You’re flipping through the latest issue of Venus Zine, and the fantastic crafts you see inspire a little jealousy. How did those people get in the magazine? How much would it cost to buy an ad? How come nobody knows how awesome your crafts are yet? You can start the coolest craft biz in the world, but no one will ever know about it unless you start tooting your own horn.
You won’t need to hire a public relations rep to get the word out, at least not off the bat. There’s plenty you can do on your own and on the cheap to promote your business. All you need is an Internet connection and a little moxie. We’re gonna show you how to get noticed, get customers coming back and get good press. Go get 'em!
“Self-promotion has been the most difficult thing for me. I’m a very shy person, and painfully so when it comes to talking about my own work,” jewelry maker Samantha Lopez says. “Perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve learned is to have the ability to see what I do as not only my passion but also my job. Detaching myself from it in a way has made everything much easier to handle.”
The first step to becoming your own PR person is to develop your elevator pitch. How would you describe your business, in just a few seconds, to someone you’ve never met? For example, when people ask me what I’m writing my book about, I tell them, “It’s a how-to business book for part-time indie crafters.” It might need some explaining, sure, to someone unfamiliar with the scene, but if a pitch spurs questions, that’s great—you’ve got them hooked.
Start a blog, if you don’t already have one. It’s a great (and free) way to show your work and create relationships with your customers. It’s a good way to build a following, especially if you post freebies like tutorials or desktop wallpaper and pretty photos of what you’re working on.
“I don’t do much promotion other than blogging,” says Jesse Breytenbach, a printmaker in South Africa. “I spend a lot of time reading other blogs and commenting on them. Not that I do it as promotion—I do it because it’s great to be part of the community. Whenever a new person comments on my blog, I have a look at theirs and often add it to my links. I love that I’ve made blog friends this way—they’ve bought from me, and I’ve bought from them, too.” She’s also been contacted by people in publishing in South Africa who see items on her blog that they include in their magazines.
If you’re going to do the blog thing, keep in mind these essetials:
These are the most popular and user-friendly blogging tools:
Blogger (www.blogger.com): Easy to use; free but with limited customization; up to 300 MB of storage.
LiveJournal (www.livejournal.com): More like a personal journal; free basic account; $19.95/year paid account includes 2 GB of storage.
MovableType (www.movabletype.com): More of a content management system; can be used to build Web sites as well as blogs; basic account is free.
Typepad (www.typepad.com): Lots of options for blog experts; basic account is $4.95/month and includes 100 MB of storage.
Wordpress (www.wordpress.com): Very customizable; free account includes 3 GB of storage; premium account offers more options.
Taryn Hipp uses blogs as well as social networking sites to promote MyMy.us. Set up a Twitter account for your biz (or just incorporate a little self-promotion into your personal feed). You can also create a Facebook page for your brand and invite your customers to join. Reward your followers with special coupon codes and early-bird opportunities.
Hipp does say that although she uses blogs and social networking sites as well as magazine advertising to promote her business, the real results come from something much more simple. “The number one thing is just doing what you do well. It’s amazing what a happy customer will do for you,” she says. “Being a nice person and loving what you do is reflected in your business. You can spend thousands of dollars on print ads and promotions and postcards, but if you’re not sending out orders on time, it won’t matter.”
An awesome way to get noticed is to contribute to the Sampler (www.homeofthesampler.com), a monthly mailer started by the indubitable Marie Kare and now run by Etsy. Craft admirers subscribe to the Sampler to get a priority mail box full of awesome stuff each month. Indie businesses send in samples of their products and promotional materials in exchange for one of that month’s Samplers, promotion on the Web site and exposure to media types. You can contribute as few as 25 pieces or hundreds if you have 'em! The more samples you send in, the better deals you get for promotion.
You obviously don’t want to send in 25 items that you usually sell for $50 apiece, but you could contribute, say, 48 $5 items and two big-ticket items for the luck of the draw. Be sure to package your items nicely and include your contact info somewhere. Lots of media folks use the Sampler to stay abreast of craft trends, so put your most crafty foot forward!
Then there are the PR opportunities that seem fantastic, but really aren’t, like getting offers to participate in celebrity gift bags. Considering that it can cost hundreds—often thousands—of dollars to get your stuff into a gift tent and total exposure isn’t guaranteed, it’s probably not a worthwhile investment.
Direct e-mail is perhaps the best and easiest way to drum up sales. Collect the e-mail addresses of anyone who buys stuff from you and have a sign-up area on your Web site and a sheet at craft shows.
Make it clear that you won’t sell their addresses or use them for anything other than periodic messages from you. If someone asks to be removed from your list, do it promptly and without argument. Using an e-marketing service (see below) will give recipients easy subscription options. A really low-tech way to do a mailing list is to simply create a list of contacts within your e-mail account and BCC everybody when you send out a message.
Send out a message every month or so to remind people that you’re still around. Let readers know what you’ve been up to, what new projects you’ve been working on, the newest items in your shop and where you’ll be selling this season. Make it personal—don’t just blatantly market to them.
Jessica Manack, who uses NotifyList for periodic Miss Chief Productions mailings, says there is a limit to a customer’s attention. “A girl I know sent out her mailing list twice a week. It was so annoying,” she says. “When we send one out, at least one previous customer will come back and buy something. I think four to six mailings a year is optimal.”
Emma: www.myemma.com
Starting at $30/month, plus $99 setup fee
NotifyList: www.notifylist.com
Free
Constant Contact: www.constantcontact.com
Starting at $15/month
The most important thing is to target media outlets whose customer base overlaps your own. Just as Feminist Photocopied Quarterly probably isn’t interested in bedazzled “Born to Shop” onesies, Super Glossy Magazine doesn’t give a lot of space to hemp tampon ornaments.
After you’ve identified a blog or magazine you think would be a good fit, figure out who to send your press release or samples to. With big magazines, addressing parcels to the editor-in-chief usually lands them in the hands of the editorial assistants. With some googling, you can usually figure out which of the mid-level editors is in charge of the products department, and directing your submission to them will yield the best results. Many magazines also list their product submission guidelines on their Web sites. Some prefer mailed submissions only; others only consider e-mailed pitches. Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching recommends sending samples over hackneyed press releases. If you do send a sample, don’t expect to see it again. Magazine staffs have much better things to do than return all the unsolicited materials they receive.
Blogs' turnaround times for product features are understandably shorter than magazines'. You might be OK sending a Valentine’s Day press release to a blog the week before, but Super Glossy Magazine’s February issue went to press months ago. As a rule of thumb, pitch time-sensitive products to magazines six months in advance. That way you’ll stand a chance of hitting the editor’s desk just as she’s starting to brainstorm ideas for that issue. Also, consider pitching to regional magazines and newspapers that might be interested in what a local crafter is doing. They may not be as fancy, but you stand a much better chance at getting coverage.
Consider including a press section on your Web site where you can park press releases and high-res, print-quality photos ready for downloading. It’ll make life easier for everyone.
Grace Bonney knows good craft when she sees it. Her blog, Design*Sponge (www.designspongeonline.com) features dozens of innovative designs every day that she finds by scouring the Internet constantly and reading more press releases than anybody in her right mind should. She shares some of her preferences and advice for up-and-coming crafters.
“Two words: short and direct. I read close to a thousand press releases a week. For me, a good press release is a simple, digital document that gets right to the point. Write a short intro that tells me who you are, then get straight to the good stuff: what you’re making or selling, how much it costs, and why it’s special. Attach a few good photos, and that’s it. A great press release should rely on the strength of the product, not the personal life of the designer behind it.”
“Sob stories. People tell me about parents or pets that have died and that ‘writing about my product would really make my day and I really need this right now.’ How am I supposed to say no to that? And if I do, I feel like a real jerk. I know life and work are intertwined, but it’s really best to leave personal stories out until you’ve established some sort of personal relationship. Press should happen because of a great product, not a guilt trip.”
“Photography is about 80 percent of the battle. Great photos say way more than a press release ever could. When I get a submission, the first thing I do is scroll down to look at pictures. If those grab me, I hardly need to read anything else. Other than that, it’s good to know that short and sweet is always best. You can elaborate in the follow-up.”
Speaking from my own experience as a magazine editor, here are some guidelines to follow when contacting and working with magazines.
Need to find Super Glossy Magazine’s market editor’s e-mail address? Go to Mastheads.org, a site with contact information for practically every magazine out there. Access starts at $4 a week.
Contact person (that’s you)
Title, company
Phone number
E-mail address
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Eye-catching, descriptive summary/headline
City, State (Date)—First paragraph states the main news.
Second paragraph gives more details.
Third paragraph includes a quote from a person involved with the project.
Fourth paragraph gives any additional details and information.
###
ABOUT: Describe the history of your company, your reach and what you do.
Attach two or three awesome Web-quality photos and indicate that print-quality images are available.
Buying ads in magazines can be expensive, with no guarantee of return. But at the same time, if you advertise in the right venue, such as a magazine that supports indie crafters, it can get your Web site a lot of hits.
Before you think about slapping down the big bucks for a piece of real estate in Super Glossy Magazine, make sure your target audience is the magazine’s target audience, too. For example, I often visit dozens of the Web sites advertised in magazines such as BUST, Venus Zine and ReadyMade because I know they’re likely to be women-operated, indie and awesome.
You can find rates for ads on a publication’s Web site; look for keywords such as advertising or media kit to take you to the right spot. You might have to e-mail an ad rep to get the exact prices and deadlines. Some magazines offer discounted rates for indie businesses—it never hurts to ask!
If you do buy ad space, you’ll have to supply the ad’s image to the magazine. You’ll get exact specs when you contact a rep. This is the time to ask a graphic designer friend to help you out if you’re not an Adobe Illustrator genius. Browse through the magazine’s ads and see what other people are doing, what you like or dislike and what grabs your attention.
Because advertising space isn’t so cheap, a good tactic is to share the ad with some crafty friends or people from your local Craft Mafia. Sometimes you can find people on crafty message boards seeking partners to buy ad space together.
Another cheaper option is to advertise on magazines' Web sites. The rates are generally lower than they are for print ads. Craft-focused Web sites and blogs also offer ad space for indie businesses. Which of the sites you visit on a daily basis are ad-supported? Do a little digging to find their rates or at least their ad coordinator.
The real grassroots route is to trade links with other crafters. Most crafters' Web sites have a page for links to other like-minded shops. (If you don’t have one, you should make one!) Usually, if you e-mail crafters you admire and ask to trade links, they’ll be happy to oblige! Some crafters even use banner or button ads for trading. Ask your designer buddy to whip something up for you in Illustrator.