years. The book was always something I was tempted to write, but not only this one, I was likely to get around to because I want to be known as someone who does ecommerce marketing, not someone who does B2B ecommerce. However, I was approached by the excellent B2B website agency Aspidistra who were finding lots of B2B businesses facing the same challenges as I was. They did not understand how to proceed with ecommerce; what their options were; or how to convince the whole team that it was a good idea.

They wanted a book to be out there about B2B ecommerce, that they could send to their clients and that would raise the profile of ecommerce as an option for B2B businesses. They came on board as sponsors and helped me with my research, and the book came into being.

Cloudways: How did you get the idea for your ecommerce podcast? What made you think it would work? How did you calculate the risk/reward ratio for this project?

Chloe: I have always been privileged to have some amazing conversations with retailers about how they run their businesses, the things that have worked and those that haven’t. It’s always frustrated me that I haven’t been able to share the lessons from those conversations with a wider public. So when a friend of mine was speaking at an event I was attending and raving about the potential of podcasting, I decided to work it out to check if it could be for me.

Clearly it was. As five years later, the Ecommerce MasterPlan podcast is still going from strength to strength. I thought it would work because I know that those working in ecommerce businesses love to find out what’s going on in other businesses, but they’re not great at leaving their desks. Networking isn’t a great way for them to find new customers, so why would they? And the podcast is something they can listen to on their commute, or even at work.

The risk reward ratio was always very hard to calculate. Financially, the podcast didn’t stack up for the first five years, and I’m not using it to sell my own services. It’s more of a branding and positioning tool. On that front, it’s always delivered, it’s as a direct result of the ecommerce podcast that I chair the largest and most prestigious conferences each year, and without it I doubt, I’d be on the list of the top 50 most influential people in ecommerce in the UK. I think it’s been worth it.

Cloudways: You have written a noteworthy ebook on Customer Persuasion. What is the best strategy to persuade customers to buy one’s products?

Chloe: There isn’t one single strategy. The book is focused on ‘Customer MasterPlan Model.’ The message of this book is to work out where you have a problem, and then find the best way to fix that problem. Rather than starting with, “we should do more ads”. For example, if your weakest point is in turning enquirers into first time buyers, then you should focus on building the marketing activity that will help with that. This could be welcome campaigns, remarketing, or the information on your website.

Cloudways: Your book ‘Ecommerce Marketing’ is already a must-read for all marketers. What’s interesting in the new upcoming edition of the book?

Chloe: Well, for starters it’s about twice the size!! It’s greatly expanded and completely rewritten. Just like Customer Persuasion, this one uses the Customer MasterPlan Model to help readers better understand what each marketing method can do for them.

In the original book there were nine chapters, all covering different marketing methods. The new book includes 11 chapters, and highlights the core marketing methods. The ones every business should be master of.

And then there is a whole new section I’ve called “Marketing Maxims.” These are the things that are true across the different marketing methods and among these are lots of great ways to enhance the performance of everything you’re doing.

In the end of the book, I have added a section on how to take all you’ve learnt with the book to quickly improve results in the next 30 days.

It’s being published in November. You can find out more at EcommerceMarketingBook.com

Cloudways: In your opinion, what is the best technique to make an ebook the best-seller on Amazon? What formula did you use and is it still workable?

Chloe: Lots of marketing. Most of this marketing is fairly unique to book marketing. There are specific platforms for running book adverts, and a lot of ‘launch team’ type activities. With the new Ecommerce Marketing book, I’m trying a whole new launch strategy – so keep watching me in this space.

Cloudways: Name any five individuals whom you see as your mentors? Also, who should we interview next?

Chloe: I find answering questions about mentors and heroes quite challenging, because I rarely see people in that way. I understand that many different people have had a huge impact on what I’m doing and how I do it, but there are only a few I might ever have a conversation with. Here are a few people who have helped me a great deal.

On the podcasting front, Mark Asquith of Rebel Base Media is a podcasting business genius. Similarly, Yann Illunga, who has helped me with podcast promotion as well as that of my Virtual Summits for many years.

On the ecommerce front, I always get a lot out of conversations with Lucy Bloomfield of 10,000 Customers, and Christie Hamilton of Benelds. Generally a conversation with Christine Nicholson of The Profit Fixer always gives me food for thought too.

Next you should interview Lucy.

Cloudways: What are some of the best books you have read this year?

Chloe:

• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz (the original not the ecommerce version)
• 12 week year by Moran and Lennington

Cloudways: As a mentor to many startup founders, ecommerce store owners, and digital marketers, what are your top three Holiday Season sale tips?

Chloe’s Holiday Season Sales Tips:

1. Follow my golden promotional rule: A promotion exists to get the customer to do what you want them to do as cheaply as possible. So don’t just do 25% off everything for everyone on Black Friday.
2. Send last order dates reminder emails – urgency is a most powerful way to get the sales in.
3. Don’t forget there’s life after Christmas. Be ready to make the sale season work for you.

Cloudways: Now let’s have a quick rapid-fire round: (Just answer one.)

Cloudways: Can you please send us an image of your workspace?

Learn more about Chloe Thomas, the ecommerce sage and how she is helping new ecommerce store owners get the hang of digital business.

Sajjad Shahid

Sajjad is an Ecommerce Community Manager at Cloudways. He loves helping out Ecommerce store owners, merchants and marketers in establishing their businesses and startups. Sajjad enjoys playing table tennis and cricket over the weekend.

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