Pivoting Into A D2C Growth Agency And Generating $100K/Year In Revenue [Update]
This is a follow up story for Social Reach. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 6 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hi, I'm Stephen; I was last interviewed by Starter Story about 5 years ago now! At that time, I was starting my journey as a full-time, self-employed marketer with Micro Bikes UK, an e-commerce store selling kid's quad bikes.
Since then, I pivoted into the service industry selling the services I'd used to grow my e-commerce store. Social Reach offers Paid Social services and UGC for eCommerce brands on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Bing.
At the peak of our business, Social Reach was turning over $100K/Year.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Since I last spoke with Starter Story, I have pivoted the business into a paid social agency. The timing was perfect because Facebook had just become the dominant advertising platform.
It made the platform easier to sell, and as a result, many of the clients we’d onboarded agreed to performance-based models. Initially, I spent several months white-labeling for other agencies and learning how agency operations worked. I quickly realized how vital executing promises was in retaining clients. Many agencies I white labeled for outsourced the work without doing due diligence or caring about the work that went into producing high-performing campaigns.
I was often left to manage the client and campaigns, so when I started my agency, I had brands reach out to me immediately. From these early clients, I established five to six solid case studies, rebranded, and attracted business via referrals. Within two years, Social Reach was doing 100K + in revenue with limited expenses with only a handful of clients.
If you run an e-commerce business, validate your products first. Then, once you’ve validated them, work primarily on content and creatives. We are in an attention economy.
However, the platforms began to change, and performance-based models needed to be more viable. It was mainly due to iOS changes, but I also considered the increase in AI-driven algorithms. You no longer need to be a skilled media buyer to get results. You just needed good creatives. With this, Social Reach started offering creative services and pivoting to new channels. The majority of our business came from referrals.
I now act as a consultant mainly, but I still take on clients that I can help to grow.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
The two biggest challenges I’ve faced are keeping up with rapid changes in the industry and offering more value. Where it was much easier to sell my services four years ago, it’s now much harder. Setting up campaigns isn’t the challenge anymore; producing good creatives is. But producing good creatives are expensive and less profitable than ad management.
Social Reach is fully automated now when it comes to ad management. We have SOPs in place to make it easy for clients to onboard, automated slack channels, reports, and creative insights. We also have an office and one full-time employee, but my long-term aim is to keep the business small and personal until the next opportunity is available.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
I’ve made many mistakes; the most recent was investing in full automation from creative insights, customer portals, email automation, and sales without a good enough sales pitch. I found myself on call after call selling a service that the prospect couldn’t afford or didn’t see the value in. Even though our systems were clean, we weren’t onboarding enough clients. Sales made things difficult.
My focus now is to build a personal brand and sell in a way where businesses approach me instead of chasing them. Another issue is the competitiveness in e-commerce. Only a handful of brands can afford large monthly retainers, and hundreds of agencies are fighting for the attention of those brands.
Retention is by far the most crucial skill I've learned, and I'm proud to say that clients who come on board with Social Reach stick around for a long time. I've learned a few lessons that have made me achieve this.
The first is being an expert in your niche; brands appreciate when you know what you're talking about and can guide them through an often intimidating process; secondly, take an interest in their business and encourage them to grow. Finally, treat them as business partners. It will humanize you, making it more difficult for them to part ways; building a relationship like that from scratch takes time.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
I don’t have any plans right now. My opinions on business have changed. I’m less interested in business podcasts and shows because the lessons are repeated. Instead, I’m more interested in well-being, mindfulness, and anticipating market trends.
I would love to take on a struggling brand, however, and attempt to turn around its identity to go viral using the things I’ve learned working with brands and social media.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
I’m currently reading the Steve Jobs autobiography
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
I mentioned this in my previous interview, but timing plus execution equals success. For example, if you’d invested in Bitcoin 8 years ago, you’d be much better off now. Not because you worked hard but because you executed at the right time. The reason why businesses grow so fast is because they build them at a time there is high demand.
Also, if you run an e-commerce business, validate your products first. Then, once you’ve validated them, work primarily on content and creatives. We are in an attention economy. Also, remember to give your advertising a human touch. Human creatives go viral.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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