Catching Up on Ramping Up Your Holiday Sales

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted on how I am doing with Ramping Up Your Holiday Sales. So I thought I would take today and catch you all up on how it is going.

Affirmations:
Lets start with my affirmations. I have been self conscious on repeating my affirmations where others can hear them. Since I was feeling self conscious, I started looking for somewhere that I could repeat my affirmations where others would not be around. I found that I felt comfortable repeating my affirmation while I was in the car traveling to and from my day job. The best part is that I can easily do 50 affirmations each way, and I get to spread them out between morning and afternoon! Perfect!

Blogging:
Well as for blogging, I am consistently doing at least two post a week. One on the item of the week and one on my weekly promotional blog/twitter post. And being consistent is key! But I have noticed that I tend to see more sales when I post more on my blog. I can not see any indications that the sales are coming from blogging, but there does seem to be some correlation. Maybe it is as simple as releasing my intention into the universe.  But regardless, I would like to blog more and I will continue to work on that.

Advertising/Press:
I have been sending out pitch letters to magazines and blogs intermediately. So far I have landed one advertising spot on a gift guide and two guest blog posts. I would also like to point out that I have had a wonderful promotion partner with Christie Cottage. She has been wonderful helping me advertise and we have been helping one another for a while with marketing.

I have also joined in with one of my other twitter friends on her Christmas Promotion. I jumped in on week one and hope to continue as she counts down to Christmas. This promotion, like my weekly blog/twitter, is a type of marketing promotion exchange. In order to participate, you are require to promote the promotion and the other participants as well. The wonderful part of this is that you have multiple people promoting your work at the same time, just as they do!

Just recently I did get a nibble with a new blog for a review on my jewelry. I will post a link to that once I have word!

Social Media:
I have recently begun posting on Instagram. Since I mainly use a laptop, I had to do a creative work around in order to use Instagram. But I was recently able to set it up to use with my laptop, where all my wonderful photos are stored!  I have enjoyed seeing the number of likes that my photos are getting. But a word of advice for all who are thinking about giving this a try, research and use hashtags with your photos!

I will be honest, I have not done a lot with Facebook. Most of my Facebook posts are reposts from other social media. But, I do seem to be growing a following on there, so I may be doing something right there.  I have not done much with pinterest or tumblr lately.

Ok Twitter is my big social media right now. I say that because it is the social media I use the most. I love using Hootsuite because I can schedule tweets. So I have developed a list of tweets from my stores. I am trying to schedule my tweets for the week on Sunday or Monday. If I take a little bit of time and schedule them out, it is less stress for me during the week.

I also found another twitter app that I have begun using: Roundteam.co  This is a good app in that it allows me to set filters and then from those filters it finds twitter friends and followers to retweet during the day. I am only allowing it to tweet 1-2 retweets per hour, but I have gained over 50 followers who have stayed put since I started using it. I also discovered that anything "etsy" is blocked by this app since Etsy is considered a haven for spam.

Shows:
I have inquired about 4 other shows this far (excluding those I had signed up for prior to the course). Three of those are already full. The fourth one, I am waiting to hear back from. I sent this application out two days after I got it in the mail. I also have two other shows that I plan to attend to look at the dynamics of the show. If they are good, I may add them to my list for next year.

I have my first fall show next weekend. Excited and Nervous. 

Brick and Mortar Stores:
There is a part of me that would like to see my work in local boutiques. Most of the boutiques I have inquired with over the years have turned out to be "rentals", where you rent a space and hope they sale your work.  I stopped by one yesterday to inquire and it turned out to be a combo rental/volunteer/consignment. What I mean by that is that to sell there you have to rent a space, allow them to take part of your sale, and have to give up your time each month to volunteer at the store.  Although it was a lovely store, I do not feel it would be a good fit with my business.

After that visit, I got to thinking about a couple of other places I may want to inquire with. And I hope to do so within the next few weeks.

Online Stores:
Well I still have my Etsy store, and that is where I am making most of my online sales. I also have my own site now: www.elunajewelry.com I also signed up for and created an artfire store. I seem to be getting many more lookers on Artfire, but so far only one sale. But I am going to keep trying for a while to see if I can build a following there.

Item of the Week:
I have started an Item of the Week promotion! Each week I put one of my pieces of jewelry on sale for around 25% off. I also send a newsletter out to my list to let them know which piece is going on sale. I have been doing this for a week, and have had good success with it. So for now I am planning on continuing it for a bit.


Sales:
Just a quick update on my sales. As of today I am 6% over my goal for this point in the Ramp Up Your Holiday Sales. So I am doing something right.

Blessing to all!