Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Natalia and welcome to the first episode of Marketing 101. So I've been wanting to do a series like this for the longest time because one of my most commonly asked questions is how do I market my brand? How have I grown my audience? Where do I start? All those things. So I figured I would put my skills to good use and help you out. By no means am I any sort of professional at this. I did not go to business school, did not study marketing. I have genuinely just learned it on my own and learned it as I went with my business. If you're unfamiliar with me, my business, who I am. First of all, hi, I'm Natalia. I run a slow fashion brand called Natalia Trevino-Maro. It's just named after me and I started it back in June of 2020. This was my following when I first started and as of right now in January of 2022, this is where we're at. So you could say that overall, I've been able to really gain an audience pretty fast. Even within the six months, like this was my six-month difference between June 2020 and December of 2020. I feel like I've learned a lot of things. I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of marketing and I feel like as the years go by, I'll learn more and I can just continue adding to this little series because I just don't think that marketing is like a said-and-done thing. Like I think it evolves a lot over time as society evolves as well. So I kind of want to keep it as a continuous conversation, but today we're just going to start with the basics. So let's get straight into it. First things first, what is your business idea? You really need to have a clear understanding of what your business is selling, whether it's a physical product or a service, like what is it that you're doing and why is it different from everybody else that might be doing the same thing? Because at the end of the day, as original as we wish we all were, majority of things have been done and redone and we're just kind of recycling old ideas and making them new, which I don't think is a bad thing. It's like that with everything, even with clothing. It's very hard to make groundbreaking things nowadays unless you're literally creating some crazy new concept. But in this day and age, reality is you're probably going to have competitors in your field that are probably doing the same thing you are, but you are starting a business because you believe you are better than them or you're offering something slightly different that might be more valuable than them. So what is that? For me, within the clothing business, I feel like it's sometimes the hardest to differentiate yourself because clothing is clothing and there's a million different brands and it's hard to find why you would be different than the rest. So for me, I obviously really focused in on ethics and sustainability, which is not groundbreaking because it is starting to become more and more apparent in the industry, but obviously it is still kind of niche and a little bit different than your basic big brands. So that in itself already differentiates me. But within the ethical and sustainable fashion world, I needed to find something that differentiated me. So for example, I find that like maybe my biggest quote-unquote competitor would be a brand like Reformation mostly because their aesthetic and their style kind of matches mine a little bit more because I find that, you know, other brands like Girlfriend Collective or like Make the Label and all these other popular sustainable and ethical brands are more like lounge wear or active wear and that's just not my playing field. So I find that it's actually kind of difficult to find some sustainable ethical brands that are within the same style as I am. So I find Reformation to be the closest to that within kind of like the same price point where it's not like super luxury, but obviously it's not fast fashion because it's ethical. So that's who I identified personally as kind of like my biggest competitor. So that brings up the question like why am I different? For me, one of the most important things with my brand was to be as inclusive as possible and that is something that is definitely rare in the industry. Everybody is so different. Everybody type is so different. Like there's just like proportions are different, body types are different. So it's very hard to standardize sizing. So for me, the way that I found a quote-unquote solution to that is doing made-to-order and doing custom sizing. So that is how I found my kind of niche and my differentiation from a brand like Reformation. So you need to find what makes you special and maybe it isn't something as groundbreaking or as like crazy as being made-to-order versus, you know, standard inventory sizing, but you need to find something that just like makes you a little bit different. Just like a little something that's like, yeah, I can't get that anywhere else. That is step number one and something you really need to have down above all because if you don't have a clear business idea, you can't have a clear marketing strategy. Acadium is one of the world's leading marketing platforms helping people gain valuable work experience. It's especially helpful to small business owners who might not know where to start or don't have time to do it all themselves. You can crowdsource your quick and simple tasks like creating a social media post, writing a blog post, or creating an email marketing campaign. If you want more consistent help, they also have apprenticeship programs where you can mentor the apprentice while they also help you with the tasks you need done. And if you're wanting to learn more about marketing, you can also sign up to be one of the apprentices and gain valuable experience. Additionally, they have a pool of vetted marketing freelancers that can also help you out with more significant tasks. Overall, if you're new to the marketing space or simply don't have time to invest in it yourself, Acadium is the solution. I'll link it in the description for you guys to check it out. So now that you have a clear business idea, let's talk about your clear target audience. I feel like this is an often overlooked kind of part of marketing, but it's so important to know who you're marketing towards because that kind of determines how you market. So if you really want to go in-depth on your target audience, literally make like a fake profile of the person you're marketing towards. So what is their age range? Are you targeting like Gen Z, Millennials, Boomers? I don't know. Like is there a specific like generation or age group that you're targeting? Is it like college kids? Is it like freshly graduated people? Is it people that are retired? Like what age group is it or what kind of general age is it that you want to market towards? Secondly, you also want to think about the gender identity of your ideal customer. Like for me, ideally, it's mostly female because I do make female clothing. Does that mean males cannot buy my clothing? No, but it just means that I'm probably just going to be targeting females majority because that's like who my target customer is, if that makes sense. And you can have products that target, you know, every gender possible. Like that is definitely a thing, but you want to make sure you identify that as well just because it is important to know how to market to people because different groups of people kind of prefer to be marketed in different ways, if that makes any sense. So kind of have that down, figure out what kind of general route you want to go with your customers and who your ideal customer base is. The next thing you want to think about is what are your customers like hobbies? What do they like to do? What are their preferences? Like for me, my ideal customer is somebody who A, like wears their values and like really does care about their values and living that out fully with like, you know, ethics and sustainability in place. But also for me, it's somebody who like really embraces like femininity because a good amount of my pieces are very just like feminine core. Like they're just very girly, very much like cute little dresses and like little frills and ruffles and puppy sleeves and all the things. So it's probably not going to be somebody who loves like super edgy clothing and wants to wear like only dark colors ever because that's just not what I make. Even though I do love black and I do make a lot of things in black, but it's not like my target target audience if that makes sense. So you want to identify like kind of the vibe of your person that you're kind of marketing towards. And I think it's okay if you have like multiple different types of people or like multiple different vibes because at the end of the day like businesses will probably grow and evolve and maybe you will kind of be more inclusive to different groups and different people at some point. But I think when you first start, you just need to have a very like niche place to start with so that you can kind of grow that customer base which leads me to my next point. Niche down. I think that you need to start with something that's very clear, very identifiable, grow your customer base that way, and then expand. You can't start being good at everything. Think of it in terms of like a lot of really big companies like Amazon started with literally just books and then they started growing after that. They didn't start being Amazon right away because that's just like a lot for people to handle. So, you know, they started small and eventually it grew and evolved and it is what it is today and it might become something crazier later on in life. But starting with something really specific, I think really helps build a good customer base and then be able to kind of expand off of that because if you start with too much, you're kind of pulling people from all over the place and you're not going to have a very like specific audience because it's going to kind of just be everywhere which makes it a little bit harder to market and a little bit harder to kind of like grow maybe. So I would start with something that you're like very very good at, you're like one thing that you want to start with and then kind of expand later on. Like for me personally, I would love to do men's clothing at some point because I do believe there's a lack of sustainable and ethical menswear out there, but it's not something that I was A, taught in school, like I didn't learn that so I'm not knowledgeable in it and it's not something that I like can just like do right off the bat. Like I can't just target both men and women at the same time because I'm trying to like really grow one thing really really big, make sure it's like good and solid and once that is good and solid, then I'll have like the time and the resources to be able to invest in like the next part of my business. But I don't think I'd be as successful if I was trying to like target both at the same time, if that makes sense. Another big brand that kind of did this was Apple, like they started with just computers and now they've made a million other things, but they started with one thing, made it a really big deal, people really loved it and then they expanded into something else and I just think that that is like the easiest way to go about it. Even like big-name designers will start, you know, with making clothing and then once they're successful, they'll expand into like leather accessories and handbags and sunglasses and like all these extra things, but nobody starts with everything all at once. So all of that is to say that you should probably find some sort of niche, stick to it, find what you're really really good at and solidify that idea before you start kind of branching out into the rest because I think it's easy as an entrepreneur to want to do everything and to have a million ideas going and like know that you could be successful at all of these, but you have to start with one at a time, perfect it and then move on because that just solidifies your audience a lot better and allows you to grow in a more organic way and just like it's better for everybody. And the next thing that I think is often overlooked when you're trying to, you know, start your following and gain an audience and customers and all the things is that you need to be investing in your current customers as much as you are in trying to find new ones. And how do you do that? You create community. Community is so so so important and so valuable nowadays with brands. Like I want to buy from brands and businesses that make me feel special as a customer. Like I don't want to feel like just another number to somebody. Like I want to feel like I am part of a community. I want to feel valued and I want to feel like a part of the brand when I'm buying from it. And I think the best way to do that is creating community. Now, how do you do this? How does community work? I think personally becoming personable and being very real and authentic with your business is what creates community because nowadays people do not care about like perfect little companies. They don't care about just like perfect marketing and all these things. People want reality. People want authenticity. Like people are so tired of all these fake things throughout social media that they just want to see real and authentic things and that translates into business marketing as well. Like people are tired of seeing like fake things. They want real. They want authentic and they want to be able to create a connection with you and the best way to do that is to be real and authentic. I would argue that most businesses have some sort of background story on why you started. Like whether you're like me and it's like I just wanted to be a fashion designer my entire life and it's something that I've looked forward to since I was a kid and like always said I wanted to do and now I'm doing it. That's my story and that's something that I share with my audience and it makes them feel more connected to me and more willing to buy from me because they see that it's a passion of mine and that's like a very real and authentic feeling and it's like a good emotion that people want to buy into. Not saying that you should make up a story for people to buy into because I don't think that is good. Again, we're trying to be real and authentic here, but it is very true that once you put like emotion and passion behind something people are more willing to support it. So if you're starting like some sort of food company and you're selling cookies, like maybe it's because you and your grandma made cookies like all growing up and it was something that you really cherished and in honor of her like now you're starting this business like little things like that will really make people want to buy from you because otherwise if you don't have a story you're just some other generic brand it's like why would I want to support you? What are you offering me? What am I putting my money towards? And as a consumer, I personally want to be putting my money into other people's like dreams and passions. Like if I see somebody who's been like super passionate about their business and just like really shows that emotion online and you can really feel it through their marketing like I want to buy into that a lot more than like buying through Amazon where it's just like this big corporate thing with no emotion, you know what I mean? So create community, be authentic. I think that another way of really showing that is, you know, creating special offers for your customers. Like every once in a while give your existing customers a little discount code, a little like perk, you know, make them feel valued, make them feel seen even if it's just a simple like thank you on like Thanksgiving Day or something like that. Just anything that makes them feel special and valued as a customer will make them keep wanting to come back. And that being said, the best way to find community and customers nowadays is probably social media unless you're like a local brick-and-mortar store then I think actual in-person customers are going to be your best bet. But I find that a lot of people are also e-commerce nowadays. So I'm going to kind of generalize it around that because that's what I am. Social media is going to be your best friend because yes, you can pay for marketing ads and you can pay for Facebook ads and all these things, but you can also just market yourself on all those social platforms for free and you might actually get more in return than you would paying for ads if you do it correctly. So I think first things first, you need to try out every social media platform. Like if you're only on Instagram, if you're only on TikTok, if you're only on Facebook, like you're probably not going to get as far as if you're in all three and you never know which one's going to do better for you. There's some people where like TikTok becomes their main thing and like that is where they get most of their people and there's other people that like Instagram's their best thing and that's where they get most people. So I think that you really need to like test it all out and try every single platform and kind of feel which one works best for you, your business, your kind of like vibe overall because you never know which one's going to do better. You might think Instagram's your thing and then next thing you know, you're like a TikTok star. So I think you should definitely be open to trying anything new and if any other new social media platform pops out in the future, like get on it, try it out. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. But I think that testing everything is really really important, even email marketing. Like you might think that nobody cares about getting emails, but I don't know, maybe people actually do and that's where you end up getting a lot of your sales. You just never know and I think it's important to be open to doing everything, not just what you think might do well. So that is it for this episode of Marketing 101. I have so many planned out that are a little bit more specific to like, just like Instagram marketing or TikTok marketing or just like different things like that, but I would love to know what you guys want to see as far as this series goes. I'm so passionate about marketing, which is so random to me because again, not something I studied whatsoever. I literally just studied fashion design, but I just find marketing to be such an interesting topic because it really just dives into like the psychology of a human being and how different ways of communication might make us like more likely to buy something or not. Like it's just really interesting to me and I would love to dive into it. So let me know what you guys want to see, comment it down below. I would love to hear your requests and if you liked it, give it a thumbs up so I know that you did and I'll know to make more. Also, don't forget to check out Acadium down below if you want any help on marketing or if you want to learn more about marketing. The link will be down below for you guys to check it out and that is it. I will see you guys in the next one. Bye. Bye.