From Zero to $1M Using Social Media ONLY: Here's the Formula that Works

I studied a precise formula for growing a business online from zero to a million and you can too.

A few years ago,?Forbes?Magazine mistakenly crowned?Kylie Jenner?as the?youngest self-made?billionaire at age 21.

The magazine took a lot of flak for using the labe “self-made” given the reality tv star and business brand had a lot of help by being famous, rich and a beneficiary of tons of resources, support, connections that helped her achieve her success.

Before Forbes later realized the numbers it was relying on were not accurate and recanting its article, there were a lot of think pieces back then on whether it could be done: to grow into a millionaire from scratch.

Dictionary.com?infamously?tweeted?“Haven’t we gone over this? Self-made: Having succeeded in life unaided” with a link to the website’s?definition?which is “having succeeded in life unaided; made by oneself.”

Self-made?people who got their start with no capital, no family brand and no resources, access or connections exist while having capital, family brand, resources, access and connections Jenner had access to when she built her company are amplifiers.

And here are the factors that allowed Kylie to grow that fast which can serve as a lesson in marketing.

1. FREE MARKETING

Unlike a lot of businesses that spend 7–8% of their gross revenue on marketing, Jenner was able to launch her business with an spend ata grand total of zero dollars by using totally free social media platforms like?Snapchat, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook?and?Twitter?to reach her eager, avid and willing market of buyers.

Very few businesses are able to directly market their products to 174 Million willing, able and eager buyers from day one.

So with a very active and engaged following, such as the one Kylie has, she had an active market of willing, tested, and loyal customers out the gate.

Kylie in Ulta Beauty Stores

For this reason, a lot of startup brands invest money in growing a social following and engaging with existing influencers to help generate buzz and interest in their products, services and campaigns.

I famously reported on my?YouTube channel?about how serial entrepreneur?Greta Van Riel?used FREE influencer marketing to scale five product based companies to 7-figures each.

Times have changed since Kylie and Greta were able to get away with so much free publicity but by not much. Now there is more value exchange required but still, with a relatively nominal investment, influencer marketing can net a HUGE return.

2. THE PERFECT BUYING AUDIENCE: GEN Z

Market research show?that Generation Z?is one of the most powerful consumer forces in the market today with a buying power is $44 billion which expands to $600 billion when considering the influence they have on their parents’ spending.

And they can make a quick decision to support their fan fave in seconds of seeing what Jenner has to offer.

Let’s compare the steps it would take for a fan of someone like Diddy or Madonna to show their support for these business and musical geniuses and icons.

They’d have to be in a car or in front of a TV or computer to see an ad, purchased by a marketing company, to make it across their radio station airwaves, of a commercial or web ad. Then, if the fan is youthful, he/she would have to ask their parent to drive them down to the ticket master booth to buy a concert ticket, or to take them to the mall to buy an album, or drive them to the movies to purchase a ticket, in the case of actors.

An average GenZ with an allowance and parent-provided bank card account linked to a digital visa can swipe up and hit buy right there. Total of minutes if not seconds to go from viewing an item and call to action and making a purchase!

Back then,Kylie had even partnered up with?Instagram?to create her own filters so a teen can test out how it would look on her before buying and even that would still be a purchasing decisions that takes minutes versus the days it takes for fans of older celebs.

Targeting the right audience is essential for growth.

If your product isn’t right for the GenZ audience, consider tweaking it so it is.

3. MASTERY OF THE PERFECT SELFIE

Platforms like Instagram and?Pinterest?are the homes for the aspirational imagery. By “aspirational” I mean coveting.

People follow accounts that feature people, foods, places and lifestyles they aspire to and you will note that the most successful have mastered the art of presenting life the prettiest and most visually appealing.

So has Kylie!

Her IG account is dreamy…to a tween and teen at least and even I appreciate her seemingly perfect presentation. She has the “it” factor indeed and has turned a recent new found love of makeup into a passion and then a business.

However, it takes less time for Kylie to create her craft compared to the people that have been in the business for ages.

I’ll come back to?Sean Combs. Wealthy celebs like Diddy have been in the game for a while and still have not netted a billion and that’s because he had to take a lot of time to earn his money in a more traditional fashion.

Diddy started as an intern. Then he had to work his way up the food chain, create his own company, attend tons of meetings and network events, listening sessions, contract negotiations, talent searching, sessions auditioning and all of that work, just to make his first million, probably!

Kylie could wake up at 9 and spend 4 hours on the perfect photos, lighting, angles, and then another hour tweaking the filters for a total of about 5 hours and by 2pm she posts with a “swipe up” like call to action to purchase now.

By 4pm, the lip gloss could be could be sold out and she would have just made $1M from 6 hours worth of work.

But at the time this story was hot, Kylie was not the only one who has mastered the art of appeal and allure to net $1M in a few hours.

Wuzzam Supa, also known as?Supa Cent, is Founder of?The Crayon Case.

A woman named?Wuzzam Supa?(also known as?Supa Cent)?earned $1M in sales in 90 minutes?selling her?The Crayon Case?online through her website and?did it?Valentine’s Day, the same year as the Forbe’s article.

In the digital era, leaning into aspirational content the trigger emotions wins!

And this next generation of social media businesses realized this early on. These new entrepreneurs to net millions faster once they identify the right market and a direct distribution platform.

Follow their lead.

4. ACCESS TO CAPITAL

Dozens of survey research state that access to capital is the one impediment for a lot of small business growth and while Kylie did not inherit the money she used to launch her company, she did in fact?inherit the access and opportunity?to be cast on a show to get the publicity to be able to book the $250,000 worth of income she used from modeling to launch her business.

There a lot of people ( me included) who believe a quarter million infusion of cash into our StartUps would enable them to catapult their companies into the outer stratosphere too.

If you have access to business capital, the majority of that funding out to be placed in marketing from PPC ads to influencer marketing to tradional TV and radio because it really does make the difference.

5. ESTABLISHED BRAND

A lot of time and effort are spent at the early stages of an unknown company on branding and elevating a brand logo, imagery and company mission out there for the public to digest, get used to and learn to know, like and trust.

When Kylie launched her lip kit, she had an already established reputable brand with over 100 Million true fans and followers. Some will say she?inherited?the opportunity to have so many followers from the brand her sisters and mom built and handed to her.

And unlike her sisters, again, most of Kylie’s followers and fans, I think, actually like her, want to look like her, want to be her and want to support her and will.

We see from?The Crayon Case example that people will do what they can when you have a quality product and a market of willing buyers who know like and trust you.

But unlike Kylie, Supa Cent and Path McGrath did not inherit a brand, name, estalblished connects and so in a way, their meteoric rise to success is as amazing, if not more!

For marketing success, attaching your new brand to an existing brand is gold!

There are many ways to do this:

Get a publicist to pitch and try to convince an editor or writer at a well known publication to do a feature on you, your brandor your company.

Enter a brand ambassador relationship with a celebrity or famous influencer to promote the brand. There are a lot of platforms that will connect you with an influencer and a lot of them actually have the email contact to their manager in their social profile bios.

Use a platform that hosts companies via advertising or other means. By me publishing my articles on Medium, instead of my personal website, I can align my content with crediblity and authority of Medium. The search engines and audiences respect and trust Medium. You can also purchase ads on established sites.

With all of these elements in play, a well crafted, well designed, value-added, tested and well-reviewed product, service or brand can grow at an exponential speed!

That’s the plan. Time to implement.

Want more advice, follow me on?LinkedIn,?Instagram,?YouTube?and Twitter.

A version of this artical was originally published at?techyaya.com?on March 7, 2019