Handmade Sellers: Optimize Your Offer to Maximize Sales in a Recession

So you’ve built a successful crochet business. You create beautiful handmade products or crochet patterns that, in the past, have practically sold themselves. But the same sales strategies you have always used may not work during a recession. As their budgets tighten, your customers will have to make tough decisions about where to spend their money. That’s why it is more important than ever to make your offers irresistible and to get them it in front of more people. Read on to learn eight steps you can take to optimize your offer and keeping selling during uncertain times.

The End of “Make it and They Will Come”

[00:00:00] Hello, hello. I don’t know if you feel the same way but it seems to me that the glory days are over. It seems to me that, “Make it and they will come,” or, “Post things on Etsy and they will buy it,” is over. No more pity sales. No more, “I guess I’ll buy it. I have some extra money.” We’re going to have to start being more creative, being more intentional, being more strategic about how we go about getting sales. So that’s what we’re going to talk about in today’s Crochet Business Chat.

Transcript – Recession and Handmade Business: Optimize Your Offer

[00:00:45] Today is part three of our series on Recession and Handmade Business. Welcome those of you who are here. Welcome to Crochet Business Chat. My name is Pam Grice, the Crochetpreneur, and I am here to help you grow a profitable crochet business. How about we get into it?

[00:01:06] Good morning. If you have not watched part one and part two of this series, go ahead and watch those. They have some really great information. They’ll help you get your business on track for the coming months. Who knows how long the recession’s going to last. We have no idea. But it is here. And so we need to take some action. We don’t need to get scared. We don’t need to freak out. We just need to figure out what to do to grow our businesses. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

[00:01:42] All right. I took some notes and I’ve been so busy, you guys. You know that I am working on the Product Line University and that starts today. And I have been working on the curriculum for that, and PowerPoints, and worksheets, and all of those things. So I have not memorized what I’m going to talk about today. So I did take some notes just so that I can be sure I cover all of the areas. So if you see me looking over this way it’s because I’m looking at my notes. So thanks for your patience on that.

What Makes an Offer Recession-Proof?

[00:02:20] Okay. So like I said, recession’s here. No more, “If you make it, they will come.” But that doesn’t mean you can’t still make money. What we need to do is we need to make our offers irresistible. We need to create products. We need to create marketing content—so more irresistible offers in front of more people. So it’s a twofer. We need to do two things. Make your offers irresistible. 

[00:02:41] Typically, what makers have done and what crochet designers have done is they just make their offer. They make their product. They make their pattern. It’s great. It’s beautiful. They throw together some marketing and put it out there. But now we need to be even more intentional about making it irresistible and getting in front of even more people. So those are the two pieces of the puzzle.

The Offer: It’s More Than Just Your Product

[00:03:27] You may be saying, “What’s the offer?” What do I mean by offer? Because so often, we think of, “What are you offering?” And we see it as the end product—the product, the PDF, the printable, whatever it is that you’re selling. And in actuality, your offer is what you give your customers in return for their money. Yes, it may be a product. It may be a PDF. It may be a course. But it’s so much more than that.

[00:04:04] It’s a collection of benefits. It’s a collection of emotions that they have after they purchase, or when they use your product, or when they make your design. It’s an experience. So when you create an experience, when you talk about the benefits, when you bring in all of the sensory aspects of the product that you’re selling, that’s when you create an offer. It includes your copy, it includes your photos, all of your assets for marketing.

[00:04:40] So start thinking of your offer as the way you’re packaging your product rather than the product itself. So it’s a new mindset. It’s about the packaging. It’s about the customer experience and not just the product. If you look at the title of today’s little chat, the title is Optimize Your Offer. So I’m going talk about eight steps to optimize your offer, to get it more irresistible, and to get it in front of more people. So we’re just going to walk through them really quickly.

[00:05:19] And in the Product Line University, we’re going to be deep diving into some of these issues. So if you haven’t already joined, you can do that in the description. There’s a little link. We do start this afternoon. Or for those of you watching the replay, if you haven’t already joined us, it will be available evergreen on my website once it’s all taped and all of that. So that link will also take you to that evergreen course now.

Eight Steps to Optimize Your Offer for Your Handmade Products

Speak Clearly About Who Your Product is For

[00:05:43] So anyway, optimize your offer. These are the considerations I want you to think of. Speak more clearly about who your product is for. So it previously, you, we would just let our customers assume who the product is for. And I’m just talking about the typical maker or pattern seller. We wouldn’t specifically speak to, “Hey, teachers. This product is for you,” or “Hey, work- from-home moms, this product is for you.” Those kinds of things, like specifically speaking to the exact person that you want to sell to.

[00:06:29] And you can take the same product and sell it to many people with a change in copy. So you could post something today and market it to one target customer, and then take the same product with a different photo tomorrow and market it to another target customer, and specifically call them out by name. So call them out by how they identify themselves so that when they see your marketing, they’ll say, “Oh, this is for me. She’s talking to me.”

[00:06:58] So think about that. Specifically call out, “Who am I selling this to? And who do I want to have read this copy?” so that when you’re expressing those benefits, you’re specifically speaking to that person’s pain point. The person you sell to tomorrow might have different pain points. So your copy tomorrow will have different copy, right? You’re going to hone in on different benefits of your product. So that’s the first one. Speak more clearly about who your product is for.

[00:07:31] Next, speak more clearly about the outcome the customer will have when they purchase. So what is the outcome? Do you even know what the outcome is of the product that they’re going to purchase? So I’m going say if they’re purchasing a baby blanket, what’s the outcome? Baby stays warm.

[00:07:51] One of my favorite lines when I’m selling baby blankets is, “Your gift will be the best gift at the baby shower.” I use better language than that. But it will be the hit of the baby shower. Everyone will be impressed. It’s so gorgeous. Everyone’s going to be oo-ing and ah-ing over the gift that you purchased. And so it speaks to that kind of vanity, pride going on with the customer that you want to have purchase this.

[00:08:20] Another benefit of a baby blanket, depending on what kind of baby blanket it is, is you can speak to the heirloom quality and how this will be passed down through generations. And they’ll tell the story of grandma who purchased this for all the grand babies and that kind of stuff. So when you know who your customer is and why they’re purchasing, in your copy, you can speak to what that outcome is, how they’re going to feel.

How Pattern Sellers Can Speak to Customer Outcomes

[00:08:52] And if it’s if it’s someone buying a pattern, what’s the outcome? It’s the ease of use of your pattern, the simple step-by-step instructions, the photos that will make them feel what? The photos that will make them feel accomplished, make them feel proud of what they’ve completed, those kinds of things. Speak to those outcomes rather than to the facts of your pattern.

[00:09:22] So instead of saying, “This pattern is ad-free. It tells you gauge. It has these sorts of sizes.” The person needs to know those things. But start off with a more emotional draw of what is the outcome that you’re creating for the person? When they purchase your pattern, how are they going to feel? How are they going to feel when they put on the completed project? Or if you’re selling a physical product, how are they going to feel when they when they have this little ami creature on their shelf. How are they going to feel when they put on this hat? How are they going to feel when they put on a shawl? So speak to those things. What’s the outcome? How do you want them to feel?

Speak to How Your Customer’s Life Will Be Better

[00:10:06] All right. Number three is speak to how your customer’s life will be better. So that’s similar to the previous one but different in that … Speak to, “Right now, I know you’re feeling X. But when you purchase this, you’re going to be feeling this. So speak to, “When you make the purchase, you’re going to move from this place to that place.”

[00:10:33] So it could be, “Right now, I know you’re stressed. But when you purchase this blanket, and it shows up at your door, and you wrap yourself in it’s cozy warmth, you’re going to feel comforted. You’re going to feel cozy. You’re going to feel at peace.” Those kinds of things really speak to the person and optimize that offer, make it more of a perceived value, because they can just envision themselves as soon as they put themselves inside of that product.

[00:11:05] Just realtors say, when they’re showing people around homes, they know that they’ve hit a home run when the potential buyers start talking about how they would decorate, or how their children might use certain aspects of the home, or what they would cook in the kitchen. They’ve already put themselves into the home.

[00:11:25] And it’s the same thing with your products. Try and get the customer to step into the experience of using your product or having your product. What happens when they purchase your product? Same with your patterns. Speak to how their life will be better when they purchase your pattern and start working on this project. So again, you have to get creative with your language but speak to those things.

Consider Your Offered Delivery Method

[00:11:51] Number four is consider your offered delivery method. So sometimes we just take the pattern and we throw it on a blog. Or we take the pattern and we throw it on Etsy or wherever else we’re selling it. But think about how to optimize that delivery method. Could you turn your blog post or your product description more into a type of sales page? When someone sells a course, they have a sales page and it goes through very specific features as they talk about the product. It goes through very specific information of what the customer needs to purchase.

[00:12:37] And so often, when you have a new pattern out, you create a blog post and it’s just like this, and this, and this, rather than making the entire post an experience for people—making it very professional. Rather than this is a blog post, this is an event. This page itself is an event and you could make a video of your pattern. You could make a video of your product. You could have little sections in your blog post with different colors, different graphics, really making it into an event rather than into a mundane blog post.

Delivery Options for Online Product Listings

[00:13:14] And the same thing with your product descriptions. Even though you have less ability to be creative visually with your product descriptions inside of an e-commerce platform, you can still make it impactful by using maybe … What are they called? Webdings? Anyway, those little text characters that are interesting. They’re symbols. Using those symbols to create some interest, create some space, create white space, create sections within your product description to make it more interesting. And be sure to hit all of those points that we talked about before and that we’re going to talk about as we continue. Make your product description an event rather than a mundane like, “Blah, blah, blah.” Make it interesting.

Make Your Pricing Reflect the Value of your Product

[00:14:07] Next, number five is make sure your pricing is on point and it speaks to the value of your products. Now in Product Line University, today we are going to be talking about pricing and whether you should lower your prices during a recession. And this is going to be up to you based on how you feel about this. But it’s really important that your pricing reflects the value of what you’re selling.

[00:14:37] Recently, I raised the price of a certain product and it sold like gangbusters. So it had been one price and it sold here and there. I raised the price. Started selling like crazy. So sometimes that happens. And if you are underpricing your products, it could be that people don’t value it. And even during a recession, people are looking for value. If they’re going to spend their dollars, they want to spend their dollars on things that have the most value to them. And if you’re underpricing, you might be telling people, “This is not valuable. This is junk.” And they’re going to be less likely to buy it. So really take a look at how your pricing speaks to the value of your product and make sure you’re getting paid.

Speak Exactly to What the Customer Will Lose if They Don’t Purchase

[00:15:23] Number six. Speak exactly to what the customer will lose if they don’t purchase. So this is easier in course copy because if you’re saying, “You could choose not to join today. But just know that that means you’re not going to learn this, and you’re not going to learn this, and you’re going to struggle with this. I don’t want that for you so I suggest you join.”

[00:15:53] So think of if the customer doesn’t purchase what I’m selling to them today, what’s the negative side of that? What are they losing out on? They’re losing out on coziness. They’re losing out on the comfort of that beautiful blanket. They’re losing out on having the most oohed and ahed over gift at the baby shower. They’re losing out on that heirloom storytelling legacy of grandma who bought this beautiful blanket that we’re passing down through the generations.

[00:16:21] So speak to, “I really want such and such for you. And if you don’t choose to purchase today, I fear that this is going to happen.” So you don’t have to just speak to what they get. You can also speak to what they’re not going to get if they don’t purchase.

Consider Incentivizing Fast-Acting Purchases

[00:16:39] Number seven, consider adding bonuses, timers, special discounts for fast-acting purchases. Again, this is bringing in those strategies of course creators into the product sales realm into the pattern sales realm. Now, you see people do this for bundles. They’ll add a timer. They’ll have it ending this week. It won’t be available anymore. They’ll add bonuses. But people don’t typically look at using these strategies for their individual product sales.

[00:17:16] So you might consider that. If you do create a blog post for your product sales or your pattern sales, you could add special pricing through this date and add a timer. If you’re using Elementor on a WordPress blog, it’s super easy to add a little countdown timer. And a lot of e-mail providers will offer countdown timers as well. Consider that they’re very helpful. And especially if you are offering something of value, if you’re offering a discount or if you’re offering a time-limited, anything, time-limited bonuses, those kinds of things, it will encourage the customer to purchase now rather than to wait and think about it and not come back and purchase. So again, we’re optimizing this offer to make the conversion, to make the sale.

[00:18:05] And again bonuses. Bonuses could be time-limited or it could be like, “Hey, for special just today, if you purchase today, I’m going to give you x. I’ll give you an additional pattern. I’ll give you an additional discount. I’ll give you a ticket to a special event,” those kinds of things. So consider doing that as well to really encourage that sale.

Make the Ask

[00:14:07] And the last one for optimizing your offer is make the ask. Make the ask. So many people are afraid to actually ask for the sale. And when you’re posting on social media and you say, “Hey, I made this today,” or, “This is available,” but you’re not saying, “Buy now. Go purchase it here.” Because we don’t want to feel salesy. We don’t want to feel sleazy. But so often, when you make that ask, people take action.

[00:19:07] So you’re missing out on people taking action by not actually asking, or telling, or putting a call to action in the bottom of your blog posts, your social media posts, anywhere that you are listing something, Even in your product descriptions on Etsy, “Purchase today. I can’t wait to see you finish this project and share it with me on social media,” those kinds of things. Using those words puts it into the mind of the customer, “Oh, I need to go do this.”

Automating Social Media Marketing

[00:19:40] And then I want you to set up systems to ask over and over again. So whether you use something like RecurPost to, “Every three months, go ahead and post this on my Facebook page.” And you write your content, you add the photo, you add the link and it just does it for you. And it just reposts it every three months. So it continues to make that ask for that same product over and over again periodically. Or if you set it up on your calendar to say, “Hey, every seven weeks, I’m going to market this product. Every seven weeks I’m going to market that product.”

[00:20:18] And then you just stagger those so that you have a revolving door of customers coming in because you have new customers all the time. Sometimes old customers drop off. They stop opening your e-mails. New customers come on. They’ve never heard of those old offers that you had. So recycling those. You can set up automations in your e-mail provider to automate e-mails to people.

Scaling Your Marketing with Automated E-mails

[00:20:48] It’s not turned on right now so you won’t see this. But I send out a manual e-mail on Mondays. This is my e-mail for what I’m thinking of this week, what I want to share with you this week. But on Thursdays, I have an automated e-mail that goes out based on when a person joins my email list. And there’s about 80 or more e-mails in that sequence. And it goes out every Thursday. And it just is set up to share older offers specifically with that person, specifically where they’re at.

[00:21:19] So someone who joins my email list today will receive a certain e-mail this Thursday. And someone who joined seven months ago is going to receive a different e-mail on Thursday. So it’s just based on when they sign up. And it just is this revolving thing to keep those products in front of new customers who may not have seen them before. When you set up those systems, you really help to scale your business because you just set it and forget it. And the system takes care of it for you and is making those sales just on a recurring basis and you don’t have to do anything. So those are my tips for you on optimizing your offer for conversions, for sales, even during uncertain times. 

Sign Up for Product Line University

[00:22:04] So if you haven’t already, go ahead and subscribe because we have several more episodes of this series. And also do all the things. Do all those YouTubey sort of things. And you’ll be able to get more tips and tricks on crochet business. As well as if you haven’t joined the Product Line University, there is a link in the description [blog readers, sign up here]. We start in two and a half hours from if you’re watching this live.

[00:22:37] If you haven’t already joined, join us. Today, we’re talking about myths and mindsets that are keeping you stuck. I’m going to be busting through some mindsets and then we’re going to have some lab work afterward where we’re going to work through some of that stuff. And I have some really interesting things to share with you today. So I hope that you’ll join us. We’re going to continue each day this week through different building a product line that it will help you create a recession-proof business. So I hope you’ll join us. And that is what I have for you today.

Wrapping Up

[00:23:10] I’m going to go look at your go look at your comments. Good morning, good morning. Hi, TheSunRiseKid. Just subscribed. I’m glad you’re here. Okay. So you’re all here. We didn’t have any questions. So I’m going to let you go. I’m going to go finish preparing for this afternoon. I’m excited to see all of you there. We have almost 300 students signed up. So it will be super fun, super great information. I need a different superlative. Super amazing everything. And I hope that you’ll come.

[00:23:56] It’s great to see you and I will see you. If I don’t see you this afternoon, I will see you next week for another Monday morning Crochet Business Chat. All right. Take care, everybody.