Many artists and crafters are learning that to really succeed at your hobby as a business you need to market your crafts well.

Marketing involves engaging your customers in a relationship that builds trust and friendship.  It is easiest and most cost efficient to maintain this relationship using the resources that the internet provides us.  For instance online stores, web sites, e-mail marketing, and more.

Selling crafts online gives customers who want to buy but don’t have the money right now another place to buy when they are ready.  Include a coupon and link to your online store or website on your business card and give it to every customer who enters your craft show booth.  Let customers know if they visit your online store and enter the coupon code they will receive a discount.

With more crafters than ever looking to sell crafts online more and more places to sell crafts are popping up all over the internet.  I’ve created a page to help you sell your crafts online.  http://www.extravaganzacrafts.com/index.php?pr=SellCraftsOnline

Please comment below and let us know if you’ve used any of these sites and how you felt about your success with them.  Also please include the price range of your arts or crafts, and what you sell, if you sell crafts online feel free to include a link to your online store so we can take a look.

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I received an email the other day from Give to Get Marketing expert, Joe Gracia, that shows how Mullen’s Ice Cream Shop uses their business card to do double duty.

The business card contains the business contact information including name and phone number, but also includes an offer to the business’s customers.

The business card functions as a coupon for $1.00 off purchases of $6.00 or more, $2.00 off purchases of $12.00 or more, $3.00 off purchases of $18.00 or more, or 2 scoops for the price of one.  They easily fit all this information on one side of a business card.

There are several ways this concept could be adapted to any business, but I immediately thought of art and craft festival vendors.

Different craft vendors can use different offers.

For instance lower priced jewelry might use an offer very similar to Mullen’s offer above with just a small increase in savings for a slightly larger purchase.  Instead of two scoops for the price of one you could use get a free pair of earrings valued at $x.xx with every necklace valued at $xx.xx purchased.  For higher priced items like fine art or furniture you might want to increase the size of the discount (or use a % off offer) and purchase to fit more with your items.

The idea is to encourage a customer purchasing one item at craft festivals to purchase an additional item or complimentary item as they will receive a larger discount or savings the more they purchase.

Other offers that could be used on a business card include:

• $x.xx off offers
• x % off offers
• buy x get x -1/2 off and other similar offers
• buy x get x free

The back of the card should have a picture of your best seller and say, “Bring this card and a friend to any show and receive xx offer.  See our website for current show schedule.”  It should then list your website address.  NOTE:  Your website should tell what shows you will be attending, have other places they can purchase your items (such as galleries, specialty shops, etc.), and have pieces for sale.  By including a coupon code beneath each offer on the front they could use the coupon on their online order to encourage larger online sales.

HOW TO ATTRACT CUSTOMERS LIKE A MAGNET
Marketing is all about ‘helping people get what they want.’ Simply do that and you’ll have all the customers and sales you’ll ever need. Learn this simple formula and your business will begin to grow instantly. For more information, visit:  Give to Get Marketing

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Recently I’ve been getting a lot of calls from craft show vendors who wanted to sign up for my newsletter about craft shows.  When they called they needed a little information about the newsletter and then asked how they could sign up.  I lost the sale when I referred them to my website because I’m not set up to take orders over the phone.  What could I have done better?

I could have  signed on to my website and walked them through the process.  This way I would have guided them through the purchase rather than leaving them to go to the site on their own.  I could have also collected their name and address while talking to them so that I could contact them later if they didn’t go and sign up right away.

Craft show vendors know when your customer is ready to make a purchase and guide them to the cash register.  Don’t walk away before the sale is completed.

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Okay, I know what you’re thinking if attending craft shows isn’t about selling crafts then what is it about?  It is about selling crafts but it’s also about many other things.  For instance attending craft show is about knowing who your customer is,  building a relationship with a them, it’s about collecting your customers contact information and later following up with them, and it’s about getting feedback about your product.

If you base the success of a craft show solely on the number of customers you saw, the number of sales or the dollars you made there, you are missing the boat.  Attending a craft show means so much more to your business.

Let’s start with market research.  A local craft show can be a good place to try out your new product idea without a large investment of your time or resources.  You can create just enough of a product to fill a booth and create a nice display.  Create a few signs stating the benefits of the product to the customer.  Rent an inexpensive booth at a show where the type of person who would buy your product would be in attendance.  Now pay close attention to who comes into your booth what age are they, are they men or women, are they well educated, what seems to be their income level, do they have children?  Make notes about your observations and soon a pattern will emerge.  You now know what kind of person to market your product to.  The type of person who enters your booth most often will probably be the type of person to buy your product most often so pay close attention.

Now that you know who you customer is you will always want to focus on that type of person with all of you advertising and marketing dollars.

People want to buy from companies that they trust.  They want to know if they have customer service issues that someone will resolve them.  Attending craft shows is your opportunity to show customers what level of customer service they will receive when they buy your product.  Treat every customer like your best customer and they just might become, “Your Best Customer.”  Get to know the customer and establish a relationship with them.  Find out their name and say it a few times during the conversation.  Try to remember it the next time you see them, they will be impressed when you remember their name.

Your best customer is the person who just bought from you, so you need to devise a way to contact them.  A simple way to do this is to use a duplicate receipt book and include their name, address, phone, and email on the receipt.  Ask their permission to add them to your mailing list and write that on the receipt.  Include your contact information on the receipt and they have everything they need in one place to contact you if they have a problem or need to make another purchase.

Having a customers contact information doesn’t do you any good if you never contact them again.  Send out a birthday discount (be sure and collect this info if they will tell you on the receipt), special occasion and holiday discounts, notices of where they can find your product, and relevant merchandise information.  Tell them to bring your mailing and a friend to see you at craft shows to receive a small gift.

Constant Contact and AutoWebBusiness.com are two inexpensive ways to follow up with your customers through automated email series a.k.a. autoresponders.

The best part of attending a craft show is getting feedback on your product.  This is all about your attitude.  You can be offended by criticism or you can see it as market research.  Anyone who comes close enough to criticize your product was probably interested in it.  Criticism can help you improve your product and make more sales.  If many of your customers would want what was suggested it is worth it to try to implement the changes suggested.  So instead of getting down about criticism enjoy the compliment that they were interested enough in you and your product to try to help out.  Smile and thank complaining customers for their advice, write it down and consider the benefits and risks of implementing them when you have more time and energy to deal with them.  Write down the compliments as well and remember you don’t want to change these things unless you can improve on them.

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by Shasta McLaughlin
The Extravaganza Craft Productions

Parts of this 7 part series have been reprinted with permission from the article “7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business” by Pam Grimm of Ideaco.  Click here to see Pam’s full article.

7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business

By Pamela Grimm, Ideaco

7.  No asking for the business: Not once did anyone say… “We want to be the store you come to for your crafting needs….we want your business!” There was no attitude of we want to impress you and guarantee your return to keep you as a customer. No one asked “Have we met your needs today?” They would say… “Did you get everything you needed?” instead of asking if there was more that they could do to meet my needs today! I was surprised at just how little interest there was in gaining my business.

How to Ask for Business

Remember that the value of every customer is equal to the total of their purchases over the length of time they will be your customer.  When you remember the potential value of every customer over a life time of purchases it’s easier to offer exceptional customer service.  Customers are looking for exceptional customer service something that sets your business apart from everyone else.

Remember make a positive impression, show your interest in your customers, share your product knowledge, and find the customers needs.  Present the customer with the benefits of the product as they apply to them, offer the options they need like customization, ability to pay by check, money order or credit card, free gift wrapping and shipping to any address.

Ask the customer if you have met their needs and listen quietly to what they say.  Take notes if necessary and carefully consider if you can provide their needs. Is the value of that customer worth the time and money that you will spend to meet their needs?

Meet the needs of your customers with a wow and they will keep coming back for more!

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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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by Shasta McLaughlin
The Extravaganza Craft Productions

Parts of this 7 part series have been reprinted with permission from the article “7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business” by Pam Grimm of Ideaco.  Click here to see Pam’s original article.

7 Common Disconnects In Retail Business

By Pamela Grimm, Ideaco

Many of you have contacted me wondering where I have been; as you may have noticed, I haven’t had an article in this magazine for several issues. Well, here’s your answer. For the past several months we have been working with a major financial institution analyzing why their stock value has decreased and where they are going “wrong” in their front line business. We identified some major issues that have simple solutions; these changes will ultimately have a huge impact on their business practices and their front line behavior, but will require a paradigm shift in their thinking.

Our results were not a surprise, however the reaction from the company was interesting. They basically indicated that they had moved from being unconsciously horrible at the business to being consciously horrible at the business. They couldn’t see what they were doing wrong even though it was right in front of them. Sometimes it requires an “outsider” to come in and take a good look around. Our end results brought us to 7 key disconnects in their business practices that needed to be addressed. These problems have been seen both in mainstream retail and independent stores, so we decided to do an “unofficial” business audit and note similar business practices. Here are the 7 common disconnects found on the retail level within the craft industry:

1. First Impression Failure: When a customer comes into a store, she is either there for the first time, is a repeat customer or she has come in with a problem. Regardless of the reason, every time a customer comes in, she gets a certain impression of the store. We found, in the majority of the stores, that the first impression failed miserably. Often staff members were too busy to say hello and didn’t know how to approach a customer to see if she needed assistance. Many times, the staff wouldn’t even talk to a customer and she could walk out as quietly as she came in. Sometimes the atmosphere of the store was uncomfortable, like a fight had just happened between the staff and the management, and everyone was in a terrible mood. It showed on faces and in the manner they moved products around, or just in the way they spoke to each other.

First impression from a physical standpoint failed horribly in the independent store sector as products were disorganized and crammed in anywhere…or there was a great lack of products. Samples seemed old and tired, and handmade signage promoted classes that had already been taught weeks prior. Many stores had no personality or flavor, leaving the feeling that you had walked into an overpriced dollar store.

How to Improve the Customers First Impression of Your Booth

We need to recognize that their mistake is our opportunity.  When retailers fail to make the sale they leave the door open for anyone with a similar product to make the sale.  What is the first impression that you are creating?

Always greet every person who is passing your booth.  Your greeting may be the only reason they look your way.  Ask them if you can help them find something.  Point them in the direction of whatever it is they are looking for even if it’s somebody’s booth.

No matter how slow the sales are that day remain positive and don’t discuss the slow show with other vendors or customers.  Remember there are opportunities everywhere so be prepared to take them with a smile and positive attitude.

Set-up your booth at home and take a good look at it?  Consider the first impression that you’re creating.  Is your booth professional, clean, organized, warm, inviting, interesting and attractive?  Is it cluttered or empty, disorganized, confusing, and unprofessional?  Ask the show promoter for an additional space (or half space) if you need more room to keep your booth looking it’s best.  A larger booth makes it easier for customers to enter and leave making it feel less claustrophobic as long as there is enough product displayed to fill the space.  Display more arts or see about sharing booths, if your booth looks empty.  Set-up products between your knees and eye level for the best visibility.  Don’t lay things flat on the table, use packing boxes under table cloths to add some height.  Arrange items that have something in common together and then display attractively.  For instance all the T-shirts should be together, then all the large T-shirts might be together on the rack, then medium, small, and extra small.

Are the colors of your booth showing off your crafts well or are they distracting from and competing with them?  Make corrections now to improve sales.

Set-up early at a show and use the extra time before the show to get the opinions of other artists and crafters.  Ask them to tell you as much about their first impression of your booth as they can.  Record what they say in a notebook for reference after the show.  Carefully consider their opinions and you will know which ones make sense for your business.  Take a good look at the booths around you and record the things they are doing right and the things they aren’t in your notes for later.

Next do an informal survey of your customers.  During your conversation with them at the show tell them that you are working to improve your customer service and ask if they would be willing to spend a few minutes telling you what they thought about your booth.  Always take notes.

If show promoters won’t allow surveys or drawings in your booth print some simple business cards that have a link to your online survey.  As customers make a purchase include the card with their purchase .  Tell them it’s there and that they will be entered to win a prize or will receive a small gift for answering the survey.  Ask about things like first impressions, colors, displays, greeting they received, how prompt service was, price of product compared to value, etc.  Make the survey as simple as possible while collecting the information that you need.  Don’t forget that the survey will be skewed if you only ask people who purchased so ask people who check out your booth and a few passers by to take an extra look at the booth and do the survey as well.

Make signs on the computer for a more professional appearance.  Check them for wear and tear.  Update them occasionally be sure to make them timeless, simple and as clear as possible.

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Determining which items will sell at craft shows is a very hard process.  Each and every buyer at a craft show will have their own individual experiences, styles, tastes, and needs.  Many other factors may also play a role in sales such as local economy, demographics of residents, what other events are happening in the area, etc…

So how can you know if your art or craft will be a profitable business for you?

First you have to determine if there is a market for what you’re making.  Be sure there is a large enough market for your specific product not for a broader category that includes your product.  For example…

While there is a large market for jewelry each buyer of jewelry has their own individual needs.

Not every jewelry buyer will buy EVERY kind of jewelry.

Jewelry buyers have styles as varied as Western, Oriental, Vintage, Classic, Contemporary, Magnetic, and many more.

You will only waste your time and money if you try to sell Vintage jewelry to every jewelry buyer.  Unless you’re extremely talented and have unlimited time and resources you probably won’t be able to create jewelry to fit every style.

If you’re making vintage jewelry you need to determine how many jewelry buyers are buying vintage creations and then you need to determine where they go to get it.  Remember that if they go to flea markets looking for vintage jewelry they will expect the price to reflect the “flea market idealism” which might make the product unprofitable.  Yet if vintage jewelry buyers go to up scale, high end boutiques in a classy area, you might be able to make the same product very profitably.

See the Thrive Website for more information on determining if there is a market for your craft at:

http://thrivestrategy.com/blog/

So how do you guarantee that the product you sell will be profitable.

• First do your research.
• Second choose a niche market.  Choose a specific group of people to serve and meet a specific need they have.
  • For instance: Meet the needs of women who buy vintage jewelry, create and sell vintage jewelry. Don’t just create jewelry in general and try to sell it to vintage jewelry buyers or create vintage jewelry and try to sell it to everyone.
• Third verify that the niche market you choose has a large number of buyers and a small number of competitors providing that service.
• Fourth sell your product to the right people, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.
• Fifth offer a complimentary upsell to every purchasing customer at a small discount.
• Sixth collect your customers contact information (with their permission of course) and continue to contact them regularly with relevant product information, discounts, services, your show schedule, etc.
  • Don’t abuse this or you will do more damage to your business than good.

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by Shasta McLaughlin

The Extravaganza Craft Productions

copyright 2009

I’ve told you the things I did on My 30 Day Plan to Greater Profitability and I promised that I would let you know some things you can do to increase the profits your art or craft show business receives.

1.  Draw a marketing map that shows how the people you meet at craft shows are going to move from cold contacts, to warm prospects, to hot buyers.  Include on your marketing map all of your sales tools including your craft show booth, your fliers, business cards, website, blog, social networking, advertising, and more.

2.  Make sure each sales tool mentioned above (and any others you use) moves your customer through a process that leads to them buying your art or craft.

3.  Get a website.  Click here for easy instructions on how to build a website.

4.  Get your website search engine optimized.

5.  Arrange to take credit cards.

6.  Offer a payment plan.

7.  Get email marketing (auto-responders).  See my post on following up with your customers by clicking here.

8.  Create emails for your current customers.  Remember to follow the Can-Am Act for email.  Send your customers useful relevant information.  You want this to help your business reputation not hurt it.

9. Create emails for your warm prospects.

10. Create emails for your cold contacts.

11.  Sign up your customers to the proper groups above.   Ask permission before signing up people for your emails.

12.  Check if your business cards, fliers, etc. look professional and are updated.  Be certain they have current contact information.  Make sure they mention your website if you have one.

13.  Collect names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of the people who are interested in your product.  Ask if they would like to be signed up for your emails.

14.  Sign up for Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Fast Pitch Networking or many others.  Let your customers and prospects know they can follow you there.  Post regularly.

15. Create a blog.  Post regularly.  Mention your social networking sites and your website often.

16.  Make sure your posts to your blog automatically post to your social networking sites.

17.  Pick up the phone and call a customer that you haven’t heard from in a while.  Renew your relationship with them.  Tell them the news from your business.  Offer to send them free information or ask if they would like to sign up for your newsletters.

18.  Send an email to customers that haven’t bought in a while.  Renew your relationship with them.

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Looking at it from both the perspective of a show promoter and artist the one thing that other vendors at shows do that bothers me the most is not including the legs of their displays into the size of their booth.

Having the legs of their display sticking into the aisles and into the booths next to them is hard for show promoters, as well as dangerous for customers and also inconveniences the vendors in booths nearby.  Show promoters are then pressed to find an acceptable compromise for everyone.

Keeping all parts of your display in the footprint of your booth keeps everyone happy.

Shasta McLaughlin
The Extravaganza Craft Productions
www.extravaganzacrafts.com

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