US Consumers spent $8.9 billion online on Black Friday, down from the record $9 billion in 2020, the forest ever year-over-year decline for eCommerce sales [ source ]. Traffic at retail stores on Black Friday dropped 28.3% compared with 2019 levels [ source ]. I ran a poll asking whether people shopped at a physical retailer after Thanksgiving and whether people made a purchase online after Thanksgiving. It was the fifth Black Friday sales for our in-house eCommerce company, DermWarehouse! Go be...
Nov 28, 2021•21 min
In Episode 59, Jason Parks of The Media Captain talks about the Facebook eCommerce Retargeting Strategy he set-up for DermWarehouse. This includes how to structure your retargeting based on purchasers and non purchases plus lead generation campaigns being integrated into Klaviyo. If you are an eCommerce store owner looking to improve your Facebook advertising, this podcast should help!
Nov 26, 2021•20 min
Below are the 11 marketing items we cover in episode 58: Google is changing the name of Google My Business to Google Business Profile. In order to understand SEO, you need to understand what Google likes and dislikes. Broad Match Keyword Bidding can lower your cost per click and drive higher quality traffic to your site. If you have low quality content (duplicate and thin content) on your site, this can cause more harm than good. We do a deep dive into Klaviyo and combining email and text messag...
Nov 14, 2021•29 min
Below are the 11 marketing items of the week that Jason covers in detail. You can read the entire email blast for the week HERE . Saks Fifth Avenue spun off their rapidly growing eCommerce division . In doing so, the company tripled its valuation at nearly $6 billion. Will this prompt a spinoff for Macy's? Activist investors are hoping the answer is yes. Spanx was acquired this past week for a reported $1.2 billion. Jason Parks talks about the amazing gesture the Founder, Sara Blakely, did for e...
Oct 25, 2021•27 min
What are heading tags and why are they so important for SEO? Google announced that mobile users will now have continuous scroll in search results. We're proud of the new moss wall art we had installed in our conference room! When it comes to your social media strategy, stories add a great personal touch. If you’re looking to garner more reviews for your local business, I recommend looking into GatherUp. We dive into the key local SEO ranking factors that move the needle with your GMB page. What ...
Oct 17, 2021•18 min
Do you know the most popular search query on Bing? It’s “Google” [ source ]. In June 2021, online search engine Bing accounted for 5.56 percent of the global search market, while market leader Google had a market share of 87.76 percent [ source ]. Despite Google being the dominant search engine, Bing can still perform very well. 1) TikTok, 2) YouTube, 3) Instagram, 4) Snapchat, 5) Facebook are the top 5 apps on the Apple App Store as of this podcast recording. New layout for Google My Business d...
Oct 04, 2021•14 min
Toast had its initial public offering this week that could value the restaurant-tech company at more than $16 billion [ source ]. Toast is a point of sale software for restaurants. Aftership is a software company we recently started utilizing for DermWarehouse . This helps us track and gather information between when we ship products and when they are delivered. DermWarehouse is starting a subscription box. A subscription box is going to help get more new products into customers hands, which sho...
Sep 25, 2021•21 min
Amazon is likely the front-runner for NFL Sunday Ticket [ source ]. The NFL may ask for up to $2.5 billion per year for the package, a source said. I expect to see more of the major technology/digital companies (Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter and Netflix) snag the rights to major sporting leagues. It’ll be tough for traditional media outlets to compete with the deep pockets of technology. Do you have duplicate content on your website? If you have similar content on multiple pages or co...
Sep 18, 2021•19 min
Google announced it will be killing expanded text ads, starting June 30, 2022 [ learn more ]. They will only serve responsive search ads moving forward. According to Google, responsive search ads see a 7% higher conversion rate than standard search ads. We’ve moved a lot of our clients towards responsive search. Intuit (parent company of QuickBooks) is in talks to buy MailChimp for an estimated $10 billion [ learn more ]. We love MailChimp and QuickBooks here at The Media Captain. We do a deep d...
Sep 05, 2021•25 min
Stefanie and Jason discuss DermWarehouse moving into their new warehouse space. This is the perfect podcast for any aspiring business owner or entrepreneur looking to move offices. They discuss every step of the move process, which includes the purchase of the property, renovations, and the big move.
Apr 04, 2021•24 min
Jason and Stefanie talk about they take an idea and turn it into an actual business. For The Media Captain, DermWarehouse and Park Perfection, before being an established business with a solid customer base, they were just ideas. How did Jason and Stef take their ideas and make the necessary implementations to start a business and then grow it? They will do a deep dive in episode 50 on this very subject. What's exciting about this episode is so many entrepreneurs have great ideas yet aren't able...
Nov 08, 2020•27 min
Stefanie takes on episode 49 solo and goes into detail on what happens on Black Friday/Cyber Monday for DermWarehouse. How does an eCommerce company prepare for the busiest time of the year? Stef goes into detail on marketing preparation. From choosing a discount to planning out email marketing and text messaging campaigns. Stef also talks about how inventory is managed. Many people outside of the eCommerce world don't realize how much inventory must be purchased in September and October leading...
Nov 01, 2020•20 min
Jason and Stefanie started The Media Captain together in 2010. They were partners and growing the business for approximately three years. Then came the date when Stef realized agency life wasn't for her. In podcast episode 48, Stefanie reveals what led to this decision to leave The Media Captain and how because of this decision, DermWarehouse was formed. For anyone in a small, family run business, this podcast will be great for you. This episode also teaches important business lessons pertaining...
Oct 19, 2020•41 min
Jason Parks talks about the importance of writing when it comes to digital marketing. During episode 47, Jason hits on the following areas where writing can help improve your online presence. Improve SEO with better written content throughout your site Drive more long tail search queries through well written blogs Garner more social media engagement by writing compelling copy and content We are fortunate to live in a time where anyone can distribute their content on a blog. It's time to get star...
Oct 13, 2020•20 min
Jason discusses what goes through his mind during his first call with a prospective client. From gathering preliminary information to devising a strategy, this is a conversation in coming up with a plan of action.
Oct 03, 2020•24 min
Tom Walters is the President/Co-Founder of Noxgear , an eCommerce company that creates obsessively engineered active-lifestyle products for runner's, cyclists, and those with pets to keep them safer and enhance their experience. Jason and Stefanie run daily. It' s a part of their morning routine . They recently purchased Noxgear and came to love the product. Jason and Stef reached out to Tom to get him on the podcast and he obliged. On episode 45, Tom talks about how the company was started by h...
Sep 27, 2020•42 min
Prior to episode 44, Jason and Stefanie wrote down 5 questions each they wanted to ask each other pertaining to The Media Captain and DermWarehouse. Neither Jason nor Stefanie saw the questions prior to them being asked. Hear what the brother and sister due had to say about business, routine, digital marketing, work ethic, hiring and much more!
Sep 19, 2020•29 min
In episode 43, Jason and Stefanie hit on everything and anything Google Shopping. What differentiates Google Shopping from PPC and other marketing channels. The value of Search Terms within Google Shopping How DermWarehouse leverages Google Shopping How ParkPerfection leverages Google Shopping Understanding your Google Shopping Feed Cleaning up your Google Shopping Feed Critical thinking needed for high-level strategy for Shopping Importance of mobile bid adjustments Different types of bidding (...
Sep 09, 2020•31 min
Aaron Rubin, the Founder and CEO at ShipHero is our guest for episode 42. ShipHero offers Flexible fulfillment & software built for ecommerce. They work with eCommerce companies like DressBarn and the Dallas Mavericks. During episode 42, Aaron talked about how he got into the eCommerce space with his martial arts company, Zengu . He also discusses how the idea for ShipHero came about, the future of eCommerce, his move into a 150,000 square foot warehouse and much more!...
Aug 20, 2020•40 min
In episode 40, we talked about driving traffic to your website. A lot of what we hit on was paid ads (Google/Bing and FB/Instagram). In Podcast Episode 41, we’re going to talk about how to make sure your advertising copy is great. Jason and Stefanie discuss how important advertising copy is and how it's helped both of their companies, The Media Captain and DermWarehouse. We first dive into the foundation of a Google PPC advertisement so you understand the structure: What does a Google advertisem...
Aug 13, 2020•27 min
Driving traffic to your site is one of the most critical components if you are looking grow your business. The Media Captain helps brands come up with strategies to drive qualified traffic from the right channels. This is how DermWarehouse has grown from 0 customers to nearly 100,000 in less than 5-years. In episode 40, Jason and Stefanie talk about traffic driving tactics to help out your business. We hone in on SEO, PPC, Shopping and Social. We then discuss ways to convert your site visitors a...
Aug 08, 2020•32 min
In episode 39, Stefanie and Jason discuss the importance of capturing email addresses and why it's critical for eCommerce companies. Below is an outline that we used for our Podcast on email automation and shopping cart abandonment for eCommerce. Important Resources referenced in podcast: Klaviyo MailChimp Constant Contact Sumo Email Capture Email Marketing ROI Stats Importance of Collecting Email Addresses: Being able to capture email addresses on eCommerce site (or any site) is very important ...
Jul 29, 2020•21 min
Your blog can be a key element to your websites overall online marketing success, The issue is that most businesses don't fully understand how to utilize their blog. In episode 38, Jason and Stefanie share best practices for laying the proper foundation along with coming up with a successful blogging strategy for your business. Why Blogging is Important: Will bring new traffic to your website and can help generate new business If you provide great content, other authoritative sources can start l...
Jul 16, 2020•26 min
We've been on a hiatus since the start of COVID-19 but we're back and better than ever for episode 37! Stefanie and Jason do a deep dive into the state of our two businesses, The Media Captain and DermWarehouse. We've seen crazy growth on the eCommerce side with business doubling. Topics covered on the eCommerce side include the following: How'd we scale? What'd we do from a staffing perspective? Why'd we at first scale back on advertising only later to pivot our positioning? What are our plans ...
Jul 09, 2020•25 min
In episode 36, Jason Parks of The Media Captain talks about remaining optimistic and positive during tough times. If you look at the bigger picture, there's a lot of upside on the digital marketing side for businesses and Jason discusses this in Episode 36.
Mar 21, 2020•15 min
There are going to be challenging times ahead of us with the impact Coronavirus is having on our economy. How is your business going to adapt? What are marketing tactics you can take if you have to cut advertising budget? Jason Parks goes over all of this in episode 35.
Mar 16, 2020•17 min
In episode 34, Stefanie and Jason talk about what goes on behind the scenes of an eCommerce operation. Stefanie leads the way in discussing how DermWarehouse grew from an operation with 0 customers upon launch in 2016 to over 50,000 customers by the end of 2019. If you are looking to launch an eCommerce operation or take your eCommerce shop to the next level, this will be a great episode for you! Below is the outline we tried to follow during the podcast! Packing and shipping Timeliness Schedule...
Jan 05, 2020•24 min
In episode 33, Jason and Stefanie discuss how you should formulate an advertising strategy for your business. From how much money you invest to selecting the right channels. Jason and Stefanie cover how they went about advertising for their eCommerce company, DermWarehouse, along with the tactics they use for the clients they represent on the agency side.
Jan 01, 2020•19 min
In episode 32, Jason and Stefanie talk about the 15 most important tools used to run their businesses. From accounting to project management to analytics, the brother and sister duo cover it all. Below is their list: Monday.com SEMRush Google Sheets/Google Docs QuickBooks Calendly DocuSign ShipStation Finale MailChimp Mozeo Google Analytics Screaming Frog HubSpot Sumo LiveChat...
Dec 14, 2019•20 min
In Episode 31, Jason and Stefanie talk about the mindset needed when starting a business. You should not be thinking about making a quick buck in the first couple of months. A long term mindset is needed for optimal results for your business. Jason and Stefanie share their experiences through The Media Captain and DermWarehouse.
Dec 07, 2019•22 min
