BI 362: 6 Figures With No Funding Using a Happy Bond (ft Anja Skodda)
May 18, 2021
On the Bright Ideas eCommerce podcast, Trent Dyrsmid interviews today's most successful eCommerce, Agency, and SaaS founders and gets them to share all their most effective strategies and tactics for growth so you can quickly figure what you need to implement in your business today to get ahead of your competition. If you are looking for proven methods to scale up your eCommerce business, increase efficiency, improve your systems, and delegate more, this is the podcast for you. eCommerce, automation, outsourcing, standard operating procedures, workflow management, search engine optimization, social media, podcasting, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.
Episode Highlights
[02:58] — Anja introduces HappyBond and shares a bit of herself
- Anja is the founder and CEO of HappyBond.
- She is also a biotech engineer and uses her expertise in making science-backed essential nutrients to keep your dog healthy and strengthen that special bond.
[03:45] — Beginning of formulating for dogs
- She built 3D models of cartilage in the lab to avoid animal testing.
- Her bulldog, Tony, had arthritis in his shoulder.
- Anja wanted to formulate something that will nurse him back to health within a week.
[04:51] — The growth of HappyBond within a year
- HappBond started with just one skew of products; now they have five.
- They have adapted the different stages from puppy, adult, to senior.
- They also have treats and chew sticks with collagen. You can find these products on their website.
[05:50] — Revenue of HappyBond
- Anja says that the majority of their revenue comes from their direct-to-consumer website.
- The remaining revenue comes from Amazon and other online retailers like petco.com and chewy.com.
[06:04] — How HappyBond got traction on its first launch
- The market for pet essentials is very crowded.
- A lot of people tried various products that don’t work. The old science is not showing real great results.
- With this in mind, they got Cesar Millan to endorse their product because he tried their products and had great results with his dog.
- Having a successful product is the core of HappyBond’s marketing.
[08:29] — Content marketing for HappyBond
- They have done paid media through Facebook, Instagram, and other social media channels.
- Due to the pandemic, they changed their strategy and focused more on content marketing.
- They did a lot of collaborations with other pet owners and other businesses involved in pet care.
- They also used the right message to resonate with their customers.
[10:13] — Working with Instagram Live
- Instagram Live worked well for their business.
- They record a lot of science sessions where they educate viewers.
- HappyBond records their sessions and uses email marketing to spread the word.
[14:21] — What Anja learned in other content marketing strategies they did
- Anja did a lot of email marketing for HappyBond.
- Writing long email content did not work for them.
- They changed their emails into short, digestible content. These had a better opening rate and click-through rates.
- HappyBond also has new blog content every week.
- They placed a lot of effort into building a website with attractive graphics and animations that help their audience learn more about their dog's health.
[17:17] — Using ads to drive traffic
- For the last year, Anja spent around $35,000 on advertising.
- Using advertising as a strategy was something new to Anja.
- Due to the pandemic, they placed more focus on the direct-to-customer website.
[18:23] — Landing pages and contents
- Their website has landing pages with different kinds of content to try out.
- They found that what works best for them are contents that have a short educational part about it.
- They placed a call to action as well in these landing pages to engage the customer.
[19:14] — Ads, calls to action, and upsells
- HappyBond upsells with treats to encourage buyers to avoid shipping costs.
- With these upsells, they have raised their average order value by about 30% during last year.
- They have no funding, so they are very conservative about ad spend.
[20:52] — Using media platforms for ads
- HappyBond mainly focuses on Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
- They also have tried Nextdoor and Pinterest.
[21:43] — Hiring contractors and agencies to run ads and campaigns
- They outsourced agencies because they need help from advisors that are in the marketing space.
- With the agencies’ help, they structured the perfect ads for them and built great brand guidelines.
- You get a lot of help in agencies because they are composed of experienced people.
[23:10] — Anja’s tips for those who want to launch a consumer products brand
- Know what your brand stands for.
- Concentrate on one channel first, then adapt later on.
- Have a good relationship with your customers.