The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

Have you ever thought about starting a Kickstarter campaign? Do you wonder how some people seem to have cracked the code on crowdfunding? If so, we've got an fantastic episode for you.

Jeff Sheldon set a goal to raise $18,000 and ended up with over $430K in pre-orders. In this episode, he unpacks the details of his recent blowout Kickstarter campaign. Jeff shares what it takes to hit a crowdfunding home run and how to avoid some unexpected consequences of Kickstarter success. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• Talking the talk: The Kickstarter Process 5:40
• What set Gather apart from others on Kickstarter? 6:27
• Building Mass Effect: How to tease your product on Instagram 9:51
• Off to the Races: The first day of the Kickstarter campaign 11:30
• Discovering Super Backers and their value on Kickstarter 14:06
• The Facebook ROAS of Super Backers 15:50
• How much time was spent just on your Kickstarter video? 17:04
• The Future of UgMonk 19:59
• What they don't tell you: The downsides of running a Kickstarter campaign 22:56
• Recovering funds: Where did all the backers go? 24:52
• Where is Gather now in the production cycle?: 27:15
• Productivity hacks: What Jeff uses to stay on task 29:03

Links and Resources:

• Dropbox paper
• Help Scout
• www.Ugmonk.com
• Facebook - UgMonk
• Twitter - UgMonk
• Instagram - UgMonk
• Jeff (at) UgMonk.com

Does it ever seem like there are brands out there who just have it figured out?

It's easy to look at other businesses and think "wow, they are crushing it" without realizing the work they put in to get there. Today, we talk about the work. Chris Lynch is a talented entrepreneur out of San Diego who's built a growing lifestyle brand called Everyday California. Life is good. But as he tells us in today's episode, it hasn't always been IPAs and sunny days. He's hustled, he's made mistakes and he's continued to iterate on his original ideas before finally getting to a point where growth is coming easy. In today's episode, we share a real life story of how EveryDay California spread its wings.

Do you struggle to get an ROI on Facebook?

You're not alone. In this episode, Jeremy Roberts shares how he's been able to grow his business while operating in the hyper-competitive space of women's clothing. What can you do when all your competitors are venture backed? Jeremy shares what has worked for him.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• The under estimated power of lifecycle marketing
• How he used direct mail for a massive ROI
• The mindset shift that let his business grow

Links / Resources

The Brand Growth Intensive - www.brandgrowthexperts.com/intensive

What's going on with Facebook's new analytics dashboard? Is it time to ditch Google Analytics? We'll tell you that and more in this latest episode. This is your unofficial breakdown on how to use Facebook Analytics to help grow your business.

Interview Highlights

• 1:30 The new Facebook analytics package overview
• 2:05 Why is this topic important to our listeners?
• 6:00 How many people have the analytics dashboard and who is using it?
• 7:14 People vs. pixel-based marketing…
• 10:05 How to make an impact on your business with FB analytics
• 15.09 The NEW-NEW stuff – building custom dashboards
• 17:18 Helpful examples for building dashboards
• 19:47 How to optimize with "Breakdowns"
• 22:30 How do the analytic results affect the way you serve ads?
• 25:31 How does the new FB platform help with event de-bugging?
• 28:30 Inside the mind of Andrew Foxwell…last minute tips!

Have you worked with Influencers to grow your business? Or thought about doing it?

This episode spills the beans with a real-life case study on how Blenders Eyewear used "Influencers" to help them grow to mid 7 figures. We cover both the big picture of whether or not you should use influencers, as well as the nitty gritty behind the scenes of how to make it work.

Interview Highlights

• How do you track success?
• How do you find Influencers?
• How do you manage the process?
• How much do Influencers cost?

Links / Resources

• BlendersEyewear.com

In this weeks episode, we share some of the big discoveries we've made on Facebook.

As you know, Facebook changes quickly and this episode is designed to give you a flash briefing on what is currently working for our clients.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• The current value of social proof (a Facebook hack)
• The Facebook Pixel's increasing IQ
• Large audiences and how they are changing the way you bid

Links / Resources

1. Foxwell Digital (Andrew's website)

If you've been a listener to the Ecommerce Influence podcast over the last year, you know our release schedule has been inconsistent, to say the least.

My wife and I went on an extended working honeymoon through Asia for about 6 months and during that time recording episodes took a back seat. The good news is that we're back and I have a bunch of solid episodes coming your way. This is our first episode in quite some time. Tune in to hear where we've been, what we have in store for the new show, and get to know my new podcast co-host, Andrew Foxwell. I'm excited to be back in the saddle and to bring you some of our best new training yet.

Links / Resources

1. Foxwell Digital (Andrew's website)

Drew Sanocki of Nerd Marketing joins Austin to discuss some advanced email marketing strategies for your ecommerce brand.

We go DEEP with some strategies that are working for 8-figure retailers including specific examples you can copy.

We also announce a very unique opportunity – [The 2-Day Brand Growth Implementation Intensive](http://www.brandgrowthexperts.com/intensive/) – a live event unlike anything you've attended before, hosted by Drew and Austin.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• The big shift that turned Drew's first big Ecommerce retailer around.
• The role email marketing has played in Austin's Ecommerce career.
• The benefit of fixed costs in email marketing.
• Typical list management issues that Austin discovers while consulting.
• Benchmarks for desktop and mobile opt-in rates.
• Responding to pop-up concerns.
• Segmentation and targeting: sending the right messaging to the right customer at the right time.
• "Good dog" and "Bad dog" automated emails.
• The only thing holding companies back from succeeding with these strategies? They don't actually implement them.
• Drew and Austin are hosting an intensive email marketing workshop.

Links / Resources

• 1Apply for a spot in Drew and Austin's Intensive Email Marketing Workshop.
• NerdMarketing.com

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Want more results? Want to know how to get those better results through your Facebook ads, Instagram ads and other unique ways of retargeting to your audience?

Get a detailed step by step look at the process you need to go through to start retargeting for your ecommerce business. We'll show you how to use retargeting as an elegant tool to accomplish different goals at each stage of your sales funnel.

Michael is an expert in online ads and walks us through the terminology, how to use them, when to use retargeting and what you need to start doing when you're done listening to the show.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• Advanced Retargeting Skills
• How to Think of your Funnel Differently.
• What TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU are.
• The right messaging to use in your funnels.
• How to better maximize social media ads
• Split your large list into several smaller lists.
• What is working right now for ecommerce businesses.

Links / Resources

• Search Scientist's Blog
• Traction by Gina Wickman
• OPTYMZER
• Click Here for the Transcript

Subscribe & Review

To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available, you can easily subscribe by clicking on either one of the subscribe buttons below:

Need help figuring out how to build your team and then lead that team? You'll learn how to implement content marketing into your process of actively engineering opportunities for your customers to return to your website in this week's episode.

Today, James Schramko of Superfastbusiness.com joins us as we're breaking down highly effective traffic and conversion strategies to help you grow your ecommerce business from seven to eight figures and above.

James shares his experiences with recurring revenue and content marketing, so you can implement these concepts into your ecommerce business.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• Content marketing
• Recurring Revenue – Netflix, amazon are all doing it.
• How to increase frequency of opportunities for your consumers to buy.
• Identify through your consumer base and analytics who is repeat purchasing.
• Ways to actively engineer future sales.
• Pay attention to where your website visitors are spending their time.
• Provide further education to your existing customers
• Importance of having a team and learning to let go of certain roles.

Links / Resources

• Superfastbusiness.com
• Dollar Shave Club
• Ezra Firestone's Episode
• John O'Conner's Episode
• Simplify by Richard Koch and Greg Lockwood
• Ask – Part 2 by Ryan Levesque
• Click Here for the Transcript

Subscribe & Review

To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available.