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

Before starting this show make sure to check out part 1 where we talk about the first 2 steps in this 5-step bulletproof ecommerce sales funnel. Funnel’s are extremely exciting to talk about because after you're done building a bulletproof ecommerce sales funnel you can often see 2, 5 or even 10x growth. In this episode we talk about the remaining three pieces of building a bulletproof ecommerce sales funnel and what that will mean to the growth of your business. We'll also walk you through an example of exactly how to set this up for your business. It’s great to hear conceptually but this real life example will give you the steps necessary to implement this funnel for your business. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview Why your core offer might not be the place you make your most profit What McDonalds can teach you about building a bulletproof ecommerce sales funnel You don’t have to live and die on the profits of a core offering How to increase number of transactions per customer A real exam

Andy Forch and Richard Greiner are the co-founders of Huckberry, an online shop, journal and brand discovery site for guys with taste. Their focus at Huckberry is to inspire their readers to lead more active, adventurous, and thoughtful lives while providing cool gear with inspiring stories and at insiders' prices. They've built a large community of loyal followers where 40% of their visitors return to their site more than 10x per month and their email open and click thru rates are 5-10x the industry average. A big reason for their success is that they're using partnerships as an ecommerce growth channel while building build their community, and in this episode we’re going to get some more insight into how they do this and what it's meant for the growth of their business. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview The “why” behind Andy and Richard's Huckberry community How they’re consistently getting 10x better engagement rates than anyone else in ecommerce How they're using partnerships as an ecommerce

Today we're going to discuss how to build an online community for your ecommerce store, with special guest Andrew Youderian from eCommerceFuel. Andrew has built an incredible community of ecommerce store owners that drives his business, and he discusses with us why it is necessary for the success of your online business and how you can do it, too. We will walk through several examples of companies that are doing this well and take you through some specific action steps on how to build an online community for you ecommerce store starting today. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview Examples of companies building great online communities around their business The importance of personal touch, including personally emailing every new subscriber while you still can Who creates the community and how do you manage that? What can you learn from Red Bull about building a community The basics of getting started with communities for your business (here's a hint, start small) Why all good brands have an e

Dave Munson is founder and CEO of Saddleback Leather where his number one priority is creating the most authentic brand experience for his site's visitors and customers. Saddleback leather is an ecommerce company that designs and produces the perfect leather bag and other full grain leather goods, products that won't tear, has zippers or buttons wouldn’t break, and products that could withstand a beating or two. The idea for his product and company came to him while he participated in a real Mexican bullfight, and he began to build his company while living in a drab $100 a month Juarez, Mexico apartment. He’s so confident in his products that he provides a 100-year warranty, and guarantees that your family will fight over who gets it long after you’re dead. Today he’s going to tell us his story on how he took his small practical idea and turned into an ecommerce machine through his relentless focus on creating an authentic brand experience (just watch some of his videos!).   Topics Discussed Throughout

Amazon can crush your business with better customer acquisition, faster shipping, cheaper shipping, easy returns, and many other things that you probably don't even know about. In addition to having a solid brand, you have to be able to acquire customers and be able to take them through a bulletproof eCommerce sales funnel. Whoever is willing and able to spend the most money to acquire customers and successfully converts them, wins in their niche. There are five steps in a bulletproof eCommerce sales funnel, and in this episode we’re going to be talking about the first two, and arguably the most important, steps that companies like McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Amazon use to crush their competition. Why only the first two steps? Well, because they’re the most important steps of a bulletproof eCommerce sales funnel, yet most ecommerce companies aren’t executing these two steps and they’re missing out on the ability to convert more customers cheaper and faster than everybody else, which means they’re also mis

Avinash Kaushik is a best selling author of two books on web analytics; Google's digital evangelist; and co-founder of Market Motive, the leading curriculum publisher of online marketing training. He writes regularly on analytics, startups, and business building on his blog Occam's Razor. The way people imagine possibilities in the world is very finite, his job is to work with some of the largest companies on the planet to help them imagine possibilities for commerce, influence, and relationships by leveraging the power of digital and by building new frameworks and ideas for engaging customers. He has won multiple awards for analytics, including Most Influential Industry Contributor from the Web Analytics Association. Avinash speaks at many conferences throughout year including Search Engine Strategies, at major universities like Stanford, and he speaks at huge corporations such as IBM, Toyota, Google, and more. He puts a common sense framework around the often-frenetic world of web analytics and today he's g

There has been quite a debate in the past few years when it comes the email opt in practices. In this episode we will cover the pros and cons of both the double and the single opt in as it pertains to ecommerce. We will also comapre a few different email providers, explain why some email providers strongly encourage the double opt in, and we go over a case study that breaks down the numbers when choosing one opt in style over the other. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview Overview of Double, Single, and Confirmed Opt Ins Why email marketing providers encourage double opt in Email provider comparisons Pros and cons of both single opt in and double opt in Statistical breakdown of advantages/disadvantages of double/single opt in Differences between hard and soft bounces What you option you should choose Plus a lot more! Links and Resources Mentioned Case Study - Single vs. Double Opt In Breakdown Email Providers Aweber Mailchimp [Constant Contact](http://constantcontact.com/) Campaign Monitor Compan

Eric Bandholz and his team launch Beardbrand on January 28th, 2013 with only 3 products and no established sales. They have since grown from $1000 in sales per month to now generating over $120,000 per month in sales. Beardbrand a company that provides the tools and strategies men need to take care of their beautiful beards. Their products are of the highest quality and made from all natural ingredients. They are designed for men who find value in quality, service, and experience and they are for men that are passionate about life. Simply put, Beardbrand provides Style for the Urban Beardsmen. Eric attests that Beardbrands success comes from his focus on building a community-based ecommerce site and that you should consider building one, too. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview How he built a community of loyal followers before having a product to sell. His path from $1k per month in sales to $120k per month in less than 18 months. Why content creation is his number priority and why it should be your

This Candid Conversation is an overview on how you can begin structuring your ecommerce analytics account in a way that will save you from the oncoming flood of data that is produced by your analytics account, and, more importantly, how you can use that data to significantly increase profits and even save you thousands of dollars and hours of time on bad marketing campaigns. We'll take you through the 5 step process of creating structure around your analytics data that covers the most important areas of acquisition, behavior, and outcomes. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview The right way to look at Google Analytics for Ecommerce The most important step in getting started with Google Analytics for Ecommerce Why your data is actually the second most important thing Sample insights of actual client analysis The 3 buckets, or categories, your analysis must cover The 5 steps to creating your first Digital Marketing & Measurement Model Plus a lot more!   Links and Resources Mentioned Exam

Ezra Firestone is a partner and head of digital marketing for BOOM! by Cindy Joseph, a cosmetic line designed from women of every generation. Hes also the founder and creative director of Smart Marketer, a site packed to gills with information for do-it-yourself entrepreneurs. Most importantly, hes an ecommerce business owner just like you, running 6-figure drop shipping businesses, seven-figure manufacturing and importing businesses, and he has multiple physical products ecommerce stores. Hes a world-renowned leader in Ecommerce and hes the first person the big boys reach out to when looking for the latest and greatest trends that are happening in ecommerce.

In this episode we talk about a simple little lead capture and email sequence you can use to get your prospects to convert in the first 48 hours, even if they are leaving your website. Here is the 4 step process we use for lots of clients, getting upwards of a 5.7% conversion rate on visitors who were leaving their site and how you can start implementing today. Topics Discussed: Actual results current clients are getting from this simple system Creating an irresistble offer Getting visitors to opt-in to your sequence Setting up the email campaign Segmenting your list Plus a lot more!  

Steve Chou is the founder of Bumblebee Linens, an e-commerce site that sells handkerchiefs and linens for special occasions. Steve and his wife started this store so that his wife could quit her job to stay home with their first child. They were able to take their store from $0 to over $100,000 in profit in just one year. Steve also runs an extremely popular blog, which also makes over $100,000, where he produces insightful and detailed information about his ecommerce success and failures, and "how you can start your own online store today.” He’s been featured in the New York Times, Huffington Post, ABC, MSNBC, and his small business podcast has been topping the iTunes podcast charts for weeks. Topics Discussed Throughout This Interview His journey from $0 to $100k in profit in under one year How he’s doubled his mobile site conversions A little trick to help you improve your Facebook ads conversions Why your unique value proposition is the first thing you should be testing Plus a lot more! Links and Resour

You have 8 seconds to make an impression on a site visitor and your unique value proposition is the number one thing that will determine if your store visitors will continue reading about your product, or if they leave your site never to return. Your unique value proposition is the driver of your conversion rate potential, and in this episode of Candid Conversation we discuss how to create one using both good and bad examples we have seen to guide you along the way.

Sam founded Greenvelope back in 2008 in his college dorm room after raising initial funds from pressure washing driveways and delivering pizza, and he put $50,000 towards his dream of disrupting the electronic invitation industry. In this episode, Sam talks to us about how he bootstrapped Greenvelope from his dorm room into a successful ecommerce business and what he's learned along the way, how to have personable, yet automated, customer service that brings in raving reviews, a split test that gave him a 10% sales boost, plus a lot more.

In this Candid Conversation we talk about the cart abandonment epidemic that plagues nearly all ecommerce companies and results in a total industry loss of about $18 BILLION dollars each year. We will show you the basics on how to properly implement a cart abandonment recovery program that can recover 8% to 15% of your sales while building goodwill with your customers.

Andy Fallshaw is CEO of Bellroy Wallets where they design and produce wallets that are elegant, functional, delightful to use, and, they're designed for an active lifestyle. Andy's background includes heading up two major division of global surf-wear empire Rip Curl, starting an investment group, and a few other businesses. He's a seasoned ecommerce exec that loves to travel and knows how to make things happen and he chats with us about some incredible life hacks to be more productive, what you can do to start forming better habits in your business, and why you shouldn’t be looking for your passion.

Andrew Youderian is the owner of eCommerce Fuel and the host of the wildly popular eCommerce Fuel Podcast, where he helps eager entrepreneurs 'start a store, and change their lives'. He owns multiple ecommerce businesses and will be chatting with us today about his journey from the corporate world to selling his first commerce store, a current split test case study, one of his biggest eCommerce failures and how you can avoid the same mistake, his most profitable marketing campaign ever, and much more.

Brad Kam is the VP at Curebit, where they acquire new customers for some of the most well known ecommerce brands, including Diamond Candles, Bonobos, Toms, and Serena and Lily. They are partly responsible for helping Bonobos double their customer base year-after-year, and in 2012 Curebit helped Bonobos drive over 25% of their new customers. Today we’re going to talk about how you can build a strong referral marketing program for your company, and how to avoid the mistakes most business owners make when setting it up.

Austin talks with us today about the Canton Fair. It is the largest trade show in all of Asia where foreign importers go to find products produced in China to be brought to their own market whether it's in the US, Europe, Australia, Africa, etc. It's a chance to see thousands of potential products in a 5-day period. Austin talks with us about what to expect, how to prepare, and how to make it a successful trip.

In this episode Grant is going to provide the information, tools, and resources you need to help you use pay per click advertising to acquire more customers...or as he likes to say, "print leads and print money." If you're new to pay per click or need to sharpen your skills when it comes to pay per click, this is the episode to listen to.