First Step Marketing

Get out there!

There are many gardening experts, but for more than two decades, one has stood out head and shoulders above the rest — Keith Kirsten. He has become a household name, both as a gardening authority and a much sought after celebrity. What is it that made him different? There were horticulturists as good and possibly even better than he was — but he’s the one who became Mr. Gardening.

Why?

Very good marketing!

When he started out he was seen absolutely everywhere. He presented gardening programmes on national television, he appeared regularly on radio, he wrote articles for magazines, he made guest appearances at gardening expo’s and in shopping centres — he was just everywhere.

Now you don’t necessarily need to go quite as public as Keith Kirsten, but if you want to succeed you have to put yourself and your craft out there and you have to get noticed.

And when you start doing it you’ll be delighted at the difference it makes to your business.

The four essentials

• Courage — to take risks
• Effort – the more you put into it, the more you are guaranteed to get out
• Energy + Enthusiasm = a dynamic and unstoppable mix
• Perseverance — along the way you’re going to have to deal with rejection in any number of ways. But if you’ve set your goals and you know where you’re going, you will just cross the disappointment off your list and move on.

Where to start?

There are lots of ways of marketing yourself. From getting publicity that costs very little and sometimes even nothing at all, to full-on professional advertising which is probably the most costly publicity of all.

When you become involved in the craft industry — whether you’re selling finished articles, supplying raw materials to crafters or teaching a craft (to name just a few) you enter a exciting, vibrant and creative new world.

You will be amazed at the opportunities for promoting your business that present themselves all the time. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open. Be alert! Sometimes the opportunities are hidden, and occasionally you also need to do some lateral thinking to unearth them.

And because you’ve set your goals and researched your customers, you’ll be in a position to home in on the opportunities that are perfect for your target market and that will give you the best returns.

On the other hand, sometimes it’s fun to take up an opportunity that at first might appear to be way off the mark. No experience is ever wasted, and you never know where it might lead.

If you just want your hobby to pay for itself, then you won’t need to do very much more than sell from an eye catching stall at a craft market. But if you want a more vibrant business that will support you, then you have to do some serious marketing.

to be continued

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Gadget / Homemade Craft, how to market yourself as a small business?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Advertising, Business Plans, Marketing, Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.