EP.158/ ELAN PURE
The Creator Economy: Revolutionizing Ecommerce Customer Acquisition with Elan Pure Founder Paige Hope
Paige Hope, Founder of Elan Pure, a non-toxic self tanner, shares her journey in launching her e-commerce brand with a background in the influencer technology space. Paige emphasized the importance of community and transparency, noting her brand's growth from 75 to 1,600 affiliates in a year. She discussed the challenges of finding the right manufacturer and the significance of owning the formula. Paige also detailed her retention strategies, including early access to new products, educational content, and intentional post-purchase communication to reduce customer doubt. She stressed the value of small initial orders and the importance of founder involvement in community building.
EP. 158
PAIGE HOPE
Introduction and Background of Paige 0:00
Mariah Parsons introduces Paige and mentions discovering her on LinkedIn.
Paige shares her background in the E-commerce world, starting six to seven years ago with an influencer technology stack.
Paige describes her role as the third employee, building the company from the ground up.
The company helped scale influencer and creator networks, emphasizing the importance of community for brand longevity.
Transition to Personal Brand and Health Challenges 1:52
Paige discusses the acquisition of her company by Pattern, a global e-commerce accelerator.
She shares her personal motivation for starting her own brand, inspired by her sister's autoimmune disease and her own hormonal challenges.
Paige introduces her non-toxic self-tanner, highlighting the challenges of finding the right manufacturer.
She emphasizes the importance of transparency and community in her brand's mission.
Challenges in Manufacturing and Product Development 2:09
Mariah Parsons shares her background in neuroscience, focusing on toxins in beauty products.
Paige explains the difficulties of finding the right manufacturer for her non-toxic self-tanner.
She advises founders to own their formula and work directly with chemists to ensure quality and transparency.
Paige stresses the importance of understanding the fine print in manufacturing agreements and starting with small orders to avoid waste.
Building a Community and Early Adopters 2:26
Paige discusses the importance of community in her brand's success, starting with 75 affiliates and growing to 1600.
She emphasizes the value of early adopters and the importance of building a genuine community.
Paige shares her approach to retention, including engaging with customers and providing opportunities for feedback.
She highlights the launch of the Living Alana podcast to educate and engage the community.
Affiliate Program and Customer Retention Strategies 2:38
Paige outlines her framework for building an affiliate program, starting with three audience types and identifying relevant creators.
She explains the importance of being present on all social platforms and engaging with the community regularly.
Paige discusses the use of technology stacks like Pattern Creator to add value and maintain engagement.
She shares her approach to customer retention, including automations, educational emails, and offering discounts to encourage repeat purchases.
Customer Experience and Post-Purchase Communication 32:59
Paige emphasizes the importance of a positive post-purchase experience to reduce the "zone of doubt" for customers.
She describes her brand's approach to customer communication, providing educational content and timely updates.
Paige discusses the potential launch of a subscription model to further enhance customer retention.
She advises founders to bake in discounts and commissions to accommodate promotions and maintain customer satisfaction.
Influencer and Affiliate Engagement 33:11
Paige shares her philosophy on working with influencers and affiliates, emphasizing the importance of mutual benefit.
She discusses the potential of micro-influencers and the role of customer-generated content in building brand awareness.
Mariah Parsons highlights the importance of founder-facing content and being comfortable on camera.
Paige and Mariah agree on the value of transparency and authenticity in building a strong brand community.
Final Thoughts and Future Plans 33:23
Mariah Parsons and Paige discuss the importance of continuous learning and adapting in the e-commerce space.
Paige shares her excitement about upcoming product launches and the potential for growth.
They both express their enthusiasm for future collaborations and supporting each other's brands.
The conversation concludes with mutual appreciation and a commitment to stay connected.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was completed by an automated system, please forgive any grammatical errors.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
customer retention, ecommerce, order tracking, transactional emails, non-toxic self-tanner, influencer marketing, community building, product development, affiliate program, customer experience, subscription model, early adopters, brand loyalty, marketing automation, customer feedback
SPEAKERS
Paige Hope, Mariah Parsons
Mariah Parsons 00:00
Music. Hello and welcome to retention Chronicles, the customer retention podcast for E commerce marketers, I am your host and fellow ecom marketer, Mariah Parsons. Tune in as I speak with DTC founders and operators about strategy that works and strategy that doesn't of course, we are able to have these conversations because of our podcast sponsor, Malomo. I have seen 1000s of brand operators power their order tracking with Malomo to make every single message count. As a consumer, I personally have come to expect that brands have a phenomenal post purchase experience, or else I'm not really shopping with them again. And a lot of consumers are this way. 84% of shoppers won't return if they have a bad shipping experience. And it feels so important for E commerce brands to have a good pre purchase experience. You're trying to get that acquisition. Your customers are coming through the door. They're coming through your website, it is a very personalized experience. You have pop ups that are timed Well, you have customer testimonials that are easing fears. You have well timed car abandonment, emails, all of that stuff. And then you purchase with a brand, and sometimes there's no communication, and it leaves you wondering. It leaves you mad, maybe scared that you fell for a scam or something like that. And so I think it is such a smart decision to have your transactional shipping emails and SMS not just be about only business. Malomo helps turn them into a powerful marketing tool. What does that look like? It means you can cross sell other products on that branded order tracking page. You can put educational content on that page. So if you have something that consumers will have to learn how to use for the first time, you can put that there. If you have recipes that they could you know, use your product for when they first get it. You can put that there, your social media, everything, frequently asked questions, whatever you want. You get the control back so that you're not sending your customers to a carrier tracking page, you're putting them right back on your website, and you're also keeping them informed about their order status while you do it. That's the beautiful thing about this platform, if you're ready to turn your order notifications into a marketing channel and join 1000s of E commerce brand operators in making their customers happier while also adding to your brand's profits. Visit go malomo.com that's g, O M, a, l, o, M, o.com Hello everyone, and welcome back to retention Chronicles. I'm psyched for today's episode, a little bit of background on Paige. She just popped up on my LinkedIn algorithm, and I honestly de enter, and was like, Hey, do you want to come on this show I have? And she said, Yes. So I love that as just getting a little bit of context as to who you are. I can't wait to get to know you better on this episode and have you share more about your brand on this podcast. So with that, I will turn it over to you, Paige, and thank you for coming on the show.
Paige Hope 03:04
Well, thank you for having me, Mariah. It I always love when people message me on LinkedIn, because it means we're creating impact, and we can kind of help build each other up, which I'm always for. And so I was just telling Mariah before the show, I am on the podcast about twice a week. So my voice is a little lost today as well. Just a little FYI before I dive in. But oh my goodness, like way back when. I'll start with the E commerce world. I won't go before that, because I have had a quite a long career, and I started my E commerce journey about six, seven years ago, actually, and I helped build an influencer technology, tech stack. So we were, I was the let's see third employee. So it was the founder, me and the head engineer. And we were like, we're going to build this from the ground up. No launch. We're like, let's do this. I quit my really good job to come over and build this pipe dream that our founder at the time had. And so we started working with hundreds of brands and helping them scale their influencer and creator and affiliate networks. And it was the most beautiful thing, because we started to see the impact of community and what community actually does for brands, and it's not just about all of the ads and the money and all of the things and all of this. It's like no, no, when you're actually driving real impact and have real communities. That is where longevity happens with brands. So few years in. Gosh, I don't even know how many years at this point, so I apologize, but we ended up getting acquired by pattern, which they are a global e commerce accelerator. So a lot of you guys, if you're familiar in the Amazon world, they are massive in the Amazon ecosystem. So I stayed there for about a year during the transition, but behind the scenes, I was actually working on my own brand, and. And it really like what really helped catapult me into doing this was one my sister was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2020 which prevented her from being able to actually use beauty products because of all the toxins that are in these products. And a lot of people are in toxic overload right now. And I was like, this is a change that I can get behind, because I was also suffering with my own hormonal challenges. And I was like, if I don't start doing some preventative measures, I could end up like my sister, who is still on this lifelong recovery. And so I started working on our non toxic self tanner. And I started with that, because I always like to tell people I'm Danish, I'm very I'm like, transparent. I'm so white, literally,
Mariah Parsons 05:45
relatable. I am like, Canadian, Scottish and Irish. So it's just all in English. It's just all, all the fun mix, you
Paige Hope 05:53
know, you gotta, like, love it too. Like, you're like, you know, I love it. And I'm also, like, I was meant to be born this way, because this is, like, the vessel at which I'm supposed to create some of this impact. And so started working with the chemist. I kept, you know, changing manufacturer to manufacturer, because nobody understood what it meant to be non toxic and all of that. So I changed manufacturers a million times, and finally, we were able to get the industry's first foam and lotion, non toxic hybrid self tanner. So it was a really beautiful journey, but I will say, looking back like what gave me the confidence to just do it was I had these other founders and CEOs while building the tech company coming to me for advice. And I was like, spilling out all of these answers, like, well, this is what you need to do, do, to do, to do. And I was like, Whoa, Paige, like you can actually do this, like you've got this. And meanwhile, all of these other founders asking were the ones that were like, VC backed and have been in the industry for 2030, years and all of that. So I love it. Long winded answer here, no, that's
Mariah Parsons 07:08
perfect. There's like, already, like, five things that I want to dive into. And this is why I love the podcast, um, which Okay, first thing I want to dive into, um, toxic overload like that. So quick background going further back into my way before I got into E commerce. My background was in neuroscience, and so I actually had a class where it was like, studying different toxins and materials in beauty products. And I made it specifically in beauty products, because I was like, I want to know, but you could make it in, like, right? It was mostly looking, if there's lead in, like, old pipes and water and stuff like that, um, and so, um, long winded way of saying, like, I have studied this a very, very, very surface level, um, and just, you'd be surprised by how much, and I think it's coming to the surface now. So I, I, you know, I think, I think a lot of people are more aware of just greenwashing and, like, actually looking at your products. And, like, just because it says it's good for you doesn't necessarily mean it's good for you. You have to, like, really check the ingredients, whether it's beauty or, you know, food and Bev or anything like that. So I think that is what I also stumbled across your LinkedIn. I was like, non toxic self tanner. I was like, Oh, my God, so smart. Like, I was just like, wow, probably one of those moments. It's
Paige Hope 08:28
crazy, because I think a lot of people also don't realize that there are toxins in beauty products, because everything is legal here, right? Like, you can have anything which is put us into significant toxic overload, and that is why we have, you know, one in eight women struggle with PCOS, autoimmune diseases. Oh, I could go on and on, yep. And
Mariah Parsons 08:50
we just might, if we have enough time. So we might, yeah, yeah, we might. Something tells me, you and I would need a little bit more time, um, than our allotted podcast time. But for later, for later, we'll just, we'll, we'll put a pin in it. But, yeah, it's like, and people that don't realize you know that your skin obviously absorbs a lot, and so it makes a lot of sense that what you're putting on it, obviously, if it has a lot of toxins in it, can be very dangerous. And so I want to talk a little bit, because you also said that you had switched a lot of manufacturers right along the way. And I think that's something that because this podcast is obviously for current founders, but also people who want to become founders, and in that seat of like, okay, what this even looked at like, breaking down the actual steps and the decision, decisions, the successes, the not so successes, all that fun stuff. And so I think manufacturers is one of those things where it's like, That is terrifying, because you're trusting someone else with your product, and you also like, you have to get samples and try it out. And, like, just the journey of finding manufacturers and then having to be like, Oh God, these weren't the ones. Like, I have to do that process all over again. Is a lot. So can you walk me through? Like, how did you handle the. You know, I have, I have this idea, I want to bring it to market, but the manufacturing side is just like painstakingly. You have to find the right partner, and it can take a lot,
Paige Hope 10:10
I think. Like for one, the manufacturing world is slimy, like I just tell every founder, just beware manufacturing. It's just slimy. And you really have to ask all of the questions and find manufacturers, and also keep finding them. Like manufacturers also can go under like that, like one customer goes out of business, and that's maybe funding the whole company. Like you just don't know what can happen. And so I'm always searching. Now my biggest thing here was I gotten really good advice from someone after my first manufacturer, my first manufacturer, I didn't have visibility into the exact formula, percentages, etc, etc. And I was like, that's complete. Like, that's ridiculous. Like, what happens if this company goes under? Which I actually did, which is crazy, and I switched right before, which bless blessed, but bless up my Seriously, my biggest piece of advice here is, own your formula. So either go directly to a chemist to start, which is what I ended up doing afterwards. I was like, no, no, I'm cutting this out. I need to go directly to a chemist. I need to own my formula. I need to know exactly how the process works, what it is, etc, etc. And I think the biggest questions and the biggest learnings throughout that process was you need to read the fine print, like, really understand what are the minimum order quantities? I know that sounds so simple, but it's like, okay, well, what are the margins as your quantities increase and what like, we should know what their margins are. And we should know that as we grow, they grow. You know, there's just so many things. And I also was really smart. I mean, I'm not going to say I was really smart, but I can say, we can we can say that I'm just lucky. I always tell people I'm like, I actually, like, got the cheat code, because I got to work with all these founders and hundreds of brands to, like, get all of their secret sauce. You know what? It's always changing, and it's not always one size fits all, but it gives you really good discernment.
Mariah Parsons 12:11
And you don't know what you don't know until you know it right. Like, correct.
Paige Hope 12:16
And also, we all think we're invincible, and we all think our brand is going to, you know, pop off right away, right so I got really good advice to do a really small first order, and I think that was my saving grace, because every founder, when you launch, you don't realize that you're going to get massive product feedback, and you need to be able to pivot and adjust. You don't have to burn your inventory. I spent two years formulating this, and we still had to change the formula three months in to launch. And so it's like the biggest thing here is, I was just talking to a founder the other day, and he was like, oh, yeah, I want to launch with 20,000 units. And I was like, Well, what's your go to market? Like, do you already have a platform? Do you already have an email list? You
Mariah Parsons 13:02
have an audience somewhere? Like, he's like, No, and I'm
Paige Hope 13:05
like, he's like, that's just the recommended amount that my manufacturer said. And I was like, no, no. Literally, if you can start with 2500 if you can now, like, some won't do that, and you might have to do 5000 but I'm like, do not go over this when you first start, because you likely will be adjusting, and you want to adjust like that, like the quicker you can get feedback, the quicker you can have the best product on market, so that then you can start running the ads and doing other things to actually push it out. But we are just now at our year mark in our year markets. May we're just now going to be starting ads. We went all organic the first year because we were just learning, like, why burn cash when you are learning, yeah, and you are growing and, you know, doing all that
Mariah Parsons 13:48
stuff, and people too, like, I think this is one of the things that I've also learned from talking to founders through this podcast, or through, you know, Malomo, and it is so important those, like, early adopters, if they're like, a lot of them might be family and friends, right? They know someone or your team personally or or, like, have some connection. You've met them through events or whatever. So their leniency is going to be a lot more forgiving than someone who just randomly finds you through an ad, right? So, like, I also think about it that way of if someone knows that they're an early adopter of that brand, they're gonna love that. They're an early adopter. They're before the trend. You know, they're like, supporting, if it's important to them, they're supporting, you know, you or your team or your business. And I think there's so much value in not rushing things. And I think I also saw this on one of your posts, because that is, like, the advice that I hear on this podcast when we do get into manufacturing and just talking about product development a little bit, um, of like, if you can start small, and there are manufacturers out there depending on your industry, right, like, there's going to be, if you're an apparel versus CPG versus beauty, you know, there's just going to be differences. Um, yeah. To all of that. But there are some, some manufacturers out there that will do really, really low minimum order quantities and like, that's their thing, right? So then you have to evaluate, okay, do they meet my other criteria? But there are, there are manufacturers out there who will do that because they really like working with small businesses who have, you know, the potential to scale and all that stuff. So I say that to agree that, like, small order quantities and then iterating and not investing, because also, if you're bootstrapping, it's a ton of cash up front, right? I think this is where, like, pre orders come into play and looking at, okay, like, test the market by putting it on the market. Make the caveat that this is the first, like, you know, first or second time that we're we're really trying to get feedback from people, and then people are way more forgiving if you're just super upfront about the expectations they should have, and like, saying, Okay, we want your feedback because we just created this new thing. And I think there's a lot of value in that, that, yes, customers want a great experience and a great product, but if you tell them we are iterating on this, please help us. They will feel way more valued than if they just get the product and they're like, What the hell like, this is not what I wanted. So I love that message. I love that message. Paige, okay, so now I want to switch into it's always fun to hear. You know, getting getting things up and running. But obviously this podcast mostly focused on retention. So to go with retention, we always have to talk about acquisition. So if you can walk me through, what are, you know, from day one, obviously you said organic. We already touched on that a little bit. If we could drill down there and talk about, like, Okay, how did you start to get, you know, your message out there, educate consumers about non toxic self tanner. How did you, how did you start to acquire those customers? And then we'll talk about, you know, how you think about retaining them?
16:56
That's such a good question. And I think it's, it's always
Mariah Parsons 16:59
open ended.
Paige Hope 16:59
One, right? People love it. Always evolving, I would say, because my background is in affiliate, you know, and influencer, creator economy, things like that. I started with community. And so I and I do talk a lot about my journey on LinkedIn as well, which I think people get really invested in. But I put a huge emphasis on customers and bringing those people on even as affiliates. And so we started, we launched with 75 affiliates. Like when we were launched, we had 75 Wow. And now we're at like 1600 Oh,
Mariah Parsons 17:35
my God, in a year, that's Yeah, yeah. That's impressive.
Paige Hope 17:38
Good for which is why we've been able to go organic, because we have so many awesome people backing us. But I would say on the retention side, and how we went about that was, I'm not afraid to get my hands wet. And I always tell other founders, I'm like, this is your baby. This is your brand and your mission. You need to be the one that starts the community. You're not hiring someone to build a community for you to start like people are rallying behind you right now, and that's just my recommendation if you're bootstrapping now. Total different recommendation if you could go the VC route. I personally did not want to go to the VC route. I wanted to bootstrap this, and I wanted it to be my baby and be able to give equity to Team things like that. And so with that being said, I was the one that did the initial outreach to all of these creators. And I, like, told my story, and like, why I started this company and why I wanted them to try it, be part of it, get feedback from them. And so they almost felt like they were building the brand with me. And we still have really early customers that, like, I follow on Instagram, and they're so supportive, and we send them, you know, we're launching a face tanning spray in May, and they were able to try and sample the the face tanning spray before it comes out, like just including them in everything and actually building a real community. Because you hear a lot of people talk about building community, and I'm like, but are you actually building community? Like, do you actually care about your people? Are you actually, like, at the forefront of that, are you giving them opportunities? Like, what does that look like?
Mariah Parsons 19:14
Yeah. Or are they sitting on a list, like, not engaged yet?
Paige Hope 19:17
Yes, yes. And so part two to that is because we're putting such an emphasis on the impact. Because, personally, that's why I wanted to do this. Anyways, I could have stayed at that job, Kush, job, X, Y and Z, but I'm like, No. Like, this is what I want to do. I want to help educate people. I want people to live with more energy and confidence. Like, literally, I could wake up and do this every day. And so we launched the living Alana podcast. So Elan stands for energy and confidence, which is literally the ethos behind the whole thing. And so that is part two to how we retain we send. You know, it's not just about sales and getting product in people's hands. It's also about letting them know that we are a tool and resource, and we're not just talking about our product over there. We're talking about everything like. Like, holistic wellness, beauty, we have fun, we do it all. We're going to be doing live podcast events, like, it's just so different than just a typical brand where it's like, we are VC backed, and you have to hit certain margins and all of that. I'm like, am I where I want to be right now? Not necessarily at our year mark, that I think we way farther along. Yeah, I thought we were going to have like, three products launched by now, but at the end of the day, we focus on what needed to be focused on, which is the people like building that up so that when we do launch these other products, we actually have now people to launch them, to which you know you don't have when you first start so long winded answer. Mariah, I love
Mariah Parsons 20:44
it. Paige, this is what podcasts are for. As you know, is long winded answers to questions. Also the the questions I ask are purposefully left open so that it's like I can really see what like I'm not leading you into talking about XYZ. So that was great. And I love the like your the statistic around having 75 affiliates before you even started and then growing to 1600 I got that right, right? Yeah, Okay, sweet. Always have to double check. Um, I think that's a great, great message to kind of hone in on, because I would love to talk to you about, like, the actual incentives and what that looks like. So you mentioned, obviously, you have a baked in system for testing new products, sampling, and that works really, really well with beauty, because you know the formula and how you're actually what the product feels like is so important. So what other like, I guess, what's like? A template, if you can remember, even like reaching out to those brands and saying, like, Okay, this is what I'm all about from your content, I think, like, it would really align with our brand and what I'm trying to do with this brand, because I think that's always so helpful for founders to hear like, Okay, this is actually how you reach out to someone and then like, Are you offering a discount to their, you know, their community and like, all those little things that I think other other founders can get hung up on, of, like, is this the quote, unquote right way to go about, like, affiliates and influencers and all that stuff?
Paige Hope 22:10
It's actually why I started, I do a quarterly mastermind for founders, and it's, I actually don't charge all that much because I'm, like, I have so much knowledge. And here I just and so if you're if anyone's interested, I don't actually tell people to visit, literally, just like my close founder friends, but we do do one the next one is in a month and a half. You can just email paige@alonpear.com and you can totally join but I basically walk everyone through how to build out a proper affiliate program. And I say affiliate just because that's the most standard name. But it's a it's your community, it's your creators, it's anyone who is talking about you, digital, word of mouth, marketing, etcetera. And you know to start that framework really is you're identifying the types of, I call them verticals, the so the types of verticals that you want to go after. And I say when you launch you should start with three audience types, one product and all platforms. Now you might hear like, one audience, one platform, one product. I'm like, no no. In this day and age, you have to be on all platforms. So if you're going to launch a product, just know that you gotta be on all platforms. You gotta be everywhere, but you should launch with one product, because you gotta get your hero product, and you have to hone that in. But when you're on all social platforms with that one product, you can understand a lot. And what we did was we identified within our three audience types. So our first audience type, just to walk the audience through, it is the people already educated about non toxic the people that are already searching non toxic products that is like our primary audience that we just want to convert over our secondary audience. Those are going to be the people that care about clean beauty. They they like it. They're into wellness, but they actually don't understand toxins. This is the funnest group to convert because, like, they're like, there, but they're not because the education, you know, no one's out here teaching this stuff, right? But like, they think they're buying stuff because they're in the clean section at Sephora. And they like, feel good about it, but they're like, oh, wait, wait a minute. And then the third audience is always some sort of like Test, test audience for us. And so that might be, we might go down rabbit holes of autoimmune diseases, breast cancer survivors. We might go down the rabbit holes of dermatologists, you know, all of those things. And so they're kind of like the same audience, but you've got, like, the bullet points, right? Yeah, that. We then bring that over to, okay, who are all of the creators and people we want repping our brand and, like, rallying behind us. And then we come up with, like, the seven. And you don't have to do seven, but I like to start with seven, because then you can see who, what type of verticals are actually wanting to come over and support. And you're going to pick those seven verticals and find. Creators that match those verticals. And we were, you know, in the beginning, we were reaching out to hundreds of people a month. Now we do no outreach, and it's all inbound through Tiktok. So
Mariah Parsons 25:11
nice, like from a marketer like inbound. We love it.
Paige Hope 25:15
We love inbound. And we also don't have time for outbound right now and so, and we just, you know, we just started to hone in on what types of audiences care, and that is kind of where you start to build the foundation. Then you're just massive outreach, like, from there,
Mariah Parsons 25:34
okay, I love it. So if that's like the acquisition side of affiliates, obviously you want to make sure that your affiliates are happy while they're part of your program. So I think that's a natural segue into talking about retention. And, like, I want to talk about, obviously, customer retention, but right now, let's talk about the affiliates, because I that will be like, the majority of what our customers, or, sorry. Our listeners are like, Okay, I want to know how, once you get those affiliates in your program, obviously, product development, sending them samples, all that fun stuff. But is there like a next layer of, okay, this is how we make sure that they're engaged. Like, what? What are you kind of doing there? If anything?
Paige Hope 26:17
Yes, oh my gosh, you have to do so much. Well, a lot of it is they get early access to everything. We use a technology stack called pattern creator, so exactly the company that acquired us. So I'm still using them, and we're always adding value. So it's not about selling all the time. It's like, my president of wellness, she's getting in there, and she's like, here are all of these tips. Tune in here. Does anyone want to be on our podcast like we are doing so much to just engage the community? We get on Tiktok lives three times a week, so they know, once a week they can see me, once we they can see our president of wellness, and once a week they can see someone from the team. And so we're very like forward out there. So if you want to come work at a long period, you know you gotta be comfortable on camera, because we want the people to feel like, you know, they're with us. And so we do a lot outside of just the affiliate program to engage. We launch monthly campaigns to them. They obviously get commissions. We just launched on Amazon, and we just sold out, by the way, which
Mariah Parsons 27:17
is, oh my gosh, congrats. I did. Oh my god. I was like, I was, I was like, I need to bring that up. Oh, my God, perfect.
Paige Hope 27:22
Not good to run out of inventory on Amazon because you get, like, a little ding dang it.
Mariah Parsons 27:27
But oh, oh my God. Is it really okay? See that. I didn't know that it is you
Paige Hope 27:32
want. Yeah, you basically want to show Amazon that you can keep them stocked up. But the good thing is, is, um, there, I think it's called FBM. I cannot remember for the life of me, that's okay, what it is. So basically, now my regular fulfillment center is fulfilling orders until we get a new order into Amazon. And I'm obviously not where all my inventory is right now. And so we gotta, we gotta figure that out when I fly back tomorrow, but it's very exciting. So they're always pushing us, helping us. We're giving them the ability to earn money, but we do not pay one off influencers. We just, we're bootstrapping. We don't got, we got, we don't, we don't have time for that. Yep,
Mariah Parsons 28:12
yeah. And this is some of the things like that. I so I went to, like, a founder, shout out, Mackenzie Bauer. She's the CIO and co founder of thread wallets, love their company. They do a lot of incredible stuff. And she hosted, like, a female founder, um, like Black Friday Cyber Monday Summit, basically. And this was one of the main topics of like influencers, because everyone's trying to figure out, like, paid influencer strategy versus affiliates and like all that stuff. And I think it is like me personally, I'm such a strong believer of if someone wants to work with your team and you are both, like the influencer and the brand are both of the same, like stage of, you know, excitement or like, ability to grow together, and it is, like, mutually symbiotic. It shouldn't. It doesn't have to be like a paid, an upfront, paid opportunity to be beneficial to said affiliate or influencer. And that is where I think, like a lot of brands can get that massive, like, oh God. Like, what should I do with influencers? I need a big, big, big, like VC backed brand to do that. And it's like, wait, no, there's a lot of other things that you can do. And I also think, which I'm curious, then we'll get into customer retention. I've seen, just like on the tech side, a bunch more of platforms that are working, like with super micro influencers, like, you don't have to have any following, it's just your friends, and you can, like, get basically, this is how hummingbirds is the platform I'm talking about. Specifically, they basically, to my understanding, will give you, like, a gift card to go shop with that brand, try it out, and then give your honest feedback. And. It's like, low barrier of entry. Super interesting. So I'm, I'm curious to see where it's like, I think micro nowadays means like, 10k influencers, but like, this is like, super micro. Like, you know, I have just my family and friends on my social media, and it's like, I could sign up and shop with the brands I already use, and then, like, they can reuse your content. So, yeah, it's very interesting. I've met their team, and they they're awesome and like, know, people who work with them, but they are like, that's, that's the part where I'm like, Oh, this is now it's like, you know, everything's always a pendulum. It swings from like, the really big influencers, and now it's gonna swing downstream to like, the super, super micro, micro influence, like, just people right of like or incentivizing customers to become like influencery, like give influencer type content for your brand and all that fun stuff. So I'm also very, very curious to see where those trends go. But okay, that was a great summary. Walk me through now the customer side, a customer retention. So someone shops with you. Obviously, you have a little bit of hopeful, hopefully baked in retention that your product is, you know, like, CPG, you're consuming it, and then you'd be a customer would be purchasing it again. But walk me through, like, how are you thinking about customer retention, making that, making sure that customer experience is great, so they shop again. Is great so they shop again with you all that fun
Paige Hope 31:25
stuff, yeah. So we have, I mean, we have, I think every company has automations, right, set it up and all now this all new email setup is weird and the promotions are interesting, so I think retention is going to look a little bit different on the email and text side here soon, so we'll see what that kind of transitions into. But in terms of retention, how we kind of think about it is, I look at it as and I cannot remember for the life of me this man who said this theory. But have you ever heard of the zone of doubt?
Mariah Parsons 31:56
Oh, wait, I feel like it's like ringing a really small bell in the back of my brain. But refresh us, refresh me, and tell our listeners, in case they don't know, this
Paige Hope 32:06
was more what I took from the tech side. Because, you know, some companies are paying a significant chunk of change for having the tech stack that we did. So there's this theory called the zone of doubt, where you want to catch them before they have that. Oh gosh, should I have bought that? Is it going to meet my expectations? Am I going to have to return this and, you know, X, Y and Z? So I took that learning from the tech industry and brought it into e com, and we have a very similar system where we go through the whole zone of doubt, which how we think of it. It's not the exact same as what I used to do, but right when someone purchases the product, of course, they get that standard Thank you. We're acknowledging their purchase, but we are not the hero in it. They are the hero in it, and so we are the guide. So we're basically our whole customer journey is walking them through as if we are the guy. So we're just continuing to give them more education on toxins. We are continuing to show them. Hey, this is like, right? Oh, it's almost at your door. Here's why you're going to love it. Here all of the things you know our differentiators, right? And then, hey, it's at your door. Here are all of our tips. So it's, we don't really send blanket statement emails. It's all very purposeful. And so they don't have time to have a zone of doubt, because we give them all of that stuff. So then maybe, if they're thinking about it, because we are priced a little bit higher, because we are organic, we source, well, etc, and so I don't want them to get the zone of doubt because of the pricing. And so we're going to continue to show them, hey, the value of this product outweighs the price, in fact, like, you know, plenty full. And so we're walking them through that. And then we are going to be releasing subscription here soon. I never recommend anyone's launching with subscription, because you just you shouldn't. But headache, if, yeah, if it doesn't go, Well, yes, seriously. And so what we are thinking through now that we're getting our around our year mark is now we start to see that people are coming back every couple months. So we're starting to see that. So now we're like, alright, let's figure out a way to do an email that gets them a BOGO. So hey, buy one. Get one 40% off. So that new automation we're in the works of right now to say, Okay, well, if they come back a second time, let's just make them buy the third right? And that's going to, that's going to help kind of bring that along. So we're working through like, random automations right now to kind of see what's fun. And we're we love, we love, like, doing some sort of BOGO deal and some sort of bundle, because it makes the value seem like it's bigger than, you know, just that small thing. So everyone loves to give the discounts on the first one, but they don't think about, okay, we're retaining customers the discounts, you know, I like to give the bigger discounts later. Four and the smaller discounts up front, if it works within your margins, because now they love the product, and now they're like, oh my gosh, yeah, I gotta get again. Like, yeah, it's a little bit expensive, but I'm getting this so we i, and this is another tangent, but I recommend every founder always bake in pretty big discounts and commissions for your pricing, so that you have the ability to push product and do that. And I think so many brands are like, well, I don't want to be a discount brand. And I'm like, well, that that sucks, because in this day and age, you kind of have to be unless you are, like, fully the luxury market. And not a lot of brands can get into that category very easily.
Mariah Parsons 35:41
Yeah, no, it's difficult to do that. No, I love that, and I think that's like, part of I mean, that's where my expertise comes in with Malomo, right? Because it is like that post purchase experience with order tracking and emails and SMS of like, seeing me as a consumer. I if I don't get a notification from a brand I just shopped with. I'm like, panicked. I'm like, where is it like, was it a scam, right? And that's like, less and less like, shoppers are smarter now than when like, brands were just getting on Instagram and all that stuff. But it is so important to have like, that zone of doubt, or, oh my god, what is the other word for it, that I'm looking for, forget of buying, oh, my god, it'll come to me, um, but it is, like, so important to be within that zone. And I think that's where brands are. Like, okay, table stakes is like, yeah, you need to have those transactional communications, right? Because people, they spent their money, they want to know what is up with where that money went. And then it sounds like super intentional The next level up. So it's like basic foundational levels, like you must have something, whether they're like blank white emails, they have no character to them. You haven't thought them through, like you have to trigger those what like no no ifs ands or buts about it. And then next level up is thinking through the actual customer journey of like, okay, how can we educate our customers on like, when your product arrives? These are what, this is what you can do with those you know that product and these are, these are the reasons why you initially bought like, reinforced that. So I always, I am always now, I'm spoiled as a consumer, because I work in the industry the technology, right, like I know what's out there, but as you know, as someone who is in the space, I very much have a lot of respect, and it makes me want to shop with those brands more who intentionally put messages behind their customer experience and make sure that they're, you know, retaining those customers. So I think it's, it's a great point to, like, intentionally think about the hero versus the guide. I loved that, and then also thinking through, like, with BOGOs and discounts of, Okay, where can you still have a decent margin, but like, have your customer be happy. And I think that's where people people can really get like, and I see your background in working in the space where it's like, oh, wait, wait, let's make sure that the numbers crunch, that you're not, as a founder, putting yourself in a position where it doesn't work, and then customers are also still disappointed in the end, no matter what. Yeah, yeah.
Paige Hope 38:21
It is pretty crazy when you think about everything that goes into it. But then once you do it, once you're like, oh, I can repeat this. This is really easy. Like, let's go. So I tell founders all the time I'm like, anyone can do this? Seriously, anyone can you just have to be willing to get your hands dirty and be in it, like, commit, yeah, and
Mariah Parsons 38:43
like, You can't be scared. Like, like, founder facing content, like you can't be scared of, like, being on camera, like you said, like, that is very much what nowadays shoppers, most shoppers like that, like seeing the behind the scenes and all that fun stuff. So I completely agree, and I love that we both have backgrounds in tech, and like seeing the influence of, okay, you learn so much, yes, but also, like a lot of people don't know what they're doing, and a lot of founders admit that too, where they're like, I don't know. We're making it up as we go right, like that is literally baked into entrepreneurship. Is like you are. You have the spirit to go do something and figure it out and solve it. And so you gotta just kind of like, stumble along your way and and see what you find out along the way, right? Um, so Paige, this has been so fun. Thank you so much for joining the show. Um, we have so many pins to like address later on, and I can't wait to support you and your brand and see you know how Elon pure continues to grow and look out for all those fun lot of product launches. Oh, thank
Paige Hope 39:44
you so much for having me. It was a blast. And thank you just I know I'm a yapper, so I apologize, but I again, we love yapping. I know, right. I'm like, also, when I find another woman that like gets it, I'm like, I love it. Let's dive in.
Mariah Parsons 39:59
Yeah, the fact that. You can get to like, call this work and professional is incredible. So I'll always, I will always take it
Paige Hope 40:05
I will do it well. Thank you so much again, and hopefully we'll be chatting soon.
Mariah Parsons 40:09
Yes, most definitely. Thanks again. Paige, thank you for listening to today's episode. These conversations bring so much knowledge to the table, and I'm so grateful for that. If you haven't already, please subscribe, follow us on social media and tell us who our next guest should be on our website. Let's give another shout out to our day one sponsor, Malomo. As you know, Malomo is an order tracking platform that enables Shopify brands to take control of their transactional email and SMS through branded order tracking pages. That means you can ditch those boring, all white carrier pages, you know the ones I'm talking about. Everyone has seen an ugly tracking page in their life, and you can swap it with a page that matches your brand. Customers like you and I obsessively check order tracking an average of 4.6 times per order. That's why leading Shopify brands are turning that engagement into customer loyalty and revenue through branded order tracking. Learn more about how to get ahead of shipping issues. Brand your order tracking experience and reconvert customers while they wait for their package to arrive with Malomo. Visit go malomo.com that's G O M, a, l o m, o.com
