Top Ecommerce Resources for December

The last few weeks of December, once the fires are put out, are a great time to rest, reflect, and rally. Rest after the intense last three months of helping your clients prepare for and manage the holiday rush. Reflect on the amazing things your team has been able to accomplish this past year. Rally your spirits for the New Year that is upon us and start laying out your master plan for growth! This month's roundup features a few articles and resources that should help you accomplish all three.

Ecommerce Articles

The State of UX in 2015 / 2016

In their own effort of reflecting, the team at uxdesign.cc have compiled an amazing overview of the trends they're seeing in the UX world as we transition from 2015 to 2016. Some definitely challenge the status quo, such as the end of apps (as we know it) and designing around time. They've put together a great collection of resources and thought-provoking ideas to consider for your own design practices going into the New Year.

The Ultimate Guide to SEO for Ecommerce Websites

The world of SEO has changed significantly, especially in April of this year as Google bestowed "Mobilegeddon" upon all of those whose websites were not mobile-friendly. Although some feel that the push towards mobile-driven search results means traditional SEO practices are becoming less relevant, it's highly unlikely Google will begin favoring those who start killing their sitemaps and dropping meta information. If you're looking to bone up on the best practices for ecommerce SEO, take a look at this guide that the folks at Kissmetrics have put together.

How to Write a Content Marketing Strategy Step-by-Step

The team at Buffer have released a very comprehensive guide on how to approach writing a content marketing strategy. With the folks at uxdesign.cc predicting that "Content Strategy [will be] the New Information Architecture," this sort of resource is quite timely. It's a long study, but covers everything from 'creating audience personas' to 'creating content workflows for your team.' Consider this a prerequisite to planning out any of your 2016 content marketing efforts.

The Blueprint to Agency Growth at Every Stage, From Start-Up to Powerhouse

If you read the content marketing guide above, then you might find yourself longing for something short and visual! Hubspot's agency-focused blog put together a great infographic on growing your agency. In it, they break out culture, recruiting, marketing, and operational tactics for what they consider the three types of agencies: "The Startup Agency," "The Established Agency," and "The Powerhouse Agency."

Ecommerce Apps

Nosto

Clients with a fair number of products are great candidates for utilizing cross-selling and up-selling strategies with their customers. Marketing Automation tools that help segment customers and provide targeted and sequenced email marketing can be incredibly powerful. Taking that one step further are companies such as Nosto, who've built a 'personalization engine' for ecommerce companies. Pulling in a variety of data sources, their tool builds a unique profile at the customer-level, allowing your clients to make highly personalized product recommendations on both their websites and in their emails. Download the Nosto Shopify app from The App Store and start personalizing your client's stores today.

Agency-Ipsum

Since no one wants to end on a serious note when there are holiday parties to enjoy and New Years plans to make, we figured we'd share this little nugget for your future ipsum needs. Agency Ipsum features the ridiculous jargon and ideas you'd expect to fly out of the mouth of your favorite Creative Director. Rather than filling your next client website with Pig Latin, drop them a good old "Lean Dev Environment Synergy" or "Responsive Behavior Proximity"! Also, if you're looking for something even more creative, check out our curated list of other great lorem ipsum generators.