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Jonny Blaze Clothing...back once again!

Jonny Blaze

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Aug 18, 2016
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Hey everybody!
I cannot explain how much help this forum has been, I'm not that active in it but that's just me. I read a lot of the posts on here and man is that ice cream good.

So here's where I am at currently:
I had a falling out with my partner, I'm not doing business with him anymore and we decided to split and I got sole ownership of the company. I have full creative control and know exactly where I want to go with it. I took down almost all of my other products on my website mainly because were sold out and I don't plan on reordering (no point in keeping it up) or I just didn't feel they matched what I want the brand message to be. I had a few questions I wanted to ask, any and all feedback is so appreciated!

1) I am about to release my hoodies for my latest winter drop. The problem I've always had in the past is people nickel and dime you and I always end up walking away with only a little bit above what I spent and that has to go to my fees for Shopify and then my adobe membership etc etc. I had a good idea and wanted some feedback on it. Selling my hoodies at say $50 and telling people that all family friends this month get $20 off on the new hoodie. And then have a special week where all Snapchat followers get $15 off, insta, Facebook, etc etc. thoughts?

2) I feel that I need to establish myself locally before I spread out to nationally. So one thing we sort of did in the past but not fully was just hit up our friends to model for us and then we send them pics and they post (if they're pretty enough we post too) more brand exposure. But that was for highschool. Im in college now, wayyyy more people. So what I thought would be good would be to hit up random people at my loca university and ask them to model, get them to post, and then ask them to give me a referal to someone else who would also do it. I have a couple girls and guys lined up already, any thoughts on how I can improve this system?

3) I have a ton of people saying i should post on Instagram like 3x a day and keep posting always. I don't want to sound like I know anything, because I don't, but I feel like it gets to a point where people are just generally annoyed with the fact that you're posting too much. I think once every few days is good but if i actually scrolled my feed and any account I was following was posting 3x a day I'd get annoyed. It's not the same thing as YouTube, where you should post as much. Am I wrong? I just think that distance makes the heart grow fonder.

Thank you so much to everyone on this forum. You guys are all so full of useful information. I love you all, and can't even explain how much you guys have helped me grow. Much love!
 
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Charnell

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Right now I'm working with a few dozen startup clothing brands. This is coming from what I've seen them do, as I don't have a clothing brand.

1. Nope. Not yet, especially if you don't have a large selection. You're getting nickel and dimed because you're setting yourself up to get nickel and dimed. Instead of offering just offering a $20 off or $15 off coupon, do a giveaway where people have to do something like
  • give you their email address
  • follow your social media account(s)
  • tag friends in the post to get more eyeballs on it
Then when the giveaway is over, offer a 5 or 10% off coupon to everyone who didn't win. If you're at the point where people aren't willing to buy a $50 sweatshirt from you, aim to break even monetarily, but have gained something that will increase revenue in the future.

2. Rock it, and if you can eat the costs, let them keep the clothing or offer it to them at cost. As I said, break even, but you'll have people on campus walking around with your brand on their chest.

3. This thread might be able to help you decide how to operate Instagram: Ask Me Anything - Instagram Marketing ($100K+ profit, 4M followers) I'm posting 3-4 times per day and see between 20% and 47% engagement per post. The account is a week old and only has 61 followers so far, so take that with a grain of salt.
 

Jonny Blaze

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
124%
Aug 18, 2016
25
31
24
Right now I'm working with a few dozen startup clothing brands. This is coming from what I've seen them do, as I don't have a clothing brand.

1. Nope. Not yet, especially if you don't have a large selection. You're getting nickel and dimed because you're setting yourself up to get nickel and dimed. Instead of offering just offering a $20 off or $15 off coupon, do a giveaway where people have to do something like
  • give you their email address
  • follow your social media account(s)
  • tag friends in the post to get more eyeballs on it
Then when the giveaway is over, offer a 5 or 10% off coupon to everyone who didn't win. If you're at the point where people aren't willing to buy a $50 sweatshirt from you, aim to break even monetarily, but have gained something that will increase revenue in the future.

2. Rock it, and if you can eat the costs, let them keep the clothing or offer it to them at cost. As I said, break even, but you'll have people on campus walking around with your brand on their chest.

3. This thread might be able to help you decide how to operate Instagram: Ask Me Anything - Instagram Marketing ($100K+ profit, 4M followers) I'm posting 3-4 times per day and see between 20% and 47% engagement per post. The account is a week old and only has 61 followers so far, so take that with a grain of salt.
Thanks a bunch. I read into what that guy is doing with the Instagram bots and stuff like that. Am I wrong to feel like this isn't genuine? I have about 1500 followers, when I post I get around 100-150 likes and on average I reach between 700-1000 people. I only post maybe once every week or every other week. I just feel like the more you post, the more people see your content, the quicker people are like "oh great X Brand again." I could be wrong though.
 
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Charnell

Block me if you're a quack
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Oct 12, 2014
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Kansas City
Thanks a bunch. I read into what that guy is doing with the Instagram bots and stuff like that. Am I wrong to feel like this isn't genuine? I have about 1500 followers, when I post I get around 100-150 likes and on average I reach between 700-1000 people. I only post maybe once every week or every other week. I just feel like the more you post, the more people see your content, the quicker people are like "oh great X Brand again." I could be wrong though.
No, you're not wrong for feeling that way. There are so many strategies to try out. Are you posting more of your photoshoot/lookbook photos? Who cares if people "aren't pretty enough", ugly people wear Balenciaga too. Make them feel special by posting them and throwing their username at the top of the description.
 

BrooklynHustle

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Thanks a bunch. I read into what that guy is doing with the Instagram bots and stuff like that. Am I wrong to feel like this isn't genuine? I have about 1500 followers, when I post I get around 100-150 likes and on average I reach between 700-1000 people. I only post maybe once every week or every other week. I just feel like the more you post, the more people see your content, the quicker people are like "oh great X Brand again." I could be wrong though.
Don't worry too much about what you personally like or don't like. People are not paying as much attention to you as you would think. Right now, 99% of your target customers don't even know you (the good news is you can change that). Do what has been proven to work time and time again.

Generally, I would err on the side of posting more often. It works. But don't just beat people over the head with your product and calls to action. Post content that your target customer would generally enjoy and extract value from. Ex: a clothing company for skateboarders could post 4-6 pictures in a day 1-2 videos of skateboarders doing amazing tricks, 1 panorama of a skate park, 1 photo of a fan + their story, 1 skateboard celebrity, and finally a product shot... give a lot more than you ask. Obviously this is not an exact formula, but you get the idea. Use tools like Command for Instagram and SocialBlade to measure the results of your efforts so you can double down on whats working and stop doing what's not. I built up to 100k IG followers at one point, with great engagement by using tactics like this.

I learned mostly everything I know about IG from foundr. They have great free content on their blog and podcast as well as a paid course and free eBook

Best of luck!
 

Jonny Blaze

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
124%
Aug 18, 2016
25
31
24
No, you're not wrong for feeling that way. There are so many strategies to try out. Are you posting more of your photoshoot/lookbook photos? Who cares if people "aren't pretty enough", ugly people wear Balenciaga too. Make them feel special by posting them and throwing their username at the top of the description.
I post photo shoot more, I dont even really have a studio to do shots the way that Tyler The Creator does with GOLF (Link: GOLF WANG (@golfwang) • Instagram photos and videos) Definitely something I plan to invest in but I have 100 things I want in my shopping carts on random websites lol. I totally see what youre saying too, I just try and take after the brands I like, and to me theyre all good looking but it depends on the person running that brands taste. Should I not?
 
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Jonny Blaze

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
124%
Aug 18, 2016
25
31
24
Don't worry too much about what you personally like or don't like. People are not paying as much attention to you as you would think. Right now, 99% of your target customers don't even know you (the good news is you can change that). Do what has been proven to work time and time again.

Generally, I would err on the side of posting more often. It works. But don't just beat people over the head with your product and calls to action. Post content that your target customer would generally enjoy and extract value from. Ex: a clothing company for skateboarders could post 4-6 pictures in a day 1-2 videos of skateboarders doing amazing tricks, 1 panorama of a skate park, 1 photo of a fan + their story, 1 skateboard celebrity, and finally a product shot... give a lot more than you ask. Obviously this is not an exact formula, but you get the idea. Use tools like Command for Instagram and SocialBlade to measure the results of your efforts so you can double down on whats working and stop doing what's not. I built up to 100k IG followers at one point, with great engagement by using tactics like this.

I learned mostly everything I know about IG from foundr. They have great free content on their blog and podcast as well as a paid course and free eBook

Best of luck!

the example you gave with a skateboard brand. Right now I dont have a specific niche that i market to, its very broad, like its not a surfer brand or a cowboy brand its just a streetwear brand. One thing im really obsessed with is anything to do with cool a$$ cars. Do you think orientating the brand towards cars more and posting for that niche on insta could help? I really want to like the brand I own, I truly believe that my taste and touch has been influenced from the best in the industry. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
 

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