Length: 16:57

Overview: Today I discuss the 3-step process to create, launch and track your own large scale display advertising campaign.

Description: In this, episode 10 of the BigCommerce podcast, I discuss the 3-step process to create, launch and track your own large scale display advertising campaign for just a few hundred dollars using either Google AdWords or BuySellAds.

Here are the 3 steps I discuss in the podcast:

1. Banner design

• You need to come up with strategy
• Can use Google images for competitive intelligence – “[competitor] banner”
• Need a strong call to action
• Create 3 versions of your ad all with completely different calls to actions and designs
• Test static (single frame), animated GIF and rich media (flash)
• Can use CrowdSpring or a contractor from oDesk to do the actual designs

2. Campaign strategy

• Who are you trying to target? Run a survey of existing customers to find demographics, which websites they spend time at, etc
• What do you want to track? Sales? Newsletter signups? Etc
• How will you define the campaign as successful or not?
• What is your ROI goal? If you can get more than 1x ROI then you can scale up indefinitely

3. Campaign rollout

• Can get started with Google AdWords display ads or BuySellAds.com
• These will get you tens of thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of impressions per day
• You want to setup 3 separate campaigns, one for each of the different designs
• After 2 weeks, look at the numbers and drop the word performing campaign based on your most important metric
• Now test another design for each of the 2 remaining ads – same message, different look or call to action
• After 2 weeks, pull the 2 worst performing ads
• Goal is to keep testing new designs and calls to action against the winning ad

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Length: 14:06

Overview: Today I answer questions about social media marketing as posted by clients on our Facebook page.

Description: In this, episode 9 of the BigCommerce podcast, I answer social media questions from fans on our Facebook page. Topics include how to turn email subscribers into Facebook fans, how to create value for your Facebook fans and how to turn your social media fans into actual paying customers. If you’re confused by social media and don’t know how to integrate it into your marketing mix then this is a podcast you won’t want to miss.

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Length: 12:25

Overview: Today I share a simple strategy which you can use to improve your Google AdWords click thru rate by at least 25% and possibly by up to 300% or more depending on how they’re performing now.

Description: In this, episode 8 of my podcast, I’ll show you how you can get predictable improvements to the click thru of your Google AdWords ads – without spending more money (possibly while spending less) and without being a Google AdWords guru. If you implement this strategy I’m confident you’ll reduce your SEM spend and increase your click thru rate, thus getting more visitors to your website for less money, effectively reducing your average cost per click (CPC) at the same time.

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Length: 17:10

Overview: Today I answer five of the marketing questions that were submitted via fans earlier today on our Facebook page.

Description: In this, episode 7 of my podcast, I answer marketing questions from fans on our Facebook page. Topics include how to get sales when no one knows who you are, why the first impression of your website can make or break you, how to design high-converting landing pages and how I think e-commerce will change over the next five years. I also debunk a popular myth about Google AdWords and search rankings.

(Apologies for the hissing sounds throughout the podcast. It was recorded using the voice memos app on my iPhone as a test)

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A big thanks to Shawna for organizing the interview. I also met Shawna’s mom, Rene, who is her business partner. They’re an unstoppable duo!

Here’s the recording of the interview if you’d like to listen:

Length: 16:49

Overview: A simple strategy which we’ve used to launch BigCommerce and turn it into the fastest growing SaaS ecommerce platform in the world.

Description: In this, episode 6 of my podcast, I share a simple strategy which you can use to accomplish what seem like extraordinary or impossibly large tasks. Whether you’re looking to start an ecommerce business on the side, make more money or even launch a new product or division of your company, use the strategy I discuss in the podcast and it’s impossible to fail.

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Length: 22:30

Overview: A Q&A session in which I answer your questions about ecommerce, search engine optimization and online marketing.

Description: In this, episode 5 of my podcast, I answer your questions (posted on our Facebook page) about ecommerce, SEO and online marketing. I discuss the best way to improve your rankings on Google, how to get started in ecommerce on a limited budget, how to improve customer loyalty while raising retention rates and a whole lot more.

If you like the Q&A style then please leave a comment below – there’s a good chance that this could become a regular thing if enough people are interested.

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Length: 14:33

Overview: An overview of how the iPad is predicted to change ecommerce and how we’ll prepare you for the increase in mobile buying.

Description: In this, episode 4 of my podcast, I talk about Apple’s all mighty iPad. I’ve found some interesting statistics regarding the growth of mobile and I’ve put these into an ecommerce context, specifically discussing how they relate to the iPad. Basically if the iPad can become the iPod of mobile browsing then everyone wins – ecommerce merchants get more sales, social network sites get better engagement and more ad dollars and consumers adopt the “online anywhere” mentality which many of them already have.

Mentioned in the Podcast:

• Hello, iPad. Hello, Cloud 2. (TechCrunch)
• 2010 Mobile Influencers Predictions (SlideShare)

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Length: 14:43
Overview: A step-by-step guide to using social media tools to build relationships with customers that offer value to both you and them.

Description: In this, episode 3 of my podcast, I talk about our over-arching social media strategy which we use to keep in constant communication with our customers. Topics include using Twitter as a support intermediary, using Facebook as a feedback loop, building a community with a focus on continual improvement and idea generation and how to turn negative feedback into a motivation tool. I also touch on the upcoming BigCommerce 5.6 and 6 releases at the end of the podcast.

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Length: 26:56
Overview: A look into the strategies we use for recruiting the best people and tips to formulate your market when selling any sort of product.

Description: In this, episode 2 of the Interspire podcast, I take a look at some of the strategies we’ve developed over the last 6 years to identify the best candidates during the interview process. At the surface level you might think it’s easy to recruit based on a candidates past experience, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ll also touch on identifying your market and formulating a business plan that focuses specifically on one geographic region only and I’ll discuss my reasoning for that approach in the context of how we launched BigCommerce.

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