The E-commerce Leader: Strategies For Shopify Store Owners

Launching Your 1st Private Label Product

2023-12-14

Introduction The allure of private label products for e-commerce brand owners is undeniable. Imagine owning a product from concept to completion, tailored to your specific brand identity and customer base, with the potential for higher profit margins and control over the entire customer experience. But launching your first private label product can seem daunting. Fear not, intrepid entrepreneur! This step-by-step guide will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to navigate the journey from...

Introduction

The allure of private label products for e-commerce brand owners is undeniable. Imagine owning a product from concept to completion, tailored to your specific brand identity and customer base, with the potential for higher profit margins and control over the entire customer experience. But launching your first private label product can seem daunting. Fear not, intrepid entrepreneur! This step-by-step guide will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to navigate the journey from product ideation to market domination.

1. Choose Your Winning Niche:

Dig Deep: Understand your target audience’s pain points, desires, and buying habits. Analyze customer reviews within your niche, scour social media communities, and conduct surveys to identify unmet needs and opportunities.
Market Gap Analysis: Research existing private label offerings in your niche. Identify gaps in product attributes, features, or messaging that you can fill with your unique proposition.
Passion + Profit: While market viability is crucial, choose a niche you genuinely care about. Passion fuels the extra effort it takes to stand out and build a loyal customer base.

2. Product Brainstorming:

Problem-Solver or Delight Maker?: Decide if your product will address a specific problem within your niche or offer a delightful experience that enhances users’ lives.
Feature Feast or Minimalist Masterpiece?: Prioritize your features based on customer needs and your budget. Start with a core set of functionalities and offer add-ons or upgrades later.
Trendsetter or Timeless Staple?: Will your product capitalize on a current trend or offer a timeless solution that appeals to long-term customer loyalty?

3. Sourcing and Manufacturing:

Global Quest: Research potential manufacturers, both domestic and international, considering factors like production quality, minimum order quantities, price, and communication ease.
Sample Savvy: Request samples from shortlisted manufacturers to evaluate quality and craftsmanship. Align their capabilities with your desired product specifications.
Negotiation Ninja: Don’t hesitate to negotiate pricing and terms, especially when starting with smaller order quantities. Build a strong working relationship with your chosen manufacturer for future collaborations.

4. Branding and Packaging:

Storytelling Symphony: Craft a compelling brand story that resonates with your target audience and ties seamlessly to your chosen product.
Visual Allure: Invest in professional product photography and graphic design for your packaging and marketing materials. Create a consistent and eye-catching brand identity.
Packaging Powerhouse: Design packaging that protects your product, reflects your brand aesthetic, and offers a delightful unboxing experience. Consider eco-friendly materials for added brand appeal.

5. Pre-Launch Buzz:

Social Media Spotlight: Tease your upcoming product launch on social media platforms your target audience frequents. Build anticipation and generate excitement with sneak peeks and exclusive offers.
Email Mastermind: Develop an email campaign targeting existing customers and potential leads. Offer early access or discounts to incentivize pre-orders and build hype.
Influencer Outreach: Partner with relevant micro-influencers in your niche to generate organic buzz and reach a wider audience through product reviews and recommendations.

6. Launch Day and Beyond:

Promotional Paradise: Offer launch discounts, limited-edition bundles, or free shipping to encourage immediate purchases. Consider flash sales or countdown timers to create a sense of urgency.
Conversion Champion: Optimize your website for a seamless purchasing experience. Ensure product descriptions are clear, high-quality visuals are prominent, and checkout is secure and user-friendly.
Customer Care Kingpin: Prioritize post-purchase customer service. Respond promptly to inquiries, address any issues efficiently, and gather feedback to refine your product and future offerings.

Remember: Launching your first private label product is a journey, not a destination. Embrace the learning process, adapt to market feedback, and continuously improve your offering. With dedication, strategic planning, and a customer-centric approach, you’ll pave the way for a successful private label empire that reflects your unique brand vision and brings value to your loyal customers.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

www.myamazonaudit.com – Free Amazon account audit by Michael Veazey
www.theamazonmastermind.com Michael’s 10K Collective Mastermind based in London and on Zoom (now in its fifth year) for 6- and 7-figure Amazon private label sellers
www.omnirocket.com – Jason and Kyle’s overall ecommerce consultancy and software business.

.elementor-744 .elementor-element.elementor-element-51d4417 .elementor-heading-title {font-size: 4.7rem;}

Some of the resources on this page may be affiliate links, meaning we receive a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use that link to make a purchase. We only promote those products or services that we have investigated and truly feel deliver value to you.

Transcript

Email Download New Tab

[00:00:00] JM: Whether we won or we lost, we've learned and so I would just say that that's the number 1 thing to remember is that this is a long game
[00:00:08] Okay. This is great. Okay. So, so that's the listing. what, what comes next in our recipe? So
[00:00:14] MV: really the, the listing, the sort of spine of the listing is, is really, I guess, two things, the keywords, which are often features like, I don't know, blue widget with plastic doodah on it, you know, to put it in very generic terms, you know, whatever it is, you know, plastic mug holder with extra cup or something like that.
[00:00:30] That's, that's a very long tail keyword. And that's often going to be a feature and you put the benefits in. So the keywords that you lose in the listing needs to be the same list that you target in your, advertising. At least I'm experienced with the on Amazon advertising system. That's really all the only one that I've got any particular expertise with.
[00:00:48] I've dabbled with Google AdWords over the years. And, I think you need to be very, very thorough about your keyword research and be very, very clear on your hierarchy of which keywords you think are going to move the needle. So there are nuances here, but broadly speaking, if you think somewhere between.
[00:01:03] A massive, search volume and an impossible to fight on like, I don't know, cup holder, which is probably too generic and, cup holder for car or something, which is probably still pretty competitive and cup holder for Lexus or something, which is maybe too narrow. Somewhere in that sweet spot is going to be the thing that is a blend of volume and win ability.
[00:01:22] And you're going to put that into a title and then you're going to have a hierarchy from there downwards, really based on, keywords that are lower search volume. And you're going to put those probably into your bullets. And then the really low search volume words you're going to have in your description.
[00:01:35] And then you take those same things and you're going to create appropriate ad campaigns and we could go into campaign structure all day, but that's the basic kind of overview of it, in my opinion.
[00:01:46] JM: Okay. So the third step here in our little recipe on Amazon traffic on Amazon advertising. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
[00:01:53] Yeah. So, that's great. I would just say that, you know, there's, there's two types of. On Amazon traffic, just to bifurcate it at the highest level, and that is organic and paid, right? And so people need to really think through both sides of that. Obviously, many, many, you know, Amazon experts and gurus will talk about launching a product on the back of Amazon paid advertising to really jumpstart the, review process and the sales velocity.
[00:02:26] So, I, I would, I would just say that the, the launch process at the highest level. Includes sort of traffic from you could think of it from 4,a 4 box grid. And that would be, On Amazon organic, it would be off Amazon organic. It would be on Amazon advertising and be off Amazon advertising and we'll talk about off Amazon.
[00:02:50] A traffic in a couple minutes here, but but that's the highest way you can look at this. I think it's just those ideas. and what you want to do is have each of those absolutely crushing it. and you don't want to neglect any of them if you want to have your highest potential outcome, right? So the on Amazon traffic, just to get back to that by itself, you know, you want to have good, solid listings.
[00:03:14] We have organic success, and then you also want to have, advertising on Amazon to really boost up your opportunity. is that too simplistic a way to think about it? No,
[00:03:25] MV: I think that's a very, very good to be clear minded about this. And what I see quite a lot is, gosh, I mean, there's so many, there's so much that goes into this, but to simplify it grossly, people neglect the SEO opportunity on Amazon.
[00:03:36] I'm not saying that that's the only solution. It's 2023 is competitive, but if you don't. Maximize that you're leaving the cheapest or the freest traffic on the table, which is silly, you know, to put it very British. Where's father city? So you really, really, really should do your homework on that. Now, the flip side of that is not very complicated.
[00:03:55] If you're going to use the advertising platform on Amazon, I think you. They are two sides of the exact, the same coin. I mean, it's really not that different. If you've got a great keyword list to try and rank organically for, then that will make a great keyword list to advertise for. And if you've got a terrible set of keywords, for example, you're trying to shoot for a very big markets.
[00:04:13] Then you're going to be invisible. And if you try and, you know, square that circle by advertising, you can advertise your way to the top. If you reduce your price of your products and spend enough on ads, you can, you can get visibility, but it will be crippling financially. So it comes to the same thing, which is if you cannot rank organically for something, then don't bother going after those keywords anyway.
[00:04:31] And if you can rank organically for them, then you need to kickstart that process with ads. So it's the same list of keywords, really, to be
[00:04:37] JM: honest. Okay. And let's talk about the ads for a minute. So basically, if you're not familiar with the back end of Amazon ads manager, you've used it for a long time as it relates to products on Amazon.
[00:04:48] And what I mean, I mean, like consumer products. I've used it for a long time as it relates to book marketing on Amazon. And it basically works the same. So, so I would just say at the highest level, when you talk about using the, I call it AMS. That's the name for Amazon marketing services. But. it's just called advertising dot Amazon.
[00:05:08] Now, I don't know, whatever. But when you're using the advertising tools, the No. 1 thing that you're doing there is you're trying to understand whether or not you can advertise your product, or, A break even or better outcome now, this is interesting because you can really nerd out over this stuff.
[00:05:27] But the question is, can you use the advertising system to actually not waste money? You know, like not lose money. I guess you could say, and so if you can use the advertising system inside Amazon to truly break even or to actually make a positive return on ad spend row as, as they call it, then you're.
[00:05:46] You know, that's the, that's the pursuit. That's the goal. One thing that you have to calculate pretty quickly is what is breakeven for your product. And that means that if you, you know, have 5 cost of goods and, the other costs associated with, you know, getting the product out there, add up to some amount, and then you've got to have your ads.
[00:06:06] You know, not only sell the product, let's say spend 10, make 10, but we had all the cost of goods in calculation. You would be losing money at that point. So you've got to figure out what your true, breakeven advertising, costs is, and that'll look like a number like 1. 3 or, you know, 1. 8 or two or whatever, it's a, it's a number it's real number.
[00:06:31] It means if you spend 10, you have to make 20. Let's just say in sales. then you're in a game, you're a very interesting game and it's a game. And here's the cool part. It is a game. It has unlimited upside potential. There is theoretical, obviously, caps. You will be competing for share of wallet. On Amazon against many other competitors, but what you're basically looking at is what is the total man for that product on Amazon?
[00:06:57] And how much of it can you get? And can you get it profitably? And so that, you know, the whole world of pursuit and it's a game. It's a big game to play. and that's a fun part of launching a product is figuring out whether that can happen or not. I have, for example, this is 1 little example, then, you know, don't want to monopolize this.
[00:07:15] Michael want to hear your thoughts. But as 1 little example, when I launched my instagram powerbook in 2019, the 2nd edition with McGraw hill set a set of ads. And, for whatever reason, there was 1 ad. That absolutely works. It just works. I the spend, you know, button on, and I start making positive row as that book, you know, last I looked the other day, it was like number 18 in the social media category.
[00:07:45] It's four years old, but it works. It's it's, it's still in the bestseller ranks and still doing very well. It has tons of reviews. Why is that? Because I have an ad that I know works now I've launched other books and I can't get ads to work. So it is really sometimes hit and miss, but the advertising component of launching a product, I think is a huge, huge game.
[00:08:05] So what are your thoughts, Michael?
[00:08:06] MV: The two thoughts, one is the, the Amazon nerds out there will be screaming at the screen. Well, Mike, there's more than one set of ads and of course there are. So. I would stick if you don't know what you're doing, which by definition, if you're starting, you don't yet.
[00:08:18] And if you think you do, when you just knew that that's dangerous territory, when it comes to advertising, cause you will spend a lot of money before you realize, Oh, actually, I don't know what I'm doing. And now I spent 10, 000. I didn't have. So I would stick to the simple stuff, which is sponsored product ads.
[00:08:31] And one of the reasons for that is because you don't have much creative control. And that means. That you can't do stupid things either very easily. So then it becomes, you don't have to worry about creative because Amazon deals with that. It's basically a picture of your product and it looks pretty much the same as an organic listing.
[00:08:45] So that simplifies the game. Then there's, as you said, knowing your breakeven is absolutely critical. Don't even think of turning your ads on without knowing your financial numbers, because to your point, it is a financial game. It comes down to a numbers game and there's various different ways of cracking it.
[00:09:00] Get working your, your ads to, you know, break even. So the sales you make via advertising, which are very closely tracked in all the metrics you get on Amazon, if those are breaking [00:09:10] even, that means that any of the other ranking boost that you get, which is the critical thing on the Amazon system, that's not true in other ad platforms, at least not supposed to be true, that you do get organic ranking boost by having an ad driven sale on a particular keyword.
[00:09:25] And that's critical because really it's the organic ranking that is going to be where you. Make your money. And to your point, if you break it on ads, fine, but it is a financially driven game. So therefore I'd stick to sponsored product ads. You can make money with brand ads and all the other different ads.
[00:09:42] They keep introducing every five minutes, but guess why Amazon keeps introducing ads. It's not for you. And it's not for the customers because it surely doesn't make for a better customer experience. It's to make Amazon money in my opinion. So I would be very slow to adopt the other ones and keep an eagle eye on the ad spend and your profit and loss.
[00:10:00] Don't know your unit economics, don't go into the ad spend platform before you know them. That's all I would say. And then you will spend the rest of your life trying to refine those numbers. Promise you, there's a lot of discussion in the Mastermind for the last several years on ad spend. How do I reduce my ad spend?
[00:10:16] I my ad spend high like, oh, we're talking about ad spend again, and that will be a part of your life and that's part of the game you've gotta crack. There you go.
[00:10:24] JM: And I would just say a couple of things about that. There are, in my opinion, there's sort of two type of types of personalities that approach.
[00:10:31] This one is the horseshoes and hand grenade operator where it's like, well, that's close enough. I throw a hand grenade out there and sometimes it blows stuff up, you know? So, that level of, lack of, specific detail is problematic when it comes to advertising. The other type of operator mindset is super detail oriented, where you have to know every single little thing and you take your time, you go slow, but you are maniacal about the details.
[00:11:00] When it comes to the advertising game, you have to have somebody in the mix that is maniacal about the details. and you know, unless you're just stupid lucky or stupid early, but just I would say you won't be. So you have to have somebody who really actually nerds out very deeply over these details on the ad platforms.
[00:11:19] And if you're not that person, just own it. I'm not that person. I know I'm not. I know I can't do. Detailed, complicated, you know, stuff like that. I'm more big picture. So, so that means if you're going to do this at scale, you need to find an ad manager who really can do for you by obsessing over the details and testing many, many ads and keywords, key phrases, you know, on and on and on.
[00:11:45] There's a million things to focus on. And I would just say that that that's probably a big decision as a managerial level thinker About how to approach advertising is, you've got to have the right skill set to, you know,
[00:11:58] MV: I agree entirely with those things. So to, to follow ups to that one is if you're a horseshoes and hand grenades operator, and I'm, I'm sort of in between, I don't know, I, I'm kind of nerdy, but I'm not, I'm a bit too careless with Aspen.
[00:12:08] I tend to be a bit too aggressive and that, that normally means you're giving your money to Amazon. So, that's another personality trait to be aware of. so. If that's you, then auto campaigns generally work pretty well. So Amazon's got this incredible algorithm, which has probably got trillions of data points by now.
[00:12:24] So it's actually pretty effective. So even doubt using auto campaign, but here's the nuance, which is really, really important. It's not about what you spend money on. It's what you spend, don't spend money on. So if you have an auto campaign, you download the keywords, you know, CSV file, by the way, that.
[00:12:39] Automatically probably puts you in the nerding category. So get somebody else to help you with that. If you're not that
[00:12:43] JM: nerds, absolutely.
[00:12:45] MV: But get somebody to do that. But that's a one negative keywords. Yeah. Negative keywords. Exactly. Put negative keywords in there, which is somewhat nerd zone, but it's the simplest version.
[00:12:55] If you're going to run a full on bunch of manual campaigns, that's mega nerd zone. The other caution I would have for you is this. Do not hope that somebody else is going to solve this problem for you. If you get an agency into manage your ads, unless you have, you know, quite a big catalog and it's really a managerial drain on your time.
[00:13:12] Like it's a full time job for somebody. and if you've got one or two products, you just started, that's not you. Do not be naive. Yes. They may reduce your, your total advertising to sales ratio or tacos, whichever metric you want to use. So ad spend divided by sales of a product. But then they're going to charge you a flat fee.
[00:13:30] Now, if you've got a catalog of a hundred products, the flat fee is not that big. And if you have one product, it's going to wipe out any saving to make, and you will pay them a lot more money than you save. So don't do this at home. A lot of people have tried it. A lot of people have tried it. Never seen that working in that way.
[00:13:44] So don't use an ad agency at this stage of the game. It's too early. Okay. Yeah. That's it for Amazon ads.
[00:13:53] JM: Just one other little bit there. Yeah. You don't have to use an agency. You can use an individual who knows their stuff. That 100
[00:14:00] MV: percent that is the way to go. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Right. Yeah. What the way to create the circle to, you know, to square that circle is to use a VA.
[00:14:09] This is one place where people who are not native speakers, you know, doesn't really matter. It's more of a math game. Really? get somebody in the Philippines who's been trained up in this stuff. They'll be, I don't know, 10, 15 bucks an hour. But if you get them in for two or three hours a week, that could be really great return on investment as opposed to paying an agency a thousand dollars a month and wondering why you're not making any money off the boat.
[00:14:28] There you go. So that's the solution. You're quite right. So I don't want to fall down a rabbit hole there. Cause Amazon has to say, there's a lot to say, but off Amazon traffic, that's your bag to do that. Let's get into this. I mean, this is the, I've put it as optional, but desirable. Would you agree with that in 2023 discuss.
[00:14:47] JM: Well, I mean, I wouldn't really frame it as option. I mean, it's like, is making a lot of money optional or to you or question? Do you hate money? Don't do this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, I is, is it optional? I don't know. I guess, I guess I would say if you just absolutely brush it and you barely keeping up with the man just because you launch your product on Amazon with just organic, you know.
[00:15:16] Efforts then good for you, you don't have to do anything else, but obviously, most situations aren't like that. Most people are trying to do everything they possibly can. So, off Amazon traffic, I think is vital. I would categorize it as the following sources. Number 1 would be. Your own list of email, you know, fans, followers, the thousand raving fans people.
[00:15:39] So build an email as soon as you can. how do you do that? Well, then that it gets complicated because you've got to use alternate methods, like a website or social media accounts or something like that. But, but I would, I would say marketing is the number 1 thing that you want to lean into over the long term.
[00:15:55] It will serve you the best. And I'll tell you 1 thing. If you kill yourself, trying to build an email list on your 1st product launch, but you do it. The second product you launched, it's hopefully in an adjacent category or just, you know, very similar, you know, in the same niche. it'll be much, much easier because you'll have that list.
[00:16:12] And, the, you know, it's, it's one of those assets that you, you know, create that you, you reap the benefits from for years and years to come. Okay. So the email marketing, the second thing I would say is do not underestimate the power of, simple Google text ads. Okay. Google text ads are absolutely fantastic way to generate, you know, supplemental off Amazon traffic and, the, the, they're not complicated.
[00:16:39] It's not hard to set up. It's very straightforward. And I would look into that as a 2nd thing for off Amazon social accounts come into, the mix after that. so that's kind of how I'd prioritize.
[00:16:54] MV: Like it, I mean, this isn't my comfort zone. I, I spoke to, again, a couple, couple of sets of my last couple of sets of guests on amazing FBA for a reason.
[00:17:03] the first one, Samantha Kazu, I'm only mentioned from Manuscripting, so she, she does this, you know, sort of manifesting and goal setting journal and stuff. It's all very kind of Californian and said, of course, there's tons of Southern Californian women chomping at the bit. And she's built an incredibly loyal community and she's, she was a model and she was an Instagram expert, so, you know.
[00:17:21] Of course, she's got an incredible community, not so easy to emulate, but if you can do that, that's obviously incredibly powerful. Amazon loves external traffic. Now, the second person, that I had on is, Rob Sharp from levanta. io, and he's just created a, an affiliate managing, And marketplace, software.
[00:17:40] so basically he's got, you know, about 2000 people who help you promote your products, specifically for Amazon sellers, which is helpful. Cause a win and impact and all the other affiliate management software doesn't deal with Amazon. Doesn't play nice with Amazon. so that's a great opportunity.
[00:17:54] Affiliate marketing is, I guess, you know, essentially somebody else doing all the stuff that you do using an email list of their own, using social media, you know, organic social media, using paid ads, using Google ads, whatever it may be. But they're paying for it and you only pay them when you have, you know, got a sale, which is amazing.
[00:18:11] Now, of course, the art then is to persuade people to actually work with you. And if you haven't got a proven product, that's not easy. And now again, that comes down to the homework and [00:18:20] groundwork you've laid, I guess.
[00:18:22] JM: Yeah. I'll just say a couple of things. yeah, that's this where. Off Amazon traffic gets so complicated because everybody who you talk to will have a different shiny object that they've been lured into.
[00:18:34] And, you know, there's a concept by, I think it's Michael Porter who says, all of us get in what's called methodological fixation, which is 1. we figure out how to pound the nail into the wood, whatever we've done to do that. Is the method what we've now stuck in our minds, even if you're using your bare hands by the net into the wood, that's your method after you've gotten it figured out, you know, or if you use a rock or whatever, use a bowling ball, whatever the method is, that's what you're going to focus on.
[00:19:06] So I would just say that, there are many, many. Sources of traffic. In fact, my book, nine mountains of traffic is all about that. It breaks down all of them, literally all of the types of internet traffic and categorizes them and explains how to go after them. So yes, there are many things. I will just say this about affiliate marketing and influencers.
[00:19:26] If you're, if you're going to do affiliate marketing influencers, I will just say this, the toolkit that you have to use In with that type of work on as an Amazon seller is a, like a 10th of what the toolkit is that you have, if you're a Shopify seller. So to use influencer marketed, to sell on Amazon to me is, you know, it's like threading in the eye of a needle when, if you had a Shopify site, you would just be like dumping.
[00:19:56] You know, energy and resources in the traffic because the tool sets are just so much greater. when you sell direct to consumer on your own Shopify site, but it's not to say that influencers can't work or affiliates can't work for Amazon. You know, sellers, but there's just nuance with all this stuff, you know?
[00:20:13] And so to me, again, that's why I say priority, priority, priority, email marketing, your own list is the first thing to figure out and then go from there, you know,
[00:20:23] MV: no, no argument in the email list. Absolutely none. I would say a couple of things. So some, some actual evidence from the front lines of what's working.
[00:20:32] And then the other thing is a more general principle. So the actual evidence in the front lines, Facebook groups seem really powerful. If they're done well, not set up a Facebook group and then dump a bit of content in it once a week, right? I actually have somebody in charge of nurturing it, which if that's you, and you're also launching a product, and maybe you've also got a day job, you're going to be very, very busy, but I've seen it really helpful.
[00:20:51] Getting a review rate up from, I think, one in a hundred, which is kind of quite average on Amazon to about four and a hundred, the review rate jumped for those products, which meant they got a lot of reviews. Social proof is incredibly important on Amazon, particularly when you're launching new products.
[00:21:05] So for launching new products for them, that business, it was really, really, really good. But they worked incredibly hard. They gave discounts that you've got to do a lot of work. That's been a really proven channel. In addition to email, of course, the other thing that strikes me is really kind of a simple general principle, but when we can forget, when we get shiny objects out there, which is the guy who came on the podcast to talk about affiliate marketing for Amazon sellers has been doing affiliate marketing for eight years.
[00:21:28] Samantha Kazuchi came on and shared what she did about community building using Instagram has been on Instagram and was before that a model for, you know, she was on Instagram for 10 years now, I'm not saying anyone. Who's listening to this isn't necessarily got that specific skill set, but if you have a natural inclination and background in something, I would lean into that more than anything else.
[00:21:47] at least still enjoy the process, which is half of it, right? What are your thoughts on that?
[00:21:52] JM: Yeah. I mean, you're totally right. I guess what we're saying is almost any of the traffic sources could work. The question is who are you as an operator, which is what you just, which is great. So that question is, and I would take it a little further to say, do you like being on camera?
[00:22:06] Yeah. On video. or do you like writing, or you have an administrator and you're a good team builder and you're a good, organizer of people, then, you know, you, you kind of can go horses for courses and just use your own skill set and figure out, okay, what social media platform or marketing platform would work with my skill sets?
[00:22:23] I hate being on video. I never want to have to talk to anybody. but I love to write, you know, so there you go. Maybe you're going to be a blogger. So I would just align your. Okay. A personal skill sets and abilities with the realities of the different platforms. And the beautiful part of it is again, there's, there's really strategies that will work for anybody's style.
[00:22:44] Anybody's skill set. because there's so many options now for traffic. So I think that's a key part of it is to do what you like, you know, don't if you heard that Instagram is the most amazing thing and therefore you have to do it and you need to do, you know, video reels every day or whatever. And you hate me on video.
[00:23:03] That's a recipe for failure. You know, you won't.
[00:23:05] MV: It's not just a recipe for failure, but a miserable failure. I mean, you know, not all businesses are going to succeed in their first, first stab at a product, but if you enjoy the process and you learn a heck of a lot, then you're much more likely to succeed your second or third attempt as well.
[00:23:19] So. The other thing I would say is, just another nuance really, as well as being true to who you are, think about who you are after. If you're a book nerd and you're selling, I don't know, reading likes for books or something, chances are that you like writing and other people you're writing for, if that's your audience, like reading stuff, if you're selling video cameras, chances are quite high that you've got people that like making videos.
[00:23:40] So, you know, you might want to be oriented towards that and you can't. Always get that beautiful crossover between the product, your preferences and the audience. But I think I would always be looking for those, you know, overlapping of the Venn diagrams. And then you will automatically be speaking in the medium that your customers want as well.
[00:23:56] You know, one, one neglected channel, which may or may not work for you and your product, is something that's worth mentioning specifically as well, which haven't seen in the mastermind, but things people like pluggable, which is P L U one G. Made an absolute killing a while ago using so they have things that connect things to other things electronically, basically, and they made a lot of YouTube videos, which drove a ton of traffic to the Amazon listings because they were very, very helpful at explaining how to use the product in a helpful way.
[00:24:25] And if you have a technical type product, maybe that Pushes me a bit towards YouTube rather than Instagram. And hopefully that means you're a technical kind of person and your audience is technical. So again, those Venn diagrams overlap naturally, right? If you're a lifestyle or mentality type person, maybe Instagram or TikTok is more your world and maybe your clients are on there so you get the idea of where I'm going with this.
[00:24:46] JM: Yeah, sure. Wow. No, I totally agree. That's
[00:24:48] MV: great. This is big stuff man, isn't it? We, we, we're in deep waters here, but wow. we ought to wrap this. 'cause otherwise we, we, you could go very, very, very deep on any of these things, but we've talked about launching the product. Just to recap the pre-launch, I thought it was optional, but desirable and, in, in your opinion, Jason and I have to say you, I fear that you're correct.
[00:25:05] We absolutely have to do, it's not optional, but it does really, really set you up for success. We want to list, optimize the listing, sorry for humans particularly think about list linking. Benefits to features, i. e. the things about the widget. What does it do for humans? What result do we get? We talked about on Amazon SEO, as in organic traffic and paid traffic.
[00:25:26] And we talked about off Amazon or otherwise known as external traffic. So people with a very Amazon focused mindset. Anything else that you think we should pass on at this point before we all kind of pass out from the mental effort?
[00:25:39] JM: Yes. And I would say it's the number one, discipline of all of us as entrepreneurs is determination.
[00:25:47] You know, I mean, the, you're going to prove your thesis about your product or you're going to disprove it. You know, it's either going to be a hit or not a hit. It's going to, you're going to set some, or you're not going to sell some and either way you're learning. And either way, you're getting better at your craft and either way, you're becoming closer to your end goal, which is to have a thriving business.
[00:26:10] So I would just say the number 1 thing about going through all of this is if you feel like you launched a product and you did badly at, you know, regroup, determine in your mind that you're going to do another product and you're going to get better at it and go from there. Because at the end of the day, everything we do is a learning exercise.
[00:26:31] Whether we won or we lost, we've learned and so I would just say that that's the number 1 thing to remember is that this is a long game and. I just would feel horrible if somebody tried to launch a product, it didn't work and they just gave up, you know, that's, that's like a super sad. That's like kidding it, quitting your academic, you know, career in kindergarten because you got a C on your art, you know, project instead of an A or something like that, you know, yeah, so that's,
[00:26:58] MV: well, I think that happens a lot in life, like people have an experience with, say, sport or, you know, piano lessons, the classic, I'm sure I've put many people off, off the piano in my career because, or my wife has, because they failed an exam or they couldn't play a scale and they kind of cried a bit or something, and it's true, you have to have that grit, there's a, by the way, very British lesson to end on, I like that, you've got to have grit as, as, you've Winston Churchill put it when you're going through hell, keep going.
[00:27:24] So if it's not working out, keep moving and review the lessons afterwards. And actually, sometimes I [00:27:30] think that the most successful entrepreneurs I've seen have the ones who, when you dig a bit deeper, they had like 10 years of hell in business and now they're killing it. And you happen to have met them in the killing it phase.
[00:27:40] Guess what? That's where they hone their craft and got their determination together. So I agree with that entirely. And, the great thing about this is, I still, I'm very bullish about e commerce in the U S I'm in the UK to a degree for sure, but the U S there's still such a big percentage of people that buy stuff.
[00:27:56] In brick and mortar stores, but every year there are more and more people coming online. So there is a growing demand. I know so many people who've sold their businesses for six, seven, or even in one case, eight figures, like personal acquaintances, not exactly close friends in some cases, but there is so much money to be made in this.
[00:28:12] You just have to be willing to go through those early stages, as you say. So, um, yeah, man, good, good convert. And, thank you for reminding me that you can't get away without a pre launch. Damn it. I was hoping to be lazy, right? We can't do that. Okay. we also tell people that the last sort of wrap up stuff, where can people get hold of you and, Kyle, if they want to work with you, Jason.
[00:28:36] JM: Yeah, Omni rocket dot com. Love to have you fill out a conversation application. We're happy to spend 30 minutes with you talking about your business schools. We focus on shopify site build site management. we also do email marketing and social media management. and so we're happy to talk to folks who are doing well in their businesses.
[00:28:55] We don't work with, newbies. If I'm being completely candid, we work with people who have proven If sales and really try to help them leverage the benefits of a Shopify platform, in that process. So maybe, what about you?
[00:29:09] MV: best place is probably still my amazonaudits. com. And again, this is for people in an established Amazon business.
[00:29:14] It could be fairly early stages, I guess. the focus these days is most on the mastermind where people are doing 40, 50, 000 a month upwards. but my amazonaudit. com is the place to go and, Worked with quite a few people recently where I think they got really great value and If you are particularly coming to Amazon from an existing business, maybe brick and mortar, which I've had an experience of quite a few times, the mastermind.
[00:29:36] And these days, sometimes from direct to consumer, then that's particularly something I can really, really help you with, because I can help you take the lessons you got and sort of transmute them over to Amazon, translate them as it were. Well, and that was a big one. We covered a lot of ground today.
[00:29:51] Thank you so much for your time, man. As ever, always, always very, very thought provoking and, listening have found it useful as well.
[00:29:58] JM: Yeah. See you, buddy.
[00:30:00] MV: Bye bye.