leading ecommerce growth
for a few good brands

FRACTIONAL HEAD OF ECOMMERCE - IAN RHODES

Working Alongside You & Your In-House Team

Grow lean. Grow better. Build for the long haul.

Do you hire or outsource? One of the biggest decisions and challenges you face as you focus efforts on driving ecommerce growth.

Whether you're hiring (yet) another agency, a consultant or growing your in-house team, there's a skills gap in real experience structuring, prioritising and delegating the work that helps you achieve next stage ecommerce growth. Somebody that you can trust to put strategy in place and to then lead the process of actioning plans and driving growth. Somebody to actually work alongside you to own that process.

That's my job. I work with a maximum of 3-4 businesses at anyone time as their Fractional Head of Ecommerce / CMO. Not just somebody that tells you what needs doing, somebody that actually gets their fingers dirty and is fully accountable for delivering real ecommerce growth. This isn't outsourcing. This is a true partnership.

I've 25 years experience building and growing ecommerce brands. Experience that you simply can't buy. And because I work across a few brands, it means that you're not burdening your business with a 6-figure salary or agencies that simply don't act on their promise.

Let me explain below a little more about how this role will work within your business.

Hire a Fractional CMO or Head of Ecommerce

IAN RHODES
Fractional Head of Ecommerce

Fractional Ecommerce Director

“Working with Ian is probably the best thing that has happened to us in the last 6 years.
Ian has managed to help us turn a corner by training up our team immensely."
Rivki @ Private White VC

Ecommerce Growth Partner

Are We A Good Match?

I work with a maximum of 4 businesses at anyone time, already established brands that operate in retail and/or b2b and feel that more needs to be done in ecommerce. Brands led by management serious about driving their direct-to-consumer offering and achieving next stage ecommerce growth.

You probably have an ecommerce or marketing executive (or small team) that are running the day to day operations keeping your site maintained, launching email campaigns and potentially running ads too.

There's a likely chance that you're outsourcing SEO, development, content creation or Google/Facebook Ads management to agencies too.

And you know that, long term, there's tremendous value in bringing your ecommerce operations and marketing in-house... and this is the stumbling block... knowing how that process will work and concern for who does what.

And then there's the technology. In terms of ecommerce platform, you know that change needs to be made, but again, you're hearing dozens of opinions and need consolidated advice from somebody experienced enough to look at data, see how current operations are running and to bring clarity to what steps are needed to progress.

And the costs... This is the case for your platform as well as marketing in general. You know more could be done. You're willing to invest.

So ecommerce just sits there on the back burner.

It's time to make ecommerce your priority.

“He truly has become an essential part of the business and continues to exceed my high expectations in every way.
Ian's also very fun to work with which is an added bonus!"
Keri-Ann :: Founder ::  Women's Luxury Fashion Retailer

Ecommerce Growth Partner

Who won't this suit?

Dropshippers, general retailers, Amazon sellers, eBay stores or those with the desire to get rich quick. If you’re looking for the easy route?

a) it doesn’t exist
b) we’re not a good match

This process will not suit startups either. It's best to have an established business, whether that be in b2b, retail or already selling direct-to-consumer through your ecommerce store.

Ecommerce Growth Partner

Day to day, how will this work?

Where do we start? With a big old chat through where you’re at right now, how you got there and where you want to head. Our remit is wide. The who, the what, the why’s and the when’s. Our first meaningful task it to prioritise what needs doing.

This is a blended approach to strategy, leadership and doing the work. I'm not simply there to advise. For example, any elements such as email, SEO (technical or on-site) or Ad Management that are currently being outsourced will be reviewed. That review process is looking at overall performance, the skills of the individuals and the processes they have in place to grow your business. If you're just receiving promises and a monthly report on data made to look good... we'll make the changes quickly. For the most part, SEO (as an example) is brought in-house and I'll manage that process for you and the day-to-day of 'doing' the work... optimisation. Similar to Google Ads or Email. There's no need to outsource core elements of your marketing. We'll work to a plan to bring those in-house and to skill up your team to outperform any agency.

On the performance side

Common questions I know have circled around your boardroom...

  • The financials... how do I know which numbers matter? How do I track those numbers?
  • Do I focus on customer acquisition or retention?
  • Do I hire? Do I outsource? What numbers do we need to be hitting to recruit? And what role?
  • Data. How do I make best use of all this data?
  • ... same question for technology! What tech should you be using? How do you justify new tech? Will it scale?
  • What channels (should) work best for us? Do I focus on paid search? can I really grow organically?
  • How do we get more customers to shop again? I need even need to focus on repeat business right now?
  • What do we do about social media? Affiliate marketing? Partnerships? I need somebody to lead that too.
  • What pricing strategy suits us? 2x, 3x, 5x my cost of goods? What about shipping costs? Do I discount?
  • How can I improve inventory management, order processing and dispatch?
  • How can we launch new products with impact?
  • What strategies am I missing? Where do I need to invest our time?
  • I love the idea of building community. What are the steps to take?
  • What does data tell me I don't already know? What actions do I now need to take?

On the brand side

  • I know people will love my products, how do I get them to buy into what my brand is all about?
  • We're building on sustainable foundations, but how can I prove that we're genuinely a planet-first brand
  • There are a few players in my market with similar products, how do I differentiate my brand from the rest?
  • How quickly should we start with FB ads and how much budget should I be allocating?
  • Do I even need to be running FB ads?
  • I really want to build my business organically, is this even possible?
  • Brand work doesn't seem to move the needle, should I just focus on ads?
  • What's my approach to video? I'm uncomfortable talking to camera, what else could I be doing?
  • I really want to build a storytelling brand - is this the right approach?
  • What about YouTube? Should I be creating shorts? How do I make sure it doesn't get too monotonous?

On the practical side

  • How do we understand and measure our customer lifetime value?
  • What Klaviyo email flows should we build? what segments should we focus on?
  • How do I know what content I need to be creating?
  • How do we capture more relevant customer data as we grow our list?
  • I need more data.... I think. What data do I need?
  • Copywriting is a struggle, what tone best suits our brand?
  • How do we get more customer reviews? Quality as well as quantity?
  • How can we develop our loyalty programme?
  • How do we make the most of the post-purchase experience?
  • What apps should we be looking to use? What budget works for our tech stack?
  • I love the idea of creating articles and new landing pages, but what should we be writing about?

Ecommerce Growth Partner

What will the schedule look like?

AKA What do you get for your money?

We kick off our work together with a 1-day workshop where we scope out current performance, operations and structure. We make sure that if you have an internal team they're fully onboarded with my role and how I'm there to help and advise them in their work so that they have full confidence working alongside somebody who has been there and done that. It's key to our success working together.

Following that workshop we'll then prioritise our work for the next few months. We'll know what needs doing, what changes need to be made and to ensure that we're working to both short and long term objectives. Naturally, you'll be wary of anyone new promising the earth. That's not my way of working. I'll just promise you that we'll do all we can to drive real growth through the ecommerce channel, deliver your customers a new level shopping experience and bring confidence, across the business, to what direction ecommerce is now heading in for your business.

We have weekly calls, a slack channel and continual conversations to make sure we're continually progressing and improving upon results month after month. I take full accountability for ecommerce growth. That's my job. And by 'growth' I mean real growth... the kind that grows the business bank account, not just Google's or Facebook's.

We'll begin to 'in-source' the work. That way you're saving on agency bills, but also building in-house expertise in ecommerce. My job is to lead that process. Teaching the latest technology, leading ideation around marketing strategies and giving you full support to ensure the ecommerce side of your business is fuelled by the right processes to drive real growth.

Hiring a Fractional Head of Ecommerce

Your initial questions answered

Ready to learn more?

Use the form below (or email me at [email protected]) and I'll be in touch to answer your questions, learn more about your brand and to discuss how I may help grow your ecommerce business.

"Within the first year, we were consistently delivering sales results in significant double-digit growth, whilst at the same time seeing an improvement in the investment ROI"
- Wayne Robinson - Founder of SowSeeds