15 Dec Best of 2025: Our Most Popular Strategy & Marketing Content
What a year it has been!
The craft industry in 2025 continued to evolve at a pace we haven’t seen since the post-pandemic boom.
Consumer buying shifted again as inflation eased but spending stayed value-driven. Makers leaned into meaningful creativity, niche communities flourished, and retailers doubled down on differentiation.
Meanwhile, technology reshaped how customers discover, shop, and engage with brands, from AI-enhanced content creation to changing social algorithms and the rise of hyper-local discovery.
At Stitchcraft Marketing, we spent the year helping craft businesses navigate these changes with confidence, creativity, and data-driven strategies.
Now, as we wrap up 2025, we’re excited to share your most-loved Office Hours sessions, top-played podcast episodes, and most-read blog content, the ideas and insights that resonated most with our community.
Below is the best of the best, our top strategy and marketing content of 2025, and what it means for your craft business in the year ahead.
Top Office Hours Highlights of 2025
1. 7 Popular Craft Trends
In this Office Hours, we walked through the big ideas behind our blog post “7 Popular Craft Trends To Watch for in 2025”. From eco-friendly crafting to craft kits, visible mending, personalized projects, and more.
Why it resonated:
- You’re trying to decide which trends actually matter for your business.
- You want to know how to translate trends into assortments, kits, classes, and content, not just moodboards.
- You’re looking for “safe bets” you can lean into for 2026.
Question to take into the new year:
Which of 2025’s trends can you turn into a repeatable revenue stream—not just a one-off promotion?
2. 9 Strategies to Increase Your AOV
This Office Hours quickly became a go-to resource. Instead of telling you to “sell more,” we focused on smarter revenue, walking through nine practical ways to increase AOV. From strategic bundling and add-ons to threshold-based incentives and better merchandising.
Why it resonated:
- Many shops hit a traffic plateau in 2025; growth needed to come from existing customers.
- AOV is one of the most controllable levers in your business.
- The strategies were simple enough to test quickly, but powerful enough to move the numbers.
Question for 2026:
If your current AOV is X, what would change if you nudged it up by 10–15%. And which of the nine strategies will you test first?
3. How to Host a Make Along
This session showed you how Make Alongs (MALs) can transform your marketing from “posting at people” to creating shared experiences. We talked about:
- Picking the right project and timeline
- Deciding on in-person, virtual, or hybrid formats
- Using MALs to grow your email list and drive sales
- Keeping momentum going once the official MAL ends.
Why it resonated:
- Community-based events are one of the most powerful ways to differentiate a shop or brand.
- MALs give you content, engagement, and sales—all from the same initiative.
- They help position your business as a hub, not just a store.
Question for 2026:
What is one Make Along you could run for the year that aligns with your inventory, your skill set, and your community?
Top Business of Craft Podcast Episodes
Season 8 of Business of Craft focused on topics from our book, Marketing Magic for Savvy Craft Businesses, and these three episodes topped the charts.
1.The Changing Landscape for Marketing Crafts
This was our Season 8, Episode 1 kickoff and your most-listened-to episode.
In it, we unpack the “prologue” ideas from Marketing Magic: why we wrote the book, who it’s for, and how the craft world has changed, again. We look at:
- How consumer behavior has shifted post-pandemic
- Why “set it and forget it” marketing no longer works
- The new realities of competition, attention, and discovery for craft businesses
Why listeners loved it: it validated what many of you were feeling, that the old playbook doesn’t quite fit anymore and offered a clearer, calmer way to move forward.
2. Crafting Your Crafty Brand Narrative
“Storytelling” is a buzzword, but in this episode we got specific about what your brand story actually needs to do for your craft business. This Season 8, Episode 4 solocast explores one of the most overlooked tools in your marketing toolkit: a clear, consistent narrative that ties together your products, values, and customer experience.
We dig into:
- How to articulate what you stand for and who you serve
- Why a strong narrative makes decision-making easier
- How story supports everything from pricing to social content
Why it resonated: it helped brands shift from “we sell yarn/fabric/tools” to “we help this specific kind of maker create this kind of life” and that’s where loyalty lives.
In this solocast, we dive into one of our favorite chapters from Marketing Magic: Generosity Marketing. Rather than treating generosity as a random act (“we’ll do a giveaway this month”), we frame it as a strategic, long-term approach:
- Leading with value
- Educating and supporting your audience before asking for a sale
- Building durable trust in a crowded marketplace
Why it resonated: it gave language and structure to something many of you already believed—that your marketing should feel like your craft: thoughtful, human, and relationship-driven.
Question for the new year:
Where can you build in small, consistent acts of generosity that still support your business goals?
Stitchcraft Marketing Blog: Top-Read Strategy & Marketing Posts
Our blog readers gravitated toward content that combined practical “how-to” guidance with big-picture strategy. These posts stood out as some of the most read and shared in 2025:
7 Popular Craft Trends to Watch for in 2025
This post remained a staple for craft retailers who needed to grow revenue without relying on more traffic. With inflation easing but consumer spending still cautious, increasing AOV became one of the clearest paths to healthier margins.
From smart bundling to threshold-based incentives and better merchandising, this blog offered nine simple, powerful ways to increase your average order value and boost profits sustainably.
Takeaway: Before chasing new customers, make sure you’re maximizing the revenue potential of the customers you already have.
The Ultimate Craft Business Guide to Instagram Broadcast Channels
As algorithm reach continued to decline on Instagram, this post offered a refreshing alternative: Instagram Broadcast Channels, a one-to-many messaging tool that delivers directly to followers’ inboxes.
The post stood out because it provided both technical setup steps and strategic guidance, making the feature accessible even to Instagram beginners.
Takeaway: If you want guaranteed visibility and a more personal way to connect with your most engaged followers, Broadcast Channels offer a powerful, low-effort solution.
7 Proven Tips for an Optimal Online Shopping Experience
This post resonated strongly with craft retailers who rely on ecommerce as their second storefront—or their primary one. The article broke down what a smooth, intuitive, and delightful online shopping experience should look like, from navigation and product photography to checkout flow and shipping clarity.
Takeaway: A great online store isn’t built through flashy add-ons—it’s created through thoughtful, customer-centered decisions that make shopping seamless, inspiring, and memorable.
Looking Ahead: What 2025’s Favorites Tell Us About 2026
When we look at the content you loved most this year, a pattern emerges. The craft businesses that are thriving are the ones who are:
- Tracking trends and selectively acting on them
- Building community-based programs like MALs and groups
- Clarifying their brand story
- Practicing generosity in their marketing
- Investing in video and content that meets customers where they are
- Thoughtfully nurturing inclusive, welcoming spaces
If you want support putting any of these ideas into practice, our team of crafty marketers is here to help.
Ready to make 2026 your most strategic year yet?
Get Your Copy of Marketing Magic for Savvy Craft Businesses! This book distills the exact strategies we teach our clients—from boosting revenue and engagement to crafting a brand story that truly resonates. If you’re ready to make 2026 your most strategic year yet, start here.
Get in touch with us at Stitchcraft Marketing and let’s build a marketing plan that feels as good as it performs.
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