Everyone likes candles in their various establishments. Aside from making the place smell wonderful, they can provide some illumination as well. From a business standpoint, candle-making is a cheap and easy-to-do venture with great returns. Scented candles are a great interior design item and as such, you will have plenty of demand for your business.
But it can always be better. There are also quieter months to consider when there isn’t much demand. In order to ensure you have a consistent business throughout the year, you will need to effectively market your brand. There are a few strategies that you can try out for that purpose.
Flyers In Local Publications
Look up what local paper or magazine you have in your community and contact them to put a flyer in. Local publications are cheaper than their mainstream counterparts in this regard, so you won’t have to spend a lot. In order to make a flyer, you can use PosterMyWall’s flyer maker. It has an easy-to-interface that even the most novice graphics designers can use easily.
You can also put these flyers up on different noticeboards and such. If grocery stores and other interior decor stores allow you, you can put up your flyers there as well. Flyers will allow you to say what mere words cannot. Since it’s graphical content, it will have much better audience retention than words. Moreover, you can show off some of your products on the flyers as pictures.
Seasonal Candles
Certain candles will do better in particular seasons. These depend on the weather, climate, and what the scent reminds people of. For example, a candle with a beach scent can work well in the summer, a cinnamon-scented candle works best in the winter, etc. This knowledge will allow you to capitalize on which candles to promote and when.
You can try to offer special deals and sales on these particular candles every time the peak season comes. Instead of doing nothing with your other candles during off seasons, prepare for the seasons during which they would be popular. You can offer discounts to your mailing list, offer these candles to customers as gifts on special occasions, and keep promoting your brand on social media.
Farmers Markets And Fairs
Check when a local fair is taking place and check with the organizers if you can set up a stall. Additionally, contact the local farmers market about selling your candles there. Both of them are excellent opportunities to reach out to a wide audience. Not only can you sell, but you can create awareness regarding your brand and candles.
It costs a few hundred dollars to book a spot at a farmer’s market so consider doing that. But do keep in mind to have adequate stock with an appropriate price range to actually make a profit. You may also print your flyers and other promotional material to bring with you to your spot. These can be put and also handed over to customers and the like to further promote your brand. A catalog of your products is always good to have on hand as well so people can place future orders for candles not available at the stall.
Social Media Promotion
Social media is your best friend when it comes to promoting your business on the internet. Most of the internet traffic comes from social media and as such, it should always have a place in your marketing plan. Choose 2-3 platforms and focus on promoting your candle-making business there. For instance, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, etc are excellent for this purpose.
Create pages and profiles on these platforms and actively post to promote your brand. As for what to post, focus on graphical content over textual posts. Images have better retention and are likely to be engaged with. To make your post designing process easier and faster, you can use PosterMyWall’s social media post maker. There are also thousands of social media templates available there as well which can make the process even easier. You want to show off your candles in an appealing way that makes your customers want to buy them.
For example, in this post, the business owner took artistic pictures of their coffee-scented candles. To enhance the picture, they also added some chocolate and other similar foods to entice their prospective customers. You can do something similar with your candles, depending on the products you offer.
The key to a successful marketing strategy is consistency and repetition. You must be consistent with the strategy you make and stick to it to be effective. However, there should always be room for improvement and change should your strategy needs tweaking. You will likely need to follow all of the strategies listed above to be successful. As long as you do them all and consistently, you will be successful.