Here at Karina Dresses, we’ve been working on more ways to connect with you, our dear readers and ever-expanding community of Frockstars. We’ll be launching a new subscription based newsletter in the New Year, thanks in part to a conversation we had with Frockstar and small-business guide Tara Swiger. We enjoyed the conversation so much, we’ve asked her if we could share the experience with you, since I know many of you also rock your own small business (or want to) and may be looking for effective partners.
Hello Frockstars! I had a great time IdeaStorming a lifestyle newsletter with Garnet over at your favorite dress company. We started the conversation long before we got on the phone, by clarifying what he was looking for in a newsletter, and what his business goals were. This gave me the time and information to do some research before we started Ideastorming. I checked out everything about the current social media strategy (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, the blog), so I’d have a feel for the voice, tone, and the lovely community surrounding these gorgeous dresses. This allows me to come up with a long list of ideas, subjects, and impressions to share with the client – so we don’t have a single moment of wasted air time.
A typical session is an hour, on phone or video chat…but we had a hard time hanging up after the first hour and we kept chatting into hour TWO! Karina and Garnet have a clear view of the uniqueness of their business model, so we focused on how that strength can inform a email campaign. We went big picture (who the ideal reader of the newsletters would be) and super specific (what individual emails could be about).
“The experience was a rewarding mixture of Tara’s own social media experience + a willingness to develop completely new ideas that were suited for our unique culture and community. She expanded the scope of what we had considered and opened my eyes to new possibilities. What really surprised me was her solid business experience. Unlike a lot of “creatives” in the social media advice-giving space, she could chat Return on Investment and budgets and realistic expectations.”- Garnet, Director of Finance & Strategy
When we were done, after scribbling pages of notes, I sent a follow-up email with a list of all our ideas, both big and small, along with a list of resources, and a few questions to keep the project moving forward. The Karina session was pretty typical: fascinating, enthusiastic, and lots of oh! what about this?! moments of bing! for both of us (although Garnet’s exclamations are much more dignified!).
Sound like something your small biz could use? Schedule your IdeaStorming for the new year and start the year off clear + enthusiastic. Tara’s offering Karina readers a special: $30 off your first IdeaStorming when you mention Karina Chronicles. Click here to book it now.
image by blockparty prints, for sale here