Marketing is more than social media

We've been on Facebook and Instagram since we launched, but we've not posted much on Instagram for the past five or six months. This was because one of us was recovering from a broken wrist, and quite frankly, there was no time during the summer, as we were attending craft fairs and busy with other aspects of our business. This made us realise we were spending too much time on social media with little gain.

Here's why we started on social media in the heady days of 2020:

• It was a reasonably cost-effective way to market our products.

• It helped build a network of contacts and make sales.

• It increased our visibility, and as all other businesses posted, we thought we should, too!

Keeping our social pages up-to-date and fresh has been a learning process and a helpful tool for getting us noticed, but it has not been the best way to market our products. By early 2023, we realised we were devoting too much time to social media and discovered that it did not align with our business model. Regularly checking analytics became a chore, diverting us from prioritising strategies that enhanced our growth.

Our newsletter, which features information on new products, has helped with customer engagement and slowly built a good network of contacts. We also get a buzz from direct customer interaction when selling via our little shop and attending craft fairs and local markets.

Looking back at our Facebook and Instagram pages, we admit that our customer responses and interactions are not as good as those we receive when we send out a newsletter or post a new blog. However, we also have regular and returning customers via our website and little shop.

How do we convince customers that our products are great if not via social media?

The organic reach of our social posts in the early days of social media was favourable, but with the change in algorithms, responses started to drop off. We spent too much time on social media and felt we'd disappeared down a rabbit hole! So, in July 2024, we decided to step back and pull away entirely from Instagram, posting only a couple of times a week on our Facebook social pages.

This decision has brought us a sense of relief. We no longer feel pressured to show up on social media daily, allowing us to re-evaluate and focus on other aspects of our business marketing strategy.

As consumers, we shop for products using business websites rather than social media sites, and we suspect many of you do, too.

Now, moving to the final point: it enhances our visibility and is essential for our business! During the first three years, our Instagram account expanded. However, following the pandemic and lockdown, people's shopping habits shifted, with a greater inclination to shop on the high streets rather than online.

Not posting on social media for the last six months has made little difference to our sales, and more importantly, we no longer feel under pressure. While we understand the irony of posting about this topic on our website, we admit we've had our share of social media challenges and learned a lot. With the right strategy, social media can be a powerful tool for business promotion—and it's free!

Our absence from social media has not hindered the growth of our business, and it's been great to focus on the customers who regularly visit or email us. So, we're not knocking it, but living in the real world is far better for us as a small business than worrying about how many followers we might gain from our social media presence.

To view our soap and skincare collection, please visit us at www.livewellnaturalskincare.co.uk.