Friday, May 22, 2009

Marketing Your Business

As most of you know, I have two shops on etsy. I opened my first shop, FourDogDay, in July of 2008, and added MyOtherShop soon after. I quickly realized that I no clue what I was doing and closed the second shop after a short time. Once I felt more comfortable with the entire etsy process, I reopened MyOtherShop. I can't believe I've been at this for almost a year already!

The growth of my shops is S-L-O-W, which I've heard is okay. I would definitely like more than one sale a week, but it is what it is. To help get my name out there, I did my first craft show last weekend. Although it wasn't a huge financial success, it was an awesome learning experience and I plan to do many more in the coming months. You can read about my first craft show experience here.

People that follow the craft shows will start to recognize me and my shop names after a while of consistent attendance and that's part of promoting. Eventually I would like to have a sign in my booth that says something like, "You can also find me and my creations at www.fourdogday.com" or something like that.

My daughter, Tresa, sent me a link this morning to a wonderful ABC News/Good Morning America article all about etsy and turning crafts into cash. It highlighted five successful shops. It was a good article. You can read it here.

Between publicizing our own shops through means like blogs, craft shows, flyers and business cards.....and articles like this one.....success is attainable for us all.

Do you have an online business? If so, feel free to share any promotional or marketing successes you have had.

6 comments:

Lanyardlady said...

Thanks for the article, Kathy. I will certainly read it. So far my best promotion is happy customers. I get more sales from their referrals than I do as a result of my blog, Flickr, or any printed material. Can't wait to read other comments.

Tins and Treasures said...

My sales seem to be slow too right now...only about one every other week. I do hope to get more listing done when school lets out next week! Have a great weekend. ~Natalie

Mulchandmore said...

Thanks for sharing your first show and the other article. Etsy sales have slowed for me too but I'm not listing as often since most of my inventory goes to craft shows for the summer months. Your booth was beautiful and it sounds like your daughter can give us all tips(thank her)
I offer a business card to anyone I meet in casual conversation who inquires where I work/what I'm using(my weird purchase)for:)

Malissa said...

Good info with the link. I have averaged about 1 sale every 2 months-and 3 were from my family and friends so I'm pretty sure they were pity sales! So 1 sale a week isn't too bad. Your stuff is great it won't take long before it takes off faster than you can keep up!

Patricia said...

Hi, I started a small biz when my child was young and there was no developed online source to sell items on like etsy...I went the crafts show route and also events such as the Jr League holiday shows.
This was tough.

You will develop a following of customers. If you don't already have this, perhaps you can add a little printed label or stamp to your packaging that provides your
links.

Best of luck and thanks so much for becoming a follower. I often wonder whether or not to continue posting!

Christine said...

Yeah, you're doing better than me with one sale a week. I've had about 1 sale a month. Just trying to keep on keeping on.

If you're interested in having a sign made for your shows, I just recently ordered a 3 foot long vinyl banner from Vistaprint. It turned out nice and it was free, all I paid for was the shipping.

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