Sonja Grasser, MBA

Every brand is different, but their growth lifecycle is the same...if they survive long enough. If you're running into headwinds finding profitable growth, trying to understand if or when brand investments will ever pay off, or worried about the risks of channel expansion, this post is for you. Here are my lessons around finding a balance of Brand building and Channel Expansion in hopes you can skip the pain and jump straight to stage 7. I used to think channel expansion was giving up on your brand. This is how I used to think: - "Ecommerce has infinite scale." - "Why would we give up control of the brand experience?" - "Why would we give up ownership of the transaction and all that sweet sweet data?" - "All we need to do is build the brand strength and we'll be able to maximize the potential of the brand via our shopify website" This is what I learned: - Yes, maximizing profitable growth comes from increasing Brand Strength.   - That's necessary, but not sufficient.  - Increasing available TAM is also necessary - Because shopping behaviors are sticky, pieces of your total TAM are locked up in other sales channels. - Our Brand can't fully monetize without unlocking the TAM in other sales channels. - We're not going to get everyone who is used to shopping in brick n mortar to buy online. - Some will, but the number is small. - Therefore, Ecommerce does not scale infinitely. - TAM, TAM by channel, sequence of expansion that makes sense, etc is different for each brand, and changes as product offering changes. - If you have an absolutely massive digital DTC TAM, there might be zero need to expand channel and still build the business you want Mistakes: Along the way, you'll make mistakes as you run into headwinds either from your available TAM, or your brand strength. These include: - Over-rotating to short term tactics (discount, promo, high-ROAS, non-incremental spend options) to drive further growth when you don't see the 'results' from the brand investments you're making since you've run into the TAM ceiling of a channel - Giving up on channel expansion forever if you see cannibalization.  - Cannibalization is a symptom, not the cause. The cause is the Brand Strength - Overspending on a new channel after you see strong early results "just from turning it on" - Undervaluing the operational complexity associated with jumping into a new channel. Each channel is, after all, a completely new and different business. - Signing on to wholesale purchase orders you can't deliver on. Why? You don't yet have the Brand Strength to deliver the required full-price sell-through velocity.  - Result? Reduced overall Brand Strength resulting from discounting + promotions needed to move through the inventory Mistakes are to be expected Doesn't mean you should stop investing in Brand or stop building the capabilities to expand sales channels Just means you need to increase one or both of them It's just math hope this helps ✌️❤️🤘

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With third party cookie deprecation coming soon, I've been working with several of my fractional CMO clients to get the teams, systems and data ready for the change. I've outlined some of the things we've been working on in the article below. If you've already addressed these, great! If not, you should definitely take a look. These are things you should be considering. https://lnkd.in/g-HuERfM

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Do You Need a Million Dollars to Launch a Beauty Brand? The answer might surprise you. Here’s what I’ve learned: you don’t need a million dollars to get started in the beauty business. In fact, I’ve seen founders launch a brand with as little as $8,000. That’s right, $8,000 for everything from product development to the initial marketing campaign. Now, you can’t expect to turn $8k into $800k overnight – but you can validate your product, your messaging, and your market fit. That’s a critical component of the business journey and what you most need most in the beginning. Folks in the technology space call it validate the minimal viable product (MVP). Don’t let the lack of funds hold you back. You can still launch with a small budget and adjust expectations as you grow. The key is to validate your concept before investing too much. If you’re ready to take your beauty brand to the next level – even on a smaller budget – let’s talk! 💬

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Last week I was focused on an e-commerce niche I haven't thought about in around 10 years. The OG of e-commerce categories: books. In today's competitive e-commerce landscape, innovative services are game changers. Enter personalized book printing—offering unique, customer-centric experiences. Digital platforms like Amazon and Ingram have transformed book sales, with programs such as Kindle Direct Publishing and IngramSpark leading the way. Imagine letting customers upload their files, select binding options, and choose paper types—all from your platform! This customization meets modern consumers' desire for uniqueness. Integrating this service can elevate the customer experience, foster loyalty, and unlock growth opportunities. Ready to revolutionize your engagement strategy? #Ecommerce #Personalization #Innovation #CustomerExperience #GrowthStrategies

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From Specialist to Olympic Medalist: What Stephen Nedoroscik's Inspiring Journey can teach us about branding and positioning. 🇺🇸 When Stephen Nedoroscik realized he couldn't excel in all gymnastics events, he made a bold decision: specialize in the pommel horse. 💪 This laser focus paid off spectacularly and earned Stephen a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team where he just clinched a Bronze medal at the Olympics 🔑 Key Takeaway: Narrowing your focus can lead to greater success. Nedoroscik's story teaches us: Identify your strengths Focus: don't try to be all things to all people Commit fully to your passion Most businesses try to do it all to grow revenue--offering any services or products their clients will buy. BUT, it is ruthless focus that leads to breakthrough results. Find your pommel horse! #OlympicDreams #TeamUSA #FindYourStrength #BusinessStrategy #Branding https://lnkd.in/ezRaRshj

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I get this question a lot. For the purposes of this post, I'm talking Commercial or EB producer. First, what factors into the guarantee/base a company will offer? ➡ Do you have any B2B sales experience? ➡ Have you had success in a sales career in another industry already? ➡ How big is your network? How will you prospect? ➡ Do you have any applicable insurance experience/knowledge? ➡ How comfortable are you having "skin in the game" (that is, higher total earnings potential by accepting a higher % commission but a lower guaranteed base?) I recently talked about how it's important not to be starving year one (i.e. $20k base or 100% commission) and had a few critics saying "If you aren't comfortable with commission, you shouldn't be in sales". 🙄 Sure, you need motivation to hustle, but learning insurance is different than learning to sell a copier or a car. You need time to get your feet under you, and it's hard to think straight when you're stressed about money 24/7. Plus, desperation is unbecoming. Don't think there aren't great companies willing to give a generous year 1 base to someone with strong potential who's new to the industry. Here's just 1 example of several I've had like this: My candidate had 15+ years in the working world, mostly in the B2B sales space (primarily in leadership capacities vs 'front lines' sales). Zero insurance knowledge. Incredibly well-connected with folks who would also be the decision makers for employee benefits. Very strong business acumen. Hired as an EB producer. Her package was $100k guaranteed base (reduced by $20k each year) with a 50% new/20% renewal split. She was making $300k+ in her prior role. She is focused on large accounts - if she closes a few nice size wins this year, she'll have made a total career pivot without a pay cut. And nevermind how awesome year two will be as this stuff renews! Ah the beauty of insurance ➡️ RECURRING REVENUE!!! 😁 I talk to this candidate often - she's crushing it. In her first few months, she's already had numerous well-qualified first meetings with groups that are several hundred lives or bigger. If the job offer is 100% commission or something nuts like $20k - RUN! (Unless you're the most seasoned, successful insurance producer and are comfortable betting on yourself with a higher new biz commission % in exchange for no - or super low - base, then.... go you! But, that's rare.) If you're right out of school with no experience, something in the $40-50k range as a year 1 base is probably a good target. Work for a great broker who gives you enough $$ to eat that first year, great accountability and training, and a compensation structure that gets you excited to hustle. Then get to work helping people and securing your financial future. 💪 #producertalk #insurancesales #money #earnings #bigwinpotential #cpcu #cic #insurance #insurancecareer #winwin #rightdeal #b2bsales #bestindustryforsales #hustle

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Beware of the hyperactive hive mind.... A worthwhile listen, Cal Newports investigation into the growth of email / IM and how it has filled the gap as a tool to show we are "Working". He argues how as we have moved from farms where our measure was the crop, to factories where the measure was numbers of widgets, and now in a knowledge economy its the amount (Not efficiency) of unstructured communication. https://lnkd.in/gQSMTepG

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Build the company you would want to work for. 🧱 👷‍♂️ 🏢 I'm a month in to my journey at VitaTek and this has been one of the coolest things to have a front row seat to see Jason Scherer do as CEO. Everyone hates those Holiday weeks where half the team takes 2-3 extra days off and then the other half of the team has a "zombie" week where they can kind of push a few things forward but a bunch of it is just waiting for the other half of the team, and by the way most of your customers, to get back in to the office to respond. Why not just give everyone those weeks off? Done. ✅ VitaTek closes the office for 4th of July week, Thanksgiving week, and Christmas & New Year's weeks for the team to rest and recharge with their families. A few weeks ago we were working on updating our Payroll and Benefits systems to match our rapid company growth. We got on the walkthrough call with the vendor and Jason immediately cut to the chase and asked - are these health benefit plan options better than our current ones? If not we are not switching. Guess what? They were similar but not *better.* We didn't switch. It didn't matter it would have saved the company a good chunk of money but cost the employees a little bit more. Then last week Allison planned a fun company golf outing for us. Just a 9 hole scramble on a summer Friday close by to the office. We were done by 9:30am. Afterwards we should go back to the office and grind an almost full day of work, right? Nope, Jason said go enjoy the rest of your Friday! For a team that is constantly saying no to the status quo and disrupting an industry like Medical Devices, it's great to see that same mentality and approach applied to building our company and making VitaTek such a great place to work. 🙌

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Chubbies was acquired for 9 figures and went through a 10 figure IPO - your classic overnight success that took a decade. As a brand builder, the stat that completely changed my approach to brand building was the 95/5 rule. btw, I basically did the exact opposite of what the rule says for embarrassingly too long, but hey, my loss is your gain, so here's: 1) Three things I learned about the 95/5 rule, 2) Three ways you can update your thinking on the topic, and 3) Three things you can do about this right now. let's do it. ** Three things I learned about the 95/5 rule ** 1. Only 5% of the people who see your content on a daily basis (AKA your potential buyers) are in-market to buy right now. That means 95% of the buyers you reach are out-of-market and won’t buy for months or even years. 2. And, nope, no matter how awesome your direct response offer is, you cannot persuade the buyer to go in-market because they already have what you’re selling and won’t need a newer version any time soon. We don’t move buyers in-market – buyers move themselves in-market based on their needs. 3. All the direct-response conversion-focused dollars we spend are only relevant to the 5% of folks. This was especially humbling when realizing that ~95% of our spend allocation went to direct response (see reference above re: doing the exact opposite). ** Three ways you can update your thinking on the topic ** 1. Our goal is to increase the probability that the brand comes to mind when the buyer goes in-market, NOT to persuade the buyer to go in market. You can’t push buyers down a funnel, but you can, to quote Professor Jenni Romaniuk, “catch buyers as they fall”. 2. ""People largely use their memories when buying, rather than searching. Simply put, the brand that gets remembered is the brand that gets bought."" - John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute 3. Since marketing works by influencing future buyers, think about developing creative that gets noticed and gets remembered -- gives you permission to be bold, put on a show and have a little fun. ** Three things you can do about it right now ** 1. Since we've all been so focused on optimizing the hell out of how we convert the 5%, we need to reacquaint ourselves with the 95%. Walk a day in the shoes of the 95% to develop the empathy needed to effectively speak to that person. 2. Put together a plan to gradually shift your marketing investments to match the reality of the 95/5 rule. It could take all of 2024. No need to rush. 3. Take a day with your team. Remove all meetings. From a blank slate, think about what it means to do things that get remembered, that get noticed. What does it mean for your brand to be bold, to put on a show, and to have a little bit of fun? enjoy

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The brands driving the highest engagement from customers are doing some really cool things right now! People who are leaning into automation are freeing up time for their teams to to focus on what we do best, creating connections with other people. Three creative ideas that stood out to me: 1️⃣ Routing all refund requests to phone calls. The top brands are saving 20-30% of refund requests by chatting with the customer to understand the problem. They're helping them exchange or find the product that works best for them 2️⃣ Finding their top customers and reaching out to them for a check-in call. They chat with them about what they like best about the brand, what they would like to see more, etc. They're seeing this increase the number of orders from the customers they connect with 3️⃣ Having team members staff live chat or prioritize pre-sale questions. They're giving each team member a personal discount code and running competitions to see who can sell the most. They are showing a leaderboard and giving prizes to the top team members It's really cool to see the creativity driving impact. At the end of the day, we're best when we have the time to create connections with others

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🚀 Business Owners: Are you facing marketing or operational challenges? 🚀 With over 20 years of experience scaling businesses across industries like e-commerce, SaaS, and financial services, I've developed a unique approach to solving complex marketing and operational problems. Whether it's launching a successful marketing strategy or streamlining operational processes, I’ve had the opportunity to lead and transform companies like Lighting Supply, Zahraa the Label, and Certipro, driving growth and efficiency. If you're struggling with any of the following: ✅ Crafting a powerful go-to-market strategy ✅ Optimizing your marketing tech stack ✅ Streamlining operations for better performance ✅ Solving customer acquisition and retention issues ✅ Scaling your e-commerce business Let’s connect and discuss how I can help you find the right solutions. I’m passionate about helping business owners overcome their biggest hurdles and unlock new levels of growth. Ready to solve problems together? Let’s talk! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/drtqgPU #MarketingStrategy #Operations #ProblemSolving #Ecommerce #BusinessGrowth #Leadership #CMO #COO #BusinessOwner

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Calling your company ‘the Tesla of ______’ is the clearest sign you haven’t thought about your own brand positioning. And it’s the easiest indicator to your customers that you have no idea what problem your product can solve for them. In fact, I see a version of this almost daily, along early stage startups. ‘The Uber of ice cream’ ‘The Tesla of toilet paper’ ‘The Apple of cookware’ And I’m positive I’ve never seen a successful company using one of these taglines. So if you’re planning on calling yourself the ‘Tesla of protein powder’, please don’t. No one will understand what you mean, except yourself. #branding #marketing #startup

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It's 7:17am, and I’m sitting at my desk in Austin, staring at a blank screen... I’ve got an ad to write, and the words? They’re just not coming. Writer’s block. The clock is ticking, and this ad not only has to get done… it has to be good. No, scratch that—it has to be great. The client’s under pressure to hit their revenue goals, and this ad? It’s the only way they’re gonna get there. But I just can’t start. Then I remember something from Eugene Schwartz. Eugene Schwartz was one of the greatest writers to ever live. He claimed to never have writer’s block. Ever. His secret? It was something he learned from Buddhist monks, who’ve been doing this for thousands of years. A timer—and the freedom to do nothing. That’s right. Nothing. You have permission to not do anything. No pressure. But here’s the thing. You’re not allowed to work on anything else, either. Welp… my situation couldn’t be worse, so I figure… why not. I don’t actually have a timer, so I use the stopwatch app on my computer. I set the timer for 33 minutes and 33 seconds—just like Eugene. For the next 33 minutes, I don’t have to write. I don’t have to do anything. But I can’t work on anything else either. No phone. No emails. No sneaking into the kitchen for a snack. Damn... I love snacks. Just sit. Stare at the blank page. Give space for inspiration to sneak in. I hate it. I know this isn’t going to work. I’m going to sit here, stare at the screen, and waste 33 minutes of my life. The timer will go off, I’ll still have nothing, and my client will be counting on an ad that just doesn’t exist. Five minutes go by, and I’m right. This isn’t going to work. I feel stuck, like an actor who’s forgotten their lines on opening night, standing there in front of the audience. But then… out of nowhere… something happens. A tiny spark. Just enough to get me typing. So I start typing. It’s nonsense. A few scattered thoughts. But then, the words start coming faster. And faster. Now I can't type fast enough. My brain is on fire. Before I know it, the timer goes off, and I have a draft sitting in front of me. It's not great..it's not ready...but it's GOOD. It's a start. That's all I need for now. Funny how that works. Sometimes, all you have to do is to show up, sit down, and give yourself permission to just exist. 

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In 2004, Blockbuster was making $5.9 billion in revenue. Now, they cease to exist because of one fatal mistake: Getting comfortable. They thought renting out physical DVDs would be a profitable business for life... Surely, no one would move to digital streaming 🫣 Looking back, they just got too comfortable. I don't want to be a Blockbuster. So I study birth rates and gifting trends and then actually work through what steps to take next. In business, you have to think: • What does the data *actually* show you? • What are the trends of the future? • What will people want in 10 years that they aren't even thinking about now? The best business owners NEVER get comfortable. Read and LISTEN to the data. And then act accordingly. Don’t be a Blockbuster. I’ve had some great conversations with suppliers on this recently, so if you want to share some ideas reach out and lets chat.

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Hot Take: You don’t have to “pick sides” between 6sense and RB2B. I work with both tools across my clients (and a few clients that run both tools) and it’s pretty clear to me that each has their own pros and cons and use cases where they’re better or worse than the other. One of the most enjoyable projects I’ve worked on recently was putting together a 6Sense audit and a set of playbooks for a client. I was reminded what a powerhouse of a tool 6Sense is - I’ve run dozens of different plays and use cases with it that I can’t replicate with RB2B. But, the question of “Who do I reach out to, specifically?” is many times the first thing out of the mouth of sales after they get into 6Sense and RB2B answers that. All of that to say: Start with your use cases - what do you need to accomplish to hit your goals? Then evaluate the options. Ask around - lots of people are evaluating the same thing as you. Here are some questions to think about: - Does a single visit to my website from a single individual indicate enough intent to put a play into motion? If you’re selling to SMB, then yeah, that’s probably enough. But for enterprise, you might need aggregated account data to show there’s true buying intent. - Is my sales team curious and creative enough to use the data they have to triangulate the best people to reach out to at an account or do they need more specific inputs? Taking data inputs and coming up with a plan requires a particular way of thinking and in my experience it’s hard to teach - you either think this way or you don’t. - Does my site have a high volume of traffic that would require further filtering before taking action against a list of contacts? For example, is a list of every visitor to your pricing page actionable if there are 20k people a day who view that page? How will you prioritize? - Do you want to factor in more than website visits when designing your outreach? For example, a contact who visited the website + attended a webinar.  - How important are orchestrations? With a small team, orchestrations can save tons of time depending on your use case. Do you have the ability to build your own orchestrations or is out-of-the-box better? - Is your legal team (or your target audience...) going to be OK with you using PII that’s based on website visits? Just about every person I’ve talked to who is using R2B2B thinks it’s super interesting intel, but their follow up is always “How long til this gets shut down?” My take is: how long until this data gets into the wrong hands? There’s a lot of talk out there right now pushing folks to pick between these two tools - positioning it as a “David vs Goliath” and people are totally eating it up. I’d argue that which one is better is highly dependent on a lot of different things and there’s no blanket “right answer” - it’s based on too many variables.

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Hot Take: Unpaid Advertising / News (good news at least 😁) is the best kind… Why? Okay I’m not saying it will have better results than strategic paid FB ads, or even UGC on TT… what I mean is, it’s authentic, it’s real, and I think if leveraged properly can be a huge help to any #CPG brands PR/media campaigns. Agree or Disagree?? This week Us Weekly featured their top 12 proteins for summer, and it included VMI Sports® 100% Why Isolate, ProtoLyte®️ The 🔌? Unlike many mainstream whey proteins, ProtoLyte®️ features added Electrolytes from Balchem Human Nutrition and Health / ProTec – Albion Minerals as well as Digestive Enzymes complex DigeSeb®️ from Specialty Enzymes & Probiotics Why did US Weekly choose to include us with some other great national brands on the list?? My guess is because we worked on solving real work problems for Protein consumers — digestion & hydration 💪 #cpgbranding #sportsnutrition #protein #vmisports #marketing #advertising #socialmedia #magazine Christopher Alicea Brandyn Alejos Frank Fenimore Ryan Fitzgerald Andres Sierra

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Five-star ad ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Well, maybe 4.5. I take pictures “in the wild” ALL. THE. TIME. My phone is filled with marketing I do/don’t like and random images that inspire ideas (or nuggets of ideas). The best inspiration come from unexpected places. Here’s one from the NYC subway and man do I like it: ✅ Bold & Clear: Easy to read message from a distance. Black background and good use of white space make the ad stand out. ✅ Short & Sweet: Conveys a single, impactful message that can be absorbed amidst commuter chaos. ✅ On brand: Has there ever been a greater enemy for a brand to fight than Satan?!?! Us marketers should all be so lucky… It’s simply clever. One miss: ❌ No call to action: There should be a QR code to download the app. Half-point deduction (getting ready for my Summer Olympics armchair judging) Overall, this ad captures attention and leaves a lasting impression. I’m a fan. Well done YouVersion How many stars do you give it?

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"It's refreshing to work with a marketing team that isn't the brand police." This came up in a recent conversation and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. In many companies, Marketing teams spend so much time telling everyone what they can or can't do. But really, our job should be all about supporting growth. From Sales to Product to HR, our Social Mobile Marketing team is here to help. Whether it’s crafting sales pitches, designing an Experience Center, or creating a Go-To-Market strategy, we're in it together. And guess what? This year, we're focusing even more on outbound and growth marketing to support for our awesome sales team and help them hit their targets. And yes, it’ll be on-brand. But more importantly, it’ll be done together. #Marketing #GrowthMarketing #SalesSupport #Teamwork

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🚨 Meta admits its recommendations aren’t right for everyone! 🚨 I took a call from a Meta Ads rep yesterday and, I have to admit, I almost fell off my chair. The call was ostensibly to tell me about their new (?) Opportunity Score feature, which sounds not dissimilar to the recommendations that we’ve been getting for a long time in the Meta Ads platform, and similar to the ‘optimisation’ recommendations and score we get in Google. For the most part, I was questioning why I answered the phone, knowing full well that it was likely to be the same sales call as I’ve had a million times from both platforms encouraging me to apply all their recommendations, spend more of the client’s cash and hand over complete control to the algorithm without much concern for their unique business nuances or desired results. But then the guy said two things that piqued my interest. Firstly - and this is the bit that almost floored me - he freely admitted that the recommendations that are provided by the system don’t apply to every business, account or campaign. This, to me, was astounding and refreshing in equal measure. It’s obviously something that those in-the-know have been comfortable with for a while, but for a paid-up sales rep from one of the big platforms to admit this was phenomenal. I have to say, I was quietly impressed. And it may have been because of the next piece of news, which I’m yet to fully verify. He suggested that, with this new AI-powered recommendation system, any recommendations that you dismiss will be used by the system as a learning. Over time it will stop making those recommendations and the optimisations it suggests will get more relevant to the specific account and campaign setup. I’m sure we’re a long way from a fully plug-and-play setup in Meta. And we’d be incredibly brave to fully hand-over total control with no skilled oversight to these platforms, which have a vested interest in profiting from our activity at all costs. But with the generic nature of these recommendations having been a bug-bear for many in the industry for years (particularly on the Agency side, when they force you to justify your actions to clients), it’s refreshing to hear the platforms making moves to improve them. That said, it's worth noting that this new refreshing approach or learning aspect isn't mentioned in the official Meta release on the subject - so only time will tell! #ecommerce #digitalmarketing #ecommercemarketing #metaads

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