Have you ever seen a brand absolutely blow up on the internet and wonder, how exactly did they do that? As in, what specific steps did they take for their product or service to get so much attention? Thankfully, the Girlboss professional network is about to launch, and it was designed for situations like this. As a member of the Girlboss professional network, you can have honest conversations and receive expert advice from the women whose careers and companies you admire most. None of your questions around work, money, and business are off-limits.
Some of our founding members (like Jen Rubio of Away and Kate Walsh of Boyfriend Perfume) are already deep in the comments on the Girlboss professional network, exchanging information and sharing ideas. We skimmed the comments to round up some of the best advice our members had to offer about marketing, brand-building, and maintaining longevity in an attention economy.
“When you identify a true whitespace, it usually means there isn’t any real competition. We didn’t reinvent the suitcase but we did rethink how to design it around what travelers really need, and how to talk to our customers in a way that really resonated. Focus on why you’re doing something and your unique approach. That’s what’ll set you apart from the competitors. Anyway, I’m a Leo, so competition has never deterred me. :)” —Jen Rubio, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Away
“For marketing trends, check out The Daily Carnage (a newsletter), and apply to ReForge (our Director of Growth, Meghan Raab, graduated from it)!” —Sophia Amoruso, Founder and CEO of Girlboss
“Instagram has been the most successful social channel. Myself and team Boyfriend made the new packaging specifically with Instagram in mind. That platform alone has been a great tool for us for marketing and conversions. Email marketing has been huge for us as well, since a user is going the extra mile of manually opting in, they already have some sort of interest in the brand.” —Kate Walsh, Founder of Boyfriend Perfume
“I think a broader stroke issue that comes up a lot (and I’ve been guilty of doing) is not communicating in the words of your target audience and focusing on features instead of honing in on benefits that they’ll get from your product/service! When you first launch it’s so easy to fall into pitching everyone on how great it is without actually centering in on how it will make their lives/businesses/processes better.” —Jordan Chadsey, Co-Founder at MacroKitchen
“Brand building takes time and the ROI is less quantitative early on, but you can start to measure awareness, familiarity and likelihood to purchase. Growth is obviously key, but as a start up you face a challenge in that your brand isn’t known and people haven’t built up a track record using your product. However, brand building is a waste of money and time if the experience or product isn’t great. So make sure those things work first.” —Beth Comstock, author ofImagine It Forward
“I’ve found creating user profiles to be super helpful—collecting data to understand the specifics about your audience (Where do they live? Do they have disposable income? Where do they hang out?), and using that info to find any patterns. Then you can build actual personality profiles (with names and everything!) to keep in mind while putting your marketing strategy together. It reminds you that there are people with complex identities who you’re trying to connect with.” —Sara Tardiff, Editor at Girlboss
“Target your networks or consider targeting an affinity group that fits with your brand. Take in as much user data and feedback (run different tests so you know what resonates). When you feel like you have a sense of product-market-messaging fit (not perfection!) then go broader!” —Lisa Skeete Tatum, Founder and CEO of Landit
“First off, I think you need to define where conversion of sales would happen and create a flow from there. If it’s online, I’m assuming it would be your website, so all your traffic needs to be directed to the website. Try Google Ads, paid search specifically, since people who Google stuff have higher intent already. Additionally, just to gain more insight, assess who and where your current audience are. Your online platforms have analytics tools that can give you data that you need.” —Reemsha Inayet, Performance Media Manager at Ogilvy
Want to join the Girlboss professional network? Join the waitlist ASAP and become one of our founding members.
