Evan Carmichael shares three strategies for online stores: lead with values instead of competing on price, like Honest.com does. Build an email list and treat it like dating, sending genuine value before the sales pitch. Every email must educate or inspire, not just promote.
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Please help my online store. So I got a great question from one of my YouTube viewers— love you guys— Rihanna, who wrote in to say, what if I have an online store and not an actual store? Then what do you do? This is a great question, Rihanna. Thank you so much for writing in. I have 3 suggestions to help you market your online store. Number 1 is lead with your values. This is so important. I need to know what it is that you stand for, because the challenge with a lot of online stores is you're selling You're selling the same stuff, right? You're selling the exact same product that I can get at 1,000 other websites, so why am I going to buy from you instead of somebody else? You have two options. You either compete on price, which is a race to the bottom, which is, you know, you're making pennies in profits, or you compete on values. And values is, I'm buying into an experience. I'm buying into a company that's trying to make the world a better place, and you need to show me how you're doing that. So an example that I want you to look at is honest.com, and I've talked about them a few times on this channel. They are an online retailer. They have over $100 million in sales, and they believe in honest. They have products that are honestly made, that don't have chemicals in them, that are all natural, that are organic, that the suppliers treat their people in a humane way, right? They care about honesty. And so some people will go to that website and, and say, "Honesty is stupid. I don't care about that." You know, I just want the cheapest product, and that's fine. You're going to lose out on those customers. But there are other customers who are going to come and they'll see that and they'll love it and say, yes, finally, it's exactly what I was looking for. And those people are willing to pay a premium for what you're selling. If you go to my website, you'll see it's all about belief, right? Believe. That oozes out of everything I do. It's right at the top of every page of my website. You can't help but get hit with a punch in the face of belief. And some people, they love that, right? Some people hate that. I love that. You know, for the people who hate that though, for people who hate that, they're not probably gonna be great customers for me anyway, right? If you don't believe and believe, you're probably not watching this video. You shut it down within the first 5 seconds. You bounce to my website. I'm not gonna sell to you anyway. So it's about leading with your values because people who believe in what you're doing will pay more for it. Making it super obvious and it's attracting a target audience who are gonna be ideal customers, who will love what you do and can't wait to tell their friends about it. Number 2 is have a newsletter. Date before getting married. This is really important because a lot of online stores, they just try to sell, right? And when somebody is, is making a decision to buy something, they'll often browse. They'll browse between different websites trying to educate themselves and figure out what they're gonna do. And they may never come back to your website. They may visit it once and never come back. And leading with the values makes it memorable. But you also want a way to build a relationship instead of just asking for the sale. Asking for the sale right away is like going up to somebody on the street and saying, "Hey, will you marry me?" The chance of it happening— it happens, but the conversion rate is really, really low. What you want to do is date before getting married. Get to know them, send some value, let them get to know you, let them see that you believe in what you're doing. And so the great way to do that is through your newsletter. So you want to get people who come to your website to sign up for your newsletter so you can send them information and maintain a relationship. And so when they're ready to make that buying decision, they're more likely to go with you. So get a solid newsletter in place. Date before getting married. And number 3 is send value in every email. This is a huge mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make is when they send out an email, it's all promotional, it's all product-focused, there's very little value. What I want you to do is make my life better. Don't send me coupon codes and discounts and sales offers all the time. Send me value, right? Again, this ties back to that top feeling we're trying to create. Tell me how I can live an honest life. Tell me how I can believe in myself. Make me feel something towards your company. If I love your business and what it stands for and you're making me a better person, through the content that you're sharing in your newsletter, guess what? I'm much more likely to buy your products and to talk about you and to make a video about you, right? So few companies do this because they're so transaction-focused and it's a race to the bottom. So make sure with every newsletter that you're sending out, what I want you to do, I want you to think of this as your acid test, is do I feel proud of what I've just written? Am I proud of this newsletter? And if you're not, then don't waste people's inbox time. You want to feel like you're giving solid value, and the 5 minutes somebody takes out of their day is precious, and you're going to be making their life better. So you need to be proud of every single marketing communication that goes out there, and if you're not, redo it. So in summary, number 1, lead with your values. Number 2, have a newsletter and date before getting married. And number 3, send value in every email. Believe. Thank you so much, Rihanna, for the great question. For those of you watching, you like the video, you can subscribe to the channel to see more videos just like this. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
