Face Book.....good For Marketing Your Leather Business?

[Warpe]

I have just started a website for my business (Gallant Gunleather) and did a lot of reading on the value of Facebook. As stated by several, it will get you orders that you may not have ever gotten. The one thing to do reseaech on before you put out any money, is their paid advertising. Depending on your needs, it can be nothing but a money pit, but for others it may be cost effective. Make sure you run the numbers on how much each like or visit is actually paying you dividends.

[JustKate]

Those of you who know me personally will readily agree that I am no marketing expert. But one thing I have learned is that no marketing strategy should rely on only one venue for promoting your business. I know people who call their business "an Etsy business", or "an Ebay business", and lately I've heard "a Facebook business" as well.

Facebook is a great tool, but it should only be one tool among an array (or at least a couple) of tools used in conjunction with each other to create a total marketing strategy. Not only can you multiply the results by using multiple venues, you avoid the mistake of making your entire business dependent on one other entity, which may or may not continue to serve you in the future. There are numerous large marketplaces online now, where you can get your work seen by large numbers of potential buyers.

That said, what Chit mentioned about finding creative (and relevant) ways to engage your Facebook visitors has also proven to be the key for me. The more your visitors interact with you (i.e., "Like" a post, leave a comment, share, etc.), the more other people are seeing your posts. Use your stats to determine which posts are engaging people the most, and keep making more posts like it. That will also attract more people to "Like" your page. Then when it's time to promote something you're selling, you've got an audience that is eager to see what you have to offer, simply because they are the ones who are already interested in what you sell to begin with. I love the integrity of that.

Edited July 28, 2013 by JustKate

[Chit]

Check out this useful link for infographics of facebook's edgerank algorithm : http://mashable.com/2013/05/07/facebook-edgerank-infographic/

Basically, (good quality) pictures are the way to go!

[CeilingUnlimited]

I too have done really well on facebook! I am in a small niched market,and there are other pages that openly sell items within that market from other People looking to sell their stuff. So I post many of the things I make,and People are buying it up! I also post that I take order's as well,and have had a TON of success with that as well! One thing I like to do,is offer gift certificates as well as adding a small freebie product if they buy a certain item etc. The possibilities on facebook are endless! I get PM's all the time from People asking me if I can make this or that,and I've done a lot of business that way too! I've also had many People post positive feedback and recommend my items to other People by posting publicly on quite a few of the facebook selling/swap pages I deal with,so its a great feeling to know that there are People out there in facebook Land that do want to buy....you just have to put yourself and your items out there,and be confident in what you are doing,and of course honest communication with buyers is paramount when selling on facebook.

[Lucky Dog Leather]

I use a facebook page as part of my branding and marketing program. There are a lot of moving parts on the social media end of branding and marketing and facebook can be an important element. I also use twitter, pinterest and I have plans to add google+.

The goal is not just direct sales but keeping an open and friendly channel of communication open with my customers. I definitely get sales through social media outlets but it also helps with credibility. People feel like they have access to the people who have designed the products and actually make them so we don't come off as some random company seeling stuff we bought in China and marked up.

It is also great for getting feedback from customers and people who may not have purchaces but are still interested in what we have going on.

In addition, being active online helps with search engine optimisation. The better we do at that, the more people can find us through google searches.

It is always a work in progress but if you can and want to put some time and consistancy into it, you can get good results.

Lucia~

http://www.luckydogleather.com