Market Movers: Building Brands & Links with Linkifi

James Ewens: How Green Feathers Grew 35% by Ditching Marketplaces

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Welcome to Market Movers: Building Brands & Links with Linkifi!

Your go-to podcast for transforming your business into an unforgettable brand where branding meets SEO and link-building. I’m Chris Panteli, Co-Founder & CEO of Linkifi, and I’m joined by my co-host and Co-Founder, Nick Biggs.

In this episode we welcome James Ewens — E-commerce Director at Green Feathers — a wildlife tech operator who shifted the brand from B2B/marketplaces to D2C, pairing paid search → SEO and digital PR to grow fast in a niche where the product story sells itself (and is about to hit Netflix/Amazon).

 

Key Talking Points

✅ D2C Shift & Growth — From ~60% B2B/marketplaces to ~75% D2C; ~30–35% revenue growth in ~2 years; current run rate ~£2.2M (c. 35–40% organic traffic)

✅ PPC → SEO Flywheel — Front-loaded PPC for demand capture while rebuilding Shopify theme for UX + SEO; PDPs designed so buyers never need to click back
✅ Marketplace Strategy — Keep Amazon for discovery (seasonal surge) but pull back from long-tail UK marketplaces; focus on brand.com experience
✅ Digital PR That Lands — “Birds, not rats” story → tabloids + lifestyle pickups; TechRadar & Telegraph product reviews; HuffPost features; traffic lift that sticks
✅ Product-Led Advantage — Ease of setup/reliability > spec sheet; reviews validate claims; A+ content parity on Amazon, richer narrative on site
✅ Media & Credibility — Incoming TV features (Netflix/Amazon/ITV) where the brand can be shown (unlike BBC). Expect halo spikes + search lift
✅ AI Reality Check — Treat LLMs as research accelerators, not “true AI”; good SEO + reviews + clarity → higher odds of being referenced by LLM overviews
✅ Seasonality & Timing — Peak gifting (Nov–Dec); birds begin scouting now → mid-January; be ranked for “bird box camera” before Springwatch/Autumnwatch spikes

 

Quotes from James Ewens

📢 “On a PDP, there should never be a reason to click back.”

📢 “We’d love not to need Amazon — but for first impressions, you have to be where shoppers start.”
📢 “Digital PR wasn’t a spike; the traffic and authority stayed.”
📢 “Stop calling everything ‘AI’. Use LLMs to answer faster — your brand & UX still win the sale.”
📢 “When TV shows a bird-box camera, the sales story is done — you just need to be discoverable.”

 

Actionable Insights

🧭 D2C Migration Playbook

  • Pull budget from low-ROI marketplaces; reinvest in PPC capture + site UX/SEO.

  • Keep Amazon for discovery and seasonal demand; push brand.com with content, bundles, and support.

    • 🧱 PDP/PLP that Convert

    • Answer every question on the PDP: what’s in the box, setup ease, example footage, reviews, returns, support.

    • Build category pages that preview options & use cases before the click.

      • 📣 Digital PR & Reviews

      • Run news-friendly hooks (e.g., urban wildlife, garden habitats) + expert quotes.

      • Proactively seed independent product reviews with tier-one outlets; track assist to organic.

        • 📐 SEO for LLM Era

        • Clean tech SEO, schema, trust signals (reviews/awards), and crystal-clear USP copy.

        • Own “what/why/how” explainer content so Overview/Chat pulls your brand.

          • 🗓️ Seasonality Ops

          • Editorial calendar: Sept–Jan gift content; Jan/Feb nesting explainers; re-surface “install now” guides.

          • Ensure inventory, support, and how-to video coverage ahead of TV-driven search spikes.

            • 📊 Measure & Learn

            • Attribute DPR/reviews with landing-page cohorts and brand search lift, not just last-click.

            • Watch Copilot/ChatGPT referral hints and Google Trends around wildlife TV windows.

              •  

              About James Ewens / Green Feathers

              James Ewens is the E-commerce Director at Green Feathers, the UK wildlife-camera brand helping people bring nature back into their gardens — and actually see it. Since pivoting to D2C, Green Feathers has scaled on paid → SEO, digital PR, and creator content, with upcoming features across major TV platforms.


              🛒 Explore: green-feathers.co.uk

              James Ewans LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-ewens-268a84ba/ 

               

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              👋 Connect with your hosts:

              👉 Chris Panteli on LinkedIn
              👉 Nick Biggs on LinkedIn

               

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