"Marketing" Help

wmhammond

wmhammond

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, I'm needing some help with displaying my knives for public consumption. I make about 4 - 5 knives per month and virtually all of my sales come by word-of-mouth references. I don't generally take orders but I do build knives on request and when the knife is finished the customer can either buy it or not, his choice. I need a way to put up on the internet pictures of knives that I have previously completed so that a potential customer can browse my previous projects and pick thing he likes, etc for his knife. My problem is I don't want a web site or a Facebook page - too much hassle and reoccurring expense. What I want to do is just be able to take pictures of my knives with my iPhone and upload then to a place where I can direct my customers to so they can view these pictures - nothing more, nothing less. I know about Photobucket and Pinterest but that's about all. Would some of you guys with more experience give me your suggestions about how to handle this. I am computer literate but not computer tolerant and I am looking for this to be the simplest, least time consuming way to do this. Thank you so much for your suggestions.

Wallace
 
Google Photos is what you are after, I think. It's nothing more than a web-based photo gallery. You can send someone a link to a photo album and they can browse your online album.

You can upload photos and then group them later into albums, for example "Kitchen knives" or "hunting knives" etc.
 
Hi John.

Is google photos a public gallery? Or is it (or can it be) password protected? How is it for being user friendly? Have you tried it?

Thanks for the info.
 
Pinterest, facebook, and instagram. Personally, I sell more knives via facebook and instagram then I can count. There's also Photobucket, and Flickr......similar to google photo, but much more public friendly.

As far as the "hassle" part.....ANY type of exposure you want to get into the public eye is going to cost you some of that. It sounds as if what you're wanting to do is just upload a bunch of photos and be done..... it doesn't work that way. If you want to appeal to that audience, you have to keep up on it, keep thing fresh, and spend the time it takes to respond to those who send emails, etc with questions. Those who make phone calls are not going to be the ones who look at any of those.....but the generation(s) that use the social media use it almost exclusively. Those are currently the majority of buyers, and you're going to have to stay on top of those media sources, and the responses of those who use them in order to tap into that market.
 
J. Doyle said:
Hi John.

Is google photos a public gallery? Or is it (or can it be) password protected? How is it for being user friendly? Have you tried it?

Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

Google Photos is the "new" Picasa if you ever used Picasa to share photos. You can set the albums as public or private.

If all you want is a gallery of your knives to show people (instead of scrolling through your phone or emailing pictures to prospective clients "were you thinking of something like this?" then an online album is as simple as it gets.

I personally use Facebook but an online gallery is a great idea and it's free.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Pinterest, <strong>facebook, and instagram</strong>. Personally, I sell more knives via facebook and instagram then I can count. There's also Photobucket, and Flickr......similar to google photo, but much more public friendly.<br>
<br>
As far as the "hassle" part.....ANY type of exposure you want to get into the public eye is going to cost you some of that. It sounds as if what you're wanting to do is just upload a bunch of photos and be done..... it doesn't work that way. If you want to appeal to that audience, you have to keep up on it, keep thing fresh, and spend the time it takes to respond to those who send emails, etc with questions. Those who make phone calls are not going to be the ones who look at any of those.....but the generation(s) that use the social media use it almost exclusively. Those are currently the majority of buyers, and you're going to have to stay on top of those media sources, and the responses of those who use them in order to tap into that market.
Click to expand...
I think Ed hit it right here for you as far as marketing. I'm finding that to be true also. It can be a pain but its also rewarding. Ed always gives some great advise.
 
Facebook and Instagram! I used to think Facebook was about the dumbest thing every made, but once I tried it and got involved, it is hands down the easiest way to share your work. Come on, try it Wallace!
 
Well, Anthony, give me a little hint on how it works. I have a Facebook page and a list of friends and I look at it once in a while to see what they are up to but I don't post anything and I don't do anything else. How does it work to do what you're talking about? Thanks,

Wallace
 
I just sent you a FB friend request. I'm no expert at all, but here's my advice. One thing I think we all should do is take advantage of the "featured photos" function under you photos section. This allows you to pick a few of your very best knives that you want your customers to see first. It'll always have those in a nice little group on left side of your page, regardless of what other pics you share. Below those, there is a place for all pics to show. Another eye catcher is the main pic at the top of your page. It's fine to keep the pic of you and the wife in the small one, but put a nice pic of one of your favorites knives in the big spot, I think yours is empty. It can be finicky about sizes and resolutions for those sometimes, so you'll have to experiment with it. I think its also nice to rotate out the profile pics occasionally, kind of give your page a fresh look every now and then.

FB also has a very nice album feature that you can post collections of knife pics in. Just make a new album and call it My Knives or whatever, then keep adding pics to that album. It's really easy to tell a customer that wants to see your stuff to just check out that album. Then, you need to explore the groups function more. There are about a dozen really good knife related groups that get a lot of activity. Sharing and participating in those groups can expose you to a lot of new leads too. Once you accept my friend request, I can add you to some of the ones I know about. I've got to run right now, but Instagram is another great tool, maybe later I'll share my thoughts on that one too.
 
Something to bear in mind about Facebook is your target audience. 99% of the people on Facebook are using it on their phone, not their home computer. This is important. People open Facebook and they scroll through their "news feed" just as you would look at the front page of a newspaper. They scroll along and if something is interesting they will click on it.

It really helps to think of Facebook this way- it is not a website and most people don't treat it like that. You want to post an interesting photo with a few sentences that build interest around the photo, just like the front page of a newspaper. Nice photo, catchy headline, and the first few lines of an interesting conversation between you and whoever might be reading.

Avoid looking like one more advertisement. You want to start a conversation. You want people to comment. When people comment, your photo gets seen by everyone that person knows. When someone comments, your photo comes back around to the news feed again so even more people will see it. It's like this thread on Knife Dogs. If people keep commenting, then this thread will keep popping up on "New Posts." If the chatter stops, then it falls off the radar.
 
John Wilson said:
Something to bear in mind about Facebook is your target audience. 99% of the people on Facebook are using it on their phone, not their home computer. This is important. People open Facebook and they scroll through their "news feed" just as you would look at the front page of a newspaper. They scroll along and if something is interesting they will click on it.

It really helps to think of Facebook this way- it is not a website and most people don't treat it like that. You want to post an interesting photo with a few sentences that build interest around the photo, just like the front page of a newspaper. Nice photo, catchy headline, and the first few lines of an interesting conversation between you and whoever might be reading.

Avoid looking like one more advertisement. You want to start a conversation. You want people to comment. When people comment, your photo gets seen by everyone that person knows. When someone comments, your photo comes back around to the news feed again so even more people will see it. It's like this thread on Knife Dogs. If people keep commenting, then this thread will keep popping up on "New Posts." If the chatter stops, then it falls off the radar.
Click to expand...

Bingo
 
Instagram is a phone friendly site, you take a pic in the app of the desired knife write a short description then use #knife #knifemaking and what ever else you want to use to be able to be found by when people search for things. Wood,leather,brass,stainless,1080,01,AEB-L,handmade in usa most anything you as a consumer would want to say quality, pride in country,american made, and so forth.
Users can contact you through an email link in your bio or a direct message. It is a free site and has many of the fellow dogs on there, DeClerck,Tendic,Stormcrow,Self,Ed and many others
 
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The knife on the left is a knife that Walter Milton made for me 3 years ago I used it to gut and skin half of this Buffalo switch to 2 different commercial knives after which I only skinned about a quarter of the buffalo before they dulled. I switched back to this knife. And finished up the last quarter of the Buffalo. Then I use that knife to skin and gut a deer before sharpening. The knife on the right is his last knife he made for me this year. these are very well made knives at a very reasonable price. Cannot wait to try the next knife on an animal this year. If you are interested in a knife from him contact him or me and I will get a hold of him and give him your contact info.

This is some of the best advertisisng on a social medis site you can get. A post from a customer who is pleased with your work.
This was the first kso I made for a friend.
 
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