Let your art speak for itself
You are fortunate.
Many businesses have to sell products that have no visual appeal or emotional
connection.
Imagine if you sold elbow pipes or oil for farm machinery. Not all that exciting. You
either need it so you buy it, or you don.t give the product the time of day.
But your jewelry, what a different story!
People buy your art because of the color, the texture, the shape, the length, the delicate
touch, the bold definition, the unique stone, and on and on.
Women buy jewelry to sharpen their mood, accessorize an outfit, to give as gifts, for
inspiration and to feel beautiful.
Your product begs to be seen.
Why waste a tree?
Times have changed. We can display an eye-catching, mouthwatering, hand-tingling
catalog right online. Potential customers or repeat customers can visit our site and see
what we have in stock, what is new, and search by item or stone or whatever.
If your website does not presently have the capacity for an online catalog, there are
several options for you:
1. You can use a template site that includes everything for one monthly fee.
www·homestead·com
2. You can use company.s like www·1shoppingcart·com
3. Many of the contact management systems have online catalog and ecommerce
solutions: Aweber or www·getresponse·com
4. You can have your own catalog built for you if you feel the need, but it is most
likely your most expensive option.
Refer people to your online catalog regularly through printed handouts you offer at trade
shows, home parties, included in your packaging, included when you ship an order. You
can use email marketing to continue to refer people to new designs and colors you are
offering.
When a tree is needed
There are times you will want to send of catalog sheets. It doesn.t necessarily require
the full catalog but perhaps you want to draw someone.s attention to a piece and you
can.t be guaranteed that they will run to the computer and look at it, even though you
instructed them to do so! (They.ve got nerve!)
There are several potential opportunities for sending off one or two pages of your
catalog:
1. Use them to send as attention grabbers in your latest shipments of product,
either to individual customers or to retail customers.
2. Use them to highlight styles or themes to prospective retail vendors.
3. Use them to confirm with a custom client the exact components of a piece
I have mentioned the Bead Pro Manager in previous chapters. This custom designed
software was made for home based jewelry business and addresses your needs and
concerns specifically.
For the catalog, the features in Bead Pro Manager are most helpful. You can choose
any of your products and make a unique catalog for any customer. Here is how it works:
1. You choose the piece you want to display
2. Bead Manager Pro takes the piece, and puts it into a sheet that has your logo
and information on the sheet, the price of the product, the picture and description.
3. You can repeat this for as many pieces as you like, and you have just created a
personalized catalog.
You may want to consider offering a gift–purchase-option to your clients. If they want to order a necklace for a friend, but prefer to send the friend a few options, you could provide a pre-paid gift enclosure with the personalized catalog of 3 options they chose for the friend. It makes the gift seem personal, while adding the option of choice. The value to your clients increases, which reflects on the price they are willing to pay for your product.
Be sure all the ducks are in a row
Refer back to your lesson on photography to be sure that your photographs are telling
the best story of your work. Use descriptive language when you caption your items.
For instance: See the difference:
Insure that whatever you have in a catalog, you can either mass produce quickly or have
in stock already.
Watch your prices. Be sure to update you prices to suit the cost of raw materials. If
there was a fluctuation in your last order from the supplier, do you need to reflect it in
your online or offline catalog?
Be original! Why not show some ways people can dress with the jewelry? Show the
earrings or necklace by itself, and then show it on someone with the right collar to make
the best impact.
No matter what tools you use, you are always there to solve a problem or meet the need
of your customer. So although you may be tempted to make the catalog all about you
and your beautiful work, always keep the customer in the back of your mind and
think of ways to help and assist them in wise purchases.
There are so many ways to sell product! Have you considered trying your hand at a
trade show or artist.s fair? Our next few chapters will introduce you to the idea and offer
some moneymaking and saving tips you can start using right away!