Worried about the future (Small Business Owner)

[WorriedSelfEmployed]

Hi
So I run with my partner a small personalised gifts business on Etsy and our own website. Normally at this time of year we are doing really well (this is full time for us) but this year is just absolutely dire. We have put so much into everything this year to make it work, bought lots of stock that has always been bestsellers and now it's just not taking off like normal. November/December is our make or break months and I'm petrified of failing. We have just rented a unit because our house was overrun and now I am not sleeping and literally watching every sale coming in (or not) and comparing it to last years hourly.
I suppose I just wanted to share my worries and ask whether anyone knew of any good groups I could share our items with? I have never actually done social media advertising as our products have just sold themselves. But now I think I really need to understand where to go.
Thank you xx

Replying to bump your post as I'm not really a marketing person but it sounds like you need a marketing crash course. (That would be a more constructive use of your time than watching sales with a rising sense of panic.)

As a general social media observation, interaction is usually a better strategy for driving engagement than passively spamming - people zone out from that. Do you encourage happy customers to share with their network etc?

honestly, I wouldn't even know where to start - do you think I should put something in the parcels to ask them to share with their network? I guess we have just been super lucky with natural and organic sales I have never had to worry about targeting the customers through social media.

Would you be happy to post a link? Maybe we can give more specific advise on what may work? X

You definitely need to drive social media engagement - share positive reviews, funny memes or jokes related to your industry, photos of sales you've had to encourage people to buy.

What do you currently put in the parcels?

The Etsy sellers that I have returned to or referred others to are the ones who included some form of handwritten (or handwritten then reproduced) postcard or note thanking for the purchase and asking for reviews/shares etc.

It's things that make people feel like they have some form of relationship or connection with you, especially on Etsy.

Agree with @margotrose

I just did a quick Google and Etsy itself has loads of pages about how you can use social media for marketing. Might be worth a look:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/seller-handbook/article/636223211006

Start an Instagram account and tik too for your business.. get it out there!

What’s your Etsy shop? I’d love to support a local business

You need an Instagram for sure (I would say tik tok too but I'm too old for that 🤣)

How do you market? - or have you relied on natural search results from within Etsy?

When everybody else is marketing intensively on social media and driving direct hits to their product pages, it pushes down the traffic from people searching on Etsy itself. More so if you're selling the same items that they are.

You need a marketing plan, and it needs to include social media. But don't just chuck everything at it, you need to put your effort into actions that will bring the most reward.

Can you find similar ones in the market and how does pricing compare? Insta is a must as pp have said.

are your products things that will sell locally? If so get out and about

Join local Facebook groups And Facebook market place - I now get all my personalised gifts from there including celebration cake, cake toppers, personalised clothing, frames and gifts

Etsy can be expensive depending on postage and sooooo much choice on there now - how does your page or your items stand out?

check school or local Xmas fairs

next door app - for local selling

good luck!

share the link and you may get customers from
here too

Also where else do you type of customers shop? Any partnerships you can do?

if you have a niche item, even a smaller influencer may help you to promote it on social

media and get in loads of sales

Are there any christmas markets around you? FB marketing/Instagram on local pages also works well. Get people to leave reviews, that encourages sales too.

I'm a small business owner and we've had a dramatic down turn in the last 6 months... we're normally turning work away at this time of year.

Set up an insta page and promote it by putting it on your Etsy site and asking people to share in return for a small discount code. Do this with all points of contact with customer, email and in-pack paper. On the insta page runs promotion for a giveaway for likes and shares. Post videos and photos of products.