Comments on: The Best Way to Make Your Shop Totally Irresistible (plus a giveaway!)

By: Giveaway Winners! | Handmade Success | Marketing + Social Media Training for Creative Entrepreneurs

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 07:33:05 +0000

[...] of Blah Cubed! The comments were fascinating! Make sure you go back to see Tiffany’s response to some of the issues you [...]

By: Maša

Maša — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:14:52 +0000

My greatest obstacle is perfectionism. I also tend to undervalue my work and I can’t get rid of the feeling that I’m manipulating others if I’m using marketing “tricks”. I’m a total beginner here and I don’t have any professional background for guidance.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 20:04:06 +0000

The problem I have is that my ideal target audience typically earns more money than I do in a year. Being a frugal person myself, I try not to buy frivolous things or make impulse buys – but this is exactly what I’m trying to persuade my audience to do. I know my products are worth the price. How do I get past the guilt and convince my buyers that my products are worth a try?

By: Brandy Schuman

Brandy Schuman — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 12:44:07 +0000

I have such a hard time talking about myself (about us pages, bio) and writing really great product descriptions. I could def use this book! Thank you for the tips!

By: Roxana

Roxana — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:53:30 +0000

Between kids, housework, homework, etc… I struggle with consistency for sure. My current mission is to get organized room by room which includes my workspace. (I just had a baby so I somewhat have an excuse for the hiatus.) A big issue for me though is when I make something, I think “I love how it turned out!”, but then I struggle with putting that into words for a salable/appealing product description.

By: Marquina Rawlings

Marquina Rawlings — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:51:53 +0000

Thanks, Tiffany, for your writing solution comments. Your description of the ideal customer seems logically dead-on to me, but no one ever says that in the books I read on marketing!

And I like the thing you said about being ‘conversationally professional’: “talk to people like you’re meeting a new friend for coffee. Use your filter, but don’t be a robot” – I think I can do that… I think maybe I’ll write that down somewhere because that’s just the way I needed to hear that!

Thanks!

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 22:22:57 +0000

Thank you ladies so much for taking the time to read this post and comment! A lot of what you all are addressing is covered in my book should really help the two lucky winners out. Just to address a couple of issues you’ve mentioned:

1. Your ‘who’ or target market–one of the best ways to determine who your market is is by creating a persona. Think about your ideal customer, what they look like, how they spend their day, and what types of things concern them. Generally, your target market is similar to you; either where you are now in life or where you used to be

2. Conversational vs. professional and talking too much– there is such a thing as ‘conversationally professional’. I just made up the phrase but, I always say to talk to people like you’re meeting a new friend for coffee. Use your filter, but don’t be a robot.

3. Putting your feelings/thoughts into words– start by writing what you’d like to know about the product (or you). Write until you can’t think of anything else, then go through and pick the parts you find most interesting, but keeping your target market in mind.

Hope that helps!

By: Mykl Spaeny

Mykl Spaeny — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:46:21 +0000

You always hear these tips about “who are you?, who is your target audience?, why is your product for them?” and I get that. What I don’t get is how to figure out these things and communicate them!

I started my business because I love the creative side of it. The rest is all foreign to me but so necessary. I don’t even know where to get started! Thanks for writing this article!

By: Jelene Britten

Jelene Britten — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:55:26 +0000

This is a great topic for discussion! I just launched an Etsy shop and appreciate any tips. I struggle between writing creative descriptions of my jewelry and just listing the components used to create it.

By: Marquina Rawlings

Marquina Rawlings — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:28:02 +0000

Hi! Thank you for writing this article!

The best way to describe my product-writing issues is to describe myself: I am a person who is mostly seen symbolically wearing my black suit with a pop of red somewhere. I am also the person who wears an all-red suit. I cannot seem to merge the two personalities in my writing. (Actually, I’m probably doing it right now, but when it comes down to doing the actual work, I am either too serious or too wordy – depending on my mood.)

Maybe I am too focused on writing to bring in money instead of focusing on writing about what’s so great about the product or what’s great about being a jewelry artist…

You know, come to think of it, if I could bring those personalities together in my work, it might be easier to write about the product, lol!

I have to say that I really appreciate your articles because they make me think. The articles help me to figure out how to do things my way !