Missing Something - Need Your Perspective

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Hey Guys,

I need some outside perspective from those who have had success and have 'been there and succeeded' before.

Background:
- I have been doing ECom for over 2 years (1.5 years full time)
- I am dedicated, typically putting in 60-70+hrs per week
- I have put serious effort into 3 different businesses
- I'm a tech guy so learning platforms / systems is not a problem for me
- I feel that I am lacking in knowledge about marketing, a problem which I am currently in the process of correcting
- I believe in learning from those with superior knowledge to me and have invested in training in the past

Current Issues:
- While I believe I now have a reasonable grasp of most ECom concepts, strategies and methods, other than one short burst of success for a couple of months (with DropShipping early in the COVID pandemic), I have not been able to consistently make profitable sales.
- I feel like there's something missing in my knowledge / approach which will tie everything together and allow me to be successful; the 'glue' which makes it al work, but I can't see what it is.
- I don't know what the optimal marketing approach is for a given product (eg; lead/traffic warming vs cold ads)
- I'm feeling quite lost and directionless right now; unsure how to proceed further

My Thoughts on Possible Causes / Solutions:
- It's possible that I'm not being persistent enough when it comes to marketing and that I am giving up too early (after a couple of months of solid marketing with no sales), but I find it difficult to judge when I'm just burning money vs persisting with testing & tuning as I have no frame of reference for this.
- Maybe I have to accept that I need to spend thousands of dollars testing advertising for a business which may not be successful / profitable?

I realize that this may not be enough info to work with; please ask me if you need more detail.

All constructive input greatly appreciated!
Thank you.

Sam.
#missing #perspective
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Hi Sam,

    You haven't mentioned what you're selling. The first factor in the success of any business is identifying a ready market that can be reached cost effectively. Do you know your potential buyers? Is your marketing and promotion set up to target them? Have you worked out how many sales you need to make to be profitable?

    You talk about ecom as if that was your business, rather than just the channel that facilitates it. If the offer is right to start with, the details will flow from that.
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    • Profile picture of the author SamboNZ
      Hi Frank,

      Two of my businesses were dropshipping, one was white labelled products with plans to manufacture my own products (niche supplements).

      The supplements business is the one I'd like to focus on.

      I originally identified 3 potential markets, but in the end a 4th demographic was the one which stood out based on my advertising results. I have adjusted my marketing to reflect this, but in retrospect have not put a lot of traffic through to the optimised marketing.

      I know my numbers and what I need to achieve in terms of sales to make a profit.

      I refer to ecom generically because I've tried my hand at a number of different ecom related ventures.

      I'd like to get my offer right, but I feel like I'm in a catch-22 situation; without sales data it's difficult to optimize my offer.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
        Originally Posted by SamboNZ View Post

        Hi Frank,

        Two of my businesses were dropshipping, one was white labelled products with plans to manufacture my own products (niche supplements).

        The supplements business is the one I'd like to focus on.
        Hi Sam,
        Frank asked you specific questions, so it would make a world of difference if You Would Give Specific Answers.
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        In the minute it took me to write this post.. someone died of Covid 19. RIP.
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        • Profile picture of the author SamboNZ
          Sorry, I posted prematurely and have just edited to correct.
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  • Profile picture of the author Emmanuel Stephen
    Banned
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  • Profile picture of the author SamboNZ
    Frank Donovan, did you have any further response to add?
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    • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
      Originally Posted by SamboNZ View Post

      Frank Donovan, did you have any further response to add?

      I originally identified 3 potential markets, but in the end a 4th demographic was the one which stood out based on my advertising results. I have adjusted my marketing to reflect this, but in retrospect have not put a lot of traffic through to the optimised marketing.
      It sounds like you're going in cold and trying to get sales via ad copy - but throwing advertising money at a potential "demographic" is an expensive means of research.

      My preference would be to first identify a buying market and then analyse the types of offers they're currently responding to. It could be they respond to authority figures or specific influencers. Maybe they frequent platforms you haven't yet come across where word-of-mouth recommendations play more of a part in the buying process. It would be worth getting to know your potential prospects (and maybe interacting with them) before committing to any ad campaign.
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      • Profile picture of the author SamboNZ
        It sounds like you're going in cold and trying to get sales via ad copy - but throwing advertising money at a potential "demographic" is an expensive means of research.
        So far my main approach has been to use lead magnets (ebooks etc) to collect leads (traffic from FB), then push these through an email marketing sequence (10 emails over 30 days) containing further free informational products and various levels of soft & hard sells for the supplement.

        I put over 1500 leads through this system but made no sales.

        I have tried some straight cold click marketing via FB, but I was not able to generate sales profitably (although in hindsight I don't think I gave this enough time to optimize; I gave up after ~$250 in ad spend with no sales).

        I have tried sending traffic to a Shopify store product page and a funnel, as well as providing product details in my emails.

        FB ad and opt-in rate was pretty good ($1 leads & 45% opt-in rate) and email engagement was also very good (~45% initial, down to ~25% for emails in the first week or so).

        So good stats, not good sales.

        I spent a lot of time on landing page, copy and offer optimization and while I am no expert, I feel that it should have warranted better results than I got.

        Thanks for the other tips.
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