
Foundr Journal publishes in-depth interviews with the world’s biggest entrepreneurs. Our articles spotlight key takeaways from every journal concern. We talked with Tyler Handley, cofounder of Inkbox, about find out how to handle buyer relationships. Learn excerpts from that in-depth dialog beneath. To learn extra, subscribe to the journal.
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Again in 2015, Tyler Handley was fascinated by getting his first tattoo. However he confronted a standard dilemma—and that’s the truth that tattoos are everlasting. How may he make sure that the design he received right this moment could be one he appreciated 15, 20, or 50 years down the road?
Sure, you may at all times get a laser removing remedy, however these are identified to be painful and dear. And, sadly—apart from the non permanent tattoos he used to get from merchandising machines as a child—Handley wasn’t conscious of another semipermanent choices.
He determined to handle the issue himself and enlisted the assistance of his brother, Braden. The duo borrowed $10,000 from a buddy to assist them get off the bottom and, in the identical yr, launched Inkbox.
Quick ahead seven years. At this time, Inkbox is a beloved model that generated simply shy of $30 million in income final yr. The corporate was additionally acquired earlier in 2022 by pen-maker BIC for $65 million.
The Snowball Impact
Getting these first few prospects by way of the door is a problem each entrepreneur faces.
In keeping with him, Inkbox’s first yr was gradual. The corporate solely made a number of thousand {dollars} per day—in the event that they had been fortunate. What lastly began driving the corporate’s development was a mix of Fb advertisements, Instagram influencer advertising and marketing, and word-of-mouth.
“That’s at all times the toughest half. It’s like rolling a snowball down a hill, proper? You need to get it began in some way. If you happen to can’t, nothing’s going to begin rolling.”
For brand spanking new founders who’re additionally struggling to develop their corporations, Handley recommends discovering that one core channel and homing in on it—slightly than spreading your self too skinny. One other piece of recommendation? Don’t lose deal with the top-of-funnel advertising and marketing efforts, particularly whereas scaling.
Regardless that top-of-funnel investments may be extra pricey, Handley believes it positively impacts the remainder of the funnel and in the end will ship returns. In actual fact, he’s tracked the information and is aware of that it pays off over time.
“I feel numerous corporations get trapped in simply spending into the center of the advertising and marketing funnel. However you’re not driving sufficient consciousness, which doesn’t compress that value. We’ve been actually placing extra into that prime to construct model consciousness and put the [Inkbox] identify on folks’s tongues. So once they do see that advert that’s extra mid-funnel for them, they’re much more more likely to click on and much more more likely to convert.”
Bizarre However Good
Ultimately, the Handley brothers determined to search for extra funding. They raised round $1.2 million throughout its pre-seed and seed rounds and, a number of years later, $13 million throughout its Collection A—enabling them to considerably develop the forms of tattoos they’ll provide.
At this time, Inkbox has one thing for everybody. For individuals who need lovely and aesthetically-pleasing tattoos, the corporate has delicate floral designs. Folks on the lookout for a extra atypical look have the choice to get a tattoo of a frog driving a skateboard or the Mona Lisa capturing lasers out of her eyes.
“I’d say irreverent is the precise phrase to explain them. Bizarre can also be phrase—however bizarre in a great way.”
Inkbox additionally launched a more recent model of its product about three years in the past, which gave them far more flexibility from a design perspective. One of many advantages of this replace is that it allowed them to construct out the neighborhood of artists they accomplice with on the designs.
“One of many core components of our enterprise is the truth that our 10,000+ designs are designed by round 650 totally different artists—lots of whom are actually, actually proficient tattoo artists from all over the world. Collectively, I feel they earned round simply $1.5 million final yr, which was actually cool for us to see.”
The corporate additionally launched its customized platform, which makes up about 15–20 p.c of its quantity. With this characteristic, prospects can both add a design themselves or design one from scratch utilizing Inkbox’s fonts and catalog of designs.
“It’s why we’ve so many designs on our platform. Folks have very particular tastes and calls for for what they placed on their our bodies for one to 2 weeks. And so customized was only a pure extension.”
Tricks to Handle Buyer Relationships
How have the Handley brothers grown so rapidly whereas managing buyer relationships? Listed below are their suggestions for constructing long-term buyer relationships.
- Perceive the place your enterprise is presently: Constructing buyer relationships is a resource-intensive course of—and typically your enterprise isn’t fairly able to make that funding. As an example, Handley explains that within the early days of Inkbox, they needed to focus extra on development than retention. “We had been simply actually relying closely on new prospects from Fb to drive top-line development—with out specializing in returning prospects and retaining these prospects.” And that is OK as a brief state.
- Take note of your CSAT rating: While you’re prepared to begin investing in buyer relationships, top-notch customer support is vital. One metric that may aid you gauge the standard of your customer support is your CSAT, or buyer satisfaction, rating. “Our CS crew has a extremely excessive CSAT rating. And that’s vital as a result of it’s a product that’s new to customers,” Handley says.
- Spend money on constructing your e mail campaigns: Begin with emails when you’re unsure find out how to construct a post-purchase journey for patrons. If you happen to’re on Shopify, there are tons of prebuilt campaigns you need to use. “Simply get them again within the door with a drip marketing campaign,” Handley says. “12 emails over three or 4 months with rising affords.”