You’ve got crafts to sell, and they’re awesome. How come you’re not making money from them? Chances are, you have not taken advantage of online marketing for your business, and all its accompanying tools.
Let’s say you have a handcrafted jewelry business, and you want to make people aware that it exists. What do you do?
For starters, recognize if there is already an existing market for your kind of business online. If it does, check it out and do a bit of research to see if it is thriving, and if you’re up for a lot of competition. This will help you come up with a unique approach to sell your wares and see the bigger picture as to how long you can sustain your online business.
If you can afford it, buy a domain with your store’s name as the site name. This will give your products instant recall and it will be easier to look for your online store once your jewelry start making a name for themselves. If you can’t afford your own site yet, take advantage of free blogging sites like WordPress to start with. There are a lot of templates you can choose from, and you can tweak the settings to come up with a more personalized and customized look that will go with your wares.
You can customize the site to look like a virtual brochure where clients can pick out the designs they want. Or you can make it look like a virtual tour of your workshop. Add lots of interesting pictures so people can have an idea of what goes on behind your craft. A lot of customers like a bit of history with their finished product, so take advantage of that curiosity. It’s always vital to keep your site update because it will make people aware that you’re always working on something new for them.
If you’re going to be transacting online, bear in mind that you have to be committed to checking out your site regularly because it’s not nice to keep customers waiting for answers. Also, you must have a reliable shipping service that will deliver the goods to clients on time. This will pave the way for satisfied, and hopefully returning, clients who can promote your online business for you without you asking them to!
You can also participate or sign up in an online crafts forum or gallery. Etsy and Multiply are good examples. You can think of them as a virtual crafts bazaar or mall where you can check out other people’s wares. This way, if you aren’t too confident about how to price your products, you can use others’ pricing schemes as a gauge for your own. The beauty of these sites is that your wares can be instantly categorized so anyone looking for hand crafted jewelry has a big likelihood of stumbling upon your stuff.
The downside of this is of course, the competition. While handmade jewelry pieces can be considered one-of-a-kind, the handmade jewelry niche is by no means a unique one.
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