The Most Underrated Marketing Strategies (feat. Jess Chan)

Dec 13, 2023

Jess Chan, founder of Backbone and retention marketing expert, discusses transitioning from CMO to entrepreneur, the emotional intensity of running an agency, and the journey from agency to product business. She emphasizes the value of failure, long-term growth, and building strong foundations for success. The conversation explores the challenges of entrepreneurship, optimizing for exit in software business, and mastering customer retention marketing through email and SMS.

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Introduction

00:00 • 4min

Navigating Entrepreneurship: The Balancing Act of Risk and Reward

04:00 • 20min

Evolution of a Business: From Agency to Software Company

24:04 • 14min

Mastering Customer Retention Marketing

38:19 • 8min

Maximizing Customer Value through Product Expansion

46:29 • 2min

Acquisition Strategy and Market Opportunities in E-Commerce

48:19 • 3min

Reflection on Career, Family, and Success

51:22 • 4min

Welcome to another episode of the Build In Public Podcast.

Today's episode features Jess Chan, founder of Backbone, a platform designed to streamline email marketing for small eCommerce teams. She is one of the top retention marketing experts, with expertise in retention marketing through email and SMS.

She previously founded Longplay Brands, a full-service retention & lifecycle marketing agency for DTC e-commerce brands. Jess bootstrapped the agency scaling to 7-figures in revenue in the first 18 months.

In this interview, Jess and KP discuss various topics related to entrepreneurship and e-commerce such as:

00:00 Intro
02:18 Inflection Points and Drive to be an Entrepreneur
05:22 Transition from CMO to Entrepreneur
06:49 De-risking the Decision to Become an Entrepreneur
09:18 The Pressure to Succeed and the Importance of Long-Term Thinking
11:00 The Value of Failure and Learning from Mistakes
12:19 The Perception of Risk in Entrepreneurship
15:16 The Emotional Experience of Being an Entrepreneur
17:12 The Importance of Long-Term Growth and Avoiding Short-Term Thinking
19:20 Building Strong Foundations for Long-Term Success
21:21 The Journey from Agency to Product Business
24:21 Discovering the Opportunity for Backbone
28:21 The Emotional Intensity of Running an Agency
30:39 Appreciating the Malleability of Service-Based Businesses
34:41 The Slow Compounding of Software Businesses
35:56 The Role of Agencies and Services in Cash Flow
36:23 Optimizing for Exit vs. Agency Model
42:02 Retention Marketing Strategies
46:33 Mistakes in Email Marketing
48:27 Building a Strong Foundation for Business
51:50 Ideal E-commerce Business to Purchase
55:05 Rapid Fire Round

Build In Public Podcast is an interview show where KP chats with ambitious startup founders, CEOs, and top Internet creators to unpack their stories, insights, and lessons.

Share your thoughts on this episode. Thanks for listening!

Links:
Jess on X: https://twitter.com/jjesschan

Longplay Brands: https://www.longplaybrands.com/

Backbone: https://www.gobackbone.co/
KP on X: https://twitter.com/thisiskp_
KP's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/KarthikPuvvadaKP