The Unofficial TikTok Shop Podcast with Jordan West

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The greatest problem solvers win the game. Things are always changing in the e-commerce space and we can’t keep on relying on the old practices that we used to. We should always look at the macro-perspective to better solve problems and reach success for our businesses.

In this episode, Jordan West and Nigel Thomas, CEO of Alpha Inbound, talk about the things that you need to hear in the e-commerce space right now. Nigel also shares the two metrics to check that will almost guarantee the success of a TikTok ad.

Listen and learn in this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Sharing knowledge and best practices with other people in your space and learning from each other can greatly benefit you and your market. 
• 2022 is brutal but it is also a test to see who the real problem solvers are.
• Now, you can't rely on just ROAS. To grow the business, you need to focus on how much it costs to acquire a new customer.
• See your marketing efficiency ratio- that's what puts the power in your hands.
• If you look at the micro-perspective, you'll see that competition and ad costs are going to get higher and this isn’t going to change. 
• If you can afford to pay three times more to acquire a customer than who you're competing with, you're going to win the game.
• If you're building a business and a brand, it's not about today but rather what you are building for the future.
• Going into new markets is extremely powerful with TikTok. 
• The hook rate ratio and retention rate ratio are the two main metrics to focus on with TikTok.
• Branding is the hidden lever that affects how good your paid media is in the long term. 

Recommended App:

EdgeTag
https://www.edgetag.io 

VideoWise
https://www.videowise.com 

Recommended Podcast:

The Game with Alex Hormozi
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-game-w-alex-hormozi/id1254720112
https://open.spotify.com/show/6YNopzKDGDwf0auIpPTIID 

Today’s Guest:

Nigel Thomas is the CEO of Alpha Inbound.

Alpha Inbound is a marketing agency that works with 7 and 8-figure DTC brands and helps these brands drive more revenue from paid social.  

Connect and learn more about Nigel here: 

LinkedIn:  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nigelthomas-ai 

This month’s sponsor is Parker, the first card built exclusively for eCommerce. Free up cash flow and grow your business with Parker by getting net-60 terms on every transaction. 

Parker is currently offering a $1000 sign-up bonus for Secrets To Scaling Your Ecommerce Brand listeners. Go to getparker.com to chat with the team today - and make sure you mention where you came from! 

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other ecommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast

Send us a text

Getting deals with big celebrities is challenging and working with high-profile investors can add a layer of difficulty to your business, but if you can overcome these obstacles, there’s a massive upside.

In this episode, Jordan interviews Julius Langkilde of Christopher Cloos. He shares his company’s journey from how it started to where it is today. He also talks about getting celebrity endorsement deals for their brand from the likes of Tom Brady, Robin Thicke & more.

Listen and learn in this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• It's about making the right marketing story. 
• You’ve got to make sure that the talent is not necessarily economically invested in the business but emotionally attached to the project. 
• A pull from the celebrities' followers is what you want to get from your deals with them.
• You want to be category exclusive with the talents.
• If you can get the talent to at least discuss equity with you, that is also a good path to go together. 
• You have the responsibility to be a leader that your employees will appreciate.

Recommended App: Shopify
https://www.shopify.com 

Recommended Podcast: The Peter Schiff Show
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peter-schiff-show-podcast/id404963432 

Today’s Guest:

Julius Langkilde is a co-founder and the president of Christopher Cloos.

Christopher Cloos is a Danish eyewear brand with a mission to dress a million faces across the planet with their eyewear. It is also their mission to make these eyewear frames from biodegradable materials. 

Connect and learn more about  Julius and Christopher Cloos here:
Website:  https://christopher-cloos.com
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/julius-august-langkilde-hoeedt-8322b764 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christophercloos 
Email Address: [email protected] 

This month’s sponsor is Parker, the first card built exclusively for eCommerce. Free up cash flow and grow your business with Parker by getting net-60 terms on every transaction. 

Parker is currently offering a $1000 sign-up bonus for Secrets To Scaling Your Ecommerce Brand listeners. Go to getparker.com to chat with the team today - and make sure you mention where you came from! 

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other ecommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast

Send us a text

You have to think bigger to grow bigger. Seeing the infinite possibilities around you makes you see the world in a different way and it makes your world better. When you start to believe that you can be something bigger, you start to make things happen. 

In this episode, Daniel Price of My 1st Years talks about his company's journey and its growth from a brand new startup to a thriving 8 figure brand.

Listen and learn in this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Taking on investment is about scaling quicker than you would otherwise.
• Bring on the right partner who believes in the journey.
• A lot of people take on investment because it sounds great and a lot of people think they need £1-2 million but they haven't looked at why they need it.
• Brand story, brand partnerships, and out-of-the-box ideas are critical to get to the right people.
• When someone wants your help as a consultant for a few days and you're pricing it up, you're not pricing the few days but the years of your experience.  
• Think bigger than anyone else in your space.

Recommended App: LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/ 

Recommended Audiobook:
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27220736-shoe-dog 

Today’s Guest:

Daniel Price is the co-founder of My 1st Years and the founder of Alberti Group.

My 1st Years is a personalized children gifting brand in the UK.

Connect and learn more about Daniel Price here:
LinkedIn:  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/danielprice1
E-mail Address: [email protected] 

This month’s sponsor is Parker, the first card built exclusively for eCommerce. Free up cash flow and grow your business with Parker by getting net-60 terms on every transaction. 

Parker is currently offering a $1000 sign-up bonus for Upgrowth listeners. Go to getparker.com to chat with the team today - and make sure you mention where you came from!

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other eCommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast

Send us a text

After IOS 14.5, Meta lost so much data. The good news is this platform is now reinventing itself. Their new campaign type utilizes AI to produce incredible results.

In this episode, Jordan talks about the new advantage plus shopping campaign on Facebook and some of the best practices to do in this type of campaign. 

Listen and learn in this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Your interest audiences, your look-alike audiences, and all these little things that everyone loves to talk about are not that big of a deal. 
• Let Meta do the targeting for you and find your ideal customer.
• Put in the people who have converted for you on Meta, and they’ll create whatever look-alike they can, based on that data.
• Make sure that you've got a lot of data to feed to them. The more data, the better.
• Use purchase as your conversion event.
• Add your desired location targeting.
• 30% budget cap is recommended for your existing customers and the rest of the budget is going to be put towards people who don't know about you.
• You've got to focus on your offering and your creative, not on targeting.
• In most cases, you've got to do a 7-day click and a 1-day view for attribution. Most of your customers are going to take a few days before they purchase your product and not everybody immediately clicks on your ad.
• You can take suggested ads or you can take creatives that have worked well in the past or currently are performing and test them there.
• You can take a look at an audience performance breakdown.

Connect with Jordan here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-west-marketer/

This month’s sponsor is Parker, the first card built exclusively for eCommerce. Free up cash flow and grow your business with Parker by getting net-60 terms on every transaction. 

Parker is currently offering a $1000 sign-up bonus for Upgrowth listeners. Go to getparker.com to chat with the team today - and make sure you mention where you came from!

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other eCommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast

Send us a text

Authentic user-generated content greatly influences your brand engagement and conversion rates. It generates trust and loyalty for your potential customers. 

In this episode, Brian Blum from Grind Basketball talks about creating your in-house user-generated content, running TikTok ads, and SEO. He also shares how they’ve been building their business.

Listen up and learn in this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• You can leverage being a creator on Instagram or TikTok and put dollars behind those posts as advertisements.
• In-house UGC increases social proof. It's an easy way for a family to visualize what the product is going to look like in their houses.  
• Call out your potential audience in the first 3 seconds of your content
• Take a step back and think of what content you would watch.
• You want content that people would almost disagree with or have a comment on.
• Slow and steady wins the race.
• Understand your side and the customers' side and what that relationship means because they are paying you for value.
• Give people what they want and make sure you don't go broke.

Recommended App:
TikTok
https://www.Tiktok.com 

Curastory
https://www.curastory.co 

Recommended Podcast: My First Million Podcast
https://www.mfmpod.com 

Today’s Guest:

Brian Blum is the Chief Marketing Officer at Grind Basketball.

Grind Basketball is a company that merges sports design and engineering to create innovative products for athletes.

Connect and learn more about Brian and Grind here:
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-blum-707660b3/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/brian_blum1
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@grindbasketball
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grindbasketball_ 

This month's sponsor is Triple Whale.  Triple Whale's powerful analytics platform clarifies your ad performance across channels, keeping you instantly in the know. Hit trytriplewhale.com/upgrowth and use promo code Upgrowth for 15% off today.

*** 

PROMO CODE
Upgrowth

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other eCommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast

Send us a text

Having a good product is one thing, getting people to care about it is another. Taking advantage of technology and doing out-of-the-box marketing to tell your brand story is essential to modern virality.

In this episode, Jeremy Kim from Nectar Hard Seltzer talks about his company's growth and how things went during the time of COVID. He shares the secret sauce that resulted in the explosive growth of his brand. 

Listen and learn from this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Take advantage of the social and technological landscape.
• TikTok is all about consistency over time.
• There aren’t a million distribution options as an alcohol brand- you have to prove yourself.
• You need to have a good product and you have to tell a story.
• When thinking of ideas, think about what is going to be valuable for you, the people involved, and your overall community.
• Placing an ad to hopefully drive someone to the store is hard to track. With SMS, you can have an immediate response from the customer.
• Create stories and calls-to-actions to get people who care into your SMS funnel.
• Build a community.

Recommended Tool: Pomodoro Timer

Recommended Podcast: Bad Friends with Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee

Today’s Guest:

Jeremy Kim was an artist manager and now a co-founder and the CEO of Nectar Hard Seltzer.

Nectar Hard Seltzer is a brand of Asian-inspired hard seltzer available in 4 different flavors (Asian Pear, Mandarin, Lychee, and Yuzu).

Connect and learn more about Jeremy and Nectar Hard Seltzer here: 

Website: https://nectarhardseltzer.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremykim2020 
Phone Number: 310-388-6729

This month's sponsor is Triple Whale.  Triple Whale's powerful analytics platform clarifies your ad performance across channels, keeping you instantly in the know. Hit https://www.triplewhale.com/upgrowth and use promo code Upgrowth for 15% off today.

***

PROMO CODE
Upgrowth

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other eCommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast

Send us a text

Performance Max is not a rip-off. It is not just a giant branded keyword campaign. It is today’s most highly-evolved machine learning advertising system ever built.

In this episode, Jordan talks about how Performance Max is not a rip-off like some marketers think. He also discusses why some of the metrics that you are seeing, especially when it comes to branded keywords, can be a red herring.

Listen and enjoy this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Performance Max works like a pre-funnel mechanism.
• Google is going to start showing ads to people before they even realize that they want your product. 
• Performance Max is the new Facebook.
• Performance Max utilizes all Google placements but it knows when to hit those people and with what kind of content. 
• Don't just look within the platform, understand your metrics
• Do not give up on your Performance Max campaign.
• It is important to train Performance Max on what you want it to do.

Connect with Jordan here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-west-marketer/

This month's sponsor is Triple Whale.  Triple Whale's powerful analytics platform clarifies your ad performance across channels, keeping you instantly in the know. Hit https://www.triplewhale.com/upgrowth and use promo code Upgrowth for 15% off today.

 ***

PROMO CODE
Upgrowth

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other eCommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast

Send us a text

Taking risks is an important thing to do whenever an opportunity presents itself. However, it’s necessary to not take any shortcuts but to do your research before you launch a brand on a new channel.

In this episode, Daniel and Edina of The Lion Group talk about their company, the mistakes they made along the way, and the wins they made throughout their journey. They also discuss the important things you need to know when launching a brand on Amazon and how to find the right partners. 

Listen and learn in this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• If you are launching a brand on Amazon, the very first step is to do your research and find the gaps (an opportunity in the space for your brand to penetrate and scale)
• You must do your research, and look at the competition and the price point within the space.
• You cannot launch with a much higher price point and hope for the best. You have to be competitively priced.
• Customers shop on Amazon for price points and convenience.
• Choose the right partner to get on Amazon- Amazon itself is not always the right partner.
• The secret to scaling is investing in finding great talents and helping them find their highest potential. 
• Do your research and do not take any shortcuts.
• Take risks.

Recommended Apps:
Boomerang
https://boomerangapp.com/ 

Helium10
https://www.helium10.com/ 

Today’s Guest:

Daniel Rafael is the CEO and Founder of The Lion Group.

Edina Vontobel is the Chief Merchandising Officer and Co-founder of The Lion Group.

The Lion Group partners with brands and helps them with all the work and responsibilities on Amazon that they don’t want to do themselves.

Connect and learn more about Daniel, Edina, and The Lion Group here: 

Website: https://www.theliongroup.net/
Daniel’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-rafael-10923075
Edina’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edina-vontobel-61702254 

This month's sponsor is Triple Whale.  Triple Whale's powerful analytics platform clarifies your ad performance across channels, keeping you instantly in the know. Hit https://www.triplewhale.com/upgrowth and use promo code Upgrowth for 15% off today.

***

PROMO CODE
Upgrowth

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other eCommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast

Send us a text

It’s pretty hard to be venture-qualified. It takes exceptional growth potential and the right company dynamics to earn the trust of venture capital investors.

In this episode, Jordan West and Jesse Randall talk all about venture capital. They discuss what it means to be a venture-qualified company and how these types of investments usually work.

Listen and learn in this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• To be venture-qualified is in the DNA of the business opportunity itself. 
• If the opportunity, technology and team don't have the right dynamics to be able to grow to the level of this type of investment, then you are not going to raise money from venture capital.   
• An Angel Investor is a wealthy individual that qualifies as an accredited investor and with that qualification, they can invest directly into companies. A venture capital fund aggregates individual contributions from lots of accredited investors and much bigger institutions. They pull that money into a fund and it is professionally managed by people.  
• Investors look at two big categories: (1) The product and the market opportunity itself & (2) The founding team and the capabilities of that team.
• The difference between acquiring a company in a venture setting versus a traditional business setting comes down to the momentum and the size of opportunity you have.
• There's a natural skepticism for something that seems too easy, so if you're doing something that's going to change the status quo, you often are going to get told "no" a lot. 
• Founders have the incentive to maximize the value of their company, but if you overvalue your company too much, the numbers don't work and you become not acquirable.
• If you're going to get acquired, the acquiring company usually wants to see substantial growth opportunities after that acquisition to make it worth it.

Recommended App: Shield Analytics
https://analytics.shieldapp.ai/ 

Recommended Book: The Comfort Crisis
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/The_Comfort_Crisis_Embrace_Discomfort_To_Reclaim_Y?id=28L3DwAAQBAJ&gl=US 

Today’s Guest:

Jesse Randall is the Founder and CEO of Sweater.
Sweater specializes in offering a venture capital fund that anyone can invest in.

Connect and learn more about Jesse Randall and Sweater VC here:
Website: https://www.sweaterventures.com/
App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sweater/id1572894118
(Currently only available in the US)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deviantstrat/ 

This month's sponsor is Triple Whale.  Triple Whale's powerful analytics platform clarifies your ad performance across channels, keeping you instantly in the know. Hit https://www.triplewhale.com/upgrowth and use promo code Upgrowth for 15% off today.
***
PROMO CODE: Upgrowth

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:
upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other eCommerce brand owners and marketers!
https://www.fa

Send us a text

Businesses need to continue to grow and one of the ways that you can grow faster is by putting fuel in the fire that is your business. E-commerce companies are incredibly cash-intensive so sooner or later you’ll probably need to raise capital.

In this episode, Jordan West talks about when and why you should raise capital for your e-commerce brand. He gives you different ways and different types of raising your capital.

Listen and enjoy this episode!

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• The beginning of your business is going to be a very difficult time in the e-commerce space to raise capital.
• Getting investors as an e-commerce company is not difficult but you do need to have an incredible network and you need to build a lot of trust in your network.
• Good investors do not bet on companies; They bet on the people who run the companies.
• Raising capital is not a donation to your company. Investors are buying equity from your company for some future returns. 
• You can start with friends and family.
• Angel Investors are high-net-worth individuals that are accredited investors that will come and invest in your business.  
• The size of angel investment is anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000. 
• You can use angel investors, friends and family, and crowd-funding altogether.
• If you've already built an audience that loves you and believes in you, those are good people to potentially go on the investment side.
• Venture Capital is another great way to raise money.
• Getting private equity is not something that's going to happen until you're doing at least about a million dollars in profit. Wait until you're about 10 million in sales to go there.
• Keeping money in the bank is boring.
• If you aren't active on LinkedIn and you're not building a network, it's probably not the time to raise capital.
• If you've built a personal brand and people know your brand as well, this is the way to go when you're raising capital.
• Raising capital is all about relationships. 

Connect with Jordan here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-west-marketer/

This month's sponsor is Triple Whale.  Triple Whale's powerful analytics platform clarifies your ad performance across channels, keeping you instantly in the know. Hit https://www.triplewhale.com/upgrowth and use promo code Upgrowth for 15% off today.

***

PROMO CODE

Upgrowth

We love our podcast community and listeners so much that we have decided to offer a free eCommerce Growth Plan for your brand! To learn more and how we can help, click here:

upgrowthcommerce.com/grow

Join our community and connect with other eCommerce brand owners and marketers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/secretstoscalingpodcast