Top 10 Digital Marketing Podcasts to Follow

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The internet is filled with more digital marketing resources than we can ever hope to consume! However, Podcasts have become a popular and efficient way by which digital marketing keep up with industry news and explore new marketing trends and ideas.

With more than 1,000,000 podcasts currently inhabiting the podcastsphere, we figured that a little help with sifting out the good ones wouldn’t hurt!

Hence, here are 10 digital marketing podcasts that are worth the attention of your ears.

Tropical MBA

Genre: Entrepreneurship

Focus: Digital Nomads

Ideal for: Digital Freelancers, Digital Nomads, Digital Business Owners, Aspiring Startup Founders

Tropical MBA is one of our personal favourites and highly recommeded podcasts for both entrepreneurs and digital marketers alike.

What began as a way to meet other likeminded entrepreneurs who are on this same crazy journey, Dan and Ian have built the TMBA podcast into a platform that currently benefits thousands of marketers and entrepreneurs on a weekly basis.

Having done the work and tasted the dirt themselves, you can look forward to in-depth discussions surrounding a wide range of topics, including the artisanal approach to entrepreneurship, mentoring, and building a permanent digital nomad lifestyle!

Expect to walk away with nuggets of practical wisdom and a few chuckles in between.

How I Built My Small Business

Genre: Entrepreneurship

Focus: Small and Medium size Entrepreneurship and Startups

Ideal for: SME Owners, Aspiring Startup Founders and Digital Marketers

Small business owners, this is for you.

While many podcasts choose to discuss a plethora of topics with the hopes of reaching a wider audience, How I Built My Small Business is dedicated to helping small business owners tackle issues that matter to them

Drawing insights from industry experts and entrepreneurs from all walks of life, listeners are invited to take a peek behind the curtain and uncover the ingredients that make a successful business.

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Genre: Entrepreneurship

Focus: Startups Journeys

Ideal for: Business Owners, Aspiring Startup Founders and Digital Marketers

Guy Raz specialises in weaving a narrative journey about entrepreneurs, inventors, and into a beautiful tapestry that provides refuge for the discouraged and directions for the lost.

As the guests on the show are often entrepreneurs from vastly different backgrounds and even more diverse experiences, each episode invites you to tune in with fresh ears. Apart from business-related topics, Guy Raz routinely explores the effects of current events on society and businesses. Recent episodes discussing the Black Lives Matter movement and how entrepreneurs can meet the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis have been exceptionally helpful for many who find themselves struggling to navigate these turbulent times.

One of the staples of this podcast is the How I Build Resilience series, where Guy Raz discusses the role of resilience and its importance with regards to business and life, and how successful entrepreneurs managed to train themselves up to be resilient individuals capable of thriving in the tumultuous world of entrepreneurship.

If you are looking for a dose of positivity and no BS insights to tackling real challenges, give How I Built This with Guy Raz a listen.

The $100 MBA

Genre: Entrepreneurship

Focus: Startups Journeys

Ideal for: Business Owners, Aspiring Startup Founders and Digital Marketers

Another gem on our list that has been awarded the Best of Itunes, the $100MBA show dispenses real-world business lessons akin to protein bars, each episode jampacked with essential nutrients and easy to consume.

While many may enjoy listening to entrepreneurs share about their inner motivation and ideals that undergird their success, Omar regularly breaks the mold by dishing out personal and actionable bite-sized advice that benefits countless small businesses that may require something a little more concrete and tangible.

If you are a small business owner looking for a podcast that provides a good mix of industry knowledge and practical tips, consider adding The$100MBA into rotation.

Entrepreneurs on Fire

Genre: Entrepreneurship

Focus: Business Growth

Ideal for: Business Owners, Aspiring Startup Founders and Digital Marketers

Entrepreneurs on Fire is a fitting name for a podcast that churns out blazing hot content with such mechanical consistency. The podcast consists of short 30 minutes long interviews where founder and host, John Lee Dumas, picks the brains of successful entrepreneurs from diverse industries for valuable insights on a daily basis.

Having been awarded a Best of iTunes Award in 2013, Entrepreneurs on Fire has garnered a loyal following through discussions of interesting topics ranging from developing a clear vision that complements your vocational passion, to the importance of copywriting and its impact on a business.

Masters of Digital

Genre: Digital Marketing

Focus: Digital Marketing Expert Viewpoints

Ideal for: Digital Marketers of any shape or size, Aspiring Startup Founders

How can one navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape and emerge unscathed...Nay, victorious?

One of the biggest challenges faced by businesses and marketers all around the globe is the disruption that has been brought about by the advancement in the digital space. At Masters of Digital, Ryan Lim helps listeners to stay informed by interviewing subject matter experts and business leaders who share personal lessons, effective strategies, and emerging trends without reservation.

Be it Google Analytics, Digital Branding, or Artificial Intelligence for Marketing, Masters of Digital is one podcast digital marketers ought to pay attention to.

The Paid Search Podcast

Genre: Digital Marketing

Focus: Paid Search and Google Ads

Ideal for: PPC Geeks and Digital Marketers

Ever wondered if you are making the best use of your marketing budget? What if there are more effective ways to maximize every dollar spent?

The Paid Search podcast’s weekly episodes are designed to address these burning Google Ads-related questions on the minds of business owners and digital marketers.

Be it developing the best strategy for Automated Bidding and Remarketing, or the ways to study your competition in Google Ads, the Paid Search podcast is the swiss-army knife you wish to carry into the Performance Marketing war.

Marketing Over Coffee

Genre: Digital Marketing

Focus: Marketing

Ideal for: Marketers of all shapes and sizes, Aspiring Startup Founders

Ever wonder what pumpkin spice and flying planes have to do with marketing?

Provocative headlines that pique your interest are merely a taste of the awesomeness Marketing Over Coffee has to offer. Expect discussion on a myriad of topics ranging from AI tactics to debunking marketing myths with professionals and industry experts such as Mark Irvine (Former Sr. Data Scientist at Wordstream), Kevin Maney (Author of Play Bigger), and Jason Keath (CEO of Social Fresh) etc.

Perpetual Traffic

Genre: Digital Marketing

Focus: Everything Digital Marketing

Ideal for: Digital Marketers of any shape or size, Aspiring Startup Founders

The weekly podcast by DigitalMarketer needs no introduction.

With experienced marketers Amanda Powell (Director of Marketing) and Ralph Burns (CEO of Tier 11) at the helm, it is no surprise that each Perpetual Traffic episode is dripping with marketing goodness that makes listeners go “Ah ha!”

Each episode invites listeners to gain a deeper understanding of the foundations of marketing and emerging trends that will come to disrupt the digital marketing space. From building an entire traffic system from scratch, to keeping up with updates that enable Facebook Ads to thrive, listeners are offered a platform to learn directly from industry experts.

Whether you are a novice digital marketer or a seasoned entrepreneur, Perpetual Traffic is a podcast you want to follow.

The Digital Marketer Next Door

Genre: Digital Marketing

Focus: Digital Marketing Professional Life Stories and viewpoints

Ideal for: Digital Marketers of any shape or size, Aspiring Startup Founders

*Drumroll please*

XYZ Lab has joined the game!

Having been invited to speak on podcasts as an industry expert with expertise in Paid Search and Google Analytics, Sotirios (Founder of XYZ Lab) is now launching his very own podcast, titled The Digital Marketing Next Door.

Our aim is to bring the unsung heroes of digital marketing departments to the forefront of the digital marketing industry. Listen to the challenges, solutions and POVs of every day digital marketing practitioners!

Bookmark this page.

Watch this space.

And get ready to add The Digital Marketer Next Door into your podcast rotation!

Best Ecommerce Marketing Apps for Shopify

6 essential apps we believe every Shopify eCommerce business needs!

Image Credit: Source

The biggest advantage eCommerce stores have over their brick and mortar competitors is the ability to turbocharge their businesses with innovative apps.

With just a few simple clicks, you can now create a more engaging customer experience, automate your marketing efforts, and streamline tedious processes and workflows.

With thousands of options available on the Shopify App Store, business owners are invited to feast on a buffet of apps and extensions that complement their unique business needs.

Here are 6 essential apps we believe every Shopify eCommerce business needs

1. Omnisend

2. Quick Announcement Bar

3. Volume and Tiered Discounts

4. Dynamic Currency Converter

5. Replay Live Session Recording

6. Cross-sell, Exit & Email Popup

Let’s take a closer look.

Image Credit: Source

Omnisend

What is it

Omnisend is an all-in-one omnichannel marketing automation platform for eCommerce businesses.

As consumer behaviour shifts, businesses are waking up to the importance of adopting an omnichannel approach. By utilising multiple channels, Omnisend enables brands to remain top of mind at every stage of the customer journey.

What does it do

Omnisend integrates email, SMS, and various marketing channels into your overall marketing strategy, allowing you to optimise engagement and drive conversion with targeted and personalised messaging.

Be it sending onboarding emails to welcome new subscribers, or cart recovery SMSes to interested customers who dropped off at the checkout page, the simple interface of Omnisend allows for easy customisation and set-up, complementing the existing strategy of any business.

If you are a new business that has not established a workflow or marketing funnel, Omnisend offers pre-built automation templates that enable you to get everything up and running within minutes!

Key takeaway

Omnisend’s strength lies primarily in its understanding of the needs of online businesses. By offering a comprehensive, aesthetically-pleasing, yet simple-to-use platform, Omnisend provides eCommerce businesses with an affordable and hassle-free marketing solution.

Cost

$16/mo (free option available)

Image Credit: Source

Quick Announcement Bar

What is it

A fully customisable, eye-catching display banner for your website.

What does it do

Ensures that your customers are kept in the loop regarding the latest updates, special events, and promotions with a responsive display banner that’s been optimized for all screen sizes.

Quick Announcement Bar features extremely useful functions such as Auto-scheduling and Multiple Bar Rotation, allowing businesses to push out important information without having to do it manually.

The app also allows for advanced targeting such as geo-targeting and traffic source targeting, providing an extra layer of personalisation to your message based on locations and channels (Facebook Ads, Twitter, Instagram etc).

Cost

$9.99/mo (Free option available)

Image Credit: Source

Volume and Tiered Discounts

What is it

An app that makes creating volume discounts on bulk quantity purchases easy; enabling the set up of discounted pricing campaigns across your entire product catalogue with ease.

What does it do

Attract and entice customers to make bigger purchases using dynamic pricing and tiered discounts. Besides offering attractive tiered discounts and limited-time sales that inject a sense of urgency into your customers, consumers are further incentivized to add more items to cart by the app’s Cart Saving Message feature that displays the amount saved when buying in bulk.

Some of the features include:

● Quantity-based Discounts - Price tiers for specific products based on purchased quantity

● Multiple Discount Types - Discount products by a fixed price, percentage, or dollar amount

● Pause Offers - Cancel an offer anytime

● Schedule Sales: Schedule time-sensitive sales ahead of time

Key takeaway

While some of the features are limited to Pro Plan users, the free features available should be sufficient for small eCommerce businesses that are just starting out.

Cost

$9.99/mo (Free option available)

Image Credit: Source

Dynamic Currency Converter

What is it A Multi-Currency Converter with Auto Currency Switcher feature and 150+ currencies integrated.

What does it do

Provides a more pleasant shopping experience and reduces the percentage of abandoned carts by accurately reflecting the converted native currency based on the location of each visitor.

Besides boasting the fastest and most accurate currency conversion technology on the market, Dynamic Currency Converter is also able to integrate seamlessly with Ajax Cart, something which many other currency converters have failed to do.

There are also 6 unique templates for Currency Selector for you to choose from based on the theme of your website.

Cost

Ranging from $7.99 to $19.99/mo (Free option available)

Image Credit: Source

Replay Live Session Recording

What is it

A heatmap; something like a DVR for your Shopify store.

What does it do

Provides businesses with a better understanding with regards to the way visitors interact with your store.

By utilising the live recording feature, businesses get an in-depth understanding of how visitors navigate their sites, allowing for optimisation based on data collected. Apart from full session recordings, the app also provides tracking for every click that took place on the website.

Key takeaway

Equipped with a better understanding of what’s working and what isn’t, you are then able to improve on those positive features while eliminating elements that may be costing you sales and time.

Cost

Free (Paid option may be available soon).

Image Credit: Source

Cross-sell, Exit & Email Popup

What is it

A Conversion Optimisation Toolkit that helps increase website engagement and sales via the use of highly customisable widgets.

What does it do

Personizely provides businesses with an all-in-one platform to build email lists, recover abandoning visitors, promote offers, cross-sell products and more without having to manage multiple tools.

Be it growing your email list with an email popup, prompting customers to think twice about abandoning their shopping carts with attractive exit offers, or increase sales by cross-selling related products, Personizely has the right widget for the job.

With Personizely’s intuitive drag and drop function, minutes is all it takes to create and set up interactive widgets with fonts and colours that align with your brand.

Cost

Ranging from $29 to $94/mo

Have more questions or need extensive eCommerce marketing support?

Contact us to discuss your project.

Starting an eCommerce Business from Scratch

A complete E-Commerce business guide to get you started!

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Looking to start your own ecommerce business?

E-Commerce retail sales are estimated to grow by more than $6.5 trillion by 2023 and the trend shows no signs of slowing down! As a result the potential for profit in the ecommerce business is tremendous.

The market is brimming with opportunities, but as usual, all that glitters is no gold! In order to increase your likelihood of success you need to get informed and be prepared.

This guide will provide aspiring business owers with a complete eCommerce checklist to work on before they get started! First things first:

Factors to consider BEFORE you start your eCommerce business:

1. Define your business model

2. Understanding your customers

3. Product Selection

4. Platform selection

5. Payment gateway selection

6. Optimise your online presence

7. Launch, Iterate and optimise

Let’s go through each one together.

Define Your Business Model

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We strongly recommend to use the Business Model Canvas as a guide (image above).

Questions to ask:

• Who is your ideal customer?

• What problem(s) are you trying to solve?

• How is your target audience going to benefit from your products or services?

• How are your customers buying your products and services?

Answering these questions, will enable you to identify your target audience, your unique value proposition, and estimate the amount of resources you need to get started ith your E-Commerce business. The business model canvas would act as a guide that enables you to make informed decisions aligned with your business goals.

Do not seek complete answers at this stage, but rather note down your initial understanding of your business, customers, revenue streams and all resources you need to get started.

You can download the business canvas here.

Understanding Your Customers

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Market Research

It is now time to deep dive into your target audience. Understanding your customers is the backbone of success for every E-Commerce business. But what how can you get started? There are a few areas we recommend you to deep dive in and some handy online tools that will help you to uncover valuable customer insights:

Facebook Audience Insights

Facebook Audience Insights allows you to understand your target audience by exploring insights beyond the basic demographic information. The tool will allow you to identify users who are more likely to convert to paying customers based on interests, social media habits, location and languages they speak.

Keyword planner

Google Keyword Planner allows you you understand what users are searching for, when it comes to your product and services. The tool provides important information such as the monthly search volume and competitiveness for each keyword by targeted location. It is imperative that there is a reasonable search demand for the products or services you are offering.

Use Keyword Planner and Audience Insights to decide if you should capitalise on existing demand or if there is a need to generate product awareness in your target market.

Quora and Reddit

Platforms like Quora and reddit are an information goldmine to gain insights into your target market’s goals, obstacles, and pain points, as well as the language they use while researching for relevant porducts and services. Leverage these information for your copywriting, FAQs and creative direction.

Google Trends

Google Trends will help you to uderstand the seasonality behind the product you are selling. In other words, iot will enable you to understand when is the peak season for your business. Moreover, by observing the relevant search terms and topics, you will be able to predict the demand for your product based on past trends.

Competitive research

Competitive research saves you the hassle of having to reinvent the wheel. As a first step you need to identify your competitor's strengths, weaknesses, value proposition, unique selling points and pricing. From there it is imperative that you come up with your unique market positioning and differentiation point.

Product Selection

# 1 Choose products wisely

While making the right choices when it comes to inventory can be incredibly profitable, it is sometimes difficult to determine which are the items to focus on. Pro tip: Prioritize products using the ABC analysis. It allows you to understand which are the products that require the most attention from an inventory management perspective, which would allow you to manage your cost by avoiding overstocking.

# 2 Logistics and Logistics Cost

A necessary evil! E-Commerce and logisitics go hand and hand. The success of any E-Commerce business is to a very large extend attributed to seamless logistics and operational excellence.

Platform Selection

First of all you need to plan how you are going to distribute your products. When deciding on the platform on which to set up your online store, consider the nature of your products and your audience demographics While it may be tempting to have your own website, some businesses can benefit greatly from the existing customer pool already visiting popular third-party E-Commerce retailers.

Option 1: Build a custom website Pros: Complete control of the entire customer experience, built in accordance with your design, copywriting and SEO requirements. Cons: High development costs and can be hard to maintain or manage.

Option 2: Template website (eg. Wix.com, Shopify, Woo Commerce) Pros: Low-cost, easy set-up, pre-fixed templates and functionality you can immedeately use. Cons: Limited customisation options, tend to be poorly optimised for search engines (not always the case, make sue you choose wisely!)

Option 3: Third-Party Platforms (eg. Amazon, Etsy, Shopee etc)

Pros: Access to a wider audience and benefit from third-party platforms’ marketing, easy to set-up, benefit from third-party’s site traffic, resulting in a lower marketing cost.

Cons: Less control over customer experience (ie. how products are displayed), high competition, and lack of owned data (analytics).

Third-party platforms are generally recommended for new ecommerce businesses that are operating on a limited budget as they are starting out. Using a third-party platform is equivalent to starting your shop on a busy street that already has a steady flow of traffic.

Payment Gateway Selection

A payment gateway helps ecommerce sites to process payments via credit or debit card payments for a fee. Like a digital cash register, it provides a secure and convenient way in which transactions can take place.

Factors to consider when selecting your payment gateway provider:

• Does it allow payments via all credit cards? (VISA, MasterCard)

• How much do they charge per transaction?

• Are they compatible with my country of origin (bank account location)

• Are they allowing payments via my website or do they redirect users to their website?

Paypal, Stripe, and Square are some of the top payment gateways most commonly used by ecommerce businesses.

Optimise Your Online Presence

# 1 Photography

93% of consumers consider their purchase decision heavily influenced by the photos, as images are one of the fastest ways in which we gather the relevant information about a product. Every element in your image should speak in a clear and consistent voice that resonates with your target audience. Two options available:

1) Clean-cut, white background, product-only images

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2) In-context or lifestyle photos

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# 2 Copywriting

This is where your market research efforts pay off. When it comes to copywriting, knowing your audience and search intent is key. By paying attention to how the keyword is used in a query would allow you to craft persuasive item descriptions and copies that speak directly to your audience.

E-Commerce copywriting best practices:

• Know who you are writing for and why are they looking for your products

• Employ the power of brand storytelling

• Magnetic headlines

• Focus on benefits instead of features

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Barkbox is an excellent example of a business that truly understands its target audience. By adopting the language of its audience and addressing the pain points and wants of dog owners, the copies portray the brand as a supportive partner seeking to provide the best life for dogs all around the world.

# 3 Marketing

Selecting the right marketing platform not only saves you time and effort, it also ensures that you are devoting your resources to the channels where you could expect the highest returns in traffic and sales.

How to select the right marketing channels for your E-Commerce business:

Audience Preferences Select channels based on where your target audience usually hangs out. Producing content for those particular channels ensures that you are having the highest possible returns for your efforts and resources. Eg. Linkedin for B2B SaaS, Instagram for apparels and accessories

Business Type Choose the channel that is appropriate depending on the nature of your business. You could expect promoting Anti-virus software on TikTok to be less effective when compared to having the product advertised on Linkedin.

Customer Journey Context matters greatly when it comes to marketing. As user behavior and social norms differ from channel to channel, understanding how users utilise each platform would allow you to speak to your audience at the right time, in the right tone, and with the right message.

Iterate and optimise

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Execute, observe, optimise. Rise and repeat.

Steps to optimising your E-Commerce marketing efforts:

• Identify points/sources of friction

• Develop a testable hypothesis

• Run test

• Make improvements

• Continual Monitoring and testing

Important pages to prioritize:

• Homepage

• Product page

• Check-out page

Consistent testing and optimising different parts of your sales and marketing funnels based on the data collected will increase your traffic and conversion rate indefinitely. Have more questions or need extensive E-Commerce marketing support? Contact us to discuss your project.