The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

This Week We’re Bringing You A Throwback To One Of Our Most Popular Episodes Of All Time.

In May 2018 we interviewed Jake Kassan about what it really takes to build a $100 million business. This episode has been incredibly popular, and it still extremely relevant today.

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 talks 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.

Enjoy!

Episode Highlights

  • 9:05 How building relationships with customers through direct sales online helped MVMT scale.
  • 12:04 The best success comes in stages and this is what each stage of growth has looked like for MVMT over the last 5 years.
  • 13:12 Jake’s #1 tip for successfully scaling a business (hint: it’s not email or Facebook ads).
  • 15:07 What MVMT would do differently if they had to do it all over again.
  • 19:05 As an entrepreneur, Jake believes it’s important to always be testing and working through those results to find success.
  • 21:13 The basic math MVMT used to scale in the beginning and how they look at “spending-money-to-make-money” now.
  • 24:18 Where MVMT is testing for acquisition and where they’re seeing success.
  • 28:28 What you need to know when growing your team so you can successfully scale your business.
  • 32:15 How MVMT solidified their appeal with customers through user-generated content.
  • 35:09 What Jake loves most about building a lifestyle brand.
  • 38:11 Every business goes through low times, here’s a few MVMT went through in order to grow.
  • 43:09 Why Jake feels it’s so important to network with and learn from other founders.

Links And Resources:

Direct download: EI_258_TBT_Jake_Kassan.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

Most companies add a second product line when they want to grow. This week’s guest decided to build a second brand instead.

Ashley Merrill founded women’s sleepwear line Lunya in 2014 because she was tired of wearing her husband’s clothes around the house. Five years later, she decided to expand into menswear, but just adding a men’s line didn’t sit right with her.

Tune in to find out why Ashley decided to start a second brand, how she grew her company from a startup to an established business, and lessons she’s learned about building a team.

Episode Highlights: 

  • 5:16 How an ambition to solve a problem resulted in launching Lunya
  • 8:00 How business has evolved since its unconventional 2014 launch
  • 10:42 Why having major funding in the beginning isn’t always best, and the spending that eventually moved the needle for Lunya
  • 13:05 The value of identifying your brand muse.
  • 15:28 One company value that’s contributed to Lunya’s success
  • 16:30 Hiring lessons learned growing from a start-up into an established business
  • 21:00 How Lahgo started and why Ashley built a second brand, rather than simply adding the men’s line to Lunya
  • 25:44 The biggest trap entrepreneurs can get stuck in
  • 28:48 The High 5 Test and the lessons Ashley learned from getting her MBA
  • 33:20 How non-traditional methods of getting in front of people help the brand
  • 39:36 Ashley’s key piece of advice for business owners

Links and Resources: 

Direct download: EI_257_AshleyMerrill.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

One of the most challenging parts of growing a business is acquiring valuable customers who will purchase from you regularly. 

Part 3 of our Profit Series gets into the nitty-gritty details of how to increase customer lifetime value. We dive straight into customer-centric versus product-centric businesses and talk about different ways to acquire more high-value customers and share proven tactics that will help you increase customer lifetime value.

Episode Highlights: 

  • 3:36 The first strategic decision you must make when thinking about customer lifetime value
  • 6:38 The best lever to focus on to increase customer lifetime value
  • 8:03 The revolutionary changes with Facebook advertising that help you reach your best customers
  • 10:05 The importance of product and service offerings that tailor to high-value customers 
  • 11:49 Are loyalty programs a good way to increase customer lifetime value?
  • 13:20 The strategy that led Best Buy to boom while their competitors got wiped out
  • 15:15 The value of subscriptions and talking to your best customers
  • 17:58 How to build a solid referral strategy
  • 20:10 Additional tactics to increase customer lifetime value

Links and Resources: 

Direct download: EI_256_Profit_Series_Part_3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

Is it possible to build a large, successful business with close to $40 million in revenue without using any paid social?

Our guest, Nate Lipton of GrowersHouse, shows us how it can be done. And, in addition to not using paid ads, he’s been able to get his customer acquisition costs to zero.

Nate shares the different approach to marketing that has helped him build several incredibly successful companies in the cannabis and hemp industries. He talks about exactly how you can use YouTube to establish yourself as a trusted brand and drive ad-free sales. 

If you're looking for some refreshing ideas for how you can drive more revenue, this is a great episode to jog your imagination about what's possible.

Episode Highlights: 

  • 5:54 Nate’s involvement in the cannabis and hemp industries via multiple different businesses
  • 9:44 Fixing a gap in the cannabis industry: the creation of the Grower’s Network
  • 12:18 The YouTube channel that lifted the veil on growing operations
  • 16:37 How Nate got started in ecommerce and his number one piece of advice for beginners 
  • 20:28 What Nate would do differently if he were building his website today
  • 22:31 The future role of video in ecommerce and common YouTube misconceptions
  • 24:58 Using video to provide clarity around what a product actually does
  • 30:42 One factor that will help you win more customers in the long term
  • 32:37 How connecting with your competitors and being radically transparent can benefit your business in a major way
  • 35:40 Other non-traditional advertising channels that Nate’s using that have resulted in zero customer acquisition costs
  • 41:05 The questions you need to ask yourself to reframe your approach to acquiring customers
  • 45:37 What you can do right now to increase your revenue

Links and Resources: 

Direct download: EI_255_Nate.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

One of the top ways to accelerate your growth on the path to profitability is to increase average order value.

In Part 2 of our Profit Series, we’re diving into successful strategies and tactics you can use to increase your average order value. 

From simple changes with pricing to on-site additions to optimizing your Facebook targeting, we share the exact tactics our top clients are using to increase average order value and how these tactics support the big picture strategy toward profitable growth.

Episode Highlights: 

  • 4:27 The 80/20 Rule and how it should impact your overall business strategy
  • 8:41 The first thing to do if you want to increase average order value
  • 10:30 Successful approaches to bundling products
  • 13:02 How to use dynamic product ads to increase average order value
  • 16:28 A tactic Kettle & Fire is using on their website collections page to boost sales
  • 18:10 Why your best type of customers are the key for increasing average order value 
  • 20:34 The difference between upsells and cross-sells and how to determine which is best for your brand
  • 23:57 The value of delivering relevant products at the point of checkout
  • 26:19 How upsells can have a huge impact on average order value and why you don’t have to overcomplicate the offer
  • 29:00 A few additional unique ways to increase average order value

Links and Resources: 

Direct download: EI_254_Profit_Part_2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am CDT

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