Ecommerce Mastermind
Ecommerce Mastermind
Ecommerce Mastermind
Mastermind
These blueprints are from multiple courses and trainings that were created and presented
by individuals who run and operate multiple multi-million dollar e-commerce stores.
It isn‘t just a curation from the best marketers in the world... We operate a $5m per year
e-commerce store, in addition to consulting and coaching for other businesses in other
industries.
These courses currently cost between $500 and $1500. The video content in the courses
span over 5-10 hours long.
We‘ve created thewse blueprints so you can start and scale your online store using the
shared methods... without paying the high price, and without listening hours worth of
content.
The principles and practices can be used across other online businesses too.
Empowering you with a clear action plan you can use to easily create and implement an
e-commerce marketing strategy to start and scale an online store.
Test, test, test! Every audience and product is different. These are best practices, but you
should always test and optimize for your own business.
Read the strategy through once, then go back and use it as an action plan and checklist to
start implementing changes into your store
Market Size
It’s big! It was always big and its getting even bigger.
If you think you’d be late to the game in getting into e-commerce, it’s barely started yet.
If you create an online store, you will grow as the market grows if you market it well.
Social Media:
Connected world. Sharing products. Promoting products!
Mobile:
More consumption. More shopping!
On-demand generation:
We want it now! Convenience! Same day delivery!
Niche products:
The products that aren’t in your local stores can still be accessed!
Worldwide lockdowns:
Because shit‘s going down so we can online shop inside
The effect of mobile
Mobile use by far outweighs desktop use. We are constantly connected to our mobile
devices (in case you didn’t notice).
» 2/3 of customers in the U.S. use two devices during shopping process
» 1/3 of people who see a mobile ad on Facebook actually make a purchase on desktop
» 60% of people in the USA have more than one device
» 50% of people are on their second device while they are watching
» TV Mobile ecosystem is segmented. On average we each consume 200 media channels
» Facebook and Instagram has the most mobile users on their platforms ... 10x more than
other channels combined.
These trends shape the Mobile EcoSystem as we see it today. How people are behaving and
consuming.
Online stores are built and grown in line with those trends in order to be successful.
Core Elements
These are the key growth levers for an successful store...
Traffic
Ads
Content Social Media Email
SEO Retargeting
Site Pages
Checkout pages
Product pages
Home pages
Landing pages/sales pages Collection pages
Opt-in pages
e
Traffic goes to various offers and site
Site Pages pages... promotions are amplified through
Upsells content creation which then generates
Cross sells traffic... which in turn triggers an email
sequence etc.
Promotions
Reviews/Testimonials Each campaign is designed to make money!
Referrals If set up well, it’s hugely profitable.
Support
Offers
Content
Win back campaigns
Let’s talk about the tech stack you need to put in place to position you for growth.
Your options:
» Klaviyo
» Active Campaign
» Constant Contact
» Get Response
» Mailchimp
» Infusion soft
» Aweber
Helpdesk
You’re in retail! You need a help desk to speak to all your happy customers ;)
Live Chat
Your options:
» Intercom.io
» Facebook
» Olark
» LiveChat
» Bold Chat
» Live Person
» Website Alive
» Hip Chat
Video Hosting
You’ll need to create videos for your website and for your marketing at multiple stages
within your funnel and customer buying journey, so you’ll need to add video hosting to your
tech stack.
Your options:
» Youtube
» Wistia
» Vimeo
Store Set Up: The Tech Stack
It’s essential you can see how users are behaving in your store.
You need to know:
» How long people stay on your site Which pages they visit
» Which pages they exit
» What are your conversion rates Etc. etc.
Google Analytics
Main and best solution is Google Analytics. Free and advanced.
This is essential to set up as the key to ecommerce success is to ensure you can take the
customer all the way through the store flow to the end purchase!
Store Set Up: The Tech Stack
It will also show you how valuable the customers are who search, by giving you the revenue
details and order value for each search.
The data will highlight the most valuable search terms that you should be optimising for by
building content and products around them.
The UTM data will tell you where a customer came from, how much they spent, what they
purchased etc. i.e. Facebook traffic converts more than instagram and email etc etc. Use for
all external links and campaigns.
This aspect of the business is what makes your store work or not.
You have to have these 3 things to form your mission, story and purpose, if you are going to
succeed.
People buy from people. They want to engage, relate, and connect with a person and their
story! Remember, we live in a social economy!
If you aren‘t the face of the brand, try to find an influencer or personality.
You will still make sales without, but the impact of having a face can result in real scale.
You‘ll use your mission story and purpose across your content and marketing assets that
we‘ll cover below.
Creation of Kick-ass Brand
Show it to them
It’s all about how you come across to your customers.
This helps create the messaging and marketing around your brand.
So... Create your brand, the mission, the story, and purpose, and get clear about it... even
before you start any marketing activities.
This will help you shape how you communicate with your customers.
The better you communicate with your market, the better your sales conversions and
growth will be.
'How to create a brand‘ wasn‘t covered in the courses and masterclasses we attended other
than the info above... but we have your back...
If you want to access our branding framework and questionnaires to use as a guide to
creating your brand, check it out in the Growth Portal within the Growth Strategy.
Content Creation
With the above in mind, you need to think of what content assets you need for each page in
your store in order to communicate with customers and make as many sales as possible at
each stage.
Having this content in place and at the right place will maximise your conversions. And... not only
do you have each asset on the relevant page, but you should also use the same asset in multiple
places within your marketing campaigns such as your email marketing, social media, ads etc.
Best Practices
Product Descriptions
Let‘s look at the best practices when generating the content, begining with the product
descriptions.
Arguably the most important content you’ll create. This is where people are on the cusp of
buying. You need to give them a final boost by including:
Social proof
Testimonials, reviews, case studies etc.
Overcome objections
People don’t buy because of fear of loss. Overcome these fears. Give guarantees
Include USP’s
What is your unique offer? Why are you different?
Best Practices
Product Images
Hugely important! This is what people consume before they buy!
Things to note:
» Use as many as possible. The more the better
» Show the product in use
» Show ownership benefit and experience
» Ensure you have high quality images for best conversions
Things to note:
» Videos can be a slide presentation or just face to camera, or mix of both Don’t need to
spend money on high quality production
» You can use an iPhone or a simple powerpoint
» Keynote Screenflow, Camtasia etc
» Hiring a professional might be better if you can make it work
» But always test variations... Quick and easy can beat over produced!
» Ensure you have high quality images for best conversions
If you can meet these elements you’ll create high quality videos for your brand that will have
significant results in sales for your online store.
Information Pages
15%-25% of buyers will visit the more information pages before they purchase. Those
people that go to these pages are considered warmer leads and more likely to complete the
checkout.
These pages don’t hard sell. But they support the selling process and are very important.
These are the pages where customers can get more information, and where you should
produce content for:
Product Images
Hugely important! This is what people consume before they buy!
Things to note:
» Use as many as possible. The more the better
» Show the product in use
» Show ownership benefit and experience
» Ensure you have high quality images for best conversions
Things to note:
» Videos can be a slide presentation or just face to camera, or mix of both Don’t need to
spend money on high quality production
» You can use an iPhone or a simple powerpoint
» Keynote Screenflow, Camtasia etc
» Hiring a professional might be better if you can make it work
» But always test variations... Quick and easy can beat over produced!
» Ensure you have high quality images for best conversions
You’ll be collecting email addresses in a number of places as you attract people into your
store. As soon as they opt-in you nurture the relationship so you can convert them into
paying customers. So, the thank you page is important to get the relationship off to a good
start and get them to continue into the next action you want them to take.
Customers have given you money! They’ve committed to you. Build the relationship more so
you can send them into higher levels of the customer journey so you can create loyalty and
additional revenue.
What to include:
» Thanks for your purchase
» Here’s what to expect
» We’ll send shipping notifications
» We’ll send email newsletters and promos
» Follow us on social media
» Thank you!
Best Practices
Intro Content
Not a video this one. But this is where you‘ll allow people to learn who you are within a few
short seconds of visiting the home page.
What to include:
» Explain your brand
» What you do
» Who you are based
» Your USP
» Images
Customers have given you money! They’ve committed to you. Build the relationship more so
you can send them into higher levels of the customer journey so you can create loyalty and
additional revenue.
What to include:
» Thanks for your purchase
» Here’s what to expect
» We’ll send shipping notifications
» We’ll send email newsletters and promos
» Follow us on social media
» Thank you!
Best Practices
Intro Content
Not a video this one. But this is where you‘ll allow people to learn who you are within a few
short seconds of visiting the home page.
What to include:
» Explain your brand
» What you do
» Who you are based
» Your USP
» Images
What to include:
» Dynamic drop downs work well and reduce page load speed
» Videos can be more engaging and powerful if possible
» At worst, you can simply display the FAQ’s as text
About Us
What to include:
» Use the ‘Why Buy From Us’ video asset
» Also repurpose into text and images
» Include bullets and headlines down the page to make it easy to read
Convertion Rate Optimization
This is where the money is made in increasing conversions. These optimization tactics are
how you go from 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% conversion rates which have a significant impact on
your revenues.
Millions of dollars are spent each month by leading ecommerce stores in order to test
various stages of the funnel in which customers flow through. From homepage, to product
page, to the cart and checkout pages, you should be obsessed with measuring how you are
taking a customer from one stage to the next.
Your website plays a huge factor in how strong your flow is, and how profitable your website
funnel is.
These are the key takeaways and best practices you should be optimising...
» Logo with link back to home page in top left hand corner
» Guarantee
» Unique selling point
» Special offer
» Tag line
» Phone number
» More information page links in first header Store navigation in second header
» Link to shopping cart in top right hand corner
» Link to live chat
» Opt-in opportunity
Don’t make the header too busy. Prioritise user experience. Always test!
Amazon Header
Casper Header
Convertion Rate Optimization
Optimizing Your Footer
Similarly, the footer will also be the same across your site and it’s another opportunity to soft sell
the visitor with messaging and content that will support them in their buying process.
Some stores also include the following elements on all pages of their site to ensure the branding
and messaging is always prominent:
» ‘Hello from us’ & ‘why buy from us’ Videos
» Testimonials / Social Proof Images / Community Images
» Ownership Benefit / Sales Headline
Other stores might only show these on the homepage. You can test which works best for you.
It’s the way consumers are used to shopping. Think of Amazon and Apple etc... The homepage
becomes the hub of the store. It has the offers, the recommendations, the product promotions, the
search opportunities etc. It’s the front window.
What to include:
» Main Banner
» Headline and Intro Content
» Category Image Navigation (show your categories with images)
» Featured Product Sliders (3 is the magic number)
» Product Image Navigation (show your products with images)
» Additional Content Block (blogs/brand story/about/ etc)
» 3rd Party Press (or Brand Sales Video)
There is no right or wrong way to create your homepage. You can have multiple sections. It can
be as long as you want it to be. As long as you include the above factors to make it a rich and
engaging page, the more conversions you’ll generate.
Layout will differ slightly depending on whether you have a multiple or few products in a category.
If you only have a handful of products, you can try to give people enough information to buy from
the category page along with a way to get more details if they want. It’s a preview of the product
before they click through the product page
Elements to do this:
» Regular price and sale price
» Hero shot of the product
» Product sales video if possible (key differentiator)
» Product info snippet
» CTA for more information (product detail)
» CTA for add to bag
Elements to do this:
» Dynamic filtering is essential so you can sort your results
» Show price, sale price and star rating
» Add a featured item, bundle or deal at the top of the page.
Convertion Rate Optimization
Optimize Single Product Page
The most important pages in a store. People are interested. Now they need to be pushed over the
line to become customers.
This is where you should invest most of your time in making these pages the best they can
possibly be. This is where people purchase and where the success of your estore happens.
There are traditional product pages and more recent longer form product pages that people use.
There is no real difference in performance between the two as the elements are ultimately the
same, just designed differently. You can test both versions or go with what you like and works for
your product and brand.
Convertion Rate Optimization
If you only have a handful of products, you can try to give people enough information to buy from
the category page along with a way to get more details if they want. It’s a preview of the product
before they click through the product page
Try Keep the following above the fold on your product page
Apps to use:
» Reviews Widget
» Exit-Intent
» Social Selling
» Referrals
» Coupon Pop-Up
» Landing Page Builder
» Shipping Integrator
» Cart Abandonment
Reviews Widget
It‘s all about social proof! Arguably the biggest selling tactic. You should be showing views
prominently on your store in multiple places. Their are widgets to do this for you.
» Simple Integration
» Mobile Responsive
» Customizable Styling
» Email Settings
» Rich Snippets
» Multiple Widgets
» User Generated Content
» Help Desk Integration
» Q&A Feature
Convertion Rate Optimization
Exit Intent
Email accounts for 1/3 of online sales for most online stores... So, capture users email before they
leave your site with an Exit Intent.
Recommended Apps:
Optimonk
Social Selling
This is referral marketing. Incentivising your customers to refer friends by giving both of them a
special deal.
Recommended Apps:
FriendBuy or Referral Candy
Coupon Pop Up
This is like an exit intent pop up but happens when somebody lands on your site well before they
try to leave. Again, this captures email addresses where you can then sell to them. An effective
way to get email leads into your pre-purchase campaign
Recommended Apps:
Better coupon box
Convertion Rate Optimization
Cart Abandonment
70% of people that make it to the checkout page will abandon it without completing their
purchase. These customers need to enter an email automation that reminds them to complete
their purchase.
This is a huge revenue generator, and there are many applications on the market that you can use
for this including your email service provider (Klayvio, Active Campaign etc)
For specialist cart abandonment software we can use something like rejoiner.com
» An effective way to get email leads into your pre-purchase campaign
» This can generate thousands of dollars in revenue each month
» This is NOT an 'exit pop-up‘. That‘s spammy.
» Inceltivize visitors with discounts
» This generates 1/6 of monthly customers for many stores
Recommended Apps:
Your ESP or Rejoiner
Landing Pages
Use landing page builders to quickly create opt-in pages, sales pages, presell pages, social pages,
special offer and promotional pages.
These pages are additions to your core site pages and usually built for a specific purpose. And
they don’t require a designer or developer to build the pages for you. It’s as easy as drag and drop.
Recommended Apps:
ClickFunnels / Zippify / WooFunnels
Coupon Pop Up
This is like an exit intent pop up but happens when somebody lands on your site well before they
Convertion Rate Optimization
One Click Upsells
Increase your average order value (AOV) by 15-25% by adding one or more additional items to the
order in just one click, AFTER a customer purchases the initial product.
This is where you can cover your acquisition costs and massively increase revenues which means
you can spend more money on advertising.
You can have multiple upsells and downsells in your checkout funnel.
Recommended Apps:
ClickFunnels / Zippify / WooFunnels
Other Apps
The above tools are the essential apps that you need to have in your marketing stack.
So... it’s essential you build out your email campaigns and automations that convert.
Based on the behaviour and actions of a customer with your store, you need to
automatically move them from one list to another, or one email automation into another.
Now, here are the different email campaigns and sequences that should be set up for your
store...
Ecom Email Marketing
Pre Purchase Email Sequences
The aim of the pre-purchase email sequences are to build the relationship and trust with
the potential customer to eventually convert them into customers. You want to give them
more time to purchase and persuade them to do so.
There are multiple pre purchase sequences that you should have set up. Let‘s cover the
main types for your store:
This is a soft selling sequence with and should be triggered when a contact visits your site
and gives you their email address via:
» Header / Footer Opt-In
» Coupon Box Pop-Up
» Exit-Intent Pop Up
» Lead Generation Campaigns
Always use text, images, video thumbnails, and CTA buttons in your emails to be consistent
and to encourage clicks. And always try to include each of the email types above.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars can be generated from each of these emails. And, the
first and last emails can generate the same amount of revenue due to the engagement and
offers.
Ecom Email Marketing
Pre-Purchase Email Sequence #2
A second pre-purchase email sequence. This is slightly different to the previous sequence
as it only sends to those email contacts that are captured through:
Again, through smart automation, you should remove contacts from other pre-purchase lists
if they have entered this sequence and only send if they have not previously entered the
automation.
This sequence will get you additional revenue on top of all the other sequences and emails
you send.
Note: Open rates will decrease as contacts go further into the automation. It’s normal. The
initial email and the later offers are the emails that will generate the most revenue. The rest
shouldn’t be disregarded. They will still make revenue and they’ll still build the engagement
with your contacts.
And... you don’t have to stop at 7-10 emails. You can continue the sequence for another
week or two, as long as you are building the relationship by providing value.
Ecom Email Marketing
Post Purchase Email Sequences
This post purchase sequence is triggered as soon as their purchase is complete. You should
remove contacts from all other automations and lists.
Ultimately this is where you turn them into repeat customers and generate more revenue
from them.
Note: Only send upsells and cross sells content to people who have not previously been
sent the same content in a different automation. Smart automations!
Again there is no limit or set rule to how much you can send in your post purchase
sequence.
The result in a solid campaign will significantly increase sales and revenue.
Ecom Email Marketing
Post Purchase Win Back Email Sequence
This is used to dynamically send emails to previous customers based on their behaviour.
A customer should receive the automation if they have placed an order, and then not placed
an additional order within 60 days.
If a customer hasn’t repurchased your product in 60 days, then it’s likely they are lost
customers.
You can again generate significant amounts of profit with this dynamic automation using
discount ladders to offer more incentive than previous engagement and upsell/cross sell
sequences.
Remember that we also live in a social media driven world where it’s very easy for people to
leave negative footprints for your business. Social word of mouth is powerful.
Goals
» Respond Within 12 Hours - Don’t keep people waiting.
» Aim for high satisfaction rates
» Respond to all negative ratings
Tips To Help
» All communication channels should open tickets.
» Facebook Messages
» Voicemails
» Chat Messages
» Review & Q/A Widgets
» Include referral widget link in all emails
» Tag tickets & chats for future marketing copy (Copywriting, FAQ’s etc)
Successful ecommerce stores generate almost half of their revenue from ‘returning visitors’.
So reengaging contacts with content opens up the doors for them to come back! The
goal therefore is to convert those prospects by soft selling with content! All successful
ecommerce stores should be doing this because it works!
You’ll create content assets to engage with your audience on your own channels. Content
with value that’s interesting and relatable to your audience. You’ll amplify that content
across your multiple marketing channels (email, social, blog, etc) to send people back to
your site... And then you’ll send offers to people based on their interaction.
Note: Be consistent. The more touch points, the bigger the connection and relationship...
and the more conversions you’ll generate. It’s the key to success.
1. Creation
Video is the most effective form of content!
Here‘s why:
» Face to face with your audience
» The consistency of face to face builds intimacy and trust
» You can syndicate video content into other formats (articles, posts etc)
» Video sells!
» Optimises for social media optimisation
» Generates continuous content assets that leads to sales conversions!
Notes: If you don’t have a personality or face of your brand, use somebody else as the face.
Or use multiple people and rotate them.
And... if video doesn’t work for you and you’d rather write... then write! It will still generate
sales if you follow the same process. should you email your lists
Content Strategy Process
Types of Content you should create:
» Opinions - polarising is popular
» Educational content
» Behind the scenes
» Industry specific
» Timely / relevant to current events
» Tips lists
» Community feedback
» Interviews & guests (other brands)
» Curated content (commenting)
» Anything to the problems/conversations your community has
2. Optimization
This ensures that your content is easy for your customers to consume on multiple channels
and in multiple formats.
Here is a summarized method for optimizing: (You can see more on content syndication and
amplification in our strategy here)
1) Use UTM links on all content that you are posting outside of your store so you can track
the impact and performance on sales and revenue.
2) Create content excerpts/intros above each post to let people know what the content is
about
3) If you are only one of these channels, just post there. But you should be on at least one
social channel.
Content Strategy Process
4. Amplification
Boosting your content with paid promotion and ads increases the engagement on the
content, allowing you to get in front of more potential customers.
This also fills the top of your funnel and makes it more profitable to retarget customers
who have previously engaged with your brand, and thus optimising ad campaigns and
conversions.
Final Thoughts
Lot’s of information. Lots of steps. Lot’s of campaigns. Our best advice is to go through this
strategy in order. Start with the tech stack, then optimise your site for conversions, creating
content, creating your email sequences, adding your marketing stack apps, before building
out your brand with content!
If you put all the steps together in this strategy you’ll be joining the best e- commerce
stores in the world and you’ll put yourself in a position to take your store to the next level.
If you’d like to explore working with us to help you execute on these campaigns, or if you’d
simply like more coaching, consulting or guidance, we’d be happy to work with you.