How do you sell your handmade craft?

Give good advice

A good tip to help sell your handmade craft might seem slightly odd, but if you tell people who you've achieved your success then they will want to know more and sharing your expertise will boost your own business.

Your own craft probably has dozens of associations or oganisations where you can blog and share your skills.  If you offer your skills in your particular area, it's a great way to reach new customers and show your leadership in your particular field.

Articles in the form of tips, best practices in how to achieve the results you have and writing on blogs is a great way to deliver your ideas.

Question and Answer sessions with people who want to know more will find you and appreciate your knowledge. 

Take a look at Lesley H Phillips - Blog and you'll see that I have written a series of articles to help jewellers (and not only silver jewelley - as I've used a lampworker as an example) to develop their websites. 

Lesley H Phillips Join me on Google +

Business Tip - Small Businesses - Add a photo

Add Your Photo to Your Website

This is a great way of reassuring your customers about who they're dealing with. Having a photo kick-starts a personal relationship with your website visitors, and it makes it more likely they'll get in touch. But it has to be a good photo; get a professional to take it.
 

 Not many websites include personal photos, so get this right and your site will be head and shoulders above your faceless competitors.
www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk

Business Tip - How do YOU manage Social Media

If you don't have a schedule, it won't take long before you're sucked into the "social media black hole." Determine how much time you have to devote to your social media marketing and stick to it. If you only have 30 minutes each day, limit the number of social networking sites and generate a strong presence on them.

https://www.facebook.com/handmadesilverjewellery?ref=tn_tnmn 

Business Tip of the Week

lesleyhphillips.co.uk/contact

It's important to capture customer information -

If you have a website, make sure you have an area to capture the names and email addresses of visitors. Likewise if you have retail store, have an email sign-up sheet for customers to receive news and special offers.

Even if you don’t initially make the sale, you now have contact information to use in email marketing campaigns

www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk
Business Tip of the week!

A well-known referral expert suggests "promoting referrals" instead of asking for them. Whenever a client expresses recognition of your value, say, "I'm glad you see the value of the work that I do. Please don't keep me a secret."

What do you read?

http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/

As a small business myself my tip for the New Year is "What do you read?"

If you receive an email, how much of it grabs your attention?  What people see in their inbox differs among email applications. An email viewed in Gmail will appear different when viewed in Yahoo! mail or Outlook. To make an impact even before they open the email, keep your subject line within the 40-character limit.

Tip of the week - helping to sell your handmade silver jewellery

Tip of the week - helping you to sell your handmade silver jewellery
Don't Hide Negative Feedback

If you sell online - don't shy away from negative comments!  Instead, face them and address your customer's concerns.  Addressing them helps build trust and diffuse a tense situation and can help you win back an upset customer.  What's more, it gives you a chance to come to your defence.  Consider this.... one person out of ten will say when they've received good service. One person will tell TEN people when they've had poor service!

Often you will receive a customer compliment following the complaint if you've handled it well!
Customer Testimonials 

www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk

The A-Z of selling your handmade jewellery - K

The A- Z of selling your handmade jewellery

Letter K

Ever heard of the phrase KISS? - it's stands for Keep It Simple Stupid!

But, although it's an odd phrase it's one of those which actually does mean a lot.  Keeping it simple does help your customers.  The more complicated something is, the more people will be 'turned off'.  Supposing you have a website where the customers have to find out what you sell?  They're looking for earrings, but have to trawl 10 pages to find the earrings.... they're just not going to do it.  So, on your front page they need a link to the earrings for them to view them.

If you consider that most people when searching Google will only look at the top 5 listings because it's easier, it gives you an indication of how much effort a customer will put in to finding what they want on your website. 

http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/cat_462824--005-Earrings-.html

A-Z of Selling Your Handmade Jewellery / Selling Your Handmade Silver Jewellery

Next week I will be attending the Dorset County Show, so I won't be updating my blog with the A-Z, but this week is

J  for JARGON

How many people are 'turned off' by you using phrases that they don't understand?
 It's important to try and remember the words you used to use before you began making and selling your handmade silver jewellery and remember the knowledge (or probably lack of it) you had.

For instance when I talk about Sterling Silver - what does that actually mean to a customer.  They know to ask, is it sterling silver, but do they know what it means?  Silver describes a variety of precious metals - for instance the silver is mixed with copper to harden it, so sterling silver is 925 silver and 75 parts copper - but there are other grades of silver around. Tibetan silver for instance, is vastly inferior quality and do the customers understand this?  Fine silver is 999 parts silver and 1 part copper (usually produced by precious metal clay workers) - so a better quality silver, but much softer and would be pretty useless for a ring which is frequently worn. Sterling Silver is the minimum quality of silver which is accepted by the Assay Offices.  Anything less which is sent for hallmarking by a British silversmith, would be destroyed!

Hallmarking is a another one which customers have very little knowledge of.  Again, I'm asked 'is it hallmarked?' - but do they understand what that means? You can bet that the majority don't.  It's worthwhile explaining in a little more detail what they have to look for to ensure that they know what silver hallmarks look like. The more people who understand, the less they're likely to get ripped off!

A-Z of Selling Your Handmade Jewellery / Selling Your Handmade Silver Jewellery

This week's letter in the A- Z of Selling your Handmade Jewellery / Handmade Silver Jewellery is

I for Insurance

If a craftsperson is undertaking fairs /exhibitions etc then the minimum insurance they will need is public liability insurance. Supposing a customer were to trip over your draping table cloth and injure themselves - can you afford to pay out several thousand pounds in compensation? - and that's after the solicitor fees!!

For craftworkers, public liability insurance is reasonably inexpensive.  I had a policy last year which cost me approximately £55 and this included product liability (ie if my product injured someone).  An example of this perhaps would be if a post on a butterfly backed earring broke off in someone's ear.

Clearly I can't specifically recommend an insurer, however I can tell you who I have subsequently insured with (following an increase in premium by £20 in one year).  I've never needed to claim, so I don't know how good they are on paying out - but... I'm insured with £5 million public liability (compared to £1 million last year) and have public and product liability within the policy.

I discovered AIR - www.a-n.co.uk  for artists.  It's a membership organisation which automatically provides insurance when becoming a member.  Once you're a member, you can download the insurance documents.  The cost for being a member of AIR for me.... which incidentally is a great online resource and sends out magazines (either online or paperbased depending on your membership choice) was £30 the year!  You can also post details on the 'what's on' listings plus an image on the interface, as well as review and comments.  It covers craft workers - but double check if it covers you for specifics relating to your craft.  For example it doesn't cover 'hot works' when you're out exhibiting.

As I say, I can't recommend it - I can just say that it covers me for what I want and I found it extremely reasonable in price too..

The A- Z of Selling Your Handmade Jewellery

Continuing with my theme of the A-Z of Making and Selling your handmade  silver jewellery /handmade jewellery I have decided to run with the selling alphabetically first and then in later blogs discuss the making of silver jewellery - ie tools/ equipment and practices.
So: This week I am focussing on the letter F

• F for Free Press

Dorchester Life Glossy Magazine
Take a look at this 2 page article in the Dorchester Life Glossy Magazine.  This is a monthly magazine for the county town of Dorset.  A completely free write up!

What better way to let people locally know what you do and where they can buy your jewellery than getting this publicity for absolutely nothing?


How do you go about it?

First of all you have to have something newsworthy - seems obvious, but find something about your wares/you that stands out from everyone else.  You can see from this article headline that when I had a piece of my jewellery featured in Vogue this was my USP (Unique Selling Point).

A lot of press prefer you to have written the article (although in this case the photographer and reporter visited me to write the story). So, you can do it in one of two ways.  Contact all the local press with the headline and see if anyone responds or write an article and send it to them.  Obviously consider your products and consider what people read the magazine/paper that you are contacting.

The article should be approximately 300 words and written in the 3rd person and the title should be all about the USP.  Ensure that you have  plenty of quotes in the article for example " It's pleasing considering the financial climate, how many discerning people are willing to pay for quality" she says Ensure that there's a point of action within the article for your customers to find you - for example I specifically contacted Dorchester Life because Dorset Art Weeks was running (a bi-annual event which runs for a fortnight).  This ensured that customers who read the article could come and visit me during Dorset Art Weeks.

If you are considering placing an advert in a magazine/paper - then combine this with negotiations for a free write up too.  I placed an advert in the Blackmore Vale for the Dorset Art Weeks.
Blackmore Vale Article
The rectangular box was my advert and the rest of the writing and photograph on the page was negotiated for free.

A - Z of How to Make and Sell Handmade Silver Jewellery

www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk

Letter B

• Process

Bangle Mandrels

When creating a hand hammered cuff bracelet, if you were to have the correct length and width of silver sheet to start, then as soon as you hand hammer the sheet it changes shape.This results in having to re cut or re file the bangle to the desired shape.  As any silversmith knows - this can result in hours of extra work!
Bangle mandrels are often available in metal, however if you find one in wood then you can avoid the need to reshape the cuff bracelet.
First of all shape your cuff bracelet and then wrap it around a wooden bangle mandrel.  Using a metal planishing hammer you can then create the hand hammering without affecting the shape of the cuff bracelet.  It does take more hammering because you're not hammering metal on metal, so you do need a very large planishing hammer - but the results are most definitely stunning!
Take a look at some examples of my  hand hammered cuff bracelets:
http://www.lesleyhphillips.co.uk/onlineshop/cat_510430--025-Cuff-Bracelets.html

• Tools/Equipment

Books

The bible for silversmiths is Oppi Untracht - Jewelry Concepts and Technology.  How much does it cost? Well a quick search on one of the leading sellers of books on Google shows a second hand, hardcopy fully illustrated copy of this selling for just over £230. Phew!  What a price - but it is most definitely the best book a silversmith can own.  (the non illustrated hardcover version is considerably cheaper).
I own the fully illustrated hardcover copy and I found it at an antique fair a few years ago.  It's definitely worth checking book stalls if you attend car boot sales/flea markets or fairs because you never know what might be there.  I had just started silversmithing and was intrigued to see a pile of silversmithing books - 6 in all. A couple I've still only flicked through, but Oppi Untracht was amongst the selection.  I didn't know at the time how invaluable a reference book this was (and certainly didn't know how expensive it was!) , but I asked the stall holder how much they were charging for the 6 books.  I struggled back to my car with these 6 books for a mere £15.
There really are bargains to be had - lots of people start silversmithing as a hobby and just give up - so keep your eyes peeled!

• Selling your products / How to sell your handmade silver jewellery /  how to sell your jewellery

Believe

Believe in your own product.  If you don't believe how good it is, then no-one else will!  It's hard to stay confident when you're sat behind a craft stall and someone is stood in front of you saying something like "Oh, I don't like that!" or "that's expensive, I bought a silver bracelet in Tibet/India for a quarter of the price when I was there last year" or  when the person next to you is selling imported jewellery at a fraction of your price.

Has this happened to you?  What did you do? Email me and let me know: jewellery@lesleyhphillips.co.uk

What should you do in these circumstances?  If someone doesn't like your jewellery - ignore it!  After all, think of Marmite - love it or hate it  - that's how they sell it!

If someone's bought an item abroad very cheaply and are happily telling people who are looking at your stand about it !*! grrrr... Ask them all about it.  Needless to say when they describe it, it'll be completely different from what you're selling and highly likely it'll be machine made.  However if,  for instance they describe a hammered cuff bracelet (which could be similar to yours), then explain that the depth of the silver you use/width of the cuff bracelet for STERLING silver determines the price as well as the craftmanship that goes into the making of it.  Gently say, that silver isn't all the same as there are different grades of silver and sterling silver is the only silver that can be sold as such in the United Kingdom. (As an example - for your information only - not to totally upset the person who's standing in front of you.... Indian silver is generally less pure than sterling silver and Tibetan silver can sometimes have a low content of 30% rather than sterling which has 92.5%!).  It's also probably not worth getting involved with discussions on poor working conditions that some people suffer abroad/ or about 'handmade jewellery' where it's highly likely been produced by a machine!  If they want to argue a point though, then why not show your knowledge?  It might make the people around them realise that you are actually an expert as well as a designer/maker.

If someone next door to you is selling machine made imported jewellery and selling it as hand crafted.  Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do except when people visit your stand greet them and tell them that you make everything yourself.  If they look at an item in particular, start explaining just what has gone into the making of it.  The person next door can't do that, can they?  Plus, don't forget - the person next door will be selling jewellery that's availabe everywhere the world over.  So, whilst talking to your customer explain how lovely it is when you see people wear your jewellery, because you know they've bought something that's unique and no-one else could ever have the same as them. Each one you make is completely individual.  Chat a bit about how you like to buy direct from craftspeople yourself (think of an example of something you've bought) and go on to say about how lovely it was and how you felt as if you'd bought something truly special.