So you’ve started your crochet business, have a blog, have crocheted some products, and maybe even listed them in your Etsy store. You have some great content and products, but sadly day after day you don’t get any sales or page views. Even though you knew you weren’t going to maybe sell right away, there was still a part of you that hoped you’d be a success right away. You just sit there and wonder, now what? Well my friend, your next step is to find your target audience for your crochet business.
This week on the E’Claire Makery Podcast I had the pleasure of interviewing Pam Grice of the crochet businesses Made With a Twist and The Crochetpreneur. Made with a Twist is Pam’s product and design based crochet business that sells things ranging from messy bun hats to scarves. She also sells patterns through Made with a Twist, has made a total of over 17,000 sales on Etsy from that business alone! Her other business The Crochetpreneur is a business coaching business specifically targeted at crocheters. Her blog has articles ranging from how to start a crochet business, doing bookkeeping for your business, how to sells products, and how to rock craft fairs. She also is starting a new business Academy where she shares step by step ways of how to grow your business to be what you want it to be. All in all, Pam has perfected how to reach her target audience. So how can you do the same?
Want to watch my interview with Pam? Check it out below!
What is a Target Audience?
Your target audience is the group of people that your products, blog, and business in general is trying to reach. This group of people is who you are creating your content for, and trying to help them solve a problem. That problem could be them looking for a cute hat to buy, or are wanting a free crochet pattern for a blanket. Maybe they are wondering how to design a crochet pattern and you have the perfect thing to help someone looking for one! Your audience could be other aspiring crochet designers, crochet business owners, or consumers looking to buy finished crochet products like beanies. You’re goal is to find the people that you are trying to reach out to. Once you find this target audience you want to stick to topics or items that fit in this audience, because if you venture outside of it your audience will be confused. Focus on your people and find what works for them!
Where to Begin: Find Your Values
Before you begin finding your target audience, you have one step to complete first: finding your core values. Your business is just that your’s. Everything that comes from it starts with you, and what you do affects what happens in your business. Knowing who you are is the first step to succeeding in your business. The first question to ask yourself is: what are my core values? What are the key things that are important to me that are central to who I am? For Pam, some of her core values are freedom, peace, and kindness. She wants to give crochet business owners the freedom to feel heard and to succeed in their business. She also seeks out finding peace amongst the drama of life, and wants to help others to feel peace as they interact with designers, customers, and anyone else they encounter in their business. The last one that is central to who she is, is kindness. For more of her life she was always told that she was so sweet, but she likes to think of it as that she is kind. She looks for ways to be kind to others and help them with whatever they might need. When you find your own core values, you’ll start to see how that shapes how you do things in your business. You’ll find that your products and blog posts will start to reflect these, and make sure that you listen to your gut about whether or not it is the right thing to share with your audience.
In the Crochetpreneur Business Academy, the first step that she has you do is to examine yourself and find out what is important to you. When I first did this exercise, I didn’t really think that I would really find things that would be affecting my business. I started finding though that as I continued with the exercise, I discovered so many different ways that how I react to things affects my business is different ways. I also found that I was originally trying to reach out to the wrong audience, and instead I needed to focus my attention to people who my core values would reach out to. If you’ve been struggling with finding the right audience to reach, then I highly recommend joining Pam’s Crochetpreneur Business Academy. Her exercises to find your audience, resources for growing your business, and community that comes with it is a great business investment!
Another good starting point for finding your core values is this Core Values List from Brene Brown. She lists 200 core values that are central to who we are, and finding them is a great exercise to practice. If you struggle with finding your core values on your own, hand the list to a friend or family member and ask which ones stand out to them about you. I asked my husband to help me, and it was really helpful. Once you know who you are, then you can start finding your audience and helping them!
3 Types of Buyers for Those Selling Products
For those selling handmade crochet products, and sometimes even people who are selling patterns, there are 3 types of buyers out there. There are the Bargin Hunters, the Brand Buyers, and the Boutique Buyers.
Bargin Hunters: The bargin hunters are the people who are looking to get products at the cheapest price possible, and are super thrifty. A lot of crochet business owners think that they have to appeal to the bargin hunters, and will price their products below their value price in order to try to make sales. They might spend 2 hours working on a crochet scarf, but only charge $10. Buy charging that little, they aren’t making any profit from it. Or sometimes at craft fairs someone will make a comment about how the product shouldn’t be priced as high as it is, and should be way below the price it costs for your time and effort you put into your product. Often, crocheters will believe this, and end up lowering their price just because someone didn’t value their work.
Brand Buyers: These buyers are the ones who shop at Target, American Eagle, or another store with a noticeable brand because they love having items with brand names on the labels or on the clothing themselves. This is a great audience to reach out to with your crochet products because these are the people who will love having your items with your brand tag on them. Pam has customers she sees at craft fairs every year, and if they see she has a new design then they get so excited about it because they love her brand. If you have created a brand around your business, and love promoting it, then try to reach out to this target audience!
Boutique Buyers: The boutique buyers love having unique and one of a kind items. They love having that item that no one else has, or that is made from a super special yarn that was saved just for that product. If you have an item that takes a long time to make, such as a crochet shawl, then this might be the group you want to reach out to. Use that super special yarn you’ve been saving, and you might just find someone who wants to buy that gorgeous shawl for $100+. You can find your own special spin on this and pick the items that make your brand unique!
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Target Audiences for Crochet Bloggers
For Crochet bloggers, target audiences can range anywhere from those looking for crochet tips to free patterns. Some do a combo of the two and provide patterns along with crochet business or design tips. If you love creating and sharing free crochet patterns, then focus your crochet blog on creating those. Or if you like to share crochet tips about business or crocheting, then create your blog to share about those. Your crochet blog should try to have a focus, because otherwise it gets too confusing when you suddenly start to share about how to do ceramics or another topic. My focus with my blog is to help other crocheters have the confidence to create. So I create patterns or provide crochet design and business tips to help them grow in their skill. I combine my love of serving others with sharing the knowledge that I have about crocheting, and just get to crochet all sorts of fun things to share!
Target Audiences for Crochet Pattern Designers
With crochet pattern designing there are so many different audiences that you can reach. There are people who like to make crochet garments, crochet accessories, amigurumi, crochet home decor, or stick to just making afghans. As a designer, you can find what your favorite thing is to make, and then you can build your whole crochet brand around that! Sometimes that changes as your design and find what you like to create. Mine has evolved from doing just amigurumi, to accessories, and now making garments a lot. The beginning of your crochet designing is the perfect time to figure out what works best for you as you start to build your business.
Find Your People
Once you find your target audience, reach out to them and stick with them! You’ll find yourself clicking with certain people, and if you don’t then you know that person isn’t part of your tribe. It’s totally ok to not click with everyone, and soon you’ll find the group of people that you want to continue to serve. Follow your gut when it tells you to create certain content, because you’ll find yourself knowing when something isn’t right for those you’re serving.
If you want more tips on how to continue to grow your business, I highly recommend the Crochetpreneur Business Academy. As a part of the academy, you’ll learn all of the tips that Pam has applied to her business and taken it to a place that earns anywhere between $3,000 to $17,000 a month. She shares how to set your Etsy shop up for success, gets monthly experts to do calls where they share their business expertise, does Q&A sessions, shares how to have a crochet blog, and so many more things that will help take your crochet business to the next level. I’ve loved the community I’ve gotten through her Facebook group and Zoom calls, and Pam has continued to help me grow my business.
I hope that overall this article gave you some helpful tips on how to grow your audience so that you can start moving your crochet business to success! I can’t wait to see how you grow!
Happy stitching,
~Claire
