The document proposes 24 strategies for Shopify to grow 10x using social media, organized according to the AARRR pirate funnel model of acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. It prioritizes the top 10 strategies based on their predicted impact, confidence of success, and effort required. The top strategy is to cross-sell e-commerce solutions to Shopify's existing point-of-sale customers to improve retention and revenue. The document also discusses setting goals and metrics for each funnel stage and social media platform.

1. Barney Tong
btong21@gmail.com

2. Table of Contents
 Introduction
 The Funnel
 The process to 10x Shopify
 AARRR – Social Media & Pirates
 Acquisition
 Retention
 Activation, Referral, Revenue
 Segmentation
 Qualitative Data
 Immediate Actions
 Questions

3. Introduction
In order to derive possible growth hacking strategies to help Shopify grow 10x,
Shopify should continue to place emphasis on social platforms to be a key
channel when guiding potential customers throughout the marketing funnel.
Social media is a way to generate awareness of Shopify’s brand,
provides valuable opportunities to turn followers and fans into loyal brand
advocates in order to build a sustainable community of merchants. Furthermore,
social media can also be used as a platform for product integration and
innovation, blurring the lines between product and marketing.

4. The Funnel
When it comes to breaking down and analyzing conversion funnels, I love Dave
McClure’s simple and powerful Pirate AARRR (acquisition, activation, retention,
referral, revenue) model. For this assignment, I will outline my opinion on
growing Shopify’s social platforms in reference to the AARRR model.

5. The 7 step process to 10x Shopify when
strategizing and executing strategies
1. Using the Pirate Model, we can breakup and organize the vast amount of possible
social media strategies Shopify may deploy when brainstorming (categorize into 5
groups).
 Both organic and paid traffic should be covered
2. Using Sean Ellis’ ICE (impact, confidence, effort) rating system to prioritize and
rate each brainstormed social media strategy. This will help Shopify allocate and
focus its resources effectively. Let’s not waste time and money!
3. Build hypothesis and establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of the chosen
tactics we plan to deploy
4. Test! Test! Test!
5. Monitoring the campaigns will help us gather quantitative data to help us
understand the parts of the funnel that we need to focus on. (the bottlenecks)
6. Optimize the tactics and campaigns if it shows promoting results
7. Rinse and repeat

6. AARRR – Social Media & Pirates
Although all parts of the Pirate model can be influenced and be aided with social
platforms, I believe that the majority of social media efforts have a direct and
greater impact on the “Acquisition” and “Retention” stages of the funnel. That
being said, many strategies affect multiple parts of the funnel in an
interdependent manner, and does not affect a funnel step exclusively.
I’ll be going over these stages of the model first, followed by the impact on
Activation, Referral and Revenue.
The following strategies are those that I recommend that Shopify can explore.

7. Acquisition - Goals
Shopify should set measurable goals, a clear benchmark to evaluate and compare
during and at the end of the campaign.
Break down goals into immediate smaller goals (ex. if we want to increase 20,000
visitors a month, we should set a daily goal of acquiring 666.67 visitors/day =
20,000 divided by 30 days
For example,
Increase # and % increase of new unique landing pages views from social media
channels in X time period
Increase # and % increase of new signups (14 day free trial) for all services from
social media channels in X time period

8. Acquisition – Strategies to test (1 of 2)
 Increase the frequency of Linkedin activity
 Find influencers and incentivize blog coverage (automate)
 Daily interaction, blog updates
 Provides B2B environment, great for targeting businesses, especially enterprises for
Shopify Plus
 Increase Paid Advertising on effective channels and optimize (Linkedin,
Facebook, Twitter)
 A/B test all ad titles and copies
 Optimize retargeting efforts on social channels
 Put JavaScript tags across whole site
 Came across 1 retargeted ad throughout my research phase for this assignment
 “Just add water” when LTV (lifetime value of customer) > CAC (customer
acquisition cost)

9. Acquisition – Strategies to test (2 of 2)
 Use established channels such as Facebook and Twitter to target non-e-
commerce websites (blogs, existing company sites, personal sites etc.)
 Convert influencers into e-commerce gurus!
 Sell the “Buy Button"
 Target Facebook page owners using Dark Posts to help build Facebook Shop
(my personal fav.)
 Brick-and-mortar businesses
 Can also help businesses promote Facebook Shops by targeting consumers
 Social channels can help drive both the supply and the demand side of the marketplace
 Use promoted Pins to promote “Buyable Pins” to Pinterest users and curators
 Use promoted Tweets to promoted “Buy” button to businesses on Twitter

10. Acquisition – Platforms to explore (1 of 2)
 Increase Tumblr presence to sell “Buy Buttons” to Tumblr bloggers
 Create and increase presence on StackOverflow
 Answer developers’ questions regarding Shopify’s open API and other technicalities
 Forge presence in the developer community
 Indirectly helps the “demand” funnel as this strategy would benefit the “supply” side
(3rd party app stores
 Create and increase Reddit presence
 1200 subscribers on r/shopify as of December 28th, to compare, 7335 subscribers on
r/ecommerce, and 166,00+ on r/entrepreneur
 Excellent way to build a merchant community in an informal setting and environment
 Increase brand awareness and engagement on Pinterest
 21k followers at the moment
 Great platform to target the merchants who are design-savvy, sell more themes!

11. Acquisition – Platforms to explore (2 of 2)
 Increase personalized activity on YouTube
 Interaction in comments, imitate the excellent job on Twitter and Facebook
 Increase Quora brand awareness and engagement in the community
 Large opportunity as many discussions regarding e-commerce
 Voice as “the industry expert”, CEO Tobias often a contributor, perhaps it could be
a company-wide activity if tests are successful
 Periscope/Meerkat
 “how to run a business” broadcasts, live events (Q&A, product launches, fireside
chats, conferences)
 Still in its infancy stage, channels are not as saturated as other more mature social
platforms

12. Acquisition - KPI
 # of new unique landing page views
 # of new signups (14 day free trial) for all services from each social media
channel
 Make sure to also track which services are customers from each channel is using
 Conversion rates for new signups for each social media channel

13. Retention - Goals
 Decrease customer churn # and %
 Increase # of blog subscribers*
 Increase # of email opt-ins*
*secondary goals, interesting to learn if there is a direct correlation between blog subscribers and churn
rate

14. Retention – Strategies to test (1 of 2)
 Use SMS as a new way of communication (AppStore updates, personalized
notifications)
 96% of recipients read their text messages
 Streamline/automate announcements on social channels
 New initiatives - (i.e. Pinterest buy buttons, Amazon FBA partnership, uberRush)
 Featured apps in AppStore, case studies using apps in AppStore

15. Retention – Strategies to test (2 of 2)
 Streamline/automate new blog content into appropriate social channels to
maximize exposure to the content
 Currently, not all the blog content is posted on social platforms
 Invite and encourage feedback on social media channels, increase
engagement
 Loyalty callouts on social platforms, shows customer appreciation, builds
relationship
 “Soap Store has been with us for 1 year! Just want to say you’re awesome, and
THANK YOU!"

16. Retention – KPI/Analysis
 Segmented churn rate (need to know which types of merchants are
more likely to churn)
 Churn funnel/cohort report
 Know when, where, and how merchants are leaving Shopify
 Frequency and recency

17. Activation, Referral, Revenue
Although social media may often be associated during the acquisition and
retention stage, I believe it can also be an indirect driver in the other stages of
the funnel as well.
I view social media as a platform for communication, and customer interaction
should occur in all stages of the sales funnel in order to capitalize on improving
the relationship with merchants.

18. Activation, Referral, Revenue - Goals
 Increase trial to customer conversion rate and #
 Create a successful social referral program, viral coefficient > 1
 Increase revenues through new growth initiatives

19. Activation, Referral, Revenue - Strategies to test (1 of 2)
 Connect with trial users on social platforms to drive trial-to-customer
conversion rate (activation)
 Create and test referral program (referral)
 Automate process by using unique trackable referral codes, could either be
distributed via social platforms or at the end of the on-boarding process
 Curious as to how responsive and close-knitted the online business community is
for a B2B referral program
 Sell e-commerce solutions to brick-and-mortar businesses (retention/revenue)
(current POS system customers) (huge potential upside in revenue)
 Use social media channels to target cross-sell customers

20. Activation, Referral, Revenue - Strategies to test (2 of 2)
 Cross-sell AppStore using recommendation engine (retention/revenue)
 Use social media channels to get recommendation message across
 What other social platforms can Shopify partner up with to distribute
the “buy now” button?
 Instagram! Maybe Reddit?
 Snapchat (a little out of the box...shoppers have a time limit to decide whether if
they want to purchase the product or not

21. Activation, Referral, Revenue – KPI/Analysis
 Trial to customer conversion rate (activation)
 Viral coefficient (referral)
 Which customers breakeven, which customers won’t? Dig deeper to find
difference between two segments (revenue)
 New revenues from AppStore generated due to social media targeting
(revenue)
 # of new e-commerce signups from current POS system customers (revenue)
 Successful partnership and sales figures generated on the platform (revenue)

22. Segmentation
 To generate meaningful insights, each KPI for each part of the funnel should be
segmented at the very least:
 Demographic data
 Type of content
 Time
 Social media channels
 Campaign data will help generate insights/answer questions such as:
 Who are the merchants that are coming and converting? Industry? Business size?
 Who are the merchants that are leaving Shopify’s platform?
 What platforms have the most effective acquisition channels?
 What types of content should we post to acquire more merchants?
 When should we post to attract and acquire these merchants?
 Where and how should we allocate our social media budget and resources?

23. Qualitative Data
Not just the who, what, when, where, qualitative data helps answer the WHY
questions too...which provides further depth into insights. Qualitative data helps
reinforce the quantitative data collected during the campaigns. Together, the
data forms a whole picture to help make strategic decisions.
Let’s kill two birds with one stone. With one survey, we can obtain customer
insights/feedback AND generate case studies/testimonials/success stories as
marketing material.
 On-site surveys
 On-boarding and exit
 Customer Interviews can be reached out via social channels
 Customer discovery for new initiatives

24. Immediate Actions - Priorities
The following strategies were chosen after prioritizing based on 3 factors:
impact, confidence, ease of effort (time and resources)
Priority Strategies to test AARRR Impact Confidence (ease of) Effort Total Score
1 Cross-sell e-commerce solutions to POS customers Retention/Revenue 5 4 3.5 12.5
2 Target FB page owners using Dark Posts to build FB shop Acquisition 5 3.5 3.5 12
3 Cross-sell AppStore apps using SM Retention/Revenue 5 3.5 3.5 12
4 Automate blog content on SM Retention 5 4 2.5 11.5
5 Loyalty callouts on SM Retention 4 3.5 4 11.5
6 Increase presence on Pinterest Acquisition 3.5 3.5 3.5 10.5
7 Automate annoucements on SM Retention 4 4 2.5 10.5
8 Encourage SM feedback Retention 3.5 3 4 10.5
9 Increase Linkedin Activity Acquisition 2.5 4 3.5 10
10 Increase Paid Advertising Channels Acquisition 4 4 2 10
11 Increase presence on YouTube Acquisition 3 3 4 10
12 Connect with trail users on SM Activation 4 3.5 2.5 10
13 Create referral program Referral 5 2.5 2.5 10
14 Promoted Tweets to promote "Buy" button Acquisition 4 2 3.5 9.5
15 Increase presence on StackOverflow Acquisition 4 3 2.5 9.5
16 Target e-commerce websites using SM Acquisition 3 3 3 9
17 Promoted Pins to promote "Buyable Pins" Acquisition 3.5 2 3.5 9
18 Increase presence on Quora Acquisition 3 3 3 9
19 Increase presence on Periscope/Meetkat Acquisition 4 2.5 2.5 9
20 Instagram "Buy Now" button Revenue 5 3 1 9
21 SMS communication with current customers Retention 4.5 3 1 8.5
22 Increase presence on Tumblr Acquisition 2.5 2.5 3 8
23 Snapchat "Buy Now" button Revenue 5 2 1 8
24 Increase presence on Reddit Acquisition 2 2 3.5 7.5
*Each factor is rated out of 5
Everything should be tested and optimized!

25. Questions
 LinkedIn account is not as active as I would have guessed for a B2B company,
why is that?
 Out of all the marketing channels, how does social media fare against the
other channels in terms of growth?
 When and what was Shopify’s tipping point in growth? What initiatives did the
team launch?
 What insights did the team gather before launching @ShopifyPicks?
 The nature of the commerce business allows Shopify to be in a unique
position to fully leverage social media, both as a communication tool, AND a
platform for the product.
 How does the team divide the line?
 Are there separate teams?
 What is Shopify’s holistic view on social media?