If Steve Jobs' favorite book was written by the thought leader for this way of thinking, then you may want to eliminate your buyer persona and replace it with the jobs to be done framework.

In an our efforts to provide more insight into creating buyer personas for ecommerce websites, we stumbled on to an interesting couple of posts that argue that buyer personas may no longer be relevant to your business and that the jobs to be done framework (aka JTBD) might suit you better.

According to one of the most prominent "jobs to be done framework" thought leaders, Clay Christensen (author of one of Steve Jobs' top books), the framework is:

"a tool for evaluating the circumstances that arise in customers’ lives. Customers rarely make buying decisions around what the “average” customer in their category may do — but they often buy things because they find themselves with a problem they would like to solve. With an understanding of the “job” for which customers find themselves “hiring” a product or service, companies can more accurately develop and market products well-tailored to what customers are already trying to do."

More simply put, the jobs-to-be-done framework helps identify customer attitudes and characteristics by framing purchasing decisions as a choice to “hire” a product or service to do a "job" versus making assumptions about customers through buyer personas.

One of the most fascinating topics we've come across in a while, and in this episode we try to break it down while also tempting you to eliminate your buyer persona and replace it with the jobs to be done framework.  

Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview

• Why buyer personas don't work
• How stumbling onto this topic might completely change our own business
• Being able to distinguish between a buyer persona and a JTBD framework
• Real world examples of JTBD in action
• Getting started with creating your own framework

Links / Resources:

• The Christensen Institute's Definition of JTBD & Website
• Jobs To Be Done Framework Article by Christensen in MIT Online Publication 
• Fill In The Blank Statements To Distinguish Between Persona & JTBD 
• Innovators Tool Kit Break Down 
• Medium's Database of JTBD Articles

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Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!  

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Justin Winter grew his company to $20 million in 36 months through a few different ecommerce growth channels, and yet he still has one big regret.

He is the Co-founder & CEO at Diamond Candles, a bootstrapped, vertically integrated online home fragrance brand that hit a $12 million run rate in 18 months and is now well on it’s way to $20million in 36 months.

Diamond Candles was also recognized by InternetRetailer.com in 2013 as one of the 'Hot 100', which profiles select e-commerce sites that have broken new ground in some way other e-retailers can learn from.

Justin is an expert in marketing, business and product development, social media marketing, SEO, and growth hacking. He’s regularly featured in magazines like Inc Magazine, in top business forums like GrowthHacker.tv, and on top podcasts like Mixergy (and this one!).

Justin shares how he was able to achieve such massive growth with a modest initial investment and almost no paid advertising, and he’ll give us some strategies on how you can do it, too.

Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview

• Why you need to be a specialist.
• Creating exclusivity to generate more sales.
• Optimizing your systems for $10 million+ growth.
• The three ecommerce growth channels he used to hit $20 million.
• His referral marketing campaigns.
• Direct to consumer offline sales training to generate online sales.
• His number one piece of advice for getting to $10 million+.

Links / Resources

• Justin Winter Personal Site (iamjustinwinter.com)
• Justin's Clarity.fm Page
• Sean Ellis Episode
• Klaviyo
• Bounce Exchange
• Curebit (Now Talkable)
• Blue Apron

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Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!  

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The most successful ecommerce companies know how to retain their most profitable customers, and in this episode we give you the steps to create a best customer retention marketing plan for ecommerce.

We touched on this topic briefly in "Why Email Marketing Fails", and we felt that this topic deserved it's own episode because, according to Harvard Business Review, a 5% increase in customer retention or loyalty can boost profits by 25%-85%.

And out of the top 4 reasons customers never return to give you repeat business, number two is that they don't feel special, important, or valued.

We’re not playing tee ball anymore, so not everyone deserves an equal chance to feel valued and important, and not everyone deserves to receive the same special opportunity provided to others.

You need to create a best customer retention marketing plan for your ecommerce store and for your most profitable customers, and in this episode we'll give you the steps you need to take to start implementing today.

Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview

• Some shocking statistics we found in one of our client's customer database
• The 3 main steps to creating a best customer retention marketing plan for ecommerce
• How to segment and analyze the customer data
• Best customer retention marketing ideas to implement now

Links / Resources

• Episode 024 - Why Email Marketing Fails
• Customer Segmentation Template

Subscribe & Review

To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available, you can easily subscribe by clicking here.

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!  

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Alex Ikonn is the founder of Luxy Hair, a 7-figure ecommerce business that was built entirely through YouTube Marketing, making them one of Shopify’s Top 10 eCommerce Stores by Revenue in 2011 and 2012.

Luxy Hair is a customer-centric hair extensions ecommerce retailer. The business was born when his wife Mimi was looking for hair extensions for their wedding, but wasn’t able to find what she was looking for. When they realized how hard it was to find good hair extensions, they knew they had stumbled on to a business opportunity.

Alex and Mimi put up $20k, mostly on credit, to get their first supply and they haven’t looked back, posting 7-figure PROFITS annually.

In addition to Luxy Hair, Alex is the co-founder of Dreamers & Creators, a marketing strategy and execution firm for the entrepreneurial enterprise, and he’s a co-founder at Intelligent Change, where they make cool products that make people happier.

In this episode Alex chats with us about his incredibly successful ecommerce YouTube profit formula.  It's a step by step process that really clarifies how to create extremely successful content marketing.

Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview:

• The 4 steps in his ecommerce YouTube profit formula
• How to sell to customers using video...without selling in your videos
• Finding the balance between bad and over-produced video quality
• Understanding your limitations in ecommerce and when it's time to bring someone else on to take you to the next level
• His recommendations for other acquisition channels
• The number one piece of advice he can give for ecommerce CEOs trying to get to $10mil+

Links / Resources:

• LuxyHair.com
• LuxyHair's YouTube Channel
• Alex Ikonn's Personal Website
• Alex's Personal Email hello [@] alexikonn.com
• Back Pocket COO by Cameron Harold

Subscribe & Review

To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available, you can easily subscribe by clicking here.

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers, Austin & Chad!  

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If you want to sell more products online, then you'll need to make your ecommerce copywriting sell to your prospects.

Ecommerce companies tend to think that because they only have to sit behind a screen, drive traffic, capture leads, and sell cool products they don't have to put in the extra time and effort into writing great, persuasive website copy and product descriptions that actually try to sell the customer.

According to KISSmetrics, quality ecommerce copywriting and product descriptions can increase ecommerce conversion rates anywhere from 30-100%.

More often than not, though, we see websites and product descriptions that provide only product specifications like size, weight, and inseam. We see descriptions that lack personality and storytelling, and worse yet, they pull the product descriptions straight from the manufacturer's website and use that for their copy.

The good news is, you don't have to hire someone to write for you. In this episode we'll cover the 8 techniques you can implement on your own today to make your ecommerce copywriting sell.  

Topics Discussed throughout the interview

• A quick follow up on last week's episode, "The 3 Types of Buyers"
• When you’ve written the headline you’ve spent 80 cents out of your dollar
• The 4 "do nots" in ecommerce copywriting
• The 4 "do's" to to make your ecommerce copywriting sell
• One of the greatest product descriptions ever created...we promise you'll want to buy a pair without even looking at them.

Links / Resources

• Amazing Pants Description
• Last Week's Epi - "The 3 Types of Buyers"

Subscribe & Review

To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available, you can easily subscribe by clicking here.

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!  

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Statistics show that website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product on an ecommerce site after watching an online video, and if you don't currently use video to acquire more ecommerce customers then you're going to be left behind.

James Wedmore is one of the top video marketing experts in the business and is the founder of Video Traffic Academy: an online YouTube Marketing Training Program that has enrolled over 10,000 business owners and entrepreneurs all over the country.

He has been featured on numerous sites such as Entrepreneur.com, Rise to the Top, Mixergy and many more. He has been the Guest Instructor on 3 CreativeLIVE Workshops, and today, he hosts James Wedmore TV, his YouTube Channel that’s been viewed over 2.5 Million times.

His mission is simple: show business owners how to create and execute effective video marketing campaigns without spending a lot of time or money. Today he’s going to tell us how to use video to acquire more ecommerce customers for your business.

Topics Discussed throughout the interview:

• Two types of video for ecommerce.
• 4 key components of a great video for ecommerce.
• Why you should care about the first 5 seconds more than anything else and what you might be missing at the end of your video.
• The answer to your biggest question(s) about building a viral video.
• The easiest ways to get started with video.
• How to use video to build an ecommerce brand that competes with Amazon.

Links & Resources:

• James' YouTube Channel
• Bellroy Wallets
• Yolanda Sotolopez YouTube Channel (one of James' clients)
• James' Video Traffic Academy
• LiveWell360.com

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Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!  

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In this Strategy Session we'll be talking about buyer psychology, the three types of buyers, and how to sell to them.

Here are the three main types of buyers identified by neuroeconomics experts:

15% - Spendthrifts

24% - Tightwads

61% - Average Spenders

The psychology behind each type is fascinating, and understanding each one's "buying mindset" will help you get closer to your customers, speak their language, and make more sales.

40% of people fall into wildly “irrational” categories, i.e. the spendthrifts and tightwads, which also means you're potentially missing out on a lot of sales because most ecommerce sites focus on selling to the average buyer.

Understanding these three types of buyers and how to sell to them, along with a few tweaks to your site and copy, you'll be able to capitalize on many more sales that might have otherwise been lost.

In this episode we break it all down for you so you can begin recapturing those buyers today.  

Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview

• Breaking down the three types of buyers and how to sell to them.
• Why evaluating what buyer you are can help you sell better on your website.
• When to use negative emotion messaging vs positive.
• How Dave Munson at Saddleback Leather redesigned his website for analytical buyers and the results he achieved.
• When should focus 100% on one buyer personality vs generalizing.

Links & Resources

• 3 Types of Buyers - Neuro Marketing
• Tightwads and Spendthrifts
• 10 Ways to Convert More Customers Using Psychology 
• Episode 19 with Dave Munson

Subscribe & Review

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Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!  

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Matt Bailey is an online business strategy consultant with a significant amount of experience, expertise and success when it comes ecommerce site navigation optimization.

His knowledge in online business ranges far and wide and he has taught Google employees to understand Google Analytics, consulted with Experian on how to present data and presented online marketing training to both Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson, successfully dismantling the complexity of online marketing into practical, understandable concepts for everyone.

He has 20 years of online marketing experience and has consulted with companies like Google, Hilton International, Gerber Life, Experian, Disney, American Greetings, Toys R Us, and more many more.

Matt also has a passion for education and developing online marketing professionals which he does through his teaching at Market Motive, withLynda.com, as adjunct faculty at Rutgers University, and even through his book Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day.

Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview

• Why and how to purposefully plan your ecommerce site navigation structure for most success - it includes Sales Training
• The thinking that get’s you to 7 figures is not the thinking that gets you to 8 figures.
• The strategy Matt uses to bring on new hires and get them to think about the job with the right perspective.
• Mixpanel vs Google vs Kissmetrics breakdown and recommendation - The answer isn't what you'd expect
• The most profit for dollar, but most underutilized, ecommerce marketing channel
• Getting B-level customers to become A-level customers
• A breakdown of the best email marketing strategy

Links/Resources:

Matt Bailey

Site Logic

AT Internet

Avinash's most important free reports for Google Analtycs  

Thank You For Listening & A Simple Request

To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available, you can subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher!

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!  

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Finding and implementing the most profitable strategies to reduce abandoned carts is a recurring theme in our daily discussions.

We're always talking about it because everyone deals with it and there is a lot of misunderstanding about it. It’s also one of the most profitable places to spend your time working, so here's a quick episode on the 5 most proven (and profitable) tips to help you reduce abandoned carts.

Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview:

• Determining your real abandonment.
• Your abandoned cart email really isn’t good enough.
• How to correctly set up your Google analytics for setting goals.
• Focusing in on the welcome page.
• Using phone numbers to reduce abandoned carts.
• Testing the multi-step checkout.
• Do you really need a "view cart" page?

Links & Resources

-Reduce Abandoned Carts With Amy Africa  

Thank You For Listening & A Simple Request

To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available, you can subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher!

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!  

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn