The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

January 2019
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Tue, 29 January 2019

183: How To Manage Your Time Strategically While Growing Your Business

Something most of my clients tell me they struggle with is time management and always being busy.

There’s so much to do and it feels like there’s never enough time to do it. Often most of their time is spent in their business, leaving little time to spend on the things they enjoy in their personal life.

Time is something both Andrew and I are focusing on this year: how we can spend more time doing the things we want to do while continuing to grow our businesses.

Today we’ll share some of the strategies and tools we use for effective time management, and the impact they’ve had on our lifestyles.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

7:34 Buffer days versus focus days: Austin’s approach.
9:36 Andrew’s take on buffer days and buffer zones.
13:36 Creating an ideal schedule that works for you.
16:23 The importance of protecting your schedule once you’ve planned it out.
17:19 Building milestones or keystones into your week to keep yourself on track.
19:23 Andrew's approach to setting goals, including a 100-year vision and the “One Thing.”
20:10 Starting with your “One Thing” and building in the other time management frameworks to create change in your life.
22:22 How giving away control of your time is like giving away control of your bank account.
23:21 Learning how to say NO, or at least no-ish.
26:06 What Austin does before making a decision about a requested meeting or opportunity.
28:18 The benefit of estimating time for tasks and tracking how long things actually take.
30:07 Using time tracking to understand time spent vs. revenue and which tasks are actually aligned with your larger financial goals.
32:11 What Andrew is using as an alternative to email in order to spend less time in his inbox.
33:08 Tools Austin uses to effectively manage his time.
35:19 Time management tools Andrew is using.

Links And Resources:

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: Shoelace

This episode is brought to you by Shoelace. Shoelace helps fast-growing ecommerce stores tell their brand story, increase conversions, and grow revenue through Customer Journey Retargeting. This personalized approached to retargeting shows the right customers the right ads at the right time based on where they are in the buying journey with your brand. Whether a visitor is discovering your brand for the first time or a loyal repeat-customer is considering a purchase from your latest collection, they'll see tailored ad content that evolves like an engaging story in the days and weeks following their visit.

Shoelace's automation platform makes it a breeze to run memorable retargeting experiences. Visit to ecommerceinfluence.com/shoelace and get started on working with Shoelace today. Mention "Ecommerce Influence" to claim a special offer during your free trial!

Sponsor: Klaviyo

Today’s episode is brought to you by Klaviyo. Over 10,000 brands have joined Klaviyo to help them build higher-quality relationships with their customers. Klaviyo does not force you to compromise between speed and powerful functionality, you get both. Interested to see Klaviyo’s impact? Tune into their 12-part docu-series following three brands—Chubbies, SunSki and the Love Is Project. You’ll learn how they prepared for Cyber Weekend 2018, marketing throughout the holidays, and beyond. Along the way, we’ll fill you in on what you should be doing as a business to push your marketing strategy to the next level.

Also, as you're going through this, they're going to show you how to prepare the business to continue to take it to the next level segment and grow and use it to use Klaviyo to drive more profitable interactions. If you want to go check out this docu-series, go to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/beyond.

Direct download: EI_183_TimeManagement.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

Tue, 22 January 2019

182: How To Make Sense of Organic & Paid Traffic Attribution

As the world of digital marketing continues to become more integrated it becomes increasingly difficult to analyze your metrics across various channels.

This is particularly true when it comes to attribution.

Late last year Facebook launched a new attribution tool that will allow you, for the first time, to easily compare data across all of your paid channels at the same time.

If you’re running ads across multiple channels, you won’t want to miss this episode. Andrew talks about the Facebook Attribution tool’s best features, how to set it up, and why you should start using it right away.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

5:48 Facebook’s new Attribution tool: what it is and how it works.
7:53 Some of the common issues people run into with attribution.
11:58 Why you should start using the new Facebook Attribution tool.
15:26 How to set up the Facebook Attribution tool.
18:48 A big benefit of the Facebook Attribution tool? Discovering hidden profits.
19:30 The difference between various attribution models and the questions to ask yourself when you’re setting things up.
24:47 Andrew shares his advice on choosing an attribution window.
29:10 The dashboard you’ll see once you set up Facebook Attribution, and how to use it to start digging into your data.
31:38 The three most valuable things Andrew recommends looking at within the Facebook Attribution dashboard.
37:11 Why it’s absolutely worth your time to set up the Facebook Attribution tool.

Links And Resources:

Become a Member:

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: Shoelace

Shoelace's automation platform makes it a breeze to run memorable retargeting experiences. Visit ecommerceinfluence.com/shoelace and get started on working with Shoelace today. Mention "Ecommerce Influence" to claim a special offer during your free trial!

Sponsor: Klaviyo

Direct download: EI_182_Flash_Facebook_Attribution_Klaviyo_Shoelace.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

Tue, 15 January 2019

181: The Changing State of Paid Social: Tips, Strategy, and How To Win

One of the most exciting (and frustrating) parts of being a marketer today is that platforms are constantly evolving and our strategies have to evolve with them.

Today we’re joined by Susan Wenograd, Account Group Director at Aimclear, who brings her insights on the changes that are coming in 2019 and how ecommerce business owners and marketers need to start thinking differently about their paid social strategies.

Susan talks about how paid media is moving from a direct response channel to an integrated one, the impact this has as content and budgets are split into increasingly smaller parts, what to do when you start seeing a decreasing ROAS on Facebook, and the role brand awareness plays in all of this.

If you’re investing in paid media, you will not want to miss this episode. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

8:50 How the marketing landscape changed in 2018, especially with paid social, and what ecommerce business owners and marketers need to be aware of moving into 2019.
11:34 As paid media becomes more of an integrated channel rather than direct ROAS, you’re going to have to think differently about your messaging.
12:55 The consequences creating snack-sized content has on your messaging and your ad spend.
15:58 What sets great agencies and practitioners apart, and what to look for if you’re hiring.
17:54 Multi-touch attribution: what it is and how to start measuring it.
21:58 Common multi-touch models and their upsides and downsides.
24:17 The cross-channel trick to increase the click-through-rate of Facebook ads.
26:04 How to adjust your cross-channel SEM tactics depending on your budget.
28:08 Why it’s important to integrate a brand awareness strategy into your funnel and where to do it.
34:24 The types of interactions Susan sees on ads with general brand messaging vs. on ads that are pushing a sale.
36:07 Susan’s tips for managing your marketing spend this year, and your expectations.
40:51 Where content marketing fits for ecommerce businesses.

Links And Resources:

Become a Member:

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: Shoelace

Sponsor: Klaviyo

Direct download: EI_181_Susan_Wenograd.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

Tue, 8 January 2019

180: How To Set Goals That Will Leave You More Fulfilled

In 2018, I radically changed my approach to setting goals and running my business. As we enter a New Year, I wanted to put together an episode focused on how to set goals that will leave you more fulfilled.

Instead of setting massive goals, I ask myself simple questions and make strategic changes to my business and life based on my answers. Those strategic changes led to more profit, less stress, and more personal freedom.

In this episode, both Andrew and I share a glimpse into our businesses and our personal plans for 2019. We also offer you some straightforward questions you can use to help you set more fulfilling goals in 2019. This episode will give you a head start for 2019. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

2:09 How Austin is approaching 2019.
4:16 The reason Austin wants to discuss goal setting and the impact it made last year.
5:24 2 questions Austin is asking himself right now.
8:05 Andrew shares a crazy story about a client who sold his business accidentally.
10:14 Other questions Austin is asking himself for 2019.
12:05 Andrew's most important framework for this year.
12:23 Distinction between growth in the business vs growth in your profit.
13:02 The focus Austin has on working forever.
14:18 Andrew's framework that he wants to do this year.
15:48 What going all-in would mean and examples of it.
17:50 How to go about building a portfolio business.
20:48 How the cash-flow grow strategy work.
23:05 Main focus of a cash flow grow strategy.
23:41 Why Austin used cash flow grow strategy from the previous year.
26:53 Things Austin had seen over the last year that made a big impact on businesses.
28:48 Tips on a better lifestyle free from stress this 2019.

Links and Resources:

Become a Member:

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.

Direct download: EI_180_Setting_Goals.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

Tue, 1 January 2019

179: Making A Comeback After The Google Medic Update

The Google Medic update a few months ago caused a big upset for many people in the ecommerce space.

Our guest today, Nat Eliason, is an expert in content marketing and SEO, and he shares his insights into what happened, the outcome, and why he thinks Google is smart for the changes they’ve made, even those some of his own clients were impacted.

Nat joins us on the podcast for the second time and you won’t want to miss his discussion about why solid, well-written content is still the best way to drive traffic to your site and his recommendations for the best tools for auditing your site and improving SEO.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

4:44 Why Nat practices intermittent fasting.
7:36 How Growth Machine has grown over the last year since Nat’s first time on the Ecommerce Influence podcast.
11:10 Why creating awesome content is still the best way to drive traffic to your site.
14:21 Nat explains why it’s better to be paying a bit more for better writers and better content.
15:30 How the 80/20 rule applies differently when it comes to writing a creative article.
18:30 Google Medic update: what it is and its effect on different sites.
21:37 Nat’s hypothesis about why some health sites were hurt by the Medic update more than others.
25:06 Recommendations for those that have been hurt by the Medic update.
26:36 Why creating a second blog might be a good strategy to try to increase your results on Google.
30:08 Why Nat says Google was smart to make the update.
31:17 Nat’s favorite tools for site auditing.
32:51 The main things to look for in your site audit results.
33:46 Other tools Nat recommends.
35:23 “No More Struggle Porn” – how Nat’s article originated, why he took a stance on idolizing the obsession with working hard, and how it reached more than 350,000 views.
42:21 The reality of what it actually looks like to be an entrepreneur.
44:16 Realizing that working harder and struggling can be a false sense of progress in your business.
49:40 The importance of creating space for play within the business lifestyle.
51:42 The books that had the biggest impact on Nat this year.

Links And Resource

Become a Member:

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: Klaviyo

Also, as you’re going through this, they’re going to show you how to prepare the business to continue to take it to the next level segment and grow and use it to use Klaviyo to drive more profitable interactions. If you want to go check out this docu-series, go to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/beyond.

Direct download: EI_179_Nat_Eliason.mp3
Category:podcast -- posted at: 3:00am CDT