Why empathy and the right team are key to online growth with Yinka Martin from HairWeavon (episode 324)
Yinka Martin is the founder and CEO at HairWeavon. A bricks and clicks retailer she founded in 2011 to help women and men experiencing hair loss to find the best Wigs and Hair Replacement Systems. Ten years on they have just achieved 20% year-on-year growth.
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About Yinka
Yinka started HairWeavon from personal struggles with her own hair. Hair is a big deal in the African community and Yinka found that being of African descent and living in the western world, it was hard to find good quality products for hair like hers.
The product and business quickly evolved to help people experiencing hair loss. Yinka says that once she sourced very high quality hair, more and more customers began asking for hair loss solutions, like wigs and hairpieces. Now the business does almost no hair extensions.
The purpose now, Yinka says, is to service a community experiencing hair loss whether that be from a medical condition, medication or balding. The evolution has made the business feel more meaningful and really driven her own commitment to it.
About the Business
- HairWeavon is located in Dublin
- Brick and Mortar in Ireland, but serves customers worldwide
- Started on ZenCart, moved to Magento and recently moved to WooCommerce
Favorite WooCommerce Plugins Yinka’s team recently implemented Get it buy so customers can definitively know when they will receive their item.
Yinka says that most customers buy the same item over and over again. Since the hair is so critical to their look, getting a fresh wig or hairpiece is critical and customers are anxious to know when it will arrive.
The Team
HairWeavon has six full-time employees and a group of freelancers. Working with outside freelancers and agencies has been a major driver for the business.
Yinka says she keeps herself involved but also steps back to let her team’s expertise shine. Finding good people can be tricky and Yinka says that trial and error has been the only ways she’s been able to learn how to find the right people.
She tried Fiverr, but ultimately UpWork was the better platform.
10 Year Celebration
Yinka says that with the resources they have now, they decided to do a big marketing push around their 10 year anniversary.
They’ve invested a lot in email marketing over the past few years and Yinka says that they are using that momentum to create a major event that can tie some of their diverse marketing channels and strategies together.
Email Marketing Tips
Yinka says that up until recently she had been struggling with email marketing.
When she was ready to turn the corner, she started attending a lot of events and webinars about email marketing where her eyes were opened regarding the possibilities and synergies that email offered her business.
A couple of tips for great email marketing that Yinka has:
Automations: Yinka has worked with freelance professionals to help set up automations that work with her business.
Mix messaging type: Don’t just do campaigns! Yinka says that giving people the right mix of information has been really amazing for her customers. She has a careful mix of news, fashion, campaigns and personalized messages.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Conversations
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Email Marketing. Don’t just send campaigns and figure out how to automate
- Video First and Mobile First
Tool Top Tip
Growth Top Tip
- Video First
- Mobile First
Interview Links
Related episodes
- Content marketing and building a relationship with customers with Karen Martin of My Pets Ashes
- How team structure is crucial for easy growth with Melvin & Hamilton’s Nicolas Metzke
- Ashley Merrill from luxury sleepwear brands Lunya & Lahgo talks about evolving sales channels
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