Too often, small business owners are under the misconception that if they launch a website, run an advertising campaign on Facebook or optimize their website for organic keywords, success will happen overnight. When they don’t see the immediate results they expect, they pull their marketing budget.

No matter how great your products, beautiful your website or effective your marketing strategy, it takes time and hard work to build your presence online. For retailers — even ones with successful brick-and-mortar stores — it can take even longer because of the stiff competition they face from big online retailers.

But while it may not happen next week or even next month, if you put in the time and the effort, eventually, it will start to pay off.

Local retail store sees record online sales after more than a year of hard work

The Life of the Party is a cherished costume, wig and makeup store in Fort Collins, Co — which happens to be owned by our very own Senior Brand Director, Brandon Lilly, and his wife, Marcia Lilly.

After grinding for 18 months, they finally got their first sale. And this July, they had a record month for sales both in-person and online, with a 192% increase in year-to-date online sales.

It’s all thanks to the time and commitment dedicated by Brandon and Marcia — and a team of marketing professionals.

How did they do it?

The Life of the Party launched the first version of their website in August 2018. Nearly six months later, in February of 2019, they launched the e-commerce side of their site.

It wasn’t until January 2020 that they got their first online sale for $2.99, which didn’t even cover the shipping costs.

“It was our only sale for the whole month, and you can imagine how disheartening it was, especially after a full year of effort to get products online, write descriptions, find product photography, etc.”

In February 2020, things started looking up, and they saw an almost 4,200% increase in sales to $128. And then the pandemic hit, forcing them to close the doors of their physical store.

However, their online store was still going strong, driving 10 times the online sales compared to the previous month, resulting in $1,000 in sales, which wouldn’t cover all of their expenses, but was enough to keep the lights on.

After updating their website a second and then a third time, they’ve driven sales to new heights, with a record month in July.

“It was nearly 18 months of investment before we saw a $3 sale. If we’d given up on the investment at any point prior to that, it’s highly likely we would have shut our doors permanently like many of our competitors…The amount of effort honestly hasn’t changed. It’s still a ton of work to keep the site and business going, but the investment is beginning to pay off.”

Conclusion

Marketing success doesn’t happen overnight, and when you’ve been at it for a while without seeing any real results, it can be downright disappointing.

But, don’t give up. Monitor your performance and use the data to update your website and fine-tune your marketing strategy. Eventually, your work will pay off.

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Marketing 360® is a singular platform that offers everything you need to build a modern, professional website, launch ads on popular channels, manage all of your contacts, projects and deals, schedule out social media posts, monitor your SEO performance and so much more, plus the marketing team you need to grow your business.

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Account M17289
Screenshots taken on 8/13/21

*Results are based on past client performance. Individual account performance may vary. Results are not guaranteed