Q&A Selling Online - From Amazon FBA to Shopify, Digital Marketing and Facebook Ads

Today I want to talk about online advertising. More specifically YouTube Ads. I’m going to start by explaining where the YouTube ads come from. YouTube ads come from Google. For those that don’t know, Youtube is a division of Google. To create a youtube ad you need to have a Google Adwords account (this is the Advertising account) This is where you create or design you Youtube ads. Most marketers and most of these new agencies never even used youtube ads, because everyone always talks about how great Facebook advertising is. And… they are great (for now) But with youtube, I’m not sure if you were aware, but you can target your audience by, age, gender, location, likes, and even better, you can target what videos they watch. Let me explain this a bit better. For example, if you are selling a training course on how to do dropshipping from Aliexpress to Shopify. You can play your ad in the video whose title is: How to dropship, or how to dropship with Shopify or Selling product from Aliexpress on eBay. These are just random examples, and I don’t even know if these videos exist. But I know that if you search these terms, you will get a ton of videos that will show up. Another thing I can guarantee is that if someone has typed in Youtube’s search bar, something like ” How to dropship from China to Canada” I can tell that the person wants to know how to dropship, I can also tell that more than likely they are in Canada and more than likely they will watch another video next that is also related to this. Therefore you can find your perfect audience by targeting the video, instead of targeting the person. And now, the most important thing about advertising on YouTube You need to know who is watching, why they are watching, and where they are watching. Let me give you a good example of why your add will perform 10x better if you know this. Every day before I get in the shower, or the jacuzzi, I turn on a motivational video from Youtube on my iPhone, take the waterproof speaker with me as I shower. Now, if you have ever heard one of these motivational videos, it’s like listening to music. You don’t need to watch it, you can simply listen. Here is what happens almost every time. During my long shower, there is always an Ad that interrupts the talk. And in case you are wondering “why don’t you turn off the ads with Adblocker” It’s because I am a marketer, so I have a small addiction to listening and studying other people’s ads! But, often an ad comes on and the only reason I know there was an Ad was that the talk stopped! This means someone is displaying a full video Ad on a video that is not meant to be watched. There is literally nothing to see in these videos. Just like when you turn on youtube to play music, but you are not looking at the phone. So, that was a wasted opportunity, because if they would have spoken in that Ad, I would have heard it. My point is if you are going to show an advertisement to sell wind chimes, on a video called “3 hours of nature sounds” more than likely nobody is watching the video. They are probably listening to the relaxing sounds of nature while doing something else. So, if you knew your audience was in listen-only mode, maybe you could talk during the Ad. These are actually great videos to advertise on because the person is not there to hit the Skip Ad button. But it only makes sense if they can hear the message. And by the way, here are a couple more tips. Some people play videos without sound, so consider adding subtitles or text to your Ad You need to decide if you are doing pre-roll Ads that can be skipped after 3 or 4 seconds or the full unskippable 12 second Ads,

Andrew is doing RA Retail Arbitrage and selling Amazon FBA and is wondering about GS1 UPC “I am thinking of selling products on Amazon FBA, but I am not the brand owner. I read somewhere that it is mandatory to buy GS1 UPC to sell on Amazon I looked up the GS1 UPCs and they cost a fortune, is there a “legal” way around it?”   I love how you put the word “Legal” in quotation marks Andrew, I have great news for you! But before I tell you about the fantastic news I have, let me clear up the meaning of this. First, what is a UPC and what is GS1 UPC? UPC stands for the universal product code, it is, in simpler terms the barcode. GS1 stands for Global Standards 1, this is a not for profit agency that supplies manufacturers with a company prefix, this prefix is used in GTINs and this stands for (Global Trade Item Numbers). If you are planning on selling your products on Amazon, the products will need to have a GS1 GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) Now let’s get to the good news I have for you. You don’t need anything, my friend. According to your message, you are selling products of which you are not the manufacturer. This means you are doing RA (RA stands for retail arbitrage) it when you buy products from a retailer at a discount and then sell online at full price. In this situation, you don’t need to buy anything, because the manufacturer already has a UPC printed on the item. BTW here is a Curious fact: The very first barcode ever scanned was in 1974 June 26th it was a 5 pack of Juicy Fruit gum. But let’s get back on track. The only thing you need is an FNSKU, now here is a big word! But don’t worry about it, I’ll make it simple for you. An FNSKU is the Amazon barcode. and they require their barcode to be placed over the existing UPC on the product. This FNSKU is provided by Amazon for free, and all you need to do is print them and stick them on each product. When creating your shipment to send to Amazon FBA (this means Fulfilled By Amazon), they will give you these barcodes.   That’s all my friend Good luck, and when you are ready to go the Private Label route, then you will have to look at this GS1 situation again. Until then, keep profiting   Video from GS1 attached        

Is it possible to reach 1 Million dollars in sales the first year selling on Amazon FBA? Today we have a question from Miguel about selling on Amazon “Hey, Quin Thanks for all the free content on the podcast. I have a question about Amazon. I just started selling a couple months ago, but I’m not even close to the numbers I see other people share on Facebook groups. My question to you is: Do you really believe it is possible to reach One million dollars in sales the first year selling on Amazon?” That is a great question, Miguel. I have 2 things to tell you about this question 1 – I will start with the least important. I want you to know something about the Facebook screenshots. Every single time you see a screenshot of a seller account that has numbers on it, they are trying to sell you something. It doesn’t matter if the numbers are small, medium or huge. And, it doesn’t matter if there is no sales pitch attached or not! You are being sold to! That’s it!  Most times when the screenshot shows big numbers, the seller has a course to sell or is trying to sell someone else’s course for a commission. But sometimes they may just be trying to sell themselves! what does this mean, you may ask? Well, it means that this Amazon seller is trying to get attention to his profile, so you can snoop around and see he is a business growth coach, has developed some software, or has a new FB group and are looking for people to join. Others are expecting a bunch of PMs from users (and they will get them, trust me) But no matter what, every single time, there is something being sold!   2 – This is the most important point of the 2, and I want you to listen very carefully to this! Making 1 million dollars in gross sales, selling on Amazon is possible and happens more often than in non-Amazon businesses, BUT… That doesn’t mean anything! Making a million bucks in sales is not a stat to be proud of. Don’t get me wrong, a million bucks is lots of money, but selling a million doesn’t mean you get to keep anything. A good goal would be to net $200k or $250k. Now those are real numbers that matter. Actually, I know many sellers making over a million and some making several million per year, but they are very very tight financially because there is no cash flow. They are running high sales numbers but tinny margins, so it’s more of a volume game, and those are pretty risky! So, to answer your question, yes it is possible, but that is not the most important number you should look at. By the way, Always define your goals, or else they will not mean anything if you achieve them. Set your goals and write them down! That’s it for today. I hope this helps and make sure to listen to our last episode: My Amazon FBA Fees Are Wrong   Thanks QA  

Amazon FBA Fees Age, is shipping his new product to Amazon FBA, but he noticed in his inventory that the Amazon FBA fees are over $18. The product is the size of a book and only weighs 3.4 ounces. The sale price is $21 and he believes the fees are too much. Well Age, the fees are ridiculous. This tells me that the problem may be an easy one to fix. Amazon FBA has the wrong dimensions of your product’s package. I say the product package because the product most times could be bigger than the package. If it requires assembly, if it’s inflatable or if it extends. My recommendation is to check your packaging dimensions on the listing, and if it looks correct contact Amazon seller support to fix the problem. I believe that as soon as your product arrives they may find the error and fix it on their own. To contact support, open seller support and on the top right of the page, click help, then when the window opens scroll down and press “contact us” Hope this helps Check out the last episode here: Amazon FBA, Can My Friends or Family Buy My Products | Ep. #106   Thanks Quin  

I often see people asking if their co-worker, mother sister or their dog can buy their Private label product on Amazon FBA… Of  course, they can buy your product on Amazon FBA Everyone can, and should buy your product! Someone mentioned on a Facebook group that anyone that is friends with you on Facebook is not allowed to buy your product! What??? So, you honestly think Amazon can see who my friends are, and even if they could, they would even go through the trouble of checking my friend’s lists and comparing reviews per IP or per friends name and address? If you believe that would happen, you live in a world of paranoia! Let everyone that you know buy you private label product or even your retail arbitrage products. Actually, you should convince them to buy bigger quantities, lol To be quite honest I share my products links with friends and family all the time. what I don’t do is ask them to give me a review. This is an Amazon FBA episode, but you can also hear or read: what should I do to supplement my degree to be successful in marketing field    

Marketing I am currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, but I am unsure of what I should be doing to supplement my degree in order to be successful in the marketing field. My school offers co-operative programs to gain experience, but is there any other paths I should explore to make myself an exceptional candidate for potential careers in the future?   Hi Kaylee-Shaye, Excited to be connected with you on the Career Advice Hub. First off, congrats on going after a BBA. The main characteristics I would look for in a marketer would be creativity and focus. If there’s any co-operative program that can help you with those, jump on it immediately. A tip for when you are ready to apply for your future career is to make a video cover letter! The agency that receives a video cover letter has to appreciate the creativity and out of the box thinking. Plus a smiley face has 10x better chance of causing a good impression that the piece of paper with old-school copyright. Meanwhile the top of the marketing “food chain” is online advertising and lead generation with sales funnels. Oh yea and most agencies appreciate if you are Google certified (gives them better rep)   here are the training links I mentioned: Facebook Training Google Training Google Certification  (Requires Logins, but all are free) And don’t forget to check out our last episode: Paid Search Ads and Analytics to Consulting and Marketing Strategy   Looking forward to chatting soon. Quin

Kreig’s message to you I’d like advice for careers and knowledge within the digital marketing field. This would revolve around paid search advertising and analytics, with a potential pivot into consulting and marketing strategy. What steps do you think are necessary to “be successful” in this area? What new graduate programs at which companies would you recommend? Hi Kreig, Excited to be connected with you on the Career Advice Hub. It’s very cool that you mentioned paid search! The world seems to have turned their back on paid search and everyone is using the exact same FB “hyper-targeting” techniques. Now that everyone is using FB, there is a lot more room on Adwords and at a lower cost. But not only Google, also the engine that everyone hates (Bing) has cheap search term costs. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been managing FB Ad campaigns for over 5 years now and will continue to do so. But always remember that the best way to stand out is to get out of the crowd. As for consulting, I think that the best way is to market yourself first. Turn yourself into an authority using your marketing skills in social media. Often when you provide accurate support in a group, you will get people adding you and sending PMs

Paid Tools For Amazon FBA Rose is currently in the product selection phase of her private label business, to sell on Amazon FBA and she is asking about subscribing to Paid Tools For Amazon FBA “First, tons of thanks for your podcasts which I stumbled upon a couple of months ago and which I’ve binged on like my life depended on it! You have lots of useful info and to think that you are dishing it out for free –thank you!! Now to my question – I’ve been researching on Amazon selling – FBA and have developed a list of products that I am interested in. At this point, it is a laundry list from which I’ll narrow on one to start with. (I took your advice about starting with a single product and get my baptism by fire, hopefully live to launch a second one) Now to my question: should I at this point subscribe to a tool like Jungle Scout to help me refine my list? I know there is a monthly cost to it, but I’m thinking of it as a cost of doing business. If by shelling 26$ a month at this point I have a better chance, I would be willing to do that. I would be glad to hear what your thoughts are re-employing these tools early – before starting to sell, as opposed to later… Thank you, Quin, for taking your time to answer. I greatly appreciate it. Rose”   Hello Rose, Thank you so much for the kind words and for being a listener. There are many Paid Tools For Amazon FBA, and lots do the exact same things. As for Jungle Scout, it is an amazing tool, but everything it does can be done for free when you are starting out. The extension used to find products can be replaced by the free Unicorn Smasher (http://www.unicornsmasher.com) And the monthly tracking can easily be done manually when you are starting with just one product. Obviously, the easy way is to use al the tools, but often when starting every dollar counts. Tools For Amazon FBA Another free tool you should add to your research is Keepa (https://keepa.com) this will tell you the history of the product if it has been selling for a long time, and for how much. That will help filter products that are not proven yet or the ones that are seasonal. Both these free tools have a Chrome extension (if you are using a PC) Keeps will open below the products bullet points and before the description.(everytime you open Amazon) Unicorn Smasher will open on top of your Amazon page, just like Jungle Scout would. Several tools offer free trials, but you should wait until you have products being sold before trying. Another thing to remember is that all free trials that ask for the credit card, will automatically start charging you when the trial is over. My advice is if you are going to spend money starting up, do it in the pictures (people buy with their eyes) One more thing Rose, double check all your expenses and fees before pulling the trigger on any product, make sure you know about Amazon’s pick and pack fee, storage fees, shipping costs, tax, PPC. Some products are so competitive, that nobody besides the top 3 players can squeeze a profit. I hope this helps, Rose Feel free to contact anytime Don’t forget to listen to the last episode: What’s The Best Way To Get US Bank Account To Sell On Amazon | Ep #102 Quin

Hi. I’d assume that there would be a big benefit from having a US bank account or two when selling on Amazon.com. What’s the best way to get one? Hey Ed, that is a great question that most non-US sellers forget about. I’m not sure what country you are in, but there are great benefits of having a US bank account. Actually, I can only think of 1 benefit, but it is a big one. It’s 2 to 3% of your conversion. So the more you sell the bigger the amount you will lose during the transactions if your account is not in the US. Technically your bank doesn’t need to be in the US. For example, in Canada, there are a couple options of Canadian banks that offer that service. Like the RBC Access US account. Amazon will send US dollars to will send US$ to any ACH enabled bank account, so ask your bank if they have that option. Normal accounts in Canada use CCH to handle money transfers. On top of this, you can use the USD from that account to pay your Chinese suppliers, and you save again for the second time

MailChimp email campaigns Do you recommend using MailChimp for a customer email list and for sending out email campaigns? First of all, sorry for the delay in replying. Someone send a couple thousand spam emails and I had to go through all, to make sure I didn’t lose Non-spam emails

REALTOR®  is not what you thought it was! Learn how the person selling Real estate is not always a REALTOR® and why Real Estate and some Registered/ Trademarked terms, the whole story: Hey everyone, I have a great story to tell you today. This story may actually stop some of you from committing a crime! Doesn’t sound possible? Well, stick around until the end because you may have a huge surprise. Recently I started working on a video documentary. This documentary was going to be narrated by someone that sounded exactly like Sir David Attenborough. The documentary was going to focus on real estate agents. How some still use newspapers to advertise, versus how they could use digital marketing instead and actually be able to measure results, and on top of that get 10 times more leads. Anyway… We made a preview of the documentary, about 2 minutes long and launched it on YouTube, also shared it on the main page of our marketing site Prolific Zone, and after the first day, it already had over 500 views, and by the end of that week, it had surpassed 3500 views. But, not all of those views were from people who thought the video was funny. I received an email from the lawyers of (NAR) NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® NAR explained to me (very nicely actually) that that word I used in both my titles and description was a Registered Mark, and that not all real estate agents are REALTORS®. Also, the word has to be spelled in all capital letters. Well, if you know me before I believe anything I do research… and it is true. Yes, that is correct, REALTORS® is not the name of the profession (Real Estate Agent) like most of us think (or thought) It all started in very early 1900’s.  When NAR was called National Association of Real Estate Exchanges, then in 1916 became National Association of Real Estate Boards. In 1950 the term REALTOR® Was approved as a registered mark by the US Patent and Trademark Office and is reserved exclusively for members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® witch in 2004 surpassed for the first time 1 million members. Those terms were created and are owned by an association and have to be used correctly. For example, there is the situation of a domain squatter that bought 2000 domains with the term REALTOR® in them and added a geographical location to it, like San Francisco, or Washington, etc. When asked to comply he thought it would be easier to fight it because he thinks this is a normal dictionary term and he has the right to use it! Well… I can’t wait to see the end of that case. So now you know. Do not use the words REALTOR®, REALTORS® in the wrong way or not capitalized. Here is the link to what you can and cant do Here is the link to the Real Estate Agent video  Remember to listen to the last episode here

How to Make A Cover Letter That Will Get You Hired | Ep. #99 How To Make A Cover Letter A question that can in from the LinkedIn Carrer advice hub Hi Alyssa, Excited to be connected with you on the Career Advice product. If you are looking for innovative and creative ideas to apply for jobs in the marketing category, my advice is to create a video cover letter or resume. Most resumes can create a wrong first impression, but a smiling video will always be seen more than once and if they are looking for a creative and innovative person, guess who gets the job?

A question from the Linkedin career advice coach. “Where Do I Learn Social Media Management and Content Creation” The question came from Oyindamola “I want to work in social media management, marketing, and content creation, what would be your advice in terms of education?” Quick answer: I don’t recommend learning social media management, marketing, and content creation in college. I believe all the training resources are out there for free on places like youtube or Podcasts, and if you want something more organized, then you can take an online course. My actual answer: I’m happy to see that you like SMM and content creation, it looks like it’s the way to the future. In terms of education, I believe the best option is to absorb as much free information as possible for free resources like Youtube. (don’t lose yourself watching non-productive videos, lol) Or even taking an online course. The best way to develop skills is to work for an agency and learn what they do and how they do it. I hate wasting time so I would probably do both at the same time. Start your own in your spare time, while working for someone else Looking forward to chatting soon. Make sure to read or listen to my last podcast : Are You Judgemental Of People’s Websites, Landing Pages, and Domains | Ep. #97 Thanks QA

Today I want to ask you something, about how you see other online entrepreneurs’ businesses Are You Judgemental Of People’s Websites, Landing Pages and Domains? Please leave a comment with your answer, or contact me using this blob’s contact form. I can share your opinion or even interview you if you are interested. Websites, Landing Pages and Domains is where I find my pet peeves, lol Yes, it’s looking at other people’s Websites, Landing Pages and Domains       Thanks QA

Digital Marketing agencies are all learning from the same books the same courses and the same Gurus. Why are Social Media Marketing Agencies SMMA Only Targeting Dentists, Realtors, and Chyro? * Lead generation for dentists * Lead gen for real estate agents * Lead generation for chiropractic clinics Every digital marketing agency in North America is targeting these 3 professions and they are starting to get sick of it! Some do it right and know how to cold call or cold email, but the spamming techniques from years past are coming up, from the new marketers who have taken an online 2-day course and now are using the techniques that used to work in the past. Let me tell you something that DOESN’T WORK: Trying to sell! Tring to sell is the worst technique when trying to sell something, I know it because I was there for many many years. Nobody ever is happy to see the “salesman” walk in the door. Nobody ever gets super excited about receiving a cold email! Nobody wants to be sold something! People always want to feel like it was their idea to purchase something, or even that they need that something. Your job is to mention the benefits of a service without trying to sell them. This is why the word of mouth is so effective, because it is someone else, doing the selling of the service as a 3rd party! But… enough of this. Let’s jump on to who else can your target audience be if you own or work for a SMMA Social Media Marketing Agency: 1 – Weight Loss Industry I don’t mean the companies out there trying to sell supplements for weight loss, although they could also be a good option if the company is big enough. I mean the surgery clinics. The clinic that is going to perform the Gastric bypasses. last year over 250k gastric bypass surgeries were performed in the US alone! Liposuction doctors, sleeve gastrectomy, etc   2 – Plastic Surgeons These are in high demand and are services that cost an arm and a leg (no pun intended) Ear surgery is actually the second most common plastic surgery every year in the US Boob jobs (they are called mammaplasty) Nose jobs, Lip fattening, Butt extensions (yes t is a real thing) Lots of money to be made here and these customers are not a 1-time customer so they will have a high Lifetime Value   3 – It Companies An IT company may be the client you get with the biggest Lifetime value as they can be valued from $25k to Half a million per 1 client!!!   4 – Bridal Shops I thought this one would be the obvious one to all the Social Media Marketing Agencies SMMA. The wedding is the second highest expense most people have during their lifetime. For some, it is actually the highest! And you are leaving out the bridal boutiques, bridal shops, and wedding photographers? The average wedding in North America costs $25k, and some people do it 2 or 3 times in their life, lol 5 – Lawyers – Divorce Layers Yes, these are great customers for the Social Media Marketing Agencies SMMA, because the cases are very quick. This means that the lawyer will get their pay very quick and easy.   6 – Car Dealerships These are great customers for the SMM Social Media Management These are the old school business people that more than likely want to have a social media following but don’t know how to develop it and create engagement. Also, you can generate leads for a car dealership very easily, as well as giving them some great local SEO search engine Optimization   This is all for today, and I hope you have subscribed t the podcast, leave a review and also jump over to my Youtube and follow me there Meanwhile,