It’s not always easy to maintain high-quality standards, especially when you want to sell organic, sustainable, and made-in-the-USA products.

Costs get high and sometimes that means concessions have to be made.

But sticking to your guns can lead to major payoff, especially when your customers have your back.

Today we chat with Jen and Kevin Long of Noble Carriage, who share the amazing story of how they built their dream company selling organic and sustainable baby clothes.

They share how they built and nurtured a supportive community, how this community helped them in the creation and launch of their own products, their challenging product sourcing journey, and how they’ve stood by their strict sustainability standards along the way.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 3:23 A game changer quick win tip on A/B testing.
• 8:35 How the search for safe and sustainable baby clothes led to the creation of Noble Carriage.
• 10:26 How Noble Carriage engages with its online community of moms in a way that provides support and establishes trust.
• 15:05 The importance of slowing down and examining your profit margins when evaluating your business and your ability to scale. 
• 18:39 What Jen and Kevin would have done differently in the growth of their business and why it’s so important not to get stuck living in the grind.
• 21:26 One of Kevin’s big lessons: If you’re going to fail, fail fast.
• 23:04 The value of understanding their audience before creating and launching their own products.
• 26:59 The challenging journey of sourcing organic and sustainable baby clothes.
• 31:09 The role of Noble Carriage’s community in their successful product development and launch.
• 33:08 How Noble Carriage marketed their new product across multiple channels. 
• 35:03 What’s working with email for Noble Carriage.
• 37:17 Jen’s plans for expanding their ambassador program.
• 40:51 Some exciting new Noble Carriage products coming later this year to Noble Carriage that people must watch out for and when these will be released.

Links and Resources:

• Noble Carriage
• Noble Carriage on Instagram: @noblecarriage
• 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]
• Ecommerce Profit Summit (formerly the Brand Growth Experts Intensive)
• Foxwell Digital
• Brand Growth Experts

Join the Coalition

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, I have something really exciting for you. For the last year and a half I’ve been coaching business owners and marketers inside a group called The Coalition. What launched as an experiment became a game changer for our over 150 members.

If you’d like me and my team of expert marketers and ecommerce operators to coach you on your journey to scaling up your ecommerce business, this is your opportunity. We go in-depth on all the topics we talk about on this podcast and provide actionable training every single month. You’ll also get one-on-one coaching from me to help you grow your business.

Head over to JointheCoalition.com to learn more. Can’t wait to see you inside.

Quizzes are powerful tools used by some of the most successful companies I work with.

They can help you capture more emails, display personalized product recommendations to your customers, and increase your conversion rate. In today's episode, I'll share my tips on what companies can see the biggest gains from a quiz, who is killing it right now with their quiz funnels, and how you can build one for your business today.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 5:46 Why the most successful companies Austin works with use quiz funnels.
• 6:47 The company or product type that’s a perfect fit for a quiz funnel.
• 8:13 If you have a lot of organic traffic, here’s an example of how a quiz funnel can turn visitors into subscribers.
• 10:44 The companies quiz funnels don't necessarily work well for.
• 12:51 Two examples of companies that are successfully using a quiz funnel.
• 15:31 What sets successful quizzes apart.
• 16:17 Figuring out the right questions to ask.
• 19:10 How to create your first quiz.
• 21:31 Austin’s recommended quiz building tools.

Links and Resources:

• Typeform
• Klaviyo
• Annemarie Gianni Quiz
• Annmarie Gianni thank you page
• Beardbrand
• The Ecommerce Marketing Quiz
• 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: Brex

Most online brands will tell you their biggest challenge is cash flow, right? Usually, you’re paying an arm and a leg on interest and fees to finance your inventory and seasonality.

Brex is the only corporate credit card built specifically with the needs of ecommerce business in mind, with crazy-good terms: Net 60 float, with no personal guarantee. Your card limit’s based on your monthly sales, not your credit score—and, oh yeah, there’s absolutely no interest and no fees. Whatever you spend on day 1, you have a whole 60 days to pay back. What you spend on day 2, you have another 60 days to pay, or day 61. Brex’s whole goal is to shrink that window between you paying for shipping or inventory and the revenue that’s going to generate, so you can keep growing. Brex is really built for ecommerce—it’s amazing. Right now, Brex is in the US only, so if that’s you, sign up with the code “influence” and a $250 credit will be added to your account and Brex will waive your card fees for life.

Got to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/brex to sign up.

Have you stopped to consider the next step in your entrepreneurial journey?

Perhaps you own a six or seven figure business now, but where will you be in 10 years? Will you still be living in the grind? Or are your sights set on acquiring companies and building a portfolio?

Today’s guest has done it all. He’s built his own business, was the CMO of Karmaloop, worked as a consultant, and now is the CEO of AutoAnything (just one of the businesses in his current portfolio). Drew Sanocki is back to talk about this journey and his recent entry into the acquisition side of ecommerce.

Drew will share his insights on buying businesses, establishing company culture, hiring the right team, and why these days he’s more focused on creating alignment than hustling.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 2:53 A quick win with Facebook’s new cost cap bidding.
• 9:55 The perspective Drew gained from a trip around the world and how it led him to think like a billionaire by focusing on acquiring assets rather than hustling.
• 13:14 How Drew made his first acquisition.
• 16:39 Drew's journey from Chairman of the Board to becoming CEO of AutoAnything.
• 18:50 What it's like to run a $100 million dropshipping company.
• 20:09 Comparing life as the CMO of Karmaloop vs. the CEO of AutoAnything.
• 23:29 The importance of making the right hires if you want to be a successful CEO.
• 25:28 Drew’s approach to building a strong company culture.
• 28:58 The impact of a company’s size on its culture.
• 32:17 How long it took Drew to make cultural changes once he took over as CEO.
• 34:36 Drew’s ebb and flow between lifestyle businesses and managing a company at a larger scale.
• 37:59 A lesson in the importance of thinking like a billionaire.
• 40:01 What you need to know now in order to succeed as an investor in the future, and how to use your current skill set to your advantage.
• 48:25 How Drew made the decision to make a change in his professional life.
• 51:05 The importance of rest, setting boundaries, and work-life balance.
• 53:57 How being starved for resources helps you to prioritize.
• 54:59 OKRs: What are they and how they’ve helped create alignment and focus within Drew’s business.
• 58:15 Why Drew is fired up about direct mail in 2019.
• 1:00:12 How Drew manages to run three companies at once.

Links and Resources:

• Netflix Culture Deck
• AutoAnything
• PostPilot
• GoSimple
• Nerd Marketing
• Book: Powerful by Patty McCord
• Book: Measure What Matters by John Doerr
• Book: Deep Work by Cal Newport
• Drew on Instagram: @drewsanocki
• Episode 183: How To Manage Your Time Strategically While Growing Your Business
• Episode 116: 4 Profitable Email Strategies You Can Swipe For Your Brand
• Cost Cap Facebook Bidding
• Klaviyo
• Ecommerce Profit Summit (formerly the Brand Growth Experts Intensive)
• Foxwell Digital
• Brand Growth Experts
• Review or subscribe on iTunes

Join The Coalition

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, I have something really exciting for you. For the last year and a half I’ve been coaching business owners and marketers inside a group called The Coalition. What launched as an experiment became a game changer for our over 150 members. 

If you’d like me and my team of expert marketers and ecommerce operators to coach you on your journey to scaling up your ecommerce business, this is your opportunity. We go in-depth on all the topics we talk about on this podcast and provide actionable training every single month. You’ll also get one-on-one coaching from me to help you grow your business. 

Head over to JointheCoalition.com to learn more. Can’t wait to see you 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 you talk about scaling up in ecommerce, Facebook ads are often the first thing on most business owners’ lists.

Today Andrew shares the exact steps he followed to help a client scale from $500/day to $15,000/day in ad spend in 30 days. He talks about what you need to do before you start scaling and the steps to follow as you grow.

If you’re ready to dive deep into the weeds of your Facebook ad account, build new audiences, test new placements, and explore bidding options, this episode is for you.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• 3:22 Words of caution when you hear someone say there’s only one way to do something.
• 9:20 How to establish your baseline before you start scaling up your Facebook ads.
• 11:31 Preparing to address the creative gap as you scale.
• 13:32 What’s worked for Andrew when it comes to images on Facebook and Instagram.
• 15:50 Building your arsenal of audiences: what to test as your ads scale.
• 17:45 Andrew's thoughts on how Facebook creates value-based lookalike audiences and potential audience overlap.
• 20:42 The definition of horizontal scaling.
• 21:05 The importance of testing different audiences to find the one that works best.
• 23:55 How to set up an interest CBO with help from Google Analytics.
• 25:25 Setting up your remarketing audiences as you scale.
• 28:09 The most valuable thing that worked for Andrew’s client: top of the funnel Instagram stories.
• 30:15 Andrew's process for setting up your Facebook and Instagram placements.
• 32:00 How to bid effectively as you scale.
• 35:10 How to approach ad account monitoring so you don’t kill your own progress.
• 36:43 Campaigns with CBO vs. other campaigns: when to use it and when you might not want to.
• 30:07 Austin shares his experience in running a campaign CBO as an experiment.

Links and Resources:

• Episode 198: How To Create Winning Content On Facebook And Instagram
• Episode 191: How An Artist And Engineer Turned Business Owners Built A “Cult”
• Episode 146: Why Your Ads Get More Expensive As You Scale (And What To Do About It)
• 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.