Getting to $1m in 2 years, then doubling yearly sales! with Megan Tellez from Glass Ladder & Co (episode 352)
Megan Tellez is the CEO and designer at Glass Ladder & Co. A fast-growth DTC fashion accessories brand founded in 2017. By 2019 they reached $1m, and this year are experiencing double last year’s sales.
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Getting Started In eCommerce
After graduating from college, Megan moved from New York to Los Angeles and first worked in the fashion industry.
When she shifted to the world of finance, she couldn’t find appropriate accessories to wear to her new workplace. She discussed this gap she noticed with her husband and the more she talked about it, the more she realized she wanted to fill that gap.
Originally starting with a line of portfolios and padfolios, Glass Ladder and Co later on expanded to handbags.
About Glass Ladder and Co.
- Based in Southern California
- Sells worldwide, but with majority of their customers coming from the U.S.
- Is on Shopify but also lists their best-sellers on Amazon
Megan’s top plugin pick is the PostScript SMS marketing app, which she says has helped grow their sales and automate text communications and campaigns.
The Team
Glass Ladder and Co. is made up of a four-person team with most of the tasks done in-house.
Previously, a lot was outsourced such as the warehouse team, fulfillment, and advertising which included social media.
After running the numbers, it made more sense for the business to do things in-house even if it meant extra work for the team.
Using SMS Marketing Effectively
Megan says they use text marketing primarily for launches.
Every season, they create a new segment and ask their customers via SMS if they want to receive notifications about new collections or not.
This facility allows their customers to stay on the main list of recipients for regular SMS marketing, even if they choose to opt-out of seasonal updates.
For Megan, this has been a big factor in earning the respect and trust of their customers.
Going Organic Social
At around the start of the pandemic last year, which coincided with Megan giving birth, they decided to turn off ads to take a breather. Doing this made them realize that turning ads off was reasonable if it wasn’t bringing in the expected ROI.
Since then, they’ve been doing organic social which, aside from Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, also includes email and SMS.
At the moment, they’re not working with influencers because of limited resources but will consider them in the future.
Automating Email Campaigns
Email has been very important to the brand’s growth.
They brought Jessica Totillo Coster on board to take care of their email marketing and for Megan, Jessica has made a positive impact in streamlining their content, campaigns, and workflows.
Jessica Totillo Coster is part of the eCommerce MasterPlan crew. To find out more about Jessica and how she can help with your email marketing strategies, click here.
Best Email Automation
Megan considers post-purchase email campaigns her favorite because they’re strategic such that they eliminate customer service concerns like product care.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- For traffic, it’s social media and for conversion, it’s text marketing.
Tool Top Tip
- Voxer Voice Communication for Remote Teams
Growth Top Tip
- Utilize launch marketing not just for new product launches, but also for other promotions such as holiday sales and the like. Use it to put a new spin on old strategies.
Interview Links
Related episodes
- 301: DTC brand 0 to 7 figures in 3 years via content and email with Shivraj Bassi from Innermost
- 337: Growing a sustainable fashion business to 7-figures with Encircled’s Kristi Soomer
- 343: From one Etsy store to selling $millions with a fashion empire – Jordan West from Little & Lively
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