The Most Underrated Marketing Strategies (feat. Jess Chan)

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