How to Promote Your Handmade Shop for Free ~ Part 1

Selling handmade items online isn’t easy, but if you master the ups and downs of online retail, you can be successful. To start you on your motivated marketing strategy, we’ve delineated a few tips and tricks to give you an initial boost.

1. Give stuff away

This often raises an eyebrow – giving stuff away? Yes. For free? Yes.

Not your products, but you can share your knowledge with your customers and give them something of value that costs you nothing.

• If you sell baby products, offer a checklist of things to take on holiday with a 1 year-old, 2 year-old, etc. (some of which you sell, of course)
• Or if you sell wedding stationery, offer a calendar of what to do when – 12 months before right down to 3 weeks before, the week before the big day, etc.)
• Or if you sell your marketing services to small craft businesses, give away an explosive new book with loads of great ideas that they can use (ahem…)

2. Build a list

Your existing customers are already your fans – you’ve overcome the common barriers that stop people buying online:

• are the products good quality?
• will you deliver what you promise?
• is it secure to purchase from you online?

(Overcoming these isn’t easy, so well done).
But do you keep a record of what your customers bought? Do you make irresistible offers based on their purchasing history?

• If a customer buys a baby shower gift from you, get in touch with them again at Christmas offering them a ’Baby’s First Christmas’ gift
• Or if a customer buys fabric from you, include a postcard offering them a coordinating fabric at reduced price if they order within 4 weeks