My Experience: The Sampler, Poppytalk Market

Some of you have requested information regarding my experiences with The Sampler and Poppytalk Handmade. Before I decided to participate in both of these, I also searched for information online and couldn't find much info about individual sellers' experiences. So here are mine:

The Sampler: I donated 50 sets of gift tags and paper swatches to the Boston Sampler in February.

What I thought would happen: I thought these samplers would end up in the hands of local storeowners, media and consumers and that I would be contacted by locals who had received a box who wanted to learn more about my work.

What actually happened: For the most part, nothing. I never received any inquiries from media, storeowners, or consumers. I did get one Etsy order earlier this week where the buyer wrote in the "message to buyer" that she had received a Sampler and liked my work. So I can attribute that one sale directly to the Sampler.

Would I do it again: Yes, but only with certain conditions. I believe the Sampler has a special press-only box that they send out only to media contacts. I would consider participating in one of these boxes. I think the Sampler is a great concept and by participating I was able to get my work out there to potential customers who may not have found out about me otherwise. But I'm not sure that the Sampler customer necessarily is a rifferaff customer.

Poppytalk Handmade Market: I paid a $60 fee to participate in the online market for a month. I uploaded 12 images of my work with links to my Etsy listings.

What I thought would happen: I expected to get a big boost of sales/inquiries on the first day and I wanted to establish an identity as a "green" designer by participating in the "Green Pop" market, the theme for the month.

What actually happened: No boost in sales. I think I got a few extra "hearts" for my Etsy shop, meaning that people stopped by to visit and liked what they saw and "hearted" my store. This month Jan started showcasing studio tours of the participating artists, so by submitting some pics and answering the interview questions, my shop got some airtime on the Poppytalk blog front page.

Would I do it again: Hmmm. Not sure. It's hard to tell where your Etsy buyers come from if they don't explicitly tell you themselves. I don't think I made back my $60 over the course of the month from Poppytalk buyers. As always, my Etsy sales seem to be directly related to how often I list new stuff. I think this is a guaranteed route to consistent sales, but I can't say the same for PHM. I do think I got great visibility and by corresponding with Jan, the writer of the blog, I now feel like I have a good relationship with this blog, which I consider a trendsetter. In the future, I think Jan will recognize my work and post any updates I'd send her. Also she did choose one of my images to use for the PHM ad on Design Sponge, adding to my product visibility. The perks here were a little more subtle. I think it was great for my overall goal of establishing an identity and a presence but did not result in direct sales.

I hope this recap can help some of you with your decision to participate in marketing opportunities like this. Neither one required an exceptional amount of time and money so it was all worth it. Anyone care to chime in with their own experiences in the comments section?

Comments

[hammocks]

I think it's incredible that you were so forthcoming about your experience.

[mary]

Awesome, awesome. You are a great resource.

One question: what prompted to you sell via etsy rather than establish a shop with, say, BigCartel? Did you research any other options?

[Lilie]

One of the pluses of having your own web site is that you can have a better means of tracking your traffic. I've applied to Poppytalk Market but didn't get accepted. I've done The Sampler a few times.

First of all everyone has a different results. I LOVE The Sampler but it has never really brought me any sales. I'm sure it has given me exposure though. I did the media one and got a couple pieces of PR.

Finding what works for you in terms of advertising & etc is very hard thing to do. In fact, one adverting coop I did work really well so I went back to do more months and the second time around hasn't done as well for me.

[Marichelle]

Hi there,
I completely agree with you! My experience with the PHM was almost as you described it. I really thought I was going to sell a bunch of my pouches - I remember being frantic the weekend before the launch of the Spring market - I was going nuts looking for packing material. Unfortunately, I didn't sell a thing. Well I did, but it was my sister who bought it!

However, I absolutely do NOT regret doing it. Like you said, it was more of a branding effort. I feel like I got a decent amount of exposure from it. Let's face it, a product mention on Poppytalk is close to priceless. Even if you don't end up selling it, the number of eyeballs seeing your brand/product is worth the $60 in the long-term (I guess I consider it as a brand-recognition investment). Plus I met a lot of great people (sellers).

And as far as the admin side of it - easy as pie. You can pretty much use your Etsy photos so there really isn't much work to do, other than typing in titles and prices.

Hope that helps!
-Marichelle

[rifferaff]

Wow, I'm surprised to see so many comments already, thanks for weighing in with your experiences.

Mary, I didn't research any other options before choosing Etsy. It's just SO easy to use with very little money required to get started. You pay a listing fee to put your items up and then a commision when they sell but if they don't sell you don't have to pay the commission so it's really low risk for a brand new business. Also, Etsy is becoming a destination for shoppers and so you already have a built-in audience of people just coming to Etsy, then you can add on to that by driving people to your store specifically. Hope that answers the question. Maybe this topic deserves a blog post of its own sometime in the near future...

[katelynjane]

Thanks so much for posting this! I was going to write you via Etsy and ask you what you had thought about Poppy Talk, you beat me to it! I've also been considering the Sampler, so your comments on them also helped me out!

Me and another seller from Etsy are going to be splitting the cost of the Poppy Market for May. Hopefully it will give our stores more exposure, that's worth the $30 for me (:

[alison]

hi!
i'm glad you tried the sampler! like Lilie said, everyone does have different experiences, and you may be right that it just wasn't your audience. if you'd like to try out the media sampler, i'd be happy to include your stuff one month for no fee. just send me an email if you interested and i'll forward along the info. items are due by the 15th each month.
thanks!
alison

[rifferaff]

Alison, thanks for your comment and your offer. I will contact you via email. Thanks again!

[daisy janie]

Thanks for writing so candidly about these 2 experiences. I wondered about both. I do find etsy frustrating in the sense that you can't track ROI - a key metric necessary in building any business. When you advertise online, the call to action is to click through to your website not to purchase a product - this is not a direct marketing effort where the call to action is a sale. The traffic increase (and the extra hearts)alone is the measure of your success. Your Sampler endeavor is more similar to a direct marketing effort but not quite. Branding is considered the soft ROI from this type of marketing, and I would say you succeeded in that respect. It's exciting to you see what you're up to next...

[sulu-design]

Fabulous, thoughtful, insightful post. Thank you.

[Diana]

Thank you for this post. I have been thinking of trying Etsy, so it is always good to hear other experiences. Thank you for your honesty on this topic. We had a brief discussion on my blog about promoting your product. How much should you promote your product without over-doing it?

[rifferaff]

Hmm, is it possible to over-promote?

[ambika]

Here to chime in with big thanks for sharing your experiences. I've gotten to the point where I'm considering paid advertising but it's so hard to find out what's worked for people. And I know it can vary greatly given the product, style and price point of any handmade item but it's always nice to know *something* as opposed to squat.

[erinn Johnson]

Thanks for the great information. I just recently started to sell my stuff on etsy. I know that promoting is very important, but it is hard to know where to spend your time promoting.

I recently started a blog. I am hoping that somewhere down the road it will help with sales. Also, I decided to list something new everyday in April to see if that might help as well. We'll see.

I love your stuff!

erinn

[Andrea]

Wow! I just stumbled upon your blog when searching for "craft related typepad blogs". I've only read three posts so far and am impressed with all the helpful information.....Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I will read on..... :)

[suann]

i just discovered your blog -- have been a fan of your products. really appreciate and admire your willingness to share and your candidness. i participated in PHM and would probably say i had the same experience. don't regret doing it but probably wouldn't do it again.
thanks again and will continue to read! --ss