[Jewelry making - Article 00036] - Re: [Orchid] Craft show tips requested

[James White]

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>          Most art fair consultants have said to not leave the cards out
>     for anyone to take but offer one and write on the back. because
>     there are just too many people that "collect" them and it gets
>     expensive. 


RULE ONE of marketing: Do what works!
RULE TWO of marketing: TEST, TEST, TEST to see what works!
RULE THREE of marketing: Keep the best of what works going while 
you test
for a new best.

    Often far more useful to you than what "business card collectors" do
    after a show is WHAT YOU DO after a show (something you can control).
    The key difference between success and failure at any show for the
    vast majority of types of exhibitors is what the exhibitor does to
    FOLLOW-UP. If you aren't collecting prospective client contact
    information you, of course, won't have any way to follow-up. Those
    "drop your card in" or "register for our give-away" things are done
    for a reason, to collect contact info (unfortunately 90% of the folks
    that do them these days don't know why they do it, they are just
    blindly doing what someone with 0 marketing knowledge told them ought
    to be done, the same folks that say don't pass out business cards). 

    That said, TEST, TEST, TEST. If you sell $40 jewelry it may be that
    no follow-up effort ever pays off. If you sell $600 jewelry it may
    pay to do semi-annual mailings for 3 years of follow-up. Also
    segregate your "drop your card in" from your "talked with this person
    and they wanted" contacts because the appropriate follow-up is likely
    to be far different for the two. 

    There would be a good thread: Show follow-up, what works, what
    doesn't With specifics on jewelry type/price and customer
    characteristics provided. 

>         For me personally, I put out color postcards for anyone to
>     take. I have all my web information on my card. I've always had a
>     sign in my booth. 

    BINGO. I suspect a color post card with information that is useful
    and understandable (and, of course, contact info) leads to
    considerably more customer follow-up than a plain "Jane Doe, Jewelry
    Extraordinaire" business card. 

    Without doing a specific study over half a dozen or more jewelers I
    suspect the "expense" of "wasted" business cards or other booth
    handouts is FAR LESS than the actual cost of acquiring 1 new
    profitable customer by other means. In fact the cost of attending the
    wrong shows for your jewelry will probably be far greater than the
    cost of the wasted handouts. If you don't understand the lifetime
    value to you (i.e., your profits) of your average customer you have
    no way of knowing how much it's reasonable to spend to get that
    customer. If you don't have a clue about the demographics of your
    customers or where they come from you won't know how to target new
    customers most efficiently. 

James E. White



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