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Get to know your ideal clients with these 10 questions

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Want to get to know your ideal clients better? Are you struggling to identify who your dream clients are and how to approach them?

Many new creative businesses struggle to find out who their potential clients could be. But it doesn’t need to be that difficult! Marketing isn’t rocket science and using your common sense can get you very far.

Start to think about who might be using or buying your creative products or services. Ask other people too. Look at where your competitors are selling or talking about their work. That kind of research can give you important clues to who your ideal clients are.

If you are really struggling to identify your potential clients then it’s very likely that you aren’t focused yet or clear on your niche:

What do you do best and who are your ideal clients?

It also might help you to know that you don’t have just one ideal client – but probably around 3 – 5 different client types or groups! Don’t try to put them all together because you will be creating a monster that doesn’t resemble your ideal client in the slightest!

Why is it important to get to know your ideal clients?

If you know who your ideal clients are then:

  • You will find it much easier to design and create the right creative products and collection for them – original, innovative and creative products and services that are actually wanted because you understand their needs and wants better and you have more empathy for your ideal clients. So it will be easier to sell your creative products and less likely that you end up with a lot of unsold stock! 
  • You will find it much easier to position yourself in your marketplace and to stand out from the crowd because you will be designing more specific products for specific client’s needs, and you will know how to attract your clients with the right photography and styling, showing at the right events, and appearing in the press that they read. By being focused on serving a specific client group you will become a specialist and it’s easier to become known by your ideal clients because you will know exactly where to show and sell your work.
  • You will be more focused and effective because you understand your clients at a deeper level, meet them in the right places, know when they are most likely to buy and how to attract them. The whole creative process from designing to launching your products and services will be much easier.
  • The more you understand who your ideal clients are the more you will understand who you are, what your special talents and strengths are, and that will help you to become braver in your designs and more confident too. You and your clients are not necessarily the same people, but you will have some values and tastes in common.

If you think that everybody is your client, then you will have a lot of disappointment in your business (unless you have got unlimited amounts of money, time and energy to reach them all!).

The reality is that less than 1% of the general public is interested in what you do. If you want to create a successful business then it is YOUR job to find your clients!

Like in the playground you need to start looking at who YOUR ideal clients are. Read the other 6 marketing myths that might stop you from being more successful with your creative business.

Once you have got a bit of an idea who your ideal client groups (both your potential consumers, trade clients, and stockists) are then use the following 10 questions to get to know your dream clients better:

Q1: Who are they?

On a very basic level start to think who your clients are in socio-economic terms e.g. their gender, age, life cycle, income, job, hobbies, etc.

  • Are you selling your colourful graphic prints cheaply to recent design graduates, a young couple moving to their first flat in Brighton, or to a pregnant yummy mummy in Hackney who wants to put some in the nursery?
  • Are you selling your bold silver statement rings to a goth for that special event, to an ambitious Marketing Executive who wants to show a bit of oomph at that press conference, or to a woman in her fifties who wants to celebrate her freedom and show her personality? What do they want to express exactly when buying or wearing your big silver rings?
  • Is your natural linen textile wall hanging appealing to a recently divorced psychedelic lady in her 40’s, a couple of retired lawyers looking for art for their cottage in Devon reminding them of their extensive foreign travels, or for the office of a creatively-inclined dentist in Central London who wants to calm down their client’s nerves?

Understanding your clients at that level will help you to create products that they will love to buy and treasure for a long time. 

This kind of socio-economic information used to be enough to do successful marketing, but in the last 15 years or so we have all changed a lot and we all belong to different tribes. ‘Older’ people are harder to stereotype these days, so age or gender alone will not tell you enough to identify your clients. Therefore these next questions will help you to get to know your clients at a deeper level.

GET INTO ACTION:

Get a piece of paper and start writing down some of your answers to the questions below. Or first read through the entire blog post (it’s a long one, but a good one!) and then return to the start here and answer the questions. Or bookmark this page or print it off.

Q2: What jobs and hobbies do your ideal clients have?

What job do your ideal clients have? Many creative products are bought by people who aspire to be creative but aren’t necessarily creative themselves. Your products or services will make them feel more creative, more themselves and give them some personality! You need to find the people who have an interest in art, design, and creativity as well as the money to purchase it.

Especially if you want to sell to rich people it might be really useful to dig a little deeper into their hobbies as they often spend a lot of money. For example, a wine connoisseur worked together with a furniture designer maker I know for many months to get his wine cellar just exactly right. They both really appreciated their passions and wanted to create the very best and unique space solution.

People working in the press, marketing or law often purchase creative products. Why? Because they want to look good, they often have events where they ‘need’ to look special, and want to surround themselves with beautiful products.

GET INTO ACTION:

Do you know what your ideal clients do for a living and in their spare time? Start to get inquisitive and find out when you talk to them at events. You will be surprised about the similarities that many of your clients might have.

Or you can deliberately create products for specific hobbies such as special heritage gardening tools for gardeners, spiky and rebellious jewellery for rock-lovers, or simple artisan ceramic plates for bakers to show off their wares.

Connecting with people’s hobbies will tell you a lot about their values and what’s important to them in their life.

Q3: What’s important to your ideal clients? Their values

What matters to your ideal clients? What are their values? Are they interested in ecological issues and limiting waste, or buying handmade or from local independent shops? Or do they just want to purchase a memorable piece of jewellery for their spouse to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, but they don’t have a lot of time and want to be really sure that it’s right for their partner?

Trying to persuade somebody who isn’t that interested in you or your work is very hard work.

However, it’s very likely that your dream clients share your values!

Are your dream clients looking for a ‘safe’ gift or a more personal gift?

Do they want something affordable or do they want to ‘show off’?

Do they want to know the person who made it and know where it came from, or do they ‘just’ want a bit more of a special gift?

Are they prepared to pay for the highest quality and can they wait to get the very best, or would they prefer good quality but a sooner delivery?

REAL LIFE STORY: A passementerie client (creating very elaborate textile trimmings for interiors) I worked with many years ago worked only with the very best. She was often invited to work with celebrities, ministers and in embassies. She was extremely good at matching the exact colour of traditional interiors with contemporary passementerie, and she loved to work with high-end clients and specialist interior designers, making them feel very cultured and ‘rich’. But what her famous clients really appreciated about her was that she would never tell anybody anything about her clients or what she would see in their homes and especially their bedrooms.  She took confidentiality extremely serious.

Understanding what’s important to your clients will help you to connect with them and to reach out to them.

GET INTO ACTION:

If you don’t know what your dream clients’ values are then start to think about what’s important to you in YOUR life and business. What are you passionate about? Where do you clash with people or when do you feel your boundaries are being pushed?

Knowing yourself will help you to understand your ideal clients. If you are a control freak then it’s good to work with other control freaks, who appreciate your very high eye for detail, rather than people with a laissez-faire attitude!

If you want to sell directly to consumers as well as to retailers then you might like to split them out as they might have slightly different values and motivations. Although they often overlap (consumers will buy in shops they love, and these shop owners are passionate too) the professional buyers will have additional values around making money to ensure that their shop thrives.  Or if you are working directly business-to-business (e.g. as a freelance graphic designer) then your professional clients will have values around either making or saving money or saving time.

Split up different client types and their values. What are the differences between consumer and trade, but also within trade or consumer groups? Get curious, do your research, and use your imagination a little to spot the differences and similarities between them? Can you create around 5 different ideal clients and write down their gender, age, jobs, hobbies, values?

Q4: Where do they live?

Where do your ideal clients live? Do they live in big cities or small towns? Which countries do they live in?

But also: What kind of house do they live in? Do they live by themselves, with a spouse or with children? Do they live in a chic, black-marbled penthouse flat overlooking Hyde Park, in a flat in the Barbican, or a Victorian terrace in Bristol?

If you are creating products for the home then you need to start thinking about the style of their homes:

  • Is it contemporary urban, shabby chic or mid-century modern? Can you create a collage of how your ideal client’s home looks like and what they are trying to express?
  • What other homeware brands do they surround themselves with? The more specific you can be with their style the better!
  • How does their living room look like, but also their kitchen, the study, the hallway, children’s rooms and the garden? Different rooms can be used for very different purposes, and some are more private than others. For example, people spend more money on cushions for their bedroom (that can stay more pristine!), than cushions in the living room that will be used more and are more likely to get dirty (especially if they have kids and eat on the sofa!). Start to investigate at that micro level when you are creating products for your ideal client next time!

Many interior products are purchased regularly, but if you create homewares that are once-in-a-life-time-purchases (such as a specially made dining table) then you really need to understand your client. You might have to build trust over many years before they decide to commission you or purchase. Many designer maker furniture designers I have worked with spend considerable time getting to know their clients before designing and creating the perfect table. Read here a story of a furniture designer who asked me how to sell a £15,000 table.

You might also consider what their offices or workplaces look like, especially if you are selling to professional clients, as they might not just purchase for their homes and gardens, but for their workspace too. Would you be able to sell your artwork to a psychiatrist or dentist for example, or what about the boardroom of a local accountancy firm? What do they want to express with their art or decorative objects to their clients and employees?

GET INTO ACTION:

At this stage, it might help you to create collages of the kind of houses your ideal clients live in or would like to live in.

You can create a mini story and give them a name, gender, age, and job, with a short biog of who they are. And you can add the words that you collected before to your collages too.

These creative exercises can help you to focus on getting clear about your signature style, your branding, and they might give you new and more unique product ideas that you can design in the future. Work that your ideal clients love so much that they are much more likely to purchase them!

Q5: What do they wear?

If you design jewellery, fashion or fashion accessories then you need to work out what type of clothes your ideal clients wear:

  • How would you describe their fashion style? Classic, long-lasting slow fashion, or do they follow the latest trends? Do they love colours or more natural fabrics?
  • What other brands are in their wardrobe?
  • Do they wear very different clothes for their job than for their leisure time? Does their job (see Q 2) require them to wear certain kinds of clothes?
  • What are they trying to express with their clothes?
  • Where do they purchase their clothes?
  • And what do they value? Do they want something that really captures their personality or something that they can wear for a special occasion (at work or home) or when they take the kids to school? Statement pieces and day-to-day-pieces require very different jewellery and fashion accessories!

GET INTO ACTION:

Create a collage of their clothes, what they wear and when can really help you to create more unique products and also give you ideas about the styling and the photography of your own jewellery or fashion accessories.

And if you make a list of actual shops and online places where they purchase – that’s a great starting point for a database, or a list of brands to follow on social media!

Q6: Why do they buy? How does it make them feel?

Now we are starting to dig beyond the surface of your client’s life and motivations. Are you ready to put your psychology hat on?

Finding out WHY your ideal clients buy your kind of work is one of the most important marketing questions to answer!

Finding the answer(s) to that key question can truly help you with developing better and more unique products, and to help you with writing better product descriptions or emails. Especially if you can identify how they want to feel if they see, touch, purchase, use, wear or gift your products then you will find it much easier to sell your products or services successfully.

REAL LIFE STORY: Recently I overheard a mum and daughter talking about the various wedding photographers they had seen that morning. They weren’t that interested in the technical details or even the style of the different photographers, but the bride-to-be kept saying that ‘he really made me feel good about myself’. (And what’s more important than that on your best day ever?!)  Indeed the most important thing when you are a wedding photographer is: How do you get on with the nervous bride and bridegroom and their families and friends. Your people skills and soft negotiation skills will often get you much further than being technically perfect.

Indeed, your customer care is crucial if you want to sell your creative services, but also your creative products – you are selling so much more than just a product! Often, you are selling an experience.

Understanding why your ideal clients are interested, want to buy, own and treasure your creative products is crucial.

There might also be specific occasions that your ideal clients might want to buy – for example as a Christmas present or their 10th wedding anniversary. Being aware of these occasions can help you to plan better for busy times (most of my creative clients sell the vast majority of their products in the 10 weeks before Christmas) but also to write better copy and connect with your clients in your emails, social media, and product descriptions.

Your consumer clients will purchase for more emotional reasons whilst your trade clients want to make sure that your products will sell and make them money.

GET INTO ACTION:

Add to your collages words that express how your clients would like to feel:

  • Not just when they purchase or browse for work like yours, but also when they own and use your products or services. Or how they feel when the give your work to somebody as a special gift.
  • What are the questions or worries they have about your work or about you?

This exercise can really help you to get into your client’s mind and heart. And with that clarity its’ often much easier to write better emails, product descriptions or social media texts that really resonate with your ideal clients.

Q7: When do they buy?

Indeed … WHY they buy is closely related to WHEN they buy!

They might be looking for a gift for Mother’s Day, a wedding present for their niece, or a souvenir for their next door neighbour who looked after their house while they were on holiday.

If there is an important occasion and a good reason then there is far more chance that they will purchase. If it is a special occasion then they are more likely to spend more and will want to have a special, handmade product with a story to tell.

Being aware of WHY and WHEN your ideal clients purchase can make all the difference if you want to create a sustainable creative business and turn interest into actual sales and commissions.

WHEN is closely related to their motivation to take action to purchase. Not just to love something, but to actually buy it. This might be related to birthdays, weddings and Christmas, but also to bigger motivations such as moving home, refurbishing their homes, creating a nursery, or downsizing. Especially one-off bigger purchases are closely related to big changes in their lives. So you need to make sure that they know of you and trust you because once they have purchased they might not want to purchase again!

REAL LIFE STORY: A couple of years ago we did our attic up and turned it into a lovely bedroom and bathroom for my husband and I. Years before we got planning permission I started to dream about what this space was going to look like. I started a secret Pinterest board years before our attic was ready! And this is very common … you might have clients who drool over your gorgeous products for many years before they are really ready. Then, when the builders were finished I spent an awful lot of money in a 4-week period on new rugs, new artwork, a new king-size blanket, candles, … That was 5 years ago now, and I haven’t spent that much money on interior products since because I simply don’t need them now.

Get curious about WHEN your clients ‘need’ your products or work.

And yes, we all need some luxury products at some point! How can you make your creative products wanted by the people who need them – right now?

GET INTO ACTION:

Are you promoting your products and services when your clients are most likely to buy from you?

Do you make a connection between WHEN your ideal clients are more likely to buy, and when you promote your work? Your marketing can be much much more effective if you promote yourself at the right time of the year and connect with the potential motivation of your ideal clients!

Q8: Where do they buy?

The more you know who your clients are, what their wardrobe and hallway look like, the easier it is to identify where they buy.

What are the shops, department stores and boutiques they go to? Which craft fairs or trade events (in case of professional buyers) do they go to? Do they go to flea markets in France or check out hidden boutiques in the countryside? Do they use online places such as Etsy, NotOnTheHighStreet or have they found out about Trouva yet?

GET INTO ACTION:

I challenge you to create a list of at least 30 places where you could show and sell your creative products and services. This is a great starting point for your own database and for boosting your contact list.

Start following these places on social media, get invited to private views, get their newsletters.

Start engaging with the potential places that you might want to show and sell your products and services too.

We have got a great list here with our favourite places to sell design & craft online. 

Do you find this difficult? Then check out where your role models or close competitors are showing and selling their creative products and services!

Q9: Which magazines or blogs do they read?

The more you know your ideal clients the easier this question is! It’s not enough for you to say that they are interested in reading ‘home and interior magazines’ … you really need to go deeper! There is a huge difference between readers of Red Magazine and Good Housekeeping, and readers of Mollie Makes and Crafts Magazine.

GET INTO ACTION:

Identify at least 10 specific magazines or blogs that your ideal clients like to read. And yes, use images of those magazines to create your ideal client collages!

This is also a a great starting point for when you want more press for your creative business and contact specific magazines. Follow journalists on social media too, as this is a more effective way to start networking with them than relying on press releases. Want to get more press for your creative business, then read this article.

Q10: What questions have your ideal clients got? What are their worries and objections?

If you have answered all these questions so far then you have got a pretty good idea who your clients are already and what they want.

But do you know what is stopping your ideal clients from buying from you?

If you understand that then it becomes much easier to sell your products and services!

What do your ideal clients worry about? That something is too expensive and too extravagant? Check this blog post about what to do if your clients think you are too expensive. Or are they worried about how your wonderfully decorative but very fragile ceramic vase will be transported to them half-way-around-the-world? Or are they a trade buyer who loves your jewellery but isn’t yet sure if it will actually sell.

GET INTO ACTION:

Brainstorm a full list of all the objections or worries that your clients might have. Look back over email correspondence or remember ‘difficult’ conversations you had at shows. Make a distinction between trade clients and consumers. as they often worry about different things.

Then start to identify various solutions against any of these worries, and turn them into happy clients?

  • Can you include an FAQ on your website or tell them how you package your work carefully?
  • Can you adapt your terms and conditions in a way they understand?
  • Could you offer Sale or Return to a new retailer who isn’t sure yet about your work?
  • Can you add better images and product descriptions so you get fewer complaints but also overcome some of these worries and objections?

By being more aware of what your ideal clients worry about you can give them the solution, or a trust-worthy answer. And getting that sale or commission after all!

TDT March Pinterest Quote How to find Ideal Clients Patricia van den Akker
If you found this article helpful, please Pin it and share it!

Did you find this detailed blog post about how to get to know your ideal clients useful? Did you do the exercises? We would love to hear from you below in the comments box below to see what you learnt, and more importantly what you actually did.

6 quick & simple actions to improve your website

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Websites are crucial for creative businesses … if you want to be taken seriously. If you want to build your profile and credibility. If you want to get interest, sales and commissions.

That all sounds super obvious, doesnt it?

Especially right now (post-Covid) your website SHOULD be the safest, most reliable, creative (!) and best place to show yourself, your work and your brand.

But … we often see very bland and boring websites! And very often see the same website mistakes being made by creatives which will cost them dearely. Anne-Marie Shepherd, The Design Trust Business Club & Social Media Manager, regularly reviews websites and here she shares her 6 quick & simple actions to improve your website.

This is an in-depth and action-orientated blog post! So grab yourself a pen and paper, a nice drink. and start writing down your actions today to improve your website too.

1. Is your website *really* easy to use?

“This is probably the Number One thing I say to clients when talking about how to improve your website: “Make your website easy for people to read, navigate and shop!” 

Make the journey through your website interesting and simple.

People will not hang around if they find it difficult finding what they want.

Most people have very limited time and patience, and it’s YOUR job to make it as easy as possible for your potential clients to get to know you, find what they are looking for, and to inquire further or purchase from you. Are you sure that your website truly does that?

As soon as someone lands on your home page they need to understand immediately what you do, and for whom. Did you know that the average visitor spends less than 6 seconds on your site before they will leave? You need to grab their attention immediately! Your homepage and images are the key to finding out what you do!

Create a clear hierarchy and navigation on your homepage with simple category headings such as Home, About Me, Shop, Blog and Contact. Don’t use confusing headings or too many either. Good headings give clarity to your visitors, so they are not left floundering around trying to find what they are looking for.

If you have an e-commerce site, make it easy for people to shop. This might sound super obvious but our experience at The Design Trust shows that many creatives make it unnecessary hard for people to buy from them!

Have a clear SHOP heading, and ensure that your product images and descriptions give the customer as much information as possible. If you want potential clients to get in touch then write: ‘Please feel free to contact me, to talk about commissioning work’, and put a link on the words ‘contact me’ so people can go straight to your email.

Break up large sections of texts into short paragraphs, add relevant sub-headings and bullet points, and interject with great imagery so that it’s an easy and enjoyable reading experience.

Do a real life test and ask a friend or colleague to spend a little time on your website and ask them to purchase something specifically.  Observe them while they use your site, and don’t ask any questions or answer any questions while they are on your site. Ask them for their feedback afterwards or while they are on your site on how you can improve your website:

  • Could they find the product or service easily? Is your site easy to navigate?
  • Did they get the info they needed? What specific questions would they have before purchasing?
  • Was it clear how much the item was? How much postage you charge? Was it easy to pay?
  • Ask them to be brutally honest. You will be surprised how many steps or issues you don’t notice because you are so used to your own website!

Making your website easy to use, also makes your site more attractive to Google. Ease of navigation really helps your rankings! Google scans websites to make sure they are user friendly, and will rank those higher.”

2. Great images improve your website in so many ways

“Of course images are essential to attract your ideal clients to your website, to present yourself professionally and to stand out from the crowd, and ultimately to get online sales! 

So make sure that the quality of your images reflects the quality of your work.

Show the detail of your exquisite craft skills or the extra large size of your designs.

Go up close to show the colour combinations in your work. Or the quality of the paper you print on.

Show the back of your brooch or the bottom of your ceramic handmade mugs to show your craftsmanship.

Professional images often means that you can attract better clients … and increase your prices too!

Mix your type of images up: Share stand alone images with a neutral background and lifestyle images. Share close ups and different angles.

But try to keep the backgrounds, sizes, lighting and the overall feeling of the images similar to create a more consistent feel. 

If you give your website visitors a good visual experience then they will stay longer and are much more likely to buy! Images are indeed one of the best ways to improve your website sales. 

If possible invest in a professional photographer, as it will be worth it and pays back for itself very quickly. But if you can’t afford a photographer right now, then read about professional craft & design photography here and do the best you can yourself.

Did you know that images are also very important to rank your website higher? As visual search is incredibly popular, your images can bring in extra traffic, especially if you add the right key words to your pictures:

  • Image SEO starts with the file name. You want Google to know what the image is about, so use keywords for that image in the file name. So blue-ceramic-stoneware-mug.jpg is going to get you far better SEO than when you leave your file name at 1234.jpg.
  • Be sure to add Alt Text to each of your images too when you are uploading them to your site, and again include key words for that image: Describe what is in the image so that Google and people can make sense of it. Alt text is added to an image so there will be descriptive text in place if the image can’t be displayed on your website for any reason.
  • Ensure that your image sizes aren’t so big that they slow down the loading of your website. Search engines like Google will take note and it has a major impact on your ranking. And let’s be honest: No one likes a sluggish website! Your visitors will quickly leave and go elsewhere.”

3. What do you want to say? And how?

“What do you want to be known for? And how do you want to communicate with your website visitors, and potential clients? What would your ideal visitors expect?

Want to be known for being friendly and approachable? Or more experienced and professional? Do you want to affordable or luxurious and posh even? 

Think about what kind of voice you want for your website.

Your tone of voice can be incredibly powerful and personal!

How to define your tone of voice: Write down up to 5 specific words how you want to come across on your site. What feeling or impression your website visitors need to get.  Keep these descriptive words in mind when you write. If you want to be friendly and fun, let your personality come out in your product titles, descriptions and ‘about me’ page. Or show your experience and knowledge when you describe your work and process, and copy the style of an exhibition catalogue for example. Show your customer-focus in the words you use in your FAQs and shipping details.

How you can educate your potential clients and show your expertise? Will you be using specialist language (often good for key words!) or more generic words, or both?  Make sure that you use your client’s words and speak their language!

Think about the topics you want to write about on your website, especially your blog posts or About Me page. Or include an events page, commissioning pages or client list. If you need some inspiration on what to write about then click here. 

Make sure the font you use reflects your brand but that it is also legible! Select one font for your headings and one for the main copy to make it consistent. Make sure that your font is large enough for your (older!) visitors to read too. Avoid having too many fonts at once, and try to minimise using capital letters as this makes it look like you are shouting, and they are often much harder to read. Reviewing your use of fonts is one of the quickest and cheapest ways to improve your website. ” 

4. Get found by adding keywords to your URLs

“URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and it is the full address of a page on the internet, such as www.thedesigntrust.co.uk. A URL includes your domain name and often the title of that web page. The URL identifies each web page on the Internet uniquely, and it gives browsers clear directions and clues to what that specific web page is about.

This might all sound a bit boring and geeky, but your URL is how your web pages will get found by your potential clients on the world wide web. This is fundamental SEO or Search Engine Optimatisation, and many creative businesses don’t use it and therefore miss out on potential traffic and online sales. 

To get found on the web it’s crucial that your web pages have the right key words in their URL. When you include new pages or posts on your website the URL is created automatically.

The trick is that you can change the URL very easily, and get found!

Some examples of how your website can be found much easier:

  • Start with reviewing your product or services pages and include the right keywords in your URL. For example: www.making.co.uk/large-aquamarine-blue-ceramic-bowl or www.mybiz.com/long-ethical-gold-chain-necklace or www.mybiz.co.uk/golden-retriever-pencil-drawing Can you see how these specific key word can help your website to be found?
  • If you are doing commissions then create a special commissioning page, and add specific key words in your URL, such as: www.mybusiness.com/personalised-contemporary-wedding-stationery-commissions.  Our jewellery client Carin Lindberg wrote a useful blog post on how to select a stone for a ring commission, She used this URL: https://carinlindbergjewellery.com/2019/08/24/how-to-select-a-stone-for-a-ring-commission/ This URL will make sure that if anybody is putting in the words ‘stone for a ring commission’ they will very likely end up on her website!
  • If you have a local business (such as a venue, gallery or you run craft workshops) then consider including the town or area in your URL too, as that’s what people are often searching for. For example: www.theartist.com/brecon-beacons-oil-painting or www.maker.com/lino-cutting-workshop-sheffield 

This step can really have a big impact on your ranking and visitor numbers, because key words in your URL have a big impact on your ranking. If you include key words in your URL, as well as your titles, sub-headings, images (see step 2!) and your main texts and tags, then your web pages will be found much easier!” 

5. Keep an eye on your numbers!

“Another useful SEO trick to know is that website pages with a word count of at least 250 rank higher than pages with fewer words. You might want to check how many words you use right now on your pages (especially product pages!) to improve your website quickly. The next time you write a new product or blog page then take this knowledge on board. 

Research the best key words into your product descriptions (Simply think about what the product is, the main materials, colours, techniques and what I can see. Use these words in your product titles and descriptions!). When you include relevant key words then you will get more organic traffic and improve your website immediately.

Need a bit of extra help with keywords or your SEO? Then try free tools such as Ubersuggest for key word ideas and for a website or SEO audit. It will show you exactly which pages on your site could do with some extra words.

While our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, research shows that longer is better when it comes to blog posts. The average blog post length increased by around 42% between 2014 and 2018, from 800 words to 1,151 words. Buffer states that the ideal blog post length is 1,600 words. (Oops … this blog page is over 2,700 words. Thanks for being here! Keep on reading!) Apparently posts with an average read time of 7 minutes capture the most attention, as they will go into more depth into a subject matter, so they show more expertise, and they are often also more shared and of longer term value to readers.

Do you keep an eye on your Google Analytics (or something similar)? It’s worth your while to check your numbers once a month:

How are people finding you? Which pages do they visit the most? How long are they staying on certain pages?

And can you then cross-reference this website data with your sales? Do you know which of your products or services actually sells best online? If not then make some time to find that out as this will give you key insights into your online sales and how to improve your website.

Use data from your sales and Google Analytics in combination with your common sense to identify why certain web pages aren’t performing well.

Improve your website to make it more attractive and useful to your visitors.

And do you keep an eye on your conversion rates?

Did you know that a typical website conversion rate is between 1-3%? This means that only between 1 – 3% of your website visitors will actually buy something! Yes it is that low …

So, if you want to make 1 sale per day, you will need to attract at least 33 – 100 unique visitors per day or 1,000 to 3,000 per month to your website!

If you want to increase your online sales then:

  1. Work out how many online sales you want.
  2. Identify your website conversion rate (online sales for a specific period e.g. week or month, and then divided by website visitors for that same period). Some e-commerce software might calculate this automatically for you for example if you have a SquareSpace website.  
  3. Identify how many visitors you will need to reach your online sale target.
  4. If you want more traffic or visitors to your website then you need to take action to drive more traffic to your website, for example through email marketing, social media and SEO.”

6. Why should I visit or stay on your website?

“When you are adding new products, blog posts or images to your website, always keep in mind that you need to add value to your website visitors’ lives.

  • Why would I as a visitor be interested in your work or business? What would attract your ideal clients and visitors? The journalists, event organisers or commissioners you want to work with?
  • How can your creative business, products or services solve a problem or challenge I might have? 
  • What do I need to learn or find out about you to decide to work with you or purchase from you?

When you are writing your product descriptions do not just include the facts (such as materials, colours, sizes) but also talk about your inspiration for this work, or ideas for what potential customers can do with that product. Is it a perfect wedding gift or make the best gift for a rock & roll lover or a cyclist in Bristol? Would it look great on a special night out? Use more descriptive and emotive words so that your tone of voice becomes warmer.

Also share suggestions of other products in your range that go well with that product. “If you like this … then you might like this …” is very effective indeed!

Use your images and emotional words to spark curiosity and interest in what you are offering, and to truly connect with your readers.

When you write blog posts, share your knowledge and expertise.

But above all show your personality!

Too many creative websites are so so boring ….

Blog posts don’t have to just be about your work or creative process. Share more about yourself: an interest you have, an exhibition you’ve been to, or even share a play list of the music you play in your studio while working (we spotted this one recently, and thought it was a great blog post topic!)

When your website add value to customers’ lives, through education or entertainment, it will build trust and validation. And people only buy from people they know, like and trust.”

May Pinterest Article How To IMprove Your Website
If you found this blog post helpful, please Pin the image above and share it.

Which one action will you do to improve your website after reading Anne-Marie’s 6 easy steps? Share with us in the comments below.

9 top tips for photographing crafts and jewellery

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An image can say more than a 1,000 words, so it is essential that your photographs give out the right message. 

Images are powerful. Not only do they attract our attention, but they also spark emotions and draw us in. The human brain can process entire images that the eye sees for as little as 13 milliseconds. Compare that to the time it takes to read a paragraph!

It’s absolutely vital that you use the best photography you can to promote your creative products.

These 9 top tips for photographing crafts and jewellery will show you step-by-step what to focus on.

Tip 1: Work with a professional photographer

Yeshen Venema Photography
Jules Hogan scarf Photo by Yeshen Venema

Using a professional photographer might cost more initially but is a very worthwhile investment. Good images will get you selected for crafts fairs, exhibitions and publications. Many magazines and bloggers will be far more likely to publish your work if your photographs are of a professional standard, and can be used immediately.

A good photographer can make you and your work really come alive and help you create your brand.

A great new collection of images can even improve your confidence – in yourself and your work!

Ideally work with somebody who has got specialist experience in working with craftspeople or designers, especially if you have really fine work as a jeweller or have more complicated products such as mirrors or want to work with models.

You can ask friends and colleagues for recommendations or look through online crafts directories, publications or online photo libraries, such as the Crafts Council Directory. You can also find recommendations for photographers in our Resources Guide. As the copyright of the image is kept by the photographer, they are often credited and therefore easy to identify!

Before making your selection, have a look through a number of different portfolios with work that is similar to what you are after, and talk or meet different photographers to identify whom you want to work with.

Tip 2: Brief your photographer

After you have selected a photographer you need to brief them on exactly what it is you are looking for.

Clarify the purpose of your images e.g. to be used for a website or for a printed brochure.

Specify the format that you would prefer, your ideal time scale, and your total budget. Make sure that you agree your brief in writing, to avoid any miscommunication.

Our Business Club members can watch a 45min online training with photographer Yeshen Venema about how to work with a professional photographer.

Tip 3: Check out your competition

Lorna Syson Photo: Yeshen Venema
Lorna Syson Photo by Yeshen Venema

Start collecting images that you like so that you can clearly brief your photographer and show examples.

Have a look at how your role models are presenting themselves online and through their images.  Check out their websites, Pinterest boards, and Instagram accounts.

How do they visualise their brand values through their images?

Check out trade magazines, exhibition brochures, and lifestyle press to see what is being selected and how the photographs have been taken.

See if you can access an (online) image library such as Etsy, Pinterest or The Crafts Council Directory of Makers to check out your competition or role models, and find out what they do well and learn from their mistakes.

The key to creating your own unique brand and images is NOT to copy what others have done, but to find your own, authentic style!

It will really help you to identify what you want, and what you don’t want, and having a selection of images will make it far easier to communicate with your photographer.

Tip 4: Decide what to include in your images

Obviously, it’s important to show your work at its best. This sounds so obvious, but is often forgotten!

Especially now with so many people selling online, it is very important to show what makes your work stand out. 

If the scale of your work is important, then include something in your image that shows how big or small your work is. If your jewellery or stitch work is really fine then go up close to show the quality of your materials and jewellery making skills. If your colours are vibrant than make them sparkle!

One of my top tips for photographing crafts and jewellery is to focus on the kind of images you need:

  • Have general overview images as well as detailed images e.g. an image of a range of dresses in your shop as well as the button detail and quality of stitching and fabrics.
  • Have a combination of factual and more atmospheric images of your work i.e. show your table from the front with the total image, show a detail shot of your craft skills or quality of materials, but also show the table in situ at a client’s home. If you are selling online, on your own website or market places such as Etsy or Not On The Highstreet, then it’s recommended to have at least 6 images per product: showing your product from the front, side, bottom, top, in context and a detail shot. This will help your potential clients really understand your product.
  • Show your work in use or with props to provide a context. Lifestyle images can be very effective. But don’t overload the picture! Remember: Your work needs to be the hero of the image
  • It is also really important to have some images with a plain white or black background (cut outs) as these are the types of images that photo editors need for print.  This will help you if you shoot images throughout the year, but you need a consistent collection of images to send to trade fairs or editors. Colourful artwork will become more vibrant against a black background.
  • A collection of products can also work really well – both to show the variety of what you do, but also to showcase the scale of your products.

Do a practical test: Would your clients be able to know what the size of your craft object is from your images? Would they be able to know how well made it is or at what price point? If not, then your images need to be improved.

Sue Pryke Wild & Wood Photo: Yeshen Venema
Sue Pryke Wild & Wood Photo by Yeshen Venema

 

Tip 5: Be careful with using models

Models can be used very effectively in images and can really bring fashion, jewellery and home accessories to life.  However, if it is not done professionally they are one of the quickest ways to make your crafts or jewellery look very amateurish.

Use professional models if possible, and use a stylist or make up artist to help you. Good lighting will be essential too.

I regularly select for craft fairs and often professional images with models really make a creative brand stand out. They also make products less static … for example a scarf worn on a person brings it much more alive than when hung up.

But if the model and photographer aren’t professional then it’s very hard to make this work successfully.

Be aware that you will need written permission from any people who can be identified if you want to use these images for publication, so be very aware of this if you are photographing in public spaces.  Also if you are using children as models you will need written consent from their parents.

Tip 6: Use relevant name, captions and tags

Notes Jewellery Photo: Yeshen Venema
Notes Jewellery Photo by Yeshen Venema

When you save your images make sure that you name them properly.  Don’t use “image 1”, but use something like “yourname2016bluevasefront”.  This will help you to identify your images easier, but will also help photo editors or exhibition organisers to identify potential images for publication quicker. Receiving images that aren’t labelled properly can be very annoying.

Make sure you provide appropriate captions with all images, and include the title of your work, year of production, name of the artist, and name of the photographer.  In addition you can include materials, dimensions, current owner of the piece (if relevant) or commissioner.

When you sell online it is really important to use the right tag words so that people can find your work easier. Correctly named images give your SEO a real boost!

Most online retailers or shops provide advice on image names too.  A great online selling resource is the Etsy Seller Handbook, which is available to anybody for free, and has loads of useful blogposts for makers.

The easier it is to find you (on a selling site, but also in general through image searches) the more likely it is that your work will find a buyer!

Tip 7: Keep the memory

Make sure that you document your work over the years and that you photograph your crafts and jewellery before you sell it. Especially if you are creating one off pieces. Once it is gone, it is gone …

If you have an event or exhibition don’t forget to take some photographs then too. It’s for your own collection, but also to share on your website or social media to build your profile. Include some pictures of you in the exhibition photographs too as these are great for your profile.

These images will provide you with documentation and development of your work, which will be really useful for creative and promotional purposes.  Or even for that major retrospective in the future!

Tip 8: Use your images creatively

One of my top tips for photographing crafts and jewellery is actually about making the most of the images you have already got!

  • You can use your images much more creatively by sending them to potential and current clients via an email newsletter to keep them informed of your activities and events.
  • An image of fabric in different colours can really liven up your price list and make it much easier for your clients to remember you.
  • On your CV or artist statement include one or two images of recent work. Postcards are also a good alternative to business cards for handing out at events, markets and to prospective clients.

Tip 9: Know your copyright rights!

If you have created the product you will own the copyright. However, the photographer owns the copyright of the images of your products so try to get the copyright of these images from the photographer (you might have to pay more), and agree when and how the images can be used.

Make sure that you always get their name published as well as your own name, if you do not own the image’s copyright.

Thank you to lovely photographer Yeshen Venema for giving permission to use his images to accompany this blog post on photographing crafts and jewellery.

Did you find these top tips on photography useful? Then share them with other creatives who might find this useful too on your social media. Have you got any additional tips or questions? We love to hear from you – just post them in the comments box below.

6 top tips to avoid common sale or return problems

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Do you love sale or return or are you struggling with it? Sale or return (or ‘in consignment’) can be a fabulous way to get into craft galleries and boutiques, but there are also some sale or return problems to look out for!

What is sale or return?

‘Sale or return’ or ‘in consignment’ is a common way of working between UK craft galleries/shops and their creative suppliers, whereby the retailer pays only for goods sold, returning those that are unsold to the creative. So, the gallery showcases the work, and if it sells then the creative gets paid. If it doesn’t sell then the work will be returned to the maker.

The main Sale or Return problem is that the financial risk is with the creative rather than the gallery.

You have invested time and money into making the work, but there is no guarantee that your work will be sold or kept safe. Will you get paid if your work is damaged or lost?

The other big Sale or Return problem is that the process is often not well managed on either side leaving creatives often just hoping for the best.

We think that Sale or Return can be very useful, especially for new designers and makers, but you do need to actively manage the relationship and contract:

Tip 1: Consider carefully when to do sale or return

Sale or Return can be a really great way to start working with a gallery, especially if you are a new designer maker and it can be that crucial ‘foot in the door’.

We recommend that you set some clear boundaries to avoid the most common Sale or Return problems.

ONLY do Sale or Return if …

  • Your work is relatively expensive (over £100,-)
  • It’s a statement piece rather than a commercial item that would sell easily
  • It’s for a special exhibition
  • You are new to the gallery

For example, a pair of earrings selling at £24 is NOT a sale or return item, the gallery should purchase commercial products like that. Don’t let shops take advantage of you!

Sale or return can work well for new makers so that a gallery or boutique can try you out.  But if you have been in business for more than three years you really need to start negotiating better to get (at least part of) your products purchased by the gallery. Also if you have been selling for more than a year with the same gallery then it’s time to start discussing with them that they should purchase (at least part of) their next order.

Tip 2: Select the galleries you want to work with carefully

Sale or Return is strongly based on trust because you have to rely on the gallery to inform you about the sale and to keep your work safe while it is in their shop. Can you trust this gallery?

To avoid any potential Sale or Return problems it’s crucial that before you start working with a gallery, you ask the following questions:

  • What’s the reputation of this gallery? Watch out for warning signs! Be extremely careful with galleries that are struggling and who might be close to going into administration.
  • How will they present your work? Both in the gallery and in terms of creating a special display, but also how will they promote your work on their website, newsletter and social media?
  • How safe will your work be? Is it protected against damage and loss? Have they got insurance in place?
  • How knowledgeable and interested are the staff? Are they professional? Do they attract the right clients for your kind of work?

We always strongly advise that you try and visit the shop (anonymously) and find out for yourself. Ask your peers. It might be worthwhile checking out their financial situation on the Companies House website too.

When you are getting in touch with the gallery who have shown interest in your work, don’t be shy to ask questions about the display, their marketing, insurance, and payment terms and conditions. In fact, you can negotiate that you only will do sale or return if they create a special display of your work and also promote you through their newsletter and social media.

Tip 3: Have a written sale or return agreement

You will need a written agreement which should include your own terms & conditions, stating exactly how many pieces you have given the shop, your wholesale prices, how long the pieces will stay, what the shop’s commission rate is, when and how you will get paid, are the pieces insured, what happens is work is damaged or stolen.

To avoid the biggest Sale or Return problems it’s crucial that you create a Sale or Return record or consignment note and keep it up to date.

This is a written agreement that you create whereby the gallery acknowledges that they have taken your work on a Sale or Return basis, together with a clear product list of what they now have in consignment.

Make two copies, sign them both yourself and by the gallery owner and keep one for your own records. Make sure this form is dated, states the retailer’s name, quantities of each item, description, and the price of each item.

Include also the following two sentences (which will ensure that you can recover the work if it is unsold or if the gallery goes out of business, which is extremely important in the current economic climate!):

  • ‘Supplied on consignment – the maker remains the owner of the work until sold and the maker is paid in full’
  • ‘(name of gallery) shall reimburse the maker (xx) for any loss or damage to the goods from whatever cause while in their possession.’

This will cover the most common sale or return problems when work is damaged or stolen, or if the gallery doesn’t pay up.

ALWAYS keep an up-to-date list of the sale or return stock outstanding and stay in touch regularly with the gallery!

REAL LIFE STORY: I worked with a jeweller once who was very heavily in debt. She had kept very few records and hadn’t been in touch with some galleries for over a year. It turned out that she had sale or return stock worth more than £50,000 outstanding in various galleries!

We asked for all the jewellery to be returned to her immediately. Some work had been sold already (some months ago!)so we could invoice straight away. Unfortunately, we had to sell some of her work to be sold for the gold (luckily the gold price had changed dramatically). She managed to clear her debts over a 12 months period as she had so much stock and we worked on a very focused marketing campaign – mostly to consumers to increase her profit margins.

Tip 4: What if something goes wrong?

There are two common Sale or Return problems that you need to be particularly aware of:

  • What happens if your work gets damaged or stolen? Because the gallery won’t have received any payment, but they can’t return the work to you either. Who is going to be responsible for insurance? Also consider how the gallery will limit damage to your products, especially if they are precious? Make sure that this is clarified in your written agreement.
  • What happens if the gallery goes bust? Recently I had three emails in one week from makers who were all very concerned because a gallery had gone into receivership but none of them had any up to date Sale or Return contracts with the gallery. Each had terrible difficulties getting their products returned.

If you have a good relationship with the gallery and have an up to date contract, this will minimise these common sale or return problems.

Tip 5: Stay in touch with the gallery

Make sure that you manage any sale or return projects proactively and stay in touch to check if the work has been sold:

  • Phone them every month or so (more frequent in busy periods such as the run up to Christmas!). This might sound a little scary but is actually a great way to turn strangers into clients by building up a relationship with the gallery and their staff. On the phone, it is much easier and friendlier to ask for specific feedback. Especially if you sell mostly through middlemen (such as galleries) then it’s really important to find out what’s selling, what the interest or comments are, and who is particularly interested. Contact them at times when the gallery is quiet e.g. early in the morning when they have just opened. Be inquisitive, rather than confrontational so that you will be able to learn from these regular conversations! (and you might get new orders too!)
  • Regularly move your stock around. Our advice would be every three to six months or so. That keeps the display fresh and the galleries have got something new to show to their clients – in the gallery and also online.
  • Be pro-active in giving the gallery additional marketing materials and images for their newsletter, website or online. Think about how you can both work together to sell your work. Are you giving extra information to the staff about your work, your ideas and techniques so that it’s easier for them to sell your work? Retailers will really appreciate it if you promote them on your own website, in your newsletter or social media.
  • Try to visit your galleries to see how the work is presented. Make an appointment to make sure that the right staff member is available. Have they got any useful feedback for you and are there other ways that you can help? Creating collections or showing your work together as a group will make it stand out more.
  • If you find out that your work has been sold, then send an invoice immediately for the right product and amount, and keep your sale or return records up to date at all times.

Tip 6: Negotiate before accepting sale or return

Often new makers are not very pro-active with their negotiations and that will mean that they lose out. Sale or return can be a brilliant opportunity to negotiate a better deal in terms of promotion and commission rates. Think about the following:

  • What extra promotion can the gallery do for you? Can they present your work in the shop window, promote it to local press, have a small exhibition or display with your name and extra info, or mention you on social media or in their newsletter?
  • Could they buy some of your (cheaper) products outright?
  • Could they decrease the markup on the sale or return items? Your wholesale price to them can then increase and you make a bit more money.
  • If this is your first time with the gallery when would you review the situation so that they would buy outright? Once you have been going for a while and become more successful in selling it becomes easier to negotiate a better deal.

Tip 7: Stay on top of sale or return

I often find that sale or return problems occur because the process isn’t managed very well.

Don’t just ‘hope for the best’ … that’s asking for trouble!

You need to take charge of sale or return relationships.

It’s YOUR work and therefore YOUR responsibility to stay alert and keep an eye on what’s going on.

  • Be selective with who you work with. Ask around and check social media for the reputation of the gallery and how they treat their makers.
  • Have a written contract and keep clear up-to-date records of what work is with which gallery and what has been sold.
  • Be pro-active in helping the gallery display, promote and sell your work in the best possible way.

If you take yourself seriously, then the gallery will too.

What are your (positive or negative) experiences with Sale or Return? Are you a gallery who works with sale or return and want to share your side? Please add your comments or additional tips below in the comments box.

creative email marketing tips by illustrator Niki Groom of Miss Magpie Fashion Spy

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Believe it or not but email marketing is one of our absolutely favourite marketing topics!

Why?

Because it really works to get sales!

In June 2020 we set our Business Club members an Email Marketing Challenge to see a) who could get the most subscribers to join their email list in a two week period and b) who could get the most sales from an email. And wow, did they rise to the challenge! The winner of both parts of the challenge was fashion illustrator Niki Groom. She grew her email list by 211 subscribers in only two weeks!

We asked her to share how she did it and how she now uses email marketing in her creative business.

(c) Niki Groom Illustration

Niki, tell us about you and your business?

“I’m an illustrator and as well as creating artwork live at events I’m also commissioned by brands to create artwork for packaging, invitations, point of sale, window displays. I specialise in fashion / beauty / travel and clients include Clinique, Molton Brown, Cartier, Kate Spade and Kimpton Hotels.

Selling giclee prints of my artwork on my website was, until the Lockdown, a very small part of my business, but out of necessity I’ve focused all of my attention on it. So far my turnover for the shop this year (by June 2020) is nearly 3 x as much as it was in 2019.

I live alone, trade as a ltd company (so no government support) and have no financial fall back, so I’m on a fast and necessary learning curve. This would usually be the busiest time of year for me but I’ve only invoiced £350 in 4 months so thank goodness for my shop.

Before becoming a full time illustrator at the age of 39, I was a fashion designer so have a good understanding of margins, PR and trends so this all helps.”

Why did you enter The Design Trust Business Club Email Marketing challenge?

“I’ve been promising to start a newsletter for years and not doing it.

I knew I needed a deadline otherwise it would always be pushed to the bottom of my to do list.

So the challenge was perfect, and I had the time to commit to it too!”

How did you get more email subscribers?

“My growth goal was to get 100 new email subscribers. As the newsletter is something my clients, followers haven’t been offered before I hoped there would be a good uptake.

I switched from Mailchimp to Squarespace email as I knew that the key for me to make this work was for it to be as easy as possible. It now doesn’t feel like yet another platform to manage, it just feels like an added extra link to my website. It means it’s something I’ll pay for rather than being free, but I’ll make that cost up in sales.

Niki Groom’s newsletter sign up form

I’d been collecting emails previously at checkout but had reached 110 and never contacted them.

I added a newsletter sign up to the footer of my website, and added a pop up to a couple of pages that I felt were suitable. 

I used social media (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) to direct people to the sign up. My bespoke commissions sell out quickly and I usually launch them on social media. But I announced that anyone signing up to my newsletter would be told about the listing going live 24 hours before anyone else so that helped my growth too.

I have 13k Instagram followers and through stories got around 100 or so to sign up for my database.

I also downloaded the CSV of everyone who had bought from me since launching (approx 700 people) and emailed only those who had ordered in the past 2 years (400) to ask if they would like to opt in. This had a 66% open rate and a 29% click rate.”

What worked well and what didn’t work well?

“Explaining what the newsletter would include on Instagram stories helped. I get really good engagement there and as I have over 10k followers I can add a swipe up link.

I posted quite a boring “please sign up to my newsletter” post on Instagram (since archived). I can’t see that it led to many sign ups.”

Stay Home by Niki Groom

How will you keep growing your email list?

“I’m working on a plan for that now but I already know I won’t offer discounts or sales.

I’ve been making some lovely hand-painted ‘Thank You’ notes to go with orders through lockdown. Right now everyone is getting them but it’s not sustainable (though I’ve loved doing them). I’m working out how to make that more of an incentive to early buyers and how to link that well with my newsletter.

Thankfully I have an engaged social media following, so I will focus on getting more of them signed up. I have some surprises up my sleeve 🙂

Over the years I’ve learnt that I get the best results by giving something a go and then adapting. I’m flexible and resourceful, not so much of a planner.

So when I say I’m working on a plan I mean there’s a list and some dates rather beautifully written on the back of a cereal packet 🙂  But that’s fine for me, I’m pretty confident that it will work.”

How did you write your successful sales email?

“I knew a lot of people had signed up to the newsletter as they knew they would hear about the bespoke orders first (24 hours before I announced on social media), so I wanted to show them something new just in case they needed persuading at all.

So I got permission from previous buyers to use comments they had sent to me as quotes, and to use their illustrations as promo. One testimonial mentioned Christmas and I put this in on purpose, to sow the seed for Christmas gifting. The email was mostly focused on commissioning me, but I added some lovely photographs of my paints and my hand-painted ‘thank you’ notes. I also included a photo of me with a link to my ‘about’ page.

So it wasn’t just ‘the listing is now live, buy buy buy”, the recipients were still seeing photos I hadn’t shared elsewhere.

I also explained that I take a lot of care with the work. I hope the newsletter came across as quite personal. I’m so grateful for the sales I’m receiving at the moment so I wanted people to know that.”

Were you surprised by the number of sales you achieved?

“Not really, although I usually only offer bespoke commissions in September for Christmas and so I did wonder if people would want them in the summer, especially as I’d also opened some spots at the start of lockdown. But people know they sell out so some of those who bought were people who missed out in the past.

I capped the sales at 20 so I knew it wouldn’t go past this.

I was surprised that nearly all of the sales came from the newsletter though, I expected to sell maybe 2-3 via the newsletter and the rest via social media but in the end it was 14 from the newsletter and the rest via social media.

So I’m really happy and have so many ideas now for the newsletter and for email marketing in my creative business!”

If you are inspired by Niki’s actions, then you can still join the Business Club and get practical ideas on how to get more email subscribers and write sales emails that don’t make you go ughhh (even though the Email Marketing Challenge is now closed!). Or read our blog post with 14 expert tips on how to grow your email list and our blog post on why email marketing is so effective.

We would love to hear in the comments below how you grow your email list and how email marketing works for you in your creative business.

14 expert tips to grow your mailing list

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Do you want to your grow your mailing list, but you’re not sure how to go about it? Do you want to get more potential clients to sign up for your database or email newsletter? Do you want to grow your mailing list without being pushy? Do you want to learn how to ask properly without feeling embarrassed?

In this super useful blog post Anne-Marie Shepherd, The Design Trust’s Business Club Manager, shares 14 of her top tips to grow your mailing list in effective and creative ways.

This is a really in-depth blog post, full of practical advice and actions that you can take today. Get yourself a pen and paper now, grab a nice drink, and create your own action plan to grow your mailing list for your creative business today. If you love this blog post then please forward it to another creative who wants to grow their mailing list too!

Tip 1: Have you got a mailing list plan?

Do you wonder why people would be interested in hearing from you? Many creative businesses worry about this and don’t know what to write about. (Click this link for 24 content ideas!)

The thing is …

if you don’t know why people might be interested in hearing from you then you’ll need to work that out first!

The fact is YOU have to give people a reason to sign up. You have to offer something that people are happy to give you their email address for.

What could your potential clients be interested in?

  • Do they want to be the first to know and worry about missing out (FOMO is a great motivator …) on your new collections, upcoming craft fairs or other events, latest products, your news so that they can be the first to access your sale or come to your Open Studios or craft workshops before they sell out.
  • Do they want to find out more about you and your work? Where you live and work. Your motivations or inspirations. Your creative processes. Your expertise. Especially if your work is more expensive or one-off or a little more complicated in any way or form then educating your clients about you and your work is a smart move.
  • Do they want special treatment and access to specials or offers? Are you treating your email subscribers in the right way to make it worthwhile for them? Do you add value with your emails to them with content, offers, special news, videos?

Knowing WHY people might be interested in hearing from you will help you to write better and mor regular emails or newsletters. And if you write a short reason why people should sign up on your sign-up form on your website then you are much more likely to get more and better suited email subscribers.

Without having a simple plan of why people would be interested to hear from you, you will not be really motivated to engage with and build relationships with your potential clients, which is the number one reason to use email for your creative business. 

Click here to read how jeweller Emily Nixon uses email marketing very successfully in her business. 

Tip 2: Do you ask them?

When our creative clients ask us how to grow their mailing list, our first answer is: “Ask them!”

So many opportunities to grow your mailing list are lost because you ‘forget’ to ask potential clients.

If you are proud of what you do and you have an email marketing plan, then it becomes a lot easier to ask potential clients.

At events and markets make sure that they can sign up for your mailing list to get future event info. Or when they pay with a card reader ask them for their email address at the same time too so that you can stay in touch.

On your website have a simple signing in form for your Mailchimp list with a little info about what they can expect from you in return (see tip 1).

When you are talking to people about your work, when you’re in conversation with shops, galleries, interior designers, writers or friends, if they are showing an interest in what you do, simply ask them if they’d like to stay connected by receiving your emails.

Tip 3: Move them from social media to your email list

Did you know that email marketing is 10x more effective than social media? People who want to sign up for your mailing list are much more interested in what you do then those who simply follow you on social media.

Try to figure out who of your social media followers is really interested in what you do, and encourage them regularly to sign up for your mailing list too.

Get inventive with how you ask them. We love seeing creatives:

  • use Instagram Stories to tell people about their email list
  • create great imagery with text to invite them to join their mailing list (with or without an incentive!)
  • give enticing snippets of what’s going out in their email that week
  • perhaps including an offer code or similar for more sign ups
  • And don’t forget to put the link to sign up to your email list in your social media biogs so that it’s super easy for people to join.

Put a reminder on Facebook too. You may also want to include a simple Sign-Up Button to Your Facebook Page.

Share the link to your last email in your social media posts so that your followers can get a taster for what they’ll get. And below that invite them to join your email list and give them the direct link to sign up.

Make growing your mailing list more fun.

Show your personality.

Make people want to be part of your special (email) community.

Tip 4: Offer a free download 

This is one of the most common and easiest ways to grow your mailing list.  Most of us happily share our email address in return for free bonus content that we love or want.

Be creative about what you can offer as a free download: a ‘how to …’ PDF with top tips, a printable poster or drawing, a colouring in page or screen saver, a checklist or ebook with recommendations, or even a video recording with styling tips.

This can work especially well if you do commissions (e.g. How to commission a wedding jeweller – with great visual examples of your work of course!), teach (downloadable top tips, access to a free webinar, provide services (e.g. Free photography audit) There are so many options here, get creative and go for it!

Tip 5: Everyone loves a giveaway

We all love the thrill of being in with a chance of winning something.

Giveaways can be a simple and effective way to grow your mailing list.

An easy opportunity to get followers from your social media channels onto your email list (see tip 3).

Giveaways can also help grow follower numbers by encouraging your existing audience to tag their contacts to enter the giveaway too.

And competitions can be the perfect opportunity to collaborate with other businesses for mutual promotion and a brilliant bevy of prizes!

A couple of practical competition tips:

  • Make it EASY for people to enter.
  • Be super clear about what entrants have to do to win.
  • Put the correct link to your competition in your social media bio so it’s a smooth, easy one-click journey.
  • Make it easy for them to get to the place on your website where they have to sign up to your email list so they don’t have to search around for the right place – they won’t stay long!
  • And indeed get them to give you their email address, not just their social media handle!

However before you do a give away or competition on social media ALWAYS check the rules of the social media you use carefully and thoroughly and make sure you have evidence of picking a winner totally at random.

Tip 6: Do a client survey

People love to share their opinion and a survey can be a great way to get them involved, garner valuable market research and stay in touch with what your audience needs and wants from you.

Firstly, think about what YOU want the survey to achieve for you, but also make it fun for the respondents. Ask them to fill out a SHORT survey with specific questions, such as:

  • How did you find out about me?
  • What specific magazines, blogs, shops/galleries, online shops/websites or events do they use regularly? (Maybe include a tick list to make it easier for them)
  • What do you love the most about our products or services, our customer care, our website, …?
  • When do they buy your kind of products or services normally? Is it for themselves or for others?
  • When you are shopping or purchasing x what’s really important to you?
  • Are there any products or services missing? If they could design something with you, what would that be?
  • If they could ask you one question, what would that be?

Surveys can work really well if you are hosting craft workshops. Ask them about what they find specifically challenging around your teaching topic. Where they normally go with their questions. What they really would like to learn. What’s stopping them to do your workshops.

We at The Design Trust regularly use surveys before developing our new online workshops. Surveys give us a far better idea what our potential client’s questions or challenges are, or what the really want or need to learn. It involves our audience, and they are very happy to tell us what’s missing and what their challenges are.

We also let them know when this new workshop is likely to be launched. If they include their email address then we will offer them a special THANK YOU discount code if they sign up. An absolute win-win as the people who respond to the survey are very likely interested in the topic we will teach!

You may want to encourage people to fill out the survey by offering them a discount on their next order or enter all respondents into a prize draw. Both are great ways of saying, “thank you”.

Tip 7: Create a special offer

Many creatives offer a discount to encourage more email sign ups. This lets your audience try your product or service at a reduced rate, you capture their email list and can then continue to build relationships with them and add value so they become repeat customers.

Have you noticed that many major retailers have a pop up with a discount code?  They have spent money on the research and know that growing an email list with people who are obviously interested in what they have to offer is the effective way forward.

But think beyond just discount codes … what about creating a special deal and offer something extra instead too? People love being treated specially!

Check out the 8 professional tips to create better email marketing campaigns in this guest post with Aime Cox-Tennant from marketing agency Studio Cotton.

Tip 8: Use your ‘About Me’ page

Your ‘About Me’ page is likely one of the most popular pages on your website. Take a look at your Google Analytics for evidence.

Unless you include an opt-in form for your mailing list you will lose these potential clients for ever. If they are reading about you on your ‘About Me’ page, chances are they like what they have seen already, and want to find out more. It’s the perfect place to add a friendly, inviting popup or static mailing list opt-in to catch their contact details there and then.

Tip 9: Get creative with your sign-up form

… and make it super easy for people to subscribe to your email list.

We cannot stress how important is it that you make the whole signing up process as easy as possible. Even though this may seem super obvious, we often see websites with the sign-up form hidden away somewhere.

You need to ensure that your sign-up form or forms are displayed at all the prominent places of your website, along with a clear call to action.

Think about using your navigation bar (at the top of each page), side bar and use different feature boxes – a subscription box that contains information about your offer along with a strong call to action, which you can use on blog pages too.

Switch it up a bit too. Keep an eye on your sign-up rates to see which blog or offer is the most popular for sign ups. You may be surprised!

And think about personalising your sign-up form too.  Add images of your ebook or downloadable tips. Share what your subscribers can expect and put a bit of your personality into the text or picture. Research other people’s sign up forms for ideas.

Tip 10: Make your emails more shareable

If your emails are valued by your readers then make sure that you include regularly a “Forward to a Friend” link in your marketing emails. Many email marketing software applications have this feature built-in, or they enable you to use tools like AddThis, which recipients can use to share your email via social media.

And include the social sharing function on the landing page where your email sign-up is located.

Or simple add ‘Did you enjoy this newsletter? Why not forward it to a friend who might like reading it too!’

Tip 11: Set a challenge or offer a free email course

A brilliant way of adding value to your audience and growing your email list is to share your knowledge. Especially recommended if you teach, if you have a good profile or if your work is more expensive or complicated to understand straight away.

Offer your top tips, short videos about your creative processes or even offer a short free online course via a series of emails or via a Facebook group.

Or maybe challenge your followers to learn a new skill that you can teach them over a few days or weeks.  Think about what you can offer your audience in terms of new skills or insights and make it fun and easy for them to join the challenge (and your email list!), get to know and trust you a little more, and learn some new skills too.

Tip 12: Start blogging

Blogging is a brilliant way to share your knowledge and interests, and to grow your mailing list.  Blogging around specific key topics and key words will enable you to create content that is going to make it easier for your site to be found and therefore to rank higher in search engine results, bring the right people to your website, get them engaged with what you do, and leave them wanting more.

You can also create a series of emails or newsletters around certain topics and refer back to ‘older’ blog posts, so that you keep getting traffic to your website without too much extra work.

And finally…

Tip 13: Measure what works and what doesn’t work

The only way to really know what works best to grow your mailing list is to keep an eye on your subscription numbers and options. Try testing different offers, headlines, form placements or incentives.

Keep monitoring and comparing the types of offers that work best for your audience.

Once you start trying different strategies and examining the results, you’ll likely end up with a handful of offers that you know will drastically increase your sign-up numbers for your email list.

We believe that doing something is better than doing nothing, especially when it comes to email marketing. You may only get a few people to sign up to your mailing list when you offer them something extra BUT if you don’t try you won’t know and each thing you offer is a learning curve. You can then review what’s working and what isn’t and streamline your mailing list strategy as you go on. The important thing is to get started. And that over time you grow your mailing list. 

Tip 14: Make sure it’s legal

If you are maintaining a database (even a paper one!) for promotional or selling purposes then you must register in the UK with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This is a legal requirement due to the Data protection Act. You need to pay an annual fee too and to register you need to fill in a few forms. Many small businesses are not aware of this, however if you don’t comply then legal action might be taken against you. You can find more information about how to register and general GDPR legislation here. In the last few months they have updated their site and it’s much more user-friendly now.

April Pinterest Articles How to Grow Your Email List tips and ideas
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Did you find Anne-Marie’s expert tips to grow your mailing list useful? Has she inspired you to try some of these techniques out? Want to share your own tips on how you grow your mailing list? Let us know below in the comments.

And … you can sign up for The Design Trust newsletter on our homepage, to be the first to read our creative business blog posts and tips, and find out when our online events or publications are out.

The Design Trust’s 28 recommended podcasts for creative businesses

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Podcasts are such a great way to learn, get inspired, hear another opinion or just to have a laugh. Perfect to put on in the evenings or on a train journey or while making work.

We asked our community to let us know what podcasts for creative businesses they are listening to, so here is a list of some of your favourite podcasts (for business and pleasure!) as well as our own recommendations. Enjoy!

21 Podcasts for creative businesses – about business, freelancing, creativity and more

Want to find out more? Click on any of the red headings to get immediate access to these creative podcasts.

The 21st Century Creative

Podcast hosted by creative business coach and poet Mark McGuinness to help creatives succeed amid the demands, distractions and opportunities of the 21st century. Check out the interview with our Director Patricia van den Akker too!

The Accidental Creative podcast

Popular podcast for creative businesses since 2005 by Todd Henry on how to make your best creative work, delivered weekly with tips and ideas for staying prolific, brilliant.

The Autonomous Creative Podcast

Jessica Abel’s brand new podcast devoted to revealing the truth of what it takes to be a professional creative and build a life around creative work. Every two weeks, Jessica goes behind the scenes with professional creatives in a wide variety of fields to find out what it took for them to be able to quit the day job and build a creative career.

Our Business Club members can listen to Patricia speaking with Jessica Abel about finding purpose in your life and business here.

Being Boss

Aimed at female creative entrepreneurs and freelancers who want to make money doing what they love. Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon dig into the successful mindsets, habits, routines and boundaries of creatives.

Being Freelance

More than 200 episodes to listen to about what it takes to freelance.

Craft Industry Alliance Podcast

Abby Glassenberg interviews makers about their craft business and how to earn a living through a love of craft.

Creative Pep Talk

The podcast helps creatives make a good living, making good art. Through ridiculous analogies, personal stories and artist interviews by freelance illustrator Andy J. Miller hopes to help creatives break free and plan their creative career success.

Creative Rebels with David Speed and Adam Brazier

Inspiring interviews with creative people who have rebelled against the 9-to-5.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

A series of videos and podcasts by Stanford University with candid interviews with entrepreneurial leaders exploring their journeys, sharing personal stories of the ups and down behind real success.

The Entrepreneurs

Monocle’s weekly podcast interviewing inspiring business owners across the globe.

The Goal Digger Podcast with Jenna Kutcher

Jenna is a brilliant self-made millionaire who talks simply and honestly about marketing, social media, branding and more as well as about being a working mum and the juggle. Really informative podcasts by herself and with a great selection of guests across the business world.

How I Built This with Guy Raz 

Featuring interviews with entrepreneurs and founders who share the backstories of some of the most noteworthy start ups and companies of our day, including Whitney Wolfe of Bumble, Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia, and Roxanne Quimby, the founder of Burt’s Bees. Perfect for any aspiring entrepreneurs.

How to Fail with Elizabeth Day 

Each week Elizabeth is joined by a new interviewee, a respected name in their field, and asks them what they have failed at and also what they learnt from that. It’s great listening!

Illustration Hour

Bi-weekly podcast which sadly ended in April 2020, about the craft and business of illustration and design with in-depth interviews with illustrators, artists, art directors and graphic designers at various stages in their career. All the episodes are still available and worth a listen.

Make / time podcast

Conversations about craft, inspiration, and the creative process. Listen to leading makers and thinkers talk about where they came from what they’re making, and where they’re going next. Hosted by Stuart Kestenbaum.

Material Matters with Grant Gibson

Hosted by writer, critic and ex-Editor of Crafts Magazine Grant Gibson who interviews a variety of designers, makers and artists about their relationship with a particular material or technique. One of our favourite podcasts for creative businesses!

MONEY CLINIC with CLAER BARRETT

One of Anne-Marie’s favourites, the FT’s money-making expert Claer Barrett responds to real-life money questions from a range of guests. Every episode is packed with nuggets, tips and takeaways shared by top FT writers and financial experts. Super helpful in many ways.

Never Not Creative

Hosts Andy Wright and Sarah Nguyen interview creatives, mental health experts and consultants to share advice stories and conversations linked to our goals as a community

On Design with Justyna Green

Insightful conversations with the ‘most inspiring designers and artists and what inspires them’.

Online Marketing Made Easy

Amy Porterfield is a huge name in the digital marketing world. She built a multimillion-dollar business with online courses and now teaches others how to do the same. The podcast content is perfect for online course creators but she also shares masses of information about digital marketing.

What Works

American small business expert Tara McMullin (Tara Gentile) interviews small business owners in depth about what really works to start and grow their business. One of Patricia’s favourite podcasts to listen to while sitting in the bath …

6 Podcasts for creatives for pleasure

99% Invisible with Roman Mars

Perfect for design-minded folk, this podcast investigates the ways design and architecture play into our everyday lives, making you aware of the world around you in ways you’ve never been before. Topics range from how Las Vegas influenced modern architecture, the development of birth control pill packaging, and the ways that city planning influenced the growth of urban squirrel populations.

CALL HER DADDY

Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy is the most listened to podcast by women on Spotify. Alex Cooper cuts through the BS with every guest and topic, asking the questions we all want the answers to. New episodes come out on Wednesdays only on Spotify and guests vary from Jane Fonda to Jay Shetty, Hailey Bieber to John Mayer.

Desert Island Discs 

Everyone’s favourite with so many incredible people from scientists to pop stars share their life story along with the tunes that they would take with them if stuck alone on a desert island. Our Business Club Manager Anne-Marie Shepherd’s favourite episodes include Thom Yorke, Ian Wright (you’ll need a tissue), Daniel Ratcliffe, and Mel C from the Spice Girls (quite the revelation!)

Getting Curious with Jonathan van Ness 

A weekly exploration of all the things Jonathan van Ness (of Queer Eye, Gay of Thrones) is curious about. Jonathan invites experts in their respective fields to share their knowledge as they get curious about anything and everything under the sun.

No Such Thing as a Fish

A fun fact podcast where Dan, James, Anna and Andy discuss their favourite facts unearthed in the past seven days. A new episode is released every Friday from 2pm.

Planet Money 

A perfect blend of education and entertainment, and makes good on its promise of explaining the economy with stories and some surprises.

Stuff You Should Know 

Still going strong after 10 years, this is a brilliant podcast exploring the story behind, essentially everything. Genghis Khan, Barcodes, Tardigrades. Each episode digs deep into a topic and you’re never sure what you’ll get.

TDT March Pinterest Recommended Podcasts for Creative Businesses
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We know there are plenty more wonderful podcasts for creative businesses out there … Please share what your favourite creative podcasts are in the comments below.

4 Expert tips to get selected for a design trade or craft fair

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Are you struggling to get selected for a design trade or craft fair? Are you looking to apply for a juried selling event for your creative products? Do you want to know what it takes to get through the selection process? Let me help you!

Throughout my career I have been involved in the selection of various design and craft fairs. From the famous Chelsea Crafts Fair to One Year In at New Designers, and supported many new designers for group stands at international and UK trade fairs including Top Drawer, International Contemporary Furniture Fair in Milan and others.

I have worked very closely with many of the organisers, and have got some real life insight that might help you too.

Here are my 4 top tips to get selected for a design trade show or craft fair …

Goldssmiths Fair 1
Goldsmiths Fair at Goldsmiths Hall

Tip 1: Read the craft fair application guidelines

This might sound obvious but many people manage to overlook this simple step!

Check exactly what the organisers are looking for in terms of products, type of companies etc.

Most craft fair applications are exactly the same: Contact information, some background/CV or artist statement, and images or publicity material.

  • Make sure that you fill in all the questions and sign and date the application form (a common mistake!)
  • If the organisers ask for 5 images, don’t send 10 JPEG’s or a link to your website. Send 5 images!
  • Check exactly how they want you to send your information and in what format.

Popular show organisers often get 100’s of applications, so they will not take the extra time to look for what they need because you couldn’t be bothered.  Make their life easy!

Tip 2: Show your work off with your best pictures

Your application will be much more likely to succeed if you provide professional pictures that show your work in the best possible way.

Many selling events will select mostly on the images provided and less on the written information or your reputation or education.

It used to be fine to provide some ‘quick images taken on your phone’. But these days most of the craft fairs and design shows are very competitive to get in! And often the images you submit for the show will be used in promotions, the press and for the exhibition catalogue. Your images need to be of a professional standard.

They need to show what your work is like through a variety of detailed and overall image shots and a through a variety of products. Look at the selection of your images and see if this is a good representation of what you do.

If you didn’t know your work, would you get a good idea of what it looked like through your images?

  • Make sure that the selected images together form a consistent overview of what you do, but that there is some variety in what you offer.
  • Your pictures need to represent what you want to show or sell at the fair. 
  • Your photos must be high quality, and ideally taken by a professional photographer.
  • Make sure you show off your skills and the quality of your products with detailed shots. Show your exquisite craft skills by showing detailed images of your stitches or soldering. Show the thickness of your paint or the transparency of your glass. The softness of your mohair scarf or the thinness of your thrown pot.
  • You can use highly styled images within a context or lifestyle setting (but make sure that it is easy to spot what and where your product is!), or you can provide an image with a white background. It really helps if all your images have got a similar background (ideally just plain white) so that they can later be used for PR purposes.
  • You can show single products or create a collection. The latter will enable you to show more products within your limited allocation.
  • Use natural indirect light. An overcast day is actually a good to photograph your work, but do it next to the window. Avoid harsh shadows.
  • Use props such as flowers to bring your creative products alive. And also use props cleverly to show the actual size of your products and to add some connection to your ideal clients. But always make sure that your work plays the main role in your images!
  • Using models can be really great, but if not done well than it will look very amateurish.
  • Show your packaging or labels if relevant. Or showing an image of a previous craft fair or trade show stand can work well too.

Great images will not only get you selected for shows, but will also help you get into the press associated with the fair!

Professional photographs really are an investment and not a cost for your business.

Even if you have been selected before, or are a bit of an established name, make sure that you use your best images.  Even high profile creatives will not be selected if their images are not up to the right standard. I have seen it happen on many selection panels myself.

PRO TIP: Research how other designers and crafts people take images, through researching online portfolios or directories, or check out the website of the shows you are applying for.  A great place to start your research is the Crafts Council Directory of Makers, or look for popular Instagram or Pinterest accounts by fellow creatives.

Label your images with your (business) name and short description e.g. John Smith blue vase, John Smith grey pot (instead of JPEG 1, JPEG2, …) .  This will help the organisers when sorting out images with the selection, and also later when looking for press images.

Make sure that you update your website or other online portfolios with your new images too.  Firstly, that will keep them updated too, and secondly, very often smaller fairs will check you out a bit more and will look at your website too.  If your work has dramatically changed from the images on your site, or it looks like you can’t be bothered to keep your promotional information up to date, then they will be less likely to select you.

If you want to learn how to create great pictures of your crafts & jewellery read this blog post.

Tip 3: Return your craft fair application on time

Again this might sound really obvious, but you will be surprised how many fair applications arrive late.

Check if there is a deadline for the shows that you are interested in. Many of the popular Christmas shows have deadlines in March or April, so make sure that you are on time.

Most popular craft fairs have got deadlines and only do one selection (often with external panelists). So if you send in your application too late, then you will be … too late!

Don’t leave it until the last moment as it often takes time to get the right images and texts together.

Tip 4: Get feedback

You then get the anticipated email or letter from the organisers and you didn’t get selected for a design trade or craft fair. What now?

If you have been rejected, take a moment to check what went ‘wrong’ and what you could do better next time.  Check if you can find out in the rejection letter or on the website how many people applied and how many got selected to give you an idea of your chances.

The most common reason that fair organisations reject you will be because they had too many applications and or your products didn’t fit in with their show (don’t apply for a contemporary show if you work is traditional) or because your images were not good or clear enough in explaining what you do.

Many organisers really don’t mind if you contact them in a friendly manner (!) to ask for some feedback about your application. Some courtesy can go a long way here!

Sometimes they are unable to do so, or they might need to check specific notes about your application.

Alternatively ask them for some tips on how to improve your chances next time.

But above all … stay friendly and professional and they will often try to help.

And you never know … if you give the right professional impression and show that you really want to be part of their show then they might change their mind.  Especially if you are on a ‘waiting list’ they might check you out and if you are known to the organisers then you might be one of the first to be allocated a place.  I have seen this happen more than once.

Good luck!

Did you find our expert tips on getting selected for a design trade or craft fair useful? Then do let us know in the comments below and pass this blog post on to others too by sharing it on social media.

How to apply successfully for a craft fair – behind-the-scenes insights from a judge

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Do you wonder what happens behind-the-scenes during the selection of craft fair applications? What the judges are looking for and what they talk about? What makes a successful craft fair application … or not?

Patricia van den Akker banner image portrait 1

Patricia van den Akker, the Director of The Design Trust, shares in this blog post her experience of being a judge at contemporary craft shows and how to create a successful craft fair application. Although each selection panel and craft fair is slightly different, there are some common challenges and questions that each of them have to face.

“I have been involved with organising and marketing craft fairs and design trade shows for over twenty years. One of my very first jobs in the UK was to organise the selection of the Chelsea Crafts Fair, way back in 1995 at London’s Kings Road.

At that time the Crafts Council would get nearly 2,000 applications (!) for this highly regarded craft fair. Each applicant would send in six 35mm slides (some glass mounted – and no, not all survived the journey in the post!). It was my job to sort all these slides out per category, and then put them in alphabetical order and load over 10,000 slides into slide projectors. During the judging process it was essential that the 6 slide projectors would show all 6 slides of that maker at the same time. If one got out of sync it was a nightmare to get it sorted again!

Fast forward 25 years and these days I am delighted to be asked to be a judge for craft fairs or awards. For the last 6 years I have been a judge for the One Year In Award at the New Designers graduate exhibition, and been a judge for the Not On The High Street Award in 2015, the Etsy Handmade Award in 2016, and also for the selection of craft shows such as GNCCF in 2017 and the Spotted Award at Top Drawer in 2018.

What are the craft fair organisers looking for?

“Craft fair organisers often start the judging day by talking about their specific craft fair, their criteria (e.g the quality and originality of the work) and also that they want to maintain a combination of both new exhibitors and established makers.

They often remind us not to select based on our own taste but to look for diversity – it’s no good to have loads of jewellers in a show, or ceramicists that are all showing very similar work. They want us to choose not just what we like but to select both new makers as well as established ones, and look for variety in styles and price level so they can offer their visitors a choice within a range of quality craft products.

Often ineligible applications have already been removed by the organisers at this stage, for example because the applicant did not provide all the information or correct image formats, or because the work doesn’t fit the event’s criteria. For example if your work needs to be handmade then production-made work will not be accepted.

The organisers then tell judges how many craft fair applications they have received and how many stands are available in total, and often we will get a reminder of how many stands are approximately available per category. In particular as a precious jeweller your chances are often lower as this is such a popular category!”

Your work and images really need to stand out if you want to get into a craft fair, especially in very competitive disciplines such as precious jewellery.

“The selection process goes fairly quickly, as there are often 100’s of applicants. Often the images within one category get shown once quickly, and then all the images get shown a second time a bit slower when the judges cast their vote – for ‘in’, ‘out’ or ‘waiting list’. Mostly by simply calling it out or putting a hand up. Most of the time the votes are pretty unanimous, but when a judge feels strongly either way about an application then they often will argue their case so that an agreement can be reached.

The craft fair organisers often want to allocate around 80-90% of the available places, with the rest going on the “Waiting List”. So if there are 500 applications for 200 stands then about 180 places will need to get the ‘in’ vote and 40 will go onto the waiting list.

Craft organisers use the Waiting List to add some flexibility for themselves. Not everybody who gets selected will take up the offer of a stand after all. And by not allocating all the stands immediately they can review if there are any additional gaps in their craft fair exhibitors in terms of new versus more established makers, and variety in disciplines, style, price level etc.  They don’t want to have too many people on the Waiting List, as they realise that it can be frustrating for exhibitors.”

The secret to a successful craft fair application? Professional images!

“Most craft fair applications I have been involved in are predominantly judged based the images provided. Without any doubt if you want to be successful with your craft fair application then focus on your work and images.

Often the images are separated by discipline, and all the applicant’s images will be projected as a set at the same time, in alphabetical order.

To make it as fair as possible it’s rare that the maker’s name is revealed, although of course judges might recognise the work of certain makers.

Often all the images within one category are projected once to get an overview, and then the judging happens after that. Most decisions are made very quickly, and your images might be seen for only 5 – 10 seconds in total. So you will need to make an impression on those judges fast!

So what are the judges looking for in the images?

Consciously or more unconsciously the judges look for:

  • Do the products fit within the eligible categories or style? Is the quality and product right for this craft fair? Very often people apply while their work isn’t eligible or not right for a certain show. If this is a contemporary craft fair then don’t apply with very traditional work, with Fine Art, or products that are obviously not created by the person themselves. In a recent judging panel we had a lengthy discussion if the maker had only strung the necklaces together, or if the glass beads were also made by her. Make sure that there is no doubt!
  • What is it? Sometimes it’s very hard to see what the product actually is! That can be because only a detail of the product is shown, or because there are so many other items on the image that we don’t really know what your product is. Sometimes the image is very dark or the shadows so stark that it’s hard to see the object. Sometimes it’s hard to see what material the product is made from, if it is indeed handmade or mass-produced, and sometimes the scale is hard to guess.
  • Do you show coherent work? Does your set of slides together look like it’s made by the same person or is it very diverse in style and materials? Especially at the start of your career you might still be trying to identify your style and creating very different work. But try to show a collection of work that is coherent. It’s about getting the balance right between similarity and enough diversity!
  • Are your images in focus? Especially important of course for detailed products such as jewellery. But any shaky image will make you look unprofessional, especially as they will be projected large scale during the judging. Also make sure that all your images have the same DPI (dots per inch) otherwise some images might show up much smaller or bigger than others. Ensure that you check the format requirements when applying, because if the organiser is unable to open your images then it’s unlikely that you will be selected. Quick images taken on your phone, with shadows and a busy background, projected on to a big screen really will not come across as very professional.
  • Are your images professional enough? Most craft fair organisers will use the images you sent in for your application for the promotion of the show. They might ask for additional press images later, but basically the images for your craft fair application need to be of a professional standard so that they can be used in the press. If you are shooting new images think about professional styling, and avoid busy backgrounds. I have seen images shot outside with parts of grass showing up, or a big contemporary chair in a very old-fashioned and brown house. Neither got selected. 
  • Be careful with using models. Using professional models who wear professional make up, photographed by a professional photographer who works with lighting, can create the most amazing images. But if you are not an experienced photographer then be very careful. Look at how other professional makers show their work on sites such as NOTHS or Design Nation for professional inspiration. 
  • Are you showing your work at its best? Especially in very popular categories such as precious jewellery, prints, scarves or cushions you will need to show what makes your work better and stand out. You don’t have to limit yourself by only showing one product per image! Show a collection of earrings or a set of a necklace and a ring that belong together in one image – but don’t add too many items and it feels overcrowded. Show your work really close up so we can see the detail of your craft skills! Go up close to show your weaving quality or the thickness of your glazes. If your work is really big or really small then show them in context so we as judges can recognise the size immediately.
  • If you are an established maker or if you have exhibited at the show before then don’t make the assumption that the judges know you and your work. Show recent work, and if you are planning to launch new work that’s always great to see and a big bonus.
  • If you are looking to add a little variety to your product pictures then add an image of you working on one of your pieces, or add your branding or packaging, and sometimes it can be great to see how your stand or display looked too. But make sure that your products are clearly the heroes of your images!

TOP TIP:

Look for image inspiration at last year’s exhibitors for the show on the organiser’s website and some of the most popular Instagram accounts. This will give you a good idea of the organiser’s expectations in terms of products and quality of image.

What else do the judges look for?

“Most craft fair organisers love showing a diversity of work, in terms of price level and style. However, do research the show in more detail to find out who the visitors are. For example many Christmas craft fairs will be looking to include some more giftable items too, while some of the higher end craft fairs might be looking for wow pieces that truly show off the quality of the work. Tailor your product selection to what the show is about and who attend.  

Most craft fair organisers want to add some new makers and keep some well-established makers who can attract good press and the collectors. If you make more unique work then it’s often much easier to get selected then in the most popular categories such as precious jewellery or fashion textiles, where you will need to stand out more.

Sometimes when there are questions about an application then we might look for further information on somebody’s application, website or social media. But often there is very limited time for this. When it is difficult to see the size or material from an image then the additional information will be checked, or for example if it is unclear if something is handmade by the person themselves or just bought-in and only assembled. 

However, in my experience when an event is for new makers then the website and additional information will be more likely checked too so that the judges can get a better overall picture of the applicant.

Some craft shows, such as Made London do not use external judging panels and they take the time to look in more detail at the extra information and your website, and not just your images.

So when you apply for a craft fair do make sure that your website is up-to-date with good images and information such as materials and sizes, as you are much more likely to get selected.”

Did you find this expert-behind-the-scenes blog post on what judges are looking for in craft fair applications useful? Then do let us know below. Have you got additional experiences as a judge or organiser that you would like to share? Then we would love to hear from you … send us an email or do comment below.

[free video training] feeling overwhelmed? 5 thought-provoking questions + solutions

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Are you feeling overwhelmed? Too much to do? So many jobs and responsibilities … within your creative business and in your life?

Don’t know where to start? Or what the next step needs to be?

Too many distractions from social media or life events?

When we recently surveyed our creative clients about their specific business challenges the ‘feeling overwhelmed’ topic came up a lot!

Feeling overwhelmed is very common. It seems a bit contagious even … especially with so many distractions and world events occupying our minds right now.

In this free video training I share 5 thought-provoking questions about feeling overwhelmed, so that you can dig a little deeper into what’s really going on, before we get to some really practical solutions to overcome your overwhelm, especially for creative business owners. In this 68min video training we will work together on:

  • When do you feel overwhelmed? When you have got a lot on, or is it more depending on different types of pressure? (Look out for the monkey story!) Do you need to build your resilience and if so, how do you do that?
  • You will feel a lot more overwhelmed if you are not looking after yourself. What do YOU need to nurture yourself? I will share some really simple techniques that you can use too.
  • Who or what is causing the pressure? You, others, or is it broader than that? How much control have you got over the outcome? And I highly recommend Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Framework if you are struggling with expectations, your own and others’.
  • Do you like being busy? Many creatives do! Because we often get easily bored and we don’t want to be tight down! And because we often want to feel that we have ‘given it our all’ too.
  • But when does this ‘liking to be busy’ turn into ‘too busy’? And how much are you adding to overwhelming yourself? How much do you add drama with too many products, not wanting to choose, and too much social media? What is really going on underneath all that? What do you gain and what do you loose by feeling overwhelmed?
  • My practical solutions and activities including: how to get it all out of your head and onto paper (with some great exercises, are you doing the right thing at the right time, and the importance of unstructured time that I learnt myself the hard way last year.

Watch this free video training for creatives now