Earlier this week, Carmen of Carmen's Custom Creations reached out to us asking for a little help with her new store. Carmen creates wonderful custom tiles and we were more than happy to share our entrepreneurial advice with her to get her shop off the ground and her sales growing.
We thought this advice might be helpful to share with all of you too as we know it can be tough to succeed in building your creative business online and so we wanted to share 3 areas to focus and help get you off to a good start!
Tell Your Story
Setting up an online store is not enough to sell. In addition to offering a great product, you have to include your own personal touch and it’s all about telling your story to create awareness. In order to tell your story, start a blog and write about your products…for example, what inspires you to create them…how you make them…write about other creative individuals that interest you. A blog is a GREAT way to create buzz for your products and make potential customers aware of your products. Here are some wonderful articles on Meylah to help you:
- Create Your Blog: The Nuts and Bolts of a Good Blog Post
- Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
- Identifying Your Audience & Writing for Them
Connect with Others
Integrate your store with social media outlets like a Facebook fan page where you can update your wall with your most recent blog post and join Facebook groups related to your interests. In addition, create a Twitter account and send messages (tweets) to your followers about your most recent creation or your next project. Finally, create a Flickr account to share images of your work and join groups on Flickr related to your business. Integrating these three social media engines into your business will connect you to folks who want to buy your products as well as folks who can help you to get the word out and expand your reach. Here are a few articles from Meylah on how to get started with some of these social media outlets:
- How to Get Started on Twitter
- How to Get Started on Flickr
- Flickr Groups: Crafting, Blogging, Promoting
Market Yourself
Market yourself and your business effectively. On Etsy, you can create a 'Shop Announcement' for your shop’s home page and introduce what you make & perhaps a few of your shop policies (i.e. your shipping timelines) or how customers should contact you for custom requests. In addition, personalize your business so potential customers see who you are...like uploading a picture of yourself in your profile. People really like to connect on a personal level and this allows them to feel like they know who they are buying from. Here are some incredible articles on Meylah for marketing your online business more effectively:
- Marketing Tips for Crafters
- What’s Your Name Again? How to Name Your Online Store
- Top 10 Tips for Writing a Killer “About” Page
Thank you again Carmen for reaching out to us! We hope this information helps you grow your business and we hope to continue to be a resource for all creative entrepreneurs! Please let us know what areas you are interested in learning more about and we will be sure and cover those topics here on Meylah!
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