32. How Personalized Videos on Your Introductory Emails Increase the Sales by 20%

Shiva 00:00
Hi, you're listening to Driven e-commerce at work. The podcast where we bring in conversations with the e-commerce experts. We also put together some interesting content from different places, including our monthly E-sessions, Speaker Series, and anything that's related to e commerce for manufacturing and distribution. If you're here for the first time, I would highly encourage you to go and subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, or Spotify.

Matt 00:35
Hey, everyone, this is your host, Shiva Kumaar. Welcome back to driven e-commerce, that word podcast. Our guest today is Matt Barnett, co founder and CEO of Bonjoro. Hey, Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt 00:47
Hi, Shiva. Awesome to be here.

Matt 00:49
Awesome. Thank you so much for being our guest today. And so are you based out of Australia or UK?

Matt 00:57
I'm, I'm British originally, but I'm based in Sydney, Australia.

Matt 01:01
Awesome. Awesome. So you launched the product in 2017? If I'm correct, and it's been like, three years, right? So you young brothers from zero to 40,000 users. So tell us about you know about your role. And then what is your company does? Bonjoro does?

Matt 01:19
Yeah, so I, I said, Well, I'm the head, so kind of run the run the show, but I also sit on as product management. Product Management is my joy. Like I love products. But because when a company or probably gets to it, like 5% of the time, they're, unfortunately, so heavily else gets in the way Bonjoro, we do personalized video messaging. So at certain points on a customer funnel, we will notify you that it's good time to send a personalized video to a specific customer. So for instance, you might send a video to Jim who's based in Orlando. And where we get used in e-commerce is generally around things like shopping cart completions, switching customers from single purchase the subscription models, and the models get used for driving reviews, and things like trustpilot, what we find is that essentially, dropping in as many few seconds and knowledge in customer in person has a huge impact in terms of engagement. And again, those customers to go and take other actions that ultimately increase the lifetime value.

Matt 02:18
So where did this all started? Do you had any personal experience? Like? Did you ever experience something like? I mean, apart from email, do you got any video and then you get into it? And then you started this company? How did this all started?

Matt 02:33
Yes, this is actually my second company. So around agency out of Australia, where all our clients were large corporate clients in London, New York, and Paris. So we would get leads coming in when we were asleep at time zones. Not easy here. So we didn't do we didn't do a great job of covering those. And in that industry, because it was B2B, it was very much sales, personality driven. So I started sending videos to every single customer, every single lead that came into our funnel every morning when I first went to work. And we tripled our response rates on those people love them. And one of those customers asked if they could use this video email system. And so we let them and then another one asked, and then I think, wait, serve between 12 and 18 months later, that company was bigger than the than the agency that launched it. So we, you know, we got to put two teams out. And then I got to step into this one guy full time.

Shiva 03:28
Awesome. That's good. So I mean, whenever I talk to, you know, entrepreneurs or CEOs in the SaaS business, I actually wanted to hear you know, about their initial marketing activities. So can you tell us a little bit about that? I mean, like, how did you actually, you know, drive traffic and the signups for your product during the first year? Was that through the typical SEO or, I mean, like the difference, but I just wanted to get listeners to understand about the organic or the paid. So which one did you really like, or how was the initial first year for you?

Matt 04:02
So we are pretty much organic growth to date. So we don't really do paid. We do have a viral element, which is hard to obviously create, because we send that people send video messages, and we will see them and they sign up. We do quite a lot of influencer engagement. So what I mean here is that we got picked up quite early by some big names in industry guys like Pat Flynn, like ConvertKit Basecamp. I think Firefox's using us. And so we kind of like to put a lot of time into engaging those, those individuals, those companies and again, talk about us. We spend a lot of time on support, because we invest a lot in customer success. I think because you do a good job there. We get talked about quite a lot. So we have a we have a natural funnel that comes in anyway. And then we end up doing a lot of engagement with our users. You know, we end up getting on webinars with them, we end up supporting charities and causes and so we have a system for trying to engage our users and turn them into what we call advocates. That's, that then becomes our biggest source of traffic. So I think date we are 50% referral, and 20% come through videos people watch, and the other 30% tend to now now today they come through content.

Matt 05:15
So do you send videos to your customers?

Matt 05:18
We do, I still do about 10 a day. But I do a few the rest of the team take him around the world I think I worked out about done, I spent seven and a half days of my life send me videos.

Shiva 05:29
That's good. So I mean, we're talking about the sending, you know, sending personal videos rather than the emails for the first communication, right. So how, you know, effective is that are you know, what does it actually help the e commerce store owners to build brand on the long run?

Matt 05:47
Yeah, so doing case studies with with e-commerce clients, generally what what we see this drives is repeat purchase. So if you do a first purchase, dropping down, just saying thanks so much, it means a lot to us, we saved them quite the case. So is that generally it's sending the personal video increases the repeat purchase, or the lifetime value of a customer by about 15 to 40%. So I think customers are loving the fact that the company's willing to engage with them. And so in terms of driving reviews, which is a little bit harder to measure down to like an actual revenue status, but what we call our companies who've used us exclusively over about three months, and driven themselves like number one places and trust pilots, in industries like fashion, you know, which are highly competitive. So I think depending on what it is you're selling, you know, we work very well for for for slightly higher ticket items. If you sell a $2 items, it's probably not probably not going to be worth the time. If you're selling you know, 1015 $50 dollar, whatever works for you. That's what we tend to get use.

Shiva 06:51
So how does this you know applicable in B2B? I mean, let's say a b2c merchant, if they want to try it out, it's more like a creating that one on one conversation, right? Because so they know the person that they're talking to, and pretty much they're the decision makers, right? Whereas in B2B, that's completely opposite. Sometimes, you know, you may not be talking to the decision maker, and the purchasing process is completely different. So how should a B2B Merchant should or other B2B agency should actually approach this? Or how do you think you know this personalized video works in the B2B environment?

Matt 07:25
I think in B2B, it's about it's about the frontline team. So I think what you're showing here is when your team are reaching out and connecting with the purchases, they are showing that there's a willing frontline team who are human who are there to help. So obviously, support SLA is really important in that space. So if you're doing this that adheres to those best practices, and shows you're willing to go above and beyond, which obviously then generates trust and competence in the service and the products that you offer.

Matt 07:54
So how does your native Shopify integration works? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Matt 08:01
Yep, so, Shopify, and the these videos are always being sent in response to a custom action. So the sentence specific time, so what you can do is say set up, you know, when a purchase happens of a certain value, it's going to trigger or when a customer purchases for the third time, it'll trigger or whatever that needs to be. So it's a custom, that trigger fires the customer data into bondra, you get a notification either on a desktop or your phone, most of our users use our mobile app. And then what you'll do is you'll put the information of the customer, it will show you everything there. So when you record a video, you personalize it for that individual that isn't sent off, we then use templates to drive customers to a second action. But essentially, so Shopify integration allows that automation of when to be sending these and to show you the data that you can use the personalized video.

Matt 08:51
So when we're talking about this, you know, I actually want to understand a little bit about the cltv as well, I mean, customer lifetime value as well. So why do you think that's important and e commerce space?

Matt 09:02
I think a lot has changed in the last nine months, I see more and more ecommerce. So ecommerce boom, I think ever has like, was it eight, eight to 17% of e-commerce companies now offering subscription models, which is which is insane. Yeah, so. So there's a lot of like SaaS methodology, as descriptive as a methodology coming into e commerce is I think people start to think about customer lifetime value rather than one off like SKU purchase value. And what this is, is it's much easier to get $1 off existing customer than it is to go out and get a new customer. Because of acquisition there's much much cheaper. So if you can provide a great service, and you can get people to repeat purchase, that's much easier, more cost effective. And so when you think about a customer From now on, you're not thinking about a $50 sale, you're thinking about a $50 sales over an average of three years.

Matt 09:51
So $400 at a time, if you know that understand that and those averages and obviously that allows you to invest more money up front because you know, we'll come back in a certain time. So customer lifetime value is, yeah, the dollar value of each purchase, it's how many times as purchases are made, it also then goes into upgrades and expansion revenue, so I get to then purchase other products on top. And then as you get smarter about it, you can also come into into the fold into the referral side of things. So how many? How many new customers? Are those existing customers referring you, each customer refers you, you know, point one new customers, you know, as a point one extra value that goes on to that.

Shiva 10:29
So, I've been looking at your website, and so you're talking about increasing orders by 20% is because of using banjo, right? I mean, for those who are using Bonjoro plays otter is comparatively better than the regular views, right? So can you tell us a little bit about that? I mean, can you touch upon, like one or two customer stories, because you know, people wanted to hear the real time stories. So like one or two what I mean, the company, it can be like B2B or B2C, anything it can pick it up, and like how they move from, you know, not using Bonjoro or not using video to who they are right now.

Matt 11:04
Yeah, one good case, I think is around the subscription area, it's pretty quite easy to get your head around. So it's it's copies, sub subscriptions of a subscription is going to be one of them industries now. So we have one company that was looking to move heavily into that around about when COVID started, they saw the opportunity there, I think they were doing about 35,000 US dollars, MRR in subscriptions. And then most of their revenue is one off purchases, what they did was anyone who purchased for a, for a second, like or more time, or anyone who purchased more buy at once, they would then send the video to those individuals. And they would, they would, they would thank them for the purchase. And they would also have but then they would say, you know, we see you you've already purchased from us twice before the switch, this subscription is actually 20% cheaper, you know, and you get a special offers, etc. And if you want to take advantage of that click here. And so they used it for I think it's maybe eight to 10 weeks. And they in that period, given the fact of running for a few years before they took their MMR from $35,000 a month to $75,000 a month. So they more than doubled their subscription revenue. And the reason was checking in getting people again switch to subscription with a person's message. And they've done emails before and never had that type of growth before. So that's we're specifically picking out people who they knew are more likely to kind of convert over who are higher ticket purchases, and then giving them a great offer at a great time and then getting them before they went to go and complete the checkout.

Matt 12:44
So it's pretty much like they can use this process across all the channels within the company, right? So it doesn't matter, you're incorporating this in the sales or pre sales process, you can start from there to undertake customer acquisition or, you know, even the customer success the literally the customer support team as well. Is that correct?

Matt 13:03
Yeah, I wouldn't say so. It's not so much outbound. I think outbound cold sales, it's, it can work it's not worth because obviously, there's a time cost for this. If each video takes you minutes time and your open rates on, like, with video, they will be better, but they're always gonna be gonna be small. I think there's more time effective ways to do that. I think Jeremy, where we get used is a second touch point onwards. So you've already got inbound. So inbound into e commerce platform, and then obviously, and then more more use we're seeing tends to be around lately stage in the funnel. So kind of repurchase and retention.

Matt 13:39
Mm hmm. Good. So how to drive customer retention. So I actually want to touch on a little bit about that as well.

Matt 13:49
So like, this is not a bad video, I think this is a bad engagement. More, I think, I think where companies fail is they is they kind of they're always chasing sales. With retention, what you need to do is to keep people engaged in the company and what you're doing beyond that first purchase. And this is not about just doing a, you know, monthly marketing message with some deals on it. And even go above and beyond if you can find a reason to talk to that customer. So support. Your frontline is awesome at this, obviously, where videos come is that when things delivered people send me a video and check in and say, I just want to make sure you got it, you received it. It's all really good. So once you do something like that, then once you've talked to a customer often delivery, then they're more engaged and then you have an opportunity to take that they use and put them into a process that you attempt to drive up to become an advocate. So if you have communities, add them in if you have pre sales and special orders, add them into a private group make me feel special, have suddenly managed who manages that back that back community and conversation. Again, I don't think it's about marketing, email lists, although that you we all do those I think having private communities having, you know, more engaged places to speak and to gain to get involved, and then try and talk to those users, and hear from them. That's the way that you start to build these advocates that will stay for, you know, the next five years.

Shiva 15:17
So a couple of years ago, and it was just about the case studies and the testimonials, but things have completely changed now, you know, so there are a handful of trusted review platforms in B2B. And I think the consumers are looking to see, you know, the review from these restaurants. So, so he's providers, rather than looking at those, you know, testimonials in the website. So how do you think companies can get more reviews?

Matt 15:44
Yeah, so it's about timing. So I think what you want to do here is wait until a customer is a kind of high point of perception of the company. And that's when you asked for it. So often this is this is as they received the item for the first time. So whatever you're doing, whether using video, whether you do automated stuff, wait float, so you know, the items been delivered, wait 24 hours, and then check in and don't just blatantly review, you know, check in to make sure that okay, and that they're happy with the product. And then obviously, there's a challenges, Your support is there proactively looking to help them.

Matt 16:16
Then you ask them for review, and the fact that you've reached out anyways, check there, okay, if you're then asking for review, you're going to just by its very nature, doing more positive reviews, because you've done that low reciprocation, because it's fresh in the user's mind, you're gonna get more reviews at that point, I think in terms of strategy, go for one go for one platform at a time, potentially just considered one of them. So if, if you're on fashion, I know in Europe, trustpilot is a place to be. So look to get into number one in a single category, nail that once you're there, you didn't keep that that retained. So you'd keep things going. But then if you want to go for another view site, then go and just now that in one go as well, I think spreading around a bit you do face the risk of doing a mediocre job on multiple platforms. So if you can work out which one works for you, I'd say just now one to start with.

Shiva 17:07
So can you tell us a little bit about, you know, the personalization in e-commerce and how to drive the repeat purchases?

Matt 17:17
Yeah, so obviously, the video part is coming in. So if you have models, if you have like, consider consider sub subscription models, if you haven't already. It's working across the board in all widcombe Industries. I think beyond video, there's also like, you've also got a lot of stuff for personalization in ad targeting and retargeting that you're doing. And a lot of e-commerce companies do a very bad job of this. So looking at other systems look at doing a better job of this, I think, you know, if you have things like regular purchase items or consumables there, make sure that you're you know, your target target consumer, wait six weeks. And so you know, that my consumers against the end life cycle of that consumable, and then target them again, don't just start hitting them straightaway, some of us revenue. So the timing, timing around when to retarget users. Obviously, once you get a second purchase in them push for a subscription or for a discount or join the clubs, they can kind of buy again, again, invest your time in those users, but just be a bit smarter around when you're kind of retargeting him in the lab.

Shiva 18:20
Awesome. So can you tell us a little bit about the companies that are using video marketing? I mean, so one thing that's been changing throughout this six, nine months, as everyone is trying to go audio, everyone is trying to go with you? And so that's that's completely like, I mean, relevant to whatever the e-commerce business is doing. You really wanted to get in closer with audiences, right? So I don't know how many you know, B2B companies are actually utilizing the video marketing. So what's your take over there?

Matt 18:50
I'd say the guys who are driving is B2B. So with us, so we we don't just do e commerce like we also have a lot of customers education, a lot of customers in services and SaaS and SaaS that that methodology has trickles down. B2B by far is a is our largest user base. I think B2B is naturally a relationship based way of doing work. B2C is less so and B2C lobbies, B2C stuff, people shopping around in a movie gone, whereas B2B, you're generally getting customers who are going to stay with you for a few years if you do the job, right. So I think that religions are important. We can last them online a little bit. So you can be a company that car drives ahead, stands out and makes them where competitors aren't. That's where you're going to succeed. But honestly, if you're B2B like this should be a tool used by B2C secondary. Absolutely.

Shiva 19:45
So a couple of quick questions before we wrap this up. So Who's your favourite CMO right now?

Matt 19:52
Favorite CMO, CMO or CEO,

Shiva 19:55
CMO?

Matt 19:56
Because you're here My one. I like sales, chemical design Pickle, who do subscription design graphic design. I forget the guy's name, but the way they do video ads and the way they do brand is amazing. And it's kind of I guess it's kind of a play by the fact that they are unfunded. Probably one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the world was their funding, and only about four years old, but have a look at how they do marketing. It's insane. Okay, okay.

Matt 20:31
And which companies video marketing activities do you really like?

Matt 20:37
With those guys? Yeah, I'm like, silly and not based on job like most of us is that YouTube video ads. And it's all shot on like, on my phones all baby, like my time relevant. So just for Halloween to do stuff. It's super cool. It's, it's funny, it's tongue in cheek, and yet they sell to professional companies and their B2B. And that brand the way they do it seems to work really well. So honestly, I just think have a look at how they do it. And that's it, it's very different the way they position their brand. And you wouldn't think you wouldn't think you'll be successful it is but they're absolutely crushing it.

Shiva 21:13
So what's your take on doing TikTok and B2B? I'm not sure if the I mean, the companies are allowed to do that, or Well,

Matt 21:20
They just just launched the Shopify integration.

Shiva 21:23
Yeah, they

Matt 21:24
Mostly the ad side of things. I mean, it's a platform is growing, I think, I think you have to test this stuff. Yeah. So I think I think he needs to test everything, and potential. And obviously the opportunity, there's if it was to work for you, depending what you're selling. And there's less people advertising or work or be on it and start with that you're gonna get a much better CAC before everyone jumps on board. So I think when things come out, come out. Honestly, like you have to try because, because because when you find one of these that works, and you are early on to it, you know, like German stories about everyone who made like killing on Facebook back in the day when the ads cost nothing. But like, you want to try and find when there's opportunities to test it. Like, like, I don't know, we we've done things have surprised me. But that is gonna work. And but if you're not testing, if you're trying new stuff, you will never find out. So try me.

Shiva 22:13
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So tell us a little bit about Bonjoro. Before we leave, give us some links, so the listeners can actually go ahead and try it out. Where do you want listeners to? You know, get in touch with you LinkedIn, Twitter, give me some links.

Matt 22:29
If you're going to drink coffee, Can I try it out free to test out you'll see this thing called they're called video funnels, which basically has loads like pre built examples of how you use it with e-commerce. So it's super easy to start. And if you want to reach out to me, then go to LinkedIn and type in panda bear. That's my official title. I think there's three of us on the guy in the best suits. If you want to connect or weigh advice or any help, like open doors do reach out otherwise Bonjoro app on Twitter.

Shiva 22:59
Thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode of Driven e-commerce network podcast. This show is brought to you by DCKAP. The company well known for its e-commerce product, so it's for B2B distributors. Make sure you subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, or Spotify. Catch you guys very soon with another interesting episode. Until next time, see you.