If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a touchable sample worth?  In short, for advertising it is priceless!  If you are in the knitting or embroidery business, wearing your wares may be the perfect solution to you for finding new clients.

First of all, consider where you have been today.  Maybe you ran errands.  You stopped at the bank to get some cash.  Then you went to the grocery store to get food for dinner tonight.  On the way home you put gas in your car and picked up your allergy prescription at the drug store.

Everywhere you just went you were in contact with people.  Those people can be your potential future customers.  The clerk at the bank, the guy in line behind you at the store, the family in the car next to you at the gas station, and the pharmacist all saw you, plus countless other people.  There is a good chance that they noticed what you are wearing.  You can use this to your advantage to advertise, and there is not even a need to wear a sandwich board!

A crucial step to using yourself as an advertising medium is to be critical about how you look.  Obviously, not everyone is a super model, but you can still give a neat and professional impression.  Before going out, do a quick double take I the mirror.  Is your hair neat and combed?  If you wear makeup, is it neat and well done or do you need a touch up?  What about your clothes?  Are you still in the sweats that you wore to bed or have you made an effort to get dressed and looked nice?  If you saw yourself at the store, would you feel comfortable enough to go up and say hello?  Do not forget your most important fashion accessory either – your smile!

You are also going to have to take into consideration the products that you create.  If you do baby blankets, you are going to look pretty silly walking around with a blanket draped over you and no baby.  If you embroider T-shirts – the tiny little decal over the pocket might not be noticeable if you need to wear a jacket.  Keep this in mind when choosing what items to wear.  Always wear your best and most noticeable work out, and save the sloppy test projects for when you are bumming around the house.

You are also going to want to have some sort of script to use when talking to people.  You do not want a canned speech that comes off as phony, but stuttering and saying “um” is not going to help either.  If a friend or family member is able to help, consider practicing different scenarios at home to get comfortable with the idea.  Remember this – if people are interested enough to ask you about an item that you have on, that makes them a potential customer.  All you have to do is close the deal.  Always have something with you that you can give to them as well, so after you have gone your separate ways they will have something to jog their memory.  This can be a business card, a flyer, or a small catalog explaining your wares.  All printed material should also include your name and contact information if they want to get a hold of you.

If, for practical reasons, you cannot wear your wares there may be other alternatives.  For example, if you have no young babies at your home but enjoy knitting baby blankets, use them as gifts.  When you attend a baby shower, bring the blanket as a gift and attach your card.  Bring some extra cards too, just in case any of the other ladies at the shower want to order one for themselves or other friends.  The same thing goes for other items as well.  They can make great birthday, wedding, or congratulatory gifts.  That way you can use your friends and family to help do your advertising for you.

With a little planning and some ingenuity, you can wear your wares and increase business all at the same time – without having to spend a fortune in advertising dollars.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS