The Art of Scaling From 0 to $3 Million in Six Months

This isn't the type of post that shows one of our case studies with a “results not typical” disclaimer. This isn't the long shot that panned out. This is purely our system, and our system works. It works so well we make a living off of it! Scaling a company from nothing to something isn’t rocket science or brain surgery, although some will have you believe it is. It’s all about the process. What's the best part about a process? It can be repeated over and over again!

Our process is so simple it’s really just common sense. Since we have no monopoly on common sense, we are more than happy to share exactly how we do it. No studio shoots or paying influencers thousands of dollars for a disingenuous post. Here’s the story of Animal House Fitness and how we brought them to over $3 million in six months.

“From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.” - Aeschylus

Our System

‍Product Seeding

Before anything else, we got Animal House products into the hands of influencers. We seeded well over 100 influencers with products. Products were the only investment. There was no other ad spend or marketing strategy expense of any kind. It was that simple.

Streamlined Seeding

To make a simple process even easier, we developed a Shopify app that streamlines getting the products to your influencers. Our all-in-one app seeds products to all of your influencers and treats them as a customer within your store and eliminates backend frustration. You can modify it directly in the app, and you can track and monitor it in real time. In the world of influencer marketing, speed and efficiency is imperative. Check it out here.

Play it Cool

We have identified this issue as possibly the #1 offender when it comes to failed influencer marketing strategies. DON’T EXPECT ANYTHING IN RETURN! That's not a joke. Send your product off like a coin in a wishing well or a Tonka Truck in a Toys for Tots donation bin. Forget it. It’s gone forever. Well, that's the mindset you need to have.

The Wishing Well Strategy

Here’s why it works. Nothing will sour a potential relationship quicker than having your gesture of goodwill come with strings attached. Some companies actually send a contract along with the products (facepalm). They didn’t ask for the product and asking them to post about it reeks of desperation. We focus on building genuine relationships first. The rest comes naturally as you will see.

Hurry Up and Wait

Once the products are out in the ether just sit back and watch. Genuine lovers of the product will make themselves known. Identify who organically posts about the product. It seems like a huge act of faith, but it isn’t. This method is more successful across every metric, if it wasn’t we wouldn't have based our entire business model on this strategy. It doesn't take long for the influencers to reveal themselves in the best possible way. As far as a timeline goes, it's typically much faster than sending a contract back and forth and negotiating payment.

Get Tracking

So, how do you keep tabs on over 100 different influencers you seeded? You don’t because you have Mighty Scout do it for you. Starting at $99 a month for the base plan, this is potentially the greatest investment you will ever make in your business. Mighty Scout tracks the social handles of your influencer prospects. Mighty Scout automatically alerts us to organic mentions in real time.

‍Collect the Content

Once Mighty Scout gives us the heads up that your product is being shared we can go and collect all of the juicy content produced by the influencers straight from the platform. The diversity of content can't be matched. You'll have everything from unboxing videos to heartfelt testimonials in no time.

Take the Guesswork Out

It’s important to do your homework first. We only send products to individuals who consistently produce high quality videos and images. If their stuff looks like World War 1 footage, we don’t send them the product. Having a skilled team of content sleuths is key. Just because we aren't producing the content doesn't mean we can't anticipate how it will look.

Put the Content to Work!

Now that we have collected amazing influencer content it’s time to put it to work! We’ve already vetted your influencers so you know it’s going to be the high quality stuff Facebook and Instagram love. We can now start creating ads with organic and genuine content that your audience is going to be drawn to. The leg work has already been done since the content is being created by influencers who create great content for a living.

The Value of Content

We can’t understate the importance of good content. It’s essential for any high converting social ad. Traditional marketing agencies live (and die) by the saying “Cheap content isn’t good, and good content isn’t cheap.” That’s no longer the case. Through organic outreach and relationship building, the absolute best producing content is free. Shifting into a new era of influencer marketing eliminates the need for expensive studio shoots and six-figure contracts. The best part is new content just keeps rolling in.

Keep the Pace

This is where things get really fun because this is where the money happens! With all of the fresh content rolling in we just keep producing new ads. For Animal House we create 10-15 new ads weekly featuring brand new content that literally just dropped into our inbox. While one half of the team is creating new ads, the other half of the team is continuing to seed new influencers. Unless you have an aversion to financial success, this is the stage where those “pop champagne” moments happen! With each passing week, a new top performing ad reveals itself through the fresh batch of content.

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Here’s Your Proof

Here’s what the Kynship philosophy did for Animal House Fitness.

1. We brought them to over $1 million in four months and to over $3 million two months later. Not to flex but I would love to know who else churns out millionaires in 120 days.
2. Their growth has a solid foundation rooted in genuine relationships. In fact, the growth has been so substantial that even Shopify took notice and named Animal House Fitness to their list of fastest growing companies for 2020.
3. As of this writing, 346 influencers produced 1,203 pieces of high value content. 90% of that content has been repurposed into paid media. That number continues to increase daily.
4. That fastest growing company of 2020 thing? I guess it's worth mentioning that the company launched in October. Yea, they made the list with less than three months left in the year. We didn't beat the competition; we obliterated it.

This type of growth isn’t unique. For us, this is just another Tuesday. This is what we do. (mic drop)