Nik Sharma - 26 item checklist for the holidays

Happy Sunday!

It's the beginning of a new month. Quarter 3, month 2. I was talking with a friend yesterday and we compared August 1st to the beginning of the playoffs for eCommerce. The Super Bowl is Black Friday. If you're not thinking of how to be different this year, then you're already late. Start now.

One paragraph into this email now, so you should be kicked up, on a couch, beverage in hand (I'm drinking an eBoost right now), and relaxed. If you're feeling extra, maybe heat up a Last Crumb cookie too.

Before jumping into the email, I wanted to share some resources/links to check out as well:

Product Launch Pro. When it comes to launching within communities like Reddit, Quora, Stack Overflow, and Product Hunt, these guys can get you looking like you have a million-dollar budget behind you.

Tolstoy's Assisted Shopping. This is a new format of shoppable video. Think quizzes meets video content. Companies like Glamnetic are testing it out now. 

$2,000 to Snapchat. Sharma Brands recently became an official Snapchat partner, so we can give out up to $2k in ad spend when you sign up to their ads platform with this link.

Job Board. I put together a Job Board with Pallet. If you're looking for a gig, this is a great spot. If you're hiring, this is a great spot to host a job as well. The clicks to apply are amazing numbers. I hired 2 growth marketers (director level) in 48 hours.

eCommerce Software Breakdown. This is a cool article and deck put together by my friend Amit. He breaks down the eCommerce-enablement space and why he's bullish on it.

Marpipe. Speaking of the eCommerce playoffs, if you're not testing and learning right now, you're going to fall behind. Use Marpipe's multi-variate testing to test MORE ads with LESS ad spend. 

There are new SMS laws. Not all the SMS companies are taking this as seriously as they should, but Postscript summed up some of the new changes in this Twitter thread.

Landing Page Template by Sharma Brands. You can now add one of our landing page templates directly to your Shopify store in minutes with Builder. Click here to add it. Having a good landing page can lower your paid acquisition cost by 30-40%, and just like I wanted to make analytics easier with Report Cards, I asked Builder if we could make landing pages easy for founders who might be managing their own site, or marketers who want more flexible options. It's all drag and drop, and ended up as the #3 Product of the Day this past week!

Lastly, my ROLLING FUND IS LIVE!

I wrote a separate email to those of you who had signed up and soft-committed. I am fundraising now and will be writing this quarter's first check tomorrow. 

TL;DR:

Sharma Brands does incredible work with top-tier brands that create awareness of what we can do, and also becomes a resource to portfolio companies. 

The public Nik Sharma profile becomes an education platform for founders, other institutional investors seeing early stage deal flow, and development/brand shops that develop early stage brands. All of this is deal flow.

Portfolio companies get the advantage of the best technology, easy access to a network of investors, other brands to partner with, but most importantly, all the learnings and help from Sharma Brands, with anything. 

I'm not sure if you got a moment to check out the fund memo on AngelList, but please do. CLICK HERE to read it.

JOIN MY ROLLING FUND & INVEST IN THE NEXT INDUSTRY LEADING COMPANIES

Email/SMS:

• Flows that trigger based on how many purchases have been made.
• Flows that trigger cross-sell and up-sell purchases based on past category purchases
• Add text-only "Thank you" email from brand/software's founder (these stand out when everyone is getting promo emails)
• Switch blanket promo codes from WELCOME to more custom codes to control platforms like Honey from ruining your bottomline.
• If possible, add more dynamic elements within the emails and SMS messages to feel more personal
• Shorten time to collect reviews, and double the frequency to ask for the review. This makes sure the customer sees it.
• Add social proof to cart abandonment emails from past customers (UGC), influencers, and publications (include quotes).
• Make sure all emails are optimized for mobile.
• Create win-back flows for churned customers to get them excited for holiday deals, new products, etc. Make this a custom audience within ad platforms as well.

Website

• Build landing pages for best-selling bundles (use our template)
• Create holiday specific offers for Black Friday, Black Friday weekend, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, Christmas, and New Years
• Build landing pages or optimized collections pages for each holiday, sale, or promotion. 
• Optimize site speed (we do this often with Oddit)
• Make sure you're not on a commerce platform that will crash (use Shopify).

Promotions

• Make sure all offers, promotions, and sales balance discounts with AOV — don't give a high discount on a small cart.
• Exclusive promos for subscribers and high LTV customers
• Share all upcoming sales with affiliates, ambassadors, influencers, and PR outlets

Paid Media

• Stay diversified across channels
• Make sure all pixels are firing correctly, capturing as much data as possible
• Focus on top/mid funnel-building activities now so you have them ready in a couple months
• Update Google Shopping/AdWords with promos and codes
• Test new messaging angles
• Make sure you have ad accounts that will scale with you. If you're spending a small daily amount compared to what you plan to spend around Black Friday, make sure your ad accounts can handle it

Packaging

• If possible, add a holiday-specific insert into all packaging. This is an easy touchpoint to build word of mouth.
• Add info to make reorder process easy (i.e. a fridge magnet with a Batch QR code)
• Find relevant trinkets or GWP's (gifts with purchase) you can add to orders.

I'll keep updating this list this week and share the final version on my site next week.

Reply and let me know if I missed anything here. Otherwise, on to some fun stuff!

Software/App of the Week:

Switchy (through AppSumo) - The URL shortener you NEED.

You've probably seen in the past I try to use short URLs whenever I can. They make the content more trustworthy (than Bitly links with random letters, for example), it instantly adds respect to the brand, they're clean, and they allow you to look at click analytics.

If you want to get smarter with it, then use Switchy. Switchy allows you to have the custom domain, see analytics, but it also lets you place any ad pixels in the URLs, so when someone clicks the link you can now tag them and add them to your retargeting pools. 

This means that if you're running a Performance PR article, you can use Switchy to shorten the URL, and you'll tag everyone who clicked to the article from the pixel, even though you don't own the site. In the past I've used this data to then build more targeted lookalike audiences, and it works.

It's normally $120/month, but on AppSumo you can get a lifetime license for $39 right now. It'll give you 8 domains to load in, 30k clicks per month, and unlimited pixel spots to add.

Get Switchy URL Shortener today

Brand of the Week:

Gen Z Water

I stumbled upon this brand after they tweeted me back saying they were staying hydrated. I didn't know what to think when I got to the site, but I was so fascinated with everything, it brought back memories of seeing some of the graphic icons, and I ordered a pack. I'll update you next week on how the water tastes.

The site currently has an Alexa score of 646k, so I think it's still pre-launch. I'm excited to see how this launch plays out and how it's received. According to my Gen Z friends, this brand is spot on with the "trends".

Try it out here!

That's all for today! Lots of extra information today. I hope you get an awesome sleep tonight, you stay hydrated, and that you have an incredible upcoming week!

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