We were lucky to catch up with Sierra Emery recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sierra, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I think the biggest risk I took was deciding to begin On Tour Candle Co. with the intention of catering to the interests of a somewhat niche (at the time anyway) customer base. For many years as a female fan of classic rock artists, I have felt like there really aren’t that many ways for me to show my love for my favorites except going to see shows. Fans of pop artists often have trendy clothing or cute home items on Etsy that showcase their favorite artists to the world and connect them with others. I wanted something like this for fans of my favorite artists like Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, and Guns N’ Roses. This is where On Tour Candle Co. was born! At the time, I felt like this genre wasn’t exactly populated by Millennials or Gen Z fans, so this was a huge risk in that those were the customers I would see most often at craft shows and markets. However, in the past couple of years I have seen a huge resurgence in popularity for these bands and 70’s and 80’s rock music which has brought so many new friends into the On Tour family. It has been so rewarding seeing customers from different generations interact at my markets and bond over their shared love of these artists, and really shows how music truly unites us!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always been told that I am an old soul due to my voracious reading habit, love of history, and habit of listening to music WAY older than myself. It’s this love of 60s, 70s, and 80s music that guided me to create On Tour Candle Co. where I could share my love of these iconic artists and songs in a way that combined this music with memorable scents. Since 2020 I have been blending these unique scents and seeing the amazement on a customers face when they smell these scents for the first time is such a gift! Each scent is created with either the artist or song as inspiration, for example our Gold Dust Woman candle is scented with Lavender and Sandalwood.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I am still working through this myself, but I would say the biggest piece of advice I can give to someone building their brand’s social media is to be consistent! This includes not only your brand visuals like your logo, header, and products but also the language you use in your posts, your posting schedule, and your presence on that site. Your customers won’t spend very much time on your profile and posts when they first discover you, and the harder you make it for them to discern who you are and what you’re offering the less likely they will be to stick around or give you a follow.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I think the most effective strategy for me has just been staying consistent in my presence around the area at markets, building a presence and reputation among local businesses and other local makers, and also getting my products in brick and mortar stores around the area. My products appeal to a wide range of customers, so my goal was to diversify the locations where someone could come into contact with my products. For instance, I am wholesaling to a local coffee shop, record store, vintage clothing store, and a new clothing/accessory store geared toward music lovers. All of these locations have similar customers, but there are always going to be customers that go to only one of these locations an no others. By diversifying my selling locations, I’m able to reach all of these different people and expand the exposure to my products exponentially more than if I was only selling in one type of store.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/OnTourCandleCo
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ontourcandleco/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ontourcandleco/

Image Credits
Here Comes the Sun Photo: Julie Magnussen