Steal my crochet business marketing strategy!

If you're super creative when it comes to crochet, but the moment you sit down to create a post to market your business, you draw a complete blank, then this is for you. You're probably feeling pretty overwhelmed by the social media landscape. Algorithms, hashtags, trending audio, etc. In this video, I break down the MOST important aspects to focus on that won’t just increase your likes/follows but actual sales. Watch the video below!

Tutorials & Resources

Favorite filming tools: Crochet Biz Tools

Instagram Reel Editor Tutorial: Bags by Bento

Instagram Tutorials: Stephanie Kase

Business Inspiration: Goal Digger Podcast

Favorite editing app: InShot App

Want to save this video for later?? Pin it!

Transcript

00:00 Hi, crochet friends, I'm Taylor and my crochet business is called Bags by Bento. I'm a crochet designer and content creator and I'm probably most known for my short videos on social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.

00:15 If you're the type of person who is super creative when it comes to crochet, but the moment you sit down to create a post to market your business, you draw a complete blank, then this is for you.

00:26 You're probably feeling pretty overwhelmed by the social media landscape. So how do I even get started in crochet business? Buckle up, because this is quite the story.

01:03 Just five years ago, I was fired from my corporate finance job and I was furious to be honest. I had been miserable for years and completely changed myself to make this company happy.

01:18 And in the long run I didn't matter. They still let me go and I had no idea what to do next.

01:23 I started job hunting, but being six months pregnant made it really difficult to land a job. Pretty soon I had my second…

01:30 Child, so I had two kids under two and some pretty severe postpartum depression and anxiety. So it was navigating all of that, still job searching when the pandemic started.

01:43 At first I felt like the world was ending and I felt like running away, to be honest. But eventually, the lockdown actually helped me to let go of the pressure that I felt to meet societal expectations and to figure out who I am.

02:00 Was again. So I picked up hobbies and crochet very quickly became a safe haven for me. It helped so much with my anxiety.

02:11 It gave me a sense of purpose. So I knew it was time to make it into something more than just a hobby.

02:19 I had dreamed of starting my own business for years. I even got a master's degree in business, but had kept holding myself back because of your failure.

02:28 I finally had nothing left. To lose. Like many crocheters, I started my business with an Etsy shop and I announced my brand new business in a post on Instagram.

02:41 I made a fair number of sales in the beginning, which was really exciting, but they were all from friends and family

02:46 So once I maxed out my personal network, the sales perfume and far between, which got pretty discouraging after a while.

02:54 I'd get a sale one week and then nothing for a few weeks. And at one point I even thought about quitting.

02:59 I thought maybe I was a little bit more excited about this. I thought maybe there's not a market for crochet or the competition is too fierce on Etsy.

03:07 And one thing I've learned from my crochet business experience is that failures give us the best information. If we can process our feelings around those failures and then use them to propel us forward to try new things, then we have a much better chance of having a successful business in the long term

03:32 . Strategy. If you haven't already, grab something to take notes because we are getting to the good stuff. 

03:43 So at this point, I am doing research online about how to market my crochet business.

03:57 And I'm noticing some video. Now this is 2020. Video is just starting to make an appearance on this scene. Reels are new.04:04 TikTok is new. And millennials are like, oh no, TikTok, no. It just felt silly. Maybe a little egocentric. I was really scared to make a fool of myself for my friends and family to be like, what is she doing?

04:21 So I did start doing some videos on Pinterest because I didn't have any friends and family following me there and it felt a little bit safer.

04:30 My video content was me modeling my bags and they weren't great. Sometimes I go back and look on them and laugh because you have to start somewhere, right?

04:42 But pretty soon I decided to try doing some tutorials and how to's since Pinterest is the hub for how to's and tutorial videos.

04:52 So I propped my phone up on a chair and recorded my hands making this super simple video of how to do it.

05:03 And this video went mega-viral. At this time, it's at 13 million views and counting and more importantly, it's provided thousands of clicks to my website.

05:16 In this video took me all of five minutes to make. There was no professional editing. There wasn't any special lighting.

05:24 I used my phone. So this just goes to show you that you don't need to make it complicated. To be successful.

05:33 Okay, it's time for a little pet talk. You might be thinking that's great for you Taylor. I am not good at social media and going viral isn't in the cards for me.

05:41 Well, just a reminder, this isn't about going viral. This is about having a successful crochet business that you can be proud of.

05:49 And if short videos, a simple strategy can get you more sales when you at least like to try. By taking small steps, you can make progress towards getting a your name out there and finding the right customers for your business.

06:05 So I know it's overwhelming, but take a deep breath and let's take this one step at a time. So what do you need to get started?

06:12 Not a lot. You don't need a fancy camera props lighting backdrops. You really only need a camera phone. There are a couple other things that I use regularly that make my life easier, but they aren't required.

06:23 For the camera phone, I use an iPhone 12 for everything, even my YouTube videos. If your camera is not the quality that you're looking for, this is the one thing I would consider upgrading.

06:35 Next, I use a tripod almost daily. The one I like to use is a called a gooseneck because it's flexible.

06:41 It's great for filming overhead or regular shots and it clips to a surface or table for only 15 bucks. The one I use is linked here, but you can also find them on Amazon.

06:51 The last thing is a white background. White backgrounds work great for tutorials and product videos. You can get a simple white poster board for a couple bucks at the craft store or if you want to invest in something that will last more long term, a large canvas works like a charm.

07:07 You can wash it and it never wrinkles. So you don't need these things necessarily, but they do help you save time from having to prop up your camera somewhere that can take a while or from having to figure out where backdrop you're going to use.

07:21 These things can make your life a little bit easier. One thing that holds people back from creating more video is thinking that they need set aside time for filming or batching content.

07:33 When in reality, you can film things as you go. If you're about to crochet, work at your computer or pack up some orders, prop your phone up or put it in a tripod and hit record.

07:43 We are going to talk later about how to add benefit to your post through text. We can use almost any video.

07:51 So as long as it has good lighting and it's clear, we can use it. If there's one thing you learned from our chat today, it's this.

08:00 The Y matters more than the what. It's a pretty common strategy for business owners to think I've got this new product that I need to promote.

08:09 I'm going to make a video about that. And instead, they need to be thinking about why this product benefits their customer.

08:17 We're going to be talking through some scenarios and examples of how to shift your perspective from what you're promoting to why you're promoting it.

08:26 You have your videos on your phone and ready to go and now it's time to craft a post. You need to find the viewer benefit first before you do any of your editing.

08:37 The reason for this is people are scrolling pretty fast these days. And you need to grab their attention by doing one of three things, entertaining them, educating them, or inspiring them.

08:49 And the way that we do this is we think through their thought process. Why am I watching this? What's in it for me?

08:56 Rather than sharing a post that's all about your promotion, selling things from your shop, you want to craft it in a way that benefits the person watching.

09:06 We're going to talk more about strategies for doing this. But here's an example right here. On the left, we've got a post that is promoting a product, new crochet toys available on Etsy.

09:17 And here on the right we have a post that's offering a solution to someone's problem. Three kids birthday gift ideas.

09:24 The person who's watching the one on the right is one either actively shopping for birthday gifts, or they're saving this post for later when they are.

09:33 So you're offering a solution to their problem of looking for the perfect gift for the kid in their life. And this is how we find the right customers and we convert videos to actual sales.

09:46 It's a common trend among professional content creators to produce these perfectly aesthetic videos with lots of clips and fancy fonts and fancy transitions.

09:59 And I see crochet business owners trying to recreate these types of videos and feeling frustrated when they spend so much time on one video and it doesn't get the response they were hoping for.

10:09 So my advice is to prioritize function over aesthetic. Now don't get me wrong aesthetics can be helpful people like to look at beautiful things.

10:18 But the number one priority is that the person can see the video clearly they can read the text very quickly because most videos are short and they can see the benefit right away to them so that they actually stick around and watch the whole video.

10:33 Over here on the left you can see this video has some sort of filter on it and like crazy cursive.

10:40 I don't know what the benefit is I think I'm looking at a blanket here but I'm not sure like why I need to watch this.

10:46 Over here on the right. I can very quickly see super fast at the top it says how to wash your crochet throat and bold letters caps it's easy to read so I know right away that this is giving me tips on how to wash my crochet blanket.

11:00 And the steps they have a white background behind them to make it easier to read because these videos are usually pretty short you want to make sure that people can see them very easily.

11:11 And you want to make the benefit the clearest part you want that text to be really big and the steps to be smaller.

11:18 You also want to make sure that you're not using filters and other things that are going to make the video less clear or blurry.

11:27 It's better to prioritize clear video over a certain like color or vibe. Lastly, you don't need a lot of clips to have a successful video.

11:38 If clipping together a bunch of videos takes a lot of your time just use one video that's perfectly okay. And the more that you learn video you can incorporate some different strategies.

11:49 But for now I want you to focus on having one clear, well-lit video with a clear benefit, big letters and whatever supporting words you need at the bottom.

12:01 So you've spent all this time filming, editing and adding a benefit to your video and you want it to be worth it.

12:07 You need the right people to find it. This is my number one algorithm tip and it works for every platform.

12:14 Things I hear are quite a lot are how many hashtags I should use, how long should my caption be? The algorithm hates me, nobody's seeing my post and my shadow band, whole traverses.

12:27 This is why. You need to be using commonly searched words in your captions on your video as hashtags. This is telling Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, what your post is about and who they should show it to you.

12:45 So a lot of people ask me, are hashtags still effective? The answer is maybe. Hashtags are a great way to still use keywords or commonly searched words and also potentially reach some people that might not have otherwise.

13:00 So I still say use them but don't put all your eggs in one basket. So over here on the left you can see this is a cute little post about buying where you are in the need.

13:12 And in the caption it says, can you relate with a couple of emojis and some very general hashtags? So here's why I don't think this is an effective strategy.

13:23 For one, the hashtags she used are like way too general. So people who follow the hashtag funny might not even be interested in your or crocheted all.

13:33 In fact they probably aren't. So it's not good to use hashtags that hope have over 1 million uses or less than 1,000 uses.

13:42 You want it to be somewhere in between. And the way you know how many uses it has is when you're typing in the hashtag it kind of has a drop down of choices.

13:49 And it will say how many times it's used. So she should have used some commonly searched words in the caption.

13:56 So say for example on the video she uses the word yarn. So she could have put something like can you relate.

14:03 And the reasons why she loves yarn. And then done a couple of hashtags about like yarn lover, yarn love. And that way she's using those commonly searched words in several different places to tell the app what the post is about and to show it to other people who also like posts that have the word yarn

14:22 in it. And are engaging with those types of posts. It's going to show it to those people. So over here on the right is an example of a post that I did that did really well.

14:32 I used keywords on the post and I highlighted the keywords that I used in the caption. So you can see here I took as many opportunities as I could to use some commonly searched words and Instagram.

14:45 And then I also use them as hashtags at the bottom. So I put keywords in several different places. People know exactly what this post is about when they read it.

14:54 And the algorithm also knows what the post is about and who to show it to you. So the way that I do research on keywords for my industry and figure out the best ones.

15:03 There are a lot of different ways you can do this. One, you can follow people who do similar content as you and see what words they are using on their most popular posts.

15:13 You can use the search bar and Instagram to search certain words and see what comes up. And if you're seeing posts that have a lot of engagement, that's probably a great keyword to use.

15:22 There are a couple of websites that work really well. One is called e-rank, era-n-k-dot-com. And it helps you find keywords and keyword phrases.

15:32 And it's free. And another one that's free is called answerthepublic.com. And you type in a word and it gives you a bunch of different words that are related to that word.

15:42 So it can help you come up with some new ideas. So if you can think of a list of commonly searched terms for industry and keep that list, you can go back and check it every time you're crafting a caption and see how you can incorporate those words.

15:56 And this is going to help your post to be able to show to the right people and to get more exposure.

16:04 I created a couple of tools for crochet business owners to maximize the impact of every single post. The first are some free Canva Real templates.

16:13 You can find these on my website at www.bazbivinto.com slash real templates. And I've created three different types of templates. One is for educating, one for inspiring, and one for entertaining.

16:25 So exactly what we talked about earlier. And it walks you through step by step the framework behind these posts, where to put the text and what colors and all those things.

16:35 It also comes in the video tutorial. So if you're not familiar with Canva, that will help. If you prefer to edit in another app, you can take these same concepts and use them elsewhere.

16:44 Because it's free, you can just get some tips by looking at them and then go do it on your own.

16:48 The next thing I have is an Instagram content planner. The content planner is inspired by my own routine that I use for creating content.

16:57 And it comes with a lot of goodies. The first is a full page of content ideas and prompts. And it gives you specific ideas for what to post.

17:07 So if you're struggling with figuring out, oh, what do I post on this day? I have no idea. I know I need to benefit, but I'm not sure how this content list will help a lot.

17:17 Next, it has a daily checklist that helps you optimize each and every post so that it can perform the best it can.

17:23 It also has a copy, library and a hashtag bank where you can keep your captions in your hashtags in one place and reuse them over and over and over again.

17:33 Guys, this is a huge time saver for me. If you hate writing captions, save all of them and reuse them.

17:39 Nobody will notice. Next, it has a weekly and a monthly planner. So depending on how far in advance you like to plan, you can keep everything organized.

17:50 And it also has some places where you can check your analytics. So it has your monthly stats and your quarterly check in.

17:57 So you can keep track of how your page is performing. So these two tools can be super helpful for upping your marketing game on Instagram.

18:06 And I've got some other tools coming soon for other platforms. So hang in there and make sure you follow on Instagram for more updates.

18:14 Here are a few helpful tutorials and tools that I love. The first is Stephanie Case on YouTube. When I first got into the Instagram Reels game, I followed some of her tutorials.

18:24 And it massively helped. She shows you the ins and outs and technical abilities of the Instagram editor better than anyone I found.

18:34 So if you're new to editing video on Instagram, I highly recommend that you check out her beginner videos. Next is the in-shot app.

18:42 It is completely free. And it's a really helpful editing tool if you are using videos on multiple different platforms. Or maybe you really hate the Instagram editor or the TikTok editor and you just want something separate.

18:55 Then you can check this out. It's a really cool tool. Next is the gold digger podcast by Janet Kutcher. It's got a lot of great stuff in here for business owners.

19:04 I find it really inspiring. But this particular episode is all about short video and strategies for growing your business. So I think you'll get a lot of out of that one.

19:14 Next, I share a lot of crochet business tips and content ideas on my Instagram. So if you'd like to check out my latest live that has a lot of content tips, it's more technical and gets into the nitty gritty of things in this video.

19:29 So if you want to dive a little deeper, then head on over to my Instagram page and check that out.

19:35 I wouldn't be where I am today without the crochet community. It's gotten me through some really tough times. It's helped me grow my crochet business.

19:43 And it's made my life more fulfilling to have people who also love crochet as much as I do. If you're looking for crochet friends, I highly recommend that you come hang out with us over on Instagram.

19:55 We have a lot of fun over there. If you have questions after today, I would love to hear from you.

20:00 It also means the world to me if you just said hello so we could be friends. If you're not on Instagram, but you'd like to be pin pals over on Gmail, my email is Bags by Bento.

20:11 Gmail.com. Just remember that you have all the tools you need to succeed. I'm cheering you on as you navigate this world of video content and I can't wait to see what you do next.

20:22 Happy crocheting.