Jul 3, 2009

freebies are goodies.

One of my favorite parts of buying handmade online are the freebies! Us handmade artisans are sure desperate to please, and one of the ways we attempt to do it is tossing in freebies. Whether it be a wee bit of candy for the sweet tooth, a sample of lotion or soap, or a fun magnet, I love them all. With all my love for freebies, it may surprise you to find out that I don't give out my own. Not for lack of trying. I just think that some crafts are better suited towards creating small, relatively low priced samples and crochet wasn't one of them. Until now.
Earlier in the week I spent an afternoon crafting up these simple beauties. Some cotton double bloom flowers with delicious candy-colored button centers. One thing that held me back till this point in time was my lack of focus in my shop. It was hard to find something that reflected my shop style when my shop was way to eclectic. But now that I've focused my items more, these flowers reflect the colorful simplicity I think of my items (and myself). Plus these flowers use up scrap yarn that just doesn't have enough left for larger projects.

Now I just need to design some fun "thank-you" cards to go attach to them for when I slide them into the packaged - headed for their new home. These will start going out with all incoming orders, so there's even more incentive to take advantage of my Artfire 20% off sale - get a deal and grab one of these for free!!

I think it's important to think up freebies or other ways to make your customer feel special. Anything you can do to encourage people to come back and continue to support handmade will not only benefit you, but all handmade artisans trying to sell their goodies on the web. And if, like me, you are stuck on what to give I've selected some great shops I found on Artfire who sell customizable promotional items like magnets, pins, notepads, and more. So check out some of these great links to be inspired!

1 shared a thought:

Anonymous said...

They're really cute! I think it is really enticing and fun to get and create freebies, but I'm with you- it's hard to come up with things when you're a fiber artist.