Dispatches from B-School: Marketing Communications, Part 1

blondechicken

Story by blondechicken

Published on Feb 08, 2008 in Seller Handbook

Photo by sevenbridges, "Communication is Love"

Generous Etsian blondechicken is getting an MBA and we all get to benefit from it! Here on the Storque, blondechicken will be doing a series called Dispatches from B-School. She blogs at Blondechicken.blogspot.com. Here’s her first installment all about Marketing Communications…

Ever think about going to business school? Yeah, me neither! I spent my college days reading French literature and never considered taking a single business class.  When I graduated, I found that being a French professor wasn’t in the cards (can’t handle public speaking!) and I serendipitously became the manager of a small pottery studio.  I loved every minute of it and suddenly remembered that my childhood dream was to have my own business.  Now that I work at a university (in a job that requires neither French nor clay), I have the opportunity to go back to school for free. So while I’d rather be at home creating, I need a “real job” and I fully intend to use those benefits!   MBA it is!

Although most of my classes teach business concepts in the context of “firms” and “agencies,” it takes just a little creativity to apply it to small, handcrafted businesses.  I’ve filled up the margins of my notebooks with ideas for applying these Official, Formal Business Concepts to the charmingly unofficial, informal world of Etsy, and I’ll be sharing those with you in the next few weeks.

First up – Marketing, and specifically, Marketing Communications.
The idea of Marketing (capital M) has always seemed a little slimey to me. I thought: if I make what I love, why do I need  Marketing to convince other people of its greatness? But the fact is, whether you think you’re Marketing or not, you are! Everything about your shop, your blog, your forum posts and your flickr page are communicating messages about what you make and who you are. The ultimate goal of all this communication is to reach some audience and impact them (usually towards a purchase). Knowledge about Marketing Communications will help you understand and analyze the messages you’re sending. Knowing is half the battle and I promise: no slimy-ness, just knowledge!

The three main objectives of Marketing Communications are to inform, persuade and remind customers (and potential customers) about your product. That’s it, just those three things.

Most forms of communication will satisfy more than just one function. For example: a New York Times article served to inform readers of Etsy’s existence and to persuade them of its value. Once the readers were informed, a mention on the Martha Stewart Show might further persuade them to check it out and remind them that they meant to look for a piece of art. These functions occur in one of the five areas Marketing Communications: Advertising, Public Relations, Personal Selling, Direct Marketing, and Sales Promotions. We’ll discuss each of those in detail in the next few weeks, but let’s first take a deeper look into the objectives.

Inform: Pretty obvious, this step makes the customer aware of:

  • your existence
  • your product’s existence
  • the facts (length, height, color) of your product

Persuade: This means explaining why a customer would purchase your product. This is not strictly relegated to used-car salesman; just read the reasons for buying handmade at buyhandmade.org! Every product on Etsy is offering a benefit, probably one of the following:

  • unique
  • personal
  • part of the handmade revolution
  • inclusion into a community of artists

Remind: When your audience is aware of your products and feels positively towards you, this objective brings your products to the forefront of a potential customer’s mind. Maybe they’ve purchased from you previously or maybe they’ve just considered it. Maybe they’ve never purchased from you, but have thought about buying handmade soap (or jewelry or yarn or notecards).

The objectives really take the form of a cycle that constantly feeds into itself.  Your customers pass through this cycle over and over and are at different stages at different times. The real lesson here is that your communications are functioning with at least one of these objectives (either positively or negatively) at all times. To get the most for your time and money, try to serve as many of the objectives at once. Keep in mind that nearly every time you communicate (whether formally or not), you are probably addressing people that are at different stages in the cycle. For example, when posting pictures to flickr, each picture should have enough information that someone who stumbled across me this morning will be informed about who I am and what I do, and the description should be persuasive (clearly emphasizing the benefits) and I should submit it to the groups I’m a part of (a reminder to my contacts).

Ok, now that you know what your communications are doing, here’s some homework: list everything you do that communicates a message to potential customers and assess what objective it might achieve. Could it be achieving more? Some examples:

  • Business cards: They inform, but they could also persuade if they had pictures of your gorgeous jewelry?
  • Email to customers: It may remind, but is it informative about new products?
  • Blog: Is it informative or persuasive?

Next up: I’ll be working my way through the different areas of Marketing Communications and how they can be applied to Etsy shops.

I’d love to hear your comments, concerns or questions in the comments below.  What business concept would you like discussed?

Discuss: 36 comments

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36 comments

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  • triciamckellar

    triciamckellar says:

    Excellent article! I'm getting my pen out to make some post-it notes for my desk (inform, persude, remind -- it's like a chant). I'm looking forward to hearing more from you, blondechicken! :)

    4 years ago

  • blondechicken

    blondechicken says:

    Thanks Tricia! Here's a forum thread for further discussion on the topic: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5458746

    4 years ago

  • Sugarcane

    Sugarcane says:

    Thanks blondechicken, super informative stuff :D:D:D

    4 years ago

  • areathriftyone

    areathriftyone says:

    Thanks so much for taking the time to write this, it's given me plenty to think about. Look forward to Pt.2

    4 years ago

  • inkyspider

    inkyspider says:

    Thanks for a very informative article. For an artist mind like mine this really speaks loud and clear with good direction. Looking forward to the next one.

    4 years ago

  • SusyJack

    SusyJack says:

    i'll be sure to check this series out. i've already learned a lot from this article. thank you!

    4 years ago

  • FrucciDesign

    FrucciDesign says:

    thank you I'm look forward this series of articles!

    4 years ago

  • MimisJewels

    MimisJewels says:

    I have been thinking about the marketing aspect of my little biz a lot lately and how I really need direction on how to successfully market my jewelry. You don't know how helpful this will be for those of us who leave the creative thinking cap on all of the time and have trouble with the paperwork end of stuff. Thanks a bunch!

    4 years ago

  • whitepaw

    whitepaw says:

    Thank you for this great article, looking forward to more!

    4 years ago

  • hobbledehoy

    hobbledehoy says:

    Thanks for sharing!

    4 years ago

  • Kae1Crafts

    Kae1Crafts says:

    Thanks so much for sharing what you are learning and translating into small businesses. It is very, VERY valuable info and I look forward to the next article.

    4 years ago

  • blondechicken

    blondechicken says:

    Thank you for all the encouragement! I'm so happy to be sharing with like-minded people after classes full of 'big business'-types!

    4 years ago

  • joonbeam

    joonbeam says:

    This is wonderful and very generous of you, blonde. What a valuable resource. Thank you.

    4 years ago

  • LeahPellegrini

    LeahPellegrini says:

    thank you - this is great and I look forward to the next article!

    4 years ago

  • selflesh

    selflesh says:

    blondechicken, Thank you for these helpful tips! Looking forward as well... Best, >s

    4 years ago

  • divinitygardens

    divinitygardens says:

    Thank you! I agree with the above post that it's a challenge for me as a creative person to get into the mindset of marketing. You are definitely giving us some valuable tools and it is greatly appreciated!

    4 years ago

  • bombalurina

    bombalurina says:

    thank you so much - this is really concise and I look forward to more.

    4 years ago

  • glasfaden

    glasfaden says:

    Thank you!! I'm looking forward to read the other parts.

    4 years ago

  • YANGELS

    YANGELS says:

    Blonde Chicken- thank you for sharing your learnings with us and it is wonderful to hear these ideas in such a concise and to the point way. Brilliant. I too love marketing and recommend the author, Seth Godin to you all, his books have great ideas and great for all people that want a little more marketing spice in their business!! xx

    4 years ago

  • molecularmuse

    molecularmuse says:

    Thank you so much for these mini-MBA lessons. I'm very much looking forward to more!

    4 years ago

  • noelledoodle

    noelledoodle says:

    Thank you so much for the advice. Sometimes marketing can seem like this evil beast but you have given me the tools to slay him. AARRRRRGGHHH

    4 years ago

  • pixiepotions

    pixiepotions says:

    I love your article, thank you!

    3 years ago

  • hazelnutcottage

    hazelnutcottage says:

    wow. thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us!

    3 years ago

  • EarringVixen

    EarringVixen says:

    Thanks so much for the article and marketing overview, I feel that marketing is the hardest part of selling online!

    2 years ago

  • eclecticbysari

    eclecticbysari says:

    Man. This series is so meaty. Love it! Thanks for the time and effort!

    2 years ago

  • alankarshilpa

    alankarshilpa says:

    Thank you so much for this marketing article.The three part strategy is very informative. I'll use it. Dita Http://www.alankarshilpa.blogspot.com http://www.bead-z-mommys-business.com

    2 years ago

  • fabfabrique

    fabfabrique says:

    that reminds me... have i blogged lately? at first i thought i had to write about what was going on in my life, but now i understand that i can just write about what's exciting me about my shop new items/ideas! thank you!

    2 years ago

  • jennyhoople

    jennyhoople says:

    Great article, thanks! Inform, persuade, remind!

    2 years ago

  • RachelDeanArt

    RachelDeanArt says:

    You should be teaching the classes in B-School. Great article. Reading Part II now!

    2 years ago

  • bhangtiez

    bhangtiez says:

    great article....

    2 years ago

  • AardvarkBeadsAndGems

    AardvarkBeadsAndGems says:

    Thank you for the info! Always interested in getting better marketing advice!

    1 year ago

  • MaudesEmporium

    MaudesEmporium says:

    Thank you for your article. I have never taken a business class either and this was most enlightening. I look forward to your next installment.

    1 year ago

  • ScrapHouseDesigns

    ScrapHouseDesigns says:

    Great tips! I see that it was written two years ago! I didn't have an Etsy shop then (and I haven't had one for long, so I'm still looking for advice)! Going to look for the articles that followed this first one....

    1 year ago

  • diaxeiros

    diaxeiros says:

    Thank you very much for your article!I want to add that marketing can also work making people curious about what you do...Instead of informing them, you can give them a clever question to answer to when they get in your shop...Interesting, funny and innovative!!!

    1 year ago

  • VintageDictionaryArt

    VintageDictionaryArt says:

    Good Stuff, So sweet!

    350 days ago

  • msunsh9

    msunsh9 says:

    It really makes you stop and think what you are doing and how you can improve. Kudos!

    199 days ago