This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ecommcowboy.com
I’m here for the boosted CVR, new shiny object, and “free money.” Find out all the requirements and where/how to enable the Shop Promise badge in your store.Shopify allows everybody and their mom to use the Shop Promise badge on their website, with a few exceptions. If you weren't under a rock last week, you probably saw that Shopify released about a hundred new things at once.If you're like me you're wondering, what can I use now or in the near future?Is there any of this that applies to me?One thing I wanted is the Shop Promise badge. It's a lot like Amazon's Prime shipping badge. It lets the customer know, Hey, if I order this thing guaranteed, it's gonna come within five days of me ordering it.I thought that in order to have that shiny new toy on my website, I thought that you'd have to be using Shopify's fulfillment network. If you didn't know that they have a fulfillment network...They do. Even though you don't see Shopify trucks.Good news: turns out I was wrong.You don't have to be using their fulfillment to get the Shop Promise badge. Your store just has to meet a few requirements.Number one, fulfill orders from at least one US location. Number two, have the Shop channel installed and Shop Pay activated. Maintain a shipping volume of at least 25 orders in the month. Yada, yada, yada, et cetera, et cetera.Anybody can get the badge if you meet these requirements.You might be wondering how can Shopify guarantee that the order's gonna get there on time if they're not handling the fulfillment?Answer is: I don't know. I have no clue.I just want the shiny new toy. I want the shiny new object that's gonna promise to give me more money.Shopify thinks this badge is gonna increase conversion rate by 25%. To me, that sounds like free money. I'll take it every time.Like Alex Hormozi says, there's no one silver bullet that's gonna solve every problem for your business. But there are a hundred golden BB's. 100 tiny little advantages here and there, that you can find and accumulate over time. You do that long enough for years and years, that's gonna make a mountain of difference. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ecommcowboy.com
Shack from Structured told us how to get fired. Ron from Obvi gave us his personal phone number. Jimmy from Sendlane comped us $500. And many of my DTC friends became IRL friends. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ecommcowboy.com
Data is good. More data is better. Focused “feet-moving” data is best.I want to start this third episode with a confession: I was wrong. I was wrong. Post-purchase surveys are not worthless.Actually, they're really helpful. There are many things I've been wrong about in the digital marketing space, and I'm not the only one. You hear every year that email is dead. Facebook has been dead a bunch of times, and you can't have a healthy, thriving DTC business unless you have a million or two followers on TikTok, right?One thing I've been wrong about for sure is post-purchase surveys. When that topic came up in the past, I just thought, “Bleh. It's bland, boring. I'm here for big levers only. I'm trying to throw haymakers and do major damage. Don't talk to me about something small, these tiny details.”I'm just being honest with you.I relegated this categorically to “small-boy stuff.”(Part of this is just my personality. I try to attack things aggressively, and when I see quick results it helps maintain my interest in the long run.)What I'm saying is I was wrong, and even Nick Shackelford tweeted about post-purchases this week—felt like he'd been reading my mail. I was wrong, and I discovered that when I stumbled upon Jeremiah and Bar from KNO Commerce on Twitter. I met Barr at a Triple Whale event in 2022. Come to find out, KNO integrates seamlessly with Triple Whale and affords a kind of a robust post-purchase survey option if you already exist within the Triple Whale ecosystem.Of course, I'm sure you can use KNO commerce outside of Triple Whale as well. But I'm a Triple Whale fan. More data is better in my estimation, and Triple Whale gives you that while accumulating it all in one helpful place. Talked with Barr, decided let's try it out, put in their initial survey on our website and made a big big discovery. Discovery #1: A lot more people were finding us and purchasing from us via TikTok than we thought.At this point I basically think TikTok's pixel is broken. I just don't think it functions. Maybe we're the only ones who always see seemingly awful numbers from TikTok.But the big discovery was that post-purchase survey gave us a more accurate read on how our TikTok ads were actually performing. We discovered that we’re getting a great return from TikTok that was not showing up on their in-platform reporting—as told by the new customers themselves.We would've given up on TikTok long ago without KNO Commerce.“Hey, look at the numbers. We're getting a better return in other places. Let's shut this down. Burns through creative too fast anyway…” In fact, I don't know how anybody successfully runs TikTok ads without a post-purchase survey now.Discovery #2: Customers who are discovering us and waiting for more than a month to purchase are doing so firstly on TikTok, secondly on YouTube, and thirdly on Instagram.We've emphasized Instagram to the max over the past few years. We've had some significant YouTube presence. We're edging our way into TikTok. The reason I mention this, we have prioritized those three in the exact opposite order. Lots of energy on Instagram, less so on YouTube, and nearly none at all on TikTok (as far as organic content is concerned). Incredible to discover that those who are finding us and then, “Yeah, let's give it some time. Let's wait. Let's see a little more.” They're doing so firstly on TikTok, then YouTube and Instagram.That put feet-moving data behind this urgent feeling I've had that we need to be investing more into short-form content. Of course, everybody talks about that. There's even short-form content agencies now, which, I would think are very helpful. But now we've got the data to back this “gut-feeling” up.If people are discovering us on TikTok (first) where short-form video reigns, and waiting a month or more to purchase—let's put more content on those channels. Let's get more content in front of them to shorten that distance between discovery and purchase and get those new customers across the finish line.We would've never known that without KNO’s post-purchase survey. I'm sure there's other post-purchase surveys out there—I like KNO Commerce. I like the people behind it. Tool works great. Easy and simple to set up. You should be using KNO. More data is better, but focused data that actually gives you direction is best. That's what I got from my meeting with my guy at KNO. And I liked that meeting so much I set up something regular with them so we can review that data together and see what else we can do. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ecommcowboy.com
(1) They have the data. (2) You’re probably not an expert. (3) And they’re eager to help you win. In life and in business, a little humility goes a long way!If you haven't heard of Postscript, they're my weapon of choice in regards to SMS marketing.It's a channel that's been around a lot shorter of a time as compared to email. Email has been around forever. People have studied it, people have done it for decades. There are far more experts when it comes to email marketing. With SMS, most of us are just figuring it out as we go.I actually think that's most of what digital marketing is—just figuring it out as you go and confidently presenting what's currently working for you. But anyway, prior to working in DTC, I spent about 10 years working in the nonprofit space. Marketing there looks a little different, but there are principles that carry over.Found myself a few years ago working in an agency as a brand strategist—managing, functioning as an outsourced CMO, if you will—for our five most lucrative brands. At that time, we didn't service email and SMS at all for our clients. We just focused on ads. There came a time when one of our clients was on the way out and they needed email and SMS to buoy their performance. I just pitched it as an idea, “Hey, let me try my hand at this based on my prior experience with my own brand, based on my prior experience in the nonprofit space. Let me just try my hand at it and if it works, and we can get you to X percentage per month revenue coming from email, we'll keep you around, we'll figure out how to charge you fairly for it and we can move on from there.”They went for it and it worked. It works.I didn't know that it would work, but it did work, and as the months went by I researched Chase Diamond. I started learning from Jimmy Kim. You get a few pointers here and there and figure it out.At a certain point, we wanted to add SMS into our arsenal.I was there meeting with Postscript as the new director of email and SMS marketing for our agency. I have to say initially the first guy that I met with, I just didn't like him that much. That's not very nice but I'm telling the truth. I didn't like the guy that much and I didn't want to meet with him.He wanted to help me out and give me some strategy and some tips and help me and our clients win. But when it comes to customer relationships, likability can take you far. Of course you have to be competent. But also if people like you, they'll probably answer your call.Q4 goes by. November/December are super busy. We come into a new year and I just decide, “You know what? I'm going to give these folks a second try. I like the service, I like the technology. These people keep emailing me. They say they want to help me out with our clients, give us some strategy, et cetera. I'm just going to give them a second chance. And actually I'm going to tell them, I really know nothing at all about SMS marketing. Could you teach me? Could you help me? I'm really just figuring this whole thing out as I go. I've had more experience with email, SMS is a whole new frontier for me. Can you just teach me what to do?”I decided to do that going in: have a dose of humility, humble myself a little bit, and just allow these folks—who were all younger than me, by the way—to teach me what to do when it comes to SMS marketing.And lo and behold, the more they taught me and the more I just did what they recommended, the more we won. And the more our agency won. And the more our client partners won. And this makes total sense! Postscript has the data.They're seeing thousands of brands and what's working for all of them across the spectrum, across categories, across verticals. They have the data. Why wouldn't I just listen to them and do what they said? A little humility can go a long way, both in life and in business. That was a big takeaway for me. A little humility in the marketing world can go a long way.Fast forward, now I’m with an eCommerce sports brand heading up our marketing. When I come on board, one of the first things I want to do is move us over to Postscript. Why?* The customer service.* The technology. With the SMS partner we had at the time, there was some limitation on the technology side, so needed to get moved over for that sake as wel—but the customer service wins in the end for me. I got us moved over to Postscript. We had an incredibly successful November. Hopefully everybody does, right? Everybody wants to win on Black Friday. They tell me this heading into December, “Chris, you know how much money you made in November. It's possible to duplicate that and even exceed those numbers in December. But you got to send 70% more messages than you did in November.”70% more text messages sounds like a lot.When I first heard that, I said, “Oh, I don't know—70% more messages? I don't want to bother my list. I don't want to have too many unsubscribes. Ooh... That's a lot. Is it worth risking my list just to squeeze a few extra dollars out?”Good news, I listened to them and we did it anyway.Put aside those fears, okay?“They know what they're doing. These are the experts. They've got the data—I don't. I see what's going on with our brand. They see what's going on with everybody's brand. Just listen to them and do it.”Surprise, surprise: record breaking month for us.Incredible to see the amount of revenue that we did over SMS in December and help us wrap up a record year on that channel.A little humility in life, as well as business, can take you a long way. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ecommcowboy.com
Make a better product, make more money. GHOST has innovated in the supplement category and now the market is rewarding them. (Also, I’m addicted.)Last week, I'm walking through DICK'S Sporting Goods. If you don't know what that is, it's a sporting goods store. I've got whatever I'm getting, I walk up to the cashier. They have an assortment of easy things to add to your cart—candy bars, beef jerky, sunflower seeds, et cetera.There I see it in the upright cooler: the GHOST Energy drink.It's got cool topography. It looks like somebody tagged it with spray paint. It's a bright yellow can. It grabs my attention. It also has Sour Patch Kids on it—okay?!The flavor is Blue Raspberry Sour Patch Kids.That takes me back. I'm a '90s kid. I grew up going to the movies. I love Sour Patch Kids. I'm intrigued. I go in a little closer and it says on the can, “Zero Sugar.”One has to wonder how can this alchemy have happened? What miracle of science has taken place to make something taste like Sour Patch Kids without the sugar? I don't know. But it's intrigued me.I pick up the can and then on the label there's a raised tactile feel. Wherever there's a design, there's actually a raised portion that just gives it this cool, unique tactile feel while I'm holding this cold can of Blue Raspberry Sour Patch Kid flavored energy drink—and I have to get it.It's only $3. I throw it in the cart. And that's when the magic took place…The marketing drew me in.But the magic was with the flavor. When I tasted that drink, I got transported. I was 13 years old again. It was the year 2000. My mom was dropping me off with my friends on a Friday night at the theater. I'm pumped to see whatever I'm seeing. I'm making my way to the snack bar, right there next to the giant vat of buttered popcorn is the plexiglass full of candy. Reese's Pieces, Butterfinger, and they're the holy grail of them all: Sour Patch Kids.I'm tasting this drink and its flavor is nostalgic. It's transportive for me. It's crazy. A couple days later, I find a Quick Trip near my house that carries GHOST Energy drinks. I get every flavor that they have. It's incredible. After the Blue Raspberry Sour Patch Kid flavored drink, I tried the citrus flavor. The citrus one was so good: I wondered in my truck as I was driving home, “Are there illicit drugs in this drink?”“Why does it taste so good? What is it about this drink that makes its flavor so impactful and at the same time with zero calories? How can this be?” I don't know. I just know that it is. And the magic was in the flavor. Next, I go home. I get on the website. That's when I discovered the model. GHOST is not even an energy drink company. It's a supplement company. Who knew? Who knew that GHOST Lifestyle was a supplement company? But they are. The energy drink isn't even their lead product. They make protein powder. They make pre-workout. And just as they do with their energy drinks, they co-brand with recognizable brands that you already love from childhood (like Chips Ahoy) and they mouth-watering flavors.I'm assuming that their flavor standard carries over to all their products. I haven't tried the protein powder or the pre-workout, but I'd love to. And actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder, can I make my own version of their energy drinks just by taking their pre-workout and mixing it with carbonated water? I really do wonder that. But that's neither here nor there.What I love about this is that GHOST could have gone with the “do-it-yourself, slap your label on our already pre-made product” route. They could have gone that way as far as making their own supplements. There's plenty of companies that can take your label, slap it on their products, and you can roll a chocolate flavored protein powder out the door in a hurry.I've looked into it myself. I think it's cool. But you're not going to make a splash with that. Not likely anyway. I love it that they didn't go that route.What they did was truly innovate in their category. They made unique, recognizable, impactful, addictive flavors that people like myself love to come back to again and again. They actually went through the trouble of creating incredible flavors. They found other products that people would recognize that would give them an entrance. Would I have tried that energy drink without Sour Patch Kids being on it? I doubt it. I don't drink energy drinks. But flavor got me in the door and now I'm sold. I'm sold on the whole company! I've never even had the protein powder, but I want it just to eat it for dessert. That's what I think about it without even having tried it yet.I love it that they actually went through the trouble of making a better product.If you make a better product, you're going to make more money.If you want to make more money, make a better product.It sounds stupidly simple, but I think oftentimes (especially if you're an idea person) we forget about that. Instead of just making another supplement company with a cool name and a cool domain and a cool influencer attached to it—actually go about the trouble of making a better product.And if you do that, the market will reward you, as I'm sure GHOST has already seen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ecommcowboy.com