In just 4 years, Muscle Nation has turned into a $27 million-worth business from a start-up activewear line. Truly amazing, isn’t it?

In the past 8 months, Nathaniel Anthony and Chris Anastasi, Muscle Nation founders, have sold more than 800,000 items. Their business obtained a major growth with an estimate of $10 million since their 2020 Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales started. All these in just a span of 2 days!

Anthony and Anastasi, who own one of Australia’s fastest-growing protein supplements stores and activewear, share how they used a market-first technique to start a business. Now, let’s dive into it.

Build Your Market First Before Your Business

It won’t make sense to have the best products/services in the world if no one knows about them. According to Anthony and Anastasi, before they started their own brand, they already had social media marketing experience. The focus was not in promoting products to the target audience, but more on actually collecting people who would become potential customers.

Doing so allows them to gain massive social media followings from people being segmented by interests and demographics. The concept is about tapping into the crowd and finding out what they wanted. From there, you’ll start creating products, services or brands and sell them. And it really worked.

The two entrepreneurs first met at a fitness expo and bonded over their love for health and fitness. However, apart from sharing the same interests, they could also see a gap in the market for high-quality supplements brand and gym apparel.

They wanted to create a brand that could bridge like-minded people who support one another and share the same goal. Thus, the existence of Muscle Nation in 2016.

How Did They Develop the Market?

Here’s the secret on how Nathaniel Anthony and Chris Anastasi built the market before launching the business.

●  Provide Something of Value

It’s a fact that consumers are pretty protective of their attention and time, unless in return, you provide something of value. If you don’t come across as selling something, they are less distrustful. Making valuable products to build those numbers is the key. For Anthony and Anastasi, they started with eBook giveaways and free workout sessions on social media, targeting health and fitness aficionados.

They developed a large following for Muscle Nation during the very beginnings of Snapchat and Instagram. They’ve been doing the same approach across different social media platforms, giving away items for free. They were able to leverage the existing attention of people and popularity because they remained in front of their audience the moment they already had an actual product.

Plus, they also did the same thing during their first fitness expo. They provided giveaway t-shirts in exchange for people joining their brand. They even invited athletes to create excitement about having special guests. These two powerful tactics made their stall extremely popular.

By the time they launched new collections and product varieties, their target market already knew who they were. The brand awareness technique used in the expo made it all a success.

●  Maximise Momentum

After building an audience base, the next step is to create and maximise momentum from the target market. By finding out the community’s triggers, you are able to market your brand with other people who will become customers afterwards.

Be not afraid to try things out and go wide in your thinking about marketing ideas. From doing effective promotions like giveaways, to encouraging social media reviews, testimonials and posts, there are plenty of ideas to determine what is the best for customers to receive.

Also, word-of-mouth and social proof can boost the brand’s visibility. For Anthony and Anastasi, this has been the number 1 factor in building online communities and engagement to over 2 million followers.

● Hear Your Audience Out

Another secret to a healthy market engagement is to listen to your audience. It should be about your target market being empowered to provide suggestions and feedback to the brand. Taking customer evaluation seriously is key — reflecting on what the community says. This is a sign of real engagement that every business should reflect on and adapt.

The two entrepreneurs created a dedicated team to manage their online community which responds in a timely manner to people’s comments and questions — whether positive or negative. This also helps build trust, rapport,and integrity. In the end, what matters most is what people will remember about your brand. Just by responding to a problem quickly partnered with positivity, you can build customers for life.

Muscle Nation cultivated millions of followers on social media and one thing they learned is this: brands are more likely to succeed if they take time to nurture their customers and show they care. You can build the product when you already have the market, and the business will surely follow.

With Strong Dedication and Commitment, You’re One Step Closer to Success

Muscle Nation remains family-owned and managed to this day. A home-grown Australian brand and family business, it has over 35 team members and ships to over 150 countries nationwide. Moreover, Muscle Nation has introduced over 1,000 different products, such as Muscle Nation protein, to various online stores.

The brand has also evolved more because 80% of its customers now are female and almost 2 million pieces sold in total. The two great entrepreneurs also mentioned they are on track to making $50 million by the end of the financial year.

In collaboration with former WBFF world champion and brand ambassador Hattie Boydle, Muscle Nation released its first sustainable activewear. It was a huge challenge yet it ended in a huge success despite some failures.

With dedication and strong commitment to what you do, you’ll definitely obtain success. Making valuable products to build a strong community is the secret. This is something that business start-ups of today should take note of.