Art Jewelry - How to Thrive in a Competitive Market

Who are you as a jeweler? As an artist? What is your style, your niche?
If you are to succeed in this competitive market, you need to think hard about this. You may not know exactly at first and your identity may change somewhat over time depending on your customers' needs. But it is vital to answer these questions.
How are your customers supposed to know what makes you different from the pack if you don't.

Who does your jewelry appeal to? Are your price points in the $10 to 25 range or the $100 to 500 range. That will change your target market.

Are your pieces religious in nature, are they made of glass, are they made of products that people may be allergic to?
Will your products appeal to a certain demographic? Figure out who your jewelry is made for so that you can market to those people.

For example, my work is made of primarily silver and fine silver and my price points start at about $25. So people who will not spend $25 for a pair of earrings are not in my target market.

Okay, you have found your target market. Yay! Now, you want to sell to them. Make sure your target market has money to spend. If I want to find people who are willing to spend $100 or more on jewelry without batting an eyelash, I need to look for the more affluent sections of town.

You may be surprised to find out that you can do well at an organic farmers market because people that spend more money for food usually can afford to pay more for jewelry.

So the next step is to do research on your target market.

I can't say this enough. Find your style and stick to it.

This doesn't mean that you can never change, but find what works for you and what you love and create a statement with your work.

Create a line of products. Create sets that go together.
Find a style that you can repeat in some fashion over and over.
Are you funky? Sleek? Vintage? What?

It should be enough of a style that someone can recognize your work if they have seen it before.

Okay, this is one of my pet peeves.

Are you in business? Then have business cards. Get them printed. Do not print them yourselves. They do not have to be expensive, just professional. Here is a link for one of the least expensive companies out there-Get 250 FREE Business Cards at VistaPrint .

Once you get going, you can make your business cards even more professional and memorable by adding your professionally designed logowhich is less expensive than you think. Once you have a logo, you can add it to everything you do online or in print. That helps you create branding.

Another possibility is getting them from Zazzle. They give you all sorts of cool templates to work from.




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Ask people you trust to give you feedback on your work. For instance, as a gallery owner, I can usually tell what will sell in my gallery. I know my audience, and what I am looking for. I expect different levels of quality for $8 and $80.

Check your quality. Even a $10 item should stand up to wear and tear.
Is your work really saleable???

Are you proud of your designs? If not, you shouldn't be selling them.

Wear your work everywhere you go. Show them off.

That way you can test them at the same time for sturdiness, comfort, and design flaws.
Why should anyone else wear your work if you don't?

Every day will not be a success. But if you want to succeed you have to strategize for the long term.

You will have to build a customer base just like any other business.

Your biggest job is to find out where your potential customers spend their time and go to them. Once you figure that out, then it is a matter of consistently presenting your work to them enough times until they really see you.

Good luck!