June 2010

Write a Remarkable Press Release

“Press release”.  Sounds so official.  Sounds a little intimidating.  Sounds like a good, healthy challenge. A well-written press release can give your indie business some much-desired, and well-desired, media attention.  In reading this post, you’ll learn the the techniques you need to craft a remarkable press release that will make newspaper reporters and bloggers sit [...]

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Visual Branding for Your Creative Indie Business

Today’s post comes from Shannon Whealy. A visual image has always been important in establishing your business brand, but it’s never been as essential as it is today. We now live in a lightning-fast internet marketing reality. And many of us are selling our services and wares online. With the handmade movement and the social [...]

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Marketing Overwhelm: How to Win Customers without Losing your Cool

As a creative business owner, you’ve got a lot on your plate.  I know how it is — you’re not only the president of your company, but also the production manager, the sales rep, and the entire customer-service department.  And when you add promotion, advertising, and PR responsibilities to the mix, and it’s no wonder [...]

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Use Benefits to Pump Up Your Product Descriptions

About a week ago, I bought a bike!  And I’m still so pumped about it. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about bikes — but I do know that this particular model comes with a heavy dose of awesome.  It’s got a comfy seat, a loud bell, and a rack in the back to [...]

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Target Market Part 4: Taking Aim and Reaching Your Customers

Welcome to Part 4 in a series about Target Markets — or those awesome people who want and need your stuff. Marketing your successful indie biz requires a clear understanding of your target audience:  who they are, what they like, and where you can find them. So far in this Target Market series, we’ve covered: [...]

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Target Market Part 3: Surveys and Stealth

Quality information about your customer base is one of the most important tools in your marketing toolbox.  Describing your perfect customer is a good first step, but if you want to minimize risk and improve your chances of success, nothing beats good old objective data.  When you want to really understand your customers’ needs and [...]

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Target Market Part Deux: Demographics

This post is part 2 in a series about identifying your target market.  We’re discussing what they are, why we need them, and how to find them.  If you missed yesterday’s post, Target Market: Finding the Right People, click on over to catch up. We’ll wait. The problem with mass-marketing is that there is no [...]

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Target Market: Finding the Right People

Do you know who your perfect customer is?  What does she look like?  Would you recognize her if you saw her in the grocery store? We’ve talked about a few of the factors that go into pricing handmade products. Price can be calculated by adding costs + labor + profit. Price can be a starting [...]

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Poll: What’s your Handmade Habit?

I thought we’d do a little market research this morning. Wanna help me out? You see, I have a hunch that handmade-sellers are often handmade-buyers as well.  But I’d like to test this assumption. The results of this poll could help us better define our target markets. Because on one hand, fellow sellers might buy [...]

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Price as a Starting Point for Product Development

Yesterday we talked about the balancing act between the prices we charge for our handmade products and the value that our customers perceive in our products. Perceived value is tricky — it’s different for different customers.  For example, the value I perceive in a handmade quilt is different from the value my brother perceives in [...]

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