New Experiment: Customer Referral or Affiliate Codes
Definitely need a snappier name for this! Suggestions Welcome. :-)
For small artists and artisans getting noticed has become lately very difficult. We used to rely on social media and platforms like Etsy or Youtube, but the way search algorithms have been made, they favour high volume and consistency, which is not always possible for individual artists or creatives. I am experimenting a way to shift the money I used to spend on advertising to be able to pay forward to our customers instead as thanks. Read more here.
I do not like advertising or marketing the way it is understood these days. Like with the ethos of creating artificial demand, fear of missing out and influencers promoting unsustainable lifestyles. I wanted to find an alternative way to reach new people.
I would like to think that if the right person sees something I have made, they will want to buy it because they like it and see value in it. For that to work though, I need enough people to see my work. Its about 100 to 200 views for 1 sale.
Social Media used to be brilliant for this. But as all of you are undoubtedly aware, its not the same any more. These days we have to pay for reach, even to reach those who actually want to hear from us. At the same time the quality of advertisers is so poor that advertising actually erodes trust, as there is very little to differentiate a legitimate ad to one that is fraudulent (yes… looking at you Meta!).
Either way, I am not in a position, nor do I want to, line the pockets of multibillion dollar companies and their rent seeking owners.
As an alternative I am testing out a way to use the share we would normally use on advertising, to give back to our customers and followers.
As an experiment, this year, 2025, if you buy from our Taitaya.com shop you will receive a unique coupon code to pass onto your family, friends or community if you choose to recommend us. The single rule is that whoever gets the code is made aware that the code owner will profit from this.
At the moment the codes are worth a 10% discount with an additional 10% to the owner of the code, either in store credit, a refund or PayPal transfer. It is valid for a year and has no limitations on how many times it can be used. You can use it on yourself for 20% off (I would have to refund you the additional 10%).
I am running this completely manually at the moment, to see if it is something that my customers would be interested in.
This code is only going to work on our Taitaya.com shop, not on Etsy. There is no way for me to technically extend the offer onto Etsy, nor is there enough padding in the profit margin to absorb the cost of running it, considering Etsy’s share. I regard Etsy very much as advertising in itself, one that I do not have the option to leave.
I would love to have feedback on how well this works for you and if there are any ways I could improve on it. :-)
The terms an conditions for this can be found here.
All rights to images and writing reserved. I do not consent to any of the intellectual property published under Taitaya Forge or Marleena Barran to be used in training generative AI models without explicit written consent.
