By John McCullough
This information in this article is predicated on 2 guesses: That you've one or more beading projects you'd like to make profitable, and that you have some level of inventory at the prepared for when sales begin coming in. If that's you, then this article will outline a few avenues open to you for "passively marketing" your beading projects.
Note that passive marketing doesn't mean "no work required," or "you don't have to talk to anybody." Rather, it means that the greater bulk of the work occurs on the "front end" and that once the work is concluded, your passive marketing efforts will continue more or less on their own, indefinitely, with only minimal added effort on your part.
This is vital for you as a bead crafter since it frees up more of your time, which you can dedicate to your present beading projects, or, if you feel you are ready for it, develop wholly new beading projects to enlarge your line.
We'll cover two examples of passive marketing. One, promoting your finished beading projects locally, and the other, advertising them globally.
Among the very finest ways to market your beading projects locally is via consignment. Here, your target is to show your line to people with a recognized business and ask if they will display and sell your products in exchange for a percentage of the profits. This works to your benefit on a many levels. First, the reputable business already has regular clients you can make sales from. Furthermore, most will let you to display your business cards next to your wares, so if a customer likes your product, their next order may be made direct from you. Also, once you have an existing relationship of this sort, it's normally easy to introduce new products to your display as you develop the number of beading projects in your line.
The key here is not to limit yourself to just one or two such relationships, but to seek to engage as many sources as you can keep supplied. Not only does this raise your publicity, but it also lets you to see how various shops handle your products, and you can use this information to see where your products sell the best, then attempt to gain a similar in-store position at other shops carrying your line. If your beading projects are focused on necklaces/bracelets, you could surely be drawn to locally owned jewelry stores in your town, but I encourage you to think outside the box here! Hospital gift shops, gift shops in retirement homes and old fashioned country shops are all great pleases to inquire, as are normal gift stores and specialty shops such as Hallmark, and any place that caters to local artists!
Considering the worldwide market, the extremely best thing you can do to advertise your projects is niche online marketing. There are dozens of books on this topic, and it is beyond the scope of this article to fully explore the process, but in broad strokes, what you require to do in order to market your beading projects in this manner are:
1) Identify keywords describing your beading projects that get a few daily searches (10-30+ per day) and have minimum competition (under 50k).
2) Design a niche website around these keywords to drive traffic to your page
3) Describe what you are offering. These descriptions should be mixed in with original content on your site
4) Offer would be customers a means of contacting you
5) Offer them a means to purchase from you online
Again, the beauty of passive marketing is that once the initial work is done, your beading projects get exposure day in, and day out with very little effort on your part.
Note that passive marketing doesn't mean "no work required," or "you don't have to talk to anybody." Rather, it means that the greater bulk of the work occurs on the "front end" and that once the work is concluded, your passive marketing efforts will continue more or less on their own, indefinitely, with only minimal added effort on your part.
This is vital for you as a bead crafter since it frees up more of your time, which you can dedicate to your present beading projects, or, if you feel you are ready for it, develop wholly new beading projects to enlarge your line.
We'll cover two examples of passive marketing. One, promoting your finished beading projects locally, and the other, advertising them globally.
Among the very finest ways to market your beading projects locally is via consignment. Here, your target is to show your line to people with a recognized business and ask if they will display and sell your products in exchange for a percentage of the profits. This works to your benefit on a many levels. First, the reputable business already has regular clients you can make sales from. Furthermore, most will let you to display your business cards next to your wares, so if a customer likes your product, their next order may be made direct from you. Also, once you have an existing relationship of this sort, it's normally easy to introduce new products to your display as you develop the number of beading projects in your line.
The key here is not to limit yourself to just one or two such relationships, but to seek to engage as many sources as you can keep supplied. Not only does this raise your publicity, but it also lets you to see how various shops handle your products, and you can use this information to see where your products sell the best, then attempt to gain a similar in-store position at other shops carrying your line. If your beading projects are focused on necklaces/bracelets, you could surely be drawn to locally owned jewelry stores in your town, but I encourage you to think outside the box here! Hospital gift shops, gift shops in retirement homes and old fashioned country shops are all great pleases to inquire, as are normal gift stores and specialty shops such as Hallmark, and any place that caters to local artists!
Considering the worldwide market, the extremely best thing you can do to advertise your projects is niche online marketing. There are dozens of books on this topic, and it is beyond the scope of this article to fully explore the process, but in broad strokes, what you require to do in order to market your beading projects in this manner are:
1) Identify keywords describing your beading projects that get a few daily searches (10-30+ per day) and have minimum competition (under 50k).
2) Design a niche website around these keywords to drive traffic to your page
3) Describe what you are offering. These descriptions should be mixed in with original content on your site
4) Offer would be customers a means of contacting you
5) Offer them a means to purchase from you online
Again, the beauty of passive marketing is that once the initial work is done, your beading projects get exposure day in, and day out with very little effort on your part.
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