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Hey y’all, welcome back to the Southern Fried eCommerce Podcast, this is episode 26 and we’re excited to get back in the swing of things. Our co-host Emily Faulkner is back from vacation and raring to get back to talking eCommerce. She is returning to us from a week up in the Smoky Mountains which she described as covered in “lots of pollen and lots of children.” Which sounds exciting but ultimately the conversation turned to Marvel as it usually does here at EYStudios.
This conversation specifically revolved around the new series Moon Knight on Disney+. Emily says the best thing about it is is that she knows nothing about it and therefore can go in with no preconceived notions or expectations. Our other co-host Jay Brimberry agrees but our CEO Eric Yonge has said in office conversations he’s having to throw out everything he knows about Moon Knight to enjoy the series. EYStudios even has a little claim to fame here with our digital content specialist Jess Richmond being friends with a writer on the show, Chase Kroll. (Look out for him naming dropping his own name in episode 2).
New From EYStudios
After that antihero diatribe aside, we dive into the core of the episode. We are guest-less today with just Emily and Jay discussing today’s news. As always, Emily starts us out by talking about some of the great blogs EYStudios has put out recently:
- What is Ranking on Page 1 on Google? And How To Get There
- The Anatomy of A Website
- What Are The Benefits of Using Magento Over WordPress?
It is SEO Month here at EYStudios and we’re celebrating with some SEO-centered content and some free SEO Audits. In addition, we’ll be hosting an SEO webinar called “Make It Make Sense” on April 26th at 1 p.m. Our CEO Eric Yonge and our digital content specialist and SEO expert Jess Richmond will be discussing search engine optimization in plain English, in a way that makes sense to everyone. Our goal is to do a brief overview of SEO, how it works, how services work, and why you don’t need to pay an agency $15,000 to do it for you.
Manufacturers Begin Making Comeback After COVID
The first article we discussed was from Digital Commerce 360: Manufacturers Gain Back Sales Ground. The article dives into manufacturers rebounding in 2021 after a significant setback from the pandemic and supply chain issues. However, according to the article, the businesses that have made the most headway have been the ones that fully embraced their digital commerce avenues.
JAY: B2B players need to be investing in their digital commerce strategy, and that’s something we’ve been saying, and that’s something a lot of agencies have been saying, frankly for quite some time. If you don’t invest in that you are going to be left behind — specifically manufacturers, not just resellers, but manufacturers are going to be left behind. Because your competitors are going to be doing it if you’re not going to do it.
Jay continues to say that you’re not just throwing products up on a website and calling that eCommerce. “You need to get strategic when you’re doing anything online,” he says.
Emily agrees and says that a lot of B2B retailers are stuck in this mentality that their customers and buyers are going to continue to buy their products the way they always have. Jay then references The Office’s storyline where Dunder Mifflin enters the eCommerce industry with online offerings. In the show, the salesmen develop a natural animosity toward their digital counterpart when they’re told to start entering their own sales as the website’s.
JAY: Don’t be Dunder Mifflin. Get your salespeople involved in this process. You need to let them know that the website can be your biggest tool. Commissions and benefits for old customers can stay the same while freeing you up to gain more clients.
He continues by saying that it’s fairly often he comes across B2B clients where their sales team is hesitant to transition because “it’s always been this way.” Or they’re hesitant to lose client relationships. Jay then says you don’t need to sacrifice any of the old ways to do eCommerce, you’re simply adding more tools to your toolbox. Emily agrees.
EMILY: Everything changes. I’ll give you an example, and it’s not exactly a great B2B example but: I’ve been going up to the mountains since I was two. And I think it’s that same mentality there. Everything has been exactly the same since the dawn of time. That town has never changed a day in its life. Except when we went recently and everything has become digitized. I think since the pandemic everything has just gone more digital; you can do ApplePay, you can do all these different things, and a lot of them opened websites. And I was like, “wow this is so great now I don’t have to be really worried about carrying all these things all day I can actually just order it online and have it shipped to my house, this is so great.” And a lot of people that I was talking to were like “yeah we noticed more and more people asking about it and we thought yeah I guess we can try” and they’ve said they’ve just experienced so much growth since then.
Like Jay was saying, just embrace it. Have the sales team embrace it. Just embrace it, the people want it. Just do it and you’ll see the major difference. And if you need help, you got people like us in your back pocket that can make your life a little easier.
Jay agrees and challenges B2B businesses to think about websites not just in terms of sales but also in terms of time saved. He also says he’s not trying to oversimplify B2B website creation, he knows it’s a lot of work and a big investment but ultimately that’s why people like us exist to make the process simple and easy for our customers. And ultimately, he says, your business will save money and make money by modernizing your strategy.
He also says, not to hurt anyone’s feelings but, the younger generation simply doesn’t want to talk to you. They want to go online and find everything they need to complete an informed purchase, they don’t want to sit on the phone with a salesperson.
TikTok Made Me Buy It…Somewhere Else
Speaking of younger generations, the next article we discussed was How Does TikTok Commerce Stack Up Against Instagram and Facebook? from eMarketer. The article discusses how TikTok does seem to be driving more purchases but those purchases are predominantly happening off-site. Emily agrees that in her personal buying experience all of her purchases have happened off the app. She also thinks that the app’s buying power is more so geared toward ordinary users buying products and sharing how great they are rather than an influencer on Instagram saying “buy this product in the link below.”
EMILY: [Because of TikTok] I have tried multiple restaurants, I’ve tried different clothing, I got a TikTok while on vacation about the new releases Home Depot is doing for Halloween. So I was thinking, ‘Ooo do I need to buy something? Wait, I don’t even have a yard.” I’ll just look at anything you could possibly buy and I’ll just kind of contemplate do I need it or not. Cause it’s different than Facebook where it’s just an ad being pushed at you. It’s different than Instagram where it’s a little bit of both but really more so major influencers pushing products. TikTok is still in that infancy stage that’s so special. Where you really can trust the users and what they’re saying. So this is the perfect time to hop on TikTok, hop on connecting with these people, and try and sell your products.
Jay then mentions all the reasons he hates TikTok:
- The videos where the people stare at you and just point at words above them while giving you different facial expressions.
- “Don’t stare at me.” “You’re stupid for making me stare at your stupid face.”
- The videos where a robot reads out words that you’re perfectly capable of reading yourself. If your voice is that ugly, don’t make a video.
- “Don’t hire a robot.”
- When people take movies or TV shows and they “lip dub” over them.
- “I don’t care what your dramatic take is on a Harry Met Sally line.” “Don’t mouth stupid stuff to me.”
He then mentions that he recently watched one where the husband was clearly playing along with one of his wife’s TikTok ideas and “he looked like he was in hell.” Emily asks if he would be willing to do it if it was a Willow track being played and he said no, it’s still stupid.
Emily points out that this is something to keep in mind when businesses approach TikTok: it’s not for everyone. There are specific demographics that watch TikTok and even within TikTok, there are different niches and interests. She says that businesses need to find their target audience and what they like while also putting thought and creativity into the content. Don’t just make content to make content because your audience will see through that and remember that about you.
Robot SEO Content Not Welcome By Google
Our last article discussed is Google Doesn’t Want Your AI-Generated SEO Spam Content from Search Engine Land. And Search Engine Land makes Jay think of Lunch Lady Land by Adam Sandler and then breaks out into song with the line, “Sloppy joe, sloppy, sloppy joe.” Emily then requests an entire episode devoted to just Jay singing. I second this and request it be called “Southern Fried eCommerce: The Musical.”
This article dives into the uptick in AI-generated content and how Google deals with this type of content. Recently, Google’s John Mueller said that currently Google has no way to detect if content is AI-generated or not but he did reiterate that low-quality content is low-quality content. The article shows many examples of bad content with keyword stuffing or just boring information presented and argues that regardless of who wrote the content, that’s not what you’re aiming for.
Jay agrees and asks how many times you’ve seen a website where if they’re trying to sell peanut butter they have a block of content with the word ‘peanut butter’ in there a hundred times. “That content serves no one,” he says.
The article also mentions the Google Panda update and how that was one of Google’s attempts at lowering the ranks of websites that used content farms or AI-generated content. Jay thinks this was definitely a good thing.
JAY: If Panda screwed up your website it’s because the methodologies that were being used for your website weren’t very good methodologies anyways.
Jay argues that SEO at its core is easy — yes, it’s a long haul process and a lot of work but understanding the theory behind SEO is easy: write content that allows Google to understand what your page is about so that their search results are accurate for their users. It’s about the users, always. Emily agrees but says it’s almost too easy for some people to understand.
EMILY: But I think the issue that people have, and I think this is the same with pretty much anything in life, is things that seem to be easy also seem to be incredibly difficult because it seems too simple. Write good content, write content that makes sense to people — that’s essentially all you need to do. But there are also these additional factors that you need to understand like keywords and things of that nature but it’s really just a matter of understanding what words fit with the content that you’re doing.
Jay says this all the time — you guys are the ones that understand your business the most, what is the information that you need to put across for your customer to understand what this product is and why they need to buy it. And in that information, if there’s a way to change a word that you guys use regularly for a word that’s much more easily understood by other people, that’s what you do. Those are the changes that you need to make to make that content into something that makes Google go, ‘oh wow that looks like some pretty good peanut butter.’ And then you start moving up the pages.
She continues by saying this same principle applies to your website. You want people to fully understand your business and product through every layer of your website. She said the main obstacle that makes SEO hard is time, not a lot of business owners have the time to dedicate to thinking about optimizing their website or content for search engines. She says that’s why she understands how AI content would seem like the solution here. However, she points out, you need that human element in there in order to connect with your audience still. Jay agrees and says you can’t just pay Jarvis [now Jasper] and wipe your hands of it. You need to know how to use it and how to add that human element to your content.
Jay continues by saying that if you have passion for your product or find a company that’s passionate about your product, SEO can be fun. He says the hard part comes in when business owners need to take a step back and look at the big picture of strategy and how everything comes together with social media, marketing, SEO, web design, product listings, etc. At the core though, and Emily agrees, is good content. Write good content that matters to people and the rest, well the rest can come later.
With that, we say goodbye and hope you’ll join us next week as we dive more into eCommerce news and happenings with a bit of southern humor commentary.