Month: July 2022

When you start out selling handcrafted items online, whether it’s handmade bath bombs or wax melts, you’ll probably be asking a thousand questions about sales, marketing and advertising, as well as, “Do I needcraft insurance for wax melts or bath bombs?” It’s definitely a good idea to get craft insurance for wax melts and bath bombs if you are making them, and we’d like to help you with some of those other questions too, if we can.

We picked the brains of our friends at Cre8ion for some ideas to help you out with the marketing of your handmade products. They told us that when you sell online, video is a great way to do your wonderful handcrafted items justice (as well as still shots) because online customers love to watch film!

So, we went and got some tips on how to use film to promote your items and yourself more effectively. Remember, there is no absolute right and wrong as the creative approach will differ depending on the desired end result. Essentially, it’s all about telling the story of your product. Think about the journey the product had to take to get from its raw materials into the hands of the customer and what you did along the way to make it all happen. 

Where do I start?

Ironically, the first thing that you need to get right when taking video footage of your products or interviewing your customers for great testimonials, is not the picture, but the sound. Viewers will forgive a poor picture but never poor sound. Great sound gives viewers an emotional connection with what they are seeing, so, the better the soundtrack, the better the connection. Remember the film Gladiator? An unforgettable soundtrack elevated that film to a sublime experience! 

You too can elevate your video by buying yourself a Bluetooth microphone, they aren’t that expensive and they do a great job. If your product is a cold drink, you can have the mellow sound of liquid sloshing into the glass and ice cracking to complement the visual experience.

Which Camera?

You probably have a camera on your phone already that can be used for taking great videos to use on your website or for social media. Today’s phones are more than adequate and can be used with tripods and gimbals to achieve even better footage.

Top Tips for making videos of yourself and your products ‘in situ’.

1.) A great idea to add value to your products and take your customer on a journey with you is to video yourself in the process of making them. Allow people to see the different stages of your process and the time it takes. Ideally, your videos should be 60 seconds in length to use for Instagram, other social media and for your website. 

2.) Although it’s down to personal preference, most products will look better in softer light. You can make a DIY light diffuser to soften the light you are using by shining your light through a plain white shower curtain or even through baking paper. This makes the light appear to wrap around the subject rather than creating harsh shapes and shadows.  

3.) Experiment with different shots and angles when showing your product in its own environment. Why not try an aerial shot, a top-down shot from directly above? Give a bird’s eye view of your product or of yourself working, with all your materials laid out. This kind of a shot works well as an establishing shot or as an ‘A roll’ to set the scene. 

4.) Think outside the box. How about placing your product in the background of the shot with a prop to frame the shot in the foreground? For example, you could film your product through the petals of a pot plant or through a gap in a tool box… 

5.) When filming your product against a plain background, use a textured background such as wood or concrete, something with a grain to make the shot more interesting. When filming a top-down shot, or what is known as a “flat lay”, to give the shot depth don’t place the object right up against the background, leave room between the objects/background to create more depth, subtle but effective!

6.) Include other elements in the shot that complement your product or feature, its ingredients and associated ideas. For instance, if you are making honey bath bombs don’t just film the bath bomb but include shots of dripping honey, maybe even with the sound of bees buzzing in the background. If your product contains a perfume from a flower, include shots of those flowers swaying in the breeze.

Top Tips for making videos of your customers. 

Start filming people who have tried your products and had a really positive experience. 

1.) The best way to film your subject is to film them at an angle. Make sure that the room is well lit. If you are interviewing a customer, for example, don’t sit them in front of a lighted window as they will be silhouetted. They’ll look more like an anonymous witness on a crime report and you won’t be able to see their face clearly. So, use as much natural light as possible, seat them near the window, at a slight angle so they’re not facing the camera, but still facing forwards, so that the light falls on their face. If you are adding artificial light, then use your DIY light diffuser to give a softer light that wraps around the subject. 

2.) If you are filming your subject on your own, provide the subject with a focal point for them to look at, don’t have them staring right down the barrel of the camera. It should look as if they are having a conversation with someone who is off camera. Still nod and respond at the right places as it will help the subject.

3.) Make it interesting. You need to grab the attention of the viewer in the first couple of seconds. Give them a question to answer that will pique the viewers’ curiosity and make them want to find out more. Also, set the scene of the shot to be as visually interesting as you can, but not distracting! If someone is seated in a neutral environment, have a pot plant with a pop of colour on the desk to give the viewer something else to look at, and bring the shot to life.

Now you know how to take great videos and attract more customers to buy your bath bombs and wax melts we can help you to answer the next question, “Do I need craft insurance for wax melts and bath bombs?” Please get in touch for a quote.

Craft fairs are a great way for handcrafters to sell their items and get noticed as a brand. They can help to build up the profile of a handcrafting business and they are a good way to get started. It is important that when thinking about attending craft fairs you look at locations. You should find those that are suitable for your products. It is also essential that you have the right public liability insurance for craft fairs in place.

Choosing craft fairs

To assess the viability of craft fairs, you should think about the kind of customers that are likely to attend. If you sell handcrafted, high-end jewellery, you might not find your ideal customers at a school summer fair. Look at the options you have available. You want to make the most out of the opportunities available. It is also important to give yourself the best chance of making sales on the day. You can also assess which craft fairs to attend by looking at the price you are being asked to pay for a table. If you sell small items priced in the low pounds you will have to sell a lot of products if you choose to attend a craft fair that costs £100 a table.

Once you have decided which craft fairs you are going to attend you will need to think about how you can encourage people to attend. If the craft fair has its own social channels, make sure that you follow them and share the posts on your pages. Let your customers know that you are going to be at the fair. You can also share some teaser images of the products you are going to be selling.

Next, you need to think about how you are going to display your products at the fair. Also, look at how you are going to make your table stand out to your customers. As well as looking at the aesthetics of the table you should also make sure that you have all legal requirements as well. This can include correct labelling of your products and a list of ingredients. You will also need public liability insurance for craft fairs in case someone is injured as a result of your attendance at the fair.

Here are a few tips to help you make your crafting stall attractive to buyers.

Table covering

At most craft fairs you will be given a plain table. One of the simplest and cheapest ways to improve this is with a tablecloth or a sheet. If you have brand colours you may want to have a tablecloth in these colours. But, it is important that you think about the products that will be displayed. Often, you are better choosing a plain white, cream or even a black table cloth to help the colours of your products shine.

Other ways you can cover a table include using jute bags that you cut open and layout across the table or even using fake grass panels. It is important that you choose a covering that is going to reflect the products that you create and your overall brand.

Branding & Marketing

People will visit your stall and may not buy anything. But, this is an opportunity for you to get your brand in front of them. By having your branding on your products and creating a shopping experience for them, they are more likely to remember you in the future. It is also important to have business cards and any other marketing materials that you use, so customers and prospective buyers can take these away with them.

Examples of marketing materials include:

• Business Cards
• Banners
• Leaflets
• Promotional items such as branded sweets and bags

Display products

Instead of laying out your product directly on the table, think about how you can display them in an eye-catching way. This could be using interesting items to place your items on. Examples include:

• Natural wood blocks
• Cork placemats
• China plates or cups
• Jute or fabric baskets and boxes
• Jewellery stands made from natural materials

Play around with different heights and depths and create a stand that incorporates many different elements. Think of the back of the table as the area where you will place the highest items and work your way down in height. If you plan on standing at the back of your table, create a small area in the middle that will allow you to speak with your customers.

It can be nice to have some elements of the materials that you use to create your items or elements of nature on your table. This could be in the form of flowers or some of the raw materials that you use such as balls of yarn or strips of metal and wood. Lights can also be used to help create the illusion of depth. They can also help you highlight and illuminate certain products on your table.

It is important that all the elements you use on your table is safe and secure. This is to ensure the safety of customers and yourself. Public liability insurance for craft fairs is important. It helps to protect you should any items fall from your stall and cause injury to any of the visitors.

Clothing

Never underestimate the power of the clothing that you wear to craft fairs. If you have a business logo you might want to think about having some branded clothing created. Or you could simply wear something that matches the colour of your branding or is related to the items you make. Another important tip is to make sure that you wear and use your own products. If you make jewellery, wear some on the day. Remember that you are your businesses best asset.

Crafting items is a labour of love. It is one of the reasons people love buying handcrafted items for themselves and as gifts for others. But when you have spent so much time creating your items, it can be difficult to know how best to price them.  

Pricing can be difficult. Especially when the business uses your own creativity. It is important to set a price that is fair for both your customers and yourself. You need to ensure that you cover all your associated costs. These include materials, craft business insurance fees, and any marketing costs that you might have.  

There are lots of different variables to take into consideration for pricing. For some crafters there may be very few overheads in the creation of their items, but it may take longer to make. For others there may be high-priced materials but a quicker production time. This is why it is important that you follow a process that allows you to cover both the hours that you spend making your products and the cost of materials. 

One pricing method that you can use to help determine a fair price for your handcrafted products is  

Material Costs + Hourly Rate + Overheads. 

Material Costs 

This is one of the most time-consuming parts of pricing products. But you will be glad that you followed the process. It allows you to ensure that you are covering all the materials that you need for each item that you sell. The process consists of: 

1. Note down the price of the materials that are used to create each item. Make sure to include everything that you use to make the item and anything that you use for packaging as well.  

2. Dividing each material price by the amount used. For example, if a 100g ball of yarn costs you £3.50 but you only use 25g for your item the price would be £3.50 divide by 4 = £0.88.  

3. Add all the materials together for your total item cost 

Hourly Rate 

This can be harder to determine. You can either base your hourly rate on the minimum wage for your age, or set it at a rate that you feel is fair. Make sure that you time how long it takes you to make each of your items. Then either multiply the amount of hours by the hourly rate or, if it takes you less than an entire hour multiply the fraction of the hour by the hourly rate.  

For example:  45 minutes work at an hourly rate of £10 = 45/60 x 10 = £7.50 

Overheads 

You should look at all the other costs that are associated with your handcrafted items. This will include your craft business insurance, and your marketing spend. Divide your total overheads by the number of products that you make and add this figure onto their cost price. 

You may also choose to keep your overheads separate from your cost price and leave them as an expense. 

Final figure 

Now you have calculated your material costs, hourly rate and, if appropriate your overheads, you can set about creating your final figure. Add all these elements together and this will give you your overall price.  

There are instances where you might want to add a mark up on this price. This will give you an extra profit margin. If you plan on selling items to other vendors at a wholesale cost it is worth taking this extra step. The profit margin will allow you to reduce your cost price for seasonal sales as well.  

You can add 20% to your final calculated figure (or other percentage value as you see appropriate). This will then give you the percentage discount that you can pass on to your wholesalers. It will also give you an idea of what you can discount during a sale period.  

Here is a worked through example for you.  

Earrings 

Material Costs: 

• 2 earring hooks (pack of 28 for £2.50) = £0.18 

• 2 jump rings (pack of 120 for £2.50) = 0.04 

• 2 Headpins (pack of 50 for £3.50) = £0.14 

• 1 large-coloured pearl bead (pack of 30 for £1.80) = 0.12 

Total = £0.48 

Hourly Rate: 

• £11 an hour (takes 10 minutes to make a pair of earrings) = £1.83 

Overheads (yearly figure if adding them on): 

• £350 craft business insurance (this is just as an example – not an actual cost)  

• £200 marketing 

• £50 website domain name 

Total = £600 divided by 1200 products (100 a month for a year) = £0.50 

Cost Price Total = £2.81 

Now you have your cost price you can look at the mark up that you would like to add. 

20% mark up = £3.37 

50% mark up = £4.22 

This gives you an idea of what a final sale price might look like. To gauge whether you have your pricing within an acceptable range, you can do some market research. It will show you what similar products are selling for. You can then either increase your mark up or increase your hourly rate if you want to raise your prices.  

Try not to reduce your prices to below those of your competitors as this doesn’t always mean that people will buy your products instead of theirs. Make sure your price is fair for your customers and that it reflects the materials and hard work that has been undertaken to create the product. 

When selling to other vendors at a wholesale price it can be a good idea to give them a recommended retail price for your product. This will help them to market your products to their customers.  

Once you have your prices in place, you can set about looking at ways in which you can market your products. These could of course be through online shops, via your own website or social media channels and through in person events. Make sure that you have all the necessary craft business insurance in place before you make any sales. This will help protect you if a claim is made for any reason against your products.  

Dealing with people who tell you that your products are too expensive can be difficult as it feels like a personal insult. No wonder, as built into the price of your products is your input, the care and time you bring to the raw materials to make each piece into something beautiful. When the price of handmade items is questioned, the customer might just as well be questioning how much you, your creativity, your years of experience, your uniqueness and your time are actually worth! The answer to this question is that you can’t put a price on it! Some might consider it to be priceless, while others won’t.

So, let’s give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and assume that some people just aren’t accustomed to paying for products that have a living wage built into the price.  There’s no point getting upset about the blood, sweat and tears that went into making the product or indeed giving people discounts to pacify them. You’ll be selling yourself short. There are other ways you can keep your prices at the level they should be and keep customers happy by using marketing to ensure that the perceived value of your art and craft is high. You know how valuable your work is, now it’s time to let the world know!

As we have mentioned in previous blogs, it’s really important to present yourself and your work in the best possible way using great photographs, a professional brand and a well presented website. Videos of your creative process on your website and on social media will showcase all the skill, time and talent you put into the finished articles. Let the world know that you are top class in blog posts with detailed case studies and high-quality images of you at work.

Now, the price of handmade items is an important factor but if price was the only factor the buyer would not be contacting you in the first place. The important thing is to tap into why the customer is looking for handmade articles and double down on that. Even customers who complain about the price of handmade items are looking for something special and bespoke, so how do you charge the right prices and avoid negative comments? Well, the secret sauce is to give people exactly what they are looking for….   

Ten Top Tips to Get You Around the Price Conundrum

Some of these you may well have already thought of, but just in case you haven’t..!

Tip 1

Create ‘limited edition’ series or items. One month you might make a range of squirrels with top hats, promote the range and then not make them again. The following month you’ll make squirrels on bicycles and promote that range. Or, you can number your paintings: ‘one of twelve’ or ‘eleven of twenty’ to push the price up. People might go looking for the number twenty of a series for a twentieth birthday present or to commemorate some other significant date. Banksy did a series of numbered paintings of Marilyn Monroe and collectors and other customers went after particular numbers for different reasons.

Tip 2

Create cheaper versions. If you are an artist, for instance, you could do a limited number of paintings at a price you’re really happy with and then produce prints of those paintings to sell at a cheaper price. Then (back to limited editions idea again) you could even have limited runs of those prints at a higher price. Making a cheaper option available is great for anyone who might have been unwilling to pay  the true price of an original painting.

Tip 3

Create pre-orders to your loyal database, ie. those customers who regularly buy from you. You can offer the items as collectibles prior to general release and even create an event so that people can buy your products before they are made available to the general public. This is a proven strategy for raising prices and demand before you make a particular range of products available on general release.

Tip 4

Work with key partners and come up with licensed collections. For example, you could work with the White Company and come up with all white collections of your products. People pay more for the added value and the well known name you are collaborating with.

Tip 5

Create the same items but with different materials. Maybe sketch your subject or  landscape in pencil and then make it as a tapestry, or paint it says a watercolour. The sets can then be sold at a higher price than the individual items.

Tip 6

Mirror the trends in contemporary art. Do a Marilyn Monroe, a David Bowie, or a Queen Elizabeth. These represent collectors’ interests as well as cultural relevance and can be charged at a higher price. Don’t underestimate the power of nostalgia!

Tip 7

Diversify. Take an item such as a signature print and use it across different applications. A signature painting style could be used as a print on clothing, wallpaper or even home furnishings. What people might have not been prepared to pay for on a canvas they may well pay for when combined with the added benefit of being a set of comfy cushions!

Tip 8

Add your signature to everything. A real signature as opposed to a printed one. If you hand sign all your prints for example, it will increase their perceived value.

Tip 9

Be extraordinarily brave. A well known international photographer once added an extra zero to the price of every one of his photography prints and saw his business transform overnight. He realised that up to that time he had been undervaluing his time, effort and knowledge. Sometimes charging less has more to do with our own value than the value of the work we produce.

Tip 10

Collaborate. Offer other people’s collections in your deals or feature another artist’s work in your work or vice versa. This kind of work gives double the value, double the impact and double the reach. There is every justification here for a higher price.

After trying all of this and people are still questioning the price of your handmade items, they are probably trying to to get a discount! Just tell them that the price reflects the fact that the products are unique and painstakingly handmade by an expert in their field, with the very best materials, and included in the price is a little piece of you.