Tag: marketing for creatives

5 Types of Content to Share with your Audience

5 Types of Content to Share with your Audience

Content is the name of the game. We have to develop content for social media platforms, newsletters, press and sometimes it can be overwhelming. If you’ve ever felt like what else can I say to my audience, here are 5 ideas of content you can share:

  1. Share your business story – Tell your audience how you got started and share your why. You can even break up the content and share snippets of it from time to time.
  2. Share your inspiration – Share the things that have inspired your creations. Inspiration can come from our loved ones, art, encounters, etc. . Be sure to tell the story of why / how you were inspired.
  3. Share video content – Get creative with video content and share multiple aspects of your business including your processes, successes, and struggles. It’s all a part of the journey and believe it or not, your audience wants to know more of your story.
  4. Share your Maker Tools – As a maker, you have a huge advantage over those who don’t create their own products. You have the privilege of sharing multiple facets of your products. Why not share the tools that help you create your beautiful products. Share your first encounter with a specific tool or the history of the tool. Put a little thought into it and see how many ways you can share your tools.
  5. Share Details about You – I know…most times we’d rather just put our products out there and stay behind the scenes; however, sharing some interesting or little known facts about yourself helps your customers to connect with you. The more they connect, the more they trust your brand.

What are some top content you share with your customers?

RESILIENT Conference Replay

RESILIENT Conference Replay

Ever feel like you’re working really hard on your handmade business, but not getting the results you want? We’ve been there. RESILIENT – A Virtual Conference for Makers is here to help you grow your online handmade business to be pandemic-proof.

Purchase the RESILIENT conference video to learn directly from three business owners who have successfully scaled their business and get answers to your questions to jumpstart your online sales.

Click here to purchase your copy of the RESILIENT conference replay.

Featured Topics & Speakers:

“Your Online Business and the Power of Content Marketing” – Maya Dukes @maya.dukes

“How to Get More from your Social Media” – Gwanyan Barker @kpelle.designs

“From Random to Intentional: Creating Business Plans that help you Scale” – Chantel Powell @playpits.

How Kpelle Designs built a successful online business with Instagram

How Kpelle Designs built a successful online business with Instagram

by: Charlene Dunbar

We’ve been following Gwanyan, the boss lady and designer behind Kpelle Designs for a few years now and we were thrilled when we had a chance to talk with her about how she organically grew her culturally inspired hand-crafted jewelry business by being savvy with social media. Here are our top three takeaways from our conversation:

#1 – Go to where your audience is – When she started her brand, Gwanyan took high-quality pictures of herself wearing her loc jewelry and posted them on her feed and also tagged popular loc hair community IG pages. Her pictures usually got reshared on the community page for free and those high-potential customers would follow her.  She also invested in advertising with similar pages (where her target audience was already hanging out) and gained lots of customers from that exposure. 

#2 – Invest in high quality images – Gwanyan worked with other creative friends who took fantastic photos or had styling skills to make sure her products images and brand put their best foot forward (and was more shareable). It’s easy to skimp on this step, but presenting high-quality, lifestyle images of your brand helps you standout from the pack, engages your audience and communicates the value of your brand.  

#3 – Share your journey – The fact that Gwanyan actually cut/forms her own jewelry (she’s a proper craftswoman with milling equipment!), is a plant mom and occasionally goes into rant mode are things that have endeared her to her customers and makes then want to shop with her vs. some faceless jewelry company on the internet. Gwanyan consistently used her IG stories to share her handmade entrepreneur journey in a way that built trust and made her customers feel invested in her story and ultimately, her success.

Our talk with Gwanyan of Kpelle Designs was full of gems! Check out the full IG Live interview here and follow her now. Need a second set of eyes to look at your handmade business Instagram page? Want to find out how you can use IG to get more sales for your online business? Sign-up for our customized Instagram audit service, Up My Gram Game. 

Image Credits: Kpelle Designs

14 Easy Ways to Repurpose Content

14 Easy Ways to Repurpose Content

By: Charlene Dunbar

Content is king, queen and tough to keep up with! As a creative entrepreneur, you can spend a lot of time and resources creating memorable content that will pull potential customers in. The good news is, you don’t have to start from scratch every time.  You can get more bang for your buck by spreading content across various marketing channels (social media, website, email, blog, etc) in creative ways. Here are 14  ideas for repurposing content:

  1. Turn your FAQ page into a video series – This is a great way to head off questions you get frequently and to engage customers by letting them see your face and hear your voice.
  2. Write a “Tips & Tricks” blog post – You can probably name 5 insider tips and tricks related to your craft/product off the top of your head. Summarize them to create a helpful blog post for potential customers.
  3. Use behind the scenes videos for IG stories – Have fun videos or pictures that aren’t up to par for your IG/FB feed? Use them in your IG stories, which are meant to have a more laid back, behind the scenes feel.
  4. Turn old IG posts into a poll or survey – Think “one item, worn two ways” or show the same item in two different colors and ask the audience to vote on their favorite. It’ll drive engagement because believe me, everyone likes to give their two cents!
  5. Share a picture of your raw materials – When customers see your raw materials, they can better appreciate how you transform them into a finished product. Consider shooting a picture of your materials against a well-lighted white background to share on IG or in your newsletter.
  6. Showcase customer photos in a newsletter – Create a round-up of photos of customers using your product and share it in a newsletter. It’ll build trust and inspire potential customers to give your product a try.   
  7. Turn a newsletter into a blog post – Take an interesting piece of content you created for your newsletter (i.e. how to wear it 3 ways, press write up, influencer picture, etc) and copy and paste it into a blog post.
  8. Convert a blog post into a podcast – Want to give podcasting a try, but worried about coming up with topics? Start with blog posts you already have and pull your talking points from there.
  9. Turn event experiences into blog posts – If you participate in craft markets like Craft Savvy Market or other business-related events, share a few pictures and points about your experience. It doesn’t have to be long; you could talk about lessons learned or what you liked about the event.  Image features Shanti & Celeste Accessories
  10. Post videos on your website – High-quality videos created for social media or YouTube can also be used on your website homepage to drive engagement and help customers spend more time on your website.
  11. Refresh and repost old blog posts – Update your graphics/images and use a fun, engaging title to give old (but still relevant) blog posts new life.
  12. Convert an old blog post into an infographic – If you have graphic design skills or can get help, reshape one of your blog posts into an infographic. The infographic can include stats for your industry, a timeline of your story as a creative or the process you use to create your product.
  13. Turn your favorite quote into an image for social media – Share a funny or inspiring quote with your audience to break things up a bit on social media. WordSwag is low-cost, easy to use app for doing this.
  14. Share product reviews on social media – Did you receive a great customer review via email or Etsy? Make it into an image (see WordSwag above) or share it as a caption with the product picture on social media. Customers LOVE to see your product getting love from a third party.

There are lots of fun ways to get more juice from your marketing content. Be creative and don’t worry about getting “busted” by customers. Chances are they don’t remember the first time you posted it or they’re glad for the reminder. What is your favorite way to get more use from content you already have?

What Everybody Ought to Know About Marketing Pt. 1

What Everybody Ought to Know About Marketing Pt. 1

By: Charlene Dunbar

I am an artist/maker to my core. I love working with my hands, drawing, researching new ideas…making STUFF. When I started my journey as a fashion designer, I entered a wonderland of selecting fabrics, sketching style ideas and making dress samples. I even drove solo from Atlanta to Memphis for the Africa in April Festival to sell a trunk full of my new dresses and to get feedback on my new brainchild. Three months later, I did a bigger market, the National Black Arts Festival, and received great reviews, made more sales and got really excited.

I did a photoshoot with models, made a lovely website featuring my gorgeous African print dresses clothing and waited for the orders to roll in. And guess what? They never did. What was wrong? Was it the cut of my skirt? Maybe my price was too high? Maybe I needed to add jumpsuits to my collection? After many years and fits and starts, I learned the hard way, it was my marketing. My marketing or lack thereof was the main thing standing between me and the growth of my creative business.

Marketing is a word that means different things to different people. Advertising, a brand logo and website colors, working with influencers or a good sales pitch are a few things that come to mind. Sometimes it’s also seen as a complex activity reserved for big companies with big budgets. The first statement is true, but marketing is so much more and the second statement is not true! Read Pt. 2 to hear the official definition of marketing and what I did next.