Audience-Building Strategies for Shopify eCommerce Sellers with Kurt Elster, Host of The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

Key Facts

Kurt’s LinkedIn
Kurt is an entrepreneur, adventurer, writer, and much more
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast website
On The Unofficial Shopify Podcast, you discover new opportunities to grow your store from the world’s most successful Shopify entrepreneurs.
Kurt holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from Beloit College and a Master of Business Administration from Illinois Institute of Technology
Kurt wrote the article “Structuring Your Homepage In A New Store”, which shows how the homepage is an opportunity to nail the first impression with your customer and some must-have elements for a killer homepage

[ 00:05:14 ] The three most common mistakes shop founders run into:
- Difficulty in finding an audience
- Difficulty in building your audience
- Starting with an idea/product and then looking for the people to buy
[ 00:05:48 ] Build your audience first before you start selling a product
[ 00:06:45 ] Before building a store online, start by building an audience using an email
[ 00:07:43 ] After building an audience, talk to them to figure out and validate your product and what you should sell
[ 00:08:21 ] Instagram and Facebook are retooling themselves similarly to TikTok and focusing on discoverability. This shifts the power away from well-established names/brands to newer, faster, and more entertaining creators that may not have a wide audience yet
[ 00:09:10 ] If you can get good at entertaining portrait videos, you will get ahead of the other content creators
[ 00:10:21 ] TikTok is the place to be for brand awareness
[ 00:12:07 ] In making video content, all you need to get started is a smartphone
[ 00:13:24 ] Shopify focuses on accessible eCommerce with a community-focused ecosystem backed by a clear understanding of entrepreneurship. This makes it the ideal platform for entrepreneurs
[ 00:16:45 ] The best time to shift from Shopify Core to Shopify Plus is if your checkout requires customization and you want to run complicated automatic promotions and discounts
[ 00:25:19 ] Most sellers are not using automation as they should. You can have automation augment your existing team