Channel Mastery

GUEST PROFILE: Luke Starbuck is the vice president of marketing at Linc Global, focusing on

customer care automation with chatbots, voice and artificial intelligence (AI). His entire career

has been angled toward the goal of helping companies accelerate growth. Luke is on the leading

edge of digital tool development and usage that are transforming not only the way we do business, but more importantly: how the customer interacts with our brands.

You know all those details you wished you knew about your customers in order to serve them better? Well, guess what? The tools exist TODAY to discover those details based on how your customer moves around the web. Couple that with the fact that email is still the top-converting channel, and today’s episode is a must listen.

GUEST PROFILE: Channel Masters, today’s guest and this episode are going to disrupt most notions you have on the evolution of retail today. You’re about to meet Chris Walton, a highly accomplished retail executive with two decades of front-line experience, path burning first with The Gap, and then, with Target.

Jerod Morris is VP of Marketing for Rainmaker Digital. In this role, he creates educational content and digital products for developing and growing profitable online businesses. He’s a content creator and contributor to The Showrunner Podcast (with Jonny Nastor) and The Digital Entrepreneur podcast (with Brian Clark). The products he has developed and marketed include the Rainmaker Platform, The Showrunner Podcasting Course, and Digital Commerce Academy.

Ryan Riggs is the director of sports and outdoor at NetRush. His career has spanned 14 years career in global commercial sales, and brand and product management. He has worked for KEEN, Columbia, Mountain Hardwear, and Montrail in the outdoor footwear, apparel and equipment sectors. He as successfully led global and regional teams to develop multi-channel product and merchandising strategies that grow revenue and increase profitability for both the brand and partners.

GUEST PROFILE: 

Adam Bridegan is the SVP of advertising, digital and commerce at Rhone, a 3-year-old, premium activewear line for men. He is a data-driven, enterprise marketer, who focuses on online acquisition channels. He has worked with teams at multi-billion dollar enterprises, startups, and companies through IPO – connected by a common purpose of passion and innovation.

Rich is the president of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance, a member organization uniting over 60 independent outdoor retailers, with over 127 doors in 31 states. He is a strong advocate for protecting and promoting the experience of outdoor enthusiasts across the United States.

With 30+ years of history in the specialty outdoor industry, Rich has experienced almost every aspect of the outdoor industry, from river guide to front office executive, Patagonia to prAna, and now as president of Grassroots Alliance.

Show Notes at: VerdeStrategy.co/11

 

GUEST PROFILES: Pete Buhl: Pete has over 20 years of experience as an operating executive and venture investor. Prior to founding Beeline Bikes, Pete was COO of AppCentral, where he helped build and refocus of the company, resulting in a successful acquisition. Past operating roles spanned financial services software, enterprise data networking and security, and enterprise mobility. Pete spent 12 years as a co-founding partner at BlueRun Ventures (and its predecessor, Nokia Venture Partners), and as an active investor in early-stage enterprise and consumer technology companies.

Ian Christie: As founder and CEO of Summit Bicycles, as well as a Beeline Bikes franchisee, Christie is a vocal advocate for increased participation in cycling. He is a founding member of The 20 Collective, a cycling industry organization aimed at getting more people on bikes. The basis of his success lies in his unyielding commitment to creating happy customers and demonstrating genuine care for their experience and outcome. “I can’t tell you how many times a customer’s face goes into shock when I just ask them, ‘What can I do to make you happy?’ Walls come down and trust is built.” (Quote courtesy of TMG Blog.)

EPISODE PREVIEW: Today’s connected bike consumer expects seamless, frictionless access to goods and services. This consumer expects access to goods and services where they want, when they want and how they want. Today’s episode is how two businesses are working independently - and together - to provide just that.

I speak with Pete Buhl and Ian Christie, of Beeline Bikes and Summit Bicycles, respectively, on how they’re learning from one another to make their platforms stronger and just plain better for their customers. Plus, we learn how Ian is leveraging the new mobile aspect of his business (via Beeline) to strengthen his online and brick and mortar channels. It’s a perfect example of not only how to expand channels, but also why a multi-channel retail business is mandatory for survival today.

Topics covered: collaboration between retailers and service providers, experience-driven service, remarkable customer service, providing choice to consumers, affiliate marketing and sales, incorporating mobile channels with brick and mortar, building scalable tools and solutions, capitalizing on the new opportunities of adding new channels,

SELECT QUOTES:

Ian: Where the market seemed to be going not only with consumer expectations, but also in how people buy bikes, and how bikes are being delivered, (franchising with Beeline) seemed like a phenomenal way to really corner my market and dominate it in every aspect.

Pete: We invest the vast majority of our time, effort and dollars on providing a scalable solution to our franchise partners.

Pete: How do you make it a great experience for the customer from the scheduling and sign-up process? (What tools do we need) to make it work in a very operationally efficient mode in a scalable way?

Ian: That was a key factor into getting us new customers: not stealing service from within our stores for our existing customers. I have seen other colleagues do that, where they're not bringing in new traffic, they're just offering a service for the ones that already coming in store.

Pete: It's all about capturing that customer information so that you can provide increasingly enhanced services to them.

Ian: There are little nuggets that seem to be everywhere as we go through this partnership, and we learn how to handle the growth and the understanding of how our customers use this tool in different ways.

Pete: (on how “test rides” are a generational desire): I think the younger consumers and the new consumers that want to consume online are much more comfortable buying something online. It's up to the brands and the product companies to really do a good job articulating to the consumer what they want in the bike.

Ian: For us bringing on Beeline, we've started to look at our business and the difference sides as our online business grows. We have really almost four different businesses that are really different than each other, and we need to market the approaches and think about them in different ways.

Pete:  We continue to learn every day from our interactions with Ian and his team. That informs us on where we need to take the software from a developer perspective, adding new features, making the system better. It's definitely a partnership.

CONNECT:

Beeline Bikes:  https://beelinebikes.com/

Summit Bicycles: http://www.summitbicycles.com/ The 20 Collective: http://20collective.org/

Connect with Pete on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterbuhl/

Connect with Ian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-christie-a850ab55/

AS MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE 

Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (August 9, 2017) “Beeline Bikes to Open 25 New Mobile Shops,”   http://www.bicycleretailer.com/retail-news/2017/08/09/beeline-bikes-open-25-new-mobile-shops#.WbBuSXeGMWo  

Show Notes at: VerdeStrategy.co/11

   

Show Notes at: VerdeStrategy.co/10

 

GUEST PROFILE: Jeff Sieh is creative director at His Design, Inc. He is also head beard at Manly Pinterest Tips, where he is the creator and host of The Manly Pinterest Tip Show. With top tips, pop culture, comedy and just plain fun, Jeff teaches Pinterest techniques unlike any other. I absolutely LOVE his tagline: “Adding testosterone...one pin at a time.”

A single, viral blog post launched Jeff’s career into the stratosphere. Just like the strategic advice he provides for his clients (and this audience), he was prepped to build on that success by maximizing every ensuing opportunity. He brings real-world advice based on experimentation, study and lessons earned from campaigns of all sizes.

EPISODE PREVIEW: This is a new format for the Channel Mastery podcast, and one we’ll use again in the future for more training-focused episodes. I offer a lengthier intro outlining the social commerce channel, and the opportunities being provided by shoppable social media to Channel Masters today. This show covers Amazon’s new influencer program, and new social offering, SPARK, as well as Pinterest. We also touch on Instagram and email marketing as well, at the close of Jeff’s segment.

I love Jeff’s approach because he doesn’t just talk about the virtues and vices of social media; he’s down in the trenches walking the walk every day. He’s a social media master – particularly in photo-based platforms like Pinterest and in this episode he offers a deeper view on Amazon’s new shoppable social platform, Spark, as well as covering the strengths and weaknesses of Pinterest. There’s a bit of bonus content on Instagram and email list building from Jeff as well!

What I love about this episode and Jeff’s approach, specifically, is that he acknowledges there’s no magic bullet. There are best practices that are critical to follow (especially on social sales platforms), but Jeff counsels brands to get in and get their hands dirty. It’s the essence of failing forward. The only way to figure out a strategy that will work for your brand is to test different approaches.

Topics covered: Social commerce, shoppable social media, Amazon’s Influencer Program and Spark, photo-driven social media, Pinterest versus Instagram, buy-able pins, email lists vs. social media

SELECT QUOTES:

“If I'm not walking the walk, why should I talk the talk?”

“I'm a big Pinterest fan because it's so easy, and it drives tons of traffic. If you're trying to get traffic to your blog, to your e-commerce site, or to any sort of web property, Pinterest is the best way to get long-term traffic.”

“The biggest hiccup businesses have is, "Oh gosh, there's another network.”

“Pinterest is…more of a search engine than a social platform. People go there because they're dreaming and planning and wanting to try things.”

“Things that work on Instagram, won't work on Pinterest, and vice versa.”

“If you have a big following on Instagram, you can now target those people with your Facebook ads.”

“It's always better not to sell your stuff on rented land, but use that rented land as a tool where you can put a billboard up.”

“I would work on both [building email lists and social media], and not do one or the other exclusively.”

CONNECT:

Manly Pinterest Tips:  https://manlypinteresttips.com/

Jeff’s Pinterests: https://www.pinterest.com/jeffsieh/

His Design, Inc.: http://hisdesignonline.com

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsieh/

AS MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

Micheal Stelzner's Social Media Marketing Podcast: http://apple.co/2eD0wBL

Social Media Marketing World: http://bit.ly/1cSUZyb

Social Media Marketing Talk Show: http://bit.ly/2w40clP

Amazon Spark: http://amzn.to/2uPW6Sr

Shopify:  http://bit.ly/1YyeIN4

RESOURCES:

(1) Shanelle Mullin, “Social Commerce" What it is, What it isn’t, and Why you should care,” Conversionxl.com, August 11, 2017: http://bit.ly/2x870nH

(2) Image Source: Emarketercom, Do Social Network Users Want Buy Buttons? http://bit.ly/2wF4ORs

(3) Shopify Infographic: http://bit.ly/1NjEXgT

(4) Jeremy Wong, “How to Sell with Facebook Buy Button,” Websitebuilderexpert.com, August 1, 2017: http://bit.ly/1IGqJ7K

(5) Amazon Influencer Program http://amzn.to/2eHYJze

(6) Sarah Perez, “Amazon’s Social Media “Influencers” program opens up to Youtube Stars,” TechCrunch.com, Aug. 24, 2017: http://tcrn.ch/2xw4Hqq

(7) Daphne Howland, “Amazon Expands Influencer Program,” Retail Dive, Aug. 28, 2017: http://bit.ly/2vyl5WO  

Show Notes at: VerdeStrategy.co/10

Show Notes at: VerdeStrategy.co/9

GUEST PROFILE: John McCoy is a seasoned e-commerce and marketing leader. Currently, he’s a retail industry value engineer is SAP Hybris, a digital commerce software company. Before moving to SAP Hybris, he was the e-Commerce director of The Sports Authority (TSA). He had insider access to how a more traditional retail brand responded – effectively and less effectively – to the changing power dynamics of the new economy and to the ever-changing complexion of consumer preference.

His work for large corporations and across many industries has given McCoy unique insight into: e-commerce strategy, omni-channel strategy, digital merchandising, digital audience building and business development, social media, video marketing, lead generation, Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO/SEM), and email marketing.

EPISODE PREVIEW: In part two of a special, two-part episode (see also Episode #8), Kristin and John explore marketplaces in depth, as well as how to ensure all points of entry for your business (your channels and platform) are aligned. NOTE: It’s partially a mindset shift, and very well could include a restructuring of your team. Culturally, your company must also support and encourage experimenting and failing forward. The only sure thing is that we must take action in our businesses – the glory days are irrelevant and inconsequential today. Waiting and seeing is akin to dying on the vine.

While so many of us are hoping to get more of a map or a blueprint on how to be successful with a multi-channel business, we ALL have one place to look for guidance. It’s always reliable and always should be the North Star for where we’re going in our multi-channel evolution: Know your “king and queen” consumers inside and out. Employ grit, creativity and a relentlessness for creating and implementing new ideas to deliver what those consumers will value most. Even though he is a tech guru, John cautions that technology is just a tool, not the driver, in terms of how we serve our kings and queens.

Topics covered: Online marketplace conflict, Amazon as hardware developer, Amazon Alexa, segmenting e-comm distribution, how brand size and identity should influence distribution, identifying “golden” customers, the importance of vision, technology as tool not an end solution, “get inventive; do new sh*t; try stuff.” According to John, being nimble isn’t as hard as you think it is. … And yes, “market for the now,” as Gary Vee would say.

SELECT QUOTES:

“You have these different parts of the organizations trying to solve and figure everything out. In the end, there's so much in-fighting and cultural struggles and strife, you forget the customer's there in the middle just wanting to find some great cleats for their kids.”

“A lot of retailers and brands have to answer to the Street and that gets tough. It's hard not to lose your soul sometimes.”

“Amazon is now forcing those people that have invested in Alexa – a number that continues to rise and continues to grow - to become dependent upon Amazon.”

“Then, in addition to that, according to Scott (Galloway), Amazon is trying to destroy your brands by offering their (own) basic batteries, and having you decide at that moment (when you order through Alexa), how much more value is there to a Duracell and Energizer versus an Amazon Basic product?”

“Be prepared to play hard with Amazon if you are going to go on there.”

(On selling through Amazon) “It takes a lot of soul-searching deciding what your plan is, and who you are, and what you're trying to do as an organization to really make the right call there.”

“I don't like it when brands sell their soul. I really hate it. It's crushing.”

“Don't lose sight of who you are just to chase the dollar. It's easy for me to say, I guess, but I think that that short-term win is going to result in some long-term pain. Before you know it, your brand isn't what you had created and what you had always wanted it to be.”

“Figure out who your customers are. Don't do the analysis-paralysis thing, figure out who they are, and do shit.”

“Once you see something begin to be successful and you still can keep your soul, invest in that and invest in it fast. Then, continue to do different things and try and poke around to figure out where the next thing is.”

“Sometimes you do have to get completely out of the standard operating procedures of a larger organization or corporation and create those (opportunities for innovation).”

CONNECT: SAP Hybris: http://www.hybris.com/

Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/therealmccoy1/

Digital Giants Vlog: http://www.bedigitalgiants.com/

AS MENTIONED IN EPISODES 8 and 9:

Matt Powell Channel Mastery Episode: http://www.verdestrategy.co/podcast/podcast/episode-2-matt-powell/

Elaine Kwon Channel Mastery Episode: http://www.verdestrategy.co/podcast/6-elaine-kwon/

CNBC Article (June 2017), “A Former Amazon Employee Has a Warning for Brands” http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/29/a-former-amazon-employee-has-a-warning-for-brands.html

L2 Inc: https://www.l2inc.com/

Scott Galloway, via L2: https://www.l2inc.com/speakers/scott-galloway

Gary Vaynerchuk: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/

Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown, Hacking Growth: http://growthhacker.com/

Audible Version: https://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Audiobook/B00OQQUDDI

Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: http://theleanstartup.com/

Show Notes at: VerdeStrategy.co/9