Growing a start up to 2,000 orders a month in 1 year with Tom Mucklow from Aurora Mornings (episode 339)
Tom Mucklow is the founder at Aurora Mornings, a DTC supplements company. Founded in 2020 they already doing 1-2,000 orders per month.
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Why Tom Founded Aurora Mornings
Tom liked the idea of working for himself, building something, and putting his heart and soul into it.
He launched Aurora Mornings a year ago and continues to learn how to run the business through online courses, books, blogs, and podcasts, and interaction with other companies.
About The Business
- Based in the US until about a month ago
- Was started in New York, with fulfilment being done out of Tennessee, while Tom is based in the south coast of England
- Currently selling only in the US with plans to expand to the UK
- Running on Shopify
Tom’s Widget Picks
- Yotpo for customer reviews
- Refersion for affiliate marketing
- Klaviyo for email marketing
- Trtle Upsell and Cross Sell pop-ups.
Using Third Party Logistics
With the goal of having an almost nomadic existence where he is not tied down to just one place, Tom made the decision to use third party logistics right at the beginning.
He went through a long process picking out a partner, since he knew he had to make fulfilment as personalized as possible even if he was doing it remotely.
The Actual Product
Tom launched the business with the idea of trying to make everyone’s mornings better.
Experimenting with various ayurvedic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, herbs, and adaptogens, and with the help of a professional herbalist, he came up with a concoction he takes himself to become more energized, more awake, and more productive at the start of the day.
He aims to build a brand around natural ingredients to help everyone have a better morning.
The Aurora Mornings Team
Tom uses freelancers as well as agencies to manage Aurora Mornings, and this includes an agency he runs with his friend.
No one works full time in Aurora, and even with the thought of growing the business, Tom would like to do so without having to hire a whole team.
Brand Expansion
Tom’s looking to add more food-type products including breakfast bars, overnight oats, and morning drinks.
Key Marketing Method
What has been the biggest lever of growth for Aurora Mornings and the one Tom enjoys doing is affiliate marketing.
Affiliate for him doesn’t always mean giving commissions. It is really turning your best customers into resellers in a friendly way without being too salesy.
What’s Else Is In The Pipeline?
A site revamp is happening this year.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
Tool Top Tip
Growth Top Tip
- Don’t expect to be there tomorrow; it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Interview Links
Related episodes
- Lifestyle Labs’ Valerian Voegele redefining the vitamins sector through outstanding customer service
- DTC brand 0 to 7 figures in 3 years via content and email with Shivraj Bassi from Innermost
- Steve Simonson (iFloor.com) retail and eCommerce veteran shares his wisdom – must listen
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Klaviyo is a leading customer data and marketing automation platform dedicated to accelerating revenue and customer connection for online businesses. Klaviyo makes it easy to store, access, analyze and use transactional and behavioral data to power highly-targeted customer and prospect communications. The company’s hybrid customer-data and marketing-platform model allows companies to grow by fostering direct relationships with customers, without giving up their valuable data to popular big-tech ad platforms. Over 80,000 innovative companies like Unilever, Custom Ink, Living Proof and Huckberry sell more with Klaviyo. Learn more at www.klaviyo.com.
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