# 56 • Amy from Boston
A key messaging rock. A nudge toward word-of-mouth at scale. Holiday gift options.
You are reading 3Bits & Change, Joseph's email about building a business on the internet with a bricks and mortar. Today’s email was written to the quiet sounds of a keyboard at work.
Good day,
“I’m [Amy] from Boston],” she said. I was turned toward the shipping computer at the time and did not see her walk in the front door. “Are you the owner?” she asked, before I could turn my head to greet her.
Amy is the first customer from out-of-state to also shop the bricks and mortar Vivront store. I had dreamt of this day when I signed the lease. Could the internet drive the web and the web drive the internet, I wondered? In this case, yes. It turns out she learned about the shop from a friend of mine whom she used to work with over a decade ago (thanks social media). She sharpened her knives by mail a few weeks ago and was intown to see family. Her holiday gift to a family member? Sharp knives.
Here are three things to take away from our exchange.
Bit #1 • Mail Knives. It’s normal.
I asked Amy how she heard of us. She shared my friend’s name. I asked how the process went and she mentioned bringing them to the post office and telling the attendant there were knives in the package. She said, “The attendant acted like it was nothing. No big deal.”
This is a key hurdle to overcome. You can mail knives. Contrary to what Americans seem to beleive, the USPS does not bat an eye when you mail knives. They are not considered “hazardous” when packed to USPS specs as we do at Vivront.
This is old hat to us. We’re mailing knives every day. Our favorite USPS attendant certainly knows we’re mailing knives and he wants to talk about the Vikings, not what’s in the package. Vivront’s packaging meets and exceeds the USPS guidelines so and it’s no big deal. yet, customers have not read such guidelines, ever, and if they have they did not read ‘em recently.
So, how do we normalize mailing knives? How can we make it not “feel” wrong? My mind goes to some postal authority saying as much on video. And then we can put it everywhere. :) We’re open to other ideas. Go.
Bit #2 • Influence Efficacy
This is a word-of-mouth business in the local environment. We hear iterations on this theme over and over. It goes something like, “I’ll send my [family member] over, they’re going to love this.” When [family member] comes, they love it. :)
How do we scale word-of-mouth online? I think it’s one of the secrets to scaling this business faster. So, we need trusted references to speak from their personal experience. That stands the chance to more efficiently influence others to purchase We think so… we hope so.
We’ve tried influencer ad reads with meh results. People did order as soon as the ad was served. However, the orders trailed off fast. Further, we did not break even - not even close.
So… what if:
We had an integrated segment sponsorship on a show
With a trusted source?
On a recurring basis so the impressions did not all run in a weekend but over time
And we added a clear call to action?
Example: The free knife offer went well with 8000 neighbors. We gave 100 away in 2.5 weeks. Can you say free peeler? I think we can. What if we give a free peeler to the first 100 people to use XYZ code?
I’m within a few days of signing a three month influencer/media deal. We’ll have to sell 300 orders to break even. Shout at me if you can think of a better way to get the word out to grow the mail order side of the biz.
Bit #3 • Prepaid Packaging
Now we have a seasonal product: Prepaid Packaging. Amy did not know about it because I’ve not been talking about it. Oops!
They work like this:
We pack ‘em with instructions and a unique code that makes your recipient’s order free when they order at vivront.com/package
We ship the physical box to you so you can give it as a gift
Your recipient follows the instructions to get their knives sharpened through the mail, for free
It’s a unique gift. Order here by the 19th, unless you want to push it and get a thrill from cutting your shipping times closer than that this time of year. :)
Other Sharpening products:
Order online - 3 way shipping
Retail partner packaging (Who do you know in retail grocery or like business?)
Drop-off at my house - for neighbors only - text me :)
Gift Cards work for all of the above. Available digitally or physically from the physical store. Email me if you’d like a physical gift card (Thanks the nudge Dave)
Sum
The internet drives the store. The store drives the internet. Now… we need more scale. Does it come from for-profit partnerships? Does it come from not-for-profit partnerships? Does it come from unique and specific paid media? Not sure.
Where ever it comes from, the product list is growing and gift options are in the mix. Let us know if they can help you this time of year.
Change
We’ve started the process of reaching out to the shop’s local school district. So far we’ve learned support will need to be provided school by school. That’s going to take more time than anticipated
Our original partner district is going to be sharpening 6 of their schools kitchen knives over the holiday break
Convincing parents to fill out applications for meal support is the top challenge reported among programs in a study completed in October of this year. Who wants to raise their hand and say “I’m poor?”
5 chefs at a local sushi restaurant are going to have an amazing holiday gift! They arrive later this week! Let us know if you’d like gifts for your team. Move fast. Let’s get the order in by Friday the 16th at noon. Just two days away
On Your Way
It has been cloudy and misty around the lake today. The duck population is an 1/8th of what it was two weeks ago. While I’ve welcomed it being 30 degrees warmer than it was last week I’m missing some rays of sun. Hope it’s sunny where you are and if not I hope it’s sunny soon.
Follow Vivront.com on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
Follow @josephrueter on Instagram or Linkedin.
Order kitchen knives sharpened or give the gift of sharp at Vivront.com.