When it comes to selling and promoting our products, we are often told to “be genuine.” Or in other words, “be yourself.” An empty cliche, right? Well… not necessarily. It IS important to come across as “real” to your audience. Whenever you are trying to market yourself, your services, or your products, it makes a vital difference in how you are perceived by your audience. When people find you believable, they will also perceive you (and what you are selling) as trustworthy. Trust on the internet is vital to sales on the internet. No one wants to purchase anything they are unsure about.
How to Keep it Real:
1. Use your own voice
Whether you are writing a blog post, product description, or Facebook update – stick to your voice. Voice can be determined by the words you choose, the length of your paragraphs and sentences, and the comparisons you like to make. You want your audience to be able to tell it’s YOU on the other end of that latest tweet, blog comment, or interview response as soon as they read it.
Two very different voices saying basically the same thing:
200 treasures now listed in my online Etsy shop. This is a positively splendid thing!
Finally reached 200 Etsy listings! Holy crap that took for frikin’ EVER! (Guess who needs a drink?!)
2. Refer to your own experiences
If you’re going to write a blog post about why someone should do something, then it helps if you have had some personal experience in the matter. For example, not having had any children of my own yet, it would be pretty far-fetched for anyone to think of me as an authoritarian voice on how to handle going into labor. (Unless I was a doctor or something, but you get the idea.) Your point is much more hard-hitting when you are writing from personal experience. It’s worth a lot more to my readers when I tell them that listing more items in their Etsy shops will get them more sales, because it has helped me, versus because I think it might even though I haven’t tried it yet. Advice without experience feels empty and flawed, but advice backed up with experience and recollection of that experience is trustworthy.
3. Show your scars
Nobody is perfect. No business is perfect. Sometimes that “experience” mentioned in (2) comes from messing up, and learning from your mistakes. However, you will gain trust by confronting those mistakes head-on, and letting your audience know how well you deal with them to set things right. Maybe this consists of a Facebook update letting your customers know that even though you do your best to package your items, you’ll offer a full refund to anyone who receives a broken item, because you never know. Or perhaps it’s a blog post about some of the obvious mistakes you were making when you first started selling online (like undercharging, and losing money in the long run), but what steps you’ve taken to overcome those mistakes.
Sometimes sellers are afraid to be themselves, thinking their own personalities will “taint” the professionalism of their business. This is so far from true. Especially in the handmade business, a huge part of what you are selling is the handmade by YOU part. People want to know just as much about the creator as the created item, and will feel more inclined towards your items if they can relate to your personality. So don’t be afraid to add your own voice, experiences, and lessons learned while conducting your online marketing. Everyone prefers to deal with a real person over an automated robot.
Megan Petersen — Megan’s Beaded Designs
Megan Petersen is a graphic designer by day, and runs the Etsy shops MegansBeadedDesigns.etsy.com and Glamour365.etsy.com by evening and weekends. She loves both the creative and marketing side of selling her handmade jewelry, and is an avid blogger at megandbeadeddesigns.wordpress.com.
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Such an important post! Too many people get caught up in the promo aspect that they lose themself…and the customer! Someone can always tell when you’re not being genuine.
Thank you so much for this post Megan! I think I still struggle with finding my voice when it comes to social media for business. I am very open in the comments here and need to have that carry over into Facebook and Twitter. I know I definitely like forming a connection with an artist or blogger who shares their personality. I appreciate your wise words and hope to learn from them too!
Glad I could help! Getting personal once in awhile, and letting your “human side” out, will definitely make you feel more approachable by others. My followers have told me that they love how “relatable” I am, and appreciate using my own real-life experiences as examples in my posts.
Hey Megan, thanks for the good advice! Sometimes I struggle with wording (heck, who am I kidding – I *always* struggle with wording!) – in person, I’m very laid back, casual and always drop my g’s. Can’t help it, I’m from the south, and everyone knows it as soon as I open my mouth. But isn’t that a bit informal? I worry that people will mistake my slang and kick-back style for lack of professionalism or perfectionism, both of which I obssess over.
I’d so totally say Holy Crap in real life, and even in my blog, but in my etsy descriptions? I dunnooo…I’d be afraid of scaring off buyers that might not “get” me.
It’s understandable if you don’t want to go as “all-out” in your product descriptions as you do in your blog posts, but it wouldn’t hurt to sound more relaxed either. A strict description of measurements and features can get pretty boring after awhile anyway. Perhaps an occasional suggestion on how your products would be received as gifts (sure to crack a smile on Grandpa’s face when he open this beauty up for Christmas), or what they could be worn with (casual enough to be paired with your favorite loafers!), can be mentioned in a style that is more “your voice” and will therefore come across as more personal as a result.
Hope that makes sense!
Thanks Megan! I’ll be sure to give it a go – that sounds so much friendier and more “me.” Maybe when I’m more comfortable with what I’m saying, writing descriptions won’t be such a chore! As it is, I have a closet full of stuff I’ve made and won’t list b/c I don’t want to write them up! Actually, that was a good thing last week, when I found out about a leukemia benefit being held Saturday (and it was Wednesday afternoon when I found out about it!) – but I had a bunch of stuff ready to go! Lucky coincidence, fer sure!
Wow! Good luck with the benefit!!
Hey Karin feel free to share a blog post or product description with us once you have started to find your voice. Just shoot me an email! I am so happy that you had a bunch of stock on hand for the benefit tonight. Good luck and have fun!
Thanks for sharing even more tips on being genuine Megan! You are awesome!
Wonderful site you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any user discussion forums
that cover the same topics discussed in this article?
I’d really love to be a part of group where I can get comments from other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Cheers!