Now it's time to talk about how to build an audience for your craft thing that everyone wants to know, right? How do I find more people? So remember that business at its core is just something to sell and somebody to sell it to your craft and your audience. These two things happen simultaneously, so it's not like I'm going to spend a year doing this and then a year doing that, or even like a month doing this in a month doing this, they're happening at the same time. But we can't talk about them at the same time because that would be impossible. So we're gonna discuss them one at a time. But know that in your life there happening simultaneously, the other thing, of course that's happening is that you may be spending more time in one or the other, and that's really based on your financial pressures. All right, So, like I said, we're going to talk about these one at a time, and we're gonna start with growing your audience because you can't have a business without people to sell to, does n...

ot exist, and just because you've built it doesn't mean people will come, you could put up a website or you can put up the Etsy shop and crickets right when I first started telling on, etc. I think I set my Etsy shop up in February and my first sale happened in June. Now that was not the only way I was selling my products. But people are like I've been on anti for a month and I haven't sold six months. Basically, nothing happened. So just because you put it out there doesn't mean that people are going to be paying attention. And the thing that I see is that most makers really aren't proactive enough with their audience building. They take that sort of I've built it. Where are they approach and some of the reasons why makers aren't as proactive with their audience building as they should be. First of all, they just don't know how the other one is that they might not realize how much time and effort it actually takes. So one of the things that I remember that really vividly stuck with me is I watched a webinar that Susan Peterson, the founder of freshly picked, did on Instagram. Now that is literally how she built her business was Instagram and she was talking about how, in the beginning she would spend 6 to 8 hours a J on instagram. This is not on taking her photos. That was a small part of her day. It was on interacting with people, getting people to follow her, really just working it on the platform. What happens is you need to put in the time and when you're trying to do too many things, you're never getting enough time into any single one of those. So our goal is to get you to focus on something so you can get that traction now. Growing your audience isn't just about growing your social media falling. Good news for those of you who are not fans of social media. I know it's really easy to default to that. It seems like nowadays when we talk about growing an audience, everyone jumps to Well, that means growing a social media platform, whatever platform that is. But that's just one way to help people find you. So I've identified five key ways to build an audience for your craft. I'm not saying these air definitive, but these air five really key proven strategies. I'm gonna talk more in detail about all five of these we're talking about shows, stores, search, press and visual content. And my goal for you is that by the end of this lesson, you're going to pick one to focus on. So let's talk about those in a little more detail What I mean. So by shows, I literally mean selling your work through craft shows, arts festivals, farmers markets, pop up shops, whatever that is, literally selling in person and show us grow your audience by connecting you with the show's audience stories is another way that you're leveraging someone else's audience. So this is really just selling your products to retailers. And essentially, they grow your audience by connecting you to the customers of the retail stores. And in this case, this is the one exception or more of your list. Building is happening with your store list than your end customer list, but it's still important to have the mailing list for your end customer because even if you're mostly selling to stores, some of those customers who bought your products at stores are gonna want to know more about you, right so they're gonna google you whether we're gonna have your website or look at you on instagram and then you ideally on them on your email s. So then you can remind them when you send you work to those stores. But this really an leverages someone else's audience to help you grow faster. Search is very simply getting your products to rank high in search results on Google or etc. Or Pinterest. Yes, Pinterest is a search engine. It's really super powerful search engine. Actually, you can also treated as a social platform. We'll talk about that, but it is also a search engine. And so this idea is getting your products found. So we have press, so press is getting your products featured in blog's and magazines and newspapers. There's a lot of different kinds of press, but really, what we're gonna talk about in this one is actually getting your products featured. And so press again leverages the power of the media outlets audience to bring you people who will join your mailing list or buy your products, and some of that depends on price point. So if you're doing a lot of press and have a lower price point. Usually they're just gonna buy. If you are a little bit higher, we have to focus a little bit more and getting people on your email list so you can nurture that relationship. And then our last type is what I call visual content creation. And this is building an audience with images on something like instagram or Pinterest or even putting those images on your blawg. So this is probably most people think of because you're thinking of I'm gonna grow my audience on Instagram on a goodbye audience on another social platform. And what this does is obviously grocer audience by literally growing followers on. Ideally, these people will go to your email list and buy your products, and it's okay if hearing those five you don't know yet which one is the best for you. That's what we're gonna do in this segment. Okay, so obviously I feel like this is pretty obvious, but I wanted to just state it, so shows and stores are clearly more of an offline strategy, and search press in visual content are online. So one of the things you can think about as you're trying to make this this decision Right off the bat is Helen. Where do you want to be spending your time? The other thing to keep in mind is that your focus may change over time. I started out doing craft shows pretty quickly. I was like, I don't want to spend my weekends in a tent in the rain. So I moved over to stores. I spent a long time on stores That was really my main focus for years. And now I'm at a point where I'm making more one of a kind of work and I'm sliding more individual content creation. So you're focused can change. You're not married to anything forever. It's not nice to know, right, But you could make a decision and you don't have to stay with it forever. That said, when I say it can change over time, I mean years, not months, because it takes time to gain traction. So you can't be like this month I'm on shows and next month I'm on stores and then I'm gonna jump over to Pinterest. You're not getting any traction. Anything that you dio I plan on giving it at least a year before you decide. If it's like I'm gonna bail or I'm gonna transition

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Megan Auman

Megan Auman is a designer, metalsmith, educator, and entrepreneur who has built a multi-faceted business around her passion for great design and sustainable business. Her eponymous jewelry line is sold in stores across the US and online. Her designs have been featured in Design Sponge, Better Homes and Gardens, Cooking Light, and more. In 2009, Megan founded Designing an MBA to help designers and makers develop their business skills. Since then, she has created a number of successful e-courses, including Marketing for Makers, Wholesale Academy, and Do/Teach. She is a frequent speaker on pricing, wholesale, and business thinking for creatives.

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How to Build an Audience

How to Build an Audience

Lesson Info

7. How to Build an Audience

Lessons

Class Introduction

Why Do You Want to Make Money from Your Craft?

Exercise: Take an Honest Look at Your Financial Situation

(A)lways (B)e (R)eleasing

Priority #1: Email List

Priority #2: Your Product Photography