In this podcast episode, our host Claus Lauter reflects on transforming an idea into a top-rated Shopify podcast with 23,000+ monthly listeners.
Learn about the strategies for growing a podcast, including AI tools for social media, and upcoming YouTube expansion plans.
Gain insights into Claus's nomadic lifestyle and engage on topics like ecommerce coaching and exciting expert guest episodes.
Topics discussed in this episode:
- How AI tools enhances reach and efficiency of content creation for a podcast
- Claus invites questions for a listener Q&A session
- Improving presence on YouTube
- Why the weekly newsletter, curated from 50 sources, is a valuable resource for viewers and listeners.
Links & Resources
Website: https://ecommercecoffeebreak.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecommerce-coffee-break-podcast/
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecomcoffeebreak
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecommercecoffeebreak/
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Voice over [00:00:01]:
This is the e commerce coffee break, a top rated Shopify growth podcast dedicated to shopify merchants and business owners looking to grow their online stores. Learn how to survive in the fast changing e commerce world with your host, Klaus Lauter, and get marketing advice you can't find on Google. Welcome. Welcome to the show.
Claus Lauter [00:00:27]:
Hello. Welcome to episode 300 of the e commerce Coffee Break podcast. Today is just me, a solo episode. I don't have a guest with me. I just want to give you a bit of an overview, what's happening with the podcast and with me. And with 300 episodes, actually 320, there were a couple of bonus episodes. We have reached a milestone, and the podcast had about 23,000 listeners in the last four weeks. So that's more than the capacity of the Madison Square garden in New York City, and I'm quite proud about that.
Claus Lauter [00:00:57]:
And I never thought that would happen. So when I started about three years ago, there was just an idea of the podcast, and I had no clue of what the e commerce coffee break will become. Now. We had a couple of hundred thousand downloads over the time, so a massive number. And with that, we are now also starting to show up regularly in the top 20 of Apple podcast charts in many countries in the marketing category. That being said, in the top 20 of Apple podcast marketing means top 20 out of 17,500 podcasts in that category. And we also show up in the business category from time to time. So really making progress there and still improving every day, still learning every day about podcasting.
Claus Lauter [00:01:46]:
Obviously I want to get better, and that's not an easy task. And running a podcast is not a sprint, is a marathon, and results come with time. Now, for me, it's a bit of mind boggling what the podcast has become and as the workload has become also more. I have an audio editor on board, Caitlin. She is on board since April and helping me with obviously the editing of the episodes, a lot of social media and other things, and she is a really rock star. And her contribution, her work has really helped to get the podcast to the next level. The social media strategy has changed over time with the podcast for everyone who is interested in podcasting or also in e commerce. So we are posting far more often, and as everyone else, I reckon out there, we are using a number of AI tools helping with that.
Claus Lauter [00:02:41]:
So if you're interested what kind of tools we're using, reach out to me. I'm happy to share them. We have tested a lot of AI tools to come down to three or four that we're using now, and they have really helped us in increasing the number of posts that we're setting up, the frequency that we're setting up, and also in repurposing content that has been recorded over time. Plan for the next couple of months is to get better on YouTube. Now the podcast is audio first and I want to stick with that. So the podcast episodes, as you know, are about 20 to 30 minutes long. They should be easy, digestible while you're on the run, while you're shopping, while you're at the gym, while you're doing errands or the dishes. So that's the idea of the ecommerce coffee break within the podcast, that you can listen to the podcast two to three times a week, but you don't have to sit through a 1 hour or 90 minutes long podcast to get a few gold nuggets.
Claus Lauter [00:03:40]:
I just want to make sure that this is to the point and I think 2025 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes is just the right format. Let me know if you think differently. Let me know if you want to have longer episodes. Then I will think about it. But I think so far it has worked out quite nicely to come out with shorter episodes. As I said, I'm working right now in finding a YouTube strategy to attract more people to the podcast. This is more like a discovery strategy for the podcast than a retaining strategy. YouTube, as you know, is the second biggest search engine, belongs to Google and a lot of people do searches there.
Claus Lauter [00:04:21]:
Becoming a youtuber is not really my plan to produce videos for YouTube is just different level and it's not really what I want to focus on. Focus as that is the podcast. But if you prefer to listen and also view the videos on YouTube, then head over to YouTube. The pure audio episodes you will also find on YouTube audio or YouTube music as it is called and that should make it easy if you're going for to just the audio version on YouTube. Hey Klaus, here just a quick one. If you like the content of this episode, subscribe to the weekly newsletter at newsletter Dot ecommercecoffeebreak.com. I score and create 50 news sources so you don't have to saving your hours of research. Grow your revenue with ecommerce news, marketing strategies, tools, podcast interviews and more, all in a quick three minute read.
Claus Lauter [00:05:15]:
So head over to newsletter Dot e commercecoffeebreak.com to subscribe as said 100% free. Also you will find the link in the show notes. And now back to the show now with the podcast. The newsletter that comes out every Thursday has grown up to six and a half thousand subscribers. So if you have not signed up for the newsletter yet, then please head over to newsletter dot e commercecoffeebreak.com and sign up there. It's free comes out every week and it basically it's a summary of about 50 newsletters that I receive every week. So I'm curating the content of the newsletter for you and try to find the most important, important news items of the week that might be helpful for you as a Shopify store merchant or as a DCC brand. And it's small bits and pieces.
Claus Lauter [00:06:04]:
You should be able to read the newsletter in three to four minutes in a best case scenario and get the best out of e commerce, DTC, AI, entrepreneurship, everything that I think might be helping you in your business with the newsletter, with the podcast. Also, I have grown the for you to partner with the podcast and newsletter. Become a sponsor, become an interview guest on the sponsor. So if you're interested in reaching all our listeners and the newsletter subscribers, then just reach out to me. I will be then sending you the partnership options and you can have a look if that's something that you are interested in. On the private side, as some of you know, I am still in Buenos Aires. I came here last year, wanted to stay for a month or two and fell in love with the city. And I'm still here, but I'm leaving in about two weeks.
Claus Lauter [00:06:57]:
So I will go back to Medellin, to Colombia, one of my favorite cities, and stick around there for a couple of months before I head over to Southeast Asia. Now you might ask yourself, what's wrong with this guy? He's moving all the time. So I call myself by now a slow mat, a slow nomad. So basically venturing slowly around the planet and staying in a place for a couple of months, that's a little bit different than what most digital nomads do. They are staying for four weeks and then they move on to the next one. I have done that for a time in my life, but right now I'm at a point where I have slowed down, where I want to explore and experience a place a little bit more in depth, get a better feeling about people, culture, food, society, whatever happens in that country. And I think normally half a year is a good time span to dive into a country. I said Buenos Aires.
Claus Lauter [00:07:53]:
I was here a little bit longer than I expected and I will come back and I potentially will make Buenos Aires one of my home bases. People who know me know that I have a home base in Cape Town, in South Africa, where I lived for a long time, and also in Cyprus. The island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea and Buenos Aires might be just my third home base. That being said, if you still don't know and if you're wondering and have never met me and never heard about my stories, obviously, as you can tell from my ex, I'm originally from Germany, but I left about 20 years ago and since then I'm sort of traveling around the world and being a global citizen, that's what I see myself as, and I'm happy to explore more countries coming up. And the podcast and the newsletter helps me with staying busy and that's something that I can do from wherever I am in the world. So it's a perfect match. And the next episodes then in May already will come from edgy and will come from Columbia and I will highlight that. And if you want to reach out and learn more about either my lifestyle or any of the destinations that I have been, also feel free to do that.
Claus Lauter [00:09:00]:
I'm always happy to connect with other travelers, other people who want to explore my lifestyle, become a location independent citizen of the world, just let me know. I'm happy to help there. Now, finally, a couple of things that I offer beside of the podcast, and that should not be a sales page here. But if you want to reach out to me about cold email outreach or ecommerce coaching, Shopify coaching in general, feel free to do so. I'm a digital marketer for almost 25 years. I'm a Shopify partner for a couple of years, Klaviyo partner running a Shopify store for about eight years. And I said I'm doing digital marketing for so long that I'm a digital dinosaur, sort of, kind of. And if you want to help specifically with cold email outreach, I'm a big fan of email marketing, as you know.
Claus Lauter [00:09:52]:
Then reach out to me. I have a special offer that might help you in your business. And finally, before I say goodbye at this episode today, if you have any questions, I want to do an episode very soon, a listener question answer session. Then please message me. Either email me, leave a comment, find me on social media. You'll find me on the handle ecommerce coffee break pretty much everywhere and just put your question in there. And I'm happy to pick that question up and answer it either myself on an episode, or I might even invite an expert to answer your question on the episode. So I hope that makes all sense.
Claus Lauter [00:10:34]:
I hope that gave you an overview of what the ecommerce coffee break is about. And what is wrong with me traveling around the world. So stay tuned. I have a couple of good episodes coming up in the next couple of weeks. They're already recorded, so I know they're good. There are some very good experts there, and as always, if there is any kind of inputs and comments and critique or whatever you have, feel free to reach out to me. I'm happy to get all of this to make the show bigger and better. That's it for now.
Claus Lauter [00:11:06]:
I wish you a great day, and I see you in the next episode. Have a good one. Hey Claus here. Thanks for joining me on another episode of the ecommerce Coffee Break podcast. Before you go, I'd like to ask two things from you. First, please help me with the algorithm so I can bring more impactful guests on the show. It will make it also easier for others to discover the podcast, simply like comment and subscribe in the app you're using to listen to the podcast, and even better if you could leave a rating. Thanks again and I catch you in the next episode.
Claus Lauter [00:11:33]:
Have a good one.