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HARRY COMMENTS: We are working with MyPatriotSupply.com in their search for a world-class Director of Ecommerce based in gorgeous Sandpoint, Idaho. Since this role will involve relocation, you can click here to bone up on Sandpoint.
WARNING: Today’s post is long. Frankly, I expect only ~ 5% of my readers to make it all the way to the bottom of this page. But I guarantee you this: 100% of the finalists for this search will read this missive SEVERAL times during their candidacies, and they’ll thank me for my completeness. Just saying.
Now then, regarding the emergency preparedness category, let’s start here:
It’s not crazy to keep supplies on hand in the event of a prolonged power outage. I live in Atlanta, and without getting into a long story about HOW it happened (trust me, it was crazy — but it made sense), nearly two years ago we experienced a very sudden, extremely severe winter storm that pretty much shut down the city for a week.
That’s right. A week.
For nearly a week my family of eight was stranded in our house, unable to get to a grocery store. By the 3rd day we were living on canned goods. By day 4 I took it upon myself to tromp 5 miles through the snow to my local Publix — which had been picked clean except for stuff like 16oz cans of beets and jalapeno peppers. I would have given anything to have had a square meal. My wife and kids felt the same way.
So did our dogs, as luck would have it.
You probably think that with a name like MyPatriotSupply.com, the folks who work at this company are all extreme social conservatives. They’re not. They do, however, value piece of mind, freedom and independence — and that’s this business is about.
If this video resonates with you, then by all means keep reading.
Still with me? Beautiful. Let’s mush on.
Putting my finger on the size of the total addressable market (TAM) for MyPatriotSupply is tricky. I’ve got market research reports for …
- Natural Disaster & Emergency Relief Services in the US
- Baking Mix & Prepared Food Production in the US
- Dried Fruit & Vegetable Snack Production in the US, and …
- Canned Fruit & Vegetable Processing in the US
But here’s the thing:
Whatever numbers I could gin up, they’re pretty much meaningless. During Atlanta’s snowpocalypse, there were 5.49 million people who would have hungrily bought from MyPatriotSupply 1.) had they known of its existence, and 2.) had they been able to take delivery on the product in time to do them any good. It’s like Mark Twain used to say: “When you need a friend, it’s too late to make one.” And during the snowpocalypse, MyPatriotSupply would have been a welcome friend to all Atlantans, all politics aside.
Which brings me to the crux of this job posting:
There’s a big difference between capturing demand and creating demand for a particular product. Like most people, I know when I’m running low on toilet paper, so it’s a relatively straightforward thing for someone like Kimberly-Clark to capture my inelastic demand for it.
But it’s a whole ‘nother thing to sell survival provisions.
Normally, Homer Simpson doesn’t wake up in the morning and say “Today’s the day I’m going to buy 72 hours worth of provisions for a winter storm that may or may not happen this year.” No, that demand must be created — even among people whose natural inclination is to prepare for a rainy day. In that respect, selling survival provisions is like selling insurance.
And there’s interesting money to be made selling insurance.
When selling insurance (aka peace of mind), one can never forget the importance of good old-fashioned salesmanship. That means not only making sure that the right prospects arrive at the top of the funnel, but also that you and your team are leveraging consumer triggers to help prospects buy now. (Why make them wait? They need peace of mind NOW.)
For MyPatriotSupply, we’re looking for a direct response marketer who not only knows the tricks of the trade, but knows the trade itself. We’re looking for a street smart marketer who’s channel agnostic — selling to the customer the way the customer wants to buy.
We want someone who can use the digital marketing trifecta to target consumers in clever ways — such as with related keywords that might drive consumption of survival provisions, such as “Boston weather forecast.”
We are looking for someone who can be Jay Abraham-like in their ability to ask creative business questions such as “When someone creates a customer for themselves, how can MyPatriotSupply piggyback on their marketing efforts? Are there opportunities for MyPatriotSupply to co-market with companies that sell winter coats? Storm windows? Home insulation? Space heaters? Sleeping bags? Are there opportunities to target any of those keywords in Google / Bing / Yahoo?
Other issues you’ll be ask to tease out include …
- What will it take to reactivate dormant customers? Is buying survival provisions a one-and-done proposition? How can the firm extend beyond existing product categories?
- Is it possible to get customers to spend more by offering other products and services? What would those products and services be?
- To compete with MyPatriotSupply, many competitors discount deeply. Is it possible to get the final purchasing merchandise again at full price?
- Amazon and MyPatriotSupply’s other competitors offer free shipping, yet this is extremely expensive. What can be done to limit this proposition?
W.W.M.C.D.?
As my regular readers know, I do 150-200 kickoff calls a year, and I’m a big fan of applying the Shark Tank test to my clients’ business: What Would Mark Cuban Do? Is this a really good business? Would I invest my own money in it?
Here, the answer is YES.
Well run company … Vertically integrated … Principled management … Massive addressable market … Plus I’m not sure I see Amazon invading this space in a major way. Not because it can’t, but because MyPatroitSupply’s customer doesn’t generally want to buy the product from such a mainstream outlet (even though MyPatriotSupply sells its Patriot Pantry brand on Amazon). Generally speaking, patriots want to feel like they’re part of a community — and they can’t feel like that when they’re buying the product in the world’s most mainstream outlet.
Several years ago I did a search for Bodybuilding.com, which has 1 million community members. Sure, these folks could buy their supplements on Amazon. But they don’t. In a sense, it’s less about the product and more about how they feel about themselves because of where they bought it …
I can envision something similar with MyPatriotSupply.
As always, my team and I spent several hours on the phone with My Patriot Supply’s President exploring this opportunity and teasing out exactly what the new Director must do to “win” in the role. Yet for competitive reasons I’m not going to get too granular here.
I’m happy to discuss everything I’ve heard, seen, and researched about those things with qualified candidates. You definitely don’t want to apply without this intel, so let me hook you up.
Simply TEXT [your name + “My Patriot Supply”] to me at (404) 281-2025. Or simply apply online below. Either way, I look forward to chatting with you!
View Harry Joiner’s profile
Responsibilities:
- Driving traffic to internet sites through, search engines, keywords, banner placements and other appropriate placements.
- Working closely with internal and external resources in the development and execution of direct response marketing strategies.
- Establishing a strong web presence, to instill consumer confidence in all channels of distribution.
- Driving overall promotional messaging and creative onsite and through email.
- Email marketing (list development and management, campaign development and implementation, etc.)
- Improving site UX including feature-functionality, user interface, SEO, landing page optimization, effective online merchandising of products and promotions, and overall user experience.
- Managing content strategy, contact strategy, and promotional calendar.
- Oversight of revenue and margin performance and efficient spends for SEO, affiliate, and other customer acquisition efforts. Monitor/analyze marketing programs and make improvements.
- Communication of plans, programs, and results to the management team and board.
- Working with designers and web master to create variants and test pages necessary for A/B testing.
- Monitoring and reporting on the performance of A/B tests.
- Leveraging data to provide insights and propose new testing scenarios.
- Creation of segmentation strategies for email that maximize customer life cycle (increase 2nd order rate, grow email database).
Education & Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in a Marketing or related field.
- Deep knowledge of Ecommerce operations and thorough familiarity with the online space.
- Experience designing online customer experiences.
- Demonstrated competencies in e-commerce technology, supply chain, fulfillment and call center functions.
Required
- MUST HAVE: Expert knowledge of, and background in, direct response marketing theory and techniques.
- Ability to craft and own the company’s digital strategy in all its aspects.
- Passion for direct response digital marketing techniques with an ability to SELL
- Experience managing SEO / SEM / PPC campaigns across Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
- Ability to define and run A/B testing in all digital fields, with strong analytical experience
- Expert knowledge of performance marketing, conversion, and online customer acquisition strategies.
- Ability to define marketing metrics and establish reports to measure successes, opportunities and appropriate action plans based on conclusions.
- Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, work within a marketing team, and work with other departments in a matrix environment.
- Excellent verbal and written skills. Detail oriented. Supportive of co-workers.
- Expert with web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Coremetrics, etc.
- Ability to brief and direct creative and copywriting team to deliver exceptional assets that drive instant response
- Strong understanding in use of website, Landing Page or mini-sites to drive sales and customer acquisition
- Experience in CRM of existing email list and customer database to drive positive UX and customer interaction and sales.
- Ability to contribute and form overarching strategy for social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Blog) and provide basic customer service when necessary
UPDATE: THIS SEARCH IS CLOSED.
