When I launched my small business last year, I felt kind of pressured to do it. I run a shop that sells greeting cards. We think handwritten messages can really stand out or make an impact in this day and age where texting, DM'ing, and pinging have become the norm.

I use Pinterest and Instagram as my main social media platforms to advertise my business (and a bit of Facebook and Twitter). Once in a while I use Pinterest and Instagram ads and I do get a lot of views, but I had no boost in sales for four months. It appeared as though people were simply copying my images for later use.

Even with all the marketing efforts I do on social media, My clickthrough rate across all social media platforms was quite poor. I made the decision to stop posting and advertising after that to observe the effect on sales for two months and here’s what I did instead:

• I used ETSY ads and improved our tags and SEO.
• We built our email list using Mailchimp. We optimized the funnels, opt-ins, lead magnets etc. To establish a strong first impression, we made sure to put a lot of work into each email we sent.
• Aside from email, we also do direct mail marketing using Docupost and use it for automating our card deliveries for clients.
• We bought a Canva Pro account and we used it a lot for designing a lot of cards, downloading stock imagery, and adding original captions.

After all this, I started getting a boost on sales. That's when I realized social media didn't have much of an impact on sales for my business. Even though I know it takes a lot of effort and what might not be for me, I still occasionally plan to continue posting or advertising sometime in the future because I have heard it is a good way to increase traffic (Facebook Ads maybe?). I also have a gut feeling we did something wrong so I’m not sure.

So what do you guys think?