For a long time, Hemp had been poorly advertised, giving the vibe of a burlap material used only by tree-hugging, vegan-food enthusiasts who live in communal villages. Hemp Fabric Lab sought to change that by becoming the go-to place for innovative hemp materials with applications across apparel, footwear, home decor, and upholstery.

The awareness around conventional Cotton’s impact on water-stressed areas was growing and with it the demand for better alternative materials. Hemp was generating curiosity and excitement amongst conscious brands in India and globally, but there was a need to market it more effectively and make it mainstream.

As the founding member, I saw the brand grow 2.5x-3x. My team and I set up a beautiful and easy-to-use website on Shopify, for which I wrote the content. Within just six months, our website reached the top spot on Google Search for ‘hemp fabric’ through organic searches. I focused on writing engaging, non-generic social media posts and e-mail campaigns that focused on educating users instead of selling them more stuff. One campaign called Hemp vs Cotton had a click rate of 2.1% vs the industry average at 0.8%; it also trended for two weeks on Instagram under #HempFabric. Separately, I sought to build trusted relationships with brand owners, suppliers, and end-users by educating them about Hemp, which brought us repeat clients, and increased brand goodwill leading to numerous panel sessions and interviews.