Welcome to The Seller Scoop, a monthly newsletter covering the vintage resale industry from The Vintage Seeker. Was this email forwarded to you? Get your own copy delivered straight to your inbox: Subscribe here and make sure you select the option for resellers.
Hi vintage vendor*,
(*Not you? Update your preferences in the footer of this email.)
Do me a favour and open up the home feed of your favourite social media app that you use as a seller or vendor. Look at the first post. Then come back to this email.
I’ll wait. :)
Done?
Was it another vintage or secondhand shop? (I would love to know.)
What about the next one? Another shop?
Scroll down.
Another shop?
Is it four in a row? Is it more?
We all know what happens when we open up Facebook or Instagram or our following feeds on TikTok.
We see the content from the people we interact with the most, first. (Unless the first thing you see is an ad, which happens all the time now…or a suggested post…which…also happens. But *after that.*)
We want to see the content from our friends, our family, our biz buddies. It’s how many of us stay in touch these days.
But how much do you see in your feed from your customers, or your potential customers?
Your customers might comment on your posts. They might reply to your stories. But do you see theirs?
You might already be posting vintage- and secondhand-related social media content that has good reach, and that regularly gets you followers.
You might be polling those followers, talking to them in the comments and engaging them on your page, creating a relationship with them.
But that relationship is somewhat one-sided unless you learn what they’re up to.
That’s where the gold is.
Social media is an amazing place to connect, share and learn. But it’s also a tunnel (and some days, it feels like you’re posting into a void, doesn’t it?). It keeps feeding you what you engage with the most.
If that’s other shops, that’s whose posts you’ll see, almost exclusively. Other shops may indeed be your potential customer.
But they also might not be. Then you really are in a tunnel.
I am not advocating to not engage with other shops’ posts, or, as I mentioned in a recent newsletter, adding another task to your already too-busy schedule.
Rather, I’m a fan of divide and conquer — if social media is your main marketing channel, and you spend an hour engaging on social media a day, consider spending half the time engaging with other sellers and industry folks, and half the time engaging with customers.
It’s impossible to follow every customer and let’s face it, it would be kinda weird. Lots may have private accounts.
But the ones you’ve started seeing as repeat customers? Bring them into your fold. Engage with their content, genuinely.
Having some customer voices bounce around in your feed every day will give you a wealth of ideas for:
- Content: Maybe they’ve posted a story about their promotion and two days later you pop up with a video: 5 work-ready outfits to celebrate your promotion. (More social media content ideas below, BTW!)
- Inventory: You can source for them and more people like them. Running with the promotion theme: perhaps you start bringing in some more corporate wear. They refer you to their new colleagues.
- Opportunities: How can you reach people like them in other places? Let’s bring home the promotion example: Maybe you come up with curated workwear pop-up on a busy biz street in your local area.
If you have a physical shop or sell at markets, it’s relatively easy to keep tabs on what your customers are up to. Relationship building comes more naturally.
But if you sell primarily online, it takes consistent effort to listen, rather than shout your shop news and sales into the void.
Talk to the people who buy from you. Become a part of their lives. Chat to them at markets. DM them. Send them a friend request. Use your following feed (aka your chronological feed) to get out of your usual social-media tunnel and check in on your most engaged customers.
One of the huge differentiators of being a small business owner is the chance to connect with your customers on a personal level.
So get personal, and let me know how it goes for you!
*Not a seller, vendor or market organizer? Somehow you’re on my seller email list!
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