How to Sell Anything Online E-Book

Anaita Sarkar

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 345

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Are you ready to supercharge your sales?

When it comes to growing a business, it's no longer about what you sell, but how you sell it. Whether you're just starting out, upgrading your side hustle or wanting to grow your existing business, your success depends on your sales. How to Sell Anything Online reveals the most successful marketing strategies from some of the best online businesses around the world. From content marketing and ads for Facebook, TikTok, Google and Instagram to influencer marketing, website optimisation and SEO, this book will be your go-to business sidekick.

Anaita Sarkar, cofounder and CEO of Hero Packaging and founder of marketing company Sell Anything Online, shares a comprehensive toolkit of online actions and tips that you can put in motion immediately. With the help of case studies from experts across the industry, you'll learn how to:

• Reinforce the foundational pillars that every small business needs for success.
• Create brand awareness and seamlessly convert your audience into loyal customers using a simple, proven marketing funnel.
• Maximise how different social media platforms are used to propel your business forward.
• Discover the "magic bucket" strategies for treating your customers like VIPs, building a community and developing brand ambassadors.

Whether you're mastering content creation, optimising email campaigns or exploring influencer collaborations, this guide has you covered. With How to Sell Anything Online, you'll discover the secret sauce for consistent, profitable sales growth!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

About the author

Acknowledgements

How to use this book

Part I: The 5 core pillars of business

Part II: Understanding the marketing funnel

Part III: The secret sauce

Part IV: The magic bucket

Part V: What's next?

Introduction

From employee to business owner

My seven business beliefs

1. Be everywhere, all at once, at any given point in time, in the cheapest way possible

2. There are no magic spells

3. Don't work for every sale

4. Build relationships

5. Stop giving a fuck

6. Have a brag book

7. Be delusional

A business is easy to start, but difficult to grow

PART I:

The 5 core pillars of business

CHAPTER 1: Craft a distinct competitive advantage

Peter Alexander: The sleepwear king

Go-To Skincare: founder-driven following

Hero Packaging: Making sustainability fun

CHAPTER 2: Master your cashflow

How it should work

CHAPTER 3: The power of protectable IP

CHAPTER 4: Build your digital assets

CHAPTER 5: Consistency will win the game

The rule of 1000

PART II:

Understanding the marketing funnel

STAGE 1:

Capturing your cold audience in the TOFU

CHAPTER 6: TOFU strategy #1: Facebook (Meta) ads

The structure of Meta ads

Creating the ad

CHAPTER 7: TOFU strategy #2: Influencer marketing

How much should you pay for an influencer?

CHAPTER 8: TOFU strategy #3: Digital PR

How to get PR for your brand

CHAPTER 9: TOFU strategy #4: Brand collaborations

Types of brand collaborations

CHAPTER 10: TOFU strategy #5: TikTok

Hack your algorithm

Have a business account, not a creator account

Watch TikTok intentionally

Think like a creator, not like a business

Always have a list

Think of ONE story to share per day

Use the BE SEEN framework

CHAPTER 11: TOFU strategy #6: TikTok ads

10x your followers and engagement

CHAPTER 12: TOFU strategy #7: Instagram

1. Follow Instagram experts

2. Watch the trends

3. Focus on high-quality content (obviously!)

STAGE 2:

Warming up the audience in the MOFU

CHAPTER 13: MOFU strategy #1: Meta ads

Meta ads MOFU strategy

CHAPTER 14: MOFU strategy #2: Email marketing

‘But I don't want them to unsubscribe’

Email strategy part 1: How to get subscribers

Email strategy part 2: Email flows and email campaigns

CHAPTER 15: MOFU strategy #3: Google Ads

Types of Google Ads

CHAPTER 16: MOFU strategy #4: SEO

But, how does SEO actually work?

CHAPTER 17: MOFU strategy #5: Instagram

My best Instagram stories tips

STAGE 3:

Converting customers in the BOFU

CHAPTER 18: BOFU strategy #1: Website optimisation

Before you make any changes

Homepage

Product pages

Collections pages

Cart

CHAPTER 19: BOFU strategy #2: Email marketing

Cart abandonment email flow

CHAPTER 20: BOFU strategy #3: TikTok Shop

How do you set it up?

PART III:

The secret sauce

CHAPTER 21: Retention strategy #1: How to create an exceptional customer experience

Customer service touchpoints

Dispatch and delivery

Returns and exchanges

CHAPTER 22: Retention strategy #2: How to use email marketing to bring customers back to your store

Post-purchase email flows

Email campaigns

CHAPTER 23: Retention strategy #3: How to use Meta ads to retarget your customers

Ad creative

PART IV:

The magic bucket

CHAPTER 24: Magic bucket strategy #1: Creating a loyalty program that works

1. Points-based loyalty programs

2. Tiered loyalty programs

3. Paid loyalty programs

CHAPTER 25: Magic bucket strategy #2: Giving your customers a place to chat

CHAPTER 26: Magic bucket strategy #3: Giving your customers FOMO

CHAPTER 27: Magic bucket strategy #4: Treating customers like VIPs

CHAPTER 28: Magic bucket strategy #5: Using email marketing to make customers feel special

Email flow: Celebration emails

Email campaigns

CHAPTER 29: Magic bucket strategy #6: Building a personal brand

1. Know where you want to go

2. Build out your channels

3. Apply the layering method

4. Be over prepared

5. Stop talking about yourself

Flex Mami: Becoming an icon

PART V:

What's next?

CHAPTER 30: Advice from Mark Bouris: How to build a personal brand that spans decades

1. Understand and profile your audience

2. Only speak to the people who like you

3. Trust is the key to staying relevant

4. Where attention goes, money flows

5. Stop comparing yourself to the 2 per cent

6. Be ready for any opportunity

CHAPTER 31: How to build a community

1. Make an enemy

2. BFF chit chat

3. Charismatic leader

CHAPTER 32: Bringing it all together

Measuring marketing success

How to structure your weeks

The final recap

Top of FUnnel (TOFU)

Middle of FUnnel (MOFU)

Bottom of FUnnel (BOFU)

Secret sauce

Magic bucket

My last piece of advice

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

About the author

Acknowledgements

How to use this book

Introduction

My seven business beliefs

Begin Reading

The final recap

My last piece of advice

End User License Agreement

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First published in 2024 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, LtdLevel 4, 600 Bourke St, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia

© John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2024

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

ISBN: 978-1-394-27081-1

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover design by Wiley

Cover image © andrewvect/Shutterstock

Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

About the author

Anaita Sarkar is the co-founder and CEO of Hero Packaging, an author, a keynote speaker, a business advisor, and a guest lecturer at Macquarie University. She is also the founder of Sell Anything Online, a global marketing company.

At their dining table in 2018, Anaita and her husband co-founded Hero Packaging, which is now an award-winning sustainable packaging company for e-commerce retailers. What started as a solution for Anaita's previous business, where she was using enormous amounts of plastic to ship her products, is now a global company that has sold over 30 million compostable mailers to over 65 000 businesses.

Anaita's passion is e-commerce and marketing, and she is recognised for her ability to break down complex marketing concepts into actionable and practical strategies that help businesses grow profitably. In 2020, she wrote a book on the marketing formula that she used to scale two successful e-commerce businesses. Leveraging TikTok as her main marketing tool, she was able to sell over 4000 copies of her book.

This success led to the birth of Sell Anything Online, a company that provides business mentorship to hundreds of business founders, from small startups to large national retailers. She continues to provide free marketing and business tips on TikTok and Instagram, where she has now amassed over 320 000 followers. She also works with global tech companies like Google, TikTok, HubSpot, Linktree, American Express and Adobe on their content marketing strategies.

She has received several accolades for her businesses, including the Amazing Women in e-commerce Award in 2023, the Retail Champion Award from Smart Company in 2022, and the Best B2B Retailer Award at the Online Retail Industry Awards in 2022. Her insights and achievements have also been featured in publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, SBS, Smart Company, Business News Australia, Channel 7, and Mamamia, marking her as a prominent figure in the e-commerce world.

She has delivered talks focused on small-business growth, digital marketing strategies and branding to thousands of business owners and marketing students. Notably, she was a speaker at the internationally acclaimed SXSW conference 2023, discussing the future of the creator economy, and at American Express's International Women's Day conference 2024.

Above all else, her biggest achievements are her three daughters: Olivia, Chloe and Grace.

Acknowledgements

To my husband, Vik, who understands what it means to be a great partner, who has spent countless nights staying up while I wrote this book and who backs every decision I make.

To my kids, Olivia, Chloe and Grace, who have never complained about me working on weekends, who brought me snacks while I wrote this book and who make me laugh every single day.

To my parents who have given me privileges they never had, who supported my decisions even when they were worried about the outcome, and who still call me twice a day to talk about life and business.

To Brittney Saunders, Flex Mami, Rachael Wilde, James Reu, Jess Ruhfus, Daniel Flynn and Mark Bouris: thank you for being so generous with your time and answers. This book would not be what it is without you.

How to use this book

This book can be read from start to finish in a linear order or it can be read in parts. It has been designed to be kept on your desk at all times so you can refer to it as needed, depending what your business needs are at the time. This could be to get brand awareness or website traffic, optimise website conversions or increase brand loyalty.

There are five parts to this book:

Part I: The 5 core pillars of business

To have a strong and profitable business, you must have a strong foundation. This foundation is made up of five core pillars that need to be established before growth.

Part II: Understanding the marketing funnel

Within each part of the funnel, I will teach you which marketing levers to pull to turn a new audience into a customer. Each part of the funnel also represents a different goal in your business:

Part III: The secret sauce

The secret sauce is how to deliver an exceptional customer experience to existing customers and create raving fans of your brand. This section will truly set you apart from your competition.

Part IV: The magic bucket

Creating loyal customers in your business is one of the cheapest ways to earn recurring revenue and build a community of raving fans. This section will show you strategies to convert one-off customers into brand advocates and fill your magic bucket with loyal customers, raving fans and brand advocates.

Part V: What's next?

This last section ties it all together, along with advice from Australian entrepreneur and business expert Mark Bouris, as well as information on how to build your community.

This book also includes valuable Q&As throughout and case studies from some of Australia's best brand owners and marketers. These will provide inspiration as well as a closer look at the ways they have achieved success in certain marketing areas.

Let's get started.

Introduction

‘Do you know how to do anything right?’

Those were the words my manager yelled at me when I was working at one of Australia's top four accounting firms. It was 10am on a Tuesday morning. My manager had asked me to get a client file from the file room and I had mistakenly brought the wrong one. I remember handing it to him over the cubicle wall and within seconds he turned to me and said, ‘This is the wrong fucking file. How hard is it to listen to my instructions? Do you know how to do anything right?’ He dropped the file on the floor and turned back to his laptop. I was so embarrassed, not only because I had brought the wrong file, but because most of the people on level 12 now knew I had messed up.

I picked up the file and replied, ‘Sorry, I'll get the right one.’ I walked to the bathroom, sat on a toilet and cried. It wasn't the first time a manager had been rude, but it was the first time I had questioned why I was even there. I kept saying to myself, ‘Surely this can't be my life.’ After a few minutes, I heard the bathroom door open and one of my colleagues walked in and saw me crying. The words she said to me in that moment changed my entire life.

She said, ‘You don't deserve this. I'm taking you to HR and you are going to resign. You're made for better things.’ And that's exactly what I did.

After spending six years as an accountant at a company that made my parents incredibly proud, I resigned. But I was torn — I had spent my life working hard at school and university so that I could get a great job and eventually become a partner. That was always the plan.

But I was miserable, and I had been for six years.

After I left my job, I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew what I didn't want. I didn't want to:

feel like a tiny cog in a huge machine, and not understand what the machine actually did

be yelled at for making a mistake

work 12 hours a day and weekends for a minimal salary and no recognition.

To this day, those are my three driving forces in business. Even on my worst days, I remind myself of why I wanted to start.

And that's what I want you to do as the first activity in this book. Get a piece of paper and write down the three or four reasons why you started a business, and why you don't want to work for someone else. These are your driving forces. Take that page and put it somewhere you will see it every day.

There will inevitably be days when you question everything in your business, and in those times, there is no one who pushes you to keep going more than yourself. Always keep those driving forces in your line of sight. You're going to need them.

From employee to business owner

After resigning from my job, I tried my hand at a number of other jobs, from media buying for the Commonwealth Bank to marketing at a small telecommunications company. No matter how interesting the work was or how great the culture was, I was still miserable. So, much to the dismay of my parents, I quit each job within 12 months of starting.

According to them, I was lost.

What my parents didn't know was that I had started importing handbags from Alibaba (a wholesale marketplace) and was selling them on eBay in my spare time. I spent my nights learning how to create incredible product listings and I kept tweaking and perfecting them to get more visibility. Every time someone made a purchase, I felt so excited. While the sales weren't enough to replace a full-time income, selling products online made me incredibly happy. I didn't feel like a small cog — I was in charge of the whole machine.

After quitting my third job, I decided to not apply for another one. Instead, I decided to go all-in on starting a business. It was risky and unconventional and there was no guarantee of an income. So, I gave myself six months to achieve three goals:

make $10 000

receive at least one order every single day

have customers make repeat purchases.

I told myself that if I could achieve these goals, I had the foundation for a strong business, and I would never have to get another job. I got to work very quickly.

These are the steps I took to start my business:

Found a product:

I looked for a trending product and found that personalised leather accessories, such as card holders and pouches, were in high demand. At the time, there were only two main competitors in the market.

Found a manufacturer:

After researching on Alibaba, I found a manufacturer selling leather cardholders. I ordered the minimum-order quantity, which was 100 pieces.

Found a personalisation tool:

In order to do the personalisation, I needed a tool to emboss people's initials on the leather. I found a handheld hot stamping tool on Etsy.

Created a business name:

I used my daughter's name as inspiration.

Set up a selling platform:

I had no idea how to set up a website, but I knew that marketplaces had millions of active users, so I set up an eBay store and an Etsy store. From my time selling imported handbags on eBay, I knew how to create a great product listing, so I used that knowledge to build both storefronts.

Worked out my competitive advantage:

I knew I couldn't compete with the two big competitors with their paid marketing or public relations, so I focused on the customer experience. I looked up the negative reviews of my competitors and saw that customers experienced slow dispatch times and terrible customer service, so I made sure I excelled in those.

Set my pricing:

I would not advise most businesses to compete on price, but I knew that if people were searching on eBay, they were searching for the lowest price, and so I priced my cardholders $10 cheaper than my competitors.

It took two months from idea generation to launching my business.

Within the first week of starting my business, I had sold ten personalised cardholders.

Within three weeks, I had my first repeat customer.

Within two months, I had to purchase the next batch of inventory from my manufacturer.

Within four months, I had made $10 000.

I had hit my goals, but I also had a huge realisation. I was unbelievably happy. This was what I had always wanted to feel in my career. For years I had searched for a sense of pride in my work, but never found it. I realised that my satisfaction was never going to come from money or a job title, it came from having the freedom to try new things, test different strategies, talk to customers and control the business process from product generation to sale.

Starting a second business

Fast forward two years to 2018, I had a small office with three staff and three commercial monogramming machines, and we were shipping off 60 to 80 orders a day. One day, during the school holidays, we had packed all our orders and were waiting for the postal worker to come and collect all the packages, but as I looked around the room, all I could see was plastic. All the orders were packed inside single-use plastic mailers, and I knew that inside those mailers was plastic bubble wrap. I also saw my two daughters sitting on the ground playing with plastic bubble wrap and it made me feel pretty disgusted. I had never truly considered sustainability in my business before, but I knew that the amount of plastic I was using was terrible for the environment. When I got home that day, I was determined to find a replacement for those plastic mailers. I wanted something that looked like plastic but could be composted or dissolved. I searched online for days but came up empty-handed.

So, just like any entrepreneur, I said, ‘I'll just create it myself!’

Over a period of nine months, I designed a prototype, sourced manufacturers, ordered samples, tested them in my home compost bin, re-designed it, ordered more samples, switched manufacturers, composted more samples, tested them for packing and shipping products, and finally came up with a compostable mailer that I loved.

I ordered 10 000 white compostable mailers to use in my business.

I was pretty chuffed with myself — I was eliminating single-use plastic in my small business, and I had created something that didn't already exist. I remember talking about the mailers on my Instagram stories and I asked if any other business owners would like to try them. Within 24 hours, I had dozens of people asking for a sample.

So, again, in true entrepreneurial fashion, I turned to my husband and said, ‘I'm turning this into a business.’

He replied, ‘Go for it.’

As this was going to require a big investment to get started, I needed to gauge demand for a product like this on a bigger scale. This is how I tested demand.

I set up a very basic landing page using MailChimp (an email marketing platform). On the landing page, it had an image of a compostable mailer, a title that said ‘Need sustainable packaging for your business? Get a free sample of a compostable mailer’, and a form for them to enter their name, email address and shipping address.

To drive people to that landing page, I created a Google ad and targeted anyone who was searching for ‘sustainable packaging’ or ‘eco-friendly packaging.’

In one week, we had over 1000 sign-ups. This meant we needed to ship free mailers to 1000 addresses around Australia. It was an expensive task, but incredibly worth it because I had not only gauged demand of the product, but I also had my first 1000 email addresses.

It was time to start the business.

These are the steps I took to start (but this time, I was not starting from scratch, I was starting from experience):

Came up with a business name:

I wrote down all the words that reminded me of the planet or saving the planet and I kept coming back to a TV show I used to watch when I was a kid called

Captain Planet

. If you’re not familiar with the show or its opening song, Captain Planet is the titular hero and the whole premise of the show is about reducing pollution to zero. I just knew that I had to call the business Hero as a hat tip to my favourite earth-saving TV show. I bought the domain name and set up all the social media handles.

Designed the mailers:

I knew that the mailers had to be aesthetically pleasing in order for business owners to use them, so I chose a matte black and a matte white. But I also knew that I wanted to add a colour that was trending, so I also created a millennial pink mailer. I added the brand name on the front so that our brand would be recognisable.

Set up the website:

I used Shopify to set up the website and created the home page and three simple product pages for the three different colours.

Used social media:

I made sure to be active on Instagram and Facebook, and used hashtags so that anyone interested in small business or sustainability could find my business.

Set up ads:

One of the key things I did was to start paid advertising straight away. I knew that I needed a lot of brand awareness to grow quickly, so I used Facebook ads and Google Ads to capture my target market.

Hero Packaging was able to grow quickly because of its fun and Instagrammable approach to packaging, and its ability to help business owners become more sustainable in their businesses without making huge changes.

I was able to apply the digital marketing strategies from my first business to Hero Packaging, and they worked. It made me realise that all businesses can use the same strategies to sell anything online — they just need to know which ones to use at the right time.

After running both businesses for a couple of years, as well as raising two kids (with another on the way), my husband and I knew that we needed to let something go. We decided to sell my first business, and after putting feelers out on LinkedIn and Instagram, we found a buyer.

We were now able to focus on scaling Hero Packaging even faster.

Now Hero Packaging has become Australia's go-to sustainable packaging company with over 65 000 business customers. It has won several business awards and has been featured in hundreds of articles online.

My seven business beliefs

In my ten years of business, I've developed a set of beliefs that I live by. They have been created, not only based on my experience, but also on the hundreds of businesses that I've analysed and mentored. Here are my top seven.

1. Be everywhere, all at once, at any given point in time, in the cheapest way possible

Wherever your target market is hanging out, I want you to be there. If they're scrolling through Instagram, your stories should be active. If they are in a Facebook group, they should see your brand name mentioned. If they are searching for an answer on Google, your brand should appear with the solution. If they are relaxing at home, you need to knock on their front door. Okay, I exaggerate, but I think you get it.

Start with the cheapest marketing levers, such as search engine optimisation (SEO) and organic content creation, and then amplify your visibility with paid marketing. I'll show you all the marketing levers you need so you can be everywhere.

2. There are no magic spells

There is no business success that cannot be explained. From Culture King's $600 million business valuation to The Oodie making $1 million in one day to Showpo scaling to a $100 million business, I can pinpoint the exact strategies that made them grow. There is no magic involved.

They each used a few key marketing strategies to scale, but their winning tactic was knowing which ones to use at the right time with the budget they had available.

There is nothing these brands did that isn't in this book.

3. Don't work for every sale

Rich people don't make money by working more hours. They place their money into wealth-generating investments that do the work for them.

Similarly, in business, you should not be relying on working more to get more sales. If you only rely on organic Instagram content to generate every sale, you will tire yourself out. Your business will not be scalable or sustainable.

You must have consistent paid advertising spend, SEO and email flows working in the background to make sure that any sales you make from the extra work you put in is a bonus.

4. Build relationships

For years, I thought that networking meant attending events and awkwardly finding people to talk to in the hopes of finding good business friends. I went to many such events early on, and always came away disappointed and frustrated. It was all small talk and no substance.

One day, I had a brand owner, Claire, reach out to me on Instagram. We had always spoken to each other via direct messages, and we always engaged with each other's social posts. Claire's message read, ‘I've finally gone full time in my business, and I have time to meet up during the day. I would love to do coffee with you soon.’

I jumped at the chance to meet another business owner in person, so I agreed. The next week, we met at a cafe and spoke for hours about business and marketing and life. I told her some of the issues I was having, and she suggested some solutions. I did the same for her. It was the first time I felt like a friend understood my business.

We took a selfie and posted it to Instagram and, very quickly, another business owner reached out and said, ‘I didn't realise you were in Sydney. I would love to have a coffee.’

I started to build relationships and a network of people who were aligned with me. We helped each other out and learnt from each other. Six years after that initial coffee date, we are all still friends. We share ideas, news, trends, problems and business advice. This is my network.

But my network doesn't stop there. Over the years, I've pushed myself to reach out to people who I want to build a relationship with — founders, experts, marketers and people in the e-commerce industry. And most of the time, it worked. It's not about asking them for a favour — it's simply connecting with people who align with you.

These incredible people have pushed me forward in my business and have even helped pull me out of some challenging situations. I want you to start figuring out who you want in your network and reach out to them.

5. Stop giving a fuck

We care too much about everything. We care too much about what our parents say and what our friends think. We care too much about how many likes we receive or how many people unsubscribed from our email campaigns. We care too much about what our audience thinks of our grey hairs when we talk to the camera. We care so much that it affects our behaviour and stifles our creativity.

When you realise that no one notices — let alone cares about — those things, you will be able to create and grow without the fear of judgement.

6. Have a brag book

You will achieve so much this year, but many of these achievements come and go and we forget what we did.

Keep a note on your phone called ‘Brag Book’ and document every single thing that you achieve this year. Take screenshots, copy and paste reviews, take photos and upload everything into your brag book.

At the end of the year, you can look back on it and feel proud. But the best part is you can use your brag book to gather talking points. Inevitably, you will be asked to be on a podcast, on a panel or answer a written Q&A about your business journey. This brag book will help you remember every winning strategy so you can provide valuable answers.

7. Be delusional

Lady Gaga once famously spoke about an ex who told her she would never succeed, and she replied: ‘Someday, when we're not together, you won't be able to order a cup of coffee at the fucking deli without hearing or seeing me.’

That's how I want you to think about yourself. You are the best at what you do, and you will succeed. Any problems you face are solvable. Facing them and solving them will only make you a better business owner.

You have an iconic brand, you are an iconic founder and you are made to do iconic shit.

A business is easy to start, but difficult to grow

A friend of mine wanted to start a business selling cooling eye masks. She had already done the sampling process and ordered 300 units from her Alibaba manufacturer. I told her to spend two days setting up her Shopify store, taking photos of the product, creating a product page, creating her first email flows and planning out her social media posts. And that's exactly what she did.

She also planned a big launch of her product by booking a paid influencer with a large following, directed people from her personal social accounts to her new brand account, and hyped up the launch on TikTok. She spent weeks planning the launch and she did a fantastic job. In fact, on the day of the launch she sold 120 of the 300 units. Her friends, family, her TikTok audience and the influencer's audience opened their wallets and bought her eye masks.

The launch was a big success, especially for someone who had never had a business before. I spoke to her on the phone, and I remember the excitement in her voice. She even spoke to me about her next product idea: a warming eye mask.

The next day, the sales momentum slowed a little, but she still sold another 40 eye masks.

Two days after launch, do you know how many she sold? None.

The day after that? Also none.

In the two weeks after launch, she had sold three additional eye masks.

When I spoke to her again, I told her, ‘You can't simply rely on a big launch to make consistent sales. You need a different marketing approach to constantly find a new audience and to make more sales.’

Many people want to start a business. Some of them try and think of a business idea for months or years, and when they finally have an idea, they spend another few months procrastinating about it, then another few months making the website and then more months planning the launch. They invest time and energy into the beginning stages and get excited at launch because they receive their first few orders.

But what they don't realise is that they've just completed one of the easiest things in business. The part that comes next — the consistent sales and subsequent growth — is incredibly difficult.

The reason for this is because business owners need to do everything in their business. From website creation to social media posting, to email marketing, to accounting, to product planning, to customer service, to multi-channel content creation — they usually have to do this with little or no help.

Business owners know they need to have a clear strategy in place to continuously bring in new customers as well as keep current customers happy. But there is also an overwhelming amount of information available online. It's confusing and exhausting to sift through it all and find what works.

A lot of business owners also see other brands ‘blow up overnight’ and get disheartened. They wonder how those other brands magically became successful.

What they don't realise is that there is no secret sauce, luck or magical fairy dust that grows a brand. In fact, there are a finite number of marketing strategies (or levers) that any brand has access to. The successful brands just know which marketing levers to use at the right time, and some know how to use each lever better than other brands.

This is exactly what this book will teach you. You will learn about the importance of the marketing funnel and its three main parts: top of funnel, middle of funnel and bottom of funnel. You will also learn that each part targets a specific group of people with key marketing strategies designed to push people from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel. By the end of the book, you will know how to capture a new audience and turn them into a customer. But, the customer journey doesn't simply end there. This book has detailed and actionable tips on how to provide those customers with an incredible experience and, ultimately, create brand advocates and loyal fans.

While this book is about implementing marketing strategies, it actually serves a much bigger purpose — to give you more time to do the things you want! It will help you automate your marketing so that you can make consistent revenue without working for every single sale, and will give structure to your weeks so that you are able to work on your marketing with clear goals.

The ultimate goal of this book is to alleviate the stress of not knowing how to grow your business. You will not only be able to implement strategies for growth, but will also be able to simplify your workflow so you can feel excited about the brand you are building.

PART IThe 5 core pillars of business

Businesses come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from their product or service offerings to their audience and their branding. However, every business must have a solid foundation in order to not only grow, but grow profitably.

There are five things in common that all businesses must have:

Competitive advantage

Cash

Protectable intellectual property (IP)

Digital assets

Consistency.

These are your core pillars because they strengthen the foundation of your entire business. The marketing strategies in this book will only work if you build your core pillars from now.

CHAPTER 1Craft a distinct competitive advantage

There are rarely any products that consumers cannot buy from another business, and usually they have the same features/benefits and the same price. Even if you are the first to market with an incredible product, your lead can be lost within months. In fact, another business may even create a slightly better version of the product than yours. Having a good product is not enough to give you a competitive advantage.

When I ask business owners what their competitive advantage is, I'm met with these common responses:

My products actually work

.