What Stage Are You In?

You can’t grow if you don’t accept reality…

Some brands do $5m/mo on Amazon, some brands do $5k/mo. It’s impossible for the smaller brand to grow doing the same the thing as the larger brand.

And yet, this is what happens. Comparing apples to oranges in the Amazon orchard. Trying to input the same blueprint for a Beverly Hills home and a vinyl village house out in the great Midwest.

A large brand needs to focus on their brand ecosystem - answering the questions like,

“How do I increase LTV?” (increase price, increase # of times purchased, etc.)

“How do grow market share?” “What’s my incremental lift?”

These are questions identifying macro problems with micro solutions. Look at the big picture and make a micro change. Because, when you’re big a little can make a big difference.

A small brand faces different challenges. You’re still looking for product/market fit. You’re still looking to build social proof and staying power in your niche. You have to do these things to build longevity in the business. Questions need to be focused around questions like: ”Who is buying my product the most?” “What demo does this resonate with?” “Where are they ‘hanging out’?”

“What is different about my product?” “What are people seeing that makes it superior or lacking?”

Notice it’s all about the product as your building the brand.

How do you build the product? Constant refinement. Some don’t have the luxury to merely tinker with product revisions, though. So what do you do when you have a product, it does the job, and you still want to grow? The same thing, just at a slower pace. (ok, not EXACTLY the same… but you get the point.)

Build capital. Control expenses. Work on the numbers side of the business to build up the ability to work on the product and expand market reach. This is where you build the foundation for tomorrow.

And what are some free things you can do in the meantime to also expand reach, social proof, and market share? CONNECT.

Try this: reach out to 100 people you know. Send them your product and ask for honest feedback. Ask if they would tell anyone they knew about it! If they don’t, ask them why they wouldn’t be willing to tell someone else. This will help you tremendously because it’s the difference between a product that sits on the shelf and a product that gets taken home. (Don’t be weird when you reach out, just act like a friend and be genuinely interested in what they’re up to! If they’re your target market, even better)

Then reach out to micro influencers in your target market. Curate a list of 50, reach out to them. Worst thing they tell you is, “go kick rocks.” Good! Onto the next! But you may end up getting a free review, or even better - a glowing review, a lifetime customer, and a referral partner for your product. Good work. (For details on what to say and how to structure something like this on Amazon - reach out for a template)

Lastly, (and this is not an exhaustive list… just something to help) reach out to customers that like your product. Get reviews - real, authentic reviews on what it does well and why it’s better than anything else. Also, reach out to those who DON’T like the product. You won’t get a ton of responses (because people are trolls sometimes… and that’s ok!) but what you do hear in response to your requests could help substantially in giving you specific examples of what your product does fantastic (and what you should be highlighting in your product journey) as well as ammunition for making your product better (from those negative reviews).

And that should be a great start.

Remember, you’re writing a chapter book. To get to the end of the story there will be hills and valleys, good times and bad times, times to eat glass and times to feast… if this wasn’t the case, it wouldn’t be worth reading anyways!

Enjoy the ride and I hope this is helpful!

- DL