How To Expand Exposure

Ask Me Anything Q&A Stokedoatsama

Topic summary

An artisan leather business in east Tennessee with 5+ years of experience seeks ways to increase exposure without traditional advertising. They produce locally-made, higher-end leather products with strong reviews.

Key recommendation provided:

  • Create high-quality content (photos, videos, artisan features) to showcase products and authenticity
  • Identify and target specific communities likely to purchase (geographic focus: Tennessee, Southeast USA, or broader)
  • Calculate complete fulfillment costs (materials, packaging, labor, shipping) before setting marketing budgets
  • Reinvest marketing percentage into ads, community engagement, and in-person events/expos

The discussion emphasizes that early-stage brands face this challenge universally and can address it through focused, strategic efforts rather than expensive consultants. The conversation remains open for additional input.

Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

We are a artisan leather business in east Tennessee and are attempting to figure out how to expand our exposure without using traditional advertising. We have five plus years in the marketplace, excellent reviews and locally made higher end leather products. We have been told all we need is more exposure and are attempting to answer that without consultants.

Thank you

Chuck

2

Chuck, you’re asking the question that we are all trying to solve and in the early days, you don’t need consultants. Exposure is a bigger issue for early stage brands to be sure. Best way that we’ve seen is to ensure that you have excellent content (photos, videos, feature your artisans, etc.) to support your product and claims, and then build your marketplace through hyper focused efforts - i.e. reaching out to communities who would purchase your products. Is that within Tennessee, entire SE USA, or elsewhere. You’ll need to know your shipping rates etc. and have your fulfillment costs dialled - i.e cost of goods, packaging, time to box and ship, shipping fee, etc. and then you could build a marketing % based on that, which you would reinvest in ads, community building, attending in-person events/expos etc. Hope that helps.

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