How Organic Marketing Drives 50%+ Revenues with Emily Grey, founder Flourish Market
You're viewing an archive of Get Sh!t Done Weekly Email Traction Briefings. Join free to receive your weekly 5-minute growth playbooks & grow alongside thousands of entrepreneurs
"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits them and sells itself."
Emily Grey scaled a 7-figure profitable empire driven by 50%+ organic marketing
I bang my head against the wall whenever a founder tells me their marketing strategy is paying for ads, ESPECIALLY when they don't have the budget.
Here's the problem:
The recommended spend on ads for startups is 25-30% of earnings. MOST startups can't afford this when they need to grow a team, build products, etc.
The largest ad platforms have close to a monopoly and suck you dry if that's your only source of traction.
Our growth allies at Female Startup Club suggest that unless you're doing at least $30k MRR, hiring an agency to do your ads is a waste. This means founders have to invest time to figure out ads, which requires expertise.
The MOST successful companies that sustain scale over time have strong organic marketing i.e word of mouth, content, PR, email, organic social engagement, etc.
You cannot spend or shortcut your way to success and scale.
While organic marketing takes time and effort but it's well worth it because it's what YOU can control as a founder instead of relying on paying platforms you can't control
Ready to learn how you can leverage organic marketing to drive 50% of revenues?
What we'll brief you on:
How small can be sexy and scale.
How creative funding can help you get the capital you need.
How to make your customers your co-authors.
How experience & activation led to a 64% repeat rate and how you can leverage it.
How to amplify your face as the founder.
How to manage your time and your team's.
Let's get it...
How Organic Marketing Can Drive 50% of Revenues
Founder: Emily Grey | Company: Flourish Market | Location: Raleigh, NC
Receipts before Flourish Market
Emily grew up in North Carolina and started working for a Swiss Investment Bank after college where she traveled for 8 years living in Europe, Asia, and NYC. When she left that job she had the title of VP of Communications and Change Management.
Problem-solving
Women have consistently informed 80% of purchase decisions. The impact of mass consumerism has had massive repercussions globally. "Do good fashion" has been on the rise in the last decade such as the ethical fashion movement, which is currently a sizeable yet small fraction ($5.84 Billion) of the multi-trillion dollar fashion market. However, more companies are starting to opt into initiatives like the 1% pledge, where participating organizations contribute at least 1% of annual sales to environmental causes. About 50% of fashion companies that interview for the Get Sh!t Done Accelerator, claim to be a part of this initiative.
Solution
What if we were able to support the Queens of commerce to make informed purchase decisions that drive impact at a local level? Flourish Market's way of "doing good" is by empowering their customers to purchase with purpose by partnering with 200+ brands who provide dignified jobs and fair wages to inspiring artisans and makers in vulnerable communities.
Small Can Be Sexy & Scale.
Emily partners with 200+ brands and has scaled a 7-figure profitable business in 3 years AND did it with 1 location, a 3,500 square foot storefront in Raleigh, NC. And contrary to what most retailers do, they do not want multiple stores. They are sticking with the 1 store in downtown Raleigh as they scale. So how in the hell does that scale? Learn how small can scale here.
How Did they Fund it Initially?
Inventory businesses are not cheap but Emily like my fave founders are great at creative funding. Emily didn't start w/ a retail location. She started the company by purchasing a truck that was transformed into a fashion boutique on wheels for $8k. She raised $5k on Kickstarter to fund the initial inventory with 10-12 brands. They have bootstrapped everything. No institutional funding, no loans, AND they've NEVER paid for advertising. Learn how to get creative with your funding here.
Make Your Customers Your Co-Authors.
Emily made customer listening an art. - "We listen and listen well" More importantly, she listens across platforms. They leverage tools like Instagram polls where a whopping 90% of their 13k followers vote and have a 93% open rate with an email list of 20k+ where they receive thousands of responses to surveys. Get a masterclass on customer listening from how they do their polls to drive engagement, to what questions they ask, how often they send surveys, where companies f*ck up on surveys and how you can do better, and so much more here.
Experience & Activation with a 64% Repeat Rate.
One of the driving growth forces for them has been in-person activations with a give-back component. You may be thinking -"I can’t do anything in-person with COVID" but Emily challenges you to think out of the box. For example, they did 91 porch pop-ups during the pandemic. This is why in-person shopping yields a higher AOV (average order value) and LTV (lifetime value). Humans create connections, not tech. Their highly interactive approach has led to a 64% repeat rate. Learn how to activate organic and engaging marketing that can work for YOUR company with Emily here that’s pandemic proof.
You Gotta Put Your Face Out There
Emily gets deep into how she engages with her customers and community. One of my favorite things that she said was "you gotta put your face out there". This is one of your superpowers as a founder. The bigger a company gets, the less it’s humanized unless you’re Oprah because let’s face it - she’s the Queen! When you’re small and mighty, humanizing your brand empowers you to be David to Goliath. Learn how Emily goes behind the scenes in her company and gets raw with her customers like being transparent about their finances when COVID hit
Manage Your Time & Team
Every quarter their team does an experiment to understand how they are spending their time, what they are spending their time on, AND how much money they are gaining or LOSING by doing those tasks. WHEW! If you feel attacked it’s because you know you ain’t spending your time where it needs to be. If you’re not, you may need to get a wake-up call. Figure out whether or not you’re spending your time wisely using Emily's framework here.
Where You Can Support Emily?
If you are in the fashion space and want to learn how to break into wholesale, learn more about Emily’s movement - The Wholesale Way.
MARKETING MOVES: Grow Awareness
Learn how this company drives revenues with 98% earned marketing (meaning they don't pay for it) with Fawn Weaver.
Want to learn one of the most impactful ways to grow awareness organically? Learn how to form partnerships with Maria Boustead.
Learn how to build your founder brand & master your content marketing strategy with Jessica Zweig.
Learn how mastering PR drove sales & funding with Stephanie Benedetto.
TRACTION TOOLS: How to get it done...
Here are some tools that will help you build awareness and develop partnerships<3
Successful companies listen to their customers by engaging with them often. Here is a kickass guide on how you can engage and interview your customers.
Once you complete the guide above, here are 142 engaging questions you can ask your audience on social media.
Here's a rundown on how to grow your startup organically.
Did you know that SEO is one of the top ways startups grow? Learn SEO for Startups here.
Get Your Outcome-Driven SEO roadmap here.
Need to outsource marketing hires? One of our VC allie's portfolio company used Market Hire and they 13X'd users. We've heard at least 4 recommendations for this platform in the last month from founders & funders.
Founder's get super caught up in vanity metrics around awareness like how many followers you have. Learn why Visibility isn't success as you focus on marketing.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Explore community membership here.