The Ecommerce Influence Podcast: Advanced Acquisition And Retention Strategies For Fast-growing Online Brands

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.” – W. Edwards Deming Today we’re going to be continuing our 3 part series on email marketing for ecommerce. This episode is going to focus on maximizing profit through generating repeat sales.   If you haven’t listened to the first two episodes I’d recommend you start there. The Silent Power of Email Marketing Part 1: Generating Leads The Silent Power of Email Marketing Part 2: Activating Subscribers In this third episode, I’m going to be sharing 5 tips to help you gain more repeat customers. Key Takeaways from the Show Why you shouldn’t send an email until you determine what your ideal outcome is How to structure and build a win-back campaign What a VIP campaign can do for your bottom line How to cross sell your customers with complimentary products The power of an automated birthday campaign Subscribe & Review To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent direct

102: THE SILENT POWER OF EMAIL MARKETING PT. 2 Posted by Austin Brawner on January 9, 2016   Having a large email list is great. You know what’s even better? A large customer list. In this episode I’ll show you how. Today we’re going to be continuing our 3 part series on email marketing for ecommerce. If you haven’t listened to the first episode I’d recommend you start there. The Silent Power of Email Marketing Part 1: Generating Leads   This episode is going to focus on activating subscribers. If you haven’t listened to the first episode, I would rewind it back and start there. In this episode I’m going to give you 5 strategies to help you turn your subscribers into customers. Key Takeaways from the Show Why you should create a welcome sequence that is 100% different than what your customers get. How to set up an escalating sequence of emails to maximize the chance of a purchase. How to maximize sales by setting up trigger emails based on product views to increase propensity to buy. How to segment your

We're diving into email marketing this month, a topic that we all know we should focus on but rarely do. You might have seen this but we recently sent out a survey and this was by far what you all wanted to learn more about so we're going to do a short series talking all about this over the next weeks (make sure to join the email list to stay up to date). We'll talk about the 3 buckets of email marketing (prospects, subscribers, and customers) and how you should approach each segment. Can't figure out how to turn a prospect into a subscriber? We'll dive into it around the 8 minute mark. Learn the framework you can use to create an irresistible offer and then how to get that in front of people. One of the best ways is a pop up. We'll dive into the 4 different types of pop ups so you can figure out what is right for you. Key Takeaways from the Show The 3 buckets to focus on in email marketing. Ideas to better engage prospects. How to find your irresistible offer If you should use a pop up or not. 4 Different

We can talk about & analyze business all we want on this show, but at the end of the day the force of life is the drive for fulfillment; so start something that matters. This episode is a celebration of our 100th episode together and we thought it was a perfect time to discuss how we were able to find and start something that mattered deeply to us, and how you can, too. In this episode we open up about our process for finding and starting something that matters, the insights we've gained since our beginnings two years ago, and how this episode signifies major changes in the business and some smaller changes to this podcast. It's one of the more authentic episodes we've done and we think it'll be able to help you figure out how to start something that matters...or recalibrate what you're already doing to make it matter more. Thanks for joining us on episode 100! Key Takeaways from the Show The two spiritual needs that humans need satisfied for lifelong fulfillment How to find something that matters before

Whether you're an experienced ecommerce store owner, or just getting started, knowing how to choose the best ecommerce platform for your business is crucial to your success. When it comes to choosing a platform to build any business on, the best companies, like MVMT Watches, Heist, and Mizzen + Main, choose a platform based on what's best for them 5 years from now, not what's best today. And if you're looking to start, or grow, an ecommerce business then making sure you have the right platform for your growth will be one of the most important business decisions you'll make. Today's guest, Dylan Whitman of BVAccel, has been in the ecommerce space for 10+ years, which is like dinosaur years when it comes to ecommerce. And when you consider his client list of Red Bull, Daymond John from Shark Tank, MVMT Watches, Heist, Mizzen + Main and more, then you know it's smart to heed his advice. His past and present experiences with all types of ecommerce platforms will guide you in making the right decision for your bus

It's not everyday that you can get advice for growing your ecommece business from someone who has built and sold a $20MM per year store by the age of 22. But in this episode, that's exactly what we get. Mike Zhang is the original founder of Airsoft Megastore, an ecommerce site that was said to be generating $20MM in revenue per year at the time of it's sale in 2012. What started off as a small eBay project for Mike ended up turning into a full-fledged ecommerce business, one that has garnered him numerous entrepreneurial awards including Bloomberg 25 under 25 and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year finalist. He has a wealth of experience in ecommerce, and business in general, at the ripe old age of 25. In this episode he lays out some of his best advice for growing your ecommerce business to where you want it to go. Key Takeaways from the Show What it's like to get started in ecommerce at the age of 13 How he grew Airsoft Megastore to $20MM How to incorporate systems into your business to eliminate wa

Are you tired of the chasing down one-time transactions? Do you want more predictable revenue? Then a subscription ecommerce model might be what you need. Just because you sell sunglasses or messenger bags or some other kind of apparel doesn't mean a subscription ecommerce model won't work for your business. In fact, it's quite likely that it will work for you...once you make a small mindset shift. This is a special episode for us as it brings us back to our humble beginnings. Both of us planted our entrepreneurial roots and cut our marketing chops at Sean's company HUMAN Healthy Vending. Without this experience, we wouldn't have been able to successfully grow our business in the way that we have. It's amazing how things come full circle now as we chat with Sean about how they've been able to take their healthy snack delivery business and apply the subscription ecommerce model to be able to grow 10x in just 9 months. What's even more incredible is that they've taken an outbound sales team approach that you fi

How would it feel to go from working 14 hours per day 6 days a week to working 6 hours per day and not working Fridays? Working with a virtual staff can make that promised-land a reality. If a self-proclaimed "micro-managing, pain in the butt boss" can do it, then so can you. Virtual staffing is no longer considered a new concept thanks to Tim Ferriss's 2007 book "The Four-Hour Workweek", but knowing how to hire, train, and manage a fully functioning and efficient virtual staff seems like a new concept to many. Lucky for us, Chris Ducker, the virtual staffing expert, joins the show to talk about working with a virtual staff, the type of mindset you need to build a virtual team, how to determine what your staff should be doing, how to take your business to the next level with virtual staffing, and much more. Give it a listen and learn how you can go from 14 hour days to 6...and no Fridays. Key Takeaways from the Show   How to execute the "Three Lists to Freedom" exercise The one mindset shift you need to mak

You might not be the right type of person to start an ecommerce business from scratch, so maybe you should buy an ecommerce business instead. The amount of time, energy, money and sacrifice it takes to build a business from the ground up can be exhausting (we know first hand), so why not skip all of that and buy an ecommerce business that is already established? To be honest, we never really considered the benefits of buying an already established business, but after talking with David Newell of FE International we've been convinced that buying an ecommerce business might actually be a better option than starting from scratch. In this episode, David will cover the 4 main reasons why you should buy an ecommerce business, including a few reasons we never thought about and now have us considering it. He'll also cover the 6 areas you need to focus your due diligence process on so that you can make sure you're not getting hosed when negotiating with the seller. Oh, and if you're thinking about selling this would b

It's been about a year and a half since since we started the podcast and countless experts have joined the show to provide us with incredible insights into building a successful ecommerce business. The question is, which ones should you be focusing on? We thought it would be the perfect time take the thousands of ideas, tips, and tricks we've learned and flesh out the top 7 things we've learned about building a successful ecommerce business so that you can focus on the most important things now, while helping you better plan for your business's future. It was tough for us to choose just 7 so know that our recommendations here do not come lightly. [player] Key Takeaways from the Show A breakdown of the top 7 things we've learned about building a successful ecommerce business The main difference between a real business and a job you created for yourself Predicting the end of most ecommerce businesses Why you're not as important to your business as you think (and why you want it that way) The traffic strategy

Today we're talking about risk and decision making. In business and life entrepreneurs and must decide to take risks (or not take risks) and live with the impacts it has. We're talking about an article from Bonobos.com CEO Andy Dunn called The Risk Not Taken and it's had a massive impact on our approach to risk and decision making and wanted to share it with you. Andy talks about everything from the role money has in risk to personal shame and embarrassment. It's something we all feel but rarely talk about in the conversation about entrepreneur-ism and life. Key Takeaways from the Show The role that risk plays in business and life. How to deal with the "Decision Elf" What to do when you feel like a fraud. The need to understand how well off we really are. Links / Resources Andy Dunn

You finally found it… …the answer to your ecommerce store’s growth problem and your video marketing conundrum. At this point you know that video marketing is all the rage as YouTube and other video platforms continue to explode with opportunity to you grow your business. You know you should be capitalizing, but it feels like too big of a task to take on right now. Video marketing requires a lot of effort to outline a video marketing campaign, write the video(s), film the video(s), edit them, upload them, promote them etc. Of course, you can always hire someone to do all that, but that gets expensive…and who knows if it’ll even work and show a positive ROI after all is said and done. But there is a different way to do video marketing that could work very, very well for you. It’s called YouTube Influencer Marketing and today’s guest, Emmanuel Eleyae of Satin-Lined Caps, has experienced the video marketing promised land…to the tune of $80k in revenuer PER month within just the first 9 months of being in business

If there's any online company that completely embodies the idea of an authentic online brand, it's Ugmonk. Customer loyalty to the brand is second to none and something all ecommerce brands should seek to emulate. Jeff Sheldon, founder & designer, has taken a small side project and turned it into one of the most successful, most authentic online brands we've ever encountered or worked with. His story is truly one of the most remarkable authentic online brand building stories out there today, and he walks us through the steps he took to grow his business from basically nothing to an "online household name" where customers rarely leave. He explains to us how he created a loyal community of customers that rarely leave him, the early mistakes he made and how you can avoid them, how he built his authentic online brand without advertising, and his plans to take his business to the next level. Key Takeaways from the Show How to create the most authentic online brand The early mistakes Ugmonk made and how you ca

Tommy Walker has written some of our favorite ecommerce content for some of our favorite sites over the past couple of years including ConversionXL and now Shopify Plus. He has a wealth of knowledge about content marketing and shares with us his best strategies for establishing a system to generate a large amount of quality, effective content for ecommerce companies. He shares all in today's episode, take a listen. Not every ecommerce company needs content marketing as a crucial part of their strategy. As Tommy puts it... I don't need an article about how to make my bed if I'm buying sheets online. However, if part of your mission is to build a lifestyle brand surrounding your product then content needs to be a big focus for you as it builds community, loyal customers, and drives a lot of traffic when done right. Tommy shares his personal 'code' (the one he's using for the Shopify blog he's now running) for successfully writing articles and hiring people able to create quality, effective content. The key is t

We talk about building systems all the time, but how well do they actually hold up when you completely leave your business? It was time for us to "put our money where our mouth is". We recently tested out how well our systems worked by sending by sending Austin to Asia and completely off the grid for 3 weeks. In this episode we talk about the results we experienced, what we learned, and what we failed at so you can make the necessary adjustments in your business and make your systems work for you. Systems are vital because they provide the freedom to step and disconnect so you can live a life outside of your work and really enjoy what you're working on. Ask yourself, what would happened if I left your business today for 4 days and didn't have any connection to internet or phone? What about 3 weeks? If you get a small panic attack just thinking about it, then you need to create more and better systems. A business is only a business when you can step away and still make money while your gone and everything, for

If you're not driving more ecommerce sales with Facebook advertising then you're missing out on one of the best "demand generation" systems available to your business today. Facebook advertising has been responsible for producing 2x, 3x, 4x even 10x returns on adspend for some of our clients...and if you're not getting that with what you're doing now, here's how you can start. The person responsible for helping some of our clients see those kinds of returns is Facebook advertising expert and friend, Andrew Foxwell. Foxwell (we call him Foxy!) is one of the most revered Facebook marketers today. He has worked with 8 figure+ businesses, a U.S. Congressman, our clients, and even us. This is episode is part two in a 2-part series that will teach you how to drive more ecommerce sales with Facebook. Part one is an overview of Facebook advertising, what's possible, and we lay the foundation to becoming successful. In part two we'll dig in a bit deeper and show you how to sell for results with facebook advertising. 

The man who stops advertising to save money is the man who stops the clock to save time. If you're not driving more ecommerce sales with Facebook, you should be. If you are using Facebook to drive sales, you can do it better than what you're doing now. Facebook advertising has been responsible for producing 2x, 3x, 4x even 10x returns on adspend for some of our clients. Most of the credit can go to Facebook advertising expert and friend, Andrew Foxwell. Foxwell (we call him Foxy!) is one of the most revered Facebook marketers today. He has worked with 8 figure+ businesses, a U.S. Congressman, our clients, and even us. This is episode is part one in a 2-part series that will teach you how to drive more ecommerce sales with Facebook. Part one is an overview of Facebook advertising and what's possible. We then lay the foundation to becoming successful. In part two we'll dig in a bit deeper and show you how to sell for results with Facebook advertising. Key Takeaways from the Show Why you need to be using Facebo

If you've listened to parts one and two of this three-part series you should have a firm grasp on scrum, the methodology we use to help us do twice as much in half the time. The final episode in this series will cover our personal experiences using the methodology, how we've modified it to fit our business, the things we're improving as we move along, and how we think you should apply it to your ecommerce company. Plus, we also have a special guest joining us, and he goes by the name "Master Splinter." No, he's not a mutant rat. The Scrum Methodology was originally designed for technical projects, but now it's being applied to business and it's been a smashing success for many. Our own experience has been extremely positive. Our team is on the same page, we're doing the right things at the right time, and we're knocking out project after project weekly. This episode is part three in a 3-part series about applying the scrum methodology to innovate with disciplined execution while getting twice as much done in

Getting twice as much done in half the time seems like a fantasy, but it can become a reality if you're using the scrum methodology. If you're looking for the silver bullet to increase productivity, this could be it for you, it has been for us. The Scrum Methodology was originally designed for technical projects, but now it's being applied to business and it's been a smashing success for many. Our own experience has been extremely positive. Our team is on the same page, we're doing the right things at the right time, and we're knocking out project after project weekly. Tim Francis is the guest on the first two episodes in this series. He is a scrum "master" so to speak and he taught us the ins and outs of the process. In this series he's going to outline what scrum looks like and how you can use it in your business. This episode is part two in a 3-part series about applying the scrum methodology to innovate with disciplined execution while getting twice as much done in half the time. Part one is an overview o

It seems like we're all looking for the silver bullet when it comes to getting more done in our business. Look no further. There is a methodology that will help you do twice as much in half the time. Too good to be true? We thought so, too...until we implemented it. Now our team is producing more work, at higher quality, and in much less time. And so can you. The Scrum Methodology was originally designed for technical projects, but now it's being applied to business and it's been a smashing success for many. Our own experience has been extremely positive. Our team is on the same page, we're doing the right things at the right time, and we're knocking out project after project weekly. Tim Francis is the guest on the first two episodes in this series. He is a scrum "master" so to speak and he taught us the ins and outs of the process.In this series he's going to outline what scrum looks like and how you can use it in your business. This episode is part one in a 3-part series about applying the scrum methodology