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

Despite the fact that ecommerce has grown 20% year over year, the ecommerce "gravy train" will be coming to a halt very soon for many ecommerce companies. If you want to keep riding then it's time to start investing in better experiences that provide value before asking for it. Sam Mallikarjunan is the Head of HubSpot Labs and the author of the book "How To Sell Better Than Amazon". HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. He is an expert ecommerce marketer and understand customer lifecycle marketing more than most thanks to his experience with inbound marketing at Hubspot. Key Takeaways from the Show The ecommerce gravy train is coming to an end. Why cart abandonment shouldn't be considered a bad thing...if you do it right. What closed loop attribution means and why you need to track it Why customers who abandon carts actually spend more than those who don't. What the greatest threat to marketing is, and why it's

We can think of very few things more important for an ecommerce business owner than determining what a customer is worth to an organization over their business lifetime, and there is no one better in the world at calculating customer lifetime value than Peter Fader. Peter Fader is Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage. His expertise centers around the analysis of behavioral data to understand and forecast customer shopping/buying activities and calculating customer lifetime value. He works with firms from a wide range of industries, such as consumer packaged goods, interactive media, financial services, and pharmaceuticals. Fader's work has been published in a number of leading journals in marketing, statistics, and the management sciences, and he serves on the editorial boards of many of them. In 2009, Fader was named a "Professor to Watch" by the Financial Times. Key Takeaways

With costs always on the rise, and the "highs" from marginal success being short-lived, ecommerce companies need to moderate (maybe even eliminate) the pay per click addiction that could sink their business. Tom Schwab is founder and owner of Goodbye Crutches, the largest online distributor of direct to patient Durable Medical Equipment focused on serving those who can’t bear weight and can’t bear crutches. He definitely knows how to build an online business with an Inbound Strategy. Tom led the growth of Goodbye Crutches from a regional player to a national leader in under 3 years. Tom is the leader of the eCommerce Hubspot user group, has been featured in many industry leading publications, and is often a guest expert on podcasts, radio shows, and more. Key Takeaways from the Show Creating content with a purpose How to monopolize the keywords in your industry Using inbound marketing to sell any product Breaking down the bias against inbound marketing Links / Resources Inbound for Ecommerce  Tom's LinkedI

Customer comparison shopping is inevitable online. With the likes of Amazon and other major retailers doing everything they can to steal your customers through pricing-cutting and comparison shopping you need to pull out all the stops to keep them loyal. T. J. Gentle and Andrew Scarbrough are co-founders of PriceWaiter, a tool that allows ecommerce companies to keep more customers by providing simple and private price negotiations for online stores.  Personalization in all aspects of the online buying experience is now one of the most talked about topics in ecommerce, and T.J. and Andrew are going to share how they’ve been able to 5x their sales thanks to their focus on customer personalization using the PriceWaiter tool.   Key Takeaways from the Show Creating the benefits of a brick and mortar sales person online Eliminate price comparison shopping once and for all How to get around the nuances of minimum advertised pricing Selling in a true one to one way online Links / Resources TJ Gentle's Twitter Andr

"According to leading neuroscientists, 95 percent of thoughts, emotions, and learning occur before we're ever aware of it. Yet, most marketing efforts forgo the vast subconscious and instead target the rational, conscious mind. If you want to get ahead of your competition stop selling to the 5% of your customers brains...when you understand how your customers' brains work, you can appeal to the powerful subconscious - and get better results for less money." (Brainfluence, 2012) Roger Dooley is a consultant, entrepreneur, and neuromarketing missionary who combines knowledge of emerging phenomena like neuromarketing and social networking with decades of hands-on marketing experience. He helps companies understand the implications of new technologies and techniques, and guides them in the implementation of practical strategies to adapt to them. Clients range from Fortune 500 firms to entrepreneurial ecommerce businesses. He regularly addresses national conferences, and has been quoted frequently in the mainstrea

The reality is, nobody cares about your product. That may sound harsh, but your customers and prospects only care about themselves. In this episode David Meerman Scott teaches us what to do about that and what the Grateful Dead can teach you about marketing so you can reach your buyers directly to drive more revenue. David is an internationally acclaimed strategist whose books and blog are must-reads for professionals seeking to generate attention in ways that grow their business. His 2007 book "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" opened people's eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web, and with over a quarter of a million copies sold in more than 25 languages from Bulgarian to Vietnamese, "New Rules" is now a modern business classic. He has written a total of 10 books (3 international bestsellers), his most recent being "The New Rules of Sales and Service; How to Use Agile Selling, Real-time Customer Engagement, Big Data Content, and Storytelling to Grow Your Business." He del

23 million out of 28 million companies that do less than $25 million in revenue are operating check to check, which means it's very likely that you are one of the the struggling 82%. Fortunately, there is a simple system you can implement to turn your business from a cash-eating monster into a profit-generating machine to ensure you're permanently profitable. Mike Michalowicz (mi-CAL-oh-wits) founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies by the time he turned 35. Confident that he had the formula to success, he became an angel investor... ...and proceeded to lose his entire fortune. Then he started all over again. Driven to find better ways to grow healthy, strong companies, Mike created the “Profit First Formula”, a way for businesses to ensure they're permanently profitable from their very next deposit forward. Mike is now running his third million dollar venture; is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal; is the former MSNBC business make-over expert; is a popular keynote speak

Quality ecommerce copy and product descriptions can increase ecommerce conversion rates anywhere from 30% to 100%. Writing subpar copy for your website is the equivalent of hiring a subpar, unqualified sales staff for a brick and mortar shop, and sales will suffer. Joanna Wiebe is a co-founder and copywriter at Copyhackers, a company that helps you use copy to boost your conversions while enhancing your brand, even if you don’t like writing or you’re scared of the blank white page. She’s been copywriting since 2004, and her 10 years of experience includes time as an agency and in-house copywriter, including time at companies like Intuit and Conversion Rate Experts. Her work is often featured on some of the absolute best online marketing websites like KISSmetrics, Copyblogger, Unbounce, and ConversionXL. Joanna promises to help you write more persuasive, believable and usable copy… sans pixie dust… so you can boost your website & email conversion rate.   Key Takeaways from the Show How to sell a lot more

Abraham Lincoln once said, "If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend 6 hours sharpening my ax," and this episode is all about sharpening your ax for 2015. Join us for this quick 15 minute episode as we review the planning process that made our 2014 so successful, how we're improving it for 2015, and how you can use all or parts of our planning process to make 2015 your best year ever. Key Takeaways from the Show How we build our company's vision What we're doing to improve it for 2015 How you can use this information to create your company vision and crush 2015 The step by step process we went through to create this year's vision Links / Resources: Building Your Company's Vision by Jim Collins Master The Rockefeller Habits (Book) Verne Harnish One-Page Strategic Plan Predictable Revenue   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 rev

The company that is willing to spend the most to acquire a customer will win, and Ryan Deiss teaches you how to win by optimizing your customer acquisition with his 5 step Customer Value Optimization System. Ryan Deiss is the founder of a number of online media/publishing businesses, most notably DigitalMarketer.com. He is considered the “King of Conversion” and is the creator of the funnel models used by 90% of today's “A” list online marketers, like Neil Patel of Quicksprout and Kissmetrics. He's also set up funnels for William Shatner. His companies sell products and services in over a dozen markets to hundreds of thousands of customers on every continent in the world… except Antarctica (which, if you’re ever in Antarctica and you’re willing to buy something let him know so he can say he sold something there…he’ll refund you after the purchase ;)) Over the last 36 months Ryan and his team have: Invested over $15,000,000 on marketing tests… Generated tens of millions of unique visitors… Sent well over a BI

Implementing truly data driven email marketing in your ecommerce business is no easy task...until now. Ed Hallen helps ecommerce companies easily implement data driven email marketing that actually works through his platform, Klaviyo. He is co-founder of Klaviyo, an ecommerce-focused email service provider that provides you with better email through data-drive personalization and targeting. From powerful A/B testing to automatic analysis of conversions, Klaviyo helps you maximize the impact of your email on key metrics. He received his MBA from MIT, worked at Google, and led product management for Applied Predictive Technologies where he the guided product and technology vision for a team of 15 engineers and consultants. Ed has used those experiences to create one of the most robust email service providers for ecommerce businesses, one that we recommended to all of our clients. In today's episode Ed helps us understand all components in data driven email marketing. Key Takeaways from the Show How you can mar

Oli Gardner has seen more landing pages than anyone on the planet. As a result he has identified and mastered the 7 most important principles of conversion centered design to help you convert more visitors into paying customers. He is the co-founder of Unbounce, an industry-leading landing page platform that allows marketers to build, publish and a/b test landing pages without IT. With 17 years working in the field of interactive web design and development his career has taken him from small startup companies to the heights of Creative Director at the online entertainment powerhouse Bodog. His roles ranged from Interaction Designer, to establishing and leading Bodog’s first usability team, to inspiring a team of user centered practitioners as the creative lead responsible for re-defining the vision of a billion dollar organization. Oli is an opinionated writer and international speaker on Conversion Centered Design, and is widely respected, and feared, for gently telling it like it is when it comes to convers

Dane Golden is Vice President of Marketing and Client Services at Octoly, a YouTube brand management company where his mission is to enhance your web video ecosystem, YouTube channel, network videos. For the last six years he has marketed, distributed, promoted, and produced online videos on platforms across the social video spectrum, creating millions of dollars in advertising and branding revenue. Dane says that competition for your audience's time is simply too great, and says that you need to focus just as much time on audience development as you would spend on creating content. It's not enough to just have cool videos - you need great marketing, distribution and audience engagement. Each week Dane co-hosts the top YouTube marketing advice podcast, "ReelSEO Tube Talk". Key Takeaways from the Show The 3 pillars of a successful YouTube footprint that increases revenue. Why 50-90% of video views of your brand are on videos NOT created by you...so what's being said about you? How to ethically steal customers

Google Adwords for ecommerce can be extremely profitable...or extremely wasteful, it just depends on what you're doing. Check out this episode with Mike Rhodes, one of the world's best Adwords experts, and improve your adwords campaigns or save a sinking ship. Mike Rhodes is the founder of WebSavvy the largest independent AdWords-only agency in Australia. They use data, not guesswork, to grow company profits, and if you qualify for an Adwords Account Audit, Websavvy guarantee a profit increase. Their sister company PPCsavvy offers AdWords training, courses & a lively interactive forum for you to learn more if you want to manage accounts for yourself or for clients. Mike is often asked by Google to talk on their behalf at events & has even consulted to them on improving AdWords! He also co-authored The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords with Perry Marshall, now in it’s 4th edition having sold over 80,000 copies! Happy clients include the likes of Forty Winks, Mercedes, Clark Rubber & hundreds more. I

It's no secret. Financial intelligence in ecommerce is a prerequisite for success. The question, though, is are you a pro or an amateur? And how do you know? This is an episode for both the seasoned pro and the amateur. Joe Knight, Founder and Senior Consultant with the Business Literacy Institute, is a highly regarded finance and business literacy keynote speaker and trainer. He trains managers and leaders at Fortune 500 companies such as GE, Comcast-NBCUniversal, Boeing, CVS Caremark, American Express, and United Technologies Corporation (UTC). Joe’s unique ability to combine content with energy and humor make his keynote addresses resounding successes with diverse audiences including the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Construction Industry Institute (CII); National Association of Broadcasters (NAB); The Association of General Contractors; and International Institute for Supply Management (ISM). Joe is co-author of Financial Intelligence, a smart, no-nonsense business finance handbook for man

Jon makes it clear, Facebook's not trying to screw you when it comes to ecommerce Facebook marketing. You might be screwing yourself, though, and he teaches you how to fix it and make it an extremely profitable channel. Jon Loomer runs the most complete online resource of advanced Facebook marketing tips and tutorials, and his site is updated on nearly a daily basis. His site was recognized as one of Social Media Examiner's Top 10 Social Media Blogs of 2013, and in 2014 he was again named to the list but as the #1 social media marketing blog. J on's previous experience includes VP of Strategic Marketing for the American Cancer Society and the Senior Manager of Fantasy Games for the NBA, overseeing the entire life cycle of the fantasy games product. He’s a wizard when it comes to ecommerce Facebook marketing, and today he’s going to teach us how ecommerce companies can use Facebook marketing to help them make the jump from $1 million to $10 million+ in revenue.   Topics Discussed The number one component in s

While online world has been spending more and more money on pay per click and other means of driving traffic, SEO for ecommerce is still responsible for a significant, if not a bigger, majority of revenue and it can't be ignored. Todd Malicoat has over 10 years of SEO consulting experience, consulting to enterprise companies like PBS.org, Thomas Industrial, and many others. He is a renowned international speaker, speaking at conference like SES, PubCon, and Dreamforce, and more, and he’s SEO faculty chair at Market Motive, the leading curriculum publisher for online marketing training. Todd was been named among the top 50 Most Influential Marketers byInvesp.com, and Top 40 Most Influential in Search Marketing byGSInc.co.uk. He has been cited by Inc. Magazine, The Sydney Herald, Website Magazine, The New York Post, Infoworld, and others on search, reputation management, social media, and other web related issues. On top of all that awesomness, he also runs an offshore charter fishing boat in Miami, FL. In this

For any online business owner that is hesitating to make their ecommrce email funnel a high priority, this $10,000 dollar per day email funnel case study with Tim Paige should light a fire. Tim is host of the extremely popular online business podcast “ConversionCast, the only podcast that gets to the heart of the metrics”. He is also the conversion educator over at leadpages.net, a dynamic software company that creates simple and beautiful software and web apps that allow businesses to grow large and devoted audiences. Not only has LeadPages helped hundreds of online businesses exponentially increase leads and sales, one case study boasting $98,993 in sales, but they also practice what they preach, going from 0 to 15,000 customers in 12 months and getting a 10% email opt-in rate on their blog, double the average, by using the strategies they teach. Tim talks with many successful online business owners to provide data-backed conversion strategies on his own show, and today he’ll chat with us about how Leadpage

The attributes of your buyer persona are not why a customer buys, it's the situation they currently find themselves in and need your product to complete a "job." Scrap the buyer persona and apply the jobs to be done framework to your ecommerce store. Chris Spiek is a Partner and Co-Founder at The Re-Wired Group, where he helps companies use the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework to enable people to develop products that consumers love to buy and use. He’s a technology executive with a background in Product Development & Innovation, interactive Marketing Strategy, Disruptive Innovation, Sales & Marketing Strategy, and Web Application Development Chris has been studying, refining, and applying Jobs To Be Done across a variety of industries for over 10 years including software, education, consumer-packaged-goods, healthcare, e-commerce, and more. He has taught Jobs to be done to teams in small startups and huge Fortune 500s, including a few companies you might know, Mailchimp, Basecamp, and Intercom. In th

If you own the ecosystem and the ecommerce customer experience, you'll be able to withstand the onslaught of changes on rented land like Google Adwords and Facebook. Ken Johnson founded Manpacks with business partner Andrew Draper in 2009, and he attributes most of their success to a relentless focus on owning the ecommerce customer experience. Manpacks is considered the first American subscription ecommerce service offering men's essentials, shipping men’s basic needs like socks, underwear, razors, and toiletries on a quarterly schedule or on demand. Their primary customers are busy guys who want to cross these things off the to-do list while discovering new, better products to use. Manpacks has been featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, NPR, ESPN Radio, NBC, Maxim, The Boston Globe, Inc., and The Tampa Tribune. Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview Owning the online ecosystem and the ecommerce customer experience. How Manpacks got such amazing PR when they first launched. How paid acquis