2 tips for generating positive feedback

Recently, an acquaintance was upset because she posted a photo of a new product on Facebook and asked her followers, "I'm not sure about this... What do you think?" The intent of the post was to start a conversation about her new product, create anticipation for it's release & receive some praise for her work.

What she received some harsh negative feedback about a product she was super excited to release and needless to say, she was quite disheartened. 

In order to get people excited about a new product, existing product, or well, anything you post on social media, you have to exude enthusiasm, excitement and confidence. Even if you don't feel confident or you aren't sure about how people will react, you have to present it like you think it's going to be the next big thing - because enthusiasm is catching. Similarly, so is negativity - if you say "I don't really like these colors.... What do you think?" you have just opened yourself for possible negative responses.

My advice: Don't view your fans on Facebook or followers on Instagram and Twitter as strangers or worse, clients. Start thinking of them as a community who have gathered together in their mutual love for what you have to offer. They respect you. If you present something to your community that you don't like, they will pick up on that and have a mutual distaste for it because they trust your taste.

Here is two examples - a positive way to build enthusiasm and excitement in your community, and one that, well, doesn't.

"I adore this this fabric combo - it's perfect for a nursery! Don't you just love it!?"

Or the second more, negative option:

"Ugh, need opinions.... I'm not sure about this fabric combo... What do you think?"

See how negative the second one sounds in comparison to the first? Which do you think would generate the most excitement and anticipation about the product?

It isn't always easy when you are trying to create a community around your products & brand. Here are three things to avoid when posting to social media if you want to create a community that is engaged, enthusiastic about your brand & excited about your products:

... dots

... in the middle of sentences... they just seem... so Eeyore-ish.... very sad... They suck the enthusiasm right out of your content... and make it seem like you aren't entirely... sure, I guess ... about your content...

 Negative sentence structure

If the first line of script people read contains negative words, they associate it with whatever it is you are posting about. Asking people for their opinion is a great way to drive interaction & engagement on social media but set up your content thoughtfully to craft an enthusiastic response & get people excited about your work!

When sharing content with your audience, avoid sentences that start with phrases like:

I don't know
I'm not sure
I don't like
I hate
I can't stand

And focus instead on beginning sentences with phrases like these:

I adore
I enjoy
I absolutely freaking love
I'm in love with
I am so excited about

Some examples to really drive this home:

"I don't know if I like this collection of charms. What do you think? " 

vs

"I adore how these charms look together! Which is your favorite?"

-

"I can't stand yellow, but it was fun to work on this item. Do you like it?"

vs

"I absolutely freaking love how this turned out, don't you!?" 

-

"I hated sewing all these ruffles but just completed this cute outfit! Should I add more to my shop?"

vs

"I'm so in love with this ruffly little outfit - it was a challenging project but I think I may add some to my shop! What colors would you like to see?"

Try out these tips & see if you generate a more enthusiastic & positive response from your fans! 

Bonus tip - another great way to generate positive feedback is to give your fans ownership over the item. Let them name the new product, pick colors to pair with it or make suggestions for accessories/details. This gets your fans involved in the process & helps build a bond between consumers & your products! 

What is your favorite way to engage your fans & build excitement about products? 

Random Tuesday Tip - Smart phones aren't that smart

It seems like a given, I know. But before you post that WIP photo or latest product pic to social media, always take a moment to read, reread and re-reread your caption a few times to check for spelling & grammar errors and to really think on the feeling you are trying to convey from this post. Creating thoughtful content is the first step in adding value to your social media outlets & inviting a true feeling of community. Nothing spoils a great post like a typo or missing word!

Plus, autocorrect is a turd. One time I tried to post a picture a client sent me of their kiddo, in a cape, holding his superhero monster I made him, saying "What a cute little hero!" and my phone corrected "hero" to "jerk". Imagine if I hadn't reread my post for errors before publishing it, calling that kiddo a jerk. Mortifying, right?

Also, two days ago I was typing "eating birthday cupcakes!" and my phone autocorrected it to "eating butt day cake" right as I was about to hit send. I don't even know. I'm glad I caught it before I sent that text, though!

So my advice for today, after seeing some pretty silly autocorrected posts on IG & FB last week: take time to review before you post to social media!

What hilarious (or mortifying!) typo or autocorrect stories do you have? Share them in the comments? 

Preparing for your first solo art exhibit {infographic}

Today's guest post is brought to you by Shawna of Shawna Collage. Shawna is a graphic designer and collage artist, originally from a small, snowy town in upstate New York. She holds a BFA in Graphic Design and a BA in English Literature from SUNY Plattsburgh. She has been freelancing for a little over four years now with a focus on branding, illustration, print design. In addition to designing, she enjoys everything to do with cats, desserts of all kinds, fashion, and organizing. 

For many people, the idea of having their own solo exhibition can be both intimidating and overwhelming. But, with a little planning, anyone can have a successful and profitable show. I’ve put together a flow chart to help guide you through the process of applying, creating, and promoting an exhibition. While this process will always differ from artist to artist, and venue to venue, this chart will help give you an idea of what to expect and prepare for.

(Click to view full size)

Still debating on whether or not a solo show is right for you? The benefits can be wonderful: no sharing the spotlight with other artists, more potential profit, customizing the experience for your viewers, and the ability to show many works at once. On the downside there is also a greater amount of risk by being the only one in the room, you won’t have the pull and appeal of a group of artists to bring people in. You’ll also have a higher cost from creating and framing a large amount of work.

Deciding to take on your own solo show is a personal decision that every artist needs to decide if they are ready for. I hope this chart has helped clarify the process and informed you about what goes into an exhibition. Good luck in your future solo endeavors and stay creative!

Connect with Shawna

facebook/twitter/instagram/site

Monthly prompts to help create refreshing content for Instagram.

Can you believe that one year ago, I launched #creativedaily as the first photo challenge just for makers & creatives? 365 days & almost 8,000 photos later, and here we are launching into year two of these fun photo prompts! 

What is #creativedaily? Well, you know how sometimes you struggle with what to post on Instagram or social media in general? These prompts help you look at your indie business in a creative way! 

For instance, on the first the prompt is "one word". You could share your one word you have chosen for the year, or why your business name is only or more than one word. You could post a photo of your coffee & say "I have a ton of making to do, but one word first: Coffee." or post a photo of your new favorite fabric with one word for it - LOVE! It's totally up to you how you interpret the prompts to create visually interesting new takes of your life and creative processes through photos & bits of text, while fostering a creative community & striking up new friendships with other participating in the challenge. 

If you miss a day or few, it's not big deal - this photo challenge is just for fun! Just be sure to add the #creativedaily hashtag to each post. This helps others in the maker community find you - and when you click the hashtag you will find new makers to discover & get to acquainted with, too! 

 

You can also use the #creativedaily prompts as blog prompts, too! Several makers over the last year would blog their photos each day along with a post about their interpretation of the prompt. Use these prompts however you like - they are intended to inspire creativity, daily! 

In the comments, leave your Instagram username or URL so I can pop over to your account & check out what you are posting! I am @lu_and_ed on there! Let's connect! 

#creativedaily prompts for October!

#creativedaily - the first photo challenge geared directly towards creatives & makers. The prompts force makers to think of creative ways to tell their story, share their indie biz journey as well as share their life and processes through daily photo uploads & bits of text, encouraging them to fill each and every day with a little bit of creativity, while fostering creative community & new friendships through social media. If you miss a day or few, it's not big deal - this photo challenge is just for fun! 

 

How it works:

Each day, you upload a photo to Instagram or other social media outlets that relates to the dated prompt (for example, the 1st is "pumpkin" so you would post your interpretation of that prompt on the first, like pumpkins, pumpkin art your kid made, pumpkins spice latte, etc) and share a blurb about what the photo represents. Be sure to add the #creativedaily hashtag to group to photos with the other images from this collective.

Click the #creativedaily hashtag to find out what others are posting and make new friends by liking & commenting on their photos! 

This collective is such a fun way to make new creative friends, discover new brands and share your own story. 

This image is sized for Instagram! Feel free to save it & share the prompts to spread the word & get more people involved! I can't wait to see what you post!

Which prompt do you have a great idea for already? 

Using Iconosquare to Analyze Your Instagram Account

This post has moved to here!

Great Content on Instagram - Fun Prompts for September

We just wrapped up our dream client series last week, and I bet it left a few people wondering how they can spice up their social media accounts & create content that resonates with their target audience. Odds are, your dream clients aren't only interested in your products - so your social media accounts should reflect a variety of their interests & also show a peek into the process & a glimpse of the person making it all happen. 

That is why I designed #creativedaily - the first photo challenge geared directly towards creatives & makers. The prompts force makers to think of creative ways to tell their story, indie biz journey as well as their life and processes through daily photos & bits of text, encouraging them to fill each and every day with a little bit of creativity, while fostering creative community & new friendships through social media. If you miss a day or few, it's not big deal - this photo challenge is just for fun! 

How it works:

Each day, you upload a photo to Instagram or other social media outlets that relates to the dated prompt (for example, the 1st is "labor" so you would post your interpretation of that prompt on the first) and share a blurb about what the photo represents. Be sure to add the #creativedaily hashtag to group to photos with the other images from this collective.

Click the #creativedaily hashtag to find out what others are posting and make new friends by liking & commenting on their photos! 

This collective is such a fun way to make new creative friends, discover new brands and share your own story. 

This image is sized for Instagram! Feel free to save it & share the prompts to spread the word & get more people involved! I can't wait to see what you post!

Which prompt do you have a great idea for already? 

How to Approach Your Dream Clients

This is the final installment in our dream client series. If you are new here, use the previous posts to help you identify your target audience (aka Dream Clients), define their interests, find out where & when they are online.

As we go into this final installment I want to again say that a dream client is not necessarily your current clients and this does not devalue your current clients in any way. Identifying & marketing to your dream clients mean that you are marketing smarter, creating content that speaks directly to the type of people who you want to buy & share your content - these people are usually influential & have a large social media following, and when you market to them your reach is exponentially increased which means more traffic, exposure to more influential people & more sales. 

For instance, when I started altering my marketing three months ago, I picked BabiekinsMag as one of my dream clients - and four weeks ago they contacted me regarding creating some items for a spread in their fall editorial. I was shocked. I didn't think I would actually be able to capture their attention, they are a huge publication with over 43,000 Instagram followers! Ultimately, the project didn't work out due to time constraints but it is hard & concrete evidence that altering your marketing to your dream clients is incredibly beneficial & results in better exposure & increased sales. It also means you spend less time marketing & more time making because the time you did spend marketing reaps better results than marketing frequently to all the people who like all the things so they may like your things, too - you only spend time marketing to the people you KNOW will love your stuff, during the prime times for you to post.  

So let's go into this last chapter with gusto! We know who our dream clients are, what they like, when and where they are. Let's strike up a conversation with them! 

I don't know about you, but when I have a conversation with someone on social media I head over to their profile, and usually end up following them. Before you approach your dream clients, your profile should reflect their interests that we defined throughout this series, because approaching your dream clients is like saying hello & inviting them in for coffee - your profiles on all social media accounts should have a variety of content & products should be shared organically.

If you are approaching people who like fashion, you should have fashion content on your profile. If you can pair your products naturally in these photos without telling people only about your product, that is the best way to approach them & let them know you aren't in this just for the sales - for instance, a picture of a new top paired with skinny jeans & your latest necklace would most likely interest fashionistas more than a picture of your necklace. Show your dream clients you truly care about topics that interest them & help them relate to you. If you approach them, and make yourself approachable, your dream clients are much more likely to follow you on social media & buy from you. 

Yup, it's that simple - approaching your dream clients has nothing to do with marketing your products. 

Crazy concept, right? 

Let's say you are on Instagram & want to connect with your dream clients there. You could post a picture with 37.5 million hashtags (half of which won't even put you contact with your dream clients, but more on that later) - or, you could review your dream clients interests (let's say they are into natural parenting) and search relevant hashtags (like the #babywearing hashtag). Ding! Hello, dream clients! You are now staring at tens of thousands of photos by your dream clients - natural parents!

Approaching your dream client is easy - as easy as leaving a comment on social media. Some examples of good ways to approach your dream clients:

"Oh my gosh, your baby is so adorable, and I love that wrap. What brand is it?"

"The color of that wrap looks fantastic on you! Did you dye it yourself?"

"Love this image of you & your baby, you're adorable! What is your favorite way to carry your baby?"

Notice what all of these have in common? It has nothing to do with you or your products. Nope. Instead, you are a person who appreciates their interests & their lifestyle, not a seller trying to shove your products down their throat. You are complimenting them about something that is important to them. You are building the foundation for conversation & an organic connection, and are exponentially more likely to capture their interest.  

Of course there are times you can give a little nod to your business. Let's say your dream client is into fashion. Search that #ootd (outfit of the day) tag & find outfits that relate to the style of your products. Here is some ways you can approach them:

"I LOVE this outfit! Where did you get the top from? I have a necklace in my shop I would love to pair with that shirt for photos!"

"That sweater looks incredible on you. I need to start working on my fall line of jewelry, I have some designs in my head to pair with bulky sweaters that I can't wait to work on! What sort of colors do you think will be hot this autumn?"

"Ah, I love sweater dresses!  My favorite way to dress mine up is with this layered necklace I made or some fancy earrings. What accessories do you usually pair with yours?" 

Again, it's all about your dream clients - you start out with a compliment revolving around their content and when appropriate, your products can naturally be brought into the conversation without trying to sell them. This will usually interest the original poster & they will pop over to your profile & take a peek - so again, this means that your profile, no matter what platform you are on, should reflect your dream clients interests which I can pretty much guarantee isn't only your products. 

Another way to approach your dream clients is by following larger brands similar to yours (for instance, if you make toys for preschoolers you could follow people like Melissa & Doug & join conversations in the comments of their posts - again, not talking about you, but talking with peers. Example, you could reply to someone & let them know that your kiddo also plays with X toy - do they have any others they would recommend? Or maybe "My kiddo takes his "insert relative item name here" too! I just designed a new tote bag for him & ended up adding some to my shop too - it makes getting around so much easier with all the toys in tow!"

Two ways you should never approach your dream clients: 

Do not ever post on another businesses social media trying to drive sales. Casually mentioning your products is okay - saying "You can buy that in my shop" or "I make these" or telling people "if you are interested in one message me" is never, ever okay on other people's social media accounts. It is tacky & will most likely result in you getting reported for spam. Just don't do it. If you can't organically bring up your products into the conversation without trying to sell them or mentioning your shop, just don't bring them up. 

Bad example: "I have a toy in my shop that you would love for your nursery."

Good example: "I am loving this nursery! I just made a toy that matches the colors you used - I am loving these colors together right now!"

Bad example: "I have a necklace that matches your dress in my shop, you could check it out!"

Good example: "I love your fashion style! I just finished making a gorgeous necklace & your post just gave me a great idea for how to style my outfit for photos!"

The bad examples do nothing to build a connection and are not likely to do anything but get ignored, while the good examples are more likely to strike a conversation or pique their interest so they visit your social media account. 

Never directly ask people to visit your profile or shop. Again, if you can't organically mention your work, then don't mention it at all. If someone asks you where they can check out your work, then by all means tell them your URL. But if it doesn't come up, don't mention it.

Most importantly, when approaching your dream clients: Be authentic. Never fake your interests or post comments that aren't genuine. And remember - have fun getting to know your dream clients! The more you engage with your target audience the more you learn what sort of content resonates with them. 

Thank you to everyone who joined in on our dream client series! 

In the comments, feel free to share your thoughts on this series! I would love to know how it has helped you identify your dream clients & approach them! 

How to determine when your dream clients are online.

This is part four in a five part series about identifying your target audience. Read the first post on identifying their career & lifestyle here, second post about defining their interests here & third post about how to find out where they are hanging out online here.

If you have read & completed the "homework" in the first three posts, then you know who you want to be buying your products. You know exactly who your dream client is, what they like, what type of big business marketing can influence their purchasing habits, and you've figured out what sort of websites they hang out on. 

Knowing when your dream clients are online gives you a powerful upperhand on the market - you can cater your social media postings & paid ads to exactly the right time for maximum exposure, meaning that you get better results with less effort - You can spend less time at a computer & more time making awesome things! 

Using the worksheet below, fill in the times for each part of the day to the best of your knowledge about your dream client. Do not pull numbers from your current statistics - you are trying to determine when your dream clients will be online to maximize future exposure of your shop. While your current clients are incredibly valuable, maximizing your marketing to your dream client means increased exposure to people who are the most likely to buy & share your products with others, meaning more sales. 

Download here

Note: Even if your dream clients don't have a day job or go to school, try to use this work sheet to pen in what they would be doing through the day & evening - if they are stay at home moms, they are probably getting kids up, fed, dressed, ready for school, cleaning house, doing laundry, running errands and so forth. Use this worksheet however you need to outline the day of your dream client! 

First things first, when does your dream client wake up? What is the first thing they do after they wake up? Check Instagram? Read their emails? Brew coffee & take a shower? Get the kids up and ready for school? Going for a job? Heading to the gym?

Know when they wake up & their morning routine gives you insight on when to post content that will resonate with their routine - for instance, if your dream client is a mom who wakes up around 7am & rushes around getting the kids ready for school and on the bus, posting a product photo on Instagram at as your first post doesn't make much sense. However, if you post a picture of your coffee & ask if any other moms out there can relate around 8am, you're bound to get a much better response to your content. If the first thing they do is roll over and check their emails, maybe a newsletter that goes out first thing in the morning to give them some happy content to wake up to would be a good way to reach them. Make sense? 

Another example - say your dream client is a young professional who works in an office in the city and has to be at work by 8am. Odds are they aren't checking social media right out of bed - they brewing coffee, making breakfast, showering, getting dressed, finishing up last minute projects and getting out the door. If your dream clients are hustling to get work done in the morning, don't waste that time marketing to empty air.

Knowing when they leave for work, school or are getting the kiddos off to school is equally important - if your dream clients have a day job or go to school are in transit & getting started on their day between 8-10am, that means you can better utilize that time to set up a creative morning routine for yourself than plastered to your computer trying to reach people who aren't there. 

*Bonus tip: If your dream client spends a lot of time jogging, at the gym or in transit in the mornings, you could consider setting up playlists on Spotify & sharing them with your audience, or maybe consider a podcast talking about topics that you & your dream clients have in common. (Abby Glassenberg has a wonderful podcast that speaks directly to her dream clients & allows her to connect with them even when they are on the go.)

Lunch time, baby! That sweet spot when most people finally sit down, whip out their phone & start to catch up on all the goodness they missed this morning. It's your chance to get noticed, so make it good. Lunch time is prime time, and you want to curate content for this period that is valuable - most people have limited time to sit down for lunch, so strategize where they will be spending that time online & how to make your content relevant & interesting to them.

Lunch time doesn't just mean 12pm - really think about when your dream clients are online, what their day looks like. If they get up at 6am, odds are they eat lunch earlier than noon. If they are a stay at home mom, "lunch" would most likely be naptime, that sweet - & brief - moment of respite when moms can curl up with a snack & check social media. Again, you are operating on limited time at the middle of the day, so make your content king. Make it something that is quick & easy to take in & respond to, even if it's a like or one word response to a question like "What's your favorite color?" that you can then use to better your products. 

Knowing when they get off work/school or start picking kids up from school is as important as knowing when they're busy in the mornings - it's dead time. Your dream clients are not online right now, so you shouldn't be either - go make stuff! Your dream clients are busy hustling and shuffling around! 

After the afternoon chaos, what are your dream clients up to? Try to think of 3-4 things that probably happens in their life in the afternoons: Gym, grocery store, coffee with friends, homework, soccer, ballet, karate, choir & gymnastics for the kids? Odds are, their afternoon is pretty full right up until dinner time. However, knowing what your dream clients are getting into is vital - you can use this information to curate content that your dream clients will respond well to - do they have a little ballerina? I bet they would love to see pictures of your darling little ballerina, too, if you have one! 

And then there's dinner, then there is that sweet, sweet spot where you have a chance to catch them online - that is, if they aren't lining up kids for showers, doing laundry from the day, packing lunches for the next day, and so on. If your dream client is a mom, odds are they stay busy right up until those kiddos are in bed - and your best chance to reach them is then. Probably between 7-9 pm, when they are unwinding with a glass of wine, their favorite TV show & social media. If your dream client is a college student, are they in evening classes? What time are they most likely to be wrapping up for the day and hanging out online? If your dream client is a young single professional, they are probably online more in the evening, giving you a larger window to get your content to them. 

Goodnight, dream clients. When you see your dream clients heading to bed for the night - you should too. Or at least stop posting on social media, because they aren't there. Market smarter, not harder - use your answers & best judgement from identifying your dream client to know when they are online, and when they aren't - and when they aren't online, get off the computer. Use your time better to make awesome things & take care of yourself! As makers, we feel the need to be eternally connected, to see our stats update in real time & overshare on social media, shouting to everyone & hoping someone hears us. No more. Use the information from this series to better utilize your time, to reach people more likely to purchase, and to spend more time doing what you love - making & creating. 

*Beyond the daily routine, think long term & seasonal schedules for your dream clients. In summer, many people are on vacation, traveling, visiting with family, at the pool, park or zoo - so you can relax your marketing efforts a bit if you find that your dream clients are busy jetsetting to Disneyland and spending their summer by the pool during the day with the kids. During the beginning & finals/end of school term time, college students (and parents) are spending a significant amount less time online, so use this time wisely to build up inventory. 

Next week, we will have the final installment in this series - how to approach your dream clients & build organic connections with them. 

Using the information from above, what do you think is the best times for you to post & reach your dream clients? Experiment around these time frames for a few months & see if you get better results on social media than your previous schedule.  

Tell us about your dream client's day in the comments. 

Where are your Dream Clients?

This is part three in a five part series about identifying your target audience. Read the first post here & second post here.

Before we proceed with this series, I wanted to offer some clarification about the terms Target Audience & Dream Client. 

Defining your dream client does not mean that just because you sell to people in their twenties AND their seventies that you would no longer be selling to them - it means that you are identifying the class, personality & interests of the people you want to buy from you, people who are influential about products similar to yours, so that you can maximize your marketing to bring in even more sales beyond the sales you are already generating. If you are marketing to everyone, you are marketing to no one - if you are speaking to just the right people, in just the right way, at just the right time, your business can only thrive! That is what identifying & marketing to your dream client is all about!

For instance, I make toy storage solutions and plush toys. I could ask all my friends to like my Facebook page & follow me on Twitter & Instagram, but let's be real - do I really think that my husband's 24 year old brother or people that are his age/gender has any interest in my products & would buy them regularly & share them with their friends? What about my single friends who have no desire to have children? Or what about all those people in the craft forums I'm a part of? Do you really think that other crafters are my target audience for handmade toys? Do you really think if I get them to like my Facebook page or follow me on Instagram it will result in more sales? A few, perhaps. But not as many as if I was marketing to specifically to moms, don't ya think? 

Another point of view - if you make jewelry, then obviously networking in jewelry groups won't result in many sales - the other members make similar items, therefore they aren't as likely to need or want to purchase what you are offering. Marketing to single men wouldn't be beneficial for jewelry designers, either. Fashion bloggers, on the other hand.... Make sense?

It is not a numbers game. You could have 10,000 Facebook fans but it doesn't matter if they aren't your target audience. Your social media presence should be filled only with people who have an organic interest in your products - your dream clients! And the goal of this series is to help you identify them & find out where they are hanging out at online. when they are online & how to approach them!

Last week, we filled out this worksheet to determine what our dream client's home & lifestyle is like and how our products fit into it, how to define our dream clients interests & divulge what sort of marketing tactics & social media content they respond best to based on their hobbies & shopping habits.

Now we are going to explore how to use this information so that we can assess where online & offline our dream clients are hanging out! I will be sharing my responses along with some ideas of how to use this information to find your dream clients. 

My advice: take an afternoon, curl up with a cup of coffee or tea & your favorite notebook & really think about where your dream clients are online. 

Here is the low down on my dream client for luanded.com, using the worksheet from last week: 

My dream clients live in the suburbs in a house. They would use a Mon-stor in their kid's room for fun & convenient storage. Their decorating style is eclectic, colorful & fun, most pieces probably upcycled, so they are probably attracted to my products because they are bright, functional and made with upcycled materials! 

My dream client likes kids fashion, coffee, natural parenting & Instagram-ing all the cute stuff their kiddos do, so they probably also breastfeed and cloth diaper &  like blogging,  sharing brands they like on social media, & baby wearing. If they live in a house in the suburbs they probably like to shop at Target & thrift stores. They are probably total Starbucks-aholics or drink lots of coffee at home. 

They probably follow BabyJives, BabiekinsMag & ThreeLittleNumbers because their photos are so beautifully styled & reminiscent of a beautiful childhood & gentle parenting. They share their content because they are influential in the baby/kid industry & want to be a part of that brand's community, like a brand rep.

Let's explore my dream clients - they are natural parents with eclectic style. So they probably frequent parenting forums, breastfeeding advocacy blogs, cloth diaper supplier websites, local parenting blogs/publications & event guides, natural living and unschooling/homeschooling forums/blog/websites.

Acknowledging my dream client's natural parenting interests helps me know I need focus my social media campaign to focus on the ecofriendly aspect of my products; it also is beneficial for many other reasons, including deciding which blogs & brand reps to partner with, which stores my products would be best represented in & where I should invest my hard earned marketing dollars to the get most bang for my buck. Using the information from last week's worksheet, here is 5 ways I could reach my dream clients where they are:

• Paid ads on popular sites my dream clients frequent.
• Guest posting on blogs my dream clients read.
• Offering products for reviews on natural parenting blogs.
• Sponsoring giveaways that these sites host on social media. 
• Become an active member of the forums & network with fellow parents.

Since I know my dream clients are into Instagram-ing every cute thing their kiddo does, I know where I need to focus the majority of my social media efforts in order to get the best impact, too! I also know that they love beautiful, well lit, clutter free images & gentle marketing tactics based on where they shop & who they follow on social media. 

Below, I have one case study for an entirely different dream client. Shawna from Scrawny Girl was sweet enough to send me a photo of her completed worksheet & I thought that this case study may help you decipher where to find your own dream clients.

Just going from what I see here, I have thought up three places Shawna can find her dream clients:

Shawna is adorable. And her hair is always some delightful shade of the rainbow! One great opportunity to reach her dream client who likes kawaii, anime & fashion is to write guest posts for hair style blogs with tips for adventuring into & maintaining wild hair color!

Her dream client loves fashion, blogging & all things cute & would probably shop at Modcloth and Antropologie - odds are she would be able to connect with them & build a great foundation for future business & new exposure to people like her dream client by leaving meaningful comments on  fashion blogs & sharing their content via social media. She could also join forums & groups for eclectic fashion bloggers to network & share her outfits of the day paired with her art brooches, like above, as a method of gentle marketing.

Her dream client enjoys DIY projects & thrifting - given the eclectic & colorful nature of Shawna's shop, I think that she could definitely captivate her dream clients & drive them to her shop by guest posting a kitschy & colorful upcycling tutorial with her art prints hanging in the background or maybe a smash book tutorial using her stickers & perhaps offering a free printable on a popular lifestyle blog, raising brand awareness while at the same time demonstrating how her kawaii stickers fits into the lives of her dream clients.

By knowing who your dream client is & what their interests and hobbies are, you are able to organically connect with your target audience in what I like to call their "natural environment". This means that the exposure to your products is not forced, IE you are not actively sharing a link to purchase with your dream clients but rather speaking to them about their interests. The difference is "This pencil case is perfect for back to school! *link*" versus "How I stay organized for college" with a photo of your backpack, pencil case, folders & other accessories.

We will cover this in further detail in our fifth & final installment of this series, but next week we are going to be discussing using information from the past three weeks to determine when our dream clients are online!

Using information from the previous two posts, share in the comments where you think you can find your dream clients online! 

Identifying Your Target Audience: Defining Their Interests

This is part two in a five part series about identifying your target audience. Read the first post here.

Last week we answered a few questions to help us identify our target audience - not our current client but  our dream clients. Not the people currently purchasing from you, but the people you dream of buying & using your products and telling their social media following about. To kick off this session, head over here and answer these simple questions & explore your answers, especially regarding their style, their hobbies & what sort of home they live in. Once done, you should have a clear vision in your head about your dream client, maybe you can even visualize someone you know or admire on social media as being your dream client. 

Since I made the shift in how I market my products, I've gotten a wholesale gig, been contacted about a magazine feature & today was contacted by a lifestyle home goods site about offering several items on their site - on top of an almost 30% growth in new client purchases in just two months! Identifying & marketing to your target audience works. And today, we'll be further exploring how to make it work for you using this fun worksheet!

Download your free printable worksheet here

How to use this worksheet:

Again, it is not designed to analyze your current customers but to help you identify & define your target audience or as we call them - dream clients!

Parts 1-3 help you identify their style and how your brand & products fits into their life by helping you determine where they live, how your products fit into that space, and why they would like your stuff to begin with. No matter what you make, your dream client has to want to bring it into their home, or they won't bring it into their home. It's as simple as that. So by identifying where & how they live, how they decorate & use their space and how your products fit into it, you have a better chance at staging photos so they speak to your dream client! 

Example: Polder's Old World Market. 

Dream client: Foodies, recipe bloggers & established men & women who appreciate fine dining & the process of cooking a wholesome, healthy meal.

They probably live either in the the city or suburbs, and have a grand kitchen in their home or apartment. They love well made kitchenware, stainless steel appliances, natural wood grain & granite counters. Their home style is old-world grandeur.  Angela speaks to this audience by portraying her products in a high end kitchen, staged with raw ingredients.

Parts 4-6 help you define your dream client's interests and spending habits, as well as what sort of marketing tactics they are attracted to. Understanding your dream clients interests and consumption habits help you understand how they respond to marketing from larger industries & how your products fit into their consumption habits. 

Example: Scrawny Girl 

Dream Client: Trendy, eclectic & hip young adults who love coffee, crazy cool hair color choices & kawaii art style. 

Since Shawna knows her clients like anime, kawaii-cute things & current trends, she can figure they are probably into coffee, records and eclectic fashion, too. She can then cater her content to include cute ootd (outfit of the day) posts, new record finds, mug shots (pictures of her & her coffee mug) and post frequently about what anime she is watching, and her audience becomes a community because of their shared interests & love for her art style. 

Parts 7-9 help you to understand what type of content your dream client likes on social media. This is SO important - knowing what type of content your audience enjoys, actively pursues & shares is the keystone to understanding how to approach them & present your brand. 

Try to think of at least four people to put on this worksheet that your target audience follows. It can be celebrities, indie brands, bloggers - anyone you look up to & think your dream client would too. Determine why they follow those four people. Is it because they are all funny? Inspiring? Spiritual? Are they all kids clothing designers & parenting lifestyle bloggers? Are they all trendy moms? Photographers? What is it about these people your dream client loves? And of course - does your dream client share content from these people? If so, why? What type of content? 

Harnessing this knowledge is the key to understanding what sort of content your dream client is looking for & how you can produce similar content that is unique to your brand. Explore the people you think your dream client would follow. Look at this objectively - do not try to find similarities between the people your dream clients follow and you. Look for the differences. Learn from them. Look at how they style their images & present themselves & their brands, if they are businesses.  

Example: Pieces to Peaces

Dream Client(s): Fashionable young women & moms who are big into kids fashion & influential in this area, sharing brand names on social media.

If your dream clients are following people who share outfit of the day posts & fashion posts, is this something that makes sense for your brand? For a tee shirt designer, pairing your tees with leggings, sunglasses & headbands by other independent businesses could be a great way to speak to your dream client & their passion in fashion. Danielle recently posted this photo, showing her daughters outfit for the day with a headband she makes & products from other indie designers. 

Lastly, share in the comments - what makes you like your dream client so much? What is it about that awesome person that makes you want them to want your stuff?

Defining your dream client's interests is so important to understanding how to approach them. Next week, we'll use the info gathered from this week to help learn where to find out dream clients. 

Using SocialBro to Analyze Your Twitter Account

Today's guest post is brought to you by Toni of Little House of Crafting!

If you're looking to analyze your Twitter account I highly recommend SocialBro. SocialBro has the most in depth Twitter analysis I've seen yet! There is so much information to be gathered for free it's unbelievable!

Let's get to it!

Once you sign up and sync your Twitter account to SocialBro you will have a dashboard to play with. It's packed with information. I'll detail a few things:

Follower stats - You can see the trend of your followers. The "annotations" feature is very nice! Want to see how many followers you get from a giveaway or a sale you're promoting? Use the "annotations" feature to select the days you would like to track. 

Countries - An interactive map of the countries you have followers in.

Kred score - Your Kred score is based on your interaction with others on Twitter in regard to mentions and retweets of others. Influence ranges from 1 to 1,000. Outreach ranges from 1 to 10. Business Today notes that scores of at least 700 and 7 is good. How do you score?

Under the "Analytics"tab, "Community insights" provides variety of information:

Time zones - A graphic representation of the time zones your community. This information can be used to detail the best time to tweet. SocialBro has a report for that. I will detail that soon!

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Locations - Location information detailed from your community's bios.

​Right under "Community Insights" is my favorite report - "Best Time To Tweet":

You can customize the report or you can base it off your top 100 followers.

After the report is created you will see a wealth of information!

When followers are online - A graphic representation of when your followers are online. The black dots shows the best time to tweet on the day you run the report and the best time to tweet during the week. My favorite part of this report is you can sync these times with HootSuite and Buffer!

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Online followers by hour and day of the week - You can select days individually or you can see the details of the week as a whole by choosing "all". This information is useful but I find the next set of data even more so!

​Potential exposure by hour and day of the week - This set of data details the potential exposure your tweets based on the followers of your followers. Your influential followers are exposing your tweets to their followers, which increases your reach.

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What followers talk about - This data details the most used tags of your community. You can then better tailor your tweets to include tags and links that your community will most enjoy.

​Finally, under "Best Time To Tweet" is "Real Time Analytics". I don't spend a lot of time here but it's fun to watch! You can see what app and client is being used to access Twitter too.

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Thank you so much for hanging with me today to learn more about SocialBro. 

Have you used a website to analyze your Twitter account? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

get creative - easy content to keep your social media accounts active & interesting

Have you ever been stumped about what to post on social media? Can't think of enough original content to update daily without sounding spammy or repetitive? Sounds like you need to participate in #creativedaily!

#creativedaily is the only photo challenge geared directly towards creatives, artists, makers and small business owners - anyone who needs a spark of creativity daily is welcome to join in and make new friends through this fun photo collective. This is especially great for crafters to put their latest designs & products in front of consumers and show their process and peeks into their lives in a very organic way.

The goal of #creativedaily is to inspire people to document their life and indie biz journey through daily photos & snippets of text, encouraging them to fill each day will a little bit of creativity while fostering creative community & new friendships through social media. If you miss a day or few, it's not big deal - this photo challenge is just for fun! 

Here is how it works:

Each day, you upload a photo to social media that relates to the dated prompt (for example, the 1st is "love" so you would post your interpretation of that prompt on the first) and share a blurb about what the photo represents. 

Will you be participating in July's #creativedaily? Which prompt are you most excited about? 

how to write excellent product listing descriptions

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3 tips for a successful pre-order

Hi! I'm Tessa from Krmbal and I'm going to give you my top 3 tips for running pre-orders for merchandise.

While it's great to be able to ship as soon as someone orders an item, there are some benefits to doing a pre-order. First, you can gauge interest in a design. I will usually launch two new designs at time, but am often surprised at which design is the more popular of the two. I think that comes from being so close to the designs that I can't accurately judge since I'll love them all! Seeing that interest can help you adjust your quantity to make sure you're not ordering a ton of a design that isn't as popular or vice versa, not ordering enough for a design that's very popular.  For items like t-shirts, it can also help judge which sizes you'll need the most of. You don't want to be stuck with a bunch of smalls if your customers want XLs!

I'm actually doing a pre-order right now for a totally different reason. I modified Krmbal's signature Shop Indie design to say Shop Green for a custom fundraiser tee for Zeleny Fair, which is an eco-festival in the Kansas City area. They're going to sell them to support their festivals and their mission to support Heartland Center (a camp and retreat center) and Graydon Springs (a non-profit who aims to purchase and promote the use of land in Missouri for education, recreation, community, Ozarks Heritage and sustainability). Since Zeleny Fair's eco-festivals are located in the Kansas City area, we're working together on the pre-order to help extend their reach to bring both more awareness to their cause and help raise additional money from people who don't live in the area and can't attend their events. The pre-order is now available in my shop - with a white print on a 100% organic cotton Green Apple colored tee. $5 from each pre-order tee will go back to Zeleny Fair and tees should arrive no later than May 30th, which actually will be the date of Zeleny Fair's next mini festival in Parkville, MO! This tee will only be available via pre-order in the Krmbal Storenvy shop until Friday, May 9th or in-person at Zeleny Fair, so if you aren't local and want to scoop one up do it now!

Now to my tips!

1. Post a ship date and stick to it!

First and most important is to make sure you do what you say you'll do. If you don't, your customers can lose trust in you. So pick a ship date that you know you can achieve and post it, so that customers who are thinking about ordering the pre-order will know when they will get their items.  Some people may only want to buy ready-to-ship items, but those that don't mind a pre-order will at the very least want to know when they'll have it by. This is especially important if they're shopping for a gift - so make sure you can post a date and have plenty of time to meet it.

There are some instances that can be outside your control that can affect this date. For me, I once had an incident where my tees were printed and on their way to me, but something happened and UPS shipped my package back and forth between 2 cities for a week and then a big snowstorm hit and it was a holiday weekend. I didn't end up getting my package until after the ship date I'd posted. UPS was actually pretty great about it and totally made up for their error, but while that helped me somewhat, it didn't help me with customers who weren't getting their items that they'd paid for on time. Luckily, as soon as I found out what was going on and when I would actually have the product, I was able to notify my customers with an apology and offered them a discount code and gift in addition. Also luckily, they were all great about it. Explaining the situation and trying to make sure I gave the best customer service I could really saved me.

2. Timing

Timing is everything. Timing matters for your ship date, but it also matters in order to get the information you need for a pre-order to really be useful. There's no point in doing a pre-order if you have to post it without any time to learn from the sales information. Of course, if you're doing a pre-order for a different reason, like my Zeleny Fair fundraiser, the knowledge gained isn't really the point of that pre-order, but timing is still important in order to meet their event date.

When planning your pre-order, take into account the time it'll take to order your supplies, for those supplies to arrive, to produce your items, etc -- and then PAD IT. The padding should give you a bit of leeway in case something goes wrong and honestly, something always happens, even if it's not as big of a deal as losing a week in shipping confusion. It's better to be able to ship early and make your customers super happy than ship late and risk losing them.

3. Check and Double Check

If you've got a business like mine where I have to order a product from a supplier (t-shirts) make sure you do your homework. I mean REALLY do it. I had an incident where I checked the website, chose a color tee made a design for it, put up the pre-order and then went to order it and all of a sudden that color was gone! Disaster. I had to change everything. I had ORDERS that I had to offer refunds on or the option to keep the order with the new color. This actually happened on the same pre-order that came late, so that was really a pretty hot mess of a pre-order for me.

If I'd actually called up the supplier (I hate calling) instead of simply checking the website, I might have known that it was running really low or that I needed to order now to be able to get the very last bit of the color I'd originally chosen. (To that end - if you're a supplier, keep your website up to date, darn it!) If at all possible, try to cultivate a relationship with your supplier, so you have the opportunity to call them up and say 'Hey, I'm thinking about order X amount of this, will there be enough in a few weeks? Could you hold some for me?' If you get an awesome sales rep or customer service person to work with, make sure you send them a thank you if they go above and beyond. This is your business and if you can't make your awesome thing without a supplier, make sure you let that supplier know you appreciate them! In fact, don't tell my print team, but I think the next time I order Krmbal tees I'm gonna send some cookies out to them because they really do go out of their way for me. I wouldn't be able to do this without them, so it's the least I can do to show my appreciation!

So those are my 3 tips for running a successful pre-order. Here's one last bonus tip - don't post your pre-order at full-price. Anyone who orders during a pre-order is doing you a favor by sending you valuable stats for your business. Give them a discount or free shipping to let them know you appreciate their business and their willingness to wait a bit to get their awesome new item!