The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

Despite the fact that ecommerce has grown 20% year over year, the ecommerce "gravy train" will be coming to a halt very soon for many ecommerce companies. If you want to keep riding then it's time to start investing in better experiences that provide value before asking for it.

Sam Mallikarjunan is the Head of HubSpot Labs and the author of the book "How To Sell Better Than Amazon".

HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers.

He is an expert ecommerce marketer and understand customer lifecycle marketing more than most thanks to his experience with inbound marketing at Hubspot.

• The ecommerce gravy train is coming to an end.
• Why cart abandonment shouldn't be considered a bad thing...if you do it right.
• What closed loop attribution means and why you need to track it
• Why customers who abandon carts actually spend more than those who don't.
• What the greatest threat to marketing is, and why it's actually the greatest asset.
• How Berretta succeeds at selling firearms online, even though they can't sell firearms online.

• Hubspot's State of Inbound Report
• Sam's Personal Site
• Sam's Twitter

To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available, you can easily subscribe below.

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

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn

We can think of very few things more important for an ecommerce business owner than determining what a customer is worth to an organization over their business lifetime, and there is no one better in the world at calculating customer lifetime value than Peter Fader.

Peter Fader is Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage.

His expertise centers around the analysis of behavioral data to understand and forecast customer shopping/buying activities and calculating customer lifetime value.

He works with firms from a wide range of industries, such as consumer packaged goods, interactive media, financial services, and pharmaceuticals.

Fader's work has been published in a number of leading journals in marketing, statistics, and the management sciences, and he serves on the editorial boards of many of them.

In 2009, Fader was named a "Professor to Watch" by the Financial Times.

• Stop using weak proxies to determine CLTV
• Finding your growth through your customers
• Responsiveness is not customer centricity
• Why Apple is not customer centric, but Harrah's entertainment is
• What customer lifetime value ISN'T
• The "Holy Trinity" of customer lifetime value
• Raising your quantitative literacy
• Learn the "Buy Till You Die" customer lifetime value model

• Buy Till You Die Model
• Peter's Wharton Profile
• Peter's Book

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.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn

With costs always on the rise, and the "highs" from marginal success being short-lived, ecommerce companies need to moderate (maybe even eliminate) the pay per click addiction that could sink their business.

Tom Schwab is founder and owner of Goodbye Crutches, the largest online distributor of direct to patient Durable Medical Equipment focused on serving those who can't bear weight and can't bear crutches.

He definitely knows how to build an online business with an Inbound Strategy. Tom led the growth of Goodbye Crutches from a regional player to a national leader in under 3 years.

Tom is the leader of the eCommerce Hubspot user group, has been featured in many industry leading publications, and is often a guest expert on podcasts, radio shows, and more.

• Creating content with a purpose
• How to monopolize the keywords in your industry
• Using inbound marketing to sell any product
• Breaking down the bias against inbound marketing

• Inbound for Ecommerce
• Tom's LinkedIn
• Goodbye Crutches
• Inbound Marketing Book
• Tom's Twitter

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 a we're very grateful for them. We do read all of the reviews and we'll answer your questions or comments on future episodes. Cheers, Austin & Chad! Follow on Twitter: Follow @chadvanags Follow @a_brawn

Customer comparison shopping is inevitable online. With the likes of Amazon and other major retailers doing everything they can to steal your customers through pricing-cutting and comparison shopping you need to pull out all the stops to keep them loyal.

T. J. Gentle and Andrew Scarbrough are co-founders of PriceWaiter, a tool that allows ecommerce companies to keep more customers by providing simple and private price negotiations for online stores.

Personalization in all aspects of the online buying experience is now one of the most talked about topics in ecommerce, and T.J. and Andrew are going to share how they've been able to 5x their sales thanks to their focus on customer personalization using the PriceWaiter tool.

• Creating the benefits of a brick and mortar sales person online
• Eliminate price comparison shopping once and for all
• How to get around the nuances of minimum advertised pricing
• Selling in a true one to one way online

• TJ Gentle's Twitter
• Andrew Scarbrough's Twitter
• PriceWaiter.com (Get 60 Days of Premium Service Free by Mentioning this Podcast)
• SmartFurniture's "Furniture Genius" Tool

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn

"According to leading neuroscientists, 95 percent of thoughts, emotions, and learning occur before we're ever aware of it. Yet, most marketing efforts forgo the vast subconscious and instead target the rational, conscious mind. If you want to get ahead of your competition stop selling to the 5% of your customers brains...when you understand how your customers' brains work, you can appeal to the powerful subconscious - and get better results for less money." (Brainfluence, 2012)

Roger Dooley is a consultant, entrepreneur, and neuromarketing missionary who combines knowledge of emerging phenomena like neuromarketing and social networking with decades of hands-on marketing experience.

He helps companies understand the implications of new technologies and techniques, and guides them in the implementation of practical strategies to adapt to them. Clients range from Fortune 500 firms to entrepreneurial ecommerce businesses.

He regularly addresses national conferences, and has been quoted frequently in the mainstream press on topics ranging from brain fitness marketing, web communities, and social networks, is a frequent contributor to Forbes magazine, and is the author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing

• Why facts are crucial to helping customers justify the purchase of your product, even though buying is primarily emotional decision.
• Using the understanding of the brain to do better marketing.
• Strategies for selling luxury goods versus utilitarian products.

Roger's Personal Website

Roger's Neuromarketing Blog

Brainfluence - Roger's Book

Rober Cialdini's New Book

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 here.

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

Cheers, Austin & Chad!

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn

The reality is, nobody cares about your product. That may sound harsh, but your customers and prospects only care about themselves. In this episode David Meerman Scott teaches us what to do about that and what the Grateful Dead can teach you about marketing so you can reach your buyers directly to drive more revenue.

David is an internationally acclaimed strategist whose books and blog are must-reads for professionals seeking to generate attention in ways that grow their business.

His 2007 book "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" opened people's eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web, and with over a quarter of a million copies sold in more than 25 languages from Bulgarian to Vietnamese, "New Rules" is now a modern business classic.

He has written a total of 10 books (3 international bestsellers), his most recent being "The New Rules of Sales and Service; How to Use Agile Selling, Real-time Customer Engagement, Big Data Content, and Storytelling to Grow Your Business."

He delivers keynote speeches at conferences and company meetings all over the world (41 countries / 7 continents) including Google, Ford Motor Company, Century 21, National Geographic, Hubspot and many others.

Oh, and fun note here: In Japan's go-go years, he was one of the first twenty-something gaijin (guy-gin) male models in Tokyo to specialize in the young businessman look.

• What the Grateful Dead can teach you about marketing
• Why people don't care about your product and what to do about it
• Differentiating yourself by asking the right questions to your customers

• David's Website
• Follow David On Twitter
• David's New Book - The New Rules of Sales and Service
• The New Rules of Marketing & PR

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 here.

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we're very grateful for them.

We do read all of the reviews and we'll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers, Austin & Chad!

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn

23 million out of 28 million companies that do less than $25 million in revenue are operating check to check, which means it's very likely that you are one of the the struggling 82%. Fortunately, there is a simple system you can implement to turn your business from a cash-eating monster into a profit-generating machine to ensure you're permanently profitable.

Mike Michalowicz (mi-CAL-oh-wits) founded and sold two multi-million dollar companies by the time he turned 35. Confident that he had the formula to success, he became an angel investor...

...and proceeded to lose his entire fortune.

Then he started all over again.

Driven to find better ways to grow healthy, strong companies, Mike created the "Profit First Formula", a way for businesses to ensure they're permanently profitable from their very next deposit forward.

Mike is now running his third million dollar venture; is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal; is the former MSNBC business make-over expert; is a popular keynote speaker on innovative entrepreneurial topics; and is the author of Profit First, The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, which BusinessWeek deemed "the entrepreneur's cult classic."

He is also a guest speaker at Harvard, Princeton, eBay, SBA and other organizations throughout the world and also hosts the Profit First Podcast.

In today's episode we're breakdown the Profit First Formula, the cash management system that will ensure any business will become permanently profitable regardless of size, industry, or how much debt it carries or how many years it has been operating.

• Reverse engineering your way to profitability
• Why entrepreneurs never name themselves as top employees and why that's a problem.
• Why having a large bank account can be bad for business
• How and why standard accounting principles are flawed

Mike's Website Link to Profit First Book

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 here.

Also, ratings and reviews on iTunes (hopefully 5-stars!) help us tremendously a we're very grateful for them.

We do read all of the reviews and we'll answer your questions or comments on future episodes.

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn

Quality ecommerce copy and product descriptions can increase ecommerce conversion rates anywhere from 30% to 100%. Writing subpar copy for your website is the equivalent of hiring a subpar, unqualified sales staff for a brick and mortar shop, and sales will suffer.

Joanna Wiebe is a co-founder and copywriter at Copyhackers, a company that helps you use copy 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 been copywriting since 2004, and her 10 years of experience includes time as an agency and in-house copywriter, including time at companies like Intuit and Conversion Rate Experts.

Her work is often featured on some of the absolute best online marketing websites like KISSmetrics, Copyblogger, Unbounce, and ConversionXL.

Joanna promises to help you write more persuasive, believable and usable copy… sans pixie dust… so you can boost your website & email conversion rate.

• How to sell a lot more using better ecommerce copy on your site
• Swiping copy from your customers to write faster and better copy
• When you know it's time to deploy or destroy your ecommerce copy
• The unique value proposition blueprint
• Finding the best copywriter for your business

Copyhackers Website

Joanna's Twitter

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 here:

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

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn

Abraham Lincoln once said, "If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend 6 hours sharpening my ax," and this episode is all about sharpening your ax for 2015.

Join us for this quick 15 minute episode as we review the planning process that made our 2014 so successful, how we're improving it for 2015, and how you can use all or parts of our planning process to make 2015 your best year ever.

• How we build our company's vision
• What we're doing to improve it for 2015
• How you can use this information to create your company vision and crush 2015
• The step by step process we went through to create this year's vision

• Building Your Company's Vision by Jim Collins
• Master The Rockefeller Habits (Book)
• Verne Harnish One-Page Strategic Plan
• Predictable Revenue

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 here.

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

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn

The company that is willing to spend the most to acquire a customer will win, and Ryan Deiss teaches you how to win by optimizing your customer acquisition with his 5 step Customer Value Optimization System.

Ryan Deiss is the founder of a number of online media/publishing businesses, most notably DigitalMarketer.com. He is considered the "King of Conversion" and is the creator of the funnel models used by 90% of today's "A" list online marketers, like Neil Patel of Quicksprout and Kissmetrics. He's also set up funnels for William Shatner.

His companies sell products and services in over a dozen markets to hundreds of thousands of customers on every continent in the world… except Antarctica (which, if you're ever in Antarctica and you're willing to buy something let him know so he can say he sold something there…he'll refund you after the purchase ;))

Over the last 36 months Ryan and his team have:

• Invested over $15,000,000 on marketing tests…
• Generated tens of millions of unique visitors…
• Sent well over a BILLION permission-based emails, and…
• Run approximately 3,000 split and multi-variant tests…
• Combined, his companies have generated over $100 MILLION in online sales.

Ryan is also a highly sought after speaker and consultant.

He leads the annual Traffic and Conversion Summit, the largest conversion conference in North America where you can find out what's working in digital marketing now. He is also the chairman of War Room, the elite mastermind membership where he leads and consults with the best and brightest in the world when it comes to growing businesses using the latest and greatest digital marketing strategies.

• Why he who spends the most to acquire a customer will win.
• What Bass Pro Shops and your ecommerce business have in common.
• How to acquire customers with lower prices without devaluing your brand.
• The 5 Step Customer Value Optimization System.

• Ryan's Customer Value Optimization Process Blog Post
• Digital Marketer's Website
• Traffic & Conversion Summit

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 here.

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

Cheers,

Austin & Chad!

Follow on Twitter:

Follow @chadvanags

Follow @a_brawn