The following is a transcript of Episode 16 of Return on Podcast, the show where we help e-commerce sellers improve their ROI in business and in life. For more episodes, subscribe to our YouTube channel or listen on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Welcome to Return on Podcast where we talk about the experiences, obsessions, and habits of the most successful e-commerce entrepreneurs. I’m your host, Tyler Jefcoat. I wanna welcome you to this episode of ROP. You’ve heard of return on investment; well, this is Return on Podcast.
Hey, in today’s episode, I wanna talk about the power of having the right influencer videos for your listings on Amazon. I wanna talk about the anatomy of the best user generated content, if you can get it. And then I wanna talk about how you can add these kinds of content pieces to your playbook to increase your conversion ratios on Amazon. Let me bring in my guest for the day, JDubb. Justin Willhite is my friend from the other side of the country. How you doing homie?
Justin Willhite:
Doing good. How you guys doing?
Tyler Jefcoat:
Life is good. JDubb, you’re the owner of ConsumerQuest.online, ConsumerQuest.online where you help brand owners increase conversion rates by using the right video content. Dude, you’ve got a day job with this little company called Twitch that some may or may not have heard of
Justin Willhite:
Small, they’re a small company.
Tyler Jefcoat:
They’re a, you know, blip in the – people have heard of Seller Accountant. Twitch, they’ve never heard of. So dude, tell me a little bit about your journey from like Twitch influencer world into, let me do this user generated content for brands out there. How has that pivot been for you?
Justin Willhite:
There’s been a lot. So pivot, I wouldn’t even call it a pivot. This is a simultaneous thing that I’m running here. So I currently work full time at Twitch as an employee. So a lot of people always, “you work at Twitch. Does that mean you stream on Twitch?” And it’s like, no, I am actually an employee of Twitch.
I do not stream on Twitch often. Used to. Then I got hired there and that all stopped and there’s a whole lot of reasons why that’s the case. But anyway, I work full time in influencer marketing at Twitch, and I’ve been there, I’ve been doing influencer marketing for about three years. I’ve been at Twitch for almost six years. In October, it’ll be six years at Twitch. Along that journey during my entire time at Twitch I was actually doing a YouTube channel.
So I have a tech review YouTube channel that I was, I’m still kind of dabbling in, continuing to push forward, but I did that for about five years and I got really good at making videos, talking about products, right? Brands, I worked with lots of large brands that would send me products, and I’d do reviews of them. And I, you know, I’ve gotten really good about speaking about specs and details and how to use them and the right use cases for people and audio quality and phone specs and watches and all sorts of stuff, and what I found was, YouTube was awesome. It was a really cool environment. But it was very much a, it was me trying to grow myself as a personality. The tech was like the tool that you used to do that, but I was trying to kind of become somebody. I wasn’t – and my personal ambitions for this stuff, this content stuff isn’t about that. I don’t wanna be a celebrity. That sounds strange. I know in a world where everyone wants to be an influencer, everybody wants to be a celebrity. That’s not what I’m seeking,
I wanted to kind of make a business out of this stuff. I wanted to be a service that I could work with brands to help them achieve KPIs and goals and things like that. And so back in March of last year, I received an invitation to join the Amazon Shoppable videos program, and basically I’ve been an Amazon influencer and associate for a long time.
So I’ve been, you know, from YouTube videos, sending people over to buy the products that I’m talking about. They’ve kind of launched this whole new program, and I was invited to start making videos on Amazon. After starting that I found massive success and started to see the data behind those videos and watching the conversion rates on some of these videos and for these products. And they’re insane, which we’ll probably cover here in a little bit, but the conversion rates that I’m seeing on this video is just bonkers.
And that’s how I kind of strangely found myself. It was just kind of like an invitation, like, hey, come over and do what you’re doing over there, but do it over here. And it was like kind of revolutionized what I do. And since that point I’ve just been slowly but surely building and growing and turning this into a really powerful little business. So yeah.
Tyler Jefcoat:
So let’s go there for a second, ’cause you’re talking about just case study to try to bring this home. Somebody would send you or your team, a product. You would generate the video, the content that really makes that product easy to explain. ‘Cause you think about that. If you’re on the UI, on the Amazon app, which so many people are buying on the phone right now, or whether it’s on the web app.
That first glimpse, that first video of somebody either unboxing or interacting with your product, I would imagine has a huge impact on, you know, CFO speak, the conversion ratio, right? Gimme some nuggets on what you’re seeing in the space and how powerful that kind of content is.
Justin Willhite:
So there’s a lot of things. So I, again, I work, I just a level set. I work in the influencer industry from the brand side where I am actually contracting influencers to make content to achieve my company’s KPIs, but then on the flip side, I am now working as an influencer for brands. So I get to see the whole, the whole thing on both sides of the table. I get to kind of live the influencer life, I guess you could say, doing both ends of the deal and right? So that gives me a really clear picture of what it actually means to have KPIs, have, you know, sales goals that I’m trying to hit, and then actually engaging with an influencer and trying to see what that actually produces.
‘Cause that’s hard to do. Like influencer marketing is huge, right? It’s a huge hot button right now. Everybody’s doing it. They’re on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube, and it’s a huge driver for off platform traffic. Get people from the social media platforms and get ’em over to these product pages and have them buy your product. That’s the idea, that’s the goal of all of that. What I do, and the video production that I do specifically, is post all of that.
So they’ve watched the guy on YouTube. They’ve watched the guy on TikTok. They’ve listened to the girl on Instagram, who’s doing, you know, fashion stuff. They’ve seen your paid media on Facebook, or they’re on Amazon and you did a really good job, and you showed up in the related slot and you got ’em over to your listing. That’s where they’re gonna eventually scroll down to the video section, and they’re gonna find my video.
That’s kind of the idea there. And the goal of that video is now they’re here. They’re warm. They’re ready to buy, they’re on your page. We gotta get ’em actually added to the cart and complete the sale, right? Everything culminates to that specific moment, right? That is what you need them to do.
And so that’s what I try to affect. It’s ultra important, I would say, for both, you know, existing listing, to have user generated content, but not just any user generated content. ‘Cause anybody out there that’s selling products on Amazon, I don’t know if you, any of your customers are sellers or anything, you know, related. Yeah, that probably not. I mean, I don’t know why we’d be doing this. But if you could scroll down there, you’re gonna find all sorts of stuff.
You’re gonna find your merchant video, which is great. You have to have one of those that’s up there. It’s like kind of the flashy video that talks about your product. But then you’re gonna find those videos that are like 13 seconds, and it’s the shaky camera of who knows what they’re showing you. Like the box got there, and it was ripped. Like, I don’t know, like it’s useless kind of information.
And it takes up those video slots, and that’s the content that people that are potentially gonna buy your product, you’re gonna go scroll down, they’re gonna see that stuff, right? The importance of having a crafted UGC content waiting for them there is the kicker, right? That’s where you can actually like affect what happens at that decision point.
Instead of seeing those junk videos, if they scroll down and they see a video where a guy’s gonna show them exactly what the what’s in there, what the packaging looks like. They’re gonna pull it out. They’re gonna show ’em that it comes with the cables that they need, the charging that they need. It’s gonna have the little screen protector thing that they were hoping it would, it even comes with a bonus pair of X, Y, Z, you know, stuff like here’s everything you get.
And then let’s talk about how you use it. What’s the purpose of it? You know, how does it work? That right there is often enough to get people to say, okay, that’s what I came here for, and that’s exactly what I was hoping it was, and that’s what I want.
Right now, full transparency, as of this episode being done right now, this month, my conversion rate – now the conversion rate that they calculate here, that we get on my side, the data that I get to see is based on the number of clicks, they click on my video, to the number of ordered items. So not just adding it to the cart, but actually like completing the order, 52.34% is my conversion rate, currently at this time. I’ve never dipped below a 47% conversion rate in my time doing Amazon videos.
Tyler Jefcoat:
That’s really well by the way, JDubb, ’cause I think by the time we’ve paid money to get them to the listing, we’ve paid our SEO team to get our listing optimized. Darnit, we need to be converting once the eyeballs are here. And I think there is a lot of money being left on the table because there is the one middle schooler took a video with a really bad phone, and it’s not a great experience. You don’t really know how big the item is. Is it gonna fit on my shelf? Am I gonna have the skills to put it together?
And so I think when I think about this, I feel like you’re the guy who’s lowering the buyer anxiety that last notch. And by lowering the buyer anxiety you get them to actually pull the trigger and consummate the sale, which is great.
Justin Willhite:
Totally, exactly. And that’s the thing. And I mean, that’s a really high conversion rate. I know that. I mean, 52% conversion rate in any form of marketing, I mean, being a marketer myself, knowing like if someone could buy a 52% conversion rate on their marketing, like they would probably pay whatever the price tag is. That’s a ridiculous, but I understand also these people are super warm, right?
They’re already on the page. They’re already half – they’re 80% of the way there. My goal is to help you get them that extra bit. One of the places – and that’s for existing listings, for people who have already got product things out there, it’s great to get these types of really well crafted videos down there. But where I think they’re even more important is on day one launch listings, right? Like you’re launching a brand new product, whether it’s like in addition to your brand, or you’re just launching a whole new product, you’ve got a thousand other competitors out there. You gotta differentiate and you’re gonna spend money to get people to that page.
And they’re gonna show up and there’s no reviews. There’s no videos. There’s no nothing. They literally have to just take your description for what it is. They gotta look at your pictures for what they are. And hopefully you got a really good merchant video that just like blows their socks off to get them to add that to the cart and complete the purchase. There’s no peer validation whatsoever. And so that’s the beauty of working with someone like me in particular is that I get to work directly with you as a seller. We get to craft this video. We get to upload it on the listing before it’s like fully public.
And then it’s there waiting. So then yes, you do your influencer marketing on TikTok and Instagram. You do it on Facebook. You promote it on Amazon. People start coming and at least there’s something there for them to see that’s not from the brand. It’s not saying like, you know, XYZ brand, ’cause realistically, I mean, you all know if you’re out there, like if you’re out there shopping at a Car Mart, and the dude with the Ford thing comes over, okay, this guy’s gonna try and sell this to me, but if I see another dude wandering around, out there with sunglasses on and flip flops, and I go, hey, have you ever heard of this truck? And he starts telling me about why he’s gonna buy that truck. That’s a whole different story. That’s a completely different validation point. And now, cause I’m not being sold. I’m just being told, like here’s what it is, you know?
Tyler Jefcoat:
Yeah, so you’re kind of creating – there’s a need, especially if you’re trying to get traction on a new listing, I completely agree with you on this one, JDubb. Like you need some, you need a little bit of social proof, a little bit of customer validation, and it’s expensive to get that validation.
And you know, if you have a bad product – this is my hypothesis: if you have a bad product, no amount of anything is gonna create long lasting value. But if you have a great product, and your mission is to properly launch that product, get traction in a competitive landscape, or you’ve improved upon your competitors, but they’ve got 500 reviews, doing something that really goes the extra mile to lower the customer’s anxiety to create a more tangible user experience, I think is a really good strategy.
And so let me ask you a question here. So, your calendar’s pretty full. I know you do take on clients, but let’s say someone either doesn’t want to pay the JDubb to do this, or you’re booked out three months and you can’t do it for ’em right away. Like, what would you say are the key, like anatomy points of this kind of video? Hey, if I could like post something in my Facebook group and someone was willing to like, give me a crack at this, and I wanted to teach them, do these three or four things, like what would that look like to make a really successful user generated video?
Justin Willhite:
Yeah. So I think what you’re gonna find is Amazon UGC videos or videos down in that content area are not YouTube. We’re not talking about like, I mean, I know YouTube, right? I know how to do the lights. I know how to do the slow motion, you know, tracking, you know, shots, the pan in pan out, you know, the cool stutter effects and things like that. That’s YouTube. And that’s gotta, we gotta wow people, ’cause we gotta get ’em to do a lot of things.
We gotta get ’em to like, watch this video be so excited about this product that they’re gonna go into the description. They’re gonna click the link. They’re gonna leave their YouTube session. They’re gonna go over to Amazon. They’re gonna look at the product, add it to – I mean, there’s so many fail points, right?
Amazon is different. The people there are, like I said, they’re on your listing already, right? They don’t need to be sold anymore. They’re there. They’ve arrived. They want information. So I would say structure, structure is huge. Okay. So when you’re making these videos, you have to know also just like any other video type of, you know, of production, especially on YouTube, is that video viewer drop off.
So like the first 20 seconds, you know, you’re gonna see a lot of people stay through that, but then it’s gonna crash off. So like don’t make 10 minute videos. No, one’s gonna watch it unless it’s somebody who’s coming back after they bought a product and you have a really in depth like instruction guide on how to use this thing. That’s fine. That’s a very specific customer.
But like keep it under three minutes. Concise. But deliver as much impact as you can up front. So when you’re thinking about making a video, you gotta think about, okay, they wanna see what, people love to see what the package looks like. I just throw the packages away. I could care what I could care less what the box looks like. So many people want to know what the box looks like. Is it nice? Is it pretty? Show them the box, take everything out, lay it out, show them what they’re gonna get. Like, this is everything that comes in the box all the way down to like the little warranty card, like just show ’em all the stuff. Here’s everything that you get.
Then show them how to use it, but just be thinking when you’re talking about these things, when you’re building this, think about what you, as a brand, wanna make sure that they know that you think is critical, right? This can be a lot of different things. So this can be like, here’s my main selling points. Here’s why I think 90% of the people are coming to buy my product, put those up front. You wanna front load that stuff. ‘Cause you want them to go there and go, yep, that’s what I was, okay, cool. This is the right one. That’s the feature I was looking for purchasing it.
The other thing that you can do is let’s say you’re an established product. Let’s say you’re selling a ton, but you’re getting a lot of returns because of one specific type of issue. And it’s because the customer’s doing something wrong, right? Front load the solution. “Hey, this is what it looks like, and here’s how you use it. But, oh, and I was looking through the reviews and I saw that everyone was saying that it doesn’t stick to this type of material. It does. You just have to use this extra little piece that we put in there and then it’ll work.” Like show them the solution. See if you can help reduce the conversion on your returns. So that kind of stuff. There’s a lot, you know.
Tyler Jefcoat:
That’s so beautiful because I think there is a – there’s two things you mentioned there I think are really powerful. One is if I can educate the customer who doesn’t want this product, ’cause it actually isn’t the right solution. I can actually make the algorithm much happier that I don’t have those refunds. Not to mention, we always lose money on refunds. We never make money on ’em. And then the second thing is if my product requires a little bit of adoption, I’m almost thinking about like, for those of us who are sellers, like, almost think about a piece of software in your mind, like before you’re willing to pay for a software on a recurring basis, you’re gonna want to get through some education to help you use it properly.
I’ll give you an example of this. Like we used some software at Seller Accountant to reconcile Amazon transactions, and it took a lot of training for my team to get good at using that software. But now that we know how to do it and we can’t screw it up, they’ve made it idiot proof for my team. We use it, we buy a lot of that product ’cause we can use it for every single client that we serve.
It’s in the same way like if there’s a potential fail point, you used the word fail point earlier for the funnel, but it’s also a fail point using the – having a great experience, having a transformational relationship kind of experience with my product, if I can address that problem, scare off the guys that don’t need to buy this anyway, ’cause they’re never gonna be happy. And then the guy who just needs a little bit of education, give him what he needs so he can be successful.
Justin Willhite:
Exactly. Yeah. I would say before you just throw the product on the table and start recording, just think about it for a few minutes. It’s really not, you just, okay. What do I want them to know? And front load that. Make sure that gets in the video as early as possible. And then you can go down rabbit trails and talk about whatever else you think is cool about your product later on, but hit the main stuff, address any issues that you’re seeing that are common, and just make a video. You know?
The other thing I will say too, and this is something that I see a lot of people fail at, is they wanna make like three different videos. “Well, I’m gonna make an unboxing video and then I’m gonna make an instructional video and then I’m gonna make a tips and tricks video.” That’s YouTube mentality because YouTube is going to send you on to the next video in the series. Amazon is not that way. Unless you’re like somebody like me, who I would consider like a super buyer, I’m not gonna watch multiple videos on a product.
Amazon’s gonna have to show me a video. That’s gonna probably have to be the one, or I’m moving on. Get it all in there as much as you can. If there’s extracurricular stuff, if you’ve got a ton of features, don’t hit ’em all. You can’t. Just crunch ’em down, get the important stuff. But don’t do the multi-video thing. I really don’t think that’s worth it. I’ve done that with a few, and it’s always the one that contains the most information that does well. The other ones just drop off and are almost useless. So I wouldn’t waste your time doing that either. One video, no more than three minutes, and you’re good to go.
Tyler Jefcoat:
And so another thing, by the way, I wanna get your reaction to this. So for our CFO clients let’s say we already have a hundred or 120 reviews, something like that. And we are trying to figure out what aspects of our product our customers actually care about. Getting a VA or doing this ourself, it doesn’t take that long to go scrape those reviews off of Amazon, and for free. I think there’s literally one called freewordcloud.com, you can dump all of that prose, all of the stuff that people write about your product. And so we always do it this way. We have one Google doc open for four and five star reviews, all the prose related to four and five star reviews, boom, goes in that Google doc. One for frowny face reviews, which is anything less than a four star review.
And then we get it to generate a word cloud that’ll say, oh wow, I didn’t realize this, but the fact that it has the green power cord is apparently really important to my happiest customers. Therefore, if I have to find out how to budget my tiny bit of three minutes for this video, I’m gonna make darn sure that I highlight the green cord thing, ’cause apparently that really matters to our clients.
And then the inverse of that is if I have a key competitor, I wanna find their one star reviews, or I wanna find their five star reviews and see what’s converting on their listings and say, hey influencer or JDubb, whoever’s doing this video for me, maybe I’m doing it, I want you to highlight these three features of our product, ’cause these are the things that people are probably gonna be willing to pay a little bit more for us because our competitors stink at this. I mean, does that resonate with you at all?
Justin Willhite:
Absolutely. I mean, I do that a lot with actually a lot of brands. I mean, a lot of companies that I work with will tell me, cause I’ll ask them like, hey, like what are your main selling points? Why is your product better than a lot of the other ones on Amazon? Like tell me why, because at the end of the day, what I need to do is I need to craft a video that people also wanna watch. It can’t be like me just reading the description page and here’s, you know, it’s got, you know, 0.75 pixels per square millimeter.
They need the real information, right? Like we’re talking about mostly consumers here, right? Not the heavy duty, like tech users, they’re going to YouTube to find their stuff. And, you know, arguing in the comments, this is different, this is like, so tell me why – ’cause I’ll make comments like, “Hey, you know, and this is one of the reasons why I like this one better than most of the other ones that I’ve seen on Amazon is because of this green cable. Everybody else doesn’t add, they don’t add that in there, and I wish they would, but they don’t. This one has this in there. So you guys, if you’re gonna get this one, if you’re thinking about getting one, this one’s awesome because it has this, it also has this, which I’ve seen nobody else does. This is the only one I’ve seen that does.”
When you start having people, again, go back to the Car Mart. If the guy, if you’re talking to some Joe Schmo dude who looks like he’s a, you know, you’re buying a bass boat. This guy looks like he fishes for bass literally every day of his life, and he’s like, “Man, it’s got this step up on the back that no other boat has, and I use it all the time.” I’m like, dude, you just, that just probably sold me. I don’t know why, but like, you’re the guy that’s telling me that it’s what I need, and I believe you. And that’s it. That’s really what it is. You know what I mean?
Tyler Jefcoat:
So true. Yeah. I didn’t even know I needed to step up, but now I know that this guy’s a pro he’s got a trophy. I totally get it. That makes sense.
Justin Willhite:
I’m buying my first boat. ‘Cause I don’t know anything. But this guy clearly, I mean, he’s wearing Crocs in the shape of bass. Like this dude knows what he’s talking about. Like that’s the guy that I’m listening to. You know what I mean?
Tyler Jefcoat:
I love it, man. Anything else in particular that’s really working right now in your videos for your customers?
Justin Willhite:
Yeah, so I mean, you know, really just, I find the difference between a customer that’s really invested in it – so there’s two different ways that I get. There’s two different customers that I work with, and I would say that you want to be the latter, let’s say. A lot of customers just like, “Hey, we’re gonna send you the product. Just make a cool video. Just go for it.” And that’s like, okay. There’s a lot of creative freedom there, which is great for me. I like that. That’s fine. But there’s also a lot of research time for me. And it’s gonna come out pretty good. I mean, I don’t think those are always my best.
I feel like I want input. I want you to be able to tell me a little bit, you know, the clients that really want it to be useful, send it to me with a list of like, here’s the best stuff about it. Not a script. I don’t need you to write a script, right? I’m not gonna, and if you do, I’m not gonna read a script. I’m just warning you right now. Do not send me a script. I won’t read it. Give me bullet points. Here’s the top five things about my product. Don’t just copy your description page. Just think about your product for a second and go here’s what’s awesome. Boom. Hit me with that.
I am going to then add animation to it. I’m gonna be me. I’m gonna do what I do. I’m gonna talk about this. I’m gonna make it awesome and fun. And I’m gonna probably make some jokes and I’ll laugh at myself when I do it. It’s just, that’s what it’s about. I want to be personable. I’ll do all of that. You just need to give me the facts.
I need to know what you like about your product, why yours is better than everybody else’s. Like that kind of thing. And then once that happens, you’re gonna find that’s gonna be extremely powerful, you know, way of kind of structuring the video. What I find also works really is just being, you know, like is if you’ve got multiple – now, this is actually really good too. Let me just, I, this is actually a really good one. If you’ve got multiple ASINs, and a lot of you guys out there might be thinking like, okay, well I have like five different products. They’re just different variations of the same one. Okay. Send them all. And we can combine, we can put ’em all in one video.
I can link multiple ASINs to one video, right? If I’m showing those products off and like, allow me to explain the differences between them. Because I find a lot of people, they’re like, I’m looking at this case from Speck, but I’m looking at this case from Speck, and they’re both the same price and they both look, they both fit my phone, and they look really cool.
I’ll show ’em both, we can link ’em both. Again, it’s about packaging as much information as you can in a video in a cohesive way. You know, and especially if you’re, if you have a very simple product, again, like a phone case, I can’t talk for three minutes about a phone case. It’s gonna take me like 15 seconds to talk about this. So let’s talk about a few, right? Let’s give them some like real food for thought. So now they may not buy the one that they arrived on, but let’s keep them in your ecosystem. Which is just as good. I mean, who cares what they buy, as long as they’re buying from you is really kind of the idea.
Tyler Jefcoat:
Yep. No, I think that’s so powerful because I think there’s so much buyer psychology research out there about, you know, you give somebody like 12 options, they actually get frozen and they don’t know, there’s this analysis paralysis thing that happens. And what you can do is say, listen buyer, this version of it is actually the one that’s gonna meet your needs.
If you look like this, and if you’re, you know, if you’re a bald guy like Tyler, you don’t need the hair gel, you know, that kind of thing. I just love that level of clarity. Also love what, you just described a great, like 80/20 principle there. Like if you have parent-child ASIN relationships, you actually may be able to kind of kill two birds with one stone, the one bird being I can use one video across multiple listings. The second bird is I actually might be able to increase conversion by helping people know which one they want, ’cause then they won’t get, you know, caught in that analytical trap, that kind of thing.
Justin Willhite:
Yeah. I mean, use it as an also, I mean, not an intended upsell, but like use it potentially to upsell, right? Like if we’re gonna do a phone case video, like, why don’t you send me one of your low cost, your medium range, and then send me your big dog. Let’s throw ’em all in there and show people, here’s a quick rundown. Boom. One minute, one minute, one minute. Here’s the three. Like, and explain why each individual person might need that and let them decide. They may have come in at the highest one, and they’re like, yeah, that just seems way more than I need. Cool. Well, instead of them bouncing off and going on, like, let me find a cheaper case from somebody else.
Well, we just showed you the one that you should bump down to from us. Let’s be smart about it. And it’s, again, these videos aren’t salesy, right? I don’t come across as like, this is the best phone case on Amazon, right? Never say anything like that. Here’s the device. Here’s what it does. Here’s why you’re here, and here’s the information that you need. Now you decide if you want it. And 52.34% of those people are deciding that’s the case.
Tyler Jefcoat:
So I think that’s another important nugget. You talk about less than three minutes, you talked about giving them a lot of information. You don’t need multiple videos. There is an authenticity, right? I mean, you’re an authentic, and I don’t know, I’m gonna ask you this question in a second, but like, I would imagine you tend to lean towards products that you A like, and/or B you know, you’re probably not selling a lot of like women’s lingerie. I mean, there’s categories that you’re gonna be the right market for, and that’s a good thing.
You actually can be authentic. And I know you, cause I’ve met you in person a few times. Like, there’s an authenticity with the way you interact with products. Like you can’t really fake it, and you can make it a – everyone’s watched a QVC infomercial and felt like, yeah, I’m not gonna buy it.
That guy is really cheesy, and it doesn’t work. So let me ask you this. So, so I think I know the answer to this. I know if you have a highly commoditized product, it may still be difficult to differentiate, but the flip side of that is I may need to find ways to try to differentiate. What kinds of brands should consider partnering with Consumer Quest?
Justin Willhite:
Oh man. I have not met a product yet that I have not done a video for, and my wife does videos. So I do, we do actually do female products. We do lotions and makeup and all sorts of stuff, hair products. So, no, there isn’t a product – you know, realistically I don’t think there is a category that can’t benefit from a good UGC video, right?
It’s really, to me, it feels like low hanging fruit. To just it’s, you know, especially in Amazon, nowadays, you know, and talking to agencies and sellers and people who, you know, consult with brands and stuff like that, they’re just like, we need to do every single thing that we can. Like SEO. We need to have good images done. We need to have good product photos. We need, you know, like you just need to be active anywhere that you can. And it’s like the cool thing about somebody like me is again, I kind of talked about making videos, right? There’s a lot. It can be simple. But then it can be also be very, I mean, I have the setup.
I mean, as you can see back there, I have like the lights, I got the cameras, I got the whole thing, and it really comes down to just, you gotta find the right people. I mean, you hire somebody to do your SEO, right? I mean, you can do it yourself, but it’s not easy. SEO’s tough. You can write your own description, but it’s probably better if you don’t. Like, it comes down to finding the right people and you, I think you just need to check as many boxes as you can, regardless of the products. I mean, I’m doing, I got fish finders over here from one of the biggest companies I think, on the planet, that owns like, you know, I mean, and then I have like scent beads, little beads that you make your own scent for your car, from a one person seller. It doesn’t matter what product you’re talking about. You talk about differentiation, right? If you have videos that are powerful, and your competitors don’t, I mean, there’s no way to lose there. So I would say, no, I don’t think there’s any brand that can’t benefit from something like this.
Tyler Jefcoat:
And I think actually what’s so interesting about this is as the Amazon ecosystem continues to evolve, we’ve talked about this on a few recent episodes, but version 1.0 was just Bezos selling books, version 2.0 was you throw any product in the world on there and you make money. You know, 2016 comes, and version 3.0 was we needed to now understand the algorithm and the PPC, and we had to actually have real images and stuff like that.
And I do think that we’re pivoting into version 4.0, not to say that Amazon is mature as a marketplace, but there’s a lot more competition for a – especially right now, we’re kind of in a bearish market – a lot of competition for fewer buyer intent, you know, eyeballs than maybe we had a year ago. Therefore the winners are gonna be the brands that execute on the details, and any potential competitive advantage that I can carve out to make my listing, my offering, what makes me unique, stand out to my customers, is gonna be a huge win.
And it’s something I could get away with not doing two years ago, just spend a little money on PPC and I’m fine, but in a market where things are a little bit weird and they are weird. I mean, some of our clients at Seller Accountant are really struggling right now. Not all of ’em. Some are killing it. Doing something meaningful to add that asset, I view this as an asset on your listing, I think is really crucial. Any final thoughts? I wanted to talk about something else with you real quick, but any final thoughts about Consumer Quest or making videos?
Justin Willhite:
Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, I think you kind of nailed it on the head. I think really everybody is so focused on getting people to the product page, and then they assume after that, everything just goes well. But there’s more competitive products on listings now than there ever have been. There’s more related content and recommendations and like, Amazon’s trying to capture just anybody to buy anything. You’ve gotta focus on getting them to buy your product, the reason why they’re there.
And it’s like, I feel like, again, this is one of those things. You just, you get a video done, you do it one time, and it just works for you. It’s doing nothing but working for you, you know? And that’s like, and that’s kind of the beauty. And that’s what I like doing. I’m a big data guy, and so for me to be able to look at this last year and like, see the data that says, what you’re doing is actually extremely powerful, and it’s helping people. And I’ve, and I work with, I mean, like I said, I work with, you know, billion dollar brands, and I work with like, you know, a hundred dollar brands. I don’t know how much people make, you know what I mean? And it’s like, I get to see these people, you know, grow and stuff.
And so for me you know, I genuinely love checking out products, so I’m excited. And you know, so if, you know, if you’re out there and you’re thinking like, man, this sounds really cool. Like, you know, reach out. I mean, I’m happy to, I’m happy to talk you through it. And even if you don’t become a client, I’m just happy to kind of show you this world and what this looks like and what it can possibly do for you.
Tyler Jefcoat:
And maybe that’s my final question from the business standpoint, JDubb, is if somebody wanted to get ahold of you, learn a little bit more about Consumer Quest what, what should they do?
Justin Willhite:
Yeah, they can go to ConsumerQuest.online and over there’s a form you can fill out. You can reach out to me that way, or you can just send me an email directly which is JDubb, JDubb@ConsumerQuest.online. And it’s, you’re gonna get right to me. I’m the one man show right now. So there’s no nobody in between us, so you’re just gonna get right to me, and we’ll, I’m happy to just talk you through the whole process.
Tyler Jefcoat:
Well, and that’s a great lead in. So we try to end our discussions with two small sections here, JDubb, and you’re a busy guy. You’ve articulated a day job with a tiny company called Twitch, and you’re growing kind of video agency business where you’re still the main guy. You’re the talent a lot of times. But what do you do for, what brings you join your life? What do you do for fun when you actually have minutes that you can have fun with?
Justin Willhite:
Yeah, so I mean, I work in the gaming industry. I play a lot of video games, play a ton of video games. I’m really into, I’m really into VR right now, which I’m having a ton of fun with my kids. We’re doing VR together which is basically me doing VR while they watch on the TV, which is really fun. So VR is great. And then I’m an avid hunter. I do a lot of hunting. I get outdoors quite a bit. In the season I got a hunting dog that I’m in training with and stuff. So. Yeah, I got a lot going on.
Tyler Jefcoat:
That’s awesome. So it’s funny. We do not currently own like a Oculus or a Quest 2 or whatever. And I want one and I’m so happy about this. Part of our summer quest, you know, pun intended there, is that I’m doing one of, my kids are eight, nine, and I’m one of the days of the week I’m doing dad school. We’re learning how to invest money and how to give and how to save. And when my younger daughter, her goal for the summer is to save up to get a Quest 2. And I was like, yeah, this is great. I cannot wait. I’m like, oh, Bonnie I’m rooting for you. I’m sure that’s gonna be fun when you get it. When I’m really thinking, JDubb, is I’m about to get a Quest 2, and it’s gonna be awesome.
Justin Willhite:
It’s so much fun. It’s an absolute blast. The minigolf by the way is like one of the funnest games. No VR’s, VR is amazing. So I play a lot of video, but anyway. So video games is probably my number one thing that I do to kind of, to cool down and kind of spend time. And then just getting outdoors and doing a lot of hunting with my family. Actually, my wife just got, is getting into it, which is really exciting.
So yeah, and then, and that’s the other cool thing is I get to do, actually, a lot of brands send me like camo gear. I get to work with brands that make that kind of stuff, which is a freaking blast.
Tyler Jefcoat:
It’s amazing. It’s amazing. Well, final segment here, the show, and then we’ll end for the day. This is a ultimately kind of an investment podcast. What we’re trying to get to the bottom of here is what habits, hacks, practices give you an unusual ROI? What do you think, I mean, you’re a successful guy. You’ve done some really cool things in your career. If somebody was gonna take away from this show, like I was gonna spend one thing each week like what, I don’t know, anything pop to your mind that you feel like is a habit, hack, practice that’s given you an unusual return on your investment?
Justin Willhite:
I mean, that’s a tricky one. I would say my thing is just a positive attitude is I mean, I know that’s not really like an investment strategy. Maybe it is. I don’t know.
Tyler Jefcoat:
Yeah, but for this show, but for this show, this kind of thing is perfect. So you’re on the right track. Keep going.
Justin Willhite:
Okay, cool. No, you know, really for me, like, I mean, I don’t know how my personality came across during this show, but I try and it’s just fun. You know, life is fun. There’s some fun stuff to do, and you gotta find fun stuff to do, and you gotta find ways to do it. And I’m lucky enough now where I do love what I do at Twitch. And so I’ve kind of found that job, but then this hobby that I was so passionate about with video is like, and I genuinely love when I get to turn the lights on back there and like sit down and pick up a remote control car and like do the video and then like I have to go shoot B roll.
Like, oh shoot. I gotta go drive it. You mean, I really have to go drive the drone outside? Like, it’s a freaking blast. Like it’s so much fun, you know? And it’s like, I don’t know. I feel like what happens is a lot of people when you get really, you get so worked up about stuff and with business, and it’s just, you really do have to find that extracurricular time. And that, and invest in that. Like, like truly invest in that. And for me, what it is with, you know, with my kids, I have kids that are very similar in age to you. You know, I’m doing all of this so that I can invest in, in them. So we’re going, like Disneyland. Doesn’t sound like an investment, but in the joy and happiness of my family, that’s a huge investment.
There’s nothing else that’s more important than that kind of stuff. And so, I think measure it and invest the time. Like as much as you’re spending doing something that is like work and business and that kind of thing, you gotta invest that time in things that are not that as well. And I think especially nowadays, especially on Amazon, because like you said, the grind, it’s getting so congested, it’s getting so hard to like find time, you know what I mean?
And like, if you can find people like me or people to do SEO, invest in them. Offload some of this stuff, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, go out there and make videos, but I’m here and I’m happy to help you. And clear up that time for you to go out and like have fun.
Tyler Jefcoat:
I mean, I think what’s so wise about what you said there, one of my heroes is a friend of mine named Tommy Breedlove who wrote a book called Legendary. Bestselling book, by the way, you should check it out. And I get his daily newsletter. I hate newsletters. I don’t get a lot of ’em. I get a couple, he’s one of the ones I get every morning. And actually he almost made your exact point, it was either yesterday or today, about, you know, we can spend so much of our lives trying to achieve something.
But what we really want is joy. What we really want is peace. You know what I mean? And so like he actually, when he is coaching CEOs, executives, a bunch of larger companies, he actually makes them block on their calendar time for play each week. And I actually think that is probably one of the more meaningful hacks that I’ve heard on the show here. So it’s not a, it’s not a little thing at all. And I will say this – another piece of my story is I was on a mastermind with some extremely wealthy guys a few years ago. And some of them were so miserable. Like they had not figured this out.
And so how can I build my business, make a great living, do things the right way, you know, so there’s integrity. There’s, I wanna make money. There’s that thing, but also just enjoy life. Life is short. I get a few years with my beautiful wife and my two beautiful daughters and you’re the same way JDubb. So I think that’s not, that’s not a tiny thing. That’s actually huge, is how can you not just cultivate PMA, positive mental attitude, but actually like live out fun in your life?
Justin Willhite:
I don’t know where I heard it, but it’s, you know, once you reach a certain level of financial income, right? Once your needs are met, right? That’s kind of it. Like, no matter how much more money you make, it doesn’t affect any of that. So it’s like just, you gotta find time to, to make sure that that’s what’s happening next because otherwise, you know – or if you’re super competitive in this, I get it too.
A lot of these like CEOs and executives and stuff like that, they’re really competitive. And they’re all about the edge. Go play a sport. Like, you know what I mean? Like, get it out on that side of things and have fun, like, yeah. Be competitive, be grumpy, but like do it on the baseball field. You know what I mean? Like, enjoy it, get some sun, get that vitamin D, you know what I mean?
Tyler Jefcoat:
I love it, dude. It’s like church league softball guys or whatever. Yeah.
Justin Willhite:
Exactly, exactly. Get out there and do it out there. Like, you know, if you gotta, if you gotta be competitive, see how fast you can run up that hill, go for it.
Tyler Jefcoat:
Run some hills. By the way, I swore after high school football that I would never run hills unless somebody was chasing me.
Justin Willhite:
You’ll never find me running a hill. No, that was just a total hypothetical. Yeah, I would never do that.
Tyler Jefcoat:
Okay. To be clear, it doesn’t really happen. Well, straight up, this has been amazing, buddy. I really am thankful for your time. Appreciate you joining me today. And people are gonna find you ConsumerQuest.online. They’re gonna reach out to you if they want help with videos for their listings. And then guys, it’s 40 minutes into this podcast. If you’ve made it, I just wanna say, thank you.
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Return on Podcast with me, Tyler Jefcoat. If this content serves you, I’d love it if you liked it, shared it, got the notifications. We need your help because I’m better at accounting that I am at marketing. And so with that though, I want to end our video and podcast for the week. You guys kill it, and we’ll check in next time.