Today, we’ve got an excellent interview with Wharton Professor and entrepreneur Peter Fader.

He's a two-time guest. We wanted to bring Peter back on the show because he’s an expert in customer lifetime value and customer centricity.

How do you predict lifetime value? What models should we use to predict lifetime value? This is what Peter spent his entire career focusing on.

In this episode, Peter is going to talk about the difference between contractual businesses and subscription businesses. He's going to talk about share some big name eCommerce businesses that on are track to go out of business because of their product-centric model.

It's a deep dive into customer centricity, lifetime value, and it's something I think you guys will enjoy.

Episode Highlights

• 4:37  The work Peter Fader did with Zodiac that made Nike wanted to buy it.
• 8:45 What is lifetime value and its importance to your business.
• 9:54  Tips on making more money.
• 10:27  What really sets Amazon aside that makes their number two better than other companies number one.
• 14:06  What are lifetime value scores?
• 15:49  What makes EA sports a good example of a customer-centric company.
• 20:20 Answer to why big companies scale too quickly and fail when hitting a certain level?
• 26:55 The concept of quality interaction over quantity interaction
• 28:10 How responding to customers needs becomes an issue?
• 29:50 Distinction between contractual versus non-contractual businesses
• 33:44 Two metrics that non-contractual businesses should demand to see
• 34:56 CRM: expectation versus reality

Links And Resource

• PeteFader.com
• ThetaEquity.com
• The Customer Centricity Playbook
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

If You’ve Been Listening To This Show For The Last Few Months, You’ve Heard Us Make Predictions About How To Approach Q4 Advertising.

Many of those predictions worked out well. Others, not as much. There were a TON of Facebook bugs this year that came out of nowhere and really fouled people up.

Now that we’re through the busiest part of the season, we’re bringing you an episode on BFCM advertising and what we learned.

Andrew brought in four top media buyers to give you a detailed Black Friday/Cyber Monday recap. You’ll learn how it went down, what they learned, so you can adjust and improve your strategies going into the new year.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 5:13 How value optimization helped one client get a 7X ROAS during Black Friday.
• 6:55 The amped-up offer and focused traffic-driving strategy that worked for Ryan Kovach.
• 8:34 Bid caps: how are they working for low spends vs. high spends.
• 10:06 What exactly is a bid cap?
• 11:27 The importance of putting in the work before Black Friday/Cyber Monday that led to 5X ROAS.
• 12:44 The benefit of building your warm audiences in advance.
• 14:10 Campaign Budget Optimization and how it worked well for a number of different clients.
• 16:03 Testing campaign budget optimization and minimum ad set budgets.
• 17:48: Campaign budget optimization and interest targeting.
• 18:46 Should you split your placements across Instagram and Instagram stories?
• 20:53 Interests vs. lookalikes – which performed better?
• 22:53 How to identify what interests you should be going after with your ads.
• 23:59 Guests share their worst Facebook bug experiences.

Links And Resources

• JPORT Media
• jason@jportmedia.com
• 11:11 Digital
• alex@1111digital.com
• Red Giant Growth
• pkrass@redgiantgrowth.com
• Social Outlier
• Twitter: @kovachr
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become A Member

If you liked this episode, you’re going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor: Hotjar

Today’s episode is brought to you by the always wonderful Hotjar. Hotjar is an incredible tool that allows you to see what’s happening on your site with potential customers with recorded sessions. You get to basically go back and look at what’s happening, what people are doing, where they’re dropping off, why they’re not adding something to cart on mobile, on a desktop, and you can actually understand that.

Hotjar allows you to get in-the-moment visual feedback, see how people are using your website, and uncover insights to make the right changes. Hotjar is absolutely one of my favorite tools out there and if you’ve not used it, we definitely recommend checking it out.

You can go to EcommerceInfluence.com/hotjar to learn a little bit more.

For over 12 years, Jeana LeClerc has been operating two businesses.

She’s owned a local spa in Redding, CA and sold skin care products on ArtofSkinCare.com. Her business has grown and changed over the last decade, but her commitment to her customers has not.

In the last year and a half, her business has taken off. She has grown from a two-person team to an eight-person team and completely changed the way she operates. Jeana shut down her local spa and doubled down on her online store. After narrowing her focus her passion for the business has been completely reinvigorated.

I love a good founder story and today’s episode delivers. Jeana tells her story and shares a few of the learnings that have allowed her to get to the next level. I hope you enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 4:53 How Jeana went from being a stay-at-home mom to starting her own business.
• 8:58 The most helpful thing Jeana learned at her first Intensive with Brand Growth Experts.
• 10:20 How Google Adwords helped Jeana make a come back after leaving Amazon.
• 12:14 Why Jeana’s motto is to “Really take care of her customers” and how a personalized customer experience helps her do it.
• 14:39 How Jeana sets her business apart from other companies.
• 16:16 How consultations help Jeana build personal relationships and keep customers coming back.
• 21:02 The email strategies Jeana uses that have led to a 65% open rate and drive repeat purchases.
• 24:00 How hiring the right people in the right roles helped take Jeana's business to the next level.
• 28:16 The lessons Jeana learned and how her role has changed as she’s grown her team. 
• 28:58 The importance of recognizing what you are (and are not) good at.
• 32:42 Changes Jeana is making in 2019 to take her website to the next level and improve customer experience.

Links and Resources

• Art of Skin Care
• hello@artofskincare.com
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

Today's episode is brought to you by the always wonderful Hotjar. Hotjar is an incredible tool that allows you to see what's happening on your site with potential customers with recorded sessions. You get to basically go back and look at what's happening, what people are doing, where they're dropping off, why they're not adding something to cart on mobile, on desktop, and you can actually understand that.

Hotjar allows you to get in-the-moment visual feedback, see how people are using your website, and uncover insights to make the right changes. Hotjar is absolutely one of my favorite tools out there and if you've not used it, we definitely recommend checking it out.

You can go to EcommerceInfluence.com/hotjar to learn a little bit more.

Today’s episode is a little bit different, in a good way. We've had some great questions recently in the Brand Growth Experts Membership.

They were so good we decided to answer some of them for you guys who are the listeners.

We answer questions including how to attribute Amazon sales, how to weed out inactive email subscribers, what type of an ROI you should expect on your Facebook Ads, and Andrew explains the best way to set up a budget and test Facebook ads. This is a meaty episode. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

Links and Resources

• Brand Growth Experts Membership
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor: Hotjar

Today's episode is brought to you by the always wonderful Hotjar. Hotjar is an incredible tool that allows you to see what's happening on your site with potential customers with recorded sessions. You get to basically go back and look at what's happening, what people are doing, where they're dropping off, why they're not adding something to cart on mobile, on desktop, and you can actually understand that.

Hotjar allows you to get in-the-moment visual feedback, see how people are using your website, and uncover insights to make the right changes. Hotjar is absolutely one of my favorite tools out there and if you've not used it, we definitely recommend checking it out.

You can go to EcommerceInfluence.com/hotjar to learn a little bit more.

Sponsor: Klaviyo

This episode is also brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

If Someone Looked Under The Hood Of Your Business, What Would They Find?

If you hired someone new today, would they be able to easily access the information they need to get the job done? Or would they be sifting through a clutter of files, or, worse yet, is everything they need to know stored only inside your brain?

Our guest today is Tiago Forte, founder of Forte Labs, a company that specializes in productivity. Tiago talks about the importance of building and maintaining a solid knowledge management system for your business, otherwise known as a “second brain.” Having a second brain not only makes it easier to onboard new employees as your business scales, but it can also help increase your overall organization and productivity.

Andrew and I learned a ton from this episode and we hope you enjoy it!

Episode Highlights

• 5:11 The goal of Forte Labs: Finding transformational paradigm shifts in productivity.
• 7:10 The impact of an international upbringing on Tiago's work and mindset.
• 9:17 Tiago's big realization about the best way to help people.
• 10:54 Defining "design thinking" and why it's fundamental to entrepreneurship
• 13:47 The difference between productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness.
• 15:53 Being organized as a state of being and the method Tiago created to help people get organized.
• 19:32 The benefit of micro projects.
• 23:02 How micro projects help you elevate your perspective.
• 26:48 The importance of having a knowledge management system as your business scales.
• 29:37 Building your knowledge management system, i.e., your second brain.
• 35:33 How to increase your productivity without working faster or working more efficiently.
• 37:38 Linking your communication apps and your productivity apps.
• 41:27 One easy thing you can implement right now that will increase your productivity. 

Links and Resources

• Forte Labs
• Building a Second Brain
• Book: Design Your Work
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is also brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

One of the most common questions Andrew gets from his clients is: how do I optimize my Facebook ad account?

Today he talks about RCAB-P, his five-step process for optimizing and improving Facebook ads. We'll cover the number one thing you need to do before you start optimizing, and walk through each of the five steps in detail to help you successfully optimize your ad account.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 3:41 The first thing you need to do before you start optimizing your Facebook ad account. 
• 5:13 How much you should be spending before you start thinking about optimization.
• 6:10 Step one in the optimization process: Reporting Metrics.
• 7:23 The fundamental questions you want to answer with your metrics report.
• 9:01 Understanding secondary metrics, and a common metric that Andrew doesn't recommend tracking.
• 11:01 Step two: Optimizing Creative (your most important lever for optimization).
• 11:33 The new creative ad feature Facebook just rolled out.
• 12:57 Creative optimization: using different creative at different points in your funnel.
• 16:23 Step three: Audience Optimization.
• 17:02 First Time Impression ratio - what it is and why it's important.
• 18:57 Dynamic vs static custom audiences and how to optimize each of them.
• 21:31 Step four: Bidding Optimizations
• 23:50 Using manual bid overrides during Black Friday. 
• 24:53 Step five: Placement - the huge optimization many people are not taking advantage of.
• 27:46 What to do if you get through the five step optimization process and you're still not getting results. 
• 28:18 Another new Facebook feature to try: campaign budget optimizations.

Links and Resources

• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is also brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

What if you could make more money in a single day than your business previously made in its entire lifetime?

That's what happened for Mark Arruda last August, typically his company's slowest month.

Mark, owner and CEO of Constantly Varied Gear, joined us earlier this year to talk about how he uses Facebook Messenger in his business. Today, he's back, and in the eight months since we last had Mark on the show he's continued to ramp up his Messenger marketing and is seeing incredible results.

In this episode, Mark shares the Messenger strategy he used that fateful day in August, and the other tactics he's using to grow his list and drive sales.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 7:13 The Facebook Messenger tactic Mark's using to gain Messenger subscribers and how it connects with his on-site lead capture.
• 9:56 When Mark got started with Messenger bots and how long it's taken him to build his current system.
• 11:09 How allowing customers to vote on products via Messenger has been incredibly successful for Mark.
• 14:39 A good thing to do if you're just starting out with Messenger.
• 17:27 What is a Facebook Messenger sequence?
• 22:04 How Mark maps out his Messenger marketing plan.
• 23:48 The first thing you should do before getting started with Messenger marketing.
• 26:08 The chatbot Mark is using to grow his list and stop potential customers from leaving his site. 
• 28:45 Why Mark is shifting almost all of his prospecting efforts to Click-to-Messenger ads.
• 31:22 Using Messenger across different business verticals.
• 33:35 The best copy for Click-to-Messenger ads.
• 36:18 The Messenger strategy that led Constantly Varied Gear to do more sales in a single day in August than during the entire lifetime of the company.
• 39:25 The importance of reaching your customers through a variety of different platforms, and how Messenger can tie into all of them.

Links and Resources

• Messenger Mastermind Podcast
• Constantly Varied Gear
• ManyChat
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor: Justuno

This episode is brought to you by Justuno. Justuno is a visitor conversion suite that offers pop-ups, push notifications, offers, and more. It's highly personalized and customizable and is awesome for capturing leads, recovering abandoned carts, and increasing sales. They recently launched an integration with Facebook Messenger so you can create a seamless experience from offsite to onsite with unified messaging.

If you haven't used Justuno yet, we absolutely recommend checking it out. Lots of our clients are using it and it integrates well with Shopify, Klaviyo, and more. Head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/justuno and you'll get a 15 day free trial + 15% off.

Sponsor: Klaviyo

This episode is also brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Earlier this week Andrew shared his story, and now we’re turning the tables.

Today I talk about how I went from pursuing a career in investment banking to realizing I wanted to become an entrepreneur and eventually starting Ecommerce Influence.

Digital marketing has evolved so much over the last decade, especially for ecommerce, and my career has evolved along with it. I’ll share how I built a business I'm excited about while also creating a lifestyle that gives me freedom and flexibility.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 3:54 Why Austin started Ecommerce Influence
• 5:07 Moving away from the typical agency: The birth of Brand Growth Experts
• 7:09 Austin's early career pursuits begin in China
• 8:14 When Austin realized he wanted to become an entrepreneur
• 9:38 Start-up life and learning how to become an entrepreneur
• 12:02 If you can sell a $100,000 product with triggered emails, you can sell anything with triggered emails
• 14:25 How working for a start-up provided the best education for growing a business
• 16:42 Austin starts building his own business
• 21:19 An evolution in personalized, lifecycle marketing
• 24:43 The inception of Ecommerce Influence and why Austin decided he didn't want to run a traditional agency
• 27:31 How Austin's created a business that reflects his core values
• 31:10 Helping business scale with the Brand Growth Experts Membership
• 35:23 The project Austin's most excited about right now

Links and Resources

• Brand Growth Experts
• Brand Growth Experts Membership
• Brand Guild
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

One of the questions we love asking our guests is: how did you get where you are today?

It’s a question our listeners frequently ask Andrew and I too, and in today’s episode, Andrew is going to share his story.

Andrew has been working in digital advertising since before the inception of the Facebook News Feed in 2009 and he’s learned a lot along the way. He shares his first experience working in “new media,” tells the story of how Foxwell Digital was born, and talks about what success means to him.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 3:18 How Andrew got started in digital marketing
• 6:04 A congressional campaign leads Andrew out East and into "New Media"
• 8:11 Andrew's experience working in Congress during the invention of Facebook Ads
• 12:45 When Andrew launched his first newsfeed advertisement
• 14:29 When social proofing meant getting the most Likes
• 15:46 The birth of Foxwell Digital
• 18:15 How Andrew and Gracie went from teaching seniors how to use iPhones to getting their first official clients
• 21:06 How Andrew and Austin connected
• 22:34 When Andrew official joined the Ecommerce Influence Podcast
• 26:39 How documenting and synthesizing makes you more creative and a better teacher
• 28:34 The future of Foxwell Digital
• 31:24 Why you don't have to make $100 Million to be successful

Links and Resources

• Foxwell Digital
• Brand Growth Experts

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Happy fall. Happy Q4. Andrew and I love this time of year. It's when so many of the companies we advise make the majority of their revenue. A lot of you that are listening know how high the stakes are.

It looks like things are, as we predicted, even more competitive than last year. But so far, things are going good. We're getting ready for the big show here so we decided to bring in the big guns. Today we’ve brought back Justin Marshall from Adhoc Media to talk about how he’s getting his clients ready for the holidays.

Justin is a 2x guest. His first episode was one of our all-time most downloaded and this one doesn’t disappoint. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 6:10 How Justin explains the phases of Q4 to his clients.
• 7:43 Why you shouldn't just be pushing traffic to your site without a focus on conversions.
• 10:11 The offers you should be considering through the holiday season.
• 14:30 Not sure what creative you should be using? Checkout what's working best for Adhoc Media and their clients.
• 18:36 Why you should be driving your traffic to these landing pages for Q4.
• 21:00 How to make sure your ads are seen during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday rush.
• 27:56 How to Optimize your ads for peak performance during Black Friday/Cyber monday.
• 36:22 When you should be notifying your fans of the holiday deals to get them ready to shop with you.

Links and Resources

• AdHoc Media
• Justin's First appearance on Ecommerce Influence: Episode 136
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

When you're just starting your business and running it small and lean, it’s easy to implement new projects right away. Right?

If you go to a conference and get a new idea, you can go in and execute it. As your business and team scales up, it's no longer possible to implement your ideas immediately. You need to plan and get your team involved.

Many businesses get stuck here and never move forward. They feel momentum but can’t take advantage of it because they can’t effectively manage their marketing at scale. This leads to stress, burnout and missed opportunities.

How do you transition from doing everything right away to having to plan it out and delegate it out? This often requires taking a step back before stepping forward. In today’s episode, we’re going to share a 3 step process to help you manage your marketing at scale.

Episode Highlights

• 6:03 What it means to be at scale.
• 10:29 The questions you should be asking when planning to scale you business.
• 11:54 How discovering your Kolbe score can unlock your potential to scale your business.
• 14:00 How documenting tasks can shine a light on what you are really doing in your business.
• 16:18 How templating projects or tasks can bring about improved creativity.
• 17:20 The most important thing you should consider if you are listening to this podcast.
• 18:20 What to look at first before delegating out any documented tasks.
• 19:32 Your business is not different, you can delegate tasks too.

Links and Resources

• Kolbe Score
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

In today’s episode, we explore how Kettle & Fire went from a couple of guys boiling bones in a pot to closing $8 million dollars in Series A.

I first met Jack Meredith in January when I hosted a Private Intensive here in Austin for him and his team. He was the first employee at Kettle & Fire, and they’ve been on a rocket ship of growth - mostly fueled by affiliate marketing. For most companies, affiliate marketing starts out as exciting opportunity but ends in disappointment. Not so with Kettle & Fire. If you are familiar with the paleo world, you’ll quickly notice they’ve got all the top health influencers and affiliates as supporters. Today, Jack shares the process that led to actually getting those people to support and promote Kettle & Fire. He also shares challenges they've faced as they have scaled, how to think about growing a team, and a framework for thinking about new projects. I had a great time recording this episode and I hope you enjoy it!

Episode Highlights

• 10:31 The first step Jack took to setting up measured growth for Kettle & Fire.
• 12:50 How Kettle & Fire tested the waters of affiliate marketing.
• 15:00 Why Kettle & Fire has seen such success with their affiliate program.
• 22:00 How changing up their email flows and layering in segmentation significantly increased the ROI of Kettle & Fire.
• 24:00 The approach Jack takes to testing new channels and how to tell its time to hire a person to manage it.
• 28:30 The best teams don't have to be in the same room: How the entire staff of Kettle & Fire works remotely.
• 33:10 Why raising a funding series can open up opportunities to test and try new avenues of marketing
• 36:30 A few of the key tools in the Kettle & Fire toolbox that you can use too.

Links and Resources

• Kettle And Fire Careers
• Jack Meredith
• Asana
• Things App
• Media Rails
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it. If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money. I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

About two weeks ago, my wife and I moved into a 100 year old bungalow here in Austin Texas. When you decide to move into an older house you expect certain things aren’t going to work. Each day you start adding to a checklist of all the things you’re going to need to fix.

That’s the easy part. The hard part is getting the right people out to fix what’s broken.

In addition to managing my team here at Brand Growth Experts and producing the Ecommerce Influence podcast, I’ve been coordinating electricians, plumbers, and painters to fix things at our house. Construction workers in Austin are so busy right now that getting people to show up is like herding cats. It’s been a lot of work and inspired today’s episode about managing a team.

In this episode, I’m going to walk through the framework I use to accomplish more with my team in much less time. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 6:10 The Scrum methodology and how it works for Product Management.
• 8:12 Step 1: The Data Dump: Getting all of your ideas on to paper
• 9:56 Step 2: Identifying the roles of your organization and their responsibilities related to the project.
• 13:42 Step 3: weeding through and prioritizing all of the projects you've previously put down on paper.
• 16:00 Step 4: How to break down the steps needed to complete the project(s)
• 21:50 Step 5: Preparing for the sprint and defining the size of the tasks to complete the project within the sprint goal.
• 26:45 Step 6: Daily check-ins and the 3 questions each team member needs to answer during the check-in.
• 28:20 Step 7: Sprint review, also known as the show & tell of the project sprint.
• 29:31 Step 8: Reviewing the sprint and deciding if the product/project is done  and what to do if it is not complete.
• 30:19 The one part of Scrum you should never skip

Links and Resources

• Productivity Sheet (Need Link)
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

About four years ago, Allan Shoemake was Skyping with his daughter and hated how the poor lighting was impacting the video quality. He strapped a couple of LED lights to the side of his phone case and LuMee was born.

Two years later, Kim Kardashian West picked LuMee as one of her “selfie secrets” and the company exploded from there.

Our guest Jeremy Horowitz is LuMmee’s Ecommerce Manager. He attended my email Intensive last August and then he went on to have a ton of success with email. In today’s episode, he shares what they've been working on, what's been working well, how they think about growth. I think you’ll really enjoy this tactic and results heavy episode. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 7:03 The email strategies that are currently working for Lumee.
• 8:50 The pages you should be placing pop-ups to increase your sales.
• 10:15 Why you should be using heat maps to find the holes in your funnel.
• 13:46 How Lumee changed their approach once Kim Kardashian West started promoting their cases.
• 19:50 How surveying your customers at these points in the funnel can lead to improved growth and a better customer profile.
• 24:11 The KPI's that Lumee focuses on and the book that changed their approach to tracking performance.
• 27:39 Lumee's plan for Q4 and the 1 holiday secret weapon they plan to use and you can too.
• 32:00 Why Jeremy is "nerding" out on Chatbots and messenger marketing right now.

Links and Resources

• Lumee
• Measure What Matters - Book
• Dot Com Secrets - Book
• Manychat
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Today, we’re continuing our theme of “things you should do right now to prepare for Q4”.

I’m not going to let you get to the end of October without a plan for the holidays. Not this year. We're going to start early so you can avoid that annual freakout.

In this episode, Andrew and I share the key differences between Facebook and Instagram advertising this year and last year. There are a lot of similarities (creating good offers, creative, etc) but we’ve noticed some big changes and in this episode we’ll help you approach Q4 with your Facebook and Instagram ads the right way. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 5:17 Here are the big differences between this year and last year when it comes to marketing with Facebook & Instagram.
• 13:11 Why you should be separating out ad placement and setting up ads that only run on Instagram in Q4.
• 14:35 How to social proof your ads and why this process is so valuable.
• 17:45 The changes in how Facebook lets you bid in the auction and the approach you should take during Q4.
• 21:10 Andrew's 3 phases of Q4 and how you should approach your ad objective through each phase.
• 24:34 Facebook inventory in the Newsfeed will max out during the holidays. Here are a few other placements you should be considering.

Links and Resources

• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

I have a fascinating episode for you today. This week, Andrew Foxwell sat down with Jason Moser, a senior analyst for the Motley Fool investment research team. You might be wondering why we are interviewing someone who helps people pick stocks for a living. It turns out, Jason's whole job at the Motley Fool is to research and analyze companies in the e-commerce sector and learn how they are innovating.

This is a big picture episode and they talk about a whole bunch of things. Andrew and Jason get into talking about Wayfair and Amazon. They also talk about the state of ecommerce, Shopify, Facebook, Instagram, and a bunch of other things. I think you'll really like this episode and I look forward to hearing your feedback on it. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 6:05 How Ecommerce brands are innovating the marketplace.
• 9:00 The two trends you should be exploring if you're a growing ecommerce brand.
• 11:27 How creating your own version of Amazon's "Prime Day" can generate revenues greater than Black Friday.
• 13:52 What Shopify is doing to help their clients grow their brands.
• 17:20 The 1 thing Dollar Shave Club has done to grow their business and how you can use it to grow yours too.
• 22:26 What your customers are really looking for (Hint: it's not a discount).
• 30:00 The future of ad products on social networks and their perceived value for advertisers.
• 38:56 The one tip you should always follow if you plan to invest in the market.

Links and Resources

• Motley Fool - Money Podcast
• Motley Fool - Market Foolery
• Motley Fool 
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Today’s episode was inspired by a conversation with a colleague about building audiences and stockpiling potential customers for use in Q4.

Last year, he said he put $10,000 into audience and list building for Q4. He expected he would be able to use those audiences but he had no idea when or the return on ad spend he would get.

He believed if he brought people in, told the brand story and got them in his remarketing and email lists, he'd be able to earn back his investment. Off of that $10,000 investment he made almost $150,000 and basically spent all his Q4 ad spend just retargeting those lists. Didn't do any prospecting.

This is important because right now is the time you should be thinking about your Q4 strategy. This is the time when the people who are going to have their most success through the holidays are starting their prep. And that's what this episode is going to be about.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 8:00 How running engagement ads with the intent of being "social" will help you build an audience you can re-target and warm up over time.
• 11:00 Why lead generation ads are a great way to learn about your customer while building a more qualified audience for Q4.
• 13:45 How providing value through Messenger ads could lead to a huge with in Q4 this year.
• 15:17 The importance of using the "view content" objective in a Facebook conversion ad as you ramp up to Q4.
• 17:00 Why now is the best time to work on dialing in your lead capture and how a quiz funnel may be the way to go.
• 18:13 The number 1 thing you can do to ensure you have a stellar Q4.
• 20:40 For those who are managing accounts or reporting results to others, here's how to set the expectation for Q4.
• 22:16 Not sure where to start for Q4? This is what you should be doing right now.

Links and Resources

• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Today’s guest has a really cool business. He creates beautiful custom designed maps of National Parks, Mountain Ranges and Hydrology of states. And if you’ve ever been in an REI, you’ve probably seen his work featured in all their stores.

In today’s conversation, we were able to catch up with Jared Prince and learn how his business has changed over the last year.

We brought him on to talk about the sustainable growth he’s built into his business and how he has done it. He shares feedback from 6 months after attending both Intensives Andrew and I hosted in February. He shares what’s been going well, and how he thinks about growing his business after 5 years.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 9:40 What happens when the PR "buzz" wears off and how to turn it around.
• 13:33 How building an email list and properly segmenting that list has helped grow business for Muir Way.
• 14:42 The one thing Jared says Facebook and Instagram ads are great at generating for business.
• 16:10 Launching a new product? Here's how Muir Way just made a big splash with their new release.
• 18:22 How Jared's role has changed within Muir Way as the business continues to grow.
• 20:28 How offering a chance to win the "right" prize for subscribing to an email list has improved Muir Way's subscriber quality vs just a discount on purchase for signing up.  
• 23:51 The two ecomm remarking strategies Muir Way has not implemented and why they were not a fit for the brand.
• 25:56 How A/B testing of one small copy change led to a 5x difference in ad performance.
• 28:02 The one thing ecommerce brands should be talking more about when scaling their businesses.

Links and Resources

• Jared at Muir Way dot com
• Muir Way
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Have you ever wondered what makes the difference between brands that scale and those who don’t? A couple of months ago, I was asked this question on an interview with Kurt from the Unofficial Shopify Podcast.

After re-listening to the episode, I decided to share it with you. Kurt asks great questions and I outline my entire philosophy on growth. It’s especially timely to talk about scaling given the recent sale of MVMT Watches to Movado for $200 million.

In this episode, we talk about defining a growth strategy, scaling your advertising, and how to hire the team necessary to get to the next level. I also share what I’ve learned from working with some of the fastest growing brands in the country.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 4:30 How Austin has helped many brands scale from $500k to $1MM.
• 7:00 Why it is so important to do almost every job in your business before turning it over to someone else.
• 8:27 The big differences between the Shopify brands that scale up and those that don't.
• 12:00 How to remove tasks from your plate so your business can scale.
• 14:20 These are the core KPI's that Austin uses to understand his client's scalability.
• 15:56 Understanding what your net promoter score is and why it is so valuable to ecommerce brands. 
• 23:00 The point at which Austin regularly sees businesses die out and how you can overcome it.
• 30:17 Everyone wants to scale their business but it does come with a few downsides.
• 33:45 How PR has helped many ecommerce brands become successful before they ever were.
• 39:34 The questions you should be asking yourself to help you define your success.

Links and Resources

• Dean Jackson
• Unofficial Shopify Podcast
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Mike Danner is the VP of Digital Marketing for Ancient Nutrition (formerly Dr. Axe) the largest natural health website in the world with over 20M visits a month.

Last year, they landed at #35 on the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America list and was the #1 fastest growing company in Tennessee in both 2016 and 2017. To top things off, in March of this year they received a $103M investment for a minority share of their business. To say they are “scaling quickly” is an understatement.

I had the pleasure of getting to know Mike last year when I hosted a Private Intensive Workshopat their headquarters in Tennessee. He is razor sharp and very practical, which is on full display during this interview. He’s become an expert on hiring (out of necessity), and shares the inner workings on how they’ve managed to keep the business powering through unprecedented growth.

This is an interview I’ve wanted to bring you for a long time. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 7:12  How scaling your business will lead to your role in the business changing over time.
• 11:36 Why Dr. Axe was able to scale so quickly and overcome their failures quickly.
• 17:20 Here are the tactics that Mike is thinking of as he looks to 2019 and beyond.
•  21:10 The two reasons why you should be connecting/staying connected with thought leaders.
• 26:28 The one quote (of many) that Mike uses as a guide for success.
• 27:49 Mike's process for hiring incredible talent in places you'd least expect to find it.
• 30:37 The two hacks Mike uses (and you can too) to hire incredible talent.
• 37:46 The one question you should asking people in your network to find the right talent for your job opening.
• 45:40 The one thing you can do now to see results by the end of the week. 

Links and Resources

• Ancient Nutrition
• Dr. Axe
• Drive (book) By Daniel Pink
• Drive (Ted Talk) By Daniel Pink
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

This is part two of a two part episode on Youtube Advertising for Ecommerce. If you haven’t listened to the first episode in the series, I would start there.

If you have listened to the first episode, I hope you enjoy the 2nd part of my conversation with Tom Breeze of Viewability.

We get into the details of who should be using Youtube Ads (and who shouldn’t), the difference between advertising on FB and Youtube, a discussion about creative, and a lot more. I call this a 101 episode because I intend it to help you go from knowing nothing about them to understanding whether or not they would work for your business.

Enjoy part two of this very informative episode!

Episode Highlights

• 1:47 Telling your brand story on Youtube and how to get it right.
• 5:29 What level of quality your video needs to be successful on Youtube.
• 9:48 How much you should budget for testing Youtube ads and where to find the easy wins.
• 12:42 How Google will, fairly quickly, start to tell you where to find your converting audiences.
• 14:13 Want Youtube ad inspiration? Here are the brand's Tom thinks are doing it right with their ads.
• 16:25 Here is Tom's cascading video strategy & why it converts and also keeps users from getting video fatigue.

Links and Resources

• Viewability
• Tom Breeze
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

For the last few months, I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking about Youtube Advertising. And for good reason. Andrew and I spend a lot of time talking about what’s working on FB and IG and email, but very little time talking about Youtube Ads.

It’s not because I’m holding out on you. Frankly, it’s because I don’t know a lot about them.

I’ve never run Youtube Ads and have always thought of them as a bit of a black block. To remedy that, I brought a best-in-class guest (Tom Breeze of Viewability) on the show to explain how you can use them to grow your business.

We get into the details of who should be using them (and who shouldn’t), the difference between advertising on FB and Youtube, a discussion about creative, and a lot more. This a 101 episode because it will help you go from knowing nothing about them to understanding whether or not they would work for your business.

Enjoy part one of this very informative episode!

Episode Highlights

• 5:31 Why you should be paying attention to Youtube ads now.
• 7:53 Not quite sure of the placements and ad types on Youtube? Here are your best  options.
• 11:14 The big difference between Facebook & Youtube audiences: why Youtube says their viewers are "leaning In" and looking to buy.
• 11:52 The 4 reasons people go to Youtube and how you can leverage this to connect with your audience.
• 15:13 How to tell if Youtube ads will work for you and your business
• 19:33 How Google develops what they call similar audiences to automatically help you find your audience
• 26:02 Why Youtube ads can be a great way to remarket to your other social traffic to give an omni present feel to your brand.
• 28:17 The importance of your brand story and how it is peril to a successful Youtube (or any) ad campaign.

Links and Resources

• Viewability
• Tom Breeze
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Intro: If your Facebook and Instagram Ads have been struggling recently, you’re not alone. Performance across Facebook and IG has been down for a number of businesses over the last few months. Wallowing in despair can be therapeutic, but it won’t get you anywhere. When things are going poorly, how do you turn it around?

In this episode, Andrew will walk you through what many of his coaching clients have been paying him to do recently...which is to help them get back on track.

You’re going to learn steps you can take to turn your failing advertising campaigns around. He’ll discuss how to assess what’s working and what is not, share some tools and tactics to help understand delivery metrics, and talk about what is actually working now.  Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 6:28 The questions you should first ask when assessing your failing Facebook Campaigns.
• 8:25 The metrics Facebook uses as core signals when serving your ads.
• 9:29 The 4 metrics Andrew regularly reviews and the ideal benchmarks he’s looking for.
• 11:15 Why your Facebook & Instagram campaign performance is likely getting held up in these two places.
• 13:12 Why you should be using the Delivery Insights tool and what you should be looking for.
• 17:52 Why relevance score is sometimes more important than if the ad is converting.
• 20:15 The placements you should be using and how you can test allocating spend.
• 22:20 From failing to scaling, here are the next steps to build your ads back up.

Links and Resources:

• Ecommerce Influence Podcast Episode 136
• Ecommerce Influence Podcast Episode 146
• Delivery Insights
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Become a Member:

If you liked this episode, you’re going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

Today's guest is no stranger to spending money on advertising. But as you'll learn, nowadays he's more focused on delivering an amazing customer experience than optimizing his ad spend.

Babak Azad is the former SVP of Media & Customer Acquisition at Beachbody. During his time there, his team spent over half a billion dollars in media and acquired over 10 million customers through their website, on Amazon, and over the phone. Those are some big-time numbers.

In today's episode, we discuss the danger of falling into the "Cost Per Acquisition > Lifetime Value Game" and share a few surprising things most ecommerce businesses are missing in their quest for scale. This is an exceptional episode with an exceptional guy!

Episode Highlights

• 6:15 Chicken or the egg: Babak's thoughts on pushing sales vs brand awareness to build a brand.
• 8:44 Why customer experience is not just about online UI and UX.
• 11:31 The one thing you must do to create a great customer experience.
• 12:00 How being different can increase your sales and improve your customer experience.
• 13:30 The surprising thing that most ecommerce sites are not focusing on.
• 16:00 How shout-outs, badges & leaderboards help Peloton dial in their customer experience.
• 23:30 The 4 buckets Babak uses for breaking up and creating a great customer experience.
• 25:00 Why you need to understand who you're serving and what they really value.
•  28:55 How niching down and clearly speaking to your core customer can really help you succeed.
• 31:47 These are the metrics you should be reviewing to track customer experience

Links and Resources

• Babak's Blog: Crafting Amazing Customer Experiences
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Join the Membership

If you liked this episode, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership.  It’s a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

If you want to make sure you’re growing as quickly and sustainably as possible, click here to learn more. Hope to see you on the inside!

I just completed a successful two-day Private Intensive here in ATX with a client. We floated down the Guadalupe River and even played a little Top Golf, but most importantly made some big improvements to their website.

In today’s episode, I want to share a big win we got from those two days so you can replicate it at home.

Problem:The client had seen a 10% drop in conversion rate over the last month. The last 9 months were rock solid consistent, so it was very strange. A 10% drop in CR cost them around $35K a month!

Solution:We installed HotJar and activated the screen recording function. After running a Google Analytics for exit pages and watching screen recordings, we identified a bug preventing users from customizing the product they wanted. It was literally stopping people dead in their tracks! After identifying the bug, the devs fixed it in a few hours.

Episode Highlights

• 2:43 How a drop in conversions may be the result of issues (a bug) on your site.
• 4:46 Why step one should always be to confirm your inventory and that you are not out of stock on key products
• 6:27 Once you've used HotJar to record your site user's journey, here's what you want to look for.
• 7:12 What you should look at first once you've defined your top exit pages.
• 11:24 How a screen recording coupled with a screen shot can help your dev team quickly correct site issues and get you back to converting.
• 14:15 Recap: The 3 steps you can take to making sure your site is converting the best it possibly can

Links and Resources

• Hot Jar
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Are you an ecommerce business owner using Shopify? Then this episode is a must-listen.

Kurt Elster is a master at helping Shopify businesses uncover hidden profits from their stores and increase their conversion rates. The Ethercycle founder joins us today to share his expert tips on where to look for profits you may be missing out on, the design mistakes people consistently make, and the #1 thing that will give you the biggest competitive advantage over Amazon. Plus, he talks about the test you should do today to see how your customers are really engaging with your site. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 7:26 The 30,000-foot-view-quick win when it comes to optimizing your Shopify site.
• 9:48 The things top brands are getting right with website optimization.
• 12:37 The maximum number of apps your Shopify site should be running and why they maybe slowing you down, even if you've uninstalled them.
• 14:13 How simply improving your website's messaging can increase your conversions overnight.
• 15:01 Don't over complicate the landing page and why a "quickie" product page could end up being your best landing page
• 18:15 The things you can do to make your cart and checkout page more seamless and more user friendly.
• 19:46 Why if you're not using "order notes" for something meaningful you should have them turned off
• 25:45 The post checkout optimizations you should be making to increase your AOV.
• 29:46 The two misconceptions Kurt regularly sees when it comes to CRO.

Links and Resources:

• KurtElster.com
• Ethercycle
• The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
• The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
• Key Smart
• Tactical Baby Gear

Membership

Doors are now open for the Brand Growth Experts Membership, a community of top ecommerce business owners and marketers who I coach one-on-one to help scale up their businesses. Together we’ll create a plan that will help you scale up your business, and then I’ll help you execute it.

The Membership is open for a limited time only, and doors close at midnight CST on Tuesday, July 24. If you want to join, make sure you don’t miss your chance. Click here to learn more.

Sponsors:

Klaviyo

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Sezzle

Looking for an easy and effective way to increase your e-commerce site’s conversion rate while also providing your customers a simple and convenient way to pay? Then Sezzle is the payment app you’ve been looking for.

Sezzle allows your customers to buy now and pay in monthly installments. Sezzle settles up directly with the merchant through the purchase process and handles all verification and repayments directly with the customer so you never have to worry about dealing with missed payments. On average Sezzle customers saw a 6.5% increase in sales and a 55% growth of their average order value. Learn more at http://www.sezzle.com/influence.

Here’s the deal with Dynamic Product Ads or “DPAs” as you might know them. Everyone is using them and they work well. But as you’ll learn in today’s episode, the effectiveness of DPAs can create some unique problems for ad buyers.

WFor example, you might have a DPA with a high return on ad spend and a low relevance score. Meaning it’s driving sales but people are indicating they don’t want to see it. How confusing is that!?

In this episode, you’ll learn how to tweak your DPAs for top performance. We’ll talk about managing frequency, bidding, copywriting, and why you need to be thinking about your prospecting traffic. It’s a bit technical but if you’re running these ads (or want to) you’ll get a ton out of this episode. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 6:10 The biggest error in how most brands are structuring their dynamic product ads (DPAs).
• 8:05 Why turning up the spend on your successful DPA may actually be killing your audience.
• 9:25 How to structure your DPA budgets so you're ad frequencies don't skyrocket.
• 11:06 Why you need to watch your DPAs over time and the key things you should be watching for.
• 12:12 How changing copy of even top performing DPAs on a weekly basis can increase your results.
• 14:00 The step by step process you should take to improving your DPAs.

Links and Resources

• Facebook Dynamic Product Ads
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Sponsor: Klaviyo

If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Sponsor: Sezzle

Looking for an easy and effective way to increase your e-commerce site's conversion rate while also providing your customers a simple and convenient way to pay? Then Sezzle is the payment app you've been looking for.

Sezzleallows your customers to buy now and pay in monthly installments. Sezzle settles up directly with the merchant through the purchase process and handles all verification and repayments directly with the customer so you never have to worry about dealing with missed payments. On average Sezzle customers saw a 6.5% increase in sales and a 55% growth of their average order value. Learn more at http://www.sezzle.com/influence.

Today, I have a special episode for you. For our American listeners, July 2nd is two days before the 4th of July holiday. From here on out it will also be known as the day Custom Audience terms got updated! This is huge stuff right before the holiday.

We’re talking about this because after Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has decided to evaluate their process and in my opinion cover their own ass. If you’re delivering ads to custom audiences (you should be) you’re going to need to accept new terms and start specifying exactly where your list came from. These changes will have a direct impact on how you’ll be able to advertise. In this episode, we’ll share what you need to know and how to stay above board. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 4:15 Why Facebook is changing up their custom audience terms
• 6:00 What you will be required acknowledge when uploading a new custom audience
• 7:55 How consumers will now be able to see more info on why they are being served ads
• 8:58 Why you may just have to validate current audiences vs. uploading them all over again
• 10:10 Here is what you will have to do if you are sharing custom audiences as an agency/with clients
• 13:04 The importance of reading the new custom audience terms and conditions

Links and Resources

• Facebook Custom Audience Terms
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Looking for an easy and effective way to help your ecommence site increase it's conversion rate while also providing your customers an easy and convenient way to pay? Then Sezzleis the payment app you've been looking for. Sezzle allows your customers to buy now and pay in monthly installments. Sezzle settles up directly with the merchant through the purchase process and handles all verification and repayments directly with the customer, so you never have to worry about dealing with missed payments. On average Sezzle customers saw a 6.5% increase in sales and a 55% growth of their average order value. Learn more on how Sezzle can help your bottom line today at: http://www.sezzle.com/influence

Earlier this week, we dropped part one of our incredible interview with NYT best-selling author Greg Mckeown. We had a ton of fun chopping it up with Greg about how to improve your life by doing less. If you haven’t listened to that episode, I’d recommend starting there.

Greg’s book Essentialism has had a profound impact on both Andrew’s life and my own. If you feel like you’re spending time on trivial tasks and you want to remove the “trivial many” and focus on the essential few, this episode is for you. Enjoy part 2!

Episode Highlights

• 4:15 How the criteria you use to set goals will dictate where you plateau.
• 6:00 The closet metaphor you should be using to dial in your success.
• 8:39 When it comes to the essentials have you asked yourself this one question?
• 10:14 The 4 key questions you should be asking of yourself and your brand.
• 12:19 The Southwest Airlines moto that can help you find your perfect customer and what happened to Continental Airlines when they tried to copy Southwest.
• 19:10 How Greg McKeown personally wraps up his week, month, year and retreats
• 25:37 The 100,000 foot view that Greg uses to help him understand the essential vs. nonessential.
• 26:41 How Greg thinks every business owner/executive should be making decisions for their business.

Links and Resources

• Greg McKeown - Essentialism Book
• Twitter.com/Greg McKeown
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

About 2 years ago I purchased and then subsequently devoured the book Essentialism. At the time, I was stretched thin and had too many irons in the fire. The wisdom of Greg Mckeown helped me refocus on what really mattered. Today, I have the tremendous privilege of welcoming Greg on the show.

Have you ever felt the urge to declutter your work life? Do you simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized? The remedy is rarely to “get more done” and almost always to “do the right things.” In today’s episode, we explore what stops otherwise outstanding people from breaking through to the next level, and dive into why most people struggle to define what’s important in their life. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

• 5:22 The meaning of being an essentialist as defined by author Greg Mckeown himself.
• 8:26 How contribution may be keeping you from getting to the next level.
• 12:23 Why it's impossible to have multiple priorities and still be successful.
• 14:08 How to train your brain to focus on the most important thing you should be doing right now.
• 17:30 How scheduling free thought time can keep you from mimicking others and help you get ahead of the competition.
• 20:22 The 4 things you should focus on when planning your day and the one thing you may realize as you develop this habit.
• 25:11 Why you shouldn’t feel guilty saying “no” when the work doesn’t fit with your internal goals.
• 30:18 The 3 stages of essentialism and how to use them when interacting with colleagues and clients.

Links and Resources

• Greg McKeown - Essentialism Book
• Twitter.com/Greg Mckeown
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

The number one question I get from ecommerce business owners, whether they’re just starting out or making $4MM a year, is: how do I scale? If you’re asking yourself that question, this episode is for you.

In today’s Flash Episode I’ll walk through the big picture strategy that will help guide you on the path to 8 figures. We’ll talk about the three phases of growth, from $0 to $10MM, and what you should be doing at each phase in order to grow your business. I’ll talk about how your role as business owner will evolve as your company scales, and the three levers you should focus on to scale your business. And, I’ll share my #1 piece of advice for what you can do today to kickstart your growth.

Episode Highlights

• 4:03 (Phase 1) The importance of finding a marketing channel that works for you, learning it well and doubling down on it.
• 5:36 (Phase 2) Now that you’ve mastered the channel, here’s why you need to remove yourself to continue growing.
• 7:41 Once you've found your replacement, its time to focus on increasing these key metrics.
• 8:47 How email is still king when it comes to increasing buyer frequency.
• 11:25 (Phase 3) If 8 figures is in sight, it might be time to step out of the way and develop a team to take over
• 13:59 How developing a hiring plan can increase your growth to 8 figures
• 14:55 This is the one thing you should never expect when hiring someone to replace you in a role.

Links and Resources

• EP 131: Productivity Hacks with Sebastian Marshall
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyoand you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Did you know that messenger bots have the highest engagement rates at the lowest cost per lead? Did you know that messenger subscribers can be 5-10 times more valuable than email subscribers? If you’re ready to grow your business with personalized, highly targeted communications, then this episode is for you.

Mikael Yang, CEO and Co-Founder of ManyChat, joins us today to talk about messenger bots. Messenger has bypassed social networks to become the number one channel people are using to communicate with each other, and with brands. Yang shares the opportunities ecommerce businesses have with messenger bots to reach their customers in this highly intimate and engaging channel. Only 1% of marketers are using messenger, which is anticipated to become the main communication channel for B2C in the near future, and Yang talks about why now is the time you should start.

Episode Highlights:  

• 6:53 Why Messenger is the future of B2C communication.
• 7:46 The Chinese ecommerce bot strategy that the West may not be ready for.
• 10:39 The one mistake Mikael sees most ecomm businesses making when it comes to bots.
• 11:59 How messenger bots may be the final nail in e-mail’s coffin.
• 12:43 The reason why bots will elevate the level of messaging over what we currently see with email.
• 15:52 How the structure of email encourages marketers to spam their audience and what Facebook is doing to ensure relevance to its users with bots.  
• 20:39 The ways Mikael sees Facebook controlling costs and rewarding businesses for positive messenger engagement.
• 22:52 What’s really working for brands using messenger bots right now.
• 28:02 The 3 actions you should take with messenger bots.
• 33:40 How to develop a conversation with your audience through messenger bots to understand what they really want from you.
• 38:28 New to messenger bots and looking for the “quick win”? This is what Mikael suggests.

Links and Resources:

• ManyChat
• ManyChat Facebook Community
• Free Messenger Marketing Course (ManyChat)

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. If you’re running an ecommerce business and sending emails to your customers, you should be using Klaviyo. It will help you find out who your best customers are and target them one-to-one to make more money.

I’ve been using Klaviyo since they were just two employees. Now they have a team of 150 and are rolling out new features almost weekly. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Are your CPAs on Facebook or Instagram rising? If so, you’re not alone. As more advertisers pour into the channel the cost of advertising is going up! Today, we’ve got a special “Flash Episode” for you. We share why your acquisition costs always increase as you spend more and we go step-by-step through a process that will help you advertise more effectively and profitably.

This is a technical episode and one you might need to listen to a couple of times. But if you’re struggling to scale up your ad spend, it could be the ladder you need to take it to the next level.  Andrew and I go super deep into the FB weeds and talk about audience building, refreshing ads, horizontal scaling, etc. Paid social advertisers...enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 4:30 The super tool that Facebook has given advertisers and you’re likely not even using it.
• 6:08 How to find the “First Time Impression Ratio” for your ads to make sure you are reaching new users.
• 10:23 Red Alert: Your CPA’s are rising: Here are the 5 levers you can pull to see overall improvements
• 14:23 If you haven’t tried Instagram placement in over a year or even the last 6 months, you should be trying and testing Instagram placements
• 16:06 How you can correct a failing ad set with just 5 minutes and a pen and some paper.
• 16:20 The advice Molly Pittman shared with Andrew as it relates to scaling your business on Facebook.
• 17:24 Austin’s key takeaway from his recent read: Scientific Advertising  

Links and Resources:

• Delivery Insights
• Scientific Advertising
• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital

Are you ready to scale your business and ship internationally, but feel intimidated by the complexities involved? Are you currently shipping abroad, but struggling with all of the different contracts, customs, and taxes? If so, we’ve got a fantastic episode for you today.

Shipping outside of the United States can be a huge component of scaling your business, but there are many challenges related to finding the best courier in every country, understanding different regulations, and having proper documentation. EasyShip is a shipping platform that takes care of all of these issues and helps ecommerce businesses ship all over the world.

Tommaso Tamburnotti, co-founder of EasyShip, joins us this week to talk about international shipping for ecommerce. We discuss the process of moving from domestic to international shipping, common inventory issues, and how to stop leaving money on the table by not taking advantage of the international market.

Episode Highlights:  

• 7:21 Understanding how Easy Ship came to be and how they’ve helped many ecommerce brands go international.
• 14:21 How to identify international markets and scale your business.
• 19:25 Why the language barrier shouldn’t keep you from testing international sales.
• 21:53 The international markets you should be considering.
• 23:15 The 5 main steps you need to take to start shipping internationally and how Easy Ship simplifies the process.
• 30:53 How to overcome the customer service nightmare of getting a product stuck in customs.
• 33:53 Why there is currently a huge opportunity for US brands to start selling internationally.
• 32:23 The two main problems that Tommaso sees with US brands when they sell internationally. 

Links and Resources:

• Get $20 added to your account when you sign up for Easy Ship with this link.

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the information out there about how to grow your business? I know I do, it’s a freaking jungle out there.

There is so much noise out there telling you to build this, optimize that, or to invest in some new shiny marketing channel it’s difficult to choose where to direct your attention..

It’s easy to get distracted from the simple fundamentals of how to grow your business. If you’re feeling stuck and are looking for inspiration on how to jumpstart growth, this episode is for you.

This week we share the three levers you should focus on in order to grow your business, the simplest and least expensive way. These include: number of customers, average order value and frequency. We talk about how to calculate each of these, and how, as well as how much, you need to increase them by to double your business over the next year.

Episode Highlights:

• 4:42 Lever #1: Reviewing your product pages to identify opportunities for increasing the number of customers.
• 6:05 How the creation of a “best-sellers” page can ensure you are not leaving money on the table.
• 7:28 Lever # 2: Increasing your Average Order Value.
• 10:28 The data is in and this is the minimum AOV you should be targeting for to see success with Facebook and Instagram advertising.
• 13:37 Lever #3: Increasing your purchase frequency.
• 17:20 Here is Austin’s formula for figuring out purchase frequency and how to scale it up over the next year.        

Links and Resources:

• Brand Growth Experts
• Foxwell Digital
• Cart Hook
• One Click Upsell

This was one of my favorite episodes to record in the last year. I’ve often struggled with work-life balance and am no stranger to trying things that haven’t worked. This week we bring you a refreshing interview with my friend Victor Delacruz about the ups and downs of entrepreneurial life.

Victor Delacruz is the founder and owner of ChristianPlanner.com. Victor shares his journey as an ecommerce entrepreneur - from youth pastor to Air Force Captain to Jazz Piano student at NYU to the business owner he is now.

Victor talks about the benefits of having a solid daily routine for optimizing your personal and professional life, and the importance for finding what works best for you. He shares the challenges he has faced within his personal and professional life, and the game-changer tactic he used for growing his email list, gathering customer testimonials, and getting tons of user-generated content that was repurposed for social ads and a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Episode Highlights:

• 5:28 The path to success sometimes starts with a journey towards failure.   

• 13:04 How Victor came to the decision to start again after his many setbacks.

• 13:26 Step 1: Doing the research and understanding the audience size and opportunity in front of him.

• 14:30 Why the key to a great ecommerce site starts with a simple name.

• 16:00 How a single open ended question in the first email of Christian Planner’s email sequence lead to hundreds of responses and the growth of the brand.

• 17:40 This is how Christian Planner gathered user generated content to create a video that helped them raise money, gain followers, increase email subscribers and new product ideas.

• 28:18 The one thing that Victor learned in the military that has helped him grow in his business.

• 32:00 Exploring neurofeedback, floating and other methods to get a mental edge in a distracting online world.

• 38:15 The daily routine that helps Victor stay on track and the “have-to-dos” that he uses to measures his growth & success

Links and Resources:

• Christianplanner.com

• 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

• Gleam.io

• Joe Rogan Experience

• Instagram.com/VictorDelacruz

Do you want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to testing new Facebook advertising strategies? Then this episode is for you.

We’re always looking for ways to increase Facebook ad performance and drive more revenue, and today Andrew shares four things he recently learned that are having a big impact for his clients.

We cover how to use value bid optimization to target not only the people most likely to convert, but also the people who are most likely to give you highest return on ad spend, the importance of experimenting with your bidding windows within conversion campaigns, how to set up better social proofing tied to your product catalog ads, and how to review your customer lifetime value within Facebook analytics in order to test the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Episode Highlights:

• 3:18 The value of ROAS optimization and why you might just want to give it a chance.
• 6:20 When you should be adjusting your bidding window to increase scaling opportunities.
• 8:45 Why tagging a product AND social proofing your ads is a double dose for success.
• 10:55 Facebook’s Lifetime Value analytics and how this data is a game changer for growing the value of your customers over time.
• 13:54 The key formula for growing your business in ecommerce.  
• 14:13 How you can test a few of Andrew’s findings on email as well.

Links and Resources:

• Jonloomer.com
• Klaviyo.com
• If you’re looking to scale your ecommerce business, visit BrandGrowthExperts.com and see how we can help!

Do you want to know what it really takes to build a $100 million business and brand? Then this episode is for you.

Building a successful multi-million dollar business is a marathon, not a sprint. Jake Kassan, founder and CEO of MVMT Watches, was one of my first clients when he was just launching the brand back in 2013. He joins us today to talk about how things have changed since then, and how MVMT has grown to what it is today.

MVMT strives to be a best in class brand and best in class in all around marketing, and Jake shares the strategic approach to marketing MVMT uses to achieve those goals. He also talks about how having a strong team is essential to scaling your business and shares his experience hiring a CMO and supporting team, and what you need to know to do it.

Episode Highlights:

• 7:48 How building relationships with customers through direct sales online helped MVMT scale.
• 10:25 The best success comes in stages and this it what each stage of growth has looked like for MVMT over the last 5 years.
• 12:15 Jake’s #1 tip for successfully scaling a business (hint: it’s not email or Facebook ads).
• 13:42 What MVMT would do differently if they had to do it all over again.
• 18:12 As an entrepreneur, Jake believes it’s important to always be testing and working through those results to find success.
• 19:25 The basic math MVMT used to scale in the beginning and how they look at “spending-money-to-make-money” now.   
• 21:30 Where MVMT is testing for acquisition and where they’re seeing success.
• 25:23 What you need to know when growing your team so you can successfully scale your business.
• 30:10 How MVMT solidified their appeal with customers through user-generated content.
• 33:40 What Jake loves most about building a lifestyle brand.
• 36:41 Every business goes through low times, here’s a few MVMT went through in order to grow.
• 42:20 Why Jake feels it’s so important to network with and learn from other founders. 

Links and Resources:

• MVMT Watches
• Hims
• Jake Kassan
• Instagram.com/JakeKassan
• Twitter.com/JakeKassan

Are you frustrated with the increased competition on Facebook’s mobile news feed? Are you struggling with rising advertising costs and want to maximize your spend as effectively as possible? Then this episode is for you.

Andrew shares two simple Facebook ad strategies that will get you more bang for your buck and help you compete on the news feed. He also talks about where on Instagram you need to be testing ads, if you’re not already, and the great success he’s seeing with his clients.

Episode Highlights:

• 2:29 Things we’ve noticed recently regarding the newsfeed that are affecting your ads.
• 3:15 Are you testing your product catalog in a top of funnel ads? Here’s why you should.
• 5:58 How to visually set up product catalog ads to make them most effective.
• 9:55 Still haven’t tried Broad Match Ads? Here’s how to set them up for success.
• 11:50 Why your ad copy is so important for getting the best ROAS possible.
• 12:30 If you’re not testing Instagram stories you’re likely missing out on a 4x return on ad spend.

Links and Resources:

• Podcast@ecommerceinfluence.com
• Andrew@Foxwelldigital.com

Have you been wondering about the impact Facebook’s recent data privacy issues will have on digital marketing? Do you want to know what you need to do to get your ads in front of the right audience as social advertising continues to evolve? Then this episode is for you.

Master digital marketer Molly Pittman joins us to talk about all things Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. She discusses the three key things you need to launch a successful ad campaign as competition and costs continue to rise, the positive outcome she hopes to see from Facebook following the Zuckerberg hearings, and how to stay relevant as messenger continues to grow as an important advertising platform.

Episode Highlights:

• 4:20 Understanding the current state of advertising on social media.
• 7:20 The future of digital will include more informed consumers and a more regulated digital space.
• 10:22 The best way to combat rising ad costs may lie within your offer.
• 13:30 Why research and this free web tool (hint: you likely use it every day) are so important to the success of your ads.
• 15:53 Did you pick up on this during Facebook’s Congressional hearings? This is where Facebook is likely headed with advertising.
• 19:10 We are only at the infancy of marketing as we know it and here’s why.
• 20:33 Communication with marketers may be the next big step for improving Facebook.
• 21:49 Why Messenger is the next frontier for Facebook.
• 25:39 So what about Instagram? Here's how it will likely grow in the digital advertising space.
• 29:14 Why ManyChat isn’t worried that Facebook will create its own bot.
• 33:22 What you should be doing to sustain your marketing mix for Q2.
• 37:30 Molly’s workflow for creating great Facebook ads and which step she spends the most time on.

Links and Resources:

• Digital Strategy Bootcamps
• Digital Marketer

Today we’re launching our first FLASH episode! These shorter, bite-sized episodes will have actionable tips and takeaways you can easily implement in your business that will start driving immediate results. We love interviewing experts in the ecommerce space, and will still share those interviews every other week, but also want to offer content that will give you some quick wins.

In today’s episode we talk about three common mistakes I see almost all of my clients making with their email marketing. You’ll learn: which setting must be turned off in your browse and abandoned cart campaigns to prevent you from missing out on $100s (if not $1000s) in sales, the importance of list segmentation and how to avoid ending up in the spam box, and why opt-in rate isn’t the best metric for measuring the success of your offers, and what you should measure instead.

Episode Highlights:

• 4:45 The importance of making sure the Smart Sending Feature is properly set so you’re not leaving money on the table
• 7:00 Why it is so important to be segmenting and sending emails to your engaged audiences
• 8:30 How sending emails to those who are inactive on your email list can get you put in the spam box
• 9:36 When it comes to measuring your email list, this is the metric you should be using
• 10:12 Why it is so important to not just review the number of opt-ins you get, but how they opted in and when/how often they converted after that

Links and Resources:

• The Daily Podcast
• My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast
• Brandgrowthexperts.com/intensive
• podcast@ecommerceinfluence.com

Running an online business can be a lonely endeavor. It's easy to second guess yourself if you don't have other business owners to connect with. Have you ever wished you could find out how other companies are managing their growth? In today's episode, we get the inside scoop on what’s working (and what’s not) at the fast-growing gifting startup Greetabl.

Joe Fischer, the Founder of Greetabl, joins us today to talk about what worked for him as he grew his business from an idea to an industry. Joe talks about which marketing channels have worked best to fuel Greetabl’s growth, how to hire quality talent as you scale (even if you’re in a small town), the reality behind fundraising for your business, and the five key areas ecommerce brands need to focus on to see ongoing, sustained growth in the coming years.

Episode Highlights:

• 9:16 How Greetabl got in front of people to grow their business
• 11:18 The campaign that Greetabl is excited about launching (Note: print marketing is not dead)
• 15:45 Thinking about bringing everything in house? Here is how Greetabl is weighing those costs as a positive
• 18:49 How to hire quality talent even if you are small business just starting to scale
• 22:24 What ecommerce businesses can be doing to maintain sustained growth through 2018 and into 2019
• 25:20 Who Greetabl views as their competition and how they address competition as a whole
• 30:27 How to raise capital for you business and the secret sauce you will need to do it.
• 33:37 The best ads that are crushing it for Greetabl right now
• 38:44 Email does it. The Campaigns that are delivering great ROI for Greetabl
• 43:45 The tools and tactics Joe uses to balance life & work

Links and Resources:

• Asana
• Both Sides of the Table Blog
• Effective executive
• Ecommerce Influence Episode 135 with Sebastian Marshall
• Getting Things Done
• ToDoist

Joe Fischer:

• JF@Greetabl.com
• Twitter.com/TheJoeFischer

Are you an ecommerce business owner who’s managing your own Facebook ads? Do you want a breakdown of the best tactics to implement right now that’ll help you create and run ads that convert? Then this episode is for you.

Dive deep into Facebook Ads with Justin Marshall, from Ad Hoc Media. He talks about specific targeting strategies, optimization tactics for each part of the sales funnel, how to scale and ramp up your ads, and where he’s seeing surprising success (hint: it’s not with the typical CTA button ads).

Episode Highlights:  

• 4:35 How Facebook advertising has changed and the ad type that’s out-performing traditional ads.
• 6:25 The resources that Justin uses to keep up with ongoing Facebook ad changes.
• 8:13 Automated Rules: What they are and how you can better use them in your Facebook campaigns.
• 10:45 Why thinking like the algorithm can improve your ads performance.
• 11:25 How having a higher average order value can improve ad testing and overall success.
• 14:31 What Justin looks for in a brand before helping them successfully scale with Facebook ads.
• 18:36 How to properly structure audience overlap, and why you shouldn’t be so concerned about your ads competing with each other.
• 25:33 The counterintuitive objective structure that is actually working.
• 29:16 How boosting organic posts has actually helped deliver a 10x return for some clients.
• 31:39 Have your ads started to flop? Justin’s method for overcoming this and getting ads to correctly scale.
• 36:38 The difference between Broad Match and general broad audiences and how they are both helping find new customers for brands.
• 39:34 The most common mistakes you’re likely making with managing your ads.  

Links and Resources:

• Jon Loomer - PHC
• Facebook Blueprint
• MuteSix - Spend $10k A Day Podcast
• Facebook Ads Manager/Power Editor Users (Unofficial) Group
• Reveal Bot
• Smartly.io

Justin Marshall

• AdHocMedia.co
• Justin At Adhocmedia.co
• Twitter.com/JBenMarshall

Are you currently advertising on Facebook, and unsure what next steps to take to start scaling your business? Do you ever wonder whether other entrepreneurs actually see success after listening to our podcast and attending our Intensives? We know talk is cheap, which is why we invited one of our listeners to join us today to share what he’s learned, and implemented, after working with us.

Mark Arruda, owner and CEO of Constantly Varied Gear, is a long-time podcast listener and previous attendee of both the Email and Facebook Intensives. He joins Andrew and Gracie Foxwell to chat about Facebook advertising, including how he’s using Facebook messenger ads to get people into his sales funnel and make conversions, the creative way he’s developing lookalike audiences to expand reach and scale, and his favorite tip from the Facebook Intensive that’s driving major engagement and social proof.

Episode Highlights:

• 3:40 Here’s how to use what Mark calls an interest based lookalike
• 7:00 This one tip from the intensive is like social proofing on steroids, plus Austin’s power-up move at 9:50
• 10:45 Why you should be testing the bid optimization to capture the most relevant results
• 11:30 How segmenting your lookalike audiences may be beneficial to your brand’s success
• 13:15 If you’re running dynamic product ads, this is why you should also be doing a broad match DPA
• 16:40 Taking an inside look at what CVG’s chat flow for messenger ads looks like
• 21:24 How testing with messenger bots doesn’t need to be scary or too expensive
• 24:25 These are the creative ad types that are working for CVG that you can be testing too

Links and Resources:

• Constantly Varied Gear
• Facebook Intensive
• Email Marketing Intensive
• The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing (Facebook Group)

Have you ever wondered how to get started with Conversion Rate Optimization for your store? Do you sometimes wonder if you’re leaving money on the table by not running A/B tests? If so, you’re not alone.

Today, I have the legend Peep Laja of Conversion XL with me to help demystify CRO and share some practical ideas to boost your conversion rate.

Peep is an expert in CRO and runs the most successful optimization agency I know of. He was also the first person I started to learn from when I found his very successful blog.

I’m going to be at Peep’s event, ConversionXL Live at the end of March. If your business is doing over $10 million a year, I consider it a must attend event. It’s going to be a lot of fun, we’re going to learn a bunch, and you’ll be surrounded by people leading the fastest growing companies in the world.   

Peep will even give you 20% off the ticket price when you use the code Ecommerceinfluence to register.

Click here to learn more and book your ticket.

Episode Highlights:

• 3:20 Ready to approach conversion optimization on your site? Here’s where to start.
• 5:00 The amount of time you should spend optimizing your site for conversions might surprise you.
• 8:20 Follow these steps to make sure your website has an analytics clean bill of health.
• 11:30 How to tell when your data is ready to begin analyzing and making assumptions.
• 13:10 Here is the magic number of transactions needed to A/B test and how to get there if you’re not there yet.
• 16:40 This is the place that most businesses are leaving money on the table when it comes to their site and how you can dial it in.
• 21:07 These are the tools that Peep keeps in his digital tool box, and when it may be time to hire a pro.
• 26:00 All about CXL Live: March 28 - 30, 2018

Links and Resources:

• Hotjar
• Typeform
• Google Analytics

It has been a whirlwind month! Andrew and I finished up our first ever back-to-back Email and Facebook Intensive here in Austin TX. Both Intensives were wildly successful and we’ve been spending this week reflecting a bit. As much as these Intensives are focused on sharing what we know, we also learn a ton from each business who attends. In this episode, we share our discoveries from the event with you.

We unpack an unusual success story from Facebook Messenger, we discuss how to use the new Visual Flow Builder in Klaviyo, and key in on a powerful use case for the Gleam platform. We also share a few surprises from the Intensives. Successful marketing campaigns come in many different forms and working with almost 40 businesses over a 4-day period reminds you to continually test your assumptions.

This episode is chock full of tips and ideas. I hope you enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 4:50 The power Messenger & Messenger Bots: how some are seeing open rates as high as 95%
• 7:55 Klaviyo’s  visual flow builder what it is and how you can accurately split test your email business assumptions  
• 10:55 Worried you don’t have a big enough budget for effective Facebook & Instagram advertising? Here’s what you can do.
• 11:27 The one ads tactic that Andrew learned during the Intensive that is actually working for attendees
• 12:51 How two of our attendees in the B2B space instantly started seeing a 7x & 3x ROAS on Facebook almost overnight.  
• 15:24 How this attendee used Gleam.io pro to run a giveaway that generated user testimonials, fans, purchases and marketing materials to later deliver them huge success with their Kickstarter campaign
• 17:39 Thinking of creating video content? Here is why you may only need your iPhone
• 18:10 Still not sure how to social proof your Facebook ads? Andrew explains the value and exactly how to do it
• 20:13 if you’re on a Shopify site here is why you should be running dynamic product ads as a part of your retargeting strategy.
• 21:22 Email best practices and the one practice that Austin is surprised most ecommerce people are still not doing
• 23:48 Finding your best customers (whales) through the use of Facebook’s Time On Site custom audience
• 25:49 Austin & Andrew share their overall highlights of the intensive (hint: it includes axe throwing)
• 30:00 Thanks to the listeners and what’s coming up on future shows

Links and Resources:

• Gleam.io

Happy 2018! We’re back -- and we’ve got something special for you. Last week Andrew Foxwell and I hosted a Facebook Live where we talked about our email and Facebook marketing predictions for 2018.

Email marketing is alive and well, but there is one email opt-in technique that needs to be put to bed once and for all -- are you using it? There’s been a ton of hype around Facebook Messenger, but it has yet to live up to it -- will 2018 be its year?

Tune in to hear what we think will change and what will stay the same this year, and what you need to do to keep up with the ever-evolving world of online marketing.

Episode Highlights:

• 2:00 How product integrations will grow and opportunities will increase with broad match Facebook targeting
• 4:15 As email open rates continue to decrease in 2018, you can stay competitive with segmentation
• 5:40 The expansion of Facebook Analytics: seeing the journey of a Like to a purchase
• 7:20 The increased effectiveness of connecting with cart abandoners through Facebook Messenger & Messenger bots
• 10:00 The continued integration and expansion of Instagram opportunities for advertisers
• 13:30 Email continues to be a top 3 sales driver (it’s far from dead)
• 14:30 Spin-to-win: why it’s likely ruining the quality of your email list
• 16:40 Advertising in Facebook Groups and other sub-communities
• 17:50 Expansion of bidding optimization - Facebook will help you reach your MVPs
• 19:07 Chat bots become better at lead capture and finding your best leads
• 23:30 Set yourself up to make 2018 your most profitable year yet by attending the Facebook or Email Marketing Intensive

Links and Resources:

• Facebook Intensive 
• Email Intensive