We are finally resuming our Marketer Spotlights series! This month, we have the pleasure of interviewing Dora Kafourou, eCommerce Digital Marketer of online pharmacy, OFarmakopoiosmou, to be the marketer in the spotlight.
In the Marketer Spotlight:
Dora Kafourou 
Dora is the all-around eCommerce digital marketer at OFarmakopoiosmou, where she has oversight into all content creation, social media, website optimization, and online promotions of the business.
OFarmakopoiosmou (ofarmakopoiosmou.gr) is the online store of the pharmacy that was established in 1977 in Athens. The store brand is built on the mission of establishing a long-term relationship with customers, as a trusted personal advisor and destination for all necessary health & personal care products.
Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you get into eCommerce marketing?
My name is Dora Kafourou. I became interested in eCommerce and Digital Marketing in my first year of university when I studied Business Management at Patra. At that point in 2012, eCommerce was just starting to grow here in Greece. Since it’s a relatively new field of study, I did a lot of research and studies on my own by looking for everything I could find available about eCommerce and upcoming trends.
What aspect do you find most challenging in growing an eCommerce business?
Navigating the ever-evolving technology landscape and the abundance of information that are targeting consumers.
Which campaign tactics do you find yourself going back to? Or what do you think is the most effective eCommerce marketing tactic/approach/ channel?
For starters, the power of branding is one of the most effective practices in marketing. This is especially true for eCommerce since the attention span of the consumers is short, so being able to stay top of mind for consumers makes a huge difference.
At Ofarmakopoiosmou, we make use of automated campaigns and dynamic messages in all the channels available.
Regarding the marketing channels, the most effective channel after Adwords is email marketing. As a team, we believe in the power of email marketing and invest a lot of time and effort into it. It is one of our top priority each day.
How do you use ContactPigeon platform? How has it impacted the outcome of your marketing?
Ofarmakopoiosmou has been using ContactPigeon platform for the last three years. From the very beginning, we included automation (or automated campaigns) in our processes, including:
- Welcome emails for everyone who signs up,
- Abandoned cart email after 30 minutes and 24 hours of abandonment,
- Price drop alert for products whenever the price has gone down.
We noticed that the Abandoned cart email is one of the most effective eCommerce automation scenarios that we tried (proven by conversion data many times). The customers return and shop, as long as you remind them.
We also use the segmentation tool to split the visitors based on their web behaviors in order to send them more personalized recommendations. We have created a lot of segments that we use on a weekly basis.
From the first trimester of using ContactPigeon, we have noticed an increase in our monthly sales via the email channel. The platform has helped boost our brand image and proved to be one of the most valuable Email Marketing platforms.
Last, I should mention that we also use a lot of pop-ups for both general and personalized marketing campaigns. We are about to launch push notifications and take advantage of all its automated capacity.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received in your career? And what advice would you give to someone just starting out in his / her career?
One of the best advice that anyone can start practicing immediately is to always ask “why” more than once in order to fully understand what’s going on.
Where do you get inspiration? What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?
I subscribe to many courses from Udemy on the topics of marketing, eCommerce, and user experience. Some of my favorite blogs are written by Hubspot, Practical eCommerce, and Neil Patel.
Favorite apps on your mobile?
There are a lot! Haha.
For marketing and content creation, I like the Mojo and Spark. For productivity, Asana, and Evernote.
I also love Asana Rebel which offers exercises inspired from Yoga. The app provides great and constantly improving user experience. It is very exciting to watch it happen as a user.
Anyone else you would like to see featured on a future Marketer Spotlight?
Christos Kounavis from Spitishop.
Would you like to be next in the Marketer Spotlight, or would like to nominate someone we should feature? Submit your preferences here.
