Catherine Langman:
Well, hello there and welcome back to another episode of the Productpreneur Success Podcast. Catherine Langman here and I’m here today with a guest, Coleen from Ride Proud Clothing, and I’m very excited to have you on the show.
Coleen:
Hi, Catherine. It’s good to be here.
Catherine Langman:
Awesome. So, for those of you who may or may not be aware, we have a mastermind group in our academy and Coleen has been a member of this group, I think this year, I think it was early this year.
Coleen:
Yeah, I think it was early this year.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. So, we’ve been working together for a little while over the last few months and it’s been an amazing ride so far.
Coleen:
Yes, it has.
Catherine Langman:
So, let’s get started with you sharing your story of starting your business Ride Proud Clothing.
Coleen:
Okay, so Ride Pride Clothing is about bootleg riding pants. That’s what we specialize in. And our target market is women just like me, mature age, women equestrians. Yeah. So, that’s what we’re about. And that came about from my own frustration. I couldn’t find what I wanted to wear, basically.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. For people who are not like me, but like you and ride horses, I remember being introduced to a horse once when I was about 12 and freaked out because it was so much bigger than me. But it’s a longtime passion of yours though, isn’t it?
Coleen:
It is a longtime passion. Yeah. So I rode as a girl and then as it had happened, life as a woman begins and you start work and you start a family and yeah, like so many women, I got out of horses. And we were heavily into motorcycles and water skiing. I had a son and that was what we did. And then this daughter came along and wanted a horse. So, life takes you in directions you don’t necessarily intend to go, but I don’t regret that for one moment. I’m thrilled to be back in. And now she’s left home, she’s grown up left home.
Coleen:
Yeah, and here I am.
Catherine Langman:
And the horse estate.
Coleen:
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. And so, I guess you had this idea to create this item of clothing because you had been uncomfortable wearing whatever you had before?
Coleen:
That’s exactly right. As I said, it was frustration. I did do a little bit of competing and that’s done in jodhpurs, so I had to wear jodhpurs because that was part of the costume for competing. Outside of jodhpurs and when I stopped competing, I found myself in jeans and I was never totally comfortable in those either, physically comfortable in those. They are much more flattering than jodhpurs. You have no secrets in a pair of jodhpurs. Yes, I was much more … I felt I looked better in jeans, but I was not more comfortable in jeans.
Coleen:
So that’s when you look around and go, come on. There’s got to be something else for me. And I looked around I could see I was not the only woman out there. Particularly, not just in my age, but yeah. And I knew I could help. I knew.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. And you knew that you could help because you also make clothes.
Coleen:
I do. I knew I could help because I can sow basically and I’ve sewn my entire life yet. I would not call myself a dressmaker but I would call myself a pretty handy home sower and I’ve been sowing since I was a girl. I remember learning to sew on my grandmother’s turtle sewing machine. And from that age, when I started I wasn’t allowed to have thread. I had to follow the lines that she drew on a sheet of paper until I could get that sorted and then from there, it just went. And my whole life, whatever I’ve wanted, I’ve sown. I’ve sown everything from underwire bras through to ballgowns.
Catherine Langman:
Oh, wow.
Coleen:
Yeah. And that, of course included pants and jeans and whatever else.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Coleen:
Yeah. So, I knew exactly what could and what couldn’t be done, and it’s pretty hard to settle for something less than that. Yeah, and when Celeste left home, I had more time.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Coleen:
Yeah, and so that’s when it started again. When I started the sowing.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, I look forward to that time when my kids give me a bit more time but …
Coleen:
It comes by too quickly, Catherine, I can assure you. Enjoy it.
Catherine Langman:
Yes, I do. So, you had this idea, you knew that you could do this. I don’t think I’ve actually asked this of you before, but did you initially think you were just going to make them for yourself?
Coleen:
No.
Catherine Langman:
Okay. You always thought you would do this for the other women that you saw around you looking for something?
Coleen:
Absolutely, because I knew I could help basically. I knew I wasn’t the only woman out there like this. Yeah, so no. I always wanted to do more than that.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. Well, you definitely are helping a lot of other women, that’s for sure. So after that initial decision, and I guess you must have gone through this process of designing and making and sewing and did you have a few different designs? What was that process like?
Coleen:
Yeah, I did. And that’s the problem when you know what can be done. So I knew what my ideal riding pants would include. I knew all the features that they would include. I knew it was possible to include them. Yeah, and that’s what got me started. And of course, when you have different disciplines that you ride in and different breeds of horses, then you let your mind run wild, really. Although we did start with only … we only have five styles now, but we started with four, which is not a lot to hit the market with, but it was enough to get me started. And enough to cover, as I said, these different disciplines and different interests.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. Fantastic. And so once you have these designs, because I know … I’ve been through this process myself, and I guess the way I went about this was different to how you did it, but there’s a lot of people out there who they have a product idea and then they don’t know what to do next. So what did you do to try and find somebody to work with you? Because you always knew you were going to do this as a business. It wasn’t like you were going to make a few friends. You needed somebody to make them for you.
Coleen:
Absolutely. So from there, once I knew that this was going to happen and I had my family on board, because I’m an ideas’ girl. It’s always, ” Hey, Cole I’ve got this idea.” And this time when I went, “Hey, Cole, I’ve got this idea.” He went, “That’s a good idea.”
Catherine Langman:
Oh Great.
Coleen:
Yeah, there’s been plenty of times when I went and he said to me, “Cole, no.” The handbrake on that one, but this one he got it. Probably because he’d seen me suffer through it. And so from there, there’s a big world trade fair over in Europe. So, in that idea of thinking bigger, we went to Europe. Yeah, we went to [inaudible 00:07:52] at this big trade fair and we spent four days there. And we walked every floor and Kyle and my husband met every manufacturer there until we found the right one. Yeah, and we did. We had a couple and we worked backwards and forwards with and because I knew as a home sower/ dressmaker I knew what could be done and I had very high expectations. It was finding someone to meet those expectations and a good fit for us. So, we just got started from there and we worked it down to one manufacturer who we clicked with and then we spent a long time a long, long time. Lots of iterations of the running pants backwards and forwards. We tested the cut, we tested the fabrics, we tested everything.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Coleen:
The placement of pockets, the width of pockets, the amount of cotton content in the fabric. Yeah, lots of different things.
Catherine Langman:
And did it change what features could be included and did it change the designs at all from making a pair at home compared to a factory that produces on mass?
Coleen:
I’ve been told a couple of times, “Coleen, that’s not manufacturer friendly.”
Catherine Langman:
Right, but that [inaudible 00:09:19]
Coleen:
Yes and no. We’ve become known as … when we visited the manufacturer, we were known as those Australians. And that’s what’s resulted in the quality product that I have that. But yes, I have had to, I have had to rein it in a couple of things. And this, I’m totally okay with that because I’m on a steep learning curve here. I’ve never worked in fashion, although we are not a fashion brand.
Catherine Langman:
No, it takes [inaudible 00:09:52]
Coleen:
I’ve never worked in retail, I’ve never … that’s just not my background. So I work very collaboratively with the manufacturer and I’m not above saying, “What do you think?” And then now familiar enough to me, and we have a good enough relationship that she can say, “What about this?”
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Coleen:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
That’s pretty good to have that.
Coleen:
And that’s why it took us a long time to settle on a manufacturer because my husband and I are both very big on building relationships.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Coleen:
And that’s across all spheres of this business. It’s not just with the manufacturer.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, but I guess you are dealing with an offshore manufacturer, it’s not somebody in Australia, which I think many listeners would be in the same boat and I was in my business as well. And there’s so many things that come into play, from the cultural and the language differences to you’re not physically there with them all the time. So, communicating on text or email. Yeah, it’s like you have to work so hard to get that relationship. Strong building.
Coleen:
It does have its challenges, but it’s worthwhile working through. Yeah, it really is. And that, again, it comes down to relationship. I use WhatsApp to communicate, and that has a video feature and that makes a big difference. He can sit in front of a person and see and watch expressions and that sort of thing. It helps a lot.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. That’s so much better than … so when I still had my business, it was all on email, and WhatsApp and WeChat and all of that stuff was not around then. So, it was quite challenging sometimes. We did have Skype. That was a [inaudible 00:11:44].
Coleen:
Yeah. And I did have some … I was a real stickler for things that were important to me and the quality was one, the relationship with the manufacturer was the other that I’ve mentioned a few times, price was another one. Because they have to be accessible for people. And that’s why we ended up offshore to try to meet those requirements. There’s no point having this wonderful product that is out of the price range of …
Catherine Langman:
Yes, everyone.
Coleen:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, everyone, but the top 1%.
Coleen:
Correct. And that’s not what I’m about. I’m not a competitive person. Yeah, I’m just the average Joe. So, I wanted to help women like me.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Coleen:
And women like me don’t have little budget.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, that’s right. I was just going to say you’re not going to have much of a positive impact on your community if you no one can afford to buy the product.
Coleen:
Correct, yeah.
Catherine Langman:
So when you say you got through that design and prototyping and testing phase and then you were getting ready to launch. So how about you share the story of getting your … launching the business in the first place?
Coleen:
Yeah, so this was something else that was new to me. When you get a date, and then you’re told it’ll be ready on this date, you have to be a bit flexible in that date. Because if I say August, it actually means probably September, October. So, when I came to launch, and I had absolutely no background in e commerce. I really learnt from the ground up. So what I did was I set up a Facebook page. That was all I did. And I started to post. So I started to post saying, this is what I’m doing. We will be open on this date. And of course, that date came and went, and I didn’t have anything so it was just like, well, I have this Facebook page. It’s doing nothing. So basically, I started to tell my story. Which, in hindsight, I got lucky. I got lucky.
Coleen:
So I created this bit of a build up before it happened. I didn’t have any audience apart from my own network. And I’ve been involved in a few different equestrian things. So, I did have a little network around me. So basically, I started a page with nothing and invited my friends and it went from there. Absolutely no strategy at all. Just [inaudible 00:14:33].
Catherine Langman:
No, but I guess intuitively, you started off on a pretty good foot because you had this audience who … they would have been supporting you anyway but they were also interested in what you were doing because it’s their hobby, and they’re passionate as well.
Coleen:
Yes. And because Katherine, they’re women like me, my friends are women like me, same interest, same age group. Yes, I ended up …
Catherine Langman:
So, your story [inaudible 00:15:07] started with them perfectly?
Coleen:
Yes, it did. It did. And I’ve continued with that. Who I am on Facebook is who I am out on a trail ride with my mates.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. And I suspect that in your group because you have a Facebook page, but you also have a Facebook group with your customers, that …
Coleen:
I do. Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Because obviously, we all get a bit more engagement in groups than on actual pages. So, but yeah, I bet that strategy goes very well in there.
Coleen:
Very well. So in my group, I am me. I’m not Ride Pride Clothing. I’m Coleen Jackson in my group.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. So they know who you are now, and that’s probably contributing to the …
Coleen:
For better or worse.
Catherine Langman:
Well, I think it’s doing pretty well so far.
Coleen:
It’s going very well and yeah, I have some … I’m so lucky I have the most beautiful customers. So I just treat them like knights. How I want to be treated is how I treat them.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. And that’s working very well. So, the first thing you did to launch this business was to open a Facebook page, and then start talking on there whilst you’re waiting for the factory to get the products to you.
Coleen:
Correct.
Catherine Langman:
Then you created your first website.
Coleen:
I did. I had that working way in the background. I was working on that and I’ve never built a website, but I did. And that resulted in some all nighters. And I just put it together as best I could, using their help [inaudible 00:16:49] frequently asked questions and yeah, we got there. It’s not the same website I’m on now.
Catherine Langman:
I didn’t ask you this before actually, so you initially created a NATO website. Did you actually send that one live? Did you transact on that one or did you shift it to Shopify?
Coleen:
Yeah, for over 12 months. I transacted on there. Yeah, and Shopify was recommended to me and I said, no, because [inaudible 00:17:19] was Queensland and I thought Queensland, Australia, and I thought I’d do that, but it was so difficult. I thought I just wasn’t smart enough basically to do it but it’s not easy. And Shopify is so easy, and it’s intuitive Shopify.
Catherine Langman:
And that does translate in it being easy for customers as well as easy for business owner.
Coleen:
Absolutely, yes. Yeah. It’s very user friendly from the business store owner.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, that’s why we love it. Plus it tends to [inaudible 00:18:01] better for shoppers which is also good for the business owner, obviously. So, I guess you had your Facebook page and you had your website and when you started getting a little bit serious about your marketing and trying to promote, what were the first few things that you initially implemented?
Coleen:
So, what happened was I started selling to this small network that I had and I was on Facebook, and it was a new product and it got shared a lot, my post got shared a lot by my friends. And of course, Facebook’s a big world. We all have friends that we’ve in fact, never met. So, it got shared that way. And I started to sell to people I’d never heard of.
Catherine Langman:
That’s exciting.
Coleen:
Yes, it was. It was very exciting. In fact, one of my first real sales was to a woman I had never met so that was nice.
Catherine Langman:
Cool, yeah.
Coleen:
Yeah, and then I started to sell in clusters. So, I could see that there were friends of friends. And then I started to sell to a couple of breed groups. So, someone had a particular breed of horse, and then I would sell to a couple of people with that breed of horse. So, it went from there. And that’s all lovely, and you get a nice warm, fuzzy feeling, but that doesn’t pay down a debt, a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Catherine Langman:
No, you got to be a bit more serious than that.
Coleen:
Yes, you do. And regardless of how good your product is. You need more. So yes, then I started doing some … I did do a course on how to run an e-commerce business and basically that set me up. That set me up to … now to do Facebook ads yet, which I did. Yeah, but because my background is finance, I’m all about the numbers. And I wasn’t happy with those numbers.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, well, [inaudible 00:19:58] expensive way to grow if you are only getting traffic from paid advertising.
Coleen:
Correct. So, then I started to look for some more and I found your ads started popping up in front of me and I grabbed hold of your marketing, your five day marketing. But of course when you work and you run an e commerce business, it’s pretty hard to keep up with those. And I knew it was fantastic but I also know that I wanted more. And that’s when you and I started talking. And I said, “No, I’ve done this course I want more than that. And I need more help than that.” Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. And I always love hearing people who are ambitious, so we are here just to have a laugh. We’re here to do some big things.
Coleen:
And I remember that was one of the first conversations you and I had. I said to you, “I do not need a hobby. I’ve got a hobby.” This is a business and it can go or it can go away. I actually remember saying those words to you.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, I remember as well. And so what I really want to dive into, of course, is the recent, hugely successful product launch that you’ve just come off the back of. But before we dive into there, is there anything that you’ve tried so far that you feel just really didn’t work? And I’m only touching on this and the answer might be no, and that’s fine, but for the listeners out there who are going through this launch and growing process, it’s helpful to hear about things that maybe you shouldn’t bother to do or just be careful with.
Coleen:
Yeah, I would and that would be reach out for help. You don’t have to have all the answers yourself and it’ll do your [inaudible 00:21:57]. You haven’t got to re-create the wheel. The wheel is out there. You just got to find it. So reach out for help will be the first one and don’t struggle for too long. I know we have a budget, like we talked about before, but you’re doing yourself a disservice by not working with someone who has tread the path before you basically.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, I agree with that. And that’s how I learned as well. I learned the ropes off other people. And that there were probably a couple of times where maybe I didn’t realize that there was help out there in my early days, and I always think back on the first year of my owning a business, my first business and I was like, “Oh, well, let’s just chalk that up to an international business degree in 12 months,” because it was such a big learning experience, and I definitely could have wasted less money and less time.
Coleen:
And less heartache.
Catherine Langman:
So stressful.
Coleen:
Catherine, the longer you struggle, the more you start to question yourself when you might very well be on the right track. You just need someone to say, “You’re on the right track.”
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. Definitely or yeah, have you considered this or whatever?
Coleen:
Absolutely. Have you considered this? And for me, coming from you, that was email. Yes. I just love the email. And I enjoy writing it, but that was your encouragement to say … and I knew I need to spread away from Facebook, I just needed to know how.
Catherine Langman:
I don’t know whether I’ve ever asked you this before, but had you thought about doing email before? Because I know, I’ve definitely come across people in this year that think, oh, what’s the point? Nobody does email anymore. That doesn’t work just because it’s not new anymore. It’s definitely the old thing.
Coleen:
Yeah. So, I had heard about email and I had been encouraged to do email, but I’m not a salesman, and I actually spoke about this in my last email. I’m no salesman. And like I said, I’ve never worked in sales. My background has been admin finance. But when you and I talked about it, and you said to me, don’t sell, don’t sell through emails. And particularly for my brand, which I’m adamant we are not a fashion brand, you encouraged me to focus on more of growing it as a lifestyle brand. So as soon as you said that to me, then I had a story to tell.
Coleen:
So, I started sharing other people’s stories of where they’re going, what they’re doing, how I’m feeling about something, something that happened during the week. And again, it’s resonating with people. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got links all the way through that email just like you told me.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, so …
Coleen:
All the way through but …
Catherine Langman:
It’s not that you are not selling. Of course, you are selling. That’s the whole purpose of the strategy, but you’re not using salesy tactic to using storytelling and really engaging with your customers from that storytelling perspective instead.
Coleen:
Yeah, so what I’ve learned is selling is not about selling. I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s not about here, buy this, buy this. For me, it’s about connection and relationships and backing it up with a damn good product, making it available to women.
Catherine Langman:
Absolutely. And I think just like obviously, I work with you, but I’ve worked with a few other similar sorts of product brands where there’s such an enormous opportunity to really speak about that lifestyle and the things that the products enable you to do in that lifestyle. And for you, I guess you would have loads of customers I’m sure who would love to share the trail ride they went on or you’ve got to go and check out this. It’s a beautiful place to go and ride or this that or the other and just telling those stories can really inspire other customers to go, “Oh, maybe I need a pair of these pants too.” I’d love to do that.
Coleen:
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. When they do tell me their stories, I normally mention the pants, how the pants went and that sort of thing. So there’s a tie in. Don’t get me wrong, I do emails to sell. I don’t don’t do it because I love to write a story.
Catherine Langman:
No, that’s not the purpose at all but it takes the [inaudible 00:26:44] off you having to feel like you’re the salesperson.
Coleen:
It does not feel good. Yeah, that’s not what I’m about.
Catherine Langman:
No, and I think that would resonate with a lot of listeners as well I’m sure.
Coleen:
Yeah. I’d take the approach I’m just sharing. I’m sharing my story, I’m sharing my product.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome. So, let’s dive into this launch and step through. Let’s start with what the new product was and then step us through the parts of the promotional campaign that worked so beautifully well for you.
Coleen:
Sure. Just before we had it, so this new product is denim, so I didn’t start with denim because I didn’t … hat’s not what I’m about. So I knew this business was growing when it became about more than me. I don’t want denim riding pants. I had jeans so I didn’t want denim riding pants, so I didn’t come to market with denim riding pants, but one thing I do do is I listen. I listen to my customers and I constantly got this, denim would be nice, denim would be nice.
Coleen:
Yeah, so that’s why we did the denim. I am very customer driven.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. Well, I guess you are looking at the numbers there too in that, if you’re getting a lot of people saying this, then obviously there’s something to it.
Coleen:
Absolutely. So, it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out or whether the other pants sales will come back because this month has just gone absolutely crazy because we’re still of the official promotion period finished yesterday I notice here on my, when I look at the date on this.
Catherine Langman:
You haven’t had much to sell [inaudible 00:28:43]
Coleen:
No, I haven’t had much to sell in denim. But the other pants are coming back now probably because I’m almost out of the denim. Yeah, so that’s what this new product was. It was the long awaited denims.
Coleen:
So When you say tell you about the process Catherine, I was really surprised when you said that you’d like to do a podcast with me on this because I followed your formula.
Catherine Langman:
I know and you added to it and you made it even better. And it’s fantastic. But it’s just so good for people to hear not just theory, or a step by step process, but to bring it to life. And it’s such a good example.
Coleen:
Yeah, and I did. This was my second run through of your formula, I did one earlier in the year that I called back in the saddle and that one I put together very quickly because it was the time of year when we got back in the saddle, so I threw that one together pretty quickly, but this one I had more time to put in. And as my very best mate says to me, “Steady on sunshine,” is what she says. So yes, I take an idea and I go from not to zero in no time. So yes, I added to it, but anyone who hasn’t got your formula for during a promotion, get it. You’ve got to get it. It’s brilliant.
Coleen:
And all I did was a tactic. I call it a tease period in the front of that and that actually worked very, very well. In fact, it worked so well, I had done 80% of my budget.
Catherine Langman:
Before you even [inaudible 00:30:29] started.
Coleen:
Before we started. Yeah, that’s insane.
Catherine Langman:
It’s incredible. Yeah. It’s very exciting.
Coleen:
Yeah. And because I’m very focused on numbers, I have my numbers and that’s one thing that you say, and that’s have your numbers. Have a budget. And it’s exciting to track against your numbers just to see how you are going.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Coleen:
So yeah, that was what I did. I started with this tease period. And you mentioned before, I have my private community group. So I treat them very much as my VIPs. So my VIPs knew about it first. So my website wasn’t open. It was ready but it wasn’t open but I shared some photographs in there with my VIP so I had my mates test ride my denims and they were riding with them for 12 or 18 months before we went to market.
Catherine Langman:
All right.
Coleen:
12 months before and I had one mate there who was becoming frustrated because she was sharing photos and no one was picking up that they were denims. Yeah, she’s not good at secrets.
Coleen:
Anyway, eventually someone picked up and said, “Hey they are denims.” And that was around about the right time and so then I said, “Yes, we have got denims. This is the landing page. You can access this landing page but you can’t order. If you want to order, message me.” And like I said before, I’ve built good relationships with them. So they messaged me. Some before I was ready and said, “I know you’ve got denims. I want to pay.” They were early recipients of the denims and I did have some brand ambassadors that I shipped the pants to. And that’s another thing I would recommend. Not big influencers, just women I know, respect and admire basically. Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
For a potential customer looking at an image. They would think, “Oh, she’s just like me.”
Coleen:
Exactly. Yeah. In body shape and interests.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Coleen:
Relatable, basically. Yeah. So during that tease period, I was selling to my VIPs and shipping them to my VIPs. And they would get the pants and they’d get them because it was only a week long. And they were sharing their photos in our private group. So yeah, like I said, I had done 87% before we launched and then the other thing I did was was a launch party. It was fantastic. I was worried sick that no one would come was the first thing and then I was worried sick that too many would come because we’ve got this whole COVID thing going on.
Catherine Langman:
Yes, so you had to be careful.
Coleen:
Yeah, so we did that and the thing with that is I created a Facebook event and I had people messaging me saying, “Can I come?” And I said, “Well, we are in North Queensland and you’re in Western Australia, so probably not.”
Catherine Langman:
It might be tricky.
Coleen:
Yeah, it might be a bit tricky. So, we set up our pop up shop in the shed. We’ve had rain forecast so we put up the roller doors, put a little, pull the boat out, but the marquee in the shed. Yeah, and we had a little pebble party in there and people did come and people I didn’t know did come. So we were able to do some little videos. I had a group of women lined up, they all had their denims on and [inaudible 00:34:03] video them and I had one of them who I knew as an extrovert. And she came with me and she stood there and model them up and I talked through all the features and then I had them for Facebook. Yeah. And I had the other women who had the denims and then they were then invited to share it on the main page.
Coleen:
Yes. So, that was in the morning and I had advertised that the website would open at 12 o’clock. So I had people saying, “Well, I’d like a pair when the website opens at 12 o’clock.” And at three minutes past 12, I was getting messages saying it’s past 12. The website is not open. Give me a chance, I’m just saying goodbye to these people. And yeah, my first is the minute I opened the website, three minutes past 12, was my first sale.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Coleen:
Yeah. And by the end of that day, we had a well and truly pasta budget.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, that’s incredible.
Coleen:
Day one of the promo, really.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, absolutely. And so, alongside those strategies, which are obviously you were able to do that tease type marketing inside your group because you already had that audience, I think for anyone who’s launching first off, if you haven’t got that kind of an audience there, you don’t need to panic. The rest of the strategy definitely works. But that tease strategy probably wouldn’t, because you need to have that audience there in the first place.
Catherine Langman:
So, you had that. You did that leading to really build up the anticipation, excitement and demand and then you had your launch party and from there, you also were using some email marketing and Facebook advertising to sell the [inaudible 00:35:56].
Coleen:
Absolutely.
Catherine Langman:
Basically.
Coleen:
Yes, that’s what I did. So I email twice a week. I do an email once a week anyway and I do that towards the end of the week Friday Saturday and I’m still working, still playing on [inaudible 00:36:12] which is the right day.
Catherine Langman:
The best day for you, yeah.
Coleen:
Yeah, so that’s interesting watching that but I did do a midweek one as well and I did an email prior to that saying, this is coming and then another one, the website opens tomorrow, that sort of thing. So I did do the lead up through my emails as well. So my weekly email was my normal lengthy weekly email within I did this midweek ones that were short and sharp and just very informational.
Catherine Langman:
Yep. And tell us when you … at what point did you basically sell out? I think you’ve got some sizes lifted, top and bottom into the scale but not much in if.
Coleen:
You know what? Pretty much straightaway. Well, we’d passed a budget by the close of in an afternoon, actually we opened at lunchtime and by close of business that day, we had passed the budget. And so it was, that was Saturday. I think it … I’d have to get my Facebook page up, but it was during that week, we started to sell out of those middle sizes 10 12 14, they were gone in no time. I market with two different washes. So, like a faded wash and a dark wash. And that’s been interesting, just seeing what people like. Yeah, so I still have a couple of 16s left in the faded but that’s it. Pretty much 10 to 16 is gone. And I have some left of the either end. Yeah. So today we’re sitting at 218% of our budget.
Catherine Langman:
Wow. It just keeps getting better and better.
Coleen:
It’s nuts.
Catherine Langman:
It’s nuts. Absolutely. So now you got to go make more stock.
Coleen:
We have.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Coleen:
We have. We’ve placed another order.
Catherine Langman:
Yep.
Coleen:
Yeah. So that we placed that order a week or so ago.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. So very exciting. I get such a thrill watching and cheering on the sidelines too. It’s just so very exciting.
Coleen:
Yes. Because you’ve been getting my updates.
Catherine Langman:
I have, yeah.
Coleen:
Yeah. And it’s wonderful to be able to share that. So thank you for putting up with me.
Catherine Langman:
No, it’s good fun. And I think I really wanted to be able to get this story out and share with others as well just because I know it can be such a scary time launching and growing a business and you are a couple of years in now, I think, but whether you’re launching a business or you’re launching a new product, it can be really scary. And especially if you’re not from a marketing background and you don’t know how to pull together these plans and you don’t know whether you can set this target and have any hope of getting it but when you can really learn this sort of a strategy and start implementing it, and of course, in between these sorts of big promotions, you’re doing regular ongoing marketing, so I know that you continue to build your audience and get a bigger pattern.
Catherine Langman:
That’s my teenage son texting me. I don’t know how to turn that thing off from interfering, which is annoying. But yes, you’ve got the continuous growth in between and then you have these bigger promotions when you’re doing your launches and get a nice big hit like these. It’s fantastic.
Coleen:
Yeah, I guess the big thing for me, Catherine is coming to appreciate that it’s a learnable thing. And it is a formula. You’ve said it to me it’s rinse and repeat. And maybe you might repeat it a little bit differently but it’s very learnable.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, absolutely.
Coleen:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Very exciting. So I’m really, really happy that you could join us on the show and share this story. I’m sure that the listeners will love it. And I will include a little bit of a download with some of these launch promo steps in it so you can get started. Listeners out there, if you want to get started with learning this, jump on and grab that. And hopefully that’ll get you off the ground and running as well.
Catherine Langman:
So we’ll bring it to a close for this episode. Thank you again so much for joining us, Coleen. And I’m really excited that we could share your story and just before we finish up, just share your website address and your social media links and I’ll put them on the show notes as well. But if you just want to share those.
Coleen:
Sure, it’s ride, http://www.rideproudclothing.com. We also have .au so you can choose and it’s the same on Facebook, same on Instagram. Ride Proud Clothing.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. Awesome. So we’ll share your contacts there. And for any listeners who are horse riders, please go and check them out. They’re fabulous. And obviously customers are loving them, so get into them. All right. Thank you so much for joining us and listeners, I will be with you again next week on the show. Bye for now.