SUBSCRIBE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP

Simple Ways to Build Customer Loyalty in Your Product Business with Kerrie Fitzgerald

Simple Ways to Build Customer Loyalty in Your Product Business with Kerrie Fitzgerald Podcast from Product Powerhouse

This week, episode 138  of the Product Powerhouse Podcast is about creating brand loyalty in your product based business! 

Build your Shopify store in just 14 days. This roadmap walks you through exactly what you need to do to design a strategic and beautiful Shopify store.

In this episode of the Product Powerhouse Podcast, my guest Kerri Fitzgerald and I are sharing the importance of creating ways to make it easy for customers to spend more money with your business and actionable steps (and examples) you can take right now to create brand loyalty, just like when you get free drinks from your local coffee stand.

Some of the talking points I and Kerri go over in this episode include:

  • The difference between loyalty program, affiliate programs, and asking customers to share with their friends and family for a small incentive
  • Why it’s so important to connect with your customers when they take time and effort to mention or tag you on social media
  • How an amazing unboxing experience can add value to your business and make your customers feel appreciated

Be sure to tune in to all the episodes to receive tons of practical tips on growing your product shop and to hear even more about the points outlined above.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me!  And don’t forget to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!

Learn more about Product Powerhouse and Erin at https://productpowerhouse.co/podcast/

CONNECT WITH KERRI FITZGERALD:

Website

Instagram

Membership

Podcast

CONNECT WITH ERIN ALEXANDER:

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Show Notes

Work with Erin!

Simplified SEO Course

DIY Shopify Course


~~~~~~~~~~

Transcript: 

Erin Alexander: Hello. Hello. Welcome to another episode of the Product Powerhouse podcast. Today I am speaking with another incredible guest, Carrie Fitzgerald. Carrie and I have been Instagram friends for several months now, and we finally just were able to connect on Zoom and like get to know each other in person ish, face-to-face I guess.

And it was so fun. We, we had so much fun talking. We. So much fun. Kind of ripping on terrible websites and she's just incredible. 

Let me read you her official bio and then you will know for sure that you need to get to know Carrie Fitz. . Carrie Fitzgerald is the founder of Carrie Fitzgerald llc, an e-commerce and product business consulting and educational agency, and host of a top 100 marketing podcast, the six Figure Product Business podcast.

As a digital marketing expert, Carrie helps e-commerce businesses create wildly in demand brands that their customers are obsessed with. Her unique framework stems in organic marketing that brings in consistent sales and traffic without focusing a dime on ads after starting her first high-end. Pet e-commerce business, the dapper dog in 2016.

She grew the business to multiple six figures of revenue in two years without funding staff or support, and successfully sold the business in 2019. During that time, she was featured in Buzzfeed, Forbes and Mariah Carey's Christmas Guide on Amazon. She's a proud boy and dog mom. Hot sauce. And Coffee Lover and is an East coast transplant living in Seattle.

 So grab a notebook. You're gonna wanna take notes for this one. Let's dive in.

 Hi Carrie. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. How are you today?

Kerrie Fitzgerald: I am. Amazing. How are you?

Erin Alexander: I am doing great. I'm so excited to talk to you because we have been like Instagram friends for a few months now and this is like the first time we are meeting face-to-face.

Fun

Kerrie Fitzgerald: It's very exciting. And I was actually talking about you, I had a call with my membership group this morning and we were talking about designing a website because some of my members struggle. And so I'm like, ah, I feel like we need to bring you on and help my members a little bit.

Erin Alexander: That would be really fun. 

You were a part of my summit. We just wrapped up the summit last week when we were recording this. I know it won't go live for a while, but it was so fun to have you in there and I just loved your session on bringing in traffic to your store.

I think a lot of people come to me thinking that they have a website problem when really they have a traffic problem. And so it was really great to give them some like ideas for generating traffic to their.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Oh, I love it. Yeah, I love traffic. But I do always remind people like, if you're not getting sales, it may not be cuz your website's not great, it's that you're not getting traffic or like your conversion is not working. So they definitely all of go hand in hand. But yes, but you need a good website too.

Erin Alexander: Yes. Today we are going to talk about like loyal customers and how to get your existing customers to buy more and spend more with you. But before we do that, let's tell everyone who you are and what you do.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Awesome. So my name is Carrie and I am a e-commerce product, business strategist and marketing. I don't know, marketing Ninja or some kind of adjective you wanna throw in there. Basically I love marketing and I love really helping product-based business owners that are just in their early stages or in that like scrappy, trying to do everything stage, get more customers, get more sales, and drive more traffic to their online store and really turn their customers into very loyal customer, super fans. So I teach on a lot of those different topics. I am, I live also live in Washington. I just discover we live in the same state.

I am a crazy dog mom and basically love all things coffee. Marketing and product business, but I have, courses, a membership. I do a lot of different things, but really I'm just super passionate about helping people not only start an online store, but understand how to grow it without having to always use advertising.

So that's like my little niche in the e-commerce space.

Erin Alexander: I think we're in the same like realm where we have a lot of overlapping stuff because I love marketing. And product-based businesses. And now I tend to be like really website focused, but we have a lot of the same interests and it's really fun.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Yeah. I also l I'm obsessed with websites and like analyzing websites. I love doing website audits. I think in a past life I was probably a website designer because I'm obsessed with the whole thing. It's a respectable like niche because if you have an online store and your website isn't good, then you're not gonna get sales.

So people need people like you,

Erin Alexander: That's one of the reasons why I love working in e-commerce so much as far as websites go, because it's like I don't have to convince them they need a website. They know they need a website. And previously I was working with different types of businesses and it was like I could just sell in the dms or I can just sell on a Facebook group.

And I was like I don't wanna have to convince someone they need a website. If you don't see the value in a website, that's your own problem.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Yes. Oh

Erin Alexander: But with e-commerce you have to have a website. It really brings up your credibility. Like people don't want to just send their money to some random person.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Yes, I agree with you. And I've seen some e-commerce businesses with just like a Facebook page, and I'm like, it's no, that's a no. Sorry,

Erin Alexander: Yeah. How do you manage that? I don't know. So we are going to be talking about existing customers, how do they leverage those existing customers and those relationships already to continue to grow their business? Because a lot of people, we just, we talked about this in before we started recording, but a lot of people are thinking like, what about getting new customers?

How do you get leads? How do you get new people? But there's a lot of power in the people who have already purchased from you, right?

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Yes. Oh my. Yeah, and I do think it's like this area of education in the e-commerce space that isn't quite, of course people talk about it, but I think there's always so much focus on like how to do advertising. How do you get new customers with ads? How do you grow much traffic? How do you grow your Etsy store?

But people forget like. , you have to focus on the people who've already bought from you. They already gave you, they already took the time, walked off their coach, got their credit card, typed the information into their phone, and bought from you. You've already done the hard part with those people.

And the easiest way, like literally the easiest way to get more sales in your business is not going on Instagram or going on TikTok or sending an email is probably almost as easy, but. Look at the people who've already bought from you. How do I get them to buy more from me, and how do I create such an awesome experience for them that they then refer friends, family, and followers.

They promote me on their platforms, on their channels. So yes, I work with a lot of new product-based business owners, or like scrappy, they're in that early stage. They're trying to figure out like how to do all the things. And I always remind people, Look at the stuff that you've already done.

How do you get those people to buy more from you? And it really truly is the easiest way to get more sales. It's often completely overlooked all the time. Like people never think, oh yeah, I should just send an email to my past customers and, see if they wanna get more things.

Erin Alexander: Yeah. So what are some of the strategies that you teach people when it comes to leveraging those past customers?

Kerrie Fitzgerald: So I think there's a few things that you can do. One, and the, and I already mentioned this, but the simplest way is email marketing. So I'm very, I'm a huge mega advocate of growing your email list because email marketing is a platform, or not really a platform, but it's like a channel that you control.

You own your email list. You don't own social media, you don't own Instagram or TikTok. One, always be growing your email list a friendly reminder, but two, like leverage your past customers through email marketing. So whether it's like a Winback campaign your customers buy something from you, let's say September, what's the date?

September 15th. Why not send an email in. Two weeks, that's oh, did you love that lip bomb that you bought for me? Guess what? We also have these other like products that you might like, maybe a lip liner or like a facial serum or something. I'm using beauty as an example. But the easiest thing to do is just use your email marketing as a tool to get people to buy again and again from you.

So whether that's sending out a campaign a promotional like once a month, you can just choose a date and have a promotion. You send an email to anyone that's bought from you in the last, I don't know, 60 days or something, and just offer them a discount to buy something else. Hey, thank you for being a loyal part of my brand family.

Here's coupon for 10% off anything on our store. It expires in three days. Go. that one thing you will get sales from because those people already know and trust you. Hopefully as long as your product is good and you didn't have any issues with like shipping and all that, but.

So I would say that's one thing, and I'm happy to like, dive deep into anything, just let me know. And then the other thing too is, are things like having loyalty programs, so referral programs, loyalty programs, and I can talk about referral programs first because that is like the easiest thing that you could ever do to get more sales.

So you have customers, you assume they like you. purchased from you. So there must be something that they liked. You can literally, again, through email, through Instagram, however you communicate with customers, you can literally anytime there's either a p a customer service problem that's been resolved.

So my ship, my product showed up late, like blah, blah, blah. Customers complain about everything. You can turn that around into a positive situation. And when you do, you can then say, oh if you like our product, like our brand and you think your friends and family would, might like it, I'm happy to create a coupon code for you.

You can do this in Shopify, and if anyone uses it, you get X, like you get a free product, you get a coupon for a future purchase. Some sort of incentive that you can give them and nine times outta 10, as long as they like your product or brand, they're gonna say, oh my gosh. We would love that. And now you're getting people to promote you on their social media, tell their friends, tell their family, and you're incentivizing them.

So it's not always enough just to be like, . Oh. Do you think your friends would like our product too? Like sometimes you have to incentivize people and people are incentivized when you offer them something for free. So that is something that I teach pretty much anyone and everyone because it's the easiest thing to do.

And that's one of the ways I grew my brand. I grew my business, my product-based business from literally no customers to thousands of customers. Hundreds of thousands in sales per year. In two and a half years with no ads, no staff, no team, no fancy apps. I was bare bones and scrappy as hell, and a huge way that I grew my customer base and my followers was I leveraged my existing customers.

Like every single time there was a positive customer experience that was turned around someone left a review, someone emailed me like, oh my gosh, we got our boxes weekend. We love it so much. You're great. Every single time there was any sort of interaction with a customer. Not only would I be like, thank you for, thank you for buying from me.

I appreciate you. I value, the second thing I would say was like, oh , do you think your friends and family would like this too? If you can be part of our referral program and win a free product. If you refer friends and family would you like me to create you a discount code? And then they respond back and they would say, oh my gosh.

We would love it.

 You can use my dog's name. I had a pet business, so this was like scrappy as hell. Okay? There is no like a hundred dollars a month Shopify app that I was using. It was literally like every time someone tagged me on social media, tag me on Instagram, sent me an email. anything I would use as an opportunity to ask them like, oh, did you know that you can win a free product?

Here's how would you, are you interested? Yes or no? You know what I mean? So I like gave them the incentive. I told them what, how it works, and then I prompted them like, would you like me to create a coupon code for you? So there was nothing like wishy-washy. And in fact, sometimes I would just say, oh, , would you like me to create a coupon code for you?

Most people use their dog's name just so again, so they don't have to think about it. They're like, oh, yeah we would love that. Use the word Tom or something. So that one strategy that I used in my business, again, scrappy as hell. Yes, it's a bit manual, but that got me I don't have a dollar amount, but I would say tens of thousands of dollars in sales per year just by that one little strategy.

Erin Alexander: That's really cool.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: yeah,

Erin Alexander: You didn't use any app to track those sales so you could give out the this coupon codes. 

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Yeah , I like to teach people like, okay, here are the cool apps you can use if you're trying to like, Not spend your whole day emailing people, but a lot of people, as when you're starting out in your business, you're building your Shopify store.

You may not wanna spend a hundred dollars on like the referral candy app, or you might not wanna spend Hundred bucks a month on yacht po whatever. I forget how much these things cost, but I'm just giving you an example. You wanna just get some sales first and then you can splash out.

Yeah, I would track everything through coupon code. So again, very manual here, but if we're gonna be scrappy, then we're gonna be scrappy. So we, all you need is a Google sheet and Excel sheet and coupon code. So I would create a coupon code in Shopify. For them.

And then each month I would check how many of those were used. And then I would just basically, , it depends on the customer. I had a subscription box business and an online like store where I sold one-time pet products. So for the subscription people, I would just basically add a coupon code to their next, like their subscription, so their next order would be free.

And then for other people, I would just create a code where they could just get a product for free. I kept it quite simple, but yeah, it was tracked through like a spreadsheet. if I was doing another product-based business, I will admit that I likely would not use this very manual system.

That was my first business and I was saving money, and I'm just always wanting to remind people that like, you don't always need the expensive apps. To refer customers. It's as simple as communicating, emailing Instagram is the easiest thing. If any of your customers tag you in a photo, tag you in a story that they're giving you the green light to respond to them and say, Hey, thank you for buying from me.

I appreciate you. You're great. Thank you for taking the time. and I'm like very, I get very overworked about this because I do feel like a lot of brands, your customers are taking photos of your product and then you do nothing. You don't respond to them. You don't comment on the photo, you don't re-share the.

Story and they've taken the time to like literally take out their phone and take a picture of your product and tag you. They're giving you the green light to communicate with them. So I always feel like those are like your best, most perfect customers to be like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. We have a referral program, join it.

Erin Alexander: I have so many thoughts. My strategy is like, how can I make this So easy for the business owners. So I do have app

You could use GO AF Pro, which is my favorite affiliate program app because it is free. And you could use that to track your sales and you can pay them with like store credit, basically a coupon.

But you could also give them a coupon instead of just like giving them any kind of free product. You could say next time you get 10% off your order or whatever.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Yeah.

Erin Alexander: So there are ways to make that. But I totally get like when you are beginning, like scrappy is good. I just ran my summit and I did the prizes all scrappy.

So I was copying and pasting everyone's name, 350 comments into a spreadsheet to pick winners. It's just because I didn't wanna pay for an app to go through it and count it. So I'm right there with.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Yeah.

Erin Alexander: But also with those emails that you were talking about before we got into the, the coupon thing, like you can set up, you can set up those campaigns through automation so that you don't even have to do anything on the 15th of every month.

It asks past people who have ordered in the last 30 days if they want to buy with another discount. So there's a lot of ways to simplify that, which I think is a really cool way of setting it up once and reaping the benefits. That way you can spend time communicating with your customers, re-sharing them.

I think it is so critical for people to re-share the things that people tag you in. It makes them feel good. It's like it takes two seconds outta your day and it makes them feel like a hundred bucks.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Oh yeah. I, yes. Like I said, I think. I grew my business to a certain level without like again, staff, ads, funding, anything. And I didn't do that by ignoring my customers. Like I literally made every single customer that ever bought from me feel like seen, heard. and appreciated because when you are a small business and you're competing against competitors, Amazon, Amazon doesn't care, but like you're competing against all these people, how do you get someone to wanna keep buying from you?

If they don't feel like appreciated, why are they gonna keep buying from you? Unless they really like your brand. So like I bought something from a brand recently that I've. Literally gushing over on social media, and I did tag them in a couple videos and they didn't respond. They did share it.

So I'm like, okay, that, that's cute. But I would've appreciated it. Responded, been like, oh my God, thank you for sharing your adorable dog video. That's so cute. But it's okay. I recognize that not all brands will do that, but I do think you're a small business and you're not responding to messages, you're missing an opportunity. You're missing an opportunity because when you do make a customer like feel super appreciated, they remember you because 99% of businesses do not 

Erin Alexander: Mm-hmm. 

Kerrie Fitzgerald: customers feel appreciated. Wow, thank you for. Posting that video do you mind if we share that on our feed or I don't know, something gonna make people feel appreciated.

And I do wanna comment on the automation thing because that, I think it's a really important thing. So post-purchase workflows in any email marketing platform, you can build those emails in and you can basically have those automatically sent to all of your people who buy from you and ask them.

Or not ask them. Sorry oh, did you love your purchase? If you think your friends are filming, they might like it. We have this referral program, so that's actually the easiest thing that you can do. I feel like I've said that three different times. Like this is the easiest thing. They're all like relatively easy.

But if you wanna do something automated and save your time, you have that built into your post-purchase email sequence and it just automatically. Says Hey, if you wanna refer someone, here's how you do it. So there's a lot of opportunity here to definitely leverage and connect with your customers.

So

Erin Alexander: Absolutely. Yes. I agree on the automation thing, like that's like how my brain works, like how can I make this easier? But I would like, do you have other strategies? Because I know that creating loyal customers is something you're really passionate about.

Do you have other strategies for leveraging your current customers to spend 

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Absolutely. Yes. So I think one is a loyalty or rewards program. So you know, like affiliate programs. Referral programs, they, they all they're similar, but they're all very different. Customer referral program is really where you're just getting your customers promote you to like friends or family.

A loyalty program or a rewards program is literally like, Hey, if you buy every time you buy, you get points or things. you will work towards some kind of a bonus or a free item or a discount. So for example, I just bought some skincare products from primarily Pure yesterday. I'm pretty obsessed with them and I talk about them all the time.

And I'm in their loyalty program and so yesterday I bought, I forget how much I spent, but I was able to get $20 off of my purchase because of my last three to four purchases. From the last year. So that's an example of a rewards or loyalty program where, the more you spend, the more rewards and incentive you get.

Just I'm not sure if you are a star, I think you're a Starbucks person. Starbucks, like if you're in their rewards program, every time you get your scan, your little app at their store, you get points added to your. Program or whatever you call it. And at some point you'll get those 400 stars and you'll get your free, coffee or latte or cake pop or whatever you wanna get.

So having some kind of like loyalty app or program is very important. To get people to spend more with you. So not necessarily referring friends or family, but they're just gonna keep spending because you're giving them incentives. And people love free stuff. People love free stuff. The more free stuff you offer them, they will spend more with you just to get that.

$10 item for free, they'll spend a hundred dollars . It's psychological, it like goes into the, this whole thing of like buyer psychology, how do you get people to keep buying from you? If they're incentivized, they'll keep buying. So that is a very effective way. And I'm sure like you can think of rewards programs that you might be a part of that you're like, oh yeah.

Like I, it does incentivize me to keep buying.

Erin Alexander: Yeah, I definitely do the Starbucks one. And then like local coffee shops, they have the punch cards. 

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

Whatever works you can get simple with this kind of stuff, but, even if it's like a manual and, okay, I don't really recommend a manual thing for this, but you could do something where if people spend a certain amount of money, you manually send them a gift card or you give them a coupon or something.

But I think for loyalty rewards programs, these work better for stores that are a little bit more established. I would say if you're new, I would probably wouldn't bother with a loyalty program until you're consistently, getting sales. Because otherwise, if you're u using an app, it may not be worth the investment for you.

Erin Alexander: Yeah. And I think sometimes with those, you have to consider your type of product. If you have the type of product that you only buy one time, it might not make sense for you. Maybe a referral program is a better idea. But if you have, something like consumable, like candles or soap or, and I don't mean consumable like edible, but then that makes a lot more sense because people will need more of them when they run out.

So there's, know, there's a lot to consider, but there's ways to make it work for different types of businesses.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Absolutely. But I think loyalty rewards, they work so well because again, people work towards getting something for free and

I don't know what it is, but like a free thing incentivizes the crap out of people. Oh yeah. But I would say those are like, those are some of the. Most simple ways to kind of leverage your customers, but in general, if you are giving your customers a really good experience and you're asking them like, Hey, when you get your product in the mail, be sure to do an unboxing and tag us on TikTok or.

Tag us in your Instagram story so we can re-share it with our customers. One thing I did for my business was I had a monthly photo contest, and this actually really helped my business grow. And it got me a lot of U G C. So basically every month with my subscription box business, people would get the box in the mail and then in the box I would have a little really cute postcard.

Or like an insert and it would say take a picture of your product and tag us for a chance to win a free item. And so again every month I would choose one or two people or more and I would, they would get a free item. And I really plated it up on Instagram. This is when Instagram actually worked

And it would. I got so many people that would like, post pictures of the product on social media and tag us and like post on stories and stuff. And so again, this isn't necessarily like a customer referral app, but it does get your business and brand in front of a lot of other people. And that's really the thing is like when you involve your customers, you get them to feel part of your brand and connected.

They're gonna do more things like that for you and they feel connected to your brand. In turn, like they will buy more from you. So you gotta think outside the box a little bit. But I do think in general you can do like rewards, loyalty, referral program, but if you're not like getting your customers to be involved with your business and brand it's not gonna be as effective.

So I would just give that as like a friendly reminder.

Erin Alexander: Yes. You touched on this a little bit, but, and I feel like we could talk. Episode on it, but I know you really love to do on boxings and like the customer experience when they receive their product. And I feel like that's a part of getting people to come back is if they feel really special when they receive your product.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Oh my God, 

I totally forgot about that one. Yes, so customer experience is something that you definitely always want to, and I always frame this as you buy a product from Amazon and what do you get? You get the ugly brown box. It's like it's horrible and boring.

Okay. Then you get a beautiful product in the mail that has a beautiful like poly mailer bag, with's like colors and designs, and you open it up and you pull out like maybe an insert that just says, welcome to our brand. Yay, there's a beautiful picture somewhere. And then the product inside is nice.

There's everything looks good. You're gonna one be like, wow, this is amazing. And maybe you won't. I don't know. The average person might not care, but I do know people do care because they live out their phone. , they take a video or picture and they post it on Instagram or TikTok oh my God, look at this product.

It's so beautiful. So I do think for the most part, people do care. So you always want to be one step ahead of someone like Amazon, because the unboxing with Amazon is. is not very good, and it's not meant to be good. Amazon they facilitate getting products to you quickly.

It's not about like the packaging, but as a small business, that's how you stand out against an Amazon or another competitor is like you care about the packaging you care about, like those small details. So when someone does get your product in the mail, they're like, oh my gosh, this is so pretty. I just have to take a picture and post it.

So yes, I love on boxings and I just appreciate good packaging. I don't know and I think cuz for my business, my product business I did. Put so much effort into the packaging and the actual box. The products came in and the postcards inside everything was like perfect. So when you open the box up, you were just like, oh my gosh, this is like the cutest thing ever.

So that kind of got me to fall in love with how to create an unboxing experience for people. But it definitely will get people to come back again and again. Cuz they're like, it's exciting to get a nice package in the mail, . 

Erin Alexander: That's really fun.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: because we're used to the Amazon experience and while Amazon's great, you can get products quickly, it's not something that you're gonna be like, wow, this is so beautiful.

Like I love cardboard

Erin Alexander: And I think sometimes now they're just sending the things in like the clear package so you can totally see what it is and it's just got a label on it and it's oh, this

Kerrie Fitzgerald: I haven't gotten one of those. Yeah,

Erin Alexander: Oh, we have, yeah. Yeah. I when I hosted the summit, I purchased a program called summit in a Box, and it was like a full unboxing experience and it was fun.

I would say I'm someone who. Good packaging is probably wasted on. Like I, I'm like, I just want the thing, like I'm very impatient. But it was really fun because everything was branded. There's a water bottle in pins and everything was branded and

it was really fun. I did make a video but I didn't post it because I wasn't telling everyone about the summit yet.

So I was like, I can't post this cuz I'll know what I'm doing

Kerrie Fitzgerald: oh, that's so funny. I talked about this somewhere with this, I don't remember, but I bought a planner by someone, the content planner. Is that a company? I forget, but.

Something planner. I think it's like content planner and the pack and I had like high expectations, so I get the box in the mail and it shows up in a cardboard box and I was just like, oh my God, I'm I was so angry.

Like I was like not very happy and I sound so high maintenance and I'm really not. So I open up the cardboard box and then I pull out and I was like, oh my gosh, it's so beautiful. It's, it was the most beautiful on boxing I've ever done. You pull it out and it's like this beautiful white little box with their name on it with a little string or something.

I open it up. Everything is like tissue paper. . It was so beautiful. So I feel like I've had two brands that I bought from in the last year that I have just been like, oh my God, I'm just wowed. And that actually takes a lot because I am very aware of the unboxing and all that kind of stuff.

But yeah, content planner, they did a really good job.

Erin Alexander: I think there are ways, cuz we're talking about these scrappy businesses who are just in their beginning phases, where sometimes I think the cost of packaging materials, or especially branded packaging materials can feel. Too high, but there are ways to start small and get stickers with your logo on them.

You can get boxing tape with your logo and stuff. So if you're listening, feeling like you gotta go all out, start small.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: No I agree with you. I've gotten packages in the mail that are like in a white box with the packaging tape from. Probably like a sticker mule or 

something, and it looks, it looked beautiful. I'm thinking of one c e o hat club in particular. It was like a white box, black pa, like packaging tape on the seam, like it looked so chic.

Erin Alexander: That is very her brand too.

Lindsay. Yeah. She's awesome.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Beautiful.

Erin Alexander: I feel like we could talk forever, Carrie, but we better wrap it up. But before we say goodbye, let's let me ask you, I like to ask everyone on the podcast what's something you're currently learning in your own business to show everyone listening it doesn't matter what type of business you have, how long you've been in business.

We're always growing and evolving, so do you mind sharing with us something that you are currently.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Sure. So I am in a group coaching program and it's, I'm learning really how to grow a membership program. So I have a membership that I launched a few months ago, and I love it so much, but it's something that's very new to me. So I'm okay, how do I grow a membership? How do I create an awesome experience for my customers inside?

So I'm learning about how to grow a membership and I'm also learning Facebook ads, which, oh my gosh. that is like its own beast. Cuz I've been like, I'm an organic, like I teach organic marketing. I didn't do ads for my bus, for my first business and I just started doing ads for my current business. And I would say that is like a huge learning curve.

I don't know if you do ads, but oh my gosh, that is a huge learning curve. . It's very confusing and very frustrating, I would say. But I'm learning and it's, I love learning anything. I'm like definitely a lifelong learner. I'm always in a program or a course or something. So yeah, I would say those are two things I'm learning now.

Erin Alexander: That's a really good one. I started learning ads in the spring and I did them for a little while, and then I was like, I'm getting leads, but they're not converting and I've, so I want to go back and try some new things and I never went back and tried them

So I think there, there's a lot of potential in ads there, really.

It really is hard.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: It is cuz if you don't know what you're doing, you're just literally taking money and like ripping it up in the air and throwing it up like confetti and so it's def Yeah, it's a lot, especially with all the new iOS changes.

harder to even track anything now. So they might actually be working for you, but you can't track, like there's only a certain time period with that.

You can track that conversion period. So you have to use like other apps to track it. So anyway, but yeah, Facebook ads are cool.

Erin Alexander: So will you tell us two things, one, about your membership, like what type of, information are you doing? Because I know there's people li listening who could learn so much from you. And two, where can we find you and hang out with you online?

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Hey, thank you so much. So my membership is called the E-Commerce Society. I absolutely love it so much. It's a membership that really helps e-commerce product-based makers, how to get more traffic and get more sales. So we teach sort of a variety of like really all things organic marketing. Website conversion sales kind of social media, email marketing, seo, a lot of different things.

And it's a very much a community-based program. So we do like monthly trainings. We have live coaching calls, q and a sessions, so it's definitely very heavily focused around coaching and just giving people. An opportunity to show up and ask questions, get feedback on their business.

It's not like you just get a module and do it on your own. It's very involved, which I love. Cause I love talking. And I love like just helping people with problems. And you can find that on my website, carrie fitzgerald.com/membership and it's open all the time. So anyone's interested. I would love to have you.

And then my Instagram is Carrie a Fitzgerald and. I have that and I have a few other places you can find me, but I would say Instagram is always an easy one but yeah. Thank you for having me. So 

fun. 

Erin Alexander: We will have the link to your website and to your membership, to your Instagram. All the thanks in the show notes so people can find you. It was so fun to chat with you. I am just so happy to have met you.

Kerrie Fitzgerald: Hey, me too. 

Erin Alexander: You so much. Carrie.


Also in Podcast

Create An Effective Marketing Funnel and Content Strategy for Product-based Businesses with Ruthie Sterrett
Create An Effective Marketing Funnel and Content Strategy for Product-based Businesses with Ruthie Sterrett

Wholesale Options on Shopify: How to decide the best option for you
Wholesale Options on Shopify: How to decide the best option for you

How to Supercharge Your Product Business with the Formula for Success with Grace Hayden
How to Supercharge Your Product Business with the Formula for Success with Grace Hayden

SUBSCRIBE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST APP

Learn How to Design a Shopify Homepage that
Converts Like Crazy

Sign up now for a free training on the seven essential elements of a high-converting Shopify homepage.