How to Turn Your Handmade Items Into a Proper Brand
Selling items that you make yourself is a great way to make a little extra money. It could be something that you do on the side, or you might turn it into a full-time business if you’re able to get enough traction. But many people have this idea, and many find that they’re not very successful. You can struggle to sell your things when there’s so much competition, and you might not have a huge budget for advertising.
One of the most important things you can do is make sure you have a brand. Your business should have an identity that defines what you do, your values, and how your products are different from what other people have to offer. Creating a brand helps refine your products and elevate them from something anyone could make at home.
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Do Your Research
If you want to craft a brand for your handmade products, you should first research. You need to know your audience, and you should also be familiar with your competition. What sort of people is looking for the products you want to sell? How are existing sellers positioning themselves and marketing their products? When you’re thinking about branding your business and your products, these are important questions to ask. You need to appeal to your customers and stand out from other brands doing similar things.
Think About What Your Brand Stands For
Defining your brand means thinking about what your brand represents. What are your brand values? How do you want to present your brand to your customers? There are a few things that you might consider when you’re thinking about this.
What is important to you, and what’s important to your customers? For example, are your handmade products made sustainably? Maybe you’re passionate about making social and political statements with your products, or you want to make sure that your products are always unique. How do you want to define and maintain the integrity of your brand?
Create a Brand Image
The visual aspect of your brand is also something that you need to think about. Customers will pay attention to your brand values, but they will also consider what your brand looks like and how you present your products.
You will need to think about a logo, brand colors, and even the tone of voice that you use when writing marketing materials. It’s often a smart idea to pay someone to create a logo for you if you’re not very artistic in that way. Just make sure you have the right to use the image as you wish.
Get the Labelling and Packaging Right
The way you package and label your products can make a big difference to their image and your brand’s overall look and feel. You can turn a product similar to many others into something more special by using the right packaging and labels.
By ordering personalized candle stickers for your homemade candles, you can take them from quaint handmade items to professional products ready for sale. Whether you’re selling online or trying to get your products into stores, how you present your products is really important.
Craft a Strong Online Presence
Whether you want to sell your products online or not, creating a strong online presence can help people find you. You might set up an online store (or several stores on different platforms), or you could have a website or social media pages telling people where to find your products.
Your online presence should reflect your brand, telling people who you are and what they can expect from you. You can take the opportunity to write an about page or description of your brand, talk about your values, and have good images and descriptions of your products too.
Deliver on Your Promises
Another way to create a defined brand is to ensure you’re delivering on your promises. It’s good to create an image that tells your customers what to expect from you, but you don’t want to disappoint them by failing to deliver on your expectations.
So if you’re telling your customers that you make natural, sustainable products from wool, you better make sure you’re not delivering cheap, synthetic items. Elevating your handmade items should help you market them and position your business with a proper brand.
