Life Under the Spotlight

This week debuted the release of Spotlight on Handmade Crafts, a new craft marketing super tool.  Spotlight on Handmade Crafts, branded as "the shopper’s quick guide to Etsy," is the brainchild of marketing guru Jerry Hocutt. Jerry's resume is impressive and he has helped Fortune 500 companies such as the Ritz-Carlton, New York Life and Kinko's build their customer base.  I'm so excited and honored to be a part of the small number of shops participating in the Spotlight on Handmade Crafts Beta test run.  Below is the Zelma Rose Spotlight on Handmade Crafts page. 

I did some looking around on the site today and so far, I have to say it's pretty darn neat.  I'm all for ways that we as crafters and small business owners can broaden our customer base and improve our business skills.  One of my favorite parts of the site is a members only area called Sales & Marketing tips.  The first post in this section really caught my eye, "How to Sell Your Shop in 25 Words or Less." Sound advice for all business owners is to keep it simple.  (Check out an Awfully Grand guest post by Lightbox SF's own Genevieve Brazelton for more on this).  One of the requirements of Spotlight on Handmade Crafts is that Etsy shop owners submit a 25 word description of their shop.  Currently mine reads:

I'm not completely sold on it's simplicity, but it's a start.  From what I could tell at first glance, it looks like Spotlight on Handmade Crafts promises to offer Etsy shoppers and Etsy sellers equal benefits.  Etsy shoppers will be more easily able to find exactly what they are looking for, through advanced search tools, concise shop descriptions,  and a feature called Concierge Service that promises to locate handmade items that will fit your needs including time frame that you need it by.  From the seller end, the site offers reasonable advertising, post cards and sale reminders to send to customers as well as opportunities to increase your visibility by writing posts for a section called:

All in all, it is refreshing to see a site dedicated to helping both buyers and sellers.  I am also pleased by the overall feeling that as a seller, you get what you put in.  I'm excited to be a part of it's launch and I look forward to continued success as a seller and seeing all the wonderful things Spotlight on Handmade Crafts can do for my customers.  I'll keep you all posted! Check out the site and let me know what you think!

xoxo

Lisa