How to collect over 20,000 leads with good personas, referrals, and some free Santana Snacks

Josh: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Josh Ledgard from KickoffLabs here. We are the premier audience growth platform when you need leads. Today on the pod, I'm talking to Victor Macias from Santana snacks. I love this interview because there's so much you can learn and use in your own campaigns. We talked about how they built a strong prelaunch brand, how they got Facebook ads down to 30 cents per lead before they even had a product, how they built a reward system that encourages a strong viral boost and their experience of going on shark tank after having run a successful kickoff labs campaign. While I'm recording this, they're still in the middle of their newest campaign and I'm sure the numbers have only gone up since we discussed them. We'll share them as we get them, but for now, let's dive in and chat with Victor. Thanks for being here.

Victor: I am excited to be here.

Josh: Victor started a new brand called Santana Snacks. They've been running a pre-launch campaign for this brand on kickoff labs, and they've collected over 17,000 email addresses so far.

And they previously run a campaign on kickoff labs as [00:01:00] well, that also has success and a successful Kickstarter. But Victor, before we get into the specific campaigns, I'd love to know a little bit about you.

Victor: I say serial entrepreneur. I was that kid who was five years old selling candy door to door as a way to make money. I've always been doing things on the side. Had a couple of projects before this. Me and a good friend of mine had a keto cookie, so we were the world's first keto cookie. We actually used kickoff labs for that campaign. We raised over six figures on Kickstarter, and we even landed a deal on Shark Tank. So my background is entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and then making better for you snacks.

Josh: That's really awesome. So I wanna talk about that for a second. Your previous campaign, was it smaller than this one? At, on, on the KickoffLabs side of things?

Victor: Yes it was a while back. But yeah, so basically with this I've been able to take what worked and pour gasoline on it, right? So that the other business, we can get into it too, had a good run. In the end, it didn't work out, but I learned a lot and that's this my second swing.

Josh: Cool. Yeah, [00:02:00] I'd love to get into what worked and what, what didn't work. I'm just personally curious, what was the experience like going on Shark Tank? How did they find you? Like how did, how does that all work?

Victor: Oh my goodness. So take all of these heightened emotions, excitement anxiety, and just heighten 'em up to 10. And mix 'em all together. And that's what Shark Tank was. People kept telling us, you guys should be on the show. You guys should be on the show. So one day we decided to go to a casting call. We think we're super early. There's a thousand people in line, Josh. Okay. It's like an American

Idol competition. So we're there and there's sorts of characters. We were there for about 13 hours in the casting call. And what I'll share is we knew they were gonna be exhausted. The producers. So how do we get them excited?

We say, here's why you should not invest in us. And their eyes get all big. We have no baking experience. We have no food experience But here's what we do have. And we had numbers or we had stats, we had traction. And that's what got us on the show

Josh: so you don't need expertise. You just need some traction. Were you working [00:03:00] for the 13 hours? Were you just using that time to figure out what your pitch was gonna be, and then you realized, like you ended up on this pitch of we don't know anything but

Victor: Exactly. We so had, you had about a minute. And this whole time we have cookies and we're trying to find producers that look hungry and we're like, Hey, we're not bribing you, but here's some cookies, So like ahead of time, we've just got time to kill.

And, yeah, so we just focused on honing our pitch. I think it was no more than a minute. And then we pitched the producers and that's what got, at least got our foot in the door.

Josh: Cool. Let's talk about what worked and what didn't work in the context of Renews campaign Santana snacks. So first of all, why don't you give the pitch for Santana snacks, like what it is and what's what's so cool about it.

Victor: so Santana Snacks is a line of clean, organic, premium snacks that are based on the Latino experience. So a lot of first generation Latinos had the experience of seeing like the corn man that would sell like the corn on the corner of the street or the palero, AKA, the ice cream man. And there, [00:04:00] there's these really indulgent snacks, chips with hot sauce Dosti Loco.

So they're very cultural snacks that evoke a sense of nostalgia. But the truth is they're filled a lot of junk, right? Like GMOs, artificial ingredients, refined sugars. I said, how can I take this emotion this snack that we love, but make it clean and make it better for you? And that's the vision.

The vision is sharing this love, this community with the world and doing it in a way that's authentic to those flavors. So that's what's unique about us and that's why we're here. So it's organic, it's gluten-free, it's vegan, and they taste really good.

Josh: Organic gluten-free vegan. But with that what we'd call the us like that comfort food, look to it that people recognize and oh, I remember that. Like I want to eat that. Like it's the, the mac and cheese, but a healthy version of mac and

cheese.

Victor: hundred Exactly. So it's the

flavors, right? We have chili lime and it's coated with flavors. So it's something that

definitely feels indulgent. It's clean junk food.

Josh: Yep. Very cool.[00:05:00] And I assume you've already started producing some of these. Are you waiting for the Kickstarter to produce these, the snacks

Victor: we are. So I have a team that's helping with r and d.

We are currently doing benchtop trials.

So basically does it taste good? What are the flavor profiles? And at the same time we're trying to get into the right contract manufacturer. So something that I realized is, let's assume there's 20 manufacturers. But I wanna do organic. Now there's five manufacturers. Okay I'm small and I don't, I can't do huge runs. Now there's too manufacturers first thing has been taste and we're getting ready to do product trials. Part of the reason why we're doing the Kickstarter.

Josh: Very cool. So let's go back a step. Why did you know you wanted to use Kickoff Labs again? So you used it in the first campaign, like what led you to want to set up a campaign with Kickofflabs this time around?

Victor: The viral component is huge. It's just it's such a game changer, especially if you nail and I can talk about our approach, but if you nail the

messaging, you reach the right people. It makes it so easy to share to the point where [00:06:00] in one week we got over 10,000 email signups,

It was it was happening so fast that I it was it was pretty incredible to see, but that's what I love. I love the viral component and how easy it is to share.

Josh: Very cool. , we love hearing that, obviously. . What so what do you think it is you talked about before, like there were things you learned from the first campaign about what worked and what didn't work. So what are some of the things that didn't work, promoting the first campaign that you tried to avoid with this campaign to start collecting the email list?

Victor: I think what's different, or I guess what's better this time is I'm crystal clear on my target market now. In the past, It was a keto cookie, so we could say anybody that's interested in keto, but it was still broad here. My target market is me, first generation Latino, or child of immigrants, right?

So even in our targeting, the first of all, the product that we created was based on surveys. So it wasn't just me

making assumptions, right? I surveyed like over 150 people, what are they interested in? And I reverse engineered the product.

Josh: So when you say you did the [00:07:00] survey and you got 150 people like. Did you use a different tool for the survey? Like how did you find the 150 people? Because I find people often struggle with even that step of how do I find the 150 people? So I think

The first thing you did, which is great, which is like you had a really specific idea of a persona. You're like, the persona is me. It's first generation, it's people who are into this food. It's like you, you really nailed like a smaller persona. So I think that's a great first step. But then knowing that, how did you validate that with 150 surveys

Victor: Yeah frankly, one of the blessings of growing up Latino is that you have a ton of cousins, and a ton of family. So it was going to family parties. It was also asking at the university that I consult with and just looking at, if I went to concerts, I would just be asking, and these were, at first they were very open-ended questions.

I wanted

to let people talk. I wanted to see what themes emerged. Then it became more specific of say, okay, so you're interested in clean, better snacks. Great. Here are six [00:08:00] different categories of snacks. Vote that I'm looking at. Data. Okay. So interesting chips. Alright, chips come up.

I was actually interested, gonna make a different snack, but chips were just so profound in the results that I went that

way. Then we do flavor profiles, then we do pricing, right? Then we do I wanna under understand what music they listen to. So all of this was the foundation. That helped with messaging. It helped

with prizes, and it also helped with ads and targeting.

Josh: What I want to make sure people hear from what you're saying is that you're not doing the surveys going around to people saying yay or nay, should I create a clean snack food company? Because you'll just get a bunch of junk responses, even if you're asking it open-ended, people are like, yeah, I love clean snack foods, or like this.

You're getting much more specific. You're saying, are you interested, yes or no in clean snacks. You are interested? Are you interested in chips or cookies or I assume like you listed a bunch of options to make people choose and force them to be like, what is the most interesting to you?

And [00:09:00] then eat down, like you said, to the flavor profile of okay, so what kind of flavors. Are interested. So you're not caring, like you're not asking oh sh should I do this? Which most people would be like either, yeah, it's a great idea or no, but like you can't trust like that it's a good idea or not.

Like you're getting specific, is there a market for this specific product that I'm surveying you about and understanding are people interested in that out of these questions?

Victor: a hundred percent. I didn't want to lead the witness. I wanted them to tell me what they wanted and then create what they wanted.

Josh: Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's the thing that some people miss is they'll either lead the witness or they'll be way, way too broad about a product idea. And then it becomes really hard to message and target, as you said, like you used all this information to develop the messaging on the page.

I'm curious then, so what was your next step after you did this initial surveying and you came up with this information, what did you do next?

Victor: Yeah. So step one is knowing that step two is, okay, so we understand the problem. Now let's work on creating a solution. So that's where I started working with the team with r and d. Some of these are some of [00:10:00] the relationships I had back with the cookie company. and started working on some concepts for flavors, right?

And I would keep going back to my target market and ask them, I think a big part of what worked in the past and what works now is that I'm bringing people along the journey. So even on our social, I'm doing weekly updates. Hey, here's what I learned. Oh my gosh, I got this flavor and it sucks, right?

Like just being very transparent, very authentic about this whole journey. And it became about creating it. But The pre-launch, I think is one of the things that most entrepreneurs miss, right? So many times, and I've done that in the past you build this business and you say, all right, world, here I am, and crickets, nothing. So before I, I went all in. I wanted to test demand, okay? So I have the assumption that it's gonna be a chip. I'm working with r and d to come up with flavors. Then I start creating some concepts. What are the bags gonna look like?

Who am talking to? and what I did differently than in the past also is the first round what you [00:11:00] can do. I bootstrapped as much as I could. I wrote the copy. I did a lot of the design, or me and my

business partner. This time I worked with a, like a very good copywriter just because now I understand the value of it

and I worked with a great designer, so I wanted it to be very polished. And it all became about the pre-launch, which we can go in deeper, but I wanted

To make sure that I had a concept before I, I move forward.

Josh: . Yeah, so I was gonna ask about that. I was gonna ask about if you can get into detail about the copy and the design. So I'm looking at the site which we'll share which we'll share links to, obviously, and some pictures of the design with this episode. But just to describe it verbally on the left side of the page, I'm looking at two different flavors that you're showing, like a sea salt chip bag and a chili and lime chip bag.

And then the copy says Discover more at first crunch. Who says you have to give up Favorite

Victor: Tohis. Yeah. Yep.

Josh: Antojitos to be healthy? Indulging clean organic snacks that [00:12:00] satisfy your craving and fuel your fuego. Choose Salud with Santana snacks. Sign up for free samples. And what I'm gathering from the copy, and I'm just gonna make a couple of assumptions here and you can tell me if I'm right or wrong.

What I'm gathering the copy is you mix in some Spanish with, at least in the English version, there is a Spanish version as well. So there's an indicator at the top of the button I would say, that says Version and Espanol. And so that clearly indicates that like you're going after a Latino market to me.

But then the second thing you do to maybe narrow the market down even further, which would say oh, like I might look at it and say, oh, like I'm not the market for it. Is you're mixing in the Spanish words and you'd say 'cause I didn't even know how to pronounce it, Titos in, in your copy, but like your target market, right?

They're obviously gonna, they're obviously gonna read that and it's gonna resonate with them even if they read the English version and be like, oh, this is for, this is really written for us. And so obviously are those choices intentional,

Victor: They were, oh yeah. And I gotta be honest, I was really nervous to, to do that at first because Like in the big picture, [00:13:00] this brand is inclusive, right? So I, I wanna take this cultural aspect and share it with the world, right? But in marketing, one thing that I learned is, you need to be very clear. So I was I forgot what, but I think it, it's called a, almost like an allergen.

And an allergen is, you want somebody to look at it and know it's for me right away. And it, it removes any vagueness from the process. So even our ads, they have a little dash of Spanish

and all that. It's almost like a, if you come across it, this is me, like I,

First generation, a lot of us speak, it's called Spanglish. It's a mix of

English and Spanish, and that's our lead acquisition costs are insane. They're like 30 cents. Like we're getting insane lead acquisition costs, and it's because we are targeting the right people with the right interest, with the right offer, with the right messaging.

Josh: No, and I think that's, I think that's really key. Like I tell people all the time you're much better off if you're landing page and the copy [00:14:00] on the page both has a target, but then also. It clearly shows it clearly. If you look at it, you know that like you might know it's not for you, like the, so you don't want the wrong people signing up.

'cause the worst thing you can do is build a list with all of the wrong people signing up. Because then ultimately when you guys go for sale or that you launch the Kickstarter, like you're gonna have a really low conversion rate at the list. But like you're doing everything you can to make sure that, like that person, that first generation.

Is signing up that they know it, it's for them, but not maybe for other people. And some people will say oh, it's just it's just snack food. Like I could have anybody buy it. It's yeah, of course you could have, anybody could walk in and buy and buy this food, but it's not your strongest customers.

And especially when you're launching a new business, you wanna find those like strongest customers. Am I right?

Victor: A hundred percent the early adopters. That's what it is. And yes, people are gonna, everybody's Mexican food, if you think about it, right? But with this, especially being young and scrappy, who is our influencer, the one that's gonna drive the

the one that's gonna spread the word, our [00:15:00] evangelists. And we're talking directly to them.

Josh: And so I think that's a good point. That's something for people to think about when they're coming up with their customer personas. Don't just come up with, a general customer persona, but the persona of somebody who is potentially your influencer when you're coming up with a launch campaign because you wanna.

Make sure you're really nailing that person that's gonna go out and be able to have, tell their cousins, tell their friends. Hey, this is neat. Like I tried this and it's really good because when you launch and they have some and they're trying it, you wanna make sure you're sharing it with people that like are connected to five more of your target audience.

Victor: A percent. A

Josh: Um. Cool. And then the design obviously is really strong. I looked at this and I said, like I said wow, they really customized the kickoff Labs page. In fact, I thought it was a custom page at first when I looked at it. But you guys did stick within the kickoff labs page and built it.

Did you have a designer do that for you guys?

Victor: I, I do, I did. And part of the prerequisite for getting this designer was that they could work with kickoff labs I just, I wanted it to be as streamlined as possible, but I also

wanted it to be very [00:16:00] polished because it's the first impression people have of the brand.

And just as the coffee, like I mentioned, has a sprinkles of Spanish, the colors are there for a reason.

The bags are

designed in a way for a reason, I wanted to make that first impact really I guess impactful.

Josh: . How did you find the person to do the design?

I found this designer on 99 Designs.

Nine. Nine

designs. Okay. Have you had luck with using ninety nine designs or other design services in the past?

Victor: I have, I've

Josh: you, for other

Victor: I've used Upwork. I've, yeah I've used even fiber for some projects. So I'm really big on just outsourcing as much as possible. Something that I did do differently and better this time is I focused a lot on the fundamentals, so I have a brand strategy guide. I have brand guidelines, so a and I work with a different designer for that, somebody that understood my target market

so that when I outsource to other people they all, it's almost like the architecture has been designed and now other people can come and do the [00:17:00] construction. So it, it improves the quality of design and the alignment with the brand.

Josh: Cool. So you mentioned you mentioned through this in the copy, you said even in our ads we're mixing in the Spanish words and the ads. Can we I'd love to talk now about like how you're using advertising to promote this campaign.

Victor: Oh yeah. We started first with word of mouth, right? Our existing network, and that started to spread the word. But it wasn't until we started running ads that it exploded in popularity. So we're doing Facebook and we're doing Instagram. We tested a lot of different audiences.

Actually we tested a Spanish only campaign. It didn't perform like we expected. I think that there's some tweaks to do. But because we're on a timeline, there was some segments that just exploded and took off, and we just decided to focus on that. So that was on our ads, what's really helped, and interestingly enough, my assumption is after all of the iOS updates, that ads were not gonna work as well.

That the ads, if anything, we're gonna perform worse than when I ran the campaign last time.[00:18:00]

But what's helping is we're doing broad. It's funny, it's like a. We're talking about being specific, and now I'm talking about being broad, but broad in this sense, I'm targeting people based on their interests.

What's the media that they like? What's the music that they listen to? It's more simple if I'm talking targeting a Latino, because guess what? If you live in the US and you like certain music, chances are you're in my target market. So by doing that I've come across just some segments that are just very engaged. Our conversion rate is, It's pretty insane. So yeah, so that's what we've been doing with ads.

Josh: I think the point here that I'm hearing is like the ads that are working for you guys are figuring out the right audience by using your persona, but not using maybe the parts of the persona you would assume of oh, people that have an interest in like food or a foodie or like some, like healthy eating or something like that.

You found is there's this other characteristic that you were asking in the surveys about what music you like and you just knew personally is okay, here's people in my community listen to this [00:19:00] music.

So you went after that as your way to get around the harder targeting problems that Facebook has now since the iOS updates. And you're saying as a proxy for my customers, this other trait that I, I'm pretty certain about can find the customers that will like this product is what you're doing.

Victor: A hundred percent and I've actually tested healthy eating and it does okay, but not nothing compared to that other element, the other proxy, like you mentioned.

Josh: And I'm just curious on the specifics, on the type of ads, are you running like video ads to people, like with the music in the video ads since you mentioning people that like the music? Or are you running just static ads or carousels? What types of ads are working the best for you guys today?

Victor: Yeah it's a simple static ad. So we tried different images. What works best are images with high contrast. So like a life blue background with a bright red something where it pops. The ads have been super simple. It's really the copy. So it's the copy again, speaks directly.

We use the word [00:20:00] antojitos. We use the word salud, which means health.

We use the word fuego. So it's just these little things where you'll click because, and then the page aligns with it, and that's why our conversions are high. As we start to get more samples I do want to throw in more UGCI think that'll work very well.

But for now it's just, it's been pretty simple in terms of how

we've these out.

Josh: Cool. So you're not, so it really is just like a simple static images with like bright copy that aligns with the messages that are on the landing page that we read already. So you're taking some of that copy, reusing it in the ads and then, and that this is the point people miss too, is like the ads are well aligned with the landing page.

And I assume as you test messages in the ads, then you're updating the copy on the landing page maybe as well as you go.

Victor: E Exactly. And. It also it's a call to action. So our, we're offering people free samples, right? So if they click, they can get samples. Now on the backend, they do have to work for it a little bit. They have to share

And spread the word with a [00:21:00] certain amount of people, and then they get samples. After that, they get like a swag bag, they get merch. So it's a combination of that with the right offer. So who doesn't want free chips within our target markets? That's why it's working as well.

Josh: Cool. And I do wanna get to that. I want to talk about the sharing and the rewards and the samples part of the campaign. Aside from friends and family talked about are there any other types of promotion at the top of the funnel you're doing that you feel has worked really well for this campaign?

Victor: I'd say, those are the main, we are. In the process of doing PR outreach. So our Kickstarter is gonna launch pretty soon. I've scheduled a couple of interviews with some like business journals. So I'm taking the entrepreneurship side. I'm also taking the organic side, so it's pr. We're also doing outreach to influencers. So we had an event. So if you're familiar, are, have you ever heard of a quinceanera? Do you know what that is? Okay, so what some women are doing now is called So basically when they turn 30, they're throwing another party for themselves. [00:22:00] and I had an opportunity to be a sponsor, so be a Padrino. And there was a lot of influencers and this whole s is being documented and it's gonna be on a pretty big platform. I've done that. I haven't seen the ROI on it yet. That's more of a long play. But I am doing multi-channels. The mistake I made in the past was I would just do one.

I would say, we're gonna do

ads and then what happens? Ads mess up. Everything stops. So we have multiple

things happening at the same time.

Josh: Cool. So you are testing other channels. Sounds like some influencer marketing, trying to align with some of like events going on. And so now let's get into the rewards. So when I sign up for the campaign, I'm on the wait list to know when they're available or when the Kickstarter's available. And you're saying, tell friends and connect, tell friends Four points, secret, bigger discounts.

And when I look at the rewards, I could earn, if I. I get a friend, I get like some stickers. I can get five friends, I can get free samples at 10. I can get free shipping at 25. I gotta buy one, get one free, and at 30 I get [00:23:00] this swag bag. How did you decide on the reward level? Did you pick a budget and you said here's our budget for. For rewards and then work backwards in the budget? Or is there some other method to what you did for figuring out, five was the level for free samples, 10 is for free shipping.

Like how did you figure out what those rewards would be?

Victor: Yeah. So I was actually pretty methodical about it. I initially, my budget was a dollar per lead. So I'm

willing to pay a dollar per lead. So I looked at some of the cost structure. Okay, so if I am to, to ship free samples on average, how much is shipping gonna cost? Okay. And break that down. Okay.

If I get five leads, then I break even right on this. The stickers were a way to get people an early win.

As I played with different reward ideas, I wanted to make sure that the rewards aligned with the brand. So I didn't want people to sign up just because they wanted a free iPad and didn't care about the brand, right?

So if you're willing to share because you want free shipping it means that you're potentially gonna become a customer. So I made sure [00:24:00] that, so that, that's how I thought about the rewards.

Josh: And you're following the best practices. We always, we suggest to people, which is having an early win. So having something that like feels achievable to people. Because if you started at 25 and you're like, get 25 friends, like most of us would be like. I'm out. I can't get 25 people to do anything. The 25 is really reserved for people who are, if somebody hits that, you're probably gonna do some other outreach with them.

'cause they probably are an influencer most people stop at like the two or three, like that's like. Where you get the sweet spot of anybody can get two or three people to sign up with a little bit of effort.

You can get five people to sign up. Which is why I think is probably where you hit the line for the free samples. But you did do that cost analysis too, which I think is valuable.

That's a great way of looking at it. And then, like you said at the end, just to repeat it, lining it up with your brand, like there's nothing on your rewards where I would look at and be like, if I wasn't interested in the chips, like there's like nothing in your rewards. Oh God, I like, why would I do this?

And then you stuck with you stuck with some pretty simple calls to action afterwards. So [00:25:00] you know hey, check out the invitation in your inbox and then spread the word with some sharing links.

You're not using, I think the only other action that you have that's not about sharing is sign up for text alerts. So when I click that, then I get asked to put my phone number in. I'm curious what do you see as the opt-in for the text alerts there?

Victor: Yes. Yeah. So honestly, some of that was just time in terms of launching I. If I'm to do it again, I want to give points for that. So it, it would be

two or three points if they add their phone number it's just become a, an energy focus. But

interestingly enough, just I, and I was listening to one of the podcasts you had and somebody said just by having the text option in there, people signed up and people have like just having it there. No other incentive is getting people

to sign up, which is further indicator. Of interest.

My thing here was I wanted to keep it simple. Something also that's helped is I have a nurture sequence that goes out. So if you [00:26:00] sign up, initial right away you get an email and I've connected Klaviyo to it.

So you get an email, it thanks you, but it also starts to tell the story of the brand. there, besides the thank you email, there's three more emails that go out. and

they're all designed to bring you back to the share page. I've even embedded a video at the bottom of every email that shows me going through and sharing a link to make it

right. I wanna remove friction. I wanna make it easy, and that's what's worked.

Josh: . Yeah. And you're on the right path there. I'm sure you might've heard, 'cause you said you've listened to some of the podcasts. Like even we've had people that have done Kickstarter campaigns and people have even sent out as part of their nurture sequence, an introduction to Kickstarter, like telling people like

Here's what Kickstarter is like, and they're actually just doing a help video for Kickstarter, really, but like focused on their brand. Like you're buying this in advance. You don't get the product until we ship or you get your refund. And they walk them through the process of what it's like to be on Kickstarter.

And so I do think there's a lot of value and the more you can do to educate people along the way. 'cause most people are not [00:27:00] influencers, most people are not brand connected online. And so there's a lot of value in providing that educational material. And I did notice that when I signed up, I got the the email.

'cause you say welcome to our, and you keep it on message. Welcome to our community ad. and Gra for signing, you're keeping the Spanglish going throughout the throughout the newsletter that comes here. And like you said, there's a link. Back to the rewards page, and then there's the How to Earn rewards, watch the video which goes through.

And the video is like you're using Loo, you just used Loom to host

There, so there's nothing really special about the video that anybody else can't do. There do you have stats from Loom?

Victor: Yeah I haven't checked, I haven't I'm sure I do have stats from Loom. I haven't checked. I'm debating between Loom and YouTube, just because some people it seems cause friction. It's, I don't know. I've just heard a few people saying that they had trouble watching the video, so maybe I'll test

YouTube. One thing that we're actually doing, we launched yesterday, is we're starting our sequence for the Kickstarter.

So email one is about announcing it, and then you brought up the [00:28:00] Kickstarter, how to video. Next week I'm gonna be doing one, so I'm actually gonna be doing the thing.

You're walking them through. People are gonna have questions, wait, I'm paying you up front for something I've never tasted, and I'm not getting it until a couple months later. So I have to address all these objections upfront and that's how I'm gonna

do it.

Josh: absolutely. Yeah. I think that's smart to go ahead and address the objections. So what other types of content are you including in the nurture sequence? So like you mentioned the video, you mentioned the how to Kickstarter, and this is the other question that people give us is, if this campaign lasts for more than a couple weeks, what should I be communicating to people along the way? So you teased it a little bit. You said you're telling the brand story. So what does that mean for you into telling the brand story over a series of emails?

Victor: It's really about the, it's about the why. 'cause in the end, I'm selling chips and people haven't tried these chips.

So all there is tell is the, is to connect with the heart, right? Let's connect with the heart. So what prompted it? What does the word Santana means? Actually I live in [00:29:00] the city of Santa Ana, but if you Grew up here. It was Santana, which is like a feeling of this is ours, right? It's our community. So I'm sharing all that, even with the videos that are going out now. It's all videos that kind of, it's actually what our Kickstarter video's gonna be, but snippets I'm re-recording them, but they're snippets and just walking people through that whole journey. I want to show my face so that people can build trust. I'm sending 'em to my socials and on my socials, it's .it's very, I try not to be too polished on purpose. It's very

like, Hey guys, it's me outside of a coffee shop. I just found this out. Oh my gosh, what are we gonna do? Let's do this together.

And so it's that authenticity that I try to communicate. And that's what's helpful. Okay.

Josh: So this is an interesting question. It's not totally related to the Kickoff Labs campaign or the Kickstarter. 'cause I've just seen this debate recently about the value of personal brands versus brand brands. And I think you've got . When I go to Santana, when I go to the website, the launch site, and I go to, [00:30:00] and I look at it, it's a really strong brand.

We've talked about all the things you've done, like you clearly have brand guidelines. You clearly have thought through all of this. And there's a really strong brand. Your face is not on the site specifically when you first go there. Obviously then you're doing some videos and you mentioned on social, so are these socials, are they listed as Victor's social media account, or is it Santana Snack social media account?

So how are you labeling slash you know, are you on more on the personal side where it's all about Victor or is it Victor is just a mouthpiece for Santana snacks.

Victor: Yeah, so it's on the on the Santana Snacks Instagram. and it's more of I'm jumping in, oh, quick update from Victor right here. Here's where I'm at. Even on our landing page there is my picture, but it's, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom, right? So it's not like I'm not at the forefront because people don't know me yet.

So

once they've engaged, then I can jump in and say hi, when I think back to our cookie company, what really worked and the feedback [00:31:00] we got was that we were just two guys figuring this out. And we were very transparent

to the point where people could choose between three or four different cookie companies and they would choose us because of the connection we had. And I feel like

that's one of, one of our assets even in this brand, the community, right? We are the community, so let's connect. And that's why I think showing your face is important.

Josh: Yeah. So it's under the brand account, but you are trying to make sure that like you form a connection to the community personally, is how you would describe it. Yeah, that's, that's how I would recommend people do it. But people say, oh, it should all be under like a personal account because social media sites will reward Victor's Instagram account over a Santana snacks Instagram account, like when they're talking about promoting it or just algorithmically in the feed.

So I was curious how you approach that with a newer product launch that you're doing.

Victor: Yeah, just updates. Very informal, very authentic is my approach.

Josh: Cool. Yeah, I think that's probably, it's probably right for the for a new company. And also just something else that [00:32:00] people. Struggle with is the confidence to go out there as a new company and to be honest about where you're at. Hey, this is where we're at. We don't have a product yet.

We're building this. 'cause some people wanna project like a big company image without realizing that. I think you can use that as a strength, as a small company is you are not the big company. Like you are not, Doritos.

There is a person and a face and a story behind it that you can tell. That's not gonna come through in a Doritos Super Bowl ad.

Victor: A hundred percent. I think that vulnerability is a strength. If we're gonna get a little philosophical, ryan Holiday Ego is the enemy, one of my favorite books. And it's about so many times, it's just we're scared. We wanna be perceived a certain way that we project or pretend.

And I've found that it takes more courage to say that you are scared or that you're anxious, or that you don't know. And that's when you connect with people on an emotional level. It isn't easy to do. Sometimes I do get nervous. I do feel like I wanna throw up before I post a video but in, but it's worked out in the end.[00:33:00]

Josh: . Yeah. Same here. When I started doing the podcast and to this day, like I hit publish, I'm like, oh, I wish I hadn't said that . Or I wish I'd said it a different way. And it's a challenge regularly. Cool. So the last question I always ask is there are.

Tips you would give to somebody else thinking about like launching a similar product, maybe a food brand or a Kickstarter in a similar space. Doesn't have to be a competitor of yours and giving them advice, what haven't we talked about that you think is important for people to know about the process?

Victor: I think That, it's gonna sound cliche, but it really is about fundamentals. And for the longest time, I didn't believe that. I said, I thought, oh, there's a secret, there's a secret, there's a hack, there's a this, there's a that. But if I look at what's working is I know my target market. I know them, and I've surveyed them.

I know what the problem is. I am creating a solution that's aligned with them. I'm reaching out to them in the right platforms. It's just This intersection of these three or four things, there's a trend better for you. Snacks. [00:34:00] There's also a trend in first generation Latinos that just the demographic of purchasing power is exploding. So there's this intersection and that's what causes the growth, right? So it's not about the fancy about the sizzle it's about fundamentals and being clear

on who customer is and serving.

Josh: You are intentionally leveraging a trend. There's a fancy, like a trend around like healthier eating, like thinking more about GMOs versus non-GMOs, like that is a trend. You are connected to that trend, but you're not trying to go after oh, we're everything to everyone in that trend.

You're being very targeted and saying no, it's that trend plus the trend of my community. And that spending power and the amplification of that working with each other to propel the growth that you're seeing so far.

Victor: Exactly. You take that, you throw a little bit of digital marketing expertise, and there you go.

Josh: Cool. Victor, it's been great chatting with you. I feel like I've learned a lot and relearned some things listening to your answers. And I know people following the podcast [00:35:00] are gonna learn a ton from this interview. So thank you for spending the time and.

I wish you the best of luck with the rest of the campaign, and I hope to be able to post an update when you guys have blown your Kickstarter goals away and I can get myself some

chips even if I'm not in your target market,

Victor: You are gonna love them, man. Thanks Josh. I'm a fan and I've been a fan of Kickoff Labs, so I'm honored to be on today.

Josh: Cool. Thank you.

Victor: Take care.