Secrets To Scaling Your Ecommerce Brand

Send us a textExtensive knowledge and experience in marketing are advantages in starting a business. However, marketing first founders cannot be skilled at everything. It’s important for business owners to surround themselves with the right people and mentors.In this episode, Jordan chats with the CEO and founder of Blossom Essentials, Sarah Vilenskiy. They talked about what’s working in 2023 and what it’s like for a marketing-focused leader.Listen and learn in this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODEShifting focus on targeting something that better fits your company can open a lot more opportunities and make your spending significantly more efficient.Copy and advertising are important and you must always aim to connect with your audience through your content.2022 is such a different landscape from 2023. What was working is no longer working. You should continue to always test things.As much as AI is great, there is still a spot for copywriters. You need a person to determine what looks good or not and what looks like a bot and what does not.Having the right team surrounding you is crucial to your success.Regardless of the scale your brand is at, most brands usually struggle with the same things.Having a mentor who has been through the same things you’re experiencing is great. They will tell you that these things are normal and that that’s how a business grows. Recommended App:Rebuy https://www.rebuyengine.com/Recommended Book:How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegiehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4865.How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_PeopleToday’s Guest:Sarah Vilenski is the founder and CEO of Blossom Essentials. They make natural and clean hydration products for people with chronic dry and irritated skin. Connect and learn more about Sarah and Blossom Essentials here: Website: https://tryblossom.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahvilenskiy/E-mail Address: sarah@tryblossom.comChrome Extension Link:AIPRM for ChatGPThttps://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aiprm-for-chatgpt/ojnbohmppadfgpejeebfnmnknjdlckgjGet 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions, and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also, get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textPeople who take extreme ownership are great people to be around. The strongest leaders in the world see the real problem and know to take responsibility and solve it.In this episode, Jordan West talks about extreme ownership, what it looks like to take ownership over anything in your business, and what sort of difference it can make in your life.Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:Principle number 1 is all about extreme ownership. It’s all about taking responsibility for everything.  If something bad happens in your business, you own that. “The happiest people in the world have an internal locus of control.”There is usually a lot of finger-pointing and blaming when a problem occurs. At the end of the day, people who take ownership are great people to be around. Principle number 2 states that there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.People often think that the problem is the other person. In reality, the problem is way over there and it’s you versus the problem. If you have a large ego, you cannot do this. As a leader, checking your ego is incredibly important.The best leaders in the world and the strongest leaders in the world have a very small amount of ego.Extreme ownership is not micromanaging everything. It’s being ultimately responsible for everything and knowing that you can make a massive difference in whatever situation is happening.Connect with Jordan here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-west-marketer/Twitter: https://twitter.com/jordantwestecomGet 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also, get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textPeople sometimes find it hard to make a purchase decision for a product even after reading several reviews, but with Experify it’s easier than ever. People can start conversations or even meet up with others who already have that product to see it in person.In this episode, Jordan West and René Pfitzner talk all about Experify, how it works, and what brands it would and wouldn’t work for.Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:The way Experify works is through community building. People sign up and have conversations with people who already have a particular product that others want to check out.Experify works very well with DTC brands that sell high-involvement goods and would not work well with fast-moving ones.Price is one dimension but it is more about how involved the consumer is with the product.People can redeem points and rewards for signing up and getting involved.The conversational approach in Experify is what makes the difference, especially with products that can be used in different ways and circumstances.People always look for authenticity.Building a strong network and community is crucial for every brand’s success. Recommended Tool: Slack https://slack.com/Recommended Audiobook: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52036.SiddharthaToday’s GuestRené Pfitzner is one of the 3 co-founders of Experify. They started the company in Switzerland. They are now based in Switzerland and in California. They help eCommerce brands get people who are interested in their products to talk to people who already own them.Connect and learn more about René Pfitzner and Experify here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rene-pfitzner/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pfitznerrrWebsite: https://experify.io/Get 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions, and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textSelling digital products alongside your physical products on Shopify is a killer business strategy. Fulfillment costs are next to nothing, but the value that digital products deliver to your customers can be incredible. In this episode, Jordan West interviews A Bar Above Co-founder Julia Tunstall. She talks about how her company got started, how the pandemic helped their business and all about their experience selling digital products. Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:The main reason that Julia and Chris started on Amazon first was because of Amazon FBA, and that they wouldn’t need to be packing their own boxes.They launched their own brand in 2018 when they saw that they had built an incredible community around their product and the brand recognition had grown over time.They started selling courses on their website and it opened a lot of doors for them.The margins on a course are 100%. You’ve got to pay transaction fees on the platforms you’re using but aside from that, fulfillment is free and automatic.Courses are also great for Black Friday. You can give discounts on your courses and it costs you almost nothing, but they deliver a lot of value to your customers.Right now, influencers on TikTok are A Bar Above’s biggest marketing initiative, bringing in 30% of attributed sales.Their secret to scaling is understanding when it’s time to delegate. Get great people and get out of their way.Recommended Tool: Asana https://app.asana.com/Recommended Audiobook: Getting Things Done by David Allenhttps://gettingthingsdone.com/https://gettingthingsdone.com/books/HomeSwapper: https://www.homeswapper.co.uk/Today’s GuestJulia Tunstall is a Co-founder at A Bar Above, a barware brand that sells all of the tools needed to make high-end cocktails for home bars. They are also an education company that spends time and effort teaching people how to make great cocktails.Connect and learn more about Julia and A Bar Above here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jctunstall/Website: https://abarabove.com/Get 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions, and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also, get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textPaying for the wrong kind of traffic on Google will absolutely kill your conversions. In this episode, Jordan West talks all about negative keywords, and how to avoid wasting your hard-earned money on keywords guaranteed to not convert. Listen up and learn from this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:By using negative keywords, we’re telling Google that we don’t want to bid on these specific keywords. There are a lot of keywords that we don’t want to show up for, that we might accidentally if not specifically stating otherwise. One of the ways that Google ranks SEO is time spent on a page and amount of pages visited. If you’re showing up for irrelevant search terms, you’re not giving value.Some of the keyword searches we do not want to show up for:Amazon. We do not want to show up for anything to do with ‘Amazon’. If somebody is typing ‘Amazon’, they want to shop on Amazon. App. Unless you have an app.Article. You don’t want to show up when somebody is typing ‘article’ because they are not at the bottom of the funnel, and their search has very little buying intent.Here are a few additional keywords you want to ensure you don’t show up for:Benefit/s, blog/s, books, blow-outs, cheap, cheapest, clear-outs (unless you’re running some clear-outs website), closeout, code, coupon code, deal-of-the-week, deal-of-the-day, deals, discount, discount codes, price shoppers, negative reviews, good reviews, comparisons, Amazon reviews, Advice.As an eCommerce brand, we also don’t want to show up for location-based searches, unless you have retail locations on that location.Connect with Jordan here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-west-marketer/Twitter: https://twitter.com/jordantwestecomGet 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions, and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also, get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textA bunch of mini-wins adds up to a big win. It’s about improving over time and having a systematic approach to solving the problems in running your brand.In this episode, Jordan West interviews Brendan Bannister of Natura Labs. He talks about the different trends that are happening right now in ecom. He also shares a take on how 99% of eCommerce brands are potentially heading toward bankruptcy if they do not fix some core issues. He shares what these core issues are and how to fix them.Listen and learn in this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODER&D has a systematic way of understanding why your systems are working or not working and a scientific way to solve your problems.Brands are playing a very tough game and you have to understand the complexities of the game that you’re playing to play it well.Do not focus on shiny objects. Slow down and focus on solving the micro problems that your brand is having.The creative and the messaging are like the bottom of the pyramid that feeds the rest of the brand.It's a bunch of mini-wins that add up to a big win. It's about improving over time.Sometimes an overabundance of some data may be telling you something wrong or giving you the wrong insights to start turning ads off.Brands that are heading towards bankruptcy don't have any strict strategy in what they do, while companies that are doing good are focused strictly on longevity.Recommended App:Motion App https://www.usemotion.com/Varos https://www.varos.com/Recommended Book:Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60018575Today’s Guest:Brendan Bannister is the CEO and founder of a new research and development organization for eCommerce called Natura Labs. They help brands solve problems and execute as fast as they possibly can.Connect and learn more about Brendan Bannister and Natura Labs here: Website: https://www.naturalabs.io/Twitter: https://twitter.com/naturalabs_ioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/almost-86/Twitter:  https://twitter.com/seeyounvrLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanbannister/Get 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textBeing consistent with SEO tactics, even if you don’t see immediate results, is a massive mover to getting long-term organic sales and ranking #1 for valuable search terms.In this episode, Jordan West sits down with SEO expert Joshua George. They talk all about eCommerce SEO and the 5 biggest mistakes brands make on their sites.Listen up and learn in this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE5 Biggest Mistakes eCommerce Sites are Making:Not leveraging collection pages. Collection pages are 95% of the time going to be your big money drivers.Having no blog. The more blogs you put out there, the more topical relevance your site is building.Neglecting link building. The more backlinks you have, the more websites are vouching for your content.Not adding internal links. Make sure your blog posts are linking to each other and always linking back to your relevant collection page.Keyword cannibalization. This is when two different pages on your website are competing for the same keywords. We don’t want blog posts ranking for keywords with buyer intent. It’s not a smart move to use AI purely to write all your content. Use it as a guide to come up with more ideas.If you’re wondering how effective your link is, ask yourself how hard it is for competitors to replicate that link.Be consistent when it comes to SEO even if you’re not seeing the results. It’s a long-term strategy that generates crazy results once you start ranking.Recommended App:AHrefs https://ahrefs.com/Recommended Podcast:Jay Shetty Podcast https://jayshetty.me/podcast/Today’s Guest:Joshua George runs a prestigious SEO agency in London called ClickSLice. He has the primary focus on helping eCommerce stores generate more traffic and revenue for their websites.Connect and learn more about Joshua George and ClickSLice here: Website:  https://www.clickslice.co.uk/Twitter:  https://twitter.com/_JoshuaSEOFree Mini SEO Audit:https://calendly.com/clickslice/cs-seo-discovery-call?month=2023-02 Get 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions, and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also, get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textIt is crucial to be well-prepared before a sales launch to get the absolute most out of it.In this episode, Jordan West walks you through the exact checklist he’s using with his brands to run incredible sales and launches.Listen and enjoy this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODESitting at a desk isn't always the best way to get the most creative ideas.There are a ton of things you need to do before a sale or a launch. Ask yourself these questions: (1) Have you clarified what your sale is for? (2) Is it a new product? (3) Is it a holiday? (4) Do you have a coupon code set up for it? (5)Does your code have a definitive start and end date? Four weeks before the launch, start thinking about what you need to do to be ready. Make sure to schedule some of your reminders and warnings.Make sure you're creating and gathering all the assets you need. It's going to give you more room to breathe.Two weeks before the sale, create paid ads and conversion campaigns. Three days before the sale, make sure inventory is good and that you’ve warned customers.If it's a big sale, telling customers too far in advance is not recommended because it’ll cannibalize your sales. Give them at least a week to a week and a half warning to get them excited about it. You can have a pre-landing page where people can sign up to get updates.Connect with Jordan here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-west-marketer/Twitter: https://twitter.com/jordantwestecomGet 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textWe’re going through the winter of eCommerce and brands everywhere are struggling. Nevertheless, brands willing to figure out how to bootstrap through hard times are finding opportunities to scale.In this episode, Jordan West interviews Taylor Holiday of Common Thread Collective. They talk about the state of eCommerce right now, the attributes of brands that are succeeding right now, and the surprising best channel performance.Listen and learn in this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODEService providers’ number one job is education.Even if you have a brand reputation, there's still the reality that trust = consistency x time. You have to spend more time educating why you're doing what you're doing.We're in a tunnel, there's a light at the end, but we've got some challenging times ahead. At the end of that, there's going to be more resiliency, more innovation, and better businesses.Moving way too slowly and conservatively when you can capture a ton more market value can be your biggest mistake.There's still nothing close to Meta ads. It’s still so disproportionately the best primary value capture opportunity for every business. Google is always going to be the king of demand capture.Diversification is the siren's song of death. There is an opportunity cost to every dollar that you take out of Facebook and put into an alternative channel. That opportunity cost is damaging. The fundamental inhibitor to most businesses' growth is the lack of financial understanding.Recommended App:Statlas.io https://statlas.io/Recommended Book:Competitive Strategy by Michael Porterhttps://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Industries-Competitors/dp/0684841487 Today’s Guest:Taylor Holiday is an athlete and is now the CEO of Common Thread Collective. They are an eCommerce growth agency that helps brands that have a clear sense of who they are, do a great job in building their brands, and are looking for growth strategy.Connect and learn more about Taylor and Common Thread Collective here: Website:  https://www.commonthreadco.com LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-holiday-a169b322 Twitter:  https://www.twitter.com/taylorholiday Get 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions, and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also, get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/

Send us a textAre you thinking of dipping your toes into the Amazon waters? You need to know the right foundations to begin with and the pitfalls to avoid to have a greater chance of success.In this episode, Amazon Expert Betsy McGinn talks about all of the pitfalls she’s seen with DTC brands jumping over to Amazon and shares some valuable tips on how you can avoid these mistakes and the things you should know before making the move. Listen and learn in this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODEHaving a parallel DTC and Amazon Strategy at the same time is the best way to go for a lot of different reasons. Both of them work so well together.Getting your account set up correctly is where people struggle at the very beginning. It can take months to activate your account correctly. When done incorrectly, it could lead to Amazon shutting down your account. If somebody goes to your page and it looks mediocre, they're probably going to go somewhere else where it looks better.The only things that are indexed in search are the product title and 5 bullet points. These are the most important two things you should do.Discounting is not the best tactic on Amazon.What tends to work on Amazon is coupons. They can work as great acquisition tools. Amazon shoppers expect a fair price but surveys show that the top reason why people go to Amazon is for selection, free delivery, and the speed of delivery. They expect fair prices but they don't go specifically for the price. Don't let a series of tactical decisions substitute for a well-crafted strategy.Recommended App:Helium 10 https://www.helium10.com/ Jungle Scout https://www.junglescout.com/ Recommended Podcast:How I Built This? with Guy Raz https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/ Recommended Book:The Amazon Roadmap https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Roadmap-Innovative-Brands-Reinventing/dp/194964202X Today’s Guest:Betsy McGinn is an Amazon Expert. She had been working for 16 years in eCommerce with consumer product brands.Connect and learn more about Betsy McGinn here: Website: https://www.mcginnecomm.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/betsy-mcginn Get 5 Offers for 2 Products (10 in total) along with 10 highly engaging tried and true creatives, 30 captivating headlines, descriptions, and ad texts sent to you for only $99. Go to https://www.upgrowthcommerce.com/offer and order now - this offer is only available for a limited time.Get the latest strategies, tips and case studies sent to you weekly by signing up for the free Secrets to Scaling Newsletter. Also, get first access to our Founder-Only Slack channel, our CMO Dashboard to plan out your marketing efforts and so. much. more.‘Join the Beta:https://www.secrets.upgrowthcommerce.com/