Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

Should you run a sale to earn some cash in the short-term or work on a longer-term plan instead? Today's episode will answer that question and bring you in on the thinking behind how we weigh strategic decision-making for our businesses.

Today's episode focuses on the importance of traffic channel diversity. More specifically, we share an easy-to-implement email segmentation strategy that our team is seeing great results with and how you can replicate that for your own brand.

On today's episode, we cover a topic that we've never talked about on the podcast before ... Search Engine Marketing. In host, Andrew Faris's words: "Is there anything less sexy in marketing?" It might not be sexy, but we will get tactical. Here's how we're approaching SEM strategy, why we're doing it, and how to get it right.

What kind of businesses aren't afraid? What kind of businesses actually get better under pressure? What kind of businesses will thrive in the aftermath of iOS 14.5? We answer these questions and share how to build an anti-fragile ecommerce brand in our monthly installment of the "One Topic with Taylor" series featuring Taylor Holiday, CEO of Common Thread Collective.

The immediate rollout of Apple's iOS 14.5 is finally here. These are our first major impressions and how it's preliminarily affected our Facebook ad accounts.

Weakness is reality. Especially in business. We acknowledge that in this episode and share how to solve for weaknesses as a leader and within areas of your own business. Show Notes: "Accounting for Ecommerce Businesses: 61 Resources that Could Save You +$1.3M" via https://bit.ly/3niHaV5

On this week’s episode we answer a question submitted by one of our listeners: how to build your resources against the best possible outcomes.

In this episode, we share one of our most crucial digital marketing lessons — the relationship between demand generation and demand capture. Show Notes: We originally put together this video for Black Friday, but we explain the delayed attribution concept brought up in today's episode further here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saQk-67X73w

We launched a new product on Kickstarter (which we've never done before) and it went well! Following the launch, we’re sharing how to set up a successful campaign along with the steps we took to do so. 

 Featuring guest, David Rekuc, VP of New Brands at 4x400 Show Notes: • The Modern Fuel Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewsanderson/adjustable-bolt-action-pen • Dave's Pricing...

On this episode, we unveil what makes someone "great" as a digital marketer. Beyond the "what", we also share the "how" — with actionable steps on how to pursue marketing greatness for you and your team. Show Notes: https://twitter.com/AaronOrendorff/status/1368326610525425665

We changed a customer's life. That’s a bold statement, but this past week, we received an email from a customer that demonstrates just how much a brand can produce real value for their customers. In this episode, we’ll unpack its implications for other brands and share (1) how to produce meaning for your brand along with (2) the methods to achieve that impact.

Our brand, 31 Bits, still isn’t working. 

True to the original mission of our podcast, we’re updating you on the real numbers and vulnerable struggles we’re experiencing trying to grow the brand. Host Andrew Faris, let’s you in on the despair that all boils down to one question: “Why aren’t people buying the product?”

How do you make a click on your website more valuable to you? Here's 17 actionable tactics to increase your Revenue-Per-Click. Show Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Hzw8spE1SJGXx49-cMf3thjY7NTG4gX7ENrNeO5Ew0/edit?usp=sharing

This week's episode centers on how an "agency guy" hires agencies. In that process, host Andrew Faris shares the one thing he looks for (above everything else) when hiring.

This week’s episode comes to you from on the ground at our shipping fulfillment center in North Carolina. And after being around the actual products that we are using, packing, and shipping — host, Andrew Faris reflects on the realities of gross margin in business and how he’s thinking about that differently.

Last week you learned about our side of the story: the sale of FC Goods. This week: we're bringing on the buyers, featuring Eric Weisser(CEO, Weisser Distributing)and Mike Childers(President, Weisser Distributing).

Pop the champagne and drop the beat … We just sold our first brand. And, yes, the math in that outlandish headline is right: a 15,500% increase from our initial investment. In early 2018, 4x400 — Common Thread Collective’s ecommerce holding company — acquired 80% of FC Goods. The price? $5,000. In Oct. of 2020, we sold it for $1.2M. Minus the founder’s 20% and less broker’s fees, that nets out to...

One of the hardest things about running an ecommerce business is that the future is unpredictable. Or in the words of host, Andrew Faris: "the only certainty is uncertainty". Here's what to do about that.

We did not see this coming… but we stumbled into a giant Facebook ads win for one of our 4x400 brands. It was our biggest win in months, and it was pure luck. On today’s episode, we’ll give you the exact numbers and the exact process put in place that unlocked this high-performing creative campaign, so that you can get lucky too. Show notes: Full Length UGC Ad: https://www.facebook.com/11597792390...

Influencer Marketing that actually works? We've never done anything like it, but as we take the next steps to grow our brand 31 Bits, influencer marketing will play a key role. Cody Wittick, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Kynship, joins us on this episode as we lay out the influencer strategy. You can reach out to Kynship by emailing info@kynship.co or reaching out to Cody on Twitter at ht...

Unleashing Vision by Common Thread Collective

This week, we're talking about the biggest problem we have to solve right now in our business and the steps we're taking to fix the top of the funnel. We've had this problem before, and this time around, we'll need some more magic.

We won't delay, Black Friday & Cyber Monday went below average for the six brands we operate this year... Here's why, plus five takeaways we learned.

As we head into Black Friday again, the same sentiment holds true: "this strategy has to work". Andrew Faris gets transparent on the impact of what a win and (more importantly) what a loss would mean for business during BFCM. Here's how we are preparing for both options.

We're gearing up for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and it's natural for the business anxieties to sink in. To face the uncertainties, root yourselves in the certainty that comes with building a data-backed strategy. Host Andrew Faris, talks us through the holiday strategy for each of the six brands under the 4x400 umbrella and how they're planning for success.