How Your Art or Craft Business Is Like Playing Facebook Games

December 5th, 2009

by Shasta McLaughlin
The Extravaganza Craft Productions
copyright 2009

Okay I admit it! I’m addicted to Sorority Life on Facebook for my family it’s Mafia Wars. Sorority Life is a game where you do things like the girls in a sorority would. You must add a certain number of new friends every level or you are bound to be beat. You can send your friends gifts and vote for them etc.

So you are asking me what does this have to do with my art or craft show booth?

Well you only have so many friends you can invite each day. You need to add that many or suffer the consequences. Many people that you invite will probably not even be interested in playing the game with you. A large percentage of the people you invite will not respond at all and many will not respond right away.

This is like your craft show customers, it is important to contact the people most likely to buy your craft. The more people you contact who are interested in buying your product each day the more chances you have of finding the ones that will buy the most product from you. Continue to contact people who truly aren’t interested and you waste both time and money.

You need to try to contact a certain number of the prospects you should have collected at your last art or craft show each day of the week. Give them a gentle reminder of who you are. Offer them useful-useful to them, not to you-information about your product or service. Offer them an incentive to buy right now for instance a coupon that is good for a limited time.

The people who aren’t prepared to buy your art or craft right away will appreciate the reminder that they still planned on buying your merchandise. Contact them when they are ready and they are likely to become buyers. Forget to contact them and when they are ready to buy they might buy from your competition.

Like your friends in Sorority Life your craft show customer likes to receive gifts. Gifts make them feel appreciated and help them to trust you. Your gifts can be small things like discounts, buy one get one xx% off, or a free newsletter or information about the product they bought.

You also need to be aware of your customers rights when collecting contact information. Ask your customer if it will be alright to add them to your mailing list. Let them know the valuable information that you will be sending. Don’t do this and just like in sorority life you will be banned from sending messages to them.

The friends you add in Sorority Life also often add you as a Facebook friend and if done respectfully you might find some new prospects and customers there for your craft business.

See what you can learn about marketing from the games you play in your life.

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