How My Podcast Reached 101K Listeners
This is a follow up story for Q&A Selling Online Podcast. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 3 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
My name is Quin Amorim.
I’m the founder of Prolific Zone Agency, the host of QA Selling Online podcast and owner of several Private Label brands that I sell online (mostly at Amazon)
Amazon account management services, my customers are brand owners who want to sell more online
The podcast still has negative income, but because of it indirectly, we generate $60.5K monthly on the agency and passed $420K monthly of product sales in February 2020.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?
2019 had a rough with the death of my dad, but it was all uphill from there.
The podcasts that I host generate some awareness to my agency that manages Amazon seller accounts, and we’ve been seeing a very considerable organic growth. So in 2019, I hired 2 more remote people and 1 local for the agency.
Always know your numbers before you source any product.
QA Selling Online Podcast reached a record 101K listeners in February and that has mostly to do with the compound effect of almost 500 episodes released and the guests sharing with their audiences too.
One of the most impressive stats is that our agency had a 96% customer retention rate during 2019, and although I don’t perform all the work myself, I still have weekly calls with all of them. More than half of our new customers are coming from other customer referrals who are happy with the results.
One of the tactics we use to grow our reach organically was to share audiences with other podcasters. We often refer our own listeners to other podcasts and they do the same for us.
Since we already know their audience is interested in the same content, it is very easy to gain new listeners by doing mutual shoutouts.
As for marketing, one of the best advertising tactics for physical products was using Amazon’s visual display ads with different Ad copy to every single keyword. For example, if the customer searches for “Keto Snacks” our Ad title would start with “Best Keto Snacks”, and if they searched for “Chicken Cat Food” the Ad title would say “Real Chicken Cat Food”. The relevancy of these ads generated a 36% increase on CTR (Click Through Rate) and a 6.2 RoAS (Return of Ad Spend)
2020 is preparing to be the best year ever.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
The biggest lesson I learned was to do as much as possible to remove myself from the business. I was working too many hours, 7 days per week, and I was a vital part of the companies I own, to the point that none work function without me.
When I figured that out, I used Loom to record on video every single task I was doing and used the videos to train my staff.
On the podcast side, I’m using automation from Zapier to get all the bookings typed into emails that go to a VA so she can do research, then a text message gets sent to me, and the interviewee is entered into a CRM and 2 automated emails.
The day before the interview, the VA gives me her research (Using Facebook’s Workplace), and 15 minutes before the interview my Zoom sends me a notification to start recording.
It is pretty much automated to the point of the interview, and after the interview, the designer creates an episode banner, the MP3 files get sent to the sound editor and Zapier creates a blog post with the title and content on a draft.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
Now that it is possible to run the business without me, I bought an online course for my staff on how to find leads and turn the agency into a well-oiled machine.
The plan is to create our own automation and management software and increase to 100 clients in 2020.
The 5-year plan is not fully defined yet. :)
Have you read any good books in the last year?
The Masks of Masculinity, by Lewis Howes - A fantastic revelation of what we try to show others and who we pretend to be, even when not aware we are doing it.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
This may sound obvious to many, but the most common mistake happening with eCommerce is that most sellers do not know their numbers.
A lot of sellers talk about ROI as if it was profit, mistaken margins with markup, and think they are making money when in reality they are bleeding all the profits into fees like Advertising, Shipping, 3rd party costs, taxes, etc
Always know your numbers before you source any product.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Yes, I am looking for at least 2 more account managers for Amazon Seller Central
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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