HOW TO MARKET YOUR PRODUCTS

            When I first started making pens and key chains along with other little whatnots and doodads, I made quite a few until I got pretty good at it.  Then I gave one of my pens to a guy at my place of employment and had him show it around and tell everyone where he got it from. This person was very popular and was more than willing to show the pen around.

      Luckily I worked in a place that had around 300 employees and it did not take long before I had folks coming to me to make pens for them. (At a price of course). In my first month after giving just one pen away I sold around $400.00 worth of slimline pens which I was getting $17.50 each for at the time. That was fourteen years ago.

            I worked  in the evenings and whenever I had time to perfect my turning techniques and work on getting the perfect brilliant finish on the wooden barrels that's what I would do.   When you have a great looking product then word of mouth advertising is your best advertising media. You can also have this approach at your church or favorite lodge.

            After selling a pen to a customer I kept a log and would check back with them a few weeks later and make sure that they were still happy and ask them if they knew anyone else who might be interested in having a nice pen made for them. Most of the time they knew someone; or knew someone who knew someone. Within a day or so after giving away a business card to pass along I had someone calling me wanting to know if I could make them a pen like the one that I had made for their friend. Of course I can, what do you want?

            So it went for months and months. I had built a nice clientele and had created a reputation for myself of creating very nice products with a very short turn around at a reasonable price.

             I started making little color picture catalogs on my home PC and started keeping these with me along with my business cards to show folks when It was not practical to carry around my pen portfolio. Yes, I usually had a pen portfolio nearby with finished pens in it which I could sell on the fly or at least show off my work and let the customer design their own. I could and still can make just about anything within reason.

            I went to a lot of private beauty salons and asked if I could set up a nice display at the register and I was rarely turned down. Another venue was tobacco shops. When Tracey started making things on her laser, we sold a lot of pens at a local pet store that had paws engraved into them and an "I love my (Dog breed)" engraved on them. The possibilities are endless, you just have to think outside the box and get your stuff in front of potential customers.

            Don't forget to keep a supply of business cards beside your display. This is a sales lead generator so a potential customer needs to know how to get in touch with you.

            I have mentioned business cards several times and a lot of folks think that they are a waste of time and money. I have had many folks call me out of the blue and say that they got one of my cards from so and so and would like to take a look at what I have to offer. A business card just goes hand in hand with word of mouth advertising. They are cheap to get made and will go a long way to getting your business off the ground.

            I am not pitching for Vista Print, but that's who I use and I can usually get pretty good deals from them. Just so you know; by the time you buy card stock, pay for ink and toner, ruin several cards because you loaded them into the printer wrong, etc.......It is just as cheap if not cheaper to have nice professional looking business cards made by a professional printing company. No fuzzy perforated edges and Plain Jane looking cards. Make a statement with your card with your logo and tell folks what you do and how to contact you.

            If you can afford to advertise, do so. Be sure though that you are advertising to your target market. Just throwing money into newspaper ads and buying ads in menus at the local teen hangout or the high school yearbook may not be the best use of your funds. Remember, teenagers usually don't have any money. When they do have money, they don't buy pens. Analyze your sales and look at who your largest percentage of sales goes to. Those are the folks that you want to spend money advertising to.

            How often have you been at a craft show and you see something you like but want to get in touch with the vendor/maker later to acquire a creation from him or her. Low and behold they do not have any business cards. See, there you go. Get some cards made up. If 90 out of a hundred cards goes into the trash can, just one pen sale from the other ten can more than pay for the trashed business cards.

            How did Wood-N-Whimsies get started......Well, that's another story for some other time.

PAM'S TWO CENTS WORTH:

TRACEY'S TWO CENTS WORTH:

    Remember, although I don't do custom inlay work feel free to drop me a quick email if there is something you'd like to see.