RE: Attention Vendors: Marketing is a Necessity for Our Success
I have never heard of a business succeeding without advertisement. Whether it’s online, storefront, home business...it’s through word of mouth or some type of advertisement that helps gets a company on it’s feet and running.
Before I received the vendor role I was already advertising this Co-Op because I love the project and want it to succeed. I couldn’t wait to do my first purchase post to share with people what type of products and customer service HSCO has to offer. I understand what @minismallholding is saying, some people might not be as confident or comfortable with doing this type of advertisement. They may feel they would be pressuring people to purchase their products or somewhat begging. But when you have a new Marketplace such as this, products won’t always sell on their own. You have to market this Co-op and give people a reason to visit so that they can find your products. If we don’t advertise and show how great this marketplace is then people won’t make it there to view any products.
I grew up in a family that were always taking on business ventures. It’s easy for me to be excited about advertisement because I’m used to doing so. A Vendor has to take on a salesman/saleswoman role. Think of it this way, if you’re not shouting about how great your products are, why customers should try your products and showing off your work, why would someone be confident in your products? If you’re not showing confidence in your work then customers might pass along and lean towards those who are. I’m not saying everyone who doesn’t advertise isn’t confident in their products but on a business aspect that’s what it looks like. I would choose a Vendor who is proudly and bodily saying
Here’s my work, if you love this and that then my products are for you! I am offering a, b and c! You will love my products because of...!
HSCO has already set the stage for every Vendor to be successful, now we have to take the torch and run! It’s up to us how successful we want to be! I want my handmade products to land in people’s home so they can benefit from them and enjoy them. In order for that to happen I need to find ways for them to want my products. I’ve done the work to prepare them but the work doesn’t stop there...
I am currently working on my inventory with hopes to open my store next month. Next week I plan on making a ’What’s to Come’ post advertising some of my product line-up and listing other products I plan to sell. It’s pretty much a preview of my store to get others excited about what I have to offer. I think it would help sells if Vendors posted about new products they have added. Honestly I wouldn’t have known about this Co-op if it wasn’t for the @homesteaderscoop account. I found you all through a competition you were running about making a purchase review. So if I haven’t ran into any individual advertising of a store it shows there is not enough advertising going on.
Another thought is maybe having those that do advertise on a regular basis share how it’s raised their product sells!! How has advertising made a difference for them?!! I think it’s a good idea that you added Vendor marketing to the Discord group to guide us and show us how to be successful in this :)
Thank you @crosheille! I really appreciate how you have been an advocate of HSCO and have been helping share with your audience our qualities, even before opening your store. I noticed @allyinspirit and @papa-pepper taking this approach also - I think its a great approach to getting people excited about what you are excited about!!
I really love everything that you have said here and there are so many important points. Like you I have worked in small businesses and consulted small businesses and I know the massive challenge of marketing a business and the importance of marketing for success. But I feel that there are those that haven't learned those lessons or skills that we can all help and nudge as a community.
The whole point of this conversation is helping us figure out how to do that. I realized I left out an important piece from this post - this conversation started with the idea of starting a vendor mentorship program - to teach vendors how to market their business. But then it was pointed out that that most people won't have time for that type of one on one mentorship, but yet it is important that vendors take on the responsibility of marketing their store and our co-op - since after all we want to operate as a co-operative. And so that is how the idea came about for providing tips and tricks and tutorials, etc that vendors can use to learn how to market their business.
Thanks for reminding me about the contest because we haven't done one of those purchase contests in a while and maybe it would make sense to run one again... but yeah there is so much we can all do to keep encouraging each other to build this up together!
I really like what you are saying here. Do you have any thoughts on a tasteful way to encourage/execute this as a community?
Thanks so much for your feedback and ideas!
Thank you @sagescrub! It has been a pleasure sharing about the qualities of this co-operative!
The mentorship program is a really great idea. I agree that most people probably won’t have the time but there’s nothing wrong with having it available for those that do. There might be some that want to learn one on one and take the time to become a better marketer to better their business. But I think it’s great to have a place for us to go to to look up tips and tricks you and the contributors provide.
Since you have noticed @allyinspirit and @papa-pepper taking on this approach maybe you could start with them. See if they would like to share what they have noticed from getting their audience excited about their products. They can share about it on Discord in the Vendor marketing section. I think reading about a Vendor’s success would be great motivation for others ;)
Thank you for this feedback @crosheille :) These are good ideas! @mountainjewel actually already posted some marketing tips today inspired by this discussion!
Oh that’s great! I’ll be checking them out!!! 😃👌🏽