Ben Corbally, Founder of Full Story
Knowing how to get results from an eCommerce business is one thing, but knowing how to retain them is something else.
Digital guru and Director of Full Story, Ben Corbally is someone who takes the challenge in his stride by combining his love of brands with a fastidious knowledge of all things ‘web’. He developed his digital skills by learning on the job and today, he and his team offer a tailor-made service to help clients achieve tangible success.
We spoke to Ben about his career trajectory and what he thinks makes a good and a bad client.
Can you briefly describe your career background and how you came to start Fullstory?
I started working in digital when I was about 13 years old which I know is unusual. I had a strong interest in everything to do with the web so I decided to email all the web designers in my area to see if I could do work experience on school holidays, weekends and evenings. I ended up with a couple of roles that helped to develop my skills.
I found a love for design quite early on in my career and I was obsessed with brands and how they portray themselves and how that made consumers respond.
I felt at a real crossroads when it came to the decision of whether or not to go to university. I applied and was accepted to Camberwell University of Arts to do Illustration and Design but I later read an article about from the Arts Council about how 95 per cent of those who went into art and design eventually ended up working in another industry. For me, university was a tough call; if I did go, Camberwell’s reputation seemed like a good way to give myself leverage to later work in design but I’m from a very working class background and living and studying in London would have put an enormous, if not impossible, strain on my family’s finances.
I applied for several roles in marketing specifically around digital and I aimed pretty high in terms of the calibre of agency. I was offered a role at a company called Netbooster (now called Architects) where I worked on the likes of Emirates, Argos and The Range. This is really where I learnt the foundations of digital.
From Netbooster, I joined a smaller company called Optix Solutions. They predominantly focused on web design and development at the time and I helped them transition into more of a holistic marketing company. I enjoyed working at Optix Solutions because of the breadth of knowledge you needed across clients. One day you’d be dipping into eCommerce, the next you’d be talking about lead generation from a B2B company.
I guess one part I didn’t like about both agency experiences was the focus on profit for the agency itself, which often lead to a shortage of resources and you didn’t get to choose who you worked for. The work kind of just fell in your lap and at times, I found myself really questioning either the ethics or commercial viability of the client.
Me and my partner fundamentally wanted to move to London and that’s when I set up Full Story which specifically focuses on eCommerce. I’ve always loved eCommerce because it’s black and white. Put in £1-make-£10 kind of thing and that’s what we’ve built our reputation on.
How does Fullstory help brands reach new audiences?
We focus mainly on performance marketing and higher tech development. We try to offer our customers competition-beating solutions, the kind of thing people would normally quote hundreds of thousands of pounds for so it’s slightly out of reach for the competition.
Should a brand always aim to stand out or break the mould?
Not necessarily either. I think too much time and effort (in eCommerce) is trying to go for rapid growth through some sort of innovative guerilla approach when in actual fact, the businesses that see the most growth and highest revenue are those who are putting the most hustle into the basics. To be honest, some of our customers with the least “attractive” brands are our best performing. They are often extremely focused on the customer.
What makes for a bad client? And a good one?
I would say that a bad client has a lack of knowledge and trust. I think in part, this is my own fault, but sometimes we do these epic projects for people and I’m never sure if they’re actually aware of what a monumental effort it has been. This is more common if the project isn’t very tangible. My team is driven by thank yous and if you give them this kind of acknowledgment, they’ll work so much harder and really go the extra mile. A bad client often will jump the gun on something or veto you in a critical decision where you’re applying knowledge.
Good clients are ideally people who know what “good” looks like in digital, which I guess requires a little bit of knowledge in this sector. It makes it so much easier if you can talk a common language because things happen a lot faster. Take for example page speed, we often need to make huge compromises on-site and brand for better marketing performance. A good client will ask you questions about why something has been done in a certain way and respect why you’ve done it in a certain way.
What’s a favourite campaign you’ve worked on?
It might be quite surprising actually, but for me it was Bramley's. We worked with them on creating your own gift set and when we were doing competitor analysis for similar tools online, we were surprised by how bad they were. We know it gives Bramley the edge against their competitors.
Which brand really stands OUT from the crowd in its e-commerce practices?
What’s a common misconception of e-commerce?
If I’m completely honest, I think the biggest misconception I come across is the impact of some digital PR. The amount of times we’ve been asked to report on how many sessions the latest article on the Daily Mail or similar we’ve had and we’ve checked and seen that it’s delivered about 30 sessions in a month. This kind of tangible activity gets circled around organisations and everyone pats each other on the back but in reality, the impact is minimal. Again, if I’m honest, it really frustrates me, particularly when someone’s spent large sums on the placement and there’s pressure on our team that delivers significantly more for significantly less.
How do you think brands need to adapt as online retail continues to evolve?
Way more customer service, I really like the new virtual shopping by Klarna
Get ready for a cookieless world; we’re about to have less visibility on everything.
Be mindful of new virtual spaces like the Metaverse, but don’t enter without the space being a little bit further along.
What’s been your proudest achievement since starting Full Story?
Building a team, hands down. I absolutely adore the team at Full Story, they work so hard and I love seeing their skills develop further. It’s really the little clever and surprising things that people do that makes a huge difference to our customers.
Find out more about Full Story here.