Depesh has officially broken a 2X eCommerce Podcast record; he is the only guest we have had three times on the show! For those that do not know Depesh, he was a guest on episode 29 of the show, back in 2015 when he was Digital Marketing Lead at LostMyName, helping the then startup sell  600,000 copies of a personalized children’s storybook in just two years exclusively via Facebook advertising - he went on to scale them from 6 to 8 figures ($26.5M).

Depesh’s second feature on 2X eCommerce was in 2018, Season 3, episode 44, when he talked about how he had at the time profitably managed over $20 million ad spend on Facebook over the previous 5 years and guided us on how to prep up for Q4.

On today’s episode, we talk about Brand-driven Performance Marketing (BPM) - a methodology Depesh coined for Facebook media buying. In an automation, CBO, Dynamic Creative, AI driven era in media buying, Depesh preaches about the need to create personas, write copy and tell stories that sell your brand’s essence. He also drives in the importance of using effective audience filtering in funnels. 

Depesh is the author of the CBO Cookbook and has just re-launched as well as renamed his Facebook Ads course: The BPM Method. 

He is offering 2X eCommerce listeners a 25% OFF discount if you use the code 2XEC

The offer will be available until Tuesday 30th June 2020.

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SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo.
Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind.
The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind.
Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

In this episode, Kunle speaks with Rohan Sheth, the CEO and Co-Founder of Direct Heroes. 

Over the last five years, a tremendous amount of focus has been placed on the Messenger marketing platform built on Facebook’s messaging functionality. 

As Facebook gradually rolls out an amalgamated messaging platform that integrates messaging on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, I felt the need to interview an expert on Instagram DM marketing. 

Rohan as the Founder of a dedicated Instagram messaging CRM had a deep understanding of how engagement can be nurtured and honed within the Instagram direct messaging eco-system.

Rohan explains how Instagram DMs work, why not is the time to aggressively build your Instagram messaging list, why open rates sit at +85% and he explains a viral loop flow that is guaranteed to maximise brand reach and engagement on Instagram. 

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SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

Retailers often focus on engaging shoppers at the top of the funnel, which typically involves onsite user experience optimisation, and driving traffic. On today’s episode, Greg Greiner from Bolt discusses why a focus on the bottom of the onsite funnel - ‘checkout’, is equally important to focus. According to Baymard Institute, 30% of shoppers cite friction at checkout as a major impediment to not completing a purchase and 70% of all shoppers abandon their carts at the bottom of the funnel.

Greg is the head of Product at Bolt, an eCommerce checkout solution that works a range of eCommerce platforms like Magento, BigCommerce, Salesforce, NetSuite, Woocommerce, and any headless eCommerce solution. 

According to Greg, Bolt’s remit as an eCommerce checkout solution is to speed up the checkout process and improve conversions. 

Bolt reduces standard guest checkout sessions times from over a minute to just 30 seconds.

This episode will help you understand checkout performance benchmarks as well as checkout best practises to deploy in your checkout flow in a bid to improving conversions.

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SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

On today’s episode, you’re going to learn about how a non-traditional strategy helped this bootstrapped 8-figure direct-to-consumer brand disrupt the traditional men’s wedding ring vertical.

Johnathan Ruggiero is the co-CEO of Manly Bands, a DTC brand that is redefining the wedding industry for men. He shares with us the strategies his team used to transform his Manly Bands from zero to an 8-figure business in just three years. 

In this episode, join Kunle and Johnathan as they discuss customer acquisition strategies at varying growth phases of the business; $0 - $1m, $1-10m and their current $10m+

On today’s interview, Kunle and Johnathan talks about,

• Inventory Management and Forecasting
• Working with 3PL Providers
• Customer Acquisition Strategy
• Retention Strategies
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Native Marketing
• Managing and Balancing CPA 
• Display Advertising
• Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other Acquisition Channels
• Their tech stack
• Building Culture and Managing Teams
• What It Takes to Grow an 8-Figure Business

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SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

As the lockdown eases in several countries and mask-wearing becomes a norm for most, on today's episode, Kunle talks about what your performance marketing strategy should look like in a post-COVID-19 environment as well as why now is the best time to prep up for Q4.

He talks about the prior increase in conversion rate over the lockdown period for a segment of brands and specifically addresses actions DTC brands should start taking in preparation for the challenging months ahead.

He talks about,

• Metrics over the last two months
• The panic buying ecommerce frenzy over lockdown
• Data backed reasons at to why the boom is behind us
• The impact of motivation on conversion rate
• Facebook advertising set up, TOF, MOF
• Creative refresh

-----------

SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

On today’s episode we discuss keyword research, link building and the power of search and discoverability in your marketing funnel.

If you want to learn more how Search Marketing (paid and organic) has impacted eCommerce in the last decade, tune in to this week’s interview with the Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer of the leading SEO keyword research tool, SEMrush. 

Dive in as Kunle and Eugene discuss competitor research, market analysis, keyword research, and some of the most effective hacks to optimize your Amazon listings. 

-----------

SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

Your customers’ journey doesn’t end after a purchase. What happens after a purchase is made, is what differentiates one DTC eCommerce brand from another. For instance, do you have a seamless and automated Return and Customer Service Program in place to assist customers that want to return an item? How is customer experience over a return process? And are you giving customers a sufficient range of options that encourage customer loyalty?  

What most eCommerce brands miss in their customer retention efforts is that building a relationship with each customer is an investment in itself. One way to look at it is through incentivising your customers with free shipping or store credits. But the real deal happens when you create tailor-fit Customer Retention programs based on your rate of product returns and refunds, your purchase rates, AOV, and your conversion metrics. 

On today’s episode, Kunle and Joe dig deep into analysing return metrics, industry benchmarks, and a roadmap to building a CX pipeline that reduces refunds and cuts down overheads whilst expanding your customer base. 

-----------

SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

As the saying goes, ‘mastery is a commitment to becoming your best’... In the world of Performance Marketing, mastery is no small feat. It involves a unique blend of advanced visual creativity and a highly analytical mindset, as well as the guts to spend large amounts of money with no guarantee of a return. 

On today’s episode, we learn from Nick Shackleford, an Elite-Level Performance Marketing Expert that has worked on paid social media buying campaigns for over 100 direct-to-consumer brands and a media buying trainer at iStack and Foundr. 

Moving on from pro-soccer, Nick kicked-off his career working with legacy brands Pepsico and Apple, then moved to selling trending products like the Fidget Spinner and Magnetic Eyelashes direct to consumers through his eCommerce venture.

Over the last 7 years, he has now worked with hundreds of DTC brands through his agency, Structure Social. 

Nick Shackleford has a proven track record of scaling social focused media buying campaigns consistently past 8-figures through programmatic buying on Facebook, Instagram and Snap whilst leveraging, influencer campaigns, email and the Adwords platform. 

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SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

Literally, the world stopped when governments worldwide ordained lockdowns to stop the spread of Coronavirus. With flights canceled all over the globe, people instructed to stay at home, and businesses forced to close down indefinitely, essentially everything was put to a standstill; hence, bringing down economies around the world into a recession. The gravity of the situation was not anything one would have anticipated. 

But at a critical time like this, a DTC brand based in Hong Kong was still able to keep their business operations running amid the Coronavirus. First, they survived the political outburst; next, they were faced with a global pandemic that no one has ever imagined before. 

Learn what UNDONE is doing to weather this economic meltdown by tuning in to this episode of 2X eCommerce. Dive into Kunle and Michael’s conversation on how UNDONE is improvising new strategies and tapping into consumers’ mindset to keep their products relevant and valuable amidst Hong Kong’s political strife and the Coronavirus pandemic.

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SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’

The appropriate selection of a technology stack is critical in eCommerce as well as varies at critical business growth stages as business challenges evolve. 

With numerous platforms and applications available out there in the market, it’s vital to select technologies that enable you to deliver customer experiences that level up your business in your industry. 

Platform selection can be particularly tricky if you’re not familiar with the technical aspects of ecommerce development. This is why Bart Mroz, our guest and Co-founder of SUMO Heavy, reiterates how crucial it is to have a good advisor and team members that know this well from a tech standpoint. 

So to help you get a headstart in building your own tech stack, here’s Kunle and Bart Mroz conversation about digital transformation and technology-driven ecommerce growth using the right tools and platforms to scale your business. 

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SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by:

Klaviyo 

This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.

Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.  

Rewind

This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!  

For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’