5 Ways to Promote Your DIY Business
Making yourself stand out from a slew of other handmade and DIY companies may require you to elevate your marketing, but the results can be exponential. Here are 5 ways to promote your business.
Creating handmade goods can be both therapeutic and lucrative. However, depending on where you reside, you, your neighbors, and even their neighbors may all be trying to make it in the handmade market. That means that some handmade businesses are implementing promotional tools that are working—and some that obviously aren’t. Making yourself stand out from a slew of competitors may require you to elevate your marketing, but the results can be exponential.
Here five ways to hone in on handmade success:
Unique Freebies
Every time you order or make an in-store purchase, the freebies always seem to be the same: a coupon you’ll give to your coworker, a pen you’ll never use, or a keychain that’ll collect dust in a drawer somewhere. To make your freebies a real value-add, try including a branded product you don’t offer for sale, but can be used with your products.
For example, if you produce your own body scrubs, include an inexpensive applicator or washcloth. Maybe you craft your own ceramic planters? Throw in some seedlings with each purchase. Including an unexpected extra not only advertises your product’s usability, but is a great way to keep your business in the mind of customers when they think of making repeat purchases.
Business Stickers
Business cards are a fantastic way to let potential clients know what you supply, your contact info, and your social media channels. The only problem is that everyone else who works in the industry also has business cards, so it can be hard to make yours stand out from the crowd.
A unique solution is to turn your cards into customized business stickers, which you can find on StickerYou.com. Stickers can be printed and cut into the exact shapes of mascots or logos. Stickers are also a hugely popular tool for customizing accessories like laptops, smartphone cases, and water bottles, which means you benefit from free advertising wherever the sticker can be seen.
Get Less Graphic
Having a gorgeous-looking website and aesthetically pleasing online presence is a necessity. It’s the easiest and most effective way of promoting yourself and your business. However, just like in fashion, the trends that audiences gravitate toward change rapidly. It used to be that streamlined, clean, and very polished digital graphic design was favorable, as it gives brands the appearance of modernity.
However, in today’s over-stimulated digital landscape, the opposite is actually true. Consumers are more attracted to graphics that look illustrated and fonts that appear handwritten. Handmade graphics give the impression that extra care and time has gone into the product, and also makes the provider appear more human and relatable.
Put It On Tape
The first thing your customers notice when they make a purchase is the package their product comes in. Packaging has become a major focus for businesses as visual presentation plays a huge role in promotion and marketing. However, when mailing products, the unexciting and inexpensive corrugated cardboard box is often the go-to.
To increase your brand recognition and generate some inexpensive advertising, customize and order your own branded packaging tape stickeryou. Custom-branded packaging tape elevates and brings the wow factor to outgoing packages. A package sealed with branded tape is an added aesthetic detail that won’t go unnoticed by customers and influences a positive unboxing experience. Plus, branded packaging tape advertises your business to whomever sees it on its travels.
Take Testimonials
Your product or service is only as good as your clientele thinks it is. For an easy and time-tested approach to promotion, simply talk to your customers. Set up a feedback system on your website, an email address to receive or send inquiries, and enable comments on your social media. Use this positive feedback to your advantage. Try implementing customers’ advice where you see fit—and tell them that you’re doing so! You can also use encouraging customer testimonials as part of advertising campaigns or on splash pages on websites.
Don’t forget to repost and reply to positive feedback on social media as followers respond positively to personal engagement (and can even make for optimal word of mouth promotion).
Carpenter working in his studio image courtesy of Shutterstock.