eCommerce Master Plan

eCommerce MasterPlan | 559: Fast-Tracking Growth: Community, Niching Down, and Multi-Channel Strategies from Dood Woof

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Elina Panteleyeva is the founder of Dood Woof, a dog brand focused on Doodles. Founded in 2023, they hit $600k in year one, and are on track for sales of $2million this year. They’re already multichannel selling on their Shopify store, TikTok Shop, and Amazon. 

 

In this episode, Elina reveals the exact strategies she used to grow fast, build a loyal community, and sell premium products without competing on price. 

 

Hit PLAY to hear: 

 

  • How a first-time founder turned a layoff into a $2M eCommerce brand in under 2 years 
  • The niche marketing strategy that made Dood Woof dominate the Doodle dog market 
  • Why email (not discounts) is the secret weapon driving repeat sales and loyal fans 
  • The unconventional reason Elina sends ALL ad traffic to Amazon instead of her website 
  • How to sell premium products on Amazon without joining the price war 
  • The AI tools and automation ideas she’s exploring to scale without a big team 

    •  

    Key timestamps to dive straight in: 

    [04:29] “Doodle Detangler Idea Journey” 

    [08:24] Trusting EA with Daily Operations 

    [10:47] Building Trust with VIP Customers 

    [13:58] Maximizing Amazon Sales via Traffic 

    [17:22] “Nurturing Customers Beyond Amazon” 

    [20:00] Listen to Elina’s Top Tips! 

     

    Full episode notes here: https://ecmp.info/559  

    This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

    Spotify Ad Analytics – https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/

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    WEBVTT

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    [SPEAKER_01]: Another benefit I want to call out for doing this is that if someone looks at the landing page and they’re not interested, they’ll leave right then.

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    [SPEAKER_01]: And it’s only the really interested ones that will continue on, which means that once they actually get to Amazon, they’re way more likely to convert.

    00:17.318 –> 00:23.500

    [SPEAKER_01]: And so my conversion rate on Amazon is like insane and Amazon loves that and it boosts you up the rankings.

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    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast.

    00:29.461 –> 00:33.542

    [SPEAKER_00]: Here to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business.

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    [SPEAKER_00]: Cutting through the hinder to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond, here’s your host, Chloe Thomas.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome.

    00:46.804 –> 00:47.945

    [SPEAKER_02]: It’s great to have you here.

    00:48.025 –> 00:51.608

    [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests.

    00:51.768 –> 00:58.354

    [SPEAKER_02]: In this episode, we are getting super duper practical with a super duper fast growth boot strapped startup.

    00:58.734 –> 01:01.016

    [SPEAKER_02]: My guest is really focusing on me.

    01:01.036 –> 01:10.405

    [SPEAKER_02]: She’s really keeping her business simple, but she is driving the results and she’ll be telling us the inside track on a couple of the very cool marketing pieces she’s doing.

    01:10.445 –> 01:12.847

    [SPEAKER_02]: And there’s a nice big chat about community as well.

    01:13.327 –> 01:18.592

    [SPEAKER_02]: Please listen to the end of the episode so you don’t miss out on her top tips and my own take on this episode.

    01:23.588 –> 01:30.454

    [SPEAKER_02]: And now to introduce our special guest, Alina is the founder of Dudeworth, a dog brand focused on doodles.

    01:30.914 –> 01:39.482

    [SPEAKER_02]: Founded in, in, twenty, twenty, three, they hit six hundred thousand dollars in sales in year one and are on track for sales of two million dollars this year.

    01:39.542 –> 01:41.443

    [SPEAKER_02]: Some super great growth going on there.

    01:41.844 –> 01:47.369

    [SPEAKER_02]: They’re already multi channel selling on their Shopify store TikTok shop and Amazon.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: Hello, Alina.

    01:48.590 –> 01:49.270

    [SPEAKER_02]: Hi, Chloe.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: Happy to be here.

    01:50.311 –> 01:56.616

    [SPEAKER_02]: A great time in huge congrats on creating such cool growth in such a tiny niche.

    01:57.116 –> 02:00.459

    [SPEAKER_02]: I’m sure we’ll get into one of that, but huge congrats to you for what you’ve achieved so far.

    02:01.180 –> 02:03.021

    [SPEAKER_02]: How did you get into Ecommerce though?

    02:03.421 –> 02:06.624

    [SPEAKER_01]: So in twenty twenty three, I was laid off for my tech job.

    02:07.264 –> 02:11.348

    [SPEAKER_01]: I didn’t have any experience in Ecommerce or entrepreneurship.

    02:11.888 –> 02:18.831

    [SPEAKER_01]: But I took that as a sign from the universe that if there was any time to start a business, it’d be now.

    02:19.571 –> 02:26.494

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I picked up this book and it was happened to be about e-commerce and I was reading it and I was like, I think I can do this.

    02:27.034 –> 02:39.369

    [SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of what I talked about was instead of focusing on selling a product, choosing a specific group of people that you want to serve, and then creating a product for that specific group of people.

    02:40.030 –> 02:42.573

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, okay, that makes a lot of sense to me.

    02:43.114 –> 02:46.338

    [SPEAKER_01]: And that’s what I did to get this thing off the ground.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: Very cool.

    02:47.299 –> 02:48.241

    [SPEAKER_02]: Do you know what the book was?

    02:48.402 –> 02:49.604

    [SPEAKER_02]: You’re willing to name check it.

    02:50.426 –> 02:55.035

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it’s twelve months to one million by Ryan Moran.

    02:55.656 –> 02:58.442

    [SPEAKER_01]: He’s now a mentor of mine and it changed my life.

    02:58.800 –> 03:06.165

    [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it’s such a clever way to go about building an e-commerce business because it makes things so much more simple.

    03:06.686 –> 03:08.647

    [SPEAKER_02]: If it’s customer first product second.

    03:09.067 –> 03:22.877

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and the really cool thing about it is when you launch your product, if you already have someone you’re targeting to serve, you’ve likely already talked to them and you know that the product that you’re launching serves their specific pain point.

    03:23.337 –> 03:31.306

    [SPEAKER_01]: I don’t know if you’ll get repeat sales, but if you follow this method in process, guarantee that you’ll get sales from day one at least one time.

    03:31.667 –> 03:33.529

    [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because it’s not all come out of your own head.

    03:34.129 –> 03:35.791

    [SPEAKER_02]: It’s come out of the actual target customer.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: I love it.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: Also, lay off book.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: Let’s do this.

    03:40.076 –> 03:44.141

    [SPEAKER_02]: What led you to go down the world of pet brands and pet products?

    03:44.541 –> 03:47.362

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I got laid off, and obviously I had no money.

    03:47.422 –> 03:47.962

    [SPEAKER_01]: I was broke.

    03:48.282 –> 03:49.062

    [SPEAKER_01]: I had some savings.

    03:49.202 –> 03:54.463

    [SPEAKER_01]: I was living off of, and I knew that no matter what I started, I had two routes to get the word out.

    03:54.823 –> 03:59.925

    [SPEAKER_01]: It was either paid ads or organic social media, and I didn’t have money for paid ads.

    04:00.365 –> 04:04.686

    [SPEAKER_01]: So my only option was organic social media, and I have a dog.

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    [SPEAKER_01]: I have a doodle specifically, which is any dog mixed with a poodle.

    04:09.747 –> 04:13.150

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, OK, I think I can make content with my dog.

    04:13.410 –> 04:17.093

    [SPEAKER_01]: That would probably be the most kind of straightforward, easiest way to do it.

    04:17.673 –> 04:18.914

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I love my dog, too.

    04:18.934 –> 04:20.075

    [SPEAKER_01]: So it was a win-win.

    04:20.535 –> 04:26.059

    [SPEAKER_01]: And so what I did was I made a decision that the brand I was going to start was going to be for doodle owners.

    04:26.479 –> 04:28.801

    [SPEAKER_01]: I had no idea what product I was going to create.

    04:29.241 –> 04:36.867

    [SPEAKER_01]: So what I decided to do, very scrappy, is I went on Facebook, and I typed in doodle owners’ Facebook groups.

    04:37.487 –> 04:44.697

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I joined a bunch of them and I posted in there and I said, hey, would anyone be willing to talk to me about the challenges of having a doodle?

    04:45.177 –> 04:50.204

    [SPEAKER_01]: You’d be surprised how many people are willing to talk about their dollars.

    04:50.224 –> 04:55.250

    [SPEAKER_01]: So, met with a bunch of people and the biggest challenge was that their hair gets matted easily.

    04:56.291 –> 05:01.475

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I took the challenge, put it into chatGBT and said, this is the pain point.

    05:01.935 –> 05:04.197

    [SPEAKER_01]: What are some good products to create from this?

    05:04.737 –> 05:08.420

    [SPEAKER_01]: One of the top ones was a detangler spray, which is what I chose.

    05:08.880 –> 05:15.805

    [SPEAKER_01]: I looked out what’s on the market and saw that everything was filled with harsh chemicals or ingredients I couldn’t pronounce.

    05:16.245 –> 05:19.288

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I said, yep, I’m going to create a doodle detangler spray.

    05:19.648 –> 05:23.731

    [SPEAKER_01]: My differentiating factors that it’s going to be all natural human-grade ingredients.

    05:24.251 –> 05:30.539

    [SPEAKER_01]: And then I just started documenting my journey of creating this product on Instagram through my email list.

    05:30.699 –> 05:39.049

    [SPEAKER_01]: I started building all that up and getting people excited for a launch that I had no idea when it was going to happen or if it was even going to happen.

    05:39.849 –> 05:40.589

    [SPEAKER_02]: Very cool.

    05:40.649 –> 05:42.811

    [SPEAKER_02]: I love the niche and I love the community aspect.

    05:42.831 –> 05:48.834

    [SPEAKER_02]: So I’m sure we’ll get into both of those shortly, but let’s just explain a little bit more about the nuts and bolts of the business before we go any deeper.

    05:49.274 –> 05:53.557

    [SPEAKER_02]: So you’re based in the US, you purely selling US or you selling overseas as well.

    05:53.817 –> 05:54.357

    [SPEAKER_02]: I’ll US.

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    [SPEAKER_02]: Nice.

    05:55.198 –> 06:02.142

    [SPEAKER_02]: Keep it simple like it and is there still just the one product or a few expanded beyond just the spray.

    06:02.502 –> 06:03.222

    [SPEAKER_01]: We expanded.

    06:03.363 –> 06:11.407

    [SPEAKER_01]: So my goal was to get this one product to a spot where I had systems in place where I could easily launch new products.

    06:11.987 –> 06:14.789

    [SPEAKER_01]: So after about a year, we launched a second product.

    06:14.929 –> 06:16.210

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s called a doodle shampoo.

    06:16.590 –> 06:19.031

    [SPEAKER_01]: And that’s growing even faster than the first one.

    06:19.451 –> 06:23.073

    [SPEAKER_01]: And now we have the serial probably won’t be launching product three and four.

    06:23.554 –> 06:25.615

    [SPEAKER_01]: Still always focused on the doodles.

    06:26.075 –> 06:28.537

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, this whole company is specifically for doodles.

    06:28.617 –> 06:31.338

    [SPEAKER_01]: We already have thousands of thousands of customers.

    06:31.679 –> 06:35.921

    [SPEAKER_01]: So it won’t make sense to get a different type of customer instead.

    06:35.941 –> 06:41.365

    [SPEAKER_01]: We’re going to keep launching products that serve the community and products that we know that they want to that same customer.

    06:41.865 –> 06:45.727

    [SPEAKER_02]: It sounds so simple, but so many people are absolutely failed to do it.

    06:47.268 –> 06:50.853

    [SPEAKER_02]: Is it been hard to keeping focused and not getting distracted by other things?

    06:50.893 –> 06:54.198

    [SPEAKER_02]: Or do you find it easy to continue committing to that niche?

    06:54.498 –> 06:58.865

    [SPEAKER_01]: To the niche it’s so easy because it makes everything a lot more straightforward, right?

    06:58.945 –> 07:01.048

    [SPEAKER_01]: All my marketing is are you a doodle owner?

    07:01.588 –> 07:03.331

    [SPEAKER_01]: All my content is the

    07:04.292 –> 07:12.877

    [SPEAKER_01]: DIY enrichment toys for doodles, or I know what doodal owners want, and what they are looking for, and so I’m able to easily provide value.

    07:13.438 –> 07:18.461

    [SPEAKER_01]: Now, sometimes there have been times where I’ve lost focus and had to put myself back on track.

    07:18.601 –> 07:26.066

    [SPEAKER_01]: For example, I thought that Pinterest would be a great idea, which I’m sure it would be, but it was a bit of a distraction at that time.

    07:26.186 –> 07:30.689

    [SPEAKER_01]: And so instead, it’s better to just double down on what’s already working, and

    07:31.309 –> 07:37.653

    [SPEAKER_01]: Just stay in your lane until you have a much bigger team that can actually dedicate a lot of time to growing other areas.

    07:38.273 –> 07:41.395

    [SPEAKER_02]: Now you’re fast tracking your growth, but you’re also beat strapping.

    07:41.415 –> 07:42.835

    [SPEAKER_02]: So what does the team look like?

    07:42.855 –> 07:47.378

    [SPEAKER_02]: Because that’s often one of the hardest things to get right when you’re so focused on cash flow.

    07:47.918 –> 07:48.959

    [SPEAKER_02]: So who’s in the team?

    07:48.999 –> 07:49.999

    [SPEAKER_02]: What are you outsourcing?

    07:50.019 –> 07:50.820

    [SPEAKER_02]: What are you doing yourself?

    07:51.520 –> 07:58.064

    [SPEAKER_01]: I am the only person employed by Dude Wolf, and then I have an EA that works full-time.

    07:58.784 –> 08:01.345

    [SPEAKER_01]: that I brought on board at probably four months ago.

    08:01.945 –> 08:11.689

    [SPEAKER_01]: And then I have a couple contractors for design and obviously have a manufacturer and then just finance is outsourced.

    08:12.149 –> 08:12.549

    [SPEAKER_02]: Got you.

    08:12.849 –> 08:20.271

    [SPEAKER_02]: And how do you decide what to give to the executive assistant the EA and what to keep yourself?

    08:20.432 –> 08:24.373

    [SPEAKER_02]: Has that been a straightforward one for you or has it moved over time?

    08:24.733 –> 08:25.374

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s moved.

    08:25.754 –> 08:29.757

    [SPEAKER_01]: I feel really blessed and lucky that my EA is she’s amazing.

    08:30.177 –> 08:34.120

    [SPEAKER_01]: And so as we’ve formed our relationship, we continue to build trust with each other.

    08:34.260 –> 08:39.364

    [SPEAKER_01]: So things that I honestly never thought that I could get off my plate.

    08:39.964 –> 08:44.628

    [SPEAKER_01]: I feel really comfortable showing her how to do it and then having her take that over.

    08:45.348 –> 08:46.629

    [SPEAKER_01]: So that’s been really nice.

    08:46.810 –> 09:02.966

    [SPEAKER_01]: My goal is to give her all the data, day operations stuff, customer service, just little things that like we DM every single person that follows us on Instagram, just little things that just take a lot of time and then I want to be focused more on product development and just

    09:03.887 –> 09:08.108

    [SPEAKER_01]: corporate return, bigger picture, things, that’s true.

    09:09.209 –> 09:13.970

    [SPEAKER_01]: If I ever want to sell the business, I’m aware that can’t be the one that’s running the day-to-day things.

    09:14.611 –> 09:15.391

    [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, so true.

    09:15.751 –> 09:16.411

    [SPEAKER_02]: So true.

    09:17.191 –> 09:22.573

    [SPEAKER_02]: We mentioned about the fact you were building the community almost before you even had a product idea.

    09:23.254 –> 09:28.495

    [SPEAKER_02]: You said that you’re, you know, you’re keeping that community going by doing the DMs as people follow on Instagram.

    09:28.575 –> 09:30.076

    [SPEAKER_02]: How else have you gone about

    09:31.060 –> 09:34.703

    [SPEAKER_02]: consolidating that community and leveraging that community.

    09:34.783 –> 09:36.445

    [SPEAKER_02]: Do they have to join something?

    09:36.545 –> 09:38.226

    [SPEAKER_02]: Is it about joining your email list?

    09:38.346 –> 09:41.329

    [SPEAKER_02]: What are the key parts for you that makes community work?

    09:41.829 –> 09:43.611

    [SPEAKER_01]: My community is a lot of different places.

    09:43.691 –> 09:46.393

    [SPEAKER_01]: It can be on Instagram, TikTok, I have a Facebook group.

    09:46.934 –> 09:48.876

    [SPEAKER_01]: But my email list is my bread and butter.

    09:49.216 –> 09:53.319

    [SPEAKER_01]: This is where I want everyone at some point to be because

    09:54.060 –> 09:59.727

    [SPEAKER_01]: A couple reasons, one reason is that Instagram to sale, for example, is the hardest conversion.

    10:00.028 –> 10:03.392

    [SPEAKER_01]: The easiest conversion is actually email to sale.

    10:03.852 –> 10:10.501

    [SPEAKER_01]: So my goal with Instagram, my goal with TikTok is not to get them to sale, but it’s to get them on my email.

    10:10.581 –> 10:12.483

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s actually, that’s my call to action.

    10:13.324 –> 10:28.846

    [SPEAKER_01]: a lot of what I do that’s different than many e-commerce brands that I’ve seen is I don’t really send out the fifteen percent coupon email instead I do very storytelling formats and I also just I just talked I write my own emails that’s a big part of

    10:29.507 –> 10:30.508

    [SPEAKER_01]: what I want to keep doing.

    10:31.029 –> 10:33.771

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I just talked to them about what’s going on right now.

    10:33.791 –> 10:34.952

    [SPEAKER_01]: I’m developing a new product.

    10:34.972 –> 10:37.875

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I emailed the list and I said, hey, I would love for someone.

    10:37.915 –> 10:40.337

    [SPEAKER_01]: Anyone be willing to hop on with me for fifteen minutes.

    10:40.717 –> 10:42.419

    [SPEAKER_01]: I’d love to show you what I have in mind.

    10:42.779 –> 10:43.980

    [SPEAKER_01]: Get your feedback on it.

    10:44.321 –> 10:45.842

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I had a bunch of people respond.

    10:45.862 –> 10:46.943

    [SPEAKER_01]: They’re like, I’d love to.

    10:47.283 –> 10:50.907

    [SPEAKER_01]: So those little things build up what I call like the VIP list.

    10:51.287 –> 10:53.169

    [SPEAKER_01]: And those are the people that if you

    10:53.789 –> 10:55.509

    [SPEAKER_01]: spend the time building trust with them.

    10:55.529 –> 10:57.190

    [SPEAKER_01]: They’re going to buy your products.

    10:57.210 –> 10:59.730

    [SPEAKER_01]: They’re going to be obsessed with your brand because they want to support you.

    11:00.410 –> 11:03.351

    [SPEAKER_01]: And you can always go back to them and ask them for reviews.

    11:03.771 –> 11:07.032

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I got a one star review on Amazon for my shampoo.

    11:07.532 –> 11:09.172

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I sent an email to my list.

    11:09.232 –> 11:12.213

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, I got this one star review about the bottle leaking.

    11:12.493 –> 11:13.813

    [SPEAKER_01]: This is what we’re doing to change it.

    11:13.853 –> 11:15.054

    [SPEAKER_01]: We’re updating the packaging.

    11:15.094 –> 11:17.594

    [SPEAKER_01]: Here’s the picture to ensure there’s no bottle leaking.

    11:17.914 –> 11:20.795

    [SPEAKER_01]: By the way, if you love the product, it would mean so much to me.

    11:21.235 –> 11:34.305

    [SPEAKER_01]: if you could leave a review an honest review on Amazon about your experience and I got like twenty reviews from that five star reviews and that’s just because over time I’ve built trust with these people and they want to actually support.

    11:34.325 –> 11:42.412

    [SPEAKER_02]: So it’s like a true newsletter full of the news of what’s actually going on rather than every other week a different offer on the product.

    11:42.837 –> 11:49.863

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and you can, like sometimes I’ll run promotions and sales, not really often, but you want people to want to open your emails, right?

    11:49.923 –> 11:59.811

    [SPEAKER_01]: So my thought is, if I get emails, always about, hey, now this company’s running this, they’re on this, they’re on the sale, like it’s just an always at that point.

    12:00.192 –> 12:04.175

    [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and then you don’t cut through and you don’t get the interesting people and so on and so forth.

    12:04.195 –> 12:06.717

    [SPEAKER_02]: So community love those tips, thank you.

    12:06.877 –> 12:10.860

    [SPEAKER_02]: And then you’ve already gone on to three different sales channels, which

    12:11.641 –> 12:15.466

    [SPEAKER_02]: is a lot more multiplication of work than if you were just on the one.

    12:15.486 –> 12:20.192

    [SPEAKER_02]: So you’ve got your Shopify store, you’ve got your Amazon listings and you’ve got the TikTok shop.

    12:20.893 –> 12:26.339

    [SPEAKER_02]: And you mentioned about how you know you were trying to do Pinterest as a marketing channel and cut it back.

    12:27.000 –> 12:31.005

    [SPEAKER_02]: What’s your approach to balancing those three channels in the business?

    12:31.045 –> 12:36.832

    [SPEAKER_02]: Because each of them requires different skills, different activity, different focus.

    12:36.872 –> 12:42.119

    [SPEAKER_02]: How do you decide where to put your effort between Amazon, Shopify and TikTok shop?

    12:42.519 –> 12:50.403

    [SPEAKER_01]: I’m so glad you brought that up because you’re a hundred percent correct in that it’s really hard to focus on all those channels at once.

    12:50.903 –> 12:52.904

    [SPEAKER_01]: So what I do is all my traffic.

    12:53.384 –> 13:04.570

    [SPEAKER_01]: I made a business decision that I want to drive all my traffic to Amazon, which is unconventional for most Amazon sellers in the sense that I run a lot of Facebook ads and most people would send that to their website.

    13:05.110 –> 13:07.051

    [SPEAKER_01]: What I do is I run the Facebook ad.

    13:07.431 –> 13:10.413

    [SPEAKER_01]: I send them to a landing page where I collect their emails.

    13:11.073 –> 13:20.356

    [SPEAKER_01]: Since Amazon doesn’t give you any customer data after, so I collect the customer data upfront to get them on my email list, and then I send them to Amazon after that.

    13:20.757 –> 13:23.417

    [SPEAKER_01]: Most people would just send them to Shopify, that’s totally fine.

    13:23.798 –> 13:27.299

    [SPEAKER_01]: But I would say, seventy five percent of our sales come through Amazon.

    13:27.999 –> 13:35.582

    [SPEAKER_01]: And because I only drive traffic through there, I do have like another portion of the business, twenty percent from TikTok shop.

    13:36.343 –> 13:42.405

    [SPEAKER_01]: And that is just, that’s a lot of what my EA focuses on, too, is building influencer relationships through TikTok.

    13:42.425 –> 13:43.366

    [SPEAKER_01]: They make videos.

    13:43.906 –> 13:46.207

    [SPEAKER_01]: And then that’s how those sales come from.

    13:46.767 –> 13:49.368

    [SPEAKER_01]: And then my website, I don’t drive any traffic there.

    13:49.788 –> 13:55.611

    [SPEAKER_01]: I think there’s just some stragglers that would rather buy on the website, or we have some blogs that have been ranking

    13:56.091 –> 13:57.832

    [SPEAKER_01]: but we don’t focus on that at all.

    13:58.172 –> 14:07.999

    [SPEAKER_02]: So you’re doing that thing which the Amazon idealist I suppose would say which is if you really want to make it work you send traffic from off Amazon to on Amazon.

    14:08.620 –> 14:11.702

    [SPEAKER_02]: You know because we know that the more you sell on Amazon the more you sell on Amazon.

    14:11.722 –> 14:17.926

    [SPEAKER_02]: So if you could feed the sales as well by sending people there then you’ll do better on the organic and so on and so forth on Amazon.

    14:18.526 –> 14:26.195

    [SPEAKER_02]: I love that idea of sending the Facebook ad’s traffic to the email sign-up form before you send it on to Amazon.

    14:26.936 –> 14:36.608

    [SPEAKER_02]: Do you make it clear in the ads that they’re going to somewhere that’s an email sign-up or that then they’re going to Amazon or is it kind of like a click and then, oh look at one of an email sign-up page.

    14:37.188 –> 14:38.048

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s click.

    14:38.369 –> 14:45.391

    [SPEAKER_01]: So kind of my flow is I get a lot of my creatives for Facebook ads from influencers, like just real people using the product.

    14:45.411 –> 14:47.292

    [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of that comes from TikTok.

    14:47.692 –> 14:48.793

    [SPEAKER_01]: Then we run the good ones.

    14:48.833 –> 14:50.293

    [SPEAKER_01]: We obviously work with the influencer.

    14:50.313 –> 14:51.614

    [SPEAKER_01]: We run the good ones as ads.

    14:52.394 –> 14:53.596

    [SPEAKER_01]: And they click on the add.

    14:53.636 –> 14:56.439

    [SPEAKER_01]: It takes them to a landing page explaining the product.

    14:56.879 –> 14:59.061

    [SPEAKER_01]: So it’s not like sign up here.

    14:59.122 –> 15:02.926

    [SPEAKER_01]: It’s explaining effortless grooming for your doodle a bunch more UGC.

    15:03.386 –> 15:09.152

    [SPEAKER_01]: So another benefit I want to call out for doing this is that is someone looks at the landing page.

    15:10.133 –> 15:12.496

    [SPEAKER_01]: And they’re not interested, they’ll leave right then.

    15:12.676 –> 15:20.945

    [SPEAKER_01]: And it’s only the really interested ones that will continue on, which means that once they actually get to Amazon, they’re way more likely to convert.

    15:21.305 –> 15:25.630

    [SPEAKER_01]: And so my conversion rate on Amazon is like insane and Amazon loves that.

    15:25.770 –> 15:27.532

    [SPEAKER_01]: And it boosts you up the rankings.

    15:27.933 –> 15:30.635

    [SPEAKER_01]: So educating them off Amazon as much as you can is

    15:32.157 –> 15:33.138

    [SPEAKER_01]: I think a good strategy.

    15:33.678 –> 15:36.300

    [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, so they go to the landing page and then there’s an option.

    15:36.320 –> 15:39.962

    [SPEAKER_01]: They can get a coupon for fifteen percent off and that’s when they can get my email.

    15:40.462 –> 15:42.143

    [SPEAKER_01]: This is just a business decision I made.

    15:42.163 –> 15:48.687

    [SPEAKER_01]: I do have an option where they don’t have to give their coupon or they don’t have to give their email, but a lot of people actually do give their email.

    15:49.167 –> 16:00.374

    [SPEAKER_01]: So definitely recommend if you’re running any sort of off Amazon traffic, getting that customer information up front and then nurturing them through email.

    16:00.900 –> 16:01.300

    [SPEAKER_02]: got you.

    16:01.440 –> 16:05.483

    [SPEAKER_02]: And so they’ve given you or not given you their email for that fifteen percent off-code.

    16:05.503 –> 16:09.545

    [SPEAKER_02]: And then is that fifteen percent off-code happening on Amazon?

    16:09.646 –> 16:10.886

    [SPEAKER_02]: That’s a code to use on Amazon.

    16:11.006 –> 16:11.627

    [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it is.

    16:11.687 –> 16:12.067

    [SPEAKER_02]: Got it.

    16:12.467 –> 16:17.210

    [SPEAKER_02]: So you mentioned about any emails that you’re doing the high content rather than the discounting.

    16:17.831 –> 16:25.115

    [SPEAKER_02]: And then we all know that on Amazon it can become a price nightmare race to the bottom against noodles of competitors and all those kind of challenges.

    16:25.155 –> 16:28.797

    [SPEAKER_02]: And you are using a discount to encourage that first purchase on Amazon.

    16:29.758 –> 16:37.671

    [SPEAKER_02]: Are you then doing lots of other promotions on Amazon as, you know, price matching and worrying about your margin the whole time on there?

    16:37.771 –> 16:44.802

    [SPEAKER_02]: Or if you, because you’re doing so much in educating the customer and focusing on that niche, you’re able to kind of play your own pricing game over there.

    16:45.102 –> 16:56.375

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the really neat thing about building an actual brand and not just slapping products on Amazon is that you’re no longer worried about your competitors because people are searching for your brand.

    16:56.936 –> 17:02.923

    [SPEAKER_01]: So my products, let’s see, the detangler spray is double or triple the price of the competitors.

    17:03.443 –> 17:04.284

    [SPEAKER_01]: My shampoo is

    17:05.145 –> 17:12.028

    [SPEAKER_01]: not double, but people buy it a lot more often, but it’s that most expensive shampoo on Amazon.

    17:12.668 –> 17:17.170

    [SPEAKER_01]: And the benefit of that is I can then run promotions.

    17:17.330 –> 17:18.751

    [SPEAKER_01]: I still have a ton of margin.

    17:19.171 –> 17:22.373

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I’m able to put money back into the business.

    17:22.473 –> 17:30.796

    [SPEAKER_01]: I’m able to put more money back into just serving my audience, like hire this EA that can now give amazing customer service to these people.

    17:30.816 –> 17:30.876

    [SPEAKER_01]: And

    17:32.737 –> 17:33.518

    [SPEAKER_01]: I’m not competing.

    17:33.538 –> 17:39.523

    [SPEAKER_01]: I’m not going into price wars with Amazon sellers because I know that I’m getting those customers off of Amazon.

    17:40.003 –> 17:42.685

    [SPEAKER_01]: Even if they don’t buy right away, I’m nurturing them through email.

    17:43.246 –> 17:47.089

    [SPEAKER_01]: And my highest search keyword is Dude Wolf Doodle Detangler Spray.

    17:47.529 –> 17:54.495

    [SPEAKER_01]: So people are seeing stuff off of Amazon and going on Amazon just to search for the exact brand and product.

    17:54.855 –> 17:58.378

    [SPEAKER_01]: So they don’t really care about the other stuff that’s seven dollars on there.

    17:59.074 –> 17:59.355

    [SPEAKER_02]: nice.

    17:59.415 –> 18:07.425

    [SPEAKER_02]: It really shows the power of the community activity that you’re doing and the content that you’re producing that your number one search term is yourself.

    18:07.806 –> 18:11.050

    [SPEAKER_02]: It’s like that is clearly clearly paying off.

    18:11.310 –> 18:13.373

    [SPEAKER_01]: And it makes it really a lot cheaper because

    18:14.194 –> 18:20.079

    [SPEAKER_01]: those really expensive keywords that people try to rank for because this is a high converting listing now.

    18:20.499 –> 18:22.501

    [SPEAKER_01]: People are searching for the branded search terms.

    18:22.801 –> 18:28.705

    [SPEAKER_01]: Amazon naturally knows it’s kind of related to expensive keywords like dog detangler spray.

    18:29.306 –> 18:38.933

    [SPEAKER_01]: And so without bidding super high on these keywords, it’ll just organically put it into the pages, the first second page, however, of those big words.

    18:39.474 –> 18:43.597

    [SPEAKER_01]: So like naturally increases your rankings on the really expensive keywords.

    18:44.101 –> 18:45.802

    [SPEAKER_02]: which is never a bad thing.

    18:47.543 –> 18:48.483

    [SPEAKER_02]: Never a bad thing.

    18:48.784 –> 18:52.426

    [SPEAKER_02]: So you mentioned that obviously you’re trying to keep things focused.

    18:52.466 –> 18:55.227

    [SPEAKER_02]: You’ve expanded the team to give you more time to work on business development.

    18:55.247 –> 18:57.748

    [SPEAKER_02]: You’ve got new products in the running.

    18:57.888 –> 19:02.391

    [SPEAKER_02]: Anything else that’s got you excited for the coming months and the year ahead?

    19:02.933 –> 19:05.254

    [SPEAKER_01]: Definitely the product development I’m excited.

    19:05.354 –> 19:09.355

    [SPEAKER_01]: These are fun projects to work on and it’s completely different than our first two.

    19:09.895 –> 19:11.455

    [SPEAKER_01]: So a lot of focus on that.

    19:11.555 –> 19:16.817

    [SPEAKER_01]: Additionally, I’m really interested in AI and how to implement AI more in the business.

    19:16.877 –> 19:25.419

    [SPEAKER_01]: So we’re figuring out what parts of the business we can automate more and that’s pretty exciting before you would have to hire a lot more people, but we’re

    19:25.859 –> 19:35.241

    [SPEAKER_01]: Taking the approach of, okay, let’s figure out what kind of tools are you exist, how we can automate our workflows, so that’s been a bit part of what we’re working on now.

    19:36.241 –> 19:41.002

    [SPEAKER_00]: Ecommerce Masterplan is supporting by some of the greatest companies in the Ecommerce sector.

    19:41.162 –> 19:42.522

    [SPEAKER_00]: Here’s a reminder of who they are.

    19:49.124 –> 19:51.244

    [SPEAKER_00]: It’s time for the top six round.

    19:53.308 –> 19:58.650

    [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I love this section because it gives me and our listeners some really quick ideas for taking our businesses to the next level.

    19:58.690 –> 20:00.570

    [SPEAKER_02]: Say, Elina, are you ready for the top tips?

    20:00.870 –> 20:01.450

    [SPEAKER_02]: Let’s do it.

    20:01.650 –> 20:02.771

    [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, the book top tip.

    20:02.831 –> 20:09.053

    [SPEAKER_02]: If everyone listening to this podcast agreed to take Friday off and read a book to make their business better, which book would you recommend?

    20:09.393 –> 20:11.613

    [SPEAKER_02]: And is it the one you mentioned earlier or are there more?

    20:11.933 –> 20:13.334

    [SPEAKER_01]: That would be the one that I would.

    20:14.054 –> 20:17.859

    [SPEAKER_01]: really recommend twelve months to one million by Ryan Miranda.

    20:18.299 –> 20:26.289

    [SPEAKER_01]: It gives you a different perspective on how to build an e-com brand, which is I think the right way to build an e-com brand.

    20:26.669 –> 20:30.033

    [SPEAKER_02]: And given your success doing it, it does suggest it’s a good route to go down.

    20:30.333 –> 20:36.540

    [SPEAKER_02]: So love the fact we’re doubling down on twelve months to one million going get your hands on that everybody.

    20:37.021 –> 20:42.487

    [SPEAKER_02]: Down the traffic top tip which marketing method do you either price above all others or think doesn’t get the press it deserves.

    20:46.772 –> 20:50.313

    [SPEAKER_01]: when you try to target everyone, you’re targeting no one.

    20:50.973 –> 20:54.654

    [SPEAKER_01]: So by niching down, you can really focus on that specific person.

    20:54.754 –> 21:00.256

    [SPEAKER_01]: It catches your eye and marketing and you really learn about their pain points and can serve them well.

    21:00.896 –> 21:02.917

    [SPEAKER_02]: Simple, but so hard to do.

    21:03.217 –> 21:04.197

    [SPEAKER_02]: So very cool.

    21:04.297 –> 21:04.977

    [SPEAKER_02]: Tool, top tip.

    21:05.097 –> 21:14.100

    [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe a collaboration tool, a social media plugin, a phone up or just a way of working is a little tool you use that makes you and your team more efficient from day to day.

    21:14.855 –> 21:16.096

    [SPEAKER_01]: I’ll do two for this one.

    21:16.436 –> 21:20.199

    [SPEAKER_01]: The first is something just that we do that I think is often overlooked.

    21:20.679 –> 21:24.842

    [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone that follows us on Instagram, we DM them personally.

    21:24.863 –> 21:30.887

    [SPEAKER_01]: And the reason is because if someone follows you on Instagram, they are essentially a lead.

    21:31.287 –> 21:32.628

    [SPEAKER_01]: They follow you for some reason.

    21:32.668 –> 21:34.570

    [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that’s a lot of times overlooked.

    21:35.010 –> 21:42.435

    [SPEAKER_01]: And so we get actually get a lot of sales from people that follow us that probably wouldn’t have bought, but by us like manually reaching out to them and being like, hey,

    21:43.496 –> 21:53.538

    [SPEAKER_01]: I just wanted to see why you’ve followed us a lot of times that leads to sales and then an actual tool that I really enjoy using for anyone that does anything on TikTok shop.

    21:53.899 –> 22:07.662

    [SPEAKER_01]: There’s this bot called Yuka and it helps you with a lot of the outreach and segmenting influencers and it’s just so much better to organize TikTok shop through their versus an actual TikTok shop platform.

    22:08.022 –> 22:10.244

    [SPEAKER_02]: Good in how are we spelling that one?

    22:10.264 –> 22:11.905

    [SPEAKER_02]: E-U-K-A.

    22:12.805 –> 22:13.786

    [SPEAKER_02]: You got that AI.

    22:14.366 –> 22:18.309

    [SPEAKER_02]: Nice, I would never have guessed there was an E in there, so I’m glad I asked that one.

    22:18.489 –> 22:19.510

    [SPEAKER_02]: Very cool, yeah.

    22:19.930 –> 22:22.412

    [SPEAKER_02]: I’ve not heard of that, so top tip.

    22:22.972 –> 22:24.953

    [SPEAKER_02]: Carbon, top tip to finish off.

    22:25.073 –> 22:28.676

    [SPEAKER_02]: What’s your favourite way to reduce the carbon footprint of an e-commerce store?

    22:29.008 –> 22:29.488

    [SPEAKER_01]: Packaging.

    22:30.208 –> 22:38.231

    [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, first of all, so as minimal packaging or as sustainable packaging as we can do, definitely puts thought into that.

    22:38.671 –> 22:46.254

    [SPEAKER_01]: And then personally, I moved into a new office space and it’s so bright and light that we’re just not using.

    22:46.274 –> 22:50.836

    [SPEAKER_01]: First of all, it makes me happier, but we’re just not using the lights as much anymore.

    22:51.316 –> 22:53.537

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I think that’s a life hack is more fun.

    22:54.577 –> 22:55.857

    [SPEAKER_02]: More sun, more daylight.

    22:55.937 –> 22:57.778

    [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, why do ourselves away from it?

    22:57.958 –> 22:58.598

    [SPEAKER_02]: Love that one.

    22:59.058 –> 23:04.939

    [SPEAKER_02]: Alina, before we say goodbye, could you please let listeners know where they can find you and do to work on the web and social media?

    23:05.339 –> 23:05.719

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

    23:05.919 –> 23:12.800

    [SPEAKER_01]: You can follow us on Instagram at DudeWolfCoDODWOLOFCO.

    23:13.180 –> 23:13.500

    [SPEAKER_02]: Brilliant.

    23:13.780 –> 23:19.622

    [SPEAKER_02]: Now, I know that you have somehow managed to find time to help other brands follow in your footsteps.

    23:19.662 –> 23:22.062

    [SPEAKER_02]: So, can you tell us a bit about your coaching services, please?

    23:22.582 –> 23:24.143

    [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so it’s very straightforward.

    23:24.443 –> 23:39.987

    [SPEAKER_01]: So I just do one-on-one hourly coaching and if you’re interested in getting help with building your e-com brand or just branding in general, you can reach out to me at www.alinatoxbrand.com.

    23:40.588 –> 23:41.448

    [SPEAKER_02]: Simple as that, everyone.

    23:41.488 –> 23:43.328

    [SPEAKER_02]: Alinatoxbrand.com.

    23:43.408 –> 23:48.390

    [SPEAKER_02]: Alina, thank you so much for coming on and being so open, talking about how you’re growing your business so fast.

    23:48.790 –> 23:49.930

    [SPEAKER_02]: We really appreciate it.

    23:49.990 –> 23:50.711

    [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for being here.

    23:51.071 –> 23:51.931

    [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for having me.

    23:57.702 –> 24:01.605

    [SPEAKER_02]: lots of juicy ideas there in the chat with Alina.

    24:01.725 –> 24:14.956

    [SPEAKER_02]: I think for me the two biggest ones were one B, no I’m going to give you three would want to be the community and her focus on building that community and then leveraging that community to improve the business.

    24:15.696 –> 24:17.257

    [SPEAKER_02]: The second one would be

    24:18.238 –> 24:21.241

    [SPEAKER_02]: The clarity she has of the role of the different channels.

    24:21.721 –> 24:23.483

    [SPEAKER_02]: TikTok is about getting email signups.

    24:24.123 –> 24:26.065

    [SPEAKER_02]: Instagram is about getting email signups.

    24:26.505 –> 24:28.367

    [SPEAKER_02]: Not about selling, but about doing that.

    24:28.407 –> 24:31.009

    [SPEAKER_02]: And then she’s got the email campaigns ready to drive the sales.

    24:31.149 –> 24:32.110

    [SPEAKER_02]: So love that focus.

    24:32.230 –> 24:32.490

    [SPEAKER_02]: And then

    24:33.171 –> 24:42.313

    [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think she’s the first person I’ve ever come across who’s doing Facebook ads to a landing page to get an email address to then give them a code to go and spend somewhere else.

    24:42.733 –> 24:44.994

    [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that’s such an interesting way of doing it.

    24:45.014 –> 24:50.055

    [SPEAKER_02]: I would love to see the stats on that and see how it would work against a sales campaign.

    24:50.115 –> 24:55.476

    [SPEAKER_02]: But really, interestingly, get you thinking about doing something a bit different and the impact it might have.

    24:55.936 –> 25:02.878

    [SPEAKER_02]: You can get your hands on our notes from this episode, including those top tips and links to what we mentioned by heading over to ecommercemasterplan.com.

    25:03.398 –> 25:13.769

    [SPEAKER_02]: You can also use our direct-to-episode short links just put ECMP.info for such the number of this episode into the URL bar and then you’ll be redirected straight to the right-episode page.

    25:14.229 –> 25:21.716

    [SPEAKER_02]: When you get to the website, you can also add yourself to our email list so you don’t miss out on any of the other things we share to help you improve your business.

    25:22.417 –> 25:27.198

    [SPEAKER_02]: If you liked this episode, then make sure you check out episode three hundred and ninety-six.

    25:27.678 –> 25:39.501

    [SPEAKER_02]: Where I’m chatting to another dog brand founder, this time it’s Guy Blasky explaining how he grew his D to C pet brand, pooch and mut to over twelve million pounds a year.

    25:39.561 –> 25:43.442

    [SPEAKER_02]: So a whole other level of growth discussion in that one.

    25:43.962 –> 25:48.864

    [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for tuning into this and every episode that you do of the e-commerce master plan podcast.

    25:49.204 –> 25:58.128

    [SPEAKER_02]: I bring you a new interview every week to inspire and help e-commerce business owners like you to succeed and thrive with your businesses, including becoming more sustainable.

    25:58.529 –> 26:03.331

    [SPEAKER_02]: So if you know someone this show can help, please tell them to listen to the e-commerce master plan podcast.

    26:03.731 –> 26:06.192

    [SPEAKER_02]: I hope you have a great week and don’t forget to keep optimizing.

    26:09.277 –> 26:12.642

    [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to the ecommerce Master Plan podcast.

    26:13.062 –> 26:17.849

    [SPEAKER_00]: Find out more at ecommercemasterplanned.com slash podcast.

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    eCommerce Master PlanBy Chloe Thomas