Taking Advantage of Black Friday

Competition is going to be tough this holiday season with consumers having fewer dollars to spend and making more careful selections for holiday gift giving. Harder yet for sellers of handcrafted products is the fact that the “big guys” are slashing prices to unheard of lows which we can not match and stay in business since we don’t mass produce. To all of this, I say “oh well!” I have made a plan for the day…have you? An aggressive plan may just be the key to winning the sales that you need this season.

Here is what my Black Friday is going to look like and what you can do to stay at the top of your game tomorrow:

1. Specials – I will be having daily specials targeting different customers. Figure out who you want to target and go for it! If you want those big sales, market to the people who have the need and the money for your product.

2. I’m going to blog like crazy! Artist features, fragrance reviews, specials, articles, gift guides, and more are in store for my blog. And I will be spreading the word to all of my teams and in the Forums. Review your own products, do special articles with words of encouragement for other artists, do short artist features, brag about that blog in the Forums!

3. Gift Guides – I will be putting together gift guides featuring other artists and promoting Etsy. This takes some time but you can start small. Pick a theme and feature four items. Do a short description of the items with links and away you go!

4. Listings – I will be listing and re-listing more than usual this weekend to stay on that first page.

5. Artfire – I opened a shop on Artfire and I am working feverishly to get it ready! Go to http://www.artfire.com/ today and get signed up. For only $7 per month, they have a fantastic low cost plan. Don’t have the $7? They do have a FREE plan too!

6. MadeitMyself – I will be doing listings on the MadeitMyself site too! This is another inexpensive outlet.

7. Lollishops – Lollishops is getting up and running this weekend. If I get lucky enough to be in the first beta group, I will be very active there this weekend!

8. Email List – I will be sending out an email to my email list with all of my specials for the weekend. If you have an approved list, use it to promote those specials and your blog.

9. Team participation – I will be blogging on all of my team sites linking out to my regular blog, my Etsy shop, my Artfire shop, and more! This is easy…just login and get busy!

10. Forums – I will be very active in the forums, helping other artists and making a contribution! Remember, doing nothing but self-promotion is a negative in the Forums. Participation is the key.

11. Blog commenting – Comment like crazy on other people’s blogs this weekend. Make sure you are logged in so that avatar shows up!

Notice that most of these items require no funds – just time. If you don’t belong to any teams, see if there are any you can join today! Most have an ING site where you can upload pictures, blog, share with others, comment, etc. It’s a great place to make friends.

Now…what is your plan going to look like for the day?