The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

This was one of my favorite episodes to record in the last year. I've often struggled with work-life balance and am no stranger to trying things that haven't worked. This week we bring you a refreshing interview with my friend Victor Delacruz about the ups and downs of entrepreneurial life.

Victor Delacruz is the founder and owner of ChristianPlanner.com. Victor shares his journey as an ecommerce entrepreneur - from youth pastor to Air Force Captain to Jazz Piano student at NYU to the business owner he is now.

Victor talks about the benefits of having a solid daily routine for optimizing your personal and professional life, and the importance for finding what works best for you. He shares the challenges he has faced within his personal and professional life, and the game-changer tactic he used for growing his email list, gathering customer testimonials, and getting tons of user-generated content that was repurposed for social ads and a successful Kickstarter campaign.

• 5:28 The path to success sometimes starts with a journey towards failure.

• 13:04 How Victor came to the decision to start again after his many setbacks.

• 13:26 Step 1: Doing the research and understanding the audience size and opportunity in front of him.

• 14:30 Why the key to a great ecommerce site starts with a simple name.

• 16:00 How a single open ended question in the first email of Christian Planner's email sequence lead to hundreds of responses and the growth of the brand.

• 17:40 This is how Christian Planner gathered user generated content to create a video that helped them raise money, gain followers, increase email subscribers and new product ideas.

• 28:18 The one thing that Victor learned in the military that has helped him grow in his business.

• 32:00 Exploring neurofeedback, floating and other methods to get a mental edge in a distracting online world.

• 38:15 The daily routine that helps Victor stay on track and the "have-to-dos" that he uses to measures his growth & success

• Christianplanner.com

• 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

• Gleam.io

• Joe Rogan Experience

• Instagram.com/VictorDelacruz

Do you want to be ahead of the curve when it comes to testing new Facebook advertising strategies? Then this episode is for you.

We're always looking for ways to increase Facebook ad performance and drive more revenue, and today Andrew shares four things he recently learned that are having a big impact for his clients.

We cover how to use value bid optimization to target not only the people most likely to convert, but also the people who are most likely to give you highest return on ad spend, the importance of experimenting with your bidding windows within conversion campaigns, how to set up better social proofing tied to your product catalog ads, and how to review your customer lifetime value within Facebook analytics in order to test the effectiveness of your campaigns.

• 3:18 The value of ROAS optimization and why you might just want to give it a chance.
• 6:20 When you should be adjusting your bidding window to increase scaling opportunities.
• 8:45 Why tagging a product AND social proofing your ads is a double dose for success.
• 10:55 Facebook's Lifetime Value analytics and how this data is a game changer for growing the value of your customers over time.
• 13:54 The key formula for growing your business in ecommerce.
• 14:13 How you can test a few of Andrew's findings on email as well.

• Jonloomer.com
• Klaviyo.com
• If you're looking to scale your ecommerce business, visit BrandGrowthExperts.com and see how we can help!

Do you want to know what it really takes to build a $100 million business and brand? Then this episode is for you.

Building a successful multi-million dollar business is a marathon, not a sprint. Jake Kassan, founder and CEO of MVMT Watches, was one of my first clients when he was just launching the brand back in 2013. He joins us today to talk about how things have changed since then, and how MVMT has grown to what it is today.

MVMT strives to be a best in class brand and best in class in all around marketing, and Jake shares the strategic approach to marketing MVMT uses to achieve those goals. He also talks about how having a strong team is essential to scaling your business and shares his experience hiring a CMO and supporting team, and what you need to know to do it.

• 7:48 How building relationships with customers through direct sales online helped MVMT scale.
• 10:25 The best success comes in stages and this it what each stage of growth has looked like for MVMT over the last 5 years.
• 12:15 Jake's #1 tip for successfully scaling a business (hint: it's not email or Facebook ads).
• 13:42 What MVMT would do differently if they had to do it all over again.
• 18:12 As an entrepreneur, Jake believes it's important to always be testing and working through those results to find success.
• 19:25 The basic math MVMT used to scale in the beginning and how they look at "spending-money-to-make-money" now.
• 21:30 Where MVMT is testing for acquisition and where they're seeing success.
• 25:23 What you need to know when growing your team so you can successfully scale your business.
• 30:10 How MVMT solidified their appeal with customers through user-generated content.
• 33:40 What Jake loves most about building a lifestyle brand.
• 36:41 Every business goes through low times, here's a few MVMT went through in order to grow.
• 42:20 Why Jake feels it's so important to network with and learn from other founders.

• MVMT Watches
• Hims
• Jake Kassan
• Instagram.com/JakeKassan
• Twitter.com/JakeKassan

Are you frustrated with the increased competition on Facebook's mobile news feed? Are you struggling with rising advertising costs and want to maximize your spend as effectively as possible? Then this episode is for you.

Andrew shares two simple Facebook ad strategies that will get you more bang for your buck and help you compete on the news feed. He also talks about where on Instagram you need to be testing ads, if you're not already, and the great success he's seeing with his clients.

• 2:29 Things we've noticed recently regarding the newsfeed that are affecting your ads.
• 3:15 Are you testing your product catalog in a top of funnel ads? Here's why you should.
• 5:58 How to visually set up product catalog ads to make them most effective.
• 9:55 Still haven't tried Broad Match Ads? Here's how to set them up for success.
• 11:50 Why your ad copy is so important for getting the best ROAS possible.
• 12:30 If you're not testing Instagram stories you're likely missing out on a 4x return on ad spend.

• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Have you been wondering about the impact Facebook's recent data privacy issues will have on digital marketing? Do you want to know what you need to do to get your ads in front of the right audience as social advertising continues to evolve? Then this episode is for you.

Master digital marketer Molly Pittman joins us to talk about all things Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. She discusses the three key things you need to launch a successful ad campaign as competition and costs continue to rise, the positive outcome she hopes to see from Facebook following the Zuckerberg hearings, and how to stay relevant as messenger continues to grow as an important advertising platform.

• 4:20 Understanding the current state of advertising on social media.
• 7:20 The future of digital will include more informed consumers and a more regulated digital space.
• 10:22 The best way to combat rising ad costs may lie within your offer.
• 13:30 Why research and this free web tool (hint: you likely use it every day) are so important to the success of your ads.
• 15:53 Did you pick up on this during Facebook's Congressional hearings? This is where Facebook is likely headed with advertising.
• 19:10 We are only at the infancy of marketing as we know it and here's why.
• 20:33 Communication with marketers may be the next big step for improving Facebook.
• 21:49 Why Messenger is the next frontier for Facebook.
• 25:39 So what about Instagram? Here's how it will likely grow in the digital advertising space.
• 29:14 Why ManyChat isn't worried that Facebook will create its own bot.
• 33:22 What you should be doing to sustain your marketing mix for Q2.
• 37:30 Molly's workflow for creating great Facebook ads and which step she spends the most time on.

• Digital Strategy Bootcamps
• Digital Marketer

Today we're launching our first FLASH episode! These shorter, bite-sized episodes will have actionable tips and takeaways you can easily implement in your business that will start driving immediate results. We love interviewing experts in the ecommerce space, and will still share those interviews every other week, but also want to offer content that will give you some quick wins.

In today's episode we talk about three common mistakes I see almost all of my clients making with their email marketing. You'll learn: which setting must be turned off in your browse and abandoned cart campaigns to prevent you from missing out on $100s (if not $1000s) in sales, the importance of list segmentation and how to avoid ending up in the spam box, and why opt-in rate isn't the best metric for measuring the success of your offers, and what you should measure instead.

• 4:45 The importance of making sure the Smart Sending Feature is properly set so you're not leaving money on the table
• 7:00 Why it is so important to be segmenting and sending emails to your engaged audiences
• 8:30 How sending emails to those who are inactive on your email list can get you put in the spam box
• 9:36 When it comes to measuring your email list, this is the metric you should be using
• 10:12 Why it is so important to not just review the number of opt-ins you get, but how they opted in and when/how often they converted after that

• The Daily Podcast
• My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast
• Brandgrowthexperts.com/intensive
• [email protected]

Running an online business can be a lonely endeavor. It's easy to second guess yourself if you don't have other business owners to connect with. Have you ever wished you could find out how other companies are managing their growth? In today's episode, we get the inside scoop on what's working (and what's not) at the fast-growing gifting startup Greetabl.

Joe Fischer, the Founder of Greetabl, joins us today to talk about what worked for him as he grew his business from an idea to an industry. Joe talks about which marketing channels have worked best to fuel Greetabl's growth, how to hire quality talent as you scale (even if you're in a small town), the reality behind fundraising for your business, and the five key areas ecommerce brands need to focus on to see ongoing, sustained growth in the coming years.

• 9:16 How Greetabl got in front of people to grow their business
• 11:18 The campaign that Greetabl is excited about launching (Note: print marketing is not dead)
• 15:45 Thinking about bringing everything in house? Here is how Greetabl is weighing those costs as a positive
• 18:49 How to hire quality talent even if you are small business just starting to scale
• 22:24 What ecommerce businesses can be doing to maintain sustained growth through 2018 and into 2019
• 25:20 Who Greetabl views as their competition and how they address competition as a whole
• 30:27 How to raise capital for you business and the secret sauce you will need to do it.
• 33:37 The best ads that are crushing it for Greetabl right now
• 38:44 Email does it. The Campaigns that are delivering great ROI for Greetabl
• 43:45 The tools and tactics Joe uses to balance life & work

• Asana
• Both Sides of the Table Blog
• Effective executive
• Ecommerce Influence Episode 135 with Sebastian Marshall
• Getting Things Done
• ToDoist

• [email protected]
• Twitter.com/TheJoeFischer

Are you an ecommerce business owner who's managing your own Facebook ads? Do you want a breakdown of the best tactics to implement right now that'll help you create and run ads that convert? Then this episode is for you.

Dive deep into Facebook Ads with Justin Marshall, from Ad Hoc Media. He talks about specific targeting strategies, optimization tactics for each part of the sales funnel, how to scale and ramp up your ads, and where he's seeing surprising success (hint: it's not with the typical CTA button ads).

• 4:35 How Facebook advertising has changed and the ad type that's out-performing traditional ads.
• 6:25 The resources that Justin uses to keep up with ongoing Facebook ad changes.
• 8:13 Automated Rules: What they are and how you can better use them in your Facebook campaigns.
• 10:45 Why thinking like the algorithm can improve your ads performance.
• 11:25 How having a higher average order value can improve ad testing and overall success.
• 14:31 What Justin looks for in a brand before helping them successfully scale with Facebook ads.
• 18:36 How to properly structure audience overlap, and why you shouldn't be so concerned about your ads competing with each other.
• 25:33 The counterintuitive objective structure that is actually working.
• 29:16 How boosting organic posts has actually helped deliver a 10x return for some clients.
• 31:39 Have your ads started to flop? Justin's method for overcoming this and getting ads to correctly scale.
• 36:38 The difference between Broad Match and general broad audiences and how they are both helping find new customers for brands.
• 39:34 The most common mistakes you're likely making with managing your ads.

• Jon Loomer - PHC
• Facebook Blueprint
• MuteSix - Spend $10k A Day Podcast
• Facebook Ads Manager/Power Editor Users (Unofficial) Group
• Reveal Bot
• Smartly.io

• AdHocMedia.co
• Justin At Adhocmedia.co
• Twitter.com/JBenMarshall

Are you currently advertising on Facebook, and unsure what next steps to take to start scaling your business? Do you ever wonder whether other entrepreneurs actually see success after listening to our podcast and attending our Intensives? We know talk is cheap, which is why we invited one of our listeners to join us today to share what he's learned, and implemented, after working with us.

Mark Arruda, owner and CEO of Constantly Varied Gear, is a long-time podcast listener and previous attendee of both the Email and Facebook Intensives. He joins Andrew and Gracie Foxwell to chat about Facebook advertising, including how he's using Facebook messenger ads to get people into his sales funnel and make conversions, the creative way he's developing lookalike audiences to expand reach and scale, and his favorite tip from the Facebook Intensive that's driving major engagement and social proof.

• 3:40 Here's how to use what Mark calls an interest based lookalike
• 7:00 This one tip from the intensive is like social proofing on steroids, plus Austin's power-up move at 9:50
• 10:45 Why you should be testing the bid optimization to capture the most relevant results
• 11:30 How segmenting your lookalike audiences may be beneficial to your brand's success
• 13:15 If you're running dynamic product ads, this is why you should also be doing a broad match DPA
• 16:40 Taking an inside look at what CVG's chat flow for messenger ads looks like
• 21:24 How testing with messenger bots doesn't need to be scary or too expensive
• 24:25 These are the creative ad types that are working for CVG that you can be testing too

• Constantly Varied Gear
• Facebook Intensive
• Email Marketing Intensive
• The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing (Facebook Group)

Have you ever wondered how to get started with Conversion Rate Optimization for your store? Do you sometimes wonder if you're leaving money on the table by not running A/B tests? If so, you're not alone.

Today, I have the legend Peep Laja of Conversion XL with me to help demystify CRO and share some practical ideas to boost your conversion rate.

Peep is an expert in CRO and runs the most successful optimization agency I know of. He was also the first person I started to learn from when I found his very successful blog.

I'm going to be at Peep's event, ConversionXL Live at the end of March. If your business is doing over $10 million a year, I consider it a must attend event. It's going to be a lot of fun, we're going to learn a bunch, and you'll be surrounded by people leading the fastest growing companies in the world.

Peep will even give you 20% off the ticket price when you use the code Ecommerceinfluence to register.

Click here to learn more and book your ticket.

• 3:20 Ready to approach conversion optimization on your site? Here's where to start.
• 5:00 The amount of time you should spend optimizing your site for conversions might surprise you.
• 8:20 Follow these steps to make sure your website has an analytics clean bill of health.
• 11:30 How to tell when your data is ready to begin analyzing and making assumptions.
• 13:10 Here is the magic number of transactions needed to A/B test and how to get there if you're not there yet.
• 16:40 This is the place that most businesses are leaving money on the table when it comes to their site and how you can dial it in.
• 21:07 These are the tools that Peep keeps in his digital tool box, and when it may be time to hire a pro.
• 26:00 All about CXL Live: March 28 - 30, 2018

• Hotjar
• Typeform
• Google Analytics