What groups would you recommend @GlasshouseDesigns I’ve recently reopened my Folksy shop and would like to give it a boost, thank you.
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That would depend on the business. For instance I’m in groups for stained glass and glass painting and groups about Scotland and the Isle of Skye. Join anything that your business has a connection with and where potential customers may go to seek out businesses like yours.
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Thank you @GlasshouseDesigns , yes that makes sense. I’ve already got a FB for my shop and I’m in groups that have other Folksy sellers in, but I guess I need to think about what kind of customers would buy my items and search for those groups.
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As you’re based in Cornwall you should search for groups that promote Cornish handmade crafts.
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I’m already in one, it’s that big and busy that it’s hard to get my posts seen. I’ll have to have a look for some less busy ones I think.
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There’s also the option of starting one yourself, but that would require more time I think
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I rarely use SM anymore. It doesn’t work for me. I think it has to be your decision, how much time & effort are you putting into advertising & re you getting a good return? If not just ditch it. Unfortunately we are up against a society where the norm is to automatically go to Amazon or Temu for anything you want. Somehow we need to find a way to get through to the general population that all they are doing is making rich people even richer whereas if you shopped with local crafts people you are supporting a local family & your local community.
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Thanks Chris, completely agree. My beef is that the whole SM thing has become false and vacuous. The equivalent of empty calories from fast food. It’s a mirage of real life. It’s overlaid the internet with a sugared plastic veneer. And because it’s so ‘great’, we should all follow the Pied Piper.
What’s your sales approach?
Cheers, Jackson
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Gosh, me too! I agree with all the posts above so I won’t echo what they said. Plus, I just don’t have the time or energy to maintain social media. Just this week, I opened a Pinterest account so I can experiment a little and see if it does lead to more sales on here, but I’m not holding out much hope for it, and as a previous poster mentioned, I’m worried that people are just going to take my ideas and ‘cheapen’ my craft, if that makes sense.
Having said that, I’m planning on researching selling at market days after New Year, although that brings its own worries, but I’d rather do that than social media.
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I feel that there’s always a ‘faster gun’ out there, someone who will steal others art or thoughts etc. Or they can mechanise the whole thing if they want. I feel that if you have videoed shots of the exciting parts of your work, the stalkers won’t bother. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
I do think markets and craft fairs are the way to go and good to blend on and offline. I’m currently looking at an alternative online shop, which looks like it’s more expensive but there’s more advertising involved…
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Well, I get 99.9% of my sales from selling at in person markets & fairs & then repeat customer requests for made to order items make up the rest. I hardly sell anything online. I use Facebook to advertise on local community group pages. I also have a email marketing list & send out a monthly newsletter. I find the mailing list works quite well, as the people who sign up are already interested in what I do. You can add someone to your list who has already bought from you if you already have their email address, you don’t need to ask their permission but I do just out of courtesy.
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Sorry you are on very dodgy ground if you do that.
I did confirm that and the clear answer is No you cannot.
yes you can as it clearly says on the information you have included.
Are you giving them a Clear Chance to Opt out ?
Does your email include a Clear Unsubscribe Option ?.
@ChrisOsbornJewellery I am genuinely interested in your process.
I had an invite to join my mailing list in my order acknowlegement emails and nobody clicked. This was using a formal mailing list app.
It does worry me that if Folksy goes pear shapped I will legally not be able to ‘speak’ to any of my very loyal and regular customers unless they have formally clicked that link and then also clicked again to verify.
Correction. This made me check my mailing list which is Mailerlite and I found I do have a dozen subscribers from the months ago before i removed the signup from my signature on my order acknowledgement email. I will add it back for future orders and see if anything happens. Maybe make it more obvious as i also ask for Google reviews and often get those.
I’ve been thinking for a while about starting a mailing list but don’t really know how to get started, how do we let people know we have one even and what kind of content do you include in it…also do those of you who have one think it’s better than a blog. I havn’t got either, don’t have time for both and wondering which may be the most effective. Also how do you start a blog, where is it linked to, or how do you begin to set one up. Thank you
I used to have both, newsletter through mail chimp and blog through blogger. Gave up on the newsletter mainly because did not push it, fine when I had my own website as customers signed up with a click. Now not sure people would bother by a link through a receipt etc. I will sign if can click a button to subscribe or unsubscribe but that option is not available on Folksy, is on the other side.
Getting back into using my blog but unless you join blog hops very hard to get an audience. I seem to do better posting on YouTube which can also be used as a Vlog.
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Thank you Caroline
it doesn’t sound like either would make much difference, perhaps if I had started a few years ago, I expect like everything else they are being drown out. I don’t even manage to keep up with Facebook anymore but did read on someone’s post the other day that the FB groups are often better now than our own pages so perhaps that may be an option. Or.. I could just concentrate on making and see whether anything improves then I won’t waste more and more time on non productive things.
I only want it so I am legally allowed to contact previous customers if I need to alert them to any changes to my business arrangements. .for example I had freeserve email years ago and didn’t have opportunity to notify a lot of customers that that email was dead and I had a new one. There are no doubt 1000 query emails addressed to my old freeserve address still floating round in the ether trying to find me 
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Hi Joy
I use Mailchimp for my mailing list so it is not connected to Folksy. And they take care of all the legal bits.
The body of the newsletter email I create in Canva & then upload it to Mailchimp. I can manually add new people to my list & those people tend to be returning customers & the people who order a made a to order piece. I also had a sign up form which didn’t really get much traffic so i ditched it.
When I send out an email advising that their order is in the post I mention that I would like to add them to my mailing list & they can unsubscribe at any time.
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Ref your last sentence. I think I like that idea 
. So you add them anyway as you have issued the invite and leave it to them to unsubscribe……. I have a sign up form and like you don’t like it.
I think I may well change the way i do it. Thank you
PS Thinking about it that I always get things through from (ooops sorry 
) Et*y sellers (discount codes i dont want) if i buy from them and i don’t hit anything to subscribe.
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