Okay, I feel confident that the brand and our products are resonating with certain people. And now that we’ve found our customer persona — can we find a reliable and scalable way to reach more of them? My knowledge of advertising is somewhat limited, so I started looking for ads agencies that could help me manage our spend and scale to a wider audience. I worked with three ad agencies for various amounts of time before finding one that got decent results.
I also found a fulfillment center towards the end of summer. Shipping bags is incredibly labor intensive and although I enjoyed packing up boxes and bringing them down to the local UPS, it was beginning to feel overwhelming!
Hires: Ads agency and fulfillment center
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This was the year I started to systemize everything. I wanted all the core business functions to operate well without me (as much as possible). At the time I was still doing a little of everything, so I wanted to fill those positions with people who were way more talented than me in their respective fields to take ownership. Ideally, I could set the overall vision and trust my team to execute — across ads, social, cx, operations, finance, etc. I kept the product role since I felt that was core to Freja’s identity. This process may have started in 2022 but we’re nowhere near done yet.
Hires: I hired Mya to manage our socials, influencer program, partnerships, and events — she had purchased a bag and tagged us on instagram. I noticed that we had mutuals and were both based in NYC, so I asked to meet for coffee. Zero intentions of hiring anyone at the time but she mentioned she was leaving her job in PR the next week so I told her there was a place for her at Freja. That was almost 2.5 years ago and she’s still a core part of the team. I also hired and trained Steph to handle all customer related inquiries, and that was such a big weight off my shoulders.
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Systemizing, continued. I want the work I do today to pay off tomorrow, next month, & years down the line. To do that, I needed to set up feedback loops that allow us to continually better understand our customer, and policies and organizational systems that grow with the business, not limit it.
I feel like so much of business involves tearing down what you built previously to rebuild it into something bigger and better…because what got you here won’t get you there.
Meta was performing well but I hated feeling reliant on just one platform for customer acquisition, so we added Google and TikTok to our paid channels. I also made email marketing a priority and hired a specialist to keep me accountable to sending 2 newsletters each week to really engage our community, and ramped up influencer gifting. I also worked with a branding studio I admired on a rebranding project to polish up the Freja look and feel. We also set up affiliate and referral programs this year as a additional channels.
Hires: Accounting team, Google and TikTok ad specialists, email marketing consultant
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2024: Building a Forever Brand |
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That brings us to this year — the year of sustainable growth. We're keeping and scaling what’s already working, and trying new things that may not show immediate payoff, but build the brand over the long term.
I’ve always treated Freja as an experiment. Little inconspicuous tests across product, branding, and operations to see what works. I try not to be too attached to the outcome of whatever happens, just in case it all blows up.
But this is the first time I have ever viewed Freja as a career — something I want to take as far as I can. I finally feel good with where we are as a company, and feel comfortable spending towards projects that may or may not pan out—things like retail, wholesale, international, expanding our product line and colors, guerilla marketing just for fun, collaborations, hosting events, and giving back / philanthropic efforts. This reframe completely changed our strategy from sales-focused to brand focused—investing in things that don’t contribute to the bottom line immediately or at all, but all as part of a more holistic strategy towards building a long term brand.
Hires: PR agency, content creator, creative director, executive assistant
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And what does the future of Freja look like? I'm not too sure either, but I’m excited to watch it unfold with all of you :)
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Read the full, in-depth article on Substack, here. 📝 |
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