Jewelry Business Tip: Your Customers
I wrote a post about How to Be Successful Selling Handmade Jewelry about a year ago. That post gave an overview of some tips.Since so many people have asked, I have decided to teach an online Jewelry Business eCourse! It starts on March 2, 2015. It’s a 5 week course with videos, worksheets, audios and PDF eBooks designed for you if you’re wondering how on earth to get started selling handmade jewelry. (More information coming soon!)Each Friday I'll be bringing you a free tip right here on the blog or you can sign up to get a weekly Jewelry Business Tip in your inbox here.Last week I wrote about Knowing Your Style & Mastering Your Jewelry Making Skills.
This week:Figure out who and where your customers are.This is a big, huge subject that can be a whole book itself! But I'll give you an overview here.If you have customers this is easier, but if not you can do some internet research and figure out where they are online and in the physical world.{Some people suggest doing this and then creating your jewelry. I think making jewelry is a form of art and should be based on the creator of art first. I made jewelry for myself and as an expression of my creativity first. However, I try to stay somewhat cohesive in style when making jewelry to sell so as to not confuse my customers.}First figure out who your customers are.If you have customers already, think about them. "Women" is too broad. What is their age? What do they do? How do they spend their time? Come up with as detailed of a description as you can.If you don't know certain information about them, you can make it up for now. As you sell more, you'll learn more about them!Now, think about how they are interacting with you and your product. Are they buying it as a treat for themselves? Is it a gift? How do they use it? Why do they buy it? What need does it meet? (There is a need that your product meets.)For example, my jewelry is made from recycled and upcycled materials. My customers like to feel a sense of belonging to a bigger cause: the environment. My jewelry was also pretty unique and people were purchasing it more as art than jewelry to match a certain outfit or dress. My customers mostly were women buying it for themselves (and occasionally gifts for their girlfriends). They were largely collectors. (They didn't typically buy one piece. They typically either purchased more than one piece or kept returning for more pieces for their collection.)This is just one example. Start thinking about your jewelry and a need it meets for your customers. Even if you don't have customers, you can start to think about the need it could meet or how your customers could interact with it.
Once you know how they are, figure out where they are!Where do they shop, online and in real life?Where do they hang out online and in real life?What forums or Facebook groups do they belong to?What is important to them?Are they in cities or more rural communities? Small towns or big cities? Are they located in a geographic region in particular?You can use this information to make all kinds of decisions with your business from what craft shows to do to what stores to approach to sell your jewelry to where you should be selling and marketing online.
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