Marketing yourself?

[Jediscroller]

Hi All,
I was thinking again (boy, my head hurts). How do you market yourself? In particular, what has worked well for you? This is the area where I know I'm weakest and I'm sure many of us fall into that same category. At fairs, I have a framed display with my articles and such out in front and I have a director's chair with my business name embroidered in it. I've also ordered some shirts that will have the business name embroidered on them but that's about it. Other than that though, I'm pretty much at a loss of what else I can do to get my name into folks' minds.

[Paladin]

The shirts seem like a really cool idea. I never thought of doing something like that.

[JohnB]

G'day Kev,
That's a hard one, especially as you go all over the country.
When I did a small business course................ many years ago, one thing I remember from it is "One returning customer is worth 10 new ones".
Because that returning customer, must have been pleased with the 1st purchase and so the chances are they'll tell their mates.

Make sure that everything you sell, has your name and Phone Number/ Web sight permanently marked on it some where. (A rubber stamp). That way even if it is given as a gift, or the the business card is lost, people know how to contact you.

Chuck a couple of Business cards in the bag with the purchase, this gives the customer the opportunity to hand some out to friends.

If I ran my little enterprise as a business, I'd go along with the shirt idea.

Most of my other ideas involve big bucks, like having carry bags printed etc.

I've a few other ideas, that I do and will try and remember to post pics of them, They are a bit long winded to explain.

[moby]

I'm new here but have some business experience that may help. Because your moving around all the time I would focus on referrals. Do all the things John mentioned staying away from expensive free marketing items. The return on investment of these items are not worth it.

I would start an e-mail list of your customers...if they want to be on it. This is free, all you need is a clip board with a pen. Once you have the e-mails you can periodically send out a newsletter with updates or sales on your latest cuttings etc.. Chances are if they bought from you they will be curious what else you have to offer. The only expense you incure is the time to makes up a newsletter.

One more option would be to collect addresses and send a physical advertisement. This works well but can get quite costly. I suppose it depends on who is purchasing your items. I might mail a brochure to your more mature customers and e-mail to the younger generation.

Whether you e-mail or mail you want to keep in touch within 3 months. Longer than 3 months and they will forget about you.

At the very least all your customers will know when your going to be in the area again.

One last thing...people love sales!! Maybe offer a 10% discount if they spend a certain amount.

Hope this helps...


John

[wood-n-things]

I have a 10% off coupon on the back side of my business cards.
I hand out business cards like candy.
Vista has them very inexpensively right now btw.
Moby has some great Ideas ..welcome aboard moby!

Do something for a local charity, the senior center, Lions club and get a psa placed in the local paper with a story about how great you are for doing a fund raiser for the seniors.
Do a demonstration for a local group and get a psa (public service announcement) in the paper.

I have some more idea but have to get some breakfast, all this thinking is making me hungry...LOL

[Janette]

I'm sure all of you know the famous last words..."I'll be back" from customers who don't buy. I haven't done this lately, but I was doing it awhile back. If the customer says those words...and they have to say them I gave them my business card with a "Bee Back" coupon on the back. I printed these on address labels and just stuck them on the back of my card. It worked a lot better than you'd think it would! People that perhaps had to think about it - may forget later, but with the coupon buring a hole in their pocket...it might have also caused them to return rather than buy something somewhere else. Sometimes we'd have fun trying to get customers to say the phrase.

beebackcoupon.jpg

[wood-n-things]

Janette,
What a kewl idea.....have you had the word get around a show and have people get the card on purpose just to get the discount?

[Jim McDonald]

After being in retail for many years and tinkering with the idea of putting out my shingle to do a myriad of ventures, I'm going to try to approach this from a traditional as well as modern PR/Marketing idea.
Someone already mentioned working with a charity, providing something for a fund raising auction or along those lines. Lots of time, you will get mentioned in the program and in smaller towns, they will often send a public thank you to their donors as a letter to the editor or a guest column. I donated photo services for a golf tournament and while I have yet to get a booking, I made some contacts that otherwise would have passed me by.
Anytime you can get press, it will work for you. I'm planning to donate military themed ornaments to the local libraries this fall for their memorial Christmas Trees. If it doesn't cost much and you think you can get some publicity, take a chance.
The other traditional ideas mentioned for discounts, "Bee Backs" or referral discounts may also be worth condsidering. If you do the same show every year, you might print a special card just for that one show for a discount NEXT year, to encourage repeat business and to keep that card somewhere visible.
Not being a web designer, but knowing some, I offer adding meta tags to your site that will draw more hits from the web bots, possibly moving your site a little higher on the search engines. Another electronic media that is certainly getting a lot of play is LinkedIn which is to the best of my understanding a business to business service where some people will turn first to look for goods and services. I haven't gotten that far in my plans yet.
As John said, new customers cost you 10 X what a repeat costs. In retail, we always felt that one negative experience would be spread to about 8 people directly before the fervor began to die down, so that could be one lost customer for sure and the possibilty of them tainting 7 additional. That is why I tried my best to always make my regulars happy, since I knew they were my best adverstising.
This has gone a little long, but it is only a couple of ideas and some rambling.

[Janette]

Originally Posted by wood-n-things

Janette,
What a kewl idea.....have you had the word get around a show and have people get the card on purpose just to get the discount?

Nahh. We only ever gave out a very limited amount of them. Every once in awhile, if someone actually did come back that didn't get a coupon - and they were still humming and hawing over something, we'd hand them the card as they were standing there and it usually sealed the deal.

Another thing I noticed - especially at our last show. My hubby sells his fractal art. The 8x10ish size is $15 or 2 for $25. You would not believe how many people will hunt and hunt for the 2nd one to get the deal. It also encourages friends to each buy one and get the deal. I think that's one of the best marketing things we've found for his prints. It doesn't work quite the same on the $45 or 2 for $80 but we do get a few.

[wood-n-things]

The 2 fer price (or multiples) seems to work for me as well..Ornaments $4.00 each or 3 for $10.00, Sometimes I make them 4 for $15.00, this price point doesn't always work though. Sells multiples almost every time at the $10.00 price point.