An eCommerce Podcast Hosted by Brett Curry

Matt Ward built an Amazon business from nothing with a goal of selling it for $1million in 12 months.  His goal once the sale was final was to work on stuff that mattered more to him….He reached his goal of selling his company and now he’s running a podcast and writing books on some pretty interesting topics.  He’s had the privilege of interviewing some pretty stellar people including one of my marketing heroes – Seth Godin.

Matt is a fascinating person and extremely bright.  

In this episode we get into some pretty interesting territory, including:

• How Matt scaled so quickly,
• What AMZ sellers should consider now and what the future holds

• What’s next for Amazon
• What’s Amazon’s goal with Echo devices and owned brands (like Amazon Basics) and who will continue to win as Amazon’s domination grows.  
• Voice Search and Smart home – and what it means for Amazon and Google and YOU.
• Facebook Portal and our predictions on it.
• Why 10x results doesn’t require 10x effort
• Plus, more…

Mentioned in this Episode

Prosper Show – Conference for Amazon Sellers
Google Home – Smart Speaker & Home Assistant – Google Store
Google Express – Shopping Done Fast
Shopping Actions – Google
Portal From Facebook – Voice Enabled Hands-Free Video Calling
“Gods of the Valley” by Matt Ward for FREE – Disruptors.fm
The Disruptors Podcast

Connect with Guest:
Matt Ward
via Linkedin
via Facebook
via Twitter

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Tom Wang is a true Amazon success story. He builds a very successful brand on Amazon after a pretty big crash and burn experience. Literally a “burn” experience as his first venture was in hoverboards.

In this episode we breakdown Tom’s success and talk about what is relevant for growth on Amazon in 2019.  We tackle Tom’s advice for some pretty critical Amazon tasks.

• How to get reviews now and not violate Amazon’s terms of service.
• How to diversify traffic and boost organic rankings
• Product line extension and how to launch your next product on Amazon
• How to successfully use Amazon Giveaways and lightning deals
• Plus more!

Don’t miss it!  

Mentioned in this Episode:

The EcomHub Podcast by Tom Wang & David Zaleski – iTunes
EcomHub
Jared Mitchell
Skincare by Alana
Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman – Airbnb’s Brian Chesky
Amazon Giveaway – Amazon.com
About Lightning Deals – Amazon.com Help
Amazon Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns – Best Practices – Jungle Scout
What is an Amazon Super URL, and Do They Work? – LandingCube
Gary Vaynerchuk
2-Minute Crash Course on YouTube & TrueView Ads, with Brett Curry – Smart Marketer

Connect with Guest:
via EcomHub:
via Linkedin:
via Facebook:
via Instagram:
via YouTube:

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Ross Beyeler knows a thing or two about ecommerce sites that convert.  He’s built a few sites that I really love. Charlie Hustle (mostly because I’m a huge Chiefs Fan and KU Jayhawks fan), Bottle Keeper,  Johnny Cupcakes, Assoline and more.    

We get into several key design, UX and conversion rate optimization topics and examples including:

• Home page optimization and how the approach shifts if you have a large vs. small SKU count
• Storytelling in ecommerce and why successful ecommerce brands are great storytellers
• Product Detail Page (PDP) “must haves” for a better experience and better conversions
• Creating better collection and improved navigation
• 4 conversion killers to avoid like the plague
• Site search and recommendations for doing this better especially for larger SKU counts
• How to mine site search data for improvements
• Plus more!

Mentioned in This Episode:
Growth Spark
BottleKeeper – Colder Beer is Better. It’s Science.
Charlie Hustle – Vintage T-Shirts Made Fresh
Johnny Cupcakes – World’s First T-Shirt Bakery
Huckberry – Gear for Today. Inspiration for Tomorrow.
Xero Shoes – Best Barefoot Shoes and Sandals for Running
Assouline – Books & Gifts

Connect with Guest:
via Linkedin
via Twitter
via Facebook

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There probably isn’t a more consistent rule in business or in life like the 80/20 rule.  Usually, 80% or more of your results and success comes from just 20% of your efforts. I’m all about finding the 20% of activities, changes, etc. to focus on to deliver the biggest impact.  

In this episode I bring back my business partner Chris Brewer to outline the 7 key areas you should focus on to grow your business both on Google and on Amazon this year.   These are 7 factors that should provide a big return for you.

We’ll cover a variety of topics including:

• How and why you should invest in YouTube ads
• What to expect and what to consider with Google’s automation and smart bidding options
• How the SEO practices that everyone has forgotten may be a secret weapon for you.
• How Amazon is pouring more money and time into their ad platforms and what that means for growing your business.  
• Plus more!

Mentioned in this Episode:
About Smart Shopping Campaigns – Google Ads Help – Google Support
About Smart Bidding – Google Ads Help – Google Support
About Dynamic Remarketing – Analytics Help – Google Support
About Smart Display Campaigns – Google Ads Help – Google Support
About Responsive Search Ads (Beta) – Google Ads Help – Google Support

Connect with Guest:
via Linkedin:
via Facebook:
via Twitter:
via Instagram:

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Video ads on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram continue to rank among the best performing ads right now for ecommerce companies.  The difference between a great video and an OK video is HUGE. To really scale on any of those platforms though, you have to know how to craft a video that converts.  

Enter Andrew Eckblad.

Andrew Eckblad was killing it with online video before it was the cool thing to do.   Andrew has spent the last 10 years serving as Frank Kern’s video guy. He’s also the Manager of Video Marketing and Production for Kartra.  And he’s the founder of ConvertViews.com a collective of direct response video editors. His videos have directly grossed over $100 million in product sales.

Here’s a glimpse of what Andrew and I cover in this interview:

• Andrew’s simple but profound 2 keys to a video that sells
• Nuances to consider for videos that work on Facebook vs. Videos that work on YouTube
• How to apply the “do I care” test to your videos.
• The importance of pacing, transitions, and on-screen text
• Using the principles of a good headline to craft the perfect video opener
• How to use pattern interrupts
• How Andrew got the job working for Frank Kern
• The difference between videos for gurus vs. videos that sell ecommerce products.
• How to get people to take action
• Plus much more!

This is one of my favorite interviews of late.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did….then go out and create some killer videos!

Brett

Mentioned in this Episode:
2-Minute Crash Course on YouTube & TrueView Ads, with Brett Curry – Smart Marketer
How to Use YouTube to Scale eCommerce Ads – Smart Marketer
Convert Views – Expert online direct-response video marketing for Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, landing pages, VSLs, and more.
Frank Kern
BOOM by Cindy Joseph

Connect with Guest:
Andrew Eckblad
via Linkedin
via Facebook
via IMDb

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My guest on this show is a legend in the eCommerce space.  He’s the founder of the Shopify Agency, Ethercycle. He’s the host of the wildly popular Unofficial Shopify Podcast.  And, he’s just an overall really smart dude.

When most ecommerce companies consider conversion rate optimization they usually immediately think of split testing, multivariate testing, cart optimization, etc.  BUT, most merchants fail to ask a very important question – “where should I start with my conversion optimization efforts?” And, according to our guest today, the answer to that question is rarely – if ever – split testing.

I knew the general direction of this interview before we started to record, but I didn’t know specifics.  I was blown away by the simplicity, but also the power of Kurt’s suggestions. EVERY store owner would benefit from going through the exercises discussed in this episode.  Here’s a quick glimpse at what we covered:

• The power of surveys for your best customers and how a recent survey totally transformed a brick oven seller.
• How to ask questions of your best customers including Kurt’s 3 favorite questions to ask.
• What information to glean from people who visit your site and don’t convert.
• How to harness the power of heat maps and scroll maps.
• The little known “coffee shop gift card” test for watching how users interact with your site.  
• Some of Kurt’s favorite tools for testing
• Tips for split testing if you chose to go that route.  
• Plus much more

Mentioned in Episode:
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
Ethercycle
ShopSync
Ecommerce Bootcamp
Wufoo
SurveyMonkey
Hotjar- Heatmaps
Google Optimize

Connect with Guest:
Kurt Elster
via Linkedin
via Facebook
via Twitter
via Instagram

Steve Chou is an eCommerce podcast host, eCommerce store owner, and former microprocessor designer.  In fact, the microprocessor running the phone in your hand was likely designed by Steve’s team. All of that to say, Steve is a pretty smart dude.

I recently saw Steve in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World where we were both speaking.  We had lunch and talked a little about Chatbots. I was instantly intrigued. Chatbots and Messenger ads have huge potential to create more helpful, more personal experiences with your brand.  All with the goal of increasing sales and building loyalty.

Here’s a quick look at what Steve and I discuss…

• The rules behind using Messenger as a business.  Facebook is very strict here. If you don’t know the rules, you’ll likely get yourself into trouble.
• How often should you send promotional messages on Messenger?
• When to run true Messenger Ads vs. when you can run other ad types on Facebook but tie in Messenger in a stealthy way (this will save you some money on ads).
• How Steve is using Messenger bots to cut down on customer service calls by 70%.
• How Steve sees using chatbots in the future.
• Steve’s favorite tools for chatbots.  
• Plus more!

Connect with Guest:
Steve Chou
via Facebook
via Twitter
via Podcast/My Wife Quit Her Job

Mentioned in This Episode:
Bumblebee Linens – Wedding Handkerchiefs, Linen Napkins & Towels
via Blog
via Facebook
via Instagram
via Pinterest

How to Create a Profitable Online Store and Sell Online – A Course On eCommerce
2019 Sellers Summit – The Ultimate eCommerce Learning Conference
ManyChat – The Easiest Way to Create Facebook Messenger Bot
Social Media Marketing World – Social Media’s Mega Conference
ShopMessage
ShopMessage Facebook Messenger – eCommerce Plugins for Online Stores – Shopify App Store

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My guest today is John Li, co-founder of Pickfu.  John is a really sharp dude, with a very unique service.  A service that started as a side project and became a standalone business sort of on accident…more on that in the episode.

Pickfu is a consumer feedback tool that allows you to get real customer feedback in minutes.  This has driven insights into product page enhancements, better product imagery, better ads, better Amazon listings and more.  

In this episode, we dive into some of the top learnings John and his team have gained from the myriad of tests run on their platform.  Some are quite surprising. I’m confident that you’ll take away a few things you need to test or change to improve your sales on and off Amazon.  Here’s a highlight of what we cover:

• Surprising learnings from testing images and how your biases might be hurting your results on and off Amazon.
• 3 keys to better descriptions on your Amazon listings that consistently outperform the norm.
• How to find out what features and benefits a customer is really buying when they buy your product so you can highlight those features and benefits in your ads.  
• How there are probably some things that you think are “good enough” that are probably costing you sales.  

• How to properly run a test and how to ask consumers good questions.  If you ask bad questions, you’ll get bad feedback…the kind that’s unhelpful and not actionable.

• Plus more!
• If you are interested in Checking out PickFu Click Here

Mentioned in Episode:
PickFu Which One Won
Made to Stick” Book by Chip & Dan Heath – Amazon
How to Use YouTube to Scale eCommerce Ads – Smart Marketer
2-Minute Crash Course on YouTube & TrueView Ads, with Brett Curry – Smart Marketer
BOOM by Cindy Joseph
Steve Chou (“My Wife Quit Her Job”) – Co-Founder of Bumblebee Linens, host of the My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast, and host of Sellers Summit

Connect with Guest:
Via Linkedin
Via Twitter
PickFu – Split Testing, Optimization and Market Feedback Platform
Via Linkedin
Via Facebook
Via Instagram

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I just got back from a trip to the Amazon HQ in Seattle. Chris Tyler, our Director of Amazon Services, and I were there visiting with our Amazon DSP reps (more on DSP in a minute).  We recently found out we were the fastest growing agency in 2018 in terms of DSP spend. We got to preview new audience targeting options, discuss new ad options coming soon to the Amazon ecosystem and more…Blow your mind kinda awesome stuff.

If you’re not familiar with it, Amazon DSP (stands for Demand Side Platform) is a way to run display ads on and off Amazon targeting Amazon shoppers.  With DSP you can run retargeting ads targeting people who’ve visited your product listings on Amazon but didn’t purchase. You can also target people who’ve visited your competitors’ products on Amazon but haven’t purchased.  And there are a TON more audience targeting options to consider. Here’s a quick look at what we cover on the episode:

• Highlights from our Amazon trip including dogs, domes, and, of course, great coffee!
• What about Amazon DSP makes it “blow your mind awesome?”
• What are the top audiences to target with DSP and where should you start?
• What kind of return can you expect from DSP?
• How to use DSP to build loyalty with Recapture, Reorder and/or Cross-sell/Up-sell campaigns.
• How does Amazon DSP compliment Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands – the core of Amazon advertising?
• Plus more!

Connect with Guest
via Linkedin
via Facebook
OMG Commerce

Mentioned in this Episode
Business Insider – Amazon is taking over Seattle
Anchorhead Coffee
Starbucks opens its first Reserve store in Seattle – Business – CNN.com
Amazon DSP – Amazon Advertising
Amazon Marketing Services, or AMS – Amazon Advertising
Sponsored Products – Services – Amazon.com
Amazon Reporting: Halo Products – Rise Interactive
Amazon Seller Central

2-Minute Crash Course on YouTube & TrueView Ads, with Brett Curry – Smart Marketer
How to Use YouTube to Scale eCommerce Ads – Smart Marketer

Ro Bhatia has some serious eCommerce chops.  He started his career at Google, then spent 5 years at Yahoo, then worked for eBay with merchants, then ran the dot com division for Home Depot.  Now he’s the Chief Product and Strategy officer at Limelight eCommerce.

In this episode we dig into growth tactics that you probably either haven’t thought of or aren’t leveraging properly.  Ro has a wealth of experience and he dishes it out in this episode. Here’s a quick look at what we cover:

• If you’re using chat on your site, you’re probably making one fatal flaw.  Here’s how to fix it quickly, plus Ro’s favorite chat tool.
• Cross-sells and upsets make up 30% of eCommerce sales! We talk about Ro’s favorite ways to boost cross-sells, upsells and downsells.
• In the new relationship economy cost of acquisition is high, and bumping AOV is critical.  If you don’t have a high enough AOV your marketing options will be limited.
• How to properly use data to create buckets of users to show them the right message at the right time (plus an embarrassing eBay story).
• How to delight your customers like Netflix does…(and how “stale” is a kiss of death)
• How to build loyalty and beat friendly churn.
• The best remarketing cohorts to build and how to communicate with them differently.  
• How to put all of this together to create a compounding growth effect!

Connect With Guest:
Via email
Via LinkedIn
Via Twitter

Mentioned in this episode:
LimeLight
Via LinkedIn
Via Facebook
LiveChat – Live Chat Software and Help Desk Software
Drift – Conversational Marketing Platform
Intercom – Customer Messaging Platform
MailChimp
Zapier – The Easiest Way to Automate Your Work
Twilio – Communication APIs for SMS, Voice, Video, and Authentication
Casper – The Best Bed for Better Sleep

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My buddy, Johnny Pinto, has a unique product, a unique story, and a unique approach to eCommerce growth.  He’s the CEO and Co-Founder of Boom.Boom. Boom.Boom produces an essential oil based inhaler that refreshes and energizes you.  These types of inhalers are super popular in South East Asia, and Boom.Boom is determined to make them popular in the US too. The story of Boom.Boom is chock full of fantastic marketing and entrepreneurial lessons.

John got his start in business working for an LA start-up that would later become SnackNation which is now a 200 person thriving company.  When John joined he was one of 3 employees. That’s also where he met our mutual friend and host of the eCommerce Influence podcast – Austin Brawner.  

I thoroughly enjoyed this interview and I’m confident you will too.  Here’s a look at what we cover:

• How John has masterfully used bootstrap marketing and “sampling” to propel his company’s growth – you should too!  
• How John and his wife Chelsea got on Shark Tank.
• What he learned from being in the tank and why they ultimately walked away from a deal.
• How they went viral on Twitter AND ended up on Ellen.  
• How he’s perfected the art of boot-strap marketing.  Most eCommerce companies overlook this to their detriment.  
• Their philosophy for building long-form PDP pages that convert!
• What’s next for BoomBoom!

Connect With Guest:
Via LinkedIn
Via Facebook
Via Instagram

Mentioned in this episode:
Boom.Boom
Via LinkedIn
Via Facebook
Via Twitter
Via Instagram
Shark Tank
Boom.Boom on Shark Tank
Building a Story Brand
“Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller

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Austin Brawner is a legend in the eCommerce space, namely because his podcast – Ecommerce Influence – is one of the most popular in the industry.  Austin has worked with, and is friends with, many of the top DTC brands in eCommerce – MVTM Watches, Pura Vida Bracelets, Blenders Eyewear, Four Sigmatic and many others.  In fact, we reminisce on the podcast about a dinner we both attended in San Diego with the founders of those companies all together in a room hanging out and swapping stories.

What separates eCommerce brands that scale vs. those that stall and plateau? What separates the Bonobos and Away Luggage companies of the world from an eCommerce company that hits a ceiling at 5 or 10 million per year in sales?  Austin has a unique perspective on this topic, having walked alongside dozens of the biggest eCommerce brands of our generation.

In this episode Austin and I break down the following:

• What you need to know about AOV and LTV and how it directly impacts your ability to scale.
• How product market fit impacts scale potential – and why combining a hungry market with a product people want to identify with is so important.  
• Demand Generation vs. Demand Capture…which is better and which lends itself to scale.
• The road map to building a team and scaling your business
• Why a CEO’s role is mainly about people and product and what that means.
• How and when to hire an agency.
• Why it’s hard to scale single SKU businesses and why line extension is imperative.

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Connect With Guest:
Via LinkedIn
Via Facebook
Via Twitter
Via Instagram

Mentioned in this episode:
Brand Growth Experts
Via LinkedIn
Via Facebook
Coalition
The eCommerce Influence Podcast
MVMT
Away
Roman
Hims
2PM
Shark Tank
Tecovas

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The first glowing testimonial I heard about Joana Galvao was from Ezra Firestone. Next was my buddy, Jared Mitchell, of Skincare by Alana. Joana was described as a designer who “Gets it” – who understands how design impacts online experience and sales.

She recently spoke at Traffic & Conversion Summit in San Diego and I heard she brought down the house. So I wanted her to come on the podcast and talk about how design and visuals impact shopping behavior. Here’s a look at what we cover:

• The branding triad and where most businesses fall short.
• How color can influence experience and results…and a truly mind-blowing laundry detergent user experience that illustrates this beautifully.
• How we’re wired to make assumptions at the subconscious level about whether something is expensive or cheap, quality or shoddy…all within seconds. You need to incorporate this for your products!
• How your product packaging should engage all of the senses.
• How to make your copy more visually appealing.
• Joana’s 5-Step Process that every brand should go through for better performance.
• Plus more!

Connect With Guest:
Via Website
Via LinkedIn
Via Facebook
Via Twitter
Via Instagram
Via Pinterest

Mentioned in this episode:
GiF Design Studios
via LinkedIn
via Facebook
via Twitter
via Instagram
Traffic & Conversion Summit
BOOM by Cindy Joseph
Skincare by Alana
Lewis Howes
Marie Forleo
Learn More About Marie Forleo’s B-School
Selena Soo
Brian Smith
Visit Starbucks Reserve
Creative Market
PickFu
Original Grain

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Connor Young is a bit of a health nut – and an exercise enthusiast. He’s also an entrepreneur.

He’s combined his passions into a powerful and growing commerce business called Ample Foods. Connor and his team are doing a lot of things right with Ample. What potentially stands above the other wins is that they have achieved two very successful crowdfunding campaigns. The first was a traditional crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, which set the platform’s record for highest funded project in the food category. The second was an equity crowdfunding campaign that raised just under $800,000 on a $15 million valuation.

If you’re launching a new product or considering a crowdfunding project or equity funding project you need to check out this episode. Here’s a look at what we cover:

• 3 elements of any great crowdfunding pitch
• Why your crowdfunding pitch needs to go viral and how Connor did it for Ample Foods
• Use crowdfunding both to launch a company or a new product
• Why Connor would skip hiring a PR firm for his crowdfunding campaign if he had to do it all over again
• How to use Facebook Ads and Influencers for a successful campaign
• How “all the work” is in the pre-launch
• How to set your goal and why it’s important to be strategic about your goal
• Why momentum especially in the first 2 days is so important.
• When to consider your campaign a failure
• Plus more

Connect With Guest:
Via LinkedIn
Via Facebook
Via Twitter
Via Instagram

Mentioned in this episode:
Ample Foods
via Website
via LinkedIn
via Facebook
via Twitter
via Instagram
500 Startups
Indiegogo
Kickstarter
Sequoia Capital
Andreesen Horowitz
Y Combinator

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We’ve all had the following experience.  We’re on a quest for a specific product hoping if will fulfill a very specific need.  So we visit a product page on Amazon or another eCommerce site hoping that this might be the product we’ve been eagerly searching for….But, to our disappointment the product page doesn’t clearly tell us if the product will meet our need or not.  So we don’t buy.  Uh-oh.

Pop quiz.  What can increase customer engagement, improve conversion rates by 2-10x, and drive substantial organic traffic?  Easy - Q&A content.  My guest this week is James Arnold, the Co-Founder of Answer Base a SaaS platform that makes it easy to collect and leverage Q&A and FAQ content.  In this episode we dive into the following:

• Why Q&A content on product details pages is so powerful
• Taking a cue from Amazon where and how to use Q&A content on PDPs
• How to build a Knowledge Based that answers 80%+ of your shoppers questions
• How to structure your Q&A content to rank well on Google….HINT:  Google LOVES Q&A Content.  And so do shoppers.  
• How to leverage FAQ pages
• Plus more!

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Connect with James Arnold - Co-Founder at Answerbase.com

Via LinkedIn

Answerbase.com - Answerbase Q&A Software - Add Q&A to Your Website

Via LinkedIn

Via Facebook

Via Twitter

Via YouTube

Mentioned in this episode:

RVupgrades

“Why We Buy” Book by Paco Underhill - Amazon

eCommerce Evolution - Episode 107 - Anmol Oberoi

ePestSupply

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Episode Transcript

Brett:

Well hello and welcome to another edition of the eCommerce Evolution Podcast. I'm your host, Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce. Today we are talking about answering your shoppers questions through the use of Q & A content, FAQ pages. We're talking about how to use that specific content to increase conversions and even increase traffic. This is going to be extremely useful, practical information you can use to grow your store.

Brett:

Hey, Brett Curry here. Before we dive into today's topic, I want to talk quickly about YouTube ads.

Brett:

People ask me all the time, what makes for a great YouTube ad? And it's true, the ad is the hardest part for getting YouTube to work. Now, I love the campaign structure. I love audience targeting, and I love tinkering with bids and using the smart bid algorithm, and I even like budget management. I like all that behind the scenes stuff, but I've seen it time and time again where the exact same campaign structure just limps along with a mediocre video. But you get the right video with the right message that resonates with people, and that same campaign structure just takes off. It scales. And so over the last couple of years, my team and I, we've been collecting good YouTube ads. We've been watching, we've been paying attention and looking at our own clients, looking at the numbers, finding what are ads that resonate and work on YouTube. And so we started building this little guide, this little guide that we use internally.

Brett:

And we started categorizing ads and giving them fun names like The Manifesto and the UGC Mashup and the Have It All. And so we started kind of breaking down what elements in these videos make them work. And so I was speaking at a recent event, and I just happened to mention that this resource existed, and people sort of clamored for it. Like everyone's like, "Hey, I want to see the guide. I want to see that resource. I want to see all these successful ads." And so that's what we've done. We put together this resource, kind of first time ever, going to share it with a broader audience. It's free. So check it out and get our list of winning YouTube ad formulas with lots of examples. Let this be your inspiration for your next killer YouTube ad.

Brett:

So this is a free resource. We'll link to it in the show notes to this show, but you can also go to OMGcommerce.com, click on resources and then guides, and it's the YouTube Ad Templates and Guide. Check it out and I hope it inspires your next killer YouTube ad campaign. And now back to the show.

Brett:

I'm delighted to welcome to the show my guest today, he's the cofounder of Answerbase. Answerbase was started in 2007 and my guest Mr. James Arnold has been helping run the company since that time. He now works with all their enterprise clients and he is a wealth of knowledge on this topic. And so with that, James, welcome to the show and thanks for taking the time.

James:

Thanks for having me, Brett. Excited to talk about a Q & A and what it's doing for eCommerce stores.

Brett:

Yeah, absolutely. You guys have built a really phenomenal solution here, a great platform and tool. And we'll, we'll get into that later in the show. Want to talk about some of the hows and whys behind Q & A content and FAQ content because I think there's something here that likely a lot of the listeners are potentially either missing out on or not fully leveraging. And so we're going to go deep on a couple topics. We'll talk about some specific client case studies as well, but walk me through Q & A content. What is Q & A content and why is it so important to include on your website? And we'll talk about kind of the how and where and things like that in a minute. But first, what is it and why is it so important?

James:

So, question and answer content, when we refer to that, is about other questions being asked about products that eCommerce merchants are selling and the answers that best address those issues and problems. So I'm sure many people, or most people, have seen it on Amazon's product pages, how they have questions and answers around products. So yeah, but it's really important to provide that content, to provide that engagement, and really just solving the problems for potential customers that are leading up to a purchase, whether that be really high in the funnel or really low in the funnel towards the conversion.

Brett:

Yeah, it's really interesting because sometimes what's listed in the bullet points, what's listed in the product description, what's in the specs of a product, maybe that doesn't quite answer a question or maybe it leaves a little bit of ambiguity out there. But a lot of times if you look at, and Amazon's a perfect example of this, you look at that Q & A content, a lot of times the question that's right there at the top, or maybe it's second or third, is the question you're asking about that product. Right? Does it fit this application? Will this work on my skin type? Will this upset my stomach? Things like that, whatever. And that Q & A content sometimes gets right to the heart of the matter and answers the question that someone has when they're looking, and I know it makes a big, big difference.

Brett:

We're going to talk, go into a lot of details as we go here, but I think one of the things to always keep in mind as we're trying to create this great shopping experience for our customers is what would someone ask if they were about to buy this product in the store? What questions might they ask a sales assistant? What questions might they ask whoever's helping them before they buy. Sometimes that can be pretty, pretty useful. Why, other than what I just said, and then maybe I summed it up, but what are the whys behind why this content is so powerful, so useful?

James:

Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, obviously everybody knows that you need to have a really good product description, and that impacts your conversions. But you have different people who have different ways that they prefer to get information. I mean, not everybody wants to read through a few paragraphs of a product description in order to find the answer that they're looking for, which is really the roadblock to a sale. So you'll notice even on Amazon's landing pages, I mean they have, or product pages, they have the ability to ask your question even before you dig into the product specs because they want to make that as easy as possible to hit the nail on the head for that specific customer and what they're looking for. So the amazing thing about the engagement there is that you can actually use that engagement to then identify the most popular questions that are asked and then look to revise their product description from there.

James:

You know, it's funny. So retail stores, I mean they... I went in to buy some furniture the other day and I asked the retailer a question about the product, and you know, very nice a woman, but she didn't have the answer to the question that I wanted. And I had to kind of press a little bit to get a manager. So it took several minutes to get the answer to the question. Not minutes, I mean it was a bit of time.

James:

So there's online content, you have the ability to give the user a great experience all the time. You know what's being asked over and over again. You're going to refine that answer so that it's really serving every single customer well. And once you do it well once, that content is not subject to a bad day or a bad attitude one day, or even just needing to rush to lunch or these other things that sometimes you experience with the retail experience. You have a chance to have a great experience all the time for those customers.

Brett:

Yeah, it's so funny. And I love making the offline comparison just because it's a great visual. I went to Walmart a few weeks ago, needed to get an Apple TV, and we kind of wanted in a hurry, not that we really need it in a hurry, but wanted it. Anyway, so walk in, talk to a lady like, "Hey Apple TVs, where do you keep those?" She's like, "Oh yeah, we don't carry those." Like, "You do." And so we're talking like, "No. No. We don't carry them." So I said, "Okay, where are your Rokus?" Because I knew they would be close. And she's like, "Oh yeah, those are over here." Well, the Apple TVs were right next to it. Anyway, it's one of those things where that's not a helpful experience.

Brett:

I've also had some experiences where you're like, "Hey, how does this product work?" "I don't know how it works, but it's over here. Just go get it." But I think if you think about it, there's some online experiences that are that way too. Right? Or you wouldn't want to come to a clerk and say, "Hey, will this product work for this application?" "I don't know. Here's the manual. Just read it."

Brett:

But that's what we do with our product pages. Right? Someone goes to look at a product with a specific question, a specific need, and rather than getting that answer, we give them the product manual or obviously it's a little shorter, a little better hopefully. But our product descriptions can almost feel like that at times, where I compare it to... One of my best shopping experiences was with a local company that sells high end barbecue grills. And the guy that kind of runs a place, he's become my barbecue Yoda. I talk to him and he always gives me advice, but I can ask him any detail about how to cook something, or will this grill do this for that, and he knows the answer immediately. And he asks the right questions, just a beautiful experience. But-

James:

That's a great point. I mean my same retail experience, and there's been a few of these where you go and you ask a question about the product. Well, the person goes straight to their phone or computer screen and they actually look it up on their own website. So having that content available as self service content, and even can help service the other retail locations that you might be servicing as well. That's, yeah. I mean it's just, it's happening right now.

Brett:

Yeah. It's so valuable. And so you talked a little bit about Amazon, where now you can even ask some questions before you get to the product description. Is that where you're seeing it being effective, where you're posting this ability for someone to ask a question. Where are you often recommending that be placed on the page?

James:

I mean, certainly within the product pages, there's a couple points. So, you want to engage the user early on. So, typically under the product title, you'll see a couple calls to actions. First of all, the number of reviews, and the five star review that it has, or four star or whatever that is. And then typically right under that you want to show how many questions have been asked and then give an easy ability to go ahead and ask that question. So, a little bit further down on the page, you do list out the most popular questions and answer combinations for that product, and then obviously have a very easy way for them to post their new question on the page as well. So, there's a couple of things that can do for you from an SEO standpoint and a conversion optimization standpoint. And then also saving time, so your staff doesn't need to answer the same questions over and over again via email or a contact form or something like that.

Brett:

Yeah, I love that. I love the idea of posting the most frequently asked questions, most popular questions and their corresponding answers, because I think if you look at the way people shop, and I would definitely fall into this category, I don't love asking the question. I don't love getting involved in a chat conversation with an online merchant. But I will definitely scan those questions and see if my question is being answered, and then I'm good to go. And that's the way a lot of people like to shop. Some people like to ask the questions. Some people like to be involved in that dialogue. Most people do not. And so if you have it there, that's great. And so I want to definitely talk about the traffic side of things because that's the G commerce know we're more of a traffic agency, so that side really excites me.

Brett:

But let's talk first about the conversion side. So, what are you often seeing? So now you've got the ability for someone to ask the question. You're also posting the most frequent questions and their corresponding answers. What are you seeing that do to conversion rates?

James:

Sure. So, there's a couple things that are going on there. So a customer's engaging, you don't necessarily need to post a new question to pose your question. So when they pose the questions, you can auto suggest results that are already available. So they don't need to wait for an answer, they can get the answer immediately. So we see about up to 80% of the questions that are posed through the ask question field are addressed automatically. So that's existing content that's addressing the answers immediately without any new engagements from the eCommerce merchants.

Brett:

Great. James, what percentage did you say? What percentage did you say were answering?

James:

80%, up to 80%.

Brett:

Great. Great. Awesome.

James:

So that's one touch point. For questions that are answered, we actually have another case study on our site where, RVupgrades.com, and they see 75% of the questions that are answered through Answerbase convert into a sale. So there's been studies in the past-

Brett:

Just to clarify real quickly. First of all, what was the merchant again?

James:

RV Upgrades.

Brett:

And what do they sell?

James:

RV accessories.

Brett:

RV.

James:

Anything you want for a recreational vehicle.

Brett:

I heard Harvey for some reason.

James:

Oh. Okay. No. RV-

Brett:

RV, got it, recreational vehicles. Fantastic. Totally makes sense.

James:

Yeah. Yeah. Think motor homes.

Brett:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So someone actually poses the question and whether that's answered in the 80% that are answered through the auto suggest or whether someone actually has to answer it. What you're saying is 75% of the people that ask a question and get it answered, they convert. Is that what you're saying?

James:

Convert to a sale. Correct.

Brett:

Wow. So, I love the psychology behind why people buy and what leads to purchase and things like that. I'm sure there's several things going on here. One, just the value of getting a question answered is super important. But I know I've seen studies here, there's a great book that I've referenced before called Why We Buy by Paco Underhill and he talks about the physical store shopping experience. But there's something to be said about once you start engaging, if you engage with a salesperson, you're more likely to purchase, start engaging with the website, you're more likely to purchase.

Brett:

I even remember reading some material from people that were in the catalog business from back in the day where they said if you can just get someone to start even clicking, filling out a check box on the order form, if you just get them started, they'll start ordering. It's like just getting them to take an action. I think there's some psychology there as well, just getting them to take action. But are you seeing that fairly consistently where people that interact and ask a question, they're much more likely to convert?

James:

We're seeing a lot of conversions through the Q & A activity. We track who touches Q & A. We're tracking multiple things there as far as who's asking the questions, obviously, who's looking at the existing content, and it's just a significant amount of conversions coming through from that engagement. So yeah, depending on the size of the site and how many current page views they have, I mean that'll determine how many people are posing questions or asking questions, and then what that flow looks like. But yeah, we've seen a very healthy... Our customers, we look it to give them multiples on their investment that they invest into Answerbase, and we've seen that in spades.

Brett:

Great. Great. That's awesome. Let's talk a little bit, and again we'll get to the traffic side of the equation in a minute, but let's talk about FAQ pages. We're talking right now about putting FAQs and answers, question and answers, on a product detail page. What about FAQ pages? I know we got some considerations there from schema markup and a variety of other things, but talk to me about FAQ pages and how those work.

James:

Yeah, they're really powerful. You can dynamically build these pages, and like you said, I mean Google and other search engines recognize the schema markup for certain types of content. So you can break that down into the microdata to let them know what's a question, what's an answer, et cetera. And so we can manage this in a couple of different ways for our customers. So, if they have more short form answers, maybe less than 250 words for the answer, you can break that down into a really high quality, most popular frequently asked questions and have that serve you very well, and even getting traffic on its own and serving the customer well through that.

James:

And then for the longer form content, we actually turn those into landing pages of their own that are indexable, and their schema markup, if you have community features enabled for QA page, which is specific to that. So Google and other search engines recognize what's there too. So, if you have an approach where you know what you're going to be servicing on your product page, you know what makes sense for an FAQ page, you want to still engage the customer.

James:

I mean FAQs, nobody really wants to read through 30 questions to try to find their question. So to make that easily searchable, easily browsable, is very important. I mean they're important but it needs to be done well in order to really service the customer well.

Brett:

100% makes sense. And you know what's really interesting about... so we could maybe transition here to the traffic side a little bit, but as we look at how people are searching differently on search engines, there is an increase in voice search. And so quick, quick plug, episode 107 I interview Ann Moll from Emitter and we talk about voice commerce and what's going on there, and voice search and things like that. But as people interact with either a Google home device or even just their mobile phone, or Amazon Alexa or whatever, a lot of the searches being done there are posed more in the form of a question. And so Google especially loves returning that FAQ content if you pose your query like a question.

Brett:

So what are you guys seeing in terms of whether it's the Q & A content on a product detail page or whether it's FAQ page, what are you seeing in terms of traffic and ranking and things like that?

James:

For sure. I mean, we've been in business since 2007, so we have a large, a long amount of time that we've been able to see what Q & A content does and how that gets gobbled up into search and spit out and what the results are there. We have some case studies where we spawn a new landing page for the Q & A threads where it makes sense to and have those indexable. And as the content continues to grow, we've seen year, over year, over year organic traffic grows to those Q & A landing pages through Google. So similar with a markup, you can choose whether you want those to be featured snippets or not, have them be featured snippets. Different merchants have different preferences there with their SEO teams and agencies. But yeah, we have customers where when you search, they'll be in the featured snippets. We've quadrupled the organic traffic for one particular merchant, which we have a case study on, who's Epes Supply. On our site there, you can see that case study. So-

Brett:

What you mean by that is you've taken, prior to using Answerbase and really leveraging this Q & A content and FAQ content, since that time you've quadrupled their traffic that were getting traffic from search engines?

James:

Yeah. So we're responsible for over 75% of their organic traffic now and over 50% of their overall traffic. So that includes the directs and all the other acquisition sources and referrals. So the most interesting thing about that traffic, I mean traffic's great, but it needs to convert for you.

Brett:

Absolutely.

James:

We have seen Google Analytics under the users area, they have a average lifetime value, our customer lifetime value stat, and we're able to track that and have the Q & A content be recognized under its own line item there. So we've seen that the traffic going through the Q & A content, specifically, has an average lifetime value up to two times higher than the normal Google traffic that's been coming in. And what that really speaks to is where these people are who are asking questions, where they are in the customer journey.

James:

A lot of times if they're on the site, or if they're on another eCommerce site and that merchant has not addressed the product question on their site, the first thing they'll do is they'll go up in their Chrome bar, they'll ask the question right there, a Google result will pop up, and if you're in that spot and you can fill that need, you can build that trust because you have the expertise around the product and then a really quick call to action to go ahead and purchase from you to take advantage of that product. So it's a really powerful engine for drawing traffic and we've seen that with many of our customers. And again, since 2007 we've seen uphill's chart, up into the right as far as organic traffic and what Q & A's been able to do.

Brett:

Yeah. In my opinion it's kind of, you can almost look at it as an added bonus. It's a pretty large added bonus. It's really valuable and really enticing. But I think even if you just looked at this subject from purely a conversion optimization standpoint, it's totally worth it. You will see better conversions and then to add to that that hey, your organic traffic can increase and it's going to be really good quality organic traffic. Because what you said totally makes sense. If I type in just a really broad keyword, something like ceramic grill or something, that's one thing. But then if I type can I do this on a ceramic grill, or how hot can I grill, or can I grill and smoke and some of these other things, that really indicates how serious I am.

Brett:

And then like you said, it shows that, some questions show that you're really closer to making a decision. You're further along in your journey, than maybe just a really generic query. And I think the beauty of this is, and we'll talk in a minute about how your tool kind of brings us all together, but you're really trying to focus in on the questions that are most frequently asked. And a lot of times these are buyer questions. Right? These are the questions people are asking before they say yes. So then you can leverage those for people that are asking those questions to Google and they end up at your site. That's pretty awesome.

James:

For sure. Yeah, we look at it as you have the short term benefits of the conversion and the reduction in duplicate questions, so just being able to say cost there on your customer service policy as well as increasing conversions at the same time. And then you have the long term play, which is the building of that content and getting that organic traffic growing and being a new customer acquisition channel for you over time. And what's interesting about that, I mean, if you read many posts about content marketing, what should you be writing about? Many times, if not most times, they'll say, "See what your customers are asking about."

James:

And they tell you to go to your customer service people, go into your ticketing system, see what's the most commonly asked questions and use that as material to create value as far as content goes. So we see this as well. So it naturally happens for the Q & A engagement. But what you can do is you can track that engagement. You can see what is turning into traffic there. You can see what's turning into conversions and then you can use that to guide your content marketing, what has proven to already convert, what's proven to already build traffic at a nice growth trend, and then you can do a deep dive. You can do a deep dive in a video. You can do a deep dive in blog posts, and really you know it's worth your time and effort to dedicate resources towards that topic because it's serving your target audience.

Brett:

I love it. I love it. Well James, let's talk specifically then about Answerbase because I know you guys have built a phenomenal tool, a tool that's used by some really large brands, and challenging brands, and growing brands as well. How does Answerbase work and how do you guys help make this process easy?

James:

We have really easy integration in the product pages. That's where everything starts. We have both APIs and a widget that people can plug in. That will power the calls to actions on the product page as far as being able to ask a question and being able to see the most popular questions per product. Everything starts there because as soon as you, if you have an active store, you're going to see engagement almost immediately from your customers and you can just get that content train moving for you. And then we have a knowledge base and community features. If you want a community, we have it, so that can build alongside and build those landing pages out and get the engagement even from other customers who have purchased the same product, et cetera, in order to build that content out and be able to see that organic traffic growth that we've been discussing there.

James:

So those are really the two main pieces of Answerbase's integration. You have all of the administration tools and moderation tools that you need to manage the content and users, et cetera. But those are really the foundation of what we've built and what brings value to the merchants there.

Brett:

Very cool. And you guys integrate with essentially all the major shopping cart platforms, website platforms. I'm sure you're platform agnostic.

James:

Yeah, we're agnostic. We have, again, we have JavaScript snippets that you can plug in if you don't want to really dig into APIs. We have entire communities that are built off of our API as well for some of our enterprise customers. And all those are available on our business plan. The customers can choose how deep they want to dive in. But it could literally be a half hour install, if not less than that, for some of the platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify. We have one click install and then that gets the engagement going for you, and then you can do whatever you want from there.

Brett:

Awesome. What tips would you give someone on it, if they're just getting started? So if someone's listening to this and they say, "Hey, obviously Amazon's doing this and that makes a lot of sense." Because you guys are talking about these increased conversion rates and traffic and increase and stuff like that, and people really hopefully are getting excited. What are kind of the tips for where you start? What would you tell the merchant listing? What integrations, what features should they use first?

James:

Get the product page working for you. You'll see an immediate impact on conversions there. Again, that's a very quick thing to do, as far as the install, that can be under 10 minutes for some of the platforms that we have integrated into their app stores. So if you have traffic, existing traffic where your users can engage immediately, that's the first step. And then everything spawns from that because you're going to start answering questions. Those answers are going to start being answered automatically, and that's a great place to start.

James:

If you're even a small store, I mean, we've had some customers that have started with nothing and they just had a lot of knowledge about the products that they were going to sell. And so they can import and that's, depending on what they want to do there, but we had one particular customer import I think like a thousad Q & A combinations, really great content that they'd built out. They made that available. Once they imported, it automatically spawns those landing pages and they were seeing a few hundred thousand visitors after a year through that content, just using what's up here in their head in order to just communicate that in a clear way and communicate that in a way that Google really likes with original good content.

Brett:

It's awesome. I love it. I'm checking out the website right now, Answerbase.com. It looks like you have plans starting at $19 a month to get basic features in Answerbase, Q & A platform, and then goes up a little bit from there, but seems very affordable, very approachable, very usable both for small business on up to enterprise. Any comments or thoughts there?

James:

We set the plans up and the pricing in order to ensure that you're getting, our customers are getting a healthy return on their investment, and we can track that and report that to our customers as well. So it should be an easy decision, even within the 30 day trial period for active sites. I mean they should be able to see a return on investment through that. So yeah, I mean our goal is to provide value and build value, and obviously make it be a great decision for any commerce merchant to have on their side.

Brett:

Awesome. Check it out at answerbase.com. James Arnold, ladies and gentlemen. Any resources, tips? Where can people check out some of these case studies you were referring to, and then any closing thoughts, James?

James:

Yeah, just they can go to our site. They can look under customer success and see some of the case studies there. And certainly servicing customers has always been an essential part of converting sales. But customer support content hasn't really been utilized as it needs to be in order to become a customer acquisition source. So just understanding where those overlap and being able to effectively utilize that content can do great things for these merchants.

Brett:

Yeah, absolutely. Love it. Love this topic. Love the benefits here that people can can get under the customer success tab. I see the RV Upgrades case study and many others. So check that out as well. Good stuff. James, really appreciate the time and thanks for coming on and educating us about Q & A content, FAQ pages and all this good stuff.

James:

All right, appreciate it Brett.

Brett:

Yeah, absolutely. So that's a wrap for today. As always, we'd love to get your feedback, any other topic suggestions you have or feedback on the show. We'd love to get that review on iTunes if you feel so inclined. That helps other people discover the show. And with that, until next time, thank you for listening.

As some of you may know, my very first foray into online marketing was in the crazy world of SEO. That was circa 2004. After creating some wins for an online print shop I was hooked on SEO. In the early days of OMG Commerce, SEO was our bread and butter. Now it’s still an important channel, but as Google has become more of a pay-to-play environment, more companies come to us wanting help with ads. But…ignoring SEO is a mistake. The best, biggest and enduring eCommerce companies have an SEO strategy and they execute it. My guest on the podcast today is one of the very first OMG Commerce employees, Brandi Johnston. She runs our SEO department and works with Amazon organic optimization.

In this episode we cover a host of practical tips and insights related to SEO including:

• How SEO has changed since 2013 and what that means for us today.
• What are the easiest SEO wins merchants should focus on?
• What are some SEO wins that take a little more work but still pay off in the long run?
• What is a rel=canonical tag and a cross-domain rel=canonical tag and could we get any nerdier?
• What is a zombie page and how doe they impact SEO results?
• What are the top SEO tools, blogs and extensions to consider?
• Plus more!

Connect With Guest:
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Mentioned in this episode:
Matt Cutts – Gadgets, Google, and SEO
Schema.org
Brian N Beane – Professional Coach, Trainer, and Speaker
SEO Tools
Moz – SEO Software, Tools, and Resources for Smarter Marketing
Moz – Whiteboard Friday
Search Engine Journal – SEO, Search Marketing News and Tutorials
Search Engine Land – News On Search Engines
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog
Backlinko
Blumenthals’ Blog
Local U
Whitespark
BrightLocal
Schema App
Search Console in Google Analytics- Search Console Help
Think with Google – Discover Marketing Research and Digital Trends
SEMrush – Online Visibility Management Platform
Screaming Frog – SEO Spider Tool and Crawler Software
AnswerThePublic – That Free Visual Keyword Research and Content Ideas Tool

‍

My guest today is a man who needs no introduction. His podcast, Ecommerce Fuel, is one of the most downloaded Ecommerce podcasts on the planet. And Andrew runs one of the largest most successful private eCommerce forums – EcommerceFuel.com.

Each year Andrew sends out a poll to hundreds of successful merchants to get a pulse check on all things eCommerce. It covers an incredible number of details including growth rates, conversion rates, On-Amazon and Off-Amazon performance, ad performance, profitability trends and much, much more. I wanted to have Andrew on the podcast to dig into some of the most fascinating insights from the report and to share what we believe these insights mean to our community and to you as a merchant.

Here are a few things we cover:

• What is the future of drop-shipping as a business model?
• What surprises came from the on-Amazon growth stats that weren’t maybe as high as expected this year?
• The stark growth contrast between private label sellers vs. resellers
• The number #1 traffic source for successful eCommerce merchants
• The most popular vs. most effective ad channel…spoiler alert – they aren’t the same channel! The most popular channel according to the survey was nowhere near the most effective. Quite the contrary. We explore why.
• We explore Andrew’s spin on KPI – the Kardashian Performance Indicator…this is pretty funny
• Plus much more actionable data!

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Mentioned in this episode:
EcommerceFuel
Via LinkedIn
Via Facebook
Via Twitter
EcommerceFuel Podcast
Ecommerce Fuel Podcast – 2019 State of the Merchant Report
EcommerceFuel Podcast – Making Sense of the Sales Tax Nightmare
Mike Jackness – President & CEO at Terran.com
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Via Twitter
ColorIt
Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE)
Traffic & Conversion Summit

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Michael Jackness is the President & CEO of Terran.com – owner of multiple commerce brands including tactical.com, wildbaby.com, icewraps.com, color it and more. He’s also the host of the EcomCrew podcast and is a fantastic trainer and speaker. I got to hang out with Mike recently at an event and I was reminded of why so many people in the eComm space look up to him. He’s a brilliant marketer and eComm store owner. In this podcast, we dive into some of the most powerful growth levers available to commence merchants today and how to best use them.

Here are a few things we go over:

• What are Mike’s tips and advice on line extension? How important is it, and how and when should store owners consider it?
• Mike’s favorite tips for cross-selling & upselling because “you win or lose by what you do on the backend.”
• The most under-leveraged assets Mike sees in his students’ businesses?
• Favorite growth levers to pull when tasked with growing an eComm biz.
• Some of your favorite recent marketing wins from Mike’s many eCommerce companies
• Underutilized growth tips for Amazon.
• How important is User Generated Content (UGC) and how to get it.

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Mentioned in this episode:
Terran.com – Terran Interactive
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Via Facebook
Via Twitter
Via Instagram
EcomCrew
EcomCrew Podcast

‍

I’ve always loved the psychology behind why people buy. It’s what originally attracted me to sales and marketing when I was in college. I’ve always loved the study of persuasive headlines and compelling video ads. I’ll admit that I think less about shipping than I probably should. If we want to talk about pure conversion rates and growth, shipping is a huge deal.

That’s why I decided to invite Akhilesh Srivastava, CEO of Fenix Commerce, on to the show to talk about improving shipping, both pre and post-sale. Akhilesh knows a thing or two about this topic. He’s worked for big brands like Walmart, Nike, Petco, Staples, and Microsoft. Prior to starting Fenix Commerce, he was in charge of shipping and returns for eBay. He’s spent the last 10+ years living in the data behind shipping practices both on its impact on sales and the costs behind it for merchants.

Here’s a quick look at some of the fascinating points we dive into:

• How studies of eBay customers consistently revealed that 2 of the top 5 reasons people decide to buy or not buy are related both to shipping costs and shipping time.
• How the “get it by” feature can improve conversions and reduce abandoned carts by 20% or more.
• How Men’s Wearhouse is using the “get it by” feature and how it’s now been identified as their largest top-line growth opportunity for 2019….wow!
• Practical tips to lower shipping costs and improve your speed.
• How the USPS can “fill in some gaps” for you and help improve your speed of shopping

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Fenix Commerce Inc.
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In just a few short years Bill D transitioned from investment banker to single brand eCommerce store owner, to now owning and leading a portfolio of 10 eComm brands through his company, Elements Brands.

I wanted to pick Bill’s brain – one, because he’s just wicked smart, but, two, because I think all eCommerce store owners could benefit from his perspective. In this power-house episode we uncover:

• How Bill went from investment banker to owning a portfolio of growing eCommerce brands.
• What Bill looks for when he’s considering buying an eCommerce business (there are lessons here for you, whether you’re looking to sell right now or not).
• Why diversity of traffic is so important and what to consider here.
• What’s the metric to rule all metrics? No, it’s not conversion rate, or AOV, or Return on Ad Spend. (Hint: you’re probably ignoring it or not calculating it the way you should.)
• Why profits are sanity and revenue is vanity.
• How well document processes build value now and later.
• Plus much, much more!

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Elements Brands – Amplifying Awesome
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Andrew Youderian
Sellers Summit
Tim Ferriss and The 4-Hour Workweek
Klavivo
Austin Brawner – Entrepreneur and Adventurer

‍

Casey Guass started Viral Launch as a broke 24-year-old college drop out.  The rest is history. It’s now one of the most beloved SaaS platforms for Amazon sellers.  Like most great companies it’s gone through some serious product evolutions. But, the core has remained the same – helping Amazon Sellers rank better on Amazon.  

In this podcast, we cover a lot…and get pretty nerdy with data.  Here’s a quick look at what we discuss.

• 3 Amazon ranking factors you might be overlooking including considering your canonical url for better ranking on Google (we explain what this means in the podcast).
• How conversion rate factors into organic rankings and what to do about it.
• Why you’re likely focusing on the wrong keywords and how to shift your approach.
• Casey’s 6-step road map for ranking a product on Amazon – this is pure gold.  
• Casey’s advice that he would NOT give to clients, but might try for selling his own products.
• Why you’re thinking about Amazon PPC is probably off a bit and how you should adjust.
• How to use brand analytics data for some “blow your mind” insights.  
• Plus more!

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Viral Launch
Via LinkedIn
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Via Youtube
Follow the Data Podcast
2020 Sellers Summit
Steve Chou – MyWifeQuitHerJob
Brand Analytics – Amazon Seller Central
Kinetic PPC – Viral Launch

Christian Zeron started selling vintage watches online in college. What started mainly with some free time, a lot of creativity and a serious watch obsession (he’s a self-described watch geek). He’s since leveraged that into millions of YouTube views, millions in sales and over 1.8 Million monthly page views… without running ads.

I’m an ads guy so my experience with organic YouTube is minimal. I wanted to have Christian on the podcast to walk through his story and to give us practical tips on how to succeed on YouTube with organic content.

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• How Christian uses Gary V’s jab, jab, jab, right hook in his approach to YouTube content.
• How he’s learned from and grown from his YouTube failures
• How he grew from 0 to 68,000 YouTube Subscribers and millions of views
• How he comes up with ideas for 3 shows a week that generates raving fans.
• How his new pivot was an epic failure and how he’s retooled to make it a smashing success.
• What watches are his personal favorite
• Why selling a $10,000 watch is easier than selling a $300 watch

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Theo & Harris – Vintage Watch Shop
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Quick - what’s the best, most effective viral video ad you’ve seen?  Poo-Pourri? Purple Mattress? Maybe Squatty Potty? Chatbooks? Each of those videos (plus dozens more) were created by my guest today and his team at Harmon Brothers.  And not only where these videos viral hits…they SOLD stuff. Funny. Memorable. And persuasive to the tunes of hundreds of millions in sales. That's hard to accomplish.  

In this episode, we dig into some of the tips, tactics and secrets behind the Harmon Brother’s unrivaled success.  We dive into the following:

• 3 big mistakes most companies make when it comes to video ads
• Why humor is NOT a silver bullet 
• The inside scoop behind Poo-Pourri and haw it launched the Harmon Brothers to national prominence
• How do you land on the right “BIG idea”
• How and when to get feedback on your script and initial video edits
• How to think and create videos like the Harmon Brothers
• Plus more

Connect with Guest:

Daniel Harmon - Chief Creative Officer at Harmon Brothers

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Harmon Brothers - The Marketers Behind Squatty Potty, Poo~Pourri, FiberFix, Lume, and More

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Harmon Brothers University

From Poop to Gold Podcast with Harmon Brothers

“From Poop To Gold” Book by Chris Jones - Amazon

Mentioned in this episode:

Orabrush - Tongue Cleaner - Tongue Scraper - Cure Bad Breath

Poo~Pourri - Poo~Pourri, Before You go Toilet Spray

Squatty Potty - The #1 Way to #2

The Piano Guys™ Official Store - Shop Products, Music & More

YouTube Video - Creative Director: Daniel Harmon - “Over A Thousand People Came Together To Break a Record and Bring This Moving Christmas Hymn To Life”

Purple Mattress

FiberFix

Lume Deodorant - Natural Deodorants for Anywhere on Your Body

Chatbooks - High Quality Photo Books, Custom Prints & Cards

“Made to Stick” Book by Chip Heath & Dan Heath - Heath Brothers

“Building a StoryBrand” Book by Donald Miller - Amazon

A few months ago I delivered a talk at Social Media Marketing World 2019 on how to create a full funnel with YouTube ads. Feedback on the session was great so I wanted to share it here on the podcast.  

Why YouTube ads? Watch time for “which product to buy” videos on YouTube doubled this past year. Nearly 70% of shoppers say they are open to learning about products on YouTube directly from brands. In this talk, we’ll explore 3 ways to utilize YouTube ads for growth. We’ll uncover 3 proven YouTube ad formulas to put the right video in front of the right prospect at the right time. We’ll also examine the best bidding strategies and winning campaign structures to implement for success.

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Social Media Marketing World (SMMW) – Social Media’s Mega Conference!
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