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

Ecommerce conversion optimization is tough, time-consuming, and confusing, but our conversation with Peep Laja of ConverionXL will make it easier for you. Peep (his unusual name, to most people, is actually pronounced ‘Pep Laya’) currently runs a unique ecommerce conversion optimization marketing agency called Markitekt where they make existing sites better, and build new conversion optimized websites for clients. He’s been featured in numerous popular marketing and online business publications including Smashing Magazine, ProBlogger, KISSmetrics and many others, and also delivers trainings and workshops on ecommerce conversion optimization and internet marketing. Peep runs the world’s most popular ecommerce conversion optimization blog, and he says that his blog that is written for smart people. No cheesy stuff, no “how to add a background to Twitter” nor “10 useless things that waste your time” type of posts, only well-researched highly actionable content. Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview The two

Trying to hire the best growth consultant for your company can be an arduous task, but it doesn't have to be according to Graham Hunter. Graham is Head Instructor of Growth at Tradecraft where they train smart people to succeed in traction roles at high-growth companies. He’s been a marketing consultant at Intuit, among other brands, he’s started an agency, he’s worked at larger agencies, and he has been the first employee at a few ecommerce and software startups. Graham has done a whole lot of consulting and he takes us through some interesting topics as we discuss the the most effective way to hire the best growth consultant for your ecommerce brand. We like to think of Graham as our Silicon Valley correspondent, as he’s got his finger squarely on the pulse of what some of Silicon Valley's best companies are doing to grow their business. Topics Discussed Throughout the Interview Why the terms "Growth" and "Marketing" have been separated by Silicon Valley Who should be your first hire and your second hire T

In a mostly me-only world, Andrew Davis explains that creating partnerships with other brands is not only important, but necessary and extremely profitable for those who do it right. Andrew got his start in the media business at a young age appearing in television commercials and voicing over radio spots for brands like Chevrolet, Six Flags, and McDonalds, and has also managed workshop production for Muppets From Space, Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House and Elmo in Grouchland. In 2001, Andrew co-founded Tippingpoint Labs and, for more than a decade, Andrew and his team changed the way content creators think, authentic talent is nurtured, and the way companies market their products. He has marketed for tiny startups and Fortune 500 brands, and his novel combinations of old ideas that leverage new technology have been tapped by the Obama administration and Russian media moguls. In 2012 Andrew released a best-selling book called “Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships”, which puts his common

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

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

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 Throug

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 formul

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 ow

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 throug

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

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 Through

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 iTun

Craig Dalton grew award-winning iPad case manufacturer DODOcase well past 7 figures very quickly by timing product launches with major events, and he teaches you how you can do the same. DODOcase is a San Francisco-based maker of protective cases for the Apple iPad that have the look and feel of a luxury, hardcover notebook. Their philosophy is simple, make things locally and help keep the art of bookbinding alive by adapting it to a world of tablets and e-readers. Within just a few months of launching they were able to sell over 15,000 cases without a big budget to develop, market, and promote their products and primarily through the timing of product launches with major events. In 2010, they entered Shopify’s “Build a Business” competition and were the grand prize winners of $100,000. With a $680 million dollar market for iPad cases they have huge opportunity to be the number one quality brand for this segment of the carrying case market, and today Craig’s going to chat with us about what they’ve been doing

The use of native advertising in ecommerce is growing at an exponential rate, and so are the returns. The best part about native advertising is that your competition is most likely not doing it, or doing it completely wrong, giving you the advantage if you take action now. Native advertising in ecommerce is the future of advertising so pay attention to this episode and don't get left behind. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview Some unbelievable native advertising statistics. What exactly is native advertising and where do you find it? What native advertising in ecommerce is NOT. We cover some examples and how it can be effectively utilized. The biggest distinction between traditional ads and native advertising. How to create a successful native advertising campaign. Biggest mistakes when using native advertising in ecommerce. Case Studies on native advertising campaigns we've found that work. How to make native advertising work in ecommerce. Links/Resources GE's Native Advertising C

Amy Africa is the CEO of EightByEight Marketing has been in the forefront of web usability studies, web design improvement, and successful e-commerce for over 15 years. She is one of the best web marketers today because she combines incredible direct marketing skills with proven web techniques and some contrarian ecommerce strategies, getting her hired by 92% of fortune 500 companies. Amy has been widely published in industry magazines and e-zines. She’s an engaging, entertaining speaker, and has been featured at web conferences around the globe. Her depth of knowledge, backed by intensive field-testing and web user studies, has earned her the reputation of "a voice to be heard" on Internet topics ranging from site improvement, traffic building and SEO to analytics and email marketing. Amy has pioneered many successful web marketing initiatives in navigation, email marketing, shopping carts and abandoned carts that are making her clients much more profitable. The best part? She chats with us while on her priv

We've all done it at some point so no gets a free pass, but it's time for you, once and for all, to stop copying your competitors! Jeff Bezos once said,"Don't focus on the competition, they'll never give you money." We know that many listeners, including ourselves, have at one point copied some of our competitors website navigation, their design, copy, conversion tactics, and maybe even their business model. In this conversation we're going to provide you with some of the most important reasons, and some very concrete examples, as to why you need to stop copying your competitors...and what you should be copying instead. Give it a listen to the end and you'll know what we mean. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interveiw: Why you need to stop copying your competitors - Even if it's "Nasty Gal" it might not be useful. Examples of copying gone wrong. The importance of data when copying. Should you redesign your website? (Check out the Chris Goward episode) When is it okay to copy. Two solutions to hel

While Analytics packages tell you what people are doing on your website, Qualaroo can tell you why they are doing it by capturing qualitative and voice of customer data. Or even more important, why they aren't doing something. Sean Ellis’ is the CEO and co-founder of Qualaroo Insights, a qualitative insights solution triggered by onsite user behavior to collect visitor intelligence for driving faster conversion rate optimization. Qualaroo is used by major companies like Shopify, Yahoo, Vimeo, Groupon, and intuit to help them gain better “voice of the customer” (VOC) intelligence that they can’t get from their analytics tool. Additionally, Sean has been a marketing executive for huge companies like Dropbox, Eventbrite, and LogMeIn, he’s currently an advisor to Kissmetrics, and he runs a very popular marketing blog and community for startups called Growth Hackers. In this episode Sean talks to us about how you can use qualitative insights to convert more of your visitors into paying customers, and how one of hi

If you advertise and sell in a newspaper does that make you a "newspaper business"? No. That also means you are not an online business just because you advertise and sell online. In this episode we'll discuss the 3 reasons why you're not an online business, balancing your online acquisition channels AND your online / offline channels and the dangers of not doing so, and how you can start taking your marketing offline to sell more online. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview 3 reasons why you're not an online business The three M's in marketing Balancing your online acquisition channels AND your online / offline acquisitions channels - and the dangers of not balancing between the two. Examples of over-reliance on acquisition channels. Finding your customers where they hang out. Driving online sales with offline promotions Referral programs Email collecting Plus much more   Links/Resources Pura Vida Bracelets Blenders Eyewear Dan Kennedy   Thank You For Listening & A Simple Req

Crowdsourcing in ecommerce isn't exactly a new thing, but Jake Nickell of Threadless is credited with starting the trend, a trend that helped his company hit $30 million plus. Jake co-founded Threadless in 2000, a company based out of Chicago that combines an online community of artists and an eCommerce website. He started Threadless with just $1,000 of his own money and has since seen revenues go from $1.5 million in 2004, $6.5 million in 2006, and the most recent estimate puts revenues as high as $30 million in 2011. Each week, about 1,000 designs are submitted online and are put to a public vote. After further review and some additional scoring and feedback, 10 designs are chosen, printed on clothing and other products, and then sold worldwide through the online store, selling about 120,000 t-shirts per month. Jake made “crowdsourcing” an essential part of the business plan (even though he doesn't use the term any more because of the way it is now perceived), building a thriving community that consists of

There are a lot of reasons why email marketing fails. The question is, which is the reason why yours is failing? Bad copy, uninteresting subject lines, failing to standout, not providing value are just some of the reasons why email marketing fails, and there are 4 kinds of bad online business emailers that only make the problem worse. When done right, though, email marketing can have a huge positive brand and financial impact on your business. We've seen some companies implement great email marketing strategies where a majority of their emails get 10x the open rates and click-thru rates from their email community when compared to their competitors. The financial difference can be just as astounding. In this episode we'll talk about why email marketing fails and what you what you need to do to find success with your email and increase the bottom-line.   Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview The 7-8 main reasons why email marketing fails. The different type of email failure profiles (the hammer, the dis