CEO AFTER DARK

The premise is simple: I have conversations with exceptional business leaders and figure out what got them to where they are today, the good and bad moves they made, and what they learned.

Founder & Host

INCOGNITA

Founder

YOCTO

World-class email marketing for eCommerce brands.

Reforge

Reforge Retention + Engagement Series, Growth Series.

Member

Kilo Health

Helped optimize repeat sales for multiple existing products, crack new acquisition channels for the entire Kilo portfolio, and provided consultations for new product launches.  In parallel, I designed a scalable, self-serve system for onboarding and training new conversion copywriters.

Conversion Content Lead

George Kapernaros

I consulted small, mid-sized, and large companies on how to improve customer life value and user monetization.

The Atomic Garden Vilnius

Invited to teach advanced conversion copywriting in Lithuania's #1 advertising school.

Guest Lecturer

divbrands

When the company broke the 100+ employee mark (in less than 3 years), I was promoted to marketing director. During that time my responsibilities grew to include the brand strategy for every new product or store, a new CRM and email marketing department, and an ever-growing marketing team, which now also included a fully fleshed CRO arm and a market research team. 

In parallel, I was also responsible for liaising with the company's agency and other creative partners, including performance agencies and content producers, spread in 3 continents.

When I decided to leave to pursue my entrepreneurial journey, the company was at a record high financial performance and expanding aggressively.

Marketing Director

As the company started growing, I was promoted to lead copywriter and almost immediately to general marketing manager. During that time, I led the entire creative content production team, including 3 copywriters, 3 video editors, and 1 photographer. 

I also established the foundations of CRO (conversion rate optimization) in the company and developed an advertising creative framework that would become the basis of new product and store launches. 

Overall, I was involved in or directly led 200+ e-commerce product launches in European markets (often launching multiple stores per week).

Marketing Manager / Head Copywriter

Got offered a full-time position after an advertising campaign I produced as a freelancer scaled to high 6-figures in Facebook ads revenue. 

During my role, I brainstormed marketing campaign angles and produced a variety of conversion assets (sales pages, advertorials, email sequences, Facebook ads, and more) which helped generate massive growth in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Japan.

As the company's third full-time employee, I was there since the beginning and helped build the processes and systems that would later support 100+ employees and contractors.

Copywriter

Independent Consultant

I've been living and breathing direct response for many years. Here are some nice things people said about me, when I was starting:

"George is more than capable of turning even the most abstract idea into solid, highly compelling copy. Very professional, extraordinarily talented - he is definitely an asset to your team."

"I am amazed by George’s ability to turn any of our e-commerce projects into an exciting, unique and profitable story. He is highly knowledgeable in the field of marketing and sales, and besides copywriting, he is always curious, helpful and available to think together about performance, tactics, strategy, leadership or any of the creative steps of our projects in order to reach our common goals as a team."

"Amazing experience would highly recommend George anytime! He's a talented copywriter and has a great sense for persuasion and marketing."

"Thank you, George, for your professionalism and excellent writing skill. You helped rescue our project when it was needed the most. A++++ would love to work with him again!"

"George is an excellent copywriter and all-around great person. He went above and beyond the call of duty for my project to make sure it was what I was looking for. His communication was excellent and he even delivered ahead of an already tight deadline. I will certainly be working with him again soon."

"George has had a key role in the growth of our international e-commerce business. He's extremely competent, full of positive energy and a true self-starter. My team and I really enjoy working with him, because he always brings excellent knowledge about marketing and sales to the table and a great attitude! His sales copywriting helped us generate multiple six figures in sales over the past months. I highly recommend George for any leadership role involving an in-depth understanding of sales, marketing, and copywriting in your organization."

Direct-Response Copywriter & Strategist

Smarterchains

I helped refine and develop SmarterChains' communication and content marketing strategy, collaborated with the design and development team, and executed the day-to-day content production and content promotion.

I discussed marketing strategy and content tactics directly with the CEO & Co-Founders (top-ranked senior executives & P&G alumni).

Content Marketing

Owner @ YOCTO | 传奇 | CXL Instructor | Reforge Member

Some days I think I might be the luckiest person in the world. Some other days I'm utterly convinced of it. CEO @ YOCTO, a world-class CRM agency for DTC brands. Involved in many other projects in various ways. :)

Do you agree or disagree with Moiz Ali?

I'll tell you that at Postscript we truly believe we're just getting started. We are seeing brands (big, scaled, 9 figure brands) transition their approach to be SMS first as they realize the value of an engaged sms subscriber can absolutely dwarf the value of an email address.

It's early, but it's happening.

Most brands aren’t even reading their SMS responses, let alone leaning into what makes text totally special. It’s instant, it’s on your device, and it’s two way. 

Best personality traits to get hired (at least by me):

1. Cold blood under pressure
2. Loyal

The rest is all secondary. 

149% YoY email growth, 221% YoY SMS growth for one of YOCTO's brands - this is not me saying this, but our client's paid media agency partner, who kindly introduced us to another client of theirs after seeing our work. Great work, YOCTO team! 

If I wanted a cushy but well-paid life, I'd work in e-com partnerships. In fact, here's what I'd do (step-by-step playbook): 

1. Work 2 years in an agency. Learn what brands (actually) care about.
2. Move to tech company as a CSM. Outperform everyone with 1 hand tied behind my back thanks to my agency experience.
3. Pivot to partnerships role. 
4. Network like I'm running for Mayor.
5. Start a podcast/youtube channel in my spare time.
6. Invite all people I networked with as guests.
7. Get them to share it everywhere, so it grows an audience.
8. Use my growing audience to negotiate higher pay in another tech company.
9. Grow my audience.
10. Repeat 8 + 9.

The above is a guaranteed 6-figure income in a few years.  


Who manages BALENCIAGA's CRM? So much to improve. 

Great CEO AFTER DARK conversation with neuroscientist-turned-entrepreneur Erika Zeigyte, covering all things from remote team building, startups, culture building, mental health, and more! 

Ask me about the hiring bonus I'll give you when I hire someone you recommended. Please engage & share to spread the word! 

My advice to Shopify brands earning less than 30M+ and being offered repeat orders through 'machine learning' software—personalized cross-sells, replenishment, winbacks, etc.—is to turn in the opposite direction and run. You will be promised a 10-15X ROI, but this figure is based on the total revenue generated by the 'machine learning' platform compared to its cost. The real way to see if it's worth it is to compare the extra margin you make from it, after subtracting its cost, to what you'd make from creating these same journeys within your ESP natively, without the 'machine learning.' When you look at it that way, the technology will likely result in a loss, and on top of that, you have way less control over your customer journey.

Yesterday, I had a heated discussion with the VP of Marketing at an Ecom Holding company in New York, regarding Klaviyo SMS. They criticized Klaviyo's SMS billing structure - which I agreed with - and argued that Klaviyo's platform is inferior to alternatives, a point on which I disagreed with, I think Klaviyo SMS is great. However, as we started talking about it more, I realized their frustration was largely due to the platform's team failing to directly address their challenges and requests, on time.

When I first transformed my consultancy into YOCTO, I was concerned about losing the personal connection I had with clients. Having been on the client side myself, I understood the negative impact of a partner that doesn't truly engage with your business, but simply follows a 'productized' playbook or rigid process.

Yet everybody kept telling me 'productization of service' is the way to go. So I reached out to our clients to understand why they preferred us over other options. 

"It's like you are an extension of our team." "We know you guys understand our business." "We like your more in-depth, strategic approach." 

One client even pointed out that the 'size' of a partner is irrelevant to the depth of the relationship, which should always be in-depth, citing TikTok as an example, who flew their team to the client's offices to cement their partnership. It was a non-negotiable for them. 

Back then, I decided productization wasn't the way to go for us, philosophically and structurally speaking. Obviously, I was naive. Both philosophies have their own merit, and there's tons of successful companies on both sides, product-led & low-touch vs. conscierge-style & high touch. 

I now believe you should have multiple service models, depending on the type of client engagement. 

1. Low Complexity/Low Value: Follow the playbook.

2. High Complexity/Low Value: Do not engage.

3. Low Complexity/High Value: Follow playbook, retain resources to engage deeper, as necessary.

4. High Complexity/High Value: Concierge/personalized approach.

The nuance here, I think, is that teams trained to operate in one way, can't switch to operating in another way. 'Follow the playbook' teams aren't suited to provide concierge services, and vice versa. This discrepancy likely contributed to the VP of Marketing's frustration when they received a service that was too rigid for their needs.

Ultimately, I think a separate organizational structure is required, allowing each team to have its own DNA, to specialize and ultimately excel within its designated service model, specifically designed to cater to a different type of engagement. 

YOCTO will do this over time. 

I'll be at the Los Angeles eCommerce Summit hosted by Retail Summits on May 16th. Specifically, at 4 PM, Ivan Borovikov, CEO of Maestra and I will present “Personalization beyond just texts and emails: Real life experience of Miracare and United Colors of Benetton.” As always, I’ll provide a step-by-step framework (nothing held back). And the best part, Ivan's section is even better than mine! 😉

➡️ Complimentary admission for retailers with this link: https://lnkd.in/dRM2sskz

Frustrated with mediocre eComm results?
There is hope 🕊 

Join Valentin Radu and George Kapernaros today, as they delve into Chapter 11 of ✊ The CLV Revolution.

💡Learn why CLV is misunderstood, how a holistic approach can transform your strategy, and how great onboarding prevents churn!

👇 Check the comments for the logistics.


Should YOCTO launch this webinar in Q2? Will be fair and balanced to both Klaviyo & Sendlane (and always will be) 

Sample size: Approx. 20K new customers. Let's see who knows what's up. 

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