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Restream.io on 2023-12-14 at 15.13.53: Hello and welcome to the

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e-Commerce Podcast with me, your host, Matt Edmondson.

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Now, this is a show all about helping you deliver e-commerce.

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Wow.

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Yes, it is.

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And to help us do just that today we are chatting with Ilene

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Richardson from Imaginary Content.

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And we're going to get into all kinds of things about content and eCommerce

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and what it means and all that sort of good stuff so don't go anywhere because

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you're definitely going to learn some great stuff from Ilene today, who?

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It's fair to say that we met at Subsummit, another amazing guest

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from the Subsummit conference.

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We would no doubt we'll be talking about that.

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So yes, get ready, get your pens ready, get your notepads out, because you're

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going to want to take some notes today.

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And before we get into it, let me just say, if this is the first time with

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us, welcome to the eCommerce Podcast.

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Always great to welcome new listeners to the show.

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Always great to have you with us.

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And if you are watching The live stream of this recording.

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A warm welcome to you.

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We do live stream the recording out to our cohort members.

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So if you want to know more about eCommerce Cohorts, where you can get

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to watch the recording of the podcast, get to come and ask questions all

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yourself, then check out eCommerceCohort.

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com.

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It's our monthly mastermind, our monthly membership group.

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Love to see you in there.

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We're in there every day.

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We're in there all the time.

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So come join us, eCommerceCohort.

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com.

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Now, let's talk about Ilene.

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I'm going to read from my notes to make sure I get this right.

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But Ilene is the Dynamo's CEO and founder of Imaginary Content, where she is

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shaking up the agency world by cutting the fluff, love this by cutting the

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fluff and delivering top notch content.

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Without the hefty price tag.

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With a trophy case that includes a Clio award and credits spanning TV to digital.

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Ilene is the Swiss army knife of content creation, which I think is

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the best job title in the world.

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But don't let the accolades fool you.

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She is a caring boss lady who fosters a creative playground for her team to

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produce their best work every single time.

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Ilene, welcome to the show.

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Great to have you.

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Great to see you again.

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How are we doing today?

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Hi, thank you for having me.

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I'm so excited to be here and that might go down as like

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the best intro for me ever.

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So I'm going to take some notes.

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I like the Swiss Army knife of content creation.

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Yeah, I like that too, that's great.

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It's definitely got a sort of zing to it, that's for sure.

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But whereabouts in the world are you, Ilene?

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So we're just outside of New York City, in Connecticut.

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But we do have team members spread all across the country, even across the globe.

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But our headquarters and content studio is based in lovely Norwalk, Connecticut.

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Ah, a beautiful part of the world Connecticut.

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I was there a few years ago, some friends of mine live in Connecticut.

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And just stunning.

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Loved it.

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Loved.

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I can see why they live there and why you would want to live there.

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It's just beautiful.

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Here you are beaming across the Atlantic.

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And we we were talking about this before we hit the record button that

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we met at Sub Summit, didn't we, in 2023 you were speaking at the event.

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Do you speak at many events?

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I did a bit last year.

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It's great to go out, and talk about what we're doing and listen

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to other people in this space.

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So it's really, it's been really fun.

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I enjoy that.

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I probably do some more next year.

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Yeah, get out and see the world a little bit.

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And yeah.

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And enjoy it.

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It's nice, actually, post COVID that we're back doing these sort

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of big live events, isn't it?

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Yeah.

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It's great, it really is.

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It was a little bit of like re entry, right?

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When it first started again, you're like, oh my gosh, we're around all these

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people, and if somebody sneezes, everybody would turn around and be like, oh, no.

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But it's great to have some more normalcy because the in person

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connections are so valuable.

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It was great to meet you I just happened to at your table

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and see what you're up to.

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It was great.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it's funny, isn't it?

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it's going back in these sort of chance connections that you make and We've

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had a few of the what's the best phrase to describe people from subsummit?

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Subsummiters.

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I don't know the subsummit cohort the subsummit clan maybe Yeah, the Sub Summit

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Clan, the SSC, maybe we should call it the SSC, I'm going to call Chris and

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tell him we're going to call it the SSC.

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But yeah, we've had quite a few people from SubSummit now on the show.

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So it's great to have you on and recently we had Neil Hoynes on the

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show who was one of the keynote speakers from SubSummit as well.

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So yeah, we're getting our money's worth.

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If you weren't at SubSummit 2023, basically all the really good

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speakers have been on this podcast.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Just tune in.

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You don't need to go next year.

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Oh funny.

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Yeah.

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Did you hear that someone's banging on my window?

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Sorry about that.

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Yeah, no problem.

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They're clinging something outside.

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Just let them in.

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Hello?

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Yeah.

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So tell me a bit about what you guys are doing in Connecticut at Imaginary Content.

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What's that?

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What's the MO?

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Not much.

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No.

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We're so thrilled.

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We're so excited to be going into the new year with, our clients

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and the work we've been doing.

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We developed eCommerce content creation, strategy, execution,

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and it's been a space we've been playing in for over five years now.

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Wow.

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Last year.

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We were, we moved into our new headquarters.

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We built out a content studio.

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So not only were we doing the, copywriting and graphic design elements

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of the content, but we're all actually shooting and photographing in house.

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So it's been great.

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It's exciting.

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It's exciting.

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I really feel like we're on the forefront of where, Kind of advertising

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creativity needs to be right now because that's exactly where the consumer

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is making their purchase decision.

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So what's more critical than that, right?

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Like communicating to the consumer exactly at their point of decision

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making in their path to purchase.

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So we get really fired up and excited.

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In the old days, it used to be all about everybody wanted to have those,

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big flashy commercials on broadcast TV.

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And now we're all like, no, this is where it's at.

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This is where we're really getting.

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Consumers to pay attention.

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Yeah it's, yeah, it's interesting.

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I was talking to my son about this the other day, because he mentioned to me

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that he'd understood for the first time, the expense of TV advertising, and this,

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the sheer crazy costs involved with it.

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Yeah.

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And he's I don't understand how companies can do this.

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And I'm like it's definitely not something that I'm that interested in myself as

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a, as an eCom entrepreneur, because.

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I'm just not, I'm just not big enough to convey that amount of money,

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but I'm intrigued a little bit, Ilene, if I can about the studio.

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So I'm sat in a studio that we built down at our warehouse where

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we do all of the fulfillment from for ourselves, for our clients.

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So I'm in a studio, in a podcast studio, because we have a podcast agency as well.

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I am big into the whole podcasting thing.

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I love doing the whole podcasting thing.

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But you guys have taken it one step further, haven't you?

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What's going on with your studio?

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We discovered as we were creating the content that not, in order

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to have your content register on the digital shelf it needs to be

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live when your product goes live.

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So if you're dealing with.

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A new product, a lot of those other materials, whether you're doing social

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marketing or you're doing, any traditional marketing methods, those materials don't

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get done until right up until potentially the product launch and the live date.

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But in order to be listed on Amazon, Walmart, you name it, on the first day

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of sale, you need to have your base level of content to qualify for the listing.

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So we were in a situation where there was a lot of work we were

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doing and we didn't have any assets.

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There weren't any, brand assets yet to work with.

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And we started shooting our own and we started going to external studios to

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rent to space or outsource in some way.

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And really realize that, especially with my background in, in television

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and video production, it just made sense to do it all in house, so we're not.

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We're a creative, cohesive unit here that we can come up with the

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idea and we can go execute it.

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So a lot of what we've been doing in the six months we've built out this

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studio is a lot of recipe videos, hands and pans videos, lifestyle

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videos, and we shoot them at scale.

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We, it's to your point about how TV commercials are so expensive in the

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old days you would have had like a gigantic crew and three days of pre

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pro and this and that to just shoot a recipe video, but we've really started

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pushing the boundaries of how you do great content at scale that works in

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the digital space specifically, right?

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So that it's not a super busy frame so that people who are watching

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it on mobile, which is where 70 percent of the consumers are.

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Can get what they're looking for out of your content.

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So we have our studio space here.

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We have a full kitchen and we have a prop library.

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We built that all out and we're expanding beyond just food and actually

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starting Monday, we're shooting lifestyle products in here as well.

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And just being really nimble and agile in the full creative process to make sure

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our clients are getting great content.

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That's going to help drive conversion for their products.

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Yeah, it's fascinating.

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I'm intrigued by it because I know for me, when it came to creating video

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content it, life became a lot easier when I had a place where I could just go

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and switch something on and just do it.

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It was just, it was a beautiful thing, but it's probably fair to say, cause I

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appreciate that not everybody listening to this podcast will, will have the

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ability to go and create a studio.

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Yeah.

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But you, there are, you can rent studios out.

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I know when we do recipe videos, actually, I don't have a kitchen in our studio,

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but we there's a friend of mine who has a beautiful kitchen and we pay her a rental

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fee every day that we're down in there.

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So there are, and maybe to speak to this, there are some creative ways to

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get around not having a studio, right?

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Yeah, for sure.

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At the bottom line, if you're talking about sort of Smaller

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brands, new brands, some content is better than no content, right?

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The content needs to be good, but you have to make sure you are

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creating content for your site.

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So you don't necessarily need a studio to do it.

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You just need to have a plan for what's going to work best to showcase

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the benefits of your product for us, because we're doing it at scale and

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we're doing You know, thousands and thousands of PDP pages every single year.

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It just made sense for us to bring it in house as a core capability, a lot

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of brands or a lot of brands that have smaller SKU counts, smaller SKU lists and

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are just, working a little more nimbly.

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You don't need to invest in the whole studio.

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Our studio was quite large, but we know agencies that have a studio that

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are the size of just the small office.

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In studio, you put a camera and light, it doesn't have to be a 10,000

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square foot space with tons of gear.

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It just has to be equipped for what you need.

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But there are plenty of resources to do that out of house, whether it's renting

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spaces or subcontracting out that content, the important thing is that

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you're thinking about your content as part of your go to market strategy, as

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part of your, omni channel sales plan.

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So the, you mentioned that, some content is better than no content.

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But the content should be good.

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So how, if we're going to start thinking about this say from a

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startup's point of view, what sort of things should I be thinking

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about that is going to make it good?

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How do I know if it's good or bad?

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Because I think we're the biggest deceiver of ourselves sometimes when it comes to

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this kind of thing, that's a great phrase.

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Yeah, we do.

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And I'm just curious, what do you mean by good and what sort of

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things should we be thinking about?

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Yeah, so I think that there's a scale.

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We call it the content maturity model.

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And if you're a smaller brand or a new brand, the important things are you're

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giving the consumer the information they need to have confidence in the purchase.

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So if it's a new product, your content needs to communicate.

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What your product is, what it does or how it tastes, or the flavor

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profile or the usage occasion.

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You need to be in a quick, short, ideally, visual style.

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You need to be able to communicate that to the consumer and consumers are looking to

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understand the product benefits clearly.

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What your point of differentiation is.

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So let's just say it's a different flavor or let's just say it's a different scent.

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Those are the things that need to be simply and clearly communicated

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in whatever content you produce.

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And that could be a graphic tile, in your PDP page.

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It could be a small video 15 seconds, 20 seconds.

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That clearly illustrates these points.

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And in terms of execution, yeah, we've gone a long way from even a few

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years ago where you would see like a cell phone picture of a like wrinkly

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package on a shelf somewhere that was.

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That was basically standing up a product.

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It does have to, it does have to have kind of the value that your company has.

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So if your company is that I'm thinking of earthy crunchy brands, right?

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Granola bars or things that you would eat on a hike, those brands, you

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might want to shoot something outdoors because that's in the vibe of what

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your consumer's usage occasion will be.

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And that maybe could be a little more user generated or.

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From an organic point of view, but if you're presenting something that's

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really slick and maybe at a higher price point, you need to reflect that a bit

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in your content, which doesn't mean you have to pay more for your content.

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It just means that you need to have a cohesive strategy.

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Your content has to reflect the visual language that you're establishing

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or have established for your brand.

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However that best suits you while communicating the key

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attributes of your product.

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That's really, it's a really good point, actually, communicating the visual aspects

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of your brand, because, and I like that if you're doing an outdoor, if you're

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doing a granola bar, I can see why you can see the image in your head, can't you?

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Let's shoot that.

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Yeah, there's gonna be some grass or some guys up a mountain or something.

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Yeah.

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Versus if I'm doing a premium skincare product, I'm probably

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not going to shoot that in the same place for obvious reasons.

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It's going to be in a high end bathroom or something like that, isn't it?

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And I'm going to, I'm going to do that sort of imagery.

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What do you think about and the reason I'm asking this is because at the time

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Ilene we're actually, my company is about to launch another brand which

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is a premium skincare brand, right?

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So we're thinking again about assets and imagery.

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And so.

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What do you think about for example, me going on to say Midjourney or

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an other AI image generator and say, Hey, give me an image of this

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product in a high end bathroom.

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Should I be entertaining things like that?

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Or should I just be avoiding at all costs?

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That's a, that's like the million dollar question.

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Billion dollar question, right?

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Isn't it?

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That's absolutely.

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If someone wants to pay me a million dollars for the answer, that'd be awesome.

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From my perspective, what's different than about just looking at a stock footage,

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going to Shutterstock or Pond5 or whoever you use, find a high end, background,

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bathroom, and have someone Photoshop your product in, at least then the usage rights

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of the image you're using are clear.

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What worries me about that, and I know Google and everyone's working on, ensuring

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that usage rights are taken care of.

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So sure, you can do that.

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There's no reason not to.

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You just might find that If you're looking for video, that's

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a harder plug and play solution.

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Just looking to create some still images.

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And you also want to make sure your product looks great and,

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probably have some retouching on your product to some products have

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lots of extra writing on them.

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You want to have it super clean.

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So it's a clean read for the consumer.

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Just the key things about your product, the size.

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The servings or the usages, if there's any variants for skincare, if it's for

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oily skin or dry skin, those things you want to make sure are accentuated

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on the product, not just where you're putting it in situ, but how the product

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itself is cleaned up and really forceful.

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That's good.

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It's interesting.

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I think the interesting thing with AI for me is I tend to use it for ideas rather

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than final content, if that makes sense.

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It's it's helpful to generate ideas for me to go, oh, okay, That's

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the kind of thing that I want.

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So I can give that to the design team or, the graphic designer or

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whoever's involved and say, in my head, this is the kind of thing that

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I'm thinking, can you run with that?

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And yeah, it's great, but also here's a little tip.

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You can use it for keywords.

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For your SEO optimization, it's one of the things we use for

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keywords and it's actually great.

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What keywords are relevant for this retailer, this product, this, it comes up

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with some things that are at least as good as other sources that you might pay for.

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And it really helps round out making sure your keywords are

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as robust as they should be.

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Yeah.

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No powerful.

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So should I be let's talk about the skincare brand.

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Cause it's a great example for maybe of a start and then we'll get

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into some more established stuff.

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Should I get the need just having done some research on competitors

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and actually haven't been in the beauty space for a while.

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I understand the need to have images which portray prestige and high

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end in the product photography.

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So I know we're going to have to do that.

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Wow.

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I'm not going to get away with just putting the product on a

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table and taking a picture and it'll be fine with my iPhone.

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I appreciate that's not going to work.

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Should I also then be thinking about video?

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Yeah.

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Obviously you've got your studio.

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You've mentioned it a couple of times.

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Should I be thinking about video and what sort of things should I be thinking about

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video if I should be, that's a really long winded way of saying, what should

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I be thinking about video, video or not.

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That's a really good question, right?

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What we know is that video impacts the algorithms, the search

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algorithms, for all the major retailers on the digital marketplace.

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So having video on your PDP page will help you capture some organic search.

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So you're gonna need some video somewhere to skincare product.

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Yours is one of the first they see.

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That being said, we do see tons of research and take it for what it's

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worth, but consumers engage better with video than with stills because

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it's easier for them to learn more about the product quicker, right?

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So if you were to do a video, user generated video is really

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popular in certain demographics of someone trying your product,

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showing how to use your product.

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That's really key, especially in skin care.

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Anecdotally, I know that's a huge.

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A huge thing is making sure people are using the product in

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the proper way and those product usage videos are very popular.

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And you can also look at it as amortizing your assets because if you're creating

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a video for social, potentially, you can use it or adapt it for the PDP page

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as well and really maximize your spend across different platforms in that way.

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But at a net level, you gotta do some video because you're

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never gonna show up in search.

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Google searches are now actually pulling videos from Amazon PDP pages.

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So it's super important to find your consumer to have some video on that page.

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That being said, when the consumer's on that page, We see data every day that

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they prefer to engage with a video.

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And what that video can do is, demonstrate the product, highlight

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features of the product show, demonstrate how actually you would use it or

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work it into your skincare routine.

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And these don't have to be super complicated.

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You don't have to go look for, a supermodel and, set

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this on a beach somewhere.

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Like it, it can just be very organic to your brand.

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15 seconds, 20 seconds hey, here's, a moisturizer we're using today or

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whatever the demonstration might be, but it is really important to

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have that as part of your plan.

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That's really good.

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That's really good.

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So I've got some video ideas there.

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Just for the, for those listening that might not know, Ilene just explain

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what you mean when you say PDP.

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Sorry.

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PDP is your product description page.

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So if you're on Amazon buying.

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Face wash, the page that has a product you might be looking at often has

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bullets and copy describing that product.

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And then on the left of the main image, you'll see these smaller images that

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you can click on for more information.

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That's also where you could see a video.

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So your product description page, that PDP page, whether it's on your own website,

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whether it's on a Shopify website, or whether it's on a retailer like Amazon or

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Walmart or whomever, That is where your product really needs to shine and make

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sure it's communicating, in all points.

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Some people might look at the bullets and not look at the video, every

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touch point you have to use on those pages needs to be very clear product

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benefits and features communication.

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Yeah, no I totally agree.

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And I, it's.

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I'm curious, do you have an opinion on, so if I'm thinking back to earlier on today,

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I was on the Amazon website I was looking at a product, a diesel heater, bizarrely I

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won't explain why, it's just a very boring story, but I was looking at a diesel

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heater on, a diesel heater on Amazon, and there was like seven photos and a

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video, and I'm listening to you talk.

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The first thing I did was I just literally go straight to

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the video and watch it, right?

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It's like a minute long video showing me how to install the said diesel heater

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and how easy it is for me to do that.

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So I'm like, okay, cool.

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And I've got all that with inside of a few seconds of just watching the video.

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But thinking back to it, the video itself is embedded into Amazon's ecosystem.

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It didn't take me to a YouTube video.

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It didn't have a pop up with a YouTube video in.

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Is that important?

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Amazon must be doing it for a reason or does it, if you're just starting out,

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an embed from YouTube is just as good.

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I'm curious as you thought on this.

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That's a really good insight that you uncovered.

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Amazon does not allow you to link out to any other site.

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So you don't have a choice.

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If you're listing on Amazon, you have to upload that video, as part

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of their vendor central product page.

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In general, the fewer clicks.

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And, redirects a consumer has in their journey to purchase the better, right?

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Because you're going to lose them somewhere along the way.

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So wherever possible, embed it.

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If you need to click it out to a YouTube it's better than not, but

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embedding it is your first choice.

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Very good.

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So I've, okay, so I've got my brand.

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I've got some really nice photographs of my skincare product.

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I've got some videos showing how to apply it.

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Just talking about maybe some of the features of it, why it's, some of the

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things that you need to think about when using it, et cetera, et cetera.

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And I've done all that within sort of 15, 20 seconds.

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I say I, there's no way I'm doing that video, Ilene, because

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I'm not my target market.

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So I get that.

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I don't think ladies will want to see, the white bearded man

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just applying this to his face.

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Maybe they would.

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I don't know.

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Maybe I'm misjudging.

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I should test it, perhaps.

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So what else do I need to be thinking about?

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I think there's a real shift and we see it with major brands as

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well as emerging brands, right?

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It's like really understanding I think that your digital marketplace

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strategy, and by that how you're representing your product on your

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website or on the Amazons of the world.

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It has to be as thoughtful and cohesive as the rest of your marketing strategy.

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It's still a bit of an also brand and it surprises me every day because,

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we're all buying stuff online.

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Like, how can it be a second thought?

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So it needs to be part of your overall marketing plan.

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The consumer messaging needs to be.

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Hide into your consumer messaging in anything else you're doing.

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The look and feel, as we said, the style down to the font you use in

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your Chiron, if you're, putting benefits on screen, it all needs to

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tell the full brand story cohesively and work with rest of your brand.

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And that's super important.

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That is a big mess, I find.

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People are still looking at this content as like oh, yeah, maybe I

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will throw this upon our website or throw it up on our Shopify store.

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No, it's not good enough anymore, you can't do that.

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If you start from that position of, here's my marketing plan, here's what,

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our key product benefits are, what our visual language, look and feel of our

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brand is, the packaging all relates into that, obviously, anything else

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you might be doing, if you're buying digital banners, if you're doing social,

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it all has to work together, and so if you take that approach when you come

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into how you design your page, You're already, many steps ahead of most.

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And I think you just always need to, focus on what you control, which is maximize

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the SEO opportunities, whether it's in the title, the bullets, the keywords

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you're using in the actual product descriptions, as well as backend keywords.

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You want to make sure you're capturing organic search.

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It's You're leaving money on the table if you're not and it's easy enough to do.

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So you want the cohesive overall strategy.

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You want to maximize your keyword.

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Optimization from your titles through to your copy.

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And then you want to design the creative to make sure that you're

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picking up on the communication points can see consumers need to know to

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have confidence in their purchase.

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So whatever you do on your product page in your tiles or in your video has to

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have that top line thought of okay, we know when we went out to test if this

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product was viable, that consumers were really excited about XYZ and really asking

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about then you want to make sure that you're commuting those, communicating

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those things very clearly on the page, in the visuals and in the copy.

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So the whole point of your page is to make sure that the consumer

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knows what they're going to buy.

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And then it's happy with it.

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We've worked with an auto brand that had a gigantic problem because they're the

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mechanics that were ordering parts from them would always order two or three

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because they were not sure if it was going to be the right thing that they needed.

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So what happened?

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What happens when they get two or three?

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They find the one that works.

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And what happens to the other two?

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They have to bring it back to the store.

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Somebody has to collect it, catalog it, get it back out to sale.

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And the cost of all that was enormous, right?

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So obviously you're building consumer loyalty by having consumers get

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what they think they're getting and you're avoiding the cost of returns.

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which is significant, especially for a small business.

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You don't want someone sending something back to you saying I thought

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it was a travel size and it's, it's the mega or whatever the case might.

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The point being, consumers need to know and understand what they're getting

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and have confidence in that purchase.

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So when it comes to them, the reviews they give you, which are

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extremely important, are positive.

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This is what they thought they were getting and they're happy with it, right?

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Nobody likes to be like, oh, this isn't what I ordered.

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How many reviews like that have you seen?

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I thought the texture was going to be thicker.

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I thought You know, I've used it on dry skin, but my skin, it says now

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it says oily skin, like you need to think through what your consumer

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research strategy you've used to develop this product tells you about

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your consumer and make sure that's reflected in the communication points.

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Love that.

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Love that.

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I'm just, as you're talking, I'm remembering with our supplement business,

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we, I remember we put on the site, the measurements of the supplements, right?

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Cause some of them, some supplements you take can be actually be quite big.

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And it was a common question.

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So we're like let's put on the website, the measurements of the supplement.

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So this supplement is whatever, 17 millimeters tall.

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The problem that we ran into and what I think you've just addressed

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there, Ilene, is actually.

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We had the right information.

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It was just presented in the wrong way.

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So you might not understand what 17 millimeters is, but you might

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understand the height of a, I don't know, a 10 P piece if you're

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in the UK or a 25 cent piece.

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If you're in the States, you might be able to do that, but, and I

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think this is one of the things that Apple did very well, wasn't it?

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With the iPod.

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It's what they're famed for.

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10, 000 songs in your pocket kind of thing, rather than

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a three gigabyte hard drive.

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So in terms of how they communicate it, actually that became

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as, as important, wasn't it?

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So you've got to communicate all the features, the benefits, you've got to

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answer the questions that consumers have in their mind on your pages but

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you've got to do it in a way that actually makes sense to them, right?

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So we saw crazy success.

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We were doing a product page for a product that came in a lot of different sizes.

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It's like the brick size or the pouch size or this or that.

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When we put the product in scale on a kitchen counter next to And or something

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that you could understand the scale.

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We saw a lift in conversion, greater than 20 percent just by making sure the

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consumer understood what this product looks like compared to that product.

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They really understood what they were getting.

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They could anticipate it.

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Just like you're saying with the vitamin, like with the

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vitamin size, that's a great.

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It's a great call out because it speaks to exactly what we're talking about here,

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which is like making sure the consumer knows exactly what they're getting.

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If somebody can't swallow a big pill, they're going to send that back to

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you or not buy it from you again and, be annoyed that they didn't get it

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right the first time because they were probably waiting to take that supplement.

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You lose all kinds of traction and confidence in addition to the cost of

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having to take that back and refunding.

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So the more specific you can be, and in a clever way, of

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course, like that, exactly that.

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Yeah, the Apple example is great.

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They do so many things so well, the rest of us are, always in awe, we

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play around a lot with serving size, if you say something is like 1.

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6 ounces, what does that mean to anybody?

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It's better if you tell them how many average servings that could be, and then

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you show them what an average serving looks like, because a serving for you

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might feel different than a serving for me, so getting really into that granular

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level, but in a way that is on brand.

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With the visuals and you know how you're actually communicating them.

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Yeah it's really powerful point, isn't it?

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And so you are actually using this content in effect, whether it's

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video, whether it's written text, to overcome every single objection.

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Maybe that's in a consumer's mind, but at the same time, educate them

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to what it is they're gonna get.

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So when they get it, there's no.

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hidden surprises in a bad way, right?

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It's this is not unexpected.

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You might want to do something.

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There's that phrase, isn't there?

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You sell the steak, but deliver the sizzle.

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You might want to deliver a good surprise, but they're not caught out in a bad way.

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And I think that's the essence of what you're trying to say, right?

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Yeah, I agree with all of that, but I think also to add onto that, you want to

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inspire you want to, build brand loyalty.

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You want whatever's unique about your brand, the tonality,

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the language, the, spirit.

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and you want to inspire usage occasions.

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Just for example, if you were selling your skincare product, you

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want us to be something a little bit aspirational, that one consumer

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telling to another consumer about.

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Or gives them ideas on how to Uses up the container faster.

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You need this morning, noon at night, or whatever it might be.

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In the case of food, since we do a lot of food, we like to show different usage

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occasions, different , different recipe usages that you might not have thought

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of, because we know that consumers are always looking for recipe inspiration, so

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it's oh, I didn't know I could use this.

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To make something like that sounds really good.

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And then you have a consumer needing it more often because they're using it more.

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So there's always a little bit of the aspirational aspect.

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We want to be really practical and pragmatic and ensure everything you

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just said that the consumer knows and what they're buying is happy

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and satisfied when they get it.

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But you also want to have a little surprise and delight slash inspirational

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aspect to what you're doing to help.

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Help continue the sales and inspire the consumers.

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Who do you see doing that?

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I'm really curious.

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There's people who are doing it well in different ways, right?

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Like we, we do so much content, we get lost in what we do, but we're

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always trying to see who else is out there doing things, I think.

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It depends.

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You have to give me a category because it's like one of those

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questions that are so broad.

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I'm like scanning my mind for everything I've looked at recently.

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Like in coffee, I think Dunkin Donuts has done some nice things on their PDP pages.

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They have a lot of seasonality.

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Which is something that's really great.

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Consumers respond to that, the, it brings to mind, to diverge from your question

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for one second, the other thing to keep in mind when your content is, you can't

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just set it and leave it there for three years, it needs to be refreshed.

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Yeah.

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You have to keep it fresh and like Dunkin Donuts is great at the seasonality.

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Most brands can't afford to seasonally update everything about all their content,

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but perhaps you can update some keywords to capture that search or you can have one

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image that is a usage occasion related to a holiday, but you want, You're going to

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lose traction in the algorithms as well as appear too generic to your customers

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if you're not doing some regular refresh.

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And then people always ask me like how often should we refresh?

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It's how often can you afford to refresh?

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I don't know.

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At least once a year but if you're really trying to make a stand with a new

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product, you should be updating those keywords, every quarter at the least.

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Yeah, super powerful.

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I love that.

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So I, and I'm actually, as you're talking, I'm thinking, oh, there's probably

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one or two things I need to refresh on our site, because it's probably

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been there for a couple of years.

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Just as you're talking, I'm going yes, I'm guilty, Your Honour.

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Guilty as charged.

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There's a few things we need to resolve there.

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Listen, I'm aware of time and it is rapidly rapidly escaping from us.

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And I feel like we're just getting going here but super useful some

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really good ideas for me actually on the skincare brand already.

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If people want to reach out to you, if they want to connect with you,

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what's the best way to do that?

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Yeah, feel free to check out our website, which is imaginarycontent.

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com.

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You could always reach out and email me directly, Ilene@imaginarycontent.com

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and this was so fun.

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Actually, I feel like maybe a part two sometime in our future

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because we did just get started.

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We really did.

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We should do it in the new year.

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We should, at the time of recording it's Christmas.

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I'm not sure when this comes out, but yeah we'll get set up on that.

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We'll do it like a part two.

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We would do, this is the warmup.

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Thank you so much for having me.

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This has been a lot of fun.

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I really appreciate the conversation.

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Oh, no, it's been great.

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And thanks for your insight.

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And we'll definitely get you on.

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And I'm going to pick your brain some more about what we're trying to do.

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So it's a beautiful thing.

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A beautiful thing.

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Ilene, thank you so much for joining us here on the eCommerce Podcast.

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What an absolute legend.

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Do make sure you reach out to Ilene.

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And see what they're doing.

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The website's awesome.

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Actually, I was on it earlier thinking that's really clever.

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That's really clever.

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There's a few ideas you can definitely steal just off of the website.

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No, dude, I think when people steal stuff, it's the highest form of compliment.

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What is it?

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Imitation's the highest form of compliment or something like that.

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Like a flattery.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Something like that.

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Yeah.

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But do check it out.

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So also do make sure you check out today's show, sponsor the eCommerce cohort.

Speaker:

com come and have a look.

Speaker:

If you've not been there already, come and see what it's all about.

Speaker:

We'd love to see you in that group.

Speaker:

Also be sure to follow the eCommerce podcast, wherever you get your podcast

Speaker:

from, because of course we have yet more great conversations lined up.

Speaker:

I don't want you to miss any of them.

Speaker:

And in case no one has told you yet today, let me be the first.

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You are awesome.

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Yes, you are created awesome.

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It's just a burden you have to bear.

Speaker:

Ilene's got to bear it.

Speaker:

I've got to bear it.

Speaker:

You've got to bear it as well.

Speaker:

Now the eCommerce podcast is produced by Aurion Media.

Speaker:

You can find our entire archive of episodes on your favorite podcast app.

Speaker:

And the wonderful team that makes this show possible includes the majestic

Speaker:

Sadaf Beynon and Tanya Hutsuliak.

Speaker:

And also our theme song was written by Josh Edmundson.

Speaker:

And as I said, if you would like to read the notes or the transcripts,

Speaker:

you can get them for free on the website at EcommercePodcast.

Speaker:

net, which incidentally is where you can sign up to the newsletter.

Speaker:

if you haven't done so already.

Speaker:

Because if you're on the newsletter, all of this stuff comes straight to

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your inbox every week automatically.

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It's a beautiful thing.

Speaker:

So check it out at ecommercepodcast.

Speaker:

net.

Speaker:

So that is it for me.

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That is it from Ilene.

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Thank you so much for joining us.

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Have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world.

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I'll see you next time.

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Bye for now.

Speaker:

Thank you.