5 steps to sell crochet

The top questions I get when it comes to starting a crochet business are:

· “I’ve decided to sell my crochet, now what?”

· “Where is the best place to sell my crochet pieces?”

· “Who do I sell my crochet pieces to?”

Believe me, I understand the confusion and frustration that comes with starting a crochet business, which is why, I’ve written the “5 Steps to Sell Crochet”

Together, we’re going to get you confident in your business decision and on the right track to move forward in the direction of making sales and owning your dream business.

Step #1: Know your audience

When I first started selling crochet I sold to anyone who would look my way. The idea was that “crochet is for everyone” so I didn’t need to worry, everyone wanted what I was selling. Wrong.

Fast forward to today and I know a lot better than I did then. Not everyone is your audience. Chances are, your audience is a lot smaller than you first imagined. The only people who are your real audience are those who will love and are willing to purchase your pieces.

So, before we start trying to sell anything, let’s ask ourselves a few questions.

• Who is my audience?
• What does my audience look like?
• How does my audience feel?
• What does my audience want?

“Know your audience” is step #1 because if you don’t know who your audience is, you won’t know how to reach them. 

If you don’t know how to reach your audience, you won’t sell very much.

If you don’t sell very much you’ll become frustrated with marketing in the wrong place to the wrong audience.

If you don’t sell, you’ll think what you have can’t sell, and that’s not true at all.

Let’s think about orange juice for a minute. Who do you think orange juice is marketed toward?

Everyone can drink orange juice and gain benefit. Orange juice truly is universal.

However, when we look closely, there are a few clues on the orange juice packaging and in their commercials that let us know exactly who they are targeting.

The orange juice makers know that everyone can benefit from their product, but they have chosen to target women. Not only do they target women, but they target women in varying stages of life with different marketing.

For the female population between 18 – 45, they emphasize that orange juice is a good source of Folic Acid. Why? Because those women are in their child-bearing years and folic acid is important to the healthy development of their babies.

They also emphasis taste and freshness because that same demographic, women between 18 – 45 make the majority of grocery decisions for their families. Giving them information that speaks directly to their needs is important. For the female population between 40 – 65, they emphasize that orange juice is high in calcium or that calcium is added. Why? Because osteoporosis is a concern to women between 40 - 65 and calcium can help then win the battle.

Knowing which audience they want to reach also helps the orange juice makers make good decisions when it comes to product placement, advertising space and other marketing strategies to get the right audience looking at their product.

It’s the same in any business. What do you crochet?

• Baby items
• Jewelry
• Doilies
• Winter Accessories

Each item has a specific audience and knowing which audience you want to reach makes the battle easier and the marketing more targeted. So take some time to figure out your target audience.

Even if you’ve already started selling your items, this is a good exercise to help you gain confidence in where you’re going or know if you need to adjust your course.

If you’re just starting out and don’t have a place to sell your items yet, use this information to figure out where you want to direct yourself after figuring out your audience.

Action Steps:

• Create a list of characteristics you’re looking for in your target market
• Create a list of place where your audience lives online (do a bit of research)
• Make a list of the feelings your target audience may be feeling

Once you’ve created these lists write an outline of the person you’re excited about reaching and keep it very close as you prepare your marketing. That outline will become a very valuable piece of information for you moving forward.

Step #2: Who are you?

High five!! We now know who you want to reach, where they are and what they want! Now, how are you going to present yourself and your business to them?

Who are you and why would they buy from you instead of the other crochet artists selling the same type of pieces?

If you don’t know, don’t worry, now is when we find out. The best place to start is by asking yourself, “why am I different?” This is where your business is born and begins to look like mama (or papa).

Knowing what you want do make, who you want to work with and how you want them to see you, is the next best thing to do for your business. Why? Because it will show your audience exactly what they’re looking for.

Put yourself in your target customer’s shoes before you begin delivering because doing that will make it easier to figure out what to do when it comes to creating and delivering your pieces.

You’ll be able to see exactly what your customer would want from their purchase experience and be able to deliver exactly that. It’s your logo, your packaging, the words you use and also service delivered and the value added to your pieces.

If your audience is younger, are you speaking directly to them, or are you over their heads? Are you packaging so they notice you and talk about you? Are you giving them an interesting reason to come back? Consider all those things when trying to figure out who you are and how you’ll present your products to your audience.

Action Steps:

• Write out what you think your unique offer is
• Write down how you want your audience to see you
• Write down why you think your audience should buy from you

Make your list as specific as possible to get a clear understanding of yourself and your business. Ask friends and family what they think about your selling proposition and if it suits you. Remember, if you’re an eclectic person, you may want to have a casual style that reflects that instead of trying to have a laced up business appearance.

Step #3: Develop Your Inventory

Now it’s time to have some fun!

This is where you get to enjoy the process because you get to create your pieces!

Whatever it is you want to sell, you can now create, photograph (they don’t need to be professionally photographed, but they do need to be nicely photographed), and begin presenting. Here are two ways to manage your inventory:

1. Make a few of each item and hold it in inventory to ship as soon as someone places the order. This means an up-front investment in your inventory and the need for storage space.
2. Make a sample of each item then list it as a “made-to-order” piece created on demand. Your up-front investment would be lower; however, your customers may not be excited to wait.

Whichever you decide, make sure it works well for you and that It’s clearly stated when advertising your artistry!

Action Steps

• Create a list of goals to achieve in the creation of your pieces (how many, colors, deadline etc.)
• Decide on what your packaging will be and make sure you have enough on hand
• Make sure you have business cards or postcards to send with each item
• Photograph your items

Feeling prepared when you post your items for sale, will help you be more relaxed and ready to manage your shop.

Step #4: Using your tools

After you’ve taken time to find your audience, know your business, and create a few sample pieces, it’s time to present yourself to the world. It’s time to take everything you’ve learned and roll out your business.

This is where you take the audience information you’ve learned in step #1 and present to them where they are.

For example, if they’re online set up a web shop to sell your pieces. You can also set up a Facebook Business page to interact with your clients and potential clients.

Another good tool is a blog where you share fun information about yourself, your business and your craft. It would be more in-depth than your Facebook page, but would certainly provide information you could share on your Facebook page to start a discussion. Here are a few places to consider setting up shop:

• Etsy.com
• Artfire.com
• eCrater.com
• dawanda.com
• Shopify.com

I can’t go in-depth into each site, that’s for another course, however, they are easy to navigate and you can have your items up within minutes ready to sell.

Once you have your shop set up, go to Facebook.com, create an account and create a Facebook business page.

Once you have your shop and Facebook business page ready, take a look at other tools you’d like to use to help get the word out about your pieces. Remember, you’re figuring out where your audience is, so you need to go where you can find them.

Consider online forums, bulletin boards, blogs, websites etc. wherever you think

they may be, go find them.

Action Steps:

• Set –up your store
• Populate it with the photos you took of your items in Step #3 action steps
• Start spreading the word

Even if you don’t feel you have enough pieces in your shop, post what you have and make more. The idea is to always be moving forward and doing something toward your goal every day as much as possible.

Step #5: Marketing / Advertising

Now we’re ready to advertise! Remember back in step #1 where we figured out your target audience? Well, now it’s time to speak to them with any advertising you decide to use.

Showcase your business where you think they are and be very selective where you spend your marketing budget. Orange juice is rarely advertised during a football game (although I think that may be changing) because orange juice companies know the likelihood that they’ll catch their target audience is low. However, you will find a few orange juice commercials during Ellen or Greys Anatomy! That’s how you have to think. Where is my audience and how do I reach them. A few ways to advertise include:

• Projectwonderful.com
• Google Adwords
• Facebook Ads
• Tophatter

Start your budget at a comfortable level ($5 a day is a good place to start).

Consider directly advertising on other websites or blogs. The main thing is to advertise where your audience is and at a level where you feel comfortable to start. Once you begin to generate sales, you can increase your advertising budget on the ads that are working and eliminate the ones that don’t work.

Make sure you’re monitoring your advertising effectiveness so you can make good choices as you move forward.

Action Steps

• Write down your budget and stick with it
• Research your advertising options and choose one to begin
• Monitor your ads effectiveness to figure out if you want keep or change it. I suggest continuing with an ad for about 30 days to see how it’s working before making any changes.