There's no denying the fact that there are thousands and thousands of small businesses and brands that sell DIY or handcrafted items these days.
The good news is, crafters and makers will always be able to carve out a niche for their Handmade products, as there will always be customers who appreciate and prefer them over mass-produced items sold at department stores.
Marketing on a Shoestring Budget
While the thought of always having customers is comforting, crafters and makers who manage small businesses aren't like huge companies or conglomerates that have the massive budget for advertising their products.
Oftentimes, they rely on their creativity and imagination to come up with ways to make their handmade items known to the public.
Your Brand Identity
Right from the start, you need to separate yourself from the pack immediately by determining what makes your brand or business unique.
Keep in mind that while you don't intend to compete with mass-produced items that are widely sold in stores, there's a whole range of small businesses out there that might be operating from home, a basement or an old garage, or a spare bedroom.
Here are just a few effective ways to convey your brand identity:
Design an Appropriate Logo
Your logo will serve as the "face" or visual of your brand, and it's what most people will recall, so make your logo appropriate to your business or brand's image.
For example, if you sell cute bag charms and keychains of crocheted animals, you can't get away with a serious-looking or plain logo. Same goes if you make whimsical bookmarks with designs painted in watercolors.
Think About a Tagline
Taglines come after your brand or business name. They can be short and punchy, concise yet meaningful, or even funny or humorous.
Here are a few examples of effective taglines:
Belle's Beaded Purses -- Stringing Together Unique Accessories since the '90s
Melba Makes -- Homemade Scents and Soaps
Furry Greetings -- Handmade Cards with Pictures of Pooches
Pleasantries -- Get a Whiff of Our Aromatherapy Candles and Potpourri
Pay Attention to Your Packaging
How you present your products through wrapping or packaging is just as important as the products. Fortunately, you don't need to shell out a huge amount to wrap your items attractively.
You can use sandwich bags to pack your greeting cards, or recycle old copies of the Yellow Pages into small paper bags to contain stickers or gift tags.
You can also place bulk orders for brown kraft boxes in different sizes and secure your products with jute or paper twine, and attach a gift tag with a hand-written thank-you note.
Your Business Card
In her blog post 12 Unusual Ways to Market Your Greeting Cards, greeting card writer and designer Kate Harper talked about various ways to stand out as an entrepreneur by deviating away from traditional forms of business cards.
This is ideal if you want to cut costs on your marketing budget, but you want potential customers to buy your handmade cards.
Also, as an entrepreneur, you'll be motivated to put yourself out there and be proactive about your business.
Your Social Media Content
When you maintain an Instagram account and Facebook Page, you need to upload pictures that are as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
Experiment with different ways of showcasing your flat lays. You can place a plain cardstock or printed scrapbook paper on a flat surface, arrange your handmade products, and take photos.
Also, your content needs to be timely, especially if your items are highly seasonal. If you sell bouquets of paper flowers for Mother's Day, get pictures of a good number of your bouquets ready on social media around 6-8 weeks before the event.
You need to anticipate the volume of orders and provide a cut-off date, when you'll stop replying to inquiries about your products. This way, you can meet the demand for your paper flower bouquets and ensure quality to your customers.
Your Blog
One of the fool-proof ways to organically drive traffic towards your blog is to provide links to your articles through your official Twitter account.
To keep your readers' interest, it's crucial to publish a mix of "evergreen," or timeless, articles on your blog and content that's relevant to the time or season.
If you're writing product descriptions to promote your handmade crafts for weddings, get them published by April or May, as June is one of the months when most couples tie the knot. If you're selling Halloween-themed bookmarks, get your articles published no later than the first week of October.
Outsourcing Tasks
This may sound contrary to cutting back on your overhead expenses, but in the long run, your business will reap the benefits of hiring a graphic designer to help you with your marketing materials, a freelance copywriter, and an SEO article writer.
You can log on to freelancing sites like Fiverr or Upwork to look for competent and talented designers and writers.
The key is not to immediately settle for freelancers that charge the lowest rates. Get a clear idea of what you'd like to accomplish for your business, and negotiate accordingly.
