Skip to main content

How Do You Market to Buyers?

Lesson 22 from: Sell Your Products to Retailers

Megan Auman

How Do You Market to Buyers?

Lesson 22 from: Sell Your Products to Retailers

Megan Auman

most popular craft & maker

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2000+ more >

Lesson Info

22. How Do You Market to Buyers?

Lesson Info

How Do You Market to Buyers?

What we've done so far is we've started to build your wholesale business, so we started out in our first few segments by setting that foundation, we looked at your price thing, we got that all in order now and then we got you feeling good about those prices right after we figured out there are, in fact, customers who are there to buy your products. Lindsay saw mine get out of the city earlier, um, so we found those customers we know where they are, then we started to build your list of stores, so hopefully everyone's got some stores on their list because weren't just about ready to start reaching out for those stores, but we also worked on nailing down what you're going to say, getting those line sheets in order so that you're ready to present that. And of course, we had our fabulous, fabulous guest buyers. Kelly anne giselle, who taught us so much. I learned things from them and I've been doing this for a while, so they were really fantastic, so we've already covered ah lot of ground,...

but we have a ways to go yet because we're going to talk about how, exactly to reach out to stores we are going to set your marketing calendar. We're going to talk about those little things called trade shows and hopefully make those a little less intimidating for you as well. So we took we took the scary out of the pricing. Now we're going to take the scary out of the trade shows and then we're going to wrap it all up. We've got another guest buyer who is going teo work with some of our in studio audience, they're gonna practice pitching, right, everyone's excited on then we're going to help you figure out how to keep that momentum in your wholesale business. We've got a lot to go yet I'm so just a reminder who this class is for if you're a maker and you've already got a product line, but you're trying to happen to wholesale, you want to get started selling two stores? This is absolutely for you. If you're sitting in your cubicle thinking about I want to quit my day job, I want to start that product line, maybe you're just testing things out. This is still applicable, tio by following what we're doing here, it's going to put you in such a better position than if you weren't thinking about this and for those of you watching who, maybe he might even have a trade show under their belt. We're going to do some stuff that's still gonna be good for you today because we're gonna teach you not just how to do a trade show, but how to really sell design a booth that stands out really help you kind of take your trade show experience to the next level, and even if you're not thinking about a trade show yet, I might convince you that it really is within your realm of possibility. And of course, this is applicable to anyone in the world, so I'm based in the u s our audience are based in the u s so you're going to hear a lot of us examples today, but the beauty of selling wholesale is that you could be anywhere in the world and you can sell to anywhere in the world because as you're going to see, outreach doesn't have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to be local that's we're going to dive into now, how do I reach out to stores? And if you want to follow along in your workbook, we're starting on page thirty three today, so you can see we've still got a lot of ground to cover, so in a previous segment, we talked about the things that you're going to need to reach out to stores, so you're going to need a line sheet. Story is a pdf online I didn't get a great question after we ended our last segment, which wass you know if I'm using one of those online, you know an online wholesale system whether it's at the wholesale or brand boom do I need the line? She does a pdf no, you don't need the line, she has a pdf if you're using that you, khun certainly send stores to that if you're doing outreach outside of a trade show now that said, if you remember from that segment on line sheets, one of the things I don't always love about those is that it you lose the scale from product to product, so in any of those systems, they're all going to be the same size, right? So even if I've got no tiffany's that big earrings and little earrings and when every image is the same size, they're kind of gonna look the same size. So when you're doing your own pdf line sheet, that does give you the opportunity to kind of play with that scale and really show buyers and that scale us so important when we're communicating with buyers who aren't seeing our products at a trade show because they need to know how big is it in my store that's super important it's one of their biggest considerations, we heard from kelly anne giselle, they have pretty tiny spaces kelly's is six hundred square feet, right? So she really wants to know how big something is. We've also put together our wholesale policies, so we're gonna need those for sure when we reach out to a store, we want to make a buy your guests and we started talking about our usp and product language, and of course you're going to use that method for receiving orders, whether that's just you got the order forms for your trade show, you're going to take them online via email, or maybe you've got that online form or an online website they can order from all right, so we're going to talk about those out written outreach methods, but as I promised, going to remind you one more time and probably six more times never ever ever drop by a store with your products, don't toss him in a bag, come in there, hoping you're going to show a buyer you're going to burn that bridge for life definitely don't do it on a busy saturday afternoon. So that's our first big no no, we're talking about reaching out to stores. We have a second no, no, which is that you're not going to add a store to your email list without permission or include them in any kind of mass email where you're not personalizing it to the buyer first of all, if you're in the u s technically this isn't legal just to add somebody to a list, right? Uh I don't know about the laws in other countries, but even if it's legal in your country it's bad form um so you know, as we're building up those prospect list, you're going to make notes of emails but you're never just going to take all of those e mails and put them on a list course if a buyer gives you permission absolutely having an e mail list of any buyer this skinny permission to reach out to them say once a month or once a quarter absolutely we want that but when we're cold calling, which is really what we're doing here when we're cold calling a store, we're not putting them on a list without their permission and we're not sending a mass e mail, so if we're not doing those, what are the best ways to reach out to buyers? So there are a couple first we have what I would call the mass outreach we're not necessarily trying to hit one, two, one, two, one these air I like to think of them as the more kind of time efficient ones they might not be the most personal, but you're gonna get a lot of bang for your buck, so the first one is a postcard mailing and I am such a huge fan of the postcard mailing that we're actually gonna break that down in a little more detail. I'm so glad lindsay asked that question yesterday, and I was so happy to hear kelly anne, giselle talk about how much they loved getting the postcards and how that really worked for them because I've found that over and over again with buyers, they really like to see that immediate visual impact and postcards air really great bang for your buck. You can certainly also do a mailing that's catalogs or line sheets, you know, kind of do that blanket mailing I always think the challenge with that is, you know, unless you've designed your catalogue so you could mail it as a catalog, if it's a line sheet, you're probably sticking it in an envelope, and so you lose that like immediate visual impact, but it's certainly a way that you can reach out and our other mass outreach is going to be trade shows, so when we do trade shows, we're certainly going to do some pre show marketing. You know, I always do a postcard mailing to my list before shows, letting them know where I'm going to be, but without fail at every show. I meet stores that I would have never seen I get orders from stores I've never heard of that I didn't find in my research, so when you do a trade show, you're putting yourself in front of a lot of buyers and it's a great way to hit them very efficiently. Then we go down to a one on one contact, you're going to send an email and we're going to break this one down for you to if I'm going to email a buyer what's that email going to say, how should I do that submission? We're gonna look at some examples. You can also send more personalized male a note, a card, those of you who make greeting cards, you're probably not sending a postcard mailing. You're sending one of your greeting cards to a store, right? This is the greeting card is the one one major exception to that don't send product rule, you're going to send greeting cards out all day long. If that's what you make, then you might also have sales appointments. So why we would will never go into a store unannounced, you might email a store and say, hey, I'm gonna be on in san francisco on vacation, these are my products, if you're interested, I would love to stop in and show them to you, so again, we're not saying please let me come in at nine a m which we all know they're not on the story died am anyway, please let me come in at nine a m instead it saying, you know, if you're interested he look, take a look at my products if you want to see them in person, I can stop by. So part of this is that you wantto play to your strengths so you don't have to dio every single thing on this list, I do a fair amount of them, I actually don't do a lot of e mailing of stores it's not my strength and I don't think it's the best strength for my products. I do a ton of postcard mailing and I do trade shows because I know that suits my personality really well, obviously I don't mind standing up talking to people talking about my products, right? And I know that my product sells really well in person, so for me trade shows work, but I also like those postcard mailings because I know I have a pretty strong design sensibility and I can put together a great graphic postcard really easily for some of you, you might not want to do that postcard mailing or for instance, if you are, say in australia and your targeting a lot of stores in the u s that postcard mailing goes for him pretty affordable toe starting to get kind of pricy right so you might be focused more on email you know maybe you're in a position right now where a trade show isn't an option for a few years you know maybe you're about to have a baby or you have a little what at home in which case you might stick to more of the emails and kind of getting out there and really doing it that way so think about what works for you but don't be afraid to mix it up you know postcards one time it's an e mail thinking about that trade show and making that happen because not every approach is going to work for every buyer all right so let's talk about why you should do a postcard mailing and I did also bring some of my postcards so we've got um you know those you can actually see what I've got going on here I love postcards as an outreach for store for a couple of reasons immediate visual impact right? This shows up in a store I don't have to try to put into an e mail something enticing like a subject line that's going to make them open and make that subject line stand out in two hundred emails this is going to stand out right it's also a physical reminder of your product so if I'm a buyer and I like this but I'm not ready to buy it goes on the wall over my desk and I'm thinking about that product and I'm looking at it I've had buyers, you know they come up to me at the trade show post card in hand half the time they tried to give it back to me, which is a little weird they're like here take this back I'm like but it costs me like three cents you keep it uh but they do they have it in their hand they're ready that you know, they know to find me so that's really fantastic. The next thing is you can always find a stores mailing address can't always find the email or maybe it's not the email it's going to go to a buyer, but stores have physical locations they have to our customers can't find, which means you can find that too and it's really easy to do the postcard it's also efficient with the right system. So this is why I really like using that spreadsheet to keep track of all of my store prospects. Because then when I want to do a postcard mailing, I use that you can google how to do this because I can't explain it succinctly, but you're going to do that fancy little mail merge thing where you take all those addresses and you export them into mailing labels and then I just stick my mailing labels right on that postcard and the whole process, it does not take that long and it's actually relatively affordable, you know, what I've found is even with a list of, you know, five hundred to seven hundred stores, the whole postcard mailing usually comes in under, say, four, five hundred dollars that's the cost to get these printed, and I'll give you a few recommendations on that a minute, so, you know, and that's the cost of postage, even even with postcard postage continually on the rise. So what that translates to in my mind is if I send five to seven hundred postcards and I get one new wholesale order because my minimum is for fifty, I've paid for this entire marketing process with one order, one order out of seven hundred, so I don't even have to convert that well to make that work let's talk about what makes a good postcard. Eso a clear, impactful product image is really going to help, and what I've found over and over again is that product images work better than lifestyle shots, so I like to mix it up. You can see also, I don't always like to mix it up see, we get a lot of I got a lot of postcards here that look. Like this is one time this is another time they're not that different, right? But every so often, you know, so that's another time doesn't look a lot different than this, so I used the same type of card a lot, but every so often I'll do something that's a little more of a lifestyle type shot, and I find that those don't get a good return. Buyers really just want to see that bold, beautiful product shot so more often than not, you want to stick with that. You also want to stick with one product don't try to put like six little thumbnails on the front of this postcard because they're not going to see anything clearly eso one product if you've got some diversity in your product line, you want enough doing multiple mailing so lindsay might do a mailing with kind of her signature classic. I don't know the classic colorful collection will use the militarization there, but then you might do another one with more that gallery or the the annual collection, I believe calling it now and some of those might target different stores, but why not just tell everything to everybody you know, maybe you'd do one and then a couple months down the road you do the other one, so yeah, let them see what they want um, so you can certainly do that we want a strong u s p obviously on a postcard, we don't have a ton of room to really write a novel about our products, but you can see on the back of mine. I always make sure that I have jewellery that's bold enough to make a statement, but easy enough to wear every day. I do also put on here usually somewhere that it's handmade in the u s because that is something that my craft galleries air looking for. If it's not important to your customer, you wouldn't have to, but I know at least some of my stores carry me because I am a handmade in the u s product, so I stick that on my postcard too, so there's, no question about that so that's one thing we're gonna have, then you're typically gonna have some kind of information. Now you can see both of mine are trade show specific, but if you're not doing a trade show, that middle piece of information can just turn into go here and look at my line. You know, view my line online, you can always add another sentence or two about the line if you're not trying to say go to a trade show, but even if you are saying go to a trade show, I also always say for more information, go to the website and that's, the next most important thing is that you want your postcard to have a clear call toe action. I've got this postcard, I liked the product. What am I supposed to do with that now? So you can see minor pretty clearly visit us. Visit me at these trade shows that's my called action. If you're not doing a trade show, you're called action is going to be go to my website. Go here. It's probably going something a strong is go to this girl to request the wholesale catalog be explicit here don't make them guess they're busy busy, busy people so we don't make them guests. We want to be really clear. Yeah, so we've got that ability to get more information. So we really want to make sure we are putting all of these pieces on here. So we're going to talk a little bit more about exactly when you're going to send these postcards. When we do our marketing calendars, we get a little further along in this segment. Um, but you know, even though mine our trade show specific yours don't have to be you could actually wake up tomorrow, order your postcards, go ahead and, um, yeah, order those postcards haven't come in a week sent him out to stores, spend that week building your list so you could get this turned around really quickly there's no reason that you have to wait for something specific to send a postcard all of those printers that I recommended when we talked about line sheets. So p s print jack prince greener printer they all do postcards I personally use overnight prince dot com I love them never had a problem. They do the rounded corners, which makes me super happy. And you could also see that a lot of times had you blanks, so I don't always put that called action on there instead, I then just print some stickers, just label paper actually, like full sheet label paper. And then I cut it with my paper cutter, most efficient use of space put that right on there. This is great, especially if your list, you know, we all know you have to order postcards like two, fifty, five hundred and maybe your list doesn't quite fall into one of those numbers. So this is great, because then what I can also do is without that sticker, I can tuck this into our own online retail order. I can use it for other things, so if you don't want teo, just use postcards for one specific purpose getting blank, use a sticker, all right, you guys have any questions about the postcard thing? Yeah, sheila remember, remember you mentioned product shots versus lifestyle, right? And wonder if I should do that because mine's a drinking experience, you might be the exception to that because on my line sheet it's like, put the cute kid in the yeah, anytime that you have a baby product, yeah, put it on a baby s so yeah, you you would be, um, but what happens is you just start to lose some of that impact. I'm not sure with you guys, I'd have to look at your product photography should know, because the problem is the product with the mom and baby and unless you're doing like a, uh, a really like super photo shoot like I'm thinking of those images of, like tina fey hiding under her desk with like the clutter and then the baby like unless you're going really hire a photographer and go all out, um, you might be better off with maybe like the product shot that's, the diagram or something like that. So thinking about how you could play with that your your product shots make you want to eat it, so just make sure that when you send that postcard it's, this is so not food, maybe he was like the charcoal one, because that's pretty clear, like, we know we're not gonna get charcoal don't right, like so we just want to make sure in your case that they no soap not food but your product shots are great so we really we really see that so I I'm curious about this like my instinct when I was thinking about sending postcards and be like, hey, I found your store I thought it was really great would you do something like that or do you just want to give them that one like here's where you can find me? So if you're gonna go to that trouble of like, hey, I found your store I think it's really great write that up in a little letter and send them your catalogue your line sheet because I don't think you have enough room on the postcard to sale of that and also say please go do this like what happens is your writing the super tiny like, you know how when you're at your best friend and like eight grade and you want to cram everything you could into the postcard because you couldn't send text messages ikenson there were no there no phones and no way that is cramming everything in there that's what it starts to look like s I think yeah, absolutely do that personalized note but go ahead and just tuck it in with a line sheet or catalog because if you're going through the effort to make that kind of personalized connection it's. Because it's a store that you know you really want to target and then you might as well just send on the line. She right away. The postcard is a great way to sort of blanket the entire list linked to your line sheet on the postcard or just telling to your collection. So what I would usually do is put a link to where they can go request access to the line sheet. So that way, it's not not that I think your postcards and, like, fall into wrong hands and the enemy's gonna story oh, it's not that I just think you want to know who's viewing your line sheet. Okay, so if they request, then you've got then maur store information. So for instance, if you send the postcard, you might not know the buyer's name, but then if they go to the website and fill out your form, they're going to say here's, my name here's my direct email. Yes, I want to be on your mailing list, so you get more information and if you just said, hey, go look at my line sheet, this is their way to follow up, so you've sent out the cards you know you're you're gone for a while, yeah, crickets, right, yeah, then what so that's a great segue way we're going to do more some questions from online I know it has got one too but that's a great way war then you can use email on top of it so you can send e mail did you get my letter that weird to do or not I know how did you get my postcard did you have a chance to look okay so that's certainly a way that you can follow up and then the email isn't that cold pitch it's a little bit of a follow up now that said I would not send the e mail like that if they have specific like a submission form so in the case of kelly or gisela um they both clearly have look away that they want to submit and I don't know that I would just send on that email hey did you get my postcard but I might follow them on instagram and you see a post you're like oh I saw you you no comment I said your postcard did you get it so that's actually like a quick follow up that meets them where they're spending actually more of their time or where they want to be spending more of their time not looking in the inbox I was just going to ask you to clarify one thing that you kind of mentioned eso we're doing you know we're sending out our two hundred whatever amount of postcards but then you mentioned if you're going to go to that length, just send them a line sheet with a personalized letter. So is is that ever going to be received as like you're just kind of sending product like is that does that ever is that ever received negatively? Like, why is she sending me this line? Shit didn't request it. I know, because I know what I say for your vips like, I really want to target these so as long, I think that's a great question as long as you're doing your research and you feel like the store is a good fit for your product, they're going to be happy to get that even if they're not ready for yet. But this is where you want to be honest, like if you're targeting a store that doesn't sell soap and you send them a line sheet in the mail that says, I think this is perfect for your store, they're like, why are you sending me this? Don't even carry soap, right? Or if the aesthetic is completely off, like if the store is only selling, you know, dainty, delicate jewelry and I'm sending the my line she like this would be a great fit it's not for tiffany, it would be, but it's not going to be for me, so as long as it's a really strong fit and you're super honest about that I don't think they're going to take that negatively I don't know if I should like make some initial contact and then that's the follow up or yeah, I mean it's still not a bad idea to hit him with the postcards first, but if you have and I wouldn't do the catalogue thing for saying more than like five or ten stores that are really super important to you. Okay, thanks. Yeah, we have some questions coming in online we do, uh do muffins is asking do you need to find out the name of the store owner or buyer? Uh, justin, these postcards great question. So if you are sending to those small to midsize stores that we talked about idol, I just put the store name and then maybe I'll put the name of the owner if I saw it online, but a lot of times it's just store name and address where you need to do a little more digging, as if you're trying to send one to those large stores or stores that might have multiple buyers. Sometimes I'll chance it and I was put the store and then I'll put like jewelry buyer yeah, we're accessories buyer you put like homebuyer station right it's not a super guarantee it's going to get to them but it's a you know, it's better than not specifying a department for sure, because honestly, in those bigger stores, you're probably not gonna be able to figure out who the buyer is until you say meet them at someplace like a trade show let's see, does meghan always keep the image perfectly vertical? Or would it be okay to angle it slightly? So how much design flexibility do we have? You guys should do whatever design works for you? Um, I clearly have a very specific thing that I do here, like it's a it's a thing I don't know why it's just what I do when it works for me, but if your brand is like, I want a jaunty image across and do what works for you and your aesthetic. So this is kind of like the rule is great product image, but the layout is totally up to your brand, and either you're stuck sensibility or your graphic designer. I do like the one thing that I will say is that I do think it's important to put your business name on the front with the image because if they're hanging this on the wall this way, not only they're using the product every time they look at it, they see meghan omine. They know it reinforces that. So how are you gonna lay out your image? Make sure that you also put your name and you could do a vertical card too. There's no rules about horizontal in this case, if vertical highlights your product better, I'm actually making a little bit of a shift from, like name logo to more of, like a little trade marquis logo on, so I might start doing some vertical cards because the logo gets a little smaller. So questions regarding design time capsule is saying if you use an infographic rather an image of your product, other people are asking about q r codes, do you think they're useful to include on cell? I probably would not use an infographic again. We're going for like, clear aesthetic, you know, highlighting the product. So even in the case of monica monica, you still need to show an image of the product you just might have, like image with some kind of diagram or something and your case, maybe you're not actually sending postcard, maybe it's like a one page fold over brochure, so the front is the image of the product, and then you open it up and it's, you get a little bit more of like the here's how this works because yours might not be like this is straightforward it's a necklace yours is a little less straight forwards you might not be able to tell the whole story in a postcard shayla you may even want to do that to look a little just fold in half brochure now obviously then we're going regular postage now postcard postage but it's not such a big deal a ce faras the q r code thing I hate q r codes I'm going to be totally honest with you guys here ugly and quite frankly like I would rather just type in a euro and I think that ultimately at the end of the day your buyer probably is too because you don't want them to go to your website on their titles smartphone right? We want them to go to it on their computer on they're not doing that with a q r code awesome all right, so let's talk about the other form of outreach that you guys were really probably going to be doing and that is email outreach and I've actually put, um, this little template right in your workbook page thirty five I'm so when you're sitting down to draft thes e mails, I've got a little plug and play guide for you um so the first thing I want to say about all of this is check the stores submission guidelines because if they tell you to do something else than this, do what they say always do what the store says if the store doesn't give you any submission deadline deadline thehe guidelines they might give you deadlines too you never know then you can use something like this to help guide you in writing those emails and of course I want to remind you about that homework you had where you were writing the email to the friend about this great product you discovered that's the kind of language I want you to pull into these emails like don't suddenly go all formal trying to be business speaky keep it that nice casual friendly email and go from there so we've got our subject line and remember two hundred emails checking him on her phone this is your chance to stand out um I'm actually gonna we're gonna look at this and I'm gonna show you an example and we'll kind of jump back and forth so in this case in the subject line I'm actually using the words designer submission first even though they're not asking for it I wanted to be really clear that that's what I was doing that way if she's not in the mood maybe she has a folder she wants to put them into its there on the nice went ahead and said bull jewelry line and steal and bronze so just a little bit of something that tells you this is what you could expect when you open that submission and if she thinks bull jewelry line and stealing bronze isn't for her, then she's not gonna open it. And you know what? That's okay, because if you get that tagline, I think it's pretty clear what my line is, so make sure you're really clear and that's where that kind of like us p description it's, we're not going to be probably your whole u s p but we're going to put that in there. That's our first part that bernie is a greeting be sure to use the name whenever possible. If you're going to send these e mails, do the work, do the digging, find the name. So you made up a name here on ly because I actually know the name, but I just didn't seem appropriate to put one in there, so hi, jane that's all you have to say, you know, find the name, make sure you use it. What that says is I did my homework right, then you're gonna dio just a sentence or two what I call the teaser you're going to briefly introduce yourself and your work, you don't want to just start off on like this is what I do say, you know, give him your name, you're meeting someone new for the first time, even though it's by email um so I just went ahead and said, my name is meghan omine. I'm a pennsylvania based designer and metal smith who and then I went in my usb, who creates jewelry that's bold enough to make a statement and easy enough to wear every day. So that little description but either is going to tell them they want more or it's going to tell them that you're not the right fit and either one is actually okay, right? As long as your usp really accurately describes what you d'oh right that's, why we got to get those nail down then what I like to dio is establish a connection right again. This is the reinforced I did my homework. This isn't a cold email. So how you find out about the store and why your products would be a good fit? So this is a case where actually a friend of mine suggested this store. So that's what I'm saying here, my friend ivan from patina and he owns us, another store in the town. So that's why I was using that my friend ivan from patina suggested I reach out to you because my work would be a good fit for your store. This is a museum store, so then I said, my my work already sells well in a number of museum stores around the u s but it's not currently carried anywhere in santa fe. So now I've said my work sells well in your type of store. This is why I think it would be a good fit, but I'm not sold any where else in your town yet? So that tells her it could work. But she's not gonna have competition, right? So if you don't have that, my friend recommended you can use things like I was, you know, on vacation in your town last week, and I stopped by I thought it would be a good fit. Or even just say I was on your website. I seeyou carry x y z. My product tends to fit well with that. So, you know, just look for that little connection. We're not going super long again. We're keeping this brief, right? They're busy people. Then we've got just the details. Just a tiny little bit more about your work. So my signatures jewelry line features hameed lengths and steel in bronze. Remember, there's not gonna be a picture in here? This is the problem with the e mail. This is why I like the postcard, right? Because I don't have to go through all this rigmarole, they know if they like it. So I'm going to describe it a little bit and talk about a couple of pieces single chains and long and short length statement necklaces also do really well with my earrings, which are lightweight and easy to wear so really little bit then always clear called action and my favor called action when you're sending an email is to tell them to reply to this email like a sneaky trick that works every time those of you on my mailing list no works could I do it to you guys replied to the female and tell me um so as you can see I didn't give them information you can see it on my website, but if you want a line sheet just hit reply, I'm not making them dig I'm not making them go anywhere and I'm also not trying to give them the line sheet right away. I like to use the emails is a way to sort of develop their relationship. I'm not asking for the order yet because asking for the order and a cold email to me feels like asking someone to marry you on a blind date might be a little bit forward, so instead I'm saying here's where you can see the product I'm not attaching images remember we do it's not gonna work doesn't work for our buyers not attaching images, but I'm saying here's where you can see images and if you want all the wholesale details replied to the email and then of course you have a question monica yeah, go ahead. So this might be sort of specific to me, but for anybody else that also has a product that needs a little bit of explaining I have created like a very short, distinct explainer video would this be a good place to include a link? Okay? Oh, yeah, fantastic put that link in there say, you know, if you want to see our product in action and I can be really clear so it's all about them if you want to see our product in action, take a look at this video and what would be really great is if when you're sending these e mails, you embedded that video on a page that was specific for wholesalers so that you're sending them to a link where they view the video and then below that is like request information for the line sheet, right? So we're not taking them to the same page that you might take a retail customer too. Thank you. Sure thing, then I've got, you know, always the closing let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them your name always put contact info, email address a phone number you can throw your website down there again too. And then, yes, always contact info and then in this case, I actually put a little kind of quirky ps in here, so this is in case we haven't quite figured out what we're doing here yet. I'm pitching the gift shop at the georgia o'keeffe museum. One of my necklaces is the georgia plus all my necklaces are named after women who make a statement that one's named after georgia o'keefe it's also, that necklace happens to be an aesthetic that would work well in the southwest, so I just toss that in there at the bottom. I'm a huge fan of this person, you know? I'm not just pitching anywhere, any museum story, there's, a little something extra little push you don't have to do this, but in this case it felt appropriate. So I put that in there we get any questions from the online audience in terms of email? Uh, let's see time capsule is asking, is there a reason why meghan put replied to this email in bold? I on ly did it for you guys because I wanted you to see I'm so glad you asked that question, but I actually that because it's so important to use that language that I wanted you guys not to miss it so you don't have to build it, uh, look at you I kind of like a catch in one of the things that I might do because I feel like just replied to this email boulder is a little funky is like bold something else closer the top may be bold your usp too so it's like here's, my usp really stand out and then, like, reply to this email, okay? Ee um, so I guess my question is about not embedding photos. Email is that just because the file sizes are so large that they bog it down, what would it be like if you use like, a really small file size? I just think any time you touch anything, you have to worry about getting kanis band filter. This is not going to get caught in a spam filter and your, uh, your foot, you know, your your signature or whatever nuclear program so you can, but depending on what email service they're using to read it, that image still shows up is an attachment like I have, you know, if you're using google if using gmail it's not, but like, I still have an old e mail address that uses yahoo and that one like if you have an image in your signature, it shows is an attachment for me, and so, depending on what your story is using, it might also shows an attachment for them, so this is a case where this is why I still like the postcard because the problem is now we're trying to take what is a visual medium and translated into words um and so this is the case where you're gonna have to write this a couple of times, play with it, play with your subject lines you know? And if you send the e mails to a store and you don't get any response right a different email and send it six weeks later don't write the same e mail don't keep sending them the same email it over and over again tweak your subject line tweak how you talk about the work send it again and you could do that you can follow up with them you know, every six weeks every eight weeks something like that unless they tell you no, I'm definitely not interested if they tell you stop stop right if but if they say so then I say no thank you it doesn't work for us stop but they might also say you know what? I like it it's not right for me right now please follow up they say please follow up you go into that spreadsheet you've already marks that you emailed them now you mark follow up on such and such a date would you send a postcard late, send the postcard first, then send an email say hey, I sent you a postcard and then fill up six weeks did you get my yeah postcard global of the story that you really wanted yeah do it all yeah do it all there's no reason I get keep these things spaced out so it's not like I sent you a postcard when I emailed you then I called the store when I sent you another email did you get it? Did you get it? No, no give him a little time you write a uh so you know there's a fine there's a fine line. Yeah, I think likely every six or eight weeks or so that's a good spacing especially if you like didn't get a response. I would say between a postcard in the first female you could go maybe like two to three weeks you give time for the postcard to get there then give it another week or so. Okay, but in terms of, like spacing out those e mails you know six to eight weeks if buyers are buying consistently sixty weeks is a lot of turnover time in a store right financial position may shift considerably s o that's enough time where you know or it just might be that that first said they were slam there on vacation you him six weeks later it's only their home and the new subject line catches their eye

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Sample Order Form and Wholesale Terms
Trade Show List By Month
Trade Show Packing List
Private Facebook Group Access
Store Prospect List
Workbook
Syllabus

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

This is the first course I have bought. That's how valuable it is! I have a wish list of courses I dream of owning, but alas I'm on a 'starving' artist budget. I wish I had more time to watch all the free courses on CREATIVELIVE. I WISH I could 'save' a once for free watch time. they aren't 'conveniently' timed. And there are reasons I don't buy w/o seeing what the course entails vs. cost etc. I might buy more if I was able to do such. There are so many I am interested in but time constraints for watching it or catching a re-run are really prohibitive. I won't buy 'blind' and funds are limited. So I must be selective in choosing what to buy. It has to fulfill multiple requirements for me personally. Perhaps others have this dilema and CL could work on that. Or hey, maybe everyone just has more $ than they know what to do with. That said I am astonished that there are only 2 reviews that are lukewarm at best. This course crosses over so many platforms that whether or not I am ever intending to sell to retailers (which I have zero interest in) it is jammed so heavy with idea's and info on how to expand your mind and creative thinking processes that it's inspired me into action!!! My brain is on fire. Thank you Megan! I'd shave my head to own everything that Sue Bryce has taught. Megan is in that league of sharing insider info that is impossible to put a price on! I was only able to listen to a small percentage of Megan's free class, but it was enough to know that it was pure GOLD! Such Inspirational and visionary idea's are dense in this course. I also have sitting next to me two bags of coffee from one audience member! I think Creativelive is the #1 most amazing source I could ever hope to find and I still can't get over the steller excellence of the team that runs this. I live 4 hrs from Seattle (on a good day) and crave to be in an audience...but I love watching from my forest hideaway! The glitchiness in streaming during this course was annoying. I have broadband and multiple browsers to avail upon but there's something afoul in the air possibly because each browser had issues. Either audio was not working or visual was not working. I had to open 2 browsers. One for hearing and one for seeing. I hear from other brick and morters that make me think it is/was statewide. I will put the blame on Century Link because that was the common denominator. I'm following through on that one. They have been quirky ever since they took over Qwest. I'll end with major kudo's for the fantastic offerings that CREATIVELIVE has given to creative's everywhere! My life was changed when I stumbled on this tremendous opportunity. I am so forever grateful!

user fb434d
 

This is the perfect class for me! Was looking for this kind of information about doing trade shows and getting in to retail stores and found driblets of info here and there online. But, this is the whole deal and real deal. I think Megan is an AWESOME teacher and find her so easy to connect with. I love that she is funny and engaging and she clearly cares about the studio audience. She's a talented metalsmith and talented teacher. The information she gives in this course is so so so valuable. I feel like after going through this course and having it as reference I will be so ready and confident with taking my jewelry business to the next level. She makes it so approachable and breaks everything down. Thank you Megan!!

Ronda
 

Absolutely fantastic! Meg's course was one of, if not THE, most comprehensive and educational pieces I've seen in a long time. The knowledge she shared was dead on, inspiring and very, very generous and gracious of her. Meg presented the materials very well and the added bonuses were...well, just awesome! I've followed her blog for a long time and now I'm a fan of her classes. I'll be taking/buying more! Thank you SO much, Meg and Creative Live! 10 out of 5 stars for this class! - Ronda

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES