Inital goal

My first goal would be to sell at least $100 worth of products, and I already feel that a lot of work needs to be done. The good news that it will get only easier over time after it will gain momentum.

I've written how to set up a shop and how to connect it to Printful to create print-on-demand products. After doing all that I found myself at the crossroads. What do I do next? Where do I start from? Should I set up an Instagram account or maybe a blog? Should I create Instagram or facebook ads and start promoting my shop right away?

I decided to start from building a following because over the years it became clear that it's much more important to know who you are trying to sell to and adjusting your product for them than doing what you want and then trying to find customers and trying to make people buying from you. It is especially hard for me to shift the mindset because I was working in the B2B field for last few years where demand is much higher than supply. In b2c that's usually not the case in most markets.

Building a following

To build a following, I created a blog and started posting articles on productivity, motivation, and success. I've published a couple of posts so far, and I'm going to post one in about three days. I'm reading a lot, so there's plenty of knowledge on the topic I'll be able to share with my readers. I will add email subscription form once I'll be getting at least ten visitors a day. I expect to write at least 30 posts by that time, and I want to compile an Ebook from those posts and offer it as an incentive to sign up for the newsletter. I then want to promote the blog and newsletter to grow the number of readers while engaging with them to get feedback and understand their needs, pains, and desires. I want to get my first 100 subscribers within six months. I should have about 60 posts by that time, 60.000 words. If all goes well, I want to self-publish a book and promote it on the website.

While writing posts for the blog I want to start engaging with my customers as soon as possible. I will visit various online communities where my customers hang out and post comments and small articles that would be helpful for them. I want to build credibility and trust to be able to promote my blog and Instagram and get some feedback early on.

Taking it bird by bird

At the same time as writing blog posts, I want to create a new Instagram account and start growing it. Again, it looks tough and overwhelming in the beginning. They don't tell you in those guides all over the internet what to do when you're starting at the blank, newly created Instagram account. I was watching Annie Lamott's TED talk recently, and she had told an episode from her life:

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table, close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’

That is exactly what I'm going to do. I will start posting content daily, combining unique posts created by me or curating existing great content. I will use the top 30 popular hashtags to make those posts discoverable. Once I will have at least ten posts I'd be able to start engaging with other users to grow the following. I will begin by following about 20 people a day and commenting on recent posts. I'm going to do this manually at the beginning to see how it all works and maybe hire an assistant to help me out later after I'll have an established system. I want to get at least 100 followers and then start promoting the account — through micro-influencers and Instagram ads. I will need at least 100 posts by then for the account to look credible so it will take about three months of steady daily work.

Marketing first

See, there's almost nothing shop-related that I'm going to do in the next few months. I think I will be writing here mostly about content marketing and social media marketing because that's precisely what I'm going to do. I expect to spend up to 6 months to get my first 100 subscribers/followers. Of course, it can happen faster, but there's no way for me to estimate or control this number now. I will start promoting the shop only when I will have at least 1000 Instagram followers and at least 500 email subscribers. I don't know how realistic it is to grow to those numbers within a year, but it sounds like it's doable.

In the meantime, I might run test PPC campaigns to see how it all ties in together. I don't expect high conversions or a lot of orders, but I want to look at what will be the initial conversion rate and how it will improve with time. It would also be nice to measure conversion rates for different channels over time. I would expect people who already is an Instagram follower or email subscriber to convert better than a random stranger from the internet.

There will be a lot of daily work with no reward and probably no sense of progress. I still have to build a roadmap or stepping stones to keep track of how things are moving but not sure how to do this yet.