Marg came across a blog post last night by Elizabeth Halford a photographer. Her post on the perceived value of creative work is sobering. It's a must read.
Which brings us to: How do we get people to value our work? Some won't ever, and you need to stop trying to market to the bargain hunters. That said, there are many out there that do, or at least have the potential too. Catherine Winter has covered a lot of this in her business posts. The most important step is educating your customers, potential and current. Many artists are very tight lipped about their process. Fine, I get that, as you don't want to give away secrets to your competitors. However, you may just be doing yourself a disservice. By educating your customers about the process, you have a far greater chance of selling that one of a kind insanely expensive necklace.
Think about all of the steps required to make your jewelry. This is for you - I'm not suggesting you give the customers a step by step process. They'd be bored awfully quickly. But think of ways of turning the process into a story. People love stories. Make it creative, and make it magical. You'll want to explain enough of the process to show that no, they can't go home and get their 8 year old daughter to make them one. Tell or show them why your work is special.
Do you do this already? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
1 comment:
I agree completely! I make jewelry but I also make candles and I had this one man call me who insterested in the candles. He went on to tell me all about these cheap candles he'd bought from the dollar store!! I tried to explain how mine were different being soy candles, had a long burn time, were scented, and handmade, etc. But he pretty much brushed that all aside and continued to ask if I could make those dollarstore type of candle. Sigh! Needless to say, I let that sale go.
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