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The Secret to Selling Out Fast

Wouldn’t it be a dream come true if you could  launch a new product or collection, and have it sell out immediately? What if you could place a new inventory order with 100% confidence that your audience will buy it?

Inner Circle member Morgan Lane Tanner, owner of Foterra jewelry, has a strategy for that. Morgan is a long time eCommerce store owner who sells jewelry made from landscape photographs. Over the years, she’s perfected a method that gets her audience involved in her product launches. The result is that when it comes time to start selling, Morgan sells out. Fast.

Foterra Jewelry’s Scenic Route

Morgan’s journey began in Hawaii. Foterra Jewelry’s core customers are women who love the outdoors and feel a strong connection to nature. These are the people who find joy in carrying a piece of their favorite landscape with them wherever they go. 

The business initially thrived in Hawaii, attracting both tourists and locals who cherished their favorite spots. Now based in the Pacific Northwest, Foterra Jewelry continues to resonate with those who love hiking and have a deep connection to their local mountains and spending time in nature.

Morgan’s pieces allow her customers to take their “happy places” with them, and because of the originality and ingenuity of her concept, Morgan and her husband have built a successful business that supports them.

Blueprint for a Perfect Product Launch

Morgan is an artist, so her business has to balance her creative vision with what her customers will love. In order to avoid alienating her buyers, she has developed a clever strategy to both gauge their interest, and get them excited about new product offerings, before she launches something new.

Morgan often uses this technique when she’s stuck or unsure about how a new design will be received. Whereas with in-person selling, an artist can get valuable feedback from passersby, with online sales you often feel that you’re creating in vacuum. Morgan developed this strategy as a way to get online feedback before investing in creating or buying the product.

The pre-launch strategy starts with engaging the audience to gather their opinions.

The first time she did this, Morgan had been approached by a local nonprofit to design a piece for an Earth Day fundraiser. She wanted to do something special and unique, but was stuck on the design. After some research, she found two charms she loved – one with a wave design and one with a mountain design.

She created two graphics, each showcasing one of the charms, and posted them on Facebook and Instagram, asking followers to vote in the comments. Results were split evenly down the middle.

So she expanded the informal poll to her email list. She sent out a campaign saying, “Something’s coming, and I need your help. Choose which one.” Using a technique from an Inner Circle training, she used buttons to let customers vote. She included graphics of both charm designs, and subscribers could click on their favorite.

The email gathered valuable input but also had an unexpected benefit – it identified who was potentially interested in purchasing. 

Like with the social media poll, the votes in email were evenly split, so Morgan decided to go ahead with both designs. She created a couple of designs using the charms and moved forward with both options.

Next, she guessed that her customers would be delighted to find out if the design they voted for won, so she created a “reveal” Reel to showcase the winning designs. She then sent a similar email to her list, revealing the final charms.

Because people love to give their opinions, all of these organic posts and campaigns had great engagement (likes, comments, votes, etc), and customers appreciate being let in on the creative process. This was great for Morgan, because she reached a lot of her followers without spending a dime on ads.

The Launch Week Hustle

Morgan kept these activities up for a full week, starting on a Thursday and ending the following Wednesday, with the big reveal the day before the official launch. She could have posted even more and spent money on ads, but she chose to keep it organic.

On that Thursday, she teased the collection by showing a bit of the sample-making process through videos and reels. This got people excited as they saw the teasers two or three times before the launch.

When launch day arrived, Morgan sent out emails to her audience and posted on Instagram and Facebook, providing direct links to the new products. She followed her usual launch method, sending emails on the first day and a few days later to her engaged audience. She spent that week talking about the collection nonstop on social media, and contrary to what she might have thought, no one seemed to get tired of it.

By the end of the first two days, Thursday and Friday, she sold about $1,000 worth of the collection. By the middle of the next week, one of the styles was completely sold out.

She quickly ordered more charms to keep up with the demand. The collection was limited edition and lasted for about a week and a half, leaving only about five pieces of one style by the end.

Throughout this period, Morgan continuously posted and emailed her audience, and everyone remained excited. She made sales every day, and the constant communication made her customers feel a sense of ownership and excitement about the collection. 

One Focus, Big Results

Even though Morgan spent a good part of half the month focusing on this one launch, the impact on her sales was significant. If she had spread her efforts over multiple products, promoting different items each week, the results wouldn’t have been the same. She estimated that the focused campaign probably resulted in about a 50% increase in sales compared to a normal week. Selling that many of just one collection was more effective and easier, too, as she didn’t have to constantly switch gears and think about new things to promote.

Morgan found that having a clear focus made it simpler to come up with clever ways to talk about the product. She realized that she could have added more touches, like sending an email a couple of days before the launch, offering a sneak peek 24 hours early, which could have heightened anticipation even more.

Morgan’s biggest takeaway was recognizing the value of her audience’s feedback. Initially, she was nervous about bothering people, but she discovered that customers love being involved and offering their opinions. This interaction created a sense of fun and connection.

Morgan points out that none of her promotional content included her face. Despite this, her customers still felt very connected. She did one face-to-camera story during the launch, announcing that they were almost sold out, which added a personal touch without being overwhelming.

Morgan is now a true believer that engaging with your audience doesn’t have to be intimidating. Simple graphics created in Canva or straightforward posts can be just as effective.

You don’t need to dance on TikTok or share every aspect of your life; maintaining a genuine connection through simple, consistent communication is key.

Beyond New Products

What’s great about this strategy is that it isn’t just limited to new products. In fact Morgan is currently working on a spring sale and is in the pre-launch phase. She’s getting customers to comment to join the pre-launch list, allowing them to shop early. This technique involves getting people on an early bird list. This time, she’s incorporating the ManyChat app to collect emails as well. Without spending any money, she has so far received about 55 comments on one post (which translates to 55 organic emails in just three days).

Morgan says you can even use this launch technique to pull things out of the vault, such as past products, and relaunch them with a new pre-launch strategy. The core principle is building your audience, generating awareness, getting people to click through and engage with your site, and ultimately driving sales. She emphasizes that a pre-launch is essential for any kind of launch. It builds excitement and ensures that people are aware and engaged before the official announcement. She has even found that even those who miss the pre-launch still benefit from the overall buzz and engagement it creates. 

Making It Happen: Engage, Launch, Repeat

Morgan’s success confirms that customer interaction during the pre-launch phase is crucial for achieving sales success. While it’s a bit more work up front, once you see what resonates with your audience, it becomes much easier to create new content. Plus, you can always recycle the posts that performed well. So, it starts with a bit of work, but it becomes a lot easier over time, reducing the mental load as you go.

You can connect with Morgan and see her work at foterrajewelry.com or follow her on Instagram and Facebook @foterrajewelry

RELATED LINKS:

Check out Morgan’s website: www.foterra.com

Nicholas’s strategy to fund his launch with pre-orders will make you watch twice!

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/nicholass-strategy-to-fund-his-launch-with-pre-orders-will-make-you-watch-twice/

What Happens When You Put Marketing First

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/what-happens-when-you-put-marketing-first-episode-198/

Become A Marketing-First Store Owner

https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/become-a-marketing-first-store-owner-episode-160/

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