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Partner League is fortunate to have a vibrant community of thousands of Shopify partners from across the globe. Over time, we have come together to talk about the changing eCommerce ecosystem,
Shopify’s role in it and how we have all moved on with the times, sometimes pivoting to new strategies and sometimes coming up with new solutions. We have discussed tools, tech, no-code and many new ways of building online businesses together, holding back no information from one other.
So we decided it was time to start getting some of our members into the spotlight. The people who have been continually adding value to our community by helping it thrive together.
Each week we’re going to highlight a member from our community, sharing their story, background and the projects they work on that makes them an integral part of Partner League.
This week we spoke to Karolis Civinskas, Partnerships Manager at Firepush, an omnichannel marketing app that helps Shopify stores to drive sales with automated web push, email and SMS campaigns.
Let’s get right to it!
Hey Karolis, welcome to Member Spotlight. Can you give us some details on your background, and what first got you interested in helping Shopify merchants and joining a Shopify partner company as a Partner Manager?
My background is in arts, as I am a professional photographer. For quite some time now, I’ve been interested in ways and means for artists to sell prints online.
A few years ago, I tried to set up a print shop on Shopify to sell prints by artists from all over the world via London-based printers called The PrintSpace. But that didn’t happen.
When I look at it now, I realize how naive my efforts were. So ever since I have been orbiting around e-commerce, front-end, UX and the art market, still dreaming of my own online gallery.
That’s why I want to help other people who want to open successful businesses by sharing my experience and tips.
So, in February I reached out to Tom, CEO of Firepush, who I knew from my days in London, to ask for advice on how to get into this digital marketing world.
He offered me to join Firepush and step by step I evolved into a Partnerships Manager. I still have a lot to learn, so being part of communities such as Partner League is super helpful and encouraging.
That’s a really interesting start. Would you like to tell us a little about Firepush and the challenge you saw in the market that you’re trying to solve?
Firepush is an omnichannel marketing automation platform that includes web push, email and SMS channels in one app. It allows Shopify merchants to keep in touch with their customer base through automated marketing campaigns.
With Firepush, Shopify stores can build lists of email, SMS, and/or push notification subscribers and nurture them with marketing campaigns.
Thanks to templates, creating campaigns is really easy for Firepush users. Campaign scheduling and performance monitoring are also available to automate marketing and define the best techniques.
The challenge that we’re trying to help Shopify stores to solve is customer retention. By using our omnichannel marketing campaigns, they can keep their businesses on top of customers’ minds.
And in today’s time, that sure is very important. So how do you get the word out about Firepush? What are your top three sources of getting users? And how do you foster and grow these lead sources?
We market Firepush with SEO-optimized content, advertising campaigns, and outreach. So far, I have mostly been focused on outreach and guest blogging. Our chief copywriter Oleksii is super passionate about producing high-quality, actionable content for our blog, which is another major source of users.
Also, we sometimes invest in advertising campaigns in Google, especially when we update our tool.
When we started Partner League, our goal was to help everyone establish connections that would lead to fruitful partnerships. Can you share a specific collaboration project you’ve worked on with other Shopify Partners and what was your experience with it?
I haven’t had a chance to get involved in any major projects with other Shopify Partners. But I am definitely looking forward to being a part of one.
As I mentioned we are currently super focused on content. We are looking to partner up with blogs and publications in need of well-written and actionable articles on eCommerce. I am also brainstorming some ideas on an ebook in the near future.
Can you highlight a valuable connection made within Partner League, a resource or pivotal insight that you learned from being a member?
It is difficult to single out someone specifically. I generally enjoy the positive vibe of the League.
The top shout goes to Jonathan for putting so much time and effort into curating this community. I really appreciate his consistency in posting valuable content and industry news. For someone like me, it is highly educational.
Which other professional online communities are you a part of and most engaged in? Free or paid. If communities have had an important impact on your business or role within the business, can you explain how?
I am a part of Shopify Partners Slack Community. So, Slack has been my go-to source in recent weeks. Of course, there are LinkedIn and Facebook groups, and I’m planning to explore them soon.
I guess what I value most are personal introductions and recommendations.
That being said, communities are absolutely vital to my role. I can always reach out to seasoned pros for advice or offer a collaboration of some sort.
Also, there are always new members coming in so it helps to get to know new players. It keeps the community dynamic and vibrant.
And everybody is on the same page because we all want the same thing - growth.
What are the top 3 tools (digital or physical) you use, and can’t live without, to help you as a partnerships manager?
Well, as for any manager, the calendar is my best friend these days. Slack has become totally irreplaceable and I would really struggle without Asana. And of course, there is the good old spreadsheet that sometimes comes in handy.
Nice! So, what are you working on now to help your business get to the next level?
Right now, we’re working on our updated content strategy. We’ve been doing a lot of SEO content writing recently, but now we’d like to get started on organic link building. I’m involved in dozens of outreach projects at the moment, communicating with website owners and marketers about contributing quality content to their blogs.
Interesting. We look forward to seeing it all in action! Is there anything you’d like to share with us?
I’d like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone in the Partner League who collaborated with us on blog post exchanges, in-app promotions, email campaigns and other co-marketing activities.
I’m really looking forward to working with you all!
That’s really sweet of you Karolis, and we hope to be able to work with you on a project too, soon!
Loved getting a peek into what Karolis does at Firepush?
Keep an eye open for our next Member Spotlight post coming soon! We’re going to make it our goal to share insightful snippets in the form of mini-interviews that you can read on the go, and learn from.
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