[LWN] šŸ˜° Broke, Hungry, And Looking For Work

Lunch With Norm's Weekly Newsletter - Amazon News & Updates

āœŠ  MY DAYS AS A DOOR-TO-DOOR SALESMAN

This newsletter is proudly sponsored by:

What youā€™ll find in this weekā€™s newsletter:

  •  āœŠ My Days As a Door-to-Door Salesman [True Story]

  • šŸšØ Amazon Accelerate Recap - What You Missed!

  • šŸ—žļø Latest Amazon News and Updates

  • šŸ” Packaging That Shouldnā€™t Workā€¦ But Does

  • šŸ¤– AI Is Coming For Your Business

Donā€™t forget to catch up on this weekā€™s Marketing Misfits here

āœŠ My Days as a Door-to-Door Salesman [True Story] 

Back in 1985, I dropped out of college.

It wasnā€™t the smartest thing to do, considering I was in my last semester.

I was between jobs and really needed money.

I stumbled upon an opportunity to be a door-to-door salesperson for starving artistsā€™ artwork.

Every day, I was dropped off in a random neighborhood, knocking on strangersā€™ doors and doing my best to sell art from a grocery bag.

During that time, I met a great guy who was also a salesperson.

His name was Nathan, and he was from England.

Imagine the toughest English accent, and that was him.

For some reason, we really hit it off.

We quickly became good friends.

We soon figured out that if we showed this really crappy art from a ā€œnobodyā€ artist to people (from a garbage bag), nobody would buyā€¦ Duh.

We started framing the artwork before going to the houses.

On our rides to these neighborhoods, Nathan and I would discussed the stories of these artists.

There was Margot, the impressionist.

We talked about her struggles in art college and how she loved creating art that reminded her of her childhood home.

There was Jerome from Paris, who specialized in realism.

He was a hopeless romantic, obsessed with painting objects that reminded him of his first love in France.

Or Claude.

He painted incredible landscapes of mountains because he knew he could never afford to travel to these places himself, so he painted them in his basement apartment instead.

I didnā€™t know it at the time, but by doing this, we were focusing on the personal brands of these artists.

Remember too, at this time it was either sell the artwork, or not eat.

I luckily made enough to cover my small apartment, and pay for food.

One day, we were in a small city called Guelph.

I took one neighborhood, and Nathan took another.

After my shift, I came back to the van, and Nathan wasnā€™t back yet.

I asked the other guys, ā€œHey, whereā€™s Nathan?ā€

Nobody knew.

We eventually found out that he had gone to the wrong house.

He did his spiel about the artist and walked into the house, thinking he was going to get his sale for the day.

It turns out he had gone to the home of an immigration officer.

He was grabbed and thrown into custody.

He was deported back to London.

He was in the wrong house at the wrong time.

Things can change in the blink of an eye.

Appreciate each day, whether itā€™s business, friends, or family.

Life can change incredibly quickly.

Enjoy the rest of the newsletter.

ā€” Norm

PS

I want to give a BIG shout out to my friend, Colin C. Campbell, the author of Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat.

He is now the #1 best seller for Business Development & entrepreneurship eBooks on Amazon.

Colinā€™s the real deal and this book is priceless.

Congrats my friend.

WALMART MARKETPLACE ACCELERATES GROWTH

Join Walmart Marketplace to be a part of our new Collectibles Experience. Through our limited-time referral fee offer, sellers specializing in collectorsā€™ items will have the chance to enjoy 0% referral fees until October 31, 2024, plus additional perks!

Do you sell in the Trading Cards, Sports Memorabilia, Toys, Comic Books & Books, Media & Music and/or Coins categories?

Then you could be a great fit for our Collectibles Experience! 

Learn more and sign up to sell on Walmart Marketplace today.

šŸ—žļø AMAZON NEWS & UPDATES šŸ—žļø

WHATā€™S HAPPENING IN THE WORLD OF AMAZON TODAYā€¦

AMAZON ACCELERATE RECAP

Amazon's annual seller conference, Amazon Accelerate unveiled several innovations to boost seller success.

šŸšØ Skip the recap and read the deep diveā†’ here

Hereā€™s what you missed:

  1. AI Integration:

    • Project Amelia: An AI-powered assistant in Seller Central offering personalized guidance on inventory, forecasting, marketing, and account health.

    • Generative AI for Amazon Ads: Create engaging ad images and videos instantly, leveling the playing field for smaller brands.

    • AI-driven listing optimization: Automatic generation of titles, bullet points, and descriptions, plus personalized product titles based on shopping preferences.

  2. Global Expansion:

    • Focus on the $632 billion European e-commerce market opportunity.

    • New tools: Global Accounts feature for managing international campaigns, multi-country campaign manager for running ads in up to 5 countries simultaneously, and auto-localization for sponsored display ads.

  3. Buy with Prime (BWP) Updates:

    • PayPal integration coming in 2025 for seamless checkout.

    • BWP delivery estimates now visible on TikTok Ads.

    • Upgraded Shopify integration allowing combined Prime and non-Prime orders.

    • New advertising opportunities through Amazon DSP for BWP merchants.

  4. Sustainability Initiatives:

    • FBA Grade & Resell: Program for relisting unfulfillable inventory.

    • FBA Liquidations: Recover value from excess inventory.

    • FBA Donations: Contribute excess inventory to communities in need.

    • Launch of Amazon Sustainability Exchange and expanded Sustainability Solutions Hub.

  5. Supply Chain Improvements:

    • Fully-Managed Supply Chain option: Comprehensive solution for third-party sellers to streamline logistics from manufacturers to customers globally.

    • Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) updates: Now accepting oversized and expiration-dated inventory, implementing First-In-First-Out (FIFO) method.

  6. New Seller Tools:

    • Veeqo Profit Analyzer: Provides detailed insights into product profitability, helping track financial performance.

    • Customer Journey Analytics: Allows sellers to follow customers from interest to conversion, offering advanced audience segmentation.

    • AI-powered Business Planner: Merges sales, traffic, and market data for dynamic, real-time planning.

    • Custom Analytics: Enables interactive dashboards for data visualization and trend analysis.

Key Action Items for Sellers:

  • Start integrating AI tools like Project Amelia into your workflow to automate tasks and improve efficiency.

  • Research and test European markets using Amazon's global advertising tools before full-scale expansion.

  • For off-Amazon sales, prepare to leverage new Buy with Prime features, including PayPal integration and TikTok ad capabilities.

  • Utilize the new Customer Journey Analytics tool to create more targeted promotions and improve customer retention.

PS they also announced 1-hour drone delivery for the future - ā€œOur goal is 500 million drone deliveries in the next few years.ā€

šŸšØ Read more about the Amazon Accelerate conference here

IN OTHER NEWS:

šŸš¢ U.S. importers are pulling in goods early as possible port strike draws closer - Retailers and manufacturers are rushing in merchandise and pushing shipments to other gateways as walkouts on the East and Gulf Coasts grow more likely - Read More 

šŸšØ Amazon has a new return policy - Read More

šŸ“¢ Amazon CEO ends remote work, tells staffers to return to 5 days in-office - Read More

šŸ¤– Amazon debuts Project Amelia, an AI assistant for sellers - Read More

šŸ’° Reduction in domestic and Pan-EU small oversize FBA fulfilment fees - Read More

Send free products to Micro-Influencers using the platform Stack Influence which automates Micro-Influencer collaborations at scale (get thousands of collabs per month) and increase your Amazon growth, generate UGC, and boost up your brand awareness like never before.

Top Amazon brands like Magic Spoon, Unilever, and MaryRuth Organics have been able to get to #1 page positioning on Amazon and increase their monthly revenue as high as 13X in as little as 2 months. 

  • šŸ¤‘ Pay influencers only with products (stop negotiating fees)

  •  šŸš€ Increase external traffic Amazon sales (get to top page rankings)

  •  šŸ“ø Get full rights image/video UGC (build your brand with authentic content)

  •  šŸ¤– 100% automated management (donā€™t lift a finger to get influencer collabs at scale)  

Don't believe it? 

Check out the results from the Blueland Micro Influencer campaign which generated a 13X ROI scaling up influencers on Amazon. After successfully raising investment on Shark Tank Blueland turned to Stack Influence to boost their Amazon sales and become a top selling listing using Micro Influencer marketing.

Increase your Amazon listings ranking for targeted keywords before Oct Prime Day is upon us! Get 10% OFF signing up in September.

THE EXTREMELY ODD PACKAGING OF ANGUSTURA BITTERS

Have you ever seen these oversized labels of Angostura bitters bottle?

 

200 years ago, the brothers behind the Angostura brand were entering their recipe in a contest.

One brother worked on the bottle, and the other worked on the label.

When it came time to put the two together, they realized that they were both different sizes.

They slapped that label on the bottle and entered the contest anyway.

They ended up losing the contest, but the judge pulled them aside afterwards.

He told them that their wonky label had really made the product stand out.

He insisted they run with it.

Fast forward 200 years and Angostura is probably one of the biggest brands in bitters.

Their aesthetic and oversized label dominates their entire category.

This is your sign to make your brand weird, loud, different, anything but normal.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE BEARD GUY?

Can you find Norm in the picture below? Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see the answer!

 

 

WHAT YOU MISSED LAST WEEK

Increase Your Amazon growth With Micro Influencers | William Gasner

Hereā€™s 7 Takeaways From This Episode:

  1. Start with Micro-Influencers:

    • Reach out to micro-influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers. Offer free products in exchange for posts to reduce costs. These influencers are more likely to engage with your product and produce authentic contentā€‹.

  2. Vet Influencers for Engagement, Not Just Followers:

    • Look for influencers with at least 5% engagement rates (likes, comments, shares) relative to their follower count. Avoid influencers who primarily receive one-word comments or emoji responses, which may indicate fake engagementā€‹.

  3. Leverage External Traffic to Boost Amazon Rankings:

    • Use influencers to drive high-quality external traffic to your Amazon listing. This can improve your ranking on Amazon, especially during product launchesā€‹.

  4. Repurpose User-Generated Content (UGC):

    • Collect and repurpose UGC for use across your Amazon listings, social media, and ads. UGC adds authenticity and can lead to higher conversion rates than professionally shot images.

  5. Encourage Influencer Creativity:

    • Give influencers creative freedom when promoting your product. Authentic, creative posts from influencers resonate more with audiences and tend to perform better than overly scripted contentā€‹.

    šŸšØ Check out Stack Influence here

 THIS WEEKā€™S EPISODE!

You can watch all episodes on YouTube or on my Facebook page at 12 pm ET on Wednesday!

Wednesday - Be Your Own Creator For Your Brand

Our guest is a seasoned eCommerce veteran, who has transitioned from writing product descriptions in the early 2000s to becoming a viral content creator on TikTok.

Her recent videos have landed her in major publications like People Magazine, Glamour, and Newsweek as she promotes healthy, organic alternatives through TikTok Shop.

In this episode, find out:

  • How to present yourself as the face of your business

  • Strategies to go viral

  • How to edit your videos with ease

Join us us 12 pm ET on Wednesday! šŸ˜Ž

Watch LIVE šŸ‘‰ Sign up here

DONā€™T MISS THIS WEEKā€™S MARKETING MISFITS!

AI IS COMINGā€¦ ARE YOU PREPARED?

A lot of people are worried that AI is going to be taking their jobs.

Iā€™m not going to sugar coat itā€¦

AI IS going to be putting us out of business.

It's going to happen.

You can see it with PPC agencies already.

Thereā€™s no competing with AIā€™s consistency and accuracy.

How can a 20 person PPC agency compete with an AI that needs only 1 or 2 people to look over the exact same amount of accounts.

Are you prepared?

šŸšØ Watch the full episode here

MEMORY LANE

Here's a picture of my family dog.

Now youā€™re probably thinkingā€¦ ā€œWhat F@#$ is wrong with your dog.ā€

In your head this dog is super aggressive, a risk to small children, and vicious.

But in reality, that couldn't be further from the case.

And thatā€™s exactly my point.

With one image, youā€™ve built a whole identity around my dog in your head.

That is exactly what customers do with your product packaging.

If it doesn't align with your messaging right off the bat, expectations will be shattered and customers will be disappointed.

You need to heavily communicate your messaging from that very first second.

Then, use storytelling, customer testimonials, or behind-the-scenes content to build your brand values.

First impressions matter.

Sabian really was the sweetest dog.

  šŸŒŽ UPCOMING EVENTS

MARK DOWN THESE EVENTS! 

October 14-16 - Austin, Texas - Virtual [free]

Oct 29 - New York - Starting from $495

Nov 3 - Chiang Mai - $595

ā†’ FULL CALENDAR ā†

And thatā€™s it, Beardos!

Let me know what youā€™d like me to feature in the newsletter by replying back to this email.

P.S. Make sure you donā€™t miss any updates by joining our community here.

See you next Monday!

- Norm

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