Getting Free Publicity For Your Bead Jewelry Business

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Okay, so you’ve mastered the arts of making your own bead jewelry. You’ve sold some pieces, you have your business established, you visit the local craft shows and flea markets and you might even have your own jewelry website (or Etsy site) and maybe even a few regular customers. Formal advertising can be expensive and the effectiveness can obviously vary. What you need to kick start your jewelry business may be some public relations tricks that don’t cost you very much at all. What your jewelry business may need the most is some free publicity.

There are lots of great publicity and marketing books available.

There are plenty of ways to get free publicity (in fact, there are entire books written about getting free marketing for your business) but if you’re a struggling jewelry maker or designer who is just starting out then you probably want to try some local methods without spending a lot of money. Here are a few marketing ideas that I’ve actually seen results from:

Local Newspapers: I have at least three local community newspapers that are delivered to my home over the course of any given month. Some are a little better than others, but they all love to feature stories about local artists and business people. Ideally you’ll want to write up a one or two page bio about you and your jewelry business and then submit it to the newspaper with a cover letter and maybe some photos of your jewelry. Depending on the general reading audience of the local paper you can give your biography a business tilt or a local flavor tilt.

Local TV Newscasters: If you have a local (or even not so local) television news station, you can consider two different ways of getting free publicity. First, you can do the same as with a local newspaper by sending them a letter and photos of your jewelry. But what you may also want to do is make or two jewelry pieces that you think one of your local newscasters might wear on TV and send that along as well. I had a friend whose jewelry was mentioned by the hostess for just a few seconds on a local morning show and she said that within a week she had three calls from shop owners to sell her jewelry in their stores! You may want to have a website up and ready before you do this because most TV people will be more open to tossing out a website on the air than actually giving out a phone number or address.

Donate Your Jewelry To Charity Auctions: This is one tried and true method that I’ve seen work with handmade jewelry, photographs and just about anything else that an artist can make. Ideally you should donate a jewelry set like a matching necklace, bracelet and earrings and provide it all with presentation in mind, so you may want to include a jewelry box or satin back or even a small jewelry display stand. Most charity auctions will display your items for a period of time and lots of people will walk past your item and see it. By displaying your business card (and website address) prominently you stand a good chance of getting some good exposure and maybe even some new customers!

There are, of course, plenty of other great ways to promote your home run jewelry business for almost no costs at all. If you’re a little unsure about how to start, you might want to check out some home-business marketing books as well. Heck, even wearing your jewelry around town and simply mentioning that you make jewelry are both good conversation starters and excellent ways to make friends while building a customer base!