I had saved up $5 dollars. That was a lot of money for an Amish kid. (That’s right, I was born Amish, but we can talk more about that later.) The thing is, I had five whole dollars and I could spend it any way I wanted to.
I didn’t get to go to town very often and my mom didn’t go many places to get what she needed, so I had to think long and hard about WHERE I could get the MOST for my five bucks. Guys, I probably lost sleep over that decision.
Let’s start at the beginning. (The beginning of this particular case study, anyway.)
Two years ago, my cousin Regina began her own leather bag company with her husband, Jay, who is a third generation leather craftsman. Last fall, Regina and I joined forces to rebrand and build Urban Southern together with our unique story of having been born Amish. We wanted to build a community around this lifestyle brand that would empower other women to overcome things in life just like we have.
The majority of our sales happen online, but we have also gained some incredible momentum from being part of local events and a pretty significant international event in the spring of 2017, New York Fashion Week!
Being an adult (and no longer Amish) is not so different when it comes to figuring out where our money and energy are best invested as a new e-commerce business. By the time that we turned our hobbies into our passion, we had already put years and countless hours into honing our skills.
Now we were asking ourselves, WHERE could we get the MOST for our 5 bucks?
Imagine the keen disappointment we would have felt after walking away from a trade show or artisan event with nothing to show for all our hard work. Just like you, we didn’t want to be that business owner.
So how do you find events that are going to be profitable for your eCommerce business?
Honestly, it takes some old-fashioned learning through trial and error. We hope that you’ll get much closer to your bull’s eye with the things we’ve learned.
1. Know who your people are
In the beginning, you won’t know exactly who your audience is, but you will have a good idea of who you want it to be. As you attend events, you’ll learn more about who is actually drawn to your product or service. Then you’ll be able to tailor your approach.
Pro Tip: don’t be so attached to your initial ideal customer that you can’t evolve to fit the needs of your actual customers.
2. Know what your goal is for attending an event
What is your main focus? Is it brand awareness? Is it sales? Is it networking? Here’s what we’ll tell you: You should work all three of these goals into your plans, but making one of them the main focus will guide you as you move forward.
There are a new wave of reinvented events like craft shows and other market events, like “Denver Flea”, “Made South” and others, that include drinks and fun activities. These events aren’t just for hipsters and celebrities. People of all ages are getting excited about these events, paying to enter and shopping to support the local artisans that have booths there.
Large events that have carried authority in years past, such as large home shows or large fashion events, may bring credibility to your brand, but they may be too big of a financial risk for you. You’re more likely to get lost in the shuffle of thousands of other vendors.
Choosing local, medium-sized, popular events to attend has been the most profitable approach for Urban Southern.
Here’s what we’ve done.
We have stalked Instagram and Facebook to find great local events — what are our friends and locals talking about?
Pro Tip: A great time to attend local markets is during the Holiday Shopping season! If you’re trying to find an event during the first half of the year, rewind to posts from the most recent Holiday Season to find local markets that everyone was talking about. You should already be scouting the events you will plan to be part of this fall.
We learned to pay attention to the event organizers for our most successful events. You can learn so much about an event by paying attention to what the planners are doing on social media before and during their events. Pay attention to what kind of presence they have on social. Do they have a well established following? Are they engaging? Are they interesting? Do they offer value? How much do they promote their events and how much do they feature local businesses who are attending?
Research the audience of people who attend the event. Are these people your people?
3. Make connections before the event
The amazing thing about attending events with a great presence on social media is that you now have a curated, niche audience that you have some amount of access to. Once you’ve chosen an event to attend with your business, you can start interacting with the people who follow this event.
You may create Facebook ads that target this audience with something of value that will interest them. Your goal should be to grow brand awareness so that your people will quickly recognize you when they see you at an event. You should spend time on Instagram interacting with the people that follow the event’s account on Instagram.
We love hearing comments such as, “Hey! I saw you on Instagram! I love your stuff, your story is so cool. Oh my gosh, is that the Market Tote? I’ve been wanting to see it!”
Pro Tip: Don’t forget about the other makers and small businesses who are also attending the event. We like to give shoutouts to other makers who will be attending along with us. We have had other makers thank us profusely for mentioning them or sharing one of their posts.
Among small businesses, a rising tide truly lifts all boats. As we support each other and give each other shoutouts, we gain loyal followings amongst each other and as our platforms grow, we help each other grow.
Not everyone has this mindset, but you will find them!
4. Involve your existing audience as you get ready for the event
Talk about what you’re up to. Let them know about the event you’ll be attending. Link to the event on your Facebook Page. Even if your audience is your mom and her friends out of state, seeing you working your business will get them excited and they may proudly share with their friends what you’re up to.
You never know who is listening and watching!
When one of my fellow marketing friends found out that we were going to New York Fashion Week, he simply said, “Don’t be like those people who go to a tradeshow or event and come away with nothing. How are you going to make the most of Fashion Week?”
At that point, we were a bit starstruck with the simple fact that we were going to New York Fashion Week. We hadn’t put a lot of thought into strategizing exactly how we would make the most of this opportunity.
We applied what we had learned from doing small events, such as getting to know the audience that attends Fashion Week and talking about it a LOT on our social media. We invited our followers into our planning process by showing them sneak peeks of designs. Everyone got so excited!
5. Make the most of the event!
Honestly, you should always start with just being a friend. Get to know people. A good rule of thumb is this: Don’t talk about yourself before you’ve found out what someone else is doing.
Grow brand awareness. Your booth should be in line with your brand. It should be visually appealing. This is where investing in beautiful branding will be worth every penny you’ve ever spent on it. Be brand-proud and make a statement!
Grow your online audience through this event. This is so important. At the event, make sure you constantly point people to your website and social media because you want folks to follow you. Make it easy for them to find you by having your social handles and website printed on a banner or poster.
Give away lots of creative business cards. We have created leather business cards from leather rectangles. We encourage people to use these as air fresheners for their cars. They love it! When your people feel like they are getting more than a business card — a free gift — they will feel valued and in turn they will value you.
Grow your email list! We host a giveaway at each artisan event that we attend for people to sign up to our mailing list and enter to win a leather bag.
The #EventHashtag is everything! During the event, you should interact with the event’s hashtag on social media as much as you can. Compliment others on their new purchases and thank those who have come by your booth. Be a friend.
Share regular updates. Folks love seeing what goes on behind the scenes of an event. Post clips and images to Instagram Stories. Show folks what your area looks like before and after you set up your booth. Tell people where you are and invite them to stop by your booth. Use Facebook Live during your event to share an update or a funny story about something that happened.
Again, remember your fellow small business owners. You’re at an event for more than just the people who attend. Often the other folks who have booths at an event are the MOST passionate about supporting other small businesses!
Some of our most loyal customers are owners of their own small business and we in turn have spent plenty of our own profits on goods and services from other small businesses. We believe this is one of the best ways to conduct business. It’s the mindset of “Community over Competition” and we love it.
6. Wrapping up a successful event
If you hosted a giveaway at the event, you’ll choose your winner and notify them. However, your winner shouldn’t be the only person you contact! By entering the giveaway, each person gave their permission for you to add them to your mailing list.
You shouldn’t simply add your people to a mass mailing list and forget about them, oh no.
Create a segmented list of the people from the event and thank them for entering your giveaway. Don't take it for granted or abuse the fact that they have trusted you with their email address. Keep your response to them light and friendly yet meaningful. They should feel your relatable authenticity. Include a coupon code that they can use at anytime in your online shop or toward a service that you provide. Folks will remember your thoughtfulness!
Pro Tip: When you have another event in that same area in the future, you'll have your segmented list of people to get in touch with again to let them know you'll be in their area.
Make the most of the connections you make. If your primary goal was to network at the event, make sure you keep track of each person you meet. Take the business cards you got and immediately take notes about each individual for future reference. I would recommend having a CRM to keep track of not only your sales, but your people.
7. Rinse and Repeat!
You have to keep showing up repeatedly.
One of my mentors, Jeanne Bessette, shared her incredible story as a successful artist who’s been on the cover of People Magazine. She was discovered through attending not just one, but multiple high end art events. She says that this was a steep investment for her, but it paid off in bigger ways than she ever bargained for.
Jeanne’s advice for those who want to gain any type of traction at events is to show up again and again.
You may be familiar with a classic marketing rule known as “The Rule of Seven”.
“Basically, it was founded on research that people need to interact with a brand or product about 7 times before making the decision to buy.” ( Source )
Most events have followings of people who attend multiple times. Seeing a brand repeatedly establishes credibility in their minds. Pay attention to creating moments with each person you meet or reconnect with. Sometimes, all it takes is just one moment with the right person to change the entire destiny of a small business.
We are very intuitive about who our audience is and that is helping us make the right decisions for the events we invest our time and resources into.
As valuable as New York Fashion Week was for us and our brand, we learned that a certain southern artisan market, Made South, was the best fit for our brand so we decided to attend all of their events the rest of 2017.
A COUPLE EXAMPLES OF PROFITABLE NETWORKING
Through making a direct media connection at Made South, Urban Southern was featured as a southern spotlight in Southern Lady Magazine in the fall of 2017.
This turned out to be incredible exposure for our brand. The nature of the products and our story were readily embraced by folks who adore the niché that Urban Southern fits into.
We have met some great influencers through attending events. For example, Jon Acuff was an amazing person to meet + he gave me a cool shoutout on his Instagram!
We still have the opportunity to attend more Fashion Week events across the world through our NYFW connection. If we wanted to gain traction in the high end fashion scene, we would absolutely invest into those and show up again and again.
As we grow, we'll definitely plan to host our own events. We love dreaming about launching a southern fashion show in Nashville this fall and working with local designers we've already met or collaborated with there.
In summary….
We may not always be able to measure a large or immediate ROI from attending events, but it’s been a vital part of gaining traction for our small business. The folks who meet us and see our leather bags in person have become some of our most loyal customers.
Every time we are at an event, we have the opportunity to observe how people interact with our product. We’re always get new ideas for content through the questions people ask about leather and our process. We have adjusted our brand’s voice to meet the needs of our audience because we’ve gotten to know them personally.
The benefits of attending an event can be infinite for your brand if you make the most of them. So what is the biggest takeaway here? Do your research and find the events that will be the most beneficial to your growth. Prepare for the event both online and off. Last, follow up! Those are real people you connected with, and they may just be your next brand advocates.
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Edited by Shauna Armitage
