Episode Highlights 

[03:16] — Who Gene is and his work as a business coach

• Gene is a Leadership Executive Coach, working with fast-growing company’s founders and CEOs, some of which are part of the Inc 5000.
  
  
• The podcast will be in a coaching format where Gene will be the interviewer and ask questions to Trent.
  
  
• As a coach, Gene doesn’t focus on just accountability but more on helping leaders figure out the significant insight that will help them grow and evolve.
  
  

[05:37] — The podcast discusses how to be a better leader for your team

• Trent listened to an audiobook about being a better leader and a multiplier before recording the podcast. The problem with books is that they don’t talk back to you; it requires a caring, understanding, passionate coach to make those words come to life.
  
  
• The big idea of being a better leader, according to this podcast, is to trust your team and put them first.
  
  
• Employees aren’t as replaceable as customers, and employees can take care of many customers.
  
  

[11:30] — Current stressors and frustrations when it comes to business and leadership

• Trent is currently pursuing a different market, but he doesn't know this customer segment as well. 
  
  
• At the moment, they are at risk of having no traction and effectively wasting time and money in marketing efforts.
  
  
• 
  Trent’s biggest fear is not losing money, but losing time and the frustration that comes along. But he learned that failure is not to be avoided but to be managed and understood.
  
  
• Most of the time, we focus on the things that might not work out instead of the favorable scenario of it working out.
  
  
• Companies that embrace failure as part of the process grow more than risk-averse companies.
  
  

[19:18] — The vision of both the better leader we aspire to become and the team we should have

• Trent believes that a better leader has confidence in his team and empowers them to perform their best in bringing a vision to reality.
  
  
• It is essential to include a team of talented individuals with extensive experience and strong collaboration skills in your leadership vision.
  
  
• For Trent, it’s about letting employees do their own thing and trusting they will aim for the team’s best interests.
  
  
• Setting expectations is crucial in building trust and knowing how to become a better manager.
  
  

[24:22] — Communication and the science of having insightful relationships with your team

• In one on one conversations and meetings, try to learn more about the other person's past and interests, and build trust by letting them do their job.
  
  
• As a leader, you provide the vision, and after that, you trust your people to do their best to get there. Create a culture where the best ideas win.
  
  

[31:48] — Radical transparency and the need for honesty

• Business is a game. It's essential to give the employees all the rules and explain to them how to score so they know whether they're winning.
  
  
• Let your team solve their problems instead of doing it for them and create a culture of collaboration and empowerment.
  
  

[35:33] — The podcast tells what to focus on to become a better leader

• Get a clear vision not just for the company but for the entire team as well.
  
  
• Don’t micromanage work. Lead the people to become self-confident.
  
  
• Coaching is not just telling them what to do. It's empowering people to take the next step.
  
  
• Pay attention to the history behind their motivations. Support your team by helping them address their underlying fears.
  
  
• Take the time to have conversations with your team and build relationships with them. Slow down to speed up.
  
  

Episode Highlights


[03:37] — John introduces Ignite Visibility

• Ignite Visibility is a mission-driven digital marketing agency that uses a multi-channel digital marketing strategy.
  
  
• They use the systems and strategies they learned from scaling their own marketing efforts for their clients.
  
  

[05:16] — Doing one big thing per year and writing a book

• Having a quarterly or annual big marketing campaign will help keep your brand at the top of people’s minds.
  
  
• So far, he has made two movies and two books for this one big marketing push.
  
  
• He uses his books as a learning experience and an opportunity to share his own experiences.
  
  

[10:48] — The know-hows of Google Analytics

• The mediums are the buckets of traffic, while a source is a specific piece of traffic.
  
  
• Google Analytics provides a space for PPC management to increase your conversion volume and build an entire business model around your ad spend.
  
  

[13:34] — How Ignite Visibility’s PPC management volume works

• They figure out where your customer spends time online as well as the ad activity of your competitors.
  
  
• They then project a cost per acquisition framework to get a customer from every network. After that, they would build the business model for you.
  
  

[15:29] — The importance of landing pages and remarketing

• The top-to-bottom funnel approach works well on custom landing pages. They nurture them further and further down.
  
  
• They also remarket specific strategies by ad network, introducing them in a positive, non-conversion way.
  
  

[17:55] — Why John never takes his foot off the brake for marketing

• It is what led them to become a four-time Inc. 5000 company.
  
  
• When you consistently reinvest 10% in your marketing budget without any changes, it would drive growth.
  
  
• What follows is making sure you’re set up operationally to follow that up.
  
  

[19:48] — Using great data to make good business decisions

• Ignite Visibility has an analytics team, a big data team, and people who do custom analysis.
  
  
• There are a lot of attributions and different ways to track conversions. Every business needs to figure out its attribution.
  
  
• Multi-channel funnels show you every assisted conversion with the attribution process.
  
  
• View-through conversions require a brand lift or conversion lift model.
  
  

[22:39] — The best practices in figuring out your attribution 

• Use your multi-channel funnel report and look at your assisted and last click conversions. 
  
  
• Tag every single one of your URLs using Google Tag Manager.
  
  
• Set up a custom dashboard for yourself.
  
  

[25:54] — Landing major clients

• John has worked with clients such as FOX Movies and Tony Robbins. 
  
  
• He landed Tony Robbins as a client by sending him a tweet and getting an RFP a year later.
  
  
• A lot of the content in The Forecaster Method came from the multi-channel marketing framework they’ve done for Tony Robbins.
  
  
• With around 180,000 followers on Twitter, he gets a fair amount of visibility on his tweets.
  
  

[29:22] — Accumulating a social media following   

• John worked on his personal brand doing digital marketing.
  
  
• Writing for major magazines and publications has also helped in accumulating a following.
  
  
• To follow this path, you have to build a following, good author profile, and portfolio after starting your blog.
  
  

Resources 

• Ignite Visibility — Learn more about John’s mission-driven digital marketing agency and how it can help you reach your business goals. 
  
  
• Digital Influencer by John Lincoln
  
  
• The Forecaster Method by John Lincoln
  
  
• SEO: The Movie
  
  
• Social Media Marketing: The Movie
  
  
• Pathmatics
  
  
• Google Analytics
  
  
• Google Data Studio
  
  
• NinjaCat
  
  
• Google Tag Manager
  
  
• Creative Planning
  
  
• Entrepreneur Magazine
  
  
• Forbes
  
  
• Inc. Magazine
  
  
• Search Engine Land
  
  
• Marketing Land
  
  
• Search Engine Journal
  
  
• Cox Residential Services
  
  
• 5-Hour Energy
  
  
• The General Auto Insurance
  
  
• Know more about John Lincoln through his Twitter. You may also subscribe to Ignite Visibility’s YouTube channel.
  
  

Which of John Lincoln's bright ideas sparked something in you? And what new things about PPC management to increase traffic and conversion volume did you learn? Feel free to comment below and share your thoughts with us.


Enjoyed the podcast? Subscribe to the Bright Ideas Podcast for more insights by successful e-commerce brands and the daring entrepreneurs behind them.

Episode Highlights


[03:42] — Ethan introduces Amify

• Ethan McAfee is the founder and CEO of Amify, which helps medium- to large-sized brands sell directly on Amazon.
  
  
• Through their service, they help brands manage their listings, optimize their supply chain logistics, analyze data, and take charge of customer experience, among other things.
  
  

[04:25] — Pros and cons of selling on Amazon

• When Amazon came about, brands thought of it as another retail distributor or seller.
  
  
• Ethan comments that brands need to think of Amazon as a platform and extension of their websites, not as a retail distributor. 
  
  
• Most brands are still using middlemen or 3P (Third-Party) sellers on Amazon in this day and age.
  
  
• When brands begin to think of Amazon as another channel for direct sales, they gain an advantage over data and customer experience.
  
  

[07:00]  — Why controlling your customer experience matters

• When you sell directly, you can control how your brand looks and your customer’s experience.
  
  
• You get data that tells you about who your customers are, what they’re buying, and how likely they are to buy again using Amazon FBA.
  
  
• FBA gives you real-time data, which also allows you to adjust your logistics promptly.
  
  
• The data you get from FBA should only be used for analytics, not to reach out to customers directly for ratings, for example.
  
  

[09:45] — 3 main ways to sell on Amazon

• Brands can sell via Amazon 1P, which means they sell directly to Amazon, and Amazon will sell to the end-customer.
  
  
• Third-Party Retailers, or 3P, is another option. Wholesalers can partner up with retailers to sell their products.
  
  
• The last option is to sell directly, and the pros of this are getting more money since you’ve removed middlemen out of the equation.
  
  
• Brands who sell directly don’t usually know how to implement strategies correctly, so they hire Amazon consultancies like Amify.
  
  

[13:00] — Who benefits from selling via Amazon 1P?

• 1P is excellent for huge brands that are already household names. 
  
  
• If a brand sells products at a low price point and doesn’t care too much about resellers taking a dollar off a product’s price, then Amazon 1P might suit them.
  
  
• Low-price products are difficult to sell outside of 1P, because you need to consider the shipping and handling costs that come with it.
  
  

[16:10] — Pros and cons of 3P retailers

• Ethan states that selling via Amazon 3P is an easy way to get on Amazon.
  
  
• A brand can authorize select retailers, creating a valuable wholesaler-retailer relationship that benefits both sides.
  
  
• However, this may unintentionally lead to partnering with retailers who don’t give you any value.
  
  
• The vast majority of Amazon 3P sellers are not value-adding, and can rather act like “leeches.”
  
  
• Having too many resellers might be detrimental to your time, health, and the growth of your brand.
  
  

[22:00] — 3 reasons why most brands do direct selling

• According to Ethan, one main advantage of direct selling is cutting out the middle man–this means more money going into your pockets.
  
  
• During COVID times, it makes more financial sense to be earning more after cutting out the cost of paying third-party retailers.
  
  
• The second reason is it lets you have more control over your customer experience.
  
  
• When you sell directly to your end-customers, you get to know what’s selling on a day-to-day basis. In short, the third reason is about having data that will save you more time.
  
  

[28:15] — Compromising with your 3P partners when switching to direct selling

• Your brick-and-mortar partners will likely be upset if you were to switch to direct selling.
  
  
• To soften the blow, you can still allow them to sell via FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant).
  
  
• Finding this compromise allows you to have a backup, for example, during holidays when Amazon FBA warehouses become crowded.
  
  

[29:10] — Amazon and the marketplace

• It seems Amazon would rather be a marketplace than a retailer.
  
  
• Ethan shares that Amazon is trying to move away from being a 1P seller for a lot of brands in the last few years.
  
  
• One reason why Amazon wouldn’t prefer direct selling is because of prices, and Amazon aims to be the lowest price in the entire market for products.
  
  
• The downfall of being an open marketplace is the great numbers of counterfeit and unauthorized sellers, which then affect customer confidence in platforms like Amazon.
  
  
• Amazon, over the last few years, has made changes such as showing seller information to make the Amazon experience more beneficial to customers.
  
  

[34:00] — What does an outsourced Amazon management team do?

• Amify helps brands with things like supply chain management and inventory forecasting.
  
  
• When consulting with a client, Ethan shares that Amify assists with the “three little pigs.”
  
  
• The first is managing inventory levels on Amazon and ensuring a brand doesn’t have too much or too little in stock.
  
  
• Ethan also analyzes data to forecast demands.
  
  
• With such data put together, the brand can adjust its supply chain and logistics.
  
  

[37:25] — The importance of having a strategy

• Ethan says that deciding on a strategy is the most important thing you should keep in mind. 
  
  
• It’s crucial to have the basics down. 
  
  
• Foremost, be clear on who is in charge of your Amazon brand management.
  
  

Episode Highlights


[04:15] — About AMZ Advisers

• AMZ Advisers is an Amazon brand management agency based in Guadalajara, Mexico.
  
  
• They help brands and manufacturers increase their on Amazon by creating a marketing strategy that covers Amazon SEO and on- and off-platform advertising and traffic.
  
  

[06:00] — How AMZ Advisers attracts clients

• Mike saw the need for them to build authority.
  
  
• They regarded themselves as an individual contractor in UpWork, a website for freelancers.
  
  
• Their team created as much content as possible—from articles to answering queries, talking about specific features on the Amazon platform.
  
  
• They worked their way up and now have 20,000 unique visitors per month on their website.
  
  

[07:41] — Finding and closing leads

• They have lesser leads on Upwork because people from the platform invest small. Many of their clients are from big multibillion companies.
  
  
• Majority of the leads they close come from their website and from cold emails.
  
  

[12:18] — Content creation as a marketing strategy

• They started with blog articles because it was less challenging than doing video content. The company gradually moved to do video content.
  
  
• Their videos feature and interview eCommerce experts and are maximized through breaking each question down into separate videos.
  
  
• These videos also provide new topics and ideas for more blog posts on their website.
  
  
• To expand their audience, Mike also writes for other business platforms. These secondary sites are used to link specific content back to their website.
  
  

[14:56] — Selecting keywords

• They spend a lot of time doing keyword research and competitor keyword research.
  
  
• Looking at what their competitors are writing about enables them to improve their own content and make changes where necessary.
  
  

[18:26] — Updating your content

• They go through their website every six months to audit content and monitor performance.
  
  
• Their posts are updated for recency. Articles that don’t generate traffic are unpublished.
  
  

[25:36] — On content promotion and distribution

• Content creation has two challenges: first is creating content and the other is distributing it.
  
  
• Social media, partnerships, blog exchanges, and weekly newsletters are a few good ways to reach people.
  
  
• For the services they offer, Reddit, LinkedIn, and YouTube have been effective platforms for distribution and promotion.
  
  
• Video is more effective than written content.
  
  

[25:36] — Building links

• Build more networks through outreach.
  
  
• It is important to write the best content for your website. But writing good content for other websites that rank well may also be an opportunity to make people notice your brand. 
  
  

[36:16] — Working with and across cultures

• Mike has experience working with diverse teams with different cultures. This includes Asians, Americans, and Mexicans.
  
  
• They initially worked with freelancers but realized that it would be more cost-effective to hire and bring his Mexican team in-house.
  
  
• Some challenges in working with Asian freelancers include timezone and language differences.
  
  
• They are focusing on hiring more people from Guadalajara. He noted that they are more productive than the American employees they had in the past.
  
  

[43:30] — Life in Mexico

• Health care and insurance is cheaper.
  
  
• In the short term, Mike does not see himself moving back to the US.
  
  
• Guadalajara is a very diverse place. It is a melting pot of different cultures.
  
  

Episode Highlights


[05:12] — Rich’s role in SEMrush

• 
  As a pre-sales engineer, Rich is in charge of training and onboarding new sales representatives.
  
  
• 
  Used by 6 million marketers worldwide, SEMrush has made solutions for numerous businesses ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.
  
  

[07:22] — Keyword research and finding SEO quick wins 2020

• 
  Keyword research is a central factor in digital marketing.
  
  
• 
  Don’t start from scratch. Build from the benchmarks you already have.
  
  
• 
  Understand what’s working for your competitors.
  
  
• 
  Focus on your audience and consumers.
  
  
• 
  Utilize long-tail queries, preferably in question form.
  
  

[11:08] — How SEMrush helps digital marketers

• 
  SEMrush gives you next-level analytics and makes it easier to filter and find opportunities.
  
  
• 
  They have reports that give you insight into how you can better rank for different keywords.
  
  

[12:36] — How to spy on your competitors

• 
  In the keyword gap analysis, you can enter up to five domains. 
  
  
• 
  You can find the keywords your competitors are ranking for and you’re not.
  
  

[13:24] — The intricacies of building links

• 
  Avoid gray-hat SEO like paid backlinks.
  
  
• 
  Employ the skyscraper technique for an SEO quick win.
  
  
• 
  Utilize directories.
  
  

[16:55] — Is posting on online forums a valid backlink?

• 
  Rich assures that any type of social signal is a ranking factor.
  
  
• 
  However, posting content on online forums isn’t a traditional way of gaining an SEO quick win.
  
  
• 
  Listen to the full episode to know all about SEMrush's user interface and backlink analytics!
  
  

[19:59] — Monitoring once you have results

• 
  You should always monitor your progress and ensure the work you put in is paying off.
  
  
• 
  SEMrush has daily updates to track your competitors and your own progress.
  
  

[22:35] — Key performance indicators in terms of tracking

• 
  Average position and visibility are important key performance indicators (KPIs).
  
  
• 
  The payoff metric is also vital in understanding your traffic.
  
  
• 
  Evaluating user experience also helps.
  
  
• 
  Backlinks and social shares are the third KPI you have to take note of.
  
  
• 
  The content analyzer dashboard and report section directly measure your KPIs.
  
  

[27:57] — The right approach to digital marketing for SEO quick wins in 2020

• 
  Amazon would predictably rank first for almost any keyword. But all other organic results are from valuable content creation.
  
  
• 
  Focusing on content pays off for your SEO.
  
  
• 
  The trend is going toward linking your product within your blog.
  
  

Episode Highlights


[04:05] — John introduces The Bouqs Co.

• 
  The Bouqs Co.’s name comes from “bouquet,” and they are a simplified approach to the floral industry.
  
  
• 
  As an online retailer for flowers, they ship flowers directly from sustainable farms around the world to the customers, eliminating the middlemen.
  
  
• 
  They started off with $13,000 and now raised $75 million.
  
  
• 
  John realized that we now live in a world where manufacturers no longer need to go through extra hoops to get to the consumer.
  
  

[08:44] — Direct-to-consumer retail and The Bouqs Co.’s initial marketing

• 
  They sell retail and get the flowers directly from suppliers. They also cover the shipping fee.
  
  
• 
  They first validated the concept before pushing through.
  
  
• 
  The company started small and low-cost, eventually building up enough equity.
  
  

[11:56] — Hustling and telling a compelling story

• 
  Telling the benefits of your product may be informative but not exciting.
  
  
• 
  John used pure entrepreneurial hustle to sell their intriguing volcano story to everyone.
  
  
• 
  At a certain point, the company even advertised the story more than its service.
  
  
• 
  Listen to the full episode to learn more about The Bouqs Co.’s volcano story!
  
  

[16:12] — John tactics in selling a story

• 
  You don’t have to be a great storyteller. All you have to do is test repeatedly.
  
  
• 
  Consumers will show you through their reactions if they are interested.
  
  
• 
  Your story can come from lots of places, and make sure it has that “wow factor.”
  
  
• 
  Once you have a story, the challenge is putting it out there.
  
  
• 
  Start with people you’re close to who can give honest, detailed feedback.
  
  

[20:48] — Figuring out your golden nugget and developing it

• 
  Step one is to brainstorm for ideas and test them.
  
  
• 
  Figure out the angles of your potential stories, and create the most compelling version.
  
  
• 
  If you have no idea who your target audience is, check your current and potential clients, make a hypothesis, and find them.
  
  
• 
  Over time, your story will evolve and become broader.
  
  

[28:53] —The Bouqs Co.’s sales channels and traffic source

• 
  Their company is 100% direct-to-consumer.
  
  
• 
  Their biggest channels are organic and direct: SEO, brand awareness, and SEM.
  
  

[30:54] — Identifying potential partners and connecting with them

• 
  John worked the personal angle, found common ground, and exchanged favors with partners.
  
  
• 
  A swap of brand equity is a great way to use your network.
  
  
• 
  Having an interesting story leads to more press, and potential partners will come to you instead of you begging for their attention.
  
  
• 
  If you don’t have enough press yet, work in concentric circles.
  
  
• 
  It will take time, but it will be easier to partner with secondary connections than strangers.
  
  

[34:08] — E-commerce startup funding flop and learnings

• 
  They were initially rejected because they didn't know how to make a convincing pitch.
  
  
• 
  John didn't do enough research, and his timing was wrong.
  
  
• 
  The external factor of e-commerce fatigue and hangover at the time was also severe.
  
  
• 
  The company had to prove itself first through accelerating revenue growth, milestones, and the initial clamor of some investors.
  
  
• 
  Don’t be too concerned with the impact of short-term dilutions.
  
  

[40:55] — Bootstrapping vs. venture-backed financing

• 
  Founders will often face two extremes. Either raise a lot of money or raise only a little.
  
  
• 
  A small budget only works in the short-term, as problems with customer service and technology inevitably arise.
  
  
• 
  A small budget will take a toll on the energy of the founders and other full-time employees.
  
  
• 
  Once you get on venture-backed financing, you’ll have to raise the bar, go big every time, and lose more control.
  
  
• 
  Evaluate whether you need to rely on venture capitalists or you can raise money somewhere else.
  
  

[50:11] — How they manage peak flower seasons

• 
  They effectively utilize 140 farms with about 100 farmhands on holidays with high demand.
  
  
• 
  The Bouqs Co. also has a dedicated team that believes in the company's mission.
  
  

Episode Highlights 


[03:40] — Marcel talks about Parakeeto

• During their consulting work, Marcel observed that service businesses don’t put enough emphasis on estimating work properly.
  
  
• His SaaS app allows information from past projects and historical data to drive realistic estimates for new projects.
  
  
• They target boutique agencies because they are an underserved market.
  
  

[05:53] — Parakeeto’s SaaS debt funding, developments & expenditures

• The SaaS start-up would have spent a lot more if not for the sacrifices internal founders made to reduce expenses.
  
  
• They raised money by offering consultations to their initial customers and helping them through their problems.
  
  
• They also noticed that podcasts often talk about how to get new clients, but there was a gap when it comes to talking about operations and profitability.
  
  
• Creating the podcast allowed them to generate inbound leads and transition the bottom of their funnel into customers of their new product.
  
  

[08:30] — How Marcel promoted and launched Parakeeto

• They stayed away from paid advertisements and focused on generating an organic following.
  
  
• Most of their traffic comes from the audience of their show guests. They have about 1000 subscribed to their email list, but their podcast has about 3000 subscribers.
  
  
• You don't need a lot of following to launch a product. You need the right connections and an engaged audience.
  
  
• In solving a niche problem in a niche market, you have to focus on quality over quantity.
  
  

[10:54] — The SaaS application’s price point and cash flow

• They would do productized offerings on the front end, priced at about $1500.
  
  
• There was a lot of testing and trial and error involved in determining the price.
  
  
• They handled longer-term recurring engagements on retainer, and the podcast generated leads for them.
  
  

[12:00] — Technical aspects & challenges

• Fortunately, the founders were technically skilled in programming.
  
  
• Their major challenge was they over-engineered it and made it too large and too complex too soon.
  
  
• They realized they needed to start from a place of estimation.
  
  

[13:33] — Coding strategy

• In the company’s early days, they only had a few developers writing the code.
  
  
• They eventually brought in their technical co-founder, and he now writes and manages the entire code base.
  
  

[14:37] — Most challenging aspects of a SaaS company 

• There is a trade-off between features and speed. Therefore, you need to balance and evaluate your priorities.
  
  
• 
  When serving customers, it’s easy to fall into the trap of continuously adding features.
  
  
• Every new line of code makes the application complicated, slow, and increasingly difficult.
  
  
• It is important to be conscious of whether or not it makes sense to add more features.
  
  

[16:53] — Attracting Parakeeto users

• They have about 50 users on the platform, but most of them log in every day.
  
  
• Their biggest focus is to get more active users who reengage and reuse their software.
  
  
• They are niched into a time tracking tool called Harvest, so they run specific pay-per-click campaigns for its users.
  
  
• They also run Facebook campaigns and use SparkToro to have a comprehensive understanding of their leads’ interests.
  
  
• SparkToro has an interesting SaaS funding method other companies can learn from.
  
  

[19:35] — Marcel’s tips for SaaS start-ups

• The most common mistake software developers make is that they neglect what the market needs and wants.
  
  
• Test your assumptions about the market continuously and as early as possible.
  
  
• An internal want is a great place to start a company, but it sets you up to make software without a product–market fit.
  
  
• A low-tech initial product is the best way to generate potential customers and get paid while gaining experience.
  
  

Episode Highlights


[03:59] — Brett introduces OMG Commerce

• 
  OMG Commerce is a digital marketing agency working exclusively with e-commerce companies. It has ranked twice on the Inc. 5000.
  
  
• 
  Their agency has two divisions: Google/YouTube and Amazon.
  
  
• 
  The Amazon advertising platform is rapidly growing in terms of digital advertising.
  
  

[05:53] — The evolution of Amazon’s advertising platform

• 
  Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands are still a staple and the foundation of most Amazon advertising strategies.
  
  
• 
  Sponsored Display ads and Sponsored Brand Videos are a few examples of new ways to advertise on Amazon.
  
  

[08:33] — The first aid for clients struggling in Amazon advertising

• 
  Figure out your advertising cost of sales goals and your total ad cost of sales.
  
  
• 
  Find out which products you are willing to spend more on to advertise.
  
  

[10:58] — How ad campaigns help your product rank higher

• 
  Search bar-sponsored products are the most efficient initial ad campaigns.
  
  
• 
  Conversion rates are high, and the cost is manageable for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brand Videos.
  
  
• 
  Display ads can reduce the conversion rate and hurt organic rankings.
  
  
• 
  Discounted sales count in your sales velocity only if they’re at a normal range and not reaching 90 to 100% discount.
  
  

[14:35] — Ranking a product organically

• 
  It all depends on a client’s ad cost goals.
  
  
• 
  Know your budget and your tolerance.
  
  
• 
  You can take a slow and steady approach to ad spending.
  
  
• 
  You can also take an aggressive initial approach and then narrow it down once you gain velocity.
  
  

[17:00] — The benefits of Sponsored Display ads and Amazon DSP

• 
  People have wanted to try Amazon DSP because it allows sellers to remarket to their product detail page viewers.
  
  
• 
  You have more control and flexibility with Amazon DSP than with Sponsored Displays because of its rich behavioral data.
  
  
• 
  You can also target the Google Display Network and reach people across the web.
  
  
• 
  To measure the effectiveness of your Amazon DSP, compute the ROAS or return on ad spend (conversion value divided by cost).
  
  

[23:10] — How to sell on Amazon & the value of retargeting

• 
  Any business needs to focus on retargeting, be it through remarketing, loyalty campaigns, or competitive conquesting.
  
  
• 
  Target people who viewed your competitors’ products but did not buy. 
  
  
• 
  If Amazon shoppers see your ad and it's clear it's an Amazon listing, that boosts your click-throughs and conversions.
  
  

[26:28] — How competitive conquesting works

• 
  Once a shopper looks at a competitor’s product but does not purchase it, you may target that shopper throughout Amazon’s advertising platforms.
  
  
• 
  These platforms range from the Amazon app itself, the Amazon website, and even Amazon-owned sites such as IMDb.
  
  

[30:48] — Sponsored Brand Videos, CPC & PPC advertising

• 
  Videos capture a shopper’s attention immediately.
  
  
• 
  Sponsored Brand Videos are better scroll-stoppers compared to static ad images.
  
  
• 
  Some people animate their images to make them into videos.
  
  
• 
  The click-through rate of videos is three to ten times higher than that of sponsored ads.
  
  
• 
  The cost per click is also 10 to 40% lower.
  
  

[34:16] — What makes a video ad great?   

• 
  Making great videos doesn't need high production value.
  
  
• 
  Get into the mindset of the shopper.
  
  
• 
  Think of it less like a TV commercial and more like a product demonstration.
  
  
• 
  Optimize for mobile applications, and keep it 15 to 30 seconds long.
  
  
• 
  Make sure to highlight the features and benefits even without sound.
  
  

[38:48] — How search engines are connected to an Amazon listing

• 
  Amazon is the largest advertiser on Google; therefore, Amazon's number one traffic source is Google.
  
  
• 
  The traffic comes either organically or through Google advertising.
  
  
• 
  If someone searches for the brand, they are redirected to the company website. But if someone searches for a category, they are redirected to the Amazon listing.
  
  
• 
  Amazon attribution can track URLs. The platform sees it as external traffic and converts well.
  
  

Episode Highlights

[02:36] — Who is Peter Yared?

• 
  Peter is the founder and CEO of InCountry.
  
  
• 
  He founded six other software companies.
  
  

[05:55] — What is Flowster?

• 
  Flowster is a SaaS company that provides workflow management software. 
  
  
• 
  It is a tool for businesses to document repetitive processes and subsequently delegate them to the team.
  
  
• 
  It currently has around 5,000 users, and about 10% of them are paying customers.
  
  
• 
  Most users are e-commerce entrepreneurs who previously purchased Trent’s product, WEBS.
  
  

[09:16] — Types of Amazon sellers

• 
  Most brands on Amazon either sell their products to Amazon or have third-party resellers.
  
  
• 
  Businesses who directly sell to consumers using an Amazon Seller Central account have more control.
  
  
• 
  Often, brands who want to shift to direct selling don’t have enough people and knowledge on procedures to do so.
  
  
• 
  Flowster aims to solve this problem by providing e-commerce entrepreneurs all the necessary procedures to operate an Amazon Seller Central account.
  
  

[11:08] — E-commerce, the latest trend

• 
  Take a step back and identify what’s the underlying trend.
  
  
• 
  Right now, e-commerce is a huge trend. However, there is also a resistance to it as it can be complicated.
  
  

[12:50] — Peter suggests a marketing strategy for Flowster

• 
  Peter equated Flowster to a checklist that’s easy to follow.
  
  
• 
  Let potential users know that the software eliminates the complications attached to e-commerce by following the checklist.
  
  
• 
  Flowster’s message should be aspirational. Share success stories of existing users and show their “before and after.”
  
  
• 
  Quantify the message. Specify the period it takes to set up a store on Amazon.
  
  

[14:04] — The growth of e-commerce

• 
  E-commerce has been steadily developing the past few years, with a sudden accelerated growth due to COVID-19.
  
  
• 
  There is a rush of new entrants in the market.
  
  
• 
  There are now more buyers, including older people who didn’t like to shop online before.
  
  

[17:31] — Direct sales outreach program

• 
  Peter suggests making a list of top 10,000 brands in North America and have a virtual assistant or intern go through it for Flowster.
  
  
• 
  Subsequently, narrow the list down to 2,000 companies that don’t sell on Amazon.
  
  
• 
  Personalize the messages for the top 100 and make aspirational ones for the other 1,900.
  
  
• 
  Reach out to the decision-maker of the company and talk about the “before and after” of using your product.
  
  

[22:42] — Flowster’s initial ad campaigns

• 
  Trent will be working with an ad agency. He expects that the first two months of ad campaigns will not be profitable.
  
  
• 
  However, it will allow them to collect data that they can use to refine messaging, tweak their landing page, run more experiments and split tests, and eventually drive toward profitable campaigns that will allow them to scale.
  
  
• 
  For Peter, an effective way to target the said 2,000 companies is via LinkedIn.
  
  
• 
  Experiment on what gets the brands to click and figure out the people who are converting.
  
  

[25:09] — The best data sources

• 
  Find trade organizations where your target market belongs.
  
  
• 
  For instance, Peter sells privacy and data hosting software, so he looks into the members of the Industry Association of Privacy Professionals.
  
  

[27:02] — Buyer vs. champion

• 
  The buyer would usually be the person in the company that signs the check for what you’re selling. Most of the time, the buyer is not the decision-maker.
  
  
• 
  Reach out to both the decision-maker and buyer.
  
  
• 
  Transitioning to direct selling on Amazon is a massive decision for any brand. Flowster becomes the facilitator of this change. 
  
  
• 
  Everyone in the organization has to be convinced and aligned on the move. Present case studies and success stories of using Flowster.
  
  
• 
  A customer becomes a champion when they recommend the software to more people.
  
  

[34:15] — Reaching out to champions & buyers

• 
  There’s no checklist for reaching out to brands because every industry is different.
  
  
• 
  The hard part about breaching a market is figuring out what’s unique about it and learning what motivates them.
  
  
• 
  Talk to your existing customers. Ask them how decision-making happens in their organization or how they can be best reached. In exchange, promote them.
  
  

[35:34] — Keeping up with the competition

• 
  Most of the time, competitors have more cash.
  
  
• 
  It's helpful if you're not doing the same thing as them.
  
  
• 
  Specialize. Reach locations not tapped into by your competitors.
  
  

[37:58] — The nature of VC-backed companies

• 
  VC-backed companies operate on different metrics.
  
  
• 
  They blow through a lot of money to make a lot of money. 
  
  
• 
  They experience a lot of internal problems with their people. 
  
  
• 
  Peter does not fear VC-backed competitors because they usually have a high failure rate.
  
  

[40:13] — Raising capital 

• 
  Present to potential investors the potential vertical and horizontal growth of your company.
  
  
• 
  Show what the company can do to get the numbers up.
  
  
• 
  Early in Peter’s career, friends and family funded his ventures. Eventually, his companies were self-funded or backed by venture capitalists.
  
  

Episode Highlights 


[03:46] — Steven introduces his Amazon agency, My Amazon Guy

• 
  Steven is the founder of My Amazon Guy, an Amazon seller consulting agency helping clients grow their sales.
  
  
• 
  He started the company two and a half years ago and has already grown to 22 employees.
  
  
• 
  Steven describes his primary work as consultancy and has been involved with five failed startups.
  
  

[05:16] — Steven’s methods for success

• 
  He attributes his success to using processes and systems efficiently.
  
  
• 
  Having a system in place allowed him to hire relatively inexperienced college graduates and still function effectively.
  
  
• 
  You need a good model that works and you can replicate to all of your clients.
  
  

[06:32] — How My Amazon Guy attracts clients

• 
  Content generation is crucial to client acquisition.
  
  
• 
  Steven created a free YouTube channel with videos that answer any question clients would have.
  
  
• 
  They are a thought leader in the platform and have answered potential problems clients can encounter in advance.
  
  

[11:49] — Content generation

• 
  Being authentic and sharing your trade secrets for free attract customers to you.
  
  
• 
  Podcast circuits and masterminds also help them in client acquisition.
  
  
• 
  Penetrating ecosystems will gather high-quality, long-term clients.
  
  

[14:11] — How to boost sales in Amazon

• 
  Focus on traffic generation and conversion improvements.
  
  
• 
  Source more products.
  
  
• 
  Diversify your portfolio.
  
  
• 
  Focus on your SEO.
  
  

[16:15] — SEO for Amazon

• 
  SEO is a long-term matter; additional traffic will translate to sales eventually.
  
  
• 
  A+ content is essential in your SEO. It can triple your index keywords.
  
  
• 
  Implement the best practices for SEO and regularly matriculate and index additional keywords.
  
  
• 
  Improve and hyperfocus on high-ranking keywords.
  
  

[20:17] — A+ content and best practices

• 
  Take up more space to push down competitor ads.
  
  
• 
  Write more copy for better SEO.
  
  
• 
  Utilize all six modules, and make the most of the product grid.
  
  
• 
  Add a lifestyle element to your photos.
  
  

[25:54] — Growth hacks for traffic generation

• 
  Advertising is the easiest way to grow traffic, but be prepared to pay the costs.
  
  
• 
  Private-label sellers should spend at least 10% of their gross sales on advertising.
  
  
• 
  Invest in hot ads such as videos and custom-brand headline images.
  
  
• 
  Humans still outperform robots in advertising, but having a bot can be profitable.
  
  

[31:29] — Amazon advertising tips

• 
  Utilize display advertising.
  
  
• 
  Don’t incentivize product reviews.
  
  
• 
  Try search-find-buy to increase your SEO ranking externally.
  
  

[41:22] — The future of the Amazon marketplace

• 
  There will be more focus on US manufacturing, backlash on China-made products, and an increase in localization.
  
  
• 
  People will be willing to pay a premium on higher-quality goods.