On this episode of Honest Ecommerce, we have Alesia Klimau. Alesia is the owner of Heart Printed, a custom photo magnet printing service. We talk about balancing product development & marketing, discovering formulas behind viral videos, capitalizing on audience reactions for growth, and so much more!
Alesia Klimau is the owner of Heart Printed, a custom photo magnet printing service. It is a family owned business proud to be manufacturing and shipping from Columbus, OH. They are all passionate about photography and are big fans of Instagram.
Founded in 2014, Heart Printed creates high quality custom photo magnets using the best materials and ink to print photo magnets. They are printed on high quality photo paper with vivid and bright colors, each magnet cut by hand.
In This Conversation We Discuss:
Resources:
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Alesia Klimau
People will let you know why you went viral. People will come and they will let you know. And sometimes it's like, “Oh, I didn't even notice that.”
Chase Clymer
Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, a podcast dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. And I believe running a direct-to-consumer brand does not have to be complicated or a guessing game.
On this podcast, we interview founders and experts who are putting in the work and creating real results.
I also share my own insights from running our top Shopify consultancy, Electric Eye. We cut the fluff in favor of facts to help you grow your Ecommerce business.
Let's get on with the show.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Honest Ecommerce.
Today, I'm welcomed by an amazing entrepreneur right here from Columbus, Ohio. Alesia is the CEO and founder of Heart Printed. Welcome to the show.
Alesia Klimau
Hi, Chase. I'm excited to share the story behind Heart Printed.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. And I'm excited to dive in.
So quickly, before we get into the story, what is Heart Printed? What types of products are you guys selling? What's the business?
Alesia Klimau
So essentially, Heart Printed is a printing and gifting service. So I offer you... You can go and upload pictures that you like or artwork that you like. And I'm pretty much going to make magnets out of them. And I have an example. I actually brought some examples for you to show.
So this is like literally just little cute little magnets. And you get a set of 9 of them and I'll tell you why it's a set of 9 later.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. So everyone... What are those like 2.5-3 inches by 3 inches?
Alesia Klimau
The size I work with is 2 by 2 inches. Yes.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
Alesia Klimau
They can be made in bigger sizes, but this is my favorite one.
Chase Clymer
They're refrigerator magnets most of the time?
Alesia Klimau
They will stick to anything metal. The doors, even the fire door, the back door, garage doors, front doors, they're metal. They will stick to those as well.
Chase Clymer
Awesome. All right.
Now take me back in time. Where did the idea for this business come from?
Alesia Klimau
So the idea was born in 2012. If you remember that time, Instagram was brand new. It was maybe one or two years out at that point. It only had square pictures. We had no reels. We had no ads. We had no stories. I don't think you could even upload a photo of any other size rather than square.
And this was a brand new social media. You could see pictures of your friends in a chronological order. And I was obsessed with Instagram because there was no wording or anything like that, just photos of your friends.
And I remember back then I lived in Belarus, which is my home country, Eastern Europe. And I remember as it was yesterday, I was standing in front of my fridge and we had at that point six by four printed out pictures of my family and friends, pinned to the fridge with little magnets.
And I thought, wouldn't that be cool to have an Instagram feed on your fridge out of those Instagram photos in the same size, just square little cute magnets as a feed.
And I had friends that were sort of like a printing service at the moment. They were working on the events with photo booths. So they knew something about this business. And I ran this idea by them and they said, “It's easy. It's easy peasy. We can make it, get it done.”
So we began developing the product and at the same time, I moved to the States in 2013. So right after that, I moved to the States. While they were developing the product on their side in Belarus, I was working on the marketing part, on setting up LLC, on learning the language. I came here with little English skills. So it was like a whole different story.
And we launched the business in 2014. We launched the first version of the initial product, which was not this magnet that I showed you, but it was the vinyl magnets that are flexible ones, the ones that you get from schools when there's a picture day at school and they would send you a magnet or...
Chase Clymer
They're also super weak.
Alesia Klimau
So that was the whole... Yeah, they're very weak. So the whole idea was just displaying. So we just wanted to display the photos. It didn't have anything behind the functionality of the product. So that's when it's launched.
But we have to figure out the whole marketing part of it. And at this point, like I told you, Instagram didn't even have paid ads, didn't have anything. We didn't know Instagram the same way it is today.
So what I figured out is we can reach out to big accounts with million followers and pay them for a shout out. So it's called shout out. I don't know if this term is being used today, but it used to be called shout out.
So basically, we found a few accounts and they had different kinds of content that were created, not related to magnets at all. But we would pay them somewhere between $500 to $1,500 per post. And it would generate around $5,000 to $10,000 in sales right away. So we would make two to three posts a day with those accounts.
And I mean, it was insane. Those magnets were, like I said, vinyl, they were 14.99. And we were shipping them worldwide for free. It was free worldwide shipping. And in the first six months, we generated half a million in sales, just by selling photo magnets.
But the dark day came when Instagram changed their algorithm, which was, I think it was for a lot, not only for us as business owners, it was a pretty big deal. But for people, for normal users.
What they did, they stopped showing chronological order in your feed. So basically, our shout outs were not showing to people anymore.
And at the point we had huge overhead, we had people working... Oh my God, the team was pretty big. We had people working on the magnets. We had people working in social for customer support, doing customer support. So we were just burning through what we made in the first six months.
And then because we had problems with figuring out a different niche for marketing because we had other issues with shipping. Again, the quality wasn't there. So we had to shut this business down, I believe in 2015. And I had a newborn baby at the moment.
So that was the first... How it was born, how it was launched. And that was the first year of this business.
Chase Clymer
And then how long of a break did you take between the first iteration and returning to the business?
Alesia Klimau
I believe so. I had a baby. And then I never stopped in between. I never stopped doing at least something. I always... I was so into Etsy. I was selling baby socks there. With printed names of the baby socks, customized items.
I was selling...Oh my God, I had a linen store. I had hoodies, high quality hoodies. I tried so much, but I always wanted to go back to magnets. I knew that I would have to do it by myself because I wanted to keep production here in the States. I wanted to do it myself.
And I knew based on the mistakes that we already made, I didn't want to repeat them. I just knew that it's just me and myself and I, and I'm gonna try.
So probably in two years after that… Oh, I forgot to mention that when we shut the business down–because I did work with my friends, they were my friends, they still are. We had an agreement that if we ever decide to relaunch the business, we can do that with no hard feelings.
Their side kept all the equipment, which was very, very expensive equipment. And all I asked for was the Instagram account. So we didn't use the name anymore. I just wanted the Instagram account and the opportunity to relaunch the business in case I wanted to.
So about two years or a year, it's hard to remember. I started to test or look into other options for the photo magnet. So I was looking at maybe different quality, maybe I can produce something myself, maybe I don't need the heavy duty equipment.
And I found, which basically is basically a pin, the pins that you put on your clothing, on your backpacks. So it is a square, like if you look at it, it is a square pin. It's the same quality as the pin. It's just on the back, it's a magnet.
So I found the best equipment that I thought produced the best quality. I did so much testing with photo papers with photo quality. And we launched the business maybe I think around 2015. Well, no, not 2015. 2017. Yes. 2015 is when we shut it down. 2017 is when I relaunched.
And what I did was I opened my store on Etsy. So I didn't drive traffic to my website or anything. I was just selling through Etsy and honestly, I didn't put in a lot of effort. I just took a few pictures, posted them and they started selling.
And I didn't, over the years up until last summer, I honestly didn't put a lot in this business. I still use the same pictures. I never updated my Etsy store and it always did pretty good. It always had great holiday sales. I've always been busy.
So I started driving traffic to my website only last summer.
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Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
And that's what I definitely want to open up a little bit and share with the audience. You and I met for coffee a little bit ago and you shared some of the insights of how you were driving traffic to your own website versus capitalizing on the built-in traffic of a marketplace like Etsy.
So what were some of those challenges getting customers and getting eyes on the product on the dot com versus just what happened with Etsy?
Alesia Klimau
Everything was automated. Four years ago, I upgraded manual machines. I used to press magnets manually. I upgraded them to heavy duty industrial equipment.
Etsy was working just fine. It was generating sales for me. I was working with bulk orders. I was doing magnets for businesses. And I felt like I could get even better results. It was good money. It was always good money. And if it wasn't, I can do better. I knew I could do even better than what I had. So I needed a stronger social media presence for that.
Like I mentioned before, I already had my Instagram account from years back. So I did have some following there and I haven't posted in years. It was a dead account.
So what I did, well, I started with my personal account. I've been posting TikToks here and there, kind of testing waters. I spent a lot of time on TikTok. I spent a lot of time. I spent hours daily on TikTok because I treat it as my job. I'm trying to figure out what is trending. I'm trying to figure out why people are liking certain videos, why this goes viral, why not this goes viral.
So I kind of started testing waters with my personal account and I went viral quite a few times for no reason. It was just little videos. I would never think those would go viral, but they did. And at some point, I think I got like a few million views per video.
And at some point last summer, I went to Barcelona for my vacation and I took a video and posted it on TikTok and it went crazy viral. It went, I think it got 16 million views. And this video got stolen by other accounts without giving me credit. Which upset me a lot.
So I thought, “If other people make money off of me, I can do that for myself.” So I, at that moment, I thought, “You know what? I'm going to, I don't care what’s going to happen. I'm just going to go and I will start posting.”
Every single day. I posted two, three times a day. And the things I posted, some of them are privated because I had to see what's going to blow up. And I think it took me about a month before the first video got a few million views.
And that was what started my TikTok account. I started reposting the same videos on Instagram. TikTok and Instagram, they have a little different audiences. So I would change a little wording for Instagram, rather than from TikTok. Or I would keep videos that are very TikTok niche on TikTok side only. And that's how it started.
And people got, and it was September, I believe September, October, November. So it was right before the Christmas season. And I got an insane following. I got insane attention, which I'm so appreciative of to this day. And that's what I'm working on. Right now, my social media is my main focus.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. And it's stunning to me just your knowledge of TikTok and how things go viral and how often you found success in getting things to go viral.
Alesia Klimau
It is... You know, it's so interesting.
I keep telling that to people who want to go viral or people who want to start their business and start promoting themselves on TikTok. I go, “You cannot enter a market without knowing your audience. You just can't do that. You have to play by their rules.”
You know there are a few accounts on TikTok, Duolingo, or Dr. Miami. They’re hilarious. People follow them for their content.
They may not ever consider plastic surgery or they don't need Duolingo. They end up learning a new language. But if at some point in your life you'll feel like, “Oh, I would maybe need to use French. Maybe I need to learn some French.” That's the first account that will pop into your mind. It's just how it works.
And strong social media is so important. It may not be important tomorrow because we don't know. We just have to play by the rules right now. But as of today, it is so important.
And I tell everyone, “I know I was like that. I didn't shoot TikTok seriously. I didn't register my account.” Oh my god, I think I registered it only three years ago.
And I think it was super popular in 2019-2020. It is popular now, but the peak was 2019, 2020, during the pandemic and I didn't have that then because I thought it's like, kid social media.
And right now I'm talking to people like, “Oh, you have no idea. You have to know how strong of a social media it is” Not only TikTok, but also Instagram Reels. And they can help you get your business to the heights you never knew existed. But they can tear you down. It’s just the way it goes. And yeah, just treat it like your job. That's how I treat it.
Before, I would scroll because I don't want to do anything, and I would go scroll. But now, I have to go scroll. I'm scrolling for two or three hours and I get tired a lot, but I have to do it. I have to be... I have to understand. I watch a lot of small business accounts. I watch what they do, what goes viral for them, even if it's not related.
Most of the time, actually, I watch accounts that are not related to my business. Just to understand how that works. It's like a formula. It's literally just a formula. You just watch them. Why did you stop at this particular video yourself? What made you look through the whole entire video? What was the hook on this video? Why got 5 million likes? It is so fascinating though. So fascinating.
Chase Clymer
So I used to think that going viral was just like... It wasn't something you could make happen. It just happened. But what I've learned from talking to people like you and others that have found social media success, it's like, “No, you can learn how to make things go viral.”
Alesia Klimau
Yeah.
Chase Clymer
So would you say anyone out there that wants to build a following for either themselves or for their business, they can make it happen just by putting in the work and learning the formula, as you mentioned?
Alesia Klimau
Yeah, you can. Definitely.
So there are videos that go viral and you don't know why. And the reason... People will let you know why you went viral. People will comment, and will let you know. And sometimes it's like, “Oh, I didn't even notice that.”
But yes, there is a term. It's called a hook. So basically something in the first, second, third seconds of the video, if you didn't grab the attention of your viewer with this hook, it's not gonna go viral.
So it can be something like writing on your screen, like something on your screen, or something that you say, or even people were saying, I never tried that before, but when the girls do, their Get Ready With Me videos and they put lipstick on. For some reason, our brains work the way that we want. It's like we almost got caught in the middle of the action so we have to keep watching.
So I, in my case, I talk. If you look through my account, most of my hooks are related, money related. So I post a lot about earnings. I post a lot about how much money I made through one viral video, or how much money I made through the weekend.
It's that people don't like conversation that much.
Chase Clymer
Americans have such a weird relationship with money.
Alesia Klimau
And that is so interesting. Because one of the things that made me do what I did on social media is those posts. People posting about amounts of money they made.
And I don't care if those may be fake. I know some people fake their numbers. I don't care. It was enough for me to get inspired and keep doing it. That's what I do. Well, my numbers are real, but that's what I do.
What I like about my numbers is sometimes they're low, and I'm going to show that they're low. And that will open up the conversation in comments. And then from there, I see and I analyze the comments and I see what people are interested in, what they want to see. And they actually help me to kind of shape my future content.
I'm getting a lot of nasty comments. I'm getting a lot of really, really good encouraging comments. And I'm gonna use all of them. I'm gonna take the nastiest comment I got and I'm gonna pin it. And I'm gonna create, I mean, it's petty. And I'm gonna create a new video. And this new video is gonna get me more views, which will make me earn more.
So I'm not going to block. I'm not going to clean the mess after those people. I'm not going to block them. I'm going to use it to my advantage. And that helps. That helps a lot. Just follow what your audience tells you.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
You've talked all day about these awesome products and your amazing content that you put on TikTok. So 2-part question.
1. Where do I go to check out these awesome magnets? And then 2. What is the TikTok account that I need to follow?
Alesia Klimau
Okay. So my website is heart, as in heartprinted.com. That's the website. And my Instagram is heartprinted. My TikTok is myheartprinted. That's a little bit different.
Chase Clymer
Awesome. And we'll definitely link to all of those in the show notes.
Is there anything I didn't ask you about today that you think would resonate with our audience?
Alesia Klimau
No, I think you covered pretty much everything.
Chase Clymer
Awesome. I cannot thank you enough for coming on. And really diving into the virality stuff. That was super interesting to me and I hope that our audience also enjoyed it. Thank you so much for coming on today.
Alesia Klimau
Thank you, Chase. Thank you so much.
Chase Clymer
We can't thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey with us. We've got a lot to think about and potentially add into our own business. You can find all the links in the show notes.
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