Izabela Russell is the CEO at Music Radio Creative. Founded in 2006 they sell a range of services, software, and courses to businesses, radio stations, podcasters, live streamers and YouTubers.
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How Izabela Got Started
Today, Izabela and her husband run Music Radio Collective together. Mike started the company while Izabela was still working in banking. While she was on maternity leave, she asked her husband if she could fiddle around to help with her growing boredom.
She began to get more invested and over the course of her leave helped grow the business to the point that she was able to quit her full time job five months after she began getting involved.
While her involvement started as a playful thing, today the business is thriving and the team works with some very big names doing all things audio. Music Radio Creative has worked with the FBI, WHO, NASA among others.
eCommerce for Service Products
Music Radio Collective has always been an eCommerce business and it’s always been primarily a service business.
Mike and Izabela have strived to find the best formula for obtaining audio services — which are made complex by a multitude of industry standards — and then try to create usable eCommerce solutions that can be sold online.
They work with a huge range of customers in over 105 different categories including online radio, standard radio, DJ, Podcasts, voicemail recordings, audio for video, audiobooks and more.
About the Business
- Based on the Isle of Wight selling worldwide
- Uses Shopify — site was originally custom, but Izabela says that the move to Shopify was the best thing they could have done. The heavily customized site functions very well for all their needs.
- Up front site building work was heavy—creating the complex processes required given the nature of the product.
- Courses have been good for the business, but are not yet on Shopify. They are currently hosted on Teachable and migrating soon to Shopify.
Favorite Apps:
- Shogun Page Builder—allows you to create beautiful landing pages.
- SendOwl for sending files
Education and Courses Make Good Marketing
The courses have been particularly good for marketing as well as being a solid part of the eCommerce business. They have been able to establish their authority in the space using the YouTube platform and Mike spends most of his time creating content for the channel.
After Google, YouTube is the businesses second highest source of traffic. The channel not only provides valuable information to customers, but builds trust with customers.
Izabela says that it’s pretty much impossible to watch informational videos about audio without seeing her husband Mike.
The Team
The team consists of seven in-house people plus a global team of 130 voice artists and 10 producers. The team has always focused on diversity which Izabela says is crucial for creativity.
Businesses as Consumer Clients
Even though Music Radio Creative is a B2C business, it’s a bit different because the customers are often businesses and even complex organizations.
Because of this, Izabela and Mike have made the conscious effort to segment their site by user type on the website. Everything is put into one of the four categories which helps organize the incoming flows.
Despite the range and complexity of customers, Izabela says they have most people come to the business through the website first, though they encourage people to reach out early on projects that require more customization.
Looking Ahead
Over the past five years, the company has increased their revenue each year, and last year they grew by 40%.
Now, Izabella is looking to grow but like a lot of entrepreneurs, says it’s hard to let go of overseeing everything personally.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- YouTube! A long term game, but totally worth it.
Tool Top Tip
Growth Top Tip
- Focus on Customer Service as your number one investment. One happy customers quickly leads to more of the same.
Interview Links
- Business
- Offer- If you want to explore the world of Audio, Music Radio Audio is offering an exclusive Masterplan discount. Simply type the code MASTERPLAN in at check out for a 25% discount!
Related episodes
- Introversion Software’s Mark Morris a look at selling software online – fascinating! Must listen.
- Fire Protection Online’s Jon Butt how to grow to £2m turnover and work just one morning a week
- Cork Yogis’ Lara Sengupta one year on Woocommerce, plus Pinterest Ads, YouTube Ads, getting organised and more
Without the sponsors the podcast wouldn’t be possible – please do check them out:
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