Is the Maker’s Yearbook going to work for me if……? This is the single most common question we get asked about the yearbook, and it’s the single most common question we get asked while the yearbooks are for sale.
“Oh look, a brand new solution to all of my problems that will mean I can make tons of sales while I get on with painting/looking after the kids/drinking sangria on the beach”
OR
“Oh great! A new tool I have to learn because that lady I met last week said everyone is making a ton of money from it and I’m totally missing out”
We all know that product photographs are really important for selling online. They are the only way your online customers can know how lovely your handmade thing is. The only way that they can see what they’re going to get. And they’re not only important online. Good photos get us accepted to the best art and craft fairs, they get us published in newspapers and magazines, they create great stand displays and, perhaps most importantly, they create brand recognition.
Unless you’ve got an enormous following already, it’s unlikely that simply marketing to your current customers will provide you with enough sales each month, so all makers need to be constantly on the hunt for new customers. Not everyone who sees our work is a potential customer. Not everyone who is a potential customer becomes a buyer. Not everyone who is a buyer becomes a repeat buyer. And not everyone who is a repeat buyer becomes a raving fan.
I learned a lot about marketing from buying a new coat for my job. When I first started work as a stockbroker in the City of London I needed to get a new coat for wearing on the many business trips I took as part of that job. I knew it had to be classic and well crafted and it also had to be practical to deal with being thrown into the overhead bin on an airplane (and sometimes shoved under the seat in front)