We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley Greeno a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ashley , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
The last time I was featured I was running my bakery business, Ten Thousand Cookies, which I started with a goal of saving extra money to grow my family through adoption. So many things changed over the years, and I learned so many valuable marketing skills throughout the process of growing my own creative business from scratch. So last year I decided to make a big pivot. Instead of baking cookies, I’m now helping other bakers and creative business owners grow their businesses with marketing strategy! It felt like a big risk to let go of something that was selling so well, and a brand I had created that was so beloved. But, by following my instincts and making the shift I have been able to grow an amazing marketing freelance business in less than a year. And since my work is fully remote now, my husband was able to accept a position in our favorite place on earth (Oahu) and we are relocating this summer!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
When I started my cookie business over 4 years ago, I was still dabbling in all things digital marketing. I had a background in communications and sales, but no real training in social media or entrepreneurship. I found that I was naturally good at it… mostly because I love meeting people and making new connections. So I started learning as much as I could and practicing it all in real-time. The result was amazing! I became really good telling stories and connecting with my audience in a way that invited them in and made them want to support my business… I also started meeting creatives from all backgrounds (bakers, Etsy shop owners, photographers, florists, hair stylists) who needed encouragement to spread the word about their own businesses. So I started helping! I focus on Pinterest Marketing these days, because I think it’s an incredibly underutilized marketing tool for small businesses. But I also love doing 1:1 Marketing Strategy sessions and helping with social media strategy as well!
How did you build your audience on social media?
I love this question! It’s one of the most common questions I get asked in my field…
1. Always start with your goal in mind.
What’s the plan? Maybe you want to sell out your holiday cookie pre-sale, or increase sales by 10% from last quarter. Only you know what you’re aiming for, but making sure you’re super clear is a very important first step.
PS: If you think you need to start an Instagram because “everyone else has one” it’s time to do a little re-evaluating. Social media can be an incredible tool for small business owners. (Like that time I sold $24,000 worth of cookies in 2 months without paying a single dollar for marketing.) Organic Instagram and Email Marketing legit changed my business (and life) but only because I used it intentionally and with a very clear goal in mind.
Without a goal in mind, social media can have the opposite effect on your creative business. It can become a huge distraction that sucks up your precious time and makes you feel inadequate (comparison is the thief of joy).
2. Know your customers.
WHO are you creating social media content for? Spend some time thinking about your ideal customers so you know exactly who you’re trying to reach. The internet is a BIG place…. You don’t need to reach everyone with your killer content — you just need to reach your people. So talk directly to them!
You can literally give this person a name to help you think of them as a real person. When you start writing your social media content, you’ll be writing directly to this person. This helps your ideal customers feel a connection with you. It’s like you’re speaking to them directly!
3. Pick 1-2 social media sites to focus on
Listen — you just can’t do it ALL. Not all at once anyway. Somebody else might be all over Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, and Pinterest. It’s tempting to think that more is better, but I guarantee you this: The businesses you see all over have a whole TEAM helping them. They aren’t doing it by themselves.
Please remember this, or you’ll go straight down the path to burnout.
Start with 1-2 social media sites in the beginning. That’s it! I promise it’s better to show up in one space consistently than it is to hop around all over the place.
I even created a quiz to help business owners figure out which social media platform is best for their business: www.ashleygreeno.com/quiz
4. Set up & optimize profiles
You might be tempted to skip this step. I can see you rolling your eyes and scrolling past to the next step. Please don’t! This doesn’t take long, but it will make a HUGE difference in the long run.
Here are my best tips for setting up *and optimizing* your profiles (aka making the most of the limited space you’re given, so MORE CUSTOMER FIND YOU):
Choose a username that makes sense & use the same name for all of your profiles. Seriously, I know you want to be cute and express yourself. You’re creative and fun… which is incredible. BUT now is the time to be strategic. Choose a name that matches your business and very clearly shows people what you’re about, and use it everywhere. Bonus points if it includes a keyword, or description of your actual product (ex: @tenthousandcookies incorporated my business mission and main product all in one).
Use your “About Me” space to talk about how you can help your customers! Spoiler alert: you usually get a very limited amount of characters in this space. Instead of telling them that you’re a “crafty cat mom who loves coffee” tell them how your “freshly baked and hand decorated sugar cookies make a perfect gift for anyone on their list”
Give them a call to action. Include your website, order form, or your contact information. Your goal is to connect with them asap.
Bonus tip: If you do most of your business locally, make sure you include your city/ state. If you ship, include that info too!
5. Create a Content Calendar
A content calendar is simply a schedule that lets you plan a bunch of content or posts all at once.
Here you can even borrow mine: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/622f23184e5181d777e476b7
This step is SO IMPORTANT because planning your content in advance means you’re posting with a goal in mind and telling a cohesive story.
Get organized… and better yet, automated!
6. Stop. Evaluate and listen.
(Ice is back for a brand new edition.)
Give it some time. Try your new social media plan for 4-8 weeks and then evaluate.
Remember, you’re not going for an overnight success story, just consistent growth!
When you evaluate, ask yourself if this is sustainable for a longer time period and if it feels worth your time.
Pro tip: Lots of creatives are great at the visual piece. If you have high quality product photos or brand pictures that you’re using for your shop or website, you’re all set for images… but writing the copy can be a different challenge. Consider outsourcing the content writing to a pro!
This is how I did/ still do it. Hope it helps!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The 2020 holiday season was a HUGE learning experience for me as a cookie baker. and entrepreneur. Spoiler alert – I made $25,000 in sales in about two months. This experience taught me so much about running a creative business online!
While I had an incredible amount of organic sales, I also learned some tough lessons about growing more sustainably and profitably.
First things first, you may remember that early 2020 was when a particular global virus wrecked life as we knew it.
My yearly sales started off rocky due to becoming a homeschool teacher and a social recluse all at once – and against my wishes. I had already established my part-time cookie business, but at that point, I was making most sales through Venmo.
For the first ten months of 2020, I averaged $2,000 in monthly sales. I was the baker, decorator, and marketer for my business – AKA, I was everything. I didn’t have any employees or outside help.
Then came November and December in 2020.
It’s every baker or creative business owner’s dream to just “hit it big,” right?
I mean, to wake up one morning and the sales are pouring in.
With the hopes of having a solid holiday sales season, I started promoting my cookies earlier than usual in November 2020. And my people were here for it!
Covid had everyone rallying around small businesses and shipping an unprecedented amount of gifts through the mail. Everyone was stuck at home, stir crazy, and looking for a way to connect with loved ones.
It was the perfect recipe for high cookie demand!
I was thrilled! And when I hit my regular monthly sales numbers ($2000) in the first two weeks of November, I didn’t even consider slowing down. I just kept truckin’.
I loved the momentum I was experiencing, and I launched a “Black Friday” promo to keep it going.
That’s when it happened — I did another $10,000 in cookie sales in the second half of November.
The kicker? That number doesn’t even include my Etsy shop or Cratejoy site sales! The snowball effect was intoxicating (and a little scary).
After I got over the excitement of the initial sales, I quickly realized I couldn’t fulfill the orders by myself.
I put the word out and found a few friends interested in being seasonal cookie packagers, and I even found a short-term rental space.
The growth was so exciting that I never sat down to make a real plan. I didn’t pause to consider how to manage the sales, baking, coordination, packaging, mistakes, and deliveries.
I just ran with it. I “ran with it” from 5:30 am until well after midnight for about a month and a half. I ran and ran until my back ached and my head hurt constantly.
Even when I finally fell into bed exhausted each night, I was so overwhelmed with the chaos of orders and customer service emails that I would just toss and turn. I missed out on a ton of holiday family time because I had so much work to do I couldn’t stop.
And here’s the really sad part.
After all that work: the promotions, the social media shoutouts, the Etsy feature (that resulted in massive exposure and a steady stream of bulk corporate orders), I only made about $2,000 extra in profit during those two months.
In November and December 2020, I did nearly 7x the revenue for my creative online business, and what did I have to show for it?
A slight pay bonus and some MASSIVE burnout.
When I jumped into the 2020 holiday season with NO plan, there were a lot of factors I didn’t consider. Each one of these details plays a role in determining whether you will successfully grow your creative business or if you will put in a ton of work for not much profit.
Employees. I had no plan for how many employees I wanted to bring on or how many hours of support I could afford.
Error costs. With such a huge production increase in such a small time frame, there were a lot of mistakes made. There’s bound to be! But I had no budget or plan for covering those mistakes, so I ended up replacing far more orders than necessary – thus digging into my profit.
Supply shortages. When the holidays started, I had the ingredients and packaging, shipping, and marketing supplies for my average month. We ran out of supplies QUICKLY and had to make daily trips to local stores to buy things at a far more expensive rate.
Extra miscellaneous expenses. My family ate out nearly every meal between Black Friday and New Year’s Eve. Most days, I bought dinner and coffee for my entire team of seasonal helpers. – That felt like the least I could do for the amount they were helping me. Beyond those expenses, I paid a babysitter over Christmas break and spent way more on gas from the constant trips to the store.
Waste. We wasted an outrageous amount of product because we had all new helpers and absolutely no training plan. I usually did everything myself – and I knew how to use every last drop of icing and rarely burnt a cookie. While some waste is normal with growth, the lack of training and planning turned out to be pretty costly!
The moral of the story: Growth is amazing! It’s fun and exciting. There are tons of customers out there, waiting for what you’re offering. And your shop can grow just like mine did! But marketing your business blindly, without a plan, is dangerous. And frankly, it isn’t that fun.
While there are seasons in our creative businesses when we will have to put in more hours, sweat, and effort, we want to make sure we are strategic about our choices! We want to work smarter, not harder, right?! And we most certainly want our effort to be worth it!
The goal is to increase sales, profit, and our actual take-home pay! We want to hire people to help us and feel good about how we pay them. We want to create sustainable businesses that we LOVE and that enable us to enjoy our families, hobbies, and freedom!
I had to learn this lesson the hard way, which is 100% why I started offering 1:1 Marketing Strategy Sessions. My goal is to help creative business owners and bakers grow with a plan and a purpose.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ashleygreeno.com
- Instagram: @tenthousandcookies
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashleygreenomarketing
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-greeno-33703321/
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ashleygreenomarketing/
Image Credits
Sydney Rezner