Viki Lareau owns The Bead Factory in Tacoma, WA with her husband, Mark. She has taught business and beading classes nationwide. She also produces the Puget Sound Bead Festival. Her book, Marketing and Selling your Handmade Jewelry: The Complete Guide to Turning Your Passion into Profit (Interweave, 2006), is a best-selling resource.

Be Creative with your Marketing Plan, Not Just your Designs

Selling handmade jewelry has always required hard work, and the current global economy has definitely made it more difficult than ever. Such is the cycle of business. Since jewelry has the most saturated market of all the hand-made mediums, it presents an extra-special set of challenges. Now is the time to extend the creativity you spend on your designs to your marketing plan.

While your cash flow may be limited, your marketing ideas should overflow. Here are a few affordable ideas to spice up your marketing plan:

Donate a piece to an auction. This is very easy and garners positive exposure.

Join as many business groups as you can and offer to host meetings in your studio. Allow professional women in the group to borrow your jewelry if they’re willing to hand out your cards every time someone notices.

Set up small trunk shows at businesses that employ a number of women – think hospitals, schools, corporations, etc. Ask a manager if you can set up in a lunchroom one day a month in exchange for credit toward your jewelry.

Check newspapers for local fashion shows and approach bridal shops – anyplace that might need accessories to complement its clothing. I recently had several of my jewelry pieces featured in a bridal magazine simply by offering to loan them to an editor I met in a women’s business group.

Approach every catalog for which your style is a good fit, but only if you have the inventory to deliver. Find contact information on the company’s website, send samples, then follow up with reminder e-mails. Expect to wait as long as six months before receiving a final decision. I know that seems like a long time, but if you don’t start reaching out, your break will never come.

Get social! Chat on Facebook, start a blog, and tweet on Twitter about your designs. Post a video of you making your jewelry on YouTube. These are free and easy can’t-miss marketing opportunities. Always post your latest designs and contact information on your website.

Carry a small case of your jewelry everywhere you go. A good friend sells jewelry all the time by wearing a representative piece. When someone comments on it, she immediately shows them her stock – she once made $300 in line at the grocery store and $1,500 on a plane!

Seem like a lot of work? It is. This is called paying your dues. Opportunities seldom arise by magic; almost no one gets “discovered.” It’s about getting yourself out there every day and being open to whatever comes your way.

Now for some Q & A

Q: I don’t live in an area with a lot of gem shows. I have been doing most of my buying online but am often disappointed in the quality of the product when it arrives. How can I judge quality when buying? Thanks!
~Kelly

A: Unfortunately, if you’ve never had the chance to buy gems in person, then you are going strictly off how your monitor portrays the quality of the product. If the price seems too good to be true, it may be – call the seller and ask why it is such a good price. Many reputable companies will send you a sample free of charge. Ask around to see who your beading friends trust. Like everywhere else – you get what you pay for with beads.
~VL

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Please feel free to email w/your bead business questions to beadbiz@thebeadfactory.com. If you live in the Seattle/Tacoma area and are thinking about pursuing a career as a jewelry designer or a bead store owner, I highly recommend coming to any of my upcoming classes.

Thanks again for your interest – happy beading!
Viki Lareau