Faire Report #26: Lead generation for Faire.
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What’s on my brain this week?
Let’s talk about lead generation.
A lot of brands initially come to us because they want help getting more retailers into the top of their funnel.
That makes sense. Everyone wants more leads.
But clients often come for lead generation and stay for the whole package, because once you really understand how lead generation works on Faire, you realize the opportunity is much bigger than simply getting another Faire Direct order.
Our hot take: the value of lead generation isn’t just the retailers who buy directly from you. It’s also the signal you’re sending to Faire about the kind of buyers you can bring into the marketplace.
Faire wants more retailers
Faire is a marketplace, and marketplaces grow when more buyers enter the ecosystem.
So if your brand is consistently introducing relevant retailers to Faire, you’re behaving in a way that is aligned with what the platform wants.
In our experience, brands underweight this part of lead generation. They focus almost entirely on whether the retailer they brought in immediately placed an order with them.
We think you need to look at the bigger picture too.
If they buy from someone else, that isn’t necessarily bad
Let’s say you introduce a retailer to Faire and they don’t place their first order with your brand.
A lot of brands would call that lead a failure.
We wouldn’t.
You’ve brought a relevant retailer into Faire. They’ve engaged with the marketplace and started buying. You are contributing exactly the kind of activity Faire wants to generate.
Of course we want that retailer to buy from you too, but measuring lead generation only by immediate direct revenue misses part of the value.
Quality still matters
This does not mean throwing thousands of random retailer emails into Faire.
The platform is constantly learning who interacts with your brand, who buys from you and what kind of retailer your products appeal to.
So the retailers you bring in should still look like retailers who could genuinely buy from you.
A good lead generation strategy should be doing two things at once:
1. Generating more Faire Direct opportunities and orders.
2. Helping Faire better understand where your brand belongs in the wider marketplace.
That second point — marketplace placement — is the one we think brands dramatically underweight.
Watch our Faire lead generation video
We made a whole video digging further into lead generation on Faire and how we think brands should approach it.
Final thought
Lead generation shouldn’t be viewed as a standalone sales tactic.
Done properly, you’re bringing qualified retailers into Faire, creating more opportunities for direct sales and giving the marketplace more information about exactly who your brand should be shown to.
We’re going to be talking a lot more about lead generation this month, so stay tuned.
See you on the marketplace,
Andy