Marketplace Tuesday! (October 27, 2020) Entrepreneur |
- Marketplace Tuesday! (October 27, 2020)
- 400+ signups in the first week - here's why I'm concerned
- How’s your mental health?
- How I grew an Instagram account from 4000 followers to 190k in a year
- Are you really making sure that no opportunity is lost? This is how I stopped being a shy entrepreneur
- Remote work city finder - Compare your home town with over 9000 places around the world.
- Can someone give me a simplified step-by-step process as to how to legally start a business?
- How many of you have a passive income ?
- I recently bought a business! AMA!
- Mental health and physical fitness
- Find products / ideas to sell in your country
- I can help you make a professional and unique logo design
- I'm looking for 'Breakthrough Advertising' by Eugene Schwartz
- How is crowdfunding for you?
- Free Privacy-Respecting Website Analytics?
- Competitor intelligence websites?
- I launched 6 side-projects in 10 months. All failed.
- How can I differentiate from the Udemy?
- Entrepreneur WhatsApp Group
- Best place to get new website hosted on which won't cost much?
- Have 80k to invest
- How can I make sales on Redbubble
- Feeling entirely overwhelmed and just looking for others struggling or advice
- #011: The Bridesmaid With Breath So Bad She Tripled Listerine Sales
- Division of labor between Executive Admin and Project Manager?
| Marketplace Tuesday! (October 27, 2020) Posted: 27 Oct 2020 06:08 AM PDT Please use this thread to post any Jobs that you're looking to fill (including interns), or services you're looking to render to other members. We do this to not overflow the subreddit with personal offerings (such logo design, SEO, etc) so please try to limit the offerings to this weekly thread. Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| 400+ signups in the first week - here's why I'm concerned Posted: 27 Oct 2020 11:17 AM PDT One week after launching Notion Metrics - first traffic + first paid users = a lot to unpack Here's what I did:
5 day total: 2.2k visitor sessions, 410 signups, 5 paid users Overall it was a successful launch, except for one metric. All traffic converted well to free plans, but not to paid plans. This is one of the tough things to sort out early on - is there an issue with the value prop? Is the paid plan not that much better than the free plan? Another explanation is the Product Hunt audience (which drove 70% of all traffic) is more likely to casually browse and sign up for cool things without much intent to pay/commit. As more questions come up post-launch, this is where I need to focus this week. This is also where I see a lot of founders make a wrong turn. Once you have users, you should no longer be making assumptions. Just ask. So I'm breaking up my users into different categories, and I'm going to reach out to them separately with different questions/hypotheses:
With just a few weeks left, I'm going to focus on user interviews, fine-tuning the value prop again and then send more traffic to the site to re-measure conversion rates [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:02 AM PDT Startups are god awful and I would not wish this journey upon anyone. It takes a certain breed to be able to live off nothing but "a potentially brilliant future IF EVERYTHING works out." Plans tend to ever pan out the way you want them to, and I've honestly faced more disappointment than successes. I think most people on this subreddit who've actually went out and pursued an idea can relate. I'm in a bit of a rough patch, just kind of burnt out from 3 years of literally living on prayer. We launched last year, failed spectacularly, survived Covid, and pivoted into a product that is actually pretty damn incredible. We're actually super close to the starting line, with the proper partnerships in tow and some really interesting niche markets to tackle. But I have no energy. It might be the changing season, less daylight, colder days, but I'm just tired. I say all this but I'm about to pass out and grind out another 10 hour work day. But it still doesn't change the fact that I'm completely ignoring my mental health and pushing forward against every fiber of my being telling me to just take a week off. This is because we don't have the luxury of taking a week off. Most startups have a runway, time to lift off. My startup has a precipice, time till we plummet to our deaths. We don't measure our exist in terms of months, but in days. That's because we've been bootstrapping for the last 3 years, and with Covid, we're basically at our wits end in terms of financing. But that's whatever. It's life. I'm sure most of you guys are in a similar situation where days are starting to blur and you're just doing everything in your power to push the ball forward so that all your efforts so far won't be wasted. How do you cope with burn out? We're all on this struggle bus together so I'd love to hear some of your stories and get some inspiration, or at least know my founder and I aren't alone in feeling this way — even when "success" is right around the corner. Something something, dark chocolate makes the best hot cocoa. No wait, that's not right, the saying is night is darkest before dawn. Still, dark chocolate does make some damn good cocoa. So like I guess, all this shit will make victory so much sweeter? EDIT: WOW this blew up! I took time to try to read and give a reply to every comment. Some common themes: 1) Look forward to tomorrow but live for today 2) Learn to take breaks, even if you're mind is fixated on the startup, let your body relax/do something else 3) Celebrate the little things. Even if it's non startup related 4) Startups are a slow burn, so we can't be burning the candle from both ends 5) Failing is great! We are stronger fo it. Happiness is not promised with success. So try to be happy now, and not wait for a future that might not be promised to you Thank you everyone! It was refreshing to learn from all your stories and different perspectives. I'm definitely reenergized and ready for the future, but more importantly I'm excited to be working for today. Also I will be making some hot cocoa with dark chocolate today, because why not? Making it this far is deserving of a little treat :) [link] [comments]  |
| How I grew an Instagram account from 4000 followers to 190k in a year Posted: 27 Oct 2020 12:22 PM PDT I started "@theminimalistwardrobe" in 2017 for two reasons. I wanted to create an audience for a business I was planning, while at the same time wanting to learn the game of Instagram. At the time I had an existing business with its own Instagram account, but I was too afraid to try things out. I was stuck in my safe routine. What would my customers think if I suddenly posted 8 posts one day? Would they be annoyed? Is it weird if I post something else than my products? These were the insecurities I had, and a fresh account with no responsibilities was the perfect solution to test everything. The new business I was planning to launch was a clothing brand, with high-quality essentials and minimal branding. After some tinkering with names on Instagram, I settled on 'The Minimalist Wardrobe'. That wasn't meant to be the name of the clothing brand, I simply wanted to create a like-minded audience, so I didn't have to launch to crickets. My first post was a low-resolution photo of clothes rack with some shirts and a few pairs of shoes underneath. There was no real strategy here. I just enjoyed the freedom of posting whatever and analyzing the results. Little did I know what it would lead up to. From 0 to 4000The first followers are always the hardest to get, everyone knows that. I got my first few followers by posting a few posts and engaging with some similar accounts. That's a method that still works, but it's not scalable. Engaging with other accounts is time-consuming, and even if you'd automate it, Instagram is cracking down hard on all software that is against their terms of service. I grew the account to a little over 4000 followers in 8 months. Nothing to write home about, but during this time, I didn't really use any strategy. I just learned a little from every post I posted and leaned into what worked. I didn't make any groundbreaking discoveries but learned how to use hashtags, what kind of photos and captions my audience seemed to like, and the best times to post. I started scheduling posts with a scheduling app so that I could create a bunch beforehand, and not be on my phone the whole day. The followers came from my engagement, and from the posts that reached new people through hashtags. After 8 months I just stopped posting. I had scrapped the clothing brand idea a long time ago, as soon as I realized how much work it would require. I also happened to find some brands that had executed my idea better than I ever could. As for the learning part, well, I felt like I had learned some useful things, and honestly just lacked the motivation to continue playing around with a useless account. I logged off the account for half a year. When it Finally Clicked For MeI can't remember why I logged back into the account after 6 months. Maybe I had a boring day. In any case, that was one the most significant days for The Minimalist Wardrobe, because that was the day when I understood that I'm on to something. To be a little more specific, I understood it the next morning. I had published a post in the evening and woke up to over 300 likes. The caption said "Long time no see! Did ya miss us?" Now, 300 likes with 4000 followers is nothing to brag about, but it was still enough for me to understand that there's an actual audience that really enjoyed what I was posting. I realized that the account is promoting something that people wanted. Beautiful photos of clothes racks and basic garments painted a picture of simplifying your wardrobe. I had somewhat unintentionally conveyed my own philosophy for clothing. This is the moment I decided to apply a real strategy to grow the account, and treat it as its own project. Now things got interesting. Sliding Into DMs All Day LongThe first thing I started doing was contacting accounts of the same size (or smaller), asking them to do a shoutout exchange with The Minimalist Wardrobe. They'd simply post about me on their feed, and I'd post about them. I spent hours and hours finding suitable accounts to cross-promote with, and I must've sent over a hundred DMs — daily — to people. I didn't mind if the accounts were smaller. Anything over 1000 was worth it for me, as posting was easy, and my audience seemed to enjoy the posts. Once I grew, I could get bigger accounts on board, which is why the growth was exponential. I had also perfected my strategy by only contacting accounts with good engagement, and instructing them on how to promote The Minimalist Wardrobe when agreeing on the shoutouts. A clear call-to-action to follow made a huge difference. From Shoutouts to Deeper CollaborationsSending DMs for hours every day wasn't sustainable, but the results were undeniable. I needed a better solution. Essentially I wanted collaborations that would give me constant exposure, but only needed to be set up once. I decided to build a simple website and set up a blog. Then I reached out to sustainable and slow fashion bloggers and asked if they'd like to write for my new blog. I've always believed in fair relationships, not just because I'll sleep better, but because at some point the one who's getting the worse end of the deal will call it quits — it's just a matter of time. Fortunately, The Minimalist Wardrobe's following was somewhere around 15k at this time, so it was a great opportunity for the bloggers to get in front of a new audience and gain new followers too. Every time someone wrote a post for my blog, we'd both promote it on Instagram. That way both reached a new audience. Eventually, I had over 20 guest bloggers, with a new blog post 5 days a week — each of them promoted by the blogger. The account kept growing fast, by over 2000 daily followers at best. 30k, 40k, and 50k were just simple milestones which I celebrated with a smile and started counting when the next one would come. I hit 100k 6 months after taking this seriously. My Experience With the Infamous Follow/UnfollowThe account's growth kept accelerating, and I didn't stop exploring different ways to grow. I decided to try the most despised way of growing an Instagram account: Follow/Unfollow. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the idea is to follow accounts so that they get a notification, and a percentage of them follow you back. Then at some point, you unfollow them. I did it for a while but stopped doing it for a couple reasons. Firstly, I hated the idea of it the whole time I was doing it. It was a cheap tactic, and honestly, I didn't need it. My curiosity simply won and I couldn't help myself. Secondly, it wasn't sustainable either. I was back to tapping for hours on my phone. Truth to be told though, it did work. My growth rate increased. It's hard to say how much this influenced it, but it definitely helped. (Un)fortunately, Instagram has cracked down on action limits recently, so this shouldn't be as viable anymore. The Real Reason For the GrowthThe collaborations with bloggers were great, as were the earlier shoutout exchanges. I got a boost from following a lot of people. My analytical approach to using hashtags and putting effort into each caption paid off — many posts reached thousands of new people, turning a good amount of them into new followers. All these strategies accelerated the growth of the account, but the real reason why so many wanted to follow The Minimalist Wardrobe was simple: The core idea was something that people were interested in. I was posting content that people wanted to see. None of these growth hacks would've worked if the foundation of the account wouldn't have been golden. Now, I got lucky by being into something hundreds of thousands of people are also into and happened to create an Instagram account for it. I probably got lucky with the timing too. Nevertheless, the core idea of the account is the key to exceptional growth. How you execute it is almost as important. Growth hacks lag far behind. When you truly have an account people want to follow, Instagram will help you out too. They'll suggest you to new followers whenever someone follows an account that's related to yours, and your posts will often be featured on the explore page. Can This Be Recreated?Is it still possible to grow any account to almost 200k followers in a year? Sure it is. There's nothing that's stopping you. The growth strategies I wrote about here aren't difficult to copy. If you have the drive to hustle, you can do exactly what I did. The challenge is coming up with — or stumbling upon, as I did — an interesting idea for your account. That's really the message I'm trying to send here. It's too common to see people apply perfectly good growth strategies to their accounts, and not seeing any growth. The Minimalist Wardrobe isn't growing as fast as it used to anymore, and that's fine. It grew into something so big so fast, that I wanted to take a step back and turn it in to something helpful, not just inspirational. I took my foot off the pedal for a while and am investing in the core idea, which I think will pay off in the future. "Build it and they will come" is bad advice. You need marketing to grow — at least initially, before word of mouth kicks in. The thing is, the methods to accelerate growth aren't rocket science. What I did wasn't particularly sophisticated, and the results were tremendous. If you put most of your effort into creating a valuable product — which in this case was the Instagram account — you're setting yourself apart from the masses. Way too many businesses have great marketing with a mediocre product. Don't make that mistake. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2020 12:39 PM PDT As a serial entrepreneur, I often think about why some opportunities just slip away from me. A few years ago I even believed that if I had the right product in the hands of the right people, my solution would be a success. Well, guess what? it didn't really turn out like that. I first realized that during the best early startup competition in my location. At that time our application to the competition got rejected. So, what did we do? Sit down and wait for next year's competition? Definitely not... We approached the responsible person for this decision and set up a meeting with her (yes, we used LinkedIn and other tools to find this person online 🤓). After a thorough discussion, they gave us a chance. Guess what, we won that competition, a competition we weren't even selected in the first place. More than winning this competition, we learned several things. One of these things was that an entrepreneur must try all possible ways to make things happen. Sales at early-stage startups is not much different. You won't get customers at your door just because the product is good. You'll need to proactively reach out to them. And there's science on how you should do this. Try this play and you'll see some results. Re-iterate as many times as you need on this play and you'll see the results you were looking for. I hope this helps! 1- Find company hubs online and choose what fits your ICP here you can try open directories online like lists.amplemarket.com or advanced google searches like site:docs.google.com/spreadsheets saas hiring remotely 2020. ex: Companies Hiring remotely in 2020, Fastest Growing Companies in 2020, etc 2- Using LinkedIn or a data enrichment tool find email/phone number ex: LinkedIn, Zoominfo, Amplemarket, LeadIQ, etc 3- Filter the companies by tools that your product integrates with or competes with leverage data on what technologies your target companies are using to see what are the most relevant ones to target on that company hub. 4- Craft a unique campaign leveraging all the information you have Ex: "I found you on the fastest-growing companies" - this alone is weak Ex: This is what will make you stand out and make your potential customers give you a chance to try your solution. *** It might not work for your ICP and the messaging needs massaging but you get the point. [link] [comments]  |
| Remote work city finder - Compare your home town with over 9000 places around the world. Posted: 27 Oct 2020 06:23 AM PDT Hi Entrepreneurs, I built Nomad Travel Tools to help people compare their hometown to over 9000 places around the world so they can find the best place to travel to as a remote worker. This app has the tools to help you pick the best city to work from remotely such as figuring out the best work hours in two timezones, cost of living comparisons, annual weather patterns, and where to find a workspace. Im going to make the first 1000 signup's free for all premium features, for life so make sure to signup here: https://nomadtraveltools.com/signup Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! Im sure there are a few bugs lurking about and i'll get to them as soon as possible. Id also love to hear what you think I should add next? Visa info? Covid info? Safety rating? Please feel free to upvote the cities you think are great for remote work and even leave a hot tip or two for your home town! [link] [comments]  |
| Can someone give me a simplified step-by-step process as to how to legally start a business? Posted: 26 Oct 2020 09:46 PM PDT I'm in Los Angeles, California and I've been running a super small business under the table. By that, I mean I am making clothes then selling them to customers. I've reached a point where I need business licenses or seller's permits to buy bulk at wholesale price and to sell online or at certain places. Right now, I'm just printing and buying in bulk straight from the place I produce my stuff. I'm still only moving about 500 units each month but the sum of money is still significant. I'd like to start trademarking my name and doing things the right, legal way. Can someone give me a list of what I need to obtain/register for? Maybe suggest some tips as to how to go about it. I've been doing some research but there's so much terminology I just get jumbled all over the place and get lost as to what I essentially need. What about money? I'm currently using my personal venmo and Paypal account. Should I register for a company card? What can I claim on my taxes (if I even can) without being registered as a business owner? Just so many questions... Please help! [link] [comments]  |
| How many of you have a passive income ? Posted: 27 Oct 2020 12:23 AM PDT Hello. How many of you have a passive income what brings you some cash amount every month or maybe a week and you need to do little or no work on it? [link] [comments]  |
| I recently bought a business! AMA! Posted: 27 Oct 2020 07:46 AM PDT So I had a comment here get a lot of attention and get a TON of PMs sent my way. Apparently, there's a lot of interest in this and I've gotten a ton of questions on all different aspects of this, from shopping for the business, to buying it, to running it day to day and more! So the facts: I bought a small nail salon a few months back. It's still running currently and is open as we speak with clients in the chairs! I actually found it for sale on Craigslist (crazy, right?) and the former owner is now an employee! Mods, if you need proof, DM me. Otherwise, I'll be here all day to answer anything anyone is curious about! Ideally answers to just about anything within 20-30 mins! I've got a few meetings here and there but nothing to crazy! [link] [comments]  |
| Mental health and physical fitness Posted: 27 Oct 2020 01:34 PM PDT Mental health is a real issue for entrepreneurs, it effects around 72%. As an entrepreneur you are your most vital asset. If you aren't able to perform due to health then your business is without a leader. This makes it absolutely a non-negotiable for you to spend time on your personal health. Committing huge amounts of time isn't feasible during busy work weeks, so it is important to have the most focused training and nutrition plan specific to you so you can maximize your time. Here are 3 big rocks to focus on to improve your mental health instantly. 1) Meditation, Taking 5 minutes to focus on you and your breath can have profound benefits on how well you process information and feel. 2) Get better sleep, the quality and quantity of sleep you get each night directly impacts the quality of work you are able to do for days to come. 3) Spend at least 30 minutes each day doing some form of physical exercise. It can be anything from walking to lifting weights, but committing to some form of exercise has drastic benefits to overall health [link] [comments]  |
| Find products / ideas to sell in your country Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:15 AM PDT Hi guys, Making the long story short, I'm from Portugal and I'm real estate agent (hoping not for too long). I want to be an entrepreneur and at the moment I'm working on my first project. The problem: I'm hating working in real estate at the moment, also, takes much more time than I should like to dedicate, because I want to keep working on my project. However, I have to make a living. The idea: Have a side business that, doesn't take too much time to manage and give me enough to keep a living (around 600€/monthly). The big question: I know it's possible to bring ideas and products from other countries to yours and start selling them. Where do I find these ideas and products? It's the big question. Do you guys know any place, do you have any resources I could use? Thank you to all :) [link] [comments]  |
| I can help you make a professional and unique logo design Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:43 PM PDT Hey, I'm an expert designer with the experience of 5 year with a long list of satisfied customers. A business logo appears on all of the company letterhead, communications, marketing and advertising pieces of a business as a graphic representation or symbol for the company. Essentially, the logo is typically the first thing a reader may notice before reading the text, and as a graphic designer with a good experience on logo design I'm willing offer my services to anyone intersted! I will provide the following : *High quality and unique design *Fast delivery time 10-20hrs *Very fast replies *24/7 availability *Friendly communication *Complete satisfaction please consider hiring me My previous works : https://artopedia.myportfolio.com/ My instagram : https://www.instagram.com/_arto.pedia_/ My discord : Artopedia#7396 Delivered files would include PNG, AI, PSD, EPS and SVG. [link] [comments]  |
| I'm looking for 'Breakthrough Advertising' by Eugene Schwartz Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:34 PM PDT |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:33 PM PDT Hello Entrepreneurs, I'm a student at the University of California, Irvine, conducting surveys about your experiences with Crowdfunding. We (a team of UCI students) are doing this survey for our Informatics course in partnership with StartSmart, an entrepreneurship platform. To reiterate, we are students (not paid)! Our goal is to understand pain points in crowdfunding, as well as successful strategies. Here's the link to our form: https://forms.gle/EJhP4e6K4ELJLJUj6 Feel free to let me know if you have any questions! Too busy to fill out the survey? Jot down your experience with crowdfunding as a comment! Thanks again and stay safe y'all <3 [link] [comments]  |
| Free Privacy-Respecting Website Analytics? Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:27 PM PDT Good idea or not? Do people want to use a free and privacy-respecting alternative to Google Analytics? BTW, you can comment after you try it out on your site - it's very simple to implement! Phantalytics [link] [comments]  |
| Competitor intelligence websites? Posted: 27 Oct 2020 02:15 PM PDT Anything you use that is not google? Something like craft.co? [link] [comments]  |
| I launched 6 side-projects in 10 months. All failed. Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:23 AM PDT After losing my job at the end of 2019, I started working on my side-projects full-time. I worked for more than 6 months on my first idea, a very common one, but difficult to execute. A website to send newsletters. I spent weeks making sure everything was working. It wasn't easy, but I did it. I launched. 1 upvote on Product Hunt, mine. Crickets. I cried. 2058 visits to the landing page and 0 clients. After all those hours of hard work, no one has seen my app. After that, I thought: Ok, if people don't pass from the landing page, I am going to create landing pages and test ideas. So I created:
All failed. What I learned
Honestly, many times I think that I don't have it, that I am not good enough. I was doing this to be free and I am losing all my freedom doing it. You only need to win once, they say, so I continue working. But many times I just want to never do it again. I keep trying, but I don't know why. If you want to follow my journey as I continue failing my projects, please, consider following me on Twitter. [link] [comments]  |
| How can I differentiate from the Udemy? Posted: 27 Oct 2020 01:58 PM PDT Me and my buddy have built an online professional education p2p marketplace. Sort of like Udemy. The only difference is that course on our platform is conducted via Live Video calls. No pre-recorded content. We've talked to couple of investors today and the interview went great. However they have emphasized on the difference between us and the Udemy. Although we have some ideas we still think Live Video Calls is the thing. However their concern was "what if Udemy decides to do the same thing?". An they're absolutely right. Could you please help me come up with ideas on how to set us apart? What can we do in a way that no other MOOC platform would be able to copy/compete? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Oct 2020 10:04 AM PDT Hey guys, we have an interesting WhatsApp group for you to network and exchange ideas with like minded business individuals from all over the world. Please feel free to join, but we just ask that you respect our rules, don't spam or advertise, this will get you kicked out. [link] [comments]  |
| Best place to get new website hosted on which won't cost much? Posted: 27 Oct 2020 01:48 PM PDT I work for a small travel company based in the UK. Our holidays are based in France and almost all of our customers are UK people who travel to France to stay in our accommodations. We have a website and the website is all in English since 99.9% of our customers are from the UK. However, due to the effects of Covid, it's almost impossible for us to sell our holidays as British people won't travel to France. So we've come up with a plan to target French people to go on holiday with us rather than British people since the French won't need to quarantine. This plan is just for this Winter only.... we will only be targetting French people for this Winter (November 2020 to April 2021). In order to target French people, we will create a very simple website (I'll use Wordpress for this), buy a domain and ensure the domain is ".fr" for French people, and then get the website hosted. The website will be written in French. Once we have this, we will do some Google Ads so when people search keywords, our new website will appear. We are really trying to keep our costs down as Covid has affected us badly so all of this will be done cheaply. I can't stress the "low cost" part enough. It is also hard to anticipate how many visitors will visit the website as it is all very unknown. We anticipate that the website will just serve us for this Winter so from November 2020 to April 2021 so it is a very short term project. I should also mention that I'm ok with computer but I'm by no means a programmer or HTML guru. I work in marketing so I can do some basic stuff but a lot of this is new to me and I'm trying to pick it all up as I go along. Where would be a good low cost place to host this very basic website? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2020 11:23 PM PDT Hello all , I want to start a new venture and have 80k to invest . My background is in retail sales . By new venture i mean a new business was thinking mini market at a tourist location or a location with a lot of apartments . Any ideas or helpful tips from anyone that's felt stuck on the next move ? [link] [comments]  |
| How can I make sales on Redbubble Posted: 27 Oct 2020 01:14 PM PDT What are some tips related to print on demand in general that you can give? Mostly how do I make my first couple of sales on Redbubble? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Feeling entirely overwhelmed and just looking for others struggling or advice Posted: 27 Oct 2020 12:59 PM PDT Being a solo groomer with my own business, I was lucky enough to not ever have to quit working this year, however business took a huge hit in March/April and I'm finally feeling the financial stress of it now. My mobile salon project makes the world of difference for my little company and I was able to complete it to the point of functionality. Problem is, I couldn't afford to winterize it and hoped to be able to be able to by the time it was needed. That's not how things worked out. I have this huge investment that is practically useless and no way to fix it. I'm burnt out from taking as many dogs as possible to try to reach my goal, and soon I won't be able to take appointments at all. I feel like the world's biggest loser. I could potentially go back to working out of my home, but I will lose all the clientele I've built up over the summer, not to mention the big pay increase that comes with offering a luxury service like mobile grooming. I really don't see a way out other than selling out to someone else and starting over. It's been 7 years since I started at 15 and I can't believe I've backed myself into this corner. [link] [comments]  |
| #011: The Bridesmaid With Breath So Bad She Tripled Listerine Sales Posted: 27 Oct 2020 06:49 AM PDT Reading Time: 9 Minutes -- Original Article Here Sup Reddit? The story of Listerine begins with… a surgeon? Joseph Lister was a British surgeon and is considered the "father of modern surgery". As a professor of surgery at the University of Glasgow, Lister read a paper from a French chemist you might have heard of. Louis Pasteur. This paper showed food would spoil even without being in open air. And that only three things could kill micro-organisms.
You can't filter or cook a surgery patient (without them staying alive at least). So Lister went for chemicals as a way to kill germs. And the idea of antiseptics was born in 1865. Lister's work reduced infections after surgery, making it A LOT safer. Before this, even if surgery went well, you would probably have an infection and die anyway. Hence, "father of modern surgery". But there is also one more thing he is indirectly responsible for. Mouthwash. Lister In AmericaIn 1876, Lister gave a lecture at the Philadelphia Exposition. He was teaching American surgeons about the benefits of antiseptic surgery. In that audience, there was another Joseph. Joseph Lawrence. Lister's recommendation was using carbolic acid to disinfect and kill germs. The problem was carbolic acid was very irritating. Lawrence wanted to make something less irritating. So his original formula, finished in 1879, had the following ingredients:
Don't know what the other 70% or so is made of. Probably water. (Don't ask me. I failed chemistry.) In honor of the man who inspired this idea, Lawrence called this product Listerine. He marketed it to disinfect cuts, cure dandruff and athlete's foot, and give relief for insect bites. But business didn't go so well. In 1881, two years after inventing Listerine, Lawrence licensed his formula. He licensed it to a man at a drug store where he bought his ingredients. The owner of this drug store was Jordan Wheat Lambert, founder of the Lambert Pharmacal Company. The Lambert Pharmacal CompanyJordan Wheat Lambert had four sons. Of the four, we know about two. Marion and Gerard Lambert. Marion was the responsible one who took care of the family business. Gerard was the overly ambitious one who wanted to make a name for himself. Gerard wanted to go out and get rich on his own. He somehow blew through his $300,000 ($7.7MM today) inheritance. And went even further, getting $700,000 ($18MM today) in debt. Imagine having that much debt. In 1919 or 1920, Gerard came back to the family business. And he was desperate to increase profits. He cut a few manufacturing costs, saved some money on taxes and pushed to start advertising Listerine. Gerard hired a pair of copywriters. Milton Feasley and Gordon Seagrove. Together with Marion, all four sat down and started brainstorming advertising ideas. Marion repeatedly suggested Listerine be marketed as a cure for bad breath. Gerard wasn't happy about that. Like in the story of why we wear deodorant, it was VERY impolite to talk about bodily functions or smells in the 1920s. It seems Marion was ready for this, so he brought in the company chemist as backup. According Gerard:
The story is a little different from how Gordon retells it, but the basic point remains. Halitosis was the big opportunity. This led to a series of ads that, like the deodorant story, typically targeted women. But instead of body odor being an attack on femininity, halitosis was an attack on a woman's dating prospects. These ads began in 1924. And according to tax records, here are the sales revenues of each year:
But strangely enough, it looks like Gerard abandoned this winning idea. He promoted Listerine for sore throats, colds and other uses. He started Listerine toothpaste which soon failed. Sales figures kept climbing up and peaked at $4MM ($58MM today), but that was because Gerard spent very aggressively on advertising. He only returned to making the halitosis appeal in 1928 when sales slowed down. Then The Great Depression hit in 1930 and not even halitosis could bump sales again. Onto the ads… The First Bridesmaid – Eleanor (1924)Eleanor AdThe first ad in this campaign featured Eleanor. But I won't be analysing this 1924 ad. It is very similar to the 1925 version. The 1925 version with Edna performed a lot better. And I only believe in studying the best performers in any campaign. Still, I've added it here for you to see the differences between the two. The More Famous Bridesmaid – Edna (1925)Edna AdThe Image & LayoutSize grabs attention. And this ad takes this idea to its extreme by a full-page image. Remember that Listerine was heavily aiming at women with its halitosis appeal. So here we have a full-page image of a woman looking sad. Guaranteed to catch readers out of concern and wanting to know why. The copy was printed across in an unusual style to make things visually interesting. The HeadlineYes, this ad campaign is where the phrase comes from. It's not the first time ever this was said. Milton and Gordon, the copywriters, probably got it from a 1917 song of the same name. But this is where this phrase came into everyday use. And I don't think there's better proof of its power than the fact we still use some variation of this phrase 100 years later. This headline is a very elegant way of describing why the woman in the image is so sad. It captures the fear of being alone. It hints she's not married because there is something wrong with her. What is wrong? You'll need to read the ad to find out. The Opening Paragraphs
These paragraphs are just continuing the thought and premise in the image and headline. But notice they don't say anything about why Edna was in this situation. The Fourth Paragraph
"She's single because of bad breath? Well, good thing I don't have bad breath." You don't know that. "Nobody has said anything." Not even your closest friends will tell you. "Wait, what?" And the seed of doubt is planted. The Fifth Paragraph
Here it points out the two causes of halitosis. And quickly dives into Listerine being the solution. It highlights that Listerine is well-known and has a history of medical use. But the writer knows that's a bit irrelevant. So he frames it as an "interesting thing" that it also has "unusual properties" as a breath deodorant. The Sixth Paragraph (Mechanism)
Here the copy explains the mechanism of Listerine. It describes exactly how it freshens breath. And it gives the (more powerful) social benefit of using it. The Call To Action
A very unusual call-to-action. It is a very soft sell. It doesn't tell you to go buy it, just that your druggist will have it for you to get it. It uses social proof by saying your druggist sells a lot of it. It builds credibility by pointing out the safety in its many uses and long history. I couldn't find any information on the booklet, so I can't say what that's about. Key TakeawaysIn your business…
In your copy…
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| Division of labor between Executive Admin and Project Manager? Posted: 27 Oct 2020 12:30 PM PDT I own a marketing consulting company and previously had a combo EA/PM role. That person was hired by a FAANG so I decided to split those duties up, and she was great at one and just OK at the other. I've hired a fantastic PM (3 weeks ago) and just brought on a new Admin 1 week ago. How do I best utilize them? For instance, if I need to coordinate something between a client and one of my employees or vendors, is that the PM or EA? How do you manage this? [link] [comments]  |
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