eCommerce Evolution

There probably isn’t a more consistent rule in business or in life like the 80/20 rule.  Usually, 80% or more of your results and success come from just 20% of your efforts. I’m all about finding the 20% of activities, changes, etc. to focus on to deliver the biggest impact.   In this episode, I bring back my business partner Chris Brewer to outline the 7 key areas you should focus on to grow your business both on Google and on Amazon this year.   These are 7 factors that should provide a big return for you. We’ll cover a variety of topics including: How and why you should invest in YouTube ads What to expect and what to consider with Google’s automation and smart bidding options How the SEO practices that everyone has forgotten may be a secret weapon for you. How Amazon is pouring more money and time into their ad platforms and what that means for growing your business.   Plus more!

Ross Beyeler knows a thing or two about ecommerce sites that convert.  He’s built a few sites that I really love. Charley Hustle (mostly because I’m a huge Chiefs Fan and KU Jayhawks fan), Bottle Keeper,  Johnny Cupcakes, Assoline and more.       We get into several key design, UX and conversion rate optimization topics and examples including:   Home page optimization and how the approach shifts if you have a large vs. small SKU count Storytelling in ecommerce and why successful ecommerce brands are great storytellers Product Detail Page (PDP) “must haves” for a better experience and better conversions Creating better collection and improved navigation 4 conversion killers to avoid like the plague Site search and recommendations for doing this better especially for larger SKU counts How to mine site search data for improvements Plus more!

Tom Wang is a true Amazon success story. He builds a very successful brand on Amazon after a pretty big crash and burn experience. Literally a “burn” experience as his first venture was in hoverboards.   In this episode we breakdown Tom’s success and talk about what is relevant for growth on Amazon in 2019.  We tackle Tom’s advice for some pretty critical Amazon tasks.   How to get reviews now and not violate Amazon’s terms of service. How to diversify traffic and boost organic rankings Product line extension and how to launch your next product on Amazon How to successfully use Amazon Giveaways and lightning deals Plus more!   Don’t miss it!  

Matt Ward built an Amazon business from nothing with a goal of selling it for $1million in 12 months.  His goal once the sale was final was to work on stuff that mattered more to him….He reached his goal of selling his company and now he’s running a podcast and writing books on some pretty interesting topics.  He’s had the privilege of interviewing some pretty stellar people including one of my marketing heroes - Seth Godin.   Matt is a fascinating person and extremely bright.     In this episode we get into some pretty interesting territory, including: How Matt scaled so quickly, What AMZ sellers should consider now and what the future holds What’s next for Amazon What’s Amazon’s goal with Echo devices and owned brands (like Amazon Basics) and who will continue to win as Amazon’s domination grows.   Voice Search and Smart home - and what it means for Amazon and Google and YOU. Facebook Portal and our predictions on it. Why 10x results doesn’t require 10x effort Plus, more...

The Cyber Five (Thanksgiving - Cyber Monday) this year broke all kinds of records and was an interesting departure from years past in several ways.  In this episode I welcome back to the podcast my business partner, Chris Brewer. We look at this holiday shopping season from a few different perspectives.  We talk in general terms about how our clients who are mostly in the $5 to $50 Million per year in sales did during the Cyber 5 and after. We also looked at trends and data from the largest ecomm companies.   By the numbers….a Look at the Industry as a Whole.   Here are just a few of the highlights we look at in this episode. Thanksgiving weekend was up 23% - total spend was $24.2 billion.  Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Mobile spend was $10 billion of that (approaching half) and that’s up 44% from last year.  So doubling the growth rate of the holiday trend as a whole. Main Drivers of online sales Email at 26% - up 2% YoY Paid Search at 22% - up 6% YoY Social - minimal impact 1.3% of sales….(remember this stat is from the big guys, not mid-sized companies). Surprises from our clients: Black Friday was our clients biggest day by a long shot with Cyber Monday finishing 2nd. Social continues to be a big investment for our clients but getting the same results as last year has been difficult mainly due to rising ad costs. YouTube big as well - one of the top 3 channels for several of our clients. Winning Formula: We talk about what our most successful clients did well so you can properly plan for next year.  We look at several winning tactics including: Email - build, cultivate and prime your email list for Cyber 5.  Multiple email reminders - often 3 per day. Start early - Wednesday even.  We found our most successful clients started sales or at least started promoting sales early. Consumers have finite dollars to spend, get their attention early and you’ll have a better chance to grab your share of wallet. Build your retargeting audiences early - our clients who had the most success had large lists of people who’ve visited their site in the past or viewed a YouTube video who we could then retarget.  

If you’re like me then you’re not overly familiar with affiliate marketing.  It is a bit of a mystery for a lot of us marketers and ecomm entrepreneurs.   However it does have some huge positives: Scalable: Once you attract the right affiliates and have the right offer, you can go from 0 to thousands of orders in no time.   Predictable - As you know, I’m a PPC guy.  I’ll always love PPC, but there are variables there.  With Affiliate marketing you pay the same cost per acquisition every time giving you some predictability.     My guest on this episode is Nate Lind.  Nate is an eCommerce entrepreneur, a marketer and the founder of the Online Seller’s Summit.  He’s also a guy who knows a thing or two about affiliate marketing. Nate’s best single day using affiliate marketing was $4.6 million in sales.  He now has a student doing up to $1million in sales per day from affiliate marketing. Not only has Nate built multiple businesses off the profits from affiliate marketing, he also built a tool to better manage affiliate marketing called Offer Profit.  This tool was so successful - he sold to Limelight.   On the podcast we discuss what it takes to succeed with affiliate marketing: Keys to a good offer Making the math work - how to structure your affiliate offers to both motivate affiliates and maximize your growth. Customer lifetime value and Nate’s favorite marketing mantra The best businesses for affiliate marketing How Nate lives a 4 hour workweek Why getting punched in the mouth is OK Plus more!

Recently I had a chance to catch up with my friend and fellow entrepreneur, Dave Woodward.  Dave is the Chief Business Development Officer at ClickFunnels. He’s a motivator, a marketing mastermind, and an all around awesome guy.   I first met Dave in 2009 or so when my business partner, Chris Brewer, and I were partnering with Russell Brunson (Co-Found of ClickFunnels) on a project.   It’s been amazing watching click funnel scale from just an idea to a $200million + per year software as a service (SaaS) company in just a few years.     So how do you achieve that kind of growth?  That’s what I wanted to hear from Dave. Here’s a look at what we covered.  I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did!   Philosophy and mindset that allows for meteoric growth How the founders of Click Funnels got the team side of things right in order to scale How ClickFunnels acquired customers at a profit or breakeven when approximately zero SaaS companies have achieved that mark Marketing channels that are the most important to the growth of ClickFunnels What makes for a great eCommerce funnel What’s next for ClickFunnels Plus more!

Interested in better email campaigns, more persuasive product detail pages and more irresistible videos?  Maybe you need to start incorporating a little humor.     By now we’ve all seen a Harmon Brother’s video (Think Poo Pourri and Squatty Potty) and we’ve seen the magical effect those videos can have when launching a product….Or maybe you recall the simple, Dollar Shave Club video that launched an empire that Unilever bought for $1 Billion.  But...we’ve also seen some funny ads that did zero selling. Sometimes we can’t even remember what product the ad was for after we saw it, but it did make us laugh.   So what’s the difference? How can you use humor to actually sell?   A few months ago I was speaking at a Blue Ribbon Mastermind event run by Ezra Firestone and I heard another speaker and immediately fell in love with her topic - using humor to sell more.   Lianna Patch is the Founder of Punchline Copy.  She has a wealth of experience as a standup comedian, and improv actor, and a copywriter for eCommerce brands.  In this episode we dive into the following:   How to blend humor with persuasion for better conversion rates Where you should use humor first What ecommerce companies properly use humor How a jewelry store leverage humor for double digit improvements in conversion rates How to use humor in emails even if (or especially if) your product category is “boring” or even “B2B”. Plus more   Check it out!

If you want an inside look at Amazon you’d be hard pressed to find a better person to talk to than James Thomson co-founder of Buy Box Experts and the wildly popular Prosper Show.     In this episode we get into the details of what sellers on Amazon should be thinking and doing right now on a variety of important topics including:   Sales Tax! This can be some scary stuff.  We talk about the Wayfair Supreme Court decision, the recent ruling in California and what it all means to you.  Not the sexiest of topics, but one that could kill your business if you’re not taking action now. Brand equity.  There’s never been a better time to build a brand on Amazon.  We’ll talk about what it means to build and try to hold on to brand equity on Amazon.   1p vs. 3p vs. Hybrid - what’s best and why. Most common mistakes sellers are making right now and how to avoid them How Amazon approaches their private label game and when are they coming for your category. Prosper Show 2019 details Plus more!

The best eCommerce companies I know are on a quest to constantly improve conversion rates.  Every lift in conversion rates means more money for product development, or traffic to grow your brand or just more money for your pocket.     On this episode I interview Jon MacDonald, CEO of the Good.  Jon and team have worked on Conversion rate optimization projects for companies like Nike, Xerox, Adobe and the Economist as well as many other ecommerce companies.     Jon’s perspective and approach are unique and I’m confident you’ll pick up several CRO nuggets including: The 4 types of data that should influence your conversion rate optimization What data to ignore vs. what’s critical and actionable Must have elements for UX Product detail page essentials Making the complex simple and bringing products to life on your site Great eCommerce examples for UX to pay attention to Plus more