Marketing Corner: Tips for a Successful Craft Show

I've been to four craft shows so far, and thought I'd share some of the lessons learned and valuable observations for the future.

Once you find a craft show and your application gets approved, you need to start preparing for it right away. The more thought and time you put into it, the more prepared and successful you'll be at the event.

Make lots of stuff. The more you make, the more variety you'll be able to offer to customers. People have different tastes, and sometimes what you thought would be a best-seller ends up not being noticed as much, but other items seem to be more attractive to buyers. Of course, you don't have to have every single item on your table because you don't want to make your display look too crowded, but you can experiment with placement and products. Make sure you have a large range of options, as well as a wide range of prices. Which brings me to the next point...

Jewelry String Price Tags

Make sure ALL of your items have a price tag or a sticker. Always. People would rather walk away from your booth than ask you how much something costs. Being able to see the price of an item right away would make them feel comfortable browsing and avoid this awkward situation. You can find price tags on Etsy (see link below), at Office Depot or Staples, or on Amazon. If you have a lot of items (and you should as pointed above), it will take some time to put a price tag on every one of them, but it's worth it! As you're tagging your items, prepare an inventory sheet with each item, its price, and quantity to keep track of. Bring it with you at the craft show and make notes when you sell items and at what price (in case you've given a discount), mark the items people are most interested in, and also make notes about possible custom orders.

Make a list of all the things you need to bring with you and pack the night before the show. Don't leave things for the last minute. Arrive as early as you can to have lots of time to set up. One of the shows I went to had an assigned time slot for each artist to come and unload at the loading dock. It only gave me a bit over an hour to set up before the show started and I barely made it! Make sure you give yourself enough time to set up. And if you have some time left before the show starts, walk around and introduce yourself to the other artists. Get inspired and observe how they do things - some of them are experienced craft fair goers and it's amazing how much you can learn from them! And you'll be surprised how many of them have a shop on Etsy, so you can keep in touch and maybe even find products you'd like to buy! A fun thing to do at craft shows is trade some of your items for somebody else's products :)

Try to give your table a sense of your products and style. Cover it with a nice table cloth. Depending on what you're selling, the color/pattern might play an important role, but for jewelry I like to choose a neutral color. I've heard some people bring flowers to decorate the table, so feel free to do that if you think it fits your theme. Create a banner for your business and attach it to the front hanging part of your table cloth, or maybe have an easel with a poster right next to your table.

Source

Bring lots of change for people who like to pay in cash. If possible, accept credit cards. Nowadays it's easy to make that possible. I know some people have credit card readers or other such devices. I personally use Square. You can hook it up to your iPhone, iPad, or Android and process a payment right away. The customer uses their finger to electronically sign and approve the charges, and then the confirmation can be sent to their email. Also, the processing fee is just 2.75%, which is a great deal!



Having a great display is crucial to bringing more attention to your booth and thus more sales. Make sure you product is UP at eye level. Also, think of creative ways to display your items. You can reuse something from your house or the local thrift store.

Source

- for jewelry, you can buy and old picture frame and fill it in with wire mesh (you can buy it at the hardware store). Your jewelry pieces can hang from the mesh - and it gives it a very unique but professional look. Here is a great tutorial on how to make your own.

Source

- reuse items from home: baskets, vintage trays and mirrors, cupcake tiers

Source

- use old books to pile them up and lift your displays
- old book shelves or filing units

Source

If you don't want to make your own displays, you can easily get them on eBay, Amazon, or even Etsy. Here are some Etsy shops that sell displays:

TomsEarringHolders

BlackForestCottage

TheGreenCoyote

JewelryHoldersForYou

bluebirdheaven 

Be friendly and approachable! Smile! Don't sit, be up and visible, ready to answer questions or explain your product (if they seem to be looking and interested). Make sure people know they can touch and try things on, even if they don't end up buying anything. If you're selling jewelry, have a mirror at your table, so that people can see how it looks.

Know your product and try to make it personal - tell people how you made it, what materials you used and some interesting fact about the supplies or the process behind making it - something they can relate to.

Wear your product (if it's wearable). If possible, bring your tools and create things while you're at your table. People will see you making things on the spot and will be more interested to see your final products and respect your work.

Tell your friends and family about the show. They are your biggest fans and supporters, and you never know what word of mouth can do!

Important things to bring with you:
- Purell/wiping cloths
- tools for your craft - if you want to make your items as you sell, or just to have in case someone needs something to be customized or adjusted
- packaging materials, jewelry boxes (or whatever you're using for your items)
- business cards - encourage people to take one even if they don't buy anything. Also, include one in the packaging with every sale. I have a coupon code for 10% off of next purchase on the back of my cards, and let people know when I wrap up their purchase
- notebook and pens - you can use that to take notes about different items and people's questions/requests. You can also have it on the side of your table and have people sign up for you newsletter (make sure you reassure them that their emails will not be used for any other purpose)
- water and food/snacks - this is essential as not every craft fair has food vendors and also you may not have the opportunity to step out of your booth and go look for food and drinks. You can also bring some candy and put it on the side of your table. This is a great idea if you have some seasoned candy (i.e. candy corn for halloween, chocolate for Christmas, etc.)
- make sure you charge your phone/iPad/computer. If you bring a computer, you can prepare a slideshow with pictures of your items.
- bring some extra lights if you think you'll need them. This is especially important if you're selling jewelry or small items that need more light. Lights also attract the eye, so you can't go wrong with bringing some extra ones just in case.
- bring a friend! Not only to keep you company, but also to help you carry stuff and set up, keep an eye on the items if you need to go to the bathroom or if it gets too crowded in front of your table.


And last but not least - HAVE FUN! It's great to meet people and show them how much you love doing what you do and sharing your craft with them. Try to make the most of it, be cheerful, and remember that sometimes a non-sale is not always a bad thing. As long as people have a way of reaching you after the craft show is over, you still have sale opportunities.

Hope this helps and if you've been to a craft show lately, I'd love to hear about your experience!

How to Receive (and Give) Feedback

It's that time of year - businesses are doing their annual self-evaluations and reviews, and everyone is nervous about getting feedback on their performance. But as an Etsy seller (or any self-employed business owner), feedback doesn't come just once a year - it's a daily process. Whether you're asking for critiques in the forums, or you're receiving feedback from your customers on the products they purchased, or you're being asked to give your opinion on something, you're constantly exposed to feedback. As we all know, feedback can be both positive and negative, but it's always the negative criticism that makes us cringe and become defensive. Ironically, it's also the type of criticism that helps us learn from our mistakes the most and become better at what we do and who we are. Knowing how to give and receive feedback is a precious skill that few of us have, but it's something definitely worth learning how to do.

I recently spoke to Melinda who just started a blog where she showcases successful Etsy shops. She received requests from many sellers, and given her strict guidelines on what she was looking for, not all shops made the cut. For the ones that she rejected, she actually spent quite some time going through them and giving them a review on certain things that they can improve. Most sellers welcomed her feedback and were grateful that she spent time doing it, but others were not as nice. As I was reading about Melinda's frustrations, it got me thinking. Why were some people so appalled? Isn't this a great way of learning how to improve your shop and make it better? Why take is so personally?

A few days later I came across an article in Psychology Today about feedback, and it all started to make sense! I learned a few interesting fact too. Apparently, there are separate circuits in our brains that handle information - one for positive and one for negative phenomena. The negative information sticks the most, and no matter how many great and positive compliments you get, you always remember that one minor critique! Due to our sensitivity to negative feedback, sometimes we "see" criticism where it doesn't exist, because we tend to overthink other people's comments or remarks. And it all comes down to one thing - fear of exclusion. Once you recognize this, you can become better at accepting and giving feedback.

So, you ask, how can you make this work? If you are giving feedback, were you asked to? Nobody welcomes unsolicited negative feedback, but if they asked you for it, they are more susceptible to receive it. Try to use questions when giving feedback as a way of walking the recipient through the problem and making them feel part of a discussion. Think about whether you are "eligible" to give feedback in their eyes. If they don't see you as a qualified authority, it will only bring more negativity. And finally, don't be angry when you provide criticism - be nice and calm. If you are on the receiving end, take a deep breath! It's not going to be easy, but try not to take it personally, and really think about what you're hearing. Learn from it! And although it's hard to hear it, ask for feedback as much as you can!

Marketing Corner: On Packaging

Brainstorming. Hard work. Creating and crafting. Taking pictures. Editing pictures. Taking more pictures. Listing. Renewing. And finally...a sale!!! But alas, that's not the end! What happens after you get the sale is equally important to you business as branding and product quality. Excellent customer service leads to happy customers, and happy customers can become return customers.

We all love packages. In today's high tech world, snail mail feels like a blast from the past, a nice one too. When I receive a well packaged order, it always feels like opening presents, which makes me appreciate the seller even more. Etsy is becoming more and more saturated and it gets harder to single your craft out amongst so many sellers with similar products. Packaging is one way to set yourself apart.

One of my weaknesses on Etsy is bath and body products - handmade soaps, lotions, and candles. I've made purchases from several different sellers and their packaging has been wonderful. Below are some pictures of their lovely products.

So, you ask, how can you put that little extra touch to your packaging at a low cost? Here are some suggestions:

Use tissue paper to wrap your items. Even if you've already packed your products in plastic bags, wrap them with an additional layer of tissue paper, and maybe even add a nice tie around it.

If you're selling jewelry, invest in jewelry boxes. They are just a few cents each, but make for a wonderful presentation!

Include a nice thank you note or a thank you tag. This makes the packaging a bit more personal. You can easily make hang tags at home at no cost too!

Reuse and recycle materials. This will cost you nothing! Reuse tissue paper and wrapping ribbons from gifts, shopping bags, or even flower bouquets that you've recently received. You can also recycle the beautiful paper bags from department stores and create your own boxes - they are thicker and have great colors and quality paper!

Make your own envelopes or package boxes, and use unique labels on your packages. Recycle paper to make some fun envelopes. Many sellers offer free PDFs for labels or envelope patterns on their blogs. You can find some in this Storque article. Here is another great tutorial to make your own unique package bags from envelopes using decorative tape. You can also find get some great and affordable patterns on Etsy.

Include awesome business cards.  This could be expensive but will definitely set you apart!

If you are one of those people who always puts an extra touch to their packaging, feel free to comment and share what you do :)

Marketing Corner: How to Promote Your Etsy Store

I'm not an expert at marketing or advertising but since I started my jewelry business, I'm always on the lookout for creative and cheap ways to promote it and spread the word. I've kept a list of some really good ideas shared by other Etsy sellers, or something that I stumbled upon at one time or another. I haven't tried every single item on the list so if you have any insights, I'd love to hear them! Here's a list of 25, but I've also included some useful links with a lot more info and ideas.

1. Submit your work and your Etsy shop for free on any of these promotional websites:
http://www.craftjuice.com
http://craftgawker.com
http://www.craftstylish.com/share
http://www.craftytips.com
http://www.designstolove.com
http://www.plaincraft.com
http://tryhandmade.com/promote-handmade
http://coolmompicks.com/yourpicks.php
http://thehandmadedirectory.com/directory
http://etsylush.com
These are just a few examples but there are tons of websites targeting handmade products and crafts. Here's a list of 120 websites, courtesy of Indie Pretty Projects. And here's another list here - some of those may overlap.

2. Submit your shop to renowned blogs in the indie crafts sphere. It's free but you need to do some homework to single yourself out from the numerour requests they get on a daily basis.

3. Create a Facebook page for your shop. You can see mine here.

4. Create a blog. Blogging is not for everyone, of course, and I'm sure this deserves an entirely separate post in itself, but if you have a creative mind and have lots to share with the community, this can be a great way to build a network and market your craft.

5. If you have a blog, you can submit your blog posts to other blogging sites with more traffic. I recently submitted my post about Heartsy to the Handmadeology website, and it got picked up by Tech Crunch! If you like to make tutorials, check out the Totally Tutorials blog, and also submit yours there.

6. Use your family and friends - they want to see you succeed the most! Keep them posted on what you're working on and what's new in your shop and your schedule. Word of mouth can be a very powerful advertising tool sometimes.

7. Create a Youtube video to promote your art - it can be a series of photo slides, a tutorial, or a video of you in the process of making something.

8. Put your shop links in all your email signatures (except your day job one, of course).

9. Advertise for free on Project Wonderful. Some Etsy sellers offer free ad space on their blogs as well - browse through the forums or just ask around to find who they are and contact them directly.

10. If you make jewelry - wear your designs. This is the best way to showcase your work and get people to notice it and talk about it.

11. Visit local venues that have bulletin boards and post your business cards or mini catalogs there. Those can be the local coffee shop around the corner, local centers for adult education and arts, or the local public library.

12. Visit your local public library or go to bookstores and hide your business cards in books that target your audience. You can also create bookmarks with your business info on them, and ask if you could hand them out to customers.

13. If you live in an area with lots of colleges and universities (and if college students are your target audience), visit the campus and post on their bulletin boards. You can also contact sorority houses and see if they would be willing to organize a house party.

14. Create a newsletter. It's the best way to keep in touch with your customers and let them know what's new in your store and what you're working on. It can also be a great way to offer them discounts and seasonal offers, and attract more return customers. I use Mail Chimp, and I'm still working on my newsletter but if you'd like to sign up, you can go here.

15. Cross-promote your work with other Etsy sellers. Find another seller whose products could complement yours and collaborate together to create a new item. See this example. Their customers could become your customers too! Another idea is to trade props for your pictures. If you have a close group of Etsy friends, you can also create a package of the business cards for each shop and everybody can include it in their orders.

16. Offer a referral program (or a coupon) to your customers. It can help you gain return customers.

17. If you travel a lot for you day job or vacation, leave some promotional materials in the hotels where you stay (mini catalogs, business cards, discount offers, freebies, etc.).

18. Host a house party. Sometimes telling people that you run a small business is not enough. They may know the big picture of it but have no idea exactly what you're capable of creating. Show them! Invite some friends over and share your work over wine and cheese, or afternoon coffee.

19. Host a giveaway. Competition and scarcity always attract people.

20. Join an Etsy team. Teams are great for building a great network of friends on Etsy - don't forget that sellers are also buyers!

21. Create treasuries. Or join an Etsy team for making treasuries. Being in a treasury increases the chances of your shop being noticed by more people.

22. Include your location in your Etsy profile. Many people search for local artists and this is how they will find you. You can also get a lot of offers for wholesale from local indie shops and boutiques.

23. The Etsy forums are a great source to find information about promotion ideas. You can see a long list of online venues for promotion here. In this thread, you can read about the pros and cons of different social media and marketing tools. And here is another discussion on creative ways to promote your shop.

24. Get an interview feature on someone's blog. There are tons of Etsy sellers who love to showcase others' work on their blogs and would love to interview you. Just search the forums to see how's looking for features.

25. Participate actively in the community. Whether it's by participating in the forums, contributing to a team, following other people's blogs and commenting, or chatting on Twitter.

You can find another extensive list of creative ways to promote on Almcleary blog here. Also, for a list of 101 ways to make more sales online, check out this blog post.

I'd love to hear about your experiences and what you do to promote your shop that has been successful. Please comment below.

Tech Crunch Feature

I was so pleasantly surprised and excited to discover that my blog post on Heartsy was featured on Tech Crunch today! First, it was featured through the Handmadeology website, which got cited in today's Tech Crunch article. I'm curious to see what people think!
I'm also in the process of offering a discount deal to my Etsy shop through Heartsy. If it goes through, I'll definitely follow up with another post on the math using actual numbers. So stay tuned!

In the meantime, please feel free to comment and let me know what you think. If you've already had your shop featured on Heartsy, I'd love to hear about your experience!

The benefits of coupon codes

Etsy has added a lot of improvements to their website lately, one of which is the ability to create coupon codes for your customers. This is a great tool because not only does it help you increase your sales, but it also saves you a lot of time that used to be spent on updating invoices and sending refunds through PayPal. Here are some great benefits of using discount codes.

New customers. I love coupons, and I'm always on the lookout for good deals and discounts. More often than not, I'll make a purchase because I had a coupon code that saved me some money. And I know I'm not the only one who thinks like that. Coupons give you an advantage over other sellers with similar products and can attract new buyers looking for a good deal.

Increase sales. The more customers you get, the more sales you'll get. Each customer is also likely to buy more than the usual amount because of the discount offered.

Increase profits. More sales could bring more profits, even with a discount. Of course, this may not apply to all types of businesses, but if your marginal costs are close to zero and you're sitting on a lot of inventory, you should think about offering a coupon code. It sounds a bit counter intuitive, but let's look at an example. Say you have an item that sells at $20 and on average you get 5 buyers per week. This will give you $100 in sales. If you offer a 20% off discount ($16), you expect to get 8 buyers, which gives you $128.

Gain more repeat customers. Offering a coupon code to customers who've already purchased from you and are pleased with the product can incentivize them to make another purchase.

Help you track your customers. You can customize your coupon codes for different customer groups or discount amounts. Tracking how often buyers have used any of those coupons can help you figure out better who your customers are, which groups to target more, and even come up with a better pricing model for you products.

Coupon codes for a limited time frame create scarcity. Scarcity is good for your business. Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo, has talked a lot on this topic - you can read about it here and here. In short, scarcity creates value. Scarcity creates fashion. People will want something that is available only for a limited amount of time.

If you have an Etsy shop but haven't tried this feature yet, check it out. You can find it under Etsy > Your Account > Coupon Codes. Coupon codes can me made for either free shipping or a percentage discount off the price of an item.

Once you have a coupon code, there are numerous outlets and places where you can promote it for free. Here are a couple of examples:
- word of mouth
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Your shop newsletter
- http://www.etsycoupons.com/
- http://etsysaver.com/

I'd love to hear about your experiences with coupon codes, so please comment below!

Doing the Math on a Heartsy Deal

A few days ago, I came across the handmade version of Groupon - Heartsy. Similar to Groupon, Heartsy connects with sellers on Etsy and offers their products at a discount of at least 50% off. While Groupon splits the proceeds of the deal with the retailer, Heartsy’s services are currently free but they are planning on incorporating a transaction fee in the near future as they grow.

After I discovered Heartsy, I was curious what the Etsy community thought about it. I searched through the forums and found many sellers with mixed emotions. Those featured on Heartsy before had only great things to say about it, but others felt that such a huge discount would leave them with nothing while giving their product away for free. Being a math person, it really made me wonder if they were right. This reminded me of an article I read in the New York Times last year about doing the math on Groupon and figuring out whether participating in such deals is good for your business or not. So using a similar model, I decided to do the same for Heartsy.


There are nine key factors that an Etsy seller should consider:
1. Incremental cost of sales - how much does it cost you to make an item to get one additional sale? This doesn't fixed costs. If you are selling vintage, it could be 30%; jewelry might be 50-60%; bath and body products might be 40%.
2. Amount of average sale - will buyers stick to the total amount offered in the coupon, or will they spend more than that?
3. Redemption percentage - the percentage of people buying the coupon and actually using it.
4. Percentage of coupon buyers that are already your customers.
5. Percentage of coupon buyers that will become regulars.
6. What is the advertising value of promoting your business to 500 people - how much do you spend on ads on Facebook or other blogs for example?
7. Cost to acquire a new customer
8. Etsy fees
9. PayPal fees.
[For simplicity purposes, this model assumes that a customer buys only one coupon.]

So now let's go through an example. Suppose you offer $19 for $40 store credit (53% discount) and you sell 40 coupons. Following the list from above, let's say your business numbers are:
1. 50%
2. $45 (buyers spend $5 more dollars than the coupon value)
3. 100%
4. 0%
5. 10%
6. $25
7. $5
8. 3.5%
9. $0.30 plus 2.9%

Coupons redeemed = 40.
Revenue: 40 x $19 = $760
(this will be different if Heartsy starts charging a fee)
Additional revenue: 40 x $5 = $200
Total revenue = $960

Expense: 40 x $45 (average sale amount) x 50% incremental cost = $900
Etsy fees: 40 x $45 x 3.5% = $63
PayPal fees: 40 x ($0.3 + 2.9% x $5 (additional value over coupon)) = $18
Total expense = $981

In this example, the net revenue is -$21, which means it cost you to participate in the deal. However, it's important to look at other contributions to your business - how many new customers will you get? Assuming the return percentage is 10%, you get 40 x 10% = 4 new customers. This costs you roughly $5 per new customer, which is exactly what you were spending anyway (item 7). The overall cost is also similar to your current advertising cost. So now the question is whether it was worth going through this for just 4 new customers. In my opinion, yes, but you can make your own decision.

Of course, the end results could be drastically different if any of these key inputs change. For instance, if the amount of average sale was $50, or $10 over the coupon value, then you'd actually be making $66 in profit and still getting those 4 new customers. In another example, if your incremental costs are only 30%, then you'll be making $339 in profit. And of course, the opposite can happen too - if your costs are 60%, then you'll be paying $200 to participate in this deal.

You can really help or hurt your business, so it's really important to know your customers, your costs, and your limits. In the case of handmade products, it's also good to have a good inventory of items, especially if you're expecting people to go over the coupon value, as well as being able to accommodate a cluster of sales at the same time. But most importantly, make sure you price your items well. Heartsy's current model is similar to wholesale, but there are still sellers (and also due to the unique nature of some handmade products) who find it very difficult to achieve wholesale prices, if at all. If that's the case with your business, then you know the answer.

Now that I've done the math, I'm really curious to hear from sellers who were already featured and actually know what the exact numbers are.