The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

The holiday season marks the height of competition for customer acquisition with the stakes rising as many online retailers rely on this time of year to make up for a lower sales year.

In this episode Erik Christiansen, CEO of Just Uno shares critical strategies on how to maximize your sales and prepare you for the holidays. He walks us through why it is important to focus on the concepts you have in place and not stop with one email but walking each customer through your entire sales funnel.

It's important (especially in the holiday season) to shop your own website and go through the shopping cart experience – if you are not already doing it today have an exit offer before the customer leaves.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• Boosting Conversions
• How to drive more sales over the holidays
• Take advantage of the new google algorithim
• Focus on your current strategies
• Difference between Pop-ups vs interstitials
• Think of your website no differently than you would a brick and mortar store.
• Ways to use engage with your customers
• What you need to know about Google approved "popups"
• Treat your desktop messages differently than your mobile messages

Links/Resources

• Justuno
• Shopify
• Example: Isle Surf

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If you're spending any money on Facebook, this episode is for you.

Andrew Foxwell goes deep into advanced Facebook advertising strategies that are working right now.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• What's working right now on Facebook?
• What worked last year but is no longer working?
• The future of Instagram and how brands can use it
• Facebook video funnels and how to use them
• How much you need to spend to learn on Facebook
• What Facebook and Instagram will look like in 5 years
• How to create custom audiences that drive conversions

Links / Resources

• Foxwell Digital
• AdEspresso
• Facebook for Business
• Jon Loomer
• Jon Loomer Power Hitter's Club
• Andrew Foxwell Twitter

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What's holding you back from reaching your goals? Chances are it's you.

John O'Connor know how to help entrepreneurs and executives make major breakthroughs in their life. He shares some of his wisdom with us today.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• How to ACTUALLY get everything you want
• Foveal vision vs peripheral vision and how to use them to your advantage
• How to program your own mind in a way that ensures you're successful
• Nootropic coffee
• Structuring your life for success
• The difference between Do. Have. Be and Be. Do. Have
• Why you need a coach
• How to avoid overwhelm and make decisions from a position of strength
• Why you should stop habits that are on autopilot

Links / Resources

• Kimera Koffee

Hear the wisdom corporate escape artist, Buck Rizvi has on growth vs fixed mindset, how to run 25 employees virtually from your own home office and the process of hiring those people.

How do you know when to keep moving forward on your current venture or business are you prepared for growth? When is it time to be done? Let go. Sell the business or just walk away?

Key Takeaways from the Show

• Why Buck believes in doing everything to maintain your reputation online
• How he's started multiple mulit-million dollar businesses after the age of 40 years old
• Growth vs. Fixed Mindset
• How to hire people using something called "the frog-kissing method"
• When to start another business and when to keep pushing forward
• When to sell your business?
• Difference between running a 7 figure and 8 figure business
• Why he one time FedEx'd a $15,000 check to one of the most legendary copywriter's of our time
• How he runs a team of 25 employees completely remote

Links / Resources

• Mindset by Carole Dweck
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
• Ice Age Meals
• I'm not Your Guru - Tony Robbins
• Sunbasket Meal Delivery

Want to learn how to grow an email list by 40,000-60,000 ever month and convert a percentage into happy paying customers?

A simple drip campaign heavy on content with an offer to educate the user online adding value consistently can give you an idea of how much money you will make each month based on the amount of emails acquired. Sound simple enough?

Hear the journey how Logan and his co-founding partner of Wine Awesomeness started the journey two years ago being a two-man show to 15 – 20 employees acquiring 40,000 to 60,000 new email addresses every month.

"If you are doing everything, you are doing nothing." Logan Lee

Key Takeaways from the Show

• Using content as your advertisement how it can keep your cost of goods down.
• How (why) to get your first angel investor
• Recurring Revenue – the pros of being able to predict your monthly income.
• Really it all comes back to learning by doing and trying things. – Trust your gut and yourself always verifying with the data while you stay focused.
• Ways to keep providing your consumers with value
• Email sales funnels and the potential they have for your company – if done the right way. (Diversifying your system of acquisition)

Links / Resources

• Wine Awesomeness
• The Back Label
• Sticher App
• Podcast Episode with The Chive
• Seeker
• Retention Science
• Dojo Mojo
• Book – Leaders Eat Last
• Contact Logan Lee

Ezra Firestone owns several seven-and eight-figure businesses. He shares his secret to dominating multiple markets, how to (instantly) upgrade your customers, and why you should never sacrifice your lifestyle.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• How to Implement Upselling
• Difference between Upselling, Down-selling and Cross-selling
• How you can use the above tactics to boost sales in your business
• 1 – Click Post Purchase Emails
• We go over Integrative Social Commerce and how it will change your online e-commerce business.

Links / Resources

• Smart Marketer
• Overcast App
• SaneBox – Get Your Free Trial
• Evergreen
• Zipify
• Boom
• Bee Friendly

Subscribe & Review

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

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously and we're very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we'll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

107: ANALYTICS WITH YEHOSHUA COREN

Google Analytics ninja Yehoshua Coren is a master of both implementation and analysis, and discusses how to develop good Google Analytics habits in order to find actionable insights for your eCommerce business.

Why pay attention to Google Analytics?

Yehoshua points out that an eCommerce business owner can't afford to not pay attention to Google Analytics, as it helps companies to think strategically about their goals, get good data to work with, and then dig into that data to gain insights. In short, you need data to set goals for improvement and then meet those goals by making thoughtful business decisions.

What should you be tracking for your business?

1. The conversion funnel: Know where people abandon their shopping carts.
2. Click-through rates on promo boxes.
3. Interactions with the customer support section and FAQ: A well structured customer support section can save money on phone and email support.
4. If you employ one-step check-out, track form abandonment and error messaging to figure out where you need to improve user experience for better engagement. (Note: To track errors, have your developers code directly into the file to send that data to Google Analytics.)

Good Google Analytics Habits

• If your data looks wrong, it probably is wrong. Don't assume that the numbers are always correct.
• Don't waste time with aimless "data wandering." Instead, come up with a hypothesis to verify against your analytics. This helps you to find insights.
• Don't get stuck in Google Analytics' standard metrics UI. Instead, pull out the data needed to create more meaningful metrics for your business and analyze it in a tool like Excel. Some key metrics to look at include: transactions per user, conversion rates by product, and revenue/profitability by channel.

And on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, he recommends the following:

Daily: Make sure nothing is out of whack. Check your Adwords spend and traffic. Look for strong changes in number of transactions or traffic sources. You can set custom alerts for some of these actions. Weekly: Same as daily, and also spend a little more time looking at merchandising performance. Monthly: Take a deep dive into landing page performance and measuring SEO.

What is propensity to buy?

Propensity to buy amounts to the following: how often are people viewing a product, how often they're adding it to their cart based on that view, and how often they're completing the purchase. Yehoshua points out that an even better metric to look at is propensity for profit by product category or brand. He notes that the easiest way to take action on this data is to boost your ad spend accordingly to support those profitable products. He also recommends uploading your cost data (i.e. impressions, clicks and costs) to Google Analytics, and then using their tools to figure out where to invest your money.

Google Analytics is a wonderful tool, but it's still just a tool. In other words, keep in mind that data in itself is worthless – there's only value in how you use that data. It's all about strategy and process, so figure out how to ask smart questions and find good answers.

Links / Resources

@AnalyticsNinja on Twitter

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:

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously and we're very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we'll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

106: BUILDING A BUSINESS WITH ANDREW YOUDERIAN

How do you go from being a product seller to a true business owner? Andrew Youderian has some insights to share from his own eight-year journey in the eCommerce world.

Andrew is the owner of eCommerce site RightChannelRadios.com and also runs eCommerceFuel.com, a private community for independent store owners.

Today we’re talking to Andrew about how to shift your mindset in order to grow a business and how to build a team you can count on, even in your absence.

He defines making the transition from product seller to business owner as being able to hire someone to do your job and still have a meaningful profit leftover. To that end, we discuss the following topics related to building out your company’s team.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• How to effectively teach your team to have a business owner’s mindset when it comes to values and customers service, and why it’s important to treat your employees the way you want customers to be treated.
• Hiring the right team by looking for people who are interested in learning the business, as opposed to just earning a paycheck.
• Determining which positions should be filled in-house and which ones can be outsourced, and how to make the most efficient use of VAs.
• Figuring out which tasks the business owner should handle and for how long, and which jobs can be outsourced early on.
• Determining the best method of communication with each of your contractors, whether it’s by phone, via email or through a project management program like Asana.

Links / Resources

• eCommerceFuel.com
• RightChannelRadios.com
• MakersRow.com

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:

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously and we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

105: WHAT FAMOUS COPYWRITERS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT WRITING COPY

Most high-paid copywriters don’t want you to believe you can write copy that sells. Not Joanna Wiebe.

Joanna is a 2 time guest of the podcast and the co-founder and copywriter at Copyhackers, a company that helps you use copy to to boost your conversions while enhancing your brand, even if you don’t like writing or you’re scared of the blank white page.

She’s also currently building a company called Airstory which is a note taking app designed to help you write copy 3x faster.

Today you’re going to learn why you are most likely the best person to write your own copy.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• Why it’s important write copy for 20% to 35% of your visitors, not 100% of them.
• What a “Competitor Content Audit” is and how you can use it to make more sales
• What a Value Proposition Table is and how you can build one for yourself
• The two sides of crafting a stellar message, and how to uncover pain points.

Links / Resources

• Our first interview with Joanna
• Airstory
• Copy Hackers Website
• Free E-Book – Stellar Messages

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:

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously and we’re very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we’ll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

HOW $100 MILLION DOLLAR COMPANIES ARE BORN

Posted by Austin Brawner on April 10, 2016

TheCHIVE is an international success story, but it wasn’t always that way. Here’s the story of how Leo Resig and his friends grew a celebrity gossip site into a $100 million dollar business.

Leo is the CEO at theCHIVE and works behind the scenes or as his brother John calls him, he’s the Oz at theChive. He built the stadium and let’s everyone else perform.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• What it’s like to sell 50,000 t-shirt shirts in 2 minutes
• Origins of theCHIVE and Keep Calm and Chive On!
• What the difference is between having 1 employee and 150+
• Business tips for entrepreneurs
• How to win in a world without internet
• The future of ecommerce and online business

Links / Resources

Chivecharities.orgTheCHIVE.com