Many people who invest in their hobbies and interests often find it hard to sell their products or even create a brand that people would recognize. Usually, they sell their products online and sometimes use a garage sale to sell their homemade wares. Many hobbyists make many mistakes that lead them to sell off their products for a value far lower than the time and money they spent in creating their items.
But you don’t have to follow the traditional route of selling or marketing products. There are different ways you could manage your home craft and hobby business without resorting to a garage sale or placing your products near your window with a sign saying “for sale.”
In this case, if you want to market your items from your home, you could follow these suggestions without breaking social distancing measures and hygiene guidelines. Even if you display your wares from your window with tinted security film, your clients don’t have to come over and see them in person.
Go online and share!
Create a website or join Pinterest or Etsy, where many people showcase their homemade items and craft-making skills. Do not make it a hard sell; post photos that show the qualities of your handmade items. You could also offer free how-to guides on making some of your items, whether it’s jewelry or knitted scarves. Sharing knowledge online builds a community, and once you have a community, there will be potential clients, partners, and customers.
Offer special giveaways or discounts for those who reach a certain amount when they buy from you. These gifts can make your customers recommend your items to others, and even share your images or page on their social media. It might seem very modern, but it is a throwback to an old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing strategy.
Hire a professional designer and photographer.
For the best results, you could always hire a professional website designer or photographer to create a site for you. Professionals can make your items compelling and attractive, and a website that is dome professionally will have better navigation, loading times, and even interesting content that will make your clients keep checking your site.
If you don’t have that much to hire a designer, you could always leverage your social media accounts such as Instagram and Facebook, to market your items. Then you could look for a delivery service that could help you with the logistics of delivery and storage.
Offer online courses on your craft.
You could always share knowledge, but when you step up and create an online meeting offering a tutorial or lesson, many people will flock to your site and might even buy what you are offering on sale. A post is one thing, but a video demonstration can do wonders and allow people to see your skill in crafting.
There are many ways to make your hobbies and interests a source of revenue, but it requires patience, marketing strategy, and some social media savvy to make it work out and become a source of profit and enjoyment. Follow these tips so you can make the best of your hobbies even in a pandemic.