GE 160: How Drip Club Used Influencer Marketing to Get 250K Instagram Followers & Grow the Business 1,000% in 1 Year (podcast)

Hey everyone, today we have a very special show featuring three of my friends from high school: Andrew Tsai, Jonathan Hong, and Mike Zhang, co-founders of The Drip Club, a trusted online e-liquid and vape shop. Andrew is the VP of Sales, Mike is the CEO and Jonathan is the VP of Products.

On today’s show we’ll be talking about how The Drip Club began as an online subscription service, similar to BirchBox, and evolved into a consumer products company, what they did to get to a quarter million Instagram followers without paid advertising (which they can’t do because of the industry they’re in), and how they scaled the effectiveness of working as a team with a divide-and-conquer strategy.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: How Drip Club Used Influencer Marketing to Get 250,000 Instagram Followers and Grow the Business 1,000% in One Year TRANSCRIPT

Episode highlights:

• [3:28] – They want to model themselves after Red Bull.
• [04:54] – They try to add value and provide the best products and the best service, and take the personal approach. They share insights and best practices that will help their customers be successful.
• [6:34] – They ask what is not moving and take it back at no charge and give equivalent credits.
• [06:57] – They want to make whatever is on the shelf is moving. They set a high bar. They help with planning for holidays in retail. They have account representatives reach out to the shops and give tips and free products.
• [8:25] – Their focus is to help customers to sell products.
• [9:08] – Social media has helped to build their brand. Especially Instagram. They grew the business over 1,000% from 2014 to 2015.
• [10:14] – Today they have a quarter million Instagram followers. They are unique because they can’t do paid advertising.
• [11:25] – They wanted to share great content as a lifestyle brand on Instagram. They focuses on sourcing great products to give away and build a following. They also transferred those followers onto Facebook and built an email list.
• [12:30] – As the channel grew they spent less and less, they began with expensive products that people may want, but not want to pay for. They also got free product, so it cost them time. It was probably in the 5 or 6 figures in retail value of products.
• [14:36] – People have a desire to share about a good product. Social influence points by sharing something of value. Influencer placements have been organic by creating great products.
• [16:34] – Joint goodwill created by a collaboration with a popular DJ and building relationships with people in the industry. They are always seeking out influencers to build relationships with and collaborate with. Win win situation.
• [17:56] – They have been observing from the beginning and have found the best influencers from building their reputation over time. They also started early on and grew with a lot of people. Find good people to interact with because you never know how big their influence will get.
• [20:07] – Struggles faced from working with friends. Relationships are about communications. They had no ego struggles and were very blunt about their ideas and thought processes. Communication can be a challenge, but they feel they have mastered it. Communication and trust.
• [22:22] – They would all hang out, then Andrew and Jonathan kind of disappeared. Mike noticed they were working all the time. For Mike, it was rewarding having a third party perspective. He knew a lot about the value of time. Being effective and not just efficient.
• [24:25] – How to scale the effectiveness of working as a team with a divide and conquer strategy.
• [26:27] – Get started as soon as possible and listen to your instincts
• [27:15] – Productivity hack, mindfulness or meditation incorporated into each day to avoid overwhelm and help to focus

Resources from this interview:

• The Drip Club
• Instagram @dripclub
• Facebook @thedripclub
• YouTube Drip Club
• Twitter @DripClub
• Productivity Hack: HeadSpace
• Must-read book: Good to Great by Jim Collins

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