Guest post by Ryan-Ashley Anderson
Maker markets are in flux, retail stores are just now grinding back into motion, and the future of live, human-to-human commerce opportunities for handmade, local goods is uncertain. This moment presents a huge opportunity for you to do a strategy pivot, test new digital marketing tactics, and experiment how you’re getting your good goods out there in front of the world. Use this time to up your entrepreneurial ante and you may just find yourself better off than you ever could have imagined. Start leveling up to meet the challenge of this brave, new normal, head on with a checklist of the Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Maker Business (Without Leaving Your House, and In No Particular Order) by Ryan-Ashley Anderson.
Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Maker Business (Without Leaving Your House, and In No Particular Order)
1. Define Your Mission.
Every successful entrepreneur has a why. Every thriving company has a why. Everything we do, really, should have a why. But does your business? A why goes deeper then, “I created a handmade business because I want to support myself by working from home.” A why is something that differentiates yours from other maker businesses. Do some brainstorming. Jot down stream-of-consciousness ramblings. Meditate. Do whatever you have to to dig deep and discover what your REAL why is, and then work on refining it into a sentence or two and shout it from the rooftops! Once you have your why, it will make all your decision-making easier. Promise.
2. Refine Your Offerings.
If you’re like me, creating a menu of handmade products and reproducing the same thing over and over again to fulfill re-orders can feel a bit dull BUT having a simple menu of easily reproducible items (a benchmark or signature collection, if you will) easily accessible on your homepage will exponentially improve your shoppers’ user experience, making a sale much more likely. We’ve all shopped those endless scrolling product pages where the number of items is so overwhelming we couldn’t possibly choose … don’t let that be you. Create and define a signature set of offerings, and then continue to inspire with custom and one-of-a-kind work that you promote on social, in newsletters, on your blog, and, yes, add to your online store in its very own limited edition section.
3. Share Your News.
If you don’t have a newsletter yet, this is a great time to start. Even if you’re only sending out one newsletter a month, or once a quarter, your newsletter is a great way to keep your maker brand top-of-mind with your biggest fans.
4. Practice Your Pitch.
If you don’t have a standardized pitch email created to make the process of approaching potential wholesale accounts (virtual or brick-and-mortar) easy and efficient, it. is. time. Go ahead and create an email and save it in your drafts so as you begin to work through your list of dream retailer relationships or collaborations, all you have to do is slightly tweak the text and replace the contact name. I suggest including the following in your pitch email (and always following up with a card): A brief introduction in your brand — what you make, how you make it, and why you make it — as well as a list of prices, links to your website and social accounts, your return/repair process, how you deliver/package your work, what your typical wholesale margins are, and either an official line sheet or general pricing information. How do you know you’ve covered all your bases? If you were them, what questions would you ask a potential new handmade vendor? Answer those before they ask and you will be ahead of the game.
5. Make Your Top 20 List.
Remember that list of dream retailers I mentioned in #4? Yep, that’s the one. Spend some time searching and dreaming. Find the virtual and brick-and-mortar retailers you would be proud to work with and start reaching out to them. Oh, you’ve already done that but always either get rejected or hear crickets? There’s a reason and feedback is SO important for artistic and entrepreneurial growth. Ask them! Send a follow-up email (or card, better yet) asking if they would be willing to share why they chose to say no at this time. You never know what this kind of dialogue could lead to!!
6. Refresh Your Packaging.
Think back to a time when you were surprised by how thoughtfully a handmade purchase came to you in the mail. Maybe it was the amount of care that was taken to keep it from breaking. Maybe it was the box or pouch it arrived in. Maybe it was the branding. Maybe there was even a personal touch like a dried flower tied into the ribbon or a hand-written note. Think about that experience and ask yourself if there is an opportunity for you to make your shipping experience just a little more memorable. If someone remembers enjoying opening your package, they will want to do it again!
7. Reach Out Directly.
Now that social media is so everything everywhere, it’s easy to forget that just happening upon a thing you like and want to buy because it landed in your feed isn’t the way we shopped before. And even though it’s common now, people still crave direct outreach from and communication with brands and businesses. Consider reaching out directly to people you think might appreciate your work, telling them a bit about what you do, why, and how (think back to that pitch letter from #4 and mission statement from #1, and, oh yeah, your refined list of offerings from #3), and asking them if they’re interested in giving something a try. Maybe you even create an incentive! If you can’t make money, make friends, and direct outreach is a great way to do both.
8. Post Testimonials.
You probably have LOTS of happy customers out there who you can reach out to for testimonials about their experience with your handmade goods. Don’t be scared to share these! You can add a new one to each newsletter, post them on your website, create an Instagram Story Highlight, and even include them in your pitch emails. People rely on reviews for a reason, so go ahead and serve them up. It will help new customers and potential retailers feel even better about trying out your work.
9. Update You’re Pricing.
How does your pricing stack up against the value of your product and expertise? This is a really important one you really should do some market research to back yourself up. Like any industry, the longer you’re in it, the more skills you gain, the better your performance becomes, and the more valuable your product or service. If you’re just starting out with a certain kind of good (in other words, you’ve been doing it less than 3 years), you haven’t been out there long enough to really test longevity, earn trust, and refine techniques, so if you try to charge the same amounts as another artist doing similar work but who’s been doing it for much longer, you may experience resistance … either resistance to the initial purchase or resistance to a re-purchase. On the flip side, if you have a solid product that’s different from other makers in your niche and the quality is top notch, you need to be charging accordingly, and that means accounting for materials cost, design time, production time, marketing costs, and leaving some room for profit as well so you can grow your business. No, the money you pay yourself for your labor is not profit. That’s your paycheck. Profit is what’s left after you’ve accounted for all your costs (including your artist salary)
10. Time for QC.
Have you taken an objective step back from your work lately? Maybe it’s time to mail a care package to 10 friends and ask them to be brutally honest about their experience with … your packaging and presentation, the design, the durability, and whatever else … It’s HARD to get honest critical feedback from those you love unless you directly ask for it but it’s so important. Because if they are experiencing something when enjoying your work that might prevent them from buying it themselves or making a reorder, you better be sure that your customers are certainly noticing the same things. This is a great time to sure things up so nothing prevents your biggest fans from buying your work over and over again.
About the Author
Ryan-Ashley Anderson is a maker, a marketer, and a business coach with a background in marketing and advertising who currently works as a jewelry designer, show host, and program developer for JTV's Jewel School program. She alsoprovides coaching and strategy for various maker business owners throughout the country. In the past three years she has taught at Bonnaroo in collaboration with TWLOHA, founded and facilitated a maker incubation scholarship opportunity for local artists with Retropolitan Craft Fair, joined Jewel’s 2017 Handmade Holiday Tour as a traveling artist and jewelry-making instructor, opened and curated a gallery representing artists from all over the country, designed and facilitated a number of maker-focused marketing talks throughout the southeast, presented as a visiting designer and marketing pro at High Point Furniture Market, and served on The Maker City Council, among other endeavors.
Anderson is passionate about helping makers get out of their head and into the market to grow a successful, handmade business. You can email her at hello@ryanashleyanderson.com or text her at 828.707.8532.