Day 14 of 20 · AI for E-commerce

Your Marketing Machine

⏱ 5 min 📊 Beginner

You've just completed Week 2. Take a moment to recognise what you've built: not a collection of random marketing tactics, but a system — a machine with interconnected parts that work together to attract, convert, and retain customers.

Let's pull it all together, see how the pieces connect, and then put the system to the test with a real challenge.

The Week 2 system

Here's everything you built this week:

Day 8: Ad Copy That Converts — You learned to generate 20+ ad variations in 10 minutes, tailored for Facebook, Instagram, Google Shopping, Pinterest, and TikTok. Headlines, body copy, and CTAs that stop the scroll and drive clicks.

Day 9: Email Marketing for Your Store — You built five automated email sequences: welcome series, abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase, win-back, and product launch. Each one runs on autopilot, converting browsers to buyers and buyers to repeat customers.

Day 10: Social Media Content Engine — You created a content calendar system with 4–5 pillars, batched a month of content in one sitting, and learned to repurpose one piece of content across every platform.

Day 11: Customer Service at Scale — You built response templates for every common customer scenario — shipping, returns, product questions, complaints, and review responses — while keeping the personal touch.

Day 12: Competitor Analysis & Pricing — You used AI and Perplexity to research competitors, build a competitive matrix, and develop a pricing strategy based on data instead of guesswork.

Day 13: Reviews & Social Proof — You learned to generate more reviews, respond strategically, and turn your best reviews into marketing copy across every channel.

Knowledge Check

What connects all of the marketing systems you built this week?

They only work for physical product stores

They all require a large budget to implement

They work together as a cycle — ads drive traffic, email converts visitors, social media builds awareness, reviews provide proof, and customer service retains buyers

They should all be done manually for the best results

Marketing isn't a set of isolated tactics. Ads bring people to your store. Email sequences convert them and recover abandoned carts. Social media keeps your brand visible between purchases. Reviews provide the proof that convinces new buyers. Customer service turns one-time buyers into loyal fans who leave more reviews. Each piece feeds the next. That's why it's a machine, not a checklist.

How the pieces connect

Think of your marketing machine as a flywheel:

Ads bring new visitors to your store. Your ad copy — tested across 20 variations — drives the right traffic to the right products.

Email captures visitors who aren't ready to buy yet. Your welcome sequence nurtures them. Your abandoned cart sequence recovers lost sales. Your post-purchase sequence builds loyalty.

Social media keeps your brand visible in the feeds of potential and existing customers. Your content calendar ensures you never go silent. UGC and behind-the-scenes content builds trust.

Customer service turns problems into loyalty. Fast, personal responses create customers who buy again and recommend you to friends.

Reviews provide the social proof that makes every other channel more effective. Better reviews mean better ad performance, higher email click rates, and more social media engagement.

Competitor analysis ensures you're positioned correctly — priced right, differentiated clearly, and filling a gap your competitors miss.

Every piece makes every other piece stronger. That's the power of a system.

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ChatGPT

online

I sell handmade soy candles online. I've completed all the marketing lessons this week but I'm not sure where to start implementing. Can you give me a prioritised action plan — what should I set up first, second, third? I can spend about 2 hours this weekend getting things launched.

Here's your 2-hour priority launch plan: **Hour 1: The Revenue Recoverers (highest immediate impact)** ✅ Minutes 1–30: Set up your 3-email abandoned cart sequence This is the single highest-ROI marketing asset you can build. Every day without it, you're losing 10–15% of potential sales. Use the templates from Day 9 — plug in your product names, brand voice, and discount code. Connect it to your email platform (Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or Shopify Email). ✅ Minutes 31–60: Write your welcome email series (at least emails 1 and 2) Every new subscriber should get an immediate welcome email with your brand story and a discount code. Email 2 (day 2) shares social proof. You can add emails 3–4 next weekend. **Hour 2: The Growth Builders (compound over time)** ✅ Minutes 61–80: Create 5 Facebook/Instagram ad variations for your bestselling candle Use the 4-angle approach from Day 8: comfort, value, social proof, and seasonal. You don't need to run them yet — just have them ready. ✅ Minutes 81–100: Plan next week's social media (5 posts) One per content pillar: product showcase Monday, behind-the-scenes Wednesday, customer photo Thursday, educational tip Friday, seasonal post Saturday. Write the captions with AI. ✅ Minutes 101–120: Set up your review request email Write one email that triggers 7 days after delivery. Include a direct link to your review form. Optional: add a 10% off incentive. **What to skip for now:** - Competitor analysis (valuable but not urgent — schedule for next week) - Win-back sequence (you need purchase history first) - TikTok content (start with Instagram, expand later) The abandoned cart sequence alone will likely pay for this entire course in the first week. Start there.

↻ Replay conversation

Common mistakes to avoid

As you implement this system, watch out for these traps:

The perfection trap. Don't wait until every email is perfect before launching. An imperfect abandoned cart sequence running today recovers more revenue than a perfect one you launch next month.

The volume trap. More isn't always better. Three great emails beat ten mediocre ones. Five strong social posts per week beat daily posts that feel forced.

The copy-paste trap. AI gives you the structure, but you must add the specifics. Your real product details, your actual customer quotes, your genuine brand voice. Templated content without personalisation feels generic and earns generic results.

The set-and-forget trap. Automated doesn't mean abandoned. Check your email performance monthly. Update your ad copy quarterly. Refresh your templates when your product line changes. The machine runs on its own, but it still needs maintenance.

Every component strengthens the others. That's why it's a flywheel, not a checklist.

Knowledge Check

You've set up an abandoned cart email sequence and it's been running for a month. What should you do next?

Review the performance data — open rates, click rates, recovery rate — and optimise the underperforming emails

Leave it running forever without changes

Add more emails to the sequence

Rewrite it from scratch every month

Automation doesn't mean "never touch it again." After a month, you'll have real data. If Email 1 has a 45% open rate but Email 3 only has 18%, the subject line on Email 3 needs work. If the click-through rate is low but the open rate is high, the CTA needs to be stronger. The machine runs automatically, but your job is to tune it based on what the numbers tell you.

Your Week 2 challenge

It's time to put the entire system to work. Here's your challenge for this weekend:

Pick one product from your store (or a product you're planning to launch). Then build a complete marketing campaign using everything you learned this week:

Step 1: Competitor analysis — Use Perplexity and AI to research 3–5 competitors for this specific product. Identify your pricing sweet spot and your key differentiator.

Step 2: Ad copy — Generate 5 ad variations for Facebook/Instagram, using different emotional angles. Include headlines, body copy, and CTAs.

Step 3: Email sequence — Write a 3-email abandoned cart sequence for this product, using AI to draft the copy in your brand voice.

Step 4: Social media content — Plan 5 social media posts for the product launch — one for each content pillar. Include captions for Instagram and a TikTok script.

Step 5: Review strategy — Write a review request email to send 7 days after purchase. Plan how you'll use the best reviews in your marketing.

This is not theoretical. This is your product, your brand, your store. By the end of the weekend, you'll have a complete, ready-to-launch marketing campaign — built with AI in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

Knowledge Check

Why does the challenge ask you to start with competitor analysis before writing any marketing copy?

Because you need to know competitor prices to set your own

To make sure your product is different enough to sell

Because competitor analysis takes the longest

Because understanding competitor pricing, positioning, and weaknesses should inform every piece of marketing you create — from ad angles to email messaging

Competitor analysis isn't just about pricing. When you know that your competitors have slow shipping, you can lead your ads with "Ships in 2 days." When you know their reviews complain about quality, you can feature your quality guarantee in your email sequence. Research comes first because it gives every piece of your marketing a sharper, more strategic edge.

What's coming in Week 3

Next week, we shift from marketing to scaling. You'll learn:

Product Research & Trends — Using AI to find winning products, spot emerging trends, and validate new ideas before you invest.

Listing Optimisation — Writing product titles, descriptions, and bullet points that rank higher and convert better.

International Expansion — Adapting your store for new markets, languages, and shipping regions with AI.

Automated Content Pipeline — Building a system that produces product content, social posts, and email campaigns at scale — with minimal manual effort.

Analytics & Decisions — Using AI to interpret your store data and make smarter business decisions.

You've built the marketing machine. Next week, you learn how to scale it.

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Day 14 Complete

"Marketing isn't a list of tasks — it's a machine. Ads drive traffic, email converts it, social media builds awareness, reviews provide proof, and customer service retains buyers. Build the machine. Let AI run it. Your job is to steer."

Tomorrow — Day 15

Product Research & Trends

Next week is about scaling — product research, listing optimization, international expansion, and building an automated content pipeline.

Continue to Day 15 →