As I said in a previous post many of us crafters make the mistake of not spending enough time and money marketing ourselves and our crafts. This isn’t surprising because as crafters we love making things and the business side of…er…craft business is not necessarily our forte.  But if you you attend to the business side of things little and often, and from early on, you’ll find that you will be busier, and you’ll find yourself needing to make more craft to fill your inventory! So it’s important to market ourselves, and our business, and to keep on marketing to stay on ahead of the game. That’s why the big companies (the likes of Sony, Walmart, and Louis Vuitton etc. etc. etc.) keep on marketing themselves to ensure that we are aware (or in other words, brand aware) of their presence (as if we needed reminding!). But if they don’t do it they are letting themselves be vulnerable to their competitors. NB: I know I have habit of using the activities of large companies as an example but this is just to (hopefully) better describe things. A business is a business no matter what it’s size. Therefore, the same factors still apply to folks who work at home in their jammies (just on a slightly smaller scale)

Right, so last time we looked a ways to market yourself and your business for free, this time we’ll look at way to market our craft business on the cheap (I have written down what I have done for my own business in italics):

• Get yourself a blog This is my favourite way to market myself and my business. I use my business blog to promote my products, give my customers an insight to who I am, provide tutorials (that use my products), showcase the bag making skills of others. By doing these things I hope introduce bag making to people who have never made bags before, increase the trust that customers have in me as the owner of my business, encourage others to go into business themselves, and create a little corner (that is less formal, and more casual than my shop) for us bag makers to congregate. Having your own blog gives you another web link (that you can get out there in the internet), and a platform in which to talk about you, show off your craft photos, show off your craft, talk about the craft process for example. I have found blogging absolutely invaluable to my business, and I can’t recommend it for your craft business enough! I use Typepad (which only costs me £4.50 a month – bargain!) because it was recommended to me, I think they look good, and I like their type list function. I had never blogged before I started (Nov 06) and I’ve learned it all on the way. You don’t need to be a computer geek (the help you need is in the help pages). Here are a few well known blog providers, some of which are free (I don’t know about the ones in other countries, sorry!): Sixapart (who provide 4 different types of blog depending on your needs), WordPress, and Blogger.
• Get yourself your own logo – It’s really worth getting your logo designed by a pro (you can also approach the owners of good looking blogs and ask them who designed their banners, and lots of web designers have their own blogs, see if you can set-up a trade with them!). If you are rubbish at drawing (like I am) don’t attempt to design your own logo yourself because it will look unprofessional and this may well turn potential customers off. In the beginning I had no idea what I wanted for my logo. I just knew that I wanted it to look friendly, approachable, craftish, not too young, and not particularly old. My designer (who is experienced in logo design and branding) and I worked on the logo together and we eventually settled on the final design, font, and colour after almost everyone of my friends said ‘yep, that’s the daddy!’
• Get yourself a strapline (as defined by Wiki). A strap line is a useful bunch of words that serve to reinforce /inform (in a quick & simple way) just what your craft business is/provides. I’ve had my strapline “Love Bags, Make Bags” from the beginning and I hope that from reading it, it is obvious to the reader that my craft business is involved in handbags, and handbag making. When my strapline appears alongside my logo is serves to inform people of what my business is (in case you can’t tell from looking at the logo in isolation.

I’m guessing that this guy will have to think up a better strapline…

• Get yourself some labels – and place them on your craft. If you have a pretty logo, in nice colours it will look great on a tag or label and when you put these labels on you craft items it will make them look more professional. When things look more professional the perceived value (what something appears to be worth) increases, making your product look like it is even better quality. Include contact information on your label such as website or telephone number becuase as the owner shows off his or her new craft item (bought from you) you can bet that he or she is going to asked where it was bought from. Also, your craft item may be given as a present and the new owner may well want to know how the get their mitts on more of your craft items. Use you craft items to promote you! You can make your own tags (have a look at these yummy ones,) and/or you can have woven labels made for you. Here are some manufacturers I can think of (there are lots more, have a search on Google). Cashes, Charm Woven, National Weaving, and Clothing labels 4 u.
• Get yourself some stationary – such as business cards (did you have a look at the Free business cards yet?) postcards, or get creative and think up your own ‘little calling cards’ that you can put your business info on. In the past I have received cute ‘business cards’ that have been made from quilted scraps, cute key rings made from bottle tops, and wire window decorations all of which the creators have used as ‘business cards’. They are so pretty that they haven’t gotten lost or been thrown away! The more attractive and or useful something is the less likely it is headed for the trash, plus they also make you think nice and positive thoughts about the creators (which is important!). If you have a Flickr account (which is free) you can also make up your own Moo Cards, and postcards which are also popular and dead handy becuase you can use pictures of your craft items.

As soon as I hear of more marketing tips like these you can be sure that I’ll write ’em down and share them with you. Do you have any little cheap and cheerful marketing tips that you use, and you would like to share with us?