The Unofficial TikTok Shop Podcast with Jordan West

Send us a textSnapchat had about 347M daily active users worldwide, most of which are Millennials and Gen Zs. So, are Snapchat ads dead or are they just getting started?In this episode, Jordan West talks about why you should be spending on Snapchat or at least testing it out for your brands. He shares the opportunities and strategies that Snapchat offers to target customers. Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:Meta gave a ton of businesses $15,000 ad credits. Snapchat didn't do that but CPMs over Black Friday was about $2.50.Snapchat is very top-of-the-funnel, but there’s a ton of potential to start conversions with your potential customers there.Like Instagram and TikTok, Snapchat’s the favorite platform for Gen Zs and Millennials. Millennials are the ones who have money and are spending it.Snapchat Ads are either images or full-screen vertical videos. Everything needs to be vertical. Similar to IG stories, they appear in between organic Snapchat content. If you have ever done IG Story Ads, that’s essentially what Snapchat Ads are. 48% of US users, ages 15-25, have used Snapchat in the last few years. There’s a massive opportunity with Snapchat to take advantage of these low CPMs and great audiences that have money to spend.If you’re okay spending money on Facebook, IG stories, and reels, you should be okay spending money on Snapchat or at least testing it out for your brand.Snapchat gives you lots of opportunities to target customers. It is a proven eCommerce channel.Adding more budget daily doesn't necessarily scale your campaigns in the same sort of way that scaling horizontally with new offers and new audiences do. Your site needs to be fast. If you’re sending people straight to your website, that website should better be fast. If it's not, you aren't going to see the results that you want. People on Snapchat are constantly swiping and looking for the next video. If they have to wait for more than a second and a half, they’re gone. Different kinds of Snapchat ads:Product Catalog Ads - This is a feed for your product. Once you upload your feed and create a catalog, Snapchat will automatically create product ads in your chosen format.Single-image or Video Ads - these are full-screen video ads that can be used for different objectives. They cover the entire screen so they’re really good to draw the user’s attention.Collection Ads - you can have your landing page exist on Snapchat. If you have the option of testing shopping ads right in the platform, do it. Filter Ads - these ads target audiences within a specific location. You can also create an audience for your filter ads based on interests, age, and gender. You need to weigh your results from Snapchat both on the Snapchat platform and an attribution tool like Triple Whale.If you are seeing zero results from Triple Whale and several purchases from Snapchat, don’t necessarily trust TW. There may be some issues going on. If you’re looking for help with your Snapchat marketing, look no further than Upgrowth Commerce.

Send us a textConsumers’ attention has shortened throughout the years but customers will always look for a great experience and appreciate being given value.In this episode, Tom Coburn talks about the best kind of interactive experiences on a website and the most effective kinds of quizzes for eCommerce brands. He also shares some valuable tips on how and when to capture leads. Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:Quizzes provide a better shopping experience on your website, drive more sales, and help brands with data-gathering. When most people see an email popup, they close it immediately. Instead, it’s more effective to have your pop-up be a prompt to take an interactive quiz.E-commerce marketers are trained to remove steps, but it’s the equivalent of asking someone for their phone number as your opening line. People don’t want intrusive, in-your-face experiences. They want to engage with content and they want something valuable given to them. You’re balancing capturing leads, driving sales, and giving people a good experience. The right balance is to do the lead capture before the product recommendation but make it skippable. Don’t make it required. Your quiz must be optimized for every device.Try to start with some fun and engaging questions. The biggest drop by far in quizzes is on the first question. Once they answer the first question, there’s an average completion rate of 85-90%. Getting that first click is crucial. The quiz type depends on the channel, the environment of where the consumer is, or how high or low in the buying funnel they are. Don’t position the click-through rate as the main KPI from your quiz. It’s more about what happens after the first click. Recommended Tool: Loom https://www.loom.com Recommended Podcasts: The Tim Ferriss Showhttps://tim.blog/podcast/?amp Tara Brach https://www.tarabrach.com/talks-audio-video/ Sam Harris https://www.samharris.org/podcasts Recommended Audiobook: My Big Toe by Thomas Campbell https://www.audible.com/pd/My-Big-TOE-Awakening-Audiobook/B00DICF4B2 Today’s GuestTom Coburn is the CEO of Jebbit, a no-code platform that helps brands design quizzes without technical support.Connect and learn more about Tom Coburn and Jebbit here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomcoburn?trk=public_profile_browsemap Website: https://www.jebbit.com/ 

Send us a textAre giveaways a thing of the past or are they a powerful opportunity?In this episode, Jordan talks about giveaways, the different kinds of giveaways you can do, key strategies, and the reason they’re so effective.Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episodeDoing E-mail Giveaways:Make sure that you’re sending emails right away when they opt-in and give new signups a chance to opt-out.When the giveaway is over, let them know if they didn’t win, but give them a discount code. A dollar amount discounted is recommended.Create an email series. In this, include an About Us.If they are not engaged after 10 emails, get them off your list.Other things to remember when doing giveaways:Make sure that you are cross-pollinating with brands and products that make sense. Find brands that have similar audiences but not similar products and don’t fill similar needs.Organic reach is great, but you can also use paid traffic to amplify your giveaways.Start getting creative with your giveaways.If people have approached you about giveaways and you think that you’re too good for it, you’re not.The whole goal of this is to help each other. We have different customers that we want to help.

Send us a textBrand value will always be the most important part of your business. The more relevant your products and services are, the greater the chance it will be for people to choose your brand wherever you are in the marketplace.In this episode, Isaiah Fritz of Online Selling Partner talks about his journey in the evolution of his business today. He also shares what is working on Amazon right now and other third-party marketplaces that his company is keeping an eye on. Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:It’s hard to compete with new sellers coming to Amazon and trying to undercut your prices, but having brand equity, external traffic, and making sure that you have a strong brand outside of Amazon is going to help you be successful on the platform.Conversion rate growth is probably the biggest thing that an Amazon advertiser needs to focus on.You have to have a reason why people are choosing your brand.Walmart is improving but still has a lot of areas to improve on. If you think dealing with Amazon’s bad, dealing with Walmart is 10 times worse.At the end of the day, where the traffic is where you’re going to make the most sales.Surround yourself with awesome people and build an awesome culture where everybody has the same vision that they are striving for. Hire based on culture, not on talent.Look years ahead to make sure that the processes and the things you’re implementing now are going to help you scale.Recommended App: Amazon Brand Analyticshttps://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/H2Z5B4HMF5ZXCG2 Keepahttps://keepa.com/Today’s GuestIsaiah Fritz is a young entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Online Selling Partner, a company partnering with major brands to help grow their sales and brand in the eCommerce world.Connect and learn more about Isaiah here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaiah-fritz/ 

Send us a textWith Elon Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter, the internet is in a frenzy. What does this mean for eCommerce marketing in 2023? Should you be spending your ad dollars on Twitter?In this episode, Jordan West talks about the marketing features and ad specifications on Twitter and whether or not it makes sense for your brand to use it as an advertising platform.Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:Advertising on Twitter to test out:Twitter Promoted Ads. Ideal for measuring KPIs that are beyond CPA and Return on Ad Spend like Brand Lift. Twitter Follower Ads.  Ideal for growing your brand and building your Twitter following. Twitter Amplify. These allow pre-roll video ads on content, allowing you to sponsor videos from specific creators.Twitter Take-overs. These allow brands to place sponsored ads in the What’s Happening section of the Twitter Home Page and on the Trending tab on the Explore screen, essentially hijacking the news feed to give the impression that there’s a lot of buzz around your brand.Branded Hashtags Ads. These allow you to add visual components that automatically appear when someone uses your hashtag.Ad Specifications:Tweets: Max 280 characters Images Size: Similar to what you create for Meta. (1200px x 1200px)Video Max Length:  2 minutes and 20 seconds.At this point, Twitter shouldn’t be used as a massive conversion engine, but instead as a top-of-the-funnel way to get people introduced to your brand.Think of Twitter as a great way to place your content in front of people without the expectation of a sale immediately. 

Send us a textDoing large-scale deals with major luxury brands will never be easy or quick, but going through its process is beyond worthwhile. In this episode, Phillip Ashley Rix of Phillip Ashley Chocolates talks about some of the interesting ways that they’re generating revenue, and the work that goes into major partnership deals with brands like Cadillac.Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:By understanding who we are as a brand identity and as a brand within ourselves, we’ll know who we work best with and how we work best.  Evaluate and solidify your core processes.In any recession, rich people will always have money. It’s important to think about that for your product lines.Try to be intuitive and observant of what’s happening.Always listen to your customers.Recommended App: Slack https://slack.com/ Recommended Podcasts and Audiobooks:The Breakfast ClubClub Shay Shayhttps://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/club-shay-shay/id1531023690Earn Your Leisurehttps://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/earn-your-leisure/id1450211392 Profit Firsthttps://mikemichalowicz.com/profit-first/Today’s GuestPhillip Ashley Rix is the founder, CEO, and Master Chocolatier at Phillip Ashley Chocolates. They do a lot of custom work for brands.Connect and learn more about Phillip here:Website: https://www.phillipashleychocolates.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phillipashley/?hl=en 

Send us a textIt is natural for people to want to connect with others, especially with those with the same kind of interests. They want to create experiences with each other. This is where a strong community starts.In this episode, Sean Huntington talks about how he built a community. He and Jordan have exchanges about the influence of building a community and a brand.Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:People want to connect. We want to create experiences and have a sense of belonging. Community is the collision of both of those.Seeing the commonalities between these people will help you focus on what your brand is about.Get inside the minds of your target customers and audiences and analyze what motivates them.Facilitate the interaction between community members. Think about the individual first and how to create one-on-one relationships. Valuing that one person will ripple out and compound over time.Listen and look at feedback.  Community is not an email list.  An audience does not equal community.A community is a group of people talking to each other without you there.If a community talks badly about you, listen to that feedback.You want people either raving or complaining about your brand because that means that they care. You cannot build a long-term brand without revenue. All of that will be easier if you have a solid brand and a solid brand strategy.Community and brand are becoming synonymous.NFTs are dead in the sense that over the very short term, the word NFT is going to disappear and it’s going to reemerge as loyalty, digital memberships, digital assets, and digital collectibles. Take the time to be very clear on what it is that you want to accomplish.Today’s GuestSean Huntington is the founder of HoneyHaus and Keep Nature Wild. He is an expert in understanding people, connecting them, and building a strong organic community.Connect and learn more about Sean Huntington here:LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanhuntington/Podcast: Build Stuff. Be Kind https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Build-Stuff-Be-Kind-Podcast/B0BDZZ7TYV

Send us a textAI technology is becoming smarter as time passes and it’s happening incredibly fast. Knowing how to utilize these technologies to complement our marketing and copywriting skills will give us far superior output in terms of quality and efficiency - for those of us willing to adapt to this new technology, we have nowhere to go but up.In this episode, Jordan West talks about Open AI, Chat GPT, DALL-E, and more AI products that technology is bringing to marketers and the world of eCommerce. He discusses what these mean for businesses and the world in general.Listen and learn in this episode!Key takeaways from this episode:Chat GPT is an interesting program that allows you to ask AI to do any writing task you need.While AI technology can automate certain tasks and make writing more efficient, it’s unlikely to fully replace human copywriters, at least for now. Instead, AI technology can assist copywriters by radically improving output.AI technology doesn’t have that human touch of creativity and strategy yet.DALL-E creates artwork that has never been created ever before when given a prompt.You still need to know what your audience wants. Knowing your audience through real human conversations is way more important than ever before.Focus on strategy and what makes your brand unique.Knowing how to use and harness these technologies will be what the next 10 years look like. Knowing how to play with these technologies and not allowing them to completely overtake the value that you bring to the table will be invaluable in the future. Focus on human interactions.Go to Open AI and start playing around with it. Ask tough questions.

Send us a textA business stops growing when the leader keeps using a leadership style that is not fit for the next stage it is supposed to be in. When you know what stage you are in your business, you can identify the style that fits your present needs to keep you growing.In this episode, Matthew Pohl from The Rewild Group talks about the different stages of business growth, how you should change your leadership style throughout these different stages, and how important it is to know which stage you are in your business right now. Listen and learn in this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODEWhat drives complexity is not the age or the revenue of the business, but the number of people involved in that organization. The more people you add, the more complexity there is.Organizations stop growing because the leadership doesn't understand that they keep acting like they're in a previous stage. They don't realize that things have changed underneath them.When you're misaligned with the rules of growth, you may not realize that you’re carrying a bunch of weight that is holding you down.As a leader, the CEO can spend time in three different ways— as a specialist, manager, and visionary.You as the CEO still need to grow those managers that you're putting in place to do the day-to-day management. They still need you. As a CEO, you have to be more of a chameleon than your managers and everybody else.The six different leadership styles are visionary, coaching, commanding, pace-setting, democratic, and affiliative. Each one is needed in a different stage of the business.Having a roadmap and being aligned with the rules of growth is the key to scaling your business.Recommended Tool:Trello https://trello.com/ Recommended Podcast:Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcasthttps://www.life.church/leadershippodcast/Primal Leadershiphttps://www.amazon.com/Primal-Leadership-New-Preface-Authors/dp/1422168034Today’s Guest:Matthew Pohl is the founder and owner of The ReWild Group, a business consulting firm dedicated to multiplying the number of exceptional businesses globally. They provide resources to small and mid-size businesses for business growth.Connect and learn more about The ReWild Group here: Website: https://www.rewildgroup.comGuidebooks:The Stages of Growth Guidebookshttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099GCY7MGThe Element Guidebookshttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2VQ6G2L

Send us a textIt’s always amazing to see people bootstrap into something much bigger. To grow a company using limited resources takes a lot of creativity and determination. There’s a lot to learn from this kind of journey.In this episode, Erica Rankin from Bro Dough talks about what it’s like to bootstrap a business to a level where you’re talking to investors. She shares what's working for her in marketing and the biggest mistakes she's made this year.Listen and learn in this episode!KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODEBootstrapped companies understand how to and not to spend money.When you look back at the time when you were bootstrapping, you’ll realize that it was an important time for you to learn.Putting it all out there and being consistent is the secret when you’re using social media platforms.When you go online, see all the shiny stuff, and you’re not achieving the same level of success, it can be hard and very discouraging.Experiences are so valuable when people are willing to share them.Show up and build a community. The journey gets people on board and turns followers into fans and almost friends.Being on TikTok is all about getting exposure, building the story, and doing what your competitors aren’t. It’s putting in the effort and compounding the interest. You’re not going to see the ROI right away, but it will come. Do not make decisions too quickly. Do tons of research, figure things out, and reach out to advisers.Being scrappy and not spending tons of money where you don’t need to is the secret to successful bootstrapping.Automate, delegate, lay out your business, and put things where they should be.Recommended Tool:HootSuite https://www.hootsuite.com Shield https://www.shieldapp.ai Recommended Podcast:The Ed Mylett ShowApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ph/podcast/the-ed-mylett-show/id1181233130Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19TdDBlFkqh7uevYO0jFSW Today’s Guest:Erica Rankin is the founder and CEO of Bro Dough, a cookie dough company that provides a healthier way to indulge in this childhood treat. Connect and learn more about Erica and Bro Dough here: LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericabrodough/?originalSubdomain=ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brodoughcanada/?hl=en TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brodoughcanada?lang=en