You don’t realize how much work goes into starting your own business until you actually start the process. It may sound like a good idea to start selling right away once you make a product that customers love, but it’s a better idea to have a marketing and advertising plan in place to set yourself up for success in the long term.
By now you should have all or some of the following: a business name, a logo, a brand image, products, a website and social media accounts. With any or all of these under your belt, you’re ready to start marketing and advertising your products. Marketing can be tricky and confusing at first, and it can also be an investment. I have always appreciated the quote you have to spend money to make money, but it’s not always the case if you don’t have any money to spend. In order to market your products, you may have to invest in advertising them but you don’t necessarily have to spend any money right away.
Word of Mouth
When you have zero dollars to spend on marketing and advertising, then the best way to promote your products will be by giving them to friends and family members. If you can’t afford to give away any products, then sell them to your loved ones at cost. Tell your friends and family that you’ll cut them a deal if they will help you out by spreading the word around to their circle of friends and family.
Besides friends and family, you can also contact local organizations and businesses that may be interested in your products. You can donate your products to charities and auctions along with your business cards, advertise for fundraisers and even contact real estate agents to let them know you can create great closing gifts for their clients. Think about who would enjoy your product the most and try to get in touch with them. Remember who your target audience is and work from there.
It also doesn’t hurt to start networking at events and local craft fairs. You can hand out business cards and fliers, make new craft friends you can partner with and talk to as many people as you can to learn how they promote their businesses. This can also allow you to learn more about your potential customers and what they like and dislike. It’s a great learning opportunity and it’s always nice to expand your business contacts and customers.
Post on Social Media
One of the most effective ways to obtain free marketing is to have your social media friends take pictures of your products, and then tell them to tag you and your business in their post. This will allow more people to see your products, and it can possibly gain you more followers and customers along the way.
Social media is completely free to use when it comes to promoting your products. If you post about them daily, then the chances of more people seeing your products will increase. The downside is that most social media platforms like Facebook will encourage you to promote your posts for a fee in order to gain the most exposure. Whenever you have the extra money set aside for marketing and advertising, I encourage you to play around with promoting your products. Remember that you can write this off as a business expense when it’s time to file your taxes.
What’s great about social media websites like Facebook is that they store stats for you so that you can see the engagements you get on posts and which ones are turning into sales for your business. Keep records of every time you pay to promote, and all the stats you receive so that you can fine tune your posts and ads over time.
Facebook isn’t the only social media platform to keep in mind when promoting your products. Instagram is a great spot to highlight products as well as Pinterest. Both platforms will allow you to post for free, but you can increase your audience if you pay to promote your posts and products. An outside of the box social media platform to also consider is YouTube if you are video savvy as you can post tutorials and showcase your products to a whole new audience.
Incentivize Customers
Incentivize customers so that they will keep returning. One way to do this is to set up a referral program so that they will tell others about your products. You could give them things like a $10 credit to your store for every customer who buys a product that they referred or you could give them a free product for so many customers that they bring you. You’ll essentially create your own marketing team which will go a long way when you launch new products.
You can also provide coupons and discounts to customers when they make a purchase. Coupons with an expiration date usually cause satisfied customers to urgently purchase again so that they don’t miss out on a great deal. Coupons shouldn’t be offered all the time, but it may be a good idea to come up with new ones on special occasions like holidays. Coupons for things like free shipping, a percent discount or a free item with a certain purchase are all great places to start.
Another great way to entice your customers is to do contests and giveaways. Everyone loves freebies, and giving away your products will help to spread the word about your business to more customers. Before you host a raffle, giveaway or contest be sure you follow the rules on the platform you are using.
Other ways to reach customers to incentivize include, emails lists, bloggers and influencers. Having an email list of your customers will allow you to directly advertise and market to them. You can create an email list with websites like Mailchimp. This will allow you to send out sales, promotions, coupons and new products with ease. Mailchimp is free to use, but it does have some paid options once your business and email list start to grow.
Getting into contact with a popular crafting blogger or influencer who would enjoy your products can also help you to promote them without spending a lot of money. Bloggers who specialize in not only crafting but entrepreneurial stories for business women can elevate your brand and products. You could provide special discount codes to their audience, free products or giveaways as well.
Paid Advertising
You can’t go wrong with old-fashioned advertising if you have a budget to spend. Many website platforms offer advertising deals like Google, Facebook and Etsy. You don’t have to stick with just an online presence. You can pay to market your business in other ways like handing out flyers, giving away free stickers, or paying for a newspaper spot.
Remember that when you do pay for advertising, keep your target audience in mind so you aren’t advertising to anyone who won’t want your product. When you narrow down your customer base, it allows you to spend your advertising money wisely.
Be Authentic
Regardless of how you choose to market and advertise your craft business, you should always be as authentic, honest and genuine as possible. It’s also important to stay relevant and adapt to changes in trends when possible. Of course you shouldn’t let trends steal your authenticity. Adapt to what fits your business, but don’t try to fit in if it doesn’t suit your brand and image.
Getting customer stories, reviews and testimonials will allow you to build credibility. Encourage customers to post pictures of their products with a specific hashtag, and encourage reviews on social media accounts or your website.
It will take a lot of work to advertise and market your products, and not all avenues will suit your business. If you can’t afford to pay for any marketing, do as much free advertising as you can. It will take time to figure out what strategy will work best for your business, but once you hit that sweet spot you’ll know it and appreciate the work you put in.
