Marketing Your Craft

Marketing Is Vital to Your Home Business Success

If you build it, they will come is only true in the movies. In the real world, you need to understand and actively court your target market. Marketing, in a nutshell, is exposing and explaining your product to your chosen marketplace.

No one can buy your product if they don't know about it. And further, they won't buy it if they don't understand its benefits. What is it about your product that differentiates it from the competition? What is your competitive advantage? What benefits does you product provide? What needs of the buyer does your craft fulfill? What is your marketing strategy?

Differentiate Your Product

It's your job to educate your customers about the benefits of your product. You must demonstrate what need it fulfills or what problem it solves.

If you were selling a brand name face cream in Wal-Mart, your main point of competitive advantage would be price. The lowest price will attract the buyers. That's all there is to it. In such a market, merchants are forced to minimize costs and minimize prices!

You, as a crafter of unique items, can and need to maximize the prices you charge. Please re-read Maximize Your Price if this is not yet clear.

Your point of differentiation is the uniqueness of your product. Play this up in every way you can.

I've exhibited at craft fairs where there was extremely close competition - products so similar you might think they were mass-produced. The only difference I could see was that my products were attractively wrapped or had clever little hangtags giving information on the product. Guess who got the most sales.

Design yourself a clever logo (or have a friend with graphic design talent do it for you). Make labels or hangtags. Tie things up in pretty ribbons. If you're launching a new product, make up a poster explaining its benefits.

For example, when oilcloth tote bags were the new rage, I made up a bunch very similar to those everyone else was selling; but I added a brochure explaining the advantages of the new "oilcloth" over that stuff some of us remember from our childhood that would stiffen, crack and peel over time.

My bags sold well locally and got me into a big international wholesalers' exhibit where they were purchased in bulk for export!

Selling Your Crafts

Consider Selling Your Crafts - a manual on this subject. It is full of tips and tactics for promoting and marketing crafts.

It will help you devise a business plan, construct a budget and create a marketing strategy for your home business. The author even supplies forms and contracts that you need to get started.

Make Your Site Sell

I can heartily recommend two other sources for you to consider. The first is Make Your Site Sell. Don't let the title mislead you. While it's true that this is considered to be the bible of Internet marketing , it is much more than that.

It is a complete marketing course applicable to online as well as off line marketing. It is absolutely full of tips and pointers on how to market any product imaginable, whether singly or in large quantity.

Personally, I don't think there is a better source addressing this topic on the market. Best of all this book, though a little dated, is now available to download for free.

Make Your Price Sell

The other source I have mentioned before. Make Your Price Sell is the best, up-to-date guide on pricing that I have come across. Do the survey and your optimal price is revealed.

If you're serious about this subject, take the demo tour.

Craft Business Recap

Well that's just about the end of your mini-MBA course in home crafting business. Just remember The Four M's:

• 1 Meet your market

• 2 Minimize your costs

• 3 Maximize your selling price

• 4 Market the heck out of your product

If you've gotten this far and still think you've got a profitable craft to sell, you're ready to approach a broader market, whether it be retail, online selling, online auctions, or your own website! Go to our Craft Business Article Index for much more information.