CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2141

Hey *|FNAME|* … Get Some Balls … on Shopify

Hello —

So, it’s football season. Do you like football? I like football. In fact, I’m a fan of two teams. The Minnesota Vikings in the NFL and the Michigan State Spartans is my college team. Some people think that I like the Vikings because of the cool Viking helmets in the logo. Maybe. Who wouldn’t want an iron-age dome-bucket with big horns on it. If I had one of those I would wear it around everywhere — even to kickball and the bowling alley … even the McDonalds drive-through to get my nuggets. And I'd go around saying Viking things like … um … OK, you got me. I have no idea what a Viking would say. But if I had one of those cool helmets I would find out what Vikings said and say those things … because OBVIOUSLY that would be cool.This year the Vikings are off to a rousing start with a perfectly average 3 – 3 record. “Go mediocre or go home” as they say. Actually, no one says that. As far as my college team goes, I have lived in southern Michigan all my life, so I guess it’s genetic. My Dad was a Spartan fan and I liked eating food and living at home as a child which required a certain amount of conformity. But I love it and still go to as many games as I can. And this year they are treating us fans rather well since they are off to a 7 – 0 start. Both of those teams have been around and in my culture for as long as I’ve been alive. It’s kind of cool that way. I’m just grateful that I’m not a Raider fan. They were the Oakland Raiders forever. Then they moved to Los Angeles. Then they moved back to Oakland. And then last year in the middle of hell-year they moved to Las Vegas. They should have changed the team name to the Las Vegas Mercenaries. Can you imagine treating your customers like that? That takes a lot of … um … attitude. On a completely different topic, our newsletter target this week has a LOT of balls. Balls are their business. And not just any balls … no sir! They sell hand-crafted sports balls made the way they used to make them. So let’s get to it before the clock runs out.Happy Selling,Zachary

This Week’s Target: LeatherHeadSports.com

Paul Cunningham started his business as a side hustle back in 2006. He lived in Cooperstown — home of the famous baseball museum — and started hand-stitching baseballs using the specs from the original baseballs in the 1800s. And he actually made a few bucks in the process while earning a living as a photo editor for Major League Baseball. But he had no idea whether he could support himself with it as a “real” business.

Then one day he was trying to grip a official NFL football — affectionately called “The Duke” — and struggled because it is no designed for the average size hand. So he took the skills he picked up handling leather and hand-stitching to create a old-school style football that was a little smaller. This was his breakthrough product, launching the business into the big leagues.

Today he custom manufactures baseballs, footballs, basketballs, medicine balls, rugby balls, and soccer balls — all using hand-crafted techniques form yesteryear. They have been written up in a slew of major publications from GQ and Vanity Fair to the Wall Street Journal. People just LOVE their balls.

The Theme That They Use

I have no idea. As you might imagine, we have fancy black-magic tools for scanning websites. But the one that is supposed to tell me the theme used is telling me that this is NOT a Shopify website. But I can see the Shopify code and the domain is mingling off of a Shopify server. There are 2 possibilities: that they have an evil Druid Wizard casting anti-tech spells against me or that they have code modifications that prevent snooping eyes like mine from learning too much about their business.

I’m thinking evil Druid Wizard.

What They Do Well

They have their messaging down pat. Do NOT dismiss the importance of this. They clearly state that they sell “American-Made Heirloom-Quality Sporting Goods for True Lovers of the Game.” They do not waste any space inconsistent with this message which clearly articulates who they are and who their customers are. There are no ancillary or manipulative messages to get in the way and the rest of their content is consistent with this mission.

The site is clean and fast with a minimum of added apps. [see below]

They collect email address upfront with a good incentive to subscribe. They have been doing it for years. And come the holiday season they will no doubt get a big bounce in sales for the disciplined marketing.

The add to cart function works fast and slides in front he right with customization upsell opportunities and Express Checkout options ready to rock.

Where They Dropped the Ball

Any rumors that Tom Brady has ordered a custom football that deflate by remote control are completely irresponsible and unfounded but fun to think about.

Here’s the deal … I notice that product names, headings, and images are not perfectly responsive. That means that they do not resize consistently when the browser window change size or you go from one mobile phone format to the other. BUT … considering the purity of their marketing and messaging and the lack of direct competition, none of that may be hurting them. Call this the power of passion and and product niche.

The Apps That They Use

  • Springbot — Marketing Automation.

  • Hotjar — User heatmaps and funnels.

  • Omnisend — More marketing automation for customer communications.

  • Quantcast — Demographic targeting.

  • Bugsnag — A too that is getting a LOT of traction to find code bugs in real time.

  • FastClick — First time I’ve seen this … it’s an app to reduce click though time on touch devices like phones and tablets.

  • POWr — Code to create custom photo galleries.

  • PayPal/ShopPay/ApplePay — Express checkout options.

  • DoubleClick — The most popular ad network for retargeting, etc.

That’s only 9 apps folks. Are you paying attention?

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