Creative business Quick Tip

You hear it all the time, promote, promote, promote. It's one of the most important things you need to do to get your shop noticed and to make sales.

We use social media, blogs and forums to promote all the time, along with all the other online business doing the same thing.

We think because we have an online business we should be promoting mostly online, but our business can benefit from being promoted everywhere possible.

Today I have a list of ideas you can do offline to direct people to your website.

• Join non-crafty organizations in your community to network and increase your visibility.

• Consider adding your logo or your website info via a car decal.

• Do demonstrations at local events. Answer questions, pass out cards, or whatever you need to create interest in your shop.

• Make a small investment for premium products with your shop information to share with customers and potential customers. Print t-shirts, make bookmark business cards, create buttons, check out Etsy for lots of other promotional product ideas.

• Offer selected customers free samples. When I started I had a box of jewelry that I let my friends and family choose pieces for free and asked them to pass out cards.  I actually got a few orders and a good regular customer.

• Write short articles about your craft or what you are an expert in and submit them to article sites such as ezinearticles.com. Don't for get to include your shop address at the end of each article.

• Sign up for HARO.com (Help a Reporter Out) for opportunities to be featured on blog and local and national publications.


• Don't forget the obvious passing out business card, and if you make something you can wear like jewelry, clothes, or accessories, show it off and wear it everywhere.

There are many options for promoting your shop offline these are just a few suggestions to get you started.  Try including a few offline ideas to your fall/holiday marketing plan.

Do you have an offline marketing idea that works well for you?