Episode Nine Scott Cunningham - Stop Marketing For The Sake Of Marketing

Scott is the founder and managing director of Social Lite Communications, a full-stack digital marketing and design agency. A certified Shopify expert, Scott is an industry leader in helping e-commerce merchants scale.

First, Scott explains what will get in the way of measurable results in business. The biggest obstacle is steep learning curves every time you start a project. A learning curve shouldn’t get in the way of your staff’s performance. If something takes a long time to learn, it will prevent you from getting excellent work done.

Then, Scott explains what is no longer working in digital marketing. Scott says that doing more marketing for the sake of marketing is no longer working. If you’re a startup, then you might be at the crawling stage of your business. When you are financing your startup, branding, and inventory should be 1/3 of the total spend, and 2/3 should be promotion. Businesses that are at a walking stage are at $20,000 to $100,000 a month. The companies that are at a running stage are making $100,000 to $1,000,000 a month.

Businesses that are at a crawl are guilty of not investing enough money into marketing. You can’t put out a few ads and expect people to show up. You don’t want to do more marketing until you validate the market for your product. Scott says that you need to validate your product market. They should have at least $1,000 to $2,000 coming into the store. Once you proved your concept, you can spend more money on inventory. Then, you’ll be ready to do more marketing.

When starting your business, validate it through a small circle first. For instance, one of Scott’s clients sells CBD dog food. She wasn’t allowed to advertise. Instead, she called the Golden Retriever Club of America. She has tripled her business three years in a row. It all started with a small community and validating her product market. People get distracted by shiny apps. Think about the core strategy behind the app before marketing on that application or website.

If you’re not confident in your idea, then it’s not going to work. Scott says that potential clients ask him to sign an NDA before explaining their product idea. However, once the product launches, people are still allowed to rip it off. If you want to be a step ahead with your product, get buy-in from your community first. When your organisation is booming, your product will be valid.

Stay tuned as Scott reveals the importance of looking at your product reviews, how to understand the success of your campaign, and the number one rule of copywriting.

-      “Don’t do more marketing for the sake of doing marketing.”

-      “Before investing in inventory, prove the concept.”

-      “If the product is proven to add value to a specific customer segment, it’s going to be a lot easier to market.”

-      “We can never spend enough time getting to know what keeps our customers up at night.”

In This Episode:

• [ 2:50 ] About Scott’s work
• [ 6:10 ] Why you need to avoid steep learning curves
• [ 11:00 ] What isn’t working in the world of digital marketing
• [ 26:20 ] What is working in the world of digital marketing  
• [ 32:50 ] How to understand the success of your campaign  

Links Mentioned: 

• Scott’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-cunningham-10517199/
• Scott’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scott.cunning/
• Merchant Mastery: https://www.facebook.com/groups/merchantmastery/
• BFCM + Holiday Campaign Cours