Promoting your craft business- Marketing Calendar

Do you ever turn on the computer with the intention of doing a little promotion only to find that hours have gone by while you got sucked into the forums, started browsing shops or have checked your craftcult stats 100 times? One of the most useful tips that I have read is to create a marketing calendar. It is a great way to keep yourself focused and after some time you will begin to see some trends between your promotional efforts and shop traffic/sales.

All you need is a calendar. The large desk calendars work great if you have the space but any size will do. For every day you will write down if you posted in the forums (and how many times), blogged, tweeted, facebooked, social networked in some other way, sent out a newsletter, etc. You can also add your shop/item hearts and sales to the list. Then take coloured pencils or highlighters and assign a colour to each listing. After awhile you will be able to see at a glance where you are concentrating your efforts (and hopefully whatever colour you assigned to sales is also appearing with some frequency!)

How do you focus your promotional efforts? What tricks have worked for you to keep you focused?

Tips for marketing/promotion #2

The week seems to have gone by so quickly! I hope that everyone in the east is surviving the snow. On this grey and blustery day I thought I would expand on my post from last week in which I shared with a crafty friend some of the things I have done to promote the supplies shop I run with my mom, Rouge River Beads. In case you missed the first post you can check it out here.

There are a ton of Etsy forum posts that discuss branding or creating an image for your shop. In addition to having a coherent look, banner and avatar there are plenty of blogs that you can place ads on to get your name/image out there. One of my fav's is Project Wonderful because it allows you to place bids for the amount you would like to spend and many sites even offer FREE spaces (great while you are learning the ropes). There are oodles of crafty bloggers that have spaces to advertise on and I find it easy to use. Not sure how to get started with Project Wonderful? Feel free to send me an email and I would be happy to send you a set of step by step instructions at no cost to you. Need an ad designed? I'd be happy to help out with that as well. I have a super deal in my Artfire shop right now so stop by and check it out!

Sounds like alot more fun than shovelling doesn't it?! More tips/tricks next week so stay tuned!

Hanging out with a crafty friend!

I took advantage of the fact that we were lucky enough to escape the snow and went and visited my friend Colleen today. She owns an alterations shop in Cannington, 2 Cameron Street @Laidlaw, and also showcases her handmade goods. She also has an Etsy shop and had some questions for me.

Keep in mind that I currently don't have anything listed in Kawartha Beads but do have experience with Bijoux Designs For You and Rouge River Beads. When we spoke on the phone this morning I mentioned that I had been doing a lot of promotion yesterday for Rouge River Beads and she said she didn't have the faintest clue where to begin.

I thought it might be helpful to share a couple of little pointers that are part of my daily routine. She found them helpful and I hope you will too:
*Did you know that you can search the Etsy forums? Click on forums and then type in key words such as "looking to buy", "looking to feature", etc. If you are busy mom this saves you having to wade through oodles of posts to try and find people in search of products or looking to feature shops on their blogs. I also type "twitter" in the search function to find new and fun people to follow.
* We also built a light box. Yep, the poor mans version but WHAT A DIFFERENCE. Find a cardboard box, cut a big rectangle in the top, cover the rectangle with a double layer of white tissue paper or even wax paper if you are stuck. Place light source above opening and click away. I love the way Colleen's Flower Hair Doodle turned out!

I'll save some more tips for tomorrow including a little bit about Project Wonderful. Most of all, we both felt rejuvinated and inspired! Take some time today to share a moment with a crafty friend or leave a comment here for all of us to enjoy!