Saturday, December 24, 2011

Bead Craft Thoughts - The Importance Of Merchandising: Check Both Regional And Global Market

By Daniel Turbin


This information in this article is predicated on two assumptions: That you've one or more beading projects you'd like to make profitable, and that you have some level of inventory at the prepared for when sales begin coming in. If that's you, then this article will outline severa avenues open to you for "passively marketing" your beading projects.

Note that passive marketing does not mean "no work necessary," or "you do not have to talk to anybody." Rather, it means that the greater bulk of the work occurs on the "front end" and that once the work is concluded, your passive marketing efforts will continue more or less on their own, indefinitely, with only smallest added effort on your part.

This is important for you as a bead crafter since it frees up more of your time, which you can dedicate to your present beading projects, or, if you feel you are ready for it, develop wholly new beading projects to enlarge your line.

We will cover 2 examples of passive marketing. One, promoting your finished beading projects locally, and the other, advertising them globally.

Among the very greatest methods to market your beading projects locally is via consignment. Here, your purpose is to show your line to people with reputable business and ask if they'll display and sell your products in exchange for a part of the profits. This works to your benefit on a number of levels. First, the recognized business already has regular customers you can make sales from. Furthermore, most will let you to display your business cards next to your wares, so if a patron likes your product, their next purchase may be made direct from you. Also, once you have an existing relationship of this sort, it is usually easy to introduce new products to your display as you develop the number of beading projects in your line.

The key here's not to limit yourself to just one or two such relationships, but to try to engage as many sources as you can keep supplied. Not only does this raise your exposure, but it also allows you to see how various shops handle your merchandise, and you can use this information to see where your products sell the most, then make an effort to gain a similar in-store position at other shops carrying your line. If your beading projects are focused on necklaces/bracelets, you could obviously be drawn to locally owned jewelry stores in your town, but I recommend you to think outside the box here! Hospital gift stores, gift stores in retirement homes and old fashioned country shops are all great pleases to inquire, as are general gift stores and specialty shops such as Hallmark, and any place that caters to local artists!

Considering the global market, the extremely best thing you can do to promote your projects is niche internet marketing. There're dozens of books on this topic, and it is beyond the scope of this article to fully explore the process, but in broad strokes, what you require to do in order to market your beading projects in this manner are:

1) Identify keywords describing your beading projects that get some daily searches (10-30+ per day) and have minimum competition (under 50k).

2) Design a niche site around these keywords to drive visitors to your page

3) Describe what you are providing. These descriptions should be mixed in with original content on your website

4) Offer would be customers a means of contacting you

5) Offer them a means to purchase from you online

Again, the great thing about passive marketing is that once the primary work is done, your beading projects get exposure day in, and day out with very little effort on your part.




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