Attention Vendors: Marketing is a Necessity for Our Success
Dear Vendors of Homesteaders Co-op,
Last Wednesday we had our first official Homesteaders Co-op voice meeting in our discord group. It is my intention that we learn to operate more and more as a co-operative. And this last meeting is helping us take steps in that direction.
It has come to our attention that our biggest challenge going forward is marketing our community marketplace.
Marketing is essential to our success. We are a niche marketplace. Actually our marketplace is a niche within a niche (homesteaders marketplace within a steem community). Since we are so niche, new and small, we need to get the word out there in order to succeed. This means out there on steem, but also out there in our other circles whether online or offline.
In our meeting we realized that because we are a co-operative it should be every vendor's responsibility to market their store and Homesteaders Co-op.
Our success will rely on everyone's effort as a co-operative. Our contributors, myself included, have been putting a lot of effort into marketing the Homesteaders Co-op. Last month we spent a lot of time organizing together, working out schedules and identifying the need for curation of our community efforts, our products and our vendors.
Our contributors are working hard on curation plans to help promote our Co-op. For example @senorcoconut is working on a new weekly curation to highlight a featured vendor of the week. We are now promoting 3 featured products of the week. And many of our curators are working hard to promote our co-op in other meaningful ways.
While being rewarded with some steem payouts for their work, most of our contributors don't even have their own store and are making these efforts as volunteers because they see value in the co-op's success for our community at large.
We realize that now we should organize to help, to inspire and to motivate all of our vendors to promote their stores and our Homesteaders Co-op, because it will take everyone's effort to succeed.
This was also suggested: Vendors should be required to make effort to promote their store and Homesteaders Co-op.
We are considering adding this requirement: Each vendor should make some effort to promote their products and Homesteaders Co-op at least once a month - both in steem and out of steem. We want our marketplace to be a vibrant, active marketplace, where all vendors are participating in marketing our co-op.
I am a fan of this idea because it is asking each vendor to not only take responsibility for marketing their own products, but also play an active role in promoting our co-operative - a very important role. Once a month would be a very gentle requirement - even the busiest of homesteaders should be able to find time to make some effort at least once a month to help promote their store and Homesteaders Co-op.
Actually, I think vendors that are serious about achieving success in their business should make effort to promote themselves more often if they can manage.
I feel that we will be implementing this requirement in the near future, unless there are some objections with good reason not to. For those vendors that missed the meeting, this is your opportunity to share your thoughts on the subject.
Speaking of meetings, we will be holding our Homesteaders Co-op meeting every other week. This is an opportunity for any member of the co-operative to participate in your co-operative.
Since this is a co-operative we (that attended the last meeting) decided that we are going to do our best to help our vendors have the information they need to succeed.
We have already made a #vendor-marketing channel in our discord server and we will be making some posts with advice, examples, tutorials and tools to help you market your store. They will be compiled in one place in discord and possibly also in our website.
Keep an eye out for some more messages coming in the near future with advice and tips for marketing your stores!
I look forward to your questions and feedback!
@Riverflows, @allyinspirit, @astrizak, @bghandmade, @carey-page, @celestialcow, @crescendoofpeace, @drapis, @eaglespirit, @eco-alex, @elamental, @flemingfarm, @frejafri, @irenethemachine, @makinstuff, @mountainjewel, @ofsedgeandsalt, @papa-pepper, @ppmsilver, @professorbromide, @purplemoon, @quochuy, @ravenking13, @sagescrub, @silviabeneforti, @sunscape, @thistle-rock, @trucklife-family, @walkerland
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Thanks for that @Sagescrub. I already told you but so that others who may read this comment, I have been referring to HSCO ro friends and family as "The Etsy for Homesteaders".
That's my easy way to talk about it when I bring it up. I thought it could be useful for others to call it that if you wish.
Yeah that is easy for most people to understand as a starting point :) I have been using that also to start conversations about what HSCO is.
We do realize that it is up to the whole community to promote and support one another on this grand adventure. I have always been a self-promotor all across the social media platforms and had no problem promoting #homesteaderscoop from the moment I opened the storefront. It is to my best interest and the success of the whole endeavor that I do my part. I admire all that you all are doing to make this a success for us all. Thank you so much @sagescrub
Thank you @sunscape! You are doing great! I realize that my post may have come off a bit harsh. Its certainly not meant to be blame or calling anyone out. Rather it is meant to be sharing the reality of where we are and what we need to do collectively to succeed. Some of the vendors will have more experience, others are completely new and never had an online store or a need to promote themselves before this co-op experience. And so this conversation is meant to bring us all together in the marketing effort... it is very true that many vendors are already on the ball with this... and we are working out how to inspire, teach or motivate everyone. I am really excited what we have accomplished and look forward to see where we go from here!
Oh sagescrub, I did not find the article harsh at all. I get it! Everyone is in a different place and support is always welcome in any way it comes. I think you are doing a wonderful job and the team you are working with. I know it is not easy. I have been online for 20 years and know what it takes. ;-)
Thank you very much. Good to know! Sometimes I get insecure about asking too much of people -- I appreciate you and others confirming here that this is the right direction! Team work!! :)
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
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!!! 😃👌🏽
"Each vendor should make some effort to promote their products and Homesteaders Co-op at least once a month - both in steem and out of steem." Once a month? Once a WEEK. Enjoying to see the HSCOOP growing. Resteeming to do my little bit.... my new WP blog will carry a free advertisement--link for you, at the suggestion of my talented web guru @eco-alex.... just one small way I can contribute.
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I agree that frequent (but perhaps not too frequent on the spammy side) marketing is important for success. Thank you for confirming this with your own business experience.
Oh you are so generous to consider helping promote us from your blog!! You are so thoughtful and kind @artemislives and so is @eco-alex. I appreciate you both so much :)
'Spammy' is just a hallmark of low creativity. The vendors putting themselves and their story "out there" is mostly enough... consistently... people will go looking for their products eventually. Talk & post about lifestyle & problem solving. Old style ideas about spamming people every other day are just that... old. But same goes for too many newsletters, too many competitions etc etc 😉 People turn off. Diversity & value in all our communications is paramount. 🌱
Yes! We should speak truth from our hearts and embrace diversity! :)
I think anyone trying to run a business will realise that they have to promote themselves anyway, but maybe some who are new to it might not be aware how important it is. Might I suggest that rather than using the approach of making it a "requirement" (it feels like a word that puts pressure on) it could be put forward as a suggestion on how to market yourself. Perhaps a little article to be directed to, which explains how doing little bits of marketing at least once a month will build awareness of your business, with some suggestions of how it could be achieved. Suggesting that promoting HSCO benefits everyone with a store on there, including themselves and in turn promoting themselves benefits HSCO as a whole.
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Thanks for this feedback @minismallholding!! I agree with what you say bout promoting HSCO benefits everyone involved. This is exactly the reason why we started HSCO in the first place, so that all vendors involved can benefit from our combined, collaborative efforts to market our businesses. I think you alluded to that nicely in the post you just made.
I appreciate your feedback about not making it requirement. Initially I didn't like imposing the requirement but I was won over by a few others that suggested that the success of the marketplace depends on the co-operative effort of many. If the marketing just comes from one or a few people then we are still stuck in the "business" and dependence mindset.
Well I don't like the idea of imposing or forcing a requirement. But then again I think its important that vendors understand the value of what they are getting for free, and the responsibility that comes with a community marketplace. We are already asking vendors to contribute with upvotes and delegations. This is a requirement, but we don't really impose it or enforce it. We don't expect it. We just say this is your responsibility, should you choose to accept it. I think we can take the same approach with the marketing like you suggested and keep it a requirement, or a pledge, that is strongly encouraged but not strictly enforced.
I think the main thing we want to avoid is vendors that upload their products and put no effort into the co-op or into steem while benefiting from the efforts of others in the community. I am not sure if we can avoid that without enforcing some requirements but I like your approach. It really is a different mindset than what some of us might be used to, because for example I can put my products on etsy and do nothing and still get some orders (assuming my products are desirable) because it is already established, it has a large marketing budget and it is not a niche marketplace.
It will be interesting to hear other feedback - I hope others chime in.
Request would be a good word to. :)
I'm just going on my reaction to the word, really, being not such a confident person myself. If I'm not sure I can fulfill a requirement, I will just leave it and not sign up. That's why I wonder if suggestions/tips on marketing would be good as not everyone knows how to market.
It's hard to imagine the sort of people who would fit as vendors not putting in any effort, but I guess you can never tell.
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Thank you @minismallholding. I really appreciate the feedback. I do think this is on the right track of request or suggestion rather than requirement. That is along the same tone of our "pledges" that we are asking our vendors to honor the free service.
The tips for marketing are certainly something we are going to be working on and some of us are already brainstorming and starting on putting ideas together here :) Thank you!
Thank you for communicating this! Marketing has always been a bit hard for me, I never like to sell myself too much, but on the other hand I also enjoy doing it from time to time. I think once a month is very doable, to still be enjoyable too!
Thanks for the feedback @frejafri! In seeing all the comments I am now realizing that the most important thing is opening this discussion with vendors and encouraging each other to learn how to market our stores together and as a team, perhaps even a little friendly competition - but reminding each other that as we are marketing our shops, we are all lifting the co-op higher collectively!
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