47: Beyond Social Media: Strategies for Marketing Your Hobby Business
In this episode on the HobbyScool podcast, we welcome our guest, Aditi Mishra, a handmade business success coach, who shares valuable insights on marketing a hobby business outside of social media. Aditi draws from her experience to pursue her passion for creative hobbies. She offers three powerful ways to market a hobby business outside of social media, including enhancing the Airbnb experience by offering additional activities or classes for guests.
Aditi also highlights the potential of selling online and shares tips for reaching a global audience and differentiating oneself in a crowded marketplace. From email marketing to exploring various platforms like Etsy, Amazon Handmade, and more, Aditi provides valuable guidance to aspiring handmade business owners.
Join us on this episode of HobbyScool as we uncover alternative ways to market a hobby business outside of the traditional social media platforms. Whether you're a seasoned creator or just starting out, this episode is packed with actionable tips and strategies to help you succeed in your hobby business journey. Tune in now!
Thinking Outside the Social Media Box: Ways to Market Your Hobby Business
In the digital age, social media has become the go-to platform for promoting businesses and connecting with potential customers. However, there are alternative ways to market your hobby business that can help you reach a wider audience and increase your sales. In this episode of HobbyScool, we sit down with Aditi, a handmade business success coach, as she shares three effective strategies for marketing a hobby business outside of social media.
Enhancing the Airbnb Experience
If you are an Airbnb host, offering additional activities or classes for your guests can be a fantastic opportunity to market your hobby business. By leveraging the Airbnb platform, you can attract guests who are interested in learning new skills or exploring unique experiences. For example, if you are skilled at making soaps, you can offer a soap-making class as an add-on experience during their stay. This not only allows you to showcase your craft but also provides an opportunity to sell your handmade products to the participants.
The Power of Email Marketing
Selling online can be challenging, especially when trying to reach a global audience. While social media platforms are a common choice for selling, there needs to be a unique element that sets you apart. This is where email marketing comes into play. Building your own email list gives you more control over reaching and engaging with your target audience. By offering valuable content, exclusive promotions, and personalized recommendations, you can establish a deeper connection with your customers and increase sales. Aditi emphasizes the importance of email marketing as a means to differentiate yourself and stand out in a crowded market.
Expanding Beyond Etsy
Etsy has long been a popular platform for hobbyist sellers to showcase and sell their handmade products. While it is a great starting point to gain confidence and test the waters, it may not be the right platform for long-term growth. Aditi suggests starting with multiple platforms, including Etsy, Amazon Handmade, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. As your business expands, it is essential to transition away from relying solely on Etsy. Many successful sellers eventually establish their own independent online stores, like Shopify, where they have more control over their branding, fees, and the overall shopping experience.
Conclusion
In this episode, we learned that there are effective alternatives to social media for marketing your hobby business. By enhancing the Airbnb experience, leveraging email marketing, and expanding beyond Etsy, you can tap into new markets and boost your sales. Aditi's insights provide valuable guidance for hobbyists looking to develop successful handmade businesses and find creative ways to connect with their target audience. Remember, while social media is a powerful tool, exploring these alternative strategies can help you break through the noise and stand out in the digital landscape.
So, if you're ready to take your hobby business to the next level, go beyond social media and embrace these innovative marketing approaches. Success awaits those who are willing to think outside the box and explore new avenues of promotion. Happy crafting and good luck on your entrepreneurial journey!
Mentioned In This Episode
Where to find Aditi: Website
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Transcript:
And my special guest today is Aditi, who is a handmade business success coach. She is a handmade hobby seller turn digital handmade Product Seller helping Creatives achieve success. And Aditi, I am super excited to jump into this topic with you. And we're going to be talking about three ways to market your hobby business outside of social media. And you have some very unique things that we're going to be talking about. And I am super excited to jump into this with you. But before we do that, can you tell the audience just a little bit more about you and how you help people? Thanks Destini, for inviting me for this. The thing is about, you can say a decade back I left my corporate career and started spending all my time into hobbies, all the creative Hobies.
And there were so many of them, mostly like crocheting, knitting, doing something with the papercraft. I started doing all of those and soap making, candle making, everything. And I had lots of friends who wanted to buy all of that. And that's when I realized that anything that you can do is sellable. So anything made by hand can be turned into a business. So I kept doing it, doing it, doing it. And after ten years now I tell people or teach people or show people how they can turn their hobbies into a handmade business. So this is what I'm doing these days.
Moving on to that. People generally ask how do they end up selling? Especially selling online. That becomes like a chase because it's not that easy to reach the global audience. Obviously, you can sell to people whom you know personally, but selling somebody whom we have never met before is a difficult task these days. We all know there's social media, but there has to be something beyond that. Because again, social media everybody is doing because that barrier to entry is very small, it's free, anybody can start on it. So what is that something different that you can do than what others are actually not started doing? So there I can be of some help. So mostly the three ways that I tell people they can try is first is the email marketing.
I'm sure, Destini, you will also agree that email marketing is the thing. Even if you're on social media, you need people somewhere where you can have a direct contact with them. So their email marketing helps. Email newsletters, like monthly, weekly, whatever. The point is to stay in touch with your audience. That way, if not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, day after tomorrow, you can connect with them. The second one is which you really find interesting, and anybody will find that interesting, which they have never really heard before, is the airbnb experiences.
First, a disclaimer. To get into this, you have to be an airbnb host because this thing is only available for people who have already listed their house, home, whatever on an airbnb. So let's say you are an airbnb host. You get that added privilege to showcase an experience. By experience, I mean it could be anything, literally anything. Something which is tangible. So let's say it could be a cooking class, it could be, again, a crochet doing classes. It could even be taking somebody for a walk somewhere, a nature walk, anything like that.
If you get that idea that let's say somebody has come to your house, you can upsell them by showing them a tangible physical thing, as in teaching them something or showing them something where you are with them, showing them what to do. So that could be your handmade hobby. It could be, know, creating soaps or creating candles or anything bizarre. It could be suing. Also anything that you can show to them, which will be over and above being an airbnb host. So, Adina, let's jump into this a little bit more because I'm definitely fascinated by this, because this is something unique, right? And before we jump into this, I do want to comment on the email marketing because absolutely I agree with you, that is something I think every online business owner needs to be creating their own email list and growing their audience via email is something that we own, right? You don't own the social media accounts. You can't guarantee that your information or your posts are even getting shown out on social media. So doing that via email and setting up that email newsletter I think is critical.
So what you're suggesting here for the airbnb experience, so let's say that somebody has a home or that they're going to put out on airbnb, maybe it's a bedroom in their home or whatever. You're suggesting that in addition to inviting them to have that airbnb kind of experience there, you're going to add just a little bit more. You're going to say, oh, in addition to this, you can get a class on making soaps or I'll show you exactly how to do it. That is very unique. So talk about have you seen anybody do this or have you done this yourself? Tell us a little bit more about this. I've been on the other end, as in I've taken a class. I was in Indonesia in Ubud, and I took the people who were hosting me, they were doing a jewelry classes. I mean, they were showing people how to make those beaded jewelry, wooden jewelry, all that sort of stuff.
So that's where I learned that apart from letting people in your house, you can also upsell them what you are doing, the creations. So I took a jewelry class there. I learned from that. That is so interesting. And I also like the suggestion you have about maybe taking them on a nature walk. Let's say if you have a cabin in the woods or whatever, that's another experience that you can kind of upsell them. And I know that's not necessarily a handmade product, but you can kind of tie in some of your handmade items to that. So that's very interesting.
Sorry to cut you short. I've seen people taking people to a live barbecue session as well. So tell us a little bit about that. How does that work? Let's say again? You said you have a house in the woods, a cabin in the woods or whatever, so I assume barbecuing would be a normal thing for you. And most of the people do not have that privilege of having a barbecue right in front of them because they're probably living in cities, in urban places. So you teach them how to put the coal, I'm sure. Destini you must have done it sometime in your life. It's not that easy to put fire on that barbecue chilled grill thing.
So you teach them what kind of wood pellets you use. You put fire to it. Then it's not like you put your fish, chicken, lamb, steak, whatever it is, directly onto it. You need to first marinate it in a certain way, then start the fire, put it on a simmer, then put it on high, that kind of stuff. And how much to heat, how long to heat fish has required different temperatures, that sort of so I love that. I love the idea of combining, like, a cooking class with your airbnb experience. So that is amazing. So, moving on, tell us about your third way that you suggest that people can market their business, their hobby business outside of social media.
Okay. The third one is the QR codes. All of us are using QR codes these days. So it's basically turning, let's say, our URL, or your social media handles or even a link to your shop into a QR code. There is a simple website where you can turn any URL into a QR code. So that way you have, what do you say, a picture form of whatever website you want your audience to go to so that you can print almost everywhere in every stationery, in every branding material that you have. That could even be your card or the product that you have already sold, anything where you can just tag your QR code. So that way your brand travels a lot more.
So somebody who has bought they also have a tagline with your QR code. So someone who's watching that product can also use their QR code scanner to reach to your landing page. That landing page could be a website, social media or whatever, anything. It's like direct contact to your brand for an audience. So tell us about how people can actually create these QR codes. Do you suggest they go to Canva to do it, or is there another system you recommend? There are so many websites. Destini they are just QR code maker, QR code scanner. There's so many free websites.
I can get back to you on the exact one, but normally I use the QR code maker. Okay. We can include the link for that in the show notes. People can go there and find that. I can put it on the chat box for you. Okay, that's fine. So, Adeni, any last minute tips for handmade business sellers? People who are maybe making soaps and candles like you have done in the past, and they're really struggling to get started. They're struggling to get their message out in the world.
They feel like nobody knows who they are, even though they have this amazing product to share with the world. What would you suggest they do to get started? The first and foremost thing is to niche down. You can't be doing everything for everyone. Like, I also started that way and later I realized why I was not making a lot of business. Although I was doing everything, the answer was there itself. I was doing everything. You have to decide what you want to do. So best way to do is to get to your niches.
Make up in your mind whom do you want to sell to? If you have that persona of that ideal audience in your mind, then it is very easy to go back and do something to please that audience. Otherwise you will end up being everything for everyone and nobody will buy from you. It will be very difficult to sell everything. So decide on one thing. Let's say you're good with jewelry. It takes less time and you can charge more for it to go with jewelry. Otherwise go with something else. I mean, you need to take that call.
That what will be the best use of your time, best use of your creativity and what gives you the maximum amount of profit out of it. So I would say niching down is the best thing because then you get known for one thing. So how would you suggest people niche down? Let's say they have maybe they're making soap or they have a candle. How do you niche down for a product like that? What do you recommend? As I said, picking up something as per what you want to sell to? Whom do you want to sell to an ideal avatar of your customer. That is what you need to work on. Let's do it with an example. Destini. I would say I want an audience because I mostly sell digital products these days.
My best avatar is a person who has just started their handmade business and they're confused. They're doing it, but they don't know what they are doing. They need more organization. They need to be more organized. They need to know what they're doing. They need to manage their business. So that is my ideal audience. And if I say in terms of geography that's a person living in America, living in a U.S. citizen would be an ideal audience for me because I have realized they are the ones who consume most of the digital products. I am from India. I know an Indian is not my ideal audience. So I went back and I went to my vision board and I started taking notes of what would that person want. Then I realized they are again somebody who don't know how to do social media. They don't know what kind of soaps they are making. They don't know how to budget things, how to manage things, how to keep a track of the inventory, or they're stuck with their email list. So I collected all those points and then I went back with each of their problem statements.
And then I started creating content on those problem statements. That way I was able to lead on to them and they could find me because they are the problems. They must be typing on Google. And that's when on search results my website would pop up. So you can say it was SEO playing that part. But before SEO I knew whom I was targeting. Does that make sense? Destini? Yeah, absolutely. So I want to talk about it in terms of, let's say somebody is making soap.
And my husband, I'll just go ahead and put him out here. He absolutely loves soap. He loves soap and candles. So I'm always taking them to the candle shops or the places where make soap. So let's say that somebody wants to target a male with their soap making business. So they have that avatar in there. How would they go about starting attracting somebody like that online? Would they start with content? Would they start with their website? Where would you recommend that they start? I would recommend they first start with some social media handle because that wouldn't cost you anything. It's as easy as saying the mistakes are not that big.
So you first start with social media and you start creating generic content, whatever you feel like just throwing up all that data. Then whatever starts picking up whichever content you will definitely make reels when it's on Instagram. So whichever reel is picking up from there, you take data that what was there in that reel that made it popular. By popular I mean obviously in relative terms of whatever content you have. From there you start making more of that content and then that's how you will reach to your target audience. Once you know that, then you put up some link tree kind of a link on your social media where you can ask people to have a look there. There you can put up a small lead magnet or something like that to collect information. By information we mean collect email IDs of your target audience.
Once, let's say you have a sizable amount of them, let's say 100, then you work on your website and then you create content as per that avatar and start mailing those people that see hey, you saw my content on social media. This is what I do and my website where you can see more of my work. Let's start from there. So that way you go from step by step, the first social media just throwing out, take it, use it like a dumping ground for whatever you do. It's like showing all your flavors to your target audience, generic audience. From there, whoever picks up, you make that as a sample data and show them more of what you do that way. I think that all of those are great tips and things that people who are just starting out should do. The other question I have for you, Adidi, is I know a lot of handmade sellers.
They are considering or they're thinking about Etsy and thinking about should I do it, should I not do it? What do you generally recommend your clients to do with that? Do you think they should when they're starting or what do you recommend? See, as I said about social media, you should dump everything. I would give the same advice there. Start everything. Why not just Etsy? Start with Etsy, start with Amazon Handmade, start with Instagram, start with Pinterest, start with everything. From there, whatever starts picking up, go after that. Etsy is very good for starting out. But as you know, Destini, Etsy has a lot of, what do you say, the margin that they charge from your product. So it's good if you have a small business, but as you grow, you need to grow out of Etsy as well.
So Etsy is good to get confidence, to dip your feet in the water. But after a certain point of time when you're successful, then you move on from that, what do you say, that platform. But to start with, be everywhere, wherever you can be. And I know some people that I've known in the past that have been handmade sellers, they started on Se and then they got big enough and then they're like, I got to get my own shopify store, right, to start selling these. So that's what I've seen in the past. And I'm certainly not, I wouldn't consider myself an expert in that area or not. But Adidi, before we wrap it up here, any last minute tips for the audience? Just keep doing whatever you are doing, it will land you somewhere. Just keep doing it.
You need to do a lot of it, lot of it to realize what you are good at. So most of the I coach people and I've always seen that creative people do a lot of stuff because I was also doing the same thing. Because generally, I'm sure, Destini, you also must have noticed this, creative people have their hands everywhere. Because they're creative, they put their hand everywhere, they do everything and then they get confused which one to do more. There it gets challenging. There it gets challenging. So I would say keep doing everything. Do what people like.
If you're selling, then whatever sells, do more of that or do more what you enjoy, but don't stop. Just keep doing it. And I love that advice. Just be consistent. If you're consistent and you're moving forward, definitely action creates clarity, and I can say absolutely amen to that on my end. Now, Adini, before we wrap it up, can you let everybody know where they can find you? And I believe you have a free gift for them also. Sure, Destini. My website is very simple.
As I spoke, people I help creatives sell more. So it's simple. Handmadeselling.com Handmadeselling.com is my website. Otherwise, the free gift that I have, I've created a special Bitly link for this zoom call that's bitly Hobbybusinesses hobby business. It's hobbybusiness. And we will make sure that all of those links are in the show notes. And indeed, thank you so much for joining me today. I love chatting with you.
And one more thing, Destini, before I forget. In the chat message, I have shared a link to one of the QR code creators. Okay. And I did see that. And I will make sure that that link and all of the links that you gave me for your website and for the free gift are in the show notes, too. Thank you so much, Destini. Thank you. Bye.