Are you wondering how to sell you crafts online? There are so many possibilities when it comes to selling your handmade items. My mother and I have been selling our handmade wreaths online for over a decade and one of the most exciting, yet challenging things about selling online is finding your perfect customers and seeing your business grow.
Here are our top eight tips for promoting your crafts and handmade products. These marketing and promotion tips will help you build your customer base and grow your business. If you are interested in selling handmade wreaths, like we have been doing for the last thirteen years, you may be interested in grabbing a digital copy of Wreath Business Blueprint! This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience.
1. Word of Mouth and Your Own Community
Don’t ever underestimate the power of word of mouth when it comes to marketing, and Let people in your own community and circle of influence know what it is that you do. A lot of people feel uncomfortable when it comes to self-promotion, but if you don’t promote yourself first, no one else ever will. Donating wreaths or handmade gifts to local charity organizations, auctions and fundraisers are great ways to market your business. Advertise locally with organizations like your local football team or little league. Contact real estate agents in your area. They are always looking for closing gifts for their clients, and what better closing gift is better than a handmade product, like a wreath or other handmade item to welcome their clients into their new home. Let them know that you can work with their budget and create something special for their clients.
2. Customer Referrals
Offer incentives for your current customers if they refer a person to you who makes a purchase. You could offer something like a $10 store credit for anyone who refers someone who purchases a wreath. Always keep in mind that it is much easier to keep a current customer than it is to get a new one so customer service is key and offering customer referral incentives is a win-win – it is good for you because it helps you get new customers and it also keeps the current customer loyal to you and purchasing from you.
3. Coupons & Discounts
Everyone loves a freebie or discount. They give people a sense of urgency. You should not offer them ALL the time or people won’t have that sense of urgency but on special occasions they are great for getting people to purchase your crafts and grow your business. You could offer a one time only free shipping code, or 15% off coupon that is good for a limited period of time. This kind of promotional marketing will encourage people who may be on the fence about purchasing one of your products to go ahead and make the purchase. Coupons are a great way to grow your customer base.
4. Social Media Platforms
Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter – I love using social media to promote products and I think that it is one of the biggest and most important ways to grow your customer base. We primarily use Facebook and Instagram to market our business. The key to marketing and growing your customer base through social media is consistency. You can’t post five times a day for a day or two and then not post again for two weeks. That does not work to grow your audience and will derail any marketing efforts that you are trying to make with social media. You absolutely have to be consistent. Try to do your best to post every day and really create a relationship with your audience. People buy from people that they KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST and social media is an excellent way to get people to know you and your products.
5. Pinterest
I consider Pinterest more of a search engine than I do an actual social media platform. Pinterest is HUGE for generating traffic to the items that you have for sale. We actually had more traffic come to our website from Pinterest this past month than we did Facebook, Google, or any other outlet. If you have an Etsy shop you should be consistently pinning your wreaths that you list. If you are not, you are really missing out on a great opportunity to get yourself in front of a new audience. For tips on how to grow your Etsy shop, I encourage you to click here to see how I sold over 800 handmade wreaths in my first 6 months on Etsy.
6. Email Lists
Email lists are an excellent way to market your crafts and handmade products. You should always be collecting the emails of your customers so that you can email them any time you have specials, promotions, or coupons. You can sign up with Mailchimp which offers a Free plan for up to 2,000 contacts. It is great for starting out building an email list and it makes sending out emails to your customers so easy!
7. Contests and Giveaways
We have always had great luck with doing giveaways. Contests create excitement around your product and people love the idea of winning something. If you are hosting a giveaway or contest on social media, you just need to be sure you check the rules for the platform that you are on and try not to violate any of them.
8. Paid Advertising
Google Adsense and Facebook advertising can get you in front of a lot of people and can be a very effective way to market your business, but you have to be careful and tread with caution when it comes to paid advertising or you could spend A LOT of money. Some big named brands spend 6+ figures a month advertising on Facebook and Google, but let’s face it, most of us don’t have anywhere near that kind of budget (especially when you are just starting out), so start small. You can do Facebook ads for $1-$5 a day to start out and you will start to see your brand awareness grow.
There are so many great ways to market your crafts and handmade products, and a lot of times you just have to think outside of the box. We have passed out flyers, put magnetic signs on our car, done tons of giveaways, donated to charity events, and invested in Facebook and Google ads. The important thing is to get your name out there so that when people are in need of your particular product they know exactly who to go to. If you are interested in selling handmade wreaths, be sure to grab your digital copy of Wreath Business Blueprint!
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