Threading The Needle

Andrew Faris — CEO of 4x400 — shares the real-life numbers, struggles, and everything in between when running multiple ecommerce businesses. On today's episode, Andrew shares the upside and downsides of approaching business decision-making from a tactical and data-driven lens, rather than via brand marketing efforts. 4x400 is an ecommerce holding company that acquires, launches, and grows DTC brands (owned by Common Thread Collective). That means you’ll get to go behind the scenes into the raw truths. Even if it sounds crazy, this is the unpolished story: from failures to successes, from “the high highs to the low lows.”

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 Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16hSDSJKMi8UWmw4WG5cHHTpzYzvXicPAC6kj1atHBpg/edit?usp=sharing • Successful Ad #1: https://fb.me/2SNaw1L3JjSS46W • Successful Ad #2: https://fb.me/1ERbtXYQ7MMwMU9 • Dave's Twitter Feed: https://twitter.com/DaveRekuc

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 $780k. From $5k to $780k: 15,500% ROI. Of course, that clickbaity calculation is far from the whole story. That’s why this is a special episode of the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast with guests Taylor Holiday and Aaron Orendoff … to reveal everything. All the numbers. The entire journey. Every struggle. Every loss. Every win. At the end of the episode, Taylor and I share 10 takeaways — the biggest and most-tactical lessons we learned. Best of all, I’ve summarized them all with examples and illustrations in this article to make the takeaways easier to take away: https://bit.ly/36HjDGf

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/115977923900/posts/10159209765208901 1x1 Cutdown Version: https://www.facebook.com/115977923900/posts/10159278228173901