I have this strange cyclical approach to my leather wallet brand, Whitstable Craft Co. Every now and then something happens that sparks a little energy and gives a reminder of how much fun I’ve had building this brand in the past.

Most recently, it was my friend in New York showing me his beautifully patina’d wallet he’d purchased from me years ago, saying “this is by far the best wallet I’ve ever owned”. Nothing beats the feeling of hearing this about something you've made with your own two hands. Time to get these wallets into more people's hands.

For those out of the loop, I started the brand in 2020 as I couldn’t find a small card holder that was built to last, so I tried making my own. A few years later, I’d honed in the perfect design with the highest quality materials and after selling some of these products to my friends through a simple Shopify store, I started getting consistent sales from strangers. I had a wildly good time crafting these guaranteed for life wallets, made out of highest quality leather in the world. But as my attention gets pulled towards the day job (Producer of the Uncensored CMO podcast), I spent less time on Whitstable Craft Co.

However, this cycle has come at a good time, as it’s in the run up to Black Friday and Christmas/Holidays. I’ve got to move quick, as my window for marketing and selling products is around 6 weeks. I’m thinking if I can do a sprint with product updates, a PR campaign and consistent marketing efforts, I’ll be able to shift some wallets.

Here’s the the plan:

  • Reconfigure website. Currently conversion is low (less than 0.5%), even with the 500 or so people hitting the site each month. It's unclear what the main products are and so you’re left with a little choice paralysis. I realised I know my core product range, but no one else does. The plan is to upload my core 4 wallets in black and brown and make those the only products available on the site - as simple as possible. I’ll then turn my focus to updating the copy and product pages. I need as many images showcasing how many cards and cash you can fit in each. I’d also like to have a video showing the crafting process of each wallet, but I can do this as a “nice to have” later in the sprint.
  • Content. Content. Content. I’ve spluttered with content over the years, but have just managed to hit 1k followers on Instagram. There have been many successful examples of small ecommerce brands (especially craft brands) creating a ton of content and waiting until one video takes off. I’m not banking on this, but I think it’s table stakes even for people in the discovery stage of the brand to showcase it being an “active” brand. Daily content of the crafting process, the story, fun experiments with new products etc.
  • PR & influencers. In the run up to Christmas there are hundreds of gift guides released, and my products are ripe for gifting. I’ve never tried this before but want to give it a shot. I’m planning to create a list of media outlets and influencers to send a nice package to and hope I might get some coverage.
  • Share the process. I’ve had some success in the past while sharing my progress building this brand, so I’m planning to share the results of my experiments on X, LinkedIn, this blog and Instagram.

That's the plan for now. I'll update here every Sunday with progress. And, of course, I'm open to any suggestions or critiques on my approach.