Deb Mecca
Wednesday 18th January 2023Filed in: Interviews
This article was originally published on Work With Shop as part of the "Humans of the Shopify Ecosystem" interview series. Work With Shop was a project I started in 2022 and closed in August 2023. However, the interviews contain many great insights and are remain relevant so I have repurposed them here.
Deb & Kiva
This week we meet Deb Mecca — Long time Shopify Partner, Miami resident and Director of Marketing of LTV SaaS Growth Fund.
General
Q: Where are you right now?
At my desk in my home office in Miami, Florida.
Q: Where are you based?
An urban neighbourhood north of downtown Miami called Wynwood.
Q: When asked, what do you say your job title is?
Director of Marketing … loosely, what that translates to is the dishwasher, the cook, and the food runner for multiple Shopify apps.
Q: Is there such a thing as a typical day for you?
Funny enough, yes. I am constantly learning and doing new things, but I am a routine kinda gal and thrive on structure. My day usually starts between 4:30-5:30am and I'm typically in bed by 9pm at the latest. My work week is pretty defined by day and task, with some fluidity thrown in for good measure and things that will inevitably come up.
Q: How did you get started in the Shopify ecosystem?
I took a turn on the highway and ended up in the coolest neighbourhood on the internet. More specifically, I was looking to join a smaller start-up style company in 2014 after a long career in sales in larger SaaS companies.
I joined an agency that was founded in Wales, England, and wanted to expand into the US market. One of the original founders, who has an app company now called Zapiet, LOVED Shopify despite the devs also developing on other platforms like Magento and WordPress. He passed me the Kool-Aid, and here I am, almost 9 years later.
Marketing/Growth
Q: What's the biggest challenge you face in marketing and growing a Shopify app today?
Retention. The market has changed quite a bit. Since there are so many apps in most categories, merchants will install multiple apps and uninstall them quickly. They need to be wowed out of the gates.
Q: How do you approach validating a marketing/growth idea?
Honestly, just by testing it. I am never afraid to try new things, and if something didn't work once, I won't consider it a failure. I might just think it's a not-now idea but I will likely want to test it down the road again.
Q: Can you share one marketing/growth tactic that really surprised you with its success?
TikTok influencer marketing. I knew it would work well for Shopify brands cuz duh, but it was surprising to see it work for Shopify apps.
Q: How do you approach attributing an app install to a particular marketing activity?
UTM links, manifesting, and a lot of crossing fingers, hahaha. We will often use promo codes if all else fails.
Q: What’s in your marketing tech stack?
- Notion
- Slack
- Grammarly
- Mixpanel
- Canva
- Intercom
- Customer.io
- Ahrefs
- StoreLeads
- SASI
- Google Analytics
- Hubspot
- Draft.co
- LEX and ChatGPT
Lessons & Learnings
Q: What's the biggest challenge you face in your business/work today?
Having consistent help. I'm always wanting to do more than what is humanly possible in a week with low resources.
Q: How do you get "stuff" done? Are you a proponent of a particular productivity method, or do you prefer a "Post It" note on your monitor?
I am a calendar blocker. I map out my day/week ahead of time. My best productivity hours are in the morning, so I try to take advantage of that with the "harder projects" if my calendar doesn't get filled with meetings.
I reserve my afternoons for following up on things with my team and checking in on what we need to do to move projects to completion. And I will often schedule partner meetings, podcasts, and interviews for the afternoons when I want to be more verbal/animated in my communication.
Deb's neighbourhood Wynwood is known for its many colourful murals
Q: What's the one bit of advice you would give someone starting out in the Shopify ecosystem today?
Join Twitter, listen more than you speak at first, find a niche that you can specialize in, and help others before asking for help.
Q: How do you approach getting better at your craft, development, leadership, etc.?
Research daily. I am a sponge and have a thirst for learning. Whether it's reading books, watching Youtube videos, reading articles, studying the competition, or speaking with peers, I am always doing many of those things on the weekly to stay on top of things.
Q: Please share any influential books, blogs, authors, etc., that have helped you in your work life.
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0 — Travis Bradberry
- The Checklist Manifesto — Atul Gawande
I just finished reading Jordan Belfort's Way of the Wolf and that was spectacular on the art of persuasive selling.
Shopify
Q: What's the one missing Shopify feature you wish existed?
It's not a missing feature per se, but one that still has a long way ahead to be really good — AR on product pages. The tech has a ways to go before it's adoptable in a mainstream way.
Q: How do you keep up to date on what's new, what's outdated, or those pesky deprecated API calls that just might break your app?
Ummm, Shopify sends a ton of messages, lol!
Let's Get Technical
Q: What does your personal tech stack look like?
- 2021 iMac M1 24-inch
- 2019 MacBook Pro 13-inch
- iPad Air 10.9-inch Wi-Fi
- AirPods Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
Basically, Apple owns me.
Q: Please share any menu bar utilities that you use on a daily basis
Q: What about everyday apps that you can't live without?
- Spotify
- TikTok
- iCal
- Grammarly
- Youtube
Q: Do you have any funky/cool hardware or desk accessories you'd recommend?
My mini portable desk fan is a lifesaver. My iPad has become a fixture on my desk and in everyday work life.
Desk complete with portable fan!
And as someone who wears glasses, glasses cleaner is essential on my desk at all times. So nothing funky but def must-have essentials.
And Finally
Q: What do you do for fun and relaxation?
I play video games, dance around with my dog in my loft, and walk around Miami, especially in my neighbourhood. I'm a foodie and wine lover, so there are always food and wine adventures on the weekly.
Q: What was your favourite album/book/magazine/event of 2022?
- This is What I Mean by Stormzy
- Shopify Unite in Toronto
Q: Share three of your favourite Shopify stores
Q: Where can people find out more about you?
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