The Rebranded Teacher
The Rebranded Teacher
3 Things I'm Doing for My New TpT Store (That I Don't Do for My Established one)
Ever wondered why some TPT businesses flourish while others flounder? Join me, Lauren Fulton, as I reveal the top three strategies that are setting my new TPT venture apart from my established one. Drawing from over eight years of experience, I'll share how building a deep connection with your audience through blogging can make all the difference. You’ll learn why seasonal blog posts about preschool book recommendations are integral for establishing trust and providing value, even if they don't lead to immediate sales.
For those of you nurturing a new TPT store or seeking fresh tactics for an established one, this episode is brimming with actionable insights. Discover how my approach to audience engagement varies drastically between my two stores, and why your strategies should evolve as your business grows. Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining your existing methods, you'll walk away with purposeful and sustainable strategies to elevate your TPT business. Listen in and find out how to foster a loyal, engaged audience that stands by your brand.
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Welcome to the Rebranded Teacher Podcast. My name is Lauren Fulton. I'm a full-time teacher, author and seller on Teachers, pay Teachers and I help other teacher entrepreneurs grow their TPT businesses in a way that's purposeful and sustainable. So if you're looking for actionable, step-by-step ways to grow your business, you're in the right place. Let's get started it. Let's talk about three things I'm doing for my new TPT business that I don't do for my old TPT business or my established TPT business.
Speaker 1:So, if you're new here, I have two TPT businesses. One of them, I started in the summer of 2016,. Eight years ago. It's still going strong. It's doing great. The second one, I started this year, in May of 2024. And boy have I learned a lot from having two TPT businesses and two totally different niches.
Speaker 1:And there are things that I do for this second brand new store that I do not do for my established store. So, first of all, my TPT business that I've had since 2016,. I have a very established, active and engaged email list for that business, whereas my new business is obviously new. So I do have an email list for that, but it's still on the smaller side, trying to get those people to warm up to me, okay. So there are things that I do for this new business starting out that I don't necessarily intend to do when it's established, in the same way that I don't do it for my established TPT store. If you're brand new to TPT, I feel like this episode is for you. If you're established on TPT, this episode is also for you, because you might find that there are some things that you continue to do that you may not necessarily have to do anymore. So, number one, something that I do for my new TPT store that I don't do for my established one is blog. Okay, now, I don't blog like every week, like I'm not doing a weekly blog or anything like that, but I do have certain blog posts that I try to do each season. So, for example, I try to do a blog post for book choices for preschoolers per season. So when we move into fall or summer, or if they follow a certain theme, like dinosaurs, for example, I try to do like a book haul and have a blog post for that book haul.
Speaker 1:Now, the only purpose for those blogs over like that talk about books, even though I do use my Amazon associates, like I do share affiliate links blogs over like that talk about books, even though I do use my Amazon associates, like I do share affiliate links and things like that, it doesn't really make a lot of money. I think I've made I don't know very, very little, very, very little from selling books. In fact, the little bit that I've made from selling books. They didn't even buy the books that I was trying to sell to them. They bought other books and that's how I made money from them. So very, very little, though.
Speaker 1:That's not the purpose. The purpose is not to get them to join my email list. The purpose is not to find an audience from Pinterest and send them to my blog Like. The only purpose for sharing these books is to build a know, like and trust relationship with my existing email audience. So I'm sharing these book lists with people who've joined my email list and are getting to know me. So it's just a way for me to share valuable information and valuable content with them and interesting content, because I found that they actually really like those emails where I'm recommending books to them and sending them to the blog posts. They seem to really like that, even though they're not buying the books. It's fine, it's cool. The whole purpose is to help build a relationship with them and build that know like and trust factor.
Speaker 1:I don't necessarily have to do that with my established audience. I'm building know like and trust factor in other ways and there's already usually some form of know like and trust factor. When they come to me, A lot of them have already purchased products from me or there's already an existing no like and trust factor and I'm not trying to convert them to a buyer immediately with my established store, because I already have plenty of established buyers on my email list. So I'm a little bit more patient. Okay, with my new store, I'm really needing some feedback from them. So I'm looking for what do they respond to, what are they interested in and how can I create products that are going to meet those interests? So I'm really looking for some feedback from them and I'm looking to see do they respond well to these type of seasonal things? Are they interested in what I'm blogging about, any of that stuff? So I'm trying to build a relationship with them so that they will become buyers A little less patient on that end with the new store.
Speaker 1:Now there are other blogs that I have where the intended purpose is to sell them on something and it's not just building know, like and trust factor, and so I will send them to those blog posts as well. But for right now, the main thing with that blog is building a know, like and trust relationship with my email subscribers. So if you are new and you have a new store and you have people on your email list and they're not engaging, they're not purchasing, maybe try writing a couple of blog posts expounding on some tips that you would normally send out via email and just sending them to the blog. It doesn't have to be anything fancy and just see if that kind of helps to build more of a relationship with them. I found it to definitely be worth it. The other thing about blogging is that you can create pins and send them from Pinterest to your blog. You can grow your audience that way, and that's a great use for your blog, especially when you're brand new and you're not trying to spend a lot of money. But for right now, most of my traffic is coming from paid ads. I'm putting money behind this new business, so I'm putting money behind this new business, so I'm trying to spend my time very carefully. So I'm not doing a lot of Pinterest right now. Eventually I would love to, but right now I'm not. But the blog really does help with building a relationship with people who came in from a paid ad.
Speaker 1:Second thing that I'm doing with my new store that I don't do with my established store is I'm creating things that I need for teaching. So I homeschool my preschooler and I used to teach middle school math, taught that for five years, loved it. But when it came time for me to start to leave the classroom and really grow that business, I quit creating resources that I needed for teaching and I started just creating resources that I knew would sell. But now that I'm back at square one in my new business, I am now creating resources that I need for my daughter and as I'm creating those resources, I created three different kinds of resources that I knew she would like and I put all three of the resources out there and I looked to see which one was selling best and I leaned into that one to create a full product line out of. So when you're brand new and you're still learning your audience, you're still learning what they like.
Speaker 1:Creating resources for your classroom can be a really good strategy. Create three or four different types of resources that you know your students are going to enjoy, then put them out there, see what happens and then lean into what is working. Okay, that's my advice, because creating things that meet a need in your classroom. A lot of times not all the time, but a lot of times it's going to be a need that is widespread among teachers and when they find it, they're gonna latch onto it and they're gonna want more of it. So creating things that you can use in your classroom can be really helpful. When you first start out Now, after you've been selling for a while, if you're really trying to take your store to the next level, what you wanna do is you wanna lean into the things that are selling, not so much into the things that you're needing, and you're gonna wanna back away from that. Purchase the things that you need and make the things that sell. But in the beginning, great strategy create the things that you need.
Speaker 1:Number three things that I do for my new store that I don't do for my established store for a couple of reasons, is I spend a fortune on clip art. You guys, like I, used to think when people would say, oh, I've got like a Google Drive and I've got to go organize all of my clip art and I can't find the things that I've purchased. I was like who the heck is buying this much clip art? You guys have a problem if you're buying that much clip art. Now that I'm in a preschool niche, I realize what it is. Not only is there so much incredible clip art available for younger kids that really isn't available and say, like secondary math, it's super cute, it's lots of fun and, honestly, it's necessary. So, knowing your niche, I don't have to spend a fortune on clip art in my more established store because they don't have to have like multiple different themes for everything.
Speaker 1:But when I very first started, I did not spend a lot of money on clip art and I kind of regretted it. It was one of my regrets. It was one of those things that I looked back and I was like I should have just purchased this instead of trying to create it myself, because my version looks janky and if I put new clip art in, it looks way more professional. And so I've learned my lesson and way more professional. And so I've learned my lesson and now I am purchasing all the clip art, but I am purchasing it very thoughtfully, so I'm not just purchasing clip art without conducting market research or without having a purpose for it. I'm not just going oh that's cute, I'll figure out how to use it later. I'm purposely deciding what I'm going to make and then finding the clip art that I need to make that happen, rather than going through and looking for clip art and then figuring out what I can create with the clip art. So it's very purposeful spending, but it is quite a bit of spending when it comes to clip art, and so and I know many of you can relate to that but I do feel like it's worth the investment, particularly in younger grades, where you can have a resource that is essentially the same but with two different themes. It really does make it worth it because you can churn out the products a whole lot faster. And so that's what I'm doing right now is I'm creating an outline or a template, I'm purchasing all of the clip art and then my assistant is able to go in and change out clip art and create multiple different products from the outline or the template that I've created, which saves me a lot of time and it allows me to fill my store shelves a whole lot faster.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much for being here. You guys. As always, huge shout out to those of you who support the podcast, who share, who leave reviews, leave comments means a lot to me. You can also listen to these podcasts on YouTube. So if you're more of a visual learner or prefer YouTube to a podcast, be sure and check out my YouTube channel. It's just my name, lauren Fulton, and all of the podcasts are uploaded there. Thanks so much for being here, you guys. I'm going to see you guys right back here next week.