E-commerce success hinges on mastering strategic communication, akin to playing a game with specific "cheat codes" that top brands leverage to win by deeply understanding and effectively messaging their ideal customer.
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E-commerce is just one giant game. And
chances are, if you are watching this,
you aren't winning as much as you could
be. Because the truth is, there are
cheat codes and strategies that the top
1% of brands use to stay ahead. That's
why they keep winning. They're playing a
smarter game than you. And in this
video, I'm going to break down the exact
cheat codes you need to win the game of
e-commerce. So, if you're building a
brand online, this is the blueprint for
building and scaling that you need. Now,
it turns out e-commerce is the best
video game ever created. Billions of
online shoppers are actively searching
every day where they can spend their
money next to solve the problems they
have. And brands are changing culture as
a whole. And every day lives are being
changed on levels that some can only
dream of. And it's pretty crazy when you
think about it. But the truth is, if you
actually know what you are doing,
e-commerce is way better than an actual
video game. But in this game, points in
each new level are just dollars in real
life. And this is where I see most
people get tripped up and it causes them
to lose this game. Messaging is the
bridge between your customers mind and
the products you sell. And if you're
building your brand using content or ads
with platforms like Tik Tok shop, Meta
or Instagram, you really only have one
job to become the best communicator in
the world. Think of the biggest brands
like Alani, Rogue, AG1 and Comfort. They
win because they know how to communicate
what their customers want and they build
their strategy around that
communication. And this is the power of
messaging. Now to be the best
communicator we need to break our game
board into four sections. Platforms,
formats, audiences and messaging. And
the platforms are made up of Facebook,
Instagram, Tik Tok, and Tik Tok shop.
This is where you can post as much as
you want and put out the wear. Formats
are things like founder stories, behind
the scenes, reviewbased lifestyle,
special offers, newsletters, and creator
UGC. These are the types of content you
can make or the how. Audiences are
things like athletes, street wear, or
interior designers. These are all of the
people you can reach. The who message is
things like value proposition, your
narrative, or your key differentiator,
the what. And every time you're running
an ad or putting out a piece of content,
you are sending some message to some
audience on some platform in some
format, one or another. And each of
these combinations unlocks a different
buying trigger within your customer's
mind. Let's jump into my screen and look
at some examples of this. For good
messaging is Misfits Market. and they're
selling grocery items like sweet
potatoes and their headline says,
"What's wrong with these sweet
potatoes?" And they show a dismorphed
weird looking sweet potato and then they
guide the viewer to the answer which is
nothing is wrong with these sweet
potatoes. They just look a little bit
different, but most grocery stores don't
want to sell those items even though
they're perfectly fine. So, this brand
has found a way to curate their message
to identify a specific audience in need
and be able to offer some of these
vegetables and different products at a
discount so people can buy them. And
this message is really clear and you can
join for free to support a better food
system so you're not throwing away other
items. Now, let's look at another ad.
This one's by Carp, which is a deodorant brand.
brand.
>> If your armpits are sweaty, inject them
with Botox. If they're smelly, use a
deodorant. If they're staining your
clothes, soak them in vinegar. They're
dry and irritated, use a lotion. If you
want them to smell sexy, put on some
cologne. The problem is, if you try to
buy each one of these individually,
you're spending hundreds of dollars. And
who wants this stuff? Let's get rid of
all of this because you can literally
get the same benefits in one stick of Carpet.
Carpet.
>> Carp uses ingredients proven to stop
sweat, prevent odor, and actually reduce
bacteria growth. Just look at the
difference between the bacteria on an
armpit wearing Carp and an armpit
wearing generic deodorant. Ew. So, you
actually don't have to overpay on
Amazon. You can go to our website and
get it for 56% off. You're going to get
to choose four premium fragrances.
You'll get three free.
>> All right. So, the message is very clear
here in this ad. Most deodorants and
most products are overpriced and you
have to have so many different ones to
achieve the exact same thing with their
product. They're not only offering you a
better deal at a better price, but
they're offering you more for less. One
product that covers all of those other
things that he just mentioned in the
video. And this is clearly demonstrated
through the message by visuals and how
he actually phrases things with the
comparison when he's going through the
video. Not only that, but he says,
"Ditch your drugstore deodorants today.
Sick of deodorants that promise the
world but leave you sweating. We're
framing a problem and framing his
product as a solution very clearly." And
then one of the biggest value ads is the
actual price and offer itself, which
he's talking about stop wasting money on
all these products and clearly
demonstrating this. And then Carpay
stops odor and sweat for a less price,
which gives all the information and
dials in the message to be very clear to
the consumer to make a decision to buy.
Now, let's look at an example of
somebody with bad messaging.
>> You picking this up?
>> Go ahead.
>> I would say it's less about a moment and
more like a type of moment really. So,
anytime I see him trust himself is the
thing. So,
>> I don't even know what's happening yet,
but let's continue watching.
>> Whether it was his first steps, right?
His first words. Now, we're talking
about like colors, numbers, alphabet,
and at some point, he's going to have to
trust himself and I'll have to trust him
to drive. You know what I mean? So,
these are the things that are really
special for me to watch and kind of see
his face light up.
>> All right, this is a really tough watch,
this video is. So, this is a brand ad
for Fossil, but it starts off with a
story that kind of starts in the middle.
We don't even really know what's
happening. And the set is weird. The
message is not clear at all. And what I
find really funny about this ad is the
product placement that they're doing in
the video. He's talking about his kid
and some story and is using this weird
phrasing and then all of a sudden you
just see fossil watches and product
placement throughout the video
>> when he
>> which is pretty hilarious to think about
because he's talking about a story and
all of a sudden we see like product
placement and then when he's speaking
they're just showing the watches in the
background then showing the watch on
him. Like, how many times do we need to
show the product shot to make the
message clear because we don't know
what's going on. This ad is as unclear
as any ad I've ever seen. And it's
honestly shocking that somebody would
even edit this, film this the way they
did, and put this as an ad. I don't know
how this even got to the approval
process to be quite honest with you. And
this person might be somebody that
people want to tune into and listen to
specifically, which they're using,
somebody who's more identifiable out in
the public, but the message is just not
clear. So, let's look at another bad ad
message example. All right, so here's
this one. This is an image based ad. It
is by ID Y L and it says made for the
now and always, which is very vague. We
don't know if they're selling makeup if
we don't know this brand or if they are
selling jewelry. We can't really tell.
Is this a bracelet? It's very small.
It's on a brush. It wouldn't be a ring.
Maybe it's a necklace. It's hard to say.
And then indulge in timeless pieces that
celebrate your unique style. Okay.
Complete with a curated luxury gift and
make your moment truly extraordinary.
All right. That's all very vague. It's
like, you know, trying to give this luxury
luxury
mystique mysterious feel, but it's just
really not coming across. If you're if
you're going to see this in an in an ad
placement, most people are going to
scroll past this because they don't know
what's going on and it's just too all
over the place. So, you know, the
message is not good on this one at all,
which is why proper messaging activates
psychological buying triggers within
your customer's mind and draws them
closer to buying your product. And to be
able to do this, you need your message
to reach the right audience through the
right ad format on the right platform to
get them to take action on what it is
that you're actually offering. This
could be an actual sale on one of your
products or them signing up to your
newsletter. But no matter if you're just
starting out or an eight or nine figure
brand, the approach is the exact same.
When you start thinking of the game of
e-commerce, ads, Tik Tok shop, and
content creation like this and using
this framework, your mindset and
approach will completely shift. Now that
we beat level one, let's start playing
level two. You're running ads, tweaking
the website, sending more emails,
posting more content, tried to launch on
Tik Tok shop, but still are not seeing
the growth in terms of sales. Now,
there's two reasons why this is
happening. The first one is actually
good. This is called the planning phase.
You're investing time, energy, and
money, but not seeing a direct return
right away. You're building skills.
You're building momentum and really
learning the game. And in that early
phase and even in some periods when you
start to scale, you're going to have
seasons of planting and investing and
growing your brand. This is a natural
part of the game. Everyone goes through
this. But the second one is actually bad
and you must avoid this stage. This is
where you're strategically misaligning
and ultimately setting yourself up to
fail. And this usually comes from not
being clear on where you are headed or
having shiny object syndrome. So let's
look at what this would look like. So,
going back to this brand that we really
didn't know what product they're
selling, let's go ahead and look at how
unclear the process is if you were to
even click on this ad and what strategy
they're using. So, once we click on the
ad, we're directed to a page where we
have a video. We don't even see what
they're really selling yet. And I'm
assuming if it is jewelry, there's a few
slow shots here that pan in. As we
scroll down, we don't even see that
product initially that they're
promoting, which already is misaligning
the message and people are going to be
lost. But let's assume that they click
on a product that they may like now that
we know it's jewelry.
Well, now we're directed to another
video, which is also very bizarre. This
is already our first click in from the
ad, and now our second click in, and we
are still not on a product yet. And now
we're showing different products. Once
again, we have to click and hope that
maybe this is one we're interested in
and we make it to the product page.
People are going to get lost with this
strategy and there's no clear road map
to buy. You're having multiple touch
points where people are having to click
to even get to a product page and we're
not even calling out exactly what we're
selling, what it is. There's just too
much mystery, too much confusion, and
too much navigation that's required for
somebody to make a decision to buy. It's
going to be very hard to scale something
like this at a profitable rorowass. So
now let's look at what clear messaging
looks like. We're going back to Misfits
Market where they had these misfit
looking sweet potatoes and how they're
mentioning that nothing is wrong with
these. So maybe we're interested in
buying some of these items because we
want to support small farms that have
ugly vegetables. That's totally okay. So
we hit shop now and the first message is
save on grocery delivery and reduce food
waste. So, we're not only helping a
cause, which is a powerful message and
strategy, but we're also aligning our
offer with this audience because you're
buying these misfit vegetables that just
would have gone to waste. We're actually
going to reward you by allowing you to
save more money on your family household
for buying vegetables that look ugly,
which is absolutely amazing. And you can
conclude all this information in such a
short line of text. It really only took
us what? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 eight words to be
able to tell us all of that, which we
know is clear. Not only that, but look
at this visual. Here's all of these
misfit fruits, items, and vegetables
that we can buy. And all we got to do is
just hit get started and be able to go
through the process to check out and
start grocery shopping with this brand.
Okay, so we just completed our second
level of the game and why most players
get stuck. Let's see how the top 1% of
brands keep beating you on level three.
These are the brands making millions of
dollars per month. How are they doing
this? What are they doing differently
than you? You may not like this, but the
answer is actually super simple. It's
the strategy. They have a crystalclear
strategy. They put all of their time and
energy into the right strategy and any
dollar they make, they roll it back into
the strategy to apply leverage. That
means if they spend 5K on a UGC creator
strategy and make back 50K, they're
going to double down on that and keep
growing and reinvesting into that
character. They stay away from shiny
object syndrome. And most importantly,
they've gified their funnel. You see,
once you have the right strategy in
place, all you have to do is stay super
consistent with laser focus. It's
picking a strategy, validating it, and
sticking with it. All right, so now
let's break down what a gamified funnel
looks like. So, whenever we click on
shop now, we're immediately presented
with a special offer, which already
begins the gamifying of the system. We
can pick a box for free gifts and
discounts. So, rather than going direct
to product page, we're already setting
it up to feel fun, exciting, engaging.
It almost feels like we're getting
something in advance before we even
started playing. So, let's go ahead and
see how this works. We choose one box
and we just received free shipping. Now,
somebody's already excited. Rather than
just saying free shipping as a banner
and having somebody read it, we're
turning it into a system where it feels
like they just earned a reward, similar
to how a game would be. We choose
another item. We just got free underarm
wipes. Let's choose another. We got a
free mystery gift now. And then one
more. We just got a free sweat absorbing
base lotion. Confetti pops up. You can
see the excitement that begins to play
out here. As we hit continue, we're then
directed to a product page that is very
welldesigned for conversions. And let's
just look at how this is structured via
mobile. We have our early Black Friday
offer that is already being released. We
have save up to 67% off with four free
gift offers that you just received and
you're going to want to collect them
because you've already have been given
them. You just got to order the product
to receive it. And then even their
imagery, they've made it horizontal so
they can fit more information on their
product page. As you can see, the game
of unraveling all your special gifts.
And as we scroll down here, we're
guaranteeing their delivery by a certain
date because we know people want things
fast in today's day and age. With games
being fast-paced, so is online. And then
we have key call outs like best deal,
most popular to boost our AOVs and get
more conversions. And then, as you can
see, they're actually taking away some
of the gifts, unless we choose the four
sticks. So, we're almost guiding them in
a very specific direction if you want to
receive all of the items you just
selected. And this is some really good
reverse psychology because if you just
choose one stick, now you're only
getting that one gift when you thought
you were getting four. So, now you kind
of feel obligated to want to have to buy
the best deal and get the best offer
with all the items, which makes it feel
like a no-brainer offer. And as we
continue, we have all these key call
outs that really allow the consumer to
make a buying decision. And then we're
guided to a page where we can start
selecting our scents. So we have best
sellers we could organize it by and
start to choose. Maybe we want two of
the best sellers. We want a different
scent here. And once we select the ones
that we want to try, we simply continue.
And we are directed to a checkout page
that is very well optimized. Most of you
are actually missing this page here,
which is 1 million plus happy customers.
If you think about a game online, a lot
of times games will show 1 million users
are online playing this game right now.
It's a form of social proof that has
already been proven through how you get
people to engage and use something. And
these same strategies can be applied
with your online e-commerce store. So,
now that we understand that, how do we
create your winning strategy to be level
three? To make your brand's offer work,
you have to understand your ICP, your
ideal customer profile. In simple terms,
who do we want watching our ads or
content so they buy what we're selling?
The first thing you need to do is figure
out who this person is. This is the only
thing that matters until you complete
this step. Now, to do this, we use this
easy six-step test. What would they say?
What would they be like? What message
would resonate with them? What are their
main pain points? And how do they prefer
to be spoken to? as well as what are
their needs. You must learn who this
person is so that way you can create the
right content on the right platform in
the right format with the right message.
The biggest mistake I see brands do is
they start with the platform first. They
saw that another brand was crushing it
on a certain platform like Facebook ads.
So they only want that but their ICP is
on the opposite platform. This is the
wrong approach and a massive trap. Don't
just start with any platform or format
or message. Start with the audience. Who
do I need? an audience of to buy what
I'm selling. This is the most important
aspect of this game. All of the biggest
brands on social media understand this
and put their ICP at the heart of
everything they do. And once you have
this, you need to figure out the
platform. Where do these people hang
out? Where do they spend their time
searching and scrolling for online?
Start with one single hero platform
first, crush it, and then add in the
next. Now, everyone is different when
identifying this and not everyone will
have the same answer, which is why
inside of Ads Mastery, we work with you
one-on-one and identify these very
things while scaling your brand. I left
a link in the description below for you
to check that out. But here's the
structure for how you can do this for
yourself. So, you need to think, where
does my ICP, ideal customer profile,
spend their time? Is it either Meta or
Tik Tok? Now that we have the platform
your customers live on, we need the
format. We have the who and the where.
Next, we need that format. Here's why
this is so important. The algorithm will
identify for you what is your best
format and we'll push that format even
more because it knows your customer will
want more of it. So, I put together five
formats that I think will work great for
you in this next video here. So, now we
have the who, the where, the how, and
last, we need the what, which is the
message. And the message is going to
target the pain points that your ICP
has. And the stronger the pain point,
the more they will trust you once you
solve it. And the more that you solve
it, the more that they will want to pay
you to solve it. You want to identify
that deep lying pain. Now, this
four-step structure, the audience, the
platform, the format, and the message,
this is the framework for how you win
the game of e-commerce. The more clear
you can get on every single one of these
levels, the easier the game becomes. And
I promise you, if you go allin for 6
months on one platform in one set of
messages for that ICP, you will become a
master of this game. Now that you
understand the levels of e-commerce, in
this next video, I'll teach you how you
can turn your brand into a cult-like
brand on the internet. And I have it all
in this video right here. And I'll see
you in just a sec inside of that one,
and we'll start building your cultlike
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