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Creative Outlets for your Hand Made Craft Business - Five Great Places to Market
You’ve decided to start your own craft business. You’ve got a great product and lots of enthusiasm, but no clue of how and where to sell your product. If you have no business background, then it can be intimidating to start talking about markets and sales pitches and your target customer.
In reality, marketing your hand made crafts is easier than you could ever imagine. Here’s a quick overview of some of the best places to market your craft products.
Family and Friends
It sounds too obvious, right? In fact, your family and friends can be one of the most important tools in getting your new craft business off the ground. Your family and friends will probably be more than happy to buy your products, but also help you sell them. You will talk to your family and friends about your crafts and they in turn will tell their family and friends and it will continue to grow from there. Word of mouth is really important in the crafting industry.
Many businesses allow crafters to come in during the holiday season. Maybe one of your friends or relatives works for a company that does this. It is usually through personal connections like this that crafters end up at the businesses.
If you don’t have enough money for a table at a local craft show, you can host one at your own home. If you know other crafters, you can include their items as well – for free or for a small fee. You can invite family, friends and neighbors. This is an excellent way to start selling your products with minimal cost to you.
When you do decide to do a local craft show, ask for help from your family and friends. While it is important that you spend a lot of time at your booth so you have a chance to interact with your customers, family and friends can offer a lot of support by taking turns manning the booth and helping with the set-up and tear-down of your display.
Local Craft Shows
Before you start traveling all around with your crafts, you should try displaying your products in a few local shows. With a crafting business, you should try to start small and gain as much experience and exposure in your local community as possible. These local shows also give you a can to work out all of the kinks in your display and sales pitch before investing all your money in traveling to out of area craft shows.
Crafters’ Marketplaces and Local Gift Stores
Many gift stores will accept crafts from local artisans on consignment. This is a great way to get your craft products out into the community. Often times these sorts of displays will lead to greater exposure and custom orders. It is a good way of reaching people who do not attend craft shows. Many communities also have crafters’ marketplaces where you can rent space on a monthly basis to display your crafts. The concept is similar to a craft show – you just don’t have to be there to sell the products. The store looks after all of the selling for you. You do need to ensure that your stock remains high enough and that you have an attractive display that will help your crafts stand out from all of the others.
Magazines and other Publications
You can consider advertising your new business in a magazine or a newsletter. Even better, you could try to have yourself featured in an article in your local paper or a craft magazine. This way your potential customers will learn more about you and the back-story of your craft. With crafts, a lot of customers like to know the process and story behind its creation, so this is an excellent way to connect with them and generate more interest in your new business venture.
Online
Just a few years ago, there were very few crafters online. Now, you can have a website devoted to marketing and selling your products. A website that displays your products and provides some background on you and your craft can be a really effective marketing tool. You can also sell your products directly online. This will allow you to sell your products to people all over the world with minimal advertising costs to you. Just think of the exposure! |
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