The First Call
I still remember the first time I spoke with the founders.
It was late at night in Sydney, early morning for me. Their office lights looked too bright on camera, racks of bikinis and sarongs stacked neatly in the background. They smiled, but I could tell by their eyes they were tired. Not tired in the way you get from staying up late, but tired from pushing and not moving.
They told me their story. The brand was doing fine in Australia. Not massive, but respected. They had carved out a niche: high-end swimwear that wasn’t just for the beach, but for living the ocean lifestyle. Their customers loved the fit, the fabrics, the way it made them feel like every poolside moment was a memory worth capturing.
Australia knew them. The U.S. did not.
They had already made the leap, setting up a distribution base in California. They thought faster shipping would unlock sales. They ran Instagram ads. They worked with a few influencers. They had even been mentioned in a couple of style blogs.
But orders in the U.S. were flat. Some weeks they’d get a little bump. Other weeks, silence.
One founder leaned toward the camera and said quietly:
“We’re scared the U.S. just doesn’t need us.”
That’s a heavy thing to hear from people who had poured their lives into a brand.
I told them the truth. The U.S. doesn’t need another swimwear label. But it does need their story told the right way, in the right places, in the right voice.
And over the next eleven months, that’s exactly what we built.
Months 1–3: Facing the U.S. Reality
The first thing I always do is simple: I walk through the experience as if I’m the customer.
Their site was beautiful. Crisp photos of golden sand, turquoise waves, sunlit skin. But beauty alone doesn’t sell.
The menus were crowded. Collections were arranged by internal codes that meant nothing to a customer. Checkout dragged. Product pages listed fabrics like a spec sheet instead of pulling you into a story.
I pictured a customer landing here. She sees something pretty, clicks, then feels lost. No story, no reason to stay, and a checkout that makes her give up.
I told them bluntly: “This feels like a gallery. We need it to feel like a resort.”
So we rebuilt it. Not from scratch, but from the inside out.
Collections shifted from SKU groupings to moments: “Poolside Evenings,” “Resort Escape,” “Everyday Coastal.” Product descriptions were rewritten to sound like invitations: “The silk cover-up you’ll wear from the pool to the rooftop dinner.” Checkout shrank from five screens to two.
By the end of month three, it felt different.
I think of Naomi, a first-time customer from Miami. She found them on Instagram, clicked, and almost bounced. But the simplified flow kept her in. She bought a bikini, then a silk cover-up. A week later she emailed support: “It felt like shopping a resort, not a store.”
That was the first real sign we were on the right track.
Months 4–6: Showing Up Where People Search
The next challenge was visibility.
In the U.S., no one was looking for them by name. People were searching by moment: “luxury swimsuits for honeymoon,” “designer beachwear Miami,” “resort wear Palm Springs.”
The problem was simple: this brand wasn’t showing up. At all.
We went back to basics. A massive SEO reset. Every product page rewritten in language U.S. customers actually used. Evergreen content built around travel and events: honeymoons, summer getaways, rooftop pools. Each page framed not as clothing, but as a moment to be lived.
This is exactly what I talk about in Rank Higher on Google: showing up when people are looking for you, even if they don’t know your name.
By month six, it was working.
I remember Andre, a lawyer in Los Angeles. He was planning a trip to Cabo and searched for “luxury men’s swim trunks Cabo.” There we were, page one. He ordered two pairs and a leather beach tote. When support followed up, he said: “I didn’t know your brand before, but you came up exactly when I needed it.”
That’s visibility in action.
Months 7–9: Owning the Story
Traffic without a story is just noise.
The brand voice was polished, but distant. It described fabrics, fits, and collections. It never said why.
So I asked the founders to tell me why they started.
And when they finally let it out, it was powerful. They grew up by the ocean. For them, swimwear wasn’t seasonal—it was life. They wanted to make pieces that weren’t about chasing trends but about capturing timeless ocean energy.
That story had never been told in the U.S.
We rewrote the homepage. It no longer said “Shop Now.” It said, “Born from the ocean, made for the moments you’ll remember.” The About page became a mission, not a timeline. Social posts leaned into the lifestyle: rooftop sunsets, lazy mornings by the pool, the feeling of vacation in your own backyard.
This was the heart of Build Stronger Brand Awareness: a product becomes a brand when people feel part of it.
And customers felt it.
I think of Lior, a repeat buyer in New York. After her second order, she messaged the brand on Instagram: “Your pieces make me feel like I’m on vacation even when I’m just at a rooftop pool here.” That’s not just a compliment. That’s brand connection.
By month nine, the brand wasn’t just selling. It was being talked about.
Months 10–11: From Customers to Believers
The final stage was loyalty.
One-off purchases are nice. But growth comes from retention.
We built bundle offers: bikinis with matching cover-ups, swim trunks with beach totes. We launched a “Resort Ready” subscription box with seasonal accessories. At checkout, we introduced natural upsells: if you picked a bikini, you saw the robe; if you grabbed trunks, you saw the matching clutch.
This wasn’t about pushing harder. It was about making the next step obvious. The same principle I explain in Increase Efficiency.
That’s when we saw patterns.
Yael, a Chicago mom, bought a bikini before a Florida trip. A month later she came back for accessories. By her third purchase, she had joined the subscription box. She wasn’t just buying products anymore—she was living the brand.
And then came the moment that changed everything.
In the eleventh month, at the height of summer, the founders sent me a screenshot of their sales dashboard. U.S. orders had surpassed Australian sales for the first time. The brand, born on Sydney beaches, was now a rising name in American luxury swimwear.
Their message to me was simple: “We finally feel like we belong here.”
The Results
Over eleven months, the numbers told the story.
U.S. traffic tripled. Sales grew 250%. Repeat purchases doubled. Subscription boxes took off. The brand went from unknown to known, from seasonal novelty to household name among its audience.
But the real result wasn’t numbers.
It was Naomi in Miami, Andre in Los Angeles, Lior in New York, Yael in Chicago. It was dozens of customers who weren’t just buying swimwear—they were buying into a lifestyle, a story, a brand they felt part of.
The Lesson
Breaking into a new market is brutal. The U.S. didn’t need another swimwear brand. But it welcomed this one—because we did it the right way.
We made the website perform.
We made the brand visible.
We told the story that built awareness.
We created systems to increase efficiency.
That’s how an Australian brand became a U.S. success story in just eleven months.
Not magic. Not luck. Just clarity, alignment, and consistency.
Marketing Unplugged 
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