Explore YOUR Business Archives - Page 21 of 29

Explore YOUR Business

Self-Promotion vs. Marketing

I'm allergic to the term “self-promotion.”

Lots of crafters call it that, getting their work in front of other people, and it's not just a malapropism; it's dangerous! It distracts you from what you should be doing.

Beau begs you to stop calling it self-promotion.

Self-promotion sounds gross. In fact, just promoting yourself, telling everyone how great you are, is kinda gross. No one wants to be around the girl who can't stop talking about how great she can sing. (You know the girl.)

But calling it self-promotion is dangerous.

If “promotion” is the only way you're thinking of marketing, you're avoiding it. And that's dangerous, because you're probably avoiding all the other aspects of marketing, too.

(Or you're the other kind of creative, that just accepts the gross aspect of self-promotion and fills your twitter stream with “just listed [link to shop]”…but I'm pretty sure that's not you.)

Marketing, however, is the process of communicating with your people, about your product, your business and how it can help them.

Promotion is only (a small) part of the marketing equation.

It might help to know that traditional marketing (as defined in my past-life, MBA marketing classes), Promotion is just one of the 4 P's of Marketing.
In other words, it's only a quarter, of all the marketing you do for your business. In creative businesses, I have a theory that it's even less than 1/4, but we'll get into that in a bit.

The 4 P's of Marketing is a framework for thinking about your marketing mix (all the things you do to communicate with your people). Inherent in the concept of a marketing mix is the belief that Promotion isn't everything; that your focus should not only be on telling people about your work.

The other P's:

Product
Price
Place

Product – It all starts with what you're selling – Is it something people want? If so, what about it do people want? Is that clear? Is it remarkable? Is there a new product you can add (or delete) from your line to reach a new market?

Price – We already know that pricing is not a benefit…but it is a tool for marketing. Not just special pricing (a sale or discount), but the overall pricing strategy: Do you have a range of prices? Do your prices appeal to one market over another? What does your price say about the quality of your product?

Place – Where your product is sold directly effects the market it reaches. Is your product where it's people can find it? If you only have an online store, do you know your Right People shop online? When you pick a craft show, do you make sure your people will be there? How do you pick a shop to carry your goods? Where does news of your business show up? Is that really where your buyers are?

See, there's lots of marketing to do that doesn't involve promotion. In my next few posts, I'm going to share stories of how specific businesses can market (and grow) using the other Ps.

What Ps do you use in your marketing mix?

Is there one you want to explore?

Irony

It's a little ironic that my next class is about how to blog for your business when I am not, how shall we say, much a blogger.

my fancy note-taking process

The truth is, most of the work I do is behind the curtain. I spend most of my day working with people, not trying to find new people (which is what a regularly-written blog can do). I answer questions, teach Starship-only classes, send yarn to subscribers. I do my best, I write most helpfully when it's for a specific audience, when I know exactly who needs my answer (this is why I create free mini-courses via email instead of just blogging them).

This is why we created the class.

Because not everyone needs a big flashy blog to create a booming business.

Our new class (which I'm teaching with Diane, because she is a woman who knows how to blog!), is about that, the process of figuring out what you want from your blog, what your people want from it, and then creating a plan for it. Instead of numbers, you focus on reaction – What brings in your best customers? What helps them move towards you (and your products?)

When you pay attention to what your customers want, and what you want to communicate, you may even find you don't need or want a blog.

That's what happened in my crafty business, at Blonde Chicken Boutique.
I realized that even if blog posts got comments, they didn't do anything for sales. My emails helped people buy. My special customer-only emails have an crazy high open rate and an even crazier click-through and buy rate. I realized (after quite a few years of fighting it) that my yarn lovers aren't blog readers. They visit my site, sign up for the emails and then expect to the emails to remind them to buy.

So now I use the blog as a resource. I show off what customers have made and give pattern ideas… but it's less of a blog and more like an archive of helpfulness. When my retail customers (which represents the largest percentage of my business) ask me what they can make with my yarn, I send them to past posts. Since I don't have an active shop (I sell one yarn a month, to email subscribers only), I don't need to do a lot of showing off of new products, I just email it directly to the people who want to buy it.

This is weird, I know. When all the rest of the world is tell you to blog! And make videos! And tweet! I'm telling you – you have permission to do what works.

It's not particularly glamorous.
But it works (really well).

Your way, the way that works for you and your people, might be something else entirely. You might want to blog daily. Or weekly. Or never.
I want to help you figure that out.
And more than anything, I want you to know that you have permission to use whatever works for you.

To Blog or Not to Blog…is that the question?

“Is it absolutely necessary to blog, or can I find my Right People without one? I have never been a blog reader myself; I've found most of my favorite shops via Twitter, and the idea of blogging kind of gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies”

“But I don't like blogging! Do I have to blog? If I don't, how will I get the word out?”

A few months ago, two Starship captains posted the above questions.

So we started to have the conversation: To Blog, Or Not to Blog?

As I was thinking it through, I emailed Diane, she of all Blogging Knowledge (seriously, that woman knows how to make an addictable blog!) and we started talking about it. Is there some way we can help people answer this question? For their own business and their own strengths?

We started compiling all our thoughts on it; the stuff she's learned through helping people tune-up their crafty blogs, what I've learned exploring crafters' businesses.

And what we came to realize is that To Blog Or Not To Blog is not the question.

**The question is: How do you make a blog (or ANY marketing) work for you, your goals and your people?**

**Where's the balance between what you want to say and what your people want to read?**

As we answered this question, we found we shared a little system. A system that anyone can apply to any business, to make their blog (or their emails, or their twitter stream) balanced and in congruence with the rest of their business.

We'll be sharing this system (along with lots of worksheets to make sure you apply it to you) in our new class. You can read more and register here.

PS. Don't miss Diane's experience (and myth-busting) as a Lucky Blogger.

Reviewing the year in your business

As the year wraps up, it’s time to review the past year. Now, this can be as painful as doing your taxes or it can be as fun as attending a New Year’s Eve party.

Let’s do it the fun way, yeah?

Making your yearly wrap-up FUN can be as simple as setting some intentions before you get started – what do you want to learn? What information do you need to make the New Year awesome?

I like to know:

What are the best things I did for my business in 2011?
What were my most succesful months?
Where did new business come from?
What risks didn’t pay off?
What was the most painful time (or project) of 2011
(notice: I didn’t ask what wasn’t successful,because if something was a huge money-maker, but I hated every second of it…I want to avoid it in the future, or find a way to make it more fun)

To answer these questions, I do a quick three-step process:

1. Gather information

2. Find the connections

3. Use what I’ve learned

1. Gather Information

Now, this is the step that you’ll try to avoid, but you’ve gotta just buckle down and do it.

The kind of information you want to gather is:

Your business financials, by month (all income and expenses) – I get this by donwloading my Paypal activity by month into a spreadsheet, then I update the spreadsheet with information from my bank statements (anything that I earned or spent that didn’t go through Paypal). If you use Vianza, these reports are easy to generate!
A list of the time-specific marketing you did (what months did you run advertising, attend trade shows, release new lines, etc) – this is easiest to gather if you’ve been writing it down as the year’s progressed, but you can dig through your emails to find the info you need.
The metrics that I care about, by month – this is everything that reflects the health of your business that isn’t related to money. For you this might be new accounts (and when you landed them), web traffic (pay attention to spikes, and changes in where the traffic came from), publicity.

To keep it simple, I like to organize the information in a simple list with each month’s final numbers (income and expense), the marketing in that month, and any other metrics listed under the Month Name. If you spread it out too much, over multiple documents, you won’t be able to see as clearly how one month affected the next.

Now go back through your months and write in anything else that you think of.
Did a trade show one month lead you to hire someone to help you fill the orders? Or did it overwhelm you so much that you sent orders out late?
Did one retailer fail to pay you one time and mess up your cashflow?
Did you get a sales rep in one month and see your orders double the next month.
Is one month’s income made up from just one big order, while another month’s made up of several small orders?

Whew, this is a lot of digging and thinking and it may take you more than one day. Take as long as you need to think over this list and add things as you think of them.

When you're ready for Part 2 of the review process, check it out at Vianza.

I wrote this post for Vianza, but liked it so much I had to share it here! Let me know how your review goes!

Pricing is not a Benefit

Last week I shared the BOOK with its first readers and the most-beloved little segment is something that came right from the blog. Since it struck a chord with readers, I thought it might be time to re-share it:

A client recently asked:

“How am I supposed to compete with Wal-mart? They have low prices, lots of different colors, and a huge advertising budget.”

I answered them simply:

You are not competing with Wal-mart.

And not just because you can’t (really, you can’t!) but because your Right People don’t want you to be Wal-mart.

They want originality.
Personality.
Specificity.
Personal connection.

Wal-mart provides cheap, mass-produced goods, cheaply.
You make hand-crafted, high quality, one-of-a-kind goodness to people who are willing to pay for it.

As long as you think of Wal-mart as the competition, you’ll spend your time explaining how you’re better than them.
But that’s a waste of time.

Remember how your English teacher used to say “Show, don’t Tell”?

Show your personality. Show your originality. Show your Youness.
And you’ll never have to mention “low prices” or “great deals.”

Here’s a short list of general benefits (the things that make you awesomest):

You are a real person. The buyer gets to interact with a real person. And not just ANY person, a person who MADE the thing they’re buying.
Your can provide awesome, agile customer support.
You are an artist. People adore supporting artists and the artist community.
Your thing is one of a kind. The buyer will have something that no one else has.

Of course, you probably know this.

But do your customers know it?
Do you make it ultra-freaking clear that what you make is valuable?

If you’re not sure how to make it clear (or what the benefits of your specific goodness is), the Starship (and the many smart Captains aboard it) can help you with that.

Holiday Sanity and Starships

When I tweeted a link to last year's free guide and was overwhelmed with thank you tweets and emails, I realized I needed to share it again:

It's a quick-to-use, silly little guide with handdrawn lists and goofy metaphors.

Yet, it works.
It helps you get a handle on what's coming next and it makes it all more do-able.

In the Starship, we're doing weekly check-ins on ho and I'm (again) surprised by how much just a bit of planning + a dash of accountability can improve your experience of the holidays.

So much so, that I was starting to doubt closing the Starship until January.
Last night, after chatting with Starshippers, someone said “Once again, I'm surrounded by smart and understanding people” and there was a round of “yay starship!”s.
I realized: yes, it's easier for me to manage everyone's membership if I wait to reopen enrollment until January….but this is the time of year people need help. And community of like-minded friends. And encouragment.

Thus it's decided: the Starship is now open to new Cadets.

If you're feeling a little worn out, a little apprehensive about the oncoming rush of holiday sales, and holiday shopping, and holiday gift-making, the Starship is here for you:
Community, weekly check-ins, accountability partners, everything we can do to make the holidays sane.
Oh yeah, and access over $500 worth of classes + tools. For 13 months.

Come aboard here.

Podcast: Multiple Streams of Income

I'm super happy to be talking about growing your craftybiz with multiple stream of income over on the (new!) CraftyPod 2.0.

You can preview it below, or click “buy” to listen to the whole thing (it's free!)

Diane does a great job of getting to the heart of the issue: how do you fit it into your business?

If you're hoping to spice up your business with different kinds of income (ie, money!), here are a few other things I've written about it:

(the cupcakes don't really have anything to do with income…except that I'm obsessed with making them (3 batches in 2 days)…maybe if my frosting technique improved, I'd have another source of income?)

How Right People Changed my Business, revisited

In writing the chapter on Right People (for the BOOK!) and getting ready for the new class, I found this old post on Right People and I love it so much, I wanted to share it again (updated with what's changed)…

Last week we talked about what Right People are and how they can change your business.
Today I’d like to share what happened to Blonde Chicken Boutique when I started applying the concept of Right People to my work.

It started by Havi saying

Everyone has Right People

and

Your Right People are Right if they love what you do. That’s the only requirement.

And I wondered, what would this look like if I really believed it?

If these people love what I make, then I should make something truly ME.

Instead of worrying about the trends or what other yarnies were doing, I started focusing on yarn that I really love. Textures, colors, styles. My love of my work grew and I created a line of yarns that really went together. I began to develop a look for Blonde Chicken Boutique.

If there are people who love what I make, then I should be talking to THEM.

Instead of spending money reaching tons of new people, I turned to my current people. How can I serve them better?
For starters, I ask them. I create products they want (the Learn To Knit Kit was inspired by people who loved my yarn but didn’t knit) and I keep them up-to-date (with a customers-only newsletter + a bi-weekly Yarn-Love Note)

My Right People love my thing, so why worry with those who don’t?

When I realized I don’t have to appeal to everyone or make everyone happy, I can focus on doing what I do best and serving the people who are already happy.

This means I could stop selling online, I can focus on my Monthly Yarn Mail customers and my yarn shops.

My happy, delighted Right People are the best advertising I could ever want.

If I make it easy for them to share my stuff, they can spread the more to more Right People.
Without doing anything, yarn shops have approached me. They have customers who asked them for my yarn, so now they carry it. ALL of my wholesale business (which is now 90% of my yarn business) has come from referrals!

The more I thought about Right People, I realized I was actually thinking about Marketing.

But instead of asking “How do I tell people about my thing” (like many crafters do)
or “How do I tell my target market of 30 year old college graduates who make $40,000/year who knit about my thing” (like marketers do),
I’m asking “Who are my Right People already? What do they love? What could I do make them happier.”

This changed every part of my marketing.
(and started attracting attention of people who needed marketing help, from companies who want my advice to publishers who want me to write books)

The result?

My time is spent working with people I love, instead stressing over finding more people. My people are happy and tell their friends. My sales have greatly increased.
But best of all, I’m doing what I actually love.

A totally unexpected, non-yarny result?

When I started really listening to my people (not just my customers, but all those people who I liked and liked me, including other crafters, my online friends, other business owners), I realized they wanted something else.
They were asking me business-y questions; about marketing, about sales, about crafting a business AND a life.

So I started offering classes and tools.
Every single one of my classes (including this week’s class on Right People) have been sparked by specific questions I’ve been asked. I always answer the asker, but when the answer becomes huge, I know I have a class.

The best part?
I genuinely love teaching. I love talking about business. I love love love brainstorming for other people’s thing.
And the love is so obvious that last night Jay said, “Wow, I can see how happy this makes you. And it’s so perfect for you!” ).

Following my Right People? Led me to bliss.

What would change in your business if you focused on your Right People?

If you’d like to work with your adoring fans + find your Right People, check out the class!
Registrations close this Wednesday!

What are Right People, re-visited

In writing the chapter on Right People (for the BOOK!) and getting ready for the new class, I couldn't find a better way to explain it than I did in a post I wrote last year…so instead of trying to find a new way of saying it, let's just have a look at that older post:

“Your Right Price will be right for your Right People”

I said this in the Pricing class and a few people piped up to ask , “But who are these Right People? How do I find them?”

We’ll talk about the how to find the Right People and how to make them happy in this class, but before you register for that, let’s answer the basic question:

Who are Right People and why do I care?

I first heard the term from Havi, when she said:

Your Right People need whatever it is you have in whatever form you give it.

I read that and thought, yeah, ok.

But then I started to explore it (and talked to Havi about it in more depth).

As I experimented, it reframed and transformed every area of my business.

Let’s start with a definition, from Havi:

Right People = anyone you like and appreciate who likes and appreciates you.

My definition, as it relates to our crafty pursuits:

Right People = the people who love and adore your thing, the way you do it and you.

Your right people is anyone who really loves what you make.

This includes:

customers
friends
cheerleaders
mentors
partners

Not all of your Right People are going to buy from you, but even those that don’t will sing your praises to new Right People.

Without a focus on your Right People your business may be:

Unfocused: Which way should I go next? What should I make?
Uncertain: Will this sell? Where should I advertise?
Insecure: Will people like it? Is it worthless? Will anyone ever buy?

Focusing on your Right People can reverse all that.

When you’re talking to your Right People, you can be yourself:

Because that spark of YOU is what spoke to the people in the first place, it’s why they are here, checking out your thing.

When you talk to your Right People, you know what to do next:

They’ll tell you what they want either directly (I want yellow!) or indirectly (yellow sells out quickly).

When you share your thing with the Right People, you’ll make sales:

They will feel a sense of kinship or a recognition of awesomeness and it will *click*. Yes, this is for me.

It’s not about manipulation, convincing or cajoling.
In fact, it’s the opposite! When you speak to your Right People, you don’t have to persuade them that your thing is right, they will feel it.

Sound awesome?

Learn how to do it October 12th in the Right People class. We’ll cover the specific how tos of finding your Right People, talking to them, learning from them and keeping them blissfully happy.

Linchpin in a Business of One

Last time I saw my uncle, he told me he had read a life-changing book. A read-three-times-in-a-row kind of book. An everyone-should-read-this kind of book.

What is the book, I practically screamed.

(We like to tell dramatic stories in my family…ones that can go off the rails by the constant interruption of cousins/sons/brothers.)

I was completely surprised to hear the title: Linchpin, by Seth Godin.

The only Seth Godin book I haven't read.

I thought the book was about being an indispensable employee…so I had skipped it. I'm not an employee and I'm pretty darn indispensable in my business of one.

But I trust my uncle, so I got the book from the library.
And devoured it this week.

It's a great book for employees and entrepreneurs alike, but here's what blew my mind: Seth talks, at length about the need to…make your own map. (I'm sorta into you making your own map, remember?)

He has an entire chapter on There Is No Map and here's how it starts:

What does it take to lead?

The key distinction is the ability to forge your own path to discover a route from one place to another that hasn't been paved, measured, and quatified. So many times we want someone to tell us exactly what to do, and so many times that's exactly the wrong approach.

Right?

This is what I'm talking about.

This is exactly what I'm passionate about:
You, getting comfortable with your youness.
You, recognizing that your distinct talents (Seth calls it your genius), your amazing thing (or Seth likes to say, your art) are what your Right People are begging for.

You, getting clear, getting obvious, gettin' jiggy with your youness is what I want for you.

So whether you're working for the man, or your own womanly self – be honest:

Where are you looking to someone else to tell you what to do?

What area of business (life) could you be making your own map for?

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