The other day I was talking to a friend who is about to launch her lifestyle accessories company, Love Peridot. We were chatting about just doing what you love in business and respecting your customers. You don’t have to do gimmicks and all this other stuff. You just need to do you and run your own races. As we were chatting an order from Etsy popped up on my phone. See, as a creative entrepreneur who fuels her income off of consulting, workshops, and digital products there are perks of utilizing two platforms to connect with customers on such as a main site and Etsy.
No One Knows You
This is one of my favorite things to tell people and even remind myself when it comes to business. Know one is shopping or supporting your business because know one knows you exist. That is the issue most business owners face and they don’t even realize it. If no one knows that you exist as a business owner then they cannot support you. Hence, why I am always talking about growing your brand locally verse just keeping focusing on online social media marketing. Your target market might not even use social media. I actually know lots of people who don’t have social media and don’t care to. This is where utilizing two or more platforms to products on comes in handy.
Main Website
I am an avid supporter of small business owners to have their own website to sell their product on where they are not restricted by terms and agreements and more of third party sites. When I first launched my digital products I was solely selling them on Gumroads because at the time the complications to having a digital product on Wix. Wix was a quick solution to making sure I had a website but didn’t help with keep my customers on my website. Then I switched to Squarespace which I believe is a great platform. Finally, for the last two years ICB Consults has been on a wordpress site where I have all my products and everything else. I am able to give my clients and customers exclusive content on my own designed platform. Hence, rewarding them for shopping on my website verse on another. If you’re thinking of creating digital products, I wrote 13 Websites Helping You Sell Your Digital Products.
Secondary Website
If you are the actual creator of your product verse using wholesale for your product I highly suggest finding a platform that brings you in customers that would never know you existed. Etsy has millions of customers on their daily shopping. Customers on this platform know they are supporting a local or small businesses. This has been a great thing for my small business when it comes to digital products. Only people who were buying my digital products before where my social media followers. Which was limiting my sales only to an audience that knew me. Adding an Etsy shop for my digital products opened my company up to a completely different audience that wasn’t aware of me before. Whats great about Etsy its not just for the product companies such as jewelry, clothing, scrubs, or home decor.
Having two platforms or more can help you bring eyes on your business who didn’t know you existed before. Highly suggest finding maybe one or two more other platforms to use for your business. When you are looking at platforms it is important that you google to get feedback and more. Recently, a friend had a nightmare of an experience with Gumroad’s for her digital sales.
