Going Beyond Your Booth
So, you want to sell more stuff! We live in a free-market economy that enables anyone to take their passion and grow it into a thriving business. As an artisan crafter, you have great, quality products that need to be matched up with just the right customers. You may have found that weekend artisan marketplaces have served you well, but you find that there is little activity during the week. And, heaven forbid, if you take a weekend off you miss out on the income. So, let’s explore other options. Let’s look at expanding your market and let more customers discover the fruits of your labor.
Location, is everything if your business relies on foot traffic. You know this from your experience with your booth. Just as important, however, is Internet location. These days, your website and your social media presence can be just as important as your company's physical presence. Especially, if you want to sell your products online directly to customers. There are those popular marketplace events and the ones that don’t attract much of a crowd. The same is true for online marketplaces. People shop, search and research online for everything these days. Understanding where and how potential customers shop for products like yours is critical for success. There are lots of tools to choose from when you take your business online. We’ll try to break it down some options for you and help you decide which ones may be best for you.
We will take a look at what you may already have and how to make use of it. We will look at e-commerce and online market places. We will also look at whether you need a website and social media pages. And last, we will take a look at online advertising and how to target your most valuable customers.
Inventory of Your Marketing Assets
Whether you are going to market your business yourself or look for someone to help you, it is best to start with an inventory of what you already have. You don’t want to waste time creating something if you can use or build on what you’ve already done. Here is a checklist of things to consider:
- Website – a single page or full site where you control the contents
- Domain (or web address) – this is a custom address used for websites and email (e.g. stumpedwoodcraft.com)
- Social Media Page – this is a business page related to your craft
- Mailing List – bonus points if it includes email addresses
- Business Logo
- Business Cards
- Brochures, Pamphlets, Catalog, etc.
- Merchant Service (e.g. Square, Dharma, Shopify, PayPal, GoPayment, …)
- Product Photos – glamour shots of products, pictures of you creating, etc.
- Articles, Care and Handling Instructions, Recipes, etc.
Even if some of these items are on paper or print, you can often repurpose them in different ways for your online promotions. Creating content can be one of the most time consuming and expensive parts of the marketing process. (Be aware, creating a PDF of your brochure is not a good way to promote your craft online.) Once you have completed your inventory, do a critical self-assessment of the items. Are you satisfied with them? Do they accurately represent you, your craft and your business? Go ahead, give each a grade. (Shhh! You don’t have to show this report card to anyone.) This will help you later to decide if you want to use it, or how you would change it for future use.