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Does Your Craft Business Need a Niche?by Kristie Leong Why would your craft business need a niche? Read guest author Kristie Leong's advice below... We all know the handmade craft market is becoming more crowded these days. When you exhibit at a craft show not only are you competing with other crafters who create handmade items, but you’re also increasingly forced to contend with imported craft items that are being marketed as handmade. How can you differentiate your business from the masses of other craft and pseudocraft businesses out there? The answer may lie in finding a niche for your handmade items. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, you would concentrate on developing a craft line for a narrow, but clearly defined group of buyers. You may wonder why you would want to limit your audience to a smaller group of people when there's a whole universe of customers out there? The answer lies in the fact that you can TARGET your audience better if you are selling to a well defined group of people. You will waste less time, energy, and money trying to reach them than you would a general audience. PLUS, customers in a niche market are MORE likely to buy as you have exactly what they want. Now, finding the perfect niche for your craft business may not be as easy as it sounds. You need to think in terms of how your product might benefit a particular group of people such as animal lovers, brides, teachers, runners etc. You can also target even more narrowly defined groups such as vegans, poodle dog owners, wine lovers, those who practice yoga, aerobics instructors and more. I’m a handmade jewelry maker. At one time I was doing a booming business selling aviation themed jewelry to stewardesses. I did almost no advertising as word of mouth was so effective. It reached the point where I could no longer produce enough to supply the demand and I needed to hire workers to help. This is the power of niche marketing! Had I designed a general line of handmade jewelry, defining and reaching my market would have been much more difficult and costly. I have a friend who does an excellent business targeting brides-to-be and their bridesmaids with her unique, handmade craft items. The advantage to this market is that she often gets orders to make custom crafts for an entire wedding party. She is completely focused on this niche market and all of her marketing materials are designed to reflect this focus. This makes the task of marketing so much simpler and cost effective for her. Can the craft you currently make be adapted to address the needs of a particular niche market? Here are some niche markets to consider:
Hopefully, some of the above ideas will help you to think of ways to adapt your own craft line to a niche market. I think you’ll find the rewards will be well worth the effort. Guest author Kristie Leong publishes a blog on marketing handmade jewelry at Netbead.com. If you found this useful, click here for another article on choosing a niche market.
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