Cardi B's Grow-Good Sold Out in 45 Minutes: Email Marketing and Messaging Breakdown

Welcome to the Business Without Burnout podcast. I'm Kirsten Roldan and I help entrepreneurs make a lot of money peacefully. I'm a New Rican who went from working in healthcare while cleaning houses and braiding hair on the side to building a business that's generated over $4 million and counting. But there was a time I almost shut my business down because I had a lot of money but no peace. I managed to turn it around and that's why every week I share the 4 strategies that help you grow without burnout: email marketing, team systems, and mindset. So let's dive in. Hello, Peaceful Millionaires. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to talk about Cardi B's Grow Good Beauty campaign. I have been wanting to break this down for y'all. I have been like an avid observer. I bought the whole system. Oh my goodness, I've been wanting to talk about this, but just in general, I wanna do more content like this where I'm breaking down strategies that you can use for your business from people in different industries and what are the things that we're seeing going on in the business world and how can we use it to build our own businesses. So I'm definitely gonna be doing more episodes like this in the future, more content like this to my email list and things like that. I have lots of plans. So I am so excited to start with Cardi B and doing a breakdown. If you don't know, I have been a huge fan of Cardi B for years now, for so many reasons. Like, I just was so excited for her to see her launch a product like this. And just so you know, for those that don't know, Cardi B just launched a haircare brand called Grow Good. And I knew I needed to do a breakdown of this product launch because it executed email marketing and positioning and just product strategy just perfectly. And there are lessons here for any business owner selling anything online. So Grow Good Beauty just launched this month, and the reason why this is is so exciting as a longtime fan is if you've been a longtime fan of Cardi B, you know, and if you don't know now you will, that Cardi B has been known for haircare content for years. Like she would do live videos where she was explaining the different hair masks that she was doing on her hair to heal it and help it grow. She had very damaged hair and now it's like absolutely just like Straight. Stunning and like really healthy and long, all the things. And so it was a really big deal because she had built a lot of trust for years because this is just something that she's always been talking about. So it was exciting in general, but also a lot of people were like, oh, I trust you 'cause I know you've been in this, right? So there was a presale on March 24th and then on April 15th and they both sold out. Immediately. This was highly anticipated because like I said, Cardi B has been doing hair care and hair growth content for years, but also her marketing visuals were very nostalgic and connection-driven. I highly recommend you look up Grow Good Beauty's website and different marketing platforms like her Instagram and things like that. So you can see, for example, the one that was really, really popular was where she had the plastic bag over her head. Again, very nostalgic, very connection-driven. You're gonna see why. She took that approach because her messaging, uh, her messaging was so clear. But that's what I'm going to go over today. I'm going to go over the product messaging and copywriting strategy specifically because this did not just sell out due to influence. And that's actually where I want to start. I want to start with when you all are looking at product launches in general, especially celebrity product launches where you are seeing people sell out very quickly and things like that, it's very easy for you to be like, well, of course they did. Like, they have mega influence. Here's how to know though if something was a success because of influence or not. First and foremost, the restock sale was actually more successful than the presale. The presale sold out in under an hour. The restock actually sold out faster. You will often see celebrities sell out their product lines very quickly, but then the restock does not sell out. This is a perfect example of whether it's influence related or not, this actually had a higher restock success, which is like incredible. Also, the data shows that 74% of buyers were new to brand consumers, proving that the appeal actually extended far beyond her core fan base. And something that's important to note is that just in general in this industry, 68% of consumers now prioritize ingredient transparency over star power, which if you were to go to Grow Good Beauty's website, Cardi and her team communicated that brilliantly, and that's why it sold out so easily. Also, Cardi has launched products before and they did not do all of this. She's had brand deals with Fashion Nova, with Reebok, with NYX. She's released Whip Shots, which is her other business. None of those had this kind of sellout power. Same celebrity, different result. And really the difference is the product market fit and the strategy behind Grow Good specifically. So I want you, when you're analyzing different campaigns outside of your industry in general, I want you to be able to know what's the difference between influence versus a really good product and strategy. So let's start there. First, the product. The smartest thing Cardi did happened before she even wrote one word of copy. She built the right product. So starting with the concept, I teach this to my high-level clients a lot. You need to have what I call an essential offer. An essential offer is something that someone feels they want to use or need in their lives or their businesses on an ongoing basis. She chose an essential product, literally haircare, shampoo, conditioner, something that you have to use every day or every other day, whenever you wash your hair. You gotta use it every week, right? You have to wash your hair consistently. The bottle runs out and you buy a new one. So she chose an essential product, something that someone needs all the time with high retention potential because she said herself in an interview, she wants to create something that people keep buying. That was a very intentional business model decision. I tell my clients— Mm-hmm. All the time, that you want your offers to have both conversion potential, which is it's something that's high converting, it feels essential, it feels necessary to the client. It should have referral potential, meaning it's a product that they can refer to their friends, their family, their colleagues, their clients, whatever. It's something that they can give to another person and it has high retention potential. It's something that someone wants to buy again. Now, not every product is going to be like this, but when you are creating a signature product, this is a really great foundation to build your business model on. So she chose an essential product. Whip Shots is not essential. Okay? It's not essential. Hair care is. Now the name, she named it Grow Good. This is clear, it's functional. There's no cute wordplay. You know what it does compared to very vague celebrity brand names that are maybe very sentimental or they sound cool, but they tell you nothing. This name literally communicates the product promise. It's saying grow good. Your hair's going to grow good. Okay? It's promising growth and it's promising good hair. Now the pricing. So the products range, I was so shocked by this actually. The products range from $14.99 to $19.99. And the brand is very intentionally choosing accessibility because her branding is centered around being the modern beauty supply. This makes her extremely competitive, okay? Contrasted with other celebrity brands that launch at $60 a bottle and lose their audience after one purchase. This goes back to, right, retention potential, but also what's the difference between celebrity influence and actual strategy. She wants this to be a staple. She doesn't want just her fan base to sell her out and then that's it. Yeah. Right. I tell my clients all the time, with your pricing, it needs to be profitable. Yes. But it also needs to be very competitive. And that brings me to the promise. Her promise is very clear. She's not just saying, I'm launching a haircare brand because I— you guys know I always love haircare. I always love hair growth and my hair is healthy. She's not just saying that. She's actually saying booty length hair. That is her promise. We're gonna get you booty-length hair. She put a clear promise on a product as opposed to just being like, yeah, this is gonna be good for your hair, good ingredients, sentimental to me, you know, I have good hair so you'll have good hair. No, she's saying, I'm gonna get you booty-length hair. The promise is clear. But here's what to know, it drastically exceeds her price point. If you ever listen to any of my offer strategy episodes, You know how passionate I am about this. You know that I always say if you're charging something, your transformation needs to be 10x that result. It needs to— or feel like 10x that result. She's charging $14.99 to $19.99. And for the full system, I actually purchased it myself. The full system is around $100. For $100, she's promising booty-length hair. That transformation drastically exceeds her price point. Yeah. Which brings me to the signature system that she built. The brand built a repair system and it features, uh, what, what's called FiberLace. So it's described as a proprietary plant-derived hair restoration complex developed to reinforce hair fibers. So they are actually selling a system, not just a product like get my serum, get my shampoo, get my wash. They're like, no, get this entire system and this entire system is what will give you booty length hair. This increases average order value and it also removes decision fatigue. She didn't have to do a bunch of objection handling or a bunch of promotion on why you should get the shampoo and why the shampoo is amazing because she's like, listen, I built the entire system you need to have my hair, which is booty length hair. Okay, so simple. So it also simplified her marketing. A lot of people that have multiple products or that have like whether you have multiple offers in your suite, even if they're services, but especially if you're an actual like physical product-based business, a lot of you are trying to sell individual products instead of selling a full system. And this is a perfect example of selling a full system. And now you're going to have all these people with all of the products. And let's say they run out of the shampoo faster than the conditioner. Well, then they'll just buy the shampoo separately and go from there. And they'll continue to replenish that system. Brilliant, brilliant business model. Okay, now let's go to the messaging. So all of that was so important because now the messaging is so simple and so effective. Every word of this brand's copy earns its place. There is so much of a lesson in what they didn't say because they didn't oversell, they didn't put a bunch of copy, they kept it so simple. So first and foremost, they've been positioning it as the new old school. So it has this nostalgic position. Yeah. Positioning to it. And they've been calling it the new old school haircare. And it lands because it's simple and it immediately creates a picture. It signals, right? This isn't some new age over-engineered formula or just a celebrity brand. You trust this, we just made it better. All of your favorite products. And we all know that right now nostalgia is really selling. Think about the whole like 2016 trend and things like that. Nostalgia is selling. Selling. And she is doing such a good job at positioning it, and her team at positioning it with nostalgia without it feeling dated. Which brings me to having a clear ideal client, right? She's been using the copywriting language with booty-length hair and modern beauty supply. So this copy is drawing from Cardi B's experiences managing damage, texture, consistency, and the Dominican salon and beauty supply culture that she grew up with. Booty length certified. It's bold, but it's specific. It tells exactly who this is for and what they want. You want long, nice hair. You want long, good hair. And this is the opposite, right, of trying to appeal to everyone. She's being very, very clear. You are someone that wants the nostalgia. You want to feel like you are getting natural products. She's been saying a lot in her marketing, like, these are just Dominican staples. If you look at her website, the first thing that you see is different— the different plants, right, that it comes from. And it says these are Dominican staples. So it's got that ingredient transparency. It feels very natural and clean, but also so clear. This, this natural, the old school stuff that our families used to do. This is when we go back to this, when we tap into this nostalgia, when we go back to the past. And use what worked then, but modernize it, it's going to give us everything we want. Like that is so clear. It's so specific. It's so good. And then Modern Beauty Supply, right? It's that sweet spot. It evokes that drugstore familiarity with credibility. It feels luxurious without claiming to be luxury. Like if you look at her website, the copy and the visuals feel very luxury. It feels clean. Yeah. Very clean. Like you're just looking at it and you're like, oh yeah, you see the fruits immediately. You see, you know, I feel like a lot of people, I'm actually gonna do, I'm going on a side rant here. I'm, I'm doing a case study breakdown on Alex Earle's recent launch of Real Actives. And she's used a lot of water in her visuals. And people tend to use this when they're trying to evoke freshness and cleanness and things like that. And Cardi didn't have to use any water for it to feel very clean, very natural, very just like, it just feels luxurious even though it's a, it's a lower price point. It, it's just incredible the way they've done that. And that brings me to the copy is so simple. It's no more than 3 sentences per product description and every line answers what is it, what does it do, why does it work?. So for example, for the shampoo description, all it says is removes buildup, retains moisture, no sulfates. That's it. 3 things done. Okay. Very clear. That's exactly what I want. Sounds good. And then even when you actually, you know, in the dropdown, when you go into the actual product on the website and then they have, you know, the frequently asked questions of the products, like what are the ingredients? What does it do? How does it work? It's a couple of sentences in very simple language. Mm-hmm. Then we go to the fiber lace system that she's selling. She's leading with science, not just her story. So most celebrity brands lean entirely on the founder's story as the selling point, and she very easily could have done that. But Cardi is doing something smarter. She uses her story to earn that trust, but hands off the proprietary system to close the sale. She's like, this is what I've been working on, and I turned it into something good, something scientific. This is science level. I mean, she's been talking about in interviews, she's like, you don't understand how much testing I've done, how I've made this into an actual system to help you. Not just something that I'm telling you on a live video, but I've really— I brought in the experts for this to make this really good. That's what's closing the sale. It's not them looking at Cardi B's hair and being like, oh, she has nice hair, so she probably, you know, yeah, she probably uses this. No, she's like, not only do I have nice hair, I went and talked to scientists about what worked for me and they turned it into something scalable. They turned it into something that could work for everyone, not just me. That alone, the fact that she has a system is overcoming so many objections. So many, uh, I've seen many haircare brands have to do specifically haircare, have to do a lot of objection handling, especially celebrity haircare, have to do a lot of objection handling around, is this actually your real hair? How much of this is stylized, right? How much of this is edited, etc.? And she had— and I'll talk about this in her email breakdown— she had one, one picture that says, you know, Cardi would like you to know that this is not edited, but that's it. Instead, what she did was she said, no, no, no, this is a whole system that was created to work for all hair types. That alone answered the objection. And I tell my clients all the time, your offer, not just your words, like your copy, can't just answer the objection. You just saying, well, I have good hair, can't answer the objection, right? You have to show that you have a system. You have to show that you have a framework. You have to show that you're serious, right? Like you've got something serious backing your offer. That is what you need to learn from Cardi. Okay, let's go on to the email sequence. So I'm going to review 3 of the 5 emails that have been sent because 2 of them were just like, we're sold out now emails. So email number 1, Major Hair, Major Era. That's the subject line. Welcome to Grow Good, a new hardworking hair care system built for booty-length certified hair founded by your girl Cardi B. Grow Good was inspired by Dominican salons, beauty supply runs, and with DIY at-home recipes. Same classics, better formulas, healthier looking hair for all of you. Here's what I want you to notice. I just spent a good amount of time explaining her messaging. Right? And like what she was going for. They just said it in 3 sentences. Notice how clear their offer is. And the reason why I was able to explain it so clearly is because of how clear it was. But notice how they're able to explain everything I just said in what, however long it took, right? In 3 sentences to their audience so that they are as clear as possible as to what they're going for. I've been really practicing with my clients. I want you to be able to communicate your offer in no more than 3 sentences, okay? If you can't communicate it in, in less than 3 sentences, it's too complicated, okay? Then she just said, a message from our founder. I made Grow Good because I really put the work in on my hair. I was doing my own masks in my own kitchen using what I already knew from my family's recipes and what I learned from my own research. I really took my time to get my hair looking healthy again after years of damage. And guess what? It worked. Now I wanna share Grow Good with everybody. So again, very simply, in just a few sentences, she is saying, I've done all of this work, I've done all the research for you, and now I've made a system. Not only is she selling a system and showing that she's bringing you something that's serious and that actually works, but she's also saying, I made it simple for you. Y'all don't have to keep— without even saying it, she's saying, You don't have to keep DIYing. You don't have to keep searching on TikTok. You don't have to keep going through, you know, X, Y, and Z, uh, to figure out your hair. I think about myself, I actually lost a lot of hair. So this has actually been very resonant for me. I lost a lot of hair recently, a lot, a lot, a lot of my hair. And it's been a very big pain point for me in that I am trying to grow my hair back again and I'm trying to get it thicker and longer again and all these things. And, uh, Long story short, I've been doing so much research, I've been doing so much testing. It's been like, it's been a journey. And so when I read this, I immediately was like, oh, she did it for me. Okay, I'm, I'm gonna buy this. And I bought the whole system. And so what I want you to pay attention here is where can you be so specific in your copy that you can answer objections without even directly answering objections? Does that make sense? Like, where can you be so clear and so simple that actually the client sold themselves because they saw their day to day? They were like, that's what I've been doing. I've been trying Madison, I've been in my kitchen and I've been DIYing and I've been trying to figure it out. And that just answered 10 objections. So what I want you to take from this is you— this whole, this whole email was about 5 sentences. 5, 6 sentences maybe. That's it. And it was so high converting. You don't have to say a lot to sell a lot, okay? Now, something else that I want you to notice is it really centers the offer promise right away and positions it as simple, clean, and classic, okay? Right away she says, "Welcome to Grow Good, a new hardworking hair care system built for booty-length certified hair." Mm-hmm. She literally said, this is what it is, this is what it does. She wasn't like, Cardi's new haircare line because she was DIYing masks and now she's creating a shampoo that'll make your hair shine and look good. No, she's like, here's the promise. Booty length certified hair. So good. So simple. So make sure you're centering the promise in your, in your content and in your emails especially. Okay. Email number 2, set your alarm while supplies last. Your new old school hair care routine is coming soon. Mark your calendars, set your alarms, alert your group chats. And that was the only sentence. There's one other sentence in there and I'll say it in a minute, but that was the, the main sentence. And then it just had visuals in the email and the visuals said Beauty Supply Classics, 21st century science. Now, and then it said Cardi would like you to know this photo was not edited. And it had a picture of her like really long shiny hair and that it wasn't edited. Here's what I want you to notice. First of all, I've been telling this to my clients, don't be afraid to use visuals in your email marketing to make it more interesting and exciting. They actually didn't have— they only had one photo of Cardi. The other visuals were just graphics. They were plain graphics that had like her brand colors and then the words on it. So I thought it was a really nice and engaging way to, you know, format the email, right? So don't be afraid to play with visuals in your email marketing. But what I love about this is, again, they said 4 sentences total. Your new old school hair care routine is coming soon. Mark your calendar, set your alarms, alert your group chats. That's number 1. They were very clear with what their CTA was. This is what we want you to do. But also they made it clear what they are doing. Your new old school hair care routine. You're about to have a new hair care routine. And it's going to be classic but modernized. Beauty Supply Classics, 21st century science. And look, this photo is not edited. Again, going back to the principles that I taught you before, what did she say, or what did her team say without saying anything? How many objections were they able to answer in just 4 sentences because their messaging is so clear. So Beauty Supply Classics, you know what objection they're answering? You need to stop spending $60 on these fancy shampoo and conditioners that aren't even working. You could be spending so much less money. You could be saving money and getting better results. Look at my hair and I'm— I'm using this and you're paying for all this expensive stuff, all these 7-step systems., which she does have multiple steps in her system, but it's so much cheaper, right? So much more accessible. And so beauty supply classics, that means don't worry, you're not gonna pay an arm and a leg. She's already answering the money objection. Okay. Y'all know I love Beyoncé. Like with, she is like, I Beyoncé and Bad Bunny. Listen, those are my, those are my two. Okay. I love Beyoncé. I'm obsessed with Beyoncé. But whenever she drops anything, if you're a Beyoncé fan, what's the joke? Please stop taking my money, Beyoncé. Oh my goodness, you're about to take all my money, Beyoncé. Like, because we will pay anything. Listen, when she has something come out, I don't care how much it costs, I'm gonna pay for it. Same thing with Bad Bunny. I don't care how much it costs, I'm gonna pay for it. But she's basically saying— and it's not to compare these two, but what I want you to notice is that when Beyoncé is about to drop something, we know it's about to be a luxury price point. And so immediately we're preparing ourselves and our finances. Wow. Without even having said what the price— she didn't say, don't worry, it'll be $15. She didn't say that. She just said Beauty Supply Classics. Now we know, oh, I know that if I'm going to Beauty Supply, I'm not paying more than this amount. You see what I'm saying? She was able to say this is going to be accessible without having to say the price. 21st century science. Okay, this is going to be Beauty Supply, but there's also a reason why I either stopped going to Beauty Supply or I haven't gone in a while because I feel like it's so outdated. She's saying it's going to be beauty supply classic pricing, but it's going to be luxury level result. Notice how without even having to say that, that's what she has in her copy. Okay. And then answering the objection. This is not edited. This is my real hair. And we did not edit this photo to make it look better. Don't you worry. This is actually what is good. Okay. Okay. And what I've been using, the main thing I want you to take away is just simplicity, simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. I would like you all to do an exercise after this episode. If you were to sell your offer today and you only had 3 to 5 sentences, and those 3 to 5 sentences had to answer every objection your client had to your offer, what would those 3 to 5 sentences be? And it's gonna be a thinker, right? You're gonna have to really think about it. Mm-hmm. That's what they had to do. They had to really think about it. And if one thing you need to know about Cardi, she's been saying a lot in her interview, she's like, "You have no idea how much thought went into this." She did all the thought to make it easy for her customer. So that's how I want you to see this. I want you to see your business as needing to do an extensive amount of thought into your messaging to make it as simple as possible for your customer, and that's how you will sell more. Okay? Now, key takeaways. You do not need Cardi's platform to use these strategies. Like I said, build a system that creates a clear dream transformation, not just a product. Don't just sell it as a product, sell it as a transformation. I didn't even know she was doing shampoo and conditioner and serum specifically. All I heard was booty-length hair, and I said, "That's what I want. That's what I want." She's selling a dream transformation. My Million Dollar Emailers know I call it the million dollar desire. She's selling a million dollar desire. Let your story earn trust, but don't let it crowd out your methodology. Okay, Cardi's personal hair journey opens the door, but the fiber lace system is what closes the sale. A lot of you are selling— you're really good at selling your story, but you're not good at selling your system and what you're actually selling— like, what is the actual system and the product that you're selling to your client? What is the deliverable? What am I actually buying? Name things for what they do, not how they— not just to make them sound good. A lot of y'all are cute, but you're not clear. I love how clear Grow Good is. And if you can't say it in 3 to 5 sentences, don't say it. So email number 3 was, we are live. That was the sales email, and all it says All it said was, don't have to do your hair, shop the full routine. So they literally were like, don't try to go browse. Should I do the hair? Should I do the shampoo or the conditioner or the serum or the mask? Which one should I do? No, they said, shop the full routine. Tell your customer what to buy. This is exactly what you need. And now I say this a lot to my HighLevel clients as well. Especially when they have individual products like this, like a physical product business. I say a lot, I'm like, you know, it's really helpful to— don't just send your clients to your website and tell them to like browse, tell them what you want them to buy. So if you want to promote— I recently was actually coaching someone who is in a totally different industry, they're in the pharmaceutical industry, and they were like, we really want to sell our full turnkey systems, like the highest level product and not these individual products. And I was like, then only sell that right now. Like, that's what you need to do. So a lot of you need to do that. Okay. You're, you're getting your, your clients to browse instead of telling them what to buy. People need to know what to buy. The bigger takeaway is, like I said, Grow Good is not successful because Cardi is famous. It's successful because the product, the positioning, and the email strategy are all really strong. Okay. Fame got people, yeah, maybe to open the email, but the strategy got them to buy because there's another launch that recently happened that I have a lot of notes on that I don't feel was, you know, very successful or as successful as maybe that person thought it was going to be. And I wanna do a review on it because like I said, they're super famous, super celebrity, and they didn't have this level of success because of their strategy and their copy and their messaging. So with all that said, inside Million Dollar Email, you will be able to audit and fix your offers and your messaging within 30 minutes. If you wanna be able to communicate your entire offer this clearly, this simply, and this attractively, you can do that using my signature offer builder framework and AI tool that I give you to work through it. This framework has helped clients create new offers, improve existing ones, and make more sales easier, you can join the program at the link in my show notes. All right, I'll see you in the next episode. [FOREIGN]