It’s the final installment in our finding new customers series! To recap, you now know your customers (existing and potential) better, and what the overall market looks like.
Previously in this series, we discussed what a target audience is, how to research your customer, building a customer persona, niching down with the “so what” test, using all of these insights to talk to your customer and evaluating the overall market landscape.
Why did we do all that work?
So that you can hold your ideal customer in mind as you try any (or all!) of the following ideas to find new clientele.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of ways you can find more customers:
Put your market research into action.
Previously in this series, we completed a SWOT analysis of other shops in the market, and then did one for your own shop.
Use that as a starting point. How can you improve on the weaknesses you’ve identified and set goals to get to those opportunities?
Freshen up your existing channels.
You now have a deep understanding of your ideal customer, so try doing an audit of every place your shop appears to ensure you are talking to your target audience:
- If you’re in an online marketplace, could your About info/shop history, FAQ or shipping policies use an update?
- If you’re on social media, read through your bio info, your shop policies, your about section. Use pinned posts to ensure customers can find information more easily.
- If you operate a website, have a friend or family member make a purchase and get them to note where they might have been confused, had a question or struggled to complete the transaction. This can help to ensure you aren’t losing people in your checkout funnel.
- Check all the language on your website too — does your writing need a revamp on your listings, your About page or your FAQ page?
Leverage your existing customers.
These are people who have purchased from you in the past.
- Do you follow them on social media? Have you browsed to see who *they’re* following?
- Make notes of the type of people they’re friends with/following, and use that info to feed your customer personas.
- Engage with past or current customers online, at markets or in store. If you ever see them with a friend, engage that person too!
- Ask every customer how they found you and your shop. Do this verbally, via DM, via an email survey, or by using a required field when they make a purchase.
- Look for trends and ramp up your promotion efforts.
- If lots of people found you via Facebook, post more on Facebook. Buy a paid social media ad on Facebook.
- If they found you via Google, look into Google Ads or things you can do to improve your SEO.
Ask them to share.
Another way to leverage your current or past customers is to ask them to share pieces from your shop on social media, so that you can reshare them. Consider starting your own shop hashtag for this, or ask them to DM you photos.
Show you care.
Follow up with customers to show you care.
- This could be as simple as “Hey X, I remember you said you were looking forward to going to Hawaii. How was the trip?”
- Or more targeted: “Hey X, I remember at the market last month you said you were looking for Levi’s orange tabs, well I just found a pair in your size and wanted to offer you first dibs!”
- Find those little moments of delight for your customer…they’re going to tell their friends about it.
Review your marketing.
How are you getting your shop name out there and in front of new potential customers? Do you promote your shop in the places that match your customer persona?
- If your usual customer loves pinning, are you on Pinterest?
- Are you boosting on Instagram only when most of your existing customers use Facebook?
- Have you considered marketing in more traditional mediums like community newspapers or classified sections?
- Do you only post products on social media, or do you periodically post shop info, shop services and anything else that promotes what you do?
Do some good old face-to-face networking.
Network, network, network. It still works.
- Talk to people at markets and events
- Bring business cards or encourage QR code use at shows
- Tell customers about your various services (i.e., they make a purchase and when you hand them the item, tell them you also do consignment if they ever need to do a closet clearout, or you are happy to discuss private sales if they or someone they know is looking to downsize, etc.).
- Join and participate in local communities, forums (or groups like the VSC!), which can help to spark partnerships and bring new leads
Create a referral or loyalty program and/or offer discounts.
While discounts aren’t for everyone, sometimes they can help customers feel like they are getting something of value.
Try offering one or more of the following:
- Discounts for new customers
- For referring a friend
- For repeat customers
- Buy-one-get-one
- Keep track of existing customers and when they haven’t shopped with you for six months, then offer a discount to return
- Loyalty program/membership/"stamp club" with exclusive sneak peeks, discounts etc. for participating customers
Run a giveaway.
Try hosting a giveaway on social media to find new customers. In order to enter, get people to follow you, save the post, and tag a friend who loves vintage.
Create an email list and encourage signups.
You don’t need a full website to do this — you can just place an email signup field in a free link-in-bio tool. If you do have a website, use pop-ups to capture email addresses for your mailing list.
- Collect email addresses
- Send periodic inventory updates to your list
- Include a section of the email that encourages recipients to forward the newsletter to a friend
- Link back to your social media
- Allow people to share the newsletter
Check your engagement analytics.
Look at your posts that get more likes and comments.
- Have you flipped through them to see who the people are?
- Note the demographics if you can get any — it will show you more about what types of people are interested in your products or content.
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Continued from above
Make a list of influencers or brands in your vintage resale niche.
Without indiscriminately following a bunch of their followers, how can you reach their audiences?
- Browse their following and follower lists — if there are accounts that seem to fit your customer profile, think about how you can engage with these influencers.
- Reshare their content when appropriate and participate in their community — both good ways to *potentially* be reshared to their audience.
- Offer to collaborate. If you’re on Instagram, use the collaboration tool when sharing a post so you reach both your audience and theirs.
Try not to expect follow-for-follow or share-for-share — these metrics aren’t that helpful, anyway. You want to be genuine and authentic, because that’s what’s going to resonate with people.
Try a new sales channel.
If you’re trying to sell on Instagram and it’s consistently not delivering for you, or you're finding it really difficult to expand your customer base, try another platform like Etsy. Here’s a list of buy-and-sell platforms.
Branch out in general.
Try a new market/event or social media platform. Think of ways you can distribute information about your business. At an event, it might be postcards and/or a QR code. Online, you might try cold DMs or emails to introduce your business.
Share testimonials.
- Ask current customers for testimonials.
- Take screenshots of Etsy or Google reviews or social media comments and share those, too.
- Share the testimonials repeatedly on social media.
- Rinse and repeat!
Read reviews on other shop websites.
- What have people complained about?
- What can you do to ensure they don’t have that experience with you?
- Make a list and then find ways to address those concerns in your shop policies, in your listings copy, or in your social media posts.
Run paid ads/boost posts on social media.
Facebook and Instagram use “lookalike modelling” to share your ad with people who are similar to your followers.
You can let Meta choose the audience — but keep in mind if you have a lot of other reseller followers, you may not want to let the platform automatically choose who to show your ad to.
Consider setting the audience manually so you can specify the exact demographics and focus more on your specific customer. For a quick lesson on boosting a post, Champion members can check out our Streamline Social Selling workshop recording.
Run a findability audit.
Customers need to be able to find you. Can they?
- Do you have keywords in your social media bio?
- What about in your listings?
- What happens if you search for your business name on social media? What about if you search for terms a user might search for like "toronto vintage" or "montreal vintage" — does your shop pop up?
- What happens when you Google your business name?
- If you live in Vancouver and you sell vintage jewellery, you may want to include keywords like “jewelry” “jewelery” and “jewellery” on your website or marketplace shop to ensure you consistently surface in search results.
Find other distribution channels.
When you appear in front of other people’s audiences, you get exposure to their network. If you’re featured on their website, that usually means you get backlinks to your shop, which are crucial for building authority online.
- Guest post or blog, or speak at events, on podcasts or in video.
- If you don’t have a blog of your own, offer to write on other blogs.
- You will likely have to do this outreach yourself. If you want to get your shop name out there, go to the brands that have other audiences instead of waiting for them to come to you.
- Send out information, ideas, or press releases for big news or events to local news outlets or relevant media.
Take advantage of opportunities to promote your business.
If you’re part of neighbourhood or local groups that allow you to promote your business, use those opportunities to post your products or shop info. There are tons of buy-and-sell vintage groups on Facebook that might be a great place to find new customers.
Ensuring you have a complete listing on the Shop Secondhand Directory is another great way to promote your business.
And for Champion and Patron members, don’t forget the promotional opportunities available via The Vintage Seeker — our three-times-a-year promo emails, our member spotlights that feature your business on Instagram and our website, your Shop Secondhand Directory upgraded listing and our gift guide. Find them all in your account dashboard.
Tap into new markets.
You know who your ideal customer is now, but what if you look beyond that pool to some less conventional places? If you're a vintage decor or art seller, you might want to try reaching interior designers. If you're a vintage fashion seller, you might be interested in reaching magazine editors or stylists. If you're a vintage furniture seller, you might want to try set decorators.
There are a few ways to get noticed by other markets:
- Google is your friend! Make a list of all of the relevant stylists, interior design studios and film/production agencies local to your area. Add all relevant media you can think of: magazines, community news, etc.
- Follow who you can on social media. Periodically share their content to your Stories and tag them (if you just reshare, they won't be notified. You need to tag them to get them to see it). Maybe they've shared a gorgeous living room with vintage furnishings and sharing it would be relevant to your audience.
- Collect their email addresses if they are publicly posted, and check on their websites for FAQ and information about getting in touch. They may accept unsolicited pitches or vendor inquiries (they also may not, and it's important to find out!)
- If they accept inquiries, send a short email introducing your shop and why you think it would be relevant for them in their business. Include a link to your shop so they can get a sense of your inventory.
- Find relevant or adjacent trade shows in your area (i.e. the Interior Design Show or a wedding show), buy an attendee ticket, and engage with the vendors. You may meet new connections who might be interested in your vintage inventory and services.
Conclusion
Two of the most common things that come up on the entry surveys of our Champion members as a goal are “increasing reach” and “increasing sales.”
There’s no one way to do either of those things — both involve a ton of trial and error. You learn something, you implement it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If one thing is for sure running a business, it’s that you will continually tweak and iterate on that business!
I hope this series has been helpful and given you some ideas on how to find new customers, and on gaining a deeper grasp on what your shop is all about and who exactly it is for.
For the other posts, see:
Rooting yourself in this knowledge can help you move forward with more confidence when you’re talking about your shop with others.
And you just may find that’s what you need to motivate you the most to increase your reach and increase your sales.
Have other ideas for reaching new customers that have proven helpful in the past? Let us know in the comments!
