Laugh, Learn, Relate
Military spouses often find themselves going to work for themselves for many reasons—mostly because it means having a steady job that’s portable and that can give you the time off when needed for homecomings, PCSing, and family events. But if you’re starting a business, you may find yourself asking, “What is a brand?” and “How can it help my business?”. This video does a great job explaining what is a brand, click to watch:
What is Brand Anyways? from Urban Influence on Vimeo.
Yep, it’s time to start planning your holiday ad campaigns and getting those ideas flowing. To help put a fresh take on your ad campaign this year, I’ve put together this list of ad design tips along with a few examples.
These are great to brainstorm while taking time off from your shop during a PCS or during any slow months you encounter. If you’re a consultant for a company, you may have advertising resources available but if you’re a sole proprietor, like myself, you might be looking for ways to spruce up your marketing.
Also, be sure to tap into your MilSpouse network of friends to test-run these ads on. Normally, I don’t recommend getting family opinions for branding—as the owner knows their brand best—but in the case of advertising, you want outsider opinions as ads are made just for people like them who are outside of your niche and company. Advertising targets them more in a direct way.
If you offer gift wrapping or gift-able items in your shop, why not show it? People like to see how the finished result will look. It makes it easier for them to commit if they can see exactly what they are getting. Display a box closed with a box open in front, showing how the item looks.
A lot of time I see ads that are just a logo, a logo and tagline, or a logo over a product photo. But statistically, it’s the least effective method for advertising. Buyers want to see what they need and have you show them why they need it. Try putting your call-to-action or value prop as your main focus with a product being used by/on a model. Make it real for your buyers, avoid just putting yourself out there with no purpose behind it.
A lot of blog ad spaces are just too small for business owners, indiepreneurs, and bloggers to effectively design an advertising campaign. Go for the larger ads and you’ll have the space you need to write your marketing copy and show off your work in action. Advertising is a return on investment so don’t be shy of the larger price tag. Larger ads have better ROI (return on investment) and are less likely to be a waste of your money. If a site doesn’t offer the size you need, contact them to ask to pay for a larger size or a skyscraper ad. You’d be surprised how many will take to your idea.
Check out a font website for the latest fonts available for purchase or download that have a holiday feel to them. You wouldn’t reuse your ad from last year so don’t use that out-dated typeface either. Get something fresh to stand out and that fits with your branding’s style but also something you haven’t seen other’s use too much. When something like a font is over-used, it not only makes your brand design look less than unique but also mediocre.
Instead of choosing the typical crimson red and hunter green, think about your brand’s style—is it modern or cute or elegant?—and choose a holiday color scheme that fits. And make sure it “pops”. You want your colors to make your ad stand-out, not blend in with all the other crimson red and hunter green ads. You can even take your main colors and using some good ol’ color harmony to choose coordinating colors that can give your brand a festive look without straying too far from the original color way. Handmade folks, like Gussy, knows how to do it best because of the handmade community’s ingenious creativity.
We all want our names to be heard and our shops to stand out from the crowd. And as a military spouse who is moving all the time, getting creative with promoting your home-based business is crucial! We don’t always have that local networking group to pull from or a ton of neighborhood friends that we can quickly call on to be a home party host. In this article, I show how to put yourself out there with these creative tips on self promotion that you may not have even considered before until now!
iPhone Cases and Wallpapers
So many people nowadays are attached to their phones. So instead of being a slave to it, let it do some of the work for you! Create an iPhone wallpaper and coordinating case that features your work and/or your logo. Every time you go to call Grandma in Target, the lady behind you in the checkout line becomes a sitting duck and is game for a good chat about your work. Just keep it simple {think bulletin board design} and keep it eye-catching with your color scheme. Sites like Zazzle and CafePress can make these for you to buy and sell.
Magnetic Coupons + Gift Cards
Your readers, buyers, and biggest fans are all in love these days with those nifty store credit giveaways and promotions you’ve been offering each month. Instead of emailing them their prize, which can be easily sent to Junk Mail or trashed by accident, or printing them on paper only to have them possibly tossed out or ruined, why not give them a glossy little magnetic card that they can use to keep their gift in the forefront of their minds until they are ready to shop? Items that can be used as well as promote are going to be your biggest work horses. That’s why so many promotional good sites offer these kind of items. Just head out to your local office supply store to pick up full sheets of magnetic paper and print!
Yearly Promotion for VIP Clients
Most of us would love to have repeat customers and clients—heck, we’d fight over a repeat customer’s business as if we were gladiators and the whole world was ours! Let’s face it, you like that special feeling that someone chose you, now show them that you think they are just as special with a free gift or promotion that’s exclusive to just them. And don’t go blabbing about what you gave them, it won’t be as secretive and fun anymore, but *do* tell the world about how you treat all your customers like VIP. Caring and listening to your clients goes a long way. When someone receives a free gift, it’s statistically true that the recipient will feel the need to give back or buy from you in return. That’s the power the love, my friends.
Visual Email Signatures with Promotional Information
It’s a no brainer that we should all have our business email setup with at least one link to our site and our business name written beneath our name. But! Have you considered adding a single visual image that will catch-the-eye of everyone on your contact list who might like the featured products or company logo that they see? And for good measure, why not throw in some promotional information that matches up with your latest campaign or seasonal sale? Am I right? If you’ve got it, flaunt it.
A Gadget Case with Custom Fabric with Your Logo
Now, stay with me… I swear I’m not drinking too much Dr. Pepper over here. This is a serious moment, listen as I show how the genius bar never closes: If you’re a part of the handmade community you may already be thinking of Spoonflower and if you are, you are 100% correct! Design your own fabric with your logo as a repeat pattern or spaced out for individual use. Spoonflower can deliver good-sized swatches up to bolts, if you’d like. And if you can’t sew a simple gadget case yourself, I would encourage you to take the time to make a new friend who can sew if you don’t already know of someone. How can your MP3 player or laptop promote you? They’re portable and you always take them with you when you go out in public at one point or another. And if you want to have fun with “product placement”, feel free to stand up your case like a sign, ha!
Monogram Your Key Fob Wristlet
While we’re monogramming yours, go ahead and monogram a whole slew of them! Pass them out as stocking stuffers this year for all your family and friends, too. *insert evil laugh* Boy, one can get pretty darn devious when left to creative thinking… Have someone sew a monogrammed key fob wristlet for you in a solid color for the outside {so others can read your shop name easily} and if you want it to look pretty, don’t fret: just have them sew a pretty patterned print or some of your leftover logo fabric from Spoonflower to fill in the underside. It’s that easy. I know a lot of women who run their quick, in-town errands with keys in hand almost everywhere they go. So not only will the wristlet feature be your God-send in town, it will also be an excellent ice-breaker for your business.
Brochure Postcards with a Surprise on Back
Sometimes, business cards are too small but a tri-fold brochure or catalog is too much work to design. Why not feature a single large photo or collage of your work on the frontside of a nice and thick durable postcard and have the backside be a freebie that will make your prospective clients want to hold on to this sturdy little guy. If you’re a food shop, put a free recipe on the back. If you design paper goods, make it a pop-out card or build-able paper toy. If you sew, place a quick and simple 3-step pattern on the back. Let your imagination roam and you’ll be delighted with the outcome!
by Kristen Hodges freelance graphic designer
As military spouses, whether you were married prior to enlisting in the service or not, you know what it means to support your better half while in active duty. This show of support comes in many forms: from giving up your career, to when you have kids, to moving away from all your family and everything that feels “normal” to a foreign land, to working multiple part-time jobs to keep up with the cost of living in your area, and the list just keeps going. As Wendy puts it, military families are the backbones of the service. The support of loved ones is integral to service members’ life during and after their military career.
Now, let’s turn the tables 180. You’re at home and you would like extra income. No matter what outlet you choose and what venue you choose to do it in, do you have the full support of your spouse? I couldn’t have made it this far in my life as an Etsy shop owner if hadn’t been for the love and support of my husband. He was willing to go to the craft shows with me, handout business cards, spread the word, help me make decisions on product packaging, and even help me make a few things for the shop when I was short on time. It wasn’t just a “Yes”, it was a “Yes, I’m here right beside you”. There were moments and even months on end that he couldn’t be there for me, but when he is home is 100% supportive of what I choose to do.
My husband knows making art is a part of who I am and it’s hard to separate that out without me going literally mad. He also knows I find myself more happy when I’m successful at a job and when I’m busy, especially during those long deployments. But, he also knows how easy it is for me to nickel and dime myself to death. Let’s call my husband my account and business manager, he’s my guiding voice that tells me when I’m being realistic and when I’m living in a fantasy. As a creative with mild OCD, that happens to me—a lot.
I only went as far as he would let me and I always listened as his limits came with good reason. I couldn’t let my business spending habits nor my work hours affect my family life. And when it was time for me to say goodbye to my bookbinding business and say hello to my design business, he was there to help me know when to quit and helped me put my head back on my shoulders. A successful business person has to know when to stop the bleeding if your business goes south. And if you’ve been there, you know how confusing things can get, not sure if a decision is a good one or not, not knowing what to do next and so on. Having your spouse beside you can give you a better perspective on things—”Two heads are better than one”, “Hind sight is 20/20” and all that jazz, right?
It’s always good to get an opinion from your spouse here and there, or to sit down together and build your business plan. Finding the right time and place to talk will help you keep things in focus with no distractions. My favorite place to talk is the hot tub. That’s right, you heard me: the hot tub! We love going to the apartment’s hot tub in the evening to relax and talk about our day at work as well as anything needing a decision. For us, it’s the perfect time and place for putting on the ol’ thinking cap.
You can’t be successful without their support, as you know first hand through your support of their job, and you most certainly don’t want to get so sucked into work lifestyle that leaves you with no time for family. So setting these boundaries up front and in the beginning, together, will setup you for a more rewarding entrepreneur business life.
A dear friend of mine, not to mention my favorite candle supplier, Deb Ragsdale is a Navy wife and, like many of us, has an Etsy. LilacAve has been around for a few years and she was gracious enough to let us in behind the scenes to learn how military wives, like herself, can take their Etsy shops on the road and host delightful house parties! Since her new venture into the world of house parties, she has since begun to add to her candle collection lotions, soaps, gift baskets and more! Truly, an inspiration for us all! Below is my interview with her:
Why did you started hosting house parties?
I started doing my own house parties when we were stationed in Hawaii. It was a great way to get the wives from our command to come together and meet each other. At first, the parties allowed everyone to create their own custom soy candle and a table to buy more of my candles if they wished, that were featured in my Etsy shop.
When we moved to Georgia I continued to host parties. They were fun and a great way to meet people—not to mention a great way to spread the word locally about my business. But in Georgia I didn’t know anyone and because my husband was on shore duty there wasn’t much opportunity to get just the “wives” together. Only one person showed up to my party while I lived in Georgia.
Now, this is where it changed for me… I thought, “Scentsy does it, Partylite does it, so why can’t LilacAve do it, too?” I am the only one that offers soy candles, the only one that offers handmade, and the only one that offers complete customization of the customers choices.
At that time, a friend of mine in the Dallas metroplex offered to be my “guinea pig”. I’m originally from Dallas, so between the two of us, we were able to gather 13 people together for the first LilacAve candle house party!
How you organized/networked your first party?
First, I sent my friend samples of candles: one in each size I offer and scent samples for all the scents offered. She also got 10 catalogs and many order forms—as well as directions as to how to fill out the order forms, how to send in payment, how she would get her commission and discounts, and the time frame for the orders to be filled within. She was fully prepared by the time she finished reading her guide!
Next, she invited her friends and also posted her invite on Facebook. The attendees loved getting to gather together for some socializing and candle smelling. I know they had a great time because when she called me during the party with a question, you could hear all the party chatter in the background with laughter and excitement!
What goes on during your parties?
During the party the Hostess will talk to the benefits of a soy candle (the long lasting, clean scent, and environmentally friendly factors). She will show the different candle sizes, and everyone will socialize and smell all the samples. Then, the customer gets to mix and match which containers, scent, and even paper packaging that they would prefer.
Next, they fill out the order forms and set up payment. They can pay by credit card, paypal, or check. The hostess will mail the payments to me and the order filling process begins! Turn-around is around 2 – 3 weeks and all orders are shipped to the hostess for her to deliver to her customers.
Does your parties have any customer perks?
Some perks for party customers include free gifts, such as a free votive candle, and sometimes special pricing. The ability to physically smell the candles is undeniably a perk as it’s not an online shopping possibility.
What are the advantages for being a Hostess of one of your parties?
Hostesses will recieve a Commission from all the sales they take from their party, as well as discounts on their personal purchases.
How can others get started to become a hostess for your next party?
They can contact me at LilacAve{at}gmail{dot}com. I will send them information on the starter kit (with candle samples), and information on hostess benefits, etc.
Tips for evolving one’s business during PCS moves?
If you are a small business, not every PCS is going to be the same as the last, to survive and grow, you have to think out of the box.
What’s your number one tip for selling handmade online?
Love what you sell, and believe in the product.
