How to Sell Crafts Online? Stay in Touch!
By Bob Beacham
How to sell crafts online? Well I wish I could give you the one simple answer but sadly
it doesn't exist. Selling crafts on the internet is a series of steps, like any other
business, each an important part of the whole. Let's start by looking at something that's
simple to do but hugely powerful.
It's much easier to sell your crafts to someone who has bought from you before, than it
is to find a new customer. Obvious, right? If you've got your customer's email address you
can offer them similar craft items to those they've already purchased. You can keep them
up to date with new craft products or services that you are offering.
Staying in touch with existing customers is simple and profitable (so long as you don't
take them for granted). You can give them a loyalty discount - make it sound like it's
exclusive to them. Everyone wants to feel special, right?
When you think about how to sell crafts online though you need to look at every visitor
to your craft blog or website as a potential customer. The problem is that the vast
majority of times people will visit your site, then another, then another... you don't
know who they were or where they went and you certainly don't know if they will ever be back.
So you need to give them an incentive to come back. The most important thing apart from
dealing with your existing customers is getting as much information about your prospective
customer as possible, and the most important single piece of information they can give you
is their email address.
Tracking services, like Google Analytics (which is free) can give your craft business a
huge amount of information about where your visitors came from, how long they stayed, what
they looked at, which of your marketing tactics is producing best results... but none of
these is half as important as getting your visitor's email address. If they'll give you
that they're giving you permission to try to sell them your crafts!
Of course people guard their email addresses jealously. Not surprising with so much
spam about. The last thing they want is another set of junk mail. You can assure them that
yours is a reputable craft business and you would never spam them, but it's frequently not enough.
To be frank, they need a little bribe!
Offer them a sample, offer them a downloadable pattern, plan or ebook. Offer them a
discount off of their first order. It doesn't have to be of a particularly high value, it
just has to be perceived as such! An ebook, showing a technique or way of using your craft
item that's useful or appealing may take you a while to put together but you'll only do it
once and then you can give it away at no cost. Even if a discount is the only thing you
can think of, isn't it worth 10 percent to get a customer who might well buy again and again
for years to come?
Services exist to collect and manage the information you collect so you just need to
write a single email and it will automatically be sent to everyone on your list. Can you
see how easy that is? Can you see how potentially powerful a tool that is for your craft business?
How to sell crafts online isn't just about creating a beautiful or useful product, it's
also about getting your visitors to give you permission to stay in touch... and then not
abusing that permission. Treat it with respect, it will pay you handsomely.
Want to make sure you get most value out of every visitor? Interested in turning your
hobby into a full-time craft business? Just pop over to
Selling Crafts Online for a
wealth of crafts business information and your free copy of the highly acclaimed fact
file "Craft Success Online".
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