As we progress into the era of side hustles and the massive emergence of holistic small businesses, young and old entrepreneurs alike are trying to find ways to promote their businesses both online and through more traditional methods.
Selling candles is one such business where owners are struggling to raise awareness for their products.
Fortunately, there are a myriad of ways to promote your candles on and offline. These include newspapers, social media, radio and TV, and word of mouth.
In this article, we will be exploring some of the options out there for promoting your candles. While many of these are free, some will incur direct or underlying costs.
It is essential to remember that promotion is a part of growing your candle business and is a worthwhile investment.
Social Media
One of the most convenient and user-friendly platforms for promotion is social media. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are some of the largest social media channels we have today.
They are free, and attracting attention can be as simple as posting daily on Instagram or creating and maintaining a Facebook page to connect with potential clients.
- Sponsored Posts
Now, while most social media platforms do not attract subscription or membership fees, some of them may provide the option for business account holders to pay to have their posts advertised across the home feeds of other users.
Instagram, in particular, gives business account owners the option to promote their products or services for as low as $0.50 USD.
The cost of advertising is usually linked with how long you want the ad to run (maybe an hour or even over a course of days) and what you are selling e.g., the more saturated markets like clothing and beauty may invite higher rates.
The process is straightforward. You can use a post that you’ve already created and choose this to essentially be the face of your business (for a time at least).
This post will appear on other Instagram users’ feeds who have not followed or even heard of you. Facebook sponsored posts work similarly.
There are two options with this platform. The first works very much like Instagram’s sponsored posts. The second allows you to set up ads through Facebook Ads Manager.
The drawback to using this feature is that it requires prior knowledge of its features and is a bit more complex to use.
On YouTube, there are YouTube Ads that allow businesses to advertise in selected break periods in a YouTube video.
The plus side is that there is no need to pay unless a potential customer expresses interest in the product, either by clicking the link below the video or watching the ad to the end.
- Paying an Influencer
Influencers are individuals who have become role models to modern-day children and even adults. They often do not have any conventional talents like singing, dancing, designing, etc., but are potent communicators, charming, insightful, and knowledgeable about particular topics. Through these latent skills, they can amass a gathering or ‘followers’ as we call them.
Using their chosen social media platform, be it YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or any of the others, these influencers can quickly spread the word of an item they like or a service they prefer. Because they are our role models, we try to emulate them as best as possible.
Paying an influencer to mention your candles on their platform would go an immensely long way towards promoting the product.
The larger the fanbase or following, the more significant impact that influencer’s words will have. Typically, the payment rates will differ based on the platform used and the number of followers the influencer has.
Additionally, when looking to hire an influencer, you must consider their specialty. Many influencers choose a niche and produce content around that. For example, you don’t want to hire a cooking influencer to promote your candles.
You want to make sure that the person you pay is catering to an audience interested in candles, holistic products, or meditation and self-care. This would mean that they are more receptive to hearing about candles and could more easily become potential customers.
- Posting on Your Own Platform
There are several routes to take when thinking of using your platform. You can choose to create a website, start a YouTube channel or use your own social media accounts to post about your candles cost-free.
Creating a website has become exceedingly easy with sites like WordPress and Wix. It is as simple as signing up for the site and paying a small fee to have a customized website name.
These spaces also come with features like themes and designs to make your website more personalized. This option has the potential to be the place where you sell your candles and promote them.
Earlier, we mentioned paying for ads on YouTube, but there is a more direct way to promote your candles using this platform.
You can create a YouTube channel free of cost for the express purpose of showcasing your candles, what they’re good for, best ways to use them, accessories to compliment them, etc.
Now, while the channel is free to make, you may need to consider upgrading your equipment to produce better video and sound quality.
Quality visuals and audio validates the professionalism of your business and will ultimately attract more customers.
It is not a necessary step to take, especially if your budget is exceptionally tight, but it is an avenue to be explored as your business grows.
Word of Mouth
Word of mouth is a more old-fashioned means to spread awareness of your candles. However, it is a tried and proven way of marketing your product to the wider public.
The best part is this method requires very little effort on your part. Word spreads from person to person like a massive game of Chinese telephone.
The trick is making sure that positive and correct information is being passed on.
Word of mouth happens when information is transmitted from person to person. It can be from you to potential customers, family and friends.
Customers are one of the main mediums of word of mouth. When someone has a great experience using your candles, they talk about it.
They tell a friend who tells a friend who tells another friend. Keep in mind that this method is also dependent on how quick your service was, the customer’s treatment, and your ability to be kind and personable.
After all, even if the candles were unique, the message passed around is that the customer service was subpar.
Television Advertisements
TV ads are very straightforward and have immense potential to reach a large audience. However, TV ads are expensive.
The primetime slots at hours where many people are watching or spaces where popular shows are on.
It is cheaper and easier to procure places at less popular times between 11 pm and 6 am.
However, the chances of reaching lots of people are greatly diminished, and the slots are still pretty pricey in comparison to other ways of promoting your candles.
Radio Advertisements
Radio ads are similarly expensive but not as bad as TV ads. It is also dependent on the time of and programs on at that time. More popular slots cost more, and less popular ones are cheaper but also less effective.
It would help if you also considered the duration and daily repetition of the ad. It needs to have just enough time for the audience to properly hear the information and short enough to make sense fiscally. Also, consideration must be given to repetition.
Repetition, even at the same time every day, reinforces knowledge of your candles in the listeners’ minds. These are just some of the factors to consider when seeking to promote your candles via radio.
Newspaper Advertisements
Remember that long fold of recycled paper your grandfather used to read each morning routinely? That is the newspaper.
While very outdated, newspapers are still produced today and still used by a small percentage of our population for leisure and information purposes.
Usually, Ads are placed in the classifieds section or attached to other pages at the bottom or corners of a popular article to attract maximum attention.
Newspapers are online these days as well. Ads are placed throughout the webpage of a specific article. The drawback of this is that many people ignore these ads and even find them annoying.
However, with enough repetition on a particular newspaper website, people will become more aware of your candles even if not many sales come from them directly.
Final Comments
No matter your budget, preference, or even if you have an aversion to technology, there is a way for any business owner to promote their candles.
You can choose to advertise using more modern, and cost-efficient methods like social media sponsored posts, paying an influencer, or posting on your own platform.
There are also more wide-reaching, traditional but costly methods like TV, radio, and newspaper advertisements.
Depending on what you can spend and your needs and audience, there is a way to promote your candles. You can choose to tailor these methods to suit your specific requirements or go with them as is.
That is the beauty of having your own candle business. YOU decide how to reach your customers and how much effort and money you can expend on to that end.
