The idea for SofHold began as this: A simple, safe, and quick solution for gun storage. Amazon was the first place that came to mind to sell this hot, new e-commerce product. However, it didn’t work out so well, as a couple issues arose. 

First, lack of control. By opting to sell on Amazon vs. your own platform, you instantly hand over a percentage of profits. Furthermore, it’s like throwing your product at a wall and seeing of it sticks (sells). Your ability to target is not under your control. 

Second, lack of data. Amazon does not give you the analytics you need to scale a brand well, and boost profits. 

Before SofHold brand came to us, their content was lacking. You’d think if you had a good product it would just sell itself, right? WRONG! The e-commerce space in 2021 is extremely crowded with both amazing and sub-par products. Creating content that stands out is an easy way to differentiate. 

We built a clear, step-by-step process for exactly how we scaled the SofHold brand from $0 to $150K in just 105 days. Keep reading to find out how we did it! 

Step 1: Create Great Content. 

Before we could do anything, we needed to create professional content that we could use across all channels (Facebook, Instagram, Website, YouTube, etc.). 

Because we didn’t have an endless budget, we couldn’t get too crazy. We began by delivering a handful of lifestyle photos, a couple viral-style videos (for Facebook ads), and some basic product shots for the website. 

This gave us about a month’s worth of content, to begin testing the waters. 

We wanted to test everything at first; we made sure there was as much variety as possible. This allowed us to have a clear idea of what was going to work so we could have a good idea of what to create next. 

Step 2: Build A Shopify Website That’s Value Driven and Converts 

I’ll make this simple for you. If your website is not built to convert, no amount of marketing will grow your brand to the point you’d like. If you want to have extraordinary profitability, you need to make sure your website is optimized for that. We collaborated with our Agency Partner, 253 Media based in Salt Lake City, to create a website that converts for SofHold. 

Since SofHold only has one product (premium gun magnets), 253 Media went for something simple that really shows the product in action while making it as easy as possible to buy. Your conversion rates will always be higher when your customers buy quickly and easily. 

We focused on craftsmanship and quality in our messaging, since we’ve determined those are important factors to SofHold’s fanbase. The fact that they are handmade in the USA was also an important focal point. 

Step 3: Create Facebook Ads

Again, we partnered with 253 Media to handle the Facebook Advertising for SofHold. It’s important to have your media buyers and media producers to work hand-in-hand, so that they can closely collaborate to ensure your ad spend dollars actually convert to sales. 

As with any scalable advertising campaign, structure is key. 

To start, we launched two campaigns. Typically, we will launch at least three or four campaigns. But, SofHold had zero data to go off of. No social presence, and no email list so our retargeting audience was basically non-existent. 

We tested more than 20 pieces of content, to see which ones had the highest conversion rates. 

At first, we focused on which benefits/features people responded to best, then we started refining everything based on the analytics we observed. 

Starting out, the top of funnel ads were a homerun, however, Facebook’s machine learning gave preference to a specific video and a few photos that we tested. Since we started with a variety of content, we knew exactly what was working so we could double down and create more video and photo content. 

Step 4: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 

Lastly, we implemented an SEO campaign to drive organic traffic to the SofHold site. We like to diversify traffic sources as much as possible, since putting all your eggs in one basket usually doesn’t turn out well in the long-term. 

This diversification came about mainly because of the iOS14 changes. Gun products are sensitive subjects on Facebook, so to create a more sustainable scaling system, we diversified to Google.

After only a month, we began to see drastic changes organically which also added to our retargeting audiences on Facebook and Instagram.

For any brand, SEO is a slow, long-term process, which is why waiting about two months until doing much with it. Sure we could have started sooner, but instead we focused that budget on paid ads.

If you’re interested in getting a video produced for your business in Chico or around Northern California, but aren’t quite sure where to start or what you need, consider booking a free 30 minute video strategy session with us today! Or fill out the form below to contact Chico Media Group and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.