Grassroots Marketing
What word of mouth, social media, and press coverage can do for your product or service launch.
In my first article on Wild Mantle, I talked about how values guided the branding of my fashion business. Next, I had to get the business off the ground. I needed other people to know about it.
In launching Wild Mantle, I realized I had two challenges: raising awareness of the brand and explaining what the mantle actually was. It wasn’t a scarf, a concept people understand. It was a new shape, and once people tried it on they loved it. But I needed that to work on the internet where you can’t hold the physical product.
After seeing a friend run a successful Kickstarter campaign, I recognized that the crowdfunding platform would give me an opportunity to tell my story. It would also help me see if the product gained traction before taking the next step of business growth I envisioned at the time: committing to producing the mantle in larger quantities with a knitting mill. So, in November 2014, I launched Wild Mantle’s first Kickstarter Campaign with a crowdfunding goal of $30,000.
The Strategy
Without a big, fancy launch budget, I home-schooled my way through a quick education in grassroots marketing. While I tried many different things at the time, there were three that made the most impact on my campaign:
Word of mouth
Before the Kickstarter, I got into the habit of letting people try on my mantle as I wore it out in the world. I kept a list of those who really loved it — my mom’s friend who came over for tea, a photography client who saw me wearing one on a shoot, the stranger in the grocery store line who gave me her email. Over time, the list expanded, and I reached out to all of those people personally to let them know I was about to launch a Kickstarter campaign. I asked them to support it, share it on social media, and/or tell someone else they knew. Many of them did.
Social media
Through my eagerness to share this product with everyone I knew, I discovered that I had a number of friends in my network who had large numbers of friends in my network who had large numbers of followers. I was lucky that they believed in what I was doing and were so willing to help spread the word. My big-sister-business-mentor Josie Marin, and my childhood-friend-turned-actress Kat Dennings, both rose to the occasion in sharing photos of themselves wearing mantles (see below) and brought a significant number of backers to the campaign. Equally notable was the collective effort of friends and family who had fewer followers as individuals but together reached a larger audience.
Press
Just before and during the campaign’s launch, I started reaching out to reporters via email and social media. This included randomly tweeting at a Philly Weekly writer, and he ended up putting me on the cover of the newspaper with the caption “Kickstart Me.” By finding the right people and doing cold reach-outs, I ended up getting featured in about a dozen smaller blogs and other local news publications. And, the photo that Kat posted of her in the mantle was picked up on CNN.
The Results
The result of these efforts was a fully-funded Kickstarter campaign in which 300 backers funded the project and raised $39,827…nearly $10k more than our goal. I was able to prove the concept and cultivate a core customer base, some of whom would return as customers for years.
Launch Tips
Are you getting ready to launch a product or service? While the social media and Kickstarter landscapes are different than they were in 2014, here are some updated tips from my vantage point in late 2020:
Word of Mouth
Share your product or idea with as many people as possible and listen to their feedback.
Make a spreadsheet and keep track of your contacts and the potential value they could have to offer. Did they express interest in being a customer? Is their second cousin a celebrity on Instagram? Are they a member of a community listserv or group that would be a great place to get the word out?
Don’t be pushy. It works best if you inspire people with the product and keep track of what they’re offering to do based on their enthusiasm. The way you get word of mouth marketing to kick in is to be the thing that people want.
Social Media
Make sure you understand the current landscape. My Kickstarter campaign took place in 2014, which was before the social media algorithms and influencer culture really took off. Today the process of getting the word out on social media without paying for ads or influencers is much harder.
Take a look around your social media network and see if you know anyone who has a large following. There’s actually a free app that can help with this: socialrank.com. Keep in mind that it’s a big deal for someone with a large following to promote your business. If they’re a paid influencer, they may not be able to do it for free, but it can’t hurt to ask.
The way in which you ask is important. See “Don’t be pushy” above.
Press
Get a press kit together. It can be as simple as a google folder with images, a bio, and some copy about your product that writers can use to make their job easier.
Write your pitch. Create a few sentences that you can copy/paste and tailor for emails and other messages that say who you are, what you’re doing, and why their readers should care. Pitch a specific story and timing.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back from everyone. For those you do hear back from, be accountable. Get them whatever they need, quickly. When the story does publish, share it on your networks with backlinks and tags. And, don’t forget to thank the reporter! They might write about you again someday, so make it the start of a beautiful friendship.
Taking your first swing at marketing can feel like a mix of art and science. My experience taught me never to underestimate the alchemy of a good idea, the right timing, and a thoughtful but intuitive strategy. The way you tell your story and how you get the word out is often as important as your offering itself.
Enjoy the process and make it something you’re excited about and proud of! It will look different for each individual business. But once you find something that works, it may be something you can repeat for a long time.
Thanks for reading, and for those of you strategizing your launch or growth: good luck! You got this!
LINKS:
Wild Mantle’s website: www.wildmantle.com
Wild Mantle on Instagram: www.instagram.com/wildmantle