Small business – Keeping it creative

Today’s guest post focuses on different ways you can effectively market yourself as a fledgling (or more experienced) creative small business owner. Linda shares her tips on putting yourself and your work out there whether you’re a maker, web designer, poet, blogger, musician or any other type of artist or creator. I hope you find the suggestions useful in helping you grow your business.

How Do I Get Noticed?

Sure, we have all heard the stories of the starving artist being “accidentally” discovered by the right person at the right time. But, this is the exception rather than the rule. Because you can’t bank on the possibility of going viral, you’ll have to put some work into getting your creative endeavors into the public eye.

Today, the Keep It Creative blog touches on a few of the finer points of marketing yourself.

Network

Networking is one of the most important things that any new business owner can do. In addition to current friends and business acquaintances, there’s no shame in reaching back into your past to contact your old high school and college buddies. You never know when someone can give you a business boost. If you’ve lost touch, use a specialized search engine to type in their name, school, and the year you graduated. As an added bonus, you can even find other friends and possibly even former educators with whom to reconnect.

Share your resume

Your resume does not have to be a stuffy one-page introduction to yourself. As a maker or artist, you can get creative. Your resume could be anything from photos of your artwork to samples of your writing or designs. If you need to share your resume, try using a PDF editor, which gives you some flexibility to create in whatever program you want and then edit, download, and share when you’re ready.

Create videos

Short-form video is a relative newcomer in the world of online marketing thanks to TikTok and now Facebook Reels. But, these 15 to 60-second blasts can do wonders for you as a creator. Don’t be shy about getting yourself on film, even if it means creating a hyper-lapse video of your latest project.

Get organized

While people won’t see what’s going on behind the scenes with your business, you can bet your buttons they will see the after-effects of not being organized. According to the productivity Center at Calendar, being organized helps you present your business in its best light, ensures a smooth operation, and leads to better customer service and productivity.

Find your niche

A niche is simply a specialization. But, more than just being an expert in an area, your artistic and creative niche helps you stand out. To choose your specific niche, start by looking at what makes you happy and where you are most passionate.

Establish your social media following

Social media matters more than you might think. Even if you’ve tried to hold off on going “mainstream,” having a solid social media presence is one of the best ways to get attention. While Facebook continues to be the number one platform, artists should also look for those that showcase visuals. The Artwork Archive says all artists should have an Instagram account, but you should also pay closer attention to more specialized platforms, such as DeviantArt.

Pay for ads

There is no shame in paying for advertisements. Although you want to be discovered organically, keep in mind that all of the social media ads, commercials, and billboards you see were paid for by a business. Paid advertising (when done online, it’s known as PPC) is great for starter businesses, and it can help you capture your audience and expand your reach.

Even if you have a niche that no one else is in, it’s not always easy to get your work noticed. But, the tips above, from utilizing paid advertising to networking and sharing your resume can help you stand up and stand out. Once you build your following, stay engaged by using your social media. No matter how big you grow, remember to never lose sight of the reason you create in the first place; otherwise, you may lose your edge.

If you want to keep up with everything that Laura is doing, you don’t have to travel to England. Bookmark the blog for updates.

Final words…

Thanks to Linda Chase, who can be found at lindac@ablehire.org for today’s guest post which is full of great tips for small business owners looking to get themselves noticed. The tip about using video particularly interested me as it’s something I’ve not tried before but I’m always impressed those I see on Instagram and it’s definitely something I would like to give a go in the future.

It’s been a while since I’ve added some new items to my Etsy shop and today I’ve listed three new charms so I thought I’d share some behind the scenes steps I take for adding things including deciding on what I want in my shop, making purchases from suppliers, getting the charms or paper goodies ready to be photographed, editing the images and creating the actual listings.

These days, my most popular items are my charms so I mainly concentrate on these although I still have ring bound planner dividers, dashboards and page markers available to purchase. The charms I choose are mainly related to nature but I also select items which I think will be popular at the time or will be classics which I will have in my shop long term.

Ideas for charms can strike at any time so I make a note in my bullet journal daily records as soon as I can and then I transfer to a dedicated spread containing all of my initial ideas. Of course, not all of them come into fruition as I have to do a bit of research on availability. If I’m not feeling particularly inspired, I will just spend half an hour or so checking what my usual suppliers have in their stock – this is particularly easy to do on Etsy as new items of my favourite sellers are shown on my shop homepage without me having to do anything!

When I select and purchase items (after checking the photos and descriptions really carefully), I make notes on the key features of the charms in my BuJo e.g. size, materials, keywords to describe them etc. which helps me when I get round to listing them. I also write down the keywords I used to actually search for the products as this is gives me ideas for what to use in my listings. Finally, I note how many of each item purchased and total price including shipping so I can make an informed decision about pricing when I come to listing.

I usually photograph the charms and edit in bulk to make the process more efficient. Today I’ve photographed three charms and have taken at least 8 images of each in different orientations. I wait until the afternoon to do a shoot as the lighting in my living room is better then. I also need to wait for a day when it is fine but isn’t too bright so that I can get decent photos. I also need to get changed into a plain white or cream top if I’m photographing charms with them being highly reflective to minimise reflections on the silver or gold! ( I have a small collection of assigned photography tops for this purpose would you believe). The background of my charms is actually a laminate floor tile with a slate effect and I think it provides a good contrast to my charms and adds a nice bit of texture.

To minimise the editing of my photographs, I shoot (warning – technical photography speak coming up – please read as ‘shoot in a way that makes good photographs’ and move on to the next paragraph if you don’t wanna hear the specifics ha ha!) with the 4:3 aperture on my DSLR (as this is what Etsy wants the size of photographs to be) and try alter the F stop to a size which allows plenty of light to hit the lens but still allows the customer to see all of the detail in the charm.

I’ve got the listing process down to a fine art and my newer products are listed using a set template (which I have saved as a MS Word document) that doesn’t take long to edit for each item. The creation of tags is different for each charm and I need to think hard about what people might type into the search box if they were looking for a product like mine. There are programs you can use to help you but they cost money and I would rather not reduce my profits by purchasing one of them.

I tend to share my new products via Instagram and on my shop Facebook page but this is something I need to become more consistent at. I’m not so good at advertising my things and tend to rely on customers searching for them on the Etsy App rather than showing people my products. I need to work on my social media presence and will probably add a target to my business goals for next month.

As you can see, there’s lots involved in running an Etsy shop if you want good photographs of items that sell. When I first began as a seller three years ago, I thought it would be quick and easy but it’s actually very time consuming. I’ve got quicker at doing things with practise but I still put lots of effort in each week. I have enjoyed having customers from all over the globe and it’s so lovely when they come back to my little shop again again so all the hard work is worth it.

Category: Small business

Effective ways to market yourself as a creative small business owner (guest post by Linda Chase)

Behind the scenes – Etsy seller: How I go about adding new items to my shop