Ella Mills wanted to eat healthy to feel better. Now her products are sold in 6,000 stores across the U.K.
In this series, Instagram Icon, Entrepreneur speaks with the individuals behind popular Instagram accounts to find out the secrets of their success.
Six years ago, Ella Mills was a university student who had no idea why she was feeling so sick. At 20 years old, she was diagnosed with a Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, an illness that affected her autonomic nervous system, making it difficult to control her heart rate and blood pressure, and left her battling symptoms like headaches, allergic reactions and chronic fatigue.
Feeling tired, sick and lonely, Mills decided to start writing a blog chronicling her learning how to remake her diet from the ground up — out with sugars and processed food and in with the kale and quinoa. She began to feel better, gained inspiration and built an online community groundswell with her blog.
In 2013, she launched the Deliciously Ella Instagram account. Today, her account has a whopping 1.1 million followers, and her business has grown in a major way.
Mills and her husband Matthew have opened three deli locations in London. They started with a staff of four and now employ 70 people. Mills has written four books, released an app and the company has come out with three product lines. Her breakfast cereals, energy balls and oat bars are sold in 6,000 stores across the U.K., from Starbucks and Sainsbury’s to Whole Foods and Waitrose.
And Mills, who spends a significant part of her day replying to members of the Deliciously Ella community, is spearheading it all.
“We still don’t have a marketing team. We don’t have a marketing budget. It’s just me. We’ve only been in stores for 12 months or so, and we’re outselling our competition and our a rate of sale. That’s all because of that direct communication we’ve had with people,” Mills tells Entrepreneur. “I think one of the things that often holds people back from starting a business is [the question of] how do you reach people? How do people know you exist? How do you connect with them? I think [Instagram is] a platform that people should absolutely use, because it helps you create a brand and individual identity and an understanding with customers.”
Mills shared her insights about how to make your brand stand out and build customer relationships that are a two-way street.
Related: This Jewelry Maker Who Sells Made-to-Order Pieces Developed Her Brand Through Posting to Instagram
How did you get your start with Instagram?
I started to write in my blog in 2012. And I was enjoying that. I started it because I’ve been very unwell. I had been very unwell when I was at university with a condition that affected my autonomic nervous system. I basically reached a point where I really needed to find other things to help, and so I started writing the blog to teach myself to cook. And I was really enjoying it, and I was starting to feel the effects as well physically, which I was really pleased about. And then in early 2013 my friend was like, “Oh, if you’re going to keep on doing the blog, you should do Instagram. It was good because I was looking for more motivation and inspiration to try new things. I thought this is great, because it will give me a push to try something new every day. So I always have a new picture. And I started that in early 2013 as Deliciously Ella. Quite quickly, I fell in love with the way they communicate [on Instagram].
What other platforms do you use and what percentage of the time do you spend on them versus on Instagram
Instagram is our biggest platform and the one I spend the most time on. It’s also the one where there’s more ways to connect to your audience. So I am obsessed with our audience and the customer connection. With Instagram I try and go through the #DeliciouslyElla hashtag everyday, like everything and comment on everything. You have to tag pictures of you, then you also have the direct messages. I find that it takes a lot more time than Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest, for example.
How much of your time do you devote to it?
Across all the channels it takes maybe four hours. I try as much as…
