.:The Internet Home Business Magazine for Moms & Dads:.

Hellooo I’m HERE!!! Ways to market yourself and your crafts (for free).

 

When starting up a business many individuals (me included!) make the mistake of not investing enough/some hours (and a bit of cash) into marketing their lovely craft, and marketing themselves (there is a distinct difference between the two, but more about that in the next post).  I know it’s hard to believe, but it isn’t enough to make gorgeous handcraft. In order to run a successful and competitive business you need to tell others about the existence of your lovely craft. This means you need to make marketing your craft an essential and ongoing activity for the life of your business.

Yep, you gotta shout your craft out, loud and proud!

We know that huge corporations plow huge sums of money into marketing their companies and products, and whether we like it or not; it works! How else would we know about the funny names of products, what they do, and who makes them etc.? Well, fortunately for people like you and me who want to run a craft business from home (or close to home, like I do) we don’t need to shell out huge sums of money. There are a few tricks that don’t cost anything, and we’ll look at them here:

  • Sort your email signature out. An email signature is a collections of words, or images, or links (or all 3) that you choose to appear in your outgoing emails. Think of all of those emails that you send each day, week, and year. Each of those emails could be telling all of those recipients about your company (and blog if you have one). Now that could add up to LOTS of recipients. In my email signature I include my name, my role within my company, what my company does, and links to my shop and my blog (see below). I have found this email signature very useful, and I have made sales that I never would have thanks to the links. Here are the instructions on how to change your email signature in Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, Googlemail. As with everything else, you can more go deeply into just what you should say, and include (or not) to maximize the marketing benefits of your email signature, but we’ll save that for another post; it is far more beneficial to include some detail about you company than none at all.

    Lisa Lam

    U-Handbag Proprietor

    Bag Making Supplies

    http://www.u-handbag.com/

    http://u-handbag.typepad.com/

  • Word of mouth. You put all of those hours into creating beautiful handcraft, so you MUST be proud of your skills! Show them off, if possible wear your craft; show off your handbags, jewelry, scarves, shoes, etc. Don’t be shy when people ask where you got your lovely bracelet, tote bag, hat (delete as appropriate). Be enthusiastic, joyful, and positive about your love of your craft.  Don’t don’t sell yourself short and play your skills down. Remember enthusiasm is infectious. Tell the girls at work, your friends, your family, the person sat next to you on the bus, parties, at the hair dressers etc.  This is a good time to try to overcome shyness, your business will thank you for it!
  • Want some free business cards? This company gives away 250 FREE no obligation business cards (in the hope that you will order, and pay for more).  Just click on this and then select your country from the top menu. Get them, then give ‘em away!
  • The Internet. It’s true, internet users watch less TV. Who can blame them when there is lovely craft to be made and lovely blogs to read and things to learn etc etc. I’ve said before, the craft community is a lovely, warm, and friendly bunch, the amazing internet brings us together in our millions…oh yes, we are a huuuuuge gang of crafters! If I’m not running my shop, making a bag, writing in my blogs, or eating, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’m surfing the web and reading other crafty blogs, drooling over the lovely handmade craft in Flickr, or surfing the craft forums. I’m no different to millions of other crafters, they all do the same! This means there is a potentially huge audience out there on the web for you to show off your craft to.  There are lots of social websites out there for you to contribute to and share your craft on. Get your lovely handmade goodness out into the web and blogosphere and contribute! Comment on people’s blogs; show off your lovely handmade goods on craft forums like Craftster, CraftZine, and Whip-up; get your handmade craft pics into Flickr.   There’s also Myspace, and Facebook (which I am on).  Get your pictures and web links out there onto site like these, but don’t overtly sell your handcraft in this manner, it looks unprofessional. All of this surfing does eat up time, and how much you decide to spend on it is up to you, but in my experience I have found it to be very beneficial in getting my little company out there, it doesn’t cost me any money, and I would have been surfing for fun anyway!

Next Time: Ways to market yourself and your crafts (on the cheap)

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Or read these related articles...

  • Ways to Market Yourself & Your Craft (on the cheap).
  • Pricing your bags, or other crafts to sell.
  • What is the difference between Marketing Yourself, & Marketing your Craft Product?
  • How Do I Find Out if My Handicraft Will Sell (Before Taking the Plunge)?

  • Discussion

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    Comments

    1.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 1:05 pm, Suzi said:

    Fantastic, I’ve been reading U-handblog for a few months now and have found your advice invaluable!
    I’m hoping to set up my own craft business in the next few month and I look forward to reading this blog to get ideas on how to go about setting up!!

    2.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 1:28 pm, Janine said:

    Hello Lisa!

    Congrats on your new blog its ace! Oh no! another blog to distract me from my housework!

    3.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 1:41 pm, Toni said:

    Great Advice. :)

    4.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 1:48 pm, Sam. said:

    Oh yay! A new blog to read, and even better, one about bags (which I make) and home businesses (which I *attempt* to run). Can’t wait for more!

    5.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 2:16 pm, Ali said:

    Your new blog is great Lisa. Who knows, you may even get me to dip my toe into the business pond some day.

    6.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 2:17 pm, French Knots said:

    Will be subsribing to your new blog too as I have just set up my business and frankly need all the help I can get! Marketing something you have made yourself seesm hard for some reason but I’m going to follow your excellent advice.

    7.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm, beki said:

    Thanks for all the valuable info!

    8.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 3:49 pm, Melissa said:

    Hi! I cant wait to see where you take this blog! It looks great and the content is useful and interesting. Good Luck!

    9.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 4:06 pm, Lili said:

    congrats on the new blog!

    10.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 4:58 pm, Lucy.R.E. said:

    hi there! i’ve been creeping about u-handblog for a bit and thought it was about time to drop a note. i’m exploring the whole self-employment/craft business arena and this site looks like a great tool for me, especially your blog in particular. i look forward to your posts, both here and at u-handblog. thanks!

    11.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 5:29 pm, Miriam said:

    Congratulations! You’ve always had great stuff to say on your other blog about running a craft business, I’m not surprised to see a new blog pop up for you! You’re always a delight to read.

    12.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 5:46 pm, Helen said:

    Congratulations on the new blog! Great and informative post as usual - quite a few things I’ve picked up from reading this which should help me to promote my shop. Thank you!

    13.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 6:40 pm, Laura Bucci said:

    Hi Lisa, looking forward to reading your advice, (but I wish those two flashing advertisements up on top would stop blinking.) It’s probably out of your control, and maybe you’ll be talking about putting advertisements on one’s blog or website.

    14.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 6:52 pm, Swirlyarts said:

    Great ideas! I do all of these already but I’m looking forward to the next instalment! Just had a peek at your other blog too - it’s a new bookmark!

    15.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 9:20 pm, Meg said:

    Whoopee! Lisa, this is such serendipitous news … for the past month I’ve been selling my sewing patterns as digital files - but now I’ve been contacted by a store that wants to sell them as full-sized paper versions! I’m just beginning to get into the knitty gritty of this craft business thing. Can’t wait to read more - I’ve already added Craft Boom to my reader.

    16.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 9:21 pm, sarah said:

    This is so great; such good advice and you give it in such an engaging, non-patronising, entertaining way. Well done!

    17.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 9:25 pm, Zelia said:

    Yay! great tips!
    TThanks!

    18.
    On September 13th, 2007 at 9:33 pm, bronwen said:

    Great advice and more to look forward to? I’ll be reading regularly! Especially nice to have advice from a UK perspective as well.

    19.
    On September 14th, 2007 at 6:20 am, Donna said:

    This is awesome. I am in the midst of starting my craft business. My ‘go live’ date is 1 dec and your info has been invaluable. This site looks great and I look forward to hearing from you.

    20.
    On September 14th, 2007 at 11:00 am, Susan said:

    Although I have been making quilts and sewing for 40+ years, it is only recently that I have considered making and selling some of the items that seem to be gaining in popularity and that people actually look for hand made items.
    So, your new blog has come at a good time for me and I will check back regularly and learn the marketing aspects as my “stock” increases, I hope to be able to sell soon!

    21.
    On September 14th, 2007 at 4:58 pm, Sandy said:

    Lisa - I look forward to your great info in yet another place! How do you still find time to sew?

    22.
    On September 21st, 2007 at 8:28 pm, Akhila said:

    Lisa,
    Great info and inspiration for all of us that’s is just about to give our craft business a go…
    Always enjoying to share your wisdom and shopping from you.
    Akhila

    23.
    On September 30th, 2007 at 11:35 pm, Gaida said:

    No matter whether your business is offline or online there’s no better recommendation than Word Of Mouth referrals.

    Definitely do not forget the power of email signatures. You never know why your email will be forwarded onto.

    Business cards are a great opportunity to include in your envelope if paying bills through the post.

    Take every opportunity to promote yourself… you won’t be discovered hiding away.

    Mentions on other sites...

    1. Ways to Market Your Craft Biz for Free | Craft Blog on September 14th, 2007 at 6:53 am
    2. Ways to Market Yourself & Your Craft (on the cheap). | CraftBoom! on September 19th, 2007 at 5:05 pm

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