The Dropship Unlocked Podcast

Create Winning Content For Ecommerce With Liz Giorgi (Episode 74)

• Lewis Smith & James Eardley • Season 1 • Episode 74

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📞 Ready to Take the Next Step? https://dropshipunlocked.com/training-watch-apply?el=podcast-74-create-winning-content-liz-giorgi

Use code TREND10 and start generating UGC for free ➡️ https://soona.co/ugc

🗣In this episode of the Dropship Unlocked Podcast, we welcome Liz Giorgi, founder of Soona, a platform revolutionising how brands create and manage professional and user-generated content. 

Liz shares her journey, insights on the importance of high-quality content in e-commerce, and strategies for leveraging user-generated content to boost sales and engagement.

👉 Prefer to watch this on Youtube? Check it out here  ➡️ https://youtu.be/Gn9_Y5ktvoQ

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Topics Discussed:

★ The Power of Content: High-quality content is essential for driving sales and engaging customers in the e-commerce landscape.

★ Types of Effective Content: Different content types, including images, videos, and reviews, play crucial roles in successful e-commerce campaigns.

★ User-Generated Content (UGC): Authenticity in UGC is invaluable, and strategies to encourage customers to share their experiences can significantly enhance brand trust and engagement.

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Links and Resources Mentioned:

Pick up a copy of Lewis’ book: https://htabook.com 

Get Shopify for £1 a month for 3 months: https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/shopify 

Get a free trial with a professional phone line: https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/circle
Get A Professional Email Address With Google Workspace: https://dropshipunlocked.com/google 

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Key Takeaways:

★ Types of Effective Content: Analysis of different content types such as images, videos, and reviews, with examples from successful campaigns.

★ Focus on User-Generated Content (UGC): Exploration of the value of authenticity in UGC and strategies for encouraging customers to share their experiences.

★ How to Showcase UGC: Methods for integrating UGC into online stores and marketing to drive sales and engagement.

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FOLLOW:

Thank you for listening to the Dropship Unlocked Podcast! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform.

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★★★Dropship Unlocked - Lewis Smith★★★

🌏Watch Our Free Training ➽ https://www.dropshipunlocked.com/training?el=podcast-74-create-winning-content-liz-giorgi

You're not gonna want to miss out on the valuable tactics that Liz shares in this one. I think we all know how important content is in today's world. Every single thing we buy on the internet has photos and videos. Most of why I decide to buy something is because of those photos and videos. And yet making those assets is really hard, very slow and oftentimes incredibly expensive for a seller to accomplish. In the discussion with Liz, we're uncovering secrets about producing content that not only engages your audience, but importantly converts as well. You can change it up to you know, one of the things I think the best Shopify stores do, is every ecommerce business can definitely benefit from in this day and age. I see user generated content change businesses overnight all the time. Welcome to the dropship unlocked Podcast. I'm Louis Smith, the founder of dropship unlocked and with me is our Client Success Coach James Adly. Now when we're not recording the podcast episodes, we're running our own e commerce businesses and helping aspiring entrepreneurs launch their own high ticket drop shipping businesses, keen to build your own six or even seven figure business. My book, the home turf advantage is your blueprint for launching a profitable online store. Grab your copy at HTA books.com To date, and let's get you started. Now sit back, relax, and let's unlock your potential with the dropship unlocked podcast. In today's episode, we're joined by Liz Georgie the founder of Suder. A platform where brands can create high quality content with confidence sooner is transforming the way ecommerce businesses manage and measure their content from professional shoots to user generated content. Absolutely, Louis. So in content is the buzzword at the moment and especially user generated content. And if you can leverage this for your E commerce business, it's so powerful. In the discussion with lists, we're uncovering secrets about producing content that not only engages your audience, but importantly converts as well. There's a conversation really enjoyable. And if you're just starting out in E commerce, or looking to elevate your current ops and operations, they'll be locked in this for you to scale further. Exactly, you're not going to want to miss out on the valuable tactics that Liz shares in this one. I think we all know how important content is in today's world. So let's dive in and discover how you can enhance your brand's presence and drive more sales through superior content. So today, we're excited to be joined by Liz Georgie, who is the founder of sooner a platform which is revolutionizing how brands create and manage their professional and user generated content. Liz, firstly is great to have you with us to share your expertise. Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to share knowledge with your audience. Wasn't my pleasure. So this could you start first of all, by telling us a little bit about your journey, your your career, and how that brought you to the position today. Where you founded sooner? Absolutely. I had a really big ambition. When I was a young student in college, I wanted to be Barbara Walters. And so in the US, Barbara Walters, this was a really big deal. She was very, very famous over a year. But you know, the very short version of that is I wanted to be a television broadcaster. I wanted to deliver the nightly news and be on television. And I got a undergraduate degree in television broadcasting, which taught me a lot of foundational skills to be an entrepreneur. I didn't know it at the time. But now I see it of being able to tell a story, being able to concisely express yourself, be out in public, talking to people all of those things are really critical if you're going to be a founder. And so when I started this company in 2019, it was really actually my second company. I'd had a fledgling television career for a few years. And then I started my first company in 2012, which was a production company that focused on internet ads, sold that company in 2019, because I wanted to go after sunnah. And really, the idea behind sunnah was so simple. I was shopping online more and more like all of us were and I just had this insight of every single thing we buy on the internet has photos and videos, most of why I decide to buy something is because of those photos and videos. And yet making those assets is really hard, very slow and oftentimes incredibly expensive for a seller to accomplish. And so set out with a vision of building a platform to make it easy to create content for your store. And that's still what we do five years later, as you know, raising as good to hear about your journey as well because it's funny how certain experiences lend themselves to an entrepreneurial pursuit when you might think they have nothing to do with it in the first place. But yeah, clearly that So that's brought you to where you are today. So moving on then to the content and why you really gone into fixing this for ecommerce businesses. Why do you think that content is so crucial for E commerce success? Well, first and foremost, we all shop with our eyes, right? Well, if you were to imagine, even just 20 years ago, walking into a mall, you would look at the shop windows, and you would see if something was interesting to you or not. And you'd walk through the aisles and pick things off the shelf or off the rack based on what's visually appealing to you. And so shopping is inherently a visual experience, whether that's in person or online. But the second thing that I think is really important is that increasingly, we are all shopping in really these new and interesting visual ways, whether that's through Tiktok shops, where, you know, we can see people trying products or using products and seeing if that aligns with our own expectations or needs, or you know, even doing something like starting a Shopify store, trying to get people excited to visit your store, trying to get people excited to even type in your URL. It's a journey of putting things out in the world, putting content out in the world to try and get them engaged and excited to come to your website. And so content is really, I think, the first step to getting people interested in your product. And then it's also interestingly, what often closes the deal. The content that your reviewers post, you know, their own kind of review content of posting you maybe themselves in an outfit or themselves using a product, that content is also so essential to getting a deal done with a consumer. And so I really think content is a journey. It's a journey of getting people to your store. It's a journey of getting people interested in your product. And it's a journey of closing the deal. And there isn't, there's different content that you need at all stages in that journey. But every single piece of that content is so important to me. And it's so important for us to curate that, I suppose, and make sure that it's perfect for that stage of the journey that the customer is on. And in terms of some sort of best practices for E commerce brands to think about the content that they're producing, what types of content do you think, perform the best for for E commerce generally? Well, when you're in the really early stages of your business, I truly believe that founder led content can be really, really incredible and essential to especially driving traffic to your store. And what I mean by founder led content is I mean, founders appearing in their own videos, you know, creating videos about your own journey of creating your product or, you know, sourcing your product, creating videos of yourself using the product, and engaging with the product, telling the story of why you brought that product to market. That kind of content is out there in the world is really exciting for shoppers. And you know, I ultimately believe that people like to buy from people, we are attracted to people that remind us of ourselves, we're attracted to people who we think we have things in common with. And so founder led content can be so important in the beginning. And then when you're thinking about you know, growing up your business are really trying to professionalize your business, you're having that really clean, really professional product on white content on your product listing pages. It actually is incredibly, incredibly important. I tell the story of there's a US based company that's now International, that's called Zappos, which was started as a shoe company. And, you know, their CTO has said, they learned that the more photos they put on a product, the more they sold, and the more professional the images were, the more likely they were to sell that product. And so a huge part of Zappos success, which has since been acquired by Amazon is one of the largest e commerce stores in the world, just having more pictures was a huge part of the success. And so knowing that that can help you unlock success is a really important insight. And then the final thing I'll say is like, as you're starting to round out the how do we continue to grow this business? How do we continue to promote this business, user generated content is going to be a huge part of the success story. I see user generated content change businesses overnight, all the time, I was just talking to a Shopify seller who makes a bunch of shower cleaning products. Her user generated, she had one video that sold out her entire inventory, right. And that can happen overnight from user generated content. And it often doesn't have to be I think a thing that people often believe is that they have to get an influencer to use their product or they have to get someone famous to use their product. But increasingly, that is not true. What you need is you need the right kind of persona using your products. So basically, you know who's the person that's most likely to purchase your product and get it in the hands of those sorts of people so that they can create content that speaks to other people like them, and It's amazing how that can change a business. Because all of us are really looking for things that solve problems or you know, make us feel good. But we're most likely to buy things from people we trust from people that, you know, we relate to. And user generated content is a great unlock for that. Yeah, I think ultimately customers as well that they are going to take what we say with a pinch of salt, a little bit. But if they get the, you know, the idea from actual customers, and people that remind them of themselves, that they're enjoying the product, then that's going to have a lot more weight behind what they're saying, because they know there's no real vested interest in what they say. Would you say that's like, the main reason why user generated content is so important, is it because it's perceived better by people viewing that, I think it's perception unlock for sure. I also think it's a distribution hack. One of the things that is really hard when you start a business, and they're sort of like, you know, everyone gets so excited to start a business and everybody gets so, so many nerves and so much joy out of the process of building a business. But it also is kind of like, no business is actually a success right away. There are very few businesses where you put your website online, you put your product online, and then everybody buys it right away. So how do you drive distribution? How do you get people to know about your business, part of it is just having more people talking business, and UGC is a great hack for that, right? Getting, you know, five or 10 people talking about your business, instead of just you talking about your business, you're already 5x and 10x. Sync your output. And so I think it's that distribution component that is really important. And then the final thing, you know, you mentioned authenticity. I think there's also an aspect of your marketing got so polished for so long. And we all know when we're being sold to now in a very real way, you know, a billboard is a billboard, a Superbowl ad as a Superbowl ad, we know that that stuff is trying to sell us something, I think there is an aspect of user generated content where it just feels a little bit more like someone's trying to help me, someone's trying to give me a hack or give me something that might change my life for the better. Or give me a tip. And that feels better in a way than being sold to. And so that certainly plays a part as well. Yeah, there's something so much more authentic about a shaky iPhone camera, knowing that it's not been polished and millions of pounds potentially put into that marketing campaign that just makes you relate a lot more. And and the people can actually create amazing things, because we've all got these amazing marketing tools in our pockets. Now, the fact that everybody's got a phone. And in terms of the distribution I want to touch on, do you think that there are better platforms than others for user generated content to be to be promoted on? Well, the first thing to know is that, you know, every single platform really is hungry for a different type of content. And so what I mean by that is, the content that works really well on YouTube is probably not the same content that's going to work really well on Tik Tok, which is probably not the same exact content that's going to work on reels, which is probably not the same content that's going to work on Twitter, right, and so or X, excuse me. And so you want to be thoughtful about, you know, what is kind of the right type of content for the right platform. And, you know, the second piece of that is really being intentional about where is my buyer, probably spending more of their time and, you know, tick tock, for example, at least my algorithm, it's a lot of home goods, that's a lot of, you know, food goods, it's a lot of, you know, things that are to do with my stage of life. And so you want to think about is my buyer hanging out in those places, whereas maybe if you sell something in the auto category, it may be that the YouTube features are more likely to be where your buyer is, if you're in more of like a category around beauty, it might be that reals is a place where you're, your buyer is and so try to understand where your buyers so that you can focus your effort. And then the last thing I'll say is like, Look, you just never know what's actually going to be the thing that takes off. And so you just got to put in the reps. I think sometimes people think, Oh, I just put out three videos and like, none of them worked. And so that's the end of that. The truth of the matter is, is like you're gonna probably have to put in a dozen reps, two dozen reps for you kind of find the vibe and the voice and the the style of storytelling that's going to work best for your brand. Don't give up after those first couple of reps because you're going to learn and you're going to get more information every single time. Absolutely. You have to work hard before you can work smart. You have to put the reps in and work out what's going to work so yeah, and it's applied to this as well. So I'm keen to talk about how we can get those reps in, but on a potential Automated bases, how we can really put processes in place to acquire user generated content and distribute that so we can start getting to feedback as to what's really resonating and working for our business. How would you go about? Or how would you recommend an E commerce business owner starts to automate the process of getting user generated content? Well, certainly this is where I have to plug my own business because suna has our own user generated content product, it's called trend. And so if you go to sunnah.co/ugc, you'll find that we allow any brand to create a free campaign. So for $0, you can create your first user generated content campaign. And then we have 10,000 creators in our marketplace who will apply to create content for you. And so you can see their past content, you can see what they're interested in, you can see what they've been successful with. And then you get to see all those applications for free before you even decide to purchase any user generated content, which I think can be a really easy way to determine like is my right profile of creator out there in the world, what kind of person do I think is going to be best for my brand and my business, so definitely check that out. It's also a really great way to get to scale quickly. So you know, you can create a campaign and then hire as many creators as you want from that campaign. We see brands, you know, create a campaign and then hire three creators. And then we see brands create a campaign and hire 30 creators, right. And so just, you get to decide how big or how small you want to go to start. So certainly check out studio.co/ugc for that. But then a second place to like really drive some automation in your business, I cannot recommend enough post purchase flow, user generated content creation emails, so you know, many of your listeners, your watchers might be using clay VO, they've probably set up flows, get that flow out there that rewards your purchasers for creating content about your product. So you know, an example of this might look like a flow that says, hey, we'll give you a 20% off coupon if you create a video review of the product. And that kind of insight and incentive can actually create a lot of insightful content for you a lot of really valuable content for you. And it also creates repeat purchase, right? So it's kind of a, it's a double win, if you will, you're getting two things out of that opportunity. And you don't have to do it manually, you can completely create a clay vo flow that just does that automatically for you, you get the benefit of that with a product like play. And then the final thing I'll mention is, you know, a turn on social listening tools. If you haven't the or use a tool like Sprout Social, or you know any, there's lots of different social listening tools just honestly go into Google and search social listening, you might be surprised how many people have you know, especially for dropshippers have created videos that are maybe adjacent to your product, or even including your product just in a different context, and reach out to those creators and say, Hey, I saw you created a video about this product, would you be willing to let us use it happy to send you a coupon for a website, right? So those kinds of opportunities are really great ways to create this kind of a methodology. That's fantastic. So for people that are just getting started, I love that they've got the option of something that's very automated immediately with clay VO, you do it once, and it was and it set it and forget it away. And you just want to start receiving that content back from your customers? Would you recommend that they that? Is there an order? Should they start by going after their own customers with the clay vo flow? Or should they prioritize creators and really going out to people with with a wider audience to start giving them their products, it really depends on the person. I'm the kind of founder where I really like controlling the message. So you know, I want to manage kind of what the talking points are, what the features and benefits are. And so if you're like me, and you really like to control the message, I would recommend doing more like campaign style creation, like I mentioned with, if you are really open, and you don't actually have a bias towards certain types of messaging, the more kind of automated methodology with clay VO, or the social listening methodology, those methodologies can be great for someone of that profile, because you're gonna get a lot of randomness, right? You're gonna get a lot of stuff that maybe, you know, calls out the features that you don't you don't expect. But if you don't have a bias towards a certain type of content, you might find that that works better for you. And so it's really just about checking with yourself. How do you think about messaging? How do you think about your brand? And how do you think about you know, building those key messages in the market and then deciding which path to take. Ultimately, what I will tell you is eventually it kind of becomes a dual track saying so, you know if you're finding that UGC is really working for you kind of mixing and matching the two is how you truly get to that next level of scale. Yeah, doesn't have to be either or it can be both to make sure that you're getting the best of both worlds. But if you were to advise an E commerce business owner, who is the type person nobody like you, Liz that likes to control the message and the messages that their creators are putting out. Would you put yet? Would you put together a kind of like a brief almost for those creators in terms of the messaging? Is there a best practice way of creating that message for them to share? Well, I think this is a great opportunity, again, for me to plug our business because when we go to when you go to suna.co/ugc, and you create a brief, we ask you some of these questions, you know, what platforms do you want the UGC to be created for, because if you want it for tick tock, we might suggest a slightly different style than if you want it for Instagram, for example, we also asked, you know, what are the key messages that you want your Creator to focus on? Are there any benefits? Or are there things you want them to not mention at all. And so our technology actually drives you through the campaign creative process to truly make it as easy as possible for you to create a brief that a creator can follow, kind of like a checklist, you know, honestly, of like, cool, I'm going to do these things, and not those things. But if you want to do it yourself, and you know, a lot of certainly a lot of brands, when they're just getting started want to just reach out to folks directly, you know, a couple things, I would always recommend, make sure that in your brief, you focus on two to three talking points. And the talking points really should be features of your product that you want them to focus on. The reason two to three is it's kind of the sweet spot for like, anything past three talking points, that's gonna get to be a really long video. And we don't want really long videos, we want something that's kind of, you know, 60 seconds ish. So two to three talking points is where I would focus. And then be sure to always say, you know, here's how you pronounce the name of the company. Here's the website that we want you to mention these really kind of basic things that it's easy to forget, I you know, I always have to say to people, it's sooner which rhymes with tuna, not sooner like Sonos, right? Like that kind of differentiation of just clarifying those kinds of things, you gotta get that in there. So do that really basic kind of boring stuff. And then, you know, make sure you say, here are things I prefer, you don't, you always want to hope focus on those things. Because, you know, there's, there's a tendency to just assumed that a user generated content creator is going to follow the script of what you want them to do. But they're creative people and create a feed looking how to, you know, go rogue, or get silly. And so be sure what you also don't want them to talk about, and package that up in a nice little PDF that you send to a creator so that they kind of have a guide for how to be successful for your business. Fantastic. So then you get a mixture of them following the message, knowing exactly how to say your name, that would be a disaster, if you spent all that money that they said they're the wrong name. And then also, it's still getting authenticity as well as the message, because it's still not your business at saying it, they'll provide their advice with the guidelines of the message that you've provided as well. And do you think that, from the results that you've seen with people using user generated content and using creators? Is there a, is there something that worked really well that you've seen well, whether they have a clear message, or if it's quite authentic, and there's not as much direction given? Or is it always going to be a bit of a mixture of what works? Well, I think what definitely does not, let's start with what absolutely does not work, because I've I've seen literally hundreds of 1000s of pieces of user generated content created on our platform. And so I know, one thing that definitely does not work is giving creators a script you want them to memorize. The reason that doesn't work is because somebody's trying to remember all of that most of these people are not, you know, trained actors are trained professional broadcasters. And so trying to remember a script is going to be really hard for them. So don't say like, I want you to say these exact words, that just kind of drains people of their energy, it removes that authentic aspect. And frankly, they're probably going to mess it up. So if you'll end up being disappointed, I think the things that I do see consistently work are letting the Creator know the short of what you really want to get across. So that's what I mean by two or three main talking points. A really good example of saying I want to show the before and after of using this product. So the before state is you know, let's say you sell an organizational product. The before state is I'm disorganized the after state is organization. Show that before and after. Another really great you know instruction you can give is I want to show someone how to use the product. So let's say you sell a beauty product and there are steps to effectively use that beauty product. Okay, I want to show people how to use the product. So the first step is x, the second step is y. The third step is Z, right and being really deliberate about showing those. And then the final thing I'll say is, you know, there's a kind of content that I would describe as the glowing review content. And the way to give instruction around glowing review type content. And this is, Oh, my Lord, this is like definitely the type of content we see them both on tick tock shops right now, like everybody has seen that video that's like, this product is going to change your life or this product absolutely made my life better this product changed my skin, or this product changed my kids, if you know, that kind of content of just like glowing review. It's really effective. But what you want to make sure is it's not just somebody saying, I loved it so much. You want to make sure they say I love it so much, because of these reasons. What are the reasons that you want them to focus on? Was it because if the quality was it because of the speed, was it because of the ease of use, you know, really try to get clear on what are those value propositions that a creator can mention, that makes the glowing review feel like they're really contextualize. A hack for this. And I always say this is go on Amazon, and go to a product that you love. And then go to the reviews. And at the top of the reviews, Amazon has these little bubbles of like words that positive reviews frequently mentioned. And words that negative reviews frequently vention that's what I mean, for what are the focus words that you want people to hone in on, that's a great for getting those key messages across. That's brilliant. So you can sort of review what the customers are in the market already a really valuing and, and can really pull those amazing. So also, I think when when it's all a complete glowing review, then you start to doubt it. So almost as does it make sense that you almost want them to highlight something that wasn't quite perfect at the same time as making it a glowing review to give just to give some more balance to the argument. Don't let him hone in on it entirely. But I think it's like, here's the thing, even products that I love, you know, I have a pair of Adidas sneakers that I just think are the best shoes on Earth. But you know, they're pink, and they get dirty really easily. So, you know, I have to clean them a lot. But a great way that you know, if Adidas wanted to hire me, hi, Adidas and create user generated content for my pink sneakers. I might mention, like, I love these sneakers, they go with so many of my spring and summer outfits, I am so obsessed with how they look for both a work setting and, and a fun setting. But also, you know, I really do have to keep them clean. And so here's maybe one or two things I do to keep them clean. That's authentic, right, that's the truth of my experience, I still would recommend them, I still would tell someone else to purchase them. I just am having an experience. That's real. And I think most products are like that. And allowing your creators to be honest about that also just drives through your consumer that you have some honesty about that you as a business owner should always know what customers hate about your product. I know what customers hate about my product. And I'm always trying to fix those problems. So being honest about that, I think is key. And frankly, one of the ways that you can come across as a reputable source. So brilliantly, you give some direction around the message that they're going to be talking about, and some of the key points that you want them to bring up because you've seen that other reviews out there tend to focus on certain areas, in terms of actually capturing the content, do you give some guidance over the angle the distance to where they should put the camera, that's that sort of thing, if you can, you should try different with different creators tried different angles. And the reason I say this is I was recently talking to a shoe brands that we work with on our platform. And I was really surprised to find out that the most successful videos for them weren't actually, you know, a creator talking to camera like this, it was a creator turning the camera around and showing their shoe shot, right their foot shot of like looking down at their shoes. And the only way they discovered that was trying lots of different angles. And so one of the things that I always recommend is, you know, maybe asking a creator to create two or three versions with slightly different angles or perspective. So one version might be them speaking directly to camera like this. One version might be you know, the bird's eye view meaning sort of what does the camera see from the front? And then another version might be you know, a third party filming from a different vantage point, right? So you've got now all three and then you can see, okay, what which one do consumers respond to which one gets the most interaction which one gets the most engagement and ultimately, which one drives the most sales? And um, This brings me to my final point which is on this topic, which is, you absolutely should also put UGC on your product listing pages. A lot of people will not put UGC on their PDP, I find that if you find a piece of UGC, that works really well for you on Tik Tok, or is driving traffic from Instagram, put that on the PDP because it helps to jog the viewers memory. Oh, yep, I saw that product. This is the same product I saw on social. I'm excited about it, it helps close the deal. So does that apply across user generated content from customers as well? Even if they've used like a shaky phone? The quality isn't the best. But if it's performed really well, would you still put that onto a product page? Absolutely. Because this is all about curation, right? It's about mixing and matching. So you're gonna have your high end product photos that look really, really great. But you're gonna mix that up with a piece of user generated content, a customer review. And what that's doing for your buyer is it's giving them a 360 view of your it's giving them a complete set of thoughts and ideas about whether or not they're going to enjoy the product. And you can change it up to you know, one of the things I think the best Shopify stores do is they actually, you know, we'll change it with the season. So, you know, when it gets to be closer to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, they'll put a user generated content piece that's about somebody buying their product for someone else, this is a great gift for so and so because XYZ, I would put that piece of UGC up during the holidays, but then when the holidays are over, switching it back up to someone shopping for themselves and purchasing for themselves. And so this isn't about set it and forget it. It's about saying that product display page should be a living document, it should be something that's always changing with the seasons, always taking in new information. And when you're learning something about what's working on social, bring that into the product page, so that you can constantly be learning about what's working there, too. Yeah, there's no doubt it has to evolve, as it was with what's working. And then content nowadays. I mean, it's just clearly more important than ever, and I can see how user generated content is really driving the, you know, the change in industry at the moment, people really pushing towards that. I'd love to hear some numbers. And so I guess some of the sort of results that you have seen from brands that have embraced getting into user generated content when perhaps they hadn't tried it before. Do you have any case studies or things that come to mind when you think about some of the results that you've seen? I mean, there are two things I want to tell people about the results of UGC. So one thing that a lot of, especially Shopify sellers will assume is that more views equals more sales, that tends that's actually not necessarily true. more targeted views equals more sales. So what do I mean by that? I've seen stores get 500 views on a video. But it drove incredible volumes of sales, 50 6070 sales, I percentage of sales, because the message was the right message for the right audience. And so don't necessarily assume that more views equals more sales. Always assume that getting to the right audience with the right message is what's going to drive more sales. And I've seen that especially you know, the categories where this is especially true, beauty, health and wellness products, pet products, home goods, products, these are the areas where people are really buying something very specific. And you know, they're looking pet products. As an example, I love pet products, it's a fast growing category, especially in drop shipping. The reason why it's such an emotional purchase is because your dog is your dog, it's highly specific to your dog. So if you've got a dog, you know, that has a health issue, for example, and your product solves for that health issue. That's AI intent, that's a really, really clear use case, I'm gonna buy that product. If I get the right video. I've also seen where, you know, merchants will get 10 million 20 million views on a video. And it'll only drive you know, 100 200 sales, but it does something else that's really much more valuable for them, which is it gets them followers on their accounts. So I want you to be thinking about kind of, okay, there's going to be UGC, that's driving brand awareness, meaning people are going to follow your account, people are going to become more interested in your brand they might not buy right now, but they're in the consideration cycle, right? building an audience is part of a consideration cycle, getting people to eventually purchase. There's going to be other types of UGC that maybe gets fewer views, but it's highly targeted to very specific use cases. And you always want to be having these two types of content, dual tracking, giving you that massive exposure that you need to continually build your business. Yeah, I can see how it's all about the right message at the right time to the right person. And views don't necessarily equate to two pounds or dollars in the bank account. So how do we get it get about getting your content in front of the right? Audiences in front of the right people not just getting views? For views sake? Yes. Well, I'm going to tell you something unfortunate. It's an incredibly boring process of doing research. So, you know, there are so many interesting tools. If you go into, you know, Instagrams Business Insights, you can look at what are the demographics that are typically looking at our content? What are the demographics of the people following our account? That's gonna give you one step of insight, right? So if you find out, wow, lots of 18 to 24 year old males are following her account. That's a really great hint that I bet we need to get user generated content from other 18 to 24 year old males, right. So kind of looking at the data that you do have to get clarity about what kinds of craters are going to be best. Another thing that you can do though, is you can also go on there's something on tick tock, for example, called Creator insights. So literally just go into tick tock search creator insights. And what it's going to tell you is it's going to, it's going to tell you currently trending topics where there isn't enough content being created. Now, you don't want to just sort of like randomly see, like, Okay, wow, crater insights, there's a bunch of opportunity for you to men's fashion, but you sell a pet product, right? We're not trying to like just fit the wrong shoe on the wrong, you know, foot, what we actually want to do is we want to see and create our insights, is there a place where there's a natural opportunity for us to offer ourselves up. So be constantly on the lookout for those things, all of a sudden, you see, like, oh, wow, dog training is really popular right now, or tiktoks. Trader insights panel is telling me they need more videos on dog training, and I sell a pet product. Great. Let me try to create some content in that vertical in that lane, you're gonna get the help of the algorithm in that situation. And then the third place to look is always, if you've never looked at Google Search Console, or looked at trending Google searches, I highly recommend that the reason why is it just gives you a pulse on what are consumers interested in right now. If you find that there's like a ton of people searching summer picnics, or summer activities, that could be a great place to like, lean into say, Okay, how does my product, be or exist is more relevant now? Or how can it be more relevant in the summer, these kinds of things can help you sort of shape a message that feels like it's the right thing at the right time. And frankly, make you feel relevant. Right? If you're talking about, you know, Christmas presents, or, you know, Hanukkah presents in July, you probably aren't going to seem like you know what you're talking about. But if you're talking about how your product is relevant for a friend's weekend at the beach, or how your product is relevant for a road trip, that is going to seem like right thing at the right time. So use these free tools, these free insights that are out there in these products to help you get insights and learnings about where to go. Amazing. Yeah, fantastic. There's so much out there, there's so much data now that we can tap into to find out where, you know, we want to put our products to get in front of the right people to to generate more sales. So Liz, your your insights today have been incredibly valuable. And I think we've really started to get across the power of user generated content for E commerce business areas. If people really are keen to start taking action on this straightaway, where would you suggest they go to start doing Hance that the content that they produce? Well, of course, I'm gonna suggest our own platform, which is go to see the.co/ugc and create your first free campaign. And if you find a creator, that's right for you, or you find a few creators, that's right for you, I have a coupon code for your listeners is just going to be trend 10 That'll get them 10% off their first user generated content campaign. And then if that's not the right fit for you, you're not quite ready for that, I do truly recommend that you go and try products, free products that allow you to do social listening from your own audience. So you know, there are so many great products Sprout Social has a free product. later.com has a free product, go do some of that social listening, see if you can find some content that exists out there in the world that might already be relevant for your product and start to use that as amazing. There's so much there for us to get started with. So definitely visit sooner.com If you're interested. And thank you very much, Liz for joining us on the podcast today. So happy to be here. Thank you. That was a fantastic conversation with Liz really enjoyed going into the power of content for E commerce brands. I think it's clear from that conversation there is that with the right strategy, you can significantly influence your customer engagement and the sales performance. Exactly. Yeah, I loved Lizzie's approach to leveraging the professional content and also user generated content is something that I think every ecommerce business can definitely benefit from in this day and age of social media and UGC content. So, yeah, really, really, for Rate insights. And I think the detailed strategies and the examples that she provided as well can serve as a blueprint for anyone looking to boost their content and effectiveness. Really good, really valuable content there that she shared. She also went into more detail in a set session that we did afterwards for our premium members. So that's more of like a step by step guide on implementing it. But yeah, so many insights in there. So anyone can transform the way that they interact now with their customers, and personalize their experience on your own platform so they know exactly how they will interact with your products. Absolutely. To make the most of the strategies I'd recommend pairing Liz is great advice from today, with the comprehensive framework outlined in my book, the home turf advantage, which is available at h t a book.com. This combination of the two will give you a solid foundation and innovative tactics to elevate your E commerce venture. So for anyone who's ready to implement these effective content strategies to date, head over to HT a book.com. To get started enjoying the podcast, we'd love to hear from you leave a comment or a review, and we might just feature it on an upcoming episode. Also, for detailed show notes and resources, head to dropship unlocked.com. Forward slash podcast. If you found value from any episode of this podcast, please take just 10 seconds to leave us a quick five star review on your podcast app of choice. It helps us more than you could imagine. And who knows, you might just hear your comments on the show. Thanks for being part of our community. Your support helps us keep delivering a new episode every week. Now it's time to answer a question that we've had in from a listener of the podcast. Remember, if you have a question, and you want it to be answered by Louis or myself on the podcast, then all you need to do is leave a comment beneath the YouTube video version of this episode. So that's exactly what Sergey has done. And he is asked, What are the running costs involved with this type of drop shipping business? Thanks for your question, Sergey. So drop shipping is known for his minimal overhead costs right compared to traditional retail models. Initially, your main expenses are really just going to be basic software tools, other than obviously buying the products from your suppliers your cost of goods, typically your overheads are going to be fairly minimal. For example, Shopify, the platform on which we build our E commerce stores offers a starter plan, which we've linked below this episode, there's a special link to that, where it allows you to start for just one pound per month for the first month. And then it's 25 pounds per month for the basic plan. So that makes it highly accessible for beginners and really a very minor expense. Now, besides the E commerce platform itself, other minimal costs include things like a Google workspace accounts, and that's for about 10 pounds per month. So that gives you like your professional email service, email inbox, but also it gives you access to Google Drive, so you can store all of your folders and collaborate with your team on there. Again, we've provided a special discounted link below this episode. So you can sign up to Google workspace and get started on that. And then the other thing is probably just a dedicated phone line, you know, you don't really want to be putting your mobile number at the top of your new retail brands website. But you do want a phone number because stores with a phone number are definitely higher converting and many of your customers might just want to speak to someone before they make a high ticket purchase for one or 2000 pounds. So it's worth having, you can get these numbers for as little as six pounds per month using the recommended provider that we use called circle loop. And again, we've linked below a special link with a special deal exclusive to our listeners there. You may also choose to add a few inexpensive apps to enhance your store. Now these aren't required, but typically, they're not going to push much beyond maybe 50 pounds per month, you know, so we're not talking about going out and leasing a warehouse or an office premises with 1000s per month, a very minimal. Now, initially, your marketing efforts will be primarily with our HomeSafe advantage model will be through Google ads. So that is going to require you to set aside some kind of budget just to get you up and running. But remember, we're not just spending money on ads, meaninglessly or aimlessly, we want a return on investment from that ad spend. So the idea is that say you set aside 30 pounds per day in adspend. By maybe day seven, day eight, you'll start to be making sales. And if you're making a sale for 2000 pounds, and making a net profit on that sale of 600 pounds, that's paid for the last seven days of adspend, and more. So you're in profit overall. And if you can get it to making consistent daily sales like that, then you could see how you could start to scale your ad spend above that 30 pounds to get more traffic to your site to get more sales and the cycle and it continues. The other thing that you might just want to be aware of is sometimes the first order to the supplier might need an upfront payment. Now there are alternative payment arrangements that can be explored with that that's something we cover kind of in more detail inside the master class but just be aware that you don't get caught out making your first sale for 2000 And then suddenly having to fund that because the money hasn't come through yet from the payment processor. And for the first few days, so that's something we talked about in depth and can guide you through on a q&a call in the program. After the initial setup, with carefully selected high demand products, using our nine step validation criteria, your business can really be up and running and making a nice transition to being financed by you from the very beginning with those low overheads to eventually just being financed by its own profits, and it becomes this self sustaining organism and it can just kind of grow and then you can step back, and you just need to manage the growth of the business. So it's a really nice self sustaining income stream. Yes, I completely agree with that answer. Thank you, Louis. low overhead costs, and then it it will cover itself and pay you in the not too distant future. So they give you a question, Sergey, rules are going to highlight a review that we've had in from a listener of the podcast, and a big thank you to Diana 811, you left a YouTube comment. I love reading these out. So Diana said, Thank you, these q&a episodes are really informative. I've learned a lot from this one would greatly appreciate more coming. Oh, amazing. Well, thank you for the positive comment, Diana. And we will take your feedback on board. And yeah, I really enjoyed doing those. I think James does as well, those q&a episodes where we kind of hand picked some nice questions from within our community that we think would benefit the wider audience. And so perhaps that's what we'll do more of. So yeah, thank you for the feedback. Now, as we wrap up this episode today, one quick question that I have for you is, who do you know, that could also benefit from hearing this? Share the love open up your phone, click share, send them a link to this episode on WhatsApp and just say I thought you might enjoy this and send them the link to the episode. That tiny gesture could be the thing that then changes the rest of their life for the better. And then always look back on that WhatsApp message that you sent them. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the dropship unlocked podcast. We hope you're walking away with insights and inspiration. to kickstart your E commerce journey. Grab a copy of my book The home of turf advantage at HT A book.com is a distilled guide based on real experience to help you build your E commerce venture. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for more strategies and success stories. If you like what you heard a five star review would mean the world to us and you might just get a shout out on an upcoming episode. And finally, thank you for deciding to spend your time with us today. We can't wait to bring you more insights on the next episode of the dropship on Rob's podcast. Definitely and for those who are ready to take the next step and dive deeper into optimizing their e commerce strategies. Daniel also provided an exclusive training with a wealth of knowledge in our Premium Members training area as well. And for a comprehensive guide to building and scaling your E commerce business. Remember to check out my book at H T. A book.com is the perfect companion to Daniel's insights offering you a full framework to grow your business successfully enjoying the podcast, we'd love to hear from you leave a comment or a review. And we might just feature it on an upcoming episode. Also, for detailed show notes and resources, head to dropship unlock.com forward slash podcast. If you found value from any episode of this podcast, please take just 10 seconds to leave us a quick five star review on your podcast app of choice. It helps us more than you could imagine. And who knows, you might just hear your comments on the show. Thanks for being part of our community. Your support helps us keep delivering a new episode every week. Now it's time to answer a question that we've had in from a listener. Remember, if you want your questions answered, simply leave a comment below the YouTube video version of this episode. And it might just be answered on an upcoming episode. So this question is coming from Rishi Patel for 554. And they have asked, I know how important it is to find a mentor for my dropshipping business. But I don't know which style is better. One to one or group coaching. What do you think? Yeah, thanks for the question. Rishi. So I think the the answer to that one, having now mentored 1000s of people in our programs, is a balanced approach between the two, there's not really one that's better than the other. And I'll explain a bit about why because they're both essential in my opinion. So having that, that approach the incorporates one to one mentoring. And group coaching is really important because it gives you the best of both worlds. It gives you that personalized support that you need to speak directly to a mentor to a coach, you can speak directly ask your questions, get the specific answers that you need for your unique challenges. And but also, the benefit that you get from the group coaching is that sometimes you won't know the questions to ask because you aren't yet at the point where you have those questions. So the benefit of being in a group coaching environment means that you will learn the questions that You didn't even know you had, so that you then know the answers on how to tackle those challenges so that they don't even become questions as you progress through your journey. So hopefully you see what I mean, if you were just on your own inner Zoom Room with a mentor, and you were just asking them questions, they'd be like, Well, do you have any other questions? And you'd say, well, no, I don't think so. Not right now. But someone else who was in that room might have had another question, and you won't get the benefit of learning their answer to that. So I think that that's the reason why, if it was the other way, and it was only group and you had no ability to ask your question directly. Again, you might have questions that you think I wish they would just answer this on the group environment, but I can't, like interact directly, because it's like a one to many type call. That's why I dropship a lot we have in our masterclass, group coaching calls with a one to one element in there. So each time you're asking a question, you're interacting directly with one of us on the two q&a calls or on the collaboration calls with other members. But also, there is the possibility of then booking a one to one call, as well. So we kind of offer that dynamic, but I'd say most people get the most value from the coaching calls in a group environment because they can then watch about the recordings of those hear other people's questions, watch hundreds of hours of those. So it really is invaluable to, to get that combination of tailored advice, but also, at the same time, get the benefit of the collective wisdom of a group to get the answers to solutions and things that you may not have even considered. I think with all of this as well. This all needs to be underpinned by having a clear, proven step by step training program and framework to follow. I mean, if you are just relying on a mentor, and there's no material to follow, and there's no proven process is a very windy path to try to get your business up and running. If you have a robust Foundation, with a blueprint that you can follow the steps, the videos, the tutorials, all of that stuff that we have inside the masterclass where it guides you through that process. I'm not saying it's an easy journey. And that's why we have the coaching calls. That's why we have the the community the support, but it can be very simple journey in that with the right structure is very repeatable, we know what to do, and it's extremely rewarding when you can make it come together. So hopefully that answers your question. Rishi and anyone else listening who might be considering whether they need a private one on one mentor, or whether they want to group coaching or whether they want to join a program. Really, you need all three like that the way that this works best is that balanced combination of all three, because that way, you'll be equipped with the tools that you need, the knowledge you need, the support networks that you need. And then you can navigate the complexities of business and build a thriving ecommerce drop shipping business. Great question. And the combination is so important. I came across something recently where when you've got something that you're trying to learn, you've, you've got people around you that are pushing you up, because they're on the same level as you. And then you're also got access to mentors who are a few steps ahead of you. And they're able to pull you up to that position as well. So you've got a combination of both group coaching people pushing up around you, and the mentors there as well, that will pull you to get to that level as well as the ultimate combination. And it certainly worked for me. And I know it will do for you as well. Rishi so thank you for your question. Okay, we're now going to highlight a recent review that we've had in from a listener for the podcast as well. So a big thank you to John G. For the YouTube comments. And John said, What amazes me is the quality of the delivery, or the depth of the knowledge imparted. It's very exciting. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much for your review, John. Now, we know that people sharing the podcast across social media platforms, but specifically WhatsApp being the most common method of listeners sharing these podcast episodes. So perhaps there's someone that you might know who might be interested in running their own online business, the single biggest thing you could do to help them right now will be to share this episode with them or this podcast with them on WhatsApp. It will take you about 10 seconds. And the best part is that they'll always have you to thank for their success. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the dropship unlocked podcast. We hope you're walking away with insights and inspiration. to kickstart your E commerce journey. Grab a copy of my book, the home of turf advantage at HT A book.com is a distilled guide based on real experience to help you build your E commerce venture. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for more strategies and success stories. If you like what you heard a five star review would mean the world to us and you might just get a shout out on an upcoming episode. And finally, thank you for deciding to spend your time with us today. We can't wait to bring you more insights on the next episode of the dropship unwrapped podcast.