🎧 Listen to this blog post as a Podcast instead 'Can you have a handmade business without social media?'

A question I'm asked on a regular basis is "do I have to be on social media to make sales in my handmade business?" Join us as we explore this intriguing question.

From examining the reasons why you might have resistance to social media marketing, to alternative marketing strategies and discussing the pros and cons of social media presence. We'll help you determine if going social-free is a viable option for your handmade business.

Remember, you're the boss - your marketing strategy needs to suit you, your life and what you want to do in your handmade business.

Tune in for valuable insights that might just reshape your approach to digital marketing.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the How To Be A Handmade Boss Blog. 

I’m gonna be talking about ‘can you have a handmade business without social media?’ One thing I will say is you are the boss, you are the person that ultimately created the business to suit your life and what you wanna do. 

Why do I have resistance towards social media marketing?

So, when people say to me, do I have to be on social media? Is this a thing that I have to do? A lot of the time, I would be asking myself “why do I have this resistance towards socials?”

I'm sure it's because we see the likes of Kim Kardashian. Where they are constantly online and broadcast everything in their lives. But, that really isn't what social media for a handmade business is all about. A lot of these accounts that are appearing to always be online, have a whole social media team behind them.

For example, I actually have help with my social media. And you might look at that and say, Oh my God, she's always on Instagram or Facebook, how does she find the time? Most of the time, I am doing other things. I'm not always on Instagram, posting stories or doing reels… it’s my team.

If you're looking at someone else and thinking that's not the kind of thing that I want, look a little deeper and assess whether what you're viewing is actually the true reality of it. 

Looking at why social media has a negative connotation is another great thing. I get a lot of people who are worried about being judged or feeling not good enough… either personally or within their handmade business.

There's a level of anxiety, I’m a health anxiety sufferer myself, so I get it. We have a wall in front of us at times, and our brains are literally just not letting us get past that point.

What people think of me is none of my business

But, people will always judge you, whether you are aware of it or not. They’ll always have an opinion as to what you're doing, what you're selling, what price you're charging. A bit like when you’re looking at a competitor's page, you’re naturally going to be judging how much they're charging, what their pictures are like, what their SEO is like, etc.

Try brushing it off in the same way, understanding that people are going to have thoughts and opinions, but it's not really necessarily my business, I'm not supposed to read people's thoughts and assume what they're thinking. A mantra that I've always had is what people think of me is none of my business.

And honestly, a lot of the time, people are actually a lot more worried about themselves rather than you. If you’re putting your face on an Instagram story, you've taken a selfie, you're at the beach or you're out for a walk and you’re thinking, do I look okay? Are people going to judge me? 

I'd be like, you know what? Yes, people might go, oh, she's got a spot on her forehead or her eyebrows are a little bit bushy. But that is literally going to be a fleeting split second thought that crosses their minds. Maybe it might not even register with their conscious mind. And they're going to go back to their day and their worries.

People are often more worried about themselves and what's going on in their own lives than worrying about you and what you're posting on your business page. But I do know it's really difficult at times to silence these worries.

I just don't have the time for social media marketing 

Another resistance could be time, are you looking at social media marketing and saying, I don't have time to really cater and curate really lovely aesthetically pleasing posts that portray my business as some kind of professional identity and brand. 

That's one thing that I would 100% say you do not need. I'm quite kind of known for being a little bit lazy and a little bit like I don't really care what people think of me. So I will post selfies in my pyjamas, and I will own the fact that I haven't shaved my legs in a week and they are horrendously bushy. I will own all of that because my followers have become so much more engaged with me on a personal level. I've dropped this rose-tinted veil and just actually portray what running to multi-six-figure businesses is actually like, and it is not all glitz and glamour and loveliness.

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So really look at your concerns around time and ask yourself, so is this time thing, or more because I think I have to portray myself a certain way?  What I'm saying to you is you absolutely don't. In fact, especially with a handmade business owner, is that actually people would prefer it if you didn't do that.

It's kind of like going to a craft fair, in your Fendi jeans and your Louis Vuitton handbag, your Gucci glasses, overlined lips and you’ve had a fake tan. People are going to naturally be a bit like, oh, I'm a little bit intimidated. I'm not sure how to take you one way or the other.

People are going to be a bit intimidated and a bit like, well, I'm not that polished, am I going to be judged by that person? And that is the complete opposite of what realistically you want people to view you as in your handmade business.

You want people to find you approachable, kind, someone who they can stand and talk to and actually connect with. So as you can imagine, having these perfectly polished posts is, essentially, the same as showing up to a craft fair as a vendor in all of that gear and the whole designer perfectly polished get up versus actually showing up with like an apron, messy hair, no makeup on, and just being you. People will connect with you on such a stronger level.

I really value people being authentically themselves. It builds that trust which is going to bode well for your handmade business because they trust you, your business and your handmade products.

And also as well, I will say, it doesn't matter if you do wear Fendi jeans and have a Louis Vuitton bag and all that kind of thing. If that's the person that you're ultimately wanting to connect with. Be really aware of your target market, the kind of people you want to be attracted to your handmade business and think about whether they would respond to a perfectly polished business brand versus something a little bit more earthy and authentically you really. 

 Is it worth it for me?

With social media marketing people can automatically assume that it is just a way to get eyeballs to their Etsy shop or their own website. And there's almost an internal struggle where you're like, is it really worth me doing Instagram and social media just to get more views? Can’t Etsy just do that for me?

The short answer is, yes, it can. However, you are at the mercy of Etsy. Especially if Etsy changed something for example the Etsy algorithm, or if for some reason Etsy aren't advertising as much that month and not getting new people in. Or, worst case scenario Etsy glitched and stopped working.

I always recommend taking a two-pronged approach, really utilising Etsy traffic, which is great, and also driving your own traffic, so you do have that level of control.

People are going to your social media account to check if you’re legit, to check if you are active, you are who you say you are, to kind of suss you out.

Studies have shown that people go to Facebook and Instagram to look at the trustworthiness of a business and for customer service, because people trust Facebook and Instagram. They know if a business has some kind of long standing presence there, then they aren't just some fly by night person who is just gonna come take their money, go.

Recently, my mum bought a kimono from Etsy, and she didn't do any of the social media ‘checks’ and they never shipped the order. She paid through PayPal, couldn’t remember her login, and it was a whole mess trying to get the money back. It was like a two month endeavour.

When we went on to social media, after the whole thing was done and dusted, we saw they hadn't posted anything since 2022. And at that point, you're thinking, right, okay, if I'd have seen that before I bought, I wouldn't have bought. Because obviously if they're not active, then they're not active in their shop either, right?

Find your home hub

And also kind of coming off of the back of that, if that's alarming you, if you're thinking, oh my God, like I haven't posted for like a year, what does that say about me? Then this is where really looking at your Home Hub will help. It’s the one place where you are going to nurture your customers and you're going to focus your social media marketing efforts.

That can just be Instagram, or Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, wherever your target market is. Focus on that one place, because honestly, it's better to have one presence where you are active and nurturing people to help you build trust, rather than a bunch of platforms that you haven't posted on in six months, because that looks, I would personally say worse, than having no account on there at all.

Start on one, master that first, and then once you have the capacity, the time, the energy, then you can look at expanding. One thing I would ask myself is, is my handmade product something over a certain monetary threshold? Are people gonna buy this straight off the bat without kind of looking me up and sussing me out and making sure that everything is looking good? Especially if you're selling things over, I'd say probably like £80 pounds, where you are gonna have to work just that little bit harder to gain that trust.

With social media, you do have control over your handmade businesses brand voice, how you're gonna come across, the colours, the fonts, the logos, any content pieces you wanna put out there, any educational things that you wanna put out there, blog posts about candles, about crystals, about jewellery, about kids clothes, about crochet, whatever you sell in your handmade business. You have that level of control that perhaps sometimes on Etsy you do not have.

Another question to ask yourself is, is there anything about my product that people really wanna know before they buy it? You can answer it in your social media home hub too.

It's all about the 'know, like and trust' factor

You’ve also got to take into consideration the ‘know, like and trust' factor. That is something that's really hard to do on Etsy because most shops have the same layout.

You know you're gonna go on Etsy, you're gonna find a shop, you're gonna find categories, about section, policies, reviews, and that's pretty much it, right? It's very e-commerce driven on Etsy. But if you are wanting to take that one person who perhaps isn't buying now, but that will buy in six months time, is your target market, then directing them towards your social media home hub is an amazing thing to do because you're going to be able to nurture them.

You're going to be able to keep your brand top of mind for them, which at the end of the day, you are not doing if you don't have social media. What tends to happen? Well, out of 100 people, maybe 95 to 99 of them are going to view, but not buy on Etsy.

What happens to them when they're done, when they click off of your shop? You've lost them forever, right? You've worked darn hard. You've done SEO, great pictures, descriptions, attributes, maybe even Etsy explore videos. You've worked really hard to get them into your Etsy shop, and 99% of them aren't ever going to really see you again, or even know what your name was, right? 

But if we get them across onto your social media home hub, then all of a sudden we've deepened this relationship between you and the person on the other side of the screen.

It's kind of like showing up to a first date in a wedding dress. There's gonna be at least six months to a year worth of getting to know the person, seeing what they like, what their interests are, whether you vibe with them first before you're gonna start planning a freaking wedding. And quite often people do need that additional nurturing.

And that is where social media marketing is a great thing for your handmade business. Now that being said, you don't have to do social media to achieve that. You can do that very, very effectively with just an email list. And if you are utilising Etsy Explore and bringing customers in that way to your Etsy shop. You don't have to be all about socials, socials, socials. 

Have a think about what social media means to you. When you hear the words social media, what do you think of? And is there any way that actually you could use social media in a way that best suits you and your lifestyle? Like I said, you really don't have to be on the platforms 24 hours a day to find any kind of effect with them.

Social media marketing really isn't for me...

One other thing that I did really want to stress here as well is that you can absolutely just use your email list. If you don't want to do social media, but you still want to nurture people, you can create a really amazing email list. I would recommend starting that right from when you start your handmade business.

A bit like your home hub, you would start that right at the beginning of your journey. Compared to social media you are more limited to what you can do. For example, you can't go live with an email list.

Videos are okay, but some of them block videos and graphics, depending on where they are reading the email and their settings. It can be very text heavy, where I think sometimes some people prefer to create content using video, pictures, and using social media can be an easier way of being able to communicate with people. 

If you are gonna go with one versus the other, really look at how you like to create content. Because if you hate writing things out and blogging isn't your thing, maybe even writing a PDF or a guide or even a book isn't really your thing and the idea of it makes you want to squirm, then I would say probably email lists might be something that perhaps you'd want to do later on down the line and maybe social media marketing might be more your bag.

So guys, I really hope that you have enjoyed this blog all about social media marketing for your handmade business. Hit me up on Instagram DMs, because Instagram is my personal home hub. It's where I spend the most time, and I'm always in the DMs.

I would love to hear from you, your ah-hahs from this blog. Thank you guys, and I will catch you in the next one.

 Love Steph xox

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