Desire

Most products are about 99% the same. It’s not who has the best product that wins, but
who has the best marketing.

We've seen this play out across every vertical. At the end of the day consumers
purchase based on emotion.

Product Stock & Orders

Generally, the first order takes the longest to get delivered.
What is the timeframe from the PO to deliver the first order to the warehouse?
What is the timeframe from the PO to the start of the order?
Do we need to pay shipping to the warehouse, or is that provided free?
Will you ship to the Amazon warehouse?
What price breaks are there based on size?
What is the minimum product order?
What is the lead time for any special or unique ingredients?
Will you make the labels or have them shipped to you?
What type of label is it?

Private Label
By using a private-label product, we can get started faster.

Custom Formulation - We Are Not Using This

Using a custom formulation is only advisable if we need something special.

Packaging
We need to get confirmation of all the sizes of the bottles and the tops used.
What is the bottle color, or will it be clear?
What color is the top?
What is the top style?
What type of safety seals are going to be provided across the tops?
Will it be mailed in a cardboard box or have a custom box?

Compliance
Get proof of the manufacturer's liability.
Can we rush the label through the approval process? Use the template provided.
Have the website and copy reviewed for compliance.
Make sure the liability insurance is active.
Are there any ingredients not approved in our potential markets?
Trademark
Run all names and taglines through the US trademark database.
Once it appears to be clear, file for the trademark.

Search Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba for anything with that same product name.
If a product exists in a different category with the same name and it doesn't appear to
be a competing product, we need to rethink the name.

Domain Names
Purchase the net, org, com, and every available variation.
Purchase any misspellings that are possible with the domain name.
Purchase the domain name with the word scam or rip off attached to it (e.g.,
Domainscam.com, net, and org).
Purchase any international domains that may be used in the selling of this product.

Labeling
Before we proceed with the label, we need to look at the top-selling products on
Amazon and determine if our concept for labeling and design needs to be closer to any
existing products.

I've seen vendors sued over having labels that are too close to an already existing
brand leader.

If we use artwork on the label, do we have a clear right to use the image? Require all
designers to provide any images and stock images used in the label.
Verify we have the right to use the fonts on the label.
Only use the AI file provided.

Upwork
Post for a label designer. Use my templates for this post.
We need to provide logos, label files, and brand briefs.
Will we be using certification seals?
Verify we have a disclaimer.
Provide contact information for the product owner.
800 number
Link to the website
Email for customer support
Product name and tagline
UPC codes
Mock up the label in PowerPoint and give it to the designers.
Search Behance to find labels you like
https://www.behance.net/search/projects?search=beauty&tracking_source=typeahead_
search_suggestion

Engage three different designers for the label design. Give them all the same brief.
Allow the designers 48 hours max to return samples. Make sure they know that you will
need a complete graphics brand package done, but the label is first.

Request to see the bottle with the label applied from multiple angles. Also, get the
brand as a flat image to review for mistakes.

Upon review, take the best designer and move forward.

Manufacturers will often take 2 weeks or more to review the label from a compliance
standpoint so make sure you keep the project open with the designer for any revisions
as needed.

Consider how the label will look when it is on the shelf with the competition.
Get that rendered up as well.

Also get a screenshot of the Amazon page and make sure your product stands out
against all the other products.

If we skip the last 2 steps we are in a world of trouble.

Shipping
Who will be handling the shipping and the warehousing of the products?
How will it integrate and provide shipping notifications to us and the buyer?
Who will handle returns?
If they're handling returns, who takes liability?
Will we resell returned items or have them destroyed?
What are the shipping and packing fees for the 1st and every item after that?
What are the return fees?
Do we need to move a minimum amount of products per month?
Who is our contact and rep at the shipper?
Do they integrate with our existing systems for inventory management?
Who will perform the test order to verify everything?
USPS, DHL, FedEx, UPS or third-party

Warehouse
Do we need to have a temperature-controlled environment?
Are we running duel warehouses as insurance against any down times?
Who is our point of contact for warehouse management?

Inventory
Who is in charge of inventory management on our team?
What are the SOPs in place to ensure we do not run out of stock. See accounting.
At what level of inventory do we issue a new PO for restocking?
First orders are paid upfront with orders after that paid 50% down. Use an AmEx card.
What is the lead time for labels and who is responsible for them?

Marketing
Do we have a cut sheet file on every single product?
Demographics and psychographics of the buyer?
Education level of the buyer?
Marital status?
Income level?
Children?
Other products they purchase?
What products in the same category do they purchase?
What is unique about the top 3 products in this category?
How are the top three products being marketed on and off of Amazon?
What is the big idea for the product?
What is the unique mechanism that makes the product work?
What is unique about this product is the story that we can tell about the formulation.
What is the story behind the product?
What are the aspirational goals of the buyer?
What are the tangible and intangible benefits of owning this product?
What are the ownership benefits of the product?
Do we compete on quality of ingredients?
Do we compete on uniqueness?
Do we compete on brand heritage?
Is this a luxury or economy product?
What can be done to raise the perceived value of the product?
What bonuses can be added? Would it raise the perceived value?
How often is the product consumed?
How can we clone our best seller to take up more market share?
Sales Copy
We need to have the copy in a Google doc or Word doc that can be shared among the
team.

See my sales templates.

Images
We need at least 7 to 8 images and 1 video for the carousel.
Always provide a black border around images for an increase in conversions.
Are the images optimized for web delivery?
Where is the video hosted?

Price
Do we have a typical lifetime value for the product?
What are the price points?
What type of discounts or offers do we provide?
What is our profit margin?
What are our expected returns?
What are the expected refunds?
What are the expected chargebacks?
What are the expected failed bills?
Are the buyers price-sensitive?
What is the largest discount we can offer and still acquire a buyer at break even?

Upsells
The best upsells are more of what they just purchased.
Position all upsells as “family and friend discounts.”
3 bottles for the price of 2. State savings and do not use percentages. Percentages
lower conversions.
If they click NO, sell them to additional bottles with the family and friends discount.
More than two one-time offers back-to-back will have a negative impact.

On the thank you page, add a custom pick-your-own-bundle where they can select
individual products and build their own purchase.

Offer a 15% discount on the product if they purchase a subscription. Verify with
accounting for the percentage. DO NOT LET COUPONS BE COMBINED.

Site
Set up the domain on Shopify.

Make sure we have the client's brand brief customized colors and fonts.

Install the default theme.

Create these pages in Shopify:

Privacy policy
Terms of service
Shipping times
Return pages

Create these pages in Zipify:

Contact us
Home page
Join the club
Join the club thank you
Brand Ambassador
Brand ambassador thank you
Catalog page will be created by default.
FAQ page
Coupon
Discount
Sale items
Product pages
Presell pages

View SOP for the menu setup.

Provide SEO optimized content for the blogs.

Create two presale pages for every single product.

Customize the catalog page with our legal links in the footer.
Install header Banner stating shipping times of two to three days. NEVER USE THE
FREE SHIPPING THAT EVERYBODY ELSE IS USING; STATE SHIPPING TIMES.

Install any credibility links in the footer.

Never use the CC card icon under the buy button.
Speed test and benchmark every single page on the site in the attached Google doc.
Use Pingdom and Google speed test.
Every page needs a custom image for custom social media sharing.
Verify the social media share text on every single page.
Remove any leaks that could take the focus away from for sale.
If we have a single product store, skip the cart and go straight to check out.
Multi-product stores need a cart page.

Because we're using Zipify page builders, use the templates provided. Come back and
customize the header and footer. See the SOP.

Do not build a single page until we have 100% of the copy, images and videos.

Typical build-out time should be no more than 10 hours for stores with less than 12
products.

If we add gamification and points in the buyer accounts that will add an extra 4-6 hours.

Test every single page from a code and pixel stand point.
Test the abandoned cart flows.
Test the Ambassador welcome flow.
Test the join the club flow.
Test purchase emails.

Apps to Install
Bold subscriptions
Countdown cells timer
Customer privacy banner
Klaviyo
Magic product badges
One Click Upsell - Zipify OCU
Zipify auto SMS - In Beta
Rewind - back up
Zipify Page Builder and editor
Returnly: Returns Manager
Orderhive Inventory Management
Glew
Language Translate ‑ Transc
Etsy Integration: Sync & Sell
Connect Facebook Messenger
Payments
Shopify
PayPal
EZ Pay - payment plans
Amazon Payments on exit pop
Negotiate a lower rate?
Failed payment recovery

Email
Klaviyo
Secured toll number for SMS text with two way communication.
Build email flows from the templates.
Product launch flow
Purchase flow
Join the club flow
Brand ambassador flow
Affiliate flow
Abandoned cart flow
Return for cancellation flow
SMS welcome flow
Build email templates
Verify installation of Klaviyo JavaScript
All the forms will be pre-integrated with Zipify.
Install Klaviyo pop up in SMS capture for a 10% discount.
Install SMS floater for a 10% discount.

Google Analytics
Install and configure Google Analytics. See Charles's workflow.
Verify Facebook.
Install third-party tracking.
Install Bing, Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Sharp Spring.

Create Google and Bing webmaster tools and connect to Shopify.

Prelaunch
Connect Split Testing software to the sales pages and home pages.
Configure pages in the normal sold-out style we use for pre-launches.
Popups configured to pop on landing for pre-launch.
Sign up for the early bird release.
Provide pre-launch flow.

Tracking
Provide third-party tracking script. Install and verify conversions.
The script must read the cart sale value and provide that back to the database.
Follow my normal UTM setup.
Google analytics is not enough to do the job by itself so we must use a third-party tool.

Social media
Fill out the fan page
Graphics for social media
Provide graphics for the header
Provide images to match the copy for the first 30 days
Provide 15 days of pre-launch graphics in copy
Provide 15 days of post-launch graphics in copy
Because we will be adjusting the graphics and the copy on the fly we may need
variations created in advance.
All social media posts will include our third-party tracking to verify sales.

Google & Bing

Follow my regular Google and Bing PPC setup.
I will create all the ads and images needed for search, display, and YouTube.
We need the video trailers and product videos for YouTube.

Snapchat ,Tik Tok, Pinterest

Work with the design team and the copy team to create posts for each platform. This is
not a one-size-fits-all.

Customer Service
Empower the Reps to offer a discount if they can save a sale.
Bold can pause the subscriptions for 1, 2 and 3 months.
Make sure they have access to Facebook Messenger.
Verify that Zendesk is set up correctly with the administration reporting login.
We need to know the average time from ticket creation until it's solved.
How many tickets are they doing a day?
What are the most common tickets, and can we cover that in an FAQ or on the site to
free up time?
What is the greeting on the 800 number?
Is the phone system easy and simple to navigate for buyers?
Provide tracking on the number of calls received and length of call.
Call the customers within 24 hours of receiving a message.
Provide reporting for every customer interaction, whether good or bad.

Email accounts
Hello
Customer Service
Admin
Accounting
Payments
Refunds
Amazon
Warehouse
Affiliate
Ambassador
Facebook
Google

Google, Facebook, and affiliate emails can be shared.

Everything else needs to get an individual account.
Have every email from all accounts forwarded to Admin. This is the master account.
Verify everyone can log in by having them reply to the admin account.
Configure Google Tags so when an email comes in the correct tag is applied for sorting
and filtering.
Never send any email to spam.

Accounting
Verify that we are receiving inventory status updates daily.
Verify sales data is being fed into inventory management and accounting.
Call and verify you have the right contact for manufacturing, warehousing, shipping,
customer support, tech support, credit cards, banking, fraud service, and owner
contacts.

Monitor sales, refunds, chargebacks, fraud, and current inventory.

Monitor sales volume for the last 1, 3, 7, 14, and 30 days.
Predict sales for the next 1, 3, 7, 14, and 30 days.
Include any sales or holidays or abnormal volume in a separate column.
I want to see these numbers posted across a dedicated monitor.

Monitor the daily AOV, bounce rate, conversion rate by product, click feeds.
These need to be on their own dedicated monitor.

Monitor the types of credit cards and shipping locations on separate screens. The goal
for this is to look for anything out of the ordinary that could signal fraud. The last thing I
want to do is ship products and find them sold on eBay at cut rate discounts.

Configure alerts when chargebacks near or exceed one half percent.

If churn exceeds 10%, notify me immediately.

Split Testing
I'll handle all split testing personally.
Each week the team needs to meet and produce ideas of what should be split tested.

Once we agree upon the split test the following Sunday at midnight we'll implement
what we discussed the week before.