Marketing Tips from Successful CraftersWritten by Eileen Bergen
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So we have to consider how product is packaged and presented. Can you put it in a nice box? Can you make hang tags explaining how you made it, materials you used and why it is unique? Look around any store and notice how pros package everything from breakfast cereal to TV’s. They are trying to get their product to stand out from competition. They are trying to make it appear different or special whether it is or not. They are trying to draw attention to it by their packaging. Try to do same thing. If you are going to display at shows, set up your table in a way that every product is shown off properly. If you have an inventory, just keep one piece on display: hide rest under table. Keep you table neat and clean. Talk to prospective customers. Try to get them interested in your craft. Have a handout available with an explanation of product or your production methods. Have a business card. Be prepared to take and make custom orders. If you’re trying to sell in stores or galleries, depending on product, wrap it so it doesn’t get dirty or worn. Use attractive packaging, decorative ribbons, etc. Make it easy for store owner to contact you, when necessary. If you’re selling online, make sure you get some good pictures of craft up. Use space to explain why your craft is different or better. Plug your offline business and/or website. If necessary, do as stores do. Give away a free gift with purchase, hopefully some little trinket you can make or buy inexpensively. Do a “buy one get second for half price” deal. Or bundle complementary products together to create a perceived value greater than cost of parts. For example, if you’re selling a handmade nutcracker, package it with a can of premium unshelled nuts: if you’re selling a ceramic vase add a few silk flowers: if you make a guitar, give away a songbook. You will find you can charge more for a well bundled package than you could if you were selling each piece individually. If you want to try eBay or Yahoo online auctions, you will find that you can have choice of selling in any of numerous different categories. Some of these categories can be quite competitive, others much less so. You might do much better in less competitive areas. Maybe use Yahoo rather than eBay, or vice versa, if one site is overstocked with what you have to sell and other isn’t. Try Overstock.com. They’ve just opened a new auction site, where you might get better exposure. Life is full of challenges but that's what makes it interesting. If you're finding building a successful home-based craft business especially challenging, try some of these techniques. Let me know if they help. The more engaged you become, more you learn. The more you learn, greater your chances for success. If in course of your study and development, you have one of those "ah hah!" moments that gets you past whatever was blocking your success, please write and share them with our readers. Good Luck!
Ms. Bergen has had a varied career, first as a special education teacher and than, after getting an MBA degree, as a vice president of a major insurance company. For the past eight years, she has been creating and selling her crafts.
| | Have You Forked Your Fish's Tail?Written by Dan Pednleton
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“Do what?”, we screamed “Fork it’s tail? What kind of meanness is that?” Sis continued right on as if there wasn’t a thing in world wrong with forking a fish’s tail. I mean if you could have seen look on her face, boy it was classic. But you know what, it dawned on me early this morning while eating breakfast, maybe there really is something to ‘forking your fish’s tail‘. It’s a sort of a ‘branding’ technique and it could work in just about anything. You see, a cattle farmer will do same thing with cows and bulls so he/she knows which one is theirs if they are ever lost. Plus, it’s a mark they use at stockyards for cattle that are made into beef. “Not a bad idea”, I thought. You could use this in business too! Branding your customers! Doesn’t that sound interesting? You see way I have it figured is, a loyal customer who purchases from you, perhaps on a regular basis, could be ‘branded’ by you as your very own special guest, which can have future benefits as well. Imagine, and this is my crazy mind running wild, people all over world who are branded with your special branding symbol stand out above rest. Maybe something like a colored symbol or sign, or a birthmark. That way I know for sure that I have “forked my fish’s tail” in case I catch you again, and again, and again. Make sense? Of course we’ll establish a relationship first, and I’ll be best possible merchant I can be while providing tools needed to perhaps, run your business. Business helping business. Isn’t that what it’s all about, anyway? God bless.
Dan is an American white male, age 47, living in the central Kentucky area who enjoys the internet and his internet marketing business. Dan is married to a wonderful woman named, Linda. Linda and Dan have just recently became grandparents to a bouncing baby boy, Jeremy. Please stop and check us out at our website.
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