Podcast appearances and mentions of drew sanocki

In this episode of the E-commerce Evolution Podcast, host Brett Curry sits down with with award-winning entrepreneur Leah Garcia (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-garcia-592988/), founder of Nulastin (https://nulastin.com/).Leah has a remarkable journey building a beauty brand with shocking retention numbers—80% blended returning revenue and 65% subscription-based customers. From her bootstrapped beginnings (going from zero to $17.5M before hiring her first employee!) to developing bio-designed elastin products that deliver real results, Leah unpacks the strategies that have made her company a standout success even in uncertain economic times.—Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!—Chapters: (00:00) Introducing Leah Garcia (02:54) Nulastin's Mission and Core Products(07:19) How to Achieve High Retention Rates(12:59) Removing Friction in the Shopping Experience(19:33) Optimizing Subscription Models (25:50) Knowing Your Customers & Fostering Connections(30:50) Improvements to Reduce Churn (37:08) Direct Response Marketing Insights(41:42) Navigating Uncertainty in Business—Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ Relevant Links:Nulastin: https://nulastin.comLeah's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/leah-garcia-592988Leah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahgarciatv/Heart & Soil Beef Organics: https://heartandsoil.co/__Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more

In this insightful episode of the E-commerce Evolution Podcast, host Brett Curry sits down with Tom Leonard (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasbleonard), a fractional marketing leader who specializes in operationalizing Media Mix Modeling and incrementality testing. They dive deep into the often confusing world of marketing measurement. Tom and Brett will debunk myths about attribution and we reveal what truly drives customer acquisition. For ecommerce brands struggling to understand where their marketing dollars are actually working, this conversation offers practical insights on how to move beyond misleading platform metrics.—Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!—Chapters: (00:00) Introducing Tom & Marketing Measurement(06:30) Understanding Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)(12:22) The Case for Incrementality Testing(22:20) Exploring Media Mix Modeling (MMM)(27:30) Navigating Budget Cuts and Marketing Spend(32:17) Understanding Incrementality Vs. Attribution(35:45) The Importance of Cost Per Incremental(40:16) How to Get Started with MMM(44:09) Final Thoughts—Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ Relevant Links:Tom's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasbleonard__Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more

In this insightful episode of the E-commerce Evolution Podcast, host Brett Curry sits down with Jhana Li (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhana-li), founder of Spyglass Ops, to tackle one of the biggest challenges holding back growing businesses: operational constraints. While many entrepreneurs excel at product development and marketing, they often hit a ceiling when it comes to building operational systems and processes. Jhana shares her expertise as a transformational operations consultant who has helped hundreds of seven and eight-figure businesses scale by creating systems that allow founders to work on their business rather than in it.—Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!—Chapters: (00:00) Introducing Jhana & SpyGlass Ops (04:21) Common Operational Problems Founders Face(07:52) Developing a Strategic Vision to Break Through Bottlenecks(14:39) Setting Yourself Apart From Competitors(17:52) Vision Alignment With Your Team(20:51) Hiring and Onboarding the Right People(32:31) Structuring An Effective Hiring Process(40:28) Coaching a High-Performing Team(46:04) When To Let Underperformers Go(50:43) Final Thoughts—Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more

In this timely episode, Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry) sits down with Nick Flint (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-flint-b46063b3/), Director of Email Marketing, to tackle the pressing challenge facing e-commerce brands today: how to maintain profitability amid rising tariffs. As import costs surge, they share actionable strategies for protecting your bottom line without sacrificing growth. Whether you're considering price increases, optimizing marketing spend, or leveraging email to boost customer loyalty, this episode delivers practical solutions you can implement immediately.—Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!—Chapters: (00:00) Introduction(01:28) Increasing Profitability in the Current Landscape(04:30) Strategies for Princing and Bundling(06:32) Effective Cost-Cutting Measures(11:51) Maximizing Email Marketing Effectiveness(15:06) Final Thoughts—Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more

We're thrilled to have Joe Rollinson, the brain behind Best Worlds and CartSave.io, with us today.

"It's just a hell of a lot easier to optimize a business than to start something from scratch."Also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tbVh1J1sOEQ​​Drew Sanocki has a knack for transforming struggling businesses into profitable ventures. In this episode of The Unofficial Shopify Podcast, host Kurt Elster taps into Drew's extensive experience to uncover the strategies that have driven his success. With over two decades in e-commerce, Drew shares why he often opts to buy businesses rather than starting from scratch. He reveals how this approach allows him to leverage existing assets and customer bases for quick wins and sustainable growth. Drew also gives listeners a peek into the key tactics that have helped him revive and profit from these acquisitions. If you're looking to shake up your marketing strategy or simply want a fresh perspective on growth, this conversation is for you.Show Linksnerdmarketing.compostpilot.comDrew SanockiSponsorsZipifyFinale InventoryGrowth CollectiveNever miss an episodeSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsJoin Kurt's newsletterHelp the showAsk a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook GroupLeave a reviewSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsWhat's Kurt up to?See our recent work at EthercycleSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelApply to work with Kurt to grow your store.

Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/) talks to Jimmy Sansone (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-sansone-aa80b881/) about the founding story of The Normal Brand.__Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!__Chapters: (00:00) Introduction and Jimmy's Background(11:42) Early Days of The Normal Brand(15:51) Working with Family (22:09) Expansion Into Retail Stores(25:03) Benefits of Having Your Own Stores(32:25) Mistakes Made Along The Way(34:46) Culture and Core Values(39:34) Future Plans & Merchandising Strategy (42:28) Outro __Show Notes: Jimmy Sansone (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-sansone-aa80b881/ The Normal Brand (Website): https://thenormalbrand.com/ The Normal Brand (Instagram):https://www.instagram.com/thenormalbrand/ Patrick Lencioni (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-lencioni-orghealth/ Working Genius: https://www.workinggenius.com/ Hudson Hawk: https://www.hudsonhawk.com/ Ryan Holiday: https://ryanholiday.net/ Supplement Superstore: https://supplementsuperstores.com/ 1st Phorm: https://1stphorm.com/ __Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more. __Other episodes you might enjoy: Episode 266 with Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing and How To Create a Creative Flywheel in 2024

Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/) talks to Jeremy Horowitz (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhorowitz1/) about the current state of eCommerce.__Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!__Chapters: (00:00) Intro(01:58) The State of eCommerce(12:39) Constructing a Healthy P&L(22:48) Would We Buy This Business? (38:38) The Importance of Focusing on Core Customers(43:29) LVMH: The Ultimate Luxury Company(48:44) Outro__Links: Jeremy Horowitz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhorowitz1/ Let's Buy A Biz!: https://www.letsbuyabiz.xyz/ __Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more. __Other episodes you might enjoy: Episode 266 with Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing and How To Create a Creative Flywheel in 2024Episode 263 with Anthony Mink - Cut Your CPA in Half by Asking Better QuestionsEpisode 260 with Preston Rutherford - Lessons From Chubbies with Co-Founder Preston RutherfordEpisode 243 with Jacques Spitzer - Achieving Exit Velocity with YouTube AdsEpisode 228 with Jeremy Horowitz - The State of eCommerce, The Economy, and What To Do Next

Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/) talks to Jeff Cohen from Amazon (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreycohen/) about amazon ads news and trends. __Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!__Show Notes: (00:00) Introduction (07:54) Vertical Video for Sponsored Brand Video(15:43) Amazon's Facebook Integration (19:27) Prime Video Ads and Sponsored TV(31:33) Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) (39:22) AI's Role In Amazon Advertising (42:15) The Importance of Your Feedback(43:46) Outro __Links: Jeff Cohen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreycohen/ __Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more. __Other episodes you might enjoy: Episode 266 with Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing and How To Create a Creative Flywheel in 2024Episode 263 with Anthony Mink - Cut Your CPA in Half by Asking Better QuestionsEpisode 260 with Preston Rutherford - Lessons From Chubbies with Co-Founder Preston RutherfordEpisode 243 with Jacques Spitzer - Achieving Exit Velocity with YouTube AdsEpisode 228 with Jeremy Horowitz - The State of eCommerce, The Economy, and What To Do Next

Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/) talks to Brayn Porter (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbryanporter/) about how to build a brand on Amazon. __Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!__Show Notes: (00:00) Introduction(04:11) Simple Modern's Founding Story(17:42) Demand Capture and Paid Ads(24:40) Building A Brand On Amazon(40:40) Transitioning To a 1P Seller on Amazon(46:23) Outro__Links: Kyle Fraughton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbryanporter/ Simple Modern: https://www.simplemodern.com/ __Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, and more. __Other episodes you might enjoy: Episode 266 with Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing and How To Create a Creative Flywheel in 2024Episode 263 with Anthony Mink - Cut Your CPA in Half by Asking Better QuestionsEpisode 260 with Preston Rutherford - Lessons From Chubbies with Co-Founder Preston RutherfordEpisode 243 with Jacques Spitzer - Achieving Exit Velocity with YouTube AdsEpisode 228 with Jeremy Horowitz - The State of eCommerce, The Economy, and What To Do Next

Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/) talks about the parallels between parenting and running a business. __Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!__Show Notes: (00:00) Introduction (03:12) Lesson 1 - Where All Making It Up As We Go(06:58) Lesson 2 - You're Never Really Ready(09:19) Lesson 3 - Listen and Communicate Clearly In Multiple Ways(12:17) Lesson 4 - Admit When You're Wrong(14:39) Lesson 5 - You Might Want A Coach(19:39) Lesson 6 - Be All In(22:52) Outro __Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, and more. __Other episodes you might enjoy: Episode 266 with Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing and How To Create a Creative Flywheel in 2024Episode 263 with Anthony Mink - Cut Your CPA in Half by Asking Better QuestionsEpisode 260 with Preston Rutherford - Lessons From Chubbies with Co-Founder Preston RutherfordEpisode 243 with Jacques Spitzer - Achieving Exit Velocity with YouTube AdsEpisode 228 with Jeremy Horowitz - The State of eCommerce, The Economy, and What To Do Next

Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/) talks to Kyle Fraughton (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylefraughton/) about ambassador programs and the power of UGC. __Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!__Show Notes: (00:00) Introduction (02:40) Kyle's Background (03:53) Authentic - The Word of the Year(05:55) Is UGC Dead? (10:51) The Digital Age Version of Word of Mouth(13:32) Strategies To Facilitate Word of Mouth(15:26) What Does A Good Ambassador Program Do?(16:16) Influencer Program vs. Ambassador Program(26:08) How To Set Up An Ambassador Program(34:50) Ambassadors and Ads(38:41) More About Get Roster(43:06) Outro__Links: Kyle Fraughton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylefraughton/ Roster: https://www.getroster.com/__Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, and more. __Other episodes you might enjoy: Episode 266 with Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing and How To Create a Creative Flywheel in 2024Episode 263 with Anthony Mink - Cut Your CPA in Half by Asking Better QuestionsEpisode 260 with Preston Rutherford - Lessons From Chubbies with Co-Founder Preston RutherfordEpisode 243 with Jacques Spitzer - Achieving Exit Velocity with YouTube AdsEpisode 228 with Jeremy Horowitz - The State of eCommerce, The Economy, and What To Do Next

Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/) talks to Sean Frank (http://twitter.com/SeanEcom/) about what it takes to win as a DTC brand in 2024. __Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!__Show Notes: (00:00) Introduction (01:18) The Operators Podcast (06:30) Ridge's Background(09:38) What To Expect For DTC Brands In 2024(16:08) What Does It Take To Win In 2024(25:13) What Channels Is Sean Most Excited For In 2024(30:15) How To Grow Profitably (38:52) Expanding Your Product Line(43:44) Outro__Links: Sean Frank: http://twitter.com/SeanEcom/ Ridge: https://ridge.com/ The Operators Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/operators/id1684446059__Connect With Brett: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ __Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D'Allessandro, and more. __Other episodes you might enjoy: Episode 266 with Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing and How To Create a Creative Flywheel in 2024Episode 263 with Anthony Mink - Cut Your CPA in Half by Asking Better QuestionsEpisode 260 with Preston Rutherford - Lessons From Chubbies with Co-Founder Preston RutherfordEpisode 243 with Jacques Spitzer - Achieving Exit Velocity with YouTube AdsEpisode 228 with Jeremy Horowitz - The State of eCommerce, The Economy, and What To Do Next

Drew Sanocki is one of my favorite people to talk to. He's been a longtime friend and possesses a wealth of wisdom. Drew has successfully built and exited a company, turned around two other nine-figure retailers and is currently overseeing the growth of PostPilot, which recently achieved 8-figures in annual recurring revenue (ARR). What distinguishes Drew in my mind is his unwavering commitment to his family and his well-being. He has a wonderful family and leads an inspirational life. In this episode, we gain valuable insights into his mindset and philosophy on building both a fulfilling life and a successful business. What You'll Learn From This Episode: Why Drew is waking up at 4:30 a.m. and sprinting at 51 years old A transparent look at his daily schedule while managing one of the country's fastest-growing companies. The strategies he uses to maintain connection with his kids and wife while running a startup The details behind his acquisition of PostPilot for $50,000 and its transformation into an 8-figure business. His experience of hiring one person every three days for an entire year. How he has acquired multiple 8 and 9-figure businesses without investing his own capital. The differences between building a SAAS (Software as a Service) and an e-commerce business. Some simple campaigns that you can use with direct mail to grow your business Links:  The PostPilot holiday offer https://www.postpilot.com/holiday-gfo www.PostPilot.com

Shoppers have been trained to wait until November to buy. So whether you're running a discount, free gift with purchase, expedited shipping, or another offer entirely, you better make sure it's profitable. But you can't stop at a single purchase. And on this episode of Ecommerce Marketing School, PostPilot's Drew Sanocki shares his secrets for what it takes to win Black Friday. Follow Val on TwitterFollow Drew on LinkedInTry Privy for FREECheck out the Triple Whale Network

In this episode of "The Conversion Show," Erik Christiansen, CEO of Justuno, interviews Drew Sanocki, Founder of PostPilot. Drew has an extensive background in retail and shares his insights on how direct mail can be a game-changer for e-commerce businesses and explains the features of PostPilot, including segmentation, automation, remarketing, retargeting, and acquisition. Erik and Drew discuss:The integration capabilities of Post Pilot with platforms like Shopify and Klaviyo.The concept of the discount ladder and the 30, 60, 90 plan.Optimizing retention, basket size, and conversion rates before focusing on customer acquisition. The key to effective postcard designs is treating direct mail like a Facebook ad. The shift in mindset regarding direct-to-consumer brands.Watch the episode on The Conversion Show YouTube channelHost: Erik Christiansen https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikc/Guest: Drew Sanocki https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanocki/Justuno https://www.justuno.com/PostPilot https://postpilot.com/Transcript:Intro 00:00:05Welcome to the Conversion Show, a podcast that's all about. You guessed it, conversions, everything that gets you to your goal, whether that's purchase, lead capture app, install content downloads, chat engagement, or demo requests. We're talking conversions hosted by Erik Christiansen, CEO and co-founder of the leading conversion optimization platform, Justuno. On the conversion show, Erik sits down with industry-leading marketers, e-commerce growth experts, founders, and entrepreneurs to chat all things conversion marketing. Be sure to follow the conversion show podcast to be notified when a new episode goes live. Like what you hear? Leave us some love with a review. And now here's your host, Eric Christiansen.Erik 00:00:51Welcome to the conversion show today. I'm really proud to have my guest, Drew Sanocki, who we go back ten-plus years and I encourage anyone listening if you're in front of a computer and type Drew Sanocki into LinkedIn and you're going to find a background that is is very well, what's the word? Diverse. Drew 00:01:17Long and boring.Erik 00:01:18It's well-versed. KarmelLoop retailer he's been a retailer himself he is now CEO of Post Pilot a direct-to-consumer postcards highly segmented which is what we're going to get into today. Very exciting. So let's welcome to the show Drew.Drew 00:01:37 Thanks, Eric. It's good to see you again. As you said, we've known each other for ten-plus years. I remember when we took over Karmaloop you know, we got it out of bankruptcy. And one of the first things we did was put Justuno up. And that was probably 2014, 2015, just to reengineer the pop up. And they were amazed at how we went from, I don't know, we probably ten next to the opt-ins in a week back then.Erik 00:02:02Drew has always been a...

Drew Sanocki has successfully turned around 8 and 9-figure eCommerce brands not once, not twice, but 5 times. Among his successes are AutoAnything and Karmaloop. Drew is also the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Post Pilot (direct mail made for DTC and eCommerce). He knows the strategies behind what it takes to succeed in DTC better than almost anyone I know. Here's a look at what we cover:Jay Abraham's 3 ways to grow any business. New Customer Acquisition (NCA) is only ONE way to grow your business and is almost certainly the most expensive way.Why Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) can be misleading and why focusing on Customer Value Optimization (CVO) matters more.What all failing eCommerce brands have in common and how to avoid the death spiral. The principle of optimizing before you multiply. Using direct mail for retention, remarketing, AND new customer acquisition.#Podcast #Ecommerce #DrewSanocki #PostPilot #EcommerceStrategies #CustomerRetention #DataDrivenDecisions

To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup DTC Podcast listeners get an exclusive 20% discount at Tidio. Visit tidio.com/dtc to learn more. Hello and welcome to the DTC Podcast, I'm Eric Dyck. Today, we're privileged to have a chat with an eCommerce legend, Drew Sanocki. Introduced to me by Ezra Firestone as one of his main e-commerce mentors, Drew's forged his path in the early days of ecommerce as something of a turnaround specialist, sent into legacy brands to help them transition into ecommerce, with a special focus on catalog or direct mail marketing. Fast forward to today, where Drew leads PostPilot during the renaissance of physical mail as a strong middle of funnel for DTC brands. You'll hear Drew's top turnaround toolkit, which focuses mainly on profitability over growth, Marginal CaC over CaC, and a trend back toward both physical storefronts as well as physical mail marketing... If you're thinking about dropping a postcard to your customers this summer, don't miss this one... Timestamps: 2:35 The Genesis of PostPilot: Extending Marketing through Direct Mail 6:12 The Effectiveness of Direct Mail for Customer Retention and Acquisition 9:40 The Time Windows and Attribution of Direct Mail Campaigns 17:30 AI in Copywriting and the Unique Value of Human-Crafted Sales Letters 27:40 The Return to Baseline Growth in E-commerce 30:00 The Story of Twitter's Early Days and the Value of Human Connections #directmail #marketingstrategy #ecommerce #customerexperience #AIinmarketing Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Today we're going Old School. We're not talking email. We're not talking TikTok, Facebook or even YouTube.  We're talking Snail. Mail. The gold old USPS. Physical mailboxes.  Why?  Because this is an untapped opportunity for DTC brands. My guests today are two legends in the eCommerce space - Drew Sanocki and Michael Epstein. Drew and Michael most recently ran and successfully exited Auto Anything a multi nine figure eCommerce brand. Now they are helping DTC brands grow through direct mail marketing. And while that might not sound sexy, it's incredibly effective.  Why postcard and direct mail marketing? 20-50% of your customers don't have a good email address on file. And email open rates are only 20-30% at best. So you're missing a lot of your current and past buyers if you're just relying on email and SMS. Here's a look at what we cover in this episode: How should brands use direct mail? How to build a great postcard What postcard campaigns to start with How Ezra Firestone turned $1,400 into $4,000 using a simple postcard How to make direct mail part of your email and SMS flows

In episode 400, we heard from veteran ecom investor Drew Sanocki that he'd acquired oVertone Haircare along with ecom powerhouse influencer Ezra Firestone.In today's episode, our recent hire Tom Siodlak talks us through the behind the scenes experience of working with Ezra and the oVertone team on migrating the site from headless back to native Shopify with a custom theme. He reveals the premium theme we used as a framework, his thoughts on developing custom Shopify themes, design process, Online Store 2.0's impact, and more.Show LinksoVertone HaircareFocal by MaestroooTurbo Theme by Out of The SandboxEthercycleCrowdfunderSponsorsFree 30-day trial of Zipify OCU - To get an unadvertised gift, email help@zipify.com and ask for the "Tech Nasty Bonus".Back up your store with RewindTry Bold Product Upsell, free trialPrivy: The Fastest Way To Grow Sales With Email & SMSNever miss an episodeSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsJoin Kurt's newsletterHelp the showAsk a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook GroupLeave a reviewSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsWhat's Kurt up to?See our recent work at EthercycleSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelApply to work with Kurt to grow your store.

Serial entrepreneur Drew Sanocki shares his career learnings after starting, buying, running, or selling numerous ecommerce businesses.Notable quotes:"You make most of your money on the exit.""Buying a business reduces the risk... its the ultimate shortcut""Valuations change over time. Growing ecommerce businesses can sell for 5-8x EBITDA"We discuss:Selling furniture as one of the earliest dropshippers in 1999The specifics on buying oVertone Haircare with Ezra FirestoneWhat makes a business attractive as a purchaseThe importance of retention marketingShow LinksoVertoneAutoAnythingDuoPlanePowerful by Patty McCord#341 - RFM Segmentation with Juliana JacksonPost Pilot - The Godfather offer! They'll build the first campaign for you and send them.SponsorsFree 30-day trial of Zipify OCU - To get an unadvertised gift, email help@zipify.com and ask for the "Tech Nasty Bonus".Back up your store with RewindTry Bold Product Upsell, free trialPrivy: The Fastest Way To Grow Sales With Email & SMSNever miss an episodeSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsJoin Kurt's newsletterHelp the showAsk a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook GroupLeave a reviewSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsWhat's Kurt up to?See our recent work at EthercycleSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelApply to work with Kurt to grow your store.

Mike catches up with PostPilot's Drew Sanocki to talk about spotting opportunities in business, the bullishness of SaaS, and the efficacy of real mail in today's environment.   Ever since I attended eCommerceFuel Live five or six years ago, I've always admired Drew Sanocki for his knowledge and experience in the business.   Drew is the founder and executive chairman of PostPilot, a service that aims to help businesses grow through direct mail by creating personalized postcard campaigns.   In this episode, Drew and I discuss some of the milestones in our ecommerce journey, the gold mine that is SaaS, and how direct mail is the way to go these days.   Audio Timestamps:  Intro - 0:00  Mike and Dave's New Business - 1:08  How Mike met Drew - 4:05  Mike's approach to buying an ecommerce business - 6:08 Drew's thoughts on the current business landscape - 12:40  Seeing an opportunity and grabbing it - 15:41 Advantages of venturing into SaaS - 19:24  Growing a SaaS company - 24:12 Advantages of email - 32:06  PostPilot's Godfather Offer - 37:02   Drew, thank you for joining me again on the podcast. I look forward to seeing you in person soon. If you guys need help with marketing for your business, Drew has got an awesome treat for you: click here for PostPilot's Godfather offer.   As always, leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

It's been a wild wave in ecommerce when we look at where the industry started to where the opportunities are today. My guest today reflects on what's he's learned at 15 years in ecommerce and what's coming in ecommerce in 2022. Drew Sanocki was the CEO of the eCommerce brand AutoAnything, the founder of the blog nerdmarketing.com and the owner of the Shopify direct marketing app PostPilot. He has his hands in a lot of key areas in eCommerce and has been in the game for about 15 years.  In this episode, Drew shares his well-rounded journey from buying out, being the CEO, and acquiring a bunch of companies. We talk about what it's like to run a $100 million retailer and what it's like to run a small brand and scale up to 7-figures.  This episode has a ton of information on what's been working in eComm, where things have started to shift and we end with where we think this wild ride is going for eCommerce in 2022. Episode Highlights 5:40 Secrets to turning 50 and being in the best shape of life  7:10 Taking over as the CEO of AutoAnything  8:25 Transitioning after exiting to an eCommerce aggregator  9:16 Biggest learnings from taking over a 200+ person organization  10:47 Acquisitions: why some work and some don't  12:45 Exiting early due to supply chain issues  18:51 Drew's thoughts on supply chain challenges and issues  22:14 Growing as a leader by running both big and small businesses  23:45 What daily life looks like when being more strategic in the business  25:26 Drew's role at PostPilot: postcard marketing  26:26 Hiring a CEO  27:36 Tips on structuring deals  30:40 What Drew's excited about in eCommerce in 2022  33:07 The time is right for direct mail marketing  37:14 Differences between running a SaaS business and an eCommerce business 39:31 Hiring developers  41:10 Advice from Drew's business experience: iterate quickly 44:08 The last 15 years of eCommerce and what's next for eCommerce in 2022 Resources: PostPilot How to Increase Sales & Delight Customers with Direct Mail Marketing: Drew's Training Inside the Brand Growth Membership Brand Growth Accelerator (apply today: next cohort starts Feb 15, 2022) Brand Growth Membership @a_brawn on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Buying an ecommerce business can be a brilliant move to build wealth, or have costly unintended consequences.  Between finding the right business, knowing what to look for when going through due diligence, and avoiding misinformation - buying an eCommerce business can be a lot to handle. We're giving you a crash course on how to do it. Today’s show is a mashup of three episodes I’ve done with expert eCommerce entrepreneurs in this space - David Newell, Shakil Prasla, and Drew Sanocki. We talk about how to determine if you are the type of person who should buy or build, what a thorough due diligence process looks like, and the things to always investigate within a prospective company. We also breakdown the common pitfalls first-time buyers tend to experience and how to avoid them. Enjoy! Episode Highlights 4:30 How to determine if you should buy or build an eCommerce site 7:27 Buying a business to cross-sell 9:29 The 6 key tenets to robust due diligence when buying a business 13:12 How to assess the quality of a business’ backlinks 16:23 Financials you should always assess as a buyer 19:23 Problem areas to investigate before buying a business 23:15 Technical and legal checklist items you shouldn’t forget 25:38 The biggest mistakes most first-time buyers make and how to avoid them 27:34 Leveraging SEO and content for growth 30:53 Income and age: Two essential criteria for evaluating a company 32:49 Buying a business on a bank loan 35:48 Five things to always look for when buying 39:04 The advice Shakil would have given himself when he was starting out 41:30 Shakil’s process for reviewing prospecting companies and getting them through due diligence 43:30 What Drew is most excited about when buying 46:15 Merger and acquisition opportunities that can help your brand 50:45 Uncovering your blind spots within the acquisition process 52:26 Boostrapping vs acquisition: Which is right for you and which comes first? Links and Resources: Podcast: 095: 4 Reasons Why You Should Buy An Ecommerce Business & The 6 Key Tenets To Proper Due Diligence Podcast: 195: Austin Ecommerce Investor Reveals His Short-Cut To Scaling Podcast: 241: Evolutions In Lifecycle Marketing & New Approaches To Creating Wealth Websites: FE International, Pro Click Ventures, Nerd Marketing, AutoAnything Social Media: David Newell on Twitter, Drew on Instagram The San Francisco Fallacy: The Ten Fallacies That Make Founders Fail Brand Growth Experts The Coalition Foxwell Digital @a_brawn on Twitter @andrewfoxwell on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

Today’s guest is an expert when it comes to building and scaling ecommerce brands.In this episode I’m joined by Michael Epstein, CMO of AutoAnything. AutoAnything was originally owned by AutoZone, then acquired by a private equity company who brought in Michael and CEO Drew Sanocki.They were given the reins to a 9-figure brand with declining revenue and a leftover corporate culture.Michael and Drew took over, and were able to quickly turn things around, become profitable, and establish a healthy work environment.We talk about how they did it, including the organization changes made to the over 150 employee company.As of late, they’ve been acquiring and building other brands.And it all starts with culture. Listen to this episode for secrets to growing strong, well-cultured brands.The 5-Minute Ecommerce Email Marketing HackStop leaving money on the table. Without great email marketing, you're missing out on 6-7 figures per year of revenue and profit.Download this checklist, go through it, and in less than 5 minutes you'll know exactly what you need to do to increase your email revenue.This is our secret sauce and we're giving it all away for free, no strings attached.Click here to download the checklist for free.Links:Q4Method.comWavebreakPrivate email list for ecommerce leadersAutoAnythingPostPilotBook an intro callLearn more about WavebreakThis episode is sponsored by...Klaviyo — Over 10,000 innovative brands are growing their businesses by listening and understanding to cues from their customers--easily turning that information into valuable marketing messages used to build highly segmented, automated email campaigns, such as win back campaigns or abandoned cart emails and more.Justuno - The best tool for conversion rate optimization is Justuno. Justuno customers see a 135% lift in revenue in the first year of using the platform thanks to features like their AI-powered upsells and cross-sells, and advanced targeting rules for tailored promotions to high-intent traffic segments. Sign up for a free trial and get 20% off your first year by using code WAVEBREAK.

Do you have a dream of building a 9-figure business? We’ve worked with Ecommerce entrepreneurs who have and here’s what they have in common. Today I’m taking you behind the scenes into the Coalition, my Ecommerce coaching community for Ecommerce entrepreneurs. Every month we have a live training that dives into one aspect of growing your Ecommerce business. In this training, we are talking about the mindset shifts needed to reach 9-figure growth. Drew Sanocki, CEO of AutoAnything and former CMO KarmaLoop,  joins us and shares his experience running multiple 9-figure businesses. If you own or work with an established Ecommerce business and want to reach for that same success, this is for you. Episode Highlights 8:31 The #1 prerequisite for building a 9-figure business 11:37 A key team characteristic at fast-growing companies 15:24 An unexpected truth about reinvention and the willingness to pivot 18:35 How to be laser-focused on your brand  20:10 Changing your philosophy around hiring and how to attract top talent 23:03 What your role as the founder actually evolves into 25:58 This is the #1 way to not get what you want 28:11 A founder’s trade-off between growth and time 30:57 Drew Sanocki’s background in Ecommerce 32:30 The biggest differences between a 7-figure and 9-figure company 34:48 When to introduce middle management to your team 37:27 What Drew spends the most time doing in his business today 44:30 Drew’s philosophy on hiring and the power of networking 46:57 What successful founders have in common 50:52 The difference between being a single founder and having a co-founder 52:59 Putting together a board for your business 54:08 How to build the most wealth as an entrepreneur 59:02 Auditions vs Hiring: How to ensure you’ve found the right fit 1:01:16 Deciding to keep your role as the CEO in a growing company 1:05:43 The difference between running a software company and Ecommerce business 1:13:08 Believing that an exit is possible 1:15:07 Why we are in the Golden Age of Ecommerce Links and Resources: AutoAnything Karmaloop The E-Myth by Michael Gerber EOS Model The Coalition Brand Growth Experts @a_brawn on Twitter Review or subscribe on iTunes

One of the toughest niches to be in right now is the travel niche. Because of COVID-19, airline companies and ecommerce sellers have seen a huge drop in sales now that everything's closed. If you were in the travelling niche right now, what would you do to maximize your business potential?  That'll be the question that we're answering on this episode of the Ecomcrew podcast. We're joined by my dear friend Salo Mizrachi from Ezpacking to talk about how COVID-19 has affected his brand, affiliate sites, and whether it'd be wise to dive into a new, different niche. Together, we'll be weighing the pros and cons of each choice while also considering Salo's end goal for his business, and how much time he's willing to put into his business.  In this episode, we talk about:  Branching off from the travelling niche. Starting an affiliate website for Salo's current niche.  The Importance of Location Independence to Salo and his wife.  The New Normal for Salo after COVID-19. Having an Emergency Income Source in times like these.  Why Amazon slashed Affiliate Commissions. The Advantages of the Subscription Plan Model.  If you want to hear more about where I think we'll be after COVID-19, check out the episode I did with Andrew Youderian and Drew Sanocki here. If you wanna check out our Free Amazon Domination book, check it out here!  Stay safe, and happy selling! 

Today on the show I'm joined by good friends Drew Sanocki and Michael Jackness who open up about how COVID has impacted their lives and businesses, where we see areas of opportunity and more. We discuss: How badly our businesses have been hit Thoughts on how COVID will permanently change eCommerce Where we're seeing opportunities, both now and in the intermediate future

There is more than one way to create wealth in ecommerce. While many entrepreneurs follow the path of bootstrapping a business and hoping to one day be acquired, another option is to start on the acquisition side, and grow a portfolio of successful companies. Our guest today has done both. Drew Sanocki is CEO of AutoAnything, owner of PostPilot, and an expert at lifecycle marketing. He joins us to talk about the evolution of lifecycle marketing and the big role direct mail is playing in brand loyalty and repeat purchase rate, as well as how mergers and acquisitions can help your brand, and why M&A are his big focus for the upcoming year. I always learn a lot when we chat with Drew and I hope you enjoy! Episode Highlights 9:05 Why Drew is so excited about direct mail marketing. 12:08 The role of direct mail for Drew's 9-figure dropshipping company. 14:54 Bringing direct mail into traditional lifecycle marketing and how it enhances your brand. 18:55 Exploring brand partnerships in the direct mail space. 19:46 Prospecting with direct mail. 21:56 Syncing direct mail with Klaviyo and segments that are working particularly well. 27:48 The shifting customer journey and how Drew sees it evolving in the near future. 32:49 Why merchandising can be the best kind of marketing. 36:11 What Drew’s excited about in this new decade and what he sees as the quickest way to grow a company. 39:13 Merger and acquisition opportunities that can help your brand. 42:38 Why most business owners have a blind spot to the acquisition process and how Drew would get started building a portfolio. 46:15 Bootstrapping vs acquisition -- does it matter which comes first? Links And Resources Nerd Marketing Drew on Instagram - @drewsanocki AutoAnything PostPilot 234: The 5 Things We’ve Learned In The Last 12 Months 203: Why You Should Stop Selling Yourself Short And Think Like A Billionaire 195: Austin Ecommerce Investor Reveals His Short-Cut To Scaling 116: 4 Profitable Email Strategies You Can Swipe For Your Brand How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp The San Francisco Fallacy by Jonathan Seigel  Nathan Barry: The Ladders of Wealth Creation Klaviyo Share Local Media William Painter Training: How to Increase Sales & Delight Customers with Direct Mail Marketing Coalition @a_brawn on Twitter @andrewfoxwell on Twitter Profit Summit Brand Growth Experts Foxwell Digital Review or subscribe on iTunes

Today's guest has twenty years of ecommerce experience and believes that "You can't survive as a commodity dropship retailer. You have to differentiate or Amazon will eat your lunch. If not today, then tomorrow."In this episode, he'll tell us how he differentiated Karmaloop and more.You'll hear:Lessons learned running a nine-figure brand acquired from AutoZoneThe simple strategies that Drew used to save KarmaLoop from extinctionHow to easily leverage direct mail to grow your businessIn 2013, Drew founded his first company, DesignPublic.com, with $500 cash. Today he's the CEO of nine-figure vertically integrated brand AutoAnything. In between, he's saved Karmaloop, got Teamwork to eight figures, and built a variety of software and retail businesses.In order of discussion:AutoAnything.comTraction80/20 RuleKarmaloopKettle & FireTeamworkEcommerce is a BearPostPilot - Get 15% off your first purchase with code KURT15Nerd MarketingNever miss an episodeSubscribe wherever you get your podcastsJoin Kurt's newsletterHelp the showAsk a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook GroupLeave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.Subscribe wherever you get your podcastsWhat's Kurt up to?See our recent work at EthercycleSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelApply to work with Kurt to grow your store.SponsorsTry Bold Product Upsell free for 90 daysSave 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify themeImprove your shop's search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

If you’re in the ecommerce circle you probably know--or at least heard of--Drew Sanocki. Drew is a veteran in the field, having started, led, and invested in several ecommerce businesses over the years. He is currently the CEO of AutoAnything, a 9-figure online retailer of auto accessories. He also recently became the owner of a postcard marketing app for Shopify called PostPilot. He blogs (and used to run a podcast) about online marketing and running a business on Nerd Marketing. I first met him in Nashville during the first ECF Live I ever attended. He talked about the “Whales and Minnows” theory which has stuck with me until today, and is still completely applicable in today’s ecommerce setting. The theory is basically about focusing on whales (your most important customers) vs minnows (low-value customers who just order once). Below are some conversation points that explains the theory more, plus some other topics we talked about: The differences between a “whale” and a “minnow” and the importance of focusing on one vs the other How to attract more high-value customers The difficulties of running AutoAnything How things are at Nerd Marketing Why postcard marketing brings in more loyal customers and more money to the business Drew was kind enough to give EcomCrew listeners a discount for his postcard marketing app PostPilot. Just use the code CREW15 and get 15% off your subscription. Hope you enjoyed listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

Today, I’m thrilled to have Brett Curry back on the show. Brett is someone who I met through Drew Sanocki at the Traffic And Conversions Summit in San Diego. He has spoken at my conference, The Sellers Summit, for the past 2 years and he runs OMG Commerce which is an ecommerce agency that has helped over 125 companies with their pay per click advertising. In this episode, Brett and I talk about combining Amazon PPC with Amazon DSP to grow your Amazon business. What You’ll Learn What is Amazon DSP? What ads can be bought through Amazon DSP How […] The post 267: The New Amazon Ads You Probably Aren’t Running Yet With Brett Curry appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

Today our guest is Drew Sanocki, founder of Nerd Marketing. Drew writes about e-commerce and bootstrapped his own retailer in 2003, grew it into a national brand, and sold it in 2012. He now spends his time advising e-commerce executives on how to achieve growth. In today’s interview we’ll be talking about how expanding too quickly can lead to bankruptcy, how he grew a drop ship retailer from zero to a million in revenue in the first year and a half, and why he pays comedy writers to write his product descriptions. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu

Drew Sanocki from Nerd Marketing joined the show nine months ago when he was involved in the purchase of three companies over the course of a month. Today he joins us again to share how things are going with these companies and what he has learned over that time. Listen in to hear Drew’s tips on leadership and how to track your company's success. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://bit.ly/2YU81Ki  Interested in our Private Community for 7-Figure Store Owners?  Learn more here.   Want to hear about new episodes and eCommerce news round-ups?  Subscribe via email.

Have you stopped to consider the next step in your entrepreneurial journey? Perhaps you own a six or seven figure business now, but where will you be in 10 years? Will you still be living in the grind? Or are your sights set on acquiring companies and building a portfolio? Today’s guest has done it all. He’s built his own business, was the CMO of Karmaloop, worked as a consultant, and now is the CEO of AutoAnything (just one of the businesses in his current portfolio). Drew Sanocki is back to talk about this journey and his recent entry into the acquisition side of ecommerce. Drew will share his insights on buying businesses, establishing company culture, hiring the right team, and why these days he’s more focused on creating alignment than hustling. Enjoy! Episode Highlights: 2:53 A quick win with Facebook’s new cost cap bidding. 9:55 The perspective Drew gained from a trip around the world and how it led him to think like a billionaire by focusing on acquiring assets rather than hustling. 13:14 How Drew made his first acquisition. 16:39 Drew's journey from Chairman of the Board to becoming CEO of AutoAnything. 18:50 What it's like to run a $100 million dropshipping company. 20:09 Comparing life as the CMO of Karmaloop vs. the CEO of AutoAnything. 23:29 The importance of making the right hires if you want to be a successful CEO. 25:28 Drew’s approach to building a strong company culture. 28:58 The impact of a company’s size on its culture. 32:17 How long it took Drew to make cultural changes once he took over as CEO. 34:36 Drew’s ebb and flow between lifestyle businesses and managing a company at a larger scale. 37:59 A lesson in the importance of thinking like a billionaire. 40:01 What you need to know now in order to succeed as an investor in the future, and how to use your current skill set to your advantage. 48:25 How Drew made the decision to make a change in his professional life. 51:05 The importance of rest, setting boundaries, and work-life balance. 53:57 How being starved for resources helps you to prioritize. 54:59 OKRs: What are they and how they’ve helped create alignment and focus within Drew’s business. 58:15 Why Drew is fired up about direct mail in 2019. 1:00:12 How Drew manages to run three companies at once. Links and Resources: Netflix Culture Deck AutoAnything PostPilot GoSimple Nerd Marketing Book: Powerful by Patty McCord Book: Measure What Matters by John Doerr Book: Deep Work by Cal Newport Drew on Instagram: @drewsanocki Episode 183: How To Manage Your Time Strategically While Growing Your Business Episode 116: 4 Profitable Email Strategies You Can Swipe For Your Brand Cost Cap Facebook Bidding Klaviyo Ecommerce Profit Summit (formerly the Brand Growth Experts Intensive) Foxwell Digital Brand Growth Experts Review or subscribe on iTunes Join The Coalition If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, I have something really exciting for you. For the last year and a half I’ve been coaching business owners and marketers inside a group called The Coalition. What launched as an experiment became a game changer for our over 150 members.  If you’d like me and my team of expert marketers and ecommerce operators to coach you on your journey to scaling up your ecommerce business, this is your opportunity. We go in-depth on all the topics we talk about on this podcast and provide actionable training every single month. You’ll also get one-on-one coaching from me to help you grow your business.  Head over to JointheCoalition.com to learn more. Can’t wait to see you inside. Sponsor: Klaviyo  If you’re looking to grow your business, there’s only one way. By building real, quality customer relationships. Most marketing software will claim that they do this, but they’ll never deliver on those promises. Klaviyo, though, is different. Klaviyo helps you build meaningful customer relationships by listening to and understanding cues from your customers, which allows you to easily turn that information into valuable marketing messages that’ll help grow your business and make more money. That’s why over 10,000 innovative brands have switched to Klaviyo. If you aren’t already a customer, head over to www.ecommerceinfluence.com/klaviyo and you’ll get a free trial + priority on-boarding. Sponsor: Shoelace Shoelace helps fast-growing ecommerce stores build brand equity, increase conversions and grow revenue using Customer Journey Retargeting by showing the right ad to the right people at the right time. Shoelace is excited to announce its all-new integration with Klaviyo. This integration lets you seamlessly synchronize your marketing activity across your email and retargeting channels. Boost your email campaigns by automatically retargeting email recipients across multiple channels. Increase campaign engagement by showing ads to recipients who didn’t open or click an individual campaign. Most importantly, drive growth by effortlessly retargeting all of your Klaviyo lists and segments with personalized messaging. To find out more visit ecommerceinfluence.com/shoelace and supercharge your email campaigns today.

Drew Sanocki is back on the show to share some very interesting things he’s been up to lately. Not only has he had exciting adventures traveling the world with his family, but he's also had some cool adventures in the private equity space. Today he dives into the details about different deals he’s involved with, compensation, and more. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2LncK3C 

Advisors lead by developing a trusted relationship with prospects. This takes out a lot of traditional pitching for business and transitions to paid connections. You become more of a consultant than just a hired gun. Drew Sanocki and Michael Epstein are partners at Growthengines.io, which has grown from being brand new to generating $1 million in revenue in less than a year through retainer work. How has it gone from nothing to where it is at now in such a short period? What impact does that have on the way that it sells?

In this episode, Drew shares his favorite resources and private equity investment contacts. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode. Highlights A few names to file away and pull-out when you're looking to sell Links / Resources Brian Colton, Brooklyn-Equity Carson Biederman, Digital Fuel Capital Tom Clark, Comvest Dominic Ang, Turn/River Capital Kingswood Partners Me Chris Yates, Rhodium Weekend Empire Flippers,  Justin Cooke Quiet Light Podcast, Episodes two and eight Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you can and I will send it to you as a PDF. Read The Transcript: Hey, everybody. It's Drew Sanocki with the Nerd Marketing Podcast. We are talking about buying and selling businesses in this short web series if you will. This one, this episode, is the final one. Here I kind of want to open up my contacts to you and walk you through some people who are doing some interesting buying of businesses like yours, so these are ... Just file it away. If you hope to sell someday, these are some of the people who may be interested in buying your business, whether you run a SaaS company or a direct-to-consumer brand. I'm going to give you some resources here, and also just want to make it clear that it's not what you know; it's who you know. Part of fetching a good valuation and being able to sell your business or raise money for your business is knowing the kind of people who would love to own your business, right? Because these buyers, these funds come in a million different flavors. What we want to focus on here is not Robert Smith and Vista Capital. He's going for the billion-dollar SaaS companies. I want to talk about people who are playing in our space, direct-to-consumer and for smaller companies. First up is a friend of mine over in Brooklyn. His name's Brian Colton. He runs Brooklyn Equities. Brooklyn Equities is his vehicle for buying just solid, good direct-to-consumer brands. He owns one called Sherrill Tree that I want to say he bought back when it was doing about $1 million in revenue and is now at $40 million in revenue. I mean, he's just had a couple big success stories. Those numbers, don't quote me on them. I'm just trying to give you a sense of what he buys. His typical checks are typically $5 to $15 million, so he writes checks that size in return for which he wants majority ownership of the company. He'll take a board seat. He's targeting growth-ready companies that are doing under $5 million in EBITDA. I would also say I've seen him go after companies that are high in recurring revenue, often from B2B, so it could be an e-commerce company with a strong B2B play. I mentioned Sherrill Tree, so they do arborist equipment, so again, lots of B2B buyers, which means high recurring revenue, which means lower risk in the business as I went over a couple of episodes ago. So, his name's Brian. He's at brooklyn-equity.com. I am an operating partner with him on his funds, so feel free to reach out to me with any questions about Brooklyn Equities. Number two would be Carson Biederman at Digital Fuel Capital. Carson's up in Boston, another friend of mine. Great photographer and great ... just really sharp digital marketing mind. Again, probably goes after deals of the same size. I would say Carson a little bit more likes companies with passionate customers where content can play really well. He's got ski.com. He's got a couple sports apparel companies where there's a passionate user base. He sees that as a differentiator versus Amazon. He also owns Vermont Teddy Bear, which is a brand a lot of us are familiar with. I've certainly heard of them, growing up in the Northeast. Carson's operation is a little bit different at Digital Fuel Capital because he is growing an internal team of operators and marketers,

In this episode, Drew talks about six things you can do to maximize your company's valuations. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode. Highlights Six tips to maximize your valuation How to decide on your story Tips for minimizing risk Diversifying your traffic sources Getting your company on autopilot How to network for selling Links/ Resources: Built to Sell, John Warrillow, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber IRCE Shop.org Flippa Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you can and I will send it to you as a PDF. Read The Transcript: Drew Sanocki: Hey everybody. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast. This is Drew Sanocki. We're talking about investments in private companies. We're talking about maximizing your valuation in this episode. I think it's a really important episode for that reason. Everybody wants to maximize your valuation, whether you're raising money ... If you raise money, if you're going to raise a couple million bucks, you want to do it at a higher valuation so you give away less of your company. Obviously, if you're going to sell your company, you want to maximize that valuation so you can get more money in your pocket. This isn't the typical maximize your valuation list that you'll see on a number of brokerage sites. Just Google it. You'll find plenty. This is my take, based on ten or so years in the game, on the things that I see, in particular around direct to consumer brands, and SaaS brands. Really, I've tried to distill it down to six tips, six things you want to do to maximize your valuation. Drum roll please. Number one. I would say decide on your story. What I mean by that is are you going to raise money or sell off of a growth story, or a profitability story? I'll give you an example. Karmaloop. When we acquired the assets of that business, it was probably ... They couldn't tell a growth story because the company was in bankruptcy. It was a declining asset. They're in bankruptcy. You can't tell a growth story. They couldn't also tell a profitability story, because they were in bankruptcy. You put those two things together, and the business fetches a much smaller valuation. So assuming you could do one or the other, try to decide now if you are going to be selling a growth story in a couple years, or selling that profitability story, because it's going to dictate what you do, and decisions around your business. If you are going to sell the growth story, you want to put as much of your profits back in the business, step on the gas, run Facebook ad campaigns at a lower return on ad spend. Whatever it is, you want to sell that growth story, so you want to lower your profitability, and always favor growth at the expense of profits. On the flip side, you're going to sell a profitability story, you want to do what you can to maximize the profitability of the business, like your target return on ad spend goes from two to ten, or something, to just generate as many profits as you can. The growth story and the profitability story determine very different kinds of buyers, and very different multiples, as we discussed multiples in the last episode. If you are growing, and you choose that growth story to tell, you sell that in your deal book. Then, you could also argue that you get valued off of multiple of revenue. Conversely, if you're on board with the profitability story, you want to maximize that owner's discretionary cash flow, because that's the thing that's going to drive the multiple of the business, and the ultimate valuation. So, I'd say, number one, decide on what story you want to tell. Number two, you want to reduce risk in the business. We talked about how valuations go from nothing for the smallest, riskiest businesses, all the way up to the public equity markets,

In this episode, Drew talks about the three highlights of how deals go down in the private equity process. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode. Highlights Three highlights on how deals go down in the private equity Links / Resources FE International Quiet Light Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you can and I will send it to you as a PDF. Read The Transcript: Hey, everybody. welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. Drew Sanocki. I'm still here in San Diego, still stuck. East coast is being slammed by another nor'easter. My wife's watching the kids. It's always good when you negotiate with your wife like, "Hey, I need you to watch the kids because I got this business thing I gotta deal with on the west coast. It's only gonna be 48 hours. I'll be back in a couple days." You negotiate that, she signs off, and then you're there for the whole week, and every time they FaceTime you, they see palm trees in the background, and you FaceTime them, it's like dark because it's snowing. They're losing power and stuff. So shout out to my wife, Sarah. I love you. Thank you for watching the kids. But it allows me to talk a little bit more about buying and selling a company, private equity. In this podcast, I'd like to delve into kind of how it goes down. I was working on the AutoAnything deal for maybe two months. It was accelerated because AutoZone wanted to close the deal by the end of their fiscal quarter. Typically, these process ... I've been a part of deals that have gone for like six months, and those are only the bigger ones. On the other end of the spectrum, when I sold Design Public, my small first retailer, that probably took about a month. It has to do with a lot of things: how sophisticated your buyer is or your investor, how buttoned up your own business is. But today I kind of want to talk about how the deals go down and really highlight three things. Number one is the process. This is the process you will go through if you go to sell your business or raise money or, if you are on the other side of the table and you wanna buy a business. That's the process. Number two: quick sidebar on valuations, just where you get them. Do they come out of thin air or not? And I just wanna touch on the third thing: control. That obviously applies if you are not exiting a business, but if you take an investment, control becomes a big thing. How much control do you give up of your company? Again, this all applies whether you are doing the buying or the selling, but let's start with the process. The process for ... I've probably been a part of 20 different deals, some as the buyer, some as the seller. It kind of all follows the same four or five steps. The first step is that, if you are selling, you hire a banker to run your process or a broker or decide to do it yourself, but the general idea of the process is that the banker or you, whoever's running the process, creates a deal book. The deal book is, I don't know, 10 to 20 pages, nice and pretty, with a lot of charts and graphs showing just what a wonderful investment your company is. You spend some time working with the professional to kind of put that deal book together, and then you or whoever you've hired approaches potential buyers with that deal book. The idea is to drum up interest. Typically, the banker will add some urgency into the process like, "Hey, here's the deal book on Auto Anything, and if you are interested, we'd like some approximate bid or something by next Thursday." There might be a couple calls with potential investors then or potential funds, but the first step is assembling that deal book and getting it in front of the right people. That's, I'd say, the more proactive way to sell your business. There's always the reactive way,

In this episode, Drew talks about his own personal experiences in buying and selling companies, and gives a brief intro to private equity, which he'll discuss in the next few episodes. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode. Highlights Insight on selling Drew's first company, DesignPublic Intro to Private Equity Links/ Resources: Robert Smith Kingswood Partners Bill D'Alessandro Turn/ River Capital Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you can and I will send it to you as a PDF. Read The Transcript: Drew: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. This is Drew Sanocki, and I am podcasting from San Diego, where I've been working on AutoAnything. And for like the fifth time this winter, I am stranded in San Diego. So the New York airports are down, I can't go home. There are no flights in and out of there. So what better thing to do than podcast, right? I can probably think of a million better things. But seriously, what better things than to bang out a short series on buying and selling companies? We're going to call it buying and selling companies. I call it private equity, but I think most people don't know what the heck private equity is, so we're going to call it buying and selling companies. As you may or may not know, I just recently worked on a transaction to buy autoanything.com. It's a drop ship retailer based here in La Jolla. And as part of that I've podcasted about maybe one or two times. Some people are curious about private equity, how it happens, why they should care about it, why is there private equity. And it boils down to one thing, and I think it's ... these are probably the funds, or the groups of people that would buy you someday. If you are listening to this podcast, you're probably running a small direct-to-consumer brand, or SAS company perhaps, maybe an agency. Well, a lot of those things get bought by private equity funds, or small private investment groups. And so, why do you want to know about this stuff? Well, it's ultimately to fetch a higher valuation for your company, and to know about how to exit. That's probably 90% of you. But 10% of you, maybe you want to get in to private equity. Maybe you want to get into buying and selling your own company. And why would you want to do that? Well, for a number of reasons. I think it accelerates your growth. I think you can just get to where you want to go faster if you're working with some capital, or with other people's capital. So it's of interest to you too for that reason. So I want to spend three of four episodes doing a quick overview of buying and selling companies, at least my own experience with it. And I'm going to start with a story. And the story is of a young, handsome man, probably like 10% body fat. Am I painting you the picture of myself, maybe 15 years ago? Actually no, it was more like seven years ago when I sold my first company. But I'm walking through the West Village of New York, and in my hand I've got a FedEx package. And in the FedEx package is a bunch of signed documents to sell my company at the time, Design Public. And this was my baby. I bootstrap designed Public in 2003, we started the business, and now at the time it was like 2011. And we found a great buyer who we worked really well with, and they gave us an offer we liked. So at the end of months of work, of diligence of them going through our books and a lot of legal back and forth, in that FedEx pack was the signed purchase agreement. As soon as I got to the FedEx/Kinko's, I put that thing on the counter, and that was the point of no going back. It was my company up until that document was mailed. Once it gets mailed in, it triggered all sorts of things, like the money went in ... their money was already sitting in an escrow account,

In this episode, Drew talks in-depth about the tools that made productive work possible during a 7-month long trip across the globe with his family. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode. Highlights 19 Online tools that made it possible to work and travel for 7 months Productivity tips and hacks for combining work with travel Links / Resources Download my list of Top Nerd Travel Tools Sanebox Worldwide101 (Mention Drew sent you and get 20% off your first month) Sovereign man Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you can and I will send it to you as a PDF. → Read the Transcript Drew:Hey everybody. Drew Sanocki here with the Nerd Marketing podcast. This is an early morning podcast. I'm recording this at 4:30am because I am on the West Coast and I'm still on East Coast time. Got up this morning at the nice time of 3:00 a.m. I don't even have my kids here with me to get me up, so what else would I want to do at zero dark thirty but bust out a podcast? I'm here working on a big deal, and more on that in an upcoming podcast episode. Today, I know I promised everybody my top tools, my top travel tools. These are apps and tools and gadgets and cool things that I really appreciated when I spent seven months on the road with my family going to Europe over the last year. We're about to go to Asia. We're thinking of a trip to Asia again for another six or seven months. These things are going to be in my travel bag or on my laptop or on my phone. They really help run my business remotely. I think I mentioned in the last episode that one of the visions I have is running an iPad business or being an iPad leader. What that just means is I want to be able to run everything off the iPad. I don't want to do it on my computer. Initially I laughed when I saw these kind of senior private equity guys show up at board meetings just with their iPads, but now I get it. There's nothing better than getting on an airplane with just your iPad and a small bag of your clothes and just kind of sitting down, preferably in first class or business class, you take out the iPad, do a little bit of work, watch a couple videos, watch some Seinfeld and that's it. I don't want to be hunched over a laptop the rest of my life so iPad leadership is kind of what I'm going for and that really has helped inform some of these tools. I started out to do a list of about 12. I think I ended up with a list of, I don't know, I want to say 30 or so. Too many to go into in this podcast, so what I'm going to do is highlight some of my favorites on the podcast and then you can go to the show notes and download a PDF that has the whole 30, many of which you probably know about, but I think what I tried to do here is be a little bit different from the standard Tim Ferris bio life hacking stuff and just talk about what a typical dad might appreciate on a trip or a typical parent. So, without further ado, SaneBox. Let me start with SaneBox, which I've talked about before. It's an app to help you manage email. The primary benefit is fewer interruptions, right? It's like reduced information that you have to process on a daily basis. This holds true if you're traveling, it holds true if you are going into your office every day, but there's a lot of evidence that shows that the more information you've got to process, your willpower goes down, you just kind of get beaten down and stressed out. The beauty of SaneBox is you can configure it, or when configured the proper way, you can open your inbox at any time and all you see is the most important stuff and it's typically, in my case, I've got the thing so dialed that it's like three or four emails that I need to respond to at any one time. If I open it at 9:00 a.m., 10:00 p.m., middle of the night, it's just the most important things.

In this episode, Drew talks about the five different observations he had while working and growing his business during 7 months of travel with his family, and the people and tools that made it possible.  Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode. Highlights Five different observations I had working and growing my business while travelling How the 80/20 rule saved my life (because airport wifi is shady) If you're making more than $100,000 a year, hire an assistant yesterday through Worldwide101 How you can use Sanebox to triage your emails (and an assistant to triage your Sanebox) When you should start swinging for the fences Links / Resources Growth Engines Worldwide101 (mention Drew sent you and get 20% off your first month) Sanebox Checklist of 12 online apps and tools to use for work while traveling  Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you can and I will send it to you as a PDF. → Read the Transcript Drew: Hey, everybody. This is Drew Sanocki of the Nerd Marketing Podcast. Today I want to talk about the five things I learned while I was traveling and working. It's kind of funny that the number one question I get is not about, like, "What was the coolest thing you saw?" or "Where were the nicest people?" or "Where was the best food?" The number one question I get from entrepreneurs is, number one, "Did you work?" and number two, "How did you work?" To answer those questions, I put this podcast together. Yes, I did work, in short. I have a couple of different businesses I'm involved in. The primary one I'd like to talk about here is growthengines.io. That is an agency catering to direct-to-consumer brands and to private equity funds that often buy or sell those brands. That business today is bigger than when I left. I think a big reason is because I embraced these five things I'm going to talk about today. Without further ado, the number one observation that I have after six months abroad or seven months abroad is that, really, the 80/20 rule reigns supreme. I know I beat that dead horse all the time on this podcast, but you don't fully understand it, you're not forced to comprehend it until you are on some remote island in the Caribbean, and there's no WiFi, except for the one hour when you're going through the airport on the way in and on the way out. I mean, talk about a constraint. What that forced me to do is, you can't be online all the time. What you really need to do is think through what are the most important things you need to do that week, such that when you hit a WiFi connection or can get cell phone coverage, then you can log back on and accomplish those things. So, what didn't I do during those times? I mean, really, the 80% of my work that doesn't give me any results, and those were things like this podcast, for one. Actually, the podcast gives me results, but I dropped it. I stopped doing the podcast. Bookkeeping. Tinkering on my blog. I mean, how much time do I spend, do you spend, messing around, moving fonts on your blog or configuring colors or something, just so it looks nice? Really, there was no time for that at all. So, drop that. Coffees and calls. These two things are a huge time suck, especially when you're in a city like I am, where there are a lot of people, and everybody wants to meet, and "Hey, Drew, you want to grab coffee?" or "You want to hop on a call here?" If you add that time up, those are hours every week I would spend at coffees or on phone calls. So, I really could not do those at all. Those got dropped. Calls to my mother, for example, also got dropped. I mean, completely unessential, right? I mean, I don't need to call my mom. So, I would go months without calling her. No, I didn't, but reduced amount of time calling my mother. You'll block out so much non-essential stuff.

Today, I’m thrilled to have Brett Curry on the show. Brett is someone who I met through Drew Sanocki at the Traffic And Conversions Summit In San Diego and we hit it off right away. He runs OMG Commerce which is a 7 figure ecommerce agency that has helped over 125 companies with their pay per click advertising. Not only does Brett speak at major ecommerce events across the country but he also writes for a variety of sites like Digital Marketer and Search Engine Journal. He’s also the author of the ultimate guide to Google Shopping published by Shopify […] The post 173: How To Run Profitable YouTube TrueView For Shopping Ads With Brett Curry appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

Drew is joined by Patrick Shanahan for another round of Tradecraft - this time featuring a tool for postcard marketing, and a chat app that reveals what your customers really want.Subscribe: iTunes | StitcherEXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode.HighlightsDrew is off to travel the world with family in tow, expect new episodes from sandy beaches and other exotic locales.A new emphasis on video contentA shopify app to trigger the sending of physical postcards to people in your databaseWho to make the target of your postcard marketingA chat app Patrick uses to get in touch with what his customers really wantHow to collect customer feedback into something actionableLinks / ResourcesMore Tradecraft in Episode 28 and Episode 30.PostPilot.comDriftTranscriptPrefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you can and I will send it to you as a PDF. → Read the Transcript Drew: Everybody, welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast. This is Drew Sanocki and I am joined today by Patrick Shanahan, my trade craft partner. How're you doing, Patrick? Patrick: Good, Drew. Nice to talk to you again.Drew: Today we're going to go over some tips and tricks, what we see working out there, what's helping us do our jobs better as online marketers. You've got a couple things, Patrick? Patrick: I do, I do. I've got one I'm quite pleased with, so I'm fired up to talk about it.Drew: I think people like these episodes. They like hearing what's working.Patrick: Yeah, they do. I mean, I've looked at your stats, they're the most downloaded so obviously it's working. So, you just come off your big talking circuit, I know you talked about that in the last episode, but you're about to go full vagabond. Hit the road. Want to tell us about that?Drew: Yeah, it's something really exciting my wife and I've wanted to do for a long time so next Saturday we're packing up, and we're going to the Caribbean, and we're not coming back to New York for probably six months. I think that we're not going to be in the Caribbean the entire time, but we'll do Central America, and Europe. We're taking the kids, obviously. We're really looking forward to it.I mean, we're stressed about the packing and getting everything done and we're trying to liquidate a lot of our personal belongings that we really don't care about or want to store, but with any luck it'll all come together by next Saturday when we're on that flight.Patrick: Amazing, amazing. I can't believe you're taking the kids. That's going to be an adventure, buddy.Drew: Yeah, we debated leaving them at home for six months, but we thought we should... we thought they'd miss us so we're going to take them with us.Patrick: Well, congratulations, that's amazing. And are you going to stay podcasting? Drew: No, I'm shutting down the podcast for six months. No, I'm going to... I'm going to keep podcasting, I'm going to do some video. A lot more video. Maybe not quite as much writing, the long form emails, they take up a lot of time, so I think I can try to move a little more into video and audio for the next six months.Patrick: There we go, so the future dispatches will be from sandy beaches and other places hither, and thither, and yon.Drew: Yeah, you know, I feel like I've got a lot of things I want to cover. We've been talking a lot about this concept of a cash flow business, or a lifestyle business, and we're just scratching the surface. We're talking about customer problems and brand, and there's a lot more I want to talk about on that and what I see working for you, Patrick, for me, at Nerd, and through my own consulting. So I want to share that on the podcast.And, really, I think video's going to be a great medium for that. So, maybe you'll see a lot more of me now that I'm leaving the country.Patrick: Maybe the best thing that every happened to the podcast, you actually have the time to focus on it and [inaudible 00:03:23].

A few updates from Drew - recaps of three recent events he spoke at, the key learnings at each of them, and a preview of the near future for Drew and Nerd Marketing. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode. Highlights RECAP: Traffic and Conversion Summit Niche businesses - why they're great, how they fail, and where retention marketing comes in The "Scrum" approach to growth RECAP: Brand Growth Intensive Workshop with Austin Brawner RECAP: Masterclass with ConversionXL What's Next: Build a Bigger Business Course for Shopify Catalogues - A resurgence of old school mail marketing? A couple of new courses are coming Much, much more Links / Resources Check out Drew's free, 7-lesson email course Double Your Ecommerce Touchstonetests.io More on basic segmentation in Google Analytics in Episode 16 Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you can and I will send it to you as a PDF. → Read the Transcript Hello everybody, and welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast, episode 31. I am Drew Sanocki, and I am coming at you from New York City, where I'm finally taking a break. A break being defined as being an hour break, not like an extended break. Man, I have been running the gauntlet of E-commerce speaking engagements, and workshops, and classes. I'm going to tell you all about that stuff today. A lot of good stuff to report. Basically I want to spend this podcast just kind of reconnecting, welcoming all my new listeners who I've met over the past month or two since my last podcast. I want to do a little bit on what I've been up to, and then where I'm going, what I'm working on next. Let's start with the former, so what I did first. I spoke at Traffic and Conversion. This is the huge E-commerce and digital marketing conference that's put on in San Diego. It was, I guess about early March, this Traffic and Conversion went on. I was one of 10 or so speakers, and it's easily the largest E-commerce and digital marketing conference I've ever been to. Thousands and thousands of people, it's put on by DigitalMarketer.com. Obviously the focus is on traffic and conversion. A lot of big speakers. We had some people from Uber, some people from Casper, plus a lot of industry people there. I was asked to speak about Karmaloop, and what went on there, and database marketing more generally. I'm happy to share my deck with you guys, and kind of what I did. Maybe I'll do that as a separate podcast. But, my big takeaway from this was that the industry is still really focused on acquisition, and traffic, and hacks, and tricks, and bells, and whistles, and things that, silver bullets that people think are going to get them 10x growth in a year. It's not to say that those things don't exist, I think they do. But, we gotta beware of survivorship by us, right? Most of the blog posts that get published talk about these things, but it's not reflective of the vast majority of other companies that are around just slugging away, just applying pressure over time, and growing slowly. It's not to say one's better than the other, it's just to say, "Hey, when you read a headline you're focusing in on what that author tries to promote, and uses to promote that post." Even within a post. You read a post on DigitalMarketer.com about some company that 10x'ed revenue in a year. Even within that company that 10x'ed, there was probably a whole mess of stuff that happened behind the scenes before they figured out the one thing that would catapult them to the next level. Just beware what you read. I think you see it in the eyes of the people, when you look out at these conferences. They're just, they want the quick win. I think I've been there, I've been in those seats when I was running my own retailer. I too, read those headlines because they draw me right in.

Drew Sanocki of Nerd Marketing joins Austin to discuss some advanced email marketing strategies for your ecommerce brand. We go DEEP with some strategies that are working for 8-figure retailers including specific examples you can copy. We also announce a very unique opportunity – [The 2-Day Brand Growth Implementation Intensive](http://www.brandgrowthexperts.com/intensive/) – a live event unlike anything you’ve attended before, hosted by Drew and Austin. Key Takeaways from the Show The big shift that turned Drew’s first big Ecommerce retailer around. The role email marketing has played in Austin’s Ecommerce career. The benefit of fixed costs in email marketing. Typical list management issues that Austin discovers while consulting. Benchmarks for desktop and mobile opt-in rates. Responding to pop-up concerns. Segmentation and targeting: sending the right messaging to the right customer at the right time. “Good dog” and “Bad dog” automated emails. The only thing holding companies back from succeeding with these strategies? They don’t actually implement them. Drew and Austin are hosting an intensive email marketing workshop. Links / Resources 1Apply for a spot in Drew and Austin’s Intensive Email Marketing Workshop. NerdMarketing.com Subscribe & Review To get more awesome Ecommerce Influence content sent directly to your device and into your ears as they become available, you can easily subscribe by clicking on either one of the subscribe buttons below:

Today, on the Early-Stage Founder Show, I'm talking with Drew Sanocki, the CMO of Teamwork, a SaaS company that creates business management apps to help streamline processes, connect with customers, and collaborate with your team. Soon after getting his MBA from Stanford, Drew founded an online design retailer and quickly grew it to a leader in the space. After eight profitable years of operation, he sold the company and started consulting with other businesses, including a 10-month stint where he took an 8-figure business from bankruptcy to profitability. And today Drew helps build growth systems for 8 and 9 figure retailers. While his background is in e-commerce, the framework he operates within applies just as well to SaaS startups and he is getting his chance to prove that by coming in as Teamwork's CMO. It's easy for marketers to get caught up in tactics while losing sight of the big picture and today, Drew is going to help simplify things by laying out the 3 ways you can grow your SaaS startup and how he is implementing that plan at Teamwork. If you ever feel like you're churning through marketing tactic after marketing tactic without getting real results, then this is the episode for you.

Drew and digital marketer Patrick Shanahan share their favorite eCommerce marketing tools of 2016. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Prefer to read rather than listen? the text transcribe from this episode. We all know that there is no one silver bullet guaranteed to push your business to success, but certain tools can be a big help on the path to higher revenue. Special guest Patrick Shanahan, a digital marketer from Art Storefronts, joins Drew in this episode to talk about just that – key marketing tools that brought him wins in 2016. Learn about PushCrew, an in-browser notification system, and hear Drew talk at-length about Drip – an email service provider with some serious automation chops. Highlights 00:20 - Introducing special guest Patrick Shanahan 01:30 - More episodes of the Nerd Marketing podcast are coming 02:15 - Where has Drew been? Announcing his new CMO role at a SaaS company. 04:55 - Recap of SaaSFest 2016 08:36 - Let's talk about some shiny objects 09:18 - Tool #1: Klaviyo – an email service provider that Drew loves. 15:50 - Tool #2: PushCrew – An in-browser push notification tool that Patrick has had success with. 24:08 - Tool #3: Drip – A fairly new email service provider with unique integrations, automation abilities, and unique features. This is the one Nerd Marketing uses. 33:15 - How to use Drip to keep your list healthy and your emails out of the "promotions" tab. 36:52 - Front-end personalization using Drip. Links / Resources Klaviyo Drew demonstrates how to use Klaviyo for effective win-back campaigns in Episode 25. PushCrew Learn more about in-browser notifications in this DigitalMarketer article. Drip Check out Drew's free, 7-part course on doubling your business. Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Drew Sanocki: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. Welcome back to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. This is Drew Sanocki. I have a special surprise today. I have a guest here in the Nerd Marketing studio. My guest's name is Patrick Shanahan. Patrick, how you doing? Patrick Shanahan: Drew, good. Happy to be joining you. Drew Sanocki: For all of you who are listening right now, all three of you, probably don't know who Patrick Shanahan is. Patrick and I have been working together for almost a year now. He's actually not here in the studio in New York with me. He is out in California. Patrick, why don't you introduce yourself to the three or four listeners of the Nerd Marketing Podcast. Patrick Shanahan: Are you kidding me? We're at least up to seven. You've got seven listeners now, I think, on a good day [crosstalk 00:01:02]. Drew Sanocki: It's three. Patrick Shanahan: Yeah. I run marketing, actually, for a eCommerce shopping cart that's a neat shopping cart called Art Storefronts. It's basically a shopping cart for three legs of the stool, the niches. If you own a print studio that reproduces art or if you're an art gallery or if you're an artist. Been running marketing over there for awhile. We're kind of in startup mode but growing pretty quickly. Yeah. Drew Sanocki: Awesome. Patrick, also, has been helping me out a little bit with Nerd Marketing. He has always been pushing me more to do more podcasting and releasing more content. That is my promise to you know. I guess this is December 2016, going into next year, I really want to hit he podcasting hard. We've gotten a lot of good feedback from our email subscribers and the podcast listeners that they enjoy the podcast. I think it's worth doing. I'm going to try to be a little bit more regular with the podcasting. As part of that, I think Patrick's here to help and hopefully add some value to you guys and help you grow your businesses. What have I been up ... I obviously have not been producing content.

Drew Sanocki of Nerd Marketing shares an episode of his podcast with us, all about how to utilize discount ladders in your business. Drew then answers some of my questions, including how to know a customer's average time to purchase and how to develop an even more nuanced approach to discounts. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2hqIxBT 

Average Order Value as a key multiplier to increase your company's revenue, and how to implement premium service upsells to increase your AOV.Subscribe: iTunes | StitcherThis week's campaign is so simple and effective you'll be kicking yourself for not thinking of it ages ago.It's Drew's "One-Two Punch" Email Campaign designed to increase your order frequency.It starts with asking yourself one question: "What kind of recurring needs do my customers have?"Tune in to hear the rest of the campaign implementation, as well as a little bit about why Drew favors increasing the number of purchases over the number of overall customers.Highlights00:21 – Drew may have ruined his son's reading habit by introducing him to the world of Star Wars02:40 – Recap: three multiples that will grow your revenue03:20 – Focusing in on frequency. Why more purchases instead of more customers?05:18 – The "1-2 Punch" Email Campaign07:00 – Campaign results example (10% lift!) and why it works so well07:50 – How to get started on setting it up for your biz09:18 – Some ESPs have even easier ways to set the campaign up10:00 – Recommendations for related episodes on frequencyLinks / ResourcesMore ways to increase frequency? .Check out Drew's free, 7-part course on doubling your business.More on frequency in Episode 6.TranscriptPrefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later.→ Read the Transcript Hey, everybody, this is Drew Sanocki. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast, Episode 27. I'm talking about increasing your retention today using a technique I call the 1-2 Punch.Before I get in to that, does anyone have small kids? It's my 4 year-old's birthday. He's really into reading, like loved reading the classics. Yeah, the classics of being 4, a 4 year-old classic, whatever the 4 year-old classics are.Little House on the Prairie, stuff like that, he's into it. My wife was thrilled, English major, kid's reading the classics. We're out at the beach the other day, and he's bored with the classics. He's hyped up so I decided to just tell him the story of Star Wars.I started, you know, "Okay, so enough about whatever you're reading, Pride and Prejudice, you know Miss Havisham. Okay, so there are these two spaceships. One attacks the other one and Darth Vader comes off, but there's a princess who puts the plans in a droid and fire the droids off, and Darth Vader needs to get the plans." He's, you could see it in his face.He was like, "You've been giving me Miss Havisham, and there's this other world out there of like spaceships and lasers and light sabers? There upon ensued, it's been like a week running now where he's, every time we go to bed, he does not want to read the classics anymore, and he wants me to tell Star Wars stories. Not even, he's just stopped reading, he just wants me to talk, so I kind of poned myself because I've got to tell the stories now. I'm on the hook. Before I could just toss him a book.My wife is thrilled now, by the way because that's all he talks about. He needs to know these various technicalities of what's going on in the Star Wars series as opposed to lessons learned from classics or something.Anyway, that's what I've got going on. All this which brings me back to increasing your retention and the 1-2 Punch.Okay, so we're going to bring it back to ecommerce here. Bringing it back. There are three ways, three multiples that will grow your revenue. AOV, average order size, frequency of purchase, the number of times somebody buys from you on average, and then the third one, the number of customers. Right?Three ways, only three. I like focusing on those three.I wrote a short free course about them at nerdmarketing.com/double, but today we're going to talk about the second one, increasing your frequency, your customer's order frequency. How do you get them to buy more often. In stepping back, why would you want this to happen.

Average Order Value as a key multiplier to increase your company's revenue, and how to implement premium service upsells to increase your AOV. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Want the AOV mindmap Drew mentions in the episode? ! Also includes the full transcribe from this episode. A 25% increase to your AOV is a 25% increase to your business's revenue. It's as simple as that. So how do you do that? Considering you probably don't have the next 12 hours to listen to Drew cover all the potential ways to build up your AOV, let's hone in on just one method – the premium service upsell. Listen in to hear more on AOV as a key multiplier in your business, and how to use a service-based upsell to influence AOV and identify your whales. Highlights 0:52 – Drew's recap of the Digital Marketer Content & Commerce Conference 2:30 – AOV - Average Order Value. What it is, why it's a key multiplier to increase the revenue of your company 3:25 – No spending on acquisition, just optimize what you've already got 3:40 – Case study: How Drew's friend on Shopify would implement a quick upsell to increase her AOV 6:12 – Example of a premium, service-based upsell 7:40 – Upsells can come from partnerships with third parties 9:41 – Some tricky math involved in measuring AOV 10:50 – Upsells as a great way to identify your whales Links / Resources More ways to increase AOV? for more ideas. The Content & Commerce Summit Another good way to increase AOV is through Bounce-Back email campaigns. Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript   Hey everybody, welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast. This is Drew Sanocki. We're back in school here in New York City, which means I've got the sinus infection back that will be here until the Spring. My son goes off to preschool and he comes back with a different strain of flu everyday. He, of course, gets over it within a day, takes me weeks, and when I recover, he hits me with another one. This is the next nine months of podcasting for you. I hope you enjoy the sound of my nasal cavity. What else is going on? I just got back from the Digital Marketer Content and Commerce Conference in Florida. It was a great conference. If you went there and I met you, hi again I guess. The odds would be low, because I kind of spoke in like a broom closet. I was going up against James Altucher, who had like a million people in his conference room. I had five or six listening to me talk about retention and exciting things like that, but, you know, it's their loss. I put out some good material. I got asked a question that caused me to rethink some of these podcasts. Really, it was about getting away ... This guy asked "Hey, how can I implement this stuff? I get it, I get the database marketing stuff, but how can I implement it in my own retailer? It's just me and like two other people. We don't have time to do everything and if you could focus on making your tips a little more practical ..." Not his exact words, but ... "I would appreciate it." I started thinking, let's do a couple podcasts here about bringing these things really down to earth, some of the concepts recency, latency, tripwire marketing, and make them easy to digest and implement for the standard e-commerce, smaller company. Want to download this transcribe for later? for an easy PDF download. Today, I want to talk about AOV, average order value, the average size of a typical order through your e-commerce site. AOV is what I call the three multipliers. Three ways to increase the revenue of your company. The other two, of course, being frequency of purchase, which is a retention metric or the average number of times somebody orders from you. The last one being the total number of customers you have, acquisition, traffic.

How to treat your win-back campaign as a discount ladder, with every rung designed to retain customers and make you more money.     EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Want the win-back email template Drew shows off in this episode? as a PDF! Also includes the full transcribe from this episode. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher One win-back email is good. But even better? How about a chain of emails designed to escalate your win-back offer the further the customer slips away? Using a discount ladder is the key to making money with your win-back campaign. Tune in to see how Drew set up such a campaign for a large-scale retailer. Plus, his insights on using your remarketing audience in Facebook Ad to win-back customers. Highlights 00:30 – Discount ladders in the form of win-back emails 01:08 – The problem with most win-back emails 01:30 – Full walkthrough of an anti-defection discount ladder Drew set up in Klaviyo 03:15 – A/B testing every rung of the ladder 03:55 – Pulling this full strategy from email over to Facebook Ads 05:52 – Suggestions for more discount ladder info Links / Resources Want to use the Karmaloop email featured in this episode as a template for your own business? . Klaviyo For more on Discount Ladders, check out Episode 1 (intro to discount ladders), Episode 2 (getting started), and Episode 3 (win back case study). For more on how to use your email platform to boost revenue, check out Episode 23 on dynamic ascending offers. Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey everybody, this is Drew Sanocki, nerdmarketing.com, and we're talking about discount ladders on the podcast. One thing I want to do today was give you a number of examples of good discount ladders or usage of discount ladders so you kinda get the idea of what the hell I am talking about. And without further ado, we're gonna go to the screen flow, here, and I'm gonna walk you through some discount ladders. So first, you know, a great example, or great opportunity where you can use discount ladders is in Win-Back emails. Win-Back emails are the ones that are sent out to customers who haven't bought from you forever in an attempt to sort of win them back into the fold. And, you know, I Google Win-Back emails and you're gonna see a lot of examples here. Here's ones from Eventbrite with their Win-Back. And here's one from Social Sprout and Postagram, and like everybody does a Win-Back, right, you know? What can we do to win you back? Where ya been, yadda, yadda, yadda. Dropbox does one. Want to download this transcribe for later? for an easy PDF download. My issue with these is they leave money on the table, right? Maybe they are not awesome. Because they're a single email. If you take everything we've learned about a discount ladder and make the single email into a series, you're just going to do that much better at capturing or re-capturing that customer. For example, here's one I built out for a fairly big online retailer. It is a Win-Back, I am trying to win back everybody who has purchased one or, one time and has not purchased a second time, I'm tryin' to get that second purchase. And what I've done is I've figured out that these customers for this retailer order roughly every 30 days. So if 30 days has come and gone and they have not ordered, they're not likely to order from us again. Perfect opportunity for a, it's called an anti-defection discount ladder. And you can see I'm using Klaviyo here to set up this automated campaign in Klaviyo, it's called a flow. My first email goes out 30 days after purchase and it only goes out to people who have not purchased in the last 30 days. And it's a simple 10% off offer. We're now gonna think in terms of our ladder, what do you do with the ladder? You increase the promo over time. So if someone buy,

Competing against Hamilton, segmenting based on recency, and using dynamic ascending offers to make the most of your offer campaigns.     EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Want Drew's Dynamic Ascending Offers presentation slide deck? as a PDF. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher What's the theater around the corner from Hamilton to do this summer? Drew knows someone in just this situation, and proposes a solution in dynamic ascending offers. This is a key concept to implement if your retailer distributes offers via email, and ties together all of our past discussion on recency. Highlights 00:23 – Drew saw Hamilton 01:15 – Recency – Good customers stay good 03:05 – Example of working with recency segments in Google Analytics 04:48 – Promotions – Most retailers OVER promote. Look at your subsidy costs 06:00 – Dynamic ascending offers – sync your offers to customer recency 07:05 – Your offer doesn't need to be a discount 07:30 – An example of a real world dynamic ascending offer 08:28 – Running a theater down the street from Hamilton – how do you even market that? Links / Resources Want Drew's slide deck from this presentation? . For more on using recency as a predictive metric, check out episode 18 (intro to recency) and episode 19 (working with recency segments in Google Analytics). To learn more about data-driven strategies that grow ecommerce businesses, just . Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey, everybody, Drew Sanocki here with the Nerd Marketing podcast screencast. What musical is generating a half million dollars a week in profit? That's the question today, and the answer is, of course, Hamilton. I saw Hamilton recently, and like everybody else who saw Hamilton, I feel compelled to tell everybody else that I saw Hamilton. The subtext being that it makes me somehow cooler. Well, so I'm passing that on to you. I saw Hamilton, so I am cool. Seeing the musical did get me thinking. How would you compete with Hamilton? What if you're my buddy Larry, who wrote and produced this musical called Bat Boy, which is like around the corner from Hamilton. How does Larry fill the theater every night? Well, one of the things he can do is use dynamic ascending offers, and it's a strategy or a tactic that I think every e-commerce retailer can benefit from. If you're not using them, it will make you money, and they're very easy to set up and implement, and they wrap up two ideas that we've been talking a lot about in this podcast. Without further ado, the first concept is recency. We've talked about that in the last few episodes. We being me, by the way; I don't know why I'm using we. I've talked about that in the last few episodes. Recency is essentially the time since an action has happened. So usually it's in days, so how many days since I have last visited a site or opened an email or purchased from a site. Want to save this transcribe as a PDF? No problem, . Really applies to anything, but it's time since in action and the more recent the person, the more likely he or she is to repeat an action and/or respond to a promotion. That's where it's interesting to you as a marketer, because if you have the option of promoting to customer A, who last purchased last week, or customer B, who last purchased two years ago, you know, spend your promotional dollars on customer A. They are much more likely to respond to a promotion. Another way of saying this is good customers stay good. If you've got somebody who's buying religiously every week from you, they are likely to continue buying from you. If you have somebody else who hasn't purchased from you in a very long time, they're likely to stay bad, so in the back of your mind, think recency means good customers stay good. And what's really powerful,

Tune in to learn how Drew designed and executed his marketing strategy at Karmaloop. What to focus on, specific tactics that worked, and key overall learnings. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Want the transcribe from this episode? as a PDF. Now that we've heard from Karmaloop CEO Seth Haber on last week's episode, let's get into what Drew was doing behind the scenes as CMO to take the business from bankruptcy to profit in just 10 months. It starts with an "operational" framework for growth, and a commitment to improving three key metrics... Highlights Approaching growth from an "operational" framework (The only) three ways to grow a business Doubling your business by increasing three metrics by 30% Increasing your average order value – what worked at Karmaloop You might be able to charge more than you think Upselling with automated email marketing Playing with the free shipping threshold Winback and tripwire campaigns to drive frequency of purchases More traffic doesn't always = more customers Influencer marketing Links / Resources To learn more about data-driven strategies that grow ecommerce businesses, just . Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey everybody! Welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. This is Drew Sanocki. We're looking for new apartments right now in New York. It's a very stressful time. It's stressful when you when find several thousand, you know, $6,000 a year apartments where "two-bedroom" and the second bedroom is like a closet where my daughter's going to live. That's good times. It's good times, and the realtors use the quote sign, the air quotes, when they say, it's a two-bedroom, and you're like, "Thanks, buddy. Thanks, buddy" Sorry, daughter of mine. You're not going to see the sun for the next two years. Anyway, this is what my life is right now. It's an apartment hunt, which is never fun. Can't wait till it's over but in the meantime, let's talk about growth. Let's talk about karmaloop.com, so this is the retailer where I was the CMO. We sold it about a month ago, and a year ago, it was losing half a million dollars a month. We brought it to break-even within ten months. I'm going to start telling the story about how we did that. I think in the last episode you heard from Seth Haber, who was our CEO and he told a little bit more of the merch story, the merchandise story about how to resuscitate a retailer. In this episode, I'd like to talk a little bit more about what I did on the marketing side. If you think back a couple episodes ago, we talked about operational frameworks for growth, right? We talked about a tactical framework, strategic framework, and then this operational framework. The operational framework is the one that I adopt. It's the one that I think is the most practical. It helps me think through how to grow a company. It's the one that private equity funds love because the mindset is you're going to go in and double this business in a hundred days. How are you going to do that? The math really works out and that's as follows, so there are three ways to grow a business. Number one, three and one three. Three ways to grow a business I should say. Number one, increase the average order value, average order size. Number two, increase the frequency of purchase. This is basically retention, frequency of purchases, the number of times acing a customer orders on average from you, and then number three, increase the number of customers, so that's more acquisition. Really, only those three ways, only those three levers to grow a business and if you increase each of them thirty percent, more than doable within a year, you've doubled the business, so the math is 1.3 times 1.3 times 1.3 is two hundred twenty percent, so can you increase your average order order value by thi...

Three different ways to think about rapid growth, some resource and books to look into further, and Drew's preferred approaches to growth. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Want the transcribe from this episode? as a PDF. There is a ton of info out there about how to grow a company. Books, blogs, podcasts like this one, and everything in between. If you could use some help narrowing down your focus and deciding how to approach eCommerce growth, this is the episode for you. Drew covers three different growth paradigms – tactical, strategic, and operational – and shares a little bit about his personal approach to growth. Highlights How Drew thinks about growth when approaching a new company Three Growth Paradigms – How Drew Took Karmaloop from Bankruptcy to Profit in 10 Months Tactical growth strategies – optimizing what you're got Some Blogs to check out for good tactical growth advice The risk of absorbing too many tactics A few of Drew's favorite books on growth Leveraging distribution advantages (ie: influencer marketing) The shortcomings of marketing books when it comes to digital marketing Operational-level growth Improve three areas of your business by 30% to double your business (Three categories to focus on improving) Links / Resources To learn more about data-driven strategies that grow ecommerce businesses, just . Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Everybody, welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. This is Drew Sanocki, live. It's not live. If you're listening to this at some point, it's not live. What do I say? Podcasting from New York City. It's better if it's live from Times Square. Live from Times Square, this is Drew Sanocki, the Nerd Marketing Podcast. That sounds better. We're going to say it's live, even though it's not, obviously by the time you're listening to it, but hey, everybody, this is Drew Sanocki. I'm broadcasting live from Times Square, New York City, center of the universe. We're talking about growth. We're talking about eCommerce, and today's topic is karmaloop.com. It's going to be the next episode's topic and the next episode's topic. Basically, we're going to walk you through what happened at that retailer, so this was a bankrupt retailer last summer in June 2015, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. I want to say 500K. Don't quote me on that. I was part of the team that went in and purchased the company out of bankruptcy. I came on board as the CMO, and within 10 months, we had gotten the company to break even, sold the company for more than we bought it. I can't get into details, but this is the story. That's an amazing growth story, and probably the most important thing is I'm not an idiot. We just got confirmation that I am not an idiot because the stuff I teach on this podcast actually worked at this retailer, so there is your stamp of approval. I know what I'm talking about as evidenced by this latest case, but we're going to dig into that. Want to save this transcribe to read later? No problem, . We're going to talk about growth, how I think about growth when I go into a new company like this, how you can think about growth at your own retailer, getting some really good successful things happening in a short amount of time. I'm going to talk to a couple of people at Karmaloop about what happened in their part of the business, but the topic of this episode is really ... Let's step back a second and talk about growth paradigms. What is the perspective I have when I go into a company? I work for a private equity fund now, so if they hire me to go into a company, they want what's called 100 day plan. They want an immediate ROI in their acquisition. They want to really move the needle in a short amount of time.

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog: It's been eight years since Right Channel Radios first opened its eCommerce doors. After a cart migration, major website overhaul and lots of lessons learned over the years, the business has officially been sold. Today we're talking about the biggest takeaways Drew and Andrew walked away with after selling eCommerce businesses. It takes more planning, strategizing and moments of doubt than one might think. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Drew Sanocki of Nerdmarketing.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six and seven figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow eCommerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Hey guys, it's Andrew here and welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, thanks so much for tuning in today. Joined by Mr. Drew Sanocki, the man from New York City consultant and business owner extraordinaire. Drew, how are you doing buddy? Drew: Good, how are you doing? Andrew: Good, I was looking at Nerd Marketing and things are looking sharp over there man, you've got a pretty beautiful brand and site with some awesome content. Drew: It's getting there. I read some book on design for founders, I think it's called "Design for Founders," taught me a lot about typography which I got into, you can sink a lot of time into that but I love it now, it's really interesting, I recommend it for anybody who is looking to brand a site or a blog. Andrew: Yeah, it looks super sharp, I was jotting a bunch of notes down and stuff that I'm totally going to swipe for the eCommerceFuel site, yeah it looks sharp man. Drew: Oh fun, good. Andrew: But yeah, today talking about some kind of crazy, crazy news. I sold the business. Drew: I know. Congratulations. Andrew: Yeah thank you. Sold Right Channel Radios which is the business I've had for, man, I guess where it all started back in 2008 so owned it for eight years and just this last couple of weeks ended up closing on the sale. Drew: So is this the first official announcement? Andrew: Publicly it is, I've been chatting with people in the community about it, the private community but in terms of public announcement, yeah, this is where it's getting broken. Drew: Well that's great, well congratulations, this is your second exit. Andrew: Yeah. Drew: Isn't it? Andrew: Yeah, thank you, this is my second one, sold TrollingMotors.net a couple of years ago and this is number two. Drew: That's great, got all sorts of questions for you. Andrew: Yeah, hit me man, it's kind of strange doing a podcast about selling your own business but you were kind enough to come on and help me do it so it wasn't just me talking to people. Drew: Well I'm happy to be here, I sold my first business, it seems like ancient history now, but back in 2011, 2012. Andrew: Yeah, Design Public, right? Drew: Yup and then we sold a business where I was the CMO, Karmaloop, we sold that about a month ago. Andrew: You're partnered up with a private equity group for that, right? Drew: Yes, I mean they did the deal, I did the diligence on the deal, came on board, helped return the company to profitability and we sold, they made most of the money off of the deal unfortunately, but yeah. Andrew: Probably it's safe to say they probably brought most of the money to the deal, right? Drew: Yeah, I was a mere pawn. Andrew: Yeah so I thought it would be kind of fun to just kind of talk quickly about why I sold, who I sold it to and then get into some lessons, both kind of some lessons I learned from the sale and also get your kind of thoughts on it. Drew: Sounds good. Long-Term Prepping Before Putting Up a "For Sale" Sign Andrew: So probably the biggest takeaway for me, and this is something I realized after the fact,

In this episode, I introduce the concept of Recency as it applies to an online business, and show how it's critical to figuring out the campaigns that will lead to growth. EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: For tons of freebies and to be notified when my next episode on Recency is released, sign up for the Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher Highlights A dating quiz from Drew's love life Recency is the #1 most powerful predictor for future customer behavior The problem with using Life Time Value (LTV) when you're a start-up A basic definition of recency Using recency to understand which customers to focus on Recency vs. Latency Using recency in your advertising and A/B tests Much more! Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey everybody. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast. Got a bit of a question for you today, who is Drew Sanocki more likely to marry? Woman A, the woman I dated in college who I thought was my perfect match. Intellectually compatible, smart, we had the same group of friends, we had a very stable, loving relationship, or woman B? We will call her the mildly psychotic woman B. It's a woman I dated 10 years later, who I fell head over heels for. We had a completely unstable relationship full of chases, long email rants back and forth, multiple breakups, backstabbing. That's the question I put forth to you today, and before I give you the answer, I just want to welcome you to the nerd marketing podcast, the only podcast where you can hear Drew Sanocki make the magic of data driven marketing easy to understand, and fun, and profitable for you. Want to save this transcribe for later? to download as a PDF. Today's topic is recency. Recency is a metric. It's one I would love if you could learn to love in the way that I loved both of these women. I love recency because it's the number 1, most powerful predictor of future behavior, future customer behavior. Because of that, it's a critical metric for you running your digital business. The problem with start ups is that you don't know lifetime value. There's a lot of writing online about lifetime value. "Oh, just figure out the lifetime value," "Figure out which campaigns drive which kinds of customers with which kinds of lifetime value, and put your money behind the campaigns that drive the highest lifetime value," but the problem with a start up is that you don't know your customer lifetime yet. You're just coming out of the gates. All the big LTV calculations on kiss metrics, they don't apply to you. In those cases, there's some other metrics that are very helpful, and probably the best is recency because it's predictive. Recency predicts future value. The idea is this, recency is the number of days, or the time since an action has been performed. The more recent, the more likely you are to repeat an action. The less recent, so the more days or time since an action has been performed, the less likely you are to perform that action. It's largely because you've found substitutes, or you've had your needs met, or you've found another product, or something like that. Let me give you a couple examples. First, non-business examples. I talk about the gym a lot because I'm not creative, and all I have are gym examples, but who's more likely to go to the gym today? Is it the guy who went to the gym yesterday, or is the guy who last has been in a gym a year ago? Recency means that the dude who was in the gym yesterday is much more likely to go to the gym today than the dude who was last in the gym 12 months ago. Easy enough, right? Applies to everything. Diet, who's going to eat a healthy meal at lunch today? It's the person who probably had a healthy meal at breakfast versus the person who last had a healthy meal in 1990. Okay, so that's recency. It applies to dating, also, which I'll get to.

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog: The dynamic duo returns to help answer listener questions. Today we tackle a wide range of topics from how to structure your business joint ventures to what the best sources are for buying and selling eCommerce sites. If you've got questions, Andrew and Drew have the answers. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Drew Sanocki of Nerdmarketing.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six- and seven-figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow e-commerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Hey guys, it's Andrew here, and welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in to the show. Today on the show, going back and doing a round of your questions, reader questions from the blog and online, just doing a random grab bag of questions we thought were interesting to tackle. And joining me to really answer all these... Drew: The tough ones. Andrew: The tough ones. I'm going to take all the softballs, Drew, and hand you off all the really, the ones I have been stressing out about. The men, all the hard answers, Mr. Sanocki, how are you doing, sir? Drew: Good. How are you? Andrew: Good, good. Drew, things in New York well? Drew: Things in New York are great. It's getting warmer and spring is just around the corner. Andrew: And you recently sold Karmaloop, correct? Drew: We did. I did not, we did, but yeah, that was a quick turnaround. We bought it out of bankruptcy last summer and just sold it a week ago to a sneaker retailer on the West Coast. Andrew: That's fantastic. Congratulations, sir. Drew: Thanks. It was a great chance to really try out a lot of the things that I preach on my blog, and they work so it was a good case study. Andrew: Yeah, well, you mentioned that a lot of the tactics and things you talked about at your talk at ECF Live which we'll link, well, it's available to all eCommerceFuel members in the community, but a lot of the things from that talk are the things you used to really turn that retailer around. Drew: Yeah, that's right. One of the first things I did was I talk a lot about figuring out who your best customers are and then building the business around that group of customers. And I spent about a month doing that at Karmaloop, and once I figured out who that group was, the next step was really developing the marketing campaigns that kept those customers around, acquired more of them and kept them buying. So that took about a year to implement and it worked. We brought it from a money-losing company, month-over-month losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, to about break even and that's when we sold it. Andrew: That's awesome. Well, congratulations, sir. That's a pretty big accomplishment. Nice little cap in the feather, that's really cool. Drew: Thanks. Andrew: All right, sir. Should we get into some questions? Drew: Let's do it. "In skincare, do you start in-house and small or go straight to China?" Andrew: So the first question we've got is from Matt, and Matt says, "Hey guys, listen to the podcast and love it. I'm looking at starting a store with beauty and face care products similar to Nurture My Body which is Bill's store, but in a different vertical. If you were starting a business like this, would you immediately try to set things up with a Chinese supplier and have them develop formulas for you, or would you do everything small in-house to perfect the formulas first? A little stuck on which avenue is the best to try and pursue." Drew, what are your thoughts? Drew: I don't really know a lot about this kind of production, but it seems like you'd want to do something like this domestically just to figure out the formulation before you deal with sourcing anything from overseas.

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog: There are tons of conferences being offered in the world of eCommerce and marketing today, so it can be difficult to choose which one is the best fit for your individual situation. We're a bit biased when it comes to talking up our favorite conference (eCommerceFuelLive of course), but there are a lot of other great options out there as well. Whether you are a big store or looking into selling on Amazon, we break down the biggest and best conferences to help you make the best choice for your business and growth. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your hosts Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Drew Sanocki of NerdMarketing.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six and seven figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow e-commerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Andrew: Hey guys, it's Andrew here and welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Today on the show, we want to talk specifically about events, conferences. There's a ton of different conferences in e-commerce and also just in the online space in general that you can go to. Which ones should be on your radar? Which ones make sense to attend? We want to do a round-up for you and talk about our personal experiences. Joining me to talk about it is a man who's become quite the hot commodity on the conference ticket recently, Mr. Drew Sanocki. Drew, welcome, sir. Drew: Hello, Andrew. How are you doing? Andrew: Good, thanks. You've got all sorts of conference talks coming up. You spoke of course at ECF Live. You're talking at Sellers Summits. You're talking at WooConf. We'll get into all these... Drew: All the big ones. All the big ones. Andrew: Yeah, man. What's the secret to becoming a much-desired name out there? Drew: There's no secret, Andrew. It really is just...it started when I was a kid and just, this was the goal. To speak at ECF Live. Andrew: Are you going to be putting out a course, in addition to your fantastic analytics work, on.... Drew: How to get an amazing speaking gigs? Andrew: Or just how to generate raw charisma, how to develop that. That could be useful. Drew: The great thing about all these is that they make me a ton of money. Speaking fees. A speaking gig can give you, what? Like 10, 20K per gig. Andrew: It can. Is that where you landed on these? Drew: That's what I plan to ask for, for the next ECF Live. Andrew: Nice, nice. Well, we'll see what we can do there. We'll negotiate offline. Drew: Or a free dinner. Andrew: Or free dinner. Free dinner, yeah. We'll land on one of those two, I promise. How are things over at nerdmarketing.com? Drew: We are doing great over at nerdmarketing.com. We're holding down the fort. Keeping the site up. We're in month three now of operation, so it's been a good three months. Andrew: Nice and the podcast has been great so far. I know I've mentioned it, but nerdmarketing.com, the podcast that you've been putting out every week, some really good stuff. Drew: Thanks. Yeah, being on this podcast really helped me get used to talking into a mic. So thank you, Andrew. I owe my podcast to you and I love it. The podcast approach has been great for me, because back when I was trying to write long-form blog posts, they were just killing me. They would take me down for a week and I usually was happy with the final result, but I just couldn't do it because I'd have to make it my full-time job and it wasn't paying me any money. So it was a labor of love and the podcast has just enabled me to get stuff out there easier. Andrew: We'll have to...we were talking about this...hopefully we can bring maybe one of your episodes onto this show in the future. But if you're not listening, really good stuff.

How Colorit.com 's Michael Jackness grew a Million Dollar eCommerce business in 1 year using niche selection and Facebook marketing through ads. EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Cheat Sheet + the transcribe from this episode. . Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher You know, usually there is a fair amount of luck involved when someone achieves extreme growth. They stumbled into the right niche or made the right strategy partnership. Highlights How the death of affiliate marketing led Michael to build 4 eCommerce stores The importance of reviews and how quality products can sell themselves Testing your products on eCommerce MVP’s How viral contesting can work in a tight-knit online community Facebook Marketing – Using Facebook insights for detailed audience data Micheal’s SEO Strategy for success How eCommerece is an 8 cylinder engine Micheal's TWO pro tips for rapid growth Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) Colorit.com Treadmill.com Cuttingboard.com Icewraps.com Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Drew:  Hey everybody, welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast. This is Drew Sanocki and now we are talking with Michael Jackness, who's one of my favorite e-commerce entrepreneurs. Micheal, welcome to the show. Michael: Thank you and now I have a lot to live up to. Want to save this transcribe to read later? download it as a PDF. Drew: Well, I'm just sort of fascinated by you because you've got, I mean your skills run the gamut. You've got a millions irons on the fire, you're flipping domains, you're starting e-commerce businesses, Amazon businesses, you're going to China, you run a podcast. Did I miss anything? Michael:  I'm a husband. Drew: You're a sumo wrestler. Michael:  Yeah, as far as business goes that pretty much covers it but, yeah and I guess you could even argue that maybe I have too many irons in the fire. It's something I've been working on a lot over the last two years. I think there's that saying, if you chase two rabbits both will get away. Drew:  Right. Michael: We've really been focusing on e-commerce lately and really just doubling down on that and I've been basically living life with blinders on when it comes to e-commerce. Whether it's running stores or running an e-commerce podcast and blog or going to events. Everything that I think about and dream about these days is in e-commerce world. Drew: Dream about. Michael: I've had dreams about it, nightmares I guess which actually came true here with one of our products, but, yeah I think when you're so immersed in it, yeah, you can even have dreams about e-commerce, which is pretty sad. Drew:  Yeah, I had a nice Shopify dream last night, it was great. The series I'm working on here is I'm talking to a lot of entrepreneurs who have bootstrapped companies up to seven figures in revenue. I say seven figures in a year but it doesn't really matter, you've achieved some sort of rapid growth with an e-commerce store and I think that is really interesting. It appeals to a lot of people and it represents another alternative to all the venture backed companies we hear about all the time. That's why you're here as my guest and I would love to talk about Color It, but before we do, it's nice to hear a little bit more about how you got here and maybe a little bit about your history in e-commerce, maybe you can talk about that for a sec. Michael: Sure, so before we got into e-commerce, the story kind of starts there really because we were affiliate marketers and basically that means that you put links in your site and if someone clicks through them and buys or signs up or whatever the action they're taking, you get a commission and you're pretty much hands off once they click that link. It was a wonderful world to live in for eight ...

How IronFenceShop.com 's Josh Manley reveals how he ramped up a 7-figure business using AdWords. EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Mindset Cheat Sheet + the text transcribe for this episode! the PDF. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher In this podcast I continue to explore the various sets of circumstances that contribute to epic early traction online. Highlights Josh explains how listening to consumers led him to build a 7-figure company How IronFenceShop.com got their first sale and set up their sales funnel Phone conversion rates vs. email conversion rates Why tracking data down to the keyword level will put you ahead of your competitors Josh's tips for making your ecommerce retailer successful Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) Google Callroom Ironfenceshop.com Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Drew: Hey everybody, this is Drew Sanocki with the Nerd Marketing podcast and we are talking about growing an e-commerce retailer to seven figures. Today my guest is an old friend, Josh Manley, who is the founder and CEO of IronFenceShop.com and a number of other businesses. Josh, welcome to the show. Josh: Thanks, Drew. Glad to be here. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. Drew: Yeah, thanks for coming on. Josh and I worked together a couple of years ago, I've known him for a long time. He's, like, consummate entrepreneur, has started several businesses and the Iron Fence Shop, in particular, is one I wanted to talk about today because he was able to grow that from zero to over a million in revenue. Bootstrapped, right Josh? Josh: Yeah, a hundred percent self funded. Drew: Yeah, so where do we start? Maybe you could tell us a little bit about who you are, about how you got the idea to start the business and take it from there. Josh:  Sure. Yeah, so way back in olden days, 2002 ... In about 2000, I worked for Kent State University in a division that they called the web center. We designed websites for local businesses as well as teachers before they had software that did that sort of thing. From there, while I was still in college, I got a job with a local fence company. Basically just to build them, review their local website, brick and mortar website, and then maybe start them a website to start selling some fencing online. Once I was there, for about a year, I kind of got thrown into all aspects of the business, not just web design but I was doing sales and purchasing, business decisions like merchant accounts, things like that. Worked there for about seven years and then at the seven year mark, the past couple years of that I had seen that there was kind of a segment of the market that wasn't being served and that was iron and aluminum fencing that was much more authentic than what was available at that point in time. Basically, with our brand, what we do is we have a product where we weld sand cast iron finials and aluminum finials to the fence and it just gives it a much more authentic, organic look that just has a much higher value to the customer. That just wasn't available. At that point in time all the manufacturers had made changes to make the product much easier to manufacture, much faster to manufacture and much easier to install for the actual installers and kind of lost touch with what the consumer wanted. We would get ... Drew:  This is all, sort of, inside baseball. Josh:  Correct. Yeah, this was just me watching how our customers reacted to the products that were available at that time. I remember, very vividly, kind of the a-ha moment for me was a customer came in, it was just a local customer and the local sales guy had given them like a ten thousand dollar estimate for an aluminum fence and they were all excited about it and came in to look at it...

How Sam Gastro, founder of MyGiftCardSupply.com about how he grew his $1 million dollar retailer. Tons of insights on how to use retention (not acquisition) to grow... EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Cheat Sheet + the Episode 12 text transcribe. the PDF. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher I've been fascinated by e-commerce retailers that are able to bootstrap to 7-figures within a short period of time. Highlights How Sam acquired his first 100 customers Using retention/word of mouth to grow to 7 figures How to treat your best customers differently Sam’s one actionable tip on how to grow your ecommerce business Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) Mygiftcardsupply.com Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Drew:  Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. This is Drew Sanocki and we are talking about growing a company to seven figures, which is a really popular topic on my blog, and today I am joined by Sam Gastro. Sam, among many things he works on, one is Mygiftcardsupply.com, which is a business that he took from zero to over a million in revenue in a short amount of time. Sam, welcome. Sam: Hey, Drew. Thanks for having me. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. Drew:  Sure. Thanks for being here. Sam is in Boulder, Colorado. Congratulations on the Super Bowl. Sam: Thank you, thank you. Drew:  Yeah, I was a little bit bummed because I was a New England Patriots fan. I'm from Boston, and I've got to say that was ... the Patriots gave them a better game both games than they had in the Super Bowl. Sam: Agreed, agreed. Yeah, I can't complain. It was a great ... it was a really fun year to watch football. Drew: Yeah, because everybody was sort of counting out, you know, the Broncos, because they weren't winning by ... they weren't dominating, you know, but they were winning by like a field goal, and Manning was like ... you know, he kind of was like me. He's like 40-something, like falling down, right, like slowly get up, injured all the time, right, like me trying to throw 50 yards. It was a good way to go out, right? Sam:  Incredible, absolutely insane. Yeah, during the middle of the season there, it was kind of wild with him like getting replaced, and it was like ... just a wild, wild year, but completely fun. Drew:  Congratulations. It would be great to talk about the Super Bowl for like 90 percent of this podcast and then we'll just touch on your retailer. Sam: Yeah, let's do that, essentially because I don't know a whole lot about football. I like it. I like to watch it. Usually I'm in it for the guacamole and the home team. Drew: Well, let's see. I don't know what the transition is from Super Bowl to Mygiftcardsupply.com, but did you see a spike in revenue during the Super Bowl? How about that? Sam: No, we did not. There isn't ... not a whole lot of football and gift card correlation, unfortunately. Drew:  For those who don't know Mygiftcardsupply.com, could you give a little bit of a background on the site, how you decided to start it, how long ago did you start it? Sam: Absolutely, yeah. I started it about four years ago, and I kind of stumbled upon the idea by selling a gift card on eBay. Basically when I sold it, it went to a guy in France, and I was a little intrigued because with the currency conversion, it went over what the actual value of the gift card was. I won't get into the numbers of it, but basically what I found after talking to him ... because I was first suspicious and I messaged him ... he explained that there's a large demand for United States gift cards, because people like to buy U.S. content and there's kind of a barrier. You have to use a U.S. gift card if you want to buy an album or some movies that only get relea...

Three business growth equations need to hold true for any growing business. I review all three and show you how to work them to your advantage. EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Cheat Sheet + the text transcribe from this episode. the PDF. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher Highlights The 3 Core equations to scale up your business How to make sure your LTV > CTA Using the formula ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) > Revenue/Spend The science behind Pressure/Time Plus - A bonus equation! Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) Toggl.com Seven Essential Metrics for Ecommerce Startups (with Templates) a post from my archive Introducing: Customer Value Optimization, The Formula for Epic Growth another post from my archive. Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast, the only podcast where I open by, "Hey everybody, hey." That little laugh there makes you feel better listening to this. We're having a good time, right? I'm smiling. I'm in a room all by myself talking into a microphone, smiling, talking about e-commerce. It's a good time. Hey, everybody. I'm Drew Sanocki. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast. We've been talking about how to grow an e-commerce retailer to $1 million in revenue. It's something we did at Design Public within the first year, year-and-a-half. I want to take a different angle on that today. I believe in Occam's razor and, as much as I can, I like to simplify what went into building a $1 million retailer. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. Today I want to talk about 3 core equations, and maybe 1 bonus equation, that got us there. The idea is if you keep these three core equations in mind and work such that they all are true, then I think you stand a decent shot at scaling up your business. As always, I've got a related cheat sheet to this article, in this case if you go to NerdMarketing.com to this podcast page you can download some of the templates where I work through the math and the equations in an actual spreadsheet that you can copy and use at your own retailer. Without further ado, equation number 1 is: LTV must be greater than CPA, so customer lifetime value should be greater than your cost per acquisition. I've seen it as CLV, LTV, same thing, customer lifetime value. CPA or CAC, customer acquisition cost, same idea. The idea is that you make more money that you spend to acquire that customer. This is the essence of product market fit for an online retailer. Go ahead and Tweet that out. What I mean by that, coming out of the gates with a new retailer you may not know if this equation is working for you. It takes some time to find what's called product market fit, which is a good fit between what you're selling and the market. The way you gauge whether you've successfully found this is that you're going to make money on a sale. That's what LTV over CPA means at the end of the day. What your goal should be is to calculate your LTV and your CPA for each marketing channel. In other words, you've got a certain CPA for your email marketing. You've got a certain CPA for your AdWords campaigns, a certain CPA for your Facebook campaigns, even a CPA for social campaigns, which may or may not have a direct cost associated with them. The idea is each of these channels is going to have its own cost per customer that you acquire and each one will also produce customers who have different LTVs, or different lifetime values. Now, a couple caveats, because on the surface it looks like a very simple equation: LTV must be greater than CPA. It's actually pretty complicated. LTV is, to put it bluntly, a pain in the ass to calculate. It depends, often, on repeat purchases,

The 6 key success factors and actionable insights that allowed us to grow a million dollar Ecommerce business in a single year. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Cheat Sheet + the text transcribe from this episode. the PDF. How were we able to create a Million Dollar Ecommerce Business in about a year? Highlights The self-perpetuating cycles that drive growth in early companies How your retailer can find the untapped demand of your customers How to make integration with your suppliers work for everyone Why merchandising is your best marketing tool Reducing customer acquisition costs Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) The Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne Sina Djafari's company Duoplane -- order management for ecommerce stores Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Drew: All right. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast. My name is Drew Sanocki. I am the host and today I have a co-host. A special guest, a blast from the past, my former business partner Sina Djafari. Sina welcome to the Nerd Marketing podcast. You are the first guest. Sina: Thank you. I am extremely honored. I'm honored that you still talk to me. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. Drew: Occasionally. This is like podcast episode 10 or 11. Sina: It’s the only way I could talk to Drew is if I agree to be on this podcast. Drew: Yeah. We are not going to catch up during this podcast. We are going to talk about something the audience might actually be interested in. That is how to build a retailer to $1 million in revenue. Actually historically how we built our own retailer design public to 1 million in revenue over the first 18 months. Sina that is one of the more popular articles on my blog. I think it's popular because everybody wants to be a millionaire overnight even though 1 million revenue doesn’t equal millionaire, it’s just a promise of ramping up a company pretty quickly, is something that attracts a lot of interest. As you know it's harder than you think and it doesn't often mean a whole lot. I thought that would elaborate on that article and drill down and get your two cents as the guy who went through with me. Sina: Absolutely and a fine article it is. Drew: Thank you Sina. In the article I have the five reasons. I think I wrote that now at this point to years ago. I look at that article again and I probably want to pull out a couple of those reasons may be add a couple more. We’ll start with those as a point of departure for discussion. The first reason was that we chose a blue ocean. I talked about this book called Blue Ocean Strategy. It basically argues that when you start a business, you try to find a category where there aren’t a lot of competitors. That is opposed to red ocean where the waters are bloodied with the blood of all your competitors, right? I think in 2003 if you go back to when we started Sina, there weren’t a whole lot of people selling furniture online. Design Public was there, I think they thought of themselves as a catalog first company because their website didn't really embrace any sort of best practices of SEO or anything like that at the time. We were fortunate to just choose a niche where there was a lot of search activity, a lot of people were looking to buy brands online and there weren’t a lot of sites optimized for those brands. I think that was a big contributor to our early success, Sina: Yeah absolutely. I know we talked about some of the, in the bullet points of what makes a blue ocean strategy in terms of competition and the fact that the products were essentially kind of marketing themselves. One thing I thought about when I was reading this,

There are 3 key tactics every entrepreneur should employ when launching or growing an online business… and today, we’re joined again by the incredible Drew Sanocki, who shares these 3 concepts and why they’re important!

There are 3 “mindset” hacks that all entrepreneurs need in order to succeed… and in today’s interview, ecommerce expert Drew Sanocki shares exactly what they are!

Business strategies matter, but you can't grow without the right 'growth' mindset. These Three Mental Mindsets Allowed Me to Build a Million Dollar Retailer. EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Cheat Sheet + the text transcribe from this episode. the PDF. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher In this episode, I talk about the "million dollar mindset" that contributed to my success in growing my online retailer to $1mn in revenue in just over a year. I hope they help you along your way. Highlights There are three personal factors that enable you to build a successful business: vision, focus and habits. What wins in ecommerce is pressure over time. Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey everybody, welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. My name is Drew Sanocki. I talk about customer analytics and e-Commerce growth but today we're going to do a little bit of a different podcast. Slight departure for our usual deep dive into analytics. I want to get personal with you guys and I want to tell you a story about an unemployed guy living in San Francisco who's got a roommate, not making a dime, and a little over a year later he's got a one million dollar revenue business. That guy is me and I'd like to talk about that story, about how I grew a one million dollar revenue, e-Commerce return in a pretty short amount of time. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. Now, I started this because I was looking at the posts on my blog. Far and away, one of the more popular ones is on this subject, how I got to a million in revenue in under 18 months. I thought about that and I think, "It's not the most valuable post, in my own opinion, but it's the most popular post." It's the most popular because it holds out this promise of quick wealth or something like that. If you do the math, a one million dollar e-Commerce retailer isn't really wealth but it's succeeding, it's got traction. I thought, "It would be kind of interesting to deep dive on that topic for a couple episodes," so I called up my old business partner, Sina. He's going to appear on one of the next podcasts to discuss how we did it on a business level and what kind of factors went into that growth. What I'd like to do today is spend 10 minutes or so talking about the three personal factors I think contributed to that growth. On a personal level, what enabled me to build that business? Hope you find it interesting. I think that this episode is, in many ways, more valuable than the one I'll do with Sina. It's because I think this personal stuff is what ultimately is going to work for you. I know it's what worked for me. If I didn't have this stuff squared away, then the business reasons, the fact that we found a good niche or knew how to do SEO, whatever, that wouldn't matter. What matters is that you personally have the mindset, the approach, and the mentality to go after that kind of growth. On the subway this morning I was thinking of three reasons, three factors, back in 2003 that really enabled me to focus on the business and grow the business. The first factor is vision. I don't know how many of you do visioning but I was put onto it by Stephen Covey a long time ago. He talks in the seven habits of highly effective people about just writing out your mission, vision, and values in life. I've done the exercise since college, now I'm 44 so it's been a long time that I've revisited my mission and vision values every year. The research suggests that there's real power to writing it out. Not just daydreaming about what your life could be but actually crafting a vision in the first person about where you are, say, five years from now. After business school I was unemployed. My company had gone under,

A case study showing how to implement a great, easy customer retention program that you can use at your own retailer. Juice up the profits by segmenting your users (I explain how). EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Cheat Sheet + the text transcribe from this episode. the PDF. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher Ron has a gym. No one is showing up. In just 60 days, Ron packs the house. Here's how he did it. Highlights Trip-Wire Marketing is the ability to market to the customers who deviate from typical customer behavior. It is super profitable. Juice up the profits by segmenting your users (I explain how). There are seven steps to a customer retention program: timing, create the offer, pulling the list, setting up tracking, delivering the promotion, monitoring, and calculating the ROI. Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Today, on the nerd marketing podcast, I'm going to tell you about my buddy, Ron. My buddy Ron runs a gym, and three months ago the gym was going out of business, and today it's more profitable than ever. What did Ron do? We're going to find out but first, let me introduce myself, my name's Drew Sanocki and I want to welcome you to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. The only podcast on all the internet where Drew Sanocki talks to you about eCommerce and marketing. My goal here is to give you a hundred percent actionable information in five to ten minutes a week. I want to give you one golden nugget, one actionable thing that you can take back to you eCommerce retailer and use to make money. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. Today's topic is trip wire marketing. I'm in the middle of two or three episodes here where I'm really drilling down on trip wire marketing. What do I mean when I say trip wire marketing? I basically mean that, if I go back to the last podcast to review and get you up to speed, customers exhibit typical behavior and a great way to market is to market to the customers when they deviate from that typical behavior. Why is that? Because it's super profitable. Most customers have adhere to a standard customer lifecycle. They get into your brand for awhile, they buy from you for awhile and then they get burned out and stop buying. That is a typical, average customer behavior and so what I'm arguing is that, if you're going to choose points to market to that customer, market when they start deviating from that average. For example, the average customer buys every thirty days, and that customer hasn't bought in awhile, in forty-five days, it's a good time to market to that customer. It's really profitable to market to that customer at that time. If you need a refresher on that, go back to the last podcast. Today I'm going to give you an example of how to implement some trip wire marketing to build a kick-ass retention program. Why start with retention? Because retention is super profitable. You know as well as I do, if you're running an eCommerce retailer, most of the time eCommerce retailers are barely profitable on the first sale, often they lose money because it costs so much to acquire a customer so you're basically breaking even. All the profits are made on the second, third, fourth sale when it's easier to reengage with that customer through email or through marketing or something like that. Retention is a great place to start and we're going to start there with trip wire marketing. I'm going to get back to the story I alluded to at the beginning of the podcast, my buddy Ron Gabrisko, ,muscle bound fellow here in New York City, owns a gym on the upper west side. He's got monthly subscribers to his gym and annual memberships to his gym but we're going to talk about, today, the per diem customers.

What is tripwire marketing? An introduction to the concept of tripwire marketing and why it is a great way to approach your marketing campaigns. EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Cheat Sheet + the text transcribe from this episode. the PDF. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher Your customers are sending you signals. If you listen to them, you will make money. Highlights Tripwire Marketing requires you to define standard customer behavior for your business, and thenidentify customers who deviate from that behavior. This allows you to focus your marketing to make it the most effective it can be. You have to identify the customers who will defect before they do to win them back. Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Drew Sanocki: Welcome everyone, to the Nerd Marketing podcast; the only podcast on all of the internet where you can hear me, Drew Sanocki, talk to you about eCommerce marketing. My goal here, is to give you 100% actionable information. Give me 5-10 minutes of your busy life, and I'll give you some proven growth strategies. My name is Drew. Today, we are talking about "Trip Wire Marketing." Specifically, how you can use trip wires to grow your profits. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. Before I get into that, I have had a heck of a morning. It's 10am here in New York City, and I think I was up ... I feel like I've worked an entire day already: Got up at 5, with baby. I got her back down. Woke up again, maybe an hour and a half later, with my son, who's 3 years old. Had to get him ready for a swim class, which is the last thing you want to do at 7am on a Thursday morning; especially when he doesn't want to go, either. There's a lot of fighting going on, getting him in his Swimmi-diap and over to the pool, in the Upper West Side. A whole other fight occurs in the locker room usually, because he does not want to go down to the pool. All the while you're surrounded by naked, old guys. I don't know if it's a generational thing, but the old-timers just walk around naked all the time. I think they're a lot more comfortable with that, than my generation. This all fascinates my son, by the way, who is just ... It's just not a good scene in the morning. Get him into the pool, get him out, where of course, again, he doesn't want to swim. Get him out of the pool, take showers; that's another fight. Get him to school. Take an overcrowded subway down to Midtown, where I begin my podcast here, at 10am. I feel like I've been up ... I have been up for 5 hours already, but you know, that's life. That's life as a dad, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I mean that. Today was kind of interesting. Let me have another sip of coffee here, before we get into Trip Wire Marketing. Okay, so Trip-Wire Marketing ... The big takeaway for Trip Wire Marketing, I think ... By the end of this podcast, I think you will see why changes in your customer behavior represent huge marketing opportunities. That's my goal. In future podcasts, I think the next 2 or 3, I'm going to get more into implementation, and how to achieve those profits yourself. This one's going to be a little bit more background and context, just to rehash what got us to this place. Obviously, you run a small business, an online business, you want more profits. I think one of the best ways to get there is to, 1) Define standard customer behavior for your business, and then, 2) Do a lot of marketing when customers deviate from that behavior. That's basically what CRM tries to do, for bigger businesses. You can do it, too! It sounds complicated, but, I'm going to give you a couple of stories here. The first would be my son. Anybody who has kids knows that when they're in the other room and they're m...

The prevailing means of customer segmentation and why that's basically useless online. Then, I show you how you should think about segmenting your customers based on behavior. EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get the text transcribe from this episode. the PDF. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher How you think about your customers will determine whether you can grow online. So you best think about behavior. Highlights There are two ways to profile your customers. One is based on demographics and lifestyle. One is based on the customers' behavior. The latter > the former. Links / Resources The (sign up to unlock freebies) Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey, everybody. My name is Drew Sanocki. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast, the only podcast on all the internet where you can hear Drew Sanocki, that's me, talk to you about ecommerce marketing. My goal here is to give you 100% actionable information. Give me five to ten minutes of your busy life and I'll give you some proven ecommerce growth strategies that have worked for myself and worked for some of the companies I work with. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. My name's Drew. I'm an ecommerce veteran. I live in New York City. Today's topic is why I don't care about sex and why you shouldn't either. Guess what I'm talking about. No, I'm not really talking about sex. I'm talking about customer profiling and segmentation. I want to lead it all off with a story today. The story is something that happened to me this weekend. The family and I drove upstate, get out of the city because it's driving us nuts, because the kids are driving us nuts. Put the kids in the backseat of a Zipcar and headed north up the Hudson to explore some of the towns up there. They're very cool. Day goes on. Everybody's happy. We pull into a gas station to fill up the tank and a motorcycle pulls up behind the car, Harley Davidson. A woman's driving it. She gets off the Harley, takes off her helmet. she must have been like 65, 70 years old. Grandma's driving the Harley. That made an impact on me for a number of reasons. You expect the Harley to be driven by the Harley guy. It's like big beard, Hell's Angels jacket, whatever. I think it's just a common misperception and an issue that a lot of ecommerce store owners have that they focus in on the demographics and the lifestyle factors of their customers, and they ignore the behavioral factors. What I want to talk about in this podcast, it's a short one, but I'm going to tell you there are two ways to profile your customers, two big ways to segment your customers out. One is based off of demographics and lifestyle. It's the way that we all usually do. Who's your customer? They are 30 to 35 year old females who are single professionals, who are physically active, whatever. There's another way to profile your customers. It's behavioral. It's based on behavior. That would be more like who are our customers? They are the ones who were acquired through Google. They visited our site three times and then they purchased. They haven't been back in two days. Whatever, that kind of stuff. The main point I'd like to make here is that when you think about your business and growing your business and doing some segmentation and targeting for your business, think about behavioral segments first. Instead of our customers are 25% male, 75% female, whatever, think in terms of things like recency, frequency, and other behavioral aspects. The more you do that, the easier it will be to grow the business. I thought of three ways why behavioral segmentation is better than what I'm going to call demographic or lifestyle segmentation. The first is that it's a stronger predictor of future activity. If you go and build your retailer around lifestyle factor...

Easy-to-implement discount ladders from top retailers. A specific version of discount ladder: the win-back campaign. You can model this approach across abandoned cart campaigns, welcome campaigns, etc...       EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: Get my Million Dollar Cheat Sheet + the text transcribe from this episode. the PDF. Bonus Content Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher Highlights Win-back emails: single emails sent to customers who haven't bought in a while to try to win them back Anti-defection discount ladder: series of emails aiming to bring back customers who stopped buying Examples of discount ladders Links / Resources Continue learning about Discount Ladders in Episode 1 (Intro to Discount Ladders) and Episode 2 (How to Get Started with Discount Ladders). If you plan on implementing a win back campaign, you'll also probably be interested in what I have to say about Dynamic Ascending Offers. Check out some of my other Case Studies – a couple of my favorites are Episode 13 (How Josh Manley Grew IronFenceShop.com to $1 Million In One Year Using AdWords) and Episode 7 (A Tripwire Case Study, +15% in sales virtually overnight) To learn more about data-driven strategies that grow ecommerce businesses, just . Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey everybody, this is Drew Sanocki, nerdmarketing.com and we're talking about discount ladders on the podcast. One thing I want to do today was give you a number of examples of good discount ladders or usage of discount ladders so you kind of get the idea of what the hell I am talking about. Without further ado, we're going to go to the screenflow here and I'm going to walk you through some discount ladders. First, a great example of...or great opportunity where you can use discount ladders is in winback emails. Winback emails are the ones that are sent out to customers who haven't bought from you forever in an attempt to sort of win them back into the fold. I Google winback emails and you're going to see a lot of examples here. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. Here's one from Eventbrite with their winback and here's one from Social Sprout and Postagram and, like, everybody does a winback, right? You know? What can we do to win you back? Where you been? Yada yada yada ... Dropbox does one. My issue with these is they leave money on the table. Maybe they are not awesome because they're a single email. If you take everything we've learned about a discount ladder and make the single email into a series, you're just going to do that much better at capturing or recapturing that customer. For example, here's one I built out for a fairly big online retailer. It is a winback, I am trying to win back everybody who has purchased one time and has not purchased a second time, I'm trying to get that second purchase. What I've done is, I've figured out that these customers for this retailer order roughly every thirty days so if thirty days has come and gone and they have not ordered they're not likely to order from us again. Perfect opportunity for what's called an anti-defection discount ladder. You can see I'm using Klaviyo here to set up this automated campaign, in Klaviyo it's called a flow. My first email goes out thirty days after purchase and it only goes out to people who have not purchased in the last thirty days and it's a simple ten percent off offer. We're now going to think in terms of our ladder. What do you do with the ladder? You increase the promo over time, so if someone takes this bait and buys, they fall out of the sequence. Otherwise, at sixty days, a month later, they're going to get a fifteen percent off offer, right here, right? Then, again, I could make this ladder go as high and as far as I want but I find that after ninety days it's pretty m...

I walk you through how to set-up and run effective discount ladders. I zero in on using these ladders to create a killer eCommerce retention program in just four easy steps. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: If you want my summary playbook for setting up your own discount ladder, just and I'll send it to you. If you aren't using them, you should be. Highlights Discount ladders can help you retain customers There are four steps to setting up effective discount ladders Step 1: Determine your discount intervals Step 2: Set your promotions Step 3: Start testing monhtly Step 4: Identify your most profitable offers Links / Resources Continue learning about Discount Ladders in Episode 1 (Intro to Discount Ladders) and Episode 3 (A Discount Ladder Case Study). If you plan on implementing a discount ladder, you'll also probably be interested in what I have to say about Dynamic Ascending Offers. To learn more about data-driven strategies that grow ecommerce businesses, just . Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey, this is Drew Sanocki. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast, the only podcast where Drew Sanocki gives you actionable, data-tested strategies to grow your ecommerce retailer. I can guarantee this is the only podcast where you're going to get this, the Nerd Marketing Podcast. We're talking about discount ladders. The title of this podcast is My Proven Retention System Revealed. In essence, I am going to walk you through a retention system that I've used to literally generate millions of dollars for my retailer and for other retailers. That's no exaggeration. I'm not going info product on you here. I'm not going Mr. Salesman on you here. This is just a great strategy to use. In the last podcast, we talked about the idea of discount ladders and how most retailers are not doing promotional activity properly. They are either running blanket promotions to their entire list or, on the flip side, they're never running a promotion. I think the solution is somewhere in the middle. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. It's to ratchet up your promotional activity over time, in particular with the likelihood that a customer will never come back to your retailer. That's what a discount ladder is. In this podcast I am going to walk you through four steps to creating your own discount ladder; in particular, one we will use to retain defecting customers. You can use a discount ladder for a lot of different things; for example, to encourage a first purchase or to encourage someone to read an article or something like that. In this case, the discount ladder is to retain customers. These promotions will go out to your existing customers. Step One: Determine Discount Intervals The first step out of four is to determine your discount intervals. If you have existing customer data, if you've been in business for, say, a year or more, I want you to look at the average time between your typical first and second purchase, your second or third purchases, and so on. It's very easy to do in Excel. You export your transactional data into a spreadsheet and you can run a histogram analysis on that to find just your typical first and second purchase, second to third purchase, what are called latencies, some of the average time between purchase. Wanted this average time between purchase because these are the rungs on our discount ladder. This is how often we will set tripwires at these time intervals. After each tripwire, we'll increase the discount. If you're just starting out, 30/60/90 days works great. For the typical retailer selling apparel, for example, a 30/60/90-day promotional ladder is a great place to start. It worked at my retailer, which was a home goods retailer.

An introduction to the discount ladder method of running promotions and how it can keep your customers around longer and buying more. EXCLUSIVE RESOURCE: If you want my cheat sheet checklist for setting up your own discount ladder, just and I'll send it to you. If you aren't using them, you should be. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher This initial episode I introduce the  'discount ladder' method of running promotions and show you how it can keep your customers around longer and buying more. STOP spending promotion dollars to create a transaction, when the customer would have bought anyway. Highlights Most retailers discount too much and why What is a subsidy cost and how to reduce it How to run promotions when you don't want to discount your brand Three advantages of a discount ladder Links / Resources Continue learning about Discount Ladders in Episode 2 (How to Get Started with Discount Ladders) and Episode 3 (A Discount Ladder Case Study). If you plan on implementing a discount ladder, you'll also probably be interested in what I have to say about Dynamic Ascending Offers. To learn more about data-driven strategies that grow ecommerce businesses, just . Transcript Prefer to read rather than listen to the podcast episode? No problem, you'll find a text transcribe below, and you can also for later. → Read the Transcript Hey everybody. Welcome to the Nerd Marketing Podcast. The podcast where I try to give you clear, actionable, data driven strategies to grow your business. My name is Drew Sanocki, and I'm your host. The title of today's podcast is 'You are spending too much money on dumb-ass promotions.' Basically what I want to talk about today, is discount ladders and subsidy costs, and promotions, and how a lot of retailers are leaving money on the table by not implementing these things properly. Bill Bain, the founder of Bain Consulting has said "Your best new customers are your existing customers." And that's a very nerd approach to marketing, and something I believe in, and what I'm going to argue in this podcast, is we should be using promotions effectively to try to keep your customers around longer, and that's just money well spent. Want to save this transcribe to read later? to download it as a PDF. The problem is, most retailers out there discount too much. Think of Bed Bath & Beyond for example, where I know I get a 20% off coupon every week. Online retailers are often no different, they discount way too much, and what they're doing here, what they don't realize is there's this hidden thing called a subsidy cost, and that's basically the cost you bear by spending promotion dollars to create a transaction, when the customer would have bought anyway. In many cases, you've got customers out there, credit card in hand, ready to buy, and you are giving them a promotion to buy something on sale, so naturally [00:02:00] will lose out on the full margin, you've spend a promotion dollar that you didn't have to spend, that's called a subsidy cost. On the flip-side, you've got plenty of retailers who never promote at all, and I get that. A lot of these are ones who really care about their brand. I was just at an E-commerce conference last month, and met a lot of great brands that are selling online, trying to really build up that brand equity, and one of the first things they said to me is "Hey, we just don't want to promo. We never want to be on promo, we never want to be on sale." I get that, too. The problem is that customers naturally have a lifecycle, and they will eventually burn out on your brand and probably defect, and stop being customers anymore, that's a very good time to use a promotion. Let's redefine the word promotion as a pretense to this podcast, it's not just a discount on a retail price. Promotion can be any sort of incentive that you give that customer to get them over the hump to buy. If you do really care about your brand,

Joining me to talk about our top 10 favorite (or perhaps only) books from 2015 is the man behind NerdMarketing.com, Drew Sanocki. This year we have a good mix of business, personal development, diet and fiction books that you might want to check out if you’re looking for a next good read. Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1OmlLjJ

Joining me on this Q & A episode is none other than the Oracle of Time Square, the man with all of the answers, Drew Sanocki of NerdMarketing.com. We dive into a wide range of topics from why certain markets aren't great for eCommerce and what the best Shopify apps for analytics are, to whether Drew's dreamy salt-and-peppered look is natural. Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1MDiXSi

This episode features Mr. Drew Sanocki’s talk from the recent eCommerce Fuel Live event. He talks about the best practices for finding and attracting those customers that can drive a huge part of your business and really growing by focusing on and delivering value to those folks. Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1X57dPg

Drew Sanocki joins me to talk about how to pick a service agency to help you run and expand your business. We have both had the good, the bad and the downright ugly experiences in the past and have learned some hard lessons. We share our methods of finding, evaluate and hiring an agency that will become one of the greatest investments you have ever made in your eCommerce business. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1JsBP3z

Drew Sanocki joins me to talk about our experiences with making decisions based on our intuition, as well as both of the instances where we got it right and wrong. Find out why you need to pay attention to the little things, get outside perspective and take your time before jumping into any significant decisions. With our help, you can learn to use your intuition to make judgement calls that will help you reach your long and short-term goals with ease.   You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1IfiLC4

Today, Drew Sanocki and I share our experiences with coupons, our successes, and our horror stories. Find out the best ways of offering coupons to entice your customers to come back time and time again, without losing money in the process.   You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1fipSDa

On this episode of The eCommerceFuel Podcast, Drew Sanocki joins me on the show to talk exits. After selling a business he built from the ground up, Drew now helps others to buy and sell businesses. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1yqOFIi

Today, we are talking about how to run your business and still be a good parent and spouse. One of the biggest hurdles for entrepreneurs when they have kids, is transitioning from the 24/7 entrepreneur, working whenever you would like, to a parent AND an entrepreneur. So Drew and I are here to help! We discuss the big hacks we have found for good fathers and keeping our businesses running, along with several reality changes we have come to understand as fathers. If you have small children, or have planning on having one soon, you do not want to miss this episode! You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1Cv3a4S

Drew Sanocki, to put it VERY lightly, Is an advanced email marketer. And it's been a LONG time since we've been in contact, Talking about getting him on the show, And finally, With so much life and business going on since then, …we got Sanocki on the show. Drew ran a madly successful online retail eCommerce business before […] The post Episode #94 – Drew Sanocki on Skyrocketing Your Ecommerce Sales With Savvy Email Marketing Techniques (bust out your notebook for this one.. GREAT content) appeared first on Drop Dead Copy.

Drew Sanocki joins me today to talk about one of the hardest parts of owning a business - managing people. We discuss the 5 big problems that we have encountered and how we strive every day to walk the tightrope of management to ensure both our and our employees' success. If you have employees, or are thinking about hiring, you need to listen up!   You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1AbCYro

Drew and I discuss three of the most interesting threads from the eCommerceFuel forum as well as share some of your opinions and our take on each of the topics. Listen in to learn how you can take advantage of our breakdowns of what has happened and what we foresee happening in the next month.  You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1ID6HOQ    

I invited Drew Sanocki back to the show to talk about how the lessons we have learned from our collective experiences in the corporate and military world. We talk about how what we have learned has shaped who we are as entrepreneurs and how you too can take those lessons and apply them to your business. You do not want to miss this episode's easy-to-follow steps for setting your business up for success. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1uCE9iu

Drew Sanocki randomly reached out to me one day and I’m glad that he did. Drew is a seasoned veteran when it comes to ecommerce. He started and sold a successful dropship furniture company DesignPublic.com. And today, he blogs at DrewSanocki.com and offers ecommerce consulting at Mineral.io. What’s also cool about Drew is that we have a bunch of common friends that went to Stanford together. Enjoy the interview! What You’ll Learn How to find a profitable niche for your online store How to validate your niche before investing a large amount of money How Drew feels about dropshipping today […] The post 044: Drew Sanocki On What It Takes To Start A Successful Ecommerce Store Today appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

Drew Sanocki is back on the eCommerceFuel podcast today to talk about the insecurities that most business owners experience. We talk about each of our own personal insecurities and how we strive every day to overcome them. Listen in as Drew and I share our tricks and tactics we have found to work for us and countless other business owners for overcoming these insecurities and experiencing incredible success.  You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1y6D4yb

This week, Drew and I examine the multiple options available to you that can help you ensure that you, like us, never pay for personal travel again. We explain each of our unique approaches to using credit cards to rack up miles and how we calculate just how much our miles are worth. Listen in, as Drew and I give our tips, tricks and hacks that have helped us not only not pay for flights but much more. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1wjnsYz

This week, I welcome back Drew Sanocki to the eCommerceFuel podcast as my co-host for the October News Roundup to look at the new and notable stories in the eCommerce world. This week, we are exploring Apple Pay, Facebook’s advertising changes, and the world of Alibaba, what we believe their potential is here in the states and how they differ from their biggest competitor, Amazon. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1sjUGqz

Drew Sanocki returns to the show again this week, and this time, we are discussing the importance of coding skills in online solo entrepreneurship. As more resources like oDesk are popping up, it is creating a situation where it is incredibly inexpensive to outsource programming to great coders. While the urgency to learn in order to be successful seems to be fading, we argue that this knowledge will be absolutely vital to your success.  You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1qe9q4h

Drew Sanocki is back again on the eCommerceFuel podcast to delve into the top news stories in the eCommerce world from the past month. This week, we dive into the changes that Google has made and is expected to make, and introduce Drew’s exciting new eCommerce venture. You do not want to miss our breakdown down of the important changes and our advice that can save you valuable time and money. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1oFWVhv

Drew Sanocki is back again on the show, and this week we dive into one of the most vital, but often overlooked aspects of entrepreneurship -supportive spouses. Regardless of your financial situation, having a supportive life partner is detrimental to the success of your business, and the health of your relationship. This week, we discuss several ways to earn and keep your significant others support and trust. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1l4ttXw

Drew Sanocki is back on the show this week to dive into what has been going on in the world of eCommerce during the month of July. We are hoping to make this a regular occurrence on the show, where we discuss the many fast-paced changes that happen each month. This week, we tackle everything from Google’s authorship photo changes to a possible addition to the Internet Sales Tax Bill. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:http://bit.ly/1zxUB3S

Drew Sanocki, a 3-time show regular, is back to have an open discussion about where we believe the world of eCommerce is headed. Drew has been involved in eCommerce since 2003 when he created his company, DesignPublic.com. Since then, he has created and ran several companies including Mineral.io and Empire Growth Group.This week, based on our prior experience, Drew and I will make educated predictions about the future of eCommerce. We will cover topics ranging from taxes and drop shipping to the fate of suburban malls. If you own an eCommerce business or plan to create one, you do not want to miss this show!  You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1lrJioG

Drew Sanocki and I talk about valuing your website and explore Drew's recent 7-figure sale.