Tag Archives: blogging

Crafting a Business 101: Marketing Magic

marketing for small businessesSince it’s the beginning of the year, we’re rolling out all our newest series for Crafting a Business 101. Last week we debuted Creative Accounting, and today we’re revealing Marketing Magic!

The term “marketing” might seem very specific or conversely very vague to you. Or maybe you think that if you have no marketing background you can’t do it. To me, marketing involves all the many ways a potential customer can find out about your business. In the most obvious sense, marketing is advertising, but if you look at marketing like I do, then marketing relates to all the following:

  • Advertising (duh, I already said that)
  • Social media and networking (twitter, facebook, Etsy forums, teams, etc.)
  • Blogging
  • Printed materials
  • Your brand and your logo
  • The look and feel of your shop/website
  • Product photography
  • Listing tags, titles, and descriptions
  • SEO
  • Offline word-of-mouth
  • Customer service
  • Defining your target audience
  • Utilizing key stats to your advantage

Some of these things might not immediately fall under the marketing umbrella in your opinion. I like to look at it this way – if I’m working on bettering the appearance or appeal of my products, brand, or logo; improving my tags, SEO rankings, or product photos; spreading the word about my business via whatever method; or even just researching and learning about ways to increase my business efficiencies or better connect to my target customer, then I am marketing. It’s anything that either a) let’s someone find out my business or product exists, or b) encourages a potential or existing customer to make a purchase. That’s what marketing means to me!

If you haven’t already, take some time to look over the Creating a Business Plan series from last year. Several components of the creative business plan relate to marketing your business, including #2, Where can people find my product?, #4, Who will buy my product?, #7, How do I differentiate my product from the competition?, and #8, How do I successfully reach my target customer?

Through this series, we’ll discuss all the many ways you can make marketing magic for your business. As a creative small business owner, you’re probably working on a small (or non-existent) marketing budget. Luckily for us, we work in an age where there are hundreds of free marketing opportunities at our fingertips! So get excited because it’s time to improve your marketing!

What marketing tactics do you swear by? What marketing concepts do you think I left off the list above?

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Inspiration Station: Your Ideal Work Day

Remember that post about planning out our goals for 2013? Well, we need to get some specific, measurable goals laid out. Just like with the creative business plan, I like to start thinking about things from a big picture point of view, then slowly zoom in to the nitty gritty details.

Before I come up with my specific 2013 goals, I’m going to brainstorm what my ideal work day looks like. Then I can work backwards to see what exactly I need to accomplish with my business to be able to have that “ideal work day” every work day! Make sense?

So here we ago, my ideal work day for Lazy Owl:

  • 8:30 – 9:30 – Wake up, have morning coffee and (healthy) breakfast whilst reading daily blogroll, taking notes on any business ideas or inspiration that interests me. Commenting on my favorite blogs and doing some social networking!
  • 9:30 –  11:00 – Fill and package outstanding Etsy orders. Respond to customer emails and questions. Work on updating inventory and sales records. Evaluate supply and inventory levels. Re-order supplies if necessary. Do other Etsy admin tasks as needed.
  • 11:00 – 1:30 – Run to post office, run other errands. Take the dogs for a walk. Have lunch. Take a break or go to the gym (hey, I said ideal day right).
  • 1:30 – 4:00 – Work on website & blog. Draft and post new article(s). Brainstorm new topics and series ideas. Social media marketing and networking.
  • 4:00 – 5:30 – Photograph new Etsy listings, list online.
  • 5:30 – 9:00 – Break time! Do household chores, eat dinner, spend time with husband, etc.
  • 9:00 – 10:30 – Crafting time! Work on new jewelry items or whatever else I’m crafting up.
  • Bedtime at midnight.

Ok, so it was actually quite weird for me to write all that out on an hour-by-hour basis. It made me feel like there’s so much time in a day, but in reality I am always scrambling to fit all these things in. I don’t know if that schedule is actually livable for me, but my goal is that during my ideal day I would love to be able to squeeze in:

  • Time to research what’s going on in the blogosphere, on Etsy, and with other Etsy businesses (this is my biggest problem, I find content I want to delve into, open it in a new Firefox tab, but then end up with 60 open tabs that I never seem to have time to go back and truly read)
  • Write for the blog
  • Generate meaningful content for my website, market and connect with other businesses and potential customers, promote Lazy Owl to my target audience
  • Create new products, photograph and list them
  • Take time for myself and for my family – be outside, exercise, be healthy, have some fun!
  • Run errands and do household chores without falling behind
  • Support local businesses and connect with my local community

Realistically, I can probably not do all of these things in one day. But now I know what I would like to do with my time, and what is most important to me. That is half the battle. I can make goals to get closer to be able to have this ideal day now!

What does your ideal work day look like? Download the above worksheet for helping you plan out your ideal work day.

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Daily Blogroll

So I’m thinking as a budding (attempting) creative business blogger, I should be reading and diligently following a handful of applicable, interesting, and successful blogs about related topics. I’m trying to narrow down my list, because right now I’ve got list of about 40 blogs on Etsy, social media, online marketing, small business issues, creative entrepreneuring (is that a word?), small business financing, and on and on and on…I’m not sure if it’s possible for me to check 40 blogs everyday!

Once I compile (and narrow down) my go-to list, I’ll make sure to share. So far, I’m loving these guys:

What’s your favorite blog to follow?