Final 12 months was an enormous 12 months for my handmade ornaments firm, Cast Flare. We went into 2022 decided to nail our internet advertising technique. We spent the early a part of the 12 months experimenting with completely different platforms, creatives, and approaches in order that when the vacation season—our greatest time of 12 months—got here, we might crank up the finances and reap the rewards. And it paid off: In This fall of 2022, we quadrupled our earnings from the earlier 12 months.
We had been driving excessive going into 2023, pondering we had all of it found out. After which, the tides began shifting. Early within the 12 months, we observed our advert spend percentages growing (in different phrases, we had been paying extra for fewer conversions). By April, our advert spend was up 20 %, however our gross sales had slowed. these outcomes, we determined to chop again on Meta advert spend in Might and pause all social media adverts in June.
Summer time is traditionally a sluggish season for us, so we determined to avoid wasting our advert finances for This fall and as a substitute spend the summer time experimenting with different advertising approaches. Since I can’t be the one founder affected by the ups and downs of social media adverts, I’d like to share the brand new ways we’ve tried and the way the outcomes of those experiments are influencing how we strategy advertising as we transfer into the brand new 12 months.
We’re constructing deeper relationships with clients
There are lots of methods to measure a conversion from an advert. Whereas a sale has all the time been the final word purpose, we’ve additionally labored over time to seize electronic mail addresses from clients and potential clients. Bringing them into our orbit so we might drive a sale afterward was a sensible thought, however we had by no means made probably the most of those relationships.
Up to now, we might ship an occasional electronic mail once we had time, however this 12 months, we devoted ourselves to sending two emails every week, another sales-oriented and another content-oriented. For the latter, I assumed strategically about what clients would wish to hear from me to make them excited to purchase, resulting in content material round every little thing from why our merchandise price what they price to the behind-the-scenes of working a small enterprise.
This strategy has actually helped us main as much as the vacation season. Subscribers who’ve by no means purchased from us acquired extra conversant in our model in order that, when the vacations rolled round, we’re high of thoughts. Present clients realized extra concerning the small enterprise they’re supporting and really feel like they’re a part of one thing particular. All of that helps drive gross sales—our conversions attributed to electronic mail advertising are up 130 % over final 12 months.
We have now a powerful assist base of shoppers who love our merchandise and, going into subsequent 12 months, I wish to proceed in search of methods to faucet into their loyalty to assist us drive progress, akin to by launching an associates program. We’re testing this with one micro-influencer who reached out to us over the vacation season, and I’m excited to see the outcomes of that. As soon as the vacations wind down, I hope to roll this out to a few of our greatest clients who already sing our praises. It could be an superior technique to reward them for one thing they already do whereas furthering our enterprise progress.
We’re in search of assist from different enterprise house owners
I’m not going to beat across the bush—even with cautious strategizing, we’re at the moment down 50 % from the place we had been at the moment final 12 months. As a substitute of freaking out about this (okay, I’m a little bit freaked out), I went in search of insights from others.
I’m a member of a number of communities of small enterprise house owners, together with Artistic Hive and Multi-Stream Machine by The Product Boss podcast. When issues had been trying down this 12 months, I polled these teams to see what different folks had been experiencing, and rapidly heard that I wasn’t the one one seeing a downturn regardless of our greatest efforts.
It’s not good to listen to that different firms are in the identical scenario that we’re, however it positively makes me really feel much less lonely as a enterprise proprietor. Plus, this weak submit helped land me a collaboration that gave Cast Flare a pleasant increase. We had been invited to take part in a web based buying occasion known as “25 on the twenty fifth,” the place 25 artists and small makers co-market the occasion, and buyers give their electronic mail addresses for entry to unique offers on everybody’s web site. We gained a major variety of new electronic mail addresses because of this, the majority of that are nonetheless in our electronic mail movement, that means they’re slowly attending to know us and every little thing we have now to supply.
Going into subsequent 12 months, I wish to proceed to recollect we don’t should be on this alone. Apart from persevering with to lean on the enterprise communities for morale and strategic assist, I wish to search for extra collaborative alternatives to elevate one another up and share our audiences.
We’re getting extra strategic with our adverts (and all the time watching the numbers)
We’re not out of the internet advertising recreation solely. As a substitute, we’re seeking to get extra focused and strategic with how we spend our finances, and we’re all the time monitoring efficiency traits fastidiously so we will change our technique on the drop of a hat.
For example, we’ve observed extra constant success promoting on Amazon and Etsy, which is sensible, given customers of these platforms are literally going there to buy.
Going into the vacation season, we began dipping our toes again into working social media adverts with a extra granular concentrate on what’s performing properly on every platform. For example, after working a couple of weeks of exams, we’ve determined Instagram adverts simply aren’t proper for us proper now: The viewers there loves trying however by no means appears to purchase.
Fb, alternatively, has a barely older viewers that’s extra in keeping with our goal buyer and has been working for us once more, although not in addition to final 12 months. A few of that is, certainly, due to the financial system. I additionally suppose pulling our advert spend solely over the summer time is hurting us now. The extra info these platforms have about which adverts are succeeding with which clients, the extra they’ll efficiently tailor them. After we stopped working adverts, we stopped that movement of data, that means the platforms should relearn as we ramp up for the vacation season. Regardless that I hate spending cash and never seeing an instantaneous return, I believe subsequent 12 months I’ll maintain a $5-a-day advert spend going all summer time to assist keep away from this dip.
Lastly, as a substitute of utilizing the identical inventive throughout platforms, I plan to create extra focused content material subsequent 12 months. For example, on X and TikTok, the youthful viewers doesn’t appear to resonate with the frilly, fairly adverts that achieve this properly on Fb. I’ve concepts for creating barely snarkier, extra genuine adverts for these platforms, and am excited to see the outcomes.
If it’s not already apparent, succeeding with internet advertising is an ongoing recreation of trial and error. What labored for us final 12 months isn’t working this 12 months, and I can’t emphasize sufficient how a lot fixed testing is required. We all the time begin small (suppose $10 a day), observe each marketing campaign and each platform fastidiously, after which scale up what’s working. When issues change, and an advert marketing campaign stops performing, I’m by no means afraid to attempt one thing new.
I’ve been in enterprise for 4 years, and I swear each single day is a brand new expertise. This 12 months has been an particularly wild trip, and whereas I can’t predict what 2024 will deliver, I really feel assured that these approaches, mixed with our willingness to adapt rapidly, will assist us proceed to succeed for a few years to come back.
