Advertising plays a big role in any ecommerce strategy. So what do you do if your brand is banned from advertising on Facebook, Google, and Amazon?

That’s the challenge faced by Chad Lio, Director of Marketing for Veritas Farms, a company that sells CBD. While not technically regulated by the FDA, there are still many limitations when it comes to advertising CBD.

Today Chad joins us to talk about Veritas Farms’ multifaceted marketing approach, and how they successfully drive sales, despite being banned from some of the top ad platforms. He’ll share what’s working for them with influencer marketing, media buying, SEO, and more, and the critical role research plays across their entire strategy.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 4:48 Chad’s experience in digital marketing and ecommerce.
• 6:12 Multifaceted marketing: what it means to be the Director of Marketing for a company that sells both online and in retail brick and mortar.
• 8:02 Navigating the wild, wild west of selling CBD.
• 12:10 The detailed process Chad and his team follow to find the right influencers.
• 15:32 The importance of doing your research, especially when it comes to SEO.
• 19:15 Content Marketing: deciding what channel you want to go after first.
• 22:15 Chad’s #1 piece of advice for content marketing in ecommerce.
• 25:10 How Veritas Farms uses the 80/20 rule in their content marketing strategy and the role media buying plays for them.
• 27:54 What to look for when seeking publishers for your sponsored content.
• 29:57 The marketing strategy that's most effective for Veritas Farms.
• 31:47 Questions to ask before you start focusing on conversion rate optimization.
• 35:35 The email sequence that’s most successful for Veritas Farms, and a new Klaviyo feature you won’t want to miss.
• 37:50 Veritas Farms lead generation strategy and the importance of segmenting your email list.
• 41:35 Why research is a critical component if you want to successfully scale up.

Links and Resources:

• Veritas Farms
• Episode 129: Content Marketing – What You Need To Know With Nat Eliason
• Hotjar
• Visual Website Optimizer
• Crazy Egg
• Klaviyo
• Chad on Instagram: thechadlio
• Chad on Twitter: @thechadlio
• Chad on LinkedIn
• Foxwell Digital
• Brand Growth Experts
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Become a Member:

If you've been a podcast listener for a while and you've yet to join the Brand Growth Experts Membership, now is the time to do it. It’s my online coaching community, and it’s an incredible resource for you. We've got about 120 members, all ecommerce business owners and marketers. And in that community, I work with you one on one to help scale up your business.

That could be scaling up advertising, hiring a team, or diving into marketing strategy. We go really in depth every single month on topics that we also talk about on the podcast. So, if you've enjoyed the podcast, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership. Head over to brandgrowthexperts.com for more information. Can't wait to see you guys on the inside

Sponsor: Klaviyo

If you’re looking to grow your business, there’s only one way. By building real, quality customer relationships. Most marketing software will claim that they do this, but they’ll never deliver on those promises. Klaviyo, though, is different. Klaviyo helps you build meaningful customer relationships by listening to and understanding cues from your customers, which allows you to easily turn that information into valuable marketing messages that’ll help grow your business and make more money. That’s why over 10,000 innovative brands have switched to Klaviyo.

If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Sponsor: Shoelace

Shoelace helps fast-growing ecommerce stores build brand equity, increase conversions and grow revenue using Customer Journey Retargeting by showing the right ad to the right people at the right time.

Shoelace is excited to announce its all-new integration with Klaviyo. This integration lets you seamlessly synchronize your marketing activity across your email and retargeting channels. Boost your email campaigns by automatically retargeting email recipients across multiple channels. Increase campaign engagement by showing ads to recipients who didn’t open or click an individual campaign. Most importantly, drive growth by effortlessly retargeting all of your Klaviyo lists and segments with personalized messaging.

To find out more visit ecommerceinfluence.com/shoelace and supercharge your email campaigns today.

When I’m working with my private coaching clients our conversations inevitably end up focusing on how to become a more effective executive.

In today's episode, Andrew and I share four rules to follow that will help you make better decisions as an executive and run your business, team, or agency more effectively.

These rules include tracking and understanding your time, focusing on doing more of the right things, setting and reviewing your goals often, and asking yourself what the business needs from you. We'll also share how we've implemented these rules in our own businesses and how they've made us more effective.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 3:49 Rule #1: Respect and understand your time.
• 5:04 How to efficiently track your time and what to do when once you understand where you’re spending it.
• 6:56 How finding his “Zone of Genius” helped Andrew focus his time and better delegate tasks.
• 9:02 Rule #2: Do more of less.
• 11:12 The importance of setting aside uninterrupted time for high leverage projects.
• 12:29 Rule #3: Set the right goals and review them often.
• 14:14 The metrics you should be tracking to predict success (HINT: Revenue isn’t one of them).
• 16:06 Rule #4: Ask yourself what you can do to help the business.

Links and Resources:

• Episode 183: How To Manage Your Time Strategically While Growing Your Business
• Episode 084: (Part 1) The Art & Science Of Doing Twice As Much In Half The Time Using Scrum For Ecommerce
• Episode 085: (Part 2) The Art & Science Of Doing Twice As Much In Half The Time Using Scrum For Ecommerce
• Episode 086: (Part 3) The Art & Science Of Doing Twice As Much In Half The Time Using Scrum For Ecommerce
• Episode 149: The Art Of Doing Less But Better W/ Greg McKeown [Part 1]
• Episode 150: The Art Of Doing Less But Better W/ Greg McKeown [Part 2]
• Toggl
• Tracking Time
• Foxwell Digital
• Brand Growth Experts
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Become a Member:

If you've been a podcast listener for a while and you've yet to join the Brand Growth Experts Membership, now is the time to do it. It’s my online coaching community, and it’s an incredible resource for you. We've got about 120 members, all ecommerce business owners and marketers. And in that community, I work with you one on one to help scale up your business.

That could be scaling up advertising, hiring a team, or diving into marketing strategy. We go really in depth every single month on topics that we also talk about on the podcast. So, if you've enjoyed the podcast, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership. Head over to brandgrowthexperts.com for more information. Can't wait to see you guys on the inside.

Sponsor: Klaviyo

If you’re looking to grow your business, there’s only one way. By building real, quality customer relationships. Most marketing software will claim that they do this, but they’ll never deliver on those promises. Klaviyo, though, is different. Klaviyo helps you build meaningful customer relationships by listening to and understanding cues from your customers, which allows you to easily turn that information into valuable marketing messages that’ll help grow your business and make more money. That’s why over 10,000 innovative brands have switched to Klaviyo.

If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

JT Marino wanted to build a company that would disrupt an industry.

With Tuft & Needle he did just that, bootstrapping his way from nothing to the largest online mattress retailer in the world.

JT, co-founder of Tuft & Needle and now the Chief Strategy Officer for SSB Phoenix, joins us today to share his incredible story.

We talk about why customer-centricity was one of Tuft & Needle’s core principles from the beginning, and the role it played in their eventual merger with Serta Simmons. JT shares his thoughts on the importance, as a founder, of having an intimate understanding of how every aspect of your business works, and why they decided not to take any outside investments when they first started out.

This is one of my favorite founder interviews we’ve done and I hope you enjoy it!

Episode Highlights:

• 3:52 Introducing JT Marino
• 5:41 How the friendship and partnership started between the founders of Turf & Needle, JT and Daehee
• 10:07 How the Tuft & Needle co-founders maintain a strong friendship while running a business together
• 11:45 How JT’s prior experience with heavily-funded, but unsuccessful, Silicon Valley start-ups influenced Tuft & Needle’s decision to not take outside investments.
• 16:15 The importance of identifying “the problem” when you’re building a business, and how this led to the creation of Tuft & Needle
• 18:22 Some of the other principles the Tuft & Needle founders committed to before starting their business
• 20:05 How JT and Daehee used a problem-solution approach to determine whether they had product-market fit for Tuft & Needle
• 26:53 The benefits of being highly involved with and having an intimate understanding of every aspect of the business, from manufacturing to supply chain to marketing
• 29:57 How Tuft & Needle moved through the pit of sorrow and started to scale
• 34:06 How a Hacker News blog post contributed to explosive growth ofTuft & Needle
• 36:51 The importance of customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth to Tuft & Needle’s success, especially when they had a limited advertising budget
• 38:34 The various channels that helped grow the business over time
• 41:39 JT's approach to tracking attribution across a variety of channels
• 44:49 How Tuft & Needle developed advertising techniques and targeting that span across digital and non-digital
• 49:28 The unconventional reason Tuft & Needle started selling on Amazon
• 52:33 The Net Promoter Score target T&F set before making the decision to list on Amazon
• 55:04 JT’s advice if you’re considering selling on Amazon and the importance of looking at the market picture as you start to grow
• 58:29 The role customer-centricity played in Tuft & Needle’s decision to merge with Serta
• 1:05:40 The future of the mattress industry
• 1:08:42 JT shares his hobbies and what’s in store for him in the next year

Links and Resources:

• Tuft & Needle
• How to Get Startup Ideas by Paul Graham
• Blog: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
• Meet the Warby Parker of Mattresses
• JT on Twitter: @johnmarino
• JT@tn.com
• Foxwell Digital
• Brand Growth Experts

Become a Member:

If you've been a podcast listener for a while and you've yet to join the Brand Growth Experts Membership, now is the time to do it. It’s my online coaching community, and it’s an incredible resource for you. We've got about 120 members, all ecommerce business owners and marketers. And in that community, I work with you one on one to help scale up your business.

That could be scaling up advertising, hiring a team, or diving into marketing strategy. We go really in depth every single month on topics that we also talk about on the podcast. So, if you've enjoyed the podcast, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership. Head over to brandgrowthexperts.com for more information. Can't wait to see you guys on the inside.

Sponsor: Klaviyo

If you’re looking to grow your business, there’s only one way. By building real, quality customer relationships. Most marketing software will claim that they do this, but they’ll never deliver on those promises. Klaviyo, though, is different. Klaviyo helps you build meaningful customer relationships by listening to and understanding cues from your customers, which allows you to easily turn that information into valuable marketing messages that’ll help grow your business and make more money. That’s why over 10,000 innovative brands have switched to Klaviyo.

If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Most of the time when our clients get big wins they can be traced back to the quality of their content.

Big wins come from winning content, and today Andrew and I are going to discuss how to create that winning content for Facebook and Instagram ads. We’ll share the specific features your content must have if you want to stand out, and our top tips for creating winning imagery, video, and copy.

These principles apply not only to Facebook and Instagram, but can be integrated across your entire marketing funnel to help you in all aspects of your business.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 2:40 A tactic that helped one of Andrew’s clients see an 8X return during their spring launches
• 5:14 What’s working now with Facebook and Instagram advertising and the winning features your contents must have
• 6:30 The three fundamental things you must get across in your content: trust, previous customer experience, and quality
• 10:04 How to turn a Facebook ad into its own landing page with all the fundamentals included
• 12:02 When you’re creating imagery, ask yourself: How can I make this look real and represent what it actually looks like when someone’s using it?
• 12:57 Why user-generated content can provide you with the best imagery, and a company that’s killing it with their UGC content
• 14:49 Andrew's take on lifestyle imagery and making sure your product is at least 50% of any image
• 17:21 What you should consider when it comes to creating  video content, and why you might not want to do it at all
• 18:08 Types of video content that can work well
• 21:29 If you have a product that needs an explanation, then video may be a necessity for your advertising.
• 23:44 What makes good copy, including: ratings, your unique value propositions, a clear CTA, scarcity, and more
• 28:58 Austin's tips for how to get started with writing your winning content

Links and Resources:

• Book: Influence
• Grin
• Episode 184: Use These 20 Questions to Get Unstuck With Your Facebook Ads Part 1
• Andrew@foxwelldigital.com
• Foxwell Digital
• Brand Growth Experts
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Become a Member:

If you've been a podcast listener for a while and you've yet to join the Brand Growth Experts Membership, now is the time to do it. It’s my online coaching community, and it’s an incredible resource for you. We've got about 120 members, all ecommerce business owners and marketers. And in that community, I work with you one on one to help scale up your business.

That could be scaling up advertising, hiring a team, or diving into marketing strategy. We go really in depth every single month on topics that we also talk about on the podcast. So, if you've enjoyed the podcast, you're going to love the Brand Growth Experts Membership. Head over to brandgrowthexperts.com for more information. Can't wait to see you guys on the inside.

Sponsor: Klaviyo

If you’re looking to grow your business, there’s only one way. By building real, quality customer relationships. Most marketing software will claim that they do this, but they’ll never deliver on those promises. Klaviyo, though, is different. Klaviyo helps you build meaningful customer relationships by listening to and understanding cues from your customers, which allows you to easily turn that information into valuable marketing messages that’ll help grow your business and make more money. That’s why over 10,000 innovative brands have switched to Klaviyo.

If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding.

Sponsor: Katana

If you’re in the product making business, we have great news for you. There’s now a Shopify app built and designed for merchants that make their own products. You can manage your sales orders, raw materials, production schedule inventory and material purchasing from one single dashboard. The name of this app is Katana.

Katana is designed for makers, crafters and small manufacturers selling on Shopify. Until now, product makers selling in ecommerce had to settle with messy spreadsheets or regular inventory management software, which can be challenging if you make your own products. Katana is built from ground up with the needs of small manufacturers in mind. Production scheduling and inventory management has never been this easy for Shopify merchants.

For a free 14-day trial of Katana, go to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/katana. And, use the code “influence” when signing up to get 30% off from your first 3 months of a paid subscription.