Shopify merchants hire retainers for regular support against a monthly fee. As such a partnership is a monthly commitment and cost for Shopify stores, it’s critical that merchants know how to extract the maximum value from retainers.
Retainers offer various types of services, such as design, content, web development, marketing, strategic support, etc. But the real value of retainers lies in how merchants strategically maximize these resources to meet their business goals.
If you’re a Shopify merchant, this blog is for you! From setting expectations to using tools for seamless processes, learn actionable tips to make the most of your Shopify retainers.
Maximize the Value of your Shopify Retainer: Step by Step
Follow these steps to build fruitful partnerships, gain maximum ROI, and strategic value from your Shopify retainers.
Step 1: Set clear goals and expectations
To build a successful Shopify retainer system, it is critical to set clear goals and expectations at the start. When both the parties are aligned from the start, merchants can extract more value from their partnership with retainers.
1. Set performance metrics
By providing specific targets to your Shopify retainers, you can give them a direction and make it easier to measure performance. Moreover, retainers will be aligned with your goals and expectations. Here are some metrics to focus on:
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Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
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Sales growth targets
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Customer retention rate
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Cart abandonment rate
2. Share brand guidelines and workflows
To avoid revisions and back and forth, share your brand guidelines and workflows information with the Shopify retainer team at the onset. Here are a few things you should share with retainers:
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Complete brand guidelines
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Visual identity standards
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Tone of voice documentation
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Target audience profiles
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Existing workflow processes
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Style guide, color palette, typography guide
3. Set communication systems
One of the most important matters to figure and establish before your Shopify retainers begin work is to set communication flows and protocols. By doing this, you can avoid communication gaps, mistakes, and delays. Here are some factors to consider:
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Create feedback loops for continuous improvement
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Set up daily, weekly, and monthly performance review meetings
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Figure out escalation procedures for urgent matters
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Establish a hierarchy flow for communication
Step 2: Communicate regularly with your retainer team
Regular and clear communication creates transparency and trust. Shopify merchants and retainers who engage in ongoing dialogue tend to have lesser delays and friction between team members. Here’s how to set up an efficient communication system.
1. Weekly review meetings
To ensure that every team member is aligned on priorities for the week, set up weekly update meetings between that can cover the following:
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Progress updates from the last week, pending work, priorities for the week
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Performance metrics reviews
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Upcoming campaigns and tasks
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Strategic planning and address any problems
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Any foreseeable setbacks or delays
2. Use project management tools
There are many online tools available that help teams, customers, and retainer agencies work seamlessly. For instance, tools such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, Trello, are some of the most popular.
These tools allow multiple people and teams to work together on the same projects, provide visibility into project status, timelines, deliverables, etc. Moreover, using these tools makes it easy to share files, track progress, and share real-time updates on tasks with everyone involved.
3. Share upcoming events/activities
Working in advance provides enough time to your retainer teams for planning and preparation. Sharing details about upcoming campaigns, events, or launches in advance with your Shopify retainers makes planning much easier.
Here’s what you can do:
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Create a marketing calendar mentioning all activities
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Include product launches, seasonal campaigns, potential ad hoc events, etc.
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Add important dates for these campaigns and events to plan for resources in advance
Step 3: Prioritize tasks strategically
Prioritizing tasks can help you get more value from retainers. When you prioritize tasks strategically, you can focus on activities that have a higher impact at that specific time. Here are some factors to consider:
1. Urgent vs. important fixes
An effective way to prioritize tasks is to segment them into urgent and important tasks. Let’s look at some examples of urgent and important tasks.
Urgent: Website downtime, checkout issues, payment gateway problems, security issues, etc.
Important: Conversion optimization, SEO, UX improvements, growth strategy, design, software updates, etc.
2. Aligning tasks with revenue-driving activities
The kind of tasks you use your Shopify retainers for can have an impact on your goals. For example, if your goal is to increase revenue, you should allocate revenue-driving activities to retainers. Here are some examples:
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Checkout optimization to reduce cart abandonment
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Speed improvements to increase conversion rates
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SEO enhancements to increase organic traffic
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A/B testing to improve UX
3. Create priority matrix
Develop a system for ranking tasks based on impact and effort required. High-impact, low-effort tasks should be prioritized first, followed by high-impact, high-effort initiatives. This ensures your retainer team focuses on activities that provide the greatest return on investment.
Step 4: Track ROI and performance metrics
To ensure consistent retainer value, month after month, it’s important to consistently get a sense of their performance and identify areas for improvement. Here’s what you can include in your evaluation process.
1. Monitoring site speed, conversion rate, SEO rankings
To ensure your Shopify retainers’ work remains aligned with your business goals, ask retainers to share regular reports. Using tools, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, etc., you can ensure thorough reports. Here are some metrics:
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Website load time, page load time
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Bounce rates
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Conversion rates and traffic sources
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Organic search rankings
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Revenue per visitor
2. Evaluate deliverables against retainer cost
Your Shopify retainers are a recurring, monthly cost to your business. And hence, it is a must to evaluate deliverables against the price you’re paying. For instance, you can calculate the ROI for specific projects or overall retainer performance. Continuously tracking this can help you justify your continued investment.
3. Competitive analysis
Ask your Shopify retainer teams to share competitor analysis from time to time. Using their expertise to benchmark your business performance against industry standards and competitors will keep them alert and on their toes. Moreover, you will have a clear picture of where your business stands in the market. This will help both you and your retainer to identify opportunities, make changes in strategy, etc. to ensure success.
Step 5: Build a long-term partnership
Onboarding new retainers every now and then can add to your cost. Moreover, onboarding new retainer teams requires time and resources, which could have been used for other important business needs. That is why, most Shopify merchants prefer to work with the same retainers for the long-term. Here’s how to build long-term partnerships with Shopify retainer agencies.
1. Treat the team as an extension, not an external vendor
One of the best ways to build long-term partnerships is to make your Shopify retainer agencies and teams feel like an integral part of your business. Some ways to do so are:
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Include retainers in strategic planning sessions
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Share your long-term business goals with them
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Ask for their inputs on business decisions
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Ask them to contribute in a proactive manner
2. Encourage proactive recommendations and feedback
You hire retainers for their expertise and experience. To ensure you gain maximum value from them, encourage them to provide strategic guidance on matters in which they have authority. For instance, your retainer teams can suggest improvements, identify growth opportunities, or question your decisions if they have better recommendations.
Wrapping up
Maximizing Shopify retainer value requires setting clear goals, creating communication systems, prioritizing tasks, and building a long-term relationship. When used strategically, your Shopify retainer agencies can help your business grow and scale.
If you’re struggling to find the best Shopify retainers for your business, or want to review your current retainer practices for better results, reach out to XgenTech.
