Make your promos rad

That gigantic super cool craft show is just a month away. What are you doing to prepare? Brainstorming new items? Buying a new tent? Building up stock? Asking your brother to fly 3000 miles to help you man your booth? (Yes, I did this and he is coming.)

Maybe you haven’t even begun to plan and are wondering where to start? My advice is to spend some time with your promotional materials. These are going to be important before, during and after that big show. Think you don’t have time for this? It shouldn’t take long and you will be happy you did it!

Printed materials. Do you have them? If not, get some! There will be so many people who want to remember you or show your stuff to a friend. Afraid of dealing with printers? I understand. There are a number of online companies that will help you design and submit postcards, business cards, fliers, etc. Use their online tools to create a piece or if you have some skillz, download a Photoshop template. I love Vistaprint.com, but be warned if you go with them, be ready to be spammed for the rest of your life. I have friends who swear by Overnightprints.com because you can get those fancy rounded corners on everything. There are many more places to get your materials fast and cheap.

Have you taken a good look at your promotional materials from the standpoint of someone who knows nothing about you? Try to avoid business cards with just text on them. We need to see what you make! I would also say try to avoid business cards in general. I always throw them away. They are too small and look like scraps of trash in my bag. I truly believe the postcard is the way to go.

Think about creating your postcards to double as products. Why not create an art card with a really cool picture of one of your items or perhaps with one of your designs? If you put your shop name on the back of the card, it turns into a freebie rather than an advertisement. I have a postcard from Glitterlimes.com on my wall that has been with me for 3 years. I took it to every new job and now it is on my daughters’ closet door. It is beautiful; like their products, it is art. Make a set of 4 different cards, package them up and sell them, but give one of them away as your promo card. People will want to take something that has value.

LemonCadet made these little felt bean stickers and added them to her postcards. I picked one up because I liked the bean. I promptly put the sticker on the back of my cell phone. There she is. My orange bean reminds me of LemonCadet every time I use my cell. How brilliant is that? Make your customers know that you like them even if they don’t buy something right then. That might be corny, but indie craft is about people. And the more you act like a person and not a used car salesmen, the more people will dig you.

Other things you could be thinking about are overhauling that web shop for post-show shoppers, clearing up your brand identity and oh yeah, making some stuff. These are topics for another post, though. Get to work!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 10:30 am and is filed under Craft Fairs, Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair, Shows and Events, Tips & Hints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.