Have you thought about using Instagram to market your small business? You don't have to be a pro photographer or have a huge following to gain traction on the site. Beth Newitt of Handcrafted Affairs drives sales of her custom hangers and accessories for girls via Instagram, and she and her husband make their living as creatives full-time! With over 6,000 sales on Etsy and over 5,800 followers on Instagram, Beth has discovered strategies that work for her and her business. She sat down with us to spill the beans, and I have to confess, I'm pretty excited to dig in and take action on her excellent advice!
Pinterest may be the go-to site for bloggers to grow, but I'm convinced that Instagram is the go-to site for shop owners to do the same!
Press play on the podcast player below to hear the full story.
On the Podcast2:01 - From DIY Wedding to Handmade Business03:16 - How to Get those First Sales on Etsy05:38 - How to Keep Custom Orders Organized07:03 - 3 Ways to Partner with Bloggers08:39 - How to Find the Right Bloggers and Shop Owners12:11 - Expanding your Products by Thinking Outside the Box13:50 - Why Big Orders Don't Overwhelm Beth14:38 - Getting Started with Giveaways on Instagram17:26 - Everything You Need to Know About Instagram Loop Giveaways24:36 - Tips for Crushing it on Instagram30:01 - How to Find Interesting People on Instagram31:54 - All About StoreEnvy36:11 - Using Instagram for Insta-Sales39:36 - Beth's Tiny PhotoBomber
From DIY Wedding to Handmade BusinessWhen Beth got engaged several years ago, she decided that she wanted a unique, non-cookie cutter wedding. She hopped onto Pinterest, and entered into "serious DIY mode." One of the items Beth created for her wedding was a fancy, personalized hanger with her name spelled out for her wedding dress to hang on.
Beth had a ton of fun creating everything herself, and she received so many compliments on what she made, that she decided to try selling more handmade items to other brides. She set up her Etsy shop, Handcrafted Affairs in 2011, and has been selling beautiful, personalized hangers and other wedding accessories ever since. Beth and her husband, Jason, both make a living at home doing creative work. Jason is a painter who also has an Etsy shop.
How to Get those First Sales on EtsyBeth used four main strategies for growing her Etsy shop in those early days:
Beth doesn't use Etsy receipts for her orders, but instead creates a spreadsheet system that works for her. For each order, Beth includes the name, details about how it will be customized, the color, any gift notes to be included, and the due date for the order.
Beth uses color codes for orders that need to go out more quickly than normal such as one week, or a few days versus her typical 1-2 week turnaround. (Rush orders are highlighted in green so Beth can see at a glance how to prioritize her work each day.)
3 Ways to Partner with BloggersBeth partners with bloggers via Instagram in three key ways:
Which strategies haven't worked so well?Beth tried paid advertising once or twice when she first opened her shop, but that never worked out very well. Beth never saw a great return in the form of click-throughs or purchases from paid advertising. She says it's much better for a new audience to see a photo of her item and a blogger who has a personal connection to the item. For example, a blogger will say, "here's my gorgeous wedding dress on Beth's hanger!" or "Here's my little girl's adorable dress on Beth's hanger!"
How to Find the Right Bloggers and Shop OwnersInstagram has been an incredible tool for Beth's business. From day one, Beth has used it to partner with others to grow her customer base and support the work of other creative entrepreneurs. Beth loves the community of shop owners, moms, bloggers, and entrepreneurs that she's found on Instagram.
Beth took action in a few key ways to build relationships and partnerships with other creatives on Instagram:
With Beth's very particular business of personalized hangers, one might assume that she simply sells them to brides and moves on. However, Beth didn't want to have a seasonal, niche business, so she thought outside the box to figure out what other customers might want a customized hanger. There are plenty of other cases where someone might want a special hanger for something ceremonious or special. One example was for clothing companies to market their products, as we discussed above. Another example is doctors for their white coat ceremonies. Beth recently fulfilled a huge order for a hospital who wanted to purchase a personalized hanger for every single one of their doctors on doctor's day. How cool is that?!
Instagram has opened Beth's eyes to different markets and the possibility of reaching brand new customers.
Why Big Orders Don't Overwhelm BethWith large orders coming in, we were curious about how Beth finds the time to complete them. She said that large orders are often easier to complete, because she can batch each task and streamline her production process. She has the process down to a science at this point!
Beth offers several tips for creating and hosting great giveaways on Instagram.
Get a group of shops and/or bloggers together. Everyone gives away their own prize, but you share the same, beautiful collage graphic (as described above.) The giveaway host will send a tag list, and every shop participating sees the shop below them and tags that shop in their photo on Instagram.
Here's how the process works for someone entering a loop Giveaway:Beth will post her gorgeous giveaway photo on Instagram, and she has tagged the shop below her in the photo. Her followers will see the graphic on Instagram. They like on the photo (which is their entry) then they tap on the photo which shows who was tagged in it. They tap that name and it takes them to the next shop. Once they're on the next shop's Instagram feed, they see the same giveaway graphic in that shop's feed, tap the photo to like it, then tap on the photo to see where the next shop is. Each giveaway entrant goes through this process until they get back to the first graphic they saw. At that point, they know they've completed the loop.
A loop giveaway can increase your followers and get your products in front of new eyes. Ideally, all of your followers would go through and see all the shops in the giveaway. Hopefully, they'll find other great products and shops they like and may return later as a customer.
Beth gave us a word of caution for loop giveaways: Expect to lose some followers after the giveaway ends. After the winner is announced, expect to lost about 10-20% of those new followers you gained from the giveaway.On the other hand, by doing loop giveaways, Beth has gained great followers who are loyal customers and supporters of her work. Even if a follower doesn't end up winning the giveaway, if they love what you do, they'll purchase your products, recommend you to other people by tagging their friends on your posts, and it becomes a snowball effect in gaining new customers and more exposure. (Who said Instagram marketing for your small business couldn't be fun?!)
How many followers does Beth gain with each giveaway?Beth says that she averages about 200 new followers for each loop giveaway.
There's another type of giveaway that would get Beth thousands of followers. Here's why she chooses not to do them:Cash loop giveaways can net you thousands of followers if you participate in them. Here's how they work. A group of shops or bloggers might pull their money together and give away $800 of paypal cash or a $600 target gift card. So many people are interested in entering these giveaways that your follower numbers can skyrocket, but you'll lose many more of these followers when the giveaway ends (Beth says 50-70% of these giveaway entrants will unfollow you!), and even those that stay aren't quality followers who will help your bottom line.The people who enter cash giveaways aren't actually interested in the shops or blogs participating - they just wanted the cash. When the giveaway is over, that winner has no deeper connection with your products or your brand. They're gone.
When Beth does a giveaway, she gives the winners shop credit since her items are customized. But her giveaway winners often purchase way more than just what they won in store credit, and if they love the item, they'll come back for more later or tell their friends. Each giveaway winner becomes one more loyal customer who will spread the word about your brand and products.
Beth says she could do a cash giveaway once a week and have 50,000 followers on Instagram by now, but they wouldn't be quality followers. The important thing for her is business growth via happy, loyal customers, not vanity metrics.
Tips for Crushing it on InstagramWhen we called her an expert at Instagram, Beth balked at that title! She says she's still learning a ton and simply uses trial and error along with getting advice from other shops and bouncing ideas off of each other. However, she has several great tips for being successful on Instagram.
As with any form of social media, "the more involved you are, the more benefit you see from it."
How to Find Interesting People on InstagramHashtags. Beth searchd hashtags of things that interested her, such as handmade or motherhood-related hashtags.Beth has a Love/Hate Relationship with Etsy. They're fantastic in terms of giving her wedding traffic, but Etsy takes a fair amount of fees and there's fierce competition on the site.
Recently, Beth decided to branch out and focus on products for little girls and their mothers. She creates toddler fanny packs, called park packs (they are adorable!) and mom/daughter bracelet sets.
Beth wanted some separation between her wedding-focused Etsy shop and her new products, so she opened a StoreEnvy shop, and she pushes all her traffic from Instagram to come there instead of to Etsy. Beth is using it as an experiment to see how much traffic she's pushing on her own versus the traffic she gets from Etsy search.
StoreEnvy doesn't take fees unless someone finds you through their marketplace (in that case it's a 10% fee) but if you send customers there via email, Instagram, or other forms of social media, you only pay the payment processing fees for that customer.
Using Instagram for Insta-SalesBeth loves using flash sales to sell items directly on Instagram. Selling on Instagram? How does that even work?
What if someone doesn't want to post their paypal email for the public to see?You can comment on the photo and say, "I will DM you my email" and then they send their email via direct message on Instagram. This way, they can still participate but they feel more secure about the transaction.Not only can Beth send her customers invoices via Paypal, she can print the shipping labels through the interface also.
Another Example of a Great Flash Sale:Beth made a cute little piggy bracelet, but there was a defect in the leather so she said "Sale on this - 50% off because there's a nick in the leather) within 10 minutes Beth had two customers who wanted it.
Beth's Tiny PhotoBomberBeth admits that as a first-time mom with a 20 month old daughter, everything is a cute, adorable mom moment! Tune in to hear about Beth's little photo-bomber and her latest obsession.
Essential Tools For InstagramBeth dropped us a line to shaare even more great advice on Insta! She listed her favorite apps and tools for making the most of the site.
Bazaart - Easily erases backgrounds on photos, great for collage makingPolyvore - Great for "shopping" to find clothes, accessories, etc to make collages with. You can clip images from any website and erase background to create great "outfit of the day" postsRhonna Designs - Great for adding text, badges, etc to your photos. Stylish.Flipagram - Beth says, "I haven't actually used this, but I've experimented with it and plan to use it soon to show my whole line of bracelets in one post."Squaready - Takes any photo you have and makes it into a square so that it's IG readyYour Followers - Beth says, "I do pay attention to unfollowers and new followers, especially after giveaways, to see what is effective and what is not!"
Stay in Touch with Beth!Instagram: @handcraftedaffairsEtsy: HandcraftedAffairs.Etsy.comStoreEnvy: HandcraftedAffairs.StoreEnvy.com
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