Online Marketing - 10 Top Tips

We know, we know... this is well overdue. Things have been very busy on the Auckland Craft Collective (and in the lives of Jess and myself!) front so we do apologise for the delay. We know that all the people that missed out on coming along have been hanging out for some more information on our first evening.

Here are the long awaited 10 Top Tips that were shared by our fabulous guest speakers, Esther from Toggle.co.nz and Elliot from endemicworld.com.

Tip 1

It’s important to know who your target market is. Ask yourself questions like:

*How old are they?

*Are they male or female?

*Are they a student, working full time or a stay at home parent?

*What do they do for fun?

Ultimately it comes down to – Who is your perfect customer?

(Tip: It’s NOT other crafters. You don’t need to preach to the converted!)

Tip 2

Selling online isn’t easy. It takes time and effort — so don’t be fooled into thinking it’s FREE!

Tip 3

When selling online, remember that you’re selling your products to people that can’t touch/see your product so it’s very important to have crisp clear pictures that give the shoppers a true idea of what the product looks like in the flesh. Try to take a few different photos of the same product that emphasise various aspects. For example if you are selling a handbag you might take a full photo so  you can see the whole bag, a photo showing the inside of the bag, one of someone holding the bag (so you can gauge its size) and perhaps a close up to show the fabric or some detailing. But most importantly your photos must be FABULOUS — Clear, in focus, and without a busy background. You want your item to be the absolute main focus in the image.

Tip 4

When social networking it is not about quantity, it’s about quality. You don’t need to be tweeting and blogging all the time, it’s more important to be consistent (ie blog at the same time each week) and interesting — people don’t necessarily want to know what you had for breakfast!

Tip 5

Treat your blog as a visual diary and remember that pictures speak a thousand words. People love to get a sense of who you are and what you love, but don’t want to be drowned in big long paragraphs of text. Liven up your posts with photos and images.

Tip 6

Spending hours on Facebook, Twitter and Blogging may be fun, but is it actually helping you reach your goal? Think about how much time you are spending on each and decide whether or not that time is converting to sales. Keep a clear focus on your goal of turning your craft into a sustainable business and don’t waste too much time on things that aren’t going to help your business. If you update your Facebook page once every 3 days, as opposed to once a day, you will have more time  to focus on your craft while still letting your Facebook fans know you are still alive and crafting!

Tip 7

DON’T be afraid to re-brand! Sometimes an image overhaul is the best thing for your business, so think about whether or not your current “look” fits with your products and if it suits your target market. While you may lose some immediate brand recognition, don’t be discouraged because if you re-brand well then you will be bringing in lots more interest and potential customers.

Tip 8

Brand Identity is a HUGE part of a craft business, as people aren’t just buying a product, they are buying into the story behind the product. Make sure your brand represents YOU as well as your products. It’s a nice idea to create a personality for your business. As Esther pointed out, Trixie Delicious and Ferrit are excellent examples of this.

Tip 9

Fine tuning your products is really important and it’s a good idea to work on this first and foremost. A wonderful brand isn’t going to help average products! Focus on getting things right before trying to build up a brand. You don’t want your brand to be associated with products that you aren’t 100% happy with.

Tip 10

And last but definitely not least – If something isn’t working, stop doing it! Whilst building a brand and image does take time, you will know straight away if something just isn’t working. Don’t be afraid to change things or even stop them all together. There is no point wasting time, energy and money! Often moving on and starting again is the best solution.

We hope this tips help guide you in your own crafty business — they sure have helped me make some decisions.

Here are a few pics from the evening that we promised we'd put up (yes, the cake was so yummy it deserves to be posted first ;) )

Our next evening is Book-Keeping and we have a representative from the IRD and an accounting/book keeping specialist to help you work out what you need to be doing for your business.

Check out our website for more info and to register :)

Kylie and Jess

xx

Welcome!

To the Auckland Craft Collective, and our first post on our blog (watch out for the sparkle and shine in your eyes...). There is always a lot of pressure with the first post, so please bear with us!

Who are we you ask? I am Jessica of Bam Bam Creative and my partner in crafty-crime is Kylie of Skipapple, we have been creating crafts since we were youngins and we both now run fairly new craft based businesses. Since having started our business, there have been many questions that we have had to search the answers for — What do we name our business? How do we brand it? Where is the best place to advertise? How do I get into a market? Tax, huh? Sole trader whaaat? So if you recognise this kind of internal dialogue you will like what we are putting together. As a result, we have come up with some of those answers thanks to the help of members of the Auckland and greater New Zealand craft community, but there is always more to learn. I figured that there must be plenty of other crafters out there wanting to learn the same things as me, or even some who want to learn more now they have been in business for a while, so after a nice long chat to Kylie and a bit of good ol' fashion brainstorming — the Auckland Craft Collective was created!

The Auckland Craft Collective is a new resource in the making for Auckland Crafters and Artisans, and pretty much anyone that makes stuff by hand intended for sale — whether it be at a market, online or to local galleries and shops. If you do this, then you are running a business and undoubtedly you want your business to thrive (or at least tick over nicely). We are in the process of putting together awesome monthly evenings with speciality speakers, plenty of information, cake and tea (or coffee if you prefer — whatever, your choice). With our evenings there will be a chance to talk business with your peers, see what people are up to, forge relationships and create collaborations in a supportive and nurturing environment.

Craft in Auckland isn't about competition and getting one over on the person at the table next to you, which is why I absolutely love having a craft business, it is a real community. I know that when I turn up to a market the stall holder next to me will smile, say hello and have a chat throughout the market and generally help to keep the spirits up. Because we all know we are selling such unique, one-of-a-kind items, our peers can't be our competition and we don't feel threatened by them being there. It really does come down to the fact that if we support one another, we all do well, and in turn our industry does well and paves the way for new people to start making their stuff too! Now, I shall take off my rose tinted glasses for just a moment...

So what are we actually going to do?
Each month, we will host an informative evening which will have a clear focus and feature one or two speciality speakers that will be advertised throughout the craft community. You'll send us a nice e-mail or fill out a form on our (soon to be created) website letting us know you want to attend, pay a small fee, then come along for a couple of hours of valuable learning and networking.

What will you get out of it?
Heaps hopefully! You will have the chance to listen to some knowledgeable people share their tips and tricks, be able to ask them questions specific to your needs and on most of our evenings we will be able to give you valuable resources that you can take home with you to work on and tailor to suit your business right away. After each speaker has finished there will be plenty of tea, coffee and cake to enjoy while you have the opportunity to have a proper talk with your fellow crafty peers. As you will all know too well, this can often be hard to do at markets or when you bump into them in the street!

So what kind of talks will be we doing?
Together, Kylie and I have been nutting out what to offer and so far we have come up with plenty of idea's. They will include interesting (and important) topics such as:

• Marketing your Business (both on-line and off-line)
• Book Keeping
• Intellectual Property
• Blogging
• Markets
• Branding
• Establishing your Target Market
• Selling on-line on websites such as Etsy
• Planning for Christmas and Holidays
• Photographing your Products
• How to Wholesale and plenty more...

Needless to say, we would love to hear from you too — what would you like to learn about? Is there perhaps anything that you are struggling with? Or on the flip side, is there something you are amazing at that you could share with the community?

When will this all be happening?
We are aiming to kick off our evenings in March 2010. That way we have all caught our breath back after Christmas markets, school holidays and general Summer enjoyment, and will all be starting to think more about our year and what we hope for our businesses.

So you want to know more?
We will be posting about our progress on here, but you will also be able to register on our website where we can send you detailed evening information as soon as we have it. This whole thing is relatively new and as the Collective develops we will update our website and blog with our progress.

We hope that you will join us! Chat soon...

Jess & Kylie xxx