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How do i reach my target market online?

 

I had an etsy shop...i was never really ever able to generate traffic for it as i had no idea where to drive traffic from. I tried some blog ads thru project wonderful placing ads on blogs i thought would be good matches but they never generated clicks to my shop.

 

So now i am going to be making my own website but how do i generate traffic to it? My target looking at past sales and in person sales is fairly broad...mostly women 25-90 with the majority in the 30-60 age bracket, some men 35-60 years, disposable income, the ladies range from earthy types to casual well to do mostly buying for themselves, the men seem to be in charge types often buying for gifts, the ladies of in person sales almost always are wearing comfy shoes instead of heels(i know a strange thing to notice).

 

How do i reach these shoppers online? I noticed with my online etsy store some things that sell well in person do not sell well online and some things that don't sell well in person do well online. Also online purchases were younger buyers than in person sales. I'm not sure if this was because most my traffic was being generated by etsy or just the nature of online sales.

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I think to sell well online, you have to *be* online... have an active Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ account, post useful or interesting videos to YouTube, write an interesting blog, or some combination of the above, etc.  People become interested in you and what you have to say or show, and from there discover your work.

 

I'd have never gone to etsy and bought one of Hsinchuen Lin's pieces... they're beautiful, but a bit pricey for etsy.  But I've watched tons of his YouTube videos and when I've got some spare cash, I plan to buy one of his bowls...  I've watched him make bowls and knowing his process makes the bowl more valuable to me.

 

The trick is, you can't just create a blog and hope people will come... you have to network online to get a web of people paying attention to you.  The more you work to reach people with meaningful posts (not ads), the more your network helps get you noticed.  Get on G+ and search for posts about pottery (I post pictures of my amateur progress) and follow other potters... some of them will follow you back, and you should be posting about your work.  Not a flood of advertisements, not just links to blog posts (blech!), but talk about your work, your day, how this glaze firing has you nervous because... be interesting.  Initially, only other potters will follow you, though some of those amateurs could also be customers.  But as your network expands, you could bring in other potential customers interested in watching your activity.

 

Mostly, I expect online sales to work best as follow-up sales for people who have handled your pots in person.  A pot is such a tactile artifact... I think if you could hand someone a well-made bowl of soup, chili, noodles, etc, you could sell a lot of bowls.  I didn't think I cared about throwing bowls until I *owned* some I'd made, and bowls have become my favorite to throw, because they're my favorite to use.  Use Facebook, et al as a way to keep in touch with customers you've met face-to-face, and etsy as a way to let them buy that pot they regret passing up last time they saw you.  These contacts are probably your best way to bring people into your network.  I met a potter at the last art fair I attended and now follow her on Facebook, because what she's doing is interesting.  She sells on etsy, and having touched and purchased her work already, I'm much more likely to buy something from her online now.

 

When you're not selling a commodity good, I think to sell successfully online, you have to sell *yourself* online first.

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I tried blogging but i got to say i am not interesting enough, i ran out of things to say after 4 posts. I've read great blogs about potters and their day to day but my day to day is quite boring mostly with the occasional interesting weekend. And facebook i've yet to figure it out...my whole 21 friends that has accumulated over the years since i made my page are all etsy sellers i met in a chat room, i abandoned it for lack of interesting things to post. I'm better at tweeting but all i accumulate is other potters that don't seem to buy others pots. I never had anybody i met a a show buy anything from my etsy shop, they just seemed to find me at another show or get my contact from the organizer and call me.

 

Really i am boring, i make pots, they don't give me any angst to write about, grounding and centering just is not fertile ground for interesting writing. Now i could maybe blog about my cats as they are much more interesting than me but they don't throw good bowls so i doubt they'd help me sell pots.

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