September 10, 2025 • 28 mins
#017 and Part 7 of Build A Candle Business series.
**This special series is brought to you by ToAuto Wax Melters. Our listeners will get a special deal at checkout when they use this link. **
This week I shares eight effective marketing strategies for candle entrepreneurs to implement before officially launching their businesses, drawing from his experience growing Garsnett Beacon Candle Company and now launching a completely new brand.
• Start locally by telling everyone about your business and collecting in-person feedback at markets and vendor events
• Begin email collection immediately, even with just a password-protected "coming soon" page
• Choose 1-2 social media platforms where your target audience already spends time
• Use content pillars: educational, inspirational, connection, and promotional posts for balanced content
• Partner with local creatives and complementary businesses for collaborative marketing
• Join and contribute to local Facebook groups and community initiatives
• Create blog content that tells your brand story and appeals to your target audience
• Send strategic press releases to local media outlets who love featuring small businesses
• Strategic gifting to community leaders who can amplify your message
• Use fundraisers and collaborations to build local awareness
• Recycle social media content every 6-8 weeks since only about 10% of followers see each post
Grab our free content calendar at candlebusinesspro.com/socialmedia to plan your monthly marketing content using our proven four-pillar approach.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:00):
So marketing is not something that you wait until
your store is open to startdoing.
The most successful candlebusinesses start promoting early
, and they do it in ways thatbuild trust, anticipation and
community.
In this episode, I'll walk youthrough eight simple strategies
that you can start today tobuild momentum for your business
.
I'm Sebastian Garzant, theco-founder of Garzant Beacon
(00:21):
Candle Company and CandleBusiness Pro.
In this episode, we're going totalk about the exact marketing
strategies that we use and thatyou may want to use as well
right now, even if your storeisn't opened up quite yet.
So we obviously do marketingwith Garzant Beacon Candle
Company that we've had for aboutthree and a half years and have
grown that to a substantialsize, and we are now relaunching
(00:44):
an entirely new brand, and sowe're going to talk about the
different ways that you can useto market your business.
Now this is week seven on ourjourney of launching this brand
new business.
So we started a whole new brandand we started from week one
and we are letting you go on thejourney with us to see exactly
how we build this out, thestrategies that we're using, how
(01:07):
we're going to market this, howwe're going to advertise it,
how we are going to source allof our supplies how we came up
with our name, how we are doingmood boards, finding our logos,
finding our fonts, our missionstatement all the stuff that
goes into building an entirelynew brand.
Right now we are waiting forour custom vessels and packaging
(01:28):
to arrive, so now we areshifting gears to start working
on our marketing.
Now we're probably about twomonths out from actually
launching this business, butit's a really good time to start
to market it.
Stick around, and I'm going togive you our content planner.
This is the plan that we useevery single month, over and
over again, so that we havebalanced social media content
(01:50):
for our business.
So this is yours completelyfree.
I'll get to the details on thatin just a moment.
First, I do want to shout outTuato.
Tuato Wax and Melters have beenfantastic for our business and
they are partnering with us onthis series.
So big shout out to Tuato.
They do have an exclusive linkfor you to use in the show notes
below as well if you're wantingto get an additional discount
(02:11):
on one of their wax melters.
So let's get into this rightnow.
All right, so tip number one isgoing to be local.
First Tell your friends orfamily coworkers.
Word of mouth is still huge.
Tell the mailman, tell thepeople at your gym.
Whatever you do, wherever yougo, tell them you are starting a
candle business.
Have them start to follow yourpages.
You can also test in-personfeedback by doing markets, doing
(02:33):
local vendor events.
Those types of things are goingto get you really, really good
feedback.
It will tell you right awaywhat products are working,
what's not working, what peopleare gravitating towards, what
scents are working.
Do they like your packaging?
You can get all of thatfeedback by doing in-person
events.
So stay local first.
Tell everyone you possibly know.
(02:55):
I actually did a segment or anepisode on don't be an
undercover candle maker.
You need to let the world knowyou can wear shirts that promote
your brand.
It should be on all of your ownpersonal social media channels
as well.
Continuously let people knowyou are starting a business and
let them go on that journey withyou.
So that's going to be key tohelping you have that successful
(03:18):
first weekend launch.
When we launched, we had letour friends and family go on the
journey with us.
We were posting on the businesspages for about two months and
then, when we opened up ourstore.
We had a really successfulfirst week and we did almost
$3,000 in one weekend and thatwas just from those people that
were going on that journey withus.
(03:39):
You can also do fundraisers.
Fundraises is really whathelped us get Garcinet Beacon
Candle Company kind of off theground and well known here in
our community is by doing thosefundraisers.
There's an endless amount oforganizations that need money
and need support, and soreaching out to these different
nonprofits and saying, hey, Iwould love to do a fundraiser
for you.
(03:59):
I will give you 25 percent ofthe revenue that comes in.
I will create a little flyerfor you to promote all over
social media and to send outyour email list promoting my
candle business.
And you know, in return you'regoing to get you know a donation
from us.
There will be manyorganizations that will take you
(04:19):
up on that offer and help youto get your name going in your
community and help you to getyour name going in your
community.
So tip number two leverage emailearly.
Email is going to be such apowerful driver of revenue in
your business.
It is one of the leading thingsfor us.
Anytime we are in, let's say, atight crunch, or hey, rent's
(04:42):
due on the shops.
I can leverage my emails thatI've collected from our
customers and from our fans andI can email them with a sale, a
discount, a promo of any type,and we are going to get sales
coming in that day.
So that is a great way ofletting people know early.
So what I would do is I wouldset up on your Shopify page,
(05:04):
even if it's password protected,because you don't have your
website built out yet, just likewe don't have it for our new
brand.
It's not completely built out,but we have that Shopify account
and we have that domain andwhen you go to it it is just a
password protected page and itsays coming soon.
So we're starting to advertise.
We have some images out thereof our prototypes and we are
collecting email addresses fromday one.
(05:25):
We want to send people fromsocial media to our website so
that they know and they are in ahabit of going to where they
eventually will be buyingproducts from us.
You can have videos out thereor you can just have images.
Whatever's easy for you to do,go ahead and put it out there
and start collecting emailaddresses.
You can put something on thatpassword protected page.
(05:47):
That's kind of exciting.
Like um, stay tuned, somethingbig's happening.
You know things like that towhere, um, you're teasing a
little bit.
Or just offer a discount,provide your email address and
stay up to date on um, ourlaunch, uh coming and save 25%
the first week and we opensomething like that to entice
them to give you their emailaddress will work wonders.
(06:09):
You want to start usingcollecting email addresses
because you're going to be usingthose almost every single week
Once you launch your brand.
All right.
So number three is going to besocial media.
Now you got to use social mediathe right way.
Use it with purpose.
You don't want to spreadyourself too thin.
Just pick one or two platformswhere your audience is already
hanging out at.
So is your audience going to beTikTok and Twitter, or Blue Sky
(06:33):
or X?
Or are they going to be oldschool kind of like myself and
do Facebook with a little bit ofInstagram?
Are they on LinkedIn?
Are you makingprofessional-based candles right
, where you might be surprisedif LinkedIn might actually be a
space for you to be on?
People are on Pinterest.
Snapchat is trying to come backonto the scene.
(06:54):
So what platforms are yourcustomers going to be on Now I
would just choose a couple ofthem to start.
You can certainly go ahead andget all the social media handles
out there just so that you kindof are I don't want to say
owning them, because you'llnever own them you kind of lease
them from the platforms.
But go ahead and grab those sothat they're yours to use, but
really only focus on one or two.
Right now you have to dial inso many other areas of your
(07:17):
business.
That's going to be taking a lotof energy from you, so just do
one or two.
For us, we are going to doInstagram and Facebook, and the
reason for that is I know itreally well.
I know Facebook really well.
I'm old school.
I don't know Instagram thatwell.
They're always updating andchanging, but since they're
intertwined and connected underthat meta umbrella, I can use
their business manager to makeall of my posts in advance.
(07:41):
We like to go ahead and planout our posts for an entire
month.
Again, I have a social mediacalendar and a content pillar
for you to use.
You can grab that in the notesbelow or you can just go to
candlebusinessprocom slashsocial media.
It's completely free.
You can see my calendar there,you can download it and you can
edit it to make it your own.
(08:02):
This is a really good way ofplanning out your content pillar
.
Now, what are the contentpillars?
The four content pillars thatwe use are educational,
inspirational, connection andthen promotional.
So we go much more in detailswith this on the content pillar
layout that I'm giving youcompletely for free.
So go and grab that.
You can get a lot more detailson it.
(08:22):
But essentially you want tobreak up.
You want to post on socialmedia with intent.
You want to post specificthings for a specific reason.
Educational is going to betalking about either your brand
or your candles themselves,letting people know why your
product is for them, whether youare going to lean into
eco-friendly sustainability.
(08:44):
That's going to be theeducational types of things,
right?
So that is what you can talkabout in some of your content
pillars, because you don't wantto always just be trying to sell
your product.
If you're just trying to sell,sell, sell, you're not going to
get a lot of engagement on there.
And right now, if you're justlaunching, like we are with our
new brand, we don't haveanything to sell.
So we're going to really focuson the other four or the other
three of those pillars.
(09:05):
So educational is one,inspirational is going to be
another Making posts that theyenjoy reading.
It doesn't take a lot.
You're not asking them to doanything, you're just doing
something that's going toinspire them.
It's going to make them feelreally good, it's going to make
them want to continue to followyou and so that whenever they
see that you're postingsomething, it's going to stop
(09:26):
their scroll and they're goingto want to read it.
So, whatever niche your candlesare in, you can always find
inspirational posts to make.
And then the connection isgoing to be going deeper with
them, going deeper with themspecifically of why they are
your audience Are know, are youa purpose-driven business?
Are you?
Whatever your target market is,there's a way for you to
(09:49):
connect with them.
Again, just download that freeguide and that's going to help
you to plan all of this out.
Then the last content pillar isgoing to be your promotional,
and that's where we're trying tosell them something.
Okay, so I would try to, youknow, rotate through these
educational, inspirationalconnection and then promotional.
Obviously, right now we don'thave anything to promote, but we
can start teasing stuff,letting them know stuff is
(10:10):
coming, getting them excitedabout that, so that you are
educating them, you're inspiringthem, you're connecting with
them and you're teasing themthat you have something coming
so they're going to want it onceyou do have it for sale and
then once your brand is up andrunning, you don't want to just
use promotional because you havesomething to sell.
You still want to do all thoseother things.
There's lots of ways of doingthis.
(10:31):
There's a realtor here in townthat is kind of who I go to.
I go to their social media whenI want to know what's happening
in town, because every week onFriday she is posting like the
same time.
It's like at noon on Fridaysshe is posting a weekend
calendar of all the things goingon, from the farmer's market to
if there's any shows orconcerts, whatever's happening
(10:53):
in our town.
This realtor is promoting everysingle Friday, and so now, if I
ever need a realtor, I wouldthink of who.
You know people will associateher because of all of these
posts, right?
So think about things that youcan post that might have nothing
to do with your specificcandles, but it's something that
(11:14):
your target audience is goingto like.
Of course, this is going to beof your local based business,
but another one would be if youhave, let's say, a foodie or a
gourmand type of business, right, we have a line of candles that
are all like foodie based.
Right, if that was our?
That's just a collection ofours, it's not our main thing.
But what you could do is sendout recipes Like how great would
(11:37):
it be and how, how much wouldyou connect with your audience
If you were sending out recipesevery Friday?
Just a simple cookie recipe?
Or maybe you're all abouthealth and you are all about the
environment, sustainability andstaying fit and fabulous, and
so you are sending out likehealthy but taste good recipes
to them every Friday.
Right, you can be posting theseon social media.
(11:58):
Then you can also be emailingall of this out to your email
list so that they look forwardto opening up their emails
because they know that you aregoing to be sending them a
recipe that they might reallyenjoy.
So those are ways of usingsocial media to connect with
your fans.
Prior to actually launching that, I would recommend go ahead and
(12:18):
do is go out and follow all ofthe pages, all of the blogs, all
the social media of where yourtarget audience would be hanging
out at right.
For instance, if you are makinga, if your niche is in, say,
(12:39):
the traveling space, you aremaking candles for world
travelers that are staying inhotels all the time because they
are just jet setting across theworld and so all of your
candles are high end hotel scentRight, so that would be a niche
.
So then your target audience isthe people that do all of those
things or are inspired by that.
Ok, where are these peoplehanging out?
Ok, so they are followingTravel and Leisure magazine.
(13:01):
They are, you know.
They are following Travel andLeisure magazine.
They are, you know.
They are following all thesedifferent blogs.
So go out and start followingall of those different blogs and
social media channels from yourbusiness page so you can
continuously be inspired withthings relatively easy for you
to turn around and make socialmedia posts about.
That are going to be similar.
(13:22):
You're going to start seeingand kind of learning the jargon
a little bit more if you're notalready deep into that world.
For instance, if you made asports theme inspired candles,
right, that's, that's a nicheyou want to be in.
You are they're all sportsthemes because you are a stay at
home mom and you have kids thatyou are running to practice all
(13:45):
day long, just nonstop, andthey're all in sports, and you
decided to create an entirecandlelight around that.
Fantastic.
So go and follow these sportsand sports commentators and
create your social media aroundthat so you'll understand what's
going on, what the breakingnews is, and it might inspire
you and inspire differentcollections that you may end up
(14:09):
wanting to create a line ofcandles around.
Obviously, you can make a popculture line of candles and then
you would be following TaylorSwift getting married, you would
be following all the excitingstuff and you will be the go-to
person, because then you'regoing to have a candle that's
going to come out that peopleare going to go crazy about
because you're going to put TSon it, and then people are going
(14:30):
to want to buy it for thatreason.
Right, you're not going to useTaylor Swift's name, because
that would be wrong, but you'regoing to do something that's
inspired by her.
Right?
That's how you use social media, all right.
So tip number four is going tobe collaborations.
Partner with local creativeslike photographers and bakers,
so that you can get styledphotography.
Work with people locally.
(14:50):
Work on these collaborationsthat might help them and
yourself.
At the same time, you can alsostart working on collaborating
with others that are in.
So, if you're making candles,start collaborating with some
soap makers, with some perfumemakers people that don't make
candles but are still in thatkind of that home or even health
(15:11):
and wellness type of space tosee where you could cross over
and share some audiences If youcan give them some products to
promote you with, to give awayto their audience and that can
help you to earn some newfollowers as well.
Tip number five is going to becommunity and networking.
So join and contribute in yourlocal Facebook groups.
Everyone has those informedtype of groups that are for your
(15:34):
city or your town.
Start joining all of those andstart contributing in them from
your business page, if that isallowed.
Some of those business pagesdon't allow those groups, don't
allow business pages to join, soyou may have to join them from
your personal base, but that'sokay.
People see my name in thesegroups and we have like 40,000
people in our city.
Um, you know it's a relativelysmall um, but people see our
(15:57):
name and they recognize us asthe candle guys.
Right, it's like we're known asthe candle guys myself and Chad
in our town and there's 40,000people Like, so people will keep
recognizing your name over andover again Whenever you're
posting in these groups.
Just continuously add, you know, value to those groups and
that's going to help you as well, because then you can subtly
drop information about yourself.
(16:19):
Also, all of those type ofFacebook groups are always
asking for donations for T-wallteams, for dance, recital
benefits, all kinds of thingshappening in your community.
Right, if you'll donate a candlefrom your candle business,
every time you see one of thosewhich seems like it's happening
every day someone's asking for adonation of some sort, if you
(16:41):
say, oh yeah, garcin, beaconCandle Company will support you.
I literally did this today.
We just made a sponsorship fora language academy that is just
opening up here in town and Iwant my name associated with
that.
We love to contribute to thediverse nonprofits and
organizations in town.
So whenever I saw that they arean organization and they were
(17:02):
looking for donations for anevent coming up, we were like,
yeah, absolutely so, you know,we connect with it.
We were like, yeah, absolutelyso, you know, we connect with it
.
We comment on those posts onsocial media saying, yes, garza
and Beacon Candle Company wouldlove to participate.
Send me a message that kind oflets everyone else know that's
reading that, that, hey, garzaand Beacon Candle is a supporter
(17:23):
of stuff in our community andso that helps people.
Then click on, because whatI'll do is I'll tag my business.
I said you know, adguard is abeacon candle company We'll
support.
Send us a message.
Other people are going to seethat and they're going to click
on it and you'll see, you'regoing to start getting a few
(17:43):
more likes and a few morefollows from that.
And what did it cost us?
It cost us a candle you knowthat's going to, you know or a
basket, whatever it's going tobe.
The cost is going to be minimalfor a lot of those types of
things.
So doing raffles and forcommunity events is going to be
a great way for you to get yourbrand seen.
So number six is going to bestorytelling on your website.
So when you do get your websiteto a place of opening it opening
it up even if it's not ready togo you can start writing blogs.
(18:06):
So you know, blog about yourbrand, story, your why candle
care tips, but also blog aboutstuff that is related.
Again, if you were doing aworld traveling inspired candle
brand, you can start writingblogs about all different, you
know, exotic or unique placesthat people want to read about.
You can do blogs on travel tipsand how to pack for a cruise.
(18:30):
You can, you know you can doblogs about all kinds of
different things.
They don't just have to becandle related.
It is good to reference in yourcandles in those blogs.
So, of course, if I'm doingthis blog about world traveling,
I would of course, be talkingabout, you know, taking my
candles with me that are easy totravel with.
(18:50):
And then I would be linkingthose what are called backlinks,
which are really good for yourwebsite.
I would be having those spreadthroughout, and then you can try
to see if you can guest blog onother blogs, right, so go to a
travel blog site, a travel blogsite.
(19:12):
Ask them if you can write aguest blog or if they would like
to blog or write a story aboutyour travel inspired candle by
having another website link outto yours.
That is going to boost your SEO, which is going to give you a
higher ranking on Google.
So there's just a few ways totell your story.
It's going to be to startblogging and trying to work with
other websites as well to crosspromote.
So tip number seven is samplingand gifting.
(19:33):
Now, I'm not a big proponent ofjust giving out products,
especially when we're not reallysure what we're going to get
back in exchange.
We've had a couple ofsituations where we were a
vendor at a big event and thehost of that event where we were
vendoring at you event, and thehost of that event, um, where
we were vendoring at you know,say, there's 200 of us vendors
(19:53):
out there, right, they asked fordonations to put into um bags
that they were going to give tothe first, you know, 50 or a
hundred, uh, attendees.
And that's a way that theypromote the event is by saying,
hey, be one of the first 50 or100 to show up and you're going
to get one of these bags full ofgoodies and they ask us, as a
vendor, to donate.
(20:14):
That can get kind of expensive.
The people wanting to get thosebags are going to show up
anyways to shop.
And when we have given awayitems for those, we've never
done one of those where it'slike 50 or 100.
We're not giving away that muchvalue, but give candles as
gifts to your neighbors, toteachers, people in your
(20:35):
community, right, bus drivers.
We actually sent the mayor ofour town.
When we first started ourcandle business, we wrote up a
nice letter of why we had justmoved here.
We had just moved to this town.
We said why we moved here, whywe loved it, how we really hope
(20:56):
to start a business here in thecommunity.
We just want to say thank youfor welcoming us into the city.
Basically, the mayor hereactually took that letter and we
attached a candle to it.
He took that letter and heXeroxed it, copied it, whatever,
and sent it out to the entirecity employees directory.
So everyone that worked for thecity which I don't know, maybe
that two, three, 400 people, I'mnot really sure you know uh,
(21:20):
the police department, uh, thefire department, uh, the parks
and rec all of these people gota copy of this letter that we
sent to the mayor just sayinghow much we love the town and we
were proud to start a business.
And you know, even though wewere, we didn't have a brick and
mortar store at the time wewere doing this right out of our
house.
We had just opened our websiteand we wanted to get our candles
(21:40):
well known.
So we sent it to the mayor andhe shared that online.
He sent an email out toeveryone that was on Citi staff
and we just got a bunch offollowers online, so it was
really nice to see that and thatcan turn into some sales for
you.
So, strategically, think aboutwho you're going to gift candles
to that is going to give yousomething in return.
(22:02):
Again, we are running abusiness here, so we want to
make business decisions.
We're not just giving outcandles just from the good of
our heart.
Now that we are running abusiness, we have the capacity
to make donations withoutstrings attached, so we can do
all of that as we grow.
But when we're still trying toget our business off the ground
(22:23):
and we're working on limitedfunds, we have to be really wise
about who we are givingproducts to.
All right.
And then tip number eight isgoing to be the press and the
media.
Local newspapers, the newsstation, local podcasts,
magazines they all love tofeature small businesses.
So have a simple little presskit ready.
It's going to be your brandstory.
(22:44):
There's going to be some photosand some contact information,
and make sure that you'rewriting press for every time you
are doing something, when youopen your doors, when you, you
know, start your business andyou know your website's
officially open.
Send out a press release to allthe media, from the local
newspapers to the local newschannels.
We had the local news channelscome out to our house and
(23:08):
interview us in what was it wasour main bedroom that turned
into our candle room.
The news station came out andinterviewed us about why we
wanted to start this smallbusiness and what we were trying
to do.
You know we've been a give backbusiness, so we wanted to give
back to the community.
They love taking stories likethat and sharing that good.
There's always I mean, the newsis terrible to watch these days
(23:31):
.
Right, it's always it's notgreat to watch.
They love feel-good stories.
So if you can give the news afeel-good story, they will be
all over it.
So again, we've had three ofthe four you know networks.
You know ABC, nbc, cbs all cometo us and interview us for
(23:53):
stories.
So don't think that you need tohave a brick and mortar store
before they'll do that.
They will definitely do thatbefore you have have any of that
.
And so making sure that youknow how to write a press
release and have all the thingsthat you need to go along with
it Now inside of the innercircle.
You can learn more atcanobusinessprocom.
But the inner circle is ourcommunity that we have.
(24:15):
It's a private community.
We actually have an entireworkshop on how we do our press
releases.
That got us into Oprah, daily,parade Magazine, yahoo Finance,
all of those things.
That's all from us doingoutreach and getting all of that
.
So that's how we get intodifferent magazines.
It also gets us into giftguides come holiday season.
So if you want to learn moreabout the inner circle, come
(24:37):
hang out with us.
Again, you can learn more atcanobusinessprocom slash inner
circle.
So to recap here you don't needto have your business open and
operating before you start topromote it.
Think strategically about whatmakes the most sense right now.
While your business isn't quiteopen yet.
That's going to be posting onsocial media, talking to your
neighbors, giving out candles topeople that you think are going
(24:59):
to come and buy from youeventually.
And then, as soon as your doorsopen, do kind of that bigger
push, send candles to your mayoror your governor or whomever
you think might promote yourbusiness.
Think of some local businessleaders that you can be sending
your candles to.
Also work with others thatmight be in the same um or an
(25:19):
aligned space.
If you're doing candles, reachout to soap makers, reach out to
hair salons and give to themcandles.
If they have a decent sizefollowing on social media to
give, have them give away ontheir social media.
And one of the requirements isfor them to go and follow your
page.
And you don't want to just doit to any business, right, you
want to do it to where theirfollowers are going to most
(25:42):
likely also be people that wouldbe interested in your business.
Also, don't forget, I have thatfree content calendar.
It is in the notes below.
You can get that on our website.
It's completely free for youand that's going to give you the
four different pillars ofcontent and it's also going to
give you the planner that we usefor planning out an entire
month in advance.
It makes it really easy so thatevery day you're not just
(26:03):
thinking about what do I post,because I don't like trying to
come up with new ideas.
So it's much easier for me justto sit down for an evening or
two and just you know a bulkcreate for an entire month.
Also, don't hesitate If you areposting on social media, don't
hesitate to recycle all thoseCause.
The reality is going to be,when you post something from
your business page, maybe 10% ofyour followers are going to see
(26:26):
that, so don't hesitate toreuse that in six weeks, eight
weeks, so save all of that.
I would start a spreadsheet or,you know, an Excel or Google
sheet where you have that imagein there and then you have the
copy, which is, you know, thewording that you had that goes
along with it, and then have thedate on there so you keep track
of when you use it and in sixweeks, use it again.
You're going to be just fine.
(26:54):
Hopefully this episode has beenhelpful for you and giving you
some ideas, not only to promoteif you're not open, but even if
you are open and your businessis already running.
Hopefully this will give you afew ideas to promote your
business.
That is going to be completelyfree.
Thank you so much for watching.
Have a great day.
So marketing is not something that you wait until
your store is open to startdoing.
The most successful candlebusinesses start promoting early
, and they do it in ways thatbuild trust, anticipation and
community.
In this episode, I'll walk youthrough eight simple strategies
that you can start today tobuild momentum for your business
.
I'm Sebastian Garzant, theco-founder of Garzant Beacon
(00:21):
Candle Company and CandleBusiness Pro.
In this episode, we're going totalk about the exact marketing
strategies that we use and thatyou may want to use as well
right now, even if your storeisn't opened up quite yet.
So we obviously do marketingwith Garzant Beacon Candle
Company that we've had for aboutthree and a half years and have
grown that to a substantialsize, and we are now relaunching
(00:44):
an entirely new brand, and sowe're going to talk about the
different ways that you can useto market your business.
Now this is week seven on ourjourney of launching this brand
new business.
So we started a whole new brandand we started from week one
and we are letting you go on thejourney with us to see exactly
how we build this out, thestrategies that we're using, how
(01:07):
we're going to market this, howwe're going to advertise it,
how we are going to source allof our supplies how we came up
with our name, how we are doingmood boards, finding our logos,
finding our fonts, our missionstatement all the stuff that
goes into building an entirelynew brand.
Right now we are waiting forour custom vessels and packaging
(01:28):
to arrive, so now we areshifting gears to start working
on our marketing.
Now we're probably about twomonths out from actually
launching this business, butit's a really good time to start
to market it.
Stick around, and I'm going togive you our content planner.
This is the plan that we useevery single month, over and
over again, so that we havebalanced social media content
(01:50):
for our business.
So this is yours completelyfree.
I'll get to the details on thatin just a moment.
First, I do want to shout outTuato.
Tuato Wax and Melters have beenfantastic for our business and
they are partnering with us onthis series.
So big shout out to Tuato.
They do have an exclusive linkfor you to use in the show notes
below as well if you're wantingto get an additional discount
(02:11):
on one of their wax melters.
So let's get into this rightnow.
All right, so tip number one isgoing to be local.
First Tell your friends orfamily coworkers.
Word of mouth is still huge.
Tell the mailman, tell thepeople at your gym.
Whatever you do, wherever yougo, tell them you are starting a
candle business.
Have them start to follow yourpages.
You can also test in-personfeedback by doing markets, doing
(02:33):
local vendor events.
Those types of things are goingto get you really, really good
feedback.
It will tell you right awaywhat products are working,
what's not working, what peopleare gravitating towards, what
scents are working.
Do they like your packaging?
You can get all of thatfeedback by doing in-person
events.
So stay local first.
Tell everyone you possibly know.
(02:55):
I actually did a segment or anepisode on don't be an
undercover candle maker.
You need to let the world knowyou can wear shirts that promote
your brand.
It should be on all of your ownpersonal social media channels
as well.
Continuously let people knowyou are starting a business and
let them go on that journey withyou.
So that's going to be key tohelping you have that successful
(03:18):
first weekend launch.
When we launched, we had letour friends and family go on the
journey with us.
We were posting on the businesspages for about two months and
then, when we opened up ourstore.
We had a really successfulfirst week and we did almost
$3,000 in one weekend and thatwas just from those people that
were going on that journey withus.
(03:39):
You can also do fundraisers.
Fundraises is really whathelped us get Garcinet Beacon
Candle Company kind of off theground and well known here in
our community is by doing thosefundraisers.
There's an endless amount oforganizations that need money
and need support, and soreaching out to these different
nonprofits and saying, hey, Iwould love to do a fundraiser
for you.
(03:59):
I will give you 25 percent ofthe revenue that comes in.
I will create a little flyerfor you to promote all over
social media and to send outyour email list promoting my
candle business.
And you know, in return you'regoing to get you know a donation
from us.
There will be manyorganizations that will take you
(04:19):
up on that offer and help youto get your name going in your
community and help you to getyour name going in your
community.
So tip number two leverage emailearly.
Email is going to be such apowerful driver of revenue in
your business.
It is one of the leading thingsfor us.
Anytime we are in, let's say, atight crunch, or hey, rent's
(04:42):
due on the shops.
I can leverage my emails thatI've collected from our
customers and from our fans andI can email them with a sale, a
discount, a promo of any type,and we are going to get sales
coming in that day.
So that is a great way ofletting people know early.
So what I would do is I wouldset up on your Shopify page,
(05:04):
even if it's password protected,because you don't have your
website built out yet, just likewe don't have it for our new
brand.
It's not completely built out,but we have that Shopify account
and we have that domain andwhen you go to it it is just a
password protected page and itsays coming soon.
So we're starting to advertise.
We have some images out thereof our prototypes and we are
collecting email addresses fromday one.
(05:25):
We want to send people fromsocial media to our website so
that they know and they are in ahabit of going to where they
eventually will be buyingproducts from us.
You can have videos out thereor you can just have images.
Whatever's easy for you to do,go ahead and put it out there
and start collecting emailaddresses.
You can put something on thatpassword protected page.
(05:47):
That's kind of exciting.
Like um, stay tuned, somethingbig's happening.
You know things like that towhere, um, you're teasing a
little bit.
Or just offer a discount,provide your email address and
stay up to date on um, ourlaunch, uh coming and save 25%
the first week and we opensomething like that to entice
them to give you their emailaddress will work wonders.
(06:09):
You want to start usingcollecting email addresses
because you're going to be usingthose almost every single week
Once you launch your brand.
All right.
So number three is going to besocial media.
Now you got to use social mediathe right way.
Use it with purpose.
You don't want to spreadyourself too thin.
Just pick one or two platformswhere your audience is already
hanging out at.
So is your audience going to beTikTok and Twitter, or Blue Sky
(06:33):
or X?
Or are they going to be oldschool kind of like myself and
do Facebook with a little bit ofInstagram?
Are they on LinkedIn?
Are you makingprofessional-based candles right
, where you might be surprisedif LinkedIn might actually be a
space for you to be on?
People are on Pinterest.
Snapchat is trying to come backonto the scene.
(06:54):
So what platforms are yourcustomers going to be on Now I
would just choose a couple ofthem to start.
You can certainly go ahead andget all the social media handles
out there just so that you kindof are I don't want to say
owning them, because you'llnever own them you kind of lease
them from the platforms.
But go ahead and grab those sothat they're yours to use, but
really only focus on one or two.
Right now you have to dial inso many other areas of your
(07:17):
business.
That's going to be taking a lotof energy from you, so just do
one or two.
For us, we are going to doInstagram and Facebook, and the
reason for that is I know itreally well.
I know Facebook really well.
I'm old school.
I don't know Instagram thatwell.
They're always updating andchanging, but since they're
intertwined and connected underthat meta umbrella, I can use
their business manager to makeall of my posts in advance.
(07:41):
We like to go ahead and planout our posts for an entire
month.
Again, I have a social mediacalendar and a content pillar
for you to use.
You can grab that in the notesbelow or you can just go to
candlebusinessprocom slashsocial media.
It's completely free.
You can see my calendar there,you can download it and you can
edit it to make it your own.
(08:02):
This is a really good way ofplanning out your content pillar
.
Now, what are the contentpillars?
The four content pillars thatwe use are educational,
inspirational, connection andthen promotional.
So we go much more in detailswith this on the content pillar
layout that I'm giving youcompletely for free.
So go and grab that.
You can get a lot more detailson it.
(08:22):
But essentially you want tobreak up.
You want to post on socialmedia with intent.
You want to post specificthings for a specific reason.
Educational is going to betalking about either your brand
or your candles themselves,letting people know why your
product is for them, whether youare going to lean into
eco-friendly sustainability.
(08:44):
That's going to be theeducational types of things,
right?
So that is what you can talkabout in some of your content
pillars, because you don't wantto always just be trying to sell
your product.
If you're just trying to sell,sell, sell, you're not going to
get a lot of engagement on there.
And right now, if you're justlaunching, like we are with our
new brand, we don't haveanything to sell.
So we're going to really focuson the other four or the other
three of those pillars.
(09:05):
So educational is one,inspirational is going to be
another Making posts that theyenjoy reading.
It doesn't take a lot.
You're not asking them to doanything, you're just doing
something that's going toinspire them.
It's going to make them feelreally good, it's going to make
them want to continue to followyou and so that whenever they
see that you're postingsomething, it's going to stop
(09:26):
their scroll and they're goingto want to read it.
So, whatever niche your candlesare in, you can always find
inspirational posts to make.
And then the connection isgoing to be going deeper with
them, going deeper with themspecifically of why they are
your audience Are know, are youa purpose-driven business?
Are you?
Whatever your target market is,there's a way for you to
(09:49):
connect with them.
Again, just download that freeguide and that's going to help
you to plan all of this out.
Then the last content pillar isgoing to be your promotional,
and that's where we're trying tosell them something.
Okay, so I would try to, youknow, rotate through these
educational, inspirationalconnection and then promotional.
Obviously, right now we don'thave anything to promote, but we
can start teasing stuff,letting them know stuff is
(10:10):
coming, getting them excitedabout that, so that you are
educating them, you're inspiringthem, you're connecting with
them and you're teasing themthat you have something coming
so they're going to want it onceyou do have it for sale and
then once your brand is up andrunning, you don't want to just
use promotional because you havesomething to sell.
You still want to do all thoseother things.
There's lots of ways of doingthis.
(10:31):
There's a realtor here in townthat is kind of who I go to.
I go to their social media whenI want to know what's happening
in town, because every week onFriday she is posting like the
same time.
It's like at noon on Fridaysshe is posting a weekend
calendar of all the things goingon, from the farmer's market to
if there's any shows orconcerts, whatever's happening
(10:53):
in our town.
This realtor is promoting everysingle Friday, and so now, if I
ever need a realtor, I wouldthink of who.
You know people will associateher because of all of these
posts, right?
So think about things that youcan post that might have nothing
to do with your specificcandles, but it's something that
(11:14):
your target audience is goingto like.
Of course, this is going to beof your local based business,
but another one would be if youhave, let's say, a foodie or a
gourmand type of business, right, we have a line of candles that
are all like foodie based.
Right, if that was our?
That's just a collection ofours, it's not our main thing.
But what you could do is sendout recipes Like how great would
(11:37):
it be and how, how much wouldyou connect with your audience
If you were sending out recipesevery Friday?
Just a simple cookie recipe?
Or maybe you're all abouthealth and you are all about the
environment, sustainability andstaying fit and fabulous, and
so you are sending out likehealthy but taste good recipes
to them every Friday.
Right, you can be posting theseon social media.
(11:58):
Then you can also be emailingall of this out to your email
list so that they look forwardto opening up their emails
because they know that you aregoing to be sending them a
recipe that they might reallyenjoy.
So those are ways of usingsocial media to connect with
your fans.
Prior to actually launching that, I would recommend go ahead and
(12:18):
do is go out and follow all ofthe pages, all of the blogs, all
the social media of where yourtarget audience would be hanging
out at right.
For instance, if you are makinga, if your niche is in, say,
(12:39):
the traveling space, you aremaking candles for world
travelers that are staying inhotels all the time because they
are just jet setting across theworld and so all of your
candles are high end hotel scentRight, so that would be a niche
.
So then your target audience isthe people that do all of those
things or are inspired by that.
Ok, where are these peoplehanging out?
Ok, so they are followingTravel and Leisure magazine.
(13:01):
They are, you know.
They are following Travel andLeisure magazine.
They are, you know.
They are following all thesedifferent blogs.
So go out and start followingall of those different blogs and
social media channels from yourbusiness page so you can
continuously be inspired withthings relatively easy for you
to turn around and make socialmedia posts about.
That are going to be similar.
(13:22):
You're going to start seeingand kind of learning the jargon
a little bit more if you're notalready deep into that world.
For instance, if you made asports theme inspired candles,
right, that's, that's a nicheyou want to be in.
You are they're all sportsthemes because you are a stay at
home mom and you have kids thatyou are running to practice all
(13:45):
day long, just nonstop, andthey're all in sports, and you
decided to create an entirecandlelight around that.
Fantastic.
So go and follow these sportsand sports commentators and
create your social media aroundthat so you'll understand what's
going on, what the breakingnews is, and it might inspire
you and inspire differentcollections that you may end up
(14:09):
wanting to create a line ofcandles around.
Obviously, you can make a popculture line of candles and then
you would be following TaylorSwift getting married, you would
be following all the excitingstuff and you will be the go-to
person, because then you'regoing to have a candle that's
going to come out that peopleare going to go crazy about
because you're going to put TSon it, and then people are going
(14:30):
to want to buy it for thatreason.
Right, you're not going to useTaylor Swift's name, because
that would be wrong, but you'regoing to do something that's
inspired by her.
Right?
That's how you use social media, all right.
So tip number four is going tobe collaborations.
Partner with local creativeslike photographers and bakers,
so that you can get styledphotography.
Work with people locally.
(14:50):
Work on these collaborationsthat might help them and
yourself.
At the same time, you can alsostart working on collaborating
with others that are in.
So, if you're making candles,start collaborating with some
soap makers, with some perfumemakers people that don't make
candles but are still in thatkind of that home or even health
(15:11):
and wellness type of space tosee where you could cross over
and share some audiences If youcan give them some products to
promote you with, to give awayto their audience and that can
help you to earn some newfollowers as well.
Tip number five is going to becommunity and networking.
So join and contribute in yourlocal Facebook groups.
Everyone has those informedtype of groups that are for your
(15:34):
city or your town.
Start joining all of those andstart contributing in them from
your business page, if that isallowed.
Some of those business pagesdon't allow those groups, don't
allow business pages to join, soyou may have to join them from
your personal base, but that'sokay.
People see my name in thesegroups and we have like 40,000
people in our city.
Um, you know it's a relativelysmall um, but people see our
(15:57):
name and they recognize us asthe candle guys.
Right, it's like we're known asthe candle guys myself and Chad
in our town and there's 40,000people Like, so people will keep
recognizing your name over andover again Whenever you're
posting in these groups.
Just continuously add, you know, value to those groups and
that's going to help you as well, because then you can subtly
drop information about yourself.
(16:19):
Also, all of those type ofFacebook groups are always
asking for donations for T-wallteams, for dance, recital
benefits, all kinds of thingshappening in your community.
Right, if you'll donate a candlefrom your candle business,
every time you see one of thosewhich seems like it's happening
every day someone's asking for adonation of some sort, if you
(16:41):
say, oh yeah, garcin, beaconCandle Company will support you.
I literally did this today.
We just made a sponsorship fora language academy that is just
opening up here in town and Iwant my name associated with
that.
We love to contribute to thediverse nonprofits and
organizations in town.
So whenever I saw that they arean organization and they were
(17:02):
looking for donations for anevent coming up, we were like,
yeah, absolutely so, you know,we connect with it.
We were like, yeah, absolutelyso, you know, we connect with it
.
We comment on those posts onsocial media saying, yes, garza
and Beacon Candle Company wouldlove to participate.
Send me a message that kind oflets everyone else know that's
reading that, that, hey, garzaand Beacon Candle is a supporter
(17:23):
of stuff in our community andso that helps people.
Then click on, because whatI'll do is I'll tag my business.
I said you know, adguard is abeacon candle company We'll
support.
Send us a message.
Other people are going to seethat and they're going to click
on it and you'll see, you'regoing to start getting a few
(17:43):
more likes and a few morefollows from that.
And what did it cost us?
It cost us a candle you knowthat's going to, you know or a
basket, whatever it's going tobe.
The cost is going to be minimalfor a lot of those types of
things.
So doing raffles and forcommunity events is going to be
a great way for you to get yourbrand seen.
So number six is going to bestorytelling on your website.
So when you do get your websiteto a place of opening it opening
it up even if it's not ready togo you can start writing blogs.
(18:06):
So you know, blog about yourbrand, story, your why candle
care tips, but also blog aboutstuff that is related.
Again, if you were doing aworld traveling inspired candle
brand, you can start writingblogs about all different, you
know, exotic or unique placesthat people want to read about.
You can do blogs on travel tipsand how to pack for a cruise.
(18:30):
You can, you know you can doblogs about all kinds of
different things.
They don't just have to becandle related.
It is good to reference in yourcandles in those blogs.
So, of course, if I'm doingthis blog about world traveling,
I would of course, be talkingabout, you know, taking my
candles with me that are easy totravel with.
(18:50):
And then I would be linkingthose what are called backlinks,
which are really good for yourwebsite.
I would be having those spreadthroughout, and then you can try
to see if you can guest blog onother blogs, right, so go to a
travel blog site, a travel blogsite.
(19:12):
Ask them if you can write aguest blog or if they would like
to blog or write a story aboutyour travel inspired candle by
having another website link outto yours.
That is going to boost your SEO, which is going to give you a
higher ranking on Google.
So there's just a few ways totell your story.
It's going to be to startblogging and trying to work with
other websites as well to crosspromote.
So tip number seven is samplingand gifting.
(19:33):
Now, I'm not a big proponent ofjust giving out products,
especially when we're not reallysure what we're going to get
back in exchange.
We've had a couple ofsituations where we were a
vendor at a big event and thehost of that event where we were
vendoring at you event, and thehost of that event, um, where
we were vendoring at you know,say, there's 200 of us vendors
(19:53):
out there, right, they asked fordonations to put into um bags
that they were going to give tothe first, you know, 50 or a
hundred, uh, attendees.
And that's a way that theypromote the event is by saying,
hey, be one of the first 50 or100 to show up and you're going
to get one of these bags full ofgoodies and they ask us, as a
vendor, to donate.
(20:14):
That can get kind of expensive.
The people wanting to get thosebags are going to show up
anyways to shop.
And when we have given awayitems for those, we've never
done one of those where it'slike 50 or 100.
We're not giving away that muchvalue, but give candles as
gifts to your neighbors, toteachers, people in your
(20:35):
community, right, bus drivers.
We actually sent the mayor ofour town.
When we first started ourcandle business, we wrote up a
nice letter of why we had justmoved here.
We had just moved to this town.
We said why we moved here, whywe loved it, how we really hope
(20:56):
to start a business here in thecommunity.
We just want to say thank youfor welcoming us into the city.
Basically, the mayor hereactually took that letter and we
attached a candle to it.
He took that letter and heXeroxed it, copied it, whatever,
and sent it out to the entirecity employees directory.
So everyone that worked for thecity which I don't know, maybe
that two, three, 400 people, I'mnot really sure you know uh,
(21:20):
the police department, uh, thefire department, uh, the parks
and rec all of these people gota copy of this letter that we
sent to the mayor just sayinghow much we love the town and we
were proud to start a business.
And you know, even though wewere, we didn't have a brick and
mortar store at the time wewere doing this right out of our
house.
We had just opened our websiteand we wanted to get our candles
(21:40):
well known.
So we sent it to the mayor andhe shared that online.
He sent an email out toeveryone that was on Citi staff
and we just got a bunch offollowers online, so it was
really nice to see that and thatcan turn into some sales for
you.
So, strategically, think aboutwho you're going to gift candles
to that is going to give yousomething in return.
(22:02):
Again, we are running abusiness here, so we want to
make business decisions.
We're not just giving outcandles just from the good of
our heart.
Now that we are running abusiness, we have the capacity
to make donations withoutstrings attached, so we can do
all of that as we grow.
But when we're still trying toget our business off the ground
(22:23):
and we're working on limitedfunds, we have to be really wise
about who we are givingproducts to.
All right.
And then tip number eight isgoing to be the press and the
media.
Local newspapers, the newsstation, local podcasts,
magazines they all love tofeature small businesses.
So have a simple little presskit ready.
It's going to be your brandstory.
(22:44):
There's going to be some photosand some contact information,
and make sure that you'rewriting press for every time you
are doing something, when youopen your doors, when you, you
know, start your business andyou know your website's
officially open.
Send out a press release to allthe media, from the local
newspapers to the local newschannels.
We had the local news channelscome out to our house and
(23:08):
interview us in what was it wasour main bedroom that turned
into our candle room.
The news station came out andinterviewed us about why we
wanted to start this smallbusiness and what we were trying
to do.
You know we've been a give backbusiness, so we wanted to give
back to the community.
They love taking stories likethat and sharing that good.
There's always I mean, the newsis terrible to watch these days
(23:31):
.
Right, it's always it's notgreat to watch.
They love feel-good stories.
So if you can give the news afeel-good story, they will be
all over it.
So again, we've had three ofthe four you know networks.
You know ABC, nbc, cbs all cometo us and interview us for
(23:53):
stories.
So don't think that you need tohave a brick and mortar store
before they'll do that.
They will definitely do thatbefore you have have any of that
.
And so making sure that youknow how to write a press
release and have all the thingsthat you need to go along with
it Now inside of the innercircle.
You can learn more atcanobusinessprocom.
But the inner circle is ourcommunity that we have.
(24:15):
It's a private community.
We actually have an entireworkshop on how we do our press
releases.
That got us into Oprah, daily,parade Magazine, yahoo Finance,
all of those things.
That's all from us doingoutreach and getting all of that
.
So that's how we get intodifferent magazines.
It also gets us into giftguides come holiday season.
So if you want to learn moreabout the inner circle, come
(24:37):
hang out with us.
Again, you can learn more atcanobusinessprocom slash inner
circle.
So to recap here you don't needto have your business open and
operating before you start topromote it.
Think strategically about whatmakes the most sense right now.
While your business isn't quiteopen yet.
That's going to be posting onsocial media, talking to your
neighbors, giving out candles topeople that you think are going
(24:59):
to come and buy from youeventually.
And then, as soon as your doorsopen, do kind of that bigger
push, send candles to your mayoror your governor or whomever
you think might promote yourbusiness.
Think of some local businessleaders that you can be sending
your candles to.
Also work with others thatmight be in the same um or an
(25:19):
aligned space.
If you're doing candles, reachout to soap makers, reach out to
hair salons and give to themcandles.
If they have a decent sizefollowing on social media to
give, have them give away ontheir social media.
And one of the requirements isfor them to go and follow your
page.
And you don't want to just doit to any business, right, you
want to do it to where theirfollowers are going to most
(25:42):
likely also be people that wouldbe interested in your business.
Also, don't forget, I have thatfree content calendar.
It is in the notes below.
You can get that on our website.
It's completely free for youand that's going to give you the
four different pillars ofcontent and it's also going to
give you the planner that we usefor planning out an entire
month in advance.
It makes it really easy so thatevery day you're not just
(26:03):
thinking about what do I post,because I don't like trying to
come up with new ideas.
So it's much easier for me justto sit down for an evening or
two and just you know a bulkcreate for an entire month.
Also, don't hesitate If you areposting on social media, don't
hesitate to recycle all thoseCause.
The reality is going to be,when you post something from
your business page, maybe 10% ofyour followers are going to see
(26:26):
that, so don't hesitate toreuse that in six weeks, eight
weeks, so save all of that.
I would start a spreadsheet or,you know, an Excel or Google
sheet where you have that imagein there and then you have the
copy, which is, you know, thewording that you had that goes
along with it, and then have thedate on there so you keep track
of when you use it and in sixweeks, use it again.
You're going to be just fine.
(26:54):
Hopefully this episode has beenhelpful for you and giving you
some ideas, not only to promoteif you're not open, but even if
you are open and your businessis already running.
Hopefully this will give you afew ideas to promote your
business.
That is going to be completelyfree.
Thank you so much for watching.
Have a great day.
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