What is Give Content?

What is Give Content?

Give content is a foundational part of the Know, Like, Trust funnel, yet it remains elusive for many in the craft industry. Give content essentially gives away valuable content for free, and for that reason, many are loath to adopt it as a marketing tool. Yet, we know that give content performs a beneficial function for businesses. Give content forms the crux of generosity marketing, which establishes your brand as valuable to customers beyond the sale of goods and services. Give content creates strong relationships with customers and deepens their loyalty, while also building up your business as a trustworthy, valuable resource. This blog you’re reading right now? It demonstrates our second example of give content!

One of the first questions we receive about give content is how much do I have to give? We suggest a ratio of 6-8:1. Craft businesses should offer 6-8 pieces of give content for every 1 piece of promotional content. For example, your newsletter might have 6 content pieces that are helpful to your customer avatar, and one piece of content offering a discount coupon or promo. A good rule of thumb when deciding whether or not something is truly give content is to ask yourself whether the content requires them to buy anything. If a purchase is necessary, it’s not give content. 

We feel many craft businesses avoid give content because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept. What is give content? Let’s break down different kinds of give content you can start employing immediately, why they’re valuable, and how certain pieces of give content can be expanded upon later with paid services. 

Tutorials

Tutorial content is the queen of give content in the crafting space. As crafters, we hold knowledge about so many different techniques that we can offer our customers. Tutorial content is especially useful for content atomization, wherein creators break up a big piece of content into smaller pieces that can be shared and reshared across platforms. 

For tutorial content, consider creating a YouTube video that illustrates the steps involved in a specific technique. Not on YouTube? We believe you should be, but you can also create clips and/or photos to populate a tutorial blog post (in content atomization, you would pull clips/screenshots linking your YouTube video!). Share this tutorial on social media with an edited video or Facebook and Instagram Reels.

Tutorial content positions your business as a valuable educational resource for new and practiced crafters. It’s also very easy to tie this “free” content into your paid services. Knitwear designer Imagined Landscapes has created a series of tutorials that tie directly into her paid patterns—and edits and reposts the content on Instagram! 

 

Information

Creating informational content is one of the easiest forms of give content you can create. Informational content can take several forms. Consider hosting a Facebook Live or Instagram Reel showcasing new products or reviewing a favorite crafting tool. You can also write a blog series revealing the history of a craft or technique. A newsletter or blog interviewing a favorite designer offers another unique and informative experience for your audience. Support newsletter registrations with an informative e-book (like a craft glossary). 

Informational content is valuable because it demonstrates your business’s position as a learned authority in the craft industry. This kind of content is easily supported with product offerings and services. If you create a blog series highlighting the history of your craft, consider also promoting upcoming classes that feature the craft. This blog post spotlighting the Hardanger embroidery technique from the Embroiderers’ Guild of America includes references to classes as well as e-books illustrating Hardanger. In this way, EGA provides information-rich give content while also promoting products and membership. (Side note: EGA’s blog and website is chock full of great examples of informative give content!)

Free Projects + Downloads

This is the give content most craft businesses tend to shy away from: free projects and downloads. But free projects are a fantastic way to demonstrate your business’s generosity. Free projects also pay you back in ways that may not feel profitable—but really are!

Many savvy creators create free projects hosted on their websites as blogs. So right away, these creators drive traffic to their website, boosting their visibility in search engine crawlers. The even savvier creators host free projects as blog posts, but also create downloadable PDFs for crafters who want to download the instructions and make their projects offline. These downloadable PDFs are gated behind a newsletter registration, which helps build out their mailing list. 

The yarn manufacturer Brown Sheep Company creates a similar free project offering every year to help boost their newsletter list. In the spring they host a mystery knit along featuring a new shawl design in one of their yarns. The shawl design is free to download during the mystery knit along and for a short period after the knit along wraps—all crafters need to do is register for the Brown Sheep Company newsletter. 

Free e-books are also popular, and easy to create and share. Consider creating a blank, branded supplies checklist and note keeper to accompany a project (given free with project purchase!). E-books that contain information and insights remain valuable evergreen content for years to come.

 

Consultations

Makers who are new to a craft often need guidance and a little hand holding. Showing that your business is willing to step in and guide new crafters through the learning process creates a baseline of trust, and helps build loyalty to your brand. 

Consultations as give content will cost you time, but it demonstrates the value of your time and the generosity of your business. Consider offering short, 30-minute in-person consultations demonstrating finishing or crafting techniques, or product tutorials. This could also be something as simple as reviewing sizing options in a pattern to provide your customer with the best fit for their sewing, knitting, or crochet project. 

Tying consultations to paid services creates an added benefit with purchase, thus raising the value of the product for the customer. Illinois quilt shop Thimbles offers regular Mastery classes for all customers to help quilters familiarize themselves with BERNINA sewing machines. If the customer has purchased their BERNINA machine from Thimbles, the classes are free!

 

Online Sessions

Lots of craft businesses have—wisely!—jumped on the live video bandwagon. The pandemic deepened crafters’ desires for community. While the height of that dark time may be behind us, the desire for fellowship continues. 

Hosting online sessions as give content doesn’t really require more than your presence. As such, it’s another option that should cost no more than your time and energy. Hosted on Zoom, Facebook or Instagram Live, Twitch, or YouTube, these sessions can focus on sharing new products or exciting brand developments and news. Of all the platforms mentioned, Zoom is the only option that allows your attendees to also appear on screen, making it the best choice for sit and stitch sessions or make-alongs. 

Crochet Foundry Magazine hosts two kinds of online sessions on Facebook and Instagram Live and Zoom that allow followers to engage with the brand. “Lunch with the Foundry” on Facebook and Instagram occurs mid-week and often involves live crochet tutorials and insider looks at the magazine. Then, that evening, they host a low-pressure Sit & Stitch for two hours on Zoom. 

These sessions are a wonderful opportunity to highlight features and projects in the latest issue of Crochet Foundry Magazine. The ultimate goal may be to promote crochet patterns and magazine sales, but attendees to these sessions don’t have to spend any money to participate. It’s a wonderful and innovative way to strengthen the CFM community and foster a sense of inclusivity. 

 

We hope these examples of give content have provided some inspiration for your craft business! The Know, Like, Trust funnel continues evolving as new generations join the crafting community—learn how Gen Z has shifted the marketing funnel in our recent post. Do you need help building out give content for your brand? Stitchcraft Marketing is a marketing agency of crafting experts. We customize every program to showcase your brand, engage your customer base, and generate sales in a way that is nothing less than magical. If you’d like to work with us, contact us today to get started!

Flossie Arend
flossie@stitchcraftmarketing.com
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