The DTC Insider

Angela Clark is the Head of Digital Studio at Patagonia, a certified B Corp outdoor apparel company based in Ventura, California. She is a digital strategist and an accomplished e-commerce leader who has worked with some of the most iconic American brands like Levi Strauss, True Religion, Pottery Barn, and eBay. Angela has specialized in building digital businesses and high-performing teams. She has led merchandising, marketing, and project management for a wide range of sectors and channels and has developed successful strategies for high-growth companies.

What does it take to build a scalable business? What strategies can you invest in to effectively market your brand and grow profits?

According to Angela Clark, you have to start by being clear about your mission and vision. You also have to know where to invest your time and energy wisely. Business leaders have to make hard decisions and determine which tactics to use to promote their brand. 

In this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, Brian Roisentul interviews Angela Clark, the Head of Digital Studio at Patagonia, about secrets to scaling an e-commerce brand. Angela also discusses how brands can prepare for unexpected industry changes, the importance of having a clear vision and mission, and strategies to boost traffic and sales.

Alex Miller is the Head of eCommerce and Digital Growth Marketing Strategy at Baabuk, a B Corp certified footwear company. Headquartered in Switzerland, Baabuk is a socially and environmentally conscious designer and manufacturer of comfortable wool footwear. Alex graduated cum laude from The George Washington University, with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and public affairs. He co-founded several business ventures including Jordan Alexander III Premium Cigar Company, The Cigar Tube, AlphaBrav Group LLC, and MZM Group LLC.

Do you use your e-commerce business as a force for good? Do you think about your community and offer customers great experiences? 

In the current market, customers want to contribute to the growth of their ideal brands. They want to feel part of the brand. This is why it has become more important for brands to think about how they communicate with customers and develop personal connections with them. 

In this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, Brian Roisentul interviews Alex Miller, the Head of eCommerce and Digital Growth Marketing Strategy at Baabuk, about how to build a sustainable brand. Alex also talks about the challenges Baabuk has been facing going international and the strategies they use to develop personal connections with customers.

Adam Moody is the Founder of Oasis Optimization, a company that helps online business owners increase average order value and lifetime value and implement systems that produce consistently profitable results business-wide. They focus on email marketing, conversion optimization, and sales funnels. Adam is also the Author of The Ecommerce Email Marketing Playbook: 80/20 Guide For Ecommerce Business Owners.

How can you provide the best shopping experience for your customers? What can you do to ensure that they buy from your e-commerce brand again?

One of the best ways to know what your customers want is to get data from them. This information can be used to create high-converting marketing copy that drives e-commerce sales for your brand. However, to be successful, you have to develop a strong game plan that focuses on your customers and their needs.

Adam Moody, the Founder of Oasis Optimization, is Brian Roisentul's guest in this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, where he discusses email marketing and sales funnels best practices for e-commerce brands. Adam also shares his advice on writing marketing copy and talks about the main challenges e-commerce brands are facing today.

Miriam Washington Kendall is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Nanit, a parenting platform and high tech baby monitor company. As a three-time startup CMO, Miriam has over 20 years of experience in marketing and customer strategy consulting. Before Nanit, Miriam was the CMO at MakeSpace, helping the company grow from 4 to 31 markets in under two years. She has served a wide variety of Fortune 500 clients including Microsoft, Ford, Nordstrom, Pitney Bowes, Citigroup, BP, and Dell. Miriam is also an industry thought leader, keynote speaker, and a contributing author to an Amazon top 10 business book, Managing Customer Relationships: A Strategic Framework.

When marketing your products, are you truly engaging with your customers? How can you offer exclusive experiences to support your customers and gain recognition? 

Nanit not only provides parents with products to track and improve their babies' sleep and breathing patterns, they’ve also built a supportive community where parents can connect with other parents, caregivers, friends, and family. They host webinars and engage with customers in different social initiatives. By leveraging similar strategies, you can build customer trust, ensure lifetime value, and drive referrals. 

Miriam Washington Kendall, the CMO of Nanit, joins Brian Roisentul in this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast to discuss different strategies e-commerce brands can use to support and bring value to their customers. Miriam shares details about Nanit's online community for parents, the company's omni-channel strategies, and the main challenges she faces when marketing in different countries.

Daniel Budai is the Founder and CEO of Budai Media. The company focuses only on e-commerce retention marketing solutions that add 20-50% to its clients’ monthly revenue. The strategy at Budai Media helps you communicate better with your audience and retain your best customers with laser-targeted segmentation and automation.

Daniel has a bachelor’s in marketing and marketing management. He is also the host of The Ecom Show. When not helping e-commerce companies, Daniel enjoys traveling, running, or drinking an Americano in a small café with a book.

Do you find it tough to retain your e-commerce customers? Do you need strategies for increasing your customers' lifetime value?

Returning customers play a significant role in the growth of e-commerce brands. It is not enough to simply focus on acquiring new customers without implementing solid retention strategies. Once they’re existing customers, they become a valuable asset that helps boost recurring revenue and grows your business.

In this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, Brian Roisentul interviews Daniel Budai, the Founder and CEO of Budai Media, about e-commerce growth strategies through retention marketing. Daniel shares best practices for email and SMS marketing, how to successfully implement a loyalty program, and how to measure the success of a customer retention strategy.

Philip Hill is the Founder and CEO of Purebred Marketing, a digital marketing agency. Philip launched his first company in the pet space while attending the University of Alabama in 2009. Friends and acquaintances saw his expertise in the digital marketing space and asked him to help them scale their companies and increase their leads and sales. Philip is also an avid dog owner and lover.

Coming up with the best marketing strategy to drive traffic and sales for your eCommerce brand can be frustrating, especially if you are a small brand. Using paid channels does not always work and some marketing strategies can prove ineffective.

The best eCommerce brands know that effective marketing requires them to pay attention to their customers' needs, use the right messages, and add value to them. They also have to build good relationships with customers and show them that they care by providing the best customer experience. 

In this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, Brian Roisentul is joined by Philip Hill, the Founder and CEO of Purebred Marketing, to discuss eCommerce growth strategies for driving traffic and growing sales. Philip explains how SEO and affiliate marketing can help boost conversions and shares best practices for email marketing. Stay tuned.

Gary Penn is an eCommerce Practice Consultant with Chameleon Collective, a hybrid consulting and marketing services firm that provides strategic leadership and experts to execute challenging tasks on-demand. The team at Chameleon has a unique approach to changing companies from the inside out by providing key interim roles within the business to improve the culture and trajectory of the organization.

Gary leads the company's digital and growth teams to drive revenue for clients in the DTC marketplace and eCommerce spaces. He is a 25-year veteran in eCommerce and experienced in interim leadership. He has made his career helping build teams and driving business for brands, including Quiksilver, True Religion, Columbia Sportswear, and most recently, Nixon.

For small eCommerce companies, it can be pricey to bring in experienced industry leaders. With limited resources and many moving parts, it’s hard to justify the expense of an additional full-time employee. 

However, at some point, it becomes beneficial to have fractional leaders come in and handle key aspects of the business. So, when is the right time for eCommerce brands to bring in experienced or interim leaders? How can eCommerce brands work cross-functionally to increase efficiency?

In this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, Brian Roisentul interviews Gary Penn, an eCommerce Practice Consultant with Chameleon Collective, about his experiences with eCommerce leadership, growth, and zero-party data. Gary explains the use of zero-party and third-party data, the best communication practices among teams and departments, the benefits of bringing interim leaders into your business, and how to inspire individuals to think bigger.

Hernan Vazquez is the Founder and CEO of Hernan Vazquez Media, a marketing training and consulting firm. He is a digital marketing trainer and consultant who helps clients worldwide increase their revenue by using the most cutting-edge digital marketing strategies and technologies. 

With extensive experience in the digital marketing space, Hernan has held positions, including co-founding Semantic Mastery, the Marketing Director at Frank Kern Inc, and the Director of Marketing at CardoneKern. He is also the host of the Marketing Atlas podcast.

What advertising strategy should you use to find and engage with your potential customers? How can you increase sales and scale through digital ads?

Facebook has been a popular social media advertising platform for many years. It has evolved tremendously, and what worked a couple of years ago may not work today. To meet customers' demands, brands must ensure they have the right people, structures, and digital marketing tactics in place.

In this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, Brian Roisentul is joined by Hernan Vazquez, the Founder and CEO of Hernan Vazquez Media, to discuss best practices for Facebook advertising. They talk about tips for building customer trust, the main challenges brands face using Facebook ads, and strategies for improved targeting.

Joseph Michelli is the CEO of The Michelli Experience (TME), a full-service human experience delivery company that offers leadership and management consulting, personalized training, customer journey mapping, agile design, and customer retention solutions to clients. 

Joseph is also a speaker and a New York Times bestselling author of Stronger Through Adversity: World-Class Leaders Share Pandemic-Tested Lessons on Thriving During the Toughest Challenges. Joseph donated the proceeds from the book to Direct Relief, a non-profit organization that provides relief to those impacted by crisis situations.

Building a successful company requires excellent leadership skills. It also requires resilient, adaptable, creative leaders who are adept problem solvers, especially if they have to navigate difficult waters.

Throughout the pandemic, business leaders were put to the test. Companies were affected in a myriad of ways and were forced to adapt to the changing circumstances if they were going to survive. Creative ways were found to serve customers, manage finances, and keep employees engaged. Additionally, all the focus leaders had on managing the business put them in a place where they weren’t taking care of themselves very well. They had to find ways to reach outside their networks to gather insights from other leaders about how to manage the crisis. But it turned out that many companies around the globe came out stronger on the other side as the world began to open up again. 

In this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, Brian Roisentul interviews Joseph Michelli, the CEO of The Michelli Experience, about the lessons he learned from the leaders of top companies about managing a business during the pandemic. Joseph also talks about the human resource challenges leaders faced, the impact of having a clear purpose, and the strategies leaders use to build thriving brands. 

Ronak Shah is the Co-founder and CEO of Obvi, a collagen-fortified health and wellness brand. Obvi was founded by three friends and bootstrapped $10,000 into $30 million in sales in less than three years. Ronak is a strategic thinker and senior leader who creatively uses technology, marketing, strategy, and analytics to support innovation and revenue-generating business goals. He is also a Co-founder of Ghost3Media, a marketing agency.

Would you have your customers decide which products your company should produce and sell? Would you let them be the drivers of your business success? 

To build a successful brand, you have to sell products that your customers actually want. This makes you stand out and differentiates you from your competitors. It also helps you build a sustainable legacy brand that stands the test of time. But how can you know what your customers want? According to Ronak Shah, it's very simple — just ask them.

In this episode of The Fit Growth Machine Podcast, Brian Roisentul interviews Ronak Shah, the Co-founder and CEO of Obvi, about the strategies he used bootstrapping his company to $30 million in sales in under three years. Ronak talks about the importance of listening to and serving a target group of customers, the value of having business partners and working around a vision, and Obvi's unique hiring strategies.