Consistency Doesn’t Always Win

Does consistency always win?

I used to believe that consistency was the key to success in every business.

Until I learned the hard way that it doesn’t always work.

If there’s little to no demand for your services or products, you will make few sales, even if you consistently promote them.

So yes, demand beats consistent promotion.

Let me share my story.

Aside from offering content writing services, I also have an e-commerce side hustle.

My husband and I are both e-commerce sellers. He sells PC parts and accessory gadgets, while I sell newborn items. And we sell our items on Facebook.

While we “were” living in the capital region, we were already earning part-time income from our side hustles. Just one more little push, and we would be able to earn full-time. 🥳

But then the pandemic happened. We got extremely sick. 😷 Thought we would die. 

After we recovered, we moved to the province and took our side hustles with us since we had a lot of stocks.

I didn’t like moving to the province because of the few career and business opportunities.

Still, I was hopeful because I knew there were few online sellers in the province. 

Poor sales despite consistent marketing efforts

To grab people’s attention, 

• I captured visually appealing pictures of my products to attract potential customers.
• I wrote concise product descriptions in a readable format.
• I consistently promoted my products from Monday to Sunday. I actively shared my products on my Facebook page, posted them on the FB marketplace, shared them on my selling account, and posted them in relevant FB groups 20x daily. I maintained this level of promotion without missing a single day.
• I also used my established Facebook account, which had social proof and evidence of past orders, to promote my items.
• I created Facebook reels for my items to increase organic reach, even though I’m not accustomed to making videos.
• I even reduced my prices to recover my capital, despite the prevailing inflation when ideally, I should be considering price increases.

However, despite my consistent marketing efforts, I struggled to get my products sold.

Meanwhile, here’s my husband’s approach:

• He posted visually appealing pictures of his products.
• He simply wrote the names of his gadgets without providing detailed specs or descriptions.
• He only posted his items on Marketplace and didn’t even promote them on Facebook groups.
• He only used a new Facebook account without any social proof, as he no longer chose to use his old account.

When it comes to consistent marketing efforts, I definitely outperformed my husband.

But guess what?

He made more sales than I did. ☹️

I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous as I had put in a lot of effort but received minimal inquiries, while my husband seemed to have it easier.

Well, anyway, what he earned is also my money. 😆

Why didn’t I generate many sales?

My husband and I eventually realized that our province had little demand for baby items. This could be attributed to factors such as:

• A lower population (Our province has a total area of 8,707 square kilometers with a total population of 1.9 million. Meanwhile, the capital region where we used to live has only a total area of 636 square kilometers, yet it has a total population of 13.4 million. 😲)
• The seasonal nature of my products
• Lack of purchasing power among potential customers, who were largely teenagers without jobs
• People in our province preferred buying hand-me-downs
• Online shopping was still relatively unfamiliar to them, with some even lacking awareness of basic terms like “handling fee” and “landmark.”

This experience taught me that assessing the demand and competition is crucial before investing time and resources into your business.

If we didn’t end up with excess stocks while living in the capital region, I might have considered a different side hustle.

What will I do? Will I give up?

Nah, it’s still too early to throw in the towel. I’m giving myself a year to assess how things go. I still have 8 months left to make things happen.

Selling newborn items is a dream side hustle for me, and I aspire to earn a full-time income from it.

I’m just feeling a bit down because back in the capital region, most inquiries translated into sales. And the funny thing is, I wasn’t even as serious about selling online back then compared to now in the province.

Takeaway

So, the takeaway is that consistency is necessary but you shouldn’t rely on it alone.

You must also identify your target market, evaluate the demand, and adjust your strategy accordingly. 

Sometimes, it’s better to pivot to a different business than to keep pushing a product that doesn’t sell.