Natalie Mounter is a stay-at-home mother and entrepreneur. Her firm, Completely Dazzled, sells craft provides for weddings and inventive tasks. She says the enterprise has prospered resulting from different stay-at-home mothers — her workers and associates.
She advised me, “Being a stay-at-home mother and hiring different stay-at-home mothers has been key to our success.”
Mounter and I just lately spoke. She shared Completely Dazzled’s origins, its affiliate marketing online success, and the worth of good, hardworking mothers.
All the audio of our dialog is embedded beneath. The transcript is edited for size and readability.
Eric Bandholz: Give us a rundown of what you do.
Natalie Mounter: I’m the proprietor of Completely Dazzled. We promote sparkly craft provides, primarily for weddings and inventive tasks. We launched in 2012 with an Etsy retailer. We at the moment are 100% Shopify. It’s a life-style enterprise for me. I began it after I was pregnant with my first child.
We skilled big development throughout the pandemic as a result of everybody began shopping for on-line and was on the lookout for issues to do at dwelling. The crafting market took off.
We ordered way more stock and ended up being overstocked. We needed to do quite a lot of discounting this yr to get again to a wholesome stock place. We’re in a greater place now.
I began the enterprise as a result of I used to be on the lookout for one thing to do at dwelling and work the hours I needed. I learn “The 4-hour Work Week” and thought it sounded good for motherhood.
Because the enterprise grew, I used to be lucky to seek out key individuals who have been unbiased and hardworking, who I might offload stuff onto and hold my hours to a minimal. Being a stay-at-home mother and hiring different stay-at-home mothers has been key to our success. I get high quality workers for an reasonably priced worth. Mothers are the most effective group members as a result of they’re good, hardworking, and really environment friendly.
Bandholz: How do you discover stay-at-home mothers?
Mounter: HireMyMom.com is a superb useful resource for stateside assist. I additionally use native networking.
My cousin was my first group member. That was 10 years in the past. She had just lately had a child and was on the lookout for a stay-at-home job. I used to be delivery all of my merchandise from Canada, the place I dwell, however most of my prospects have been within the U.S. My cousin is in California. So I despatched her all my stock to meet for me.
She additionally handles customer support and social media dialog. My different key group member, one other stay-at-home mother, is sort of a one-woman advertising and marketing company. She does all of our Fb adverts, e mail advertising and marketing, and SMS. I do the planning and the imaginative and prescient. We meet month-to-month. It’s very hands-off for me. They each do an incredible job.
Now we have a few time-sensitive duties, corresponding to sending texts to our SMS record when our affiliate model ambassadors go dwell on Fb. We depend on an assistant within the Philippines for that.
Bandholz: Are associates your major advertising and marketing tactic?
Mounter: Associates are our prime site visitors supply. I like working with them as a result of they’re much less demanding and dangerous than Fb adverts, the place we spend cash and hope and pray the adverts will work.
We recruit associates by sending them a free product after which incentivize them with a fee. We’re not out any money till they make a sale. I might a lot relatively pay feminine content material creators than Mark Zuckerberg!
After I first started on the lookout for associates, I typed “DIY broach bouquet” into Google and contacted the creators making these varieties of movies. Yow will discover folks’s contact strategies on their YouTube channels. I emailed them and requested if they’d promote us and earn commissions on gross sales. We’ve had quite a lot of success with that technique.
Initially the outreach felt daunting. It took quite a lot of time. However as soon as we had a community of associates, the phrase locally acquired out. Different creators noticed the movies selling Completely Dazzled and needed to do the identical. We nonetheless do some outreach, however not practically as a lot as within the outdated days.
We use affiliate administration software program to trace efficiency. We will see how a lot site visitors every drives and whether or not they’re making gross sales. In the event that they’re doing nicely, we’ll ship them a bunch of free stuff. We hold tabs on our associates and spoil the excessive performers, however we hold the others engaged as a result of they’re nonetheless speaking about us. These extra touchpoints ultimately drive gross sales.
We provide a 20% fee and a 30-day cookie window. Each are fairly beneficiant. I consider in generosity as a result of typically associates should not rewarded for his or her referrals. Somebody would possibly see their content material after which go straight to our web site.
Success in affiliate marketing online requires constructing long-term partnerships versus being metrics-driven. Many sellers fail with associates for that purpose.
Plus, viewers dimension is just not the one gross sales predictor. One in every of our top-performing associates generated $30,000 in at some point. She has 1.7 million followers on Fb. One other excessive performer has about 200,000 followers on Fb, however her viewers is very aligned with our product.
Bandholz: How do you keep engaged within the enterprise after 12 years?
Mounter: What helps me keep motivated is remembering the why and specializing in gratitude. I’ve been capable of elevate my youngsters, by no means miss their occasions, and keep away from stress once they’re sick. I take day off after I need.
Bandholz: The place can listeners help you or purchase your merchandise?
Mounter: Our web site is TotallyDazzled.com. We’re on Fb, YouTube, and Instagram.