The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

Happy New Year Everybody! Welcome back to the Ecom Crew podcast. This is Mike and I'm going to talk about Ecom Crew's 2016 and where we are planning to go for 2017.

We had an awesome 2016! We learned tons of lessons and had a lot of challenging and helpful experiences. We grew 326%! That is phenomenal for any business! During today's episode I'm going to share how we plan to keep the momentum going and what we learned to make 2017 a little more smoother.

So, without any more delay, here are some points from today's episode:

• Our revenue goals for 2017.
• Launching our own personal brands.
• Lessons we learned from Colorit.com in 2016.
• The 2017 launch of Wildbaby.com (our new baby product line.)
• Our email marketing lessons.
• How Facebook ads helped our brands this past year.
• How we used social media in general during 2016.
• The key elements we will continue to grow and work on during 2017.
• Lessons about inventory.
• Other plans and goals for an awesome year!

If you want to be part of our live episodes just go to our Facebook page and you will be notified of our live Facebook broadcasts. Thanks for a great 2016 and we hope to make 2017 even better!

Resources Mentioned Today:

Icewraps.com

Cuttingboard.com

Wildbaby.com

Colorit.com

Ecom Crew's Facebook page

Ecom Crew Blog

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

Hey there this is Mike, I'm on my own today, with some really useful information about Facebook ads. So, Facebook is a great way to move your business away from Amazon and build your own platform. Now, Grant and I will talk about Facebook Ads more in depth sometime in January.

However, today I want to talk about some really easy Facebook ad types that have really worked well for me and ColorIt. These 5 ads are really easy to set up and are really affordable from the start. You will get great ROI with these Facebook Ads.

In today's episode I will tell you about:

• What are Dynamic Product Ads.
• The awesomeness of Auto Posting apps.
• Remarketing or Retargeting Ads.
• How Klaviyo can help you market to your existing customers.
• Why you need a Win Back Campaign.
• What to expect from us in the next few weeks and 2017.

These ads are great starters for anyone trying to use Facebook to build a platform. If you watch the Facebook live playback on this episode, you will see some screenshots I shared during the episode. Just go to Facebook.com/ecomcrew and like our page and you can find the recording of this episode.

Resources Mentioned Today

ColorIt

Cuttingboard.com

Ecom Crew's Facebook Page

Shopify

Adespresso

Klaviyo

eCommerceFuel Live

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

Hey there this is Mike, I’m on my own today, with some really useful information about Facebook ads. So, Facebook is a great way to move your business away from Amazon and build your own platform. Now, Grant and I will talk about Facebook Ads more in depth sometime in January.

However, today I want to talk about some really easy Facebook ad types that have really worked well for me and ColorIt.

Hey, it's Mike again with another solo episode. Grant can't join us today, but he'll be back with us soon. Today I want to talk more about ColorIt's holiday planning. The last time I talked about this I talked about our promotions and our discounts. Today I want to share how all that work paid off for ColorIt these last few weeks.

• ColorIt's Thanksgiving Sale.
• Our best sales days during the holiday.
• ColorIt's 12 Days of Christmas promotion.
• Why you should have narrow holiday sales, instead of site-wide sales.
• My EcommerceFuel talk and their new website.
• How to get involved with us over Facebook.

So, that's our super short episode today. Again if you want to catch our live episodes of these podcasts while we record them, then like our Facebook page.

Resources Mentioned Today:

Ecom Crew Facebook Page

eCommerceFuel

ColorIt.com

12 Days of Christmas Promotion

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

Grant is back with us today and we are going to continue our series on How to Get Off Amazon. Today's episode is part 3. Part 1 was when we discussed PPC (pay per click) ads. Part 2 we discussed the role SEO (search engine optimization) in getting your own site noticed away from Amazon.

Part 3 of this topic is how to use Facebook ads to build an audience. Today we're going to talk about why people don't use Facebook ads and how to find your audience in an ocean of Facebook users.

Today's Topics:

• How Cyber Monday went for us.
• The 2 reasons people don't use Facebook ads.
• The mistake most ecommerce founders make with Facebook ads.
• What is interruption marketing?
• How banner ads have changed.
• Mike's strategy of targeting his audience.
• Grant's strategy of targeting his audience.
• How to market to a niche.

Next time we're going to discuss part 4 of How to Get Off Amazon. Part 4 will be about how to create value for your audience. Mike will also revisit this topic with the best performing Facebook ads. Remember we do a live podcast on our Facebook page every Monday, If you like our Facebook page at Facebook.com/ecomcrew you can join us for the episodes.

Resources Mentioned Today:

Colorit

Cuttingboard.com

Ecom Crew Facebook Page

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

Grant is back with us today and we are going to continue our series on How to Get Off Amazon. Today’s episode is part 3. Part 1 was when we discussed PPC (pay per click) ads. Part 2 we discussed the role SEO (search engine optimization) in getting your own site noticed away from Amazon.

Part 3 of this topic is how to use Facebook ads to build an audience. Today we’re going to talk about why people don’t use Facebook ads and how to find your audience in an ocean of Facebook users.

Hey this is Mike, I'm going to be doing a solo podcast today. Grant had business to tend to, so we're going to put a hold on our series about Getting Off Amazon. Instead, I'm going to talk about ColorIt and our plans for the holiday season. This episode may be a little late to the party, but there is still some value in it.

We at ColorIt started planning for the holidays at least 6 months ago. So these plans have been in the works for a while. I'll give you some tips I learned from ColorIt's first holiday season and what sort of promotions and deals you can expect from ColorIt this holiday season.

Today's Topics:

• Why you should start planning for the holidays 6 months out.
• How to avoid running out of inventory.
• Remember to stock up through Chinese New Year.
• My ECommerceFuel Live Talk
• Our holiday lead magnet on ColorIt.
• How we use Facebook in our marketing.
• Our Black Friday information.
• The 12 Days of Christmas Promotion
• The importance of Organic Engagement.

Remember we do a live podcast on our Facebook page every Monday, If you like our Facebook page at Facebook.com/ecomcrew you can join us for the episodes.

Resources Mentioned Today:

ECommerceFuel Live Conference

Ecom Crew Facebook Page

ColorIt

ColorIt.com/christmas

ColorIt.com/pages/bfcm2016

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

Today we discuss part 2 of how to move your traffic off Amazon. Last time we discussed the reasons why you should want to move off Amazon.

Today's topic is SEO (Search Engine Optimization.) Now, SEO is tricky stuff and you can get in trouble really quick. We discuss our background in SEO and how to do everything "white hat."

Topics we covered today:

• A recap of part 1 of this topic.
• Grant's business update.
• Mike's business update.
• Why leaving Amazon is difficult.
• The struggles of 3PLS and other shipping issues.
• Why you shouldn't "black hat" SEO.
• The usefulness of PPC (Pay Per Click.)
• The downside of Ebay.
• Grant's SEO tips.
• How you get what you pay for in SEO.
• Why you shouldn't expect overnight results from SEO.
• Why most people don't understand SEO.
• Mike's SEO advice.
• Why you need to be an expert on your business.
• Why we emphasize SEO.
• The role of marketing in your business.
• Mike's plans with Wal-Mart.
• Retail business vs. Online business
• What to expect in parts 3 and 4.

There are some grey areas with SEO, but hopefully our episode will convince you to leave that stuff alone. This series has been expanded to 4 parts. We will continue to record these episodes on Facebook Live, so if you want like our page on Facebook, you can watch our live streams and talk to us after the episode.

Resources Mentioned During Today's Episode:

Icewraps.com

Colorit.com

Cuttingboard.com

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

Welcome to our 50th episode! We were going to do this episode on Facebook Live, but there were technical difficulties. Hopefully we'll be back on Facebook Live for part two of this topic, but for today, our topic is a part one of how to get your traffic away from Amazon.

We have talked about Amazon before and the highs and the lows of selling on the platform Today's Amazon is so different from the first phase of users back in the day. This new phase on Amazon requires some business chops. There have been some significant changes to the system and those changes aren't good for the little guy.

That's why we are going to discuss the methods of creating a consumer base without Amazon. This will be at least a two parter, but a third may come out of it. So if you're interested in building your business off Amazon, give this episode a listen.

The topics we covered today:

• The changes Amazon has made to their shipping and other changes.
• The problem with Amazon's personal brand and what that means for the competition.
• Why building on Amazon is like building on quicksand.
• How our predictions for Amazon are coming true.
• Why you need to build your traffic away from Amazon.
• How to get your traffic off Amazon.
• The problems with PPC. (Pay Per Click Advertising?)
• How to use PPC.
• The pitfalls of bidding on keywords.
• Why it's hard to go from an Amazon based business to a "regular business."
• How regular business is easier to defend off Amazon.

We plan to be back on Facebook Live the next episode. Tune in for Episode 2 on this topic next week. We will talk about how to think differently about building traffic away from Amazon and other tools we would use to do it. If you want to ask any questions, or if you need examples of how we use PPC, then just leave a comment for us.

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

This episode marks Ecom Crew's one year anniversary on the podcast! We want to thank you for listening and supporting us over this past year. Today's episode we are going to talk about common questions we get asked about our business. This was our first Facebook Live episode, so if you want to interact with us during an episode, follow us on Facebook and watch us live on Mondays.

We have learned a lot about entrepreneurship over the years. All we can say that the biggest lesson boils down to 3 little words, "just do it." We discuss how we came to this realization and why you just can't be afraid.

Today's Points:

• Why hard work and tenaciousness are the only way to make a business work.
• Why so many people shy away from ecommerce.
• The importance of being willing to learn from mistakes.
• How the right people make all the difference.
• Grant's early hard lessons.
• Why it is impossible to work with friends.'
• Mike's early on mistakes.
• Why you should do something uncomfortable.
• Mike's talk at ECF Live
• The virtue of stubbornness.
• Why it's a waste of time trying to plan everything ahead of time.
• Having unrealistic expectations.
• The pitfalls of growing a business.

Resources Mentioned Today:

ECommerceFuel Live Conference

Ecom Crew Facebook Page

Colorit

Cuttingboard.com

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!