AF213 - How to Market your Brand off Amazon with Jordan West

Jordan West is the founder and CEO of Mindful Marketing, and host of The Secrets to Scaling Your E-Commerce Brand Podcast. Today he joins the show to tell the story of buying his first business at age 22, tripling the sales within 5 years, then selling the store and starting a successful clothing line, “Little & Lively” with his wife, Carmen. Jordan talks about persevering through challenges as an entrepreneur, growing his brands, and launching his own digital marketing company, Mindful Marketing.

Jordan breaks down the advantages of digital marketing over retail and shares how he’s found so much success in e-commerce without using third-party platforms. He also talks about coupon code tracking, owning the entire customer experience, and building a community around your brand. Next, Jordan walks us through his brilliant “gated launch” marketing strategy, as well as how to create a VIP customer-base from the ground up, and how to use social media to effectively target and advertise to the right demographic. Finally, you’ll hear Jordan’s best tips for using SMS to connect with your customers, and he explains why exclusive products are so psychologically appealing to shoppers.

Whether you are looking to build your brand on Amazon or otherwise, today’s interview is packed with incredible strategies to help grow your business and take your marketing to the next level. 

For more information about Jordan West and Mindful Marketing, visit MindfulMarketing.co or check out @mindfulmarketingco on Instagram for daily tips and stories! You can also find Jordan on LinkedIn, or shop at his clothing line, Little & Lively here.

Join our Facebook group with today’s code word #marketing, where you can learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:  

•  Jordan’s story of buying a Taco Del Mar restaurant at age 22, starting a clothing line with his wife, and launching his e-commerce company, Mindful Marketing  
•  How Jordan discovered his passion for Marketing and Sales  
•  Digital marketing is much easier than getting people into retail, and you can better track the data of your customers to see what’s working and what’s not
•  Owning your traffic and your customers versus renting them - it’s important to think about diversifying to other platforms and building a community around your brands  
•  The “gated launch” and why it’s such a helpful strategy  
•  Five traffic levels of customer engagement  
•  Using social media to advertise and target the right demographics  

“Email works really well alongside SMS. So think of SMS as - that's your notification arm that you're going to let people know something is going on. Email is more of a communication tool to communicate more to your customer. I'd say if you could only build one of them, build SMS. All day long, build SMS.”

- Jordan West

WATCH:

LISTEN:

Quotes:

“I was always really good at the marketing side. And I'm like, I'm going to just start a marketing company that helps our brands.” 

“If you're not that sales person or marketer, don't be depressed. Find that person. If you're an Ops person, find the marketer and salesperson, because you have to do that - sell. You have to sell.”

“The one thing I was good at was getting people in the door right, figuring out...What do people need to get in here and purchase burritos?”

“Digital marketing is way easier than getting people into retail.”

“I learned a lot owning a franchise. And the one thing I learned is that I do not want somebody to control whether somebody is going to buy something from me or not, and control my product, control my supply chain.”

“What I'm obsessed with is building brands and communities. So every brand that we acquire, or build, has community based around it.”

“We really want to own that entire experience with our customers. And that's been our main reason to stay off of the third party plus platforms. That doesn't mean that that's right for everybody. But for us, and the brands that we're building, that's the right move.”

“Putting impediments in people's way, somehow gets them to buy more… We're really trying to create that buzz and that hype, and it works. It works every single time. ”

“In my mind, SMS and the Facebook VIP community- that is the golden ticket in 2021.”

“Building the VIP community is a labor. It takes a long time. So one thing that we did for a long time is, every single new customer who would order, we would send a personalized video to them, inviting them into the VIP community.”

“That's a big red flag - when I look at a brand and people only purchase once, there is a huge problem with that brand. I want people purchasing over and over and over.”

“Facebook, Instagram - always. That is where your customers are… TikTok, awesome. TikTok influencers is incredibly cheap traffic right now.”

“If somebody stays on that list, they are worth a lot of money to you. That is what I would build first is SMS, and then next, email.”

Related Content:

• Confident Wholesale Bundlers Workshop - Coupon code: workshop50
• Wholesale Bundle System
• Email questions
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
• The Amazon Files Hub
• Q4 Jumptstart 2021
• BrickSeek

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword #marketing to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.