The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

In this episode, we're talking sales automation. Specifically, how to use simple email sales funnels to automate the process of converting website visitors into new customers & repeat buyers. Catherine Langman joins us to discuss. She's the Founder and CEO of the Productpreneur Marketing. Her passion is to help entrepreneurs with eCommerce businesses businesses to be more successful and in control, by helping them to attract their ideal customers and sell more products online - on autopilot. Having previously launched, built and sold an award-winning business eCommerce business herself, and combined with a career in branding and digital design agencies, Catherine has extensive professional experience in product development, brand communications and online marketing for product-based businesses. As a marketing consultant, Catherine has helped her clients to achieve massive growth in their own businesses. You'll Learn What is a sales funnel? What do we mean by automation? How to attract new people to your list with unconventional lead magnets How a three email sequence converts new subscribers into customers How a four email post-purchase customer service sequence ensure happys customers Tune in for more details! Resources Steal Catherine's automated email follow-up system to sell more products in your ecommerce store. catherinelangman.com Productpreneur Marketing Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Learn Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”

In this episode, you'll learn how to use content marketing to get traffic to your store, specifically, when it works, when it doesn't, and patterns we've noticed in successful content. The warm and knowledgeable Devesh Khanal joins us to discuss it. Devesh runs Grow & Convert, a content marketing agency producing magazine quality, in-depth blog content for companies. He's full of practical advice that anyone can implement to drive more qualified traffic to their store. I asked him... What are the different types of "content marketing" that ecommerce store owners could do? Are there ecommerce stores or brands where you think content marketing isn't a good idea? For blog content, how should you come up with ideas of what to write? Who should you hire to do this for you? Should the owner do it themselves? Tune in for more details! Resources Grow & Convert Rev BuzzSumo SurveyMonkey Hotjar Qualaroo Google Keyword Planner Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Learn Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”

Why is copywriting so hard? It took me years to figure it out. The answer is likely mindset. There are a few mental hurdles you need to get over if you're going to write effective web copy that converts. (And you should, optimizing copy can do more for your conversion rate than any other tactic.) To help us break it down, fellow podcaster David Garfinkel joins us. David mentors business owners and professional copywriters to go from good to great! Many of his clients have created websites, sales letters, and ads that have made millions, both for themselves and others. David's the author of the bestselling book "Breakthrough Copywriting," and has written copy himself that has made millions of dollars. His all-time record was a sales letter for a six-person company that generated $40 million in sales. David also hosts the popular Copywriters Podcast. You'll Learn If you’re new to copywriting, what are the key things you need to know to make your copy convert? If you have copy that’s not converting now, what can you do to get it working? If you have copy that’s converting and you’d like it to work better, what can you do to improve conversions? What are some resources (free, as well as lower investment and higher investment) a marketer can use to become better at putting together copy that converts? Tune in for more details! Resources Breakthrough Copywriting: How To Generate Quick Cash With The Written Word Copywriters Podcast High Speed Copywriting (DVD and workbook seminar) Have David critique your copy Garfinkel Coaching Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Learn Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”

In this episode, you'll learn how to think about launching lean, staying nimble, and growing fast! Galen King from O.G. Shopify agency Lucid joins us to discuss a practical strategic approach to launching new brands on Shopify. Galen King is the founder and creative director of Lucid, a small digital agency with offices in New Zealand and New York City. One of the first Shopify Partners, he's been dabbling with Shopify since 2006 and have designed and built many stores as well as side-projects—both on Shopify and elsewhere. You'll Learn Why Galen thinks you should probably start with this one free theme The danger of 3rd party themes Where to invest resources How far ahead should you plan? And how should you approach it in a practical way? How does "authentic storytelling" fit into the lean launch plan? How important is design? When launching a new site on Shopify, what should you focus on? Tune in for more details! Resources Lucid Debut Theme Venture Theme Bootstrapify Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

For many merchants, design is the single hardest part of setting up and running a Shopify store. Chris Pointer of Pointer Creative has 16+ years of design experience. His agency works exclusively on Shopify and has produced custom themes for the NY Times, Death Wish Coffee, and others. In this episode, he teaches us how to approach design, communicate what we want to designers, and when & why to go totally custom. You'll Learn Why design matters and what makes it hard How to make talking about design easier Ways to work better with a designer or agency When & why to go custom and what it'll cost Tune in for more details! Resources Pointer Creative Custom Theme Example: Power On, Power Off Commerce Cream Design Gallery Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Whether you're a wholesaler looking to start selling to your customers online, a manufacturer wanting to increase the orders coming through your website, or an online retailer looking to branch out into B2B sales, today's episode will take you through the key considerations to making B2B eCommerce a success for your business. Today's guest, Chloë Thomas, is an eCommerce expert focused on eCommerce strategy and marketing, to help eCommerce people make better decisions as they build their path to success. Author of several books, keynote speaker, advisor, and host of the eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast. Her latest book is an Amazon.com bestseller – B2B eCommerce MasterPlan: How to make Wholesale eCommerce A key part of your business to Business Sales Growth. You'll Learn What is B2B eCommerce, and why should we care? How does B2B vs B2C mindset differ? How does B2B vs B2C website differ? Who is this an opportunity for? How can you be successful in B2B eCommerce? Tune in for more details! Resources First 2 chapters of B2B eCommerce MasterPlan for free: eCommerceMasterPlan.com Ramp T-shirts Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Grow Your Store in 2018 Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store. Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

If coming up with a good product idea is hard, then turning it into a successful brand is harder. Nicholas Galekovic, the entrepreneur behind Beard King, joins us to discuss a journey that went from his bathroom, to Shark Tank, to a viral-success product that has resulted in a seven-figure business in less than five years. In today's episode, Nicholas Galekovic walks through his journey bootstrapping for "sink share" with his flagship product, the Beard Bib. You'll Learn The "ah-ha" moment where he found his problem and how a competitor almost stopped him before he started. How he launched his product on Instagram and the 20 million views of viral success that followed. How he got on SharkTank and what they're looking for. Why Beard King is equal parts lifestyle brand and product company. Why Amazon is the wild west of ecommerce The Beard King's advice for aspiring entreprenuers Tune in for more details! Resources Beard King Shark Tank Story Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

"Is dropshipping dead?" That was one of the most common questions I got toward the end of the last year. Here's the thing– I don't know! Is it? Why are you asking me? There are certainly people more suited to answer this than me. To find out, we're talking to Tomas Slimas, Chief Marketing Officer at Oberlo. He should know– Oberlo users have dropshipped more than 100 million products during the last 24 months. In today's episode, you'll learn the answer, as well as what it takes to become a successful dropshipper, and even how dropshipping can scale your existing store. You'll Learn Is dropshipping dead? What successful dropshippers know What advantages does drop shipping have? How do you choose which products to sell? Are there specific risks to dropshipping? How can Oberlo help you build and even scale your store? Tune in for more details! Resources Oberlo Tomas on Twitter Tomas on LinkedIn Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Doing business online without retaining an Internet lawyer is the equivalent of playing Russian Roulette– things tend not to end well. The days of the Internet being the Wild West are long gone. The empire is striking back! You need an experienced Internet attorney to guide you through the ever-growing collection of newly enacted laws and regulations governments are launching to address online legal issues. In this episode, Richard Chapo, a business lawyer with a sense of humor and 25 years of experience, walks us through business entity formation, copyright and trademark registration and enforcement, DMCA compliance, and the one thing you need to know about your Privacy Policy. You'll Learn When starting, choosing between sole proprietorship, S-Corp, or LLC. Why the S-corp and LLC just became more attractive as business models. The importance of a CPA How do you use the DMCA to keep people from stealing your content? What does a lawsuit cost? How to tackle copyright infringement when it goes overseas When infringement can be a positive What you need to know about your Privacy Policy Tune in for more details! Resources SoCalInternetLawyer.com Hiscox Insurance Bench Shopify DMCA Notice & Takedown Procedure Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Ever wonder what it's like to be married to an entrepreneur? Or how a self-employed couple make it work and what the potential pitfalls may be? My wife and I both are business owners who work together, and we make it work, but not without a few key considerations. In this bonus episode, my wife and I discuss our unconventional relationship from our bedroom. You'll learn The one trick to know when to make your side hustle your full-time job How self-employed couples make it work When businesses let accounts receivable ruin them (and what to do about it) Resources JustTellJulie.com @Julie_Elster Kurt & Julie's "wedsite" Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter or Facebook. Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

If you've ever had a brilliant million dollar idea for a product, you've wondered, "How do I get it manufactured?" To do that, you'll need to find a manufacturer who will work with you. And that's where the nightmare starts for many entrepreneurs. That's when you discover that for most people it's a web of miscommunications, middlemen, and missed deadlines. So how do you do it right? How do you avoid the pitfalls that have befallen so many crowdfunded products? Our guest today has brought dozens of products to market, run three ecommerce companies (sold one), and been a part of projects on Kickstarter raising over seven figures. Nathan Resnick joins us today from his new company, Sourcify, a platform that makes manufacturing easy. Having helped hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world, Nathan is going to discuss with us how to find, vet, and build a relationship with a factory so that you can turn your idea into a real product. Learn: How to vet a factory Nathan's approach to dropshipping How to build relationships with factories And why you may be in competition with factories in the near future Tune in for more details! Links Mentioned: Sourcify Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter or Facebook. Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

As you grow your business, you'll soon need to start delegating things. First is usually fulfillment, and soon after is customer support. So how do you get customer support off of your plate while providing an amazing experience for your customers? The answer might be automation. I first met today's guest while speaking at the Day With Shopify tour, and immediately knew that he'd made something special. Romain Lapeyre joins us today to discuss customer support automation. After all, he cofounded a customer support automation platform, raised $1.5 million, and niched down on Shopify in the process. Their product, Gorgias, helps Shopify merchants manage all their support requests in one place, and automatically respond to common questions. You'll Learn Why is customer support important? How can you automate customer service right now? How do you automate it without angering customers? Should merchants try to automate all of their support? Where is the limit? Tune in for more details! Resources Gorgias.io Gorgias in the Shopify App Store Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter or Facebook. Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

The hardest part of building a brand is often attracting an audience. After all, if no one has heard of you, how will you sell to them? That’s why it’s been no surprise to me that over the last two years, I’ve helped quite a few successful Amazon sellers expand onto Shopify. Starting in a marketplace like Amazon customers find you more easily, and rapidly validate your product-market fit. Once validated, you can then leverage Amazon to grow your Shopify store. But it’s not all roses and sunshine. There are some issues too. Today’s guest is a successful Amazon seller, Shopify merchant, and former Amazon FBA consultant. Noah Deligio will tell us, form his personal experience, how best to leverage both Amazon and Shopify for your business. You'll learn: What is Amazon FBA? How can you leverage both platforms? What are the pitfalls of Amazon vs Shopify? Resources How to Sell on Amazon Using Shopify Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter or Facebook. Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

When starting out with your store, most folks struggle to get their first sale. Then, if you do find your product-market fit, and get traction in your niche, you set your sites on growing to your first million dollars in revenue. And if you can get there, you’d feel pretty great. Now what if I told you our guest today got to a million dollars in revenue in a few months on a single new product launch with pre-orders. Pretty wild, right? On today’s episode, we’ll pull back the curtain on this monumental success. Andy Bedell is the head of marketing for KeySmart, one of Shopifys largest e-commerce stores. He is an experienced advertiser and email marketer with over $20 million in revenue under his belt. In addition to KeySmart, Andy has consulted advertising agencies, other eCommerce stores, and several Kickstarter campaigns. Before entering the eCommerce world he ran advertising for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Executive Education department. You'll learn: How they got into a partnership with Tile How Andy approached business development through partnerships How did the crowdfund model helped with their campaign The pros & cons of crowdfunding on your Shopify store vs going with Kickstarter Tune in for more details! Resources KeySmart Pro Product Page Crowdfunder KeySmart FB Video Ads Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter or Facebook. Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

You already know Facebook is the #1 acquisition channel for your online business. We’re seeing clients with 4-6x returns on ad spend using Facebook ads. But Facebook is a rapidly evolving platform. It seems like new features are being added every day. So what should we ad types and features should you be looking to use to grow your Shopify store as we start 2018? Joining us to discuss is Facebook ads guru Mojca Zove. Mojca is a Facebook Ads expert, author, and international speaker. Her work focuses on helping multimillion-dollar businesses generate more leads and increase profits with a carefully developed Facebook Advertising Strategy, so they can devote their time to other aspects of their business. She’s also the author of the Facebook Ads Manual: Everything You Need To Know To Get Started and the creator of The Facebook Ads Academy. Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: The essential Facebook Ads Strategy for an ecommerce business Facebook’s most important new features for merchants The best ad types for Shopify stores Links Mentioned: Get Mojca’s free Facebook ads email course Super Spicy Media Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

On Shopify, fashion & apparel is the largest vertical. It’s always one of the most difficult. One threat fashion retailers face is purchasing too much inventory. The solution that many merchants choose to avoid inventory issues is dropshipping. It’s inexpensive, accessible, and easy… depending on the products you want to send. If you’re looking for licensed products like pop culture apparel, it can be challenging to find authentic goods to sell. That’s where Hingeto’s MXED comes in. MXED allows you to quickly and easily sell officially licensed pop culture products within your Shopify store. It’s a game changer. Leandrew Robinson, co-founder of Hingeto, joins us to talk inventory risk, the future of drop shipping, and Marshawn Lynch. Hingeto builds tech solutions to help clothing retailers grow their sales without inventory risk. Early customers included PacSun and Marshawn Lynch's Beastmode. Before Hingeto, Leandrew helped 500 fashion brands make 1/2 a billion in revenue, in his 6 year stint as founder of flash sale site PLNDR.com & Chief Strategy Officer of Karmaloop. Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: How running a flash sale site showed him the problem with fashion inventory What to do if you bought too much inventory? How a new app can add real licensed to product to your store in a few clicks. (This is a game changer.) How Leandrew gained Marshawn Lynch’s Beastmode as client Marshawn Lynch’s most admirable quality as an entrepreneuer. How long is too long to hold inventory Links Mentioned: Hingeto MXED App Beast Mode Apparel Drive More Sales with a Same-Day Shipping Countdown Timer Give customers another reason to buy with our simple to use, professional-looking shipping countdown timer. ☞ Start your free 7-day trial

We’ve talked often on this show about the importance of emails. But leveraging emails as a marketing channel requires having a list of customers and prospects to send those emails to. So what do you do? The answer is pop-ups. In this episode, we discuss best practices and benchmarks for pop-ups with the founder of popular pop-up app Privy, Ben Jabbawy. Through Ben’s leadership, he has helped grow Privy to support over 200,000 marketers in 180 countries. His data-driven approach to lead capture and on-site personalization has helped brands like UNIQLO, The Beatles, The Ellen Degeneres Show, and now you. Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: The gap in your funnel that’s fixed by pop-ups The difference between advanced pop-ups and a basic pop-up Use cases, offers, and stats for pop-ups How to use pop-ups without angering Google The #1 factor that affects conversion rate The most effective formats and triggers for pop-ups Links Mentioned: Privy Academy Privy for Shopify Drive More Sales with a Same-Day Shipping Countdown Timer Give customers another reason to buy with our simple to use, professional-looking shipping countdown timer. ☞ Start your free 7-day trial

As founder and chief optimizer at GetUplift, Talia Wolf uses emotion, customer-centric research and persuasive design to generate more revenues, leads and sales for businesses. Recently listed as one of the most influential experts in conversion optimization, Talia is a conversion optimization specialist, trainer and keynote speaker. Today she’ll teach us her emotional targeting methodology and why it works so well in increasing conversions. Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: The emotional targeting methodology to increase conversions Why best practices suck The trap of copying competitors How to profile customers Why we buy The myths of conversion rate optimization Why color psychology is total rubbish Links Mentioned: GetUplift.co CRO Resources The Complete List of Psychological Triggers DIY Landing Page Optimization Worksheet @taligw Live Training Drive More Sales with a Same-Day Shipping Countdown Timer Give customers another reason to buy with our simple to use, professional-looking shipping countdown timer. ☞ Start your free 7-day trial

As your store grows, you will inevitably have to hire freelancers, consultants, or employees for your tech team. It can be an intimidating process that leaves you struggling to keep projects on track. You don’t have to learn how to be a great manager the hard way. Our guest today wants to help you level up faster. Marcus Blankenship gets paid to coach overwhelmed technical managers. He's managed a variety of teams and is going to talk us through how to hire better. Today’s episode will leave you feeling dramatically more confident and capable in hiring for your Shopify team, and you’ll see better performance from your team. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: The number one mistake store owners make when hiring freelancers What red flags to work for? Why we’re more forgiving at the beginning of the relationship What’s the most important attribute to look for when hiring a freelancers? When to use a “reset conversation” How to set expectations The questions to ask to ensure a project goes well Why questions are a part of any professional doing their job responsibily How can you be sure you won’t get screwed How & why to avoid The Winner’s Curse Links Mentioned: MarcusBlankenship.com Join Marcus' list and learn how to manage with his free newsletter Recommended Reading: Crucial Conversations Recommended Reading: Humble Inquiry 2017 Ecommerce Holiday Email Marketing Guide Are you putting off creating a holiday email marketing plan because planning emails is a chore? In this no-fluff executive summary, you'll learn every opportunity to send holiday emails, how to write subject lines that get opened, how many emails to send to maximize revenue, and one tip to not annoy customers. ☞ Get the 2017 Ecommerce Holiday Email Marketing Guide now If you are less than 100% satisfied with your purchase and email me saying so, I will immediately click the Refund button and return 100% of your money, no questions asked.

One of the most successful Shopify businesses I've run across doesn't sell any physical goods at all. They sell digital goods and did $1 million in revenue in their first year. Joining us to share his journey is Gary Martin, the co-founder of RGG EDU, a documentary based production company that specializes in the most comprehensive photography & Photoshop tutorials in the world. After turning down a lucrative job opportunity on Apple's Cupertino software development team, Gary decided to launch his own career in photography and never work for anyone again. Within a few years, he again made the dramatic decision to ditch client services and instead go on a journey to create the world's best and highest quality educational content. Three years after launching their store on Shopify, they are recognized as one of the premier educational resources for photography. We are in 150 countries worldwide, have the best photography podcast on the internet, and get to travel the world and learn from the best photographers in the world. Listen now... — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: How they use conferences and the “Netflix effect” to create content marketing How having a clear position statement helped drive their business Why having a business partnership has worked to grow their business How they marketed their first products successfully on social media The advantages of joint venture products Exactly how they automate product delivery Gary's advice for all Shopify store owners Links Mentioned: RGG EDU The RGG EDU Podcast Calendly Conversio FetchApp SurveyMonkey The Complete Guide To Product Photography & Retouching 2017 Ecommerce Holiday Email Marketing Guide Are you putting off creating a holiday email marketing plan because planning emails is a chore? In this no-fluff executive summary, you'll learn every opportunity to send holiday emails, how to write subject lines that get opened, how many emails to send to maximize revenue, and one tip to not annoy customers. ☞ Get the 2017 Ecommerce Holiday Email Marketing Guide now If you are less than 100% satisfied with your purchase and email me saying so, I will immediately click the Refund button and return 100% of your money, no questions asked.

In 2012, Doug Geiger stole his wife’s crockpot, bought $400 worth of lanolin while already in debt, and powered through his own self-doubt and anxiety to start his beard care company. Today, Doug’s products can be found in over 150 stores nationwide. Doug is not only the founder of Can You Handlebar he is the driving force behind the company and its myriad endeavors. Having found success with Can You Handlebar, Doug does what he can when he can to encourage that success in others. In this episode, he walks us through both his journey and his mindset for success. If you’re looking for the secret sauce to building a durable business that supports the life you want, you’ll want to hear what Doug believes is a realistic & sustainable approach to achieve that dream. Listen now. Then join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group and comment with your biggest “Ah-ha” moment or take away from this episode, and you could win $150 in Can You Handlebar products! — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: Doug’s mindset for success How Doug went from idea to product “If you can’t tap into your virtue, then tap into your vices” How Doug powered through anxiety and self-doubt The mistakes Doug made in their first two years (and how you can avoid them.) The first way he created working revenue for the business How he got his products in hundreds of stores nationwide. How to make your success inevitable Links Mentioned: Can You Handlebar Kurt’s Shopify Case Study Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday Shop Can You Handlebar’s products and use KURTSDISCOUNT to get 15% off Win $150 giveaway from Can You Handlebar: Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group and comment with your biggest “Ah-ha” moment or take away from this episode, and you could win $150 in Can You Handlebar products!

Do you feel overwhelmed? In discussions and surveys from Shopify store owners and listeners of this show, we’ve learned one thing: you feel overwhelmed. That’s the number one answer to the question, “What’s the number one problem you’re facing with your Shopify store right now?” In today’s episode, I sat down with an author who was instrumental in the success of my business. You’ve heard me recommend Sean D’Souza’s book, The Brain Audit, has been frequently on this show, and it was my honor to learn Sean’s approach to productivity. Speaking with him, it became clear that he’s as disciplined as he is relaxed. His mindset to overcoming overwhelm is both inventive and actionable. Sean takes three months of vacation every year and yet is one of the most productive people I’ve met. Whether you’re feeling stressed or just plain stuck, Sean’s advice could change the way you’re building your business and even living life. Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: Why being busy isn’t a status symbol How rest can improve your productivity Why you need downtime built into your work & life Recognizing the difference between being overwhelmed & distracted Sean’s “Bare Minimum” approach to projects Setting triggers instead of alarms The importance of accountability Why do people fail Links Mentioned chronologically: The Brain Audit: Free Excerpt Sean’s Website, Psycho Tactics Check out Sean’s podcast, The Three-Month Vacation Podcast 2017 Ecommerce Holiday Email Marketing Guide Are you putting off creating a holiday email marketing plan because planning emails is a chore? In this no-fluff executive summary, you'll learn every opportunity to send holiday emails, how to write subject lines that get opened, how many emails to send to maximize revenue, and one tip to not annoy customers. ☞ Get the 2017 Ecommerce Holiday Email Marketing Guide now If you are less than 100% satisfied with your purchase and email me saying so, I will immediately click the Refund button and return 100% of your money, no questions asked.il-flow-automation/)

If you listen to this show, you probably doing some email marketing for your Shopify store. One problem: so does everyone else. It's tough to stand out, and it's certainly tough to innovate with new campaign ideas that achieve meaningful results. In today's episode, we'll do some outside the box thinking to build growth into your ecommerce email campaigns. Joining us to discuss it is Shanelle Mullin from Shopify. She’s a content creator who helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses faster. She's a jill-of-all-trades marketer with a 10-year background in content marketing and optimization. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: What are the ecommerce growth multipliers and why do they matter? The formula for increasing with revenue without spending more on traffic How to increase average order value How to increase customer lifetime value A data-driven approach to email marketing Four email campaigns you can start running today Links Mentioned chronologically: 4 Little-Known Ecommerce Email Campaigns You Can Steal to Grow Faster Drew Sanocki’s Need Marketing Bold Apps Product Upsell Bold Brain 9 Google Analytics Custom Reports by the Experts Klaviyo Free Trial @Shanelle_Mullin Shanelle’s Shopify Articles Black Friday is around the corner Are you prepared? Adding email marketing automation to your store can help make this your best holiday season ever: ☞ https://ethercycle.com/pricing/email-flow-automation/ 2017 Ecommerce Holiday Email Marketing Guide Are you putting off creating a holiday email marketing plan because planning emails is a chore? In this no-fluff executive summary, you'll learn every opportunity to send holiday emails, how to write subject lines that get opened, how many emails to send to maximize revenue, and one tip to not annoy customers. ☞ Get the 2017 Ecommerce Holiday Email Marketing Guide now If you are less than 100% satisfied with your purchase and email me saying so, I will immediately click the Refund button and return 100% of your money, no questions asked.ok")

The archetypal internet startup story is this: two room mates start a website out of their dorm room, and rapidly become so successful, going to college doesn't even make sense anymore. I've yet to meet anyone who fit that mold, until now. Six years ago, Max Zitney and his twin brother, Zach, started selling beef jerky with $1,200 and a website from their Ohio State University apartment as college sophomores. In 2015, JerkyXP was selected as one of 20 Chase Mission Main Street grant recipients (from more than 30,000 applicants) to receive $100,000. Six months ago, they sold their business to focus on a new B2B ecommerce venture. So how did they do it? What happened between then and now? In this episode, Max lays out their journey and the exact strategies they used to the grow (and exit) their business. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: How they bootstrapped an ecommerce business from a college apartment The exact strategy they used to turn Twitter followers into buyers The hidden fees to watch out for when choosing a 3PL Why they switched to Facebook Live for social media promotion When they knew to sell their business Links Mentioned chronologically: JerkyXP @JerkyXP @JackTheCEO Ships-a-Lot Black Friday is around the corner Are you prepared? My done-for-you Facebook Sales Funnels can help make this your best holiday season ever: ☞ https://ethercycle.com/pricing/facebook-sales-funnel/

If you’ve ever worked with me on something, then you know I love automation. All kinds of automation. My house is loaded with home automation gadgets, and my business has been built on marketing automation. Why? Because it saves time, keeps me efficient, and is all-around convenient. Automation never sleeps. Which is why at last year’s Shopify Unite, there was one feature announcement in particular that piqued my interest. We were shown a new feature that would allow you to create automation workflows right in your Shopify admin. It was called Flow, and I was very excited to try it. Adding automation to your business represents a potentially tremendous revenue boost for ecommerce stores. Research shows that business automation leads to more productivity and higher revenues. On September 18th, Flow left beta and was published publicly in the Shopify App Store for any Plus customer to use. But should you use it? What can you do with it? To find out, we’ll talk to two people on both sides of the table about their Flow experience. First, we’ll hear from David Moellenkamp, the Director of Product at Shopify Plus, about how they’ve built Flow to solve the problems of Shopify’s highest volume merchants (and what their vision for Flow is long-term.) Then we’ll hear from Michelle Frey-Tarbox, the backend guru at Shinesty who will tell us about her experience with Flow and how it helped her as she operationally supported Shinesty’s brand growth from launch to $5M in 3 years. If you aren’t exploring automation now, you’re going to be outpaced quickly by competitors. In this episode, we’ll learn how to use Shopify Flow’s automation can make your everyday processes wildly more efficient. Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: What is ecommerce automation? What is Shopify Flow? What are some of the benefits of Flow? How is Flow delivering on ecommerce automation? What are some examples of Flow? What are some of the results Shinesty has experienced using Flow? How has Flow impacted Shinesty? Links Mentioned chronologically: What Is Ecommerce Automation? Shopify Flow Kurt’s Plus info Shinesty

If there’s one industry that’s harder than most to market, it’s fashion. Why is it so intrinsically difficult to market a fashion store? And if we know why, what can we do about it? Joining us to break it down is Jacklyn Deans. Jacklyn Deans is the Founder and Principal eCommerce Consultant at Flash + Color. Flash + Color helps Fashion, Beauty, and Lifestyle brands establish and expand their businesses online. With over 15 years of eCommerce and Digital Marketing experience, she advises brands on how to exponentially increase sales, boost engagement, and create loyal customers. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: What are the top mistakes Fashion, Beauty, and Lifestyle eCommerce businesses make? Why & how you NEED to create great buyer personas? Jacklyn’s secret for getting market research for free. Why is it so important to make a Marketing Calendar for your business? What are the elements of a good marketing Calendar? Links Mentioned chronologically: Jacklyn’s Flash & Color IBISWorld Mintel Reports Jacklyn’s Free Buyer Persona Worksheet Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

In the last several years, big data has been a buzzword. But big data is just that: big. It can be overwhelming. Today we’re going to talk about small data: customer research. Customer research is vital to high-impact marketing. Let’s say you’ve found something gone awry in your Google Analytics. A page that underperforms, what do you do about it? That’s where Customer Research and “small data” can be immensely valuable. Josh Frank of TestingTriggers.com joins us today to talk us through it. For years, Josh has been been working with eCommerce companies to optimize their websites for higher revenue using a blend of marketing and technical expertise to improve conversion rates. Josh formerly headed up ecommerce teams and worked to pioneer testing cultures within organizations. Now, he works exclusively on getting eCommerce stores more profit through profitable customer research and a/b testing. Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: What is customer research? The simplest approach to start with customer research What to look for (and what to do with) your research What’s holding you back from doing customer research Josh’s favorite tool for customer research Example site polls to run Links Mentioned chronologically: TestTriggers.com Kurt’s Order Confirmation Template Hotjar Josh’s user research templates and scripts Hotjar extended 90-day trial @joshfrank Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

It’s 2017, forget about flying cars, where are our smart clothes? Today’s guest is making smarter clothes Peter Netzel of Kelvin Techstyles joins us today to discuss his journey. He drops a megaton knowledge bomb regarding sourcing and manufacturing products through Alibaba. If you’ve ever considered having a product manufactured, but didn’t know where to start, Peter makes it sound easy. Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: Peter’s advice for “frugal innovation” Why limitations can create innovation The false constraint holding you back Realistic manufacturing options for entreprenuers Why Peter did the opposite of Kickstarter How to source product with a “shotgun approach” Where to be careful when working with manufacturers The different types of manufacturers Optimizing your Amazon ranking Links Mentioned: Kelvin Techstyles Kelvin Techstyles on Amazon Alibaba Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

If this show had a mantra, it might be "People buy from people, not brands." I've certainly said it enough times because I believe firmly in the power of selling H2H, human to human. I've seen solopreneuer stores try so hard to make themselves look bigger than they are, and we see right through it. Hey, I did the same thing when I started my own business eight years ago. But one of the turning points that leveled up our business was when I got out in front of as the face of the brand. It's something I've seen as a common characteristic of successful online brands And today's guest does a great job at it. He was on our show last summer as well after moving his store onto Shopify and experiencing explosive growth after a successful free plus shipping campaign. Now he's back to update us how his business grown in the last year through his personal video content marketing Joining us today is Beav Brodie from Tactical Baby Gear. Beav developed Tactical Baby Gear and brought it to market in 2013 using Instagram as a platform to promote and sell it initially. He came from a 15 year career as a custom car builder and knew some, but very little about e-commerce, and had to learn everything on his own The results have been extraordinary Listen now. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: Beav’s approach to video Why you shouldn’t sell directly How to know what content to provide Why it builds trust & loyalty Why you should build a reputation, not a personal brand What you need to get started How to keep it real (and why it matters) Why you need to get out of your own What gear to use (and why you should buy a mic first) Beav’s answer to the number one question he gets to work/life balance Links Mentioned: Tactical Baby Gear Tactical Baby Gear on Facebook Rode Lapel Mic Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Last week we heard from Kaleigh Moore on ecommerce trends that will optimize your store in preparation for Black Friday One of the suggestions from that episode that got most excited was the idea of a buyer’s guide– specifically having customers segment themselves into new vs returning customers by offering a buyer’s guide on the home page. That’s a simple but powerful example of customer segmentation. Right now, nearly all websites treat all visitors the same. But our customers aren’t the same. If we can segment them based on their interests and actions, then we can personalize their experience, and make our marketing much more relevant to them. To discuss the realities of personalization, is RightMessage founder Brennan Dunn. RightMessage is a software company that helps bring on-site personalization to the masses. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: What is segmentation and why do we care? The Facebook Ads tactic to improve segmentation The Black Friday segmentation strategy Brennan used to 4x his sales with no list growth How to start implementing segmentation in Shopify How segmenting can improve your reports Brennan’s one high-value takeaway for store owners Links Mentioned: RightMessage $100 off The Personalization Masterclass DoubleYourFreelancing Don't Make Me Think Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Full Transcript:

The year is half over, which means the holidays will be upon us before we know it. The summer, right now, is the time to start preparing for the holidays. One way to prepare is to look at what’s working for other ecommerce retailers and cherry pick those ideas for your own brand. Joining us to discuss several actionable example of revenue-boosting trends is Kaleigh Moore. Kaleigh is a freelance writer specializing in eCommerce. Since 2013, she's been working with various eCommerce platforms and publications like Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur to highlight the best practices, new data, and rapid growth associated with online sales. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: Top trends for ecommerce What your product page needs to convert What to do when products go out of stock How to increase Average Order Value The importance of segmentation and buyer’s guides Which trend to start with Kaleigh’s one tip for store owners Links Mentioned: Recycled Firefighter Product Page While Supplies Last Madewell KaleighMoore.com @kaleighf Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Everyone wants better ranking but that’s not really what they want. Stores want more traffic. They want that because it leads to sales. Sales is what really matters. All of SEO is just a marketing channel to get more visitors who turn into customers. The main FIX for SEO is better rankings What if there was a way to get more sales with the existing rankings you already have? How? By convincing more searchers to click on your search listings. More clicks == more traffic == more sales. What we’re talking about today is a search enhancement in Google called Rich Snippets, specifically Product Rich Snippets. They enhance your existing search results with more data and pixels. Eric Davis joins us today to walk us through it in easy to understand terms. Eric is founder of Little Stream Software, which helps Shopify entrepreneurs customize their Shopify stores using public and private Shopify Apps. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: Why we should invest in structured data What structured data does How it affects your appearance in search results When and why Google might rewrite your title and descriptions What Google’s motivations are Which rich snippets are available to help you sell more When you may not want to use semantic markup And how to test for it and use it in your store today How to get in touch with Eric for a free review of your structured data Links Mentioned: Newsletter: Eric’s Daily Shopify Tips Google Structured Data Testing Tool App: JSON-LD for SEO Article: Uncover all of your Shopify store’s rich snippets with this one search Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Full Transcript: Kurt Elster: Recording from Ethercycle Headquarters outside Chicago, this is the unofficial Shopify Podcast and I’m your host Kurt Elster. Today, let’s take a little trip down memory lane. I recall we were doing a lot of just web development, front end development stuff, really exciting, back in say 2012. That feels like a lifetime ago already, maybe 2011. There was a lot of talk about this thing called semantic data or structured HTML or structured data, semantic HTML. Basically, the World Wide Web consortium who makes these standards that we used to development websites came up with whole bunch of fun HTML tags to try and describe the content of a site to robots essentially for Google’s benefit. We would wrap our content in these fancy tags and then ideally Google would understand, “This is what this stuff does,” or what this is about. In theory, we would all go along with it, because by implementing this, by going through the effort of adding in this extra code to describe your page to Google, you would get more relevant results, more relevant search queries, better qualified traffic. There’s a whole host of reasons to do it. It was really exciting. We’re going to have structure data for just about everything you could come up with. It never really went anywhere. For two reasons, there’s a lot of work for people and because Google got much better at figuring out what it was looking at. It did survive in one vertical and that’s ecommerce. They still have this stuff for reviews and for product data. It’s still out there. Where you’ve got these extra HTML tags that are going tell Google when it looks at a product page, “This is what’s on here.” Then it could do all kinds of cool stuff with that data. We’ve got, ideally, this great SEO benefit and opportunity from this fairly straightforward technical thing that we can implement in Shopify themes. Why would we do it and why do we engage in SEO or even talk about this or mess with it? Well, it’s because everybody, every store owner wants better rankings. Isn’t that really what they want? What they want is more traffic to the store? Well, do you really want more traffic? No. You want more sales, sales is what really matters. All of SEO is just a marketing channel to get more visitors who turn into customers. The main fix for SEO is better rankings, but what if we could get more sales with existing rankings you already have, so we don’t have to mess with getting more backlinks or trying to con Google into pushing our rankings up. Well, using this rich snippet data, in theory, we could get more qualified traffic and increase our click-through rate. There’s one issue here, I don’t entirely understand the concept. There’s a lot of nuance in this, so I have brought our friend back who’s been on the show before, Eric Davis. He was here almost exactly a year ago talking about his suite of Shopify apps. He has a new one that does exactly this, that adds this structure data to your Shopify store. Eric is joining us. He

In speaking with Shopify entrepreneurs, there are definite patterns that appear in successful stores A common one is having a product that solves a pain or problem for people Today’s guest sells one product that solves a literal pain and has been tremendously successful doing so If you’ve ever worn high heels, you know there are designed for style over comfort That’s where Vivian Lou comes in. Vivian Lou is a brand that promises to allow women to wear high heels four times longer without pain. Joining me is Vivian Lou’s president, Abby Walker. Abby’s entrepreneurial journey started 3 years ago after she picked up the phone and asked one simple question. She launched her company as a hobby business (while being a full time working mom of two kids.) Since then, her flagship product - an insole for high heels - has been featured in O! Magazine, Real Simple and USA TODAY. It’s also been featured on The View and is sold on HSN. In May 2016, she quit her full-time job to pursue her dream and has covered her lost corporate salary (and then some) since November 2016. In today’s episode, Abby will explain her journey and the mindset shifts that enabled her success. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: How Abby frames selling How she found her product idea Her journey from side hustle to full-time job How she got on HSN (and what that relationship looks like) Why she uses a long-form sales page (and how it converts) Abby’s success tips for new entreprenuers Links Mentioned: Vivian Lou - Use code UNOFFICIAL at checkout to save 20% off (Good through July 2017) HARO Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

If you own a tablet or iPad, you’ve probably shopped for a case for it. And if you bought a case for it, did you ever run across beautiful leather cases that looked like books? If so, you and I have the same taste. Pad & Quill makes those luxurious cases. Our guest today is Brian Holmes, President, and owner of Pad & Quill. He started the business in 2010 with his wife, Kari. It was a desire to create exceptionally crafted luxury accessories (rather than profits) that motivated Holmes when he chose to start the business with a budget of just over $1,000. Pad and Quill is the tale of a shop formed with bookbinders, carpenters, a painter and a working mom coming together to create beautiful handmade iPad/iPhone cases, leather bags, and other dry goods. In this episode, we dive into his seven-year journey in ecommerce and discover what he’s learned along the way. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn: How Pad & Quill got started Their direct approach to launching the brand Why you should embrace your passion The advantage of lifetime warranties How to Brian pitches the press The golden rule that governs Brian’s marketing Why he moved from Magento to Shopify Plus And his advice for entrepreneurs Links Mentioned: PadAndQuill - Use coupon code BHAPPY10 to get 10% off any product Shopify Plus Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Transcript Kurt: Hello, and welcome back to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast. I'm your host, Kurt Elster, recording from Ethercycle headquarters; about 10 minutes from O'Hare Airport, if you're familiar. And today I'm talking to a wonderful, seven year-old eCommerce store owner. Well, the store is seven years old. The owner is not seven years old, I should say, I should be specific. But we've got this app called Crowdfunder, and it's not the easiest thing to install if you're not familiar with HTML. So people ask me, "Hey Kurt, can you install this thing for me?" And I say, "Yes, of course." And in doing that, I always get to check out some interesting stores. And in this case, I said, gee this seems ... I was looking at a store, it was called Pad & Quill, and I thought, this seems awfully familiar. So I went and I searched through my email, and sure enough, I had bought an iPad case from Pad & Quill in 2011. So I reached out, and I acted like, this seemed familiar because it is familiar; I used to have your case on my first gen iPad, and I would love to hear your story. This looks like a fascinating brand, they were in the process of moving to Shopify Plus. So I wanted to hear that story. So joining me today, is Brian Holmes, who is the President/Owner of Pad & Quill. He started in 2010 with his wife, Kari. Prior to running Pad & Quill, he's a Tradesman for over 16 years; we'll find out in what. He and Kari have been married for almost 27 years. Congratulations! It is so much easier to do this with a supportive family, and doing it with family helps. But Brian, thank you for joining us. Brian: Kurt, thank you for having us on. I appreciate it, having me on. My only question is, you've only boughten one case since 2011, Kurt. What's goin on? Kurt: (laughs) Let's see, I had- Brian: (laughs) Kurt: So for the longest time I just had the standard iPad case on there. And then one of my kids dropped it on the kitchen tile floor like two or three years ago, and we have not had an iPad since. Someday. Brian: Ah. Kurt: Someday I'll get around to buying another iPad. Brian: Yes. Well, you're right I'm not seven years old, I'm almost 50, but I've been doing this for seven years. That is correct. Kurt: Very good. Brian: Yeah. Kurt: For our listeners, what is Pad & Quill? Brian: So, Pad & Quill is a, we are a luxury accessory maker. So we design and craft luxury goods for tech and play. That's kinda what we like to say. They're durable goods. They're artisan made. Those four words are very important to us. We don't wanna make anything that is going to fade away within a year and breakdown, et cetera. So all of our products come with longer warranties, and we want them to be very well made, as far as what we call good art. So when we make a product, to us, it should be both beautiful and functional. Cause you can have a lot of products out there that are really nice to look at, but they don't last, or they're really, really functional, but they're just ugly. So what we're trying to do is create these kind of beautiful leather bags, iPad cases, MacBook cases, things like that, that are unique, but also provide a function, provide a utility and are durable. They last a long time. So that's kinda

In April during our Unite coverage, I had dinner with Carson McComas, the owner of Shopify Plus agency Fuel Made, and we got to talking about our mutual love of marketing automation, and specifically Klaviyo. Now, if you’re not using Klaviyo, that’s okay. Don’t tune out, hear me out. Carson mentioned to me that they were having great success with Klaviyo to the point where they were pushing the limits of ecommerce email marketing automation. I immediately knew I had to have the rest of the conversation on this show. So I emailed Carson, and here’s what he said: “Would love have Lisa on with you. She's the bomb and knows email marketing and Klaviyo like a pro. She's generated some pretty incredible ROI for our clients like Beardbrand.” Lisa heads the email marketing department at Fuel Made, she specializes in Klaviyo Email Marketing, and she knows it like the back of her hand. She's looked through 100's of Klaviyo accounts, helping clients add tens of thousands of dollars in automated monthly revenue by setting up their triggered marketing. In this episode, LIsa Oberst is going to walk this through the very same Klaviyo email marketing automation campaigns she's used to add huge value to Shopify stores like BeardBrand. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Work with Kurt — Learn how: Why and how to start with email marketing What to do before starting with email marketing The three typical lead magnet formats Lisa uses, and how to brainstorm Lead Magnets that capture emails The safe & polite way to offer your opt-in The 3-step approach to pop-ups The basic segmentations you must have The 4-step email cart abandonment email that converts The uncommon email that converts at 9% for BeardBrand Lisa’s one-tip from Links Mentioned: Get Lisa’s Email Marketing Checklist! Klaviyo - Get your free account FuelMade BeardBrand Leno’s Garage HelloBar InkedGaming Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com Transcript Kurt Elster: Recording from Ethercycle headquarters outside Chicago. This is the unofficial Shopify Podcast and I’m your host Kurt Elster. You heard our wonderful Shopify Unite coverage, which was very exciting. One of our best, our most listened two weeks ever; 7,000 downloads something crazy. We’re going to crack a quarter million downloads. I’m really, really excited. I could not have done it without you guys. It’s amazing. It’s been a wild ride. Anyway continuing on that Unite coverage, I met with a lot of really interesting bright people there and that’s where I have been picking up some wonderful guests, was from networking at Unite. One of the first things I did, was go to a VIP dinner there and the gentleman sitting to my left at this dinner was none other than Carson McComas your Shopify Plus Agency Fuel Made. We got to talking pretty quickly about our mutual love of marketing automation and specifically Klaviyo. Now, if you’re not using Klaviyo, that’s okay, don’t turn out. Here me out here, because a lot of marketing automation principles will work across several different platforms and just that I like and endorse Klaviyo. Carson mentioned to me that they’re having great success with Klaviyo to the point where they are pushing the limits of ecommerce email marketing automation. At which point, I heard the needle scratch in my head and I immediately knew I had to hear the rest of this conversation on the show so that you could benefit from it. Of course, I want to learn too. I do most of my learning through this podcast truthfully. It’s great resource for me. I emailed Carson right away and I said, "Hey, come on the show. You’re a great person, I want to hear this." He replied, and I am quoting. He said, “I’d love to have Lisa on with you. She’s the bomb and those email marketing in Klaviyo like a pro, she’s generated some incredible return on investment for clients like Beardbrand. I could not have wrote a better intro myself. Now I know Lisa has female marketing department at Fuel Made. I’m told she specializes in Klaviyo email marketing and she knows it like the back of her hand. I believe it. She has looked through hundreds of Klaviyo accounts helping clients at tens of thousands of dollars in automated monthly revenue by signing up their triggered marketing, so Lisa, thank you for joining us. Lisa Oberst: Thank you, Kurt, great intro. I appreciate that. Kurt Elster: My pleasure. Tell me, give me briefly, give me your Klaviyo background, how did you get into this? Lisa Oberst: Sure, so about two years ago, a little bit more, I moved to L.A. and joined a three-person team that was building an agency specialized in Klaviyo. That’s really when I started my

Your pets are a part of your family, but when the adults go to work, and the kids are at school, your pets are left home alone. So what happens to them if something happens to you? That's what a 21-year-old AJ Montoya wondered. So one day he decided to solve the problem by designing a credit card sized card with his emergency contact info. That way if he were ever in an accident, sick or injured and unable to return home to care for his pet, the card would be seen in his wallet, alerting those around you that your pet needs care. Now AJ sells that same card (and more) on thepetcarecard.com– and business is good. Quit your job good. Hire your family to work for you good. And on The Unofficial Shopify Podcast, he's going to tell us how it happened, and what you should do differently. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn how: He looked to his own life to find a pain to solve They validated without having a product They got their initial sales He made the switch from side hustle to full-time Shopify storeowners He used automation to free up his time And the things he wished he could change Links: PetCareCard GraphicRiver AJ’s Facebook Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Part three of our special Shopify Unite edition of the show in which we cover many of the announcements from Unite last week by interviewing the attendees on-site. On April 20th, a thousand Shopify Partners from around the world gathered together in San Francisco for our 2nd annual Unite conference: a two-day event to discuss all things Shopify, commerce, and technology. And they announced a ton of stuff. There was something for everyone announced: new payment options, Shopify Plus features, app APIs, new theme toolkits, and more. Rather than have me tell you about it, we put together lightning interviews with twenty attendees (including Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein) to find out what's most impactful coming out of Unite. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Links: Everything We Announced at Unite 2017 (And What It Means For Merchants) Shopify Unite 2017 Youtube playlist Accelerate Checkout With Shopify Pay Introducing Launchpad: Time Saving Automation for Major Events, Campaigns, and Sales Introducing Wholesale: Your Next High Growth Sales Channel Meet the New Chip & Swipe Reader for Shopify POS Custom Storefronts - Building Commerce Anywhere Introducing: Mobile Store Builder - The Fastest (& Smartest) Way to Build a Native Mobile App Introducing Flow, Payment Scripts & Shopify Pay Building for Developer Success with Shopify's Newest APIs Recent Updates to Shopify's Online Store and Liquid Introducing Slate: A Shopify Theme Scaffold and Command Line Tool Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Part two of our special Shopify Unite edition of the show in which we cover many of the announcements from Unite last week by interviewing the attendees on-site. On April 20th, a thousand Shopify Partners from around the world gathered together in San Francisco for our 2nd annual Unite conference: a two-day event to discuss all things Shopify, commerce, and technology. And they announced a ton of stuff. There was something for everyone announced: new payment options, Shopify Plus features, app APIs, new theme toolkits, and more. Rather than have me tell you about it, we put together lightning interviews with twenty attendees (including Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein) to find out what's most impactful coming out of Unite. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Links: Everything We Announced at Unite 2017 (And What It Means For Merchants) Shopify Unite 2017 Youtube playlist Accelerate Checkout With Shopify Pay Introducing Launchpad: Time Saving Automation for Major Events, Campaigns, and Sales Introducing Wholesale: Your Next High Growth Sales Channel Meet the New Chip & Swipe Reader for Shopify POS Custom Storefronts - Building Commerce Anywhere Introducing: Mobile Store Builder - The Fastest (& Smartest) Way to Build a Native Mobile App Introducing Flow, Payment Scripts & Shopify Pay Building for Developer Success with Shopify's Newest APIs Recent Updates to Shopify's Online Store and Liquid Introducing Slate: A Shopify Theme Scaffold and Command Line Tool Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

This week we have a special Shopify Unite edition of the show in which we cover many of the announcements from Unite last week by interviewing the attendees on-site. On April 20th, a thousand Shopify Partners from around the world gathered together in San Francisco for our 2nd annual Unite conference: a two-day event to discuss all things Shopify, commerce, and technology. And they announced a ton of stuff. There was something for everyone announced: new payment options, Shopify Plus features, app APIs, new theme toolkits, and more. Rather than have me tell you about it, we put together lightning interviews with twenty attendees (including Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein) to find out what's most impactful coming out of Unite. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via Email Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Links: Everything We Announced at Unite 2017 (And What It Means For Merchants) Shopify Unite 2017 Youtube playlist Accelerate Checkout With Shopify Pay Introducing Launchpad: Time Saving Automation for Major Events, Campaigns, and Sales Introducing Wholesale: Your Next High Growth Sales Channel Meet the New Chip & Swipe Reader for Shopify POS Custom Storefronts - Building Commerce Anywhere Introducing: Mobile Store Builder - The Fastest (& Smartest) Way to Build a Native Mobile App Introducing Flow, Payment Scripts & Shopify Pay Building for Developer Success with Shopify's Newest APIs Recent Updates to Shopify's Online Store and Liquid Introducing Slate: A Shopify Theme Scaffold and Command Line Tool Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Many Shopify store owners are bootstrapped solopreneurs, which means you’re handling everything in your business. As your business grows, you may want to delegate tasks, to give yourself free time to do focus on more valuable things, or maybe you just want to work less. The first time you hire is the scariest. Where do you start? How do you train people? How should you hire? To answer these questions and more, we’re joined by Connor Gillivan, author of Free Up Your Business: 50 Secrets to Bootstrap Million Dollar Companies, founder of FreeeUp.com, and a veteran ecommerce entrepreneur who has sold over $20 million on Amazon. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: How Connor went from college dorm room entrepreneur to selling over $20 million on Amazon How he took that experience and leveraged it to build FreeeUp, online hiring marketplace for eCommerce business owners, with over 1,000 customers. How Shopify store owners can utilize remote freelancers to stay focused on what they do best and make their operations more efficient. Connor’s process for how store owners can remove tasks from their plate, surround themselves with experts, and keep pushing the company forward with their expertise. And why it’s okay to take a trial and error approach Links: FreeeUp.com - company Connor's Personal Blog Free Up Your Business: 50 Secrets to Bootstrap Million Dollar Companies Connor's Facebook Connor's Twitter Connor's LinkedIn Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Logan Ketterling is a 20-year-old entrepreneur from Minneapolis who combined his passions for fashion, storytelling, and online marketing to launch a successful jewelry business. Logan's brand Urbain creates unique pieces from places of significance such as historic sites or local hotspots. Since the launch, Logan has worked hard to get awareness about his unique products. Using Facebook Ads, Logan has built profitable funnels to get a customer aware, engaged, and active in his business. Some of these funnels returning 2 to 3 times ROI using unique audiences and tons of research to build an onramp to a new brand in a crowded space. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: The exact steps in his Facebook sales funnel How Logan targets prospective customers His long-term wins with Facebook advertising The mistakes he would have changed in his journey Links: Urbain Message Logan on LinkedIn Logan's 'About' Landing Page Zipify Pages Free Facebook Ads Funnel FREE Consultation with Logan Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Free traffic from Google through SEO can be a pillar of success for your Shopify store. Unfortunately, SEO advice is often general, not actionable, and sometimes wrong. As a result, it's tough to find 'real' experts. Today we're talking with John Doherty about ecommerce-specific tactics to grow your organic search traffic. John is the founder of GetCredo.com, a company that connects great companies with the right marketing expert for their needs. He's also a freelance digital marketing consultant. In the past, he ran growth marketing at Trulia Rentals, marketing for HotPads.com, and worked for SEO agency Distilled in New York City. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: The highest-leverage things ecommerce stores can do for SEO (that many get wrong) How long does SEO take to work? The right way to think about SEO when getting a new project/site off the ground How to compete against the big players like Amazon and Zappos When you should hire out for SEO? Links: Ecommerce Marketing Guide GetCredo.com for Shopify How long does SEO take to work? KeywordTool.io Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Today on The Unofficial Shopify Podcast we’re talking about migrating to Shopify If you already have an ecommerce website or are using a different ecommerce platform for your business, it is important to make sure that your product information and other content make it over to Shopify. Ross Beyeler, a Shopify Plus expert, specializes in migrations, and joins us today to walk us through what a successful migration looks like. Ross is the Founder and CEO of Growth Spark, an agency that provides strategy, design and development services to e-commerce companies. Since its founding in 2008, Growth Spark has completed over 350 projects with brands including Bose, Newbury Comics, Johnny Cupcakes, BottleKeeper and many more. During that time, the firm has also received awards from Interactive Media Awards, Internet Retailer and BusinessWeek. Ross is a proud alum of Babson College where he occasionally guest lectures on topics including e-commerce, design and entrepreneurship. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: Why do people migrate to Shopify? Which platforms are migrating to Shopify? How long does it take and what does it cost? How should you approach your migration project? What are the key components to a successful project that are often overlooked? How do you migrate data and why is it so hard? What can't you import? What are the technical aspects of a migration? What to expect with search engine ranking and optimization? Links: Growth Spark Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Pop-Quiz: Which marketing channel is the most effective and costs the least? Answer: Word of mouth. Today, David Fallarme joins us in this actionable episode to discuss the essentials behind successful word of mouth marketing. David currently heads up marketing for ReferralCandy, a Shopify app that gives your store a referral program. David's background includes making viral Facebook games played by millions, and he uses that experience to help ecommerce stores increase their sales with word of mouth. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: How to get hundreds of people talking about your store when you launch, even if you aren't an influencer The most common beginner mistakes everyone makes when setting up referral program How to refine your positioning to increase likelihood of people talking about you How offering social status to your buyers is a powerful motivator Links: Get $50 towards ReferralCandy Export LinkedIn Connections Streak CRM Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

You may have a great product, but it's not going to sell itself. If you can’t convince someone your product is the right one for them, it doesn’t matter how good it is. Nobody’s going to buy. Maybe you can relate: You launched and nobody bought— or only made a few sales. You launched and nobody cared at all. Crickets. You launched but sales plummeted immediately after. Would it surprise you to hear the solution to all these problems is writing? It ALL starts with writing. Crafting the right message is critical. Writing effective sales copy is an incredibly valuable skill. That's why I've brought Sean McCabe on talk with me about writing effective sales copy. Sean is an entrepreneur who writes over a million words a year on business, and has helped tens of thousands of students build and grow sustainable businesses with his courses on copywriting, pricing, and marketing. He knows what he’s talking about! After today's episode, you should be able to sell MORE of what you sell by learning to write effective sales copy. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Links: Free Audience Building Course Sean Wes Sean Wes Podcast Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

In 2012, Death Wish Coffee Co. was started in a small coffee shop in Saratoga Springs, NY. Founder, Mike Brown, saw a need for coffee that was both strong and delicious to serve his groggy, morning customers. After creating the perfect blend of beans and combining it with his unique roasting technique, the 'World's Strongest Coffee' was born. Today, thousands of people trust Death Wish Coffee to wake them up and keep them going every day. In 2015, we won Intuit’s ‘Small Business Big Game’ competition, which gave us a 30- second commercial spot during the Superbowl. Since then, their business has grown every day allowing them to reach more coffee drinkers than ever before and invest in tremendous marketing efforts. They were the official coffee sponsor of New York Comic Con, they’ve sponsored Nascar Driver Ty Dillon, and they’ve had the opportunity to support amazing charities like the Special Olympics with their products. Today we're going to talk with their founder, Mike Brown, to hear his story and how he's made sure the Death Wish brand fits into every aspect of their fans' lives. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Links: Death Wish Coffee @MikeBrownDWC Death Wish Coffee Superbowl Commercial: Storm's a-Brewin Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Let me warn you now: you'll want to have a notepad ready before listening to this episode, because it may be our most actionable ever. Peter Friis is CEO and co-founder of ESSIO, the world's first aromatherapy diffuser for your shower. He recently had a major breakthrough in their conversion rate by designing an entirely new landing page using industry best practices and directing traffic to this page instead of their website. The results? A 665% lift in add to carts and 494% lift in conversion rate overall. This was great until they ran out of all their stock (because their CPAs were so low). They decided tp take the same landing page and convert it into a crowdfunding page where people could effectively get in line (and get a great discount) by pre-ordering. Mind you, they did this all outside of Kickstarter and without the framework of a traditional crowdfunding platform. Over the course of 3 months, they sold more than $200K worth of product and were nearly sold out again when their new inventory arrived. On today's show, we dive into Peter's story and the ins & outs of what they did and how others can replicate their success. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: How they came up with the idea as a family Peter's method for validating the idea for $100 How he gets so much PR, and how to create the perfect pitch How we got his product on Good Morning America The breakthrough that enabled his Facebook ads success The elements of a successful product video And finally, the techniques that 5x'd their conversion rates Links: EssioShower.com Peter's Landing Page Zipify Crowdfunder App Pick Peter's Brain on Clarity.fm PRVolt Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Peter founded Fringe Sport out of his garage in 2010 and grew it to 7 figures in revenue in 18 months. Now he is CEO of Fringe Sport, focused on bringing Great Products with Great Prices and World Class Customer Service to WODers and weightlifters. He has one problem though: his friends think he's crazy for his most recent marketing decision... — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: The market research tactic he used when starting his business The three pillars of his current marketing strategy How he's made customer service culture more than just lip service And the biggest mistake he wish he could change Links: FringeSport Recommended Reading: The Lean Startup Recommended Reading: Ogilvy on Advertising Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Of all the store owners I hear from with thoughts on finding & engaging customers on social media, Candice Galek, CEO and Founder of Bikini Luxe is by far one of the most impressive. In under two years, she took her Shopify store from her living room in Miami Beach to a warehouse and a team of more than 40 employees worldwide all while amassing a social media following of more than 250,000. In today's episode, Candace pulls back the curtain on her humble beginnings, tremendous growth, and her contrarian approach to social media. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: The importance of face time How she grew her following to 250K people Her approach to social media How to get influencers to sell for you How she went viral on LinkedIn for a 20% boost in sales Links: Bikini Luxe Is This Appropriate For Linkedin? The Hustle Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

One of the best things about Shopify is its extensibility and the ecosystem that goes along with it. Recently we released our first (and currently only) Shopify app, and wanted to share that experience with you. It turns out it’s surprisingly easy to custom apps for a store’s private use, and almost as easy to monetize those apps in the Shopify app store. Jeremy Green, who developed Crowdfunder App with us, joins us to discuss the experience. Jeremy Green is a software architecture consultant specializing in Ruby on Rails and Ember for SaaS applications. He's the founder of Remarq.io and CloudHdr.com. He's an active contributor to the Oklahoma tech scene through his involvement with Techlahoma, Code for Okc, and OkcRuby. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: How long it took What to budget Difficulty level How apps work within Shopify What the approval process is like Links: Crowndfunder App Jeremy Green Remarq.io Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com