Converting Traffic to Customers with Ammarah Ahmed

The Business Owners Podcast is brought to you by Business Business Business and Annover Group with your hosts, Linda Reed, Annover and Clive Annover. In each episode, we talk to other business owners about their experiences, challenges and successes. We'll also share tips and advice on how to grow your business and achieve your goals. If you're a business owner or you're thinking about starting a business, then the Business Owners Podcast is for you. My name is Clive Annover and along with Linda Reed Annover, I am your host. I am a Business Strategist and I hope you discover the clarity needed to better identify, engage and convert more of your ideal clients. Today I'm having a conversation with Amara Ahmed of Precision Consulting about converting traffic to customers. Hello and welcome, Amara. Hi Clive. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me. That's an absolute pleasure. I'm looking forward to how we can all better convert traffic to customers, because traffic's not really a problem most of the time, but where have I found you geographically? I'm based in Dubai right now. Dubai? Sunshine 364 days of the year? Yes, oh my God, and the summer is already here and it's terrible, it's so hot. What journey took you to Dubai? I grew up in the Middle East, I'm originally from Pakistan, so I grew up in Qatar. I went back to Pakistan for my uni and that's where I lived for a uni that I went ahead and worked there for a couple of years and then I found another gig in Dubai and I moved here about three years ago. So you found a gig in Dubai, I'm presuming that was an employed situation. Yes, yes, I moved here and I started working with a group called the Middle East Internet Group, which is a joint venture between the rocket internet and the MTN and they have a bunch of different companies within the Middle East and I was a consultant for their QCommerce business, so I led their QCommerce business strategy and dark stores for the initial bit and then soon after I joined Thalabat, which is the Middle East leading food delivery app business and so I was leading their growth and sales ops strategy and all of that. Excellent, and at some point I'm gathering that you had an idea to do something else. Yeah, actually that kind of was happening in the parallel. So what happened is earlier in 2021 I started spending a lot of time just mentoring online on this platform called Growth Mentor and before that even like other local platforms and I would spend a lot of time just doing volunteering, mentoring to different founders and startups all across the world and I found that I really enjoyed it. In my career I've worked across a lot of different functions, I started off in data, I moved through commercial and then I moved into like growth and product UX and so when I mentored I mostly focused more on the product UX side and when I was doing those sessions I realized I really enjoyed this and it started off as a side hustle, which was precision consulting and I started off helping people just improve their product UX, wipe away the friction, improve like their conversions, improve their overall revenue streams from their platforms without having to increase ad spends. Earlier last year I decided to go into it full time and that's when I quit my full time job and now I am a full time founder and lead at precision consulting. Well, there you go, good on you. Now you're leaving a corporate role to go out there as an entrepreneur. On this, we know what inspired you to do that but what did it take? What did you notice was hugely different? I, so there were quite a few things, I think A, it was wearing a lot of different hats. Part of it I was used to, although I'd been in like large companies like Deliver Hero and Alibaba, I'd also been in very early age bootstrap startups where I was like fourth member, just founding members so I was used to taking on a lot of different roles but I think what was different is in the start it was taking on all the roles to learning a bunch of like different skills especially when it's your own business, you're going out and you're trying to understand every nitty gritty and I think that was a lot. It was also just learning, I think becoming an individual contributor again after being in that corporate world and being that people manager of like such large teams where you're constantly delegating and learning that behavior and becoming a full time operator. I think that takes a bit of a learning curve fully become somebody who's just like doing everything yourself especially when you go from I think having large teams at your disposal who are just constantly like running things for yourself instead you're just like I am my own assistant and my own analyst and my own writer in my own scheduler and my assistant everything so I think that was a big change and I think the other thing that was different is there was a lot of self-marketing involved that I wasn't like very used to before because it wasn't something that came with my personality I wasn't very used to marketing myself when I was at work where like oh this is what I did like shouting about like the projects that I was doing or the work that I was doing but obviously when you're launching your company and you want people to know about the work that you're doing and you want the clients to know about the sort of success that other clients have had and you're trying to get the word out there this is what you have to do right this is part of the marketing so that was a skill that I really had to push myself to do get out of that introvert bubble and be like you have to speak there is no co-founder that you can be like you be at the front of the house I'll be the back of the house you are all the founders this is it you could be back in the house front of the house everything that to be honest was I think one of the harder skills that I have to like practice and I'm still practicing I think and pushing myself and exercising more and more with these huge changes was there a moment at any time when you thought oh god maybe I made an error here perhaps I should go back absolutely not I'm not saying that there haven't been moments whatever it hasn't gotten frustrating or it hasn't gotten tiring it most definitely has and you do have moments where you're just exhausted and you do feel like oh this is a lot and you do need to pick yourself back out but I think what helps in those moments is to remind myself why I did this in the first place right you got to remind yourself of the why and if the why still stands then the reason to continue still stands and I think if you've done this for the right why the right reasons then you don't really think okay I'm going to quit and go back and for me was very principled reason was very much about creating the sort of space that I could be proud about creating the sort of experience both from a client but also from an employee perspective that I could be proud about that future employees could be proud about I do not want to give up until I have given that a very fair shot and so I will continue to keep striving and I think good work takes time so I just got to keep putting in the work you're running your own business there's plenty of opportunity for that so you're operating in the space of converting more of the traffic essentially but most people in business whether they're doing their own marketing or otherwise generate traffic but frequently they don't do anything about the traffic thinking the traffic is a good thing until they discover that the pennies are only flowing one way what's your experience in that regard plus what's the best time to address traffic I think to be honest generally and that's the sort of what we say is the ideal customer base for us as well is we try to focus more on growth stage companies as well so companies that are looking to maximize conversions and maximize revenue without further increasing their ad spends my goal is to give the small mall, medium enterprises, the shop to be able to increase their earnings and their revenue streams as much as possible because I understand that most of us, we don't come with hundreds of thousands or multi-million dollar budgets, right, that the larger conglomerates do. So we have to ensure that we get every day for our buck and right now most people don't. And we also don't have the resources to have giant teams in house. And quite honestly, we don't need that. What we need is just to have an initial system in place and just some sort of like learnings and experiences about what works and what doesn't work. So I think the most mistakes that people make in businesses today when I do most of the audits is that they're not looking at what happens to the traffic when it's on the website. They're just looking at row-ass, right? My return on ad spend is this, it's three or it's four, it's six, okay, great. Their solution to that is I increase ad spend or I decrease ad spend on this channel. What we do and what I like to do best, honestly, is I like to take each of those reports and go channel by channel and look at what's happening with traffic from each and every one of those channels individually to really understand first of all what sort of quality of traffic is coming from each channel because even though I am not the expert on paid marketing and I will tell you that first off, I will link you to people who are and who can help you better decide how to do that budget. What I can tell you is hey, the traffic that you're getting from this particular channel is not great. I think whatever quality is coming, it's not converting and it's not a friction problem. So I can look at the user journey and I can tell you what's happening on the platform. What I can also tell you is about where you're landing them. Another mistake most people do is that they spend so much on these ads, show people very specific products and then lend them on a generic page with 200 products and then be like, "Oh, why aren't they buying? How do I find the thing that I came here for?" I looked at a very nice shoe or bag or whatever it is that you were selling, sir, and I clicked on it and then you landed me on your homepage or your category page and now you're wondering why I did not purchase. It's because you did not land me on the actual thing that you brought me here for. These are very important things which I think a lot of people don't understand. They're small things and they might seem like common sense to a lot of people hearing, but they meet such a humongous difference and customizing the journey per channel like where each person is coming from, ensuring how many exit points you have and then making sure that is done in an ethical way, not employing dark UX patterns, not trying to trap customers but doing it in a way which just enhances and simplifies their experience. What you want to do is make the journey simple and less complicated. What you do not want to do is trap a customer and give them no exit points. You are not creating an escape room game, you are just creating a simple experience that makes it very easy for somebody to be like, "Check out done." I think that's the other thing that is a big focus for me from a client and also from a customer perspective is the ethical UX and the increase that we see in dark patterns in dark UX today. There's a bunch of different companies, large companies who do employ these patterns. Canceling our subscriptions on them is a humongous hassle to the point where we're just like, "You know what? I give up. Canceling my credit card is easier. I'll just cancel it and they can't charge it." That's not the way to do it because you lose your customer's trust and then they go and leave bad reviews. In today's day and age where all these chat elements are coming up, your clods and your chat TPTs, these reviews are becoming more and more important because they actually give so much weightage to platforms like Reddit and Kora. If you get a bad review, these platforms just tell people that, "Oh, this brand has a terrible perception. Don't buy it." Now, you've already lost your old customer and you're losing your future customer. I think people don't understand that a small thing within your website can have so many repercussions on future buyers and cart buyers and that's the sort of thing that we exist to solve and from all different touch points. I like that a lot that ethical conversion. I think that's absolutely wonderful. I've been promoting that for a lot of years and just be open. People want what you have to be open, explain how it works and indeed I like to explain what the problems could be because if you know what it is, you'll find a way around it or you won't proceed in which case you won't come back with a customer service issue. Absolutely. We dive straight into the business here so let's find out a little bit more about Amaro if we can. Is it sure? Sure. Or something else? It is coffee. Of course it is morning when you are, so you're allowed to have a coffee. Are you an early bird or a night owl or can you do a little bit of both? I am predominantly a night owl. I'm not a huge early bird but I can do it when it's called for it. Funny how business keeps killing you early. I know but it's just been a thing. I think I feel like it's an early bird conspiracy. All the founders and their 5 a.m. books, I do not appreciate it but one redefinition at a time. Hey. What book are you currently reading Amaro and why can't you put it down? I'm actually reading a really good one right now. It's called Road to Tender Hearts. It's a fiction and I can't put it down, I'm only halfway through it right now but it does such an amazing job of mirroring whimsy with dealing with such hard topics but then there's also this cat that talks, it's a really good book, I think people should definitely check it out. There you go. And what is one word you would use to describe your journey so far? Many hats. I'm putting a hyphen in between so that it's one word. Quite right, there are many hats to be worn but that's either overwhelming or a great learning experience, yes. It's both of those, both of those for sure. It's incredibly overwhelming but it's also definitely been a great learning experience. I don't think I've been this much of a student in a very long time. I'm really enjoying it. I'm really enjoying the fact that I am finding myself having to learn so many new things and I have always been a fairly curious person so getting on these new projects, picking up these new skills, getting things right, just different iterations of so many different things and that sense of achievement at the end of finally seeing that craft go up or having that little tick and the task being done, it's great, I'm really enjoying it and also learning things without having to give exams is also just it's great. The no-school part I also quite like. Very good. So along with your journey of many hats, have there been any influential figures in your life or your career that have guided you to where you are? Oh, absolutely. So many people have been incredibly helpful in terms of just sharing their experiences their knowledge and also just I think motivating with the sort of people they are. I think two people that stand out for me is one would be an ex-manager and a really close friend of mine, a kill who's recently actually also started off his own venture and is doing amazing things also in sales, by the way, really cool stuff but he's an absolute sweetheart and I think what I really appreciate about him is just his openness to constantly share his thoughts, his learnings and I think he gets how my brain works and he's always available to help me break it into pieces and discuss those things and he's always open to sharing what worked for him and how do I break that down and stuff like that. The other thing that's been super helpful is also I think it's funny because I found myself finding the reason to do growth mentor on growth mentor while I was mentoring other people but then I actually went back on growth mentor as a mentee and like talked to other mentors who had done a similar thing where they'd shifted from being full-time employees to launching their own companies and talked to them and was just like how was your journey and there were a bunch of them who were so supportive and then I think from a personal motivation perspective I think that would be my mom because she is to me like an enigma because that woman she does not get defined she does not let her age define her possibilities or her wishes whatsoever in terms of her career what she wants to do she used to be like a homeopathic doctor when I was first born she then later on became a licensed acupuncturist now at the age of 50 she randomly decided I'm an empty nest or I've always wanted to be a chef she went to school and got a degree and she did not care that the people around her and the students were like 1920-year-olds he was unfazed by it she was like this is what I want this is what I enjoy I don't care and she went and got a degree and became a certified chef she just does not think that age is a limit or anything is limit there you go and what advice am I would you give to somebody else who's thinking about starting out on the journey of entrepreneurship owning their own business running their own business what advice can you give to them okay so I would say don't be afraid to use the resources available to you and what I mean by that is both so much of which is available online today and also the people around you and and while you're using them just make sure that you're putting in the additional hours in the work you have to do the prioritization for me it wasn't until I truly made it a point to dedicate at least half my weekends to this to dedicate at least four hours a day after work to this that it became a thing before that it was just like more like a hobby that would get picked up here and there but it didn't become something serious and I think that's what happens with most of us is that it's not until our backs against the wall we're totally serious about it that it happens and I think when you tell your friends and when you create that sort of like accountability circle around you that starts pushing you a little bit more because when people keep asking you oh what's happening about that you feel more like you have to do the work to give them updates and that pushes you more and more to do it and also having discussions with the right friends and the right mentors gives you better ideas of where you might be failing where you might want to pivot and don't be afraid I think for me but was the blocker for the longest time was the fear of failure right it was that I had worked for so long and created such a big professional network and I was like I'm at such a big professional level that if I now put my name out there and I start this thing and if this thing eventually does not work out a couple of years down Lane it's going to be such a public failure right do I really want to do that that kind of blocked me for the longest time until I was like it's okay I think so many companies and so many startups fail I think the real failure would be if I just never really gave it a shot that would be the biggest failure on my part so I think that's what I would say is just put it out there put the most whatever version out there and you can edit and fix and improve and do it just don't try to wait for it to get perfect to put it out there that's the other mistake I think I made is I kept trying to like be a perfectionist and try to keep improving before I put it out there breaking news nobody knows about you nobody's coming on day one put it out there and then you can keep working when I started reaching out to like mentors and telling them that hey I want to do this I think that really helped unlock something because that finally gave me permission to be like oh I think I can do this like being able to say that to other people really felt like brought this in a reality right I'm doing this full-time I'm actually going to take this step I'm going to do this so I think that would be my advice to people is get out of your own way talk to people who've done this before and be open about your idea take the constructive criticism work on it with them take the advice that they're giving you and just put out whatever version you have and then just keep iterating afterwards there you go dashed good advice thanks for joining us Amara but before I let you go where can our listeners and our viewers find you you can find me at go precision dot code go precision dot code thanks Amara and to our listeners and our viewers thanks for joining us on the business and his podcast and be sure to join us for our next episode and of course check out the back catalog because there's gems of wisdom just like you've had today from Amara in each of them thanks Amara thank you so much for having me thanks for listening to the business owners podcast we encourage you to connect with us on social media and join our community of business owners at businessbusinessbusiness.com.au