The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.” – W. Edwards Deming

Today we’re going to be continuing our 3 part series on email marketing for ecommerce. This episode is going to focus on maximizing profit through generating repeat sales.

If you haven’t listened to the first two episodes I’d recommend you start there.

The Silent Power of Email Marketing Part 1: Generating Leads

The Silent Power of Email Marketing Part 2: Activating Subscribers

In this third episode, I’m going to be sharing 5 tips to help you gain more repeat customers.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• Why you shouldn’t send an email until you determine what your ideal outcome is
• How to structure and build a win-back campaign
• What a VIP campaign can do for your bottom line
• How to cross sell your customers with complimentary products
• The power of an automated birthday campaign

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.

102: THE SILENT POWER OF EMAIL MARKETING PT. 2

Posted by Austin Brawner on January 9, 2016

Having a large email list is great. You know what’s even better? A large customer list. In this episode I’ll show you how.

Today we’re going to be continuing our 3 part series on email marketing for ecommerce. If you haven’t listened to the first episode I’d recommend you start there.

The Silent Power of Email Marketing Part 1: Generating Leads

This episode is going to focus on activating subscribers. If you haven’t listened to the first episode, I would rewind it back and start there.

In this episode I’m going to give you 5 strategies to help you turn your subscribers into customers.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• Why you should create a welcome sequence that is 100% different than what your customers get.
• How to set up an escalating sequence of emails to maximize the chance of a purchase.
• How to maximize sales by setting up trigger emails based on product views to increase propensity to buy.
• How to segment your abandoned cart program to incentivize first time purchasers.
• Why you should use evergreen time sensitive offers to drive sales.

Links/Resources

• Klaviyo

We're diving into email marketing this month, a topic that we all know we should focus on but rarely do.

You might have seen this but we recently sent out a survey and this was by far what you all wanted to learn more about so we're going to do a short series talking all about this over the next weeks (make sure to join the email list to stay up to date).

We'll talk about the 3 buckets of email marketing (prospects, subscribers, and customers) and how you should approach each segment.

Can't figure out how to turn a prospect into a subscriber? We'll dive into it around the 8 minute mark. Learn the framework you can use to create an irresistible offer and then how to get that in front of people. One of the best ways is a pop up.

We'll dive into the 4 different types of pop ups so you can figure out what is right for you.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• The 3 buckets to focus on in email marketing.
• Ideas to better engage prospects.
• How to find your irresistible offer
• If you should use a pop up or not.
• 4 Different type of pop ups you can use.

Links / Resources

• JustUno.com
• Sumo.me is a really good value
• Optin Monster - By Syed Balkhi
• Bounce Exchange
• Optimonk.com
• ExitIntel.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.

We can talk about & analyze business all we want on this show, but at the end of the day the force of life is the drive for fulfillment; so start something that matters.

This episode is a celebration of our 100th episode together and we thought it was a perfect time to discuss how we were able to find and start something that mattered deeply to us, and how you can, too.

In this episode we open up about our process for finding and starting something that matters, the insights we've gained since our beginnings two years ago, and how this episode signifies major changes in the business and some smaller changes to this podcast.

It's one of the more authentic episodes we've done and we think it'll be able to help you figure out how to start something that matters...or recalibrate what you're already doing to make it matter more.

Thanks for joining us on episode 100!

Key Takeaways from the Show

• The two spiritual needs that humans need satisfied for lifelong fulfillment
• How to find something that matters before actually starting it
• How to actually start something that matters
• Why "finding a need and filling it" is the wrong way to go when you want to start something that matters
• Why the business you'll start won't be the business you have
• What we've learned in the process and how you can apply it to your business

Whether you're an experienced ecommerce store owner, or just getting started, knowing how to choose the best ecommerce platform for your business is crucial to your success.

When it comes to choosing a platform to build any business on, the best companies, like MVMT Watches, Heist, and Mizzen + Main, choose a platform based on what's best for them 5 years from now, not what's best today.

And if you're looking to start, or grow, an ecommerce business then making sure you have the right platform for your growth will be one of the most important business decisions you'll make.

Today's guest, Dylan Whitman of BVAccel, has been in the ecommerce space for 10+ years, which is like dinosaur years when it comes to ecommerce.

And when you consider his client list of Red Bull, Daymond John from Shark Tank, MVMT Watches, Heist, Mizzen + Main and more, then you know it's smart to heed his advice.

His past and present experiences with all types of ecommerce platforms will guide you in making the right decision for your business.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• How to choose the best ecommerce platform for your business.
• The differences between Magento, Shopify, Shopify Plus, and the other platforms available.
• How he would design his own ecommerce store based on the tests he's run for his clients.
• The next level beyond your virtual staffing foundation
• The biggest mistakes ecommerce store owners make and how to avoid them.

Links / Resources

• BVAccel's Website
• Dylan's Twitter
• Dylan's LinkedIn
• Ecommerce Influence Insider

It's not everyday that you can get advice for growing your ecommece business from someone who has built and sold a $20MM per year store by the age of 22.

But in this episode, that's exactly what we get. Mike Zhang is the original founder of Airsoft Megastore, an ecommerce site that was said to be generating $20MM in revenue per year at the time of it's sale in 2012.

What started off as a small eBay project for Mike ended up turning into a full-fledged ecommerce business, one that has garnered him numerous entrepreneurial awards including Bloomberg 25 under 25 and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year finalist.

He has a wealth of experience in ecommerce, and business in general, at the ripe old age of 25.

In this episode he lays out some of his best advice for growing your ecommerce business to where you want it to go.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• What it's like to get started in ecommerce at the age of 13
• How he grew Airsoft Megastore to $20MM
• How to incorporate systems into your business to eliminate wasted time and take your site to the next level
• What experiences he's taking from Airsoft Meagastore and how he's applying them to his new company, DripClub
• Mike's best advice to his 20 year old self and how you can use it when growing your ecommerce business

Links / Resources

• Mike Zhang LinkedIn
• Retail Ops
• Drip Club
• Ecommerce Influence Insider

Are you tired of the chasing down one-time transactions? Do you want more predictable revenue? Then a subscription ecommerce model might be what you need.

Just because you sell sunglasses or messenger bags or some other kind of apparel doesn't mean a subscription ecommerce model won't work for your business. In fact, it's quite likely that it will work for you...once you make a small mindset shift.

This is a special episode for us as it brings us back to our humble beginnings. Both of us planted our entrepreneurial roots and cut our marketing chops at Sean's company HUMAN Healthy Vending. Without this experience, we wouldn't have been able to successfully grow our business in the way that we have.

It's amazing how things come full circle now as we chat with Sean about how they've been able to take their healthy snack delivery business and apply the subscription ecommerce model to be able to grow 10x in just 9 months.

What's even more incredible is that they've taken an outbound sales team approach that you find in typical b2b/c businesses and applied it to ecommerce, which they credit much of their massive success to. It's a bit counterintuitive when you think about ecommerce in the typical way, but that's why this podcast is awesome.

It gave us a chance to learn of new, out of the box ways to grow an ecommerce company.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• How and why they chose a subscription ecommerce model for their business
• Why content plays such a big role in their success and the detrimental risks you face not doing it in your business
• How to use an outbound sales team to grow a subscription ecommrece model business by 15x
• How to produce massive amounts of quality content without doing all the work yourself
• Why the "membership economy" is the future of ecommerce

How would it feel to go from working 14 hours per day 6 days a week to working 6 hours per day and not working Fridays? Working with a virtual staff can make that promised-land a reality.

If a self-proclaimed "micro-managing, pain in the butt boss" can do it, then so can you.

Virtual staffing is no longer considered a new concept thanks to Tim Ferriss's 2007 book "The Four-Hour Workweek", but knowing how to hire, train, and manage a fully functioning and efficient virtual staff seems like a new concept to many.

Lucky for us, Chris Ducker, the virtual staffing expert, joins the show to talk about working with a virtual staff, the type of mindset you need to build a virtual team, how to determine what your staff should be doing, how to take your business to the next level with virtual staffing, and much more.

Give it a listen and learn how you can go from 14 hour days to 6...and no Fridays.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• How to execute the "Three Lists to Freedom" exercise
• The one mindset shift you need to make to start working with a virtual staff successfully
• How building a virtual team has changed and where it's heading
• The next level beyond your virtual staffing foundation

Links / Resources

• Chris Ducker's Website
• Chris Ducker's Twitter
• Virtual Freedom Book
• Ecommerce Influence Insider

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.

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.

You might not be the right type of person to start an ecommerce business from scratch, so maybe you should buy an ecommerce business instead.

The amount of time, energy, money and sacrifice it takes to build a business from the ground up can be exhausting (we know first hand), so why not skip all of that and buy an ecommerce business that is already established?

To be honest, we never really considered the benefits of buying an already established business, but after talking with David Newell of FE International we've been convinced that buying an ecommerce business might actually be a better option than starting from scratch.

In this episode, David will cover the 4 main reasons why you should buy an ecommerce business, including a few reasons we never thought about and now have us considering it. He'll also cover the 6 areas you need to focus your due diligence process on so that you can make sure you're not getting hosed when negotiating with the seller.

Oh, and if you're thinking about selling this would be a great episode to listen to so that you know exactly how a buyer is thinking and the steps they're going to take (with the help of their broker) to make sure you business is legit and worth the investment.

Key Takeaways from the Show

• The 4 reasons why you should buy an ecommerce business instead of starting one from scratch.
• How to know if you're type of person who should be buying
• The 6 key tenets to robust due diligence when buying an ecommerce business
• The biggest mistakes most first-time buyers make and how to avoid them
• How to find financing when you want to buy an ecommerce business

Links / Resources

• FE International
• David Newell on Twitter
• David's Advanced Guide to Buying

It's been about a year and a half since since we started the podcast and countless experts have joined the show to provide us with incredible insights into building a successful ecommerce business.

The question is, which ones should you be focusing on?

We thought it would be the perfect time take the thousands of ideas, tips, and tricks we've learned and flesh out the top 7 things we've learned about building a successful ecommerce business so that you can focus on the most important things now, while helping you better plan for your business's future. It was tough for us to choose just 7 so know that our recommendations here do not come lightly. [player]

Key Takeaways from the Show

• A breakdown of the top 7 things we've learned about building a successful ecommerce business
• The main difference between a real business and a job you created for yourself
• Predicting the end of most ecommerce businesses
• Why you're not as important to your business as you think (and why you want it that way)
• The traffic strategy that the biggest and best ecommerce companies use that you might be ignoring

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.

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.