Just when you thought that April’s big order was a one time fluke, I got another large order for another event… and this one was at West Point.
We settled on 250 this time and the feedback I received after the event was that the West Pointers were liking them – so maybe their not so bad after all.
Go Air Force!
Another special thanks to the Military Officer Association of America (MOAA) for handing Mandatory Fun stickers out to cadets. They have been an amazing organization to work with and I have nothing but positive things to say about them.
Ok, so here’s the rest of the breakdown for May and my takeaways:
Operations
2 new stickers dropped
2 promos posted on Instagram
This last large order wasn’t as big and I had learned a lot from the previous order so it was pretty smooth sailing to get them printed and shipped out in a condensed period of time.
Drama at the Post Office
The kicker this time was the United States Postal Service. The event was going to be on a Tuesday and I dropped them off at the post office the Monday before, giving them a week and a day to get where they needed to be…
Somehow they ended up in Oakland, CA for two days when they were headed to New York from Louisville, KY… and for two days I was freaking out.
Short story, long – it ended up all working out and I was worried for no reason. The stickers were delivered on time and I’m not sure that anyone else even knew about the journey they took to get to their destination.
But I was definitely scrambling to put an overnight contingency plan together if they would have been lost in the mail.
Now with all that being said, when I think of Operations for this project I’m thinking of sticker designs… not really fulfillment.
And from a design standpoint, I have definitely cooled off with the new releases and need to figure out how to work dedicated design time back into my schedule, because it is something that I really enjoy about this project.
We’ll see how I do.
Marketing
The Instagram account gained 171 followers and lost 49 followers – netting 122 new followers.
I was inspired by the graduating class of 2025 this month so the meme content all seemed to have a graduation theme, because May is a great time of year at the Zoo.
Funny enough, I think that I really started putting effort into this account when 2025 came into the Zoo as Basic Cadets – and I remember how wild their Doolie class was on Instagram. Hats off to them for keeping it real.
I’m sure the time flew by faster for me than it did for them – but it was definitely a fun month for me on the gram – and I wish them the best in their new careers.
Key Insight
In other news, the biggest Instagram post this month was a Reel that grabbed over 400k views.
And I think what I’m learning is that there is a much bigger audience for content related to becoming a 2LT and having or managing money – which is interesting.
Here’s why I’m thinking that:
1.4M views – New 2LT makes crazy purchase with first paycheck
259k views – New 2LT lives in an apartment with no furniture
426k views – New 2LT learns how Finance works in the Real Air Force
It could be a coincidence, but it’s happened three times now so it’s probably a thread to keep pulling on to learn more. Either way, I thought it was interesting and wanted to share.
Revenue
TL;DR – Here are last month’s stats – and you can see a cumulative total each month on the About page, if you want because we’re building in public over here…
Order count has dropped over the past two months as I’ve been putting my focus on fulfilling the larger orders. Now that this project is cash flow positive, though, I need to do some things to keep it growing:
New Designs & Price Points
Stickers are very much a “hits business” meaning that there will be designs that most people like and I just need to keep making them to figure that out.
Also, the more designs I have available, the greater the chances I have of pushing someone over the edge to buy one or more of them. I am convinced of this based on my experiences since January, so I need to act accordingly.
Adding different sizes and price points could also be a way to drive orders. And this has become interesting to me recently. When I kicked this project off, I was convinced that I wanted to sell 3″ stickers for $3 each, but I am learning that price variability can be another way to drive orders.
Facebook Ads
I need to figure out if Facebook ads can deliver a profitable Customer Acquisition Cost or not. I’ve read that it’s tough for low cost items, like stickers, but I do want to test this assumption at some point this year because these stickers are super niched out with a dialed in audience.
Instagram Store
I’ve heard about this from a friend, but it wasn’t super obvious what they’re calling it or what to do when I initially looked into it.
I probably just missed it and need to devote like an hour to figuring it out, especially if it can help.
Look at the Data
I have been sleeping on this, because I became lazy after receiving large orders that made the project cash flow positive.
Real talk.
My hypothesis has been to grow organic sales by sharing content on Instagram – and I have started to share more Instagram stories with my “stickers” on them. But there seems to be a growing challenge in getting people from Instagram to the website, see chart below.
It turns out that I had to use Looker Studio to get a monthly User/Session view, because Google Analytics has made it more complicated to get this view…
Totally awesome.
That being said, the chart is showing that direct traffic from Instagram to the website has clearly been on a downward path since February – which would definitely have an effect on order count, being that it’s the only social channel I have been putting effort into to sell stickers.
This is helpful – and should lead me to try some new things in the future in order to get people on the site and grow sales.
Nice work, Chris.
If you’ve read this far, you’re a real one and thanks. I really like the idea of building this project in public and sharing what I’m learning in case it can be helpful. Along those lines, using this monthly post to force myself to do some basic analysis is something I need to do more of, clearly.
Something to build on in future months, for sure.
