BrainPower Inc.

A rapidly growing, full service digital marketing agency that specializes in multi-channel brand expansion from Amazon onto Shopify. We help Amazon and Retail brand owners leverage the power of paid media, email, direct response copywriting, conversion rate optimization, and digital infrastructure to implement an effective omni-channel marketing strategy.

CEO | Co-Founder

Almond Pro Foods 

Almond Pro Foods invented the almond protein industry in 2014 and is a leading retailer of both almond protein powder and specialty almond products in the United States.

Founder

CEO at BrainPower | Building And Growing DTC Ecosystems For Online Consumer Brands | From Hotel Lobby And A Laptop To $100M Under Management In 3 Years

I believe one of the biggest problems in digital marketing is that there is too much emphasis on the "digital" and not enough emphasis on the "marketing".... 

My journey into E-commerce and digital marketing began 6 years ago when I invented the almond protein industry under my company, Almond Pro Foods. The company grew extremely fast (mostly through organic traffic) and I soon realized I had no way to sustain that growth without proper infrastructure. Rather than hire an outside marketing company I found a consultant/mentor who taught me everything he knew about E-commerce (still does). I have been blessed to learn from some of the best minds in marketing and was taught early on about the importance of copywriting. I have used this skillset to successfully scale multiple businesses in my portfolio, across different verticals, ranging from CPG's to nationwide fire protection services. 

I am also the co-founder and managing partner of BrainPower inc. A rapidly growing, full service digital marketing agency that specializes in multi-channel brand expansion from Amazon onto Shopify. We help Amazon brand owners leverage the power of paid media, email, direct response copywriting, conversion rate optimization, and digital infrastructure to create an effective omni-channel marketing strategy. 

I would love to use Linkedin to provide value to other members of the marketing community and help business owners solve their most complex problems in relation to customer acquisition and retention.

If you would like to connect please don't hesitate to reach out!

Thank you!

We lied to 30 of our closest friends and family this weekend….

What everyone thought was an engagement party was really a surprise wedding! 

Officially a married man 🤵‍♂️👰🏻‍♀️

Caulen Foster

Switched it up when speaking at Retail Summits in Denver last week and brought my 13 year old son Maverick along as director of content for the day 📸 

He took the job seriously and was a trooper for the 16+ hours we were out and about—I’m super proud of him. To everyone who caught up and spoke with Maverick, he really enjoyed it! 

I’ll be bringing my 15 year old daughter Savannah along when I speak at their New York event in June 😁. Can’t wait to see what she brings to the table because she’s sharp as a 📌. 

#dadfirst

💡 How to expand your brand from Amazon to Shopify:

1️⃣ Make sure your brand qualifies for it. Not all brands should expand their presence outside of Amazon, and the main reason is the product. Not all products are suitable for a DTC channel expansion.

2️⃣ If your brand qualifies (9 out of 10 don’t), you have to define what success looks like. Is it new customers, is it contribution margin, is a specific ROAS target? If you can’t say, “I want X in Y time frame,” then you probably should wait until you have a good idea of what you want.

3️⃣ Create an ecosystem on Shopify/DTC. Expansion is not just a function of more ads, and that’s it. You need sales pages, emails, content, yes, ads on Meta, but also on Google at a minimum, upsells, downsells, financial models, persuasive copy, etc. You need all the components a business needs to thrive.

📌 The same way an ecosystem can’t depend on only sunlight for growth, your brand can’t depend on only ads.

📌 Expanding is neither easy nor cheap (it’s not supposed to be), but our clients have successfully done it, reducing their dependency on Amazon, making their brand more valuable, and feeling the thrill of venturing out to new unexplored lands.

So, if you think you have what it takes to expand, send me a DM; I’d love to help you. 

💯 Times are hard.

There’s a palpable feeling in how the economy operates and the purchasing behavior we’re seeing across Amazon and DTC ecosystems.

✅ The good news is that we’re all in it. If you’re feeling it, there’s a high chance your competitors and partners are feeling it too.

✅ The even better news is that like everything, it shall too pass.In the words of Winston Churchill: “if you’re going through hell, keep going”.

✅ We’re in the middle of an interesting market cycle, and if we can weather the storm, the surviving brands will thrive.

✅ Financial controls and financial targets have never been more important, if you need help, please reach out.

Our financial analysts can give you a clear plan on how to make financial decisions during these times to maximize your marketing impacts. 

It all starts with a forecast. 📊 

My DMs are open 📩 

Here’s how Amazon brands expanding to Shopify bleed money. 🎯 

If you weren’t doing this last year, you must do it this year.

Long gone are the days of acquiring unprofitable customers under the premisses of LTV. 

“I’m willing to lose X acquiring customers because know it they’ll come back.”

But will they, tho? 🤔

Hoping customers come back and that the math works in the long run doesn’t work for most businesses for multiple reasons.

📌 The 6th one goes straight for blood:

1. Retention is not in the product DNA of most businesses so LTV is not even a viable metric in the first place. This usually applies to large ticket items or most hard goods.

2. Most businesses don’t actually know their LTV

3. If they think they know their LTV, it’s usually on a time period longer than 12 months. When we ask this question, we usually get “In the last 3 years, our LTV is X”. Well… having to wait 3 years as a payback period is a surefire way to go out of business. 🤚

4. They haven’t been in business long enough to truly know their LTV

5. They’re not calculating ad target CPAs and margins properly. Gargabe in, garbage out.

6. Some businesses can’t accept that their product is inferior; therefore, people don’t want to purchase it again. Trust me, it’s not the marketing. 🚫

The first step is to change is awareness. 👈

The second is getting in touch with me so we can help you calculate your LTV and ensure that 2024 is a truly profitable year for your DTC channel. 📩 

The Art of Setting Smart Goals in Marketing Tests 🧐

Testing in marketing is like setting out on a treasure hunt – you need the right map and a realistic idea of what you're looking for.

Without clear goals and success metrics, you might end up chasing mirages.

❓So, before launching that next campaign, ask yourself: what does success really look like?

❓Is it beating your best ad, or is it learning something new that can shape your future strategies?

Set goals that make sense, and let them guide you to real, meaningful victories. 🏆

Some of the most resilient people are agency owners. 👔 

🧠  You have to have a strong mindset and be willing to take Ls right and left to succeed.

Some clients are reasonable, and some are not, but you always have to approach everything with a smile on your face. 

After all, it’s business. 🎯  

Not everything is sunshine and rainbows, and when it is, it is short-lived as the next milestone is set, and we gotta continue the climb. 🧗

Part 2️⃣ of 6

How can a successful brand that started on Amazon be expanded to a DTC channel on Shopify?

Yesterday, we talked about the 5 phases our clients go through. Today, I’m going to elaborate on them.

This could save you a ton of money and headaches - or make you boatloads more.

📌 Phase 1: Goals and expectations broken down by specific time frames.
This one was a tough one to learn but it set the stage to how we do business at BrainPower.

If an Amazon brand can’t answer in simple terms what they want and by when they want it, it’s probably not a good idea to expand yet.

In other words, you have to know what success looks like. If you can’t measure it, you won’t know if you’ve driven past it without knowing it, and you’ll always be chasing something that may or may never come.

Rarely ever will an Amazon brand achieve profitability on their expansion within the first 3 to 6 months so you have to know what is it that you’re looking for with this expansion.

✔ Is it a new customer acquisition? 
✔ Is it a contribution margin? (profit)
✔ Is it just top-line revenue?

Whatever it is, you have to know what you want so that we can tell you if/how that’s possible, which brings me to my next point:
“By when?”

📌 If you want 10,000 new customers, is it in the next 30 days or 3 months? That would change the outlook of your financial projections.

📌 If you want contribution margin, how much, in dollars, not percentages. Is it $10k per month by the 3rd month or is it $100k by the 4th month? All this changes the plan drastically and it may or may not be realistic.

The great news is that I can help you figure all of this out for FREE.

Yes, free.
The Amazon community has welcomed me with open arms and in the last 3 years we’ve been able to help a lot of brands.

🤝 So, in return, I’m happy to jump on a strategy call to help you navigate all of this and make sure you’re making the right financial decision for yourself and for your company.

Just send me a DM, and we’ll book a call. ☎ 

If your performance fluctuates day by day, please remember: ☝ 

➡ In front of every ad that gets served, there’s a real person, like you and me.

➡ They have their own worries, challenges, successes, etc.

➡ They’re also feeling the weight of the economy and the crazy times we’re living in.

This is “normal”.

Apple doesn’t get the same exact amount of traffic and the same exact amount of sales every day. They don’t expect it, and neither should you.

Give yourself some grace; you’re doing the best you can. 

You got this. 🚀 

Wanna know our secret to growing BrainPower so fast? 🚀 

It all comes down to our rejection rate.

📌 We built our agency by turning away clients.

📌 Expanding brands from Amazon to Shopify is not an easy task, and most brands shouldn’t do it.

But the ones that do tend to find asymmetric success on their DTC channel.

📌 This has allowed us to really hone our craft and make sure that when we decide to engage with a brand, they experience the highest chance of success possible.

Part 1️⃣ of 6

💯  Here’s how to take a successful brand that started on Amazon and expand it to a DTC channel on Shopify (Or Magento or Woocommerce).

Most Amazon brands understand the big picture of what should happen - open up an account, create some products, run ads, and hopefully profit.

But there are a lot of details in between that can derail this process completely, so in this 6-part series, I’m going to outline our process of expanding brands to DTC channels.

We have 5 phases we go through to successfully pull this off.

🎯 The beauty of these phases is that they help our clients understand what they’re getting themselves into, be able to project their costs, and if at any time they realize their product is not fit for DTC or their cash projections are different than they expected (phase 1 and 2), they can stop immediately and go back to focus on Amazon.

Here are the 5 phases:

1️⃣ Goals and expectations are broken down by specific time frames

2️⃣ Research, research, research on how to position the product/brand in case there’s too much competition

3️⃣ Ecosystem planning. What should be built first, and how to minimize cost and maximize efficiency

4️⃣ Content, paid traffic ecosystems, and distribution channels

5️⃣ Financial adjustments and profit maximizer ecosystems

✏  Come back tomorrow for part 2, where we talk about probably the most important aspect of this whole process: Expectations. 

Part 4️⃣ of 6

🛒 How to test your Amazon products on Shopify without breaking the bank.

Yesterday, I talked about market research. Today, I’m going to tell you about ecosystems.

If you want to grow your direct-to-consumer side in this environment, your focus can’t only be ads. 📌

You have to make the traffic you bring to your DTC website profitable.

This is where ecosystems come into play.

An ecosystem, by definition, is the interaction between organisms and the surrounding environment. Ideally, it should be done in a way that’s beneficial for everyone and also self-sustaining.

📌 After 8 years in the DTC world and 3 helping Amazon and retail brands, we’ve discovered 5 ecosystems that, if properly optimized, can turn an Amazon brand into a cash-printing machine on DTC.

Here they are:

1️⃣ Your acquisition ecosystem
2️⃣ Your retention ecosystem
3️⃣ Your paid traffic ecosystem
4️⃣ Your profit maximizer ecosystem
5️⃣ Your financial ecosystem

Where most Amazon or retail companies go wrong in their expansion is that they over-optimize ONLY their ads… pumping new creative day after day, testing endless angles, but relying only on traffic to increase profitability.

It’s like a rainforest relying only on sunlight to grow its trees.

Sure, sunlight is important, but it's not the only thing needed for the ecosystem to flourish.

This is why the marketing for your DTC expansion can’t rely on just ads.

It needs to function in different systems that work together, making efficient use of all the traffic you generate.

What about your page? That has to convert. And what about your emails? They have to convert. And what about your pop-ups? And your upsells? All these things have to convert…in addition to your understanding of how all of these metrics are impacted by your margins.

✔️ Everything works in sync, just like a natural ecosystem.

But this is a LOT to build out and spend money on.

✔️ Our cost-efficient and highly effective solution? Start with your acquisition ecosystem first. Meaning the ecosystem in charge of new customer acquisition.

✔️ Pick your best selling product on Amazon, create a single landing page for it with an irresistible offer. Add a pop-up and a series of 3 Welcome emails. And if you want to go the extra mile, create an upsell of the same product or your second best Amazon product.

✔️ This all should take less than 15 days to create and it’s extremely effective at proving product-market fit and help you determine if you should continue investing in your DTC expansion.

🤝 We can do this for your Amazon or retail brand and save you the headache of planning, design, and implementation.

Just let me know if you need help.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about content, paid traffic ecosystems, and distribution channels. 💼

See ya! 

📌  I’ve said this before, and I still say it because we’re doing it: 

One of the best ways we’ve found to grow a brand or a business is through acquisitions. 👈 

Right now, there are a ton of businesses and assets for sale on Acquire or BizBuySell.

You don’t have to buy the whole thing either; you can buy the following:
✔ Tech
✔ Social media accounts
✔ Newsletters
✔ Blogs
✔ Shopify apps
✔ Dormant Facebook groups
✔ Or the whole cash-flowing business

And if you’re lucky enough, those assets may come with the team that bought them in an acqui-hire situation but that’s a post for another day.

For example, if you’re an Amazon or DTC brand, or both - even acquiring an agency can help you lower expenses, increase cash flow, and diversify sources of income.

📌  It takes a lot of research and reaching out to do the right deal, but it pays off handsomely in the end.

Part 3️⃣ of 6 - Giveaway time! 🎁

How to take your Amazon brand and expand it to a DTC channel on Shopify

Last week, we talked about goals and expectations.

Today’s topic is:

Research, research, research! 🕵️‍♂️

Once you know what you want out of the expansion (contribution margin, top line revenue, new customers, etc) and by when you’d like to accomplish that, the next step is creating a strategy for market penetration.

By nature, most Amazon brands will experience fierce competition outside of the marketplace (as if they weren’t experiencing fierce competition already 🙃).
This is where research comes into place.

Well-done research (a MINIMUM of 10 hours) can help you:

✅ Understand your competition outside of Amazon
✅ How to position your products and for whom (i.e., protein for muscle growth vs protein to keep a healthy weight after 65+)
✅ Set pricing targets
✅ Come up with a marketing plan
✅ Make sure that your goals and expectations meet reality

This is where you can apply theories and strategies like the Blue Ocean Strategy to your advantage.

Places where you must do research:

✔️ Join Facebook groups related to the problem your product solves
✔️ Reddit threads
✔️ Blogs
✔️ Online magazines
✔️ YouTube videos - comments are great sources of copy inspo
✔️ Amazon, of course, mainly the reviews of your competitors

🎯 We have a handy-dandy spreadsheet that we call the Hook-n-Sell Matrix that can help you organize all of this research information and transform it into:

✔️ Headlines
✔️ Copy for landing pages
✔️ Ad angles
✔️ Email content

…and a plethora of other useful marketing, sales-driving content that you’re going to need anyway.

If you want a copy, just drop a comment below, and I’ll send it over. 💬

See ya tomorrow for part 4 - ecosystems and infrastructure, aka, should we build a whole website or a landing page? 🤔

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