Yotpo describes itself as an “eCommerce marketing platform with the most advanced solutions for customer reviews, visual marketing, loyalty, and referrals.”
The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York.
For this ‘day in the life’ interview, we caught up with Talia Shani, Director of Marketing, Yotpo UK.
Please describe your job: What do you do?
As Director of Marketing for Yotpo UK I drive strategy for all of our marketing efforts for UK and Europe. I’m in the fortunate position of helping some of the most interesting and inspiring brands redefine retail using our eCommerce marketing platform — whether they’re transforming their business to better serve consumers online, or they are pioneers creating exciting new experiences on digital and offline.
Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to?
I’m on the Marketing team, reporting to the VP of Marketing.
What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
Just like any modern marketer it’s a balancing act – being analytical is as important as being empathetic to the needs of the brands we work with.
Tell us about a typical working day…
A lot of what I do is about creating content and experiences that would resonate with amazing brands in the eCommerce space. Given time zones, I spend my morning working with our Tel Aviv-based teams and afternoon working with NYC-based teams. So, it naturally breaks down to working on content, design, growth projects before lunch, and brand, demand gen and ops projects after.
Often, I’m also working together with our partners like Shopify, Magento, Salesforce, Born Group, We Make Websites or Astound. Together we’ll put out research or produce a panel or webinar or — my favourite — incredible events. When it comes to events, our philosophy is to make it all about the brands. There is no pitching, no slide decks, no roll-ups. Bringing together amazing people from great brands is what it’s all about — seeing the eCommerce leaders from Champion and Sweaty Betty connecting over breakfast at The Ivy, or a dinner at Sketch with directors from Orlebar Brown and Made.com connecting over a beautiful meal — that’s the stuff that makes my typical working day fun!
What do you love about your job? What sucks?
I love being a part of this transformative movement towards consumer-centric brands and marketing, where I have a front row seat to what companies like Gymshark, Away Travel and Rebecca Minkoff are doing to reignite a passion for brands among shoppers today. Women are a primary force in this movement, that’s why we introduced Amazing Women in eCommerce and are now expanding it to the UK retail industry with live networking events. It’s a program Yotpo launched last year to put a well-deserved spotlight on the game-changing women working in this space and create a community for sharing and empowerment.
As far as what I don’t like, I miss hanging out with my marketing teammates in Tel Aviv and New York.
What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?
I share a lot of pain points with our Yotpo users – I need to figure out how to be effective and efficient when it comes to customer acquisition, whether that’s online or offline. So, I’m always looking at things like conversion rate and acquisition cost and how to maximise LTV.
What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?
Basically, my entire day takes place in the Google Suite, Salesforce, Tableau, Slack or various work WhatsApp groups.
How did you end up at Yotpo, and where might you go from here?
I started my journey at Yotpo six years ago as one of the only four people who were not in R&D or customer support. It’s been incredible to watch us grow from 20-something to 375+ over the past six years and being part of the founding team in the UK. Next? The plan is to evangelize fantastic eCommerce experiences throughout the rest of Europe.
Which ecommerce experiences have impressed you lately?
I shop almost entirely on my phone. Glossier has an incredible mobile experience – I love how when you click on a product from a category page, they pop up a beautiful, minimal experience that makes it easy to buy (but also lets you explore the full page if you want). The Asos app is also a masterclass in what is a great mobile app – super easy to browse and shop and I love the video feature – but I wish they had reviews! Not to forget the Ocado app, which has been a game-changer for my weekly shop. They offer a great experience from shopping through to delivery.
What advice would you give a marketer starting out?
Get a job at a company or brand that you love and where you love the people – it will mean you’re happy to come to work every day.
