The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Our Product Has Sold Out (Twice) - Advice to start scaling and building brand

Marketing, social media, advertising

Simplify

Thrive
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
123%
May 17, 2019
57
70
Ireland
Sounds like you're doing amazing!

What's your niche? Content marketing is a good idea. Do it through FB as well as Youtube and your blog to strengthen your advertising there.

You have the right idea with growing a social media following organically. Once you reach 10,000 likes on FB you could even create a group around your brand/products - amazing organic reach!

I have sold mostly through Facebook but the only advice I'd give is to keep up the organic marketing and continue tailoring content to your audience. You can make literally thousands from a single post that goes viral :)
Would rather not disclose the niche. Thanks for your advice!
 

JasonR

Maverick
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
544%
May 29, 2012
2,102
11,425
Las Vegas
1) Content marketing via a youtube channel or a blog to establish ourselves as an authority in our niche
2)Paid advertising via facebook and Instagram to our target audience which we know very well and can target effectively
3)Continue to grow our Social following and grow organically without paid advertising
4)Create more "assets" in terms of a blog, email list, instagram etc which we can then use to leverage the sale of the company in the future to one of the bigger players

First, congrats on selling your first $18k of stuff. It's a good start.

1) This is a long term play and requires cash and money. It's not fast or easy.

2) This is fast, and can scale nicely. It takes a lot of cash, testing and skill.

3) You will tire this out quickly. Pay attention, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are all killing organic reach on purpose (to sell more ads). This should not be your main focus UNLESS you have a solid network of influencers and affiliates.

4) These are all things you should be doing long term, anyway. An email list is not valuable unless you can convert that list into customers. Forget instagram as a main focus (organically). A blog should be a part of a long term SEO strategy with properly chosen keywords, articles and link building to get anywhere - go back to #1.

I don't know how much capital you have access to. Also, you should try to get your average order value above $30.00. A $30 sale is hard to do at scale with Google PPC or Facebook (although still doable).

With the limited information I have, I'd start looking at paid channels. Start with ONE - whichever channel that you think you'll have the easiest time on. Forget all else until you scale to $500k/$1m in sales. After than, you can start diversifying and adding other channels.

There are, of course, other ways to grow your business than the four you mentioned. Podcast advertising - if there is a hungry list of viewers listening to podcasts in your niche, this can be a cheap and effective way of getting your brand out there.

Keep brainstorming ideas, but put a lot of thought into this before you pull the trigger.
 

Simplify

Thrive
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
123%
May 17, 2019
57
70
Ireland
Can you define sold out a little better? How many units and what was the price point?

Where do your customer's hangout? I'd start there.

Also I'd read the book called "Traction- How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth" which should help you decide what to pursue.
600 units sold at 30USD. There are competitions and professional competitors. It's a niche "sport" so there are forums etc on the topic. I will read the book!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

GPM

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
376%
Oct 25, 2012
2,067
7,775
Canada
Don't disclose the niche or anything close to what you are selling here. If you are just getting started there are a lot of copy cats on the forum. Go check out some of Bio's threads and the one on the glasses for examples of how shitty some people can be.

Also check those ones out for solid actionable advice from people who have been where you are and have grown from thre.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Simplify

Thrive
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
123%
May 17, 2019
57
70
Ireland
Myself and a friend have created a great product in an engaged niche. We have sold out of our first product and just launched our second product which has also sold out.

This has all come through our own website with limited marketing.

We are working closely with the manufacturer in the USA. We really feel like we are onto something as the product has been validated by the market and the niche is growing.

We have a few different ideas on how to start scaling the business and building the brand:

1) Content marketing via a youtube channel or a blog to establish ourselves as an authority in our niche
2)Paid advertising via facebook and Instagram to our target audience which we know very well and can target effectively
3)Continue to grow our Social following and grow organically without paid advertising
4)Create more "assets" in terms of a blog, email list, instagram etc which we can then use to leverage the sale of the company in the future to one of the bigger players

Note: Neither of us come from a direct marketing background (partner has a marketing degree) so we will be learning on the go and are looking for a good place to start in terms of learning online marketing. We dont want to outsource this as we both want to learn the skills which we can then use again in the future.

I would love to hear advice from the experienced people on here working with a physical product and selling online via an ecommerce platform.

We really want to build the brand and become an authority in this niche :)
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Greg R

Act, Assess, Adjust
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
465%
Oct 28, 2015
1,060
4,933
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Can you define sold out a little better? How many units and what was the price point?

Where do your customer's hangout? I'd start there.

Also I'd read the book called "Traction- How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth" which should help you decide what to pursue.
 

Envision

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
779%
May 5, 2014
861
6,707
Make sure you guys have an operating agreement.

Go to a bank and work on any sort of line of credit or loans they will give you

try to brand or own the ip of product so you can own tangible assets.

Don’t take the money out or start new products till you stabilize and curate your current ones
 

Johnny boy

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
620%
May 9, 2017
2,929
18,172
27
Washington State
1. Understand the nature of how your customer does business. Meaning: be there when they are looking, and know how to hunt them and find them where they are. I have a lawn care business and I understand where the typical customer goes to look when searching for lawn care. We are there when they are looking on those places. Are you where your customer is looking for your products? Do they look for youtube reviews from influencers when searching for this product? Do they automatically go to amazon? Are you getting them from SEO because it's common to search google for articles about this product? Reverse engineer the sale and you do that by understanding your customer. Selling an interesting type of makeup targeted for teens? You might want to send it to people with a lot of Tik Tok views and build brand awareness for cheap. Selling shoes? Get Instagram influencers to wear them in their photos for a share of profits.

2. Do more of what's working. What did you do to get those first sales? Okay, now do it 5x as much.

3. Making content is a must if you plan on doing this long term, and if you don't plan to retire in the next 3 years because you're 60+ years old, then you should be thinking long term.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
D

Deleted74396

Guest
Myself and a friend have created a great product in an engaged niche. We have sold out of our first product and just launched our second product which has also sold out.

This has all come through our own website with limited marketing.

We are working closely with the manufacturer in the USA. We really feel like we are onto something as the product has been validated by the market and the niche is growing.

We have a few different ideas on how to start scaling the business and building the brand:

1) Content marketing via a youtube channel or a blog to establish ourselves as an authority in our niche
2)Paid advertising via facebook and Instagram to our target audience which we know very well and can target effectively
3)Continue to grow our Social following and grow organically without paid advertising
4)Create more "assets" in terms of a blog, email list, instagram etc which we can then use to leverage the sale of the company in the future to one of the bigger players

Note: Neither of us come from a direct marketing background (partner has a marketing degree) so we will be learning on the go and are looking for a good place to start in terms of learning online marketing. We dont want to outsource this as we both want to learn the skills which we can then use again in the future.

I would love to hear advice from the experienced people on here working with a physical product and selling online via an ecommerce platform.

We really want to build the brand and become an authority in this niche :)

Sounds like you're doing amazing!

What's your niche? Content marketing is a good idea. Do it through FB as well as Youtube and your blog to strengthen your advertising there.

You have the right idea with growing a social media following organically. Once you reach 10,000 likes on FB you could even create a group around your brand/products - amazing organic reach!

I have sold mostly through Facebook but the only advice I'd give is to keep up the organic marketing and continue tailoring content to your audience. You can make literally thousands from a single post that goes viral :)
 

Bearcorp

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
237%
Jul 2, 2012
711
1,684
39
Australia
No problem! Another tip is to make sure you use the native FB scheduler/poster. They dock your reach if you use hootsuite or the like :)

does this also apply to Instagram? Been thinking of adding hootsuite to our back end..
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Bearcorp

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
237%
Jul 2, 2012
711
1,684
39
Australia
Great work OP! In answer to your question it’s all of the points you mentioned. Just keep putting yourself out there, not all types of content or platforms will take off but find the places online that your potential customers, and also your potential fans, or social media followers, will be, and get active!
 

Ing

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
102%
Jun 8, 2019
1,621
1,651
58
Bavaria
social neworks are a lot of work, too. Don’t forget that
 

AFMKelvin

Some Profound Quote Goes Here
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
199%
Jan 26, 2016
733
1,456
31
Rice, Texas
Don't disclose the niche or anything close to what you are selling here. If you are just getting started there are a lot of copy cats on the forum. Go check out some of Bio's threads and the one on the glasses for examples of how shitty some people can be.

Also check those ones out for solid actionable advice from people who have been where you are and have grown from thre.
Can you link to the post where people stole his idea please.
 

Roli

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
160%
Jun 3, 2015
2,061
3,301
Myself and a friend have created a great product in an engaged niche. We have sold out of our first product and just launched our second product which has also sold out.

This has all come through our own website with limited marketing.

We are working closely with the manufacturer in the USA. We really feel like we are onto something as the product has been validated by the market and the niche is growing.

We have a few different ideas on how to start scaling the business and building the brand:

1) Content marketing via a youtube channel or a blog to establish ourselves as an authority in our niche
2)Paid advertising via facebook and Instagram to our target audience which we know very well and can target effectively
3)Continue to grow our Social following and grow organically without paid advertising
4)Create more "assets" in terms of a blog, email list, instagram etc which we can then use to leverage the sale of the company in the future to one of the bigger players

Note: Neither of us come from a direct marketing background (partner has a marketing degree) so we will be learning on the go and are looking for a good place to start in terms of learning online marketing. We dont want to outsource this as we both want to learn the skills which we can then use again in the future.

I would love to hear advice from the experienced people on here working with a physical product and selling online via an ecommerce platform.

We really want to build the brand and become an authority in this niche :)

First of all, well done!!! It is not easy to launch a product, there is a lot of hard work and good diligent research involved, so good on you for getting past that first hurdle.

As far as what now? In my mind, you've already answered that. Have you read the book 80/20 Marketing? If not, you should.

In that book, the author talks about how 80% of your profits, will come from 20% of your efforts, and it is very important to pay attention to this. In your case, I would look at what you've been doing already and double down on that.

I think you said you've sold 600 units through your own website and limited marketing; what was that marketing?

Whatever it was, double down on it, if you spent $500, spend $1000 and see if the results scale up accordingly.

It is very tempting to get excited and to start throwing money, time and effort at big shiny social media/google ad campaigns, and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, however it could cause you to forget the simple things you did to get yourselves into this position in the first place.

So, your first step is to analyse how you got those sales, and double down on those efforts. Once you're sure you've exhausted those avenues, look at other forms of marketing. Just make sure you're laser focused on the results that each of these efforts bring, and of course the time taken to implement them.

Only bring in new strategies once you're sure you've fully explored the old....

As far as what type of marketing, that depends on your niche. Instagram is great for visually captivating products, and google is great for a wide range of things, just find out how your audience is used to hearing about products like yours, and try and plug into that.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top