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| Bonjour Millionaire, ME!!!!!!! As the daughter of an environmental lawyer, I'm ashamed. But there's a reason that when you switch to FBM from FBA conversion and revenue fall off a cliff by like 50%. Literally 50%. Quick quick quick is the floor now.
Was this email forwarded to you? ON THIS EPISODE OF GO-TO-MILLIONS  My favorite brands are Salt & Stone, The Row, Jacques Marie Mage, Patagonia, Trudon, and Harry Winston. None of the above try to break any grammar rules. Why would that be a thing? They are iconic and true houses. I consider Patagonia a brand house, and I'm happy to talk to you about that whenever. And this week I asked my team to please stop using the em dash in any digital or customer facing new materials. Stop it as much as possible (I wanted 100% lol). I didn't ask them to stop it because I don't like it (I don't, and I've always been a parenthesis and period type of copywriter but that's not the point. I also never really knew how to make the symbol on my keyboard either FML). We needed to kill the em dash because these days, IN THE RIGHT NOW, even though the em dash was once very smart or literary, it’s now seen as an automatic disqualifier, because it feels like AI. It now signals a lack of effort and thoughtfulness, no matter how effortful or thoughtful you’re actually being. Not fair, but a fact. The intention stays the same (to represent the house beautifully and clearly), but the rule must change (em dash goes away for now). TASTE x REVENUEYour offer isn't always broken (but it is more than you'd like to think). Your forecast isn't always the problem. Sometimes the thing tanking revenue is less obvious. I always, always say change your offer, change your life. But sometimes your offer is broken BY the experience surrounding your offer that is ruining it. Takes taste and a read on the market to find those experience gaps and to get them AWAY FROM YOU as soon as possible. Like the em dash. ACCIDENTAL NEGATIVE SIGNALINGThese are the small inconsistencies or mistakes or things that no longer resonate that we have to keep watching. The closer we are the harder it is to find the things that need changing, but we can still see them if we choose to never stop listening. Reading the room is super important. That's the listening part. UX isn't narrow. Like yes we have to have a wonderfully well thought out website and ease of site is essential, but we have to consume in the greater market and never stop watching where culture is going. All the signals and rules of before are always up for challenging. Because the small signals surrounding the transaction are what you're communicating, whether or not you intend to. No pressure! OH CANADAA few years ago I was in Vancouver. I used to go there every weekend but that's a story for another day. I took this screenshot (below) then but applies. It's an example of a negative signal that you may be sending that you have no idea about. When I was in Canada, I went to the Fenty Beauty site and it taught me not to hardcode elements of the site that don't apply to everyone. The Fenty cart (Canada version) mentions free US shipping. Like it tells it's Canadian customers to fuck off by doing that and it definitely doesn't mean to. They told Canadian version of me something wonderful they do for customers that I can't get. It's an experience that could be fixed with a couple hours of dev work and that no split test would ever find. It's just a bad signal that is a mistake. We all have mistakes floating that need to be attacked. Harry Winston included.  IN GOOD TASTERemember on Friday when I mentioned the EADEM website and how the basket I wanted to build perfectly cleared their thresholds? And so how even though the site isn't my vibe I really had a great experience and checked out happily? The mechanics of the experience were absolutely fine. And, that's not something you can say about so many websites and brands. Taste is not only aesthetic. Something that can be my taste or your taste can still be wrong in the market. Driving revenue is an exercise in staying close to the customer. In making their experience everything it can be. In delivering. In signaling. I know how important it is to know the customer because when I was a customer service agent, I knew exactly what our customers wanted from us and I knew exactly what was not good enough. We can't lose that. I'm so glad I lead our CX team now. Listening to our customer will always lead us to make careful decisions. Taste is usually soft and seen as unrelated to growth. I see growth as dependent on taste. THE RULES CHANGE BUT THE INTENTION DOESN'THow long does it take you to respond to issues that are actively inhibiting revenue? Or, maybe totally harder: how do you DEFINE your rules around taste that impacts invisible revenue. Rules around signals. Our intentions are universal. We all want to build a brand that lasts, drive revenue, earn trust. Every single good brand wants to do that. And since the world changes, since the culture is living and breathing, since habits and markets change, the rules in SERVICE of those intentions have to stay under scrutiny forever. The em dash used to be elevated. Now it's the opposite. Lots more on this TK.  Is it too early for this or is it exactly perfectly timed? Reply and vote.  Yours, | ||||||||||
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