You are reading 3Bits & Change, Joseph's email about building a direct to consumer business on the internet and other places. Today’s email was written in two parts. The first part was with coffee shop tunes. The second was country via Alexa.
Good morning,
Happy almost February. There are roughly 2 months left to get your ski turns in if you’re in the Midwest. Get at it folks! That’s ~8 weeks. :)
Bit #1 • Testing grocery by way of click interest
I’ve been wondering about grocery interest in the package for sharpening idea. Might there be a way to measure interest in a way a target audience would need to take action?
One test I’ve been running is a Linkedin ad set with a selection of folks that work at specific grocery stores in the audience group.
The first ad:
After three days the click through rate was respectable. It’s capturing attention and action in a click. Check.
Now for a next step. What ideas do you have?
Bit #2 • “You know, I just have to say… Thank you…”
We had a customer come in for the third time last week. She lives in the neighborhood and has been bringing 3-4 knives at a time for a few weeks. She does not want to be without them and has turned down our offer on loaners - so far. She shared the following upon walking in the store and up to the counter:
“You know, I just have to say… Thank you for never shaming me about my knives or making fun of them when I bring them in here. It really means a lot.”
It has me thinking. What portion of the market does not sharpen now for fear of shame or being shamed? Is it 2%? is it 4%? Those are big numbers when the market is 120M households.
What other things do we do that are similar? Buy a car? Put on our clothes? I’m not sure. But the self talk likely goes something like:
Will the sharpener judge me for the condition of my knives? For the type of knife? For the brand I bring in? For the fact that they are so dull? For…
What else comes to your mind for why you might feel shame with regard to your knives?
So, what portion of the market can grow if large numbers of folks are offered the chance to sharpen their knives without the fear of shame as part of the equation. . How could we test that?
Estimates suggest humans are making some 35k decisions a day.
If humans can purchase a package at a grocery store (a place they go regularly) , let us know their address, pack their knives and drop them in the mail, they’ll never have to use their face or face the risk and fear of shame. Oh, and it’ll be so much easier.
Here is a question for you
Many of you have knives, they’re dull, you’ve been following along here and have not ordered sharpening. Help me understand the thinking there.
Bit #3 • Classes
Classes have started. They run Fridays and Saturdays from 3-4:30 at the shop in Wayzata, MN. All the Japanese knives in house are available for use during the class. Think of it as a golf club or ski boot fitting.
More info here.
Change
We’ve learned grocers will click on knife sharpening ads on linkedin. That one, and likely more customers have shame as part of their knife story. And we’re stoked to have classes running at the shop.
On Your Way
It was negative 11 here at 5am this morning. That’s colder than the a cold plunge with a 1/4 ice layer. Limit your exposure. :) Stay safe out there.
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Order kitchen knives sharpened or give the gift of sharp at Vivront.com.