Episode 18: How to Grow Your Ecommerce Product Business to 6 Figures with Product Expert Kerrie Fitzgerald
Did you know that e-commerce has surged during the pandemic?
Whether you have an e-commerce product already or not, this episode will tell you exactly why you need one and how to get it to six figures without paying for ads or agencies.
Our special guest, Kerrie Fitzgerald, is teaching you things like how to collaborate with influencers without paying them, leverage your email list, and create customer superfans. Trust me, this information is invaluable because the world of online shopping is only going to continue to grow.
Kerrie Fitzgerald is a product business strategist, consultant, and your go-to product marketing whiz. After starting her first high-end pet subscription box, The Dapper Dog Box, in 2016, she grew the business to multi 6 figures of revenue in two years without funding, staff, or support and successfully sold the business in 2019.
Today, she helps subscription box, e-commerce, and product-based business owners create “wildly in demand” brands and products their customers are obsessed with. Her unique framework stems from organic marketing strategies that bring in consistent sales and traffic while removing the overwhelm, self-doubt, and "what-do-I-do-next?" syndrome. She is a proud boy and dog mom, hot sauce and coffee lover, and is an east coast transplant living in Seattle.
If you’ve ever thought about launching a physical product, this episode is for you.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
Why you should consider launching a physical product
Utilizing the audience you already have
How to compete in the sea of people on social media
The mindset of a six-figure business owner
Focusing on one social channel to connect with your audience
The importance of getting traction on Google
How to collaborate with the right influencers
Making it easy for people to buy from you
Using coupons to get more revenue
How to leverage the power of an email list
Why people want authenticity
E-commerce is not going anywhere, so what better time than now to get started with it?
If like me, you’ve daydreamed about launching a product but have never actually done it, I hope this episode gives you the information and inspiration you need to finally go for it!
After you finish this episode, I would so appreciate it if you would follow the show, and leave a rating and review if you have been loving all of the value you get out of it! I so appreciate it because it is one of the best ways to support the show!
Resources Mentioned:
Visit Kerrie’s Website: http://www.kerriefitzgerald.com
Follow Kerrie on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kerrie.a.fitzgerald
Listen to Kerrie’s Podcast: http://www.kerriefitzgerald.com/podcast
Get Kerrie’s Signature Course for E-Commerce Brands: https://marketing-by-kerrie.mykajabi.com/SlayandScaleProductAcademy
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts
Are you following my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today so you don’t miss any future episodes!
I would also appreciate it if you would leave me a review! Reviews help me make sure I am providing the content that you need! Plus, you will be entered to WIN a 1:1 pitch writing session with me where I will help you find your press-worthy angle! Click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”.
Transcript
SBPR Episode 18 Final.mp3
Speaker1: [00:00:00] E-commerce has surged through the pandemic now, even if you don't have a product yet. This episode will tell you exactly why you need to start a product and how to get it to six figures without paying for ads or agencies. Hey, friends, I'm Gloria Chou, small business PR expert, award winning pitch writer and your unofficial hype woman. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people get the recognition they deserve. And that starts with feeling more confident to go bigger with your message, because let's be honest, we simply cannot make the impact. We're here to make, by hiding behind the scenes. So on this podcast, I will share with you the untraditional yet proven strategies for PR marketing and creating more opportunity in your business. If you are ready to take control of your narrative and be your most unapologetic and confident self, you're in the right place. This is the Small Business PR podcast. What's up, everyone, welcome back to the Small Business PR podcast. I'm so excited to have today's guest Kerrie Fitzgerald. She is a Product E-Commerce Shopify expert. So have you ever thought about launching a physical product even though you might have a service based business? This episode is for you. Keri, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker2: [00:01:15] Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here and chat with you today.
Speaker1: [00:01:19] So a lot of our listeners actually do have physical products. I don't actually have a physical product. I kind of daydream about it. Can you tell me why everyone should think about playing with the idea of maybe launching a product in the future?
Speaker2: [00:01:32] Absolutely. I love this question. So if you are a a service based business or a coach or you have courses? The biggest reason to launch a physical product, there is really a few things, but one is you already have the warm audience of people. You've spent years building up an audience of leads and customers clients. So the problem with most product based businesses, they they create a product and they launch and they have no audience, so it's really hard for them to sell. If you've already built up that audience, you already have people ready to buy from you. You've already created that like, know and trust. So it's actually really easy to launch a physical product. And so the second part of that is a different another revenue stream. It's it's a decently easy revenue stream. There's a lot of opportunity with physical products. You can manufacture them. You can like white label. There's a lot of opportunity and it can be as simple as you want, but you're creating another revenue stream and it's a lot easier for you because you've built up that audience. So I like we were just talking about before. I think if you have a good audience of people, why are you not creating a physical product?
Speaker1: [00:02:39] Oh, it's so good. I will say that that's literally something I talked about with my team. You know, I have a PR digital product, but I fantasize about like, you know, having a mug that says, like, I'm my own agent or bad ass pitch or whatever that is right? And so I guess to me, it seems like those two things are very separate. It's like you need to have expertise in a physical product or service based business, but you're saying that it's actually quite accessible. So talk to me a little bit about like, why now?
Speaker2: [00:03:09] Yeah, it's definitely accessible. And like I said, there's a lot of different ways you can go about it. You can start simple. There's things like print on demand, which you may have heard of where or like merch. I don't really like to say merch too much because I think it's still a physical product and you're creating a brand. But the biggest thing is opportunity. E commerce is booming. More and more people, especially with COVID and all that, more and more people are shopping online. And I was actually reading an article recently and they were saying that by 2040, 90, 90 or ninety five percent of all shopping is going to be online. So when I hear that, I just think of opportunity. So there earlier you can start an online store and sell products and build up that brand. It's just opportunity for you. So like I said, I think you can start really simple. And if you want to do something like a mug, there's so many easy ways to sort of get started doing that. But the bigger thing is that you've already built up the audience and more and more people are going online for shopping. And again, I'm going to use the word opportunity like twenty five times because it just truly is a lot of options for you.
Speaker1: [00:04:15] Yeah, I mean, it sounds like the dream right to be able to sit back and have that product sell. But I know it's not so easy because now everyone knows how to do social media. Everyone knows how to do, you know TikTok? So how do you compete in the sea of other people doing social media like,
Speaker2: [00:04:32] I think like, is this for? Is this for people that already have a product business or this is just for like anyone,
Speaker1: [00:04:39] For anyone that has a physical product that they're just starting out, they just look and they just feel like there's no way I'm going to be able to scale this six figures. How do they do that?
Speaker2: [00:04:48] I think the biggest way to stand out is is one you really have to when you're starting any kind of physical product, it's really important to understand what makes your stuff a little bit different, even if that's price point. If that's your branding, you want to always focus on making yourself different. Like when I was in the early stages of starting my e-commerce business, I started a subscription box business for pets. And instead of jumping into like the sea of every single subscription box charges twenty nine point ninety nine or less. Everyone puts the same items in the box. Everyone's doing the same thing. I did extensive market research like I literally had an excel sheet with like twenty five tabs of all my competitors, their price points, who I thought they were targeting as customers. What was their brand vibe? How many items in the box? How was their website? Was it easy to buy from? I did so much research and I looked at what people were complete like. I looked at customer reviews. What are people complaining about? What are people wishing the box had more of? And so sort of taking that information and data and then looking at all the different market research, I said there's no one doing boxes with accessories, so I'm not sure I know you have a dog. I've seen your pictures. I don't know if your dog wears bandannas or bow ties, but like, that's my jam.
Speaker2: [00:06:08] That was like when I had my first dog. She wore bandanas literally since the first day I got her. And so I said, no one's putting accessories in the boxes. I wonder if that's like a thing. So I did. I validated my business idea with people and everyone said, Oh yeah, we love that. We love that. So like, that's what I did to create a unique product or like not a unique product, like a unique spin on a product. And that's a really important thing is like if you want to create anything, you have to have something that's different. You don't want to like, jump in and do the same thing everyone else does. And that's what I see a lot of people doing is they'll say, Oh, well, this T-shirt company creates these pretty T-shirts. I'm going to do the same exact thing and then they wonder why they're not standing out. So you definitely want to create something different and use like you have to validate your business idea. But also, if you go to your competitors and look at all their reviews on Facebook reviews on any kind of website, you actually will find everything you need to know right there. Customers will complain about things. Customers will tell the brand what they like, what they don't like, what they wish they had, and that's how you create a product that people will want to buy.
Speaker1: [00:07:18] I love that so much. It's all about standing out, and I think a lot of times people are like, Well, I don't have anything new to say, and it's like, no one's asking you to invent a new particle or an atom, right? Just it's a new spin. I have someone in the starter pack who does mushroom elixirs mixed in skincare, so we have a lot of mushroom kind of supplements that we are edible. But for her, it's like, you know, she's doing serums. So I thought that was really interesting. I definitely want to get into the actual framework that you teach because you've helped thousands of product based business owners. But before that, I want to talk about mindset, right? For a lot of people listening, maybe they're making five figures. How do you separate kind of the mindset from like a five figure product owner? And how do you get break into the six figures? Because that's what you were able to do with your multi six figure is called the Dapper Dog Box that you've launched in twenty sixteen with no ads, funding or support.
Speaker2: [00:08:08] Yes, thank you. So yeah, I think the mindset is such a big thing. And I can say, like when I had my business, my mindset was not always super great, which is why now I actively work to have a better mindset. But I think when people are starting out and they're not getting traction, generally, their mindset is very poor. They're like, I stink, I can't do it. Everyone else is better than me. Whereas I think when you grow your business and you get more customers, you're getting that validation about your business because you're getting sales. I'm not sure if that answers your question, but I think with like businesses that aren't moving, the needle is not moving. I find that these are the people because these are a lot of people in my like. I target people who are trying to get to like five figure, I'm sorry, five or 10 months. And a lot of times people are making like a thousand a month and they just have no idea what to do. And so I do find that a lot of these people feel very stuck because they're not getting sales. So I think as you do get sales and once you get to like 10 K months, your confidence grows. And I think you've also been at it for a while.
Speaker2: [00:09:17] And so you're able to sort of see what's working, what's not working. And I think the other thing too is like people that are trying to get to 10 K months, they are sort of at that foundational. They're trying to just figure out what's working where. I think once you hit 10K plus months, you're now more focused on how do I grow my team? How do I outsource better? Or How do I manage all the things I have to do? So I don't have to do all of them. So I think there are definitely two two different p eople and I can say I've definitely been at both of those stages, and both are hard for different reasons, but I do find that people that are not hitting those five months, they do have mindset issues and mindset blocks. And I think a lot of them, you know, oftentimes they're they're trying like one thing like, Oh, I try to Instagram for three months and it didn't work for me. Instagram stinks. You know, I think they are quick enough that if you're listening, I love you. I was once there, too, but it's quick to just blame the platforms and like, well, my website's not converting. Like, I hate Shopify, so I don't know. Yeah.
Speaker1: [00:10:28] Yeah, that definitely takes time, and obviously, you know what I would say about that on the PR side, which is, you know, to get some press, but you know, for for you when you scale your business from zero to multi six figures, what are some of the facts that you think worked that didn't involve draining so much money on ads and paying someone else to do it?
Speaker2: [00:10:46] Yeah, I think like one thing that I teach in my course and just in general, it's like a framework that I really came up with based on analyzing all the things I didn't like. What worked for my product business is a few things. One is you want to have you want to be focused on one social channel, not 10 social channels, not every channel. So for me in my business, I had good success with Instagram, so I grew my Instagram account to like forty two thousand followers in like two years. I built a very loyal community and it was like a really fun place to be. I think Instagram has changed a lot over the years. Now it's all about video and all that kind of stuff. But so you want to just be focused on Rwanda social channel and use that channel not to be obsessive over follower count. Use the channel to connect with your customers product based businesses. When someone gets a physical product in the mail, you want them to take that product and post it on social media posts on stories because then you're getting in front of other people's audiences. And as a product business owner, the the best part of Instagram is you actually have the ability to connect with your customers and say, Hey, thank you so much for buying for me. Like, you know, here's a coupon for a different purchase or something. So Instagram is a great place to be social with customers, and then you want to have one platform that will help you grow on Google. So if I can give anyone any advice for any product business, spend your time on the places that get you organic traffic that is Google a.k.a. creating blog content or like a YouTube channel.
Speaker2: [00:12:19] Most product businesses do not want to have YouTube channels, so blogging is the most the platform that makes the most sense, I would say. So you really want to have those two channels dialed in. And then the other step is basically, how can other people promote your business for you? So this is where, like your services come in handy, Gloria with PR getting on gift guides, getting features on other people's websites, blogs, YouTube channels because they are doing it for you, you're not actually doing anything. So like things like working with influencers, having an affiliate program, affiliate programs are literally gold for a product business because they, you know one, you'll get people like PR people to say, Oh, I'm doing this gift guide or something we love to include, you know, grab your affiliate link and all that. So they're kind of motivated to promote you. But in general, like affiliate programs will help you get on blogs, YouTube unboxing and pretty much like push you out everywhere so you're not actively doing anything, they're doing it for you. So you want to really focus on those three streams in terms of marketing, because that's how you can grow without having to, like, dig yourself into a grave, because most of that work is actually other people doing it for you. And you can outsource things like blogging if you're not really a blogger. So there's a lot of ways around that. But those are like three things I did for my business that continuously helped me grow. I love particularly affiliate marketing. That's one of my absolute favorite things, just because it gets you so much visibility for, like, literally no effort on your end.
Speaker1: [00:13:57] So, so many good points. I hope everyone's taking notes now in terms of all of these, these streams that you talk about. Give me some more granular details. So like, what are the do's and don'ts of of, you know, working with an influencer? I know I get this question a lot is, you know, how do I know if this person is legit? How much product do I give? What are what other do's and don'ts of affiliate marketing?
Speaker2: [00:14:17] So much, so much, so many things I would say with affiliate or influence or marketing, because I think you ask, what did you ask, what influence are marking our affiliate?
Speaker1: [00:14:25] Yeah, so so influencer and and affiliate.
Speaker2: [00:14:28] So with influencers, that's probably one of my top questions to people are so curious about influencers and I. I always tell people like get partnerships with influencers as much as possible because literally they're doing the work for you. So with influencers, I would say some really quick and basic do's and don'ts. The question I get most about working with influencers is this person reached out to me. They have ten thousand followers. Do I work with them or not? You know, and my best advice is work with micro influencers as much as possible. So micro influencer might have between 5000 to like. I don't know the numbers change, but like, let's say, five thousand to like twenty thousand followers, they have small but mighty audiences. And so what that means is these people have audiences that are very engaged. This person has built up a community and so how you can figure that out really quickly. Just look at their comments if they have 20 thousand followers, but they have posts with, like every post, has one comment. That's not a good person to send product to because they don't have a very engaged audience. If you go to someone's account and they have lots of different posts, they have a lot of different comments. The brand then or the person, sorry, the person takes the time to to respond to her people. That's a great person to send product to. So I think look for those red flags of no engagement, no community and just like also look at product picture quality. So one of the benefits of being a product business and sending product to an influencer is likely they'll take some photos for you. And so then you can use those photos for your own website, social media, product photos, email marketing. The list goes on, so look for picture quality.
Speaker2: [00:16:16] A lot of times when I was vetting influencers, I would say yes to people. If one, they took creative photos and I could use those elsewhere to engage audience that made sense for my my business. So I would say those are some tips to look at. I get a lot of questions around like, how do I know who to choose? So like I said, engagement is the biggest thing. I had better luck and I have a funny story I can share. I had better luck with people with like five thousand followers, ten thousand followers than I did working with people with a million followers. So like super quick story, I was contacted by some agency and they said, Oh, we have someone from Teen Mom. I forgot her name. One of the Teen Mom girls like is interested in your product. Could you send product? And this is what we want to charge you for it. And I was basically like, No, I'm a small business and I can't afford. I don't know how much they were asking, like 20 grand or even more. It was crazy. I was like, I can't afford that, but I have an affiliate program. I'm happy to give like 50 percent commission if they sell something. So she was like, OK, sure. So she ended up not working with me, but then she pitched, or she gave me another singer in Australia. I forget her name. She had like two million followers. I sent her product. She posted a photo of her dog. This is like the perfect example of someone who has a huge following, but like zero engagement. She posted the photo of the box. It got almost no engagement and like, guess how many sales I got from that?
Speaker1: [00:17:47] Oh my gosh, not not what. And she has two million followers.
Speaker2: [00:17:52] Yeah, so and I didn't pay her, so it was kind of like whatever. It wasn't a big deal, but like, that's my point here is like you can set don't be, don't be. What's the word tricked by people with huge follower counts? Because that doesn't always equate with sales. I would send product to people with like two dozen followers. If they have a very loyal audience, they're the ones that actually are like the best salespeople for you. So don't in most people that come to me and they say, Oh, this person reach out to me, they only have two thousand followers, so I'm not going to send product. But actually, those are the people that I would recommend you do send product to. And I know you would ask about how much product to send if you're just sending to an influencer and there's really no commitment on their end, like maybe they're just going to post Instagram Story or maybe an Instagram post. I would say your skincare brand, send them a couple products you don't have to send them, like two hundred dollars worth of inventory. I would say just a few products. If you're a pet brand, send them a couple like dog bandanas or toys or something. So I would say keep it short and sweet, but influencers are the greatest thing, and they are the future of marketing for a product brand. And so definitely be open minded to working with influencers. I know a lot of product businesses will say, Oh, well, I'm not making any sales and so I can't really afford to send product, but again, you can afford it. That's one of those mindset issues between. In like a five figure in six figure business owner is that you can afford it. It's more of like a mindset, a money mindset block because you're afraid that it's not going to give you return on investment, but in fact, sending product to the right person gets you in front of a whole new audience. And so that will help you get sales.
Speaker1: [00:19:36] And it's not always like you have to pay them right. A lot of times they're happy to enjoy a product and posts about it for free. Isn't that true?
Speaker2: [00:19:44] Yeah. So I and I have a different experience. I'll admit, like my business grew a lot and I still never paid. I never paid a single person for any. Collaboration or anything, I know that's actually quite rare, because most people now are like, Oh, well, if you want me to post on Instagram, it's $200. I never paid anyone. If people ask me for compensation, I would say no or say that I haven't. So I leveraged my affiliate program massively. I said, I have an affiliate program. I can't afford to pay you, but I can give you a special commission rate. So if you were four people, I can give you like twenty five percent, 30 percent commission. So that's how I leverage a lot of those like influencer deals without ever having to pay a penny to anyone. I love that and I'm very like, I I don't know. I was very ballsy like people would. I would ask people, Oh, like, we love to work with you. We can't afford anything, but here's what we can give you. And you know, people would say yes or no, and if it didn't work for them, it didn't work for them. But like you, I think people just assume you have to pay influencers and I'm not trying to knock influencers. I love them. I think they're, you know, I get they have to pay their bills. But in the end, like they can also say yes or no, they don't have to. They don't have to say yes to you if they don't want to.
Speaker1: [00:21:07] So, amen, I really love that. As you know, I'm all about the organic strategies. And you don't have to get an agency, right? That's my whole thing. So so I feel like a lot of times the old rules, we need to rewrite that and the more we make our own rules and step into that confident but early product founder and say that I know my product is amazing and I'm doing you a favor by sending it to you. That's going to unlock so many opportunities, which is what you've done by not really paying influencers. And I think that, you know, for anyone that's listening like like dig into that confidence because the more you have that scarcity, fear of mindset, other people are going to capitalize on that.
Speaker2: [00:21:45] Yeah, no, I agree. And I think like if you don't, if you're a small business, you know, you shouldn't be spending five hundred dollars for someone to post on Instagram like I would rather you take that money and allocate towards other things, like creating blog content or something. But yeah, you definitely don't have to pay people. And like I said, even though my I was very scrappy, I would. I think my best word for my business was scrappy because I, you know, all my growth. I didn't hire staff, I didn't outsource, which is a mistake, by the way. But like, I was still from zero to like thousands of boxes per month, packing them myself, shipping them myself. Basically, I worked myself to like the grave, basically, which is why I sold my business. But yeah, you know, scrappy is scrappy, is good and like, you have to be scrappy when you're starting, especially if you don't have a lot of money like to spend on things, you have to figure out how to like DIY. And I think that's one thing I did really well was like, just figure out how to do everything the easiest way, the most simple way and like without spending a lot of money.
Speaker1: [00:22:50] So, yeah, so do you recommend people have a very simple product line and not be so distracted with like 10 different things and have like maybe two things?
Speaker2: [00:22:58] Yeah, totally. I think it depends what industry you're in. But yes, simplify, simplify, simplify. And I know in our mastermind group that's what our business coach says. But it's true. Like it crosses across and it crosses over into the product role, too. You want to keep your product line simple and focus on 80 percent of your effort should be with like a couple of different products. It's like 80 percent of your effort comes from like 20 percent of your product. And so you want to focus on your best sellers and not focus on anything else.
Speaker1: [00:23:33] Right. And you are in control. So even if it's getting rid of the other ones like you like, I think a lot of times people feel like, Oh, once I made this, I can't change, but you can always change.
Speaker2: [00:23:43] Yeah, totally. But yeah, like I have one of my one of my one on one clients. I talked about her in my podcast yesterday. Actually, she has a paper product company, so she sells like these beautiful note cards, planners, all sorts of like paper products. And when you and her stuff is beautiful. But when you go to her website, you go there and you're just like, Oh God, I don't even like, I don't know where to start looking because there's so much stuff everywhere and it's overwhelming for people. And so when you go to her website, you almost like her stuff is amazing. But like as we worked together, I had her reduce a lot of our product and we looked at what what product were her actual best sellers and her best sellers were actually T-shirts. So we said, OK, let's be going to get back to your T-shirts and get rid of all this other stuff that people don't want to buy. But it's hard for people because it's like product is their baby and it can be like you. You form a like, I don't know, it's like a connection with your product and like, you don't want to kind of get rid of it, but it's super important to make it easy for people to buy from you. And also, if you're if you're new, you have to get yourself known for like one niche or something. So like you were talking about your student with the mushroom elixir, which sounds super interesting, by the way, but like, that's a very unique thing. That's not something that a lot of people probably sell. And so if she can just focus on that one thing and being known for that, it's going to be easier for her then to do other like to sell more product over time because she's then built up that audience.
Speaker1: [00:25:19] Yeah, maybe that's a difference, right? Another mindset to go from five to six figures is the singularity of focus and not trying to serve everybody at every price point.
Speaker2: [00:25:29] Yes. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Almost anyone that I've ever worked with that has a really bigger business, but it's still like on the smaller side of that. They really just have like a few things. And they if they make T-shirts and they sell well, well, it doesn't mean you have to only have one T-shirt. It just means double down on T-shirts, but you can do a lot more of what has worked for you. So if that makes sense,
Speaker1: [00:25:53] So throughout the course of this conversation, I mean, we could talk for hours on this, but you talked about a couple of things. So website, it needs to be, you know, focused the eye to your best seller. Don't try to cram every single thing. People will click out of it. You also mentioned about coupons, can you talk a little bit about coupons and how people can use that to get more revenue?
Speaker2: [00:26:12] Coupons, yeah, I mean, I think coupons are a really. So I think, OK, let me back talk a little bit. So coupons are very important for your list building. And so as a product based business, with social media not being a platform that you own. You always want to focus on email marketing. It is one of the it's it's my personal favorite marketing channel, to be honest for product biz, but it's a platform that you own. And so if your Instagram gets turned off or TikTok gets turned off or something, you still have a place to communicate with customers and your leads. So coupons allow you to get that email address up front because you can have on your website you have a pop up that would say take ten dollars off your first purchase. Join our email list and then you email them the coupon code and then they can buy from you. So I think coupons are great for two reasons. One, it helps you grow your email list and to it gets someone like helps someone to want to buy from you for the first time. So a lot of times when we don't know what product or we don't know or shop, we're going to be more hesitant to purchase from them. But with a coupon, it just gives them like that extra. I don't know if the word like security or something like 10 percent off your first order and you can buy for me now. So it definitely helps people with that first purchase, I think. And then if you have coupons after that, you can give those to your existing customers as a way to buy it again and again. So yeah, some people are like funny with coupons. I personally like coupons, discount codes. I think you have to give people incentives to purchase from you, but I think they do a fantastic job, especially for list building.
Speaker1: [00:27:50] Yeah, I think the best thing about that is like, you can give people different discounts and nobody will know, right? It's not like, Oh, well, you gave Sally that. So definitely took advantage of the fact that like, we're humans and gamification and incentives like I know it works for me. Like, you know, I'm online. Next thing, you know, I'm like, Got all this stuff in my shopping cart because I had to spin the wheel right. So things like that really captured my eye.
Speaker2: [00:28:12] Yeah. Like if you're not growing your email list, having a really great discount code as a pop up is going to be the number one way to grow your email list, but it has to be a discount that kind of makes sense for you and your audience.
Speaker1: [00:28:27] I want to talk about email list, right, because one of the biggest objections is I'm not a marketer. I don't really know about online marketing. I just want to make this product. So how can people still leverage the power of an email list, which from what I'm hearing is nonnegotiable? Or you need an email list? How can people start that process?
Speaker2: [00:28:45] And I'm laughing, too, because I'm thinking of one of my students in my head who literally says that all the time, whenever she would show up for our live call, she would say, Well, I'm just a maker and like, I don't know how to market. I don't know. Like, I don't know how to do stuff or I don't know what to say. I would say, honestly, just like, I don't know, get started. It's email marketing is one of those things for people that when I say you have to be do email marketing like their eyes like glaze over, they're like, Oh, I don't want to do email marketing like it's so hard and no one will open my emails. And there are so many objections when it comes to like why you shouldn't do email marketing. But I think the biggest tip is one, have an email service that is easy for you. So my recommendation one hundred percent is Klaviyo. It is the best email marketing for E! Commerce, however, it's a little bit complicated to set up. So for you, if that means you start simple with like a MailChimp fine, you can always switch to a better platform as you get comfortable. But getting started is the most important thing. Having a really great pop up on your email. I'm sorry on your website, it's going to be the best first step for you. Your pop up is what will pop up when someone goes to your website and they'll say, like, take 10 percent off your order or take 20 percent off your order. You just want to have something that makes sense for your brand or your business and just keep looking at the data like are people or people giving if people are visiting your site? But no one is giving you their email address and something is wrong with your pop up and you want to change it, basically.
Speaker2: [00:30:22] And then three, just start getting into the habit of emailing your email list. If that means one time per month, if that's all you can literally mentally handle, then just do that. I would say try to get in the habit of once per week. That is what I recommend to my clients or students. But you want to email your list at least once per week because the more you email your list, the more you are top of mind and the more they will actually open your emails. So I would say those are my my few tips to get started. And then here's one more tip OK, this is a good tip. There is a website called Really Good Emails, really good or really great emails. I think it's really good emails. If you go there, you can type in your industry and you can look up all different emails that are somehow. I don't know how they do this, but they pull like the best emails from different places. And so you're looking at emails that convert well, they have great open rates, great click rates. And so you can use those not to copy, but for inspiration when you're trying to figure out like how to curate or craft your own emails. And so that's a great place. If you're kind of like, I don't know what to send my email list or I don't know, like I get stuck on subject lines, you can go there and you can get a lot of great inspiration for your business.
Speaker1: [00:31:42] Right? I mean, I love that. And I and, you know, as an online business owner myself, I know that makers are marketers. And even if you don't feel like you're a marketer, you have to be a marketer. So whether you hire someone to do it or you take Carey's course like you have to have that funnel. So talk to me a little bit about your skill method from going from zero to six figures, which which is the method that you teach inside of your course.
Speaker2: [00:32:05] Yeah. So I talked a little bit about it before with like focus on one social channel, one organic growth channel and then one place where other people are promoting for you. But one thing I didn't mention that I actually attribute to most of my success is creating your customer superfans, which is so important. So what I mean by customer superfan and I'm stealing the word superfan from Pat Flynn. Thank you so much. It's like the greatest word ever. A customer superfan is someone who is like, obsessed with your brand, obsessed with your business, obsessed with your product, obsessed with your brand. So when you buy a product from some, sorry, when someone buys a product from you, they are the ones that are posting on social media, posting on Instagram, like messaging them, being like, Oh my god, I love the I love this new product or whatever. They are referring friends. They are referring family like they are obsessed with your brand and they'll talk about you to everyone that they know. When you can curate a bunch of those people, your business will grow like wildfire. And it's weird because no one there's not that many people who teach about like e-commerce. I mean, there are, but most of them are teaching about ads like How do you grow with grow to eight figures in one day with my ads course and I didn't use ads.
Speaker2: [00:33:26] And so. And I still don't actually use ads I want to for now, but I didn't use ads, and so I had to figure out how were the ways I can grow without again me working twenty four hours a day. And I kind of like realized quickly with my business that the customers were the easiest people to and I don't want to use the word leverage because it makes them sound like, I don't know. It doesn't sound good, but I mean it in a good way, like you leverage your customers to buy more from you and refer other people. And it's a very powerful thing. And so I really heavily leaned into like getting these customer superfans and then using these people using them. And again, I don't mean it in a bad way, but like using them to refer friends or refer like followers, post on social media, take photos for me. And they, like, loved doing it. And I think and it comes back to really the mission behind my brand was not a mission, but like one of my values of my brand was, the customer is right, like I will be obsessed with my customers.
Speaker2: [00:34:28] That was something from day one that was a non-negotiable for me. And because of that, I treated my customers like absolute gold. They meant so much to me. I literally like I can still remember, just like long term customers, I can still remember their addresses. I still remember their dogs names. And this was like from twenty sixteen, which is crazy. But when you know that much about your customer, you are going to build up that audience who will promote you from the rooftops. And so I think that even though I did all this other stuff, CEO, great website, affiliate marketing, getting PR features, I did everything. But I think the one thing that actually helped me like, I don't want to use the word skyrocket, but like skyrocket. My business as a solopreneur was customer service, treating my customers like family and then getting those people to, like, promote the crap out of me. I think that is the secret sauce of my success, and it's something that people like actually don't talk about at all. So which is why I talk about it.
Speaker1: [00:35:31] Yeah. And that that goes back to the limiting mindset that like you should survey your customers and the people who want refunds or people are not happy. That is like so much information you can use, right? And I think a lot of people are just they don't want to even open up that can of worms because they're afraid of what they might find out. But that's where the real goal is, right? That's how you can like, tweak it and refine it.
Speaker2: [00:35:52] Yeah, I agree. I think you're like serving your customer and I tell this to all my clients. Like if I ask you, one of the first things I'll ask you is why do your customers buy from you? In the first response, people generally will say it was like, Oh, they? They like my product, but that's not that actually isn't enough, you need to deeply understand why people buy from you. And generally, it's not going to necessarily be about your product, it's going to be they connect with your story, they connect like they just like you as a person. You show up on social media, you have this great website with like your story front and center and they feel a connection to you and so they'll keep buying from you. But you need to always survey your customers and understand why are they buying from you? Like at a deep level, why? And you need to understand like what you could be doing better in your business. If customers are few of a subscription box and customers are canceling after the first box or something, there's some something wrong. Is it the product or is it like your onboarding? Is it the email sequence that they're getting isn't giving them enough information on shipping and when the product will be shipped out? Like, there's always a reason why people get upset about things.
Speaker2: [00:37:06] And so you have to sort of figure those things out and then fix those problems. But then you also need to understand if people are canceling asking for refunds, complaining if they're sending you emails and saying, You know, where's my package? When is it going to be shipped like it's been? It's been seven days. Will you need to work on your like putting your fake news into your email sequence? So when someone orders, they get an email that says your product will be shipped in like five days. We'll keep you like when your product is shipped, we'll send you an email or something. So I think it's super important to listen to your customers the good and the bad, but also your customer should be coming first. At least that's, you know, I think that's how it is. And you know, when I buy something from a store or an online shop, I definitely have high expectations. I would say, yeah.
Speaker1: [00:37:56] And if they want a refund, like ask them why, right? That's that's that's that's so important. And, you know, in this online world, it's almost like we're trying to build a relationship with someone who is walking into our store. But with these virtual touchpoints, such as the first email and I'll tell you a story like I got I got like a tea subscription and I didn't think anything of it. But like, I got the first email and it was like the founders story and how he picked the tea leaves. And it was like the benefits. And then and then I just got this whole like seven or eight email sequence starting from the founder story from where it's sourced, from different teas, for winter, for season. And now I just keep going back to the store to to buy that tea, even though there's so many other teas that are literally doing the same thing. So it definitely
Speaker2: [00:38:38] Works. Amazing. Yeah, it really does. And I need to ask you after who that was, because that's they're doing a lot of things right, like most businesses don't have that type of set up, and it's it's actually quite easy, but it makes a huge difference. Like I bought, I bought a dress from Faithfull, the brand. I think it's called. I saw them on Instagram. That's how we discover them. And I ordered a dress. I was going to Hawaii last year and I ordered it, and then I got an email and it talked about the same thing. Like, I talked about how the dresses were made in Indonesia, and I was like, Oh, I actually had no idea that they were made in Bali. And I was like, That is so cool. Like, I now like this brand even more than I already did. So, yeah, sharing your story and like sharing your why behind the brand is so important.
Speaker1: [00:39:26] Yeah. And the tea company is called PiqueTea PIQUE. I first found it through Tim Ferriss and like, I'm Chinese. Like I grew up drinking teas. And, you know, I felt like even though I knew a lot about teas, I didn't feel like the way they were telling me about teas was in a way that was like, you know, like something I already knew. Like, it was a very interesting like against through storytelling. So you talked about scale. I mean, we could do like a five hour class on this. Obviously, we live in a time of, you know, the pandemic. And surprisingly, I read a statistic that even with the pandemic, even with all the things with logistics and supply chain, that this past Black Friday there were still a twenty one percent increase in sales. So I guess like if there's one thing that I want to leave my my audience with is like, what's what's going to happen with like the product e-commerce like in the next five years? Like what do you think is going to change in this industry or what kind of trends?
Speaker2: [00:40:24] Yeah, I think one, we're going to see a lot. I mean, this kind of goes without saying we're going to see more competition. And so with more competition, you have to focus on creating that brand and getting yourself to stand out. And so creating a brand for a product business is not your logo. It is not that it's like the vibe. It's your personality. It's sharing your story. Like you were just talking about the tea company. You have to be showing your face. You have to be showing up on a video, you have to be creating connection with your audience and your customers so you can, number one, attract the right people to buy from you and to you can get those customer super fans to keep buying from you because obviously it's more it's cheaper to maintain. Sorry, not maintain it's cheaper to sell to existing customers than always acquire new ones, so I think competition is going to be increasing, which means you have to stand out and to stand out, you have to create a brand that attracts the right people. And it's not like the like I talk about. The faceless brand is like those are dying out. Faceless brands only work on Amazon because people go to Amazon. They search for like, I'm looking to buy a new water bottle like a refillable water bottle, or I don't know, like a used used Christmas tree. What's the word? Whatever the Christmas trees that are not fresh, I'm blanking on the word right now. People don't. There's no brand loyalty. There's brand loyalty to Amazon, but they just want the cheapest product that's going to show up at their door in two days with prime shipping.
Speaker2: [00:41:58] They don't care about a brand. So the faceless brand that doesn't have a face behind the brand or any of that is kind of dying out. And so it's super important as a small business that you kind of show your face, share your story. If you have a business and you're a mom, you have kids or you have dogs, bring bring that stuff in because those are the connection points that actually connect you with your ideal customers. And that's going to get people want to buy from you because you're humanizing your brand and people buy from brands, not from businesses. So I think that's a huge trend that like we could sit here and talk about for six hours. And I think the other trend is increasing like customer service. People are so patient today. In today's world, we're getting more and more impatient, and I think you really have to set up really great customer service with your business. So for example, if you order a product and you're not letting the customers know it's going to be shipping in a few days, you need to have like emails that are set up that go out that say, OK, one more day your box is being shipped or two more days or something that your customers are going to email you with problems, they're going to email you with questions. How do you sort of mitigate that right away? So you're helping your customers with those questions, whether it's through like a Zendesk customer service platform or you have a dedicated VA who does your customer service like one hour per day, she answered emails or something.
Speaker2: [00:43:26] Customer service is super important because unfortunately, like Amazon has spoiled us as shoppers and we expect right, we expect things. If we order right now, we expect it in our doorstep in like an hour. And if it's not, we get really frustrated and annoyed. And so I do think like having all those sort of customer service issues lined up in terms of like processes or systems will be really, really important. And I think the last trend I would say that is not going away at all is VIDEO The more you can create and you talk about this a little bit, Gloria, people go into a store like you go into target and you you can find things easily like, here's the women's section. Here's the men's section. Here's home goods. Everything is super organized and you can pick up a product you can like, touch it. You can feel it, you can smell it. You need to create that experience on your website. And so how you can use video is you can have video of product. You can have people videos of people using your product, videos of people like, even if it's like talking about your product testimonials, video is a huge thing that is just it's honestly just getting started. I think I don't even know where video is going to go, but you need to get on video and you need to also have video on your website showing your products in a way that is just as good as it is in a store. So I would say those are like three things that are super, super important.
Speaker1: [00:44:51] Yeah, and it doesn't have to be like pretty beautiful videos like athletic greens is bombarding me all day with different people using this powder, and it's just everyday people in their kitchen, right? But I almost feel like gone are the days of like super Polish onset renting a studio. And it's just like, here's this product that I love, and it works because I actually bought it from from that ad.
Speaker2: [00:45:12] So people want authenticity. People want that like random person to be taking their phone out and saying, Hey, guys, like I just bought this, like, I'm just used this as an example. Like, I just bought this little pack and it has my makeup in it and it's like, so cute and like, look, it has a little smiley face thing, like people want those super authentic natural videos because those are real people. And if you're watching a video of like a regular looking person, you're going to believe what they say. When you watch a video of these, like airbrushed, like Kardashian style people, that doesn't feel believable or relatable at all. And you're not. That's not actually not going to get you to buy a product, although it can, because those people have lots of influence. But you know what I mean? People like authenticity. People, people want authenticity more than ever right now. So.
Speaker1: [00:46:02] So I've been taking so many notes. You've given us so much in just this short few minutes. You. Talk to us, Gail Method, you talk about why makers need to be marketers, and you talked about video. How can people get more into your world and if they want to take the next step to maybe elevate their business to that multi six figure level?
Speaker2: [00:46:19] Yeah. So you can definitely follow me and I knew my channels. I have my own podcast called the six figure product business podcast. Gloria was a guest, I think, a few months ago, which is fun. And so it's all things E commerce and product. And I am I'm deathly one of those people who I give you the straight up truth. I don't like fluff and I really give you a lot of detail, so definitely check that out. I also have my signature course called the Slane Scale Product Academy. It is for e-commerce and subscription box businesses, and it really will help you to do those foundational things that are super important. Building up your systems, marketing sales channels and growing your customer superfans so you can get to 10K months. And we teach all that in the course, and I would love to have you inside.
Speaker1: [00:47:04] I love it. I heard somewhere you only need 1000 true fans. So yeah, I agree. Thank you so much, Kari, for being here, and I just love this chat so much. We've got to have you back on the podcast soon.
Speaker2: [00:47:17] Thank you so much, Gloria. Good to be here.
Speaker1: [00:47:24] Hey, small business heroes, I am so excited that you just finished another episode of the Small Business PR podcast. You are one step closer to getting featured on your dream outlet each time you finish an episode. Now, if you love listening and make sure that you follow the show and let me know what you think about it by leaving a review, it's going to be able to help more people discover the show and also get the benefits like you are now of listening to this episode. Thank you so much, and I'll talk to you next week.