Speaker 1 (00:00): What’s up small business heroes? Welcome back to Small Business PR where we make PR and marketing super accessible for the everyday small business founders. I’m so excited to have my friend today who’s also a podcast host. She’s a seven figure e comm brand founder and she is helping E commerce brands leverage business sales in the age of AI. Welcome to the show, Jodi Minto.

Speaker 2 (00:17): Hello. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:19): The reason why I wanted to have you on here because I hear this all the time which is like it’s harder than ever to have a small business but it’s also been easier than ever for AI. Question that I want to ask is like why are we in like such a unique or different time right now for each e commerce brands?

Speaker 2 (00:32): It’s such a great question because we are in this funny place where all of a sudden we’ve got the introduction of AI and algorithms are getting smarter across all of the different platforms. For a lot of E commerce founders, we’re not quite sure how to embrace these, these AI tools. And the introduction of AI, it’s allowing us to do things faster but it’s making it harder for us to cut through to our desired audience. A lot of the content sounds very generic. We’re at this funny stage where we’re starting to embrace things, these tools like ChatGPT and all the different AI tools, but we’re probably not doing them very well. So it’s a really interesting period of time and it’s very much comes down to content.

Speaker 2 (01:11): We need our content to really make that human to human connection and we need our content to actually convert. Are really leaning on AI to help us with our content generation because we’re all busy business owners. Often the content piece is a bit of an afterthought and we’re like, you know what, I’m just going to open up my AI and try and get some ideas and then I’m just going to cut and paste it. What that is doing is diluting our message and it’s probably somewhat distancing ourselves from that human to human connection with our customers. So it’s figuring out how can we utilize AI in order to help amplify our messaging but not replace the human element.

Speaker 2 (01:49): So the content piece is really, really important because the content that we create is what we then filter across all of our marketing. It’s all about making sure that we sound different but also that converts and hopefully gets people closer to that adding to checkout. So it’s making sure that we are using AI but we are then coming in and editing and making sure that it does in fact sound like us. Or programming your AI tool with your tone of voice with words and phrases that we want to avoid and ones that we don’t.

Speaker 1 (02:20): Yeah, I love that so much. I think so often people think it’s a and like this or that, but it’s actually and so you can actually use AI, but there’s a way to make it more resonating. I think a lot of product makers are like, well, I, you know, I, I got into product because I don’t want to be in front of the camera. But what you’re saying more than anything is that our messaging needs to be on point, which is really interesting because usually when you think about products, you think about packaging, you think about the aesthetics. And in this trust recession when anyone can make any AI generated image, you’re actually saying that it’s the message. So tell me more about that. The message versus the aesthetics.

Speaker 2 (02:50): An example of this is recently I got convinced from an Instagram ad to go and buy this eyeshadow stick. It looked great. I went onto the website, it looked amazing. This website had all of these reviews and it had this 100 back money guarantee. I went along and made a purchase and 60 days later my product finally arrives. And then I opened the product and it’s actually not the same product that was in the ad and it wiped straight off. It turns out that it was basically just a fake product or a copy product of Tarte Cosmetics. This particular case where they had a number of different websites under different brands all selling this ripoff product. For me to get scammed so easily, I was like, wow, this must be happening a lot.

Speaker 2 (03:34): And so trust as a growth factor, proving credibility, you are a real life business is so, so important in this era of where there are so many copycats. So I feel like that content, we really need to make sure that again, not only we do we sound human, but we are showing that we are credible, that we are trustworthy, that we do have customers, reviews and testimonials and things like that and will definitely help people connect with you and it will help build that trust.

Speaker 1 (04:01): I love the reviews. I love a behind the scenes. But what about influencers? Does that build trust or not necessarily.

Speaker 2 (04:07): I think this depends. If they are an influencer that has that credibility, that has a good following where people do trust them and the products that they promote, I think that would be a good collaboration. If it’s an influencer that is promoting absolutely everything that doesn’t build so much trust and credibility. So as a brand would, I wouldn’t necessarily be looking to work with that person. But for me, when it comes to influencers or content creators, I always look at it as there’s two different strategies. Strategy number one is we want to work with that first example of the influencer I mentioned where they do have an engaged audience that do trust them, do generally buy the products that they recommend.

Speaker 2 (04:47): And that particular influencer collaboration is a, is a strategy where the brand is piggybacking off their engaged audience. They might not make the glossiest looking content, but they have an engaged audience that is lapping up everything that they promote. They’re always generally more expensive to work with versus the content creator or the sort of micro influencer that might make great looking reels and content for you to use but potentially doesn’t have that engaged audience. I always look at that and always advise my clients to like, you know, when they’re approaching some sort of influencer collaboration, say to them what, what is the main objective here? Is it to get sales and drive sales or is it to get content that then you can use to amplify your own marketing?

Speaker 1 (05:29): For the people who are listening, who maybe they don’t have the budget to hire an influencer because they’re getting more and more expensive. What are some ways they can get started today in their content to, to build that while using AI?

Speaker 2 (05:39): I think ultimately having one core marketing message really will help. What that core marketing message is that you do what you want to be known for a lot of people that there’s so many mixed messages being shared. Ultimately I would think before even launching into producing that content, thinking about what is my key marketing message here, I’ve got a client that specializes in dachshund products. Her marketing promise is that they are specialized made exactly to fit a dachshund’s body and that they design cause any harm or pain or rubbing. Right. It’s very, very specific. I’m sure for anyone listening they can think, oh yeah, I know what my core message is like. For me, my core message is that I’m an E commerce business coach.

Speaker 2 (06:20): I specialize in helping women, often with family responsibilities to build a career on their own terms. That won’t leave them working 60 hours a week. In fact, that will help them build a lifestyle. Just making sure that people are true to their core message. And then you’ve just got to test it. You’ve just got to get out there and rip the band aid off. So to Speak and try talking to camera, try doing different sty content, try behind the scenes, try doing some voiceover if you don’t want to show, show your voice on camera. Like you just have to try and see what people respond to, create more variations of that.

Speaker 2 (06:52): And once we have a bit of an idea around the style of content that works, then that’s usually when we would put some money behind it in the form of advertising.

Speaker 1 (06:59): At the time of recording. Are you seeing any new trends in terms of content that really resonates? What are some of the things that people can.

Speaker 2 (07:04): You could try all of them. The interesting thing, and particularly through the lens of ads, is that I’m not seeing anything consistent like consistent across the board. I’m seeing this work really well in one account and then work really well in one account, another account. But a change that I have noticed a couple of years ago, if we made an ad with any sort of text overlay, whether it was a video or whether it was a still image that we designed in Canva, it generally wouldn’t do very well. Today those ones actually seem to do better. If we actually have a little bit of text like the hook or the headline over the top of the image or the video, it seems to get better click throughs and better sales.

Speaker 2 (07:40): If we’re making it a little bit easier for people to scan quickly and go, what is this that I’m looking at? For instance, I’ve got a client who sells these press on nails that are salon quality nails that you can press on and do yourself under 10 minutes in her content. What she’s finding is, yeah, it’s a still image with bright colored nails and then there’s some purple and yellow text that just says salon quality nails at home. Two years ago I would have said don’t do that, that’s not going to work. It looks too much like an ad. But currently that’s what’s working versus an editorial style image with no text. Text, right.

Speaker 2 (08:12): It looks like the real life, like hello, here’s me on holidays with my nails with a little bit of text overlay so someone can scan it really quickly and go, oh, this is for me or no, this isn’t for me.

Speaker 1 (08:21): Is there anything else that we can do from a content perspective? Is it like words or different techniques that we can do to build that trust or what are some of the things that people are doing that breaks trust immediately?

Speaker 2 (08:31): There’s a couple of things here. I think the brands that I see really struggle when it comes to either engagement on Their organic socials and then even that same content in ads are the ones that actually look, look super polished and they look like big organizations.

Speaker 1 (08:46): So.

Speaker 2 (08:46): And these are often smaller brands that have invested quite heavily in beautiful looking photo shoots, editorial style photos and it’s almost a faceless brand. Right. So there’s like model after model after model on a beach, on a yacht. It looks great, it looks pretty, it would look great in a magazine, in a fashion magazine, but it just isn’t getting the connection piece. People very much want to connect with a human more than ever because I feel like more than ever people want to buy from humans. Humans. It’s got to be human to human. I’m seeing too with content and I, I myself don’t like doing this. The polarizing content give or like I don’t love it because you know, particularly then I see someone and it’s an opposing opinion to mine. I’m like unfollow. Right.

Speaker 2 (09:26): But it definitely, definitely gets engagement. I think another thing too is if it looks and feels too chat GPT when I, when I see just someone’s entire feed just look like it’s just cut and paste out of chat chat. But even the pacing now I’m noticing the pacing of how you in copywriting that that AI spits out. I’m like oh, this is AI and that can really harm your reputation. And again that, that feeling of trust and credibility with your audience if, if that’s happening a lot and most of your content looks like and sounds like that.

Speaker 1 (09:58): Yeah. So what can we do to avoid? I mean I have programmed like a whole list of AI jargon phrases to avoid but it just, the list keeps getting longer and longer and I think.

Speaker 2 (10:06): The more you use it yourself and then the more you start paying attention to other people’s content, you start to see it and it’s like the pacing, there’s all these different phrases that you’re like this is ChatGPT Customer service responses publicly. Right. I can see this really harm a brand where again we’re often busy, tired business owners and someone writes a negative comment on our posts and then we, we react, right. And we say, you know, we, we want to fight with them or whatever it is. Like I’ve seen quite a lot of this and, and for another customer coming in and seeing this kind of fighting inside the comments, again it doesn’t build a lot of credibility and trust.

Speaker 2 (10:43): My advice to anyone that’s dealing with whether it’s customer service email thread or it’s on bottom of one of Your posts is to step away, don’t react, and try and be super neutral and think about how to respond. And this is a great example of when to use AI. Like, I often am screenshotting difficult conversations or comments into AI and saying, help me, help me reply to this. AI can, can help filter and take the strip the emotion out of it. Because we’re just one screenshot away these days of having our entire credibility in our brand, you know, slashed online. So we have to be super careful. And that is a great example of when we can use AI to help us tone down the response that we really like to do.

Speaker 2 (11:24): But I do often see, you know, these, these wars going on on comments, and I think, oh, I don’t want to, I don’t want to buy from you.

Speaker 1 (11:30): And a lot of times it hallucinates. So then, like, the response is probably not even what you want it to. Like if something gets really long. So we talked about AI, we talked about the different levers of trust and why it’s so important. What’s, what’s another lever? Because I know before we got on here, we talked about the importance of, of just positioning yourself for this next era of shopping, which is what I talk about, which is getting recommended on ChatGPT, where we are all inevitably going to go.

Speaker 2 (11:51): I think the third level is, is about this repetition and messaging clarity. We often are saying so many different things that, particularly if you want to come up in results in ChatGPT, you need to be known for something, right? So we need to make sure that we are repeating that same message over and over. Thinking about, like, are we saying this messaging enough? Are we making it really clear? Are we repeating it across different, lots of different places over and over? Um, and that will only just help us come up in results, in AI results and on Google and all of the different things. But it’ll also help assure our customers, you know, this is what we do, this is what we’re known for.

Speaker 2 (12:24): A lot of brands that I work with get tired of their products because they feel like they’ve been looking at it for so long. They also get tired of the same messaging that they’re saying over and over again. They’re like, surely I sound like a broken record. Surely people, yeah, are tired of hearing this. I’m like, no. For the, you know, someone today, it’s going to be the first time they’ve heard it or the first time they’ve seen this product. Don’t throw it all out and recreate everything just because you’re Bored with. Yes, you’ve been looking at it for two years, but for someone new coming in, this is the first time they’ve heard of it.

Speaker 2 (12:51): So just making sure that we are keep repeating these core marketing messages, keep, keep saying over and over again, there’s a chance that people have not yet heard it. And if we want to become known for something particular for some sort of, whether it’s our products or our services, we need to make sure that we are saying it and repeating it over and over and over enough. And then that will help us come up in search results as well.

Speaker 1 (13:11): I mean, if you look at brands like Nike and Support, like they have the same core messages, keep repeating it over and over and over. What are you optimistic about? Because I know so many people are like, oh, this doomsday and tariffs and rising costs and there’s a lot that’s like not going right, it seems like, but what are you actually thinking? It’s like an opportunity.

Speaker 2 (13:25): I think when it comes to AI particularly, that the functionality is really exciting as far as what we can use AI for inside of our business to make our business easier, efficient and cheaper to run. I mean, and I’m not an AI expert, but I know there’s other, you know, there’s lots of people obviously like yourself, but you know, you can use AI as a team member inside of your business business. You know, you can train these AI agents and bots and whatever to operate as your content. Again, like what we talked about though, we’ve got to make sure that we come and humanize it. But we’ve got all of these different options that are appearing rapidly where, yes, it’s overwhelming, but it’s always.

Speaker 2 (13:59): It’s also really exciting where for small business owners we’re like, maybe I don’t need to think about getting a staff member that’s going to be really expensive and mean that I’m potentially going to have to not pay myself and all these kind of things. Instead, there might be some sort of AI agent that can help me do these particular tasks. So I think that’s really exciting as far as the opportunities that we have to lean on AI to help, particularly with those repetitive tasks in our business. AI gives us the opportunity to get stuff done so much faster than ever before. And I think we’re just only on the tip of the iceberg of us actually using it in ways that could benefit us, particularly as small business owners.

Speaker 2 (14:38): We’re just like, oh, yeah, I’ll have a little try of like a social media caption when there’s so much that we could, you know, in the future be using it for.

Speaker 1 (14:45): Thank you for ending that note with with optimism. We’re always here at Champion in small businesses. We know that there’s a weight of the world, you know, that we feel like we carry because it’s just so hard at times. But this has given us the optimism that we need to keep going. So where can people find you?

Speaker 2 (14:59): You can find me@jodiminto.com and I’m also on socials. I am Jodi Minto. I have a podcast called Online Store Success. I have a various number of different ways that we can work together through courses and coaching and things like that.

Speaker 1 (15:13): Thank you so much. And for anyone that’s listening, if you do have a E commerce seller, refer them to this podcast and check out. Jody, thank you so much for being on the show. And until next week.