effective marketing stratigies?

[J.Leclair]

effective marketing strategies?

I am looking for effective marketing ideas. I made myself a website and have had it re-worked by a friend of mine who is a commercial web designer. I have a facebook page for my knives and also a personal one and I link to my website via status updates a few times a week. I had a bunch of basic buisness cards made up and hand them out whenever an opening is presented (I dont want to seem pushy) There is a metal art show and sale coming up at the end of september that I have been invited to attend (not sure if I can swing it) I have no issues selling my work to local floks who are able to stop by and see and touch my knives. but I want to expand my customer base before I totaly saturate my local market then have to think about it.

At first my website was getting between 20-50 hits a day a few emails, but no sales.
I would notice an influx of page hits on my site when I posted about the site in FB but now not nearly as many, still no sales.
I have had success with my buissnes cards generating quite a bit of intrest in the form of emails and a few orders.
Word of mouth has been my best resource toward generating site hits, emails and orders.
how do you guys market not just your product but your sites and yourselves?

 

[BossDog]

create and post WIP's (works in progress)
These create a lot of awareness..

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

Word of mouth has been my best resource toward generating site hits, emails and orders.

This will always be your best "advertising" tool. The knife world is a fairly "tight knit" group of folks. The trick is that it takes time and effort to develop the most important thing....a GOOD reputation....sometimes years, and you have to "keep on the stick", because you can spend 10 or 20 years building a good reputation, but let one sub-par knife go out the door, and it can all be lost.
But for those who are willing to travel the "road" and not give up, it's well worth it. Don't give yourself any delusions...knifemaking is a tough business, and an even tougher way to make a living. When starting out (your first few years) it's either "hand to mouth" just to keep the shop running, or "robbing from Peter to pay Paul"....which means using your "day job" income to keep the shop going.
Next, a custom knife is NOT a necessity...it is a luxury. When people do not have disposable income, or the perceive they do not, then knife sales suffer. I don't know how the economy is going in Canada, but for the past few years, it's been pretty tough here in the U.S.

how do you guys market not just your product but your sites and yourselves?

The short answer is: In any way you can. The unfortunate part of that for someone just starting out is that most of takes additional money output. You've got to get out there to a few of the MAJOR knife shows, and be willing to absorb the costs when you don't sell anything. Most shows will take attending 2-3 times before people will start to notice you. The other thing about shows....use them as "scouting trips" to see what type/kind of knives are out there, what is selling, and the level of quality that customers are expecting for their dollars. This will let you gauge where your at in the overall market, and can give you valuable insight into where you want to go.
Websites and magazines.... I took the liberty of visiting your website, and found what I consider a number of things that need to be a little different. First and foremost is the photography. It's best to have your knives professionally photographed, or take the time/effort to learn how to do it yourself. 99.9% of the time, anyone visiting your website is going to look at the pictures first. If a photo does not grab their attention, or looks less then professional, they won't bother looking any further, or reading any of the text.
I also believe that making a website visitor "click through" a thumbnail image, to get to a full size image (especially if a given knife is for sale) really turns people off. When I have a knife for sale, I always post an 800X800 pixel image of it, rather than a thumbnail that folks must click to actually see the knife in any detail.
Think hard and pay close attention to the backgrounds, text, and size font you use on your site. They must be clear and easy to read. I noticed that on your "Pricing" page, there is nothing but the word "text".
Getting your work into magazines is also a good way to get noticed, but again, the photography must be professional grade in order for you to even get noticed by any magazine staff member.

My final advice on websites is to either learn or teach yourself to build, run, and maintain your own website. When I first decided that I needed a website, I went to several "professional" web designers....the all kept jamming "SELL! SELL! SELL" down my throat in reference to designing/building a site for me. That's not who I am, and not how I wanted folks to see me on the web. I taught myself how to build/run/maintain my own website. It took about 8 months until I felt comfortable enough to build/put up my own website, and I am always learning more about it, but when I have a knife completed, I can go to my basement photography table, take pics, and have the knife posted for sale on my site within about 30 mins. I don't have to email anything to anybody, put it on a CD/DVD, or script what I want to be said. Maybe it's the "sole authorship" part of me coming out, but it works for me.

In many ways the custom knife market is unlike any other....learn the "ins and outs" and it will help guide you.

 

[J.Leclair]

Thanks for the great Info guys.
I am under no illusions that knife making is going to make me rich and famous. Having it pay for itself or maybe even, eventually, being able to pay the bills doing it would be awsome.
Ed thanks for the heads up that my pricing page was gone. I was doing some adding and editing late lastnight must have somehow deleted it. it's back up now.

I have been trying to improve my pictures. I made myself a light box and picked up some reflector lampshdes and a tripod. I have seen a vast improvement in quality shots already. Next step in the photography dept. will be a decent DSLR camera to replace the nikon cool pix point and shoot I have now. but there's other things on the list ahead of that. I have tried to figure out how to post my pix on my site without the thumbnails but I am lost when it comes to computers lol.

 

[BossDog]

You already mentioned you were working on improving your pictures. Better pictures = better money (if you knives are worth more money than they are getting)..
When you reach a certain point in craftsmanship, sending pictures off to one of the pro's maybe worth your time. The pro's like Coop will submit pictures to various publications as part of their service (verify this, each one has widely different services they offer). These guys send pictures all the time to the editors of Blade, Knives Illustrated, Knife World, etc. When/if if you get published in one of the magazines, you will get inquiries about commissions. You can also submit your own images directly for consideration, just follow exactly the submission guidelines. Keep in mind these editors spend about 1/2 second each sorting pictures, it needs to be a great looking picture.

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

To add to Tracy's input.....don't give up! By that I mean keep sending and sending photos to the magazines. Way back, when I had about 2 years of knifemaking under my belt, I started sending photos to the magazines. It took about two years of sending in photos, but I finally made it into the magazines. However, that did not happen until I had sent a couple of pieces off for professional photography....and THE PHOTOGRAPHER submitted the pics. It's just a guess on my part, but I serious believe that the magazines pay closer attention when photos come in from a respected, well know knife photographer.

 

[Josh Dabney]

Great Q&A's here fellas !

I no rush here but I do appreciate both the questions that I'll be asking one day and the great answers given. -Filing this thread away for future reference !

-Josh