Building a successful online business is similar to building a tower of LEGOs. It takes a good idea, some smart planning, and adding one block after another to get there. This is exactly what Submagic did.
Submagic is a tool that helps users create and edit viral short videos for social media. In just 90 days, their tower reached incredible heights, generating $83,000 in monthly revenue! It wasn't magic, but rather careful construction and understanding what customers needed.
Let's see how they built their tower of success, block by block:
- Influencer marketing
Submagic found most of their influencers (people with big followings online) by simply browsing social media. They looked for creators making videos in their niche (like video editing or content creation) and reached out to them directly.
Here's their approach:
- Leverage communities: They focused on groups of influencers who already knew each other, making it easier to connect with multiple people at once.
- Standalone videos: They asked influencers to create dedicated videos about Submagic instead of just briefly mentioning it in their existing content. This proved to be more effective.
- Fair compensation: They offered influencers both upfront payment and a 30% lifetime commission on sales they generated. This meant influencers were motivated to keep promoting Submagic even after the initial partnership.
Submagic Influencer Negotiation
Offering a 30% lifetime commission to influencers was a game-changer for Submagic for a couple of big reasons:
- Lower upfront costs: By promising a share of future sales, they could negotiate lower initial payments to influencers. This helped them stretch their budget further, especially when they were just starting out.
- Building a self-sustaining promotion machine: Many influencers, after the initial paid promotion, continued to rave about Submagic to their followers without needing further payment. They were motivated by the ongoing commissions, creating a snowball effect where more and more people heard about Submagic organically.
Of course, not every partnership was a home run. In fact, about 80% of their influencer collaborations didn't produce the desired results. But the 20% that did were absolute goldmines! When they found an influencer who really clicked with their audience, they locked them in for several months to maximize the impact of their promotion.
- Affiliate program
Submagic also created an affiliate program, where anyone could earn a 30% commission for referring new customers. They even offered a special 10% discount code to people with large audiences who wanted to promote Submagic to their followers.
Submagic 10% Discount Coupon
- Paid ads
They used Google and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ads to reach even more potential customers.
- Google ads: They targeted specific keywords related to video editing and captioning.
- Meta ads: They used videos created by influencers, testing out around 15 different ads each month to see what worked best.
Submagic Meta Ads Library
- TikTok strategy
Submagic also used a multi-account TikTok strategy to get their name out there.
Submagic Multi Account TikTok Strategy
They partnered with influencers to create engaging short videos that showcased the power of their tool.
Submagic on TikTok
- Product-led growth
Submagic initially offered a free plan with a watermark on videos, allowing people to try it out before committing to a paid subscription.
Submagic Watermark
Submagic Old Pricing
Later, they switched to a trial model with 3 free videos per month.
- Cold email
They also found influencers through social media and reached out to them via email or direct messages. Their emails were personalized and focused on how Submagic could help the influencer save time and improve their content. They looked something like this:
"Hey Bri,
We'd love to partner with you on your [social media channel]!
Submagic is an AI tool that helps creators edit videos faster.
We think your audience would really love it, especially after seeing your recent video about [topic].
We've had great success with other top creators, and we'd love to chat about a collaboration.
Best,
Elie from Submagic"
Why Submagic succeeded:
At its core, Submagic's success comes down to solving a real problem for content creators: saving time. Adding captions to videos can be tedious, and Submagic makes it quick and easy. This is reflected in their glowing customer reviews:
"Submagic is a massive time saver, what would usually take me a couple hours, now takes about 20 minutes." — customer #1 review on Trustpilot.
"Submagic has completely changed my life as a video editor! I no longer need to spend 1 hour on shorts." — customer #2 review on Trustpilot.
By combining a great product with smart marketing strategies, Submagic was able to achieve phenomenal growth in a short period.
Conclusion
Submagic showed us how to build a business block by block, just like a LEGO masterpiece. They started with a solid foundation — a great product that solved a real problem — and then strategically added blocks representing influencer marketing, affiliate programs, paid ads, and more. Each block played a crucial role in supporting the structure and reaching new heights.
So, take a page from Submagic's playbook, gather your LEGO blocks of innovation and strategy, and start building your own towering success story.
