The first session of the Finch and Flocksy Webinar series, Creativity Meets eCommerce Strategy, is complete! With over 90 registrants, we had attendees from across multiple industries and more than ten countries! 

Expert panelists teamed up on August 22nd to tackle one of the most critical aspects of eCommerce growth: collaboration. Speakers like Flocksy CMO, George Ryan and Fireside Founder, Drew Himel discussed how a well-coordinated team effort can create a seamless, positive customer experience from start to finish.

“Understanding the emotional triggers at each touchpoint can significantly impact consumer behavior,” George said. “We focus on identifying these triggers and tailoring our messaging and design to connect with the customer on a deeper level, driving more meaningful engagement.”

Mike Mardis, a marketing consultant with Finch, moderated the webinar. Discussing various stops on the customer journey, he emphasized the importance of ensuring equal effort in every area. 

“Any one of these touchpoints could be the one that’s kicking people out,” Mardis said. “All of these are very important. In order to make them work, you have to get input from all over your organization.”

Scott Brandley, founder and CEO of Shopper Approved, shared his insights into crafting your company’s customer journey. He said customer retention and loyalty can be the most cost-effective steps, especially compared to acquiring new customers.

Reviews and social proof, when properly levied by businesses, can be powerful tools to inspire this loyalty. He recommended ensuring that reviews and testimonials are consistent across a business’s web presence. 

“Show your social proof on the website,” he said. “They say, ‘I saw it on their review pages, and I’m seeing it again on the website. I’m in the right place.’”

Himel said his company uses several apps to reward its loyal customers with incentives and bonuses, which leads to customers ultimately spending more money with them.

“It’s so expensive to get customers, so taking care of them is a ‘two birds, one stone’ type of thing. 

Himel recommended eCommerce businesses’ first steps should be to lay a solid foundation across all aspects of their customer journey and in all departments, including sales. The next step, he said, was to find a couple of critical areas to focus on and look for improvements in those areas. 

Sarah Fitzgerald, head of marketing at Flocksy, said customers no longer want a strictly transactional experience with brands. They prefer to know they’re spending their money with real people who care about them. 

In response, she has crafted Flocksy’s social media to feature more personalized content, including how-to videos from creatives, free resources, and best practices for Flocksy clients, from Flocksy clients. 

“We’re fostering more of a relationship among those we call our Flock,” she said. “It’s a community of creatives who want to grow together and learn from each other.” 

Key Takeaways:

• Collaboration is Key: When marketing, sales, and customer service work together, the customer journey can be dramatically enhanced. By aligning goals and communication, teams can ensure that every touchpoint with the customer adds value.

• Optimizing Critical Touchpoints: Identifying and smoothing out friction points in the customer journey is essential for boosting satisfaction and reducing churn. A healthy journey is proactive, addressing potential issues before they become barriers.

• Actionable Strategies: Attendees walked away with practical tips on improving customer acquisition and retention through better teamwork. From streamlining processes to focusing on retargeting, these strategies are designed to make every step of the journey count.

Ready to turn your customer journey into a winning strategy? Stay tuned for more insights in our upcoming webinars! To register for the next webinar on August 29, click here: https://flocksy.com/webinar/?blog1. 

About Finch and Flocksy: 

Finch specializes in crafting killer marketing strategies that remove friction from the customer journey, using the right people, processes, and technology. Since 2016, Flocksy has been the most affordable unlimited marketing materials platform, helping brands create high-quality, on-brand content that captivates audiences and drives real results. Together, we empower businesses and agencies to achieve growth by blending expertise, creativity, and seamless collaboration.

So, what is ChatGPT and its GPT-3, and what does it mean for the world of copywriting and language? Is there an ethical concern about AI content? There are a lot of questions to answer, so let’s dig into this growing trend and consider why getting your copy the old-fashioned way is still likely the best way to do it.

ChatGPT & AI

ChatGPT is an OpenAI chatbot they created using the GPT-3 technology. GPT-3, or Generative Pretrained Transformer 3, is an advanced language processing AI that OpenAI created. They claim that it can produce human-like text. This ability could mean it has a variety of applications, including language translation, language modeling, and, most concerningly, generating text for websites and consumers to use however they wish. It’s one of the largest, most powerful language-processing AI models we’ve seen, with 175 billion parameters.

Its predominantly been used to create ChatGPT, the impressive chatbot. It doesn’t use pre-programmed responses but can generate them on the fly to create a more realistic conversation between the user and itself. 

You can provide GPT-3 with various worded prompts, like questions or requests for a piece of writing on a topic you choose, and it will create the results. But how does it come up with the responses?

In simple terms, the AI was fed text from databases across the internet, including books, articles, web texts, Wikipedia, and more. In fact, about 300 billion words were fed into the system. So, it pulls its text and responses from existing sources on the internet to produce a response. 

However, it’s not flawless. You can get incorrect information, and the bot can misunderstand what you’re asking. Additionally, if your prompt or request is very niche, or if you add too many factors, it can get overwhelmed or ignore sections of the prompt completely.

For example, if you’re requesting a tale of two people and provide their jobs, names, ages, and where they live, it can jumble up that information and randomly set each one to the two characters instead of how you prompted it.

And, of course, grammar is always a concern. While there are advanced grammar-checking programs, and the AI likely has a similar internal process, those programs don’t always get it right. You’ve likely dismissed a suggestion from a grammar checker for being a little off and maybe even completely wrong. Who’s to say what rules the AI bot uses for its grammatical structure, or if because it references the whole of the internet’s writing, it will be riddled with errors?

The Ethics of AI Writing

There are a couple of things to be wary of when considering the ethics of AI copywriting. Firstly, it pulls its data from the internet. 

As a result of this fact, it can assume some of the internet’s biases, stereotypes, and general assumptions. Off-color jokes or stereotypes about certain groups or political figures can come up based on what you ask and how.

If you wanted a comedy routine, it is very likely that you’ll get some jokes about ex-politicians or marginalized groups who are often the butt of jokes in comedy bits. That can be highly problematic. Depending on where the bot decides to pull the information from, you could potentially get downright racist information in return.

Because internet forums and articles are a huge source of data for these bots, you’ll also run the risk of getting fake news or conspiracy theories returned. The system isn’t perfect, and it may be unable to tell the difference between fact and fiction.

The second primary concern is plagiarism. 

When it comes down to it, if you use a content bot to create an article, say that you were totally responsible for it, and release it into the world. That’s plagiarism. 

And it’s not just writing where this is an issue. The arguments over AI art also make a strong case for plagiarism. In order to create that artwork, the bot pulls from existing images and piecing them together to create its results. Those artists who put their work on the internet are essentially having their work copied and pasted somewhere else by a computer.

You can’t trace someone’s drawing, color it slightly differently, add a few things, and call it your own. 

What’s more, if you’re paid to create an article and have a copy bot do it for you, that’s unethical and likely a breach of contract. You’ve been hired to do the work, and you aren’t doing it. In a similar vein, there have already been reports like this one in the New York Post about students using AI copywriting tools to do their papers. If you think it’s wrong for a student not to do the work, you shouldn’t want your professional writers to do it, either.

Flocksy’s Promise

At Flocksy, we hire real people to sit down and write your copy. You won’t find an AI bot delivering material harvested from the internet that may or may not be correct. Our skilled copywriting experts do the work, create unique content that won’t get flagged by Google, and is easy for readers to absorb and enjoy.

We won’t use AI, and we can assure you that the content you get from our writers will be much better than anything a robot would write for you.

You can see examples of our top-notch copywriting in our portfolio here.

Content marketing is quickly proving to be one of the most effective ways to market your services and grow your business. In fact, studies show that customers are a whopping 131% more likely to purchase from a brand after reading their content.

But why should you hire a copywriter? What stops you from writing and publishing your own content? Nothing. However, there are some very good reasons why you should consider hiring a professional to provide you with unlimited copywriting rather than doing it on your own.

Quality Content

Not surprisingly, poorly written blog posts, peppered with typos and grammar mistakes is not going to do your business any favors. The key to effective content marketing is publishing informative, engaging blog posts, not the opposite.

So, although most people can string two sentences together, not all of us can create the engaging, professional content needed to set our businesses apart from the competition. Copywriters can. So don’t short yourself. Instead, hire a copywriter and see for yourself what unlimited copywriting can do for your business.

Time Management

Maybe you could find the time to write and publish exceptional content on your blog. But just because you’re able to do something doesn’t mean it’s the best use of your time. Want more time to pour into other aspects of your business? Consider hiring a professional to provide you with unlimited copywriting and free up your time.

Objectivity

Regardless of whether or not you are a decent writer, as a business owner, you have another problem. You see, great content marketing isn’t telling your audience what you need them to know; it is giving them content they want to read.

Because while you might know that your products and services are standing between your audience and a better life, they don’t. And chances are they are tired of being preached at.

What your audience wants, and what your business needs, is a reason to trust you above the competition. For this to happen your content needs to be educational and engaging, not just a thinly veiled advertisement in the form of a blog post.

A copywriter can help you with content that will engage with the right audience, build their trust, and increase your sales.

Branding

A good copywriter will get to know your brand. They will understand your motivation, your business goals, and your approach, and then channel all of that information into copy that will wow your audience.

You want to hire a copywriter that can offer unlimited copywriting and that is willing to get to know your brand as well as you do. The key difference between you and your copywriter will be that they can put your brand and purpose into words better than you can.

Hire a copywriter. There is no reason to be a one-man (or one-woman) show. Not when there are so many ways for your business to access unlimited copywriting.

Starting up a business requires two things: a lot of work and a lot of money. It’s tempting to try to save some money by doing your own graphic design, ask a tech-savvy friend to help with web development, or do your own copywriting. However, just because it’s tempting, it doesn’t make it smart.

The growth of your company depends heavily on your marketing success, and if you want to succeed at marketing, you are going to need a skilled creative team.

Your creative team should be made up by web developers, graphic designers, and copywriters. Together they will do things like produce ads, design newsletters, logos, or t-shirts, write emails or social media posts, or develop websites.

Unfortunately, high-quality graphic design, web development, and copywriting costs money. Having access to your own creative team will save you both time and money.

For instance, you’ll save money on hybrid projects like ads that require both copywriting and design work. An outside agency might charge you hourly for both the graphic designer and copywriter, but if you have your own team this cost disappears.

Another benefit is that your own creative team will pay better attention to your brand than a randomly outsourced designer would, making it easier to maintain consistent branding and style.

Hiring your own creative team, however, takes time and effort. Creative candidates have to be vetted and tested, you need to make sure they have real world experience, can adapt to change, are flexible, etc.

If you own a small business, you might not need enough graphic design, copywriting, or web development work to justify having a full time creative team on your payroll. This is why many small businesses decide to outsource this work to a creative agency.

However, there’s an even better solution. A subscription service offering unlimited graphic design, web development, or copywriting will give you all the perks of having your own creative team, minus the hassle of finding, vetting, and hiring the creatives yourself.

The best way to get an unlimited graphic design team, unlimited web development team, and unlimited copywriting team is to hire a business that offers all three.

In fact, a subscription service is a lot like having your own in-house team. Your creative team is on standby at all times, meaning they can step in quickly to work on urgent projects.

For small businesses, finding a subscription service that offers affordable, unlimited graphic design, copywriting, and web development is much better than trying to hire individual teams. The best way is to work with a business that can give you all three at an affordable price

Video content is the current hot topic in the digital marketing world. You may be wondering how you can access this opportunity. Your videos may not be as aesthetically pleasing or as professional as your competitors’ videos, and you need to stay ahead of the game. You’re not sure what step to take next, but you know that step involves elevating your videos’ quality.

Video editing may be the solution for your marketing needs. Here are reasons why you need unlimited video editing in your toolkit:

Looks More Cohesive

If your footage and audio are not aligned properly without video editing, your marketing campaign will not look as though you’ve invested effort into it. This can give the wrong impression to potentially warm leads and even current customers. Additionally, video editing will allow you to cut out any unnecessary content to ensure that it is concise and captures the viewers’ attention.

Builds Your Brand Reputation

Quality video editing should speak volumes of your business. It shows that you care about how your customers perceive your business and builds credibility. A poorly edited or unedited video will give off the impression that you are just seeking to sell a product or service quickly with no regard for the customer experience. Edited videos are clearly added value to the customers, making them more likely to interact and share.

Supports Better Marketing Outcomes

If you are trying to find quality leads and are specifically targeting viewers who have watched a significant portion of your video, you will find greater success in video editing. Edited videos are not only highly engaging for consumers, but they eliminate any unnecessary distractions in the footage or audio quality that may otherwise cause a user to abandon the video (and sales funnel) early. Higher quality videos may even convince a user to take action immediately without the need for lead nurturing.

Video editing has the capability of transforming your target audience’s experiences from the moment they first learn about your business to the moment when they make the executive decision to support you financially. By investing in higher quality videos through editing, you can ensure a greater return on investment for your marketing campaigns.

However, it is important to take advantage of unlimited video editing; you do not want to be restricted in the power capability of your campaigns. Unlimited video editing will allow you to put your best foot forward.

We all know that good managers and business leaders look for collaboration experience in new hires. Even in highly competitive sales environments, teamwork can help companies meet their performance goals. I have compiled several ways that teamwork can uplift both the company and its employees:

Fills in Skillset Gaps

You need to have employees that are adept at teamwork on your side as they will play to each other’s strengths in project management for the benefit of the company. Say that you’re the creative of the group, and one of your other teammates is more statistics oriented. If your teammate was to tackle a project towards creating an ad for the company, they would likely come to you for your expertise in writing copy while they run analytics on best possible keywords to attract your customers. With that power team, it’s no wonder you’ll be able to complete your appealing ad on time!

Allows for New Ideas

Modern workplaces are increasingly recognizing the benefits of diversity and inclusion on their projects. By fostering diversity and inclusion in your teamwork, you are naturally inviting new perspectives into the conversation and inspiring innovations. Teamwork also allows higher quality ideas as they are often vetted in group discussions.

Solves Problems Faster

When everyone works together, it is no wonder that the team is productive and completes tasks more efficiently. Even if the team is at a crossroads, a quick brainstorming session together can assist in the process of finding a viable solution.

Encourages Communication

We all know that this skill is an important facet of teamwork. However, did you know that teamwork also involves communication for conflict resolution? If you don’t agree on a concept that a coworker has put forth as a solution or believe strongly that a project should be completed a certain way, you will require compromise to continue to exceed your supervisor’s expectations for the project. Teamwork lays the foundation for strong communication as team members must resolve their arguments internally rather than notifying a supervisor.

Elevates Team Members

Teamwork is a natural morale-booster. Each team member is made to feel valued and heard for their input to the project. The employees’ morale will also translate into how they view their company as well as whether they exhibit company loyalty.

If you’re unsure as to whether or not hiring an unlimited copyrighting team for your business is really necessary, then keep reading because below we have collected three reasons of why it’s absolutely essential for you to hire an unlimited copyrighting team.

Three Reasons Why You Need an UnlimitedCopywriting Team:

One: Let’s be serious. You can’t write your own website. It just isn’t possible, and it’s certainly isn’t realistic. There’s going to be many different pages and sections that you’ll have to write copy for, and it’s probably going to take you quite a while. This is where an unlimited copywriting team can come in. Not only will they be able to do it much faster, but the copy will be only the highest quality.

Two: Perhaps the worst fear of any business owner is having a spelling or grammar error found on their website or in any of their company’s copy overall.  When you have an unlimited copywriting team, you can have those worries vanish. You don’t even have to worry about proofreading. The copywriting team can take care of it all for you, and you’ll instantly feel stress vanish.

Three: Let’s be honest. We all want to be better than our competitors when it comes to our business. This means that you need to have the best of everything, especially copy. An unlimited copywriting team will give you precisely that. When you hire a team to write your copy, you’ll receive only the best copy and nothing less.

Overall, it’s essential that you hire a copywriting team to write the copy for your business. We recommend you use one that will give you unlimited copywriting so that you’ll be able to utilize it fully. However, no matter how often you use them, you certainly need an on-demand unlimited copywriting team to write the copy for your business. Trust me, it’ll be more than worth it.