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sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:14 pm Post subject: Marketing your business?

Anyone got any top tips, or even top to-be-avoideds for marketing a small business. I'm thinking ahead to when I can hopefully give up the bulk of the dayjob, and whilst I know there are some potential markets for what I do that I haven't yet explored, I'm not really all that sure what are the most reliable and cost effective ways of getting the right sort of attention.

For example, several of the historic hat patterns I do would in principle appeal mightily to the upper end of the country sports market, they are traditional designs (with up to 500 years of product testing behind them!) and can be updated for the modern market by using top quality British yarns in either fleece shades or rather funkier modern dyes. I can push the locally made, low impact technology side of it etc, and I know they should appeal, possibly even at a slightly higher price than I sell to the re-enactors, but how to get a toe in the door?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45509
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:18 pm Post subject:
Dunno, first thing I'd say is focus, how do you decide what you're going to do as the main thrust of your business?

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:22 pm Post subject:
The most important thing in marketing is knowing who your target market is, once you have that clearly defined, along with your parameters (ie you're not going to launch a huge telly campaign ) deciding how to target that market becomes much much easier.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:27 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Dunno, first thing I'd say is focus, how do you decide what you're going to do as the main thrust of your business?

Good point, and to honest I can always see me with several mini-businesses all catering to slightly different markets, I can't ignore that fact that I'll always want to experiment in a number of fields and it makes sense to me to sell what I produce. However, I know there are certain things- like the hats- that sell steadily and which I can produce almost anywhere. It seems logical to me to take what I know I can make and find new people to sell it to, it also seems sensible to look for the market that will pay the most realistic price for it, where some of my current markets will not take a price that reflects the hours that go into a piece.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35934
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:27 pm Post subject:
Lots of magazines - like Country Life etc. look for press-releasy type articles. We wrote something about us and the company when we moved and one or two magazines took it up. It's not direct marketing, but it does raise your profile.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28161
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:28 pm Post subject:

I think I would take the attitude that time is money and knowledge is also costly. I think this is a point I have failed badly on in previous ventures.

You will not find what is an effective place to market your products unless you spend the money to try, making sure that when you get the orders you also get the metrics on where the order came from.

e.g for mail order advertising put make the address different for each place you advertise e.g. "Dept. DS" or whatever.

You may argue that you cannot afford to lose say £1000 on misplaced advertising, but I'd argue you cannot afford not to, if you are talking about a full time enterprise, finding out quickly what works, if indeed anything works! will save you a lot of problems.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45509
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:32 pm Post subject:

sally_in_wales wrote:

I can always see me with several mini-businesses all catering to slightly different markets

In which case marketing will always be more cumbersome and perhaps expensive than it could be.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:35 pm Post subject:
Ish. Look at is a benefit. You can cross ad people. So, people who buy your soaps should receive the soap, and a flyer about your felt hats, or whatever. Different markets, perhaps, but the same kind of people.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45509
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:40 pm Post subject:

Nick Howe wrote:

Ish. Look at is a benefit. You can cross ad people. So, people who buy your soaps should receive the soap, and a flyer about your felt hats, or whatever.

Different markets, perhaps, but the same kind of people.

Ish in a big way I'd say. It only works to my mind if she sets herself up as a one stop shop for anyone interested in historic handicrafts**, to do that effectively would (I believe) mean supplying goods other than her own alongside what she makes herself.

** No idea if that's a good description, just what came to mind.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:46 pm Post subject:
How about the bloody good soap shop - it shifts a fair range of grime

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:51 pm Post subject:

The woman who runs the mentoring scheme I'm just about to start advised me to have 2 separate businesses. One which covers my everyday/can make it in the dark stuff and another which covers my need to make more arty stuff. She didn't seem to see it as a problem - she said lots of makers/artists do it

I'm with jema about deciding who your target market are and then take it from there.

Last edited by Stacey on Tue Jul 10, 07 4:54 pm; edited 1 time in total

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:52 pm Post subject:
Oh, for sure have two different businesses, or 28, but when someone buys from one, you can tell them about the others, is my point.

Stacey

Joined: 18 Jul 2005
Posts: 8380
Location: Kernow

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 4:59 pm Post subject:

Nick Howe wrote:

Oh, for sure have two different businesses, or 28, but when someone buys from one, you can tell them about the others, is my point.

It's a fair point - my post was more a general post in response to Sally finding it hard to focus on one product. I'm the same

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28161
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 5:00 pm Post subject:

Stacey wrote:

I'm with jema about deciding who your target market are and then take it from there.

Well I am more on about finding out what does work.

If you are trying something full time, you can spend a year or more vaguely finding this out, and that will be costing you money in terms of unproductive time, or you can at least to some degree choose to pay to have the knowledge quickly.

It is all a matter of balance, as you don't want to simply throw money away, but I know from painful experience that assuming that something will slowly take off can be a costly mistake.

sally_in_wales
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 20809
Location: sunny wales

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 07 5:05 pm Post subject:
I just wrote a really long post and it dematerialised when I pressed send Anyway, moving along, assume one has identified a good product and a good market, how to go about reaching them? What are the overall principles of effective marketing especially for small producers with limited funding?

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