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Ecommerce Strategies for SmallBiz Success with John Lawson · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  You need to have a content strategy if you have a business.
• 0:03
  I don't know any business that has no content strategy that's actually successful.
• 0:08
  I really don't.
• 0:09
  There's one thing about putting billboards up and making commercials and all that stuff.
• 0:14
  That's, you know, the push context.
• 0:17
  You gotta have that.
• 0:18
  Right?
• 0:19
  But there's also the pool content, which is driving people to be more aware of you finding
• 0:25
  you by being on podcast, creating blog posts, all of that kind of stuff.
• 0:31
  You've gotta have some sense of an idea of what you are promoting so that there will be a a
• 0:39
  line that goes through so you know, hey.
• 0:42
  This week, we're gonna get this much in sales.
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  If we if we don't have some sort of strategy, we're just out here throwing things at the wall
• 0:49
  and it's turning into spaghetti.
• 0:51
  So you need to do something.
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  3, 2, 4, 0, ignition, I left off.
• 1:01
  Ending small business failure.
• 1:04
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
• 1:10
  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 1:15
  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  The small business lady, America's number one small business expert.
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  And I am so excited to welcome you to a special National Small Business Week addition of the
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  small fish chat live.
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  Listen, we have an incredible show here for you today.
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  Here on the small fish chat, Live, we are all about peer to peer mentoring.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
• 1:53
  And today's show is about how design your life and then design your business.
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  We're all about giving you advice from multiple angles.
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  So that you can think about maybe a jewel or gem here that's gonna help you take your
• 2:08
  business to the next level.
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  So with that, let me introduce my guest.
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  E Commerce expert, John Lawson.
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  John is the go to authority when it comes to online selling success.
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  Not only is he the brains behind the best selling digital marketing book kick ass social
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  commerce for entrepreneurs He's also a multiple award winning social commerce strategist, and
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  he is an uber successful digital entrepreneur.
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  And he is a highly sought after speaker who's traveled to 5 continents toward more than 2000
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  countries addressing 100 of 1000 of business leaders and entrepreneurs whether he's hosting
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  a panel discussion, teaching small business owners how to grow their eBay or or marketplace
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  business, or engaging his private community, the e commerce group on Facebook, he is always
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  sharing proven strategies for winning in business online.
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  For more information, you can go to johnlawson.com.
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  Johnlawson, thanks so much for being here today.
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  What's up?
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  Oh my gosh.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Listen.
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  Online selling is everything, everywhere.
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  It's all anybody's talking about.
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  I mean, I I was talking to somebody yesterday about They need to create an AA program for
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  Amazon.
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  Right?
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  So so tell me about online selling.
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  Is it the future of business?
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  That train has already left the station.
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  If if you don't know that it is the future of business by now, you missed the last 2 years of
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  COVID.
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  I mean, give me a break.
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  We seen so much growth in the year 2020 2021.
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  Right?
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  And we're actually seeing that a lot of it is holding.
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  Right?
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  So it's like, yeah.
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  I get it.
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  Nobody could go out for, you know, months.
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  So everything had to come to them.
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  But what it ended up actually doing is there are certain segments of the population that
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  just were not comfortable with maybe putting their credit card online.
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  We're not comfortable with ordering from an Etsy or an eBay or really just didn't wanna do
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  business.
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  With Amazon because I thought they were, you know, eating the world.
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  Well, all of them, all of a sudden, got very, very comfortable with online selling and online
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  buying.
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  And now what that ended up doing is kind of made the pie so much bigger.
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  So, yes, e commerce is the future, but it's also the presence.
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  But at the same time too, I think these thoughts that, float around that, like, one day
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  we're going to just do all of our commerce online.
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  I think that's a fallacy.
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  Yeah.
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  There's if nothing else just the last month after we have kind of lifted a lot of the
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  restrictions for masking and things and travel and all that.
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  You can see how, hungry people are to get back into, you know, brick and mortar retail too.
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  So it's it's gonna be a nice mix of the 2.
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  Alright.
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  So let's talk about Amazon.
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  Right?
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  Amazon's got 2,000,000 small business sellers.
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  You know, they got a lot of programs, promoting and, you know, helping people sell better on
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  their platform.
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  But their quarterly earnings just came out, and their sales are down.
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  And I and I'm I I am baffled by this.
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  I'm wondering if you are baffled by this.
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  Talk to me what's going
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  you know, you can only blow up a balloon so far.
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  When it did, it has to retrench at some level.
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  And Amazon was really, really hit pretty hard in 2020 in terms of even they were overloaded
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  when the demand started spiking.
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  So what they ended up doing is putting in place a lot of new warehouses.
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  They hired a lot of new people.
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  They brought up most of their, delivery in house.
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  And, I think they just grew so fast in such a short period of time that now some of that's
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  catching up with them.
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  And on top of that, they hired so many people just to replace people that got sick during
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  COVID or getting COVID that, you know, to to balance sheet didn't work out.
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  And I think there are some headwinds that they're feeling that they're going to have to
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  go through probably for the next two, maybe three quarters, but overall, Amazon is fine.
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  Trust me.
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  They actually, you know, did 8% more this quarter than they did a year ago.
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  So they're still growing, but they had to write off some of their expenses.
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  Everybody wants to hear these great, you you know, ginormous numbers every time Amazon comes
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  to the plate to give its quarterly.
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  And I just think that was a little bit shocking for some people.
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  They'll be fine.
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  Well, let's let's get back to talking about businesses like, Okay?
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  Let's talk about this more.
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  Because Amazon's gonna be fine.
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  I believe it's gonna be fine.
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  So so what kinds of things should I be doing if I wanna grow my online business?
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  What do I need to do?
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  I mean, the first thing you have to start thinking about is your search engine
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  optimization.
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  I mean, if you wanna get more sales, You have to leverage your SEO strategy.
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  And I found that a lot of people got out here.
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  They built businesses.
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  They got product.
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  They have their store, but they never really dive into the e part of the e commerce.
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  The electronic part is about being fined found on these platforms like Yahoo, Google, Bing
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  search engine.
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  You've got to have and SEO strategy.
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  So that's the first thing you need to do.
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  2nd thing, of course, you wanna leverage social commerce.
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  It's out there.
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  It's for you to be able to directly sell to your customers.
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  D2C is what that's all about.
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  So you wanna leverage the social commerce channels.
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  Most of that is free, you know, but the the part that you really wanna do with the free.
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  This is a deeper strategy.
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  But what you wanna do is find out what's working and free, and then put money behind it
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  and make that into your advertising.
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  But leverage your social.
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  And then the third thing, you wanna really provide a rich shopping experience.
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  That's how Amazon became the bell of the ball.
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  It was because they did things when it came to their delivery experience that separated them
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  from all the other online commerce platforms out there.
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  So you wanna in turn do the same thing.
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  People need to feel like the shopping experience with you and your business is unique
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  and that you care.
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  Alright.
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  So If I'm gonna set up my own store on my own website, am I am I doing on Shopify, am I using
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  Wix?
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  Like, what is the best sort of drag and drop situation if I wanna get an online store up
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  quick.
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  Alright.
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  So, that's a hard question.
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  Right?
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  Because some people need certain things.
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  So the first thing you really wanna do is evaluate what you need out of your shopping
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  platform.
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  If speed is the most important thing, a Shopify or a Wix is going to do you very well.
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  If you want more ability to create a unique environment that is not so cookie cutter, then
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  you might wanna look at, you know, a woocommerce situation.
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  So, it I think the first thing is you wanna figure out what is most important for you.
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  Then after that, It's time to go because all of those solutions that you even mentioned right
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  there, they all literally can get you up and running very, very quickly.
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  And, I mean, Shopify, we know, is is probably at 23% of all stores on the internet at this
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  point.
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  So they are a loud squeaky wheel, and you can get up and running with them in hours.
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  Right?
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  Same with Wix.
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  It's a very simple platform.
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  They're moving things very rapidly and, becoming a a real player in the game.
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  And then a I don't wanna overlook, you know, the WooCommerce situation because that actually
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  is a free platform, and I free, you know, because you still gotta have somewhere to host
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  it.
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  But, I mean, you have a lot of control over the shopping spirits and the way your store looks
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  with that one.
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  I I'm actually a big fan of all those, but we actually use Wu in my business.
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  We'll cover.
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  See.
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  There you go.
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  Question for you.
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  Do you need to have a content strategy if you had a product based business?
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  You need to have a content strategy if you have a business.
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  I don't know any business that has no content strategy that's actually successful.
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  I really don't.
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  I'm sure somebody will write into you and tell you how successful they are.
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  But if I actually sat down with them and said, look, what would it be like though if you had a
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  content strategy.
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  Of course.
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  There's one thing about putting billboards up and making commercials and all that stuff.
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  That's you know, the push content.
• 11:26
  You gotta have that.
• 11:27
  Right?
• 11:28
  But there's also the pull content, which is driving people to be more aware of you finding
• 11:34
  you by being on podcast, creating blog posts, all of that kind of stuff.
• 11:40
  You gotta have some sense of an idea of what you are promoting so that there will be a a
• 11:48
  line that goes through so you know, hey.
• 11:51
  This week, we're gonna get this much in sales.
• 11:53
  If we if we don't have some sort of strategy, we're just out here throwing things out the
• 11:58
  wall and it's turning into spaghetti.
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  So you need to do something.
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  Work that out.
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  Let's talk about ads.
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  Right?
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  So because even if you're selling on Amazon at this point, you gotta be buying has to be seen
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  on Amazon.
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  Right?
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  You do.
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  You do.
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  But the cool thing is, you know, I'm so man, you're getting deep.
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  But the deal is ads on Amazon, ads on eBay, ads on Etsy are really a a play for them to capture
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  more money from you as the seller on their platform.
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  Because they're already taking a final fee when you sell something on the platform, but then
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  they say, look, if you advertise with us, we'll put your listing on somebody else's listing.
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  Right?
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  So you have to advertise to get more visibility, but also at the same time, you have
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  to advertise on your own stuff to keep other people's stuff from showing up on your on your,
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  listings.
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  So they have you by the GoNet.
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  Oh,
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  boy.
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  Oh, boy.
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  So it's a necessary evil.
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  It's basically necessary evil, and it's a way for them to take 2, 3, 5 percent more of your
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  income, honestly, you know, just to get more sales.
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  Alright.
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  So let's talk about that whole pricing thing.
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  Because you do if you know, you gotta give your cut to the platform, how does that affect your
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  pricing?
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  And what do you need to know about your pricing?
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  So did you make sure you're not losing your shirt.
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  When it comes to pricing, you ask what's the best advice you ever got.
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  And and and that goes into this because the best advice I ever got was that you make your
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  money when you buy your product, not when you sell your product.
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  Right?
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  So you have to buy right So you gotta have in mind, you know that Amazon's gonna take 15%
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  just to sell the product on that platform.
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  You know that if you're gonna use their, fulfillment services, that's gonna take another
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  10 to 15%.
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  Plus on top of that, you're probably gonna need another 5 or 10% to do marketing and
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  advertising, whether it be on their platform, the Facebook ads, all of that.
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  That these are things you have to take into account when you are purchasing product.
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  So you understand that even if I can't sell this product for retail price that I got it at
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  such a great margin in the beginning that I can at least break even on all my costs going
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  forward.
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  So that's what you have to understand when it comes to pricing.
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  There needs to be a large margin.
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  I know so many people that get in the business and be like, well, you know, hey, I can make,
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  you know, if I get this for 80, I can sell that for a 100.
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  Oh, I'm gonna make $20.
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  Bro, there's not enough margin in an $80 product that you're gonna sell for a $100.
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  You will go broke.
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  By the worst thing you can do is make sales because every time you do, you're gonna lose
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  money.
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  So you gotta have that in your mind.
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  Use a calculator That's why they put it on your phone.
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  I love it.
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  I love it, John.
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  Thank you so much for being here.
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  You are always the life of the party.
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  You always drop and dodge.
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  You said make your money when you buy your product, not when you sell it.
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  And to me, that's tweetable.
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  That's a teach sure.
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  That's a whole bunch of stuff.
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  So thank you.
• 15:21
  We're giving you snaps over here because that's that's just a gem of all gems.
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  And, listen, I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I will leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business either you win or you learn.
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  Alright.
• 15:34
  Have a great day, everybody.
• 15:38
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 15:43
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 15:49
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcast and join us next Wednesday.