Meet Justine Mekler
Justine worked in the fashion and retail world for almost a decade. Through her visual merchandising career, she was always engrossed in how the visual appearance of my store could move the needle on profit. It just felt natural that she would take that hands-on experience into the digital world.
A New Jersey Native, Justine works with clients in any state and she’s an active member of our Babes in Business community as well.
On a recent Morning Mind Fuel, Justine touched on several topics including her newest contribution to the Babes Membership Community: The How To Build A Lifestyle Brand Workbook.
Here are a few highlights from that conversation.
And if you love what you learn from Justine in this sneak peek, be sure to join the Babes Membership community to continue learning from her and all of our badass babe experts! How Justine Became a Digital Marketing Manager
Justine discovered virtual assistant work after her position in visual merchandising. With all that’s gone on this past year, she made the move to digital marketing.
The Power of The Babes Community
The power of connection and networking with the Babes community is clear to Justine: She gets most clients through Babes in Business!
Who She Works With And How She Helps
Creative women entrepreneurs are her ideal audience, people who don’t pigeonhole themselves. She loves it because she’s that way. You can pivot naturally. Good at marketing without being confusing, using her visual merchandising skills. All over the place.
Justine’s favorite part of her work is connecting and getting on the same creative wavelength and giving things to them in a way that they love. Taking analytics and seeing how tweaks can change the results of a post. Love how you can make a small shift an
The Latest Babes Workbook: Building a Lifestyle Brand
According to Justine, building a lifestyle brand starts with knowing your ideal client’s internal experience:
What do they care about?
What do they do in their downtime?
Where do they need extra support in daily life?
What brings them joy?
What makes them angry?
The truth is: They’re often similar to us.
How To Connect With Clients Through Lifestyle Branding
Focus on their ideal experiences integrating the product or service into their lifestyle
Explore an issue or pain point and how your service addresses it.
Highlight creative ways to use your product and explore opportunities for cross-promotion and collaboration
Offer free value because it will make them want to invest
Show them behind the scenes
The Key: Your Authenticity
Focus on authenticity and don’t be afraid to lose followers because you will grow bigger with the right people who resonate with your message
What you care about should be out there because it will be harder to integrate it into later
Cold Selling Versus Warm SellingThrough Relationship Building
Justine is not big on cold selling or constantly selling online. Once a week she talks about her services. Passive selling is more her speed.
Make your selling part of daily life, show examples to allow them to step into what it would be like to invest.
Where To Start
Justine creates content to add value to her clients before they ever work with her.
She starts gathering ideas on TikTok because it will eventually end up being a trend on Reels at some point
She also makes general posts on the Babes slack!
And often, that’s what starts a conversation and potential clients then reach out.
Justine takes time to focus on nurturing relationships and spends time creating Instagram stories that show her personality first and services next.
Your Social Media as Your Resume
Justine’s Instagram became her portfolio and resume because clients can see how she can curate a feed and how she speaks to people and writes captions.
That means clients find her rather than pitching herself. And people come through referrals because she’s also showcasing work she’s done for other clients.
The 3-2-1 Method
To build these relationships online, especially if you find an account you love, You can:
Like 3 posts (within the top 9 or so...)
Comment on 2 of them
Respond to at least 1 of their stories
Don’t forget: Hype, fangirl, and follow them.
Craving More? To connect with Justine, follow her on Instagram at @justine_mekler or visit her website https://justinemekler.com/
Want To Get Your Hands on the Build a Lifestyle Brand Workbook?