I will be the first to admit it, promoting my own work is NOT my favorite pastime but it is a necessity if you are planning on selling your handmade work online.  So, since this sometimes time consuming job must be done, why are people not taking the time to actually make it count?  I’ve seen more posts than I care to think about it here on ItsBetterHandmade as well as Twitter and Facebook that are basically worthless as far as driving traffic to your shop so let’s stop a sec and think about the top 5 reasons your posts may not be getting you the traffic that your work deserves.

TITLES

A title must be eye-catching and something that makes customers want to click!  “Blue Baby Blanket” is about as exciting as milk toast and certainly something that many eyes will just gloss over.  How about using some words like cozy, newborn, precious, or captivating?  Words that evoke a feeling will get much more attention than those with nothing to say.

PICTURES

I know that many have harped, me included, on the need for amazing product pictures, but are you listening and making the necessary changes?  If you are using a blurry, washed out, cluttered…or my favorite….sideways product picture do you really expect a customer to stop their busy lives and take notice?

LINKS

My friends, PLEASE!  If you are promoting your shop on any other site or social media and want customers to follow you to your shop no matter where it is you MUST provide a link!  I receive emails almost daily on IBH from potential customers looking for an artist because they forgot to include a way for a customer to contact them.  I will always try to get the customer the contact info, but how many customers don’t even bother and just move on to another, more easily accessible artist to do the work?

DESCRIPTIONS

Please, please, please don’t just put up a picture and a link!  Give your customer a tease, something to check out that will draw them in.  Just a photo, even the best photo, does not tell a customer that the item is even for sale.  In other words, a quick line or two may be the difference between getting an order or not.

PERSISTENT….NOT OBNOXIOUS

 I’ve seen both and there is a balance.  When you are promoting your work, keep in mind that out of site really is out of mind in the rat race of day to day life.  You must promote regularly so that when the time comes to buy you are the first person your customer thinks of. That being said, if you are constantly in their face, most customers will probably just pass on by as very few people are interested in the Used Car Salesman approach.  Find a balance that works and then stick to it!

While this list hardly covers everything, it should give you a good starting point to make your time spent promoting your hard work worth the time and lead to greater sales!  Do you have any suggestions on what or what not to do when it comes to promoting your handmade work?  Share in the comments!