How guitarist Thomas McRocklin built a rockin’ business with Sellfy

Thomas McRocklin has been playing guitar since he was 4, and he’s played with some of the greatest guitar players in the world. Now, he runs a successful online business offering his master skills to eager guitar students via School of McRock, and he sells both digital and physical products on his Sellfy storefront.

He chose Sellfy due to its intuitive interface, ease-of-use and super quick setup. Moreover, most of his following connects to him through Instagram, so Sellfy being mobile friendly was a huge factor for choosing the right e-commerce toolkit for his online store.

In this interview, he shares how he connects with his fans, uses social media to promote his products, and the various ways in which he uses Sellfy’s features to maintain an additional stream of income.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

I’m an English musician and guitar player based in the UK. I used to be known as a child prodigy and did a lot of stuff like tours and TV, going back and forth to the US and stuff. Then, I took a long break from guitar and in 2017, I returned to the music industry and started working with different brands. 

I also have a band called McRocklin and Hutch as well as an online school called School of McRocklin that is run with my business partner. He takes care of the website and I take care of the content. We also do audio mixing, production, and virtual set stuff. I also have a Twitch stream channel @mcrocklin.

How did you get started with your online business?

A lot of people really love my guitar tones. So, one of the first products that I wanted to sell was a digital preset pack I made at that time. It was a very natural evolution where I had this product and there were people asking for it.

How did you choose Sellfy?

Before I found Sellfy, none of the previous platforms I was using were intuitive enough. For example, I used to have an all-in-one online store where I sold smaller items. But, it didn’t have all the features I needed. It didn’t look nice on mobile either. And that didn’t work well for me because most of my audience is on Instagram, which is obviously very mobile-led. 

I went through the hassle of trying to set up maybe five or six other stores on different platforms.

We just needed the right way of delivering our product with as little problems as possible. The one that stood out as the most intuitive and feature-rich by far was Sellfy. I realized how fantastic Sellfy was. The storefront also looked the nicest.

What do you like most about Sellfy?

The best thing about Sellfy is that whatever I can think of, I can put on there. A lot of the time when I update my store I tag Sellfy and tell my audience to check you out because it’s been a fantastic experience for me.

Sellfy is genuinely a great product and a great experience. Even down to things like the emails that come in with tips and stuff. 

Just having that ease-of-use has changed everything for me. Plus, Sellfy is just so intuitive. I couldn’t believe how quick people were going through the checkout and had so little issues for the number of transactions. It’s a fantastic storefront.

What are your favourite Sellfy features?

I mostly use Sellfy for selling digital downloads. I can give my fans the final master audio file and get the full amount of revenue for it. People get a lot of value from having that original file instead of streaming it on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services, where they’d have a lower quality experience.

I like the fact that you can put a product at a price and give people the option of paying a little more if they want to (the pay-what-you-want feature). I find people are often quite generous in that respect and do tip a little bit more.

Another really cool feature that I like about Sellfy is that you can add a YouTube video to present your product.

How is Sellfy helpful in marketing your products?

We recently used Sellfy to sell product bundles of some of our most popular lessons for Black Friday. 

Within an hour or so, we had all our products made, uploaded and ready to go. It was a very seamless and trouble-free experience, and it turned out to be a major success.

It was a huge increase in volume that we got to the site. People were loving the value packages that we put together. We also used email marketing as we had tons of email credits available to email everybody. 

I found that the open rate on the email that’s included with Sellfy was really high. It was ranging in the 40–50% open rate. It’s nowhere near that level with other email softwares.

What else do you sell on Sellfy? I’ve seen some cool merch in your store.

When we did a tour with my band, we had some merch made up for it so we could actually sell it at the venues. We had a lot of stock left over from the tour due to the high quantity. So, we listed the t-shirts up on the store and put the different sizes with the variations, which is a really cool feature.

We also sell signed CDs, backing tracks, customized pick tins, tabs and quite a variety of products. Physical products are really cool and people like them a lot.

What impact has Sellfy had on your business?

Overall, financially, it has made a huge difference. It’s great because it’s additional revenue and income, and it’s all done with a minimum amount of hassle and work. 

And it’s also great for the fans because they get a smooth experience during the checkout. So, the next time we have another product, they’re really going to trust that it’s going to be worthwhile picking up.

What tips would you give to somebody just starting out? 

The first thing I’d say is don’t be afraid. It seems that many people are hesitant about making mistakes and they don’t go for it. They worry too much about making things look professional, but the truth is that everything’s always going to improve.

So, my advice would be to just take this step and get a Sellfy store for yourself. Even if it’s just listing one or two things that you’d like to give people access to. There are so many things that you can think about selling. And what you think might not make a great purchase might be somebody’s ideal purchase.

And don’t be afraid to continue to market on your socials. I like to do the Instagram Stories as I’m often uploading new products to the store. It’s literally that quick and easy to get a product live on Sellfy. Plus, you’re always going to get better by doing things. 

So, I’ll just say go for it because you can always add more products and adjust as you go.