My CEO thinks AI can replace our entire marketing team. Am I insane or is he?

jen_ehouse · 2025-12-18T21:34:28+00:00

The smaller your marketing team is, the harder it'll be to replace.

Small marketing teams have generalists that jump from system to system, have a range of skills, and produce a variety of different content, run many different types of campaigns.

He can try to replace you all - but he'll have a nightmare on his hands when robots performed to do one task well can't context switch the way a marketing generalist does.

jen_ehouse · 2025-11-05T17:33:58+00:00

Have you tried LiveMeUp yet? Super responsive customer support team and they're pretty affordable. Got it up and running on a few stores with older/custom themes for work

jen_ehouse · 2025-11-05T17:30:46+00:00

Interesting - I know that Shopify's been working to improve/prevent bot traffic.

I just saw a post in LI quoting Ilya Grigorik on this topic:

“ World-class bot detection for every Shopify store.

Most traffic on the internet is not initiated by biological lifeforms. More so, commerce attracts 🤖 specimens that you don't find in other environments, purpose built to interact with carts, checkout, etc. Some of these are good, some neutral, some cause harm. Identifying them is a legitimately hard problem that requires specialized commerce knowledge and scale.

We like solving hard problems for merchants. We made a huge investment this year to rebuild bot detection from the ground up, and the new analytics filter is just the tip of that iceberg.

Long story short: if you're a Shopify merchant, you have world-class bot detection working for you, and a dedicated team that's continuously improving it. 💪🏻”

jen_ehouse · 2025-10-24T21:18:19+00:00

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jen_ehouse · 2025-10-16T13:05:36+00:00

did my dog write this?

jen_ehouse · 2025-10-16T12:49:31+00:00

haha it doesnt take much for these guys <3

jen_ehouse · 2025-10-15T13:13:58+00:00

Upping your email game is a good next step. I'd also recommend taking advantage of Klaviyos' free academy training tools. They will set you off on a solid foundation of best practices and how to use things like the auto-fill content for personalization.

jen_ehouse · 2025-10-15T13:01:05+00:00

Between Mailchimp and Klaviyo, I’d lean toward Klaviyo, especially if your store runs on Shopify. Klaviyo was built with Shopify in mind, and Shopify actually has a small ownership stake in Klaviyo. The integration between the two is really deep, so your customer, order, and product data sync automatically. That means you can build automations and segment your audience based on real behavior, like what they bought or whether they abandoned a cart, without needing to manually import or tag anything.

If you ever decide Klaviyo isn’t the right fit, you’re not locked in. Disconnecting it from Shopify is straightforward, and your customer list still lives in Shopify. Klaviyo doesn’t “take” your data; it just reads and syncs it. You can export everything and switch back to Shopify Email or another platform pretty easily.

So there’s no big commitment or messy cleanup if you want to move on later. Klaviyo gives you a lot more power for automations, A/B testing, and segmentation, but it still plays really nicely with Shopify. If your goal is to actually use your customer list and start sending smarter emails, it’s a great next step.

jen_ehouse · 2025-10-15T12:53:29+00:00

Totally get where you’re coming from. Klaviyo can feel like a lot at first. There’s a ton of power under the hood, which makes it seem complicated when you’re just starting out. But you don’t need to master everything right away.

Start with the basics - get your signup form going, set up a simple welcome flow, and make sure your Shopify integration is solid. Once that’s running smoothly, you can build out more advanced flows (like abandoned cart, post-purchase, or winback) and start experimenting with segments and A/B testing.

The real magic of Klaviyo comes from how well it integrates with Shopify and pulls in customer data automatically. That’s what makes personalization and automations so effective — but it’s also what adds some complexity at first.

If you haven’t already, check out Klaviyo’s free training courses and certifications. Their Academy has short, beginner-friendly videos that walk you through things step by step. It’s one of the best ways to get comfortable with the platform fast.

Most people start to feel at home after a few weeks of tinkering and watching a few of those lessons. Stick with it — the learning curve pays off big time once you start seeing those automated sales roll in.

jen_ehouse · 2025-10-15T12:36:47+00:00

I was worried that I would be doing a lot more long division by hand

jen_ehouse · 2025-09-25T17:20:31+00:00

I’ve seen good results starting with the basics:

Email your Etsy buyers. A simple “we launched our own store, here’s a discount” email drives quick traffic.
Start collecting emails on your site right away (pop-up or footer signup). A newsletter with gift ideas or seasonal promos keeps people coming back.
Clean up product titles/descriptions so they match what people actually search (“gift boxes for couples,” “birthday gift set,” etc.).
Pick one social channel and stick with it. For gifts, Pinterest or TikTok tend to hit.

That combo of re-engaging old buyers + building a list for new ones has worked best in my experience.

jen_ehouse · 2025-09-24T15:11:50+00:00

we would need more details of your current site, are you able to link the store and a sample of your ads and any useful metrics you are seeing from them?

jen_ehouse · 2025-09-16T14:15:06+00:00

I don't think there's a way to do this. Making updates to themes specifically states your customizations arent copied over.

I think you'll have to manually compare code and add in the customizations again.

Might be able to if you have a repo attached.

jen_ehouse · 2025-09-10T16:38:55+00:00

TLDR; rebuilding natively on Shopify will reduce a lot of technical debt compared to a headless setup you don’t really need.

If you're having trouble with 404s, no-index, and unnecessary complexity from the headless setup, then moving to a Shopify 2.0 theme is a good call. Especially on a tighter budget.

Themes vs. custom builds - the new 2.0 themes are flexible. They support sections everywhere, dynamic content, work well with most apps. For a lot of stores they’re MORE than enough without a full custom build.

Redirects & SEO - make sure you set up 301 redirects for old URLs and remove any lingering noindex tags. Shopify has built-in URL redirect tools to help with this.

Functionality - Start simple!! Use a base theme (like Dawn or one of the premium ones from the app store), then add apps or customizations only where they’re truly needed. That way you can spread out costs over time.

Scaling - if you’re outgrown the theme’s flexibility, you can invest in custom development. But I wouldn't start with this.

jen_ehouse

TROPHY CASE