The eComm Growth Show: Recent Episodes
Robby Switzer & Daniel Stafford
Behind every amazing brand you see out there on the internet is a story of people, pursuit, passion, victories, and failures. Join Robby and Daniel as they interview heroes of the eComm world and unpack their journey and the values/principles that have made them what they are today. https://shopanova.com/
When you zoom out on a full year, the numbers tell one story, but the people tell a better one.
In this season 6 finale, Brittany and Robby recap the year inside Bloom and Shopanova, walk through real client wins, and talk about what actually changed inside these businesses to unlock growth. From Bloom turning one, to clients averaging 100 percent revenue growth, to founders finally taking real vacations and reclaiming their time, this episode is part celebration and part playbook.
You will hear how Tag Aloha grew from five figure months to crossing one million in revenue, how Spider Industries broke their own Black Friday records two years in a row, how Pastabilities jumped from sub 10k months to multi six figures, and how Old Saguaro tripled their revenue in just a few months. Robby also shares a bittersweet win about their biggest growth story yet and what it looks like when a brand outgrows done for you and scales into an omnichannel machine.
This is not a highlight reel for vanity. It is a look under the hood at margins, positioning, ownership, and the mindset shifts that let real founders build businesses that support their lives again.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why Bloom was built and how the coaching model unlocks growth beyond just “better ads”
- What it really looks like when clients average 100 percent growth and some 10x their revenue
- How shifting roles, delegating marketing, and focusing on product can unlock a flywheel
- What Black Friday taught Spider Industries about offers, fulfillment, and doing it better each year
- How Pastabilities went from wholesale heavy and stuck to multi six figure months online
- Why Old Saguaro hit their goals in under three months and what changed inside their business
- The deeper wins behind the numbers, including time freedom, family trips, and better sleep
- How Shopanova thinks about “premium partnerships” and long term brand growth
- Why now is the perfect time to treat coaching and growth as a tax write off for your 2026 goals
If you need proof that your best year can still be ahead of you, this recap will give you the stories, the numbers, and the belief to build it.
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Have you ever considered selling your online business? For many business owners, selling their company isn’t even on their radar. They are much more likely to be concerned with their day-to-day operations, maximizing efficiency within their processes while maximizing profits.
On this week’s episode of the eComm Growth Show, Adam Rundle joins host Robby Switzer to share his insights on selling online businesses. Adam is the Co-Founder of CleverProfits, an accounting firm specializing in helping online business owners scale their companies. Robby and Adam discuss several topics related to selling an online business, including knowing when to sell, calculating your company’s worth, and how preparing to sell can help your business.
Adam takes a unique approach to online entrepreneurship. While most business owners key in on maximizing profits and efficiency, he believes in the importance of preparing owners for acquisition. While he doesn’t necessarily recommend every founder to sell their business, he believes that this perspective will help most online businesses grow.
“If you’re running a highly profitable, efficient business, that in itself is appealing to a buyer.” (20:14)
Many businesses’ growth will stagnate as they solely focus on day-to-day operational efficiency. Founders are typically forced to keep up with operations, making sure everything runs smoothly,
Whether your business is looking to scale or sell, adjusting your perspective might be the most important thing you can do.
👀(6:55) When should you sell your eCommerce store?
🤷♂️(19:50) Why you can’t factor out how much an owner gets paid
📈(26:01) What should profitability look like?
🧠(29:47) Knowing when to focus on P&L vs. the operations of your business
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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If you’ve tuned into the eComm Growth Show at any point in the last year, you’ve probably heard us preaching about omnichannel marketing. As 2021 came into view, we began recommending eCommerce brands leave their single-channel marketing strategy behind in favor of a diversified strategy that utilizes several channels at once.
This week, we’re talking with Elliot Manson, Shopanova’s Google Ads expert, about who can benefit from Google Ads, who should avoid the platform, and how scalable this marketing channel is.
“If there’s nobody searching for your problem, Google is the absolute wrong place to be, because then you’re not actually serving the problem.” (12:03)
“Every good campaign, in theory, has a cap to it at a certain point, all based on how many people are actually searching for these types of keywords. And so what ends up happening is you can kind of max out a campaign and then you kind of have to start from a whole different one if you want to keep scale.” (20:55)
Ultimately, we believe that Google Ads are beneficial for many online stores, and we’d love to help you get started! If you’re interested in learning more about how Google Ads can grow your business, contact us today for a FREE audit to see if Google Ads are right for you!
Shownotes
🎓(5:41) Elliot Manson's Google Ads journey
💼(11:08) Intro to Google Ads
📈(19:26) How scalable are Google Ads?
🧐(24:40) Who can benefit most from Google Ads?
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to get more sales with your Multi-Channel Strategy?https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
Sole Sisters Origin StoryEvery business has a different origin story. Some are born as a solution to a problem; others are passion projects. For best friends Leann Wade and Nicole Garner, it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.
Leann had worked as an accountant for the Watermelon Patch, a fruit-stand turned-boutique. The pair often dreamed of opening a boutique of their own, but the dream never seemed to evolve into a reality. As time passed, the Watermelon Patch began to trend downward, eventually going up for sale.
Nicole approached Leann about buying the business, and the hard work began soon after. There are plenty of decisions one must make after buying an existing business. Many of these decisions are informed by answering a simple question: What was the business’s reputation before you purchased it?
Because the Watermelon Patch had dramatically dipped in quality, Leann and Nicole changed the name to Sole Sisters, and they turned the business into a successful brick-and-mortar boutique.
When the pandemic caused many brick-and-mortar stores to close their doors in 2020, Leann and Nicole knew they needed to find a way to keep cash flowing. They changed their point-of-sale system, opting for an option that allowed them to sell both in-person and online.
The Sole Sisters were able to handle the transition gracefully, starting by listing only a small portion of their inventory online, allowing them to create a system for pulling stock from the floor once it sold online.
Ultimately, the biggest challenge the pair have run into is keeping up with the numbers. Luckily, Leann has a background in accounting, but that didn’t keep them from running into roadblocks along the way.
“If we don’t stay on top of the store, it will work us instead of us working it.” (15:09)
Like every business, they ran into their fair share of challenges, but Leann and Nicole have succeeded in creating a successful hybrid business that sells both online and in-person.
You can find Sole Sisters at: https://heysolesisters.com/
Shownotes
🧐(6:52) What do you do after buying a business?
🏆(13:26) Biggest lessons learned
🤝(17:03) Owning a business as best friends
😇(19:14) How faith interacts with business
📈(22:50) Advice
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to get more sales with your Multi-Channel Strategy?https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
In this week’s episode of the eComm Growth Show, Daniel and Robby sit down with Angela Fité, founder and CEO of Kinkistry, where she curated a collection of hair with a wide variety of textures, curls, and coils.
As she started her eCommerce brand, Angela knew she needed to up her social media game. She started using influencer marketing, curating her social presence and increasing her audience reach.
When the business began to get more traction and gain a larger customer base, Angela encountered a common problem for entrepreneurs: balancing work and family life. Ultimately, Angela concluded that sacrifice would be necessary.
“Unfortunately, you can’t do everything and be everything to everyone. And as much as I’d love to say I can, I can’t.” (20:18)
Angela learned to pick and choose which parts of the brand she would manage and which things she needed to delegate. One of the delegated responsibilities was marketing, which is how she got in contact with Shopanova.
Angela says that curating a solid social media presence is crucial, and Shopanova could take it one step further. By creating a solid base for social advertising to build off, Kinkistry has continued to grow into a premier eCommerce brand.
How will you grow your online store?
You can find Kinkistry at: https://kinkistry.com/
Shownotes
🚀(5:40) Utilizing a social presence to grow your brand
🤝(13:15) The importance of delegating to a good team
⚖️(19:36) Advice for balancing work and family
📈(23:40) Advice for someone starting their own business
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to get more sales with your Multi-Channel Strategy?https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
Many small business owners struggle to give up control while trying to grow their businesses. Maybe it’s hiring their first employee to help pack orders, or it might be outsourcing their marketing efforts for the first time. Whatever it might be, holding onto control often plays a crucial role in the success of their business, but at a certain point, it begins to hold them back from scaling.
“I’m in all these Facebook owner groups, and I see over and over again that people are talking about how they don’t want to give up control over this and that.” (12:43)
Growth comes with countless new responsibilities, challenges, and obstacles that require owners’ attention. If the owners aren’t willing to onboard new employees and delegate tasks, they will end up short-changing either their growth-related responsibilities or the day-to-day duties, eventually stagnating the company.
“All business owners have to get to the point where you let go of the things you can let go of and get the help you need because you will not grow on your own. I remember somebody telling me, ‘If it cannot be duplicated, it cannot grow.’” (14:16)
On this week’s episode of the eComm Growth Show, Katie and Johnny Apple join the show to share their experience growing their business, Apple Blvd Boutique. The Apple’s are a classic example of business owners who are reluctant to cede responsibility to employees and agencies in the name of scaling.
🍎 (1:05) Apple Blvd’s formative years
🤝(11:29) Learning to give up control to grow
🚀(14:52) Why Apple Blvd chose Shopanova
📈(20:24) What’s next for Apple Blvd?
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You can find Apple Blvd at: https://shopappleblvd.com/
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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In today’s world, businesses get a bad rap. There’s a common narrative that business is about selfishness, greed, and lifting a small portion of people at the expense of the majority.
At Shopanova, we believe that business, when done well, can make the world a better place. This idea is founded in conscious capitalism.
Conscious capitalism thrives on the idea that there is a higher purpose – that businesses provide value for the entire food chain. For suppliers, it means being compensated ethically. For customers and clients, it means partnering with the company providing the product or service. For employees, it means being bought into the brand and feeling cared for.
We believe that businesses have the opportunity to change the world for the better, and we are determined to play a part in the process. How will your brand do the same?
🧐(0:43) Conscious Capitalism
🤝 (2:12) Business is based on value creation
🌎(6:14) Evolving with a changing world
📈(10:30) Creating an environment for your team to succeed
😇(16:52) Treating humans as humans
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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On this special episode of the eComm Growth Show, we peel back the curtain to give you a look into our process and what it’s like to partner with Shopanova. While you might be used to Daniel and Robby hosting the show, this week, we listen in on a call with Oscar, one of our account managers, and Kole Jax Designs, one of our clients.
We began working with Kole Jax Designs just as iOS 14.5 debuted. With the dark cloud of iOS14.5 looming in the near future, Kole Jax Designs felt that the agency they were working with wasn’t preparing for the changes, choosing instead to live by the mantra out of sight, out of mind.
“Changes are constantly going to be coming, and people are always working on solutions. Because now, it’s too big of an industry to turn away.” (9:31)
One of our core points of emphasis is partnering with businesses rather than viewing them as clients. We believe that we are in this together, and their success is our success. One way we do this is by taking a percentage commission rather than a flat rate. We have a stake in our partners’ prosperity.
“That was one of the attractive things about Shopanova, that you guys take a percentage commission. I love that there’s skin in the game there, and I feel like other agencies are not as motivated because you become a passive income for them...The fact that you guys have skin in the game, I feel like we are collaborating and we are a team.” (28:12)
Shownotes
🧐(2:16) What problems did Kole Jax have before Shopanova?
💪(12:26) How is Shopanova different from Kole Jax’s previous experience?
📈(20:29) Being prepared for change
🚀(26:30) What does the future look like for Kole Jax?
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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On this week’s episode of the eComm Growth Show, Daniel and Robby chat with Dustin Finkel, CEO of Awakened Foods, which is responsible for Ka-Pop! and Bubba’s Fine Foods. Dustin has a resume you wouldn’t believe.
It’s no exaggeration to say that Dustin is one of the great minds in the CGP space, and he could have nearly any job he wanted in the space. Instead, he chose to lead a startup and grow a new CGP business, relying heavily on eCommerce.
Dustin talks about how Amazon, Email Marketing, and budget allocation has made all the difference - when it comes to absolutely dominating a market, that is. 💪
Shownotes
🤩(3:26) Successfully reimagining popular brands
💸(10:40) Common pitfalls when taking a brand to market
📈(18:16) How much of your budget should you allocate for ad spend?
💪(24:17) Helping other brands
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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In 2021 you have the opportunity to build a community of people that want to come back to your store, support your product, and convince others to buy it as well. They will tell others because they are bought in.
Social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have made products go viral overnight without the company even having to spend a dollar. Why? Because they build an organic story and feed it to a community of people who are bought in on the concept.
"If you know the market, you can utilize being organic 100%, but you have to be posting" (14:50)
Overall, the tools to adapt and thrive moving into a changing market in 2021 lie in shifting from an online store to a real brand. Whether it is transparency in shipping, communicating the story of your company, or sending PR packages, you have to be doing everything you can to be as personal as possible.
💪(3:05) Transition to Brand Building
🤔(4:27) Understanding Your Product and Offer
💀(7:21) Would They Miss Your Product?
📈(9:17) Steps To Scale Up Brand
👪(14:05) Creating An Organic Community
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Do you need more Brand Exposure and Online Sales for your amazing product?
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Are you struggling to overcome adversity in your pursuit of creating a successful online store?
Many entrepreneurs and online store owners know that it can be difficult to discern whether struggles and failures are signs from the universe that they should give up or if they are merely obstacles to overcome.
On a recent episode of the eComm Growth Show, Deric Cahill discussed this topic with Daniel and Robby. Deric is the founder of Wicked BOLD chocolate, and he’s experienced his fair share of challenges as a business owner.
Deric is unique in that he views every bump in the road as the universe testing him. How badly do you want to succeed? According to Deric, it is both a blessing and a curse. Because quitting simply is not in the cards for him, he approaches every challenge as an opportunity to improve and take one step closer to success.
“Honestly, I feel like there’s always challenges. They’re just different as you start scaling.” (11:30)
One challenge that Deric had to face when his business began growing was adding people to his team. The first hire often feels monumental. Not only is it a significant step for the company, but it also sets the tone for future hires. What are you looking for in an employee? How do you onboard new team members? Which positions do you need to step out of first? How will these decisions affect the future of your company culture?
At Shopanova, we love hearing how Deric has curated brand loyalty amongst his customers. We often talk about how brand development and brand loyalty make up the path to success for eCommerce stores in today’s world, and we are excited to hear future stories from Deric and Wicked BOLD.
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🗣(3:55) Enduring a Treacherous Journey of No’s
👨🏫(7:10) Learning to grow slowly
🤝(14:58) Trusting employees and establishing culture
🧐(20:15) Believing in feedback
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Deric Cahill - Wicked BOLD
https://wickedbold.com/
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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There are countless ways to describe 2020, a year that became an outlier when COVID-19 kept people at home and turned established systems on their heads. To be frank, we do not feel the need to add to the already saturated landscape of discussion about how the pandemic altered our day-to-day lives.
However, 2020 was a year full of strategic and numerical exceptions in the eCommerce marketing space. We believe we must discuss the reasons for these outliers, why 2021 will be different, and how brands should be strategizing moving forward.
(0:24) Introducing Wyatt and our 2021 strategy updates
(4:56) What’s different about this year?
(11:00) Is Apple tracking data?
(14:57) What every brand must do to stay competitive
(23:04) Can small brands do anything to keep up?
(29:21) The benefits of partnering with an agency
(33:48) Wrap up
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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When we talk with businesses about their marketing efforts and plans to scale, we commonly find that brands are too focused on their ROAS, or return on ad spend. They are consumed with raising their ROAS to 7x or 10x and lose sight of their original goal: growing their business. If this describes you, do not fear – We’ve been there too. Let’s take a look at how you can measure your marketing efforts and grow your business well.
At Shopanova, we prefer to zoom out and look at the larger picture of your marketing strategy. Ask yourself questions about your strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate your strategy as a whole.
Am I saturating the market with my content? Do people see my ads? Are they learning about my brand? Am I increasing sales year over year?
🧐(2:20) What is ROAS?
😱(6:23) ROAS pitfalls
📈(8:54) Measuring the success of a marketing campaign
🚀(12:12) What does real brand development look like?
💪(19:04) Conclusions
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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How has your business handled the transition to a remote or hybrid workspace over the last year and a half? As COVID-19 kept most people isolated in their homes, companies worldwide were forced to accept the growing trend of remote and hybrid office hours earlier than they had anticipated.
The new structure brought several questions and challenges that were long since ironed out in the previous era of office-based work.
How do you promote a positive, growth-focused company culture over zoom and emails? How do you facilitate collaborative problem solving when everyone is in their own home? Are your employees getting all of their work done when they aren’t being supervised at the office?
As you may know, we are based in Homer, Alaska, but over three-quarters of our team works remotely across the United States. Because we are a half-decade ahead of the office space evolution, we want to share some of the knowledge we’ve gained from our experiences over the last six years.
😧(4:32) Empowering your team starts with yourself
✅(14:00) Going from Hard to Manage to a Culture of High Freedom and High Accountability
💪(16:38) From Ambiguity to a World-Class Standard Operating Process
🧠(19:26) Turning Isolation and Loneliness into Meaningful Connection
👔(21:23) Why should a company be measured by the culture it creates?
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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Here at Shopanova, we are always talking with small-business owners that are hoping to scale. While marketing and advertising are challenges that these companies must overcome, we know there are plenty of other hurdles to jump as well.
In this week’s episode of the eComm Growth Show, Daniel and Robby chat with Justine Woods, the founder of The Bookish Box, about her experience growing her business. From hiring the right employees to learning from mistakes and spending money on marketing, the trio discusses many aspects of Justine’s journey with The Bookish Box.
Justine started in the literary world by blogging with a friend about the books they were reading. Publishers began sending them free books to review and write about, and as their following grew, they started selling t-shirts and other merchandise.
Looking to make a career out of her latest endeavor, Justine struck out on her own, making literature-themed t-shirts. After making hundreds of shirts for a red carpet premiere of 50 Shades of Gray and a separate subscription box set that had approached her, Justine began to run with the idea of making subscription boxes for literature merchandise. A year later, she added books to the box sets, creating the business you see today.
Throughout Justine’s seven-year journey of creating and running The Bookish Box, she’s learned from several mistakes. For example, she learned to give up some of her control of the business.
📚(2:08) Creating a book subscription box
🤦♂️(5:48) Learning from mistakes
🤔(7:13) Giving up control to start scaling
📈(11:21) How Facebook ads changed The Bookish Box’s world
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Check out The Bookish Box & Shop at https://thebookishshop.com/
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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On the eComm Growth Show, we love to highlight eCommerce brands that are sticking out from the crowd and paving a unique path while they build a successful online presence. Undoubtedly, Dwell is a perfect example of these success stories.
Dwell creates graphics and designs that help its subscribing members memorize scripture throughout the day. The brand sends out a temporary tattoo, keycard, and devotional print, each with the Bible for the month.
Natalie Abbott and Vera Schmitz, the founders of Dwell, recently joined Daniel and McKenzie to discuss their brand’s success with a broad customer base.
☝️(11:04) Strategic branding to stick out from the crowd
👨👩👧👦(22:43) Balancing work and family
🤝(25:36) The importance of connecting with customers
🤔(28:20) Advice for aspiring eCommerce store owners
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Check out what Dwell is doing at https://dwelldifferently.com/
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to get more sales with your Content Strategy?
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Don’t go into business with friends or family. The chances are high that this isn’t the first time you’ve seen this advice – it’s some of the most common advice shared amongst business professionals. In terms of popular business advice, it’s somewhere between don’t reinvent the wheel and know your market.
At Shopanova, we aren’t fans of that guidance in particular. Daniel and Robby, the founders of Shopanova and hosts of the eComm Growth Show, are brothers-in-law, and they attribute much of their success to working together as partners.
“Probably my favorite thing about being in business with [my brother-in-law] is...this idea that you don’t have to be alone in it. And I think if we did have to do this journey alone, there’s been enough hard things where I don’t think I would still be here today.”
While founding a business with family has worked for Daniel and Robby, they know that isn’t the case for everyone. The pair believes that establishing boundaries, living in humility, sharing core values, and learning from mentors are essentials for anyone going into business with friends or family.
🐟(0:21) Daniel and Robby’s backstory
🤝(7:30) Successfully partnering with friends and family
👨🏫(12:12) Learning from mentors
📈(18:30) Where Shopanova is now
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Scale your eCommerce store with Shopanova today
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
Here on the eComm Growth Show, we make a point to help eCommerce brands navigate the often arduous process of marketing and growing their online stores. One of our favorite avenues for this is talking with founders that have experience growing their business from the ground up.
In this week’s episode, Daniel and Robby talked with Katerina Rothman, the founder of Beflax Linen, about her experience building her online store. Katerina always had dreams of founding her own business, but she struggled to come up with the idea of what her business would be.
The idea struck her upon learning that her to-be husband was a hot-sleeper. Katerina searched for a solution in linen sheets, but every brand she found was wildly expensive. Rather than surrendering to pricey bedsheets, she was determined to create an alternative solution.
Katerina founded Beflax Linen with the hopes of creating affordable, environmentally sustainable bedding for hot-sleepers. She started her journey with rigorous product testing and research, hoping that an excellent product accompanied by a worthy mission would carry the marketing burden.
Upon realizing that marketing her brand would be a significant venture, Katerina dabbled with Google Ads before arriving at the realization that her business was too small to reap the benefits of her investment. She then turned to paid social advertising, which has benefited her brand greatly.
✅(3:45) Building a brand to fulfill a need
📣(10:17) Marketing a brand new business
🦾(13:36) Building a powerful team
💁♀️(19:36) Staying true to yourself
Are you an online business owner looking to grow your store?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
Visit Katerina's website at
https://beflaxlinen.com/
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Scale your eCommerce store with Shopanova today
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
Here at Shopanova, we talk a lot about growing your online business, but we haven’t spent as much time talking about what to know before launching your store. On a recent episode of the eComm Growth Show, our founders Daniel and Robby talked with our very own clients Ember and Elina, founders of theClothesRak.
The pair started their online store in 2018 after meeting two decades prior while working for Nordstrom. Both partners had loads of experience working in retail, and it has drastically shaped the way they run theClothesRak. When they joined the eComm Growth Show, they offered many great insights into what it takes to start an online business. Here’s what you need to know!
(9:24) Operating in a business partnership
(12:43) How content can sell the product for you
(20:39) How a retail background has influenced theClothesRak
(21:49) Advice for future online store owners
Are you an online business owner looking to grow your store?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
Visit Ember and Elina's website at
https://www.theclothesrak.com/
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to get more sales with your Content Strategy?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
One of the most common mistakes Colin sees with young online business owners is a lack of a forward-thinking plan. They’ll buy $10k worth of product before they have a plan for how to sell it all, or they won’t forecast their break-even points.
They skip over their variable costs, and they don’t account for discounts or returns. And past all of this, they often don’t consider how their goals align with their business model.
Do they want to grow a new, industry-leading brand? Do they want to build a business quickly and sell it to a larger brand? Do they want to develop a slow-growing, sustainable business?
These questions matter when you are mapping out your business plan!
One of Colin’s biggest successes came through his crowdfunding campaign. He set up a pre-order for his initial order of sheets, allowing him to pay for his first product order with customers’ money rather than his own.
Colin’s pre-order strategy freed up his initial funds to spend on marketing campaigns, acquiring customers rather than products.
🤔(12:21) The logistics behind launching an environmentally friendly company
👔(16:43) How mentors can accelerate growth
🎥(28:20) How to scale with standout content
💵(34:41) How much should I put towards ad spend?
Are you interested in pushing your creative strategy to the next level?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Apply here to become a Growth Partner with Shopanova and scale your creative business. https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
For many creatives, business acumen does not come naturally. They might create some of the most intriguing art, but their business will struggle if they don’t market it well. Stacie Bloomfield, the founder of Gingiber, is an exception.
Stacie was pregnant with her first child, but she and her husband could not afford to decorate a nursery. Drawing from her artistic passions, she created all of the artwork for the walls herself. Her husband encouraged her to sell her artwork on Etsy, and so Gingiber was conceived.
Etsy was new, and Stacie capitalized on what became a booming market. Blogs began to feature her work, and sales started to pile up.
While she had preferred slow growth earlier in her career, paid social ads turned out to be a key piece in pushing her business to the next level.
Are you interested in pushing your business to the next level?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
📈(7:44) Transitioning from Etsy to her own website
💵(15:50) Diversified revenue streams
🧠(21:44) Finding fulfillment in teaching others
💪(28:31) Running a business as a creative
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to Maximize your Customer Acquisition?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
What do you know about paid search marketing? It can commonly seem perplexing to people unfamiliar with the subject, partially because of the many different names, types, and abbreviations. Whether it’s search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), or pay-per-click (PPC), we’re generally talking about the same thing: making sure that your brand is the first thing people see in their search results.
At Shopanova, we typically operate in paid social marketing, but we know that paid search can seriously impact your business’ growth. We invited Phil Weaver, Head of Paid Search and Shopping at Purple, to join the eComm Growth Show to talk about how search engine marketing can help grow your online business!
He dropped a mountain of knowledge on us, but a few things really stuck out: having a holistic perspective with SEM, choosing your keywords wisely, and understanding your buying cycle. Check it out!
Are you looking to add some growth through social to add to your newfound paid search success?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
🧠(2:30) Paid Search 101
🤦♂️(9:38) Common mistakes in paid search
💪(12:23) Using full funnel to decide on keywords
☝️(14:43) Google vs Bing
Are you interested in attracting new customers to keep around?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
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IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Are you ready to maximize your customer acquisition strategy?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
We spend a lot of time talking about new-customer acquisition through paid advertising, but prioritizing previous customers is vital to any eCommerce brand that wants to be successful.
After all, attracting new customers will cost your brand more than retaining your existing customers.
Email marketing is a tried and true method of keeping your current customers engaged with your brand, but plenty of people are doing it wrong.
🤦♂️(5:49) Biggest mistakes in email marketing
💪(10:48) Setting goals
✅(13:50) What are people doing well with email marketing?
🧠(22:05) Advice for online store owners
Are you interested in attracting new customers to keep around?
https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Partner with us and scale your business
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
As we’ve stepped into the digital age, so many marketers have lost sight of what we are doing here.
Plenty of people who have been in this industry for a long time have been reluctant to evolve with the trends and embrace newer digital marketing tactics. Younger marketing professionals often tend to dive headfirst into current trends and lose sight of their client’s target audience because they are focused on learning the newest platform.
Often, marketers forget that our priority should be serving our customers in the best way possible!
Jerhad Thompson of Triton Commerce joined Daniel and Robby to discuss why marketing professionals should embrace new trends and connect with others in the industry and how they can best serve their clients.
🤝(6:57) Placing ads where it benefits your clients
🧠(10:19) Embracing change in digital marketing
🗣(14:37) Sharing industry secrets to better serve clients
☝️(18:13) Tips for growing in the digital age
Are you looking for someone to optimize your online business marketing strategy?
👉https://shopanova-and-me.com/apply
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IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Partner with us and scale your business
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
Are you having a hard time converting your ad spend into additional revenue? Maybe you feel like your marketing strategy isn’t working, and you can’t seem to figure out why your online business isn’t hitting the sales numbers you were hoping to reach. Our resident marketing expert Nathan Otwell joined Daniel and Robby this week to provide you with what you need to finally achieve the online sales numbers you’ve always dreamed of.
“If you’ve got money to put behind advertising, I can make something happen. I mean, that’s just, that’s the way my mind works when it comes to your brand.” (19:21)
Nathan is the CMO at Shopanova, and he audits our potential clients’ accounts to see how we can best maximize their return on ad spend. Today, he shared three of the most common mistakes he finds in prospective accounts.
-
Valuing Clicks Over Shoppers
-
No Strategy for Retargeting
-
Failure to Optimize Successful Testing
🤦♂️ (2:24) Advertise for shoppers, not clicks!
🧠 (6:49) Understanding what what the consumer is looking for
🦾 (11:12) Hyper testing ads
📈 (15:50) Utilizing data to maximize return
Want Nathan to maximize your strategy?
👉 CLICK HERE TO APPLY FOR AN AUDIT!
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to scale your creative strategy with Paid Ads?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
For online business owners, creating memorable advertisements that sell can be quite a challenge. They have to choose whether they want to save money and make the ads themselves or cough up some cash and outsource to an agency. It’s a tough choice, and it can have a drastic impact on a company’s direction.
Kent Lloyd, the Director of Harmon Brothers University, joined Daniel and Robby for the first episode of the eComm Growth Show’s third season to demystify creating remarkable advertising campaigns.
(15:33) Advice for developing a brand voice
(22:00) Using video to lead consumers through the funnel
(25:06) The downsides of shock factor
(27:38) Turning comedians into marketers
Harmon Brothers University
https://harmonbrothersuniversity.com/...
Are you ready to scale your brand massively with these three steps?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to grow your eComm brand massively? Hire Us!
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
Are you wondering what's holding back your eCommerce brand?
Although they don't realize it, many people forget about two-thirds of the necessary steps to growing a business. Growing a business can be complicated, but you can simplify it into three simple steps:
-
Acquire new customers
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Increase the value of your average sale (AOV)
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Convince your customers to purchase from you again
In marketing, so many people spend all of their time on the first step: customer acquisition.
While this is obviously a critical step, focusing solely on it will leave your business lacking.
In this episode we break down each of these functions and their role in growing a business exponentially.
🤦♂️(4:05) What most eCommerce businesses are missing
⬆️(5:33) How to increase average order value
📈(8:52) Growing customer retention
😃(11:41) How AOV and LTV affect acquiring new customers
Are you ready to scale your brand massively with these three steps?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Tired Of Navigating Advertising Platforms Like Facebook?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
If you’ve been around here before, you probably already know that we like to talk about embracing change.
Last week, Daniel and Robby talked about embracing change and making it work for you. Let’s look a little deeper at a few strategies we are using to stay ahead of the game with the changes we are currently facing.
Once you’ve gotten out of the echo-chamber of fear, it’s time to set your direction for what is to come. Looking at trends for 2021, it is evident that live selling is on the rise. A trend that gained traction in China in 2019 and 2020 has begun its journey west, and you should be planning accordingly. With Shopify leaning into the trend, it is sure to continue its ascent.
👀 (1:09) What’s happening with iOS 14?
👔 (6:08) What does Shopanova do to handle change?
📈 (15:46) Live selling and other 2021 trends
🔭 (19:57) Exploring new markets
Are you a business owner that is tired of worrying about these changes?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Tired Of Navigating Advertising Platforms Like Facebook?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
We'll let you in on a little secret: people are afraid of change.
We are wired to resent it. Change sparks fear in people that what they do or what they love will go away.
When people notice change, they often start future-tripping, spending all their time trying to find solutions for tomorrow’s problems rather than focusing on today and finding solutions that embrace change and allow you to succeed.
eCommerce professionals may not realize it, but we are in the business of change.
Our job is to track change and adapt systems to utilize that change best. If we are afraid of change, we are bound to fall behind and live in irrelevance.
So, let’s talk about a change we are dealing with now, how we can embrace it, and why it can be useful for us.
Check out this episode where we discuss:
✊ How Change Can Help You
🤯 Big Changes Involving Facebook
🤗 Embracing Change
🙌 Not Being Scared of the Future
Ready to get started with our team?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready To Grow Your eComm Brand Massively in 2021?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
While bringing most sectors to a halt, the pandemic made e-commerce an outlier.
Several e-commerce companies have witnessed extraordinary growth during the last twelve months, including our own.
Along the way, we learned valuable lessons on how to build a fully functional and integrated remote team.
We had to scale up our operations on the back of increased demand for our services. We needed additional resources to help deliver those services with exceptional quality and due diligence. And, it had to be a remote team.
Why? Because (gestures in the general direction of the world).
This isn’t to suggest that remote teams are problematic. In fact, our experience has been quite the opposite.
Remote work comes with flexibility and greater freedom for employees. They are not bound by strict office hours. It benefits both employers and employees as the right team can increase efficiency while being accountable.
Which raises the question, how do you set your team up for success? How do you empower them? More importantly, how do you build the right remote team?
Based on our experience, here are seven things to keep in mind when building or managing a remote team. When things get back to normal - whatever that normalcy will be like - we may return to the old way or a hybrid module. Remote may be a thing of the past. Or it will remain with us in some form.
But no matter what we choose, we believe these seven principles will always stay with us.
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Hire for culture, train for skill
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Define your core values
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Under-promise and over-deliver in your job description
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The three-round interview
-
Pay well
-
Familiarize people with the systems
-
Engage outside business
Check out this episode where we discuss:
👔 Our Hiring Process
✅ Using Core Values to "Set The Standard"
💩 How to Handle to The Tough Tasks
🤝 Tribe State of Mind
Ready to get started?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Feeling Trapped In Your eComm Business?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
Why did you build your own business?
Understanding your "Why" is one of the most important foundations to building a successful company.
Your "why" might change multiple times as you grow, and that’s perfectly natural, but remembering what motivated you to get started is one of the most impactful daily affirmations you can practice.
Listen in as Robby gets vulnerable and provides his very intimate testimonial about what Shopanova means to him.
From feeling powerless financially and a seemingly impossible family situation...
Hurting with seemingly no control over how he could provide the care his son desperately needed...
To realizing that a company is greater than the sum of its parts, and he had a team that could support him during his family’s time of need.
Without Shopanova, Robby fundamentally believes there is no way he could have provided the care his son needed and be available to his family.
This is our why.
Our company achieves results that one single person could never achieve and we exist to liberate business owners while empowering their growth.
If you're ready to be liberated from the daily struggle of bringing in online store sales... 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready To Grow Your eComm Brand Massively in 2021?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
eCommerce witnessed unprecedented growth in 2020 as people were confined to their homes.
This evolution of online retail was made possible by both new consumers and additional purchases from existing customers. Big box retailers expanded their online offerings to create a new category of businesses, bricks and clicks, making them omnichannel platforms.
What can small businesses learn from the bigger players who are riding high on this e-commerce wave?
What can independent sellers emulate from the strategies of the big brands?
To get answers, we spoke to Carlos Ferreira. US Ecommerce Director VMS at RB. Carlos works with some of the biggest household names in consumer products, including, Clearasil, Lysol, and Durex. He currently works in supply chain but was formerly in marketing.
Check out this episode where we discuss:
💣 How "Small" Can Get Lean & Mean
🧠 How to "Think Like The Consumer"
🔍 Why Search Is Still Powerful
💥 The Next Tech Boom
Ready to get started?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
⭐ Follow Us For More! ⭐
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready To Grow Your eComm Brand Massively in 2021?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
This year we saw an incredible boom in eCommerce sales. There was a ton of change as a pandemic hit in February/March of 2020, with many brands resisting the need to adapt or not realizing the depth of the situation.
By now, even brands that initially resisted eCommerce have begun to create websites and implement online shopping systems.
This episode focuses on a recap of the 2020 eCommerce scene, and what the hottest trends will be in 2021 for eCommerce brands.
Let’s recap 2020:
2020 was a massive year for eCommerce as COVID-19 forced a lot of brands online, or forced them to adapt and improve their online offerings.
There was a lot of change, and that change is here to stay.
It is projected that almost a quarter of all global shopping will be online by 2023!
If your business does not adjust to these changes, you will surely flounder through 2021, or you won’t make it at all.
We’re not trying to scare you but it’s just a matter of fact! Based on the surge in online shopping this year we’ve seen a couple of trends emerge that you can take advantage of to put your eCommerce brand at the forefront of 2021.
eCommerce in 2021 will look a lot like eCommerce in 2020, but more people will be doing it. So, you’ll need to focus on creating and implementing a strategy that makes sense for your audience.
Here are the 6 trends to focus on in 2021:
-
Growing Owned Channels
-
Mobile Shopping
-
Incorporating Everyday Items
-
Delivery and Shipping
-
Augmented Reality
-
Authenticity
Ready to get started?
👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
⭐ Follow Us For More! ⭐
IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Quit worrying about the day to day friction in your eComm business...
Hire Us! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
Friction is necessary for growth in business.
A lot of times, business owners will shy away from friction or conflict when they’re just starting out, but as Biggy said - “mo’ money, mo’ problems”.
The only way to tackle new problems that arise during growth cycles is with different perspectives, and group think is never good for productivity. You need multiple perspectives working towards the same common goals.
On this episode of The eComm Growth Show we discuss three frictions we have seen that are necessary for every business to scale:
👊 Friction Between Business Functions
👊 Friction Between Vision & Operations
👊 Friction Between Work & Rest
Ready to get started with our team?
Apply for a Strategy Session! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to Maximize Your Customer Acquisition?
Hire Us! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
As an eCommerce business owner, you regularly invest money to drive potential customers to your store through a paid ads system, influencer network, or some other customer acquisition system. In order to maximize this investment, you have to create a personal touch strategy for your shoppers and paying customers.
This week we have Blake Puryear, a senior product manager from Drip (👉https://www.drip.com) to discuss how eComm brands can maximize their customer acquisition with Email and SMS, otherwise known as Direct Response Marketing.
On this episode of The eComm Growth Show we discuss:
🤔 What is direct response marketing (DRM)?
🤔 Why do I need DRM if I pay for retargeting?
🤔 What’s the influence of DRM on customers?
🤔 How should DRM fit with other strategies?
🤔 How can DRM work for me in Q1 & Q4?
🤔 What’s the difference between SMS and email automation?
🤔 How does SMS in direct response marketing work?
Ready to scale your customer acquisition system?
Apply for a Strategy Session! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to Explode Your Online Store Sales?
Hire Us! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
Traditionally, Black Friday was the weekend where businesses would make the bulk of their fourth-quarter sales—or even the sales for the whole year. This weekend was and still is a huge opportunity for stores to move a lot of inventory.
However, after campaigning for Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales, businesses might wonder what to do next when those events are over.
On this episode, we discuss the trends that our team is seeing, and how we are helping brands scale this Holiday Season into Q1 2021.
Here's a recap:
🎁 Black Friday / Cyber Monday 2020
🎁 The Online Holiday Season
🎁 Cyber 4th Quarter
🎁 Data That Matters
🎁 The Strategy to Thrive in Q1
If you're spinning your wheels to figure out a strategy for your Online Store sales this Holiday Season and Q1 2021...
Apply for a Strategy Session! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to Scale Your eComm Entrepreneurship?
Hire Us! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
Every entrepreneur has faced their dark moments when life bites you.
When the going gets tough, it’s hard to remember why you started to chase your dreams of freedom and success in the first place. Ken Nickels, CEO of Raw Hair Organics (https://rawhairorganics.com) and RawganX (https://rawganx.com) - among other brands - knows those feelings well because he's faced some pretty dark times. More than his fair share, in fact.
We invited Ken to jump on the show and tell his story because if it inspires just one of you to get started, or gives you the inspiration to keep going, then that's a win in our books.
This episode is a must watch, and if you're feeling inspired afterwards...
Apply for a Strategy Session! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
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IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Ready to Scale Your Online Creative Strategy?
Hire Us! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how we survive as a business. Businesses are having to pivot to online to stay connected with their customers.
Travis Chambers, founder of Chamber Media (https://www.chamber.media), believes one of the key factors in growing an online business right now is the increased value of Ad Creative.
Listen in as Travis shares insights about how his business managed to not only survive, but thrive, during this crisis.
Travis, 32, is one of Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 and has become an undeniable industry leader in data-crafted video ads. We were pumped to chat with him!
With over 4,000 productions in its coffers, Chamber Media has experienced over $600 million in revenues in the last year. During the pandemic, his company has grown from 20 to 90 employees, all while doubling revenues.
We discussed 4 key components for adapting to the new marketplace and growing your business:
-
Invest in Marketing - Including Ad Creative
-
Forget Big Productions
-
Develop Leadership
-
Align a Strategy for your Brand, Budget, and Message.
Are you ready to start scaling your creative strategy rapidly?
Apply for a Strategy Session! 👉 https://shopanova-and-me.com/scale-now
⭐ Follow Us For More! ⭐
IG: https://www.instagram.com/_shopanova_/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/shopanovasocial
📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
Are you ready to remove the stress of getting sales in your Online Store?
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What do you do when you don't feel like showing up?
Show up anyway.
There's this constant pressure as a business owner to always be on and be performing.
For instance, we talk about the same things over and over for our audience, and sometimes we just get sick and tired of it.
Repeating the same 3-5 ad hacks just isn't it, but it's important to show up.
When you're feeling Anxious, Distracted, or even Overwhelmed - stay in the process and remember your why. Remember that you control your own destiny.
A truly great leader attributes success to the pieces they have around them, and they recognize that every challenge or opportunity that presents itself happens for their benefit.
This is why it's so important to show up and lead with authenticity every single day. It's not about owning every single success. It's about the process.
Leading with authenticity isn't about charisma or hype. Often times, showing up and simply demanding excellence from yourself and those around you on a daily basis will create a culture of winning that you need to achieve.
And a winning culture will cause exponentially more success than one person could ever achieve.
Are you ready to build scalable systems in you business to facilitate success?
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Often, we consult our clients on things other than Facebook ads – specifically the metrics that are commonly overlooked.
Our clients are putting everything they have into getting sales, but the capacity to look at the big picture can get tricky for a business owner wearing so many hats. This is where we happily come in to help!
One thing to note – we do not believe in shifting blame. As data comes in, there are specific, actionable metrics that we look at to improve the overall return for an online store.
In this episode we discuss:
🎯 How Important is Return on Ad Spend?
🎯 Why Selling Yourself Short IS NOT Sustainable
🎯 The “Neighborhood” Limited Belief
🎯 Margins Matter Most
🎯 Create an Engagement Strategy
🎯 Spending to Grow
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📺 The eComm Growth Show
https://shopanova.com/the-ecomm-growth-show/
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In the Season 2 premiere of The eComm Growth Show, we chat with Suzanne Tucker of Generation Mindful (https://www.genmindful.com) about how building a brand focused on impact rather than sales ultimately produced the desired monetary results that most entrepreneurs are reaching for.
A lot of entrepreneurs will ask us "how do I find a winning product that will sell?"
For Suzanne, the formula was simple. She had a burning desire to solve some serious frustrations in one of the most frustrating service based industries - education.
All she needed was a little inspiration.
Finding strength in other entrepreneurs' journeys, Suzanne went to work and took action. Her biggest takeaway looking back on this stage of her journey is "THINK BIG". She talks about how she had to go all in - there was no doing this halfway for her. She was going to not only provide solutions to her frustrations for other parents and educators, but she was fully vested in building a brand.
When Suzanne was creating her business, she mentions that she didn't want to simply create a product. She wanted to build a brand that had a lasting impact on her industry.
She mentions that the biggest difference maker for her was focusing on the "Why?" and the "How?" rather than the "What?". Building a brand isn't about the tangible item that someone receives. It's about the message behind the product.
Suzanne notes that it would have been impossible to build her brand without investing in herself and going all in. The way that she did this - Kickstarter.
Suzanne notes that most people view Kickstarter as this overnight success story platform. You create a campaign with a great idea... and you get rich.
This simply isn't the case.
She notes 3 of her biggest takeaways from a successful Kickstarter campaign
-
Have a BIG idea.
-
Get the launch prepped with an audience before going live.
-
Make it short and sweet. Don't drag out a campaign.
The whole process is essentially like making friends, so treat the launch like it!
Suzanne has some great advice for entrepreneurs on their journey to success. Her biggest pieces of wisdom are to "slow it down" and maintaining "connection" with one's relationships and well being.
First and foremost, no working from the kitchen table. Family life and work life must be separated.
Keeping clear boundaries and pacing yourself will build sustainability, and more sustainability in your business will create more reach and more impact.
Suzanne reflects on the growth that occurred from the sheer impact that she was able to create in her business.
Now in over 200 countries and giving back 5% of her sales, the Impact has never been greater.. and neither has the sales.
She's now using partnerships to leverage her reach and create exponential impact around the globe.
So we asked Suzanne "what's been the most effective form of marketing for you?"
It was no surprise to us that she quickly lists Paid Traffic on Social as her bread and butter for growing her business.
Her recommendation and pro tip - start small, learn it yourself, and promote everything. She also adds that promoting your highest performing posts is a great place to start for a small business.
Are you interested in how we have helped Suzanne and hundreds of others?
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“The problem with the brand we’re running right now is everything is down to a science, everything is very automated, we’ve done everything that we’ve wanted to do. So when you get to a point like that, how much more can you really do? I feel like I’m hitting a wall. It came down to...Am I happy?”
Those are the reflections of e-commerce millionaire Chris Conrady, after years of hustling and starting numerous side gigs. He finally hit on a “formula” for success with e-commerce and Shopify in 2016.
But fast-forward just four years later and you can see the sheer dissatisfaction in those words.
Is Chris discounting his growth and journey?
Not at all.
Fact: Chris is hungry for more.
And that’s because of one little secret that only business owners who are down in the trenches, every single day, will know. They won’t tell you this when you start out, but you’ll realize it for yourself soon enough:
You’re not trying to “grow your business.” You’re trying to grow yourself. What Factors Affect Business Growth?
Even as a solopreneur, or a one-person dropshipping company, you can take your cues for business growth from bigger companies.
Whether it’s a four-person business expanding into a second location or an entire country developing their small business economy, studies consistently show that business growth needs:
That’s a nice, broad definition for business success. But it misses some of the “soft” targets.
Often, business owners focus on the tangibles: The techniques and tactics, the strategies and specific actions you can take to connect with your customers or convert more sales.
However, there are also other success factors that focus on the more qualitative aspects of business growth.
Using business growth and expansion as a measurement of success, a study of new firms show a different set of variables:
These seven success factors point to a principle that underlies all business growth. It’s at the heart of the new age of entrepreneurship.
The fact is that the face of entrepreneurship and the nature of the way business is being done — online, digital, lean, and personal. There’s more emphasis than ever on the personality of those who create companies.
Call this the Steve Jobs effect or the truth of personal branding according to Gary Vaynerchuk. The point is that who you are directly impacts how you grow your business.
How Do You Encourage Personal Growth?
If you want to encourage personal growth, it’s very simple.
Note: “Simple” does not mean “easy.” It doesn’t mean “set it and forget it.” Simple means it’s easy to understand and requires only commitment to start.
Encouraging personal growth comes down to a commitment to do whatever it takes to bring about change, growth, expansion, and amelioration in your life. Every time you feel good, that’s an indicator that you’re on the right path, doing the right thing.
Now, here’s a caveat:
There’s a difference between feeling good because of instant gratification (like sneak-eating a piece of cake at 12 a.m. because you need to cure an addiction to emotional overeating), and doing things that feel good because they’re in your best interests.
Unlearning and relearning how to change the former response into the latter is what self-improvement and personal growth is all about.
And it can be surprisingly “tricky” to navigate because our pre-existing habits, behaviors, and beliefs cna constantly sabotage our growth — even if we want and intend to grow! It’s why the self-improvement market was worth $10 billion in 2016.
And it’s why this upward trend will continue to grow to an estimated $13.2 by 2022.
Psychologist Niels Eék puts this in plain words any entrepreneur can understand:
“From the perspective of an entrepreneur, self-improvement will often entail some sort of mental training but can mean anything from practicing stress management to valuable goal-setting." Self-improvement is a journey, for sure, but so is growing a business. That’s why it’s important to support yourself with as much opportunity for development and expansion as possible.
When you can evolve professionally, emotionally, mentally, and physically, it directly contributes to your mastery of self.
Dr. Srikumar Rao says that personal growth is what we’re really after when we, as entrepreneurs, start a business on an idea, a prayer, a wing, a hope, some scrappy couch-cushion-change foraging.
Known as the “Buddha of Business” Dr. Rao says that mastering your personal well-being is the key to success in all areas of your life — including business.
So ask yourself this:
If you can grow as an individual, why wouldn’t those changes spill over into your relationships, your finances
The fact is, how we do one thing is how we do all things.
5 Surprising “Rules” About Expanding Your Income and Identity
There’s a reason why posts about morning rituals, productivity hacks, and “how to” guides are so popular.
Success always leaves clues.
And here’s another thing about this not-so-elusive principle:
You shouldn’t be trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead, you should simply reverse-engineer what has worked for others, and adapt it for yourself.
1) There Are No Rules
The first rule of Fight Club is…
Okay, let’s just deviate from that for a second. The first “rule” of developing yourself to grow your business is that there are no rules.
Just as you shouldn’t be platform-religious, you should be totally “model” agnostic when it comes to resources, frameworks, and wisdom around personal growth.
Be flexible and open enough to try anything once. Take what works for you and move on to the next “system” or “coach” that looks like it could point you in the right direction. In the age of Internet gurus and push marketing, this should help lessen the sense of stress and overwhelm you might feel.
Where do I even start with personal growth?!
The good news is that it literally doesn’t matter. Pick one area of your life and stay consistent in committing to its improvement. You’ll soon find these “gains” spilling over into other areas.
Let’s say, for example, that you’ve decided that working on your physical fitness is your focus du jour. Great. Not only are you muscle-building, your discipline-developing. So next time you want to tap out at 4 p.m. because you’re tired, discipline will help you stay focused.
2) Go Where You Feel the Most Discomfort
Okay, here’s the next cardinal rule.
Yes, you can pick any area of your life to improve and grow.
But the area that will have the most significant effect on your life is where you feel the most pain or fear.
For some people, that’s dating and relationships.
For others, it’s fear around finances.
And, some are simply terrified of something as small as public speaking. In fact, they probably feel a great desire to express themselves. Without that desire to express themselves, they wouldn’t care about improving in this area.
Does that make sense?
The places where you feel the most discomfort are the areas that you have the most to gain. Personal growth is full of little ironies like this and you should take these in stride.
When you feel uncomfortable, you know growth and change are happening.
3) Expand Outwards in Concentric Circles
Social media icon Jasmine Star was once a struggling, solo photographer. She was grappling with how to book clients on a shoestring budget, and the best part was…
...she didn’t have any photography skills.
That’s right.
None.
So, how did this tiny little powerhouse manage to build her business into a 7-figure business?
For the first three to four years, she did nothing except focus on providing fantastic services as a photographer for her clients.
Read that again.
She didn’t branch out into courses.
She didn’t chase digital products.
She didn’t set up passive income.
She didn’t spend money chasing the next shiny thing.
No.
First, she focused.
According to Jasmine, it was only when she had reached a certain amount of traction (not money, but traction), a certain level of momentum where clients were reliably coming in did she start looking outwards, expanding, and diversifying some of her streams of income.
Jasmine notoriously says she has zero interest in “making her business her baby” as so many other professional, entrepreneurial women confess. Instead, she says, “I want to make my business a machine.”
Boom.
So... what does this have to do with concentric circles?
Okay. Picture this:
When you throw a pebble into still waters, the ripples progress outward. You can still see the center where you threw the pebble, even as the ripples grow bigger and bigger.
The same is true of your business. Build a strong center — which includes your own sense of self and mental fortitude — and then diversify your income streams outward like those ripples. Do not try to do everything at once and don’t waste time chasing things that aren’t relevant right now.
4) Have a “Growth” Mindset
While it’s true that social researcher Carol Dweck first pioneered this term in the late 80s, and Tom Bilyeu popularized in the early 2010s, let’s take a look at this mindset in action.
Greg Gottfried, a digital entrepreneur, is the perfect example of personal growth and business success in e-commerce. By age 24, Greg established 7 streams of income, earning over $1000 to $2000 dollars a day.
In a month, that’s anywhere from a minimum of $30k to $60k, on autopilot.
So what makes Greg so successful? Only this fact:
Greg is always looking for opportunities to grow. He’d gladly work in another two income streams to scale up his business income even more. Having a growth mindset used to meaning yourself off from the failures you’ve encountered. And that’s true.
But it’s not just about overcoming adversity. Having a growth mindset also means being on the constant and conscious lookout for opportunities to expand.
And, by the way, you can expand by serving others. It’s what Greg is doing through his YouTube channel, which is probably his 8th or 9th stream of income.
5) Make “Play” a Priority
Business is serious stuff and if you’re not careful, you could lose a lot of money.
So... making “play” a priority sounds counterintuitive, right?
Hang tight for a second.
We’re going to show you why this is an absolute.
The self-styled “shrink for entrepreneurs,” Peter Shallard makes a connection between play and productivity. Without making time to have fun, you’ll quickly forget why what you’re doing even matters. You’ll start shirking duties and spending entire days in bed, forgoing all your goals and promises to yourself.
Before you know it, you’ve stopped trusting yourself.
And it’s not just about balance. It’s about the whole picture.
If your business is not something you genuinely enjoy — if it constantly feels like a chore or an obligation, if you’re constantly motivated by the fear of running out of cash or failing — then you’ll quit over and over again.
One day, you simply won’t be able to get back up.
So do yourself a favor and put your pleasures and penchant to play and enjoy yourself first.
Conclusion
There’s a lot out there about personal growth and business development. Many of these timeless principles have been covered here, too, so let’s just leave you with this last nugget:
No personal growth can happen without reflection.
As you’re journeying down the highway of expansion — be it business, fitness, relationships, health, or anything else — make sure to review and reflect on the momentum, the pace, the direction, and the lessons.
And as you’re doing this, make sure to congratulate yourself for the small wins. They’re the building blocks for the big things.
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In part 2 of the Founders’ Story, we continue answering this question:
How do two former fishermen who grew up in rugged Alaska and Montana end up as founders of an e-commerce marketing business? Where We Left Off
Both Daniel and Rob made the transition out of the commercial fishing industry, realizing they didn’t have to do things the same way their families had. Daniel and Rob realized that their next chapter had to be different.
They realized how much they loved making videos on the boats, so they decided to take that first step to create a video production company. They held relentlessly on to the belief that they would be successful.
The First Year
The first year was tough. In the space of a tiny closet, they barely made 100K. It was just Daniel and Rob and they basically took home zero dollars.
They hired a mentor to help launch the agency’s funnel. They would periodically check in with the mentor, learned about who their ideal client was – and along the way they “borrowed some confidence” from them too.
Potential clients would get on the phone, but no deals were closing.
Patrick, who was with Daniel on the boat-roll experience (from episode one) was able to see the potential for closing these deals.
Patrick Comes Aboard
Patrick had always been ambitious and was looking for a new opportunity after fishing. At 24, with a wife, child and only fishing experience, he was humbled while looking for the next step in his work journey. He became licensed to sell insurance and moved back to Homer, Alaska. He did really well, realized he was great at talking to people and learned a lot about sales.
When Patrick saw Daniel and Rob doing video production, despite the low returns, Patrick knew it was something special and got inspired.
When Daniel and Rob opened up their books to him, Patrick immediately noticed that there was no process to qualify leads, so the two were booked out every half hour for two weeks talking to different people who saw an ad and signed up for meetings. At this point, the agency only had one or two clients.
Patrick started taking calls on commission before and after his day job. Things took off. He started landing sales. Patrick saw the potential for the business and wanted to come on full time. He took the leap of faith to leave the stability of the insurance job to join the agency.
Just a few weeks ago, Patrick joined Daniel and Rob as a founding partner.
Patrick recalls landing a pretty big deal for more than 10K. It ultimately fell through and from there, Patrick didn’t close a deal for more than a month.
But since then, it has been a solid path of growth and a flywheel of case studies, ads and expansion.
What is the Why?
Shopanova and their clients are on a parallel journey in growing business, taking risks and seeing them pay off. All three guys see so much purpose in their everyday work. They understand every emotion their clients have.
For Rob, he has always wanted to create an impact. Of course, generating wealth and resources is also important. The founders have been keeping track of what kind of profits they have been able to turn for their clients.
It turns out to be around quite a bit. $50 million dollars from just three guys and now 31 employees. Seeing a client going from generating $10K to $800-900K each month is massively inspirational. Knowing that their clients are providing jobs in their communities and becoming powerful resources is extremely rewarding.
Patrick appreciates the absence of ego and the search for growth in both Rob and Daniel.
The search for and investment into coaching and auditing and brutally honest feedback is rare. Being fearless to open up, find your weaknesses and understand that there is a better way is so important and contributes significantly to the culture at Shopanova.
How Did They Get Here?
Rob asked everyone, “What is the belief system that got us here?”
All three founders have always had a personal connection to each client and their individual businesses. This goes so deep, that it’s almost to a fault because anything that doesn’t go according to plan is taken in a deeply personal way.
However, the belief that life doesn’t happen to you but instead life happens for you, has been impactful. No matter what was going on, the guys were able to view events – good or bad – with the proper perspective.
Truly seeking the best for their clients, even if it’s not with Shopanova, has paid dividends ten times over.
All three have seen how the business has changed their lives so deeply. They know it’s possible to experience massive transformation and that is what they consistently strive for – for themselves and for their clients.
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How do two former fishermen who grew up in rugged Alaska and Montana end up as founders of an e-commerce marketing business?
Good question.
Daniel’s Story
Daniel grew up in Homer, Alaska as the son of commercial fishing legend Tom Stafford. Since he was 3 years old, Daniel was out on the boat with his father, gone for a month at time. It was an amazing experience. Fishing all summer, homeschool in the fall and winter. Repeat.
Daniel remembers getting a big set of fish and the crew rolling it aboard. The boat tips way up and you’re holding on for dear life. One set was 15,000 tons and worth a million dollars. It took 20 minutes.
Fishing is addicting because you live for those moments. You grind away all season through many crappy days in a row - catching minimal fish, getting up at 4am, putting on your wet rain gear, stacking the net. But then you get a big set that makes it all worth it. Fishermen somehow only remember that big set.
This is what Daniel knew – going out, earning with physical and manual work.
Rob’s Story
Rob was born in Montana. His father’s calling as an artist resulted in a non-traditional nomadic childhood. The family was tight knit but because of the artist lifestyle, money was even tighter.
The family took advantage of the freedom this kind of work provided and seized the opportunity to travel. As a kid, Rob remembers it feeling like a big adventure. But as he got older, it became more difficult.
Making new friends and then leaving them again and again took its toll. Sports like wrestling and football were always a passion for Rob. In Oregon, he found a band of brothers among his teammates during middle school. As the family decided to uproot again and eventually moved to Costa Rica, Rob decided to move in with a friend. He began to see himself as completely independent and saw how critical making a living was going to be in his future.
(Their stories are separate up to this point.)
When their paths cross, Tom Stafford encourages Rob to join the fishing business. Daniel and Rob do some traveling together and Rob falls in love with Brittany, Daniel’s little sister. Both guys get married and decide it’s time to lower the needle on risk and provide.
But how they get to that point is where things get really interesting.
Rob’s Story… Continued
On Rob’s honeymoon, Tom Stafford calls to report a sick deal on a boat.
It’s important to point out that there is absolutely no guarantee that a fishing boat is going to make any money. This doesn’t stop anyone in Alaska, however. It’s totally normal for people to take on hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt knowing that it’s going to be unbelievably stressful, competitive and high risk.
So, naturally, Rob goes into hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt before the honeymoon is barely over and he and Brittany do the fishing themselves and they do it well. They place among the top 5 fishing boats in the area in the first year. Then, between Brittany getting pregnant, some injuries, the long months away, and the need to take other jobs to make ends meet, the idea of being away so much quickly becomes difficult for Rob.
After his daughter is born, he’s on his boat alone at the end of the season. He is thinking about his new baby and that he’s been gone for 4 of her first 7 months. At the same time, he sees another boat. There is an older guy drinking a lot and fishing. Rob asks himself, “is that going to be me?”
People quit at different times, but he decides right there. That’s it.
Daniel’s Story... Continued
Meanwhile, Daniel starts his own fishing business too. Debt, marriage, new baby coming in the middle of the fishing season all make life pretty stressful. Daniel feels a ton of pressure being a new captain and the son of Tom Stafford at the same time.
As Daniel is on his way home to meet his wife to prepare for the birth of their first baby, the crew is watching the Walking Dead. A wave catches the boat and turns it hard to the right. The bow goes under and takes on so much water that Daniel immediately realizes there is no way they are coming back from this. Daniel climbs out the window, luckily with his cell phone in his pocket, as the boat is rolling. He soon finds himself standing on the bottom of the boat and calls his dad who was fishing a mile away.
All crew members but one – Patrick – surface. The pressure of the water had trapped Patrick in the door. He’s taking his last Titanic-type breaths when the pressure equalizes, and the door opens for him. The door kept his pants, but let him go.
Because the boat was underinsured, it was a financial nightmare. Daniels basically loses everything including the drive to fish. But he has to provide, so he goes back to work.
Gone for the first month of his own son’s life, he also begins thinking, “do I really want to risk my life to make money every day?” Taking a Leap of Faith
These two guys realized that the next season of life had to be different. Marriage and family seemed to require less risk. Passion was non-negotiable.
Daniel had always thought that he was just going fish and do what he had always seen those around him doing. He read Think and Grow Rich, shared it with Rob, and that changed everything.
They realized how much they loved making videos on the boats, so they decided to take that first step to create a video production company. They held relentlessly on to the belief that they would be successful.
The first year was tough. They barely made 100K. It was just Daniel and Rob and one other guy. Between three people, expenses and start up fees, they each only made 10K that year.
They took the leap of faith, but it was tough. Now here they are with a successful ecommerce business. We’ll talk more about how they got from point A to point B in the next episode.
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What is Influencer Marketing?
This method of social media marketing leverages endorsements and product mentions from influencers who have a dedicated social following. Influencer Marketing is effective because followers trust the influencers and this provides much needed social proof for a brand’s value.
Shopanova noticed that significant portions of social budgets are now being earmarked for influencer campaigns and wanted to explore the concept to help their audience better understand Influencer Marketing.
What Is the Difference Between Influencers, Microinfluencers And Nanoinfluencers?
Before jumping into how Influencer Marketing works, it’s important to understand the different types of influencers.
According to Ramon, using several microinfluencers instead of 1 expensive influencer usually results in better social evidence. How Can Middle Market Businesses Use This Marketing Strategy?
Begin by Establishing Goals
According to Ramon, brands of all sizes – from those that are just launching to those with $50M in revenue – can benefit from Influencer Marketing as long as they begin by really considering: what are we trying to achieve?
The underlying objective of Influencer Marketing is to obtain social proof for your business, but the reasons why you want to try it can vary:
Engage the Right Influencer for Your Business
It used to be that a brand could send an influencer a DM or a product and ask, “Hey, can you let us know what you think?” But now, the space is so saturated that typically the influencer doesn’t even respond.
Ramon has seen this happen.
The whole experience turns out badly and you end up thinking “Influencer Marketing just isn’t for me.” Then your business misses out on the potential of a great strategy.
To attract higher quality influencers, you and your business must be established. Influencers are going to want to understand your brand, what it stands for and who is behind it.
There are many avenues, including expensive databases and networks, to assist you in finding the right influencer. But Ramon suggests doing it yourself.
Templates are out there that can help manage the process and all of the moving parts. It will require some work, but it can be done:
Provide Incentives for the Influencer to Go Above and Beyond
This person is going to become your spokesperson and your brand ambassador. Get them fired up about working together. You certainly don’t want them to post once and then forget you.
Some brands are offering influencers equity-based compensation based on specific KPIs. Ramon suggests mentioning this as a possibility but taking a wait and see approach to making it official.
Final Thoughts
So many variables contribute to the outcome of an influencer campaign.
Be open minded to the advice of marketing experts. When you understand all of the intangible benefits of Influencer Marketing and how you can capitalize on them, you’re ready to get started.
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If you’re watching or listening to this episode, you may have already seen some of our ads on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. If you’ve been paying attention, you know that our paid ads strategies are designed for businesses that have already achieved 10K in sales per month. In response to those ads, the most typical comments are:
It’s important to dispel this myth.
The First $10K: Before and After – What’s the Difference?
The Low Hanging Fruit
A company that hasn’t achieved the $10K monthly milestone is most likely leaving low hanging fruit on the tree.
To leverage the brand’s low hanging fruit, companies often tap into:
Singular Focus
Laser focused attention is much easier when you’re on your way to $10K per month.
When that focus is 100% on growing the company, you don’t need to outsource or hire a lot.
Although it’s awesome once you begin consistently achieving $10K, you’re growing and things get hairy. The next phase – for the foreseeable future - is entirely different.
After $10K, you need to begin outsourcing or hiring internally for something like marketing or sales.
Whatever you are focused on is going to be amplified.
Something has to give.
Why $10K is an Interesting Number
Most founders are hoping to take $10K per month home at some point.
For that to happen, some eCommerce businesses realistically need to be making almost 10x that amount when you're factoring in Cost Of Goods and Operating Expenses. It certainly takes time to get that momentum going.
When you really think about cost of goods sold, you’re going to need help figuring out how to make more to have more to go around.
Sounds brutal, but once you get to $10K, it’s time to get serious and ask some tough questions:
What It Means to Have a Next Level Mindset
Once you get to $10K and prove that you can function beyond that point, then the goal is to become the product that gets added to the cart among a large competitive marketplace. In simple terms - it's time to start thinking about market share.
Let’s say you’re starting and spending 100-200 per day. Now it’s time to have a long-term focus and understand that if you aren’t seeing sales on that particular day, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Especially in the ramp-up period, you are purchasing other things with your ad spend:
Further marketing to these individuals will create a "virtual shopping" experience on their social media feeds, and keep them coming back to your store for repeat sessions.
This is a data purchasing process. You’ve invested in market share, data, etc. And now, you can advertise in a much more effective way.
Where Shopanova Comes In
Getting to $10K is not easy, but it’s the “easier” part.
At some point, organic ecommerce marketing reaches a point of diminishing returns.
You will hit a plateau and need to pivot to paid ads in order to amplify.
When businesses learn about the potential of paid ads, local store owners are speechless. How easy it is to sell products nationwide blows their minds.
Shopanova has expertise with that next level mindset. If the low-hanging fruit has been maxed out and now your company needs expertise to scale to $100K and beyond, apply for a no-cost growth audit with our team.
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How is Your Business Operated at Scale?
We've learned and crafted a successful model based around these five pillars through our time in the industry:
It’s worth pointing out that these five components all have equal importance but should be executed in the order they listed. Not doing so might result in the failure of your online business.
Why are Marketing and Sales a Top Priority?
While many people think that the product and its viability is more important, you can’t stay in business if nobody knows about what you’re selling.
Furthermore, if they do know what you're selling, consumers must also want to buy it.
The most mind-bending products that seem like they should sell crumble into nothingness due to non-existent marketing and sales.
Take Steve Jobs, for example, and his association with the iPhone. The tech icon’s main strengths were his ability to create culture, land deals, and establish a vision, notwithstanding his astonishing charisma.
Where he probably lacked most was at physically developing products. Even if he were in his prime, Steve Jobs probably couldn’t have built a computer or laptop.
Yes, the iPhone, as a product, was tremendous.
But it was the marketing and selling skills of Steve Jobs that made it a phenomenon. If not for the buzz he knew how to create and how he ignited the public's imagination, there's no way the product would have been transcendent. Nor would it have been possible to continue developing further, more advanced tremendous iPhone technology.
Stop Throwing Everything into Product Development
There’s no doubting how critical it is to have a quality product. But developing that product is a complete waste without marketing and sales strategy firmly in place.
Of course, we understand why some eCommerce businesses fall into a trap where they think marketing and sales are cheap and gimmicky. Ads are littered throughout the online space. "Gurus" everywhere are promising to change your business with some manner of dark magic.
Whereas the quality of your product seems like it should speak for itself. It’s the substance that you need to give your company a tremendous reputation that leads to word-of-mouth buzz.
Unfortunately, leaving yourself bereft of marketing and sales will turn your excellent product into a financial sitting duck.
We're not going to sit here and deny the overwhelming presence of hollow online ad people. But it pays tremendous dividends to do your research, hire experts with a proven track record (if necessary), and give these two critical pillars the attention they deserve.
Quality Marketers Don't Work for Free.
Some online businesses with considerable brand power are just as guilty of undervaluing marketing and sales as less experienced entrepreneurs.
Because many marketers have offered cheap – if not free – services, these organizations gain a sense of entitlement.
We know from experience – having performed audits – that these otherwise powerhouse brands have significant holes in their online ad campaigns. Eventually, they all realize the error of their ways. Still, frequently the damage has been done by those inexperienced, under performing "free" marketers.
All Pillars Play a Pivotal Role
You'll notice that the majority of this blog has delved more into the marketing and sales aspect of eCommerce. Since these are the kinds of services we offer, we'll tend to see an online business through those lenses.
Therefore, we must then reiterate that all pillars are equally crucial.
Without sound internal operations, your business wouldn’t be able to function properly. In the absence of delivery, which is your product, you then have nothing to give customers. If you don’t have enough financial backing, your company can’t sustain itself.
The Critical Nature of Product Delivery
Let’s talk about Steve Jobs once more:
Here’s someone who – when carving his name into the annals of world history – had a dedicated team of skillful engineers at his side.
He knew that no matter the idea, he’d deliver on a product that satisfied his consumer base.
Technology can help you perform wonders these days, but not all eCommerce businesses can execute on their marketing promise.
We see this discrepancy most frequently with drop shippers, who tend to hit consumers with the razzmatazz of marketing and sales but can’t follow up.
Marketing and sales being a top priority should take you to the promised land. Yet both pillars can't make up for a product that takes forever to deliver, shows up damaged, and is of altogether poor quality. And it won’t cover for poor customer service, either.
Your product must back up your marketing and sales promises. And vice versa.
With a product or service that you can genuinely believe in, it's then time – with marketing and sales – to ensure you don't end up being the best-kept secret around.
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Avoid Making These Six Mistakes That Online Store Owners Commonly Make
Online stores always bring the potential for profits and personal gains as a business owner.
Realizing the potential, however, requires a measured and strategic approach that takes time to develop.
Part of crafting a successful online store is avoiding critical pitfalls that only seem to generate missed opportunities.
Through the six examples discussed below, we’ll examine some of the common mistakes you’ll want to avoid as an online store owner.
- Failing to Think Beyond the Initial Clickthrough
With Facebook these days, there are enough advanced tools made easy, even for beginners, to get in front of your target audience.
The issue that many online store owners face is with taking the next step in the customer acquisition process. Tons of people click on ads to learn about products they find interesting. During the moment, they might not be interested in buying—though they’re still open to persuasion in the long run.
Unfortunately, too many online businesses focus solely on getting that initial clickthrough, not on the follow-up touchpoints.
It takes between five and twenty touchpoints (we'd usually say around seven or eight) to complete a sale, on average. As such, there must be a plan in place to stay in front of audiences so that they hit those touchpoints. This way, your target consumers will continue to see a product or brand, until they finally decide to make a purchase.
Failing to bolster a touchpoint-based strategy will leave you wanting for conversions. It's crucial for eCommerce stores to get back in front of someone who clicked an ad without making a purchase ASAP.
- Being too Trigger Happy with Discounts
Some eCommerce stores are quite proactive about touchpoints, but a little overeager to earn the approval of customers.
What do we mean, exactly?
Just because a customer doesn't make a purchase after that initial click through, doesn't mean they didn't like what they saw. They usually require some cleverly crafted persuasion—not in the form of discounts.
Some business owners might see a discount as a way to guarantee loyalty, but really it cheapens the brand. It shows potential customers that those within the company don’t value the products—so what is the customer supposed to think?
- Failing to Self-Promote
Many brick-and-mortar store owners making the transition to eCommerce are used to caring about the more operational aspects of their business. They've accumulated plenty of product knowledge, are tremendous team leaders, and boast customer service expertise.
In a personal setting, those things speak for themselves and require little self-promotion. Those elements disappear in an online store where establishing a firm identity on your website becomes a must.
Online store owners need to show who they are and give their audience a brand image they can sink their teeth into.
- Using Overly Corporate Language and Layouts
There’s an idea that being hyper professional with the way we speak adds an air of legitimacy to our websites.
Now, if you’re selling scholarly articles to rocket scientists, maybe there’s something to that notion.
But most people don’t really relate to overly corporate and sterile messaging. There’s a lack of authenticity and a layer of inaccessibility that tends to turn audiences off.
Most consumers want to support small businesses. They tend to align with brands they can relate to and want to feel like they’re dealing with a human being, not a faceless entity.
For instance, if you run a small business, lean into being a small business owner. From there, craft a compelling narrative and emphasize that underdog personality right off the bat.
- Failing to Choose the Right Campaign Objectives
When running ad campaigns, many online business owners tend to veer towards broader traffic and engagement campaigns.
These seem enticing because they're an inexpensive way to get eyes on your brand, products, or services. The problem is that these campaigns don't generate conversions because they aren't optimized to do so.
With this cheaper data, someone who might have been an interested buyer – eventually – won't be reintroduced to your company after the initial interaction.
Alternatively, conversion campaigns and dynamic product ads are two ways to ensure that your brand stays top-of-mind, even when a purchase isn't made initially. These offer high-quality data that provides touch points to guide customers through the entire purchasing decision process.
- Not Being Open to Suggestion
Any given online business owner could be an expert on how to promote their website correctly. Still, more often than not, there are limits to this kind of knowledge.
And rebuking ideas without taking the time to examine them will only lead to failure.
If you're going to work with any agency, be open to unfamiliar ideas. You’re an active part of a collaborative process. Be aware of your limitations and learning gaps as much as you're aware of your strengths and give the experts a chance to work some magic.
Maintaining an open mind is conducive to success. With that said, we hope your mind is open to some of the insights provided in this episode.
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Did you know it’s possible to directly link HAVING FUN with making more money in your business?
A lot of people struggle with this connection, but we see it every day in our business. If a meeting is getting too serious, Robbie will start to call someone out in a firm tone. Then, with everyone holding their breath, he’ll laugh and say, “Naw, just messing with you.” It makes everyone laugh and releases tension, which allows the meeting to move forward more productively.
Do you have a culture of fun, or are you more focused on being serious? How can you inject more humor and lightheartedness into your business? Does it even matter? Let’s take a look.
Amateurs vs. Champions
Studies of amateurs vs. champions in a variety of fields have some very significant results. Champions not only choose a career path that encompasses their talents, skills, and abilities, but they also focus on areas they genuinely enjoy.
For an amateur, on the other hand, many times the career path is chosen for different reasons. Even if they are reasonably talented and skilled, they don’t enjoy it. They may even hate their job.
In anything where you pursue excellence – whether it’s business, sports, or another arena – the difference between a champion and an amateur who struggles is simple. It’s enjoyment. Fun helps them be successful.
Fun Brings Energy
We’d all love to wake up every morning filled with energy and positive expectation for the day. Unfortunately, most of us don’t. You can see from the sheer number of memes about how horrible Monday is and how beloved Friday is that most people don’t enjoy their work.
How can you make that different? By choosing fun! Fun is actually a choice – something you determine to create, find, and make space for in your work. When you approach even mundane tasks with a sense of humor and enjoyment, it gives you a considerable boost in energy and an advantage over your competition.
One of our favorite examples of fun in business is Chubbies. Their commercials are incredible. You wouldn’t think that men’s shorts would be that fun or funny, but they chose to find the fun. As a result, they’re doing great!
Dollar Shave Club and Wendy’s Twitter are also examples of companies that go above and beyond to use humor in their marketing. It’s not only more fun; it helps them excel.
The Opposite of Fun
We work with a lot of large brands on eCommerce initiatives, so we also see the opposite of fun on display. In some of our meetings, the brand team spends so much time trying to one-up each other and claim credit for ideas that nothing gets accomplished.
Many brands are so focused on being competitive and trying to out-do other companies, that they forget all about fun. Individuals end up more focused on personal recognition than reaching group goals. It’s honestly sad, and it damages their ability to attract customers in the marketplace.
Not all large brands have this problem. Bob Iger, formerly of Disney, was an example of effective fun. He could definitely close deals, but he approached everything with humor. Bob was a fun-loving guy and joked with staff often. He was all smiles, but he was also a great businessman.
Overcoming Internal Fun Blocks
One thing we’ve discovered as we’ve tried to create a fun culture at our company is that it’s not always easy. We help clients with Shopify, WooCommerce, and CommentSold, among other programs, and sometimes there are internal feelings that make it hard to have fun.
Some people were raised with the idea that making money is wrong, or that having fun at work is bad – or worse, with both views. Fortunately, you can identify those and examine them. From there, you decide what’s true and what’s simply an external stigma.
Fun Brings the Creativity to Solve Problems
One of our salespeople came from a very high-pressure environment. He had a bad week and met with us, full of anxiety. He promised to do better on an upcoming sales call. We made a joke about it and helped him relax. Guess what – he had a much better week after that!
When you aren’t having fun, you’re usually putting a lot of pressure on yourself. Yes, you have goals and performance indicators. But you don’t have to be so serious in pursuing them. In our business, we try to approach even big problems with a sense of humor and fun. It makes the issue seem smaller and gives us more creativity to address the challenge.
Being under a lot of pressure causes productivity to go down and hinders innovation and resourcefulness. It’s unnecessary tension. Instead, choose to have fun and see what happens. You’ll be more motivated and have more stamina to stay the course.
So lighten up a little bit, have fun, and make more money!
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Are you an eCommerce brand looking to scale to the next level? Click Here: https://shopanova-and-me.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here’s a hard truth about ecommerce: If you feel that you’re not getting enough traffic or generating enough sales, your competition is most likely spending more money than you are on acquiring customers. Sales leaders who want an immediate return on investment must spend money. In an age where ecommerce is only getting bigger, paid traffic is essential to drive lifetime customer value, and it means having a loss leader mindset. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Loss Leader Mentality
What does it mean to be a loss leader? Companies or brands frequently price product at or below cost, creating a deal that seems too good to be true. The strategy, known as loss leader pricing, assumes that customers, attracted by the sale, will then purchase other, more profitable goods to make up the difference.
Although the traditional definition of loss-leader pricing stems from brick-and-mortar stores, it certainly applies to e-commerce. Breaking even or even taking a loss in your Top Of Funnel paid ads to acquire a customer is not necessarily a loss in the long run. Once you get a customer to buy from your store, they are about 10x more likely to purchase from you again in the future, which is where our Retarget paid ads strategies come in! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Two Metrics To Rule Them All
There are two key metrics in an ecommerce store: The cost to acquire a customer and the lifetime value of that customer. Analyzing the return on investment using those metrics is fairly simple: if you pay $20 to acquire a customer and they stay in your system where you can continue to remarket to them, and eventually they spend $500 with you over their lifetime, that’s good return on investment. How about spending $20 to get back $30, though? While it’s not a large profit, it is still a profit, and if that customer is nurtured correctly there will be a much bigger lifetime payout. Larger stores don’t simply look at the up-front costs. They know that while they’re paying out $20 on the front end to acquire the customer, eventually, because of their great customer service and excellent product line, that customer will spend a lot of money over the next few years. Additionally, once you’ve built up an existing customer mailing list, it minimizes the ad spend needed to acquire new customers. Instead, existing customers receive thank you cards, or discounts for additional purchases, and they keep coming back, creating a funnel for repeat purchases. All of a sudden that $20 upfront spend has created a lifetime value – making the input period more tolerable. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Big Picture
When looking at the bigger picture, it seems like ecommerce is a game in which whoever can spend the most money on marketing and not go out of business will be the winner. But it’s not that simple, and there has to be a balance. Don’t spend all your money up front and go bankrupt, but it is important to spend money to get in front of people and stay there while you ramp up your business – even if there is very little profit in the beginning. Building a customer base, ramping it up and then being able to sustain yourself are important parts to the game. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Strategy
Getting to that point, though, is where we come back to the concept of loss leader pricing. Let’s say there’s one product in your store that has very good profit margins – 70, 80 or even 90 percent — something that is fairly cheap to manufacture, but has a high perceived value, and ideally is cheap to ship. That is the item you want to use to get people in the door. By offering a large discount on that item, you can bring customers into your shop – which is the number one goal and the hardest battle you’ll have to fight.
However, you can’t just bring customers in the door and not do anything to keep them. You have to have customer service and products to back it up – they need a good customer experience and a quality product to keep them purchasing. And they also need to remember you exist. Email marketing, new products, information on additional products in the packaging can all keep customers coming back. Another technique is to include a second product for free — if they buy a piece of clothing, include a piece of jewelry to get them to come check out your jewelry line. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you want someone to implement this strategy for your brand, apply for an audit so that we can take a look at your current products and give you a free strategy plan.
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Welcome to The eComm Growth Show, where we speak with professionals around the world about ecommerce marketing.