The Ecommerce Influence Podcast: Advanced Acquisition And Retention Strategies For Fast-growing Online Brands

A case study on Posh Shoppe and their 90 day growth goals to find success on TikTok, hire a Brand Director and deliver 1 million compliments.  Posh Shoppe owner, John Chen, was struggling to continue the growth of his business after the iOS updates killed his acquisition on Facebook. He attended an event with Brand Growth Experts to help him get clear and figure out what to do next.  This episode is his story, why he came to us and the goals he has for the next 90 days.  Episode Highlights: 9:40 How iOS impacted John 11:05 John’s three growth goals for the next 90 days  11:52 The importance of a mission that you can stand behind and that speaks to your customers  13:49 How to know when you need to make a shift in your brand  17:21 Hiring a Brand director & delegating the things your not genius in  21:11 How John found the perfect hire   23:57 Building a TikTok marketing strategy  30:07 The stages of growth an owner has to do as the business grows from 6 to 7 figures  36:27 AI software to show outfits on

Quick win: how to use subscriptions to raise the floor and increase LTV and improve customer retention. Key Takeaways: Subscriptions can help you get a better valuation when you sell Build a more stable business model that’s not reliant on auction-based marketing platforms Resources: Grab our Growth Pack for founders  Brand Growth Membership (get help from Austin Brawner to grow your business to 7 figures) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Ideas for customer support strategies that are NOT scalable to provide a truly unique and special experience for some of your customers.  This episode is for people who want to go above and beyond for their customers.  Why? Because your customer won’t remember that your site was easy to navigate. The things that make a brand stand out and memorable are the experiences - these are the things that people share with their friends & this is what keeps people coming back. Episode Highlights: 5:11 Send surprise gifts in the mail to delight your customers  8:36 Give behind the scenes access to your product and brand  11:48 Have your customer team perform random acts of kindness 13:38 Record personalized videos to thank customers  15:46 Reward your customers “in the wild” 18:18 Have all your employees spend a day as a customer support rep  19:00 Founders replying to emails or answering the phone  22:52 Add small gifts to your packages  Resources: SocialBlade - tool to find more information about social account

Quick win: building a crystal clear vision to be the single guiding light to drive growth in your business.  Key Takeaways: What the true cause of slow growth in a business often is  How to use visualization: lessons from pro athletes Resources: Grab our Growth Pack for founders  Brand Growth Membership (work with Austin Brawner) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Stop only sending discount emails! Implement these 3 email campaign ideas to drive full-price sales in your business.  Austin and Lily share some email designs they’re digging right now to serve as creative inspiration for you.  Episode Highlights: 5:03 Email example #1: Using aspirational imagery and problem/ solution storytelling  9:49 Email example #2: Clever copywriting to encourage a sale in abandoned cart (and not discounting)  13:25 Email example #3: Using a waitlist to drive urgency, excitement and collect customer data  Resources: Visual: Email Example #1 (Bose) Visual: Email Example #2 (Dote) Visual: Email Example #3 (Everlane) The Brand Growth Membership @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Quick win: Tried and tested email flows to drive more revenue without reinventing the wheel.  Grab our Email Map to start driving more revenue with email today  Key Takeaways: Where to start & how to be profitable with smart email flows are Applying email wins to SMS  Resources: Grab our Email Map to start driving more revenue with email today  Brand Growth Membership (Join today for $1 for 7-days) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Want to drive more sales, lower your ad costs and make your buyers into loyal customers? Run a community-building challenge for your eCommerce business.  This is a packed episode with tons of tactical ideas to grow your business using a 60-day challenge model.  Alicia Reynoso grew her business to 8-figures before selling using this strategy and she’s sharing everything… How to quickly scale audience growth & business revenue Challenges & how they work in eComm Facebook groups & their value in audience building UGC & how to repurpose content If you want to go deeper and get Alicia’s help building a challenge in your own business check out her training in the members. (Not a member? Join here)  Episode Highlights: 7:03 How to set goals with the intention of selling  10:05 Using challenges to increase LTV by 45%  13:09 Challenges for retention marketing 14:04 Doubling ROAS when using challenges for acquisition 15:53 iOS and Facebook changes: how challenges work to lower ad cost  17:53 How ofte

Quick win: How to use VA's to fuel the growth of your business & get more time back by having someone to delegate to.  Key Takeaways: How to build a good role for a VA  How to hire a VA and what you should be delegating Resources: Grab our FREE Founders Growth Pack  Brand Growth Membership (Join today for $1 for 7-days) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

How to get from here to there. Setting goals and systems to scale a profitable business. A re-cap of our Profit Summit event. We wanted to record an episode coming out of the Profit Summit because there were some big themes that came up.  Each attendee was very different in terms of product, team structure and revenue but they all showed up with pretty much the same question - “how do I get from here to there” everyone had a future goal without a clear path on how to get there.  Episode Highlights: 5:33 Hiring: a framework  9:38 Systems: what you need to scale  17:53 Channels: why you should stop trying to “replace” Facebook  23:39 Simplicity: do one thing really well Resources: Book: A World Without Email by Cal Newport  The Brand Growth Membership (Join today to get 7-days for $1) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Quick win: How to maximize your time and grow your business without giving up all your time. Prioritizing and delegating tasks to get more done.  Key Takeaways: Putting the most important things first  How to compartmentalize  Resources: Grab our FREE Founders Growth Pack  Brand Growth Membership (Join today for $1 for 7-days) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Sick of expensive acquisition costs? This is how to grow a brand with organic TikTok (read: no ad spend). This episode features the founder of a hemp cigarette company. And guess what - he can’t advertise on Facebook or Google due to the nature of the product. So, he had to get super creative to figure out how to acquire customers and get in front of people.  After several failed attempts he found massive success with organic TikTok.  He did $500k in revenue in year 1 with no paid ad spend, and no employees while working full time at his agency. All because of their viral TikTok videos.  This is also an interesting vantage point because the brand made its own videos (and he was the one making them). So it’s a little different than the other TikTok success stories with influencer marketing out there right now.   Episode Highlights: 7:33 How to launch a business when your ad account gets shut down  10:07 Marketing and positioning for a novel product  12:01 Do you start with product development or marketing?  1

Quick win: How to respect your time, your team's time & be a more effective and efficient company.  Key Takeaways: How to set expectations  Using impact filters to have more effective meetings  Resources: Grab our FREE Founders Growth Pack  Brand Growth Membership (Join today for $1 for 7-days) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

With paid traffic costs continuing to go up PR is a great place to find long-term value in traffic and social proof. Learn how to get press for your eCommerce business.  Nora Wolf is a PR expert and specializes in getting brands tons of press. She takes a modern approach to PR and uses a mix of media strategies including a unique take on influencers as press.  She shares her tips and tools on how to get media for your eCommerce business.  Episode Highlights: 5:16 What’s exciting in PR right now: getting back to live events  7:25 Running PR with a small marketing budget  9:24 Earned media vs affiliate marketing 11:13 How to know when your brand is ready for a PR strategy  12:21 Where to start when building a press list for PR 14:46 Tools to keep track of your PR lists  16:44 Writing content that gets picked up 19:49 The types of content that work well for PR 23:29 Shifting to be a story brand over a discount brand  25:33 Applying design thinking principles to your business  30:34 Avoiding burnout and staying

Quick win: When things are going wrong in your business how can you take radical responsibility, shift perspective and ultimately solve the problem. Key Takeaways: It’s easy to blame, but where does it actually get you? Stop putting bandaids over issues - find solutions that last Resources: FREE Founders Growth Pack  Brand Growth Membership (Join today for $1 for 7-days) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

How to grow a bootstrapped brand from nothing to 8 figures by thinking outside the box to drive organic traffic with influencers and TikTok acquisition. Jason Wong started his first eCommerce business when he was just 15 years old. Since then he’s become one of the top marketers and entrepreneurs in the space.  He’s built a framework to build bootstrapped brands up to 8 figures using organic TikTok and influencer content.  He was one of the first to see TikTok as an opportunity. As a forward thinker, he has a lot of ideas on what the future of eCommerce looks like and where the opportunities for growth are.  Episode Highlights: 3:33 Jason’s start in eComm (at 15!) 7:00 How Jason manages his competing priorities and many interests  10:06 Hitting $15MM in one year (without outside investing) 13:30 What’s working with influencers on TikTok right now 16:58 How to find influencers and get quality content from them 21:05 The difference between Instagram and TikTok influencers  22:05 Building a content creation sys

Quick win: How to get clear on your vision for your business and life.  Key Takeaways: Taking time to get away from the weeds  Using offsites as a way to get clear  Resources: Brand Growth Membership (Join today for $1 for 7-days) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

The top questions from eCommerce owners right now - answered. (hint: are Facebook groups dead = no!)  These are questions that have come up either in the Brand Growth Membership forum or in our member's office hours calls recently.  This episode is designed so you can walk away with an answer and an action to take.  If you have questions you want to chat with us about check out the membership. Episode Highlights: 4:54 What’s the state of business - are we optimistic or pessimistic? 9:03 Austin’s thoughts on the impact of Russia/ Ukraine war 13:51 Building a community on Facebook: are Facebook groups dead? 19:49 Raising capital & how to bring in a partner  23:35 Facebook shops opportunities to increase conversion  26:03 Personalization, quizzes & better lead capture  Resources: Training: How to Build a Quiz Funnel  The Brand Growth Membership (Join today to get 7-days for $1) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Quick win: How to use landing pages to optimize for conversions by testing and creating a better experience.  Key Takeaways: Using landing pages to test site design Landing pages to improve ad performance Resources: Brand Growth Membership (Join today for $1 for 7-days) @BrandGrowthX on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Tips on running and selling a business from an exit entrepreneur who never planned to sell.  How can you build a business that both you and future you will benefit from? This episode covers the steps to growing a business you can sell. My guest (and friend) Jared Nations shares his lessons, tips, and learnings from recently selling his business. His story is interesting because his plan had been to keep running the business as a cash flow business and never sell. After a cold offer, he changed his plan and pivoted.  This episode gives you an inside view to what selling a business looks like and what you can do to prepare your business (even if you’re not planning to sell).  Episode Highlights: 6:36 COVID impacts on business growth  10:52 Getting a cold offer to buy  13:51 The layers of building a deal to sell  15:03 Why you should position your business as a strategic acquisition when selling  17:34 What makes a deal successful  18:58 Running a business for growth  20:44 Learnings from the selling process  2

When shit hit’s the fan… what do you do?  Almost exactly 2 years past the first COVID lockdowns in the U.S. Austin and Lily team up to share what exactly has been going on and the impacts it’s had on eComm brands.  Learn what’s out and no longer working, get some ideas for where you can focus your energy now and how to win in a post-Facebook world.  Episode Highlights: 0:45 What’s been happening in eComm since COVID hit  3:48 Demand for eComm products right now  7:06 Supply chain issues - what’s next?  10:13 The impact of shipping costs going up 13:35 Facebook isn’t coming back - is it? (how to win in a post-Facebook world) 15:19 How to recession-proof your business  17:49 What’s out and what’s in for eCommerce 19:45 Wartime CEO: how to be one  20:48 Radical focus: how to get narrow and drive results  23:27 Opportunities with organic traffic  23:56 SEO quick tips  24:37 What’s the deal with TikTok  26:44 Referal and loyalty programs that people actually use  27:43 Why you should try direct mail  28:01 YouTub