eCommerce Evolution

Strengthening customer relationships.  Building valuable assets.  Improving and documenting SOPs.  Growing email and remarketing lists.  Watching every episode of the Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls Documentary - The Last Dance. That’s just a few of the ways Ezra and Co are surviving and THRIVING in the current climate.  Ezra is often the first person eCommerce entrepreneurs turn to when they need advice.  This episode delivers some true and timely gems and words of wisdom.  eCommerce will likely come out of this crisis stronger than ever.  Will your company be ready to thrive in the new normal?

My guest today knows a thing or two about growing DTC eCommerce brands to 8 figures and beyond.  His agency, Wavebreak, focuses on email, SMS and loyalty marketing for growing eCommerce brands.  On today’s episode we talk about how email marketing has shifted in light of the pandemic and how it will likely continue to shift in the months and weeks ahead.  

Here’s a quick look at what we cover:

• How to go on offense without being offensive
• How to build community and goodwill now
• How to stay true to your brand but adjust your message in light of the recent crisis
• Top email marketing mistakes to avoid
• How email, sms and loyalty programs work together

This is an episode a couple of years in the making.  I’m a huge Ryan Daniel Moran fan.  We had dinner together after an event for speakers at an event in LA a few years ago.  Then we both got busy.  Ryan came on the show to discuss some burning topics facing all entrepreneurs right now.  

• Advice for an eCommerce company who’s struggling right now in the pandemic
• Advice for an e-commerce company who’s excelling right nowThe number 1 way to be instantly happier right now (and it leads to better business outcomes)
• How Ryan thinks about eComm companies to invest in - it’s way more about the leader and the product than anything else.
• Not playing the comparison game
• How to instantly be happier where you are right now
• The 3 phases of growing to $1 million in 12 Months. 

Currently, over 77% of our eCommerce clients are either still UP in sales even during this time of extreme uncertainty or are the same (plus or minus 1-2%).  Yes, some are hurting - but for most eCommerce businesses you CAN do something about sluggish sales right now.  We’ve learned a lot in recent weeks on what messages resonate with prospects and what falls flat.  In this episode (taken from a recent highly-popular webinar) Chris Brewer, Co-Founder of OMG Commerce and I dive into these important topics:

• Understanding the different physiological segments of shoppers right now and how to appeal to them
• People still want to buy even when stuck at home - how to provide retail therapy to your customers
• How to handle paid search on both Amazon and Google right now (search trends are shifting)
• Why this could be the perfect time to consider YouTube ads…viewership is up 100%+ on the platform and ad costs are down 20% or more
• How you can gain market share and get ahead of the competition right now

Supply chain, lock down, store closures, falling ad costs, rising costs of sanitation…just a few of the areas impacting retail and e-commerce right now.  In my interview with Eamon Kelly of Edgewater Research, we talk about the following hot topics to recent data points.

• How ad costs are impacted on Amazon, Facebook and Google during the crisis
• What categories are seeing spikes vs. dips in sales…there are a few surprising areas here plus some opportunities for companies to pivot.
• What major retailers like Dick’s sporting goods are seeing
• How retailers like Chewys are experience both growth and interesting shifts in costs and increased margin pressure
• How to think about inventory levels with more shopping shifting online

Original Grain has an origin story that’s as cool as it’s products…and as cool as it’s founders. In this interview, we tackle some critically important topics for all DTC brands.   We discuss building a product that has an authentic story that resonates. We look at the Original Grain approach to sourcing and designing that next winning product. We hear the Original Grain example of launching successful kickstarter campaigns, and we talk about marketing during a crisis and much more.   

Brother’s Ryan and Andrew Beltran grew up playing basketball together and starting businesses together from painting houses to mowing lawns. In 2013 while living in Hong Kong, Ryan had the idea for wood and steel watches.  The brothers took that inspiration and started what is now a leader in the watch and accessories space.  

Here’s a look at what you’ll learn in this episode:

• How a chance meeting at a nearly failed event lead to their most successful watch line to date
• How wooing an investor (I love this story - and it embodies the entrepreneur’s spirit) led to some of their most popular collector’s edition watches
• How Original Grain is going up-stream while strengthening its core watch offerings
• How they plan to market and stay strong during the COVID-19 storm 
• How to build an authentic voice and truly connect with customers even when being together physically is impossible
• What’s ahead for Original Grain

Economic Crisis - time to panic or time to press ahead?  While challenging and painful, there are huge opportunities right now.  Some of the world’s most successful companies grew leaps and bounds during recessions (Toyota, Kellogs and many others).  On this show investor, mentor and brilliant marketer and entrepreneur Roland Frasier and I talk about what you need to do to survive and thrive right now.  From getting your head right, to ensuring financial stability to how to market your product - right now. The market has shifted but money is still up for grabs.  Here’s what we cover:

• Understanding the physiological segments of the market and how to reach customers that are still actively buying now
• How your product positioning should pivot during times of extreme uncertainty
• How companies like Toyota and Kellogg’s crushed their competitors during a recession
• How to secure financing right now
• What to measure and how to measure to keep your head above water

Liz Germain is a YouTube Marketing legend.  We met when I was speaking at an event for eCommerce brands at the YouTube LA Offices.  Between her own fitness channel and her client’s channels, she’s helped rack up over 100 million organic video views on YouTube.  Wow. In this interview, we deep dive into how she does it. From the content, she creates to the research that inspires it. We also discuss where you should start and how to take your YouTube channel to the next level. 

Here’s what we cover

• Liz’s killer YouTube Influencer structure that leverages evergreen content for years of leads 
• How Liz created a video and blog post for a natural birth control method that is still generating leads and sales 4 years after it was created.  Compare that to an Instagram story that has a shelf life of just 24 hours.  
• The 3 types of YouTube content and where you should start
• The fundamentals of building a great YouTube Channel
• Plus more!

We’ve all had the following experience.  We’re on a quest for a specific product hoping if will fulfill a very specific need.  So we visit a product page on Amazon or another eCommerce site hoping that this might be the product we’ve been eagerly searching for….But, to our disappointment the product page doesn’t clearly tell us if the product will meet our need or not.  So we don’t buy. Uh-oh.

Pop quiz.  What can increase customer engagement, improve conversion rates by 2-10x, and drive substantial organic traffic?  Easy - Q&A content. My guest this week is James Arnold, the Co-Founder of Answer Base a SaaS platform that makes it easy to collect and leverage Q&A and FAQ content.  In this episode we dive into the following:

• Why Q&A content on product details pages is so powerful
• Taking a cue from Amazon where and how to use Q&A content on PDPs
• How to build a Knowledge Based that answers 80%+ of your shoppers questions
• How to structure your Q&A content to rank well on Google….HINT:  Google LOVES Q&A Content. And so do shoppers.  
• How to leverage FAQ pages
• Plus more!

Quick - what’s the best, most effective viral video ad you’ve seen?  Poo-Pourri? Purple Mattress? Maybe Squatty Potty? Chatbooks? Each of those videos (plus dozens more) were created by my guest today and his team at Harmon Brothers.  And not only where these videos viral hits…they SOLD stuff. Funny. Memorable. And persuasive to the tunes of hundreds of millions in sales. That's hard to accomplish.  

In this episode, we dig into some of the tips, tactics and secrets behind the Harmon Brother’s unrivaled success.  We dive into the following:

• 3 big mistakes most companies make when it comes to video ads
• Why humor is NOT a silver bullet 
• The inside scoop behind Poo-Pourri and haw it launched the Harmon Brothers to national prominence
• How do you land on the right “BIG idea”
• How and when to get feedback on your script and initial video edits
• How to think and create videos like the Harmon Brothers
• Plus more