Recording: an offsite & off the record conversation

Happy Sunday!

If you’re based in Northern California, I hope you’re doing better with the air quality from the fires. If you’re on the East Coast, I hope you were able to stay safe from Hurricane Ida. 700,000 people are STILL without any power. Our American cities are NOT prepared, and any natural disaster is a good reminder that if you prepare for yourself, you might save your family one day.

If you’re not affected by any natural disaster, then I hope you’re reading this in between Labor Day Weekend celebrations, or between online shopping sprees with all the sales going on.

This week’s newsletter is going to be short and sweet but before we get into it, I had an idea… 

Let’s get an event together in YOUR city, with other smart eCommerce entrepreneurs, marketers, investors, etc. and I’ll get large companies to pay for the whole thing. Whether it’s a nice dinner, a happy hour, or a party, I want to host these across the country. Fill out THIS GOOGLE FORM so that I can compile a list of where people are, and pitch it to sponsors. I do these in New York (see a mini collage here), and they end up being so fun and totally worth it for every sponsor.

If you're reading this email and it was forwarded to you, click here to subscribe for yourself. Don't let them get this email before you do!

Some quick links for you this week:

Consumer Health Summit. Michael Fishman, who I first met at Hint, puts on an incredible event for his community of leading and early-stage founders in food/bev, apps, wearables, fitness, and other tech. He is a founding investor and advisor to companies like Bulletproof Coffee and Athletic Greens and curates an incredible set of people for these events. I’ve attended and been faculty for an event, and it was 12/10. These summits are invite-only & limited seating, so you can apply here. The next one is November 15-17th.

Hire or Get Hired. The jobs board has some new brands that just dropped roles from Soylent, CrossNet, Jolie, Very Great, Parade, Flipboard, Levels, and more. This coming week I’ll be blasting this jobs board on Twitter, so if you’ve got roles you’re looking for, get in before the clicks!

Facebook Pay. Did you see this? Facebook Pay is coming to Shopify stores! Between ShopPay and Facebook Pay, two companies will hold the payment token for a majority of fancy DTC brand transactions!

Snapchat is giving $2k. No need to bore you with the details, you know the deal — you spend $1k, they give you $1k in credit. You spend $2k, they give you $2k in credit. This is because Sharma Brands is a Snapchat partner. Get your credit here.

1. Put the customer front and center

When you initially start a brand, it's all about your customer. Your first 1,000 orders are precious — you even start to recognize frequent customers through Shopify's "cha-ching" notifications. When a customer encounters an issue, it's all hands on deck to figure out how to make that situation right, or when a customer has a question/concern, you make sure to respond ASAP.

When you are doing 20,000+ orders a month, your focus is different. Instead of being obsessed with the customer like you were on day 1, you become focused on bettering the operations, product innovation, or making sure you are hitting top-line numbers.

Even when scaling, and doing millions in revenue, you HAVE to be just as obsessed with the customer's experience as you were on day one. Every decision should flow through the question of "Will this help customers?". Need to run a sale? Ask that question first. Want to do an on-premise activation? Ask that question. Want to expand into new products? Ask that question.

2. Figure out how to turn customers into evangelists

In the ‘70s, a man named George Silverman created the concept of word of mouth marketing to sell pharmaceuticals. He called them "teleconferenced peer influence groups" and when he conducted focus groups, he noticed that even if multiple people had a bad reaction to the medication, the few that had a great experience could overshadow those who didn't — they could even convince those who had a bad experience that it was still a good option.

Whether you call it a referral program, growth loops, or a UGC campaign, figure out how to keep your customers not only involved but constantly talking about how amazing the product is.

Oftentimes, it's also a breath of fresh air to the marketing team to understand HOW people are talking about the products, and also understanding WHY they do consume it.
 

3. Become consistent everywhere

When you're a startup with less than 10 employees, your most valuable skill is context switching. Being able to go from signing a contract, to negotiating a term sheet, to optimizing your ad campaigns, to developing products. A bi-product of this is you're rarely consistent in your consumer-facing messaging. Sometimes that's because there isn't enough time in the day to ensure everything is consistent, and other times it's maybe because you are doing whatever needs to be done to hit revenue goals. Either one is ok.

However, when growing fast, and consumers begin to see you in multiple places (pop-ups, retail, DTC, marketplaces, farmer's markets, influencers, TV, etc) it is SO important to be consistent in your messaging across the board. Not only does it create uniform messaging, but this is how you build a long-term brand. 

Google "American Crew campaign" in Google Images. The last 10 years of photos are all consistent. 10 years later, that adds brand equity, value, trust, validation, etc. to the consumer.
 

4. Upgrade your stack, consistently

This one is simple — as you grow, so does your tech.

Don't rely on apps, software, vendors, freelancers, processes, and systems that got you to $10M to get you to $50M. Actively explore new options for all of these.

The best way to do this — ask peers from other businesses doing the same stuff, but 1-2 years ahead.

5. Stay ruthless with testing

Once you've built a $10M business, it's easy to think "We know what works and what doesn't." But that's when you become that rapper who "made it" and then forgot about what got him there.

Across creative, messaging, merchandising, offers, customer service tactics, pricing, landing pages, site optimization, email, SMS, organic social, and more, KEEP TESTING.

Test anything and everything. I can't tell you how many times Sharma Brands has worked with a company doing $30-$100M in revenue and we unlock something huge by rigorously testing.

Before the next part, can you please help me answer 1 question:

On the topic of subscription, what's the most important or interesting thing to you? Questions, concerns, comments, etc are all welcome. Thank you!

On to some fun stuff… 

Software/App of the Week:

Yotpo — The marketing technology platform every Shopify store needs.

I was first introduced to Yotpo when I was at hint water for our reviews. Since then, I’ve integrated Yotpo into top-tier stores and seen how using their reviews in ads, Google Search, Google Shopping, and more have driven a significant incremental increase in conversion rate and revenue.

It’s easy to set up, easy to customize, and because of Yotpo’s magnitude as a software company, they integrate with anything and everyone.

You can get started with Yotpo Reviews for $19/month by clicking here. Join world class brands in the way they let their customer evangelize their favorite orders. 

Brand of the Week:

Swoveralls — just like it sounds: sweatpants + overalls.

Cozy/cuffing/cuddle season is coming up and there’s no better investment than some overalls that feel like sweatpants.

It’s the comfy “thing” that you never thought you’d ever discover (or need). 

Shop Swoveralls here.

That's all for this week!

I hope you enjoy your day off tomorrow, or day of catching up, whichever you choose. I’m off to watch the US Open today and couldn’t be more excited (I grew up playing tennis for so many years). I hope you get those 9 hours of sleep tonight and have an amazing week!! 

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