Many marketing experts will tell you that THE BEST way to get your business seen and heard is through word-of-mouth marketing. Although all of us would prefer positive testimonials, even the bad press can be used to one’s advantage.
SEEN and HEARD. Those are the names of the game in any marketing plan – supply and demand are the other two that rank right up there for necessities but I’ll focus on that in a different post.
As for quilters, they can get their star seen by submitting patterns and quilted projects to magazines, to charity auctions – the options are virtually endless for a quilter to go from simply a hobby quilter to someone considered an expert in their field.
I want to give you a perfect example of word-of-mouth advertising that has affected me tremendously this week. If you’ve read this blog at all for the past few months, you should know I made a t-shirt quilt for a friend’s daughter as a high school graduation gift. You can read about my blog posts pertaining to the quilt here and here and here.
Once the quilt was delivered and happily received (see here), I told the Mom of the recipient that if she wanted to share my info with her friends, I’d love to visit with them about making their kids’ t-shirt quilts, too. That mom went above and beyond my expectations with her word-of-mouth advertising for me! She first sent an email to the folks in her homeowner’s association with a photo of her daughter’s quilt and my contact information. Then she sent a note to a friend who is also a mom of a girl who is on the same drill team as her daughter was on in high school. Through both of these instances, I’ve had TWO emails in a single day from ladies who are interested in t-shirt quilts for their upcoming graduates.
Word-of-mouth advertising works, and works well, if you are wanting to sell your creativity on a shoestring marketing budget. Try it!
