Digging in to the Product Research Process with Lem Turner

The Blimp Method is underway and we are diving deep into the product research and product selection process of the first batch of franchisees and products. We thought it would be a great time to invite Helium 10 on the show and share some insights and strategies on their best practices in today’s market.

√ Lem Turner’s VIP Page
√ Helium10

Thank you so much for coming on!

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[00:00:00] Episode 370. We’re going to talk about the product research. Yeah, let’s do this. I’m excited. Welcome to the Global From Asia podcast, where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight up actionable advice. And now your host, Michael Michelini. So Aubrey’s got her passport, that’s pretty cool. Yah, finally! Awesome, coming to China, or where are you going?

[00:00:30] I thought it would take a  few more weeks, but it’s just a process for at least one week. I’m planning to go to China, joke. Nice! I hope the border will be open by that time. 

[00:00:42] Yeah. Let’s, let’s get it open. I know it’s been, uh, I don’t know if the part of vlog will come on, but. Alvin our team. And I, we work hard to put together like a,  COVID-19 story for, for me, like, um, when I met the team last at a retreat. March 13th, 2020 was that day. And, uh, we have this whole, but yeah, I mean, uh, we all are all travelers, especially in this community of cross border trade and e-commerce, uh, so it’s been really hard for all of us to get through this, but it’d be really cool to have you come to China.

[00:01:19] We’ll do some events and some networking. It’d be really great and great to have you on the community Aubrey. Yeah, it’d be great to meet finally, our members in person. For sure. For sure. All right. So this week, so we, um, had a pretty cool and you want to share a little bit about, about the, uh, about the guest, Aubrey.

[00:01:42] Yeah, I think, uh, on this show it will be very much valuable to our listeners, especially those in e-commerce space. Because this week we will have Lem Turner of Helium 10. I know, um, most of those entrepreneurs in this space, in the e-commerce space already know Helium 10 and probably they have been using it, right?

[00:02:03] Yes, exactly. Yeah. It’s become one of the top softwares for, uh, for product research and other of course, other parts of Amazon. FBA and selling on Amazon. So Lem actually, uh, just recorded this interview a couple of days ago, and it was really intense. I mean, we didn’t hold anything back. I, I learned a few new nuggets of information and strategies.

[00:02:23] We also share a little bit about how we’re applying some of what we’re doing to the blimp method program. We’re doing an Excalibur Brothers, but Lem, man! He’s got some great information and he, uh, he really shares about it. So I’m excited for the show. Let’s let’s do this.

[00:02:43] Okay. Great. And then also just to worth mentioning for GFA VIP members, we’re working out a, um, like a little mastermind, a private session with, with Lem shared on screen cause this was not screen-share. This is like interview style. Um, but for those in our membership, right, Aubrey, we’re working out the date [00:03:00] date will be most likely in hopefully the next week after the show goes live, but of course we’ll, you will be we, and you will be sharing with our, uh, our private members.

[00:03:09] Yeah, we’ll get them post that on when it will be the schedule. Of course, with the time zones, we’re trying to figure it out. Might be morning Asia and, uh, evening US, so, okay. Let’s dive into the show. I like to invite everyone as well. Maybe if they’re interested to join our community, we have, we do have this private group called Global From Asia, VIP members.

[00:03:32] We have separate member call for them and it will be greatly beneficial to those who are in the e-commerce space as well. Yeah, for sure. Even help helping keep things getting better on the membership. And also you mentioned, uh, before the recording is we’re doing a GFA kids as well. Uh, I have kids, so they’re, they’re in this, but we actually have more and more parents in the community and in a network signing up.

[00:03:59] To, um, Because their schools are so close. So that’s a new development or we’ve been trying to for a while, but this has been doing even better than, than ever. Right, Aubrey. What else are we looking for? Yeah. So, uh, as part of the GFA Kids program, we’re looking for our native English speaker to be a part of that program or we’re specifically looking for a teacher. If someone is interested, please do

[00:04:24] signed up. Yeah, it be really cool to see if somebody from the show is interested in, uh, [00:04:30] you know, it’s online and it’s new. It’s a totally new way of, uh, you know, connecting online teachers and, uh, and, uh, kids with top specifically like in the international and digital nomad space. So let’s see if we can get some people applying. Yeah, I’m excited!

[00:04:48] Awesome. All right. Thank you everybody for your tickets and our global from Asia podcast. It’s a fun one today where it is. It just finished Chinese new year. I don’t know if I told them that before I started recording, but Chinese New Year is just wrapped up. Some are still on it in February 2022. And so it’s new years, both for the west and the east.

[00:05:07] And what better topic than product research or, you know, like market research for your Amazon or e-commerce business. So I’m excited for today’s discussion. With us today, We have Lem Turner from Helium 10. Hey, how you doing? Lem, how’s it going? I’m doing great, man. I’m happy to be here. That’s awesome that you know, so when you said Chinese new years is just finished up.

[00:05:29] Yeah. That’s great. Good people well-deserved break. I’m sure they’re ready to get back at it. I know, I know it’s a, it’s still somewhat of a break. It’s weird. Cause the office is open earlier and the factories open later, I think maybe even in, in, in the west, you know, factories were always had a little bit longer time off. 

[00:05:47] I don’t know why that is, but yeah, in fact, it’s more like offices are reopening this week, but, and you know, e-commerce sellers are considered more office than a factory, so they’re, they’re all coming back. So yeah, it’s, it’s really cool to get to you and, and, and the company Helium 10 on the show today. Do you mind just give us a little bit of background about you by yourself, Lem for the people listening?

[00:06:09] Yeah, for sure. Well, like Mike said, my name’s Lem Turner. I’m brand evangelists here at Helium 10, kind of similar to what Bradley does. I help educate people from all over world and how to utilize helium 10 suite of tools to help improve their skills on Amazon. I’ve been at Helium 10 for a little bit now. But personally I’ve been selling on Amazon for a couple of years now, I think a little over three years now, and I have experienced doing pretty much everything you can do with Amazon within retail, arbitrage, wholesale, private label, and consulting frames on sellers.

[00:06:42] So kind of just kind of ran the gamut throughout all of those different methods. So, and now I’m here at Helium 10, some of us retail arbitrage. Yeah man. Retail arbitrage I’ve never, never been involved with. You know, I think for us to most people. I think listening are in our world or in private label, you know, we kind of have the advantage to in here.

[00:07:01] Obviously, the show’s name is global from Asia I’m in here in China. Most of our, most of our listeners are, you know, of course it’s English. We’re like, more like a little bit more, I don’t wanna say advanced, but usually more buying from factories or making our own brands here. So, but I mean, I do appreciate the hustle, man.

[00:07:20] Retail arbitrage seems like I don’t, I, I don’t have so much content or knowledge about retail arbitrage, but it seems like a real hustle man. Like that, that kind of, that kind of seems really intense, man, but I guess they all have. There are pros and cons to get into it, but not that sustainable. Yeah. It seems like it, it seems like it.

[00:07:42] So yeah, I think there’s so much we could talk about and, you know, and maybe we can even have more shows in the future, but I think that the main focus is product research and buy likes it, you know, it’s a new year. Many people have new product ideas or, or even want to re review their current products.

[00:07:58] How have you seen just product reseach develope over a year as you know, ai Amazon and e-commerce. It’s just, just a history of, of the practice. Yeah. Well, prac research has evolved massively over the years, in my opinion, because like, back then it was more of like guesswork and like almost like a degree.

[00:08:17] Mimic mimicry, where we would notice that like, hey, like there are some others that are being successful selling like a plant pot. And so maybe I can sell a plant pot with a attachable, like water spray or something like that. You know, that kind of goes like one degree off, but, or it’s just like guesswork of like friends and family, like kind of validating your thoughts of like, Hey, like this is a really good product.

[00:08:39] You should like make this into the business, you know? But again, they’re all like anecdotal or subjective type stuff. Whereas now it’s a lot more data driven and in that way, a lot more risk adverse. I would say, or risk prone, depending on the, your personality. What’s even more amazing is that now it’s not even like, oh, as long as you have this one metric, you have opportunity.

[00:09:04] You can be successful. It’s like, there’s so many different metrics that can indicate opportunity. Opportunity, depending on how one defines opportunity that it is really quite amazing. Kind of like the o pening of Pandora’s box of like, wow, there’s just so much different things. We can kind of dive into type in here, but that product research I could see now that it’s not a matter of how do I get started?

[00:09:29] It’s more a matter [00:09:30] of like, which one do I pursue. Right. Cause I think that’s really the main issue that people are running into now. It’s like an analysis process of which one do I do instead of just like sticking with, or just finding one opportunity. That’s a good point. I like that. It’s, you know, we have a basic outline for the show, but I like to kind of see where it goes, but I like the point of analysis paralysis.

[00:09:52] This is definitely true. We talked a lot of people in the community. We’re doing a new program called blimp method, which is it’s actually licensing our brands to add new products] for sellers can share about that too later. But. It’s it is a true point. Like a lot of people would talk to. There’s too many products.

[00:10:09] They have too many opportunities. I think that’s true. Everything. I mean, it’s kind of abundance. It’s amazing abundance of opportunity, but at the same time, it’s a, it’s too much to even take a decision. So that’s a kind of opposite prime rather than finding the right product. You find maybe too many products, which is an interesting thought. Which obviously leads to like diving into more than meets, you know, some, some of the practices, you know, what are some of the latest, you know, strategies or hacks that we could we can think about?

[00:10:43] Yeah. I mean, what’s with that, that’s where you kind of have to. There’s like two main approaches. Like you really want to simplify. We’re going to take a symbol of five to look at it out, like from like a 50,000 foot view. By up there, you’re going to go into doing product research [00:11:00] from a product focus perspective, or you’re going to go into it from a keyword focus perspective.

[00:11:05] And that’s where like, there are pros and cons to both, but they’re still at the end of it. There’s still like opportunity. And so like in terms of like best practices, that’s product focused. And I like to always speak from the perspective that I’m talking to somebody who’s trying to launch their first product.

[00:11:24] Right. Not looking to do their third or fourth or fifth. And so when it comes to product focus, we always, and while this is, this is more like arbitrators. Data kind of like behind it, but we like to stick between product opportunities. That’s going to be or products that’s going to be between like $20 to $40, just cause if you break it down, like your cost of goods is going to going to be around like 20 to 30% of the price point.

[00:11:51] So then you can kind of look at that of like, Hey, if I want to get started with like 500 units with a $20 product, I’m probably going to be spending. $5 or [00:12:00] $4 per product. So I need to have at least like 2,500 or so, um, in capital. And so that’s where we try to stick between that 20 to $40 range. And just because with Amazon FBA fees, I don’t just, the fees are all included.

[00:12:13] That gives you enough to be able to make up for some of the fees are included with Amazon and still be able to, you know, maintain a healthy profit margin being between that 20 to $40 range. Now. We could look at like $99 or [00:12:30] $120 speakers. But then at that point, you’re either going to kindergarten are a lot more brand focused, like Sony, Microsoft, whatever, like big brands that might be a part of that with higher price points.

[00:12:43] And so that’s why we started like the state at that 20 to $40 range with products of your own practice. With keywords, keyword being keyword focused. That’s where you’re kind of looking at search volume and competition in that realm. And like, [00:13:00] while those are obviously like two, like big things that everyone looks at, I think something that is more unique to helium 10 that I myself consider it like a opportunity.

[00:13:10] Right, right away is titled density. Have you talked, have you, have you ever looked into title density at all? You got me mad. I thought I knew.

[00:13:24] I think, I think it’s, I think you’d probably know it, but we just coined it a certain way, but I like title density just because like, you know, Bradley, like he’s really big on like, how do I get on page one? Oh, and the sound like, that’s the name of the game. Right. And that’s where it comes to keyword focus.

[00:13:39] Like I like to pay attention to title density and search point. Um, and so title density. It is how many keywords or I’m sorry, how many products on the first page that have the specific, or have that specific keyword of wherever you’re looking at in full phrase form in their title. And so like if [00:14:00] you’re looking up college and peptides, pretty much every single product on page one, it’s going to have cons of peptides in her title.

[00:14:06] But what we’ve learned is let’s say I’m looking at. Pencil eraser for kids, but all the products that rank on page one for that product, all just say, Pensar pencil, pencil eraser for children. They’re missing out on this opportunity for a keyword, a pencil eraser for kids. And it we’ve learned through research and through AB testing that the title is one of the biggest [00:14:30] signals you can send to Amazon.

[00:14:31] Are putting key, proper keywords in your title is one of the biggest thing that you can send to Amazon to get your product on page one of Amazon. And that just by putting, if you have a keyword and you put it in your title that has zero talent density, meaning that no other product has it on their inner cut on page one.

[00:14:49] You’d make it so much easier to rank on page one, just by having your title, which is a pretty crazy realization that we came to it, which is why I really liked it and see that as a massive opportunity or mass indicator of opportunity, despite if there’s a ton of competition or there’s lots of saturation, but if the majority of my competition

[00:15:08] isn’t max maximizing their cuddle density with the top keywords in my niche that I look at it as an opportunity for sure. Yeah, I liked that. I like that, you know, with our latest brand is called a Excalibur Brothers. We’re doing it as a, as a case study. I can even talk about some of the products for research.

[00:15:23] And in this session we are looking at like, yeah, like, of course there’s the broad keyword, like just the product type, but then, like you said, for, for babies or for kids or for bar, you know, we’re in like maybe the bartending space or drinking accessories. But there’s a like one product we’re looking at as a polishing cloth, like a microfiber, I gave our partner to the sample, but a.

[00:15:50] There’s a lot of competition for that. Even Amazon basics is on, on the top of number two on that keyword, but we’re looking at it for us, for bartenders or for [00:16:00] bartending or for, you know, for different uses. So like you’re saying, so maybe they’re not, I don’t think they’re targeting in that niche. So if I have to review the titles, but it makes sense.

[00:16:10] I think that they weren’t putting it that way. So you can find, you can update your title. It makes sense. Yeah. I mean, I like, yeah, I haven’t heard that keyword title density or that coin phrase, but for sure, even back to eBay days when I got started the title, it’s always true. Even Google, you know, internet marketing or the title is the strongest.

[00:16:30] And it’s obviously the most clear one people, everybody sees. Let’s to, to joke, to add a little bit of my, you know, my jokes, we call it like Tinder for e-commerce. Amazon customers don’t even read that half the time. I feel like I’m writing a description just for the search box, you know, like nobody even reads the description, but you got to do it for, you know, the keywords or the search algorithm.

[00:16:55] Right. It’s just got to put it there. Hopefully somebody reads it. But I, I really wonder, I don’t know if you have data of who reads the description of an Amazon product, you know. It’s really just the title and then the pictures and the reviews. Right? Exactly. That’s I tell people that all the time. The, the bullet points exists for the algorithm.

[00:17:15] It doesn’t exist if they read it good for them, but the majority of them are just going to look at the pictures and the review. So just make sure you, those are your top priorities. So it’s funny. Yeah. Yeah. We joked about, somebody said that at e-commerce event, we did here in China and, and you know, it’s like swipe, right.

[00:17:33] You know, actually the other thing we say is there’s idiots. Like we sold a coffee pot. And it’s it’s espresso cups. It says it’s a six cup espresso maker. And they thought like Americans, you know, we’re both American. Like we thought as Americano cups. They thought they bought this little stove, top maker that makes six cups.

[00:17:53] They thought it made six Americano cups. Okay. Well, dude. It’s six expressos, which are like, you know this. So we got negative reviews, but we’re like we say it in a description, we say it in a bullet point. Right. But then we had to put it on photo two of the listing. Can’t put our photo one. So it was like, so, so cause people just probably look at the title search rank, right?

[00:18:15] Click the, look at the picture, swipe a couple of pictures and then buy right. Maybe read a review. So we had to put it in photo too. Like it’s one you know, one Americano or six espresso cups. The image, you know, because it’s true. These people don’t worry. But yeah. So I like your phrase. Yeah. Title density.

[00:18:41] That’s a nice one, man. And then you’re looking at the top 10, if they’re using your keyword phrase in there, which is awesome. And especially, it helps with like, Title density is even much more important during the product launch phase, but that’s when you’re getting your you’re going into your honeymoon period.

[00:18:58] So that’s where it’s a lot more [00:19:00] important. You’re you have the advantage of title density. You have the advantage of the honeymoon period. And if you just put up a little bit of PPC behind. Like you’re, you have all these like, signals that you’re able to send the Amazon, like, Hey, like rank me for this keyword that it’s almost like you’re, you’re giving it yourself to Amazon.

[00:19:19] I’m like, please put me in this like, group of like, I like to call it my top team. Where’s the cool kids table. Like, please put me at the cool kids table, please.

[00:19:30] Going through all those methods, specially for our product launch is really crucial. Nah, I like this. This has been awesome, man. Just dive right into some strategies here. Yeah, that makes sense. Because still, I think of course there’s a nine Amazon search algorithm, but it’s nothing like Google, right? I mean, I guess it’s probably been improving.

[00:19:50] I kind of sneak that one in there. I don’t know. For sure at Google is much more advanced algorithm right. Than Amazon even now. Right. Would you say, or just general? I’d like to think so. Yeah. I think it’s still true. I mean, Amazon’s obviously been improving over the years, but I think again, Google is still got that advantage of their algorithm.

[00:20:10] Okay. Well that was really cool. And I liked the idea of product focus and keyword focus. Yeah, it’s true. Like we also say the same, right. Start with a  low enough price, investment, like you said, it’s, if you’re doing 20 to 40, right, you want to get it hopefully four times markup from factory three times, at least for your margins.

[00:20:30] And you know, one thing I just say about title density and just the concern I get from people is they’re afraid that it’s too niche, too small, right? Like, you know, you go off to the big one, which is obviously dominating the ranks. So you niche down, but you can always brought in, right? Like you could always go for that bigger niche once you you’re in there.

[00:20:51] Right. So your title could always change. Your strategy can change once you get that traction in a little bit of a, for babies or for bartenders at the beginning, right? Is that. Really you’re looking for, you’re not looking for the whole pie. You’re looking this to gain a foothold, but from there you can slowly, but surely like grow your market share, especially if you’re not, I know. I don’t mean to say that if you’re intelligent, but especially if you’re staying on top of which of your competitors are not doing their due diligence, like make sure your competitors are cutting corners.

[00:21:25] And maybe they’re not maximizing all the characters in their title, or maybe they only have four images or maybe they’ve only been, they don’t have any product description or eight plus content on their list. I like to see those as competitors that like, instead of going after the big one first, like, and the one who has the most market share, I like to take away market share from those who are closest to me in terms of consumer looking at my product and my competitor’s product of like, where we’re supposed to meet, who are they going to buy?

[00:21:53] And I want to make sure that I take them out and then just move on to the next one. The next one, the next one I’ve worked my way up from there. s when you expand, then once you like build the credibility of your brand, because ideally watching a private label product, you’re trying to build a brand and not just trying to make a quick buck, you grow your brand.

[00:22:11] Like it just increases the legitimacy of it. So sort of like a rinse and repeat at the thing. But the biggest obstacle obviously is just getting in there, doing the, doing the working aged. Agreed. So let’s talk about the analysis paralysis and it’s definitely, I think we both see it a lot in the industry.

[00:22:31] So we see all these amazing opportunities. What are some tactics you have for like, you know, like I liked the title density, you know, the product price, right? What are, what are some ways that you can narrow those down? Of course we can keep it on the to-do list or later to, you know, the future launch list.

[00:22:47] Is there other insights about narrowing? So like some, are there other ones I like to look at is I like to knowing my skill set. I like knowing how wellI can market that all I need is a quality product, right? And seeing when I take quality product, I need like one that like, people are going to be satisfied with they’re going to, when they buy it, they are going to get it outside of like, not reading the listing, like them being satisfied with their product rights.

[00:23:16] And so from there, I like to, when I’m doing research and this is something that we talked about a lot and our really intense pro training videos is looking at markets where competitors are still doing $10,000 or more because revenue, but [00:23:30] the average rating score or average star rating is below four stars.

[00:23:35] That means there’s a demand for this product. There’s a demand for this niche, but for some reason, most of these competitors are not fulfilling this need, or maybe there’s only like one or two that are doing it. And so I like, I liked. Do that when I’m looking at my products is looking at the average star rating that they’re doing and the average revenue numbers of like, Hey man, like these competitors, they have a 3.5 stars.

[00:23:59] They’re doing 12,000 a month in revenue. If I just made sure I didn’t due diligence found a really high quality manufacturer, worked with them to understand what is causing these cust consumers or these customers to be disappointed, and then came in here with a better product, the higher price plan. Like I’m going to blow these people out of the water just by having four stars, you know?

[00:24:19] So like that’s where something like other things that I’ve taken through. Take into account of looking at fire products that also look at average viewed count versus average revenue account. For those who I think are going to be my main competitors, because there’s a big difference between looking at competitors that have average review count of 200, but they’re doing 10,000 revenue versus average review count of 2000 and are doing around 10 pounds or inner doing are 2000 reviews and doing around 10,000 revenue.

[00:24:48] And then that kind of gives you an idea of the barrier of entry. Man, I’m going to need to get around 2000 views before I can get to like 10,000 lost revenue versus the 200 that’s that’s a real doable it’s romance, I suppose, especially if you’re in a niche and it kind of gives you an idea of how like new is the niche.

[00:25:06] There is no, like there’s no like data out there, at least to my knowledge that can tell you like, Hey, this is when fidget spinners were born. Like this is going to grade it, you know, like there’s no data, but you can kind of get an idea based on the reviews of the space. Well, a lot of expires only have like 40 reviews or 50 reviews.

[00:25:23] This must be a pretty new product. This is trending, actually look into it, get into it. And then. Just for those who feel a lot more comfortable with their skills of being able to market a product on Amazon. I like to look at the competitors in the space and see are at the top 10. How many of them have a fully optimized listing?

[00:25:42] How many of them have more than seven images? Do they have graphics on their images? How many of them have A-plus content? I mean, have videos on their listings of the keywords that I’m looking at targeting. How many of them integrate those keywords into their listing and just looking at all right. Is this a market that

[00:25:58] has a lot of people who are just we’re just happened to be first to market, but they don’t know how to properly market, or is this a, a niche that actually is going to be very competitive to be competitive for me, even if I like go like, like all, all the way, all the way to the top and like maximize every single facet of my listing.

[00:26:16] And I’m still going to struggle. It’s kind of just getting an idea of like, essentially like doing like a scouting report of your team, of your product against your other competitors. How well, my product going to do against them, if it was a [00:26:30] 10 out of 10 product, how our content was, think how well is it going to compare to these other listings?

[00:26:35] Yeah, I like it. Yeah. It just kind of like sizing up your competitor, like looking at how experienced they are looking at their product line. Yeah. It’s true. It’s more of an advanced one. I think. I think it’s true. Like kind of going back to how we started. He said like, you know, if it’s your first product, maybe you’re just getting started.

[00:26:53] You don’t maybe want to size up all your, of course, it’s probably good still, but I mean, it’s more like if you’re like a bigger seller experienced seller [00:27:00] and you want to go into this niche and you want to like dominate. You get like a more holistic view because there’s some, you know, like obviously the aggregator space, the investment space is on fire right now at Amazon.

[00:27:13] And I’ve seen businesses sell that has had one, two listings for millions. Right? You don’t need a lot of listings. You can make, obviously it’s better if you can diversify across multiple listings, but you know, A lot of it’s the 80-20 rule. Right? So some, you could just look for a, you know, just want a small category of a few products.

[00:27:29] You’re just looking lame. You’re just starting. You just want to find a couple really good, good products, but then if you want to build out a whole line, right. That’s a, that’s a different story. And like you said, if you’re a little more experienced in it for bigger, uh, A bigger piece and price size up all your competitors before you even really get into any of any of those products, which is a different thought process, right?

[00:27:52] Yeah, for sure. I think definitely like, I think one of the biggest things is like, I’m like boiling it down to like two or three products [00:28:00] that I’m looking to launch. I think one thing is that people don’t think about and something that I personally been caught of like, wow, man I’m thinking about that as the cost per clicks and specifically, right?

[00:28:13] Because like sometimes you may, everything could be right. Everything could be green. You’re like, this is good. This is good. This is good. Everything checks the box, but then you’ve realized that the cost per clicks in that category is around like $2, $2 50 cents. Like something where it’s like, this is not manageable, especially if you’re starting off in majority of your capital’s just going into drafting your listing and buying the inventory.

[00:28:37] But you still haven’t gotten a return on that those months, capital yet CPCs can really make or break your listing. So I always like to look at, you know, looking at my top 10 keywords, just kinda throw them in a mock campaign, look at what are the suggested bids that Amazon gives me. And then if you even want to go one step further, getting a couple of samples by like maybe like 10 units of samples of each product, actually listing it on Amazon and then advertising it, but doing it at like a high price point.

[00:29:09] You think you’re not really looking like to like have a fully optimized listing, right? You’re not looking to make money. Basically. You’re looking to have impressions and clicks on your product so that you at least get an idea of Amazon’s suggested bids actually correct. Is actually around 80 to a dollar or is it like $3?

[00:29:28] Cause there’s a main competitor. That’s just driving up CPC because they have unlimited budget against yours. And so that’s been. That’s where that happens. Like 20% of the time in my experience where suggested bids are actually a lot lower than it actually is. Like the CPCs are significantly higher than my Amazon’s suggested bids are, but that’s happened like 20 ish percent of the time, but just, just been my experience.

[00:29:53] But that’s something like I’m really want to go one step further. That’s what I was thinking. Well, that you’ve kind of answered in my, my main, last meaty question is, you know, like of course helium 10 your software and other software. I mean, how much can we trust that data versus the real, I mean, you’re kind of answered it by actually making a small sample listing, which is amazing.

[00:30:16] I mean, do you just have a general backup envelope? How much should we, I don’t want to say not trust the data, but you know, how much should we error factors? Should we do like a plus minus range on what are our numbers are showing us? Like how much should we, you know, I don’t know if I’m making sense, but how, you know, like, I don’t want to like say don’t trust the data, but how much should we be?

[00:30:38] No, I get it after intuitive. Yeah. Cause I mean, like, it’s not like when the data is one of the most accurate sources of data on Helium 10 out there, but is it like when we are searching stuff for like 500 minutes of certifying is 500, is it true? 500. No, it just means like, it’s, it’s pretty much around that range.

[00:31:00] And so when we were looking at the data that we collect, really like that’s where historical data will be your friend. When you’re looking at a nation, when you’re looking at your competitors is seeing what kind of trends are there? Is it, is this a keyword. Maybe all of a sudden it’s been averaging around like a couple of hundred search, fine, but it just spiked up to 10,000.

[00:31:21] Now. That’s why it looks like opportunity to me to some, to some individuals. They may see this as this is, this is just to start, like, it’s going to go to a hundred thousand. I want to jump on for others. They may see it as, oh, this is just a fad. Like, I don’t want to jump on a train. I don’t want to jump on it.

[00:31:36] And this already spiked, you know? So like that’s where historical data it’s going to be your friend in that case. I’m looking at a lot of different, not looking at at least like five to 10 competitors and keywords and looking at the historical background of those markets. I recommend if it’s like, especially if it’s your first product, that if it lacks historical data, Based on your comfortability with risk.

[00:32:02] I’d rather, I will suggest not getting into that niche just because you’re going to be waiting around in the dark for most of that time, just trying to understand how to go further in this market. And then the other part, like error, factoring zip in place. I like to, when I’m looking at, obviously I’m one, when they are looking at launching and private label.

[00:32:25] They’re thinking, all right, this is what it could be like. This is the potential, like I could make this amount of money. I can make that much profit. I always like to put in a scenario. Okay. But what does it take for me to break even like, to not lose her money, but just to break even. So if like SOS, I got to break the glass, press the web, but what does it take for me to break even?

[00:32:48] And then I run through that those numbers. Do I reduce my price where I reduced my price to that. What’s it compared to my competitors are my cause. If I’m the more, one of the more expensive listings, competitor competitors, if I reduce my price in it and I just looked like everyone else, you know, then I can’t really liquid it or what I go forward with increasing my ad spend, but keeping my price point and then distract, trying to drive sales through that.

[00:33:14] What I try to do coupons or promotions to liquidate. Just looking at like all the ways you can break even, and just run through your smarts that way. If you do have to do it, you don’t have to figure it out on the fly. Because in that moment, you’re going to make the emotional decisions. That’s going to impact the financial health of your business.

[00:33:34] Whereas before if you prepare, you can make objective decisions of like, look, we already planned for this. Unfortunately, this is happening where it’s just, isn’t our launching, as well as I thought it would. Now we just put in plan B. Right. And could we already have, rather than trying to think of, uh, think of how to make plan B in the moment when you’re frustrated and, um, maybe things aren’t going well, because I think we like to think about.

[00:33:57] The glamor and the appeal of everything, but like, it’s, it’s realistic. Like everything is a risk, right. And that’s something, things don’t go our way, but it’s not a loss, it’s a lesson. Right. And the goal of it is to make not an expensive lesson. Right. And so that’s really, when I look at just break even that’s the goal there. You know, it was not my favorite bar, but when I lived in New York city, there was a bar called Plan B.

[00:34:24] Plan B.

[00:34:27] Plan A bar, you know, meeting the girls or having a fun time didn’t work out. Plan B was like, it was more like a dive bar. It was a dive bar in the lower, lower east side. I don’t know if you know, they’re always like in a basement, you know, it’s like a beer only kind of place called plan B. Yeah. I mean, but it’s true.

[00:34:46] He said we’ll have our plan B and you know, like it’s true. You’re basically we’re investors, right. We lock of course, for entrepreneurs or business owners. You know, but in the end of the day, we’re investing our time, our money into this product is launched and, you know, just like any investment thesis you should have, you know, You got to run the models. Seems very, it’s great. You’re very analytical, which isn’t very important, I think. But yeah, you have your, your a plan a or plan B, you know, so like you said, break the glass in a, pulling the alarm, you know, liquidate, you have that plan. So that’s why also as good with a lower cost investment product.

[00:35:24] Especially when you’re just starting or, or getting into a certain niche is a, is a good strategy. But this has been, man, this has been great. Lem, I really appreciate your insights. Uh, actually we were talking about in our GFA, we have a VIP community called GFA VIP or, or, you know, some people didn’t actually couldn’t believe it, but there was a few people in this group didn’t know, Helium 10.

[00:35:43] So do you want to just maybe mentioned it a little bit more about it. We didn’t dive into too much and we’ll share some waters. Yeah, for sure. Well, I really like the pillars of Helium 10 are truly rooted in and we kind of like, kind of touched upon each of these facets a little bit as we were talking, but the rooted in product research, product validation, keyword research, and listing optimization.

[00:36:09] Right. Which is like, I would say it’s like 80 to 90%. The success of how, what determines your success on Amazon? Others are those forest facets. And while we have probably, we have probably over 20 tools and counting, not only for like, not only for helping launch your business, but helping sustainand scale your business.

[00:36:32] We have tools that are solely meant for growth via tools are solely meant for off-platform marketing efforts outside of Amazon. So have a cause we like to think of the large scheme of things. So like in whatever, whatever scenarios that sellers find themselves in, how can they use Helium 10 in each of these stars?

[00:36:51] And so that’s really where our huge bandwidth of tools here actually in tennis come from. And the opportunities are endless really because the attendance offers so  many different data metrics. That that’s why I said at the beginning of this, that opportunity is not solely reliant on one single metric.

[00:37:07] Like there’s so many different metrics that you can look at depending on whatever your definition opportunity is. And that’s where I think H elium 10 truly embodies the message of being the Amazon sellers all in one sweep of tools for any animal, Amazon seller of any level. And that’s where I really think.

[00:37:28] Helium 10. I’m a Helium 10  fanatic before coming here. Now I just get to be paid to say, instead of date, you know, creepy saying that on my own dime, but yeah, I think it’s a really awesome tool and we have so many like free tools as well. That it’s almost like why not like nothing to lose everything to gain and to get a little taste.

[00:37:50] I think you’re gonna be pleased with what. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we’ve seen it over the years. It’s true. Like you’re definitely investing always in product and tooling and grow and growing the product I’ve seen in myself over the years. We’re also a partner and affiliate. We also have a special offer we’ll link in the show notes, but we’ve had it there.

[00:38:08] We’ll also embed this podcast in that review page where we talk about some of the tools that we’ve used in Global From Asia, a community, which is awesome. But yeah, like you said, even there are even. You know, there’s limited use the course to paid is gets you full access, but you can get by with a free version for photo is getting started, which is awesome too, that you allow people to, you know, get some, get some use even before they have to, to invest, because it’s really appreciated for that.

[00:38:35] And yeah, and I think that’s it. I, I do hope there’s just so much to talk about. I really enjoyed this a lot and you know, just a little bit of background what we’re doing here at the Global From Asia show, we just launched it in January a new program called BLIMP, which is brand licensing improved. And we have four franchisees.

[00:38:54] We call them there, there are different sellers and we’re launching Excalibur brothers brand. This is one product we’re considering it’s a drinking horn. I don’t think we’re going to do it though, but exactly. But the way it works is each seller has their own seller account. And then we, we make the listing on our, our, our brand brand registry and everything.

[00:39:13] And we help launch for a sort of. ASINs with four different sellers. And we are as a brand driving, helping them with the launch and the listing for that. So we have, we’ve been using Helium 10 on our research and reports. And I, I hope, I think we’re going to do, I don’t want to put you on a spot, but I think we’re maybe you or somebody in your team will join us for a session, uh, later soon where we could go through the software and some of the tactics with a screen share and others.

[00:39:43] Yeah, that’d be awesome. Okay, great. Thanks so much, Lem. It’s been a real pleasure of course, Helium 10, but if you want to get our, there is a special deal. And of course it’s an affiliate. We will get a little little share for that, but you also get a special price. It glow information.com/helium 10, and we’ll link up in the show notes and also have this podcast with all the other info.

[00:40:03] So thanks for watching and thanks Lem for your time. And input is really amazing. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. All right. Thank you, Lem for sharing and progress, which is super important, right. Already. You’ve been helping out in the blimp program with the franchisees at Excalibur Brothers, preparing these research reports and, uh, um, it’s very important to know before you invest in the product to know what kind of product you’re going to be selling and knowing the market right.

[00:40:34] Yeah. It’s very crucial, especially when you’re on the stage of choosing products. Yeah. So my favorite thing I learned from this interview with Lim was, um, I forgotten a key word. He called them, it was like product title, density, where the idea is, are people in a competitor list using the exact match phrase of the keyword you’re targeting in their title.

[00:40:58] Right? So if it’s not in their title, Amazon probably will give you more priority in a search because having your key target keyword in the actual title is a high chance to rank. It sounds obvious, but when you think about it, like big picture and you look at those top 10 and Amazon, do they use that exact phrase keyword you’re targeting in their product, um, description, title, product title.

[00:41:28] And some other nuggets there. Uh, I really want to show the screen, but we had to choose because this is an audio podcast, as well as video and most are still watching, listening to this on audio. But, um, we will have the members only screen sharing and talking, and I’m really excited to have, uh, have them on there.

[00:41:49] Also we have a special offer, right? I don’t, I don’t know if you’re ready for sharing that Aubrey, but of course, Helium 10 has given. Listeners or our viewers a special offer that we can link into the show notes. I know you’ve been talking to them as well. Yeah, definitely. Um, they will be, uh, launching a special offers specifically for the China market, but it’s not yet being discussed or they haven’t broadcast it yet.

[00:42:16] There’s also a long-term evergreen offer. We have, if people click our  comedian.com/helium 10, we all have a write of a review. We’ll embed this podcast and we also have, uh, two different choices. If they sign up, they can get a either a couple of different choices with their price. We don’t want to say the exact offer because the price may change.

[00:42:37] So the sooner you get it, probably the better the deal you’ll get. Uh, and of course, just full disclosure, we are an affiliate. So that means we will get a commission button to no extra costs to, to you, a signing up. Actually, if anything, you’ll get a cheaper price than you would if you sign up directly. So it’s a win-win for everybody.

[00:42:54] And, uh, that’s, that’s it also. There’s somenew developments. We got the guest hosts and some new guests coming on. Right. I think you maybe don’t want to share who or when, but that that’s been working out is it seems like finally, yeah, we’re already have few guest in the line and I’m excited to match them with our GFA VIP members.

[00:43:16] So again, if someone is, some of our members are listening here,  if you’re interested, please do message me and I will instantly connect you with him so we can schedule another recording for the podcast. Yeah. And I think the best, of course, there’s a lot of ways to reach you and we chat and others, but it’s, uh, email is vip@globalfromasia.com and that will, that will go great.

[00:43:38] Get assigned to you and you can help take care of those requests. So thanks again, Aubrey. And I think that’s it for today’s show anything else we want to. Um, none so far from on my end. I think our listeners, or viewers would definitely benefit from this content. Definitely. No, this is a good one. And will of course be on the show notes, but we’ll also be on a Helium 10 review page, which you can check out at glutamine.com/helium 10.

[00:44:07] To get more info about running an international business. Please visit our website@wwwdotglobalfromasia.com. That’s www.globalfromasia.com. Also be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.