When we think about multi-million-dollar businesses, we consider them to be the brainchild of people who have had a lot of money to start with. Yet Melyssa Griffin, a graphic designer and blogger turned millionaire social media marketing coach, shows that you don’t need a giant nest egg or trust fund to make it in the world. This former teacher’s take on business has put her at the head of an ultra-lean company worth several million dollars. It wasn’t where she set out to be, however.
Teaching English Is Fun But…
Griffin’s story begins with her graduating from the University of California at Irvine and promptly traveling to Japan to be an English teacher there. While she loved the work and found it rewarding, she realized she wouldn’t be her happiest in that profession. She returned to the US and decided to try opening a graphic design practice, using what she’d learned over the years.
She figured that it would be the best direction to take things since she already knew how to do blogging. She set up a blog and worked to get it in front of the right people. Her focus was on the narrow field of personal development and creativity. Little by little, she grew an audience that would check out her blog to learn more about what she was doing.
Marketing Ups and Downs
As the blog grew, Griffin realized she would need to expand and think bigger. People were interested in what she had to say, but there was so much more she could do for her audience. She created a course to teach others how to build a business using Pinterest. The course, Pinfinite Growth, focused on how bloggers could leverage the social media site to get more eyes on their content – something she was very familiar with.
Little by little, she would sell her course, offering it at an introductory price and bringing in some income from it. While the course wasn’t time-sensitive, she provided some “sweeteners” to make it more viable to sign up early, like discounts and a payment plan. She also started to do affiliate webinars to put her course in front of other people’s audiences. Still, the effort to the benefits was just too much for her to consider it a serious endeavor.
Email Marketing and Changing Tack
Griffin’s primary marketing vehicle was an email marketing funnel, which had some success but was not nearly enough. The problem she encountered was offering an email campaign that covered more than just what her course covered and provided too much information for the potential students to be interested in paying for the course. This required her to rethink how she was marketing her course.
In the spring of 2016, she revisited the idea of doing affiliate webinars. She selected a webinar that brought in a lot of traffic and just the right amount of information to be approachable. She turned this video into an automated webinar and tied it to Facebook ads to get as many people interested in the snippets as possible. It worked, and the course surged in popularity.
Creating Valuable Content is Key
Griffin admits that the most crucial aspect of her business is building good content for the people who read her blog or subscribe to her courses. Instead of guaranteeing a “no-fail” solution like so many other internet marketing gurus, she lets everyone know that her advice is based on personal experiences. These experiences will change from person to person.
One of the side effects of having good content is building a community to go with it. When she first started posting, she would get zero profit and only a handful of views. But over time, this grew to encompass a larger audience, each with their own input on what she was doing. That interaction helped to build a community.
Spend Money to Make Money
Many new entrepreneurs like to think that getting traffic is just a matter of doing good content. While this is a significant factor in keeping good traffic, it can be sped up by understanding how to spend your money wisely. Griffin’s investment in Facebook ads, combined with her acceptance that webinar marketing could work for her course, was crucial in her getting as many subscribers as she did.
Beyond that, Griffin has noted that her spending is not just on ads but on self-improvement and understanding her industry. Learning about her business and the audience she markets to, as well as new developments in her field, gives her information that she can use to engage her audience in new ways and keep them interested in what she’s offering.
Post Regularly But With Purpose
Social media marketing has taught us that posting often is crucial to getting the engagement we need from other pages. However, it goes deeper than that. Griffin notes that when you post regularly, it should also be relevant to what your audience is interested in. Posting for the sake of posting is not what any entrepreneur wants to do if they’re trying to build a brand or a following.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
Griffin’s approach to building her business stems from doing what she’s already doing well. It might be tempting to pivot when things look grim or there’s no real traction, but those are the times when sticking it out would benefit an entrepreneur more than simply changing direction. Focusing on what she knows and what she can offer to clients while remaining true to where her audience found her helps to increase her visibility and credibility.
She states that you shouldn’t be marketing to a brand-new audience, and doing so is likely to dilute your message. Instead, market to the people you already know want what you’re offering. Find the sweet spot for the people interested in your content and what you offer, and provide a price they can afford.
A Business That Keeps On Growing
Griffin’s robust brand continues to see hundreds of people subscribing to her courses yearly. Her combination of vibrant truth and dedication to her students’ success opens the door for many other entrepreneurs to learn from someone who has already met a level of success in their lives. Griffin still has a lot to teach to people today, and entrepreneurs could learn a great deal from what she provides.
