Episode 105 - Generating More Income With Physical Paper Flower Products
Listen to our discussion of generating more income with physical paper flower products. We talk about scarcity, branching out your product line, and meeting customer expectations.
Who couldn’t use a little more money?
As much as we love our craft, we also need to eat. This season of Paper Talk, we’ve been focusing on ways to build up your paper flower income. In our latest episode we tackled generating more income from physical products, meaning anything you can hold in your hand.
Our conversation covered many different ideas. Some may be a perfect fit for you, others not so much. Listen to the entire episode to hear our breakdown of each so that you can better determine which is right for your paper flower business.
That said, here’s a little peek at what we chatted about.
Here’s what you’ll learn when you listen to our conversation:
► How to branch out your physical product line.
► Where to sell your products besides Etsy and your website.
► Selling an experience, not just a product, with commissions.
► The ins and outs of using scarcity as a sales tactic.
► How to best manage customer expectations.
Branch Out Your Product Line
This doesn’t necessarily mean “make more of your paper flowers.” Obviously if you made more products, you could potentially sell more. What we’re talking about is trying something new. That may mean that you partner with a wrapping paper printer like Jessie did in the past, and have images of your work printed on things like stationary or greeting cards. The potential for partnerships with other industries is really only limited by your imagination.
“The days people buy on are the first and the last.” - Jessie
You can also think about new places to sell. Brick and mortar stores present an opportunity to get your products in front of an audience who might not ever encounter you online. Listen to the episode to hear more about stores that feature local crafters’ and artists’ work, plus more about working with brick and mortar shops.
Create Scarcity
Scarcity sales tactics aren’t for every artist, but they do work very well for some. In the episode we really delved into how to use scarcity as a way to drive sales, and you’ll want to hear all of that discussion to better understand if this is a strategy that would fit your business.
The basic idea behind scarcity is to give customers a sense of urgency. They are encouraged to buy your products because there’s a ticking clock or a limited number of products available. On the podcast Jessie explained exactly how other artists have used scarcity for product launches, and Quynh recommended an excellent book that you should check out, as well.
Meet Customer Expectations
Customer satisfaction is key to building up your long term income. Why? They’ll come back if they’re happy. They’ll recommend your products to others if they’re happy. Paper flowers are often purchased for special events, so people aren’t always on the lookout for buying something new from us. You need to make a great impression so that they remember you for next time.
“I build up on other people’s anticipation of shopping. In the United States, Black Friday is a huge shopping date.” - Quynh
As we’ve discussed before, communicating with customers can smooth over almost any problem. If you know that you won’t be able to ship something for a week, let the customer know. They’ll probably be okay with it. If you don’t tell them, though, they’ll start to worry and eventually get upset.
During our discussion about scarcity, we talked about how important meeting customer expectations is for building up your loyal customer base and for handling things like big product launches. Listen to the episode for more details about how to best manage these issues.
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