Lou Rice was nursing her son Archie one night time when catastrophe struck – she dropped her Kindle on his head.
Whereas the expertise was upsetting for each of them, it sparked the thought for Lou and her husband Ben to create an answer.
Ben made a silicone strap with staples to safe Lou’s Kindle to her arm and stop future drop incidents. Lou examined it over the following month and completely beloved the grip and safety of the strip for comfy one-handed studying throughout these lengthy middle-of-the-night feedings.
And with that, Strapsicle was born—a facet hustle that now generates over $50K a month promoting revolutionary Kindle straps. Not solely that, however Strapsicle is on tempo for its first six-figure month after not too long ago going viral on TikTok and Instagram.
You’ll be able to hear the entire story on the Aspect Hustle Present podcast.
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Ben, Lou and Archie courtesy of Stapisicle
Tape manufacturing
After optimistic preliminary testing, Ben and Lou researched whether or not there have been related merchandise available on the market and located only a few rivals. The merchandise they discovered have been fairly unappealing.
“That they had like little metallic claws, or they’re very industrial wanting, and nothing modern and chic like our belts,” Lowe says.
This gave them confidence {that a} modern, trendy silicone strap that was custom-made to suit Kindle gadgets may very well be a profitable product. Happily, that they had a producing contact in China by way of a good friend to supply prototypes and finally fill orders for inventory.
It took a number of rounds of backwards and forwards with the manufacturing facility to good the design of the primary Strapsicle strap. After the ultimate manufacturing pattern was permitted, Lou created an internet survey and distributed it by way of Fb, family and friends. Suggestions satisfied Lou that they have been fixing an actual buyer downside, given the passion expressed by present Kindle house owners.
With this validation fueling their need to develop an answer to Lou’s preliminary problem, they determined to maneuver ahead and set a minimal order amount of 500 models for round $2,000 together with delivery.
Product giveaway
After the primary cargo of stock arrived, Lou and Ben have been paralyzed by the launch for months. However after listening to a podcast that impressed her, Strapsicle formally launched on-line gifting away merchandise totally free. Clients solely paid delivery prices and have been solely required to supply suggestions on the strap.
This method allowed Lou and Ben to construct a group and begin a dialogue with actual prospects utilizing Strapsicle on their Kindles. As well as, it enabled the gathering of user-generated content material and opinions to assist subsequent advertising efforts.
Lou unfold the phrase on-line primarily by way of Fb communities resembling ladies’s entrepreneurship teams and native neighborhood teams. She additionally posted on LinkedIn and her private Instagram account, making nearly 100 gross sales within the first month.
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Advertising and marketing on BookTok
By no means one to relaxation, Lou quickly got here throughout BookTok – an interesting subculture on TikTok obsessive about studying and raving about their favourite books. She quickly realized that BookTok attendees have been an excellent goal market, given their affinity for Kindles.
Lou determined to experiment with a micro-influencer affiliate marketing online technique. This included trying to find related Kindle hashtags like #Kindle and key phrases to seek out nano and micro-influencers on TikTok and Instagram with small however focused followings in between 2,000-3,000 followers.
She reached out to many micro-influencers, supplied them free samples to try to supplied low cost codes that they might share with their followers to extend gross sales.
Micro-influencer content material spreads model consciousness and creates extra user-generated content material for Lou to repurpose throughout Strapsicle’s social channels. She continues to nurture relationships together with her influencers by sending out new merchandise and protecting in fixed contact as they drive extra site visitors and gross sales.
This micro-influencer technique and preliminary free giveaway allowed Strapsicle to achieve important natural traction in simply the primary three months of enterprise.
Launching on Amazon
Lou and Ben began promoting on Amazon utilizing FBA (Fulfiled by Amazon) to facilitate order achievement and distribution, particularly within the US market.
They knew the ability of Amazon, however additionally they understood the significance of driving exterior site visitors to listings. So Lou carried out referral bonus hyperlinks and affiliate marketing online by way of a number of channels again to Amazon product pages.
She continues to achieve out to micro-influencers on TikTok and Instagram who cater to the Kindle area of interest. By offering them with Amazon low cost codes as an alternative of Strapsicle codes, every ensuing sale nonetheless attributes to the influencer whereas offering the client with a seamless Amazon purchasing expertise.
This ongoing effort supplies important exterior visibility to assist Strapsicle’s merchandise rank higher in Amazon’s search outcomes. And a excessive rating then permits extra natural gross sales.
Making $50k+ monthly
Quick ahead to right now, and Strapsicle is flying excessive with over $50,000 a month in gross sales between Strapsicle.com and Amazon. Lou credit the micro-influencer’s constant efforts in delivering core content material and the widespread distribution of affiliate hyperlinks that drive exterior site visitors to Amazon product pages.
The crown of success thus far was a viral TikTok video that generated over 2 million views. Mixed with Cosmopolitan’s PR roundup of “The 9 Finest Kindle Equipment to Purchase on Amazon Beneath $35,” which included the Strapsicle, the widespread publicity pushed Lou’s gross sales over $100,000 in its first month, properly into six figures.
Studying from their errors
Regardless of the early success, Lou admits they have been taking issues as they went. From worth modifications to get optimum value-based buyer conversions to measurement mix-ups that led to detrimental opinions, they’ve endured their justifiable share of classes about promoting on Amazon.
One arduous lesson got here from a manufacturing facility high quality management problem with their producer sending the flawed measurement models to Amazon’s warehouses. It wasn’t caught at first, prompting confused prospects to complain about ill-fitting belts.
Lou took the chance to personally reply with considerate feedback, ship replacements from his Shopify-filled stock, and finally change upset 1-star opinions to raved about with 5 star raves.
This consideration to particular person buyer care reminds Lou that Strapsicle isn’t just one other faceless company entity. As a grassroots startup and household challenge self-funded from her company wage, each sale counts.
Lou additionally started receiving suggestions that the versatile silicone strap design helped readers with arthritis, Parkinson’s illness, and nerve injury comfortably maintain Kindle gadgets and Kobo alternate options that normally slipped out of their arms.
Phrase unfold, and a girl with cerebral palsy even wrote to Lu and stated: “Yyou modified my life.” Whereas Lou initially got down to resolve a easy downside for exhausted dad and mom like herself, this discovery added a higher sense of goal and refinement to the model’s imaginative and prescient.