Five Steps to a Successful Product Launch | Dylan Lam

Well, hello and welcome to the e-commerce podcast with me, your host, Matt Edmondson. Now, the e-commerce podcast is all about helping you deliver e-commerce. Wow. And to help us do just that today, I'm chatting with Dylan Lamb from rank about five steps to a successful product launch. Yeah, we're gonna get into all of the stuff you need to know about how to find launch and all that sort of good stuff. A fab product to sell which is in effect, what e-commerce is all about, isn't it? But before Dylan and I dive into our conversation, let me share with you a previous podcast.

Pick a, an episode that I think you'll enjoy. Check out, breaking down the million dollar playbook, a deep dive into entrepreneurial growth. That's a recent episode with Leonardo Caracas. What a great episode that was. And also if you wanna go old school, if you want a deep dive, check out three top tips for a start up success with Hay Hra. Uh right back in the early days, uh that was a great episode uh with Hay. So you can access our podcast picks and of course our entire podcast archive for free on our website at e-commerce podcast dot net.

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Now, Dylan is the driving force behind ommi rank and multiple Amazon brands as a business and marketing consultant. He steers entrepreneurs towards success and is dedicated to transforming ideas into accomplishments, which I think is a great phrase. Uh transforming ideas into accomplishments. Normally, it's transforming ideas into reality, but I like accomplishments. It's a much better word. Uh Dylan, great to have you on the show, man.

Thanks for joining us. How are you doing today? My friend. I'm doing great math. I'm just excited for the heat wave coming in in the weekend.

I don't know how, how you gonna have liver, but in Berlin, it's gonna be so hot. Is that right? Is that, is that, is that faith talk or is that, are you going to the sunbed salon? I don't know where the heat wave is going to come from. I can't go out just always staying indoor. I mean, so too cold out here. That's why. Wait, I can imagine. Uh It'd be great to actually have a, a heatwave. There's no doubt. Uh So I hope you're right.

Uh, at, at the time of recording, um, it is a little bit chilly. I've got my sweatshirt on today, but that's ok. That's ok. Uh Listen, ommi rank, tell me about Ommi rank. What does ommi rank do? And, and, and what's it all about? So over rank was started like back in seven years ago when I started bootstrap the brand that we have, we really need fund to try to inject more computer the brand. So we started helping people to launch Amazon ads running uh Amazon store.

Amazon whole operation with Chinese based client. And then uh we sort of see ourselves as a, as a growth hacker. We try to always look for external traffics, try to test native ad uh tiktok, Facebook, Google to just try to gain a competitive edge on Amazon, right? So that is what o rank original from. So you're using ads, um tiktok ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads to grow Amazon brands um and to, to, to grow traffic to Amazon. And this is interesting to me, Dylan and uh I know we're gonna talk about product launches and stuff like that. Uh and, and talk specifically about products which we'll, we will get into. But the, the thing that fascinates me at the moment, I've been having a lot of conversations with folks around Amazon about Dr about using external sources to drive traffic to Amazon. So not just putting a product on Amazon and hoping that Amazon will either show it or using Amazon ads just on their own. But using Google shopping using uh well, Google pay lads rather Facebook, Instagram tiktok to drive traffic to Amazon. And actually this is a good thing to do, even if you're an ecom business and an Amazon seller, right?

There seems to be a benefit to external traffic being sent through to Amazon. It is, it is um when, when it comes to sell on Amazon, we want to always utilize all the internal traffic sources which is all coming from, of course, the organic and then so um the BBC display A DS B and then once they are all being, when you're in a niche that is very competitive, you always want to use external traffics to drive even further for your brand, getting more keyword uses from the algorithms. So we help supplement supplement brand. We have like electronic brand, all those niche that require a lot of uh competitive ranking use for the keyword. We help them to run external traffics. But of course, our base as lower rank, we have around 15 people that is just focusing on Amazon BBC itself. So it's, it's an interesting one, isn't it? Because it is the external traffic thing is becoming a bigger and bigger deal. Have you had much success with using tiktok to drive sales to Amazon? Oh yeah, we we always, we often go for a creator that who can go for C PM model, when it comes to the influencer outreach and then when they created the, the UGC, then will you repurpose into ads for Amazon internal video video ads like which is a sponsor, sponsor, brand app and S MS Plus brand A. And then we also use it for uh take a of course, those are the one that is more on the interactive marketing, I would say not listing on Amazon is capable of using take ads because some of them is just a general commodity, right? But then take to open it to a chance that there is a lot of different template that they are providing different kind of uh different kind of like uh way that you can film your product even though it's just a boring product and then you can drive through Amazon with a coupon and then you will see the sales growth for sure. And you can, although you can have a keyword nowadays, but it's still a very effective way to go for external traffics, traffics. OK. So let me just unpack that a little bit. Um So you're using uh creators who use the C PM model, just explain for those that might not know what AC PM model is. So C model is the traditional way of doing in influence of marketing is more on uh you pay them 102 100 even 1000 for one video or sometimes like say 2000 for maybe 10 video for half a year. Whereas that doesn't guaranteed any success, it only ends up, it ends up just you are getting the UGC only but then or traffics no views when it comes to the count of, of the views, right? So make sure that the maximize the algorithms to make sure that video will go viral.

We would help them OK. Per 1000 views. We're going to pay you $20. For that reason, the content creator will often want to invest into the content on the scripting into maximizing the potential to that video can go viral.

Yeah, there, there is, there is a, there's a case in the past that we have done uh we work with a big influencer for like 5000. Uh I think the influencer have around 500 K in follower and then we get, we get only like less than 1000 in sales. Whereas there is a, there is a in influence, there is like a small influencer that has only like uh I think it's like 30 K, right? Just say no. And then again, the go for CBM model and then we pay 5000, but then we were able to generate 30 K in sales and that is powerful uh sense of using CBM model. Yeah. OK. So thank you for explaining that. And again, just to be clear on terms, if you don't know UGC just means user generated content. Um And so this is, this is content that the influencers create, which you can then use, isn't it to, to create this? So you're taking those videos which they create. Um And you're running those as ads in Amazon as well as on tiktok. Um So you're sort of duplicating that content. Uh which is fascinating.

Well, listen, all of that was for free. Uh I didn't even intend to talk about content marketing, but I just love the way conversations go. Really? Um So let's talk about uh the five steps to a successful product launch Dylan if we can given that, that's what the podcast title is. We should probably talk about that. So what's step number one? Yeah. So to talk about the fact that would you mind if I talk about the problem first? Because that problems will contribute to the steps that we OK, let's do it. Yeah. So the reason why we create these steps, we also call it like the future proof for a large formula that claim to be only ranks way to do that formula is because there's so much problem that we are facing lately when it comes to selling on Amazon, right?

Firstly, we have to uh uh stress from all the cash in inventory is super duper cash intense. You always have to chase for Freeman worth of inventory on Amazon. Um When you up to when you, when it arrives to four months, you are always like on you always have to order another batch of inventory. So it's always another three months, another three months that is in your, as you know. All right. So, um this is not just the only thing, ah, inventory you always have to pay in advance.

Whereas jobkeeper, you, you are like as the middleman. Whereas if you're sharing, you only, you can order, you got way more flexibility rather than Amazon that you always have to order the funds out, going to the warehouse, right? And then there's also a lot of unsystematic risk when it comes to competitors attack suspension listing, take down brand registry program on Amazon, right? So with all the systematic risk and cash flow and intensive or inventory problem that eventually, that we are telling our clients saying that, hey, uh if you were launching your product in a different way uh back in a few years ago today, you won't be saying because you put all in all day in one basket and you get suspended by Amazon, then you're gonna, right? And that's why we are offering an alternative way for them to how to launch a product in order to uh not to put all the weight in one basket in as well as building the brand for themselves. On Amazon, I always ask our client, what are the, when, when, when your customer asked you, where did they get your product from? Do they answer your brand name or the answer?

I got it from Amazon. So that's a very interesting question because not everyone bought from Amazon, they know they are actually not from Amazon, they did for Amazon created those product, right? So that as a result, the future proof product launch formula comes into mind that there is five steps. The first step is uh the sense of the auto step is about um trying to make the most out of your launch rather than paying for 30 K. At the end of the day, your product is going to be unsuccessful issue your product done, all the research done, all the development and using all the back data to understand uh that's the product that we should win before you invest additional 40 K in inventory, right? And on MS and sell on Kickstarter is you don't have to order the first special inventory until you finish your product you put on to me, right? So that five step comes into five different steps to ensure each of the step you are doing it right before you do a final product launch. Ok? So the first part is about product research.

Second is about the product edition and then the third one is product development. After that, you launch on Kickstarter and then after you launch on Kickstarter, you treat Amazon or Shopify or SC or ebay as in the channel because they are not your main channel to go for. They are not of the supposed cash flow that would kill your business if one day they have changed their term of service or the record, right? So let's talk about the research in research uh phrase um we help uh uh the best thing for us to do in research is of course finding all the reference from the competitors from interest from the platform. Uh the idea from a the gift idea, the new release, right? It's all about starting from your interest um and see what you are passionate to sell on. You don't just sell a product that you don't like or you don't want to be with for the next 12 months, it's going to be for yourself in the future.

So, um from the product of research uh is all about uh using um uh what's available on your world field as in like, OK, you have a bottle and then you understand that you are a techie guy. So you know that OK, uh I have iphone, I have a lot of Mac safe things. So I would just put a bottle stem and Mac safe and then become a Mac Safe bottle. That is exactly what happened on Kickstarter just now. They just, they just raised 2 million for just a bottle that it could a Mac safe on top. So when people doing gym, they can just use it as a stand to watch drama or to just OK, I'm with you. So they, so they raised 2 million quid because they had this idea for a drinks bottle that you could stick your iphone to with Magsafe.

Uh, so they could film themselves in the gym. Right. That's ok. That's genius. Uh, I just wanna say that's genius. And I can see why they raise the 2 million quid.

Cos everybody posts those kind of pictures on Amazon. Ok. So I get that. So, product research. Uh, sorry, that's gonna keep me smiling all day. So they've uh I interrupted you that the, the 2 million quid uh raised on Kickstarter well done guys. That's clever. Yeah. Um So yeah, as you did just say, it's all about connecting the dot Right.

Whatever it happens in life, you just connect them all together, I think as a ecommerce entrepreneur, um if you're into wholesale, I mean, if you're in the profit label, not about wholesale or job shipping, which just about profitable. You are always wanting to get your brand, launching a new kind of product uh to your customer to retain the customer to become a royal customer. And that's why kind of a thought for your brand, for audience from what you know of or from what you can see what existed in the market, put them all together and wow, that's like almond product in a sudden, right? So that's the product ah research process. Um um I could have gone so much deeper. Um Do you want me to go for that?

As in like the, the, how, how, how many I was gonna say, how do I mean, product research is, is one of those things that we all know we should do. Dylan. Um, what are, what are maybe two or three things that we should think about when it comes to researching products, you know, how do we actually go and do this? What are some of the, the things that we should look out for? Right? Um I think margin is the first one we went to go for from nowadays, a 3% profit margin is actually a good one on now.

This e commerce world back in 2017, I mean, 50% or even 80% is totally doable right now. I'm not saying that 50% is not the way to achieve that. But then with the amount of competitors we have around the world that thinking ecommerce is that easy? Everyone just come in coming in, they got more options and that's why 40% and above is somehow um achievable, but it's not easy to find, right? So we want to aim for 40% or buff margin because we want to end up when I go to Shopify or Kickstarter or when it comes to like ebay, we run off budget to run a on the platform or we run off budget, we we to run it on external traffics and that's why is a healthy margin. All right, and once you have those 20% then you will know that about when it comes to running a, what's your break? Even a course? Was your role as that you can go for? Right. And of course, like the forum about the data unit, how many cells you're gonna get?

You can use as rush to find that you can use jungle scout in 10, all those to refresh engineering. What kind of like CS that approximately that they're getting? Right? And of course, like I I you always want to aim for 100 plus or maybe a minimum of 75% plus. So that's a fresh show that we have set for, for research that we want to make sure that they are a discount product. And if you are unsure where you can find those for idea, you can always go to like different platform on some reviews to find what's the uh what's the problem on the existing product you want to launch for for bo if you want to find what's what's wrong with bottle by the one star, ah the gift idea, the new release, uh the move and check as well on a and after that, if you want more idea pinches is a great source.

I've been finding a lot of inspiration as well in the past uh itself. Uh Reddit, youtube, right? Facebook group. It, it's like it's like content marketing uh when, When we do content, it's all about the skyscraper method. It's about trying to gather information from the other one and then this one and that one end up together and then you come with the summary on top, you add something on that, right? So launching point is the same, you have to gather what exists in the market and then combine all the features and function. It sounds like a over engineering piece of things, but it could be easy as well. If you think that one unique selling point can be set on the marketplace right now and that is the one that you want to do for when you go for when it comes to body research.

I so after the research um is going to the product foundation. So yeah, we did talk about the process of the price and margin, right? But we didn't talk about the such demand like there's a lot of such demand that we need to consider, consume the search demand from Amazon because Amazon after have the highest search intent, whether you're going to sell on buy or Amazon or ebay in the future, you still need to look at Amazon because on Amazon, they provide a tool like brand analytic or a tool from Hidden 10 that can tell you oh on, on, on, on what kind of like a sales data you need that we're getting. And of course you want to go for um Google Google trend as well, you want to see a trend or like seasonal product. We don't want to go with seasonal product because is going to be affecting your cash flow in the long run. But of course, I know that a lot of seller that they would just aim for seasonal product. But you know, it's not something that we would like to go for when we have so much choice right now.

Right after when they look at a nonbranded keyword, I remember that we have a client, a client that was selling smart. So you know those wi I smart like that we have there, the ones you plug, yeah, the plugs that, that work on off of Wi Fi and they control your lights and all that sort of thing. Yeah. So, so those when, when, when they were still on Amazon, there wasn't using any research. They were, they were after and then they went on to Amazon and then they just come to us. Can you can, can, can we do BBC for them?

I say, I say, yeah, we can provide that your product first. And then when we do the research for them, we realize the biggest seller on the Wi Fi plug niche is T blink, right? And then for you to battle PP is actually getting 65% of the market share and then the rest is 35% on Amazon. They are just small seller from all around the world. And that's why nonbranded keyword is very important for us to explore and discover whether or not if we can make a market gap.

If we can choose that long tail keyword, once we launch, then we'll just focus on that. Can we do that if we can't move on if we can't at least 10 known brand, the keyword that we find out that there's a gap that we can go for then yeah, that will be qualified as in like a take, right? Of course, that we don't pick once and then we just go for it. There's a lot of different research that we go for. We go for market situation dominated by 100 like to be linked. And then we look for whether or not there is external traffic potential. Do they have a hashtag on tiktok ah from searching from the greater marketplace? Ah What does your computers run on Facebook from looking at the Transparency library? What do they do in Google again on the Google Library? Right? With today's latest method that we have, we always keep updating. What's the best thing that we can do for your product before you decide what product you want to launch because you get data, right? So that is a violation. So once on the violation point that you take all those button, I would say at least you have at least takes 70% of that 75% of them. And then I was, I would say your competence, you're safe to start launching this product with a minor two, right? Um So that is the market for station stage, right? So after the market market uh uh market product ation stage, we will go on to do the product development, right? So from the product development, there is a lot of different developments that we need to go for on the material, on the shape, on the texture, on the size, on the ingredient, or taste or smells or even the design of like the body of the product, or even packaging or maybe the Instacart that we can go for. What can we do? What is the different things? How do, durable it is, how reliable it is going to be? So all those pro development is like a checklist that we have to communicate with manufacturer. And um oh let me talk about one of that.

We, we have, we used to help a client to develop a backpack. OK. So that's a case Google. This backpack is a modular backpack. So that that seller uh go for uh have us to help having come to us to help them gain source manufacturer for them. But we didn't little little them. Then we know that they have fine manufactured before then already they are fine at least 10 to 20 manufacturer that they can achieve for them because it's too complex. Right. So whenever we, because most of the manufacturer about backpack is in Guangzhou Hu, that's the name of the city. And then, and then of course, that's where we go as well because that's, that's, that's the like known secret of every source.

They would just go on to that place to go for a backpack factory. We give them the, the, the, the, this sketch of the product uh draft. They were like, oh, I know this guy this, I found me before. I was like, oh no, I told the first manufacturer they say the same thing. Second one, say the same thing we just realized after that he has talked to at least 20 of them. And then, and then the reason why they're rejecting them and they want to come to us because uh they, they, they just can't figure out, I think manufacturer just can't figure out how to execute the complex of that backpack. So we end up have to um not decom the whole thing to make some go away and then make this come back and then do this and do that. And then this manufacturer understand that ah because we are there to help them to explain the whole thing.

I have to fly to the US to help them to understand from client. What does that do? What does that do? And then I come back to China and I have to explain to them in Mandarin and what's going on with this? Why do we see a way? How can you combine it together? So the lessons there behind is uh don't over complicate your product. If you, if you over communicate your product, you are just creating a hassle, hassle by yourself because you have to go in for as the middle man that you might not be able to achieve anything at the end of the day, right? So just like the bottle and the Mac just to function snap and that become a killer, right?

When you communicate something, then your customer, you have, you have a busy time to explain. What does that thing to what, what does that feature do to your customer? What does that do to your decision to your customer in different way? Right? So you are having a bad, you, you're going to having a bad time to explain all the all the copies in your landing page, all the angles to different audience at the end of the day, you are going to be spent much more money than if you're just focusing on two feature. So that about the product development that that you guys can can can I'm curious, Dylan, did they get their backpack manufactured in the end? They did. Yeah, they did, they did get it back from but then they give up because they realize uh I mean, it's just, it's not that they give up is the factory give up because the fact after they get a backpack, they got another batch of revision that they want to do and then another revision that we do, we have around seven iteration before he give up because he knows that um firstly, he don't have a pattern about that. And secondly, backpack can be easily uh copied by anyone. And that's why at the end of the day, um they say, OK, can we just stop this development? But it's a shame because I put in so much effort with them. And then, and then, you know, it's kind of kind of like our baby as well because we, we thought that is so much, we thought there is like before she, he wants to push through it. And at the end of the day that he just don't want to go through that anymore, you lose the passion essentially. Yeah. That's another thing. If you overcome, you lose the passion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sort of the more complicated it is, it's a bit, I, it's a bit like walking through what I would say.

Treacle, you know, you, you, it just gets harder and harder and harder that the more complicated it becomes and you, you, you're right, you lose the passion for it, you lose the will to live, I think. Um And, and it's true in most things, isn't it that you see a lot of people build, like there's some really popular shows isn't there in England. I don't know if you've seen Grand designs um where they, you know, they film people trying to build houses and the ones that are always more complicated uh are always, you know, I look at it and go, I know if I'm gonna build a house, it's never gonna be complicated, it's gonna be simple. Uh And so I like what you're saying here. So we've gone, so, so we've gone through the research, we've validated our product, we found somebody to manufacture it or maybe we're manufacturing it ourselves. Um So we've got our, our product um val uh validated and developed, talk to me about Kickstarter. What happens then? OK. Um So when it comes to Kickstarter, that's the real hassle comes in. Um Because yeah, because we will have to build a landing page. Uh We have to build, we have to delete J and then we have to do the Ecommerce. A Yeah. Right. Um Oh that, it's not just that we, we have to, when you do, you want to email marketing to be attaching it and then you do lead, you went, you went to the email marketing as well. And then we, we provide as well the sense of the kick I launch the reason why we do product in advance uh the foundation as I miss some part in the foundation part, you do Facebook as well to follow whether not there is interest and there's like uh what copy reson. So um once you find that uh you, you have them as your audience because you put them in the group, you get them the survey about what do you want to see more about this product? So they treat your product as a baby as like they, they feel like they have a sense of you guys developing the product together and that's why they want to follow your journey on. How do you achieve your dream together? And at the end of the day, on the launch day, they will back you for your product, right? So um when it comes to launch on Kickstarter, um there's two goal, one is the F and then one is the real goal.

The F is the one that you use on Kickstarter. Uh Because for the algorithm sake, you don't, you always want the algorithm thinks that your product is trending and then for the audience, Kickstarter backer stakes, you want to think, let them think. Oh they are doing around, they're doing 100% more than the funding. It must be successful. That's why there's no more effects.

We just comes in that, that's why I can. That's why I back then because I, I will for sure that they will fulfill their promise. And then the simple event comes into the outreach as well. When the influencer, when the press release, when the newsletter partners, when the athlete marketer, they see that, that you um you can be successful and then they're likely to promote your product as well and create these effects, not to mention about the Kickstarter as well. They have organic traffic as well if you are doing so well on the platform. Uh and that's the vehicle and then there's, there's a real goal that uh that you want to set in your team. The real goal is calculated by um well, anyone, you can say that you can set a million 305 100 but it's not realistic until you until you understand your budget, right? So if you're saying that you want to get 500 K for the um for the Kickstarter goal, the funding you want to achieve, then you were going to refresh, entering the whole thing. OK? From the violation test, it takes me around uh uh uh uh one K to generate uh let's say uh 1000 lead, right? So there's £1 lead, right? And £1 per lead you will get around, let's say uh 10% of the uh click rate, which means they are and OK in the email and then so 1020% which is around 202 100 what's the conversion rate, conversion rate of that?

200 is around maybe 10% again and then that will be 20. So now you know that for that 20 people uh to get 20 people to your listing, to buy your product to comfort them, it's going to be costing you 1000 for a. So for the 500 K, it means that you need um uh how many by, by trying to divide them by the conversion rate? And on the calculation method, yeah, we just done into your goal. So by using this recent method, then we will know that. OK. Um this is uh how much do we want to spend? And that's why this is my goal rather than 1 million. So a lot of people was confused.

Kickstarter, isn't that, uh they are supposed to give me the fund, the backers without me doing advertising. Well, it's not about, it's about marketing unless you have a very genuine idea or, or if you have like past mail list that you have there, uh that you have gathered in the past, uh or if you have um uh like celebrity status, uh that when you launch a boat, then everyone knows about you. Uh Other than that, if you yourself squash, uh you always have to invest in the advertising. So the, the beautiful things comes afterward is the more time that you launch, the easier you're going to be on this, on this, on the second follow up launch. So because all the people that you're gathering from Kickstarter, uh you're able to get them, buy into your thesis to your story and that's why they want to grow with you. And it's funny it's like the return backers on Kickstarter is as high as 35% and you see that 45% and you know, when you do the email marketing, but we do email marketing. But then when you plus the Kickstarter update, because Kickstarter update will be a Kickstarter email marketing as well. So your email Kickstarter email. Can you imagine how many messages touch point? You're going to get that people to see your message first before they buy your product, right?

We as in a shop or Amazon, let's not talk about Amazon because Amazon seller, we can even message the audience whereas in five, yeah, you can email them, but then you have to deal with the DK I MS FP, all those like a technical thing and then going through all that in and then end up going to promotion Inbox, well as Kickstarter, they have maintained so well that you can get that for free. It is almost like an S MS, right? That is the reason why that is just the one reason why your gap campaign is going to be better and better because you already get the audience, you have the platforms, your email and then um and those are things right? Of course, like the launch process is not, is not just that easy on the kicks I launch, there's also um influence outreach, there's also a new set of partnership, there's also cross promotion. Um and there's athlete marketing as well. So we need to go on and to message them and then ask them, uh we have achieved this decision and that you would, you want to be a part of us and then you took some percentage from the sales that you generated.

We, we went with several of them, they are up to, they could be ranging up to 10% 10% to 35% when it comes to the commission, when it comes to. But it's a must. If you, if we sell on Amazon, we know that Amazon take 35% already just passing on the platform. But then right now you're trying to gain the algorithms to build a snowball effects is not keyword related on Kickstarter, but is the A I about, they are detecting your cells, they are detecting whether or not you're driving traffic. They are detecting how long people is, is like uh bouncing from your page and then they determine whether or not they should push your product to a high up in the algorithms, right? So they do have the category ranking on Kickstarter. Um And that's why we are doing all things to drive traffics. And then before we even drive traffics, uh we in the P launch, we have those people who we get all the list and then we will, we will email them all at once.

Hopefully in the first three days you pass through, not just the vehicle, but then maybe a few 100% after the vehicles from the email that you have generated and that launch process that I don't think I have completed. Well, ok, I I would say urgency, urgency is the one that we are using mostly uh uh because we are building this £1 reservation of funnel to help backers to understand, to help us understand what are the the engagement before the launch? If the engagement is high, it means a further proof that your product has the uh the potential during the polarization, you are just following the product idea, but then the during the lead uh the pre launch part, which is the lead part, you're following your message and your audience and that's, that's where you do the A B testing and you the launch part in the ad, you're supposed to scale it because you have all the pro you have prospect all the audience already before in the launch stage. And now you start to scale them into different platform, youtube, Google and all the organic traffics from now and maybe those pay traffic, own traffics as well that you're going to do for. So it's all in one place that we are talking about when it comes to this future proof for a large formula. Yeah. No, it's great. It's fascinating. Um I, I'm trying racking my brains and I, I can't think of anybody that's been on the show that's talked about launching on Kickstarter as a way to, you know, as part of this whole process, you know.

Um, and I like what you're saying. You use your ads, Facebook ads to validate your marketing, copy and imagery, you know, what's working? You can see that in the ads. Ok. Well, I can validate that with ads, which is great. But then, uh, putting something on Kickstarter, I have to admit this is something I've never done. Right. I've never actually put a product on Kickstarter.

Um, and I don't, I, I don't know why I've not done it. If I'm honest with you, I, I think what you're saying makes perfect sense. Um, but I, I am, I, I liked your little caveat in all of this. Kickstarter is about marketing for most people, uh, which it is. And, um, and I, I think it's a really clever idea because like you say that the knock on effects of that and I didn't realize that the, um, the return, uh, the return backers was as high as 35%. So that's, that's quite an extraordinary stat in its own, right? And so you're, you're then launching the product, whether it's on your website, whether it's on Amazon, you've got a bunch of people who have use a product giving you the reviews and all that sort of stuff, which is quite an extraordinary thing to do.

Um, I really like it. I, I like this product launch. Uh, if I'm, if I, maybe I'll ask a personal question here and in the sense that, um, having never done something on Kickstarter before, it's not a platform bizarrely. I don't, I'm not too familiar with, I've bought stuff off of Kickstarter, but I've never actually sold anything on there. Is it a complex platform to learn? Is there? I mean, there's obviously gonna be a lot of nuances around how to make it successful. Um, but what's your sort of experience with Kickstarter?

The platform itself is not complex, but then the way that we drive traffic to Amazon is a part that makes it uh complex. Um There's two, there's three people that I would, I would say on Kickstarter uh innovator. Uh There, there is a guy like in COVID, they invent this COVID. Ken, he did just build a prototype on cat and then just like that, that kitchen can just push a button you still using your finger, right? So that Ken, so that is an innovator, they can launch on Kickstarter board game is like innovator as well. They are, they are, they are innovating and another one is marketing, right? So um they do not know how to innovate, but then they know how to do marketing. So um they, they try to do marketing to just aim to maybe just break or just make money.

The aim of that is because they want to get the email list, they want to get the uh picky back the reputation as of, right. Isn't that a, a, a AAA premium product that if you have it on your list on Amazon? Right? So that is, uh, that could be a marketer, right? And then the third type is gonna be um, innovator and marketer. And that's why if we are e-commerce seller, most of us is actually in innovator and then most of us, they know a bit about marketing already and that's why it only makes sense if we go to Amazon to, it only makes sense if we go to Kickstarter to maximize our effort. But if we have to launch a product anyway, why would we want to launch a launch on Amazon first? Because Amazon might fail or on Amazon, you might get suspended in all the risk is just so high uh or for shop seller, they have to sell on Shopify, right? So isn't that a barrier if you can say to people uh it's actually coming from Kickstarter. Does that increase the credibility when you, when you see that? Right? And on Amazon as well?

Or, or should we find is is that when you put on effort on Kickstarter, you already come up with your copy images, video, you get more prepared than coming to just launch on a platform based on platform. You only, you only need a seven listing, seven listing images, right? And E BC maybe enhance brain content. But then on Kickstarter, you already to build your own story with your own brand Bible, with your own cooperating. That is a must for you to launch on Kickstarter. And that's why you're launching it on E arms. Anyway. Why don't you launch it in a proper way that can benefit you to get all that into, uh, benefiting you in the long run? Yeah. No, it's, it's a great idea.

It's a clever idea. Um, are there any specific brands? And I'm Dylan, I'm aware of time, so I don't want to take up too much more of your time. But I, I suppose my, uh let me ask this question, this final question. Um Are there any br product types or brand types that don't work well with this formula or is this like across the board?

This is gonna work well for everyone. Um I would say any product can do it but of course not those adults product or maybe political product or let's say, uh uh daily commodity like tissues. Uh Those are things, you know, they are, they are not going to be working well. Uh We plan and that is just selling extension need. That is just, that is just like a niche that is not, uh I mean, I would say it's not something that would um selling well on Kickstarter. But if you say if you're a electronic product that comes with a little gimmick, then that is something that you can always put on there.

You want to, if you're on the product, you want to combine with other niche to become a lifestyle product. And then you can put on, OK, essentially put a plant or put a light at the bottom that you can put it on, on Amazon. If you are selling, um, a pen, you know, put a razor, put a, put a, let's say a light, a light so you can look at it at night, you know, and that could be on Kickstarter. And that is the sense of the idea of product developing is not just about what we see is about connecting the dot to become a good product. Yeah. Fantastic. Listen, I have pages and pages of notes. So Dylan, thanks for coming on man.

If people wanna reach out to you, if they wanna connect with, you, find out more about ommi rank or connect with you personally. What's the best way to do that? Uh The best way for them to do it is to go to linkedin, uh just go to DNM or go to the IGDNM official DYO am L AM official. And that's how and talk to me and you guys can come to me and just DM me and I will send you the Kicks chat list and also to there's a checklist for you to follow it whether or not your product is able to sell on Kickstarter first on the 10, fantastic. So yeah, if you're thinking about that uh you're thinking about selling product and you wanna investigate Kickstarter, do check out that checklist.

We will of course link to all of those links that Dylan mentioned in the show notes, which you can get along for free with the transcript at e-commerce podcast dot net. Or if you subscribe to the newsletter, it's gonna come direct to your inbox. Obviously. Uh Dylan, listen man, really, really appreciate it, really appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your uh wisdom and the stories. And I'm gonna go and check out that Magsafe bottle now, uh Like everyone's gonna go.

Oh, I'm really curious. Um But um no, it's been genuinely uh interesting and uh I appreciate you coming on. Appreciate the value you you, you brought and um a huge thanks man. Fantastic. What a great conversation. A huge thanks again to Dylan for joining me today. Also a big shout out to today's show sponsor the e-commerce Cohort.

Do check that out at e-commerce cohort dot com. Come join the group, come join the masterminds. It'd be great to see you in there now. Be sure to follow e-commerce podcast wherever you get your podcasts from because we've got some more great conversations lined up and I don't want you to miss any of them and in case no one has told you yet today, let me be the first. You are awesome. Yes, you are. Create it. Awesome. It's just a burden you have to bear.

Dylan has to bear it. I've got to bear it. You've got to bear it as well.

Now, e-commerce Podcast is produced by AM media. You can find our entire archive of episodes on your favorite podcast app. The team that makes this show possible is Saf Beon and Tanya Herz. Our theme song was written by Josh Edmonson. Uh, and as I mentioned, if you would like to read the transcript or show notes, just head over to the website e-commerce podcast dot net.

It's all there, but that's it from me. That's it from Dylan. Thank you so much for joining us. Have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world. I'll see you next time. Bye for now.