Why do you need a craft show customer mailing list?

Posted by Kira on February 18, 2009

You need a way to contact your customers and potential customers prior to arriving at a show, after they make a purchase, and after the show at various times during the year.

I met a wonderful man at a craft fair in Weston, Florida last weekend. He sells the most beautiful trivets. 

He and his wife make them from various dried seeds, flowers, nuts, beans, spices, and other things you might find in a garden or kitchen. They are put into a vial-like contraption which they can’t escape from, and they are bordered by two pieces of wood which serve as handles and a way to hold the whole thing together. The dried thingies inside are grouped- according to type, color, size, texture, and other appealing visual combinations. He doesn’t have a website. The next time I have a friend who buys or rents a new home, refinishes a kitchen, or has a birthday, I’d love to buy one. It was priced very nicely and would make a lovely gift.

If he had asked me to sign up for his mailing list, I would have. I have come to expect things like notices, coupons, and other ways of keeping in touch from people who I sign up to receive things from. I do it online, and I would do it in person. Especially from someone who’s work I like, and who I would consider buying from in the future. It is not pushy to ask someone to sign up, it is a courtesy. If he had asked me, I would have felt relief- that I could expect to receive some kind of regular updates from him, and won’t have to go searching for his card in my purse (and his phone number, which frankly, I won’t call because I don’t have time to discuss options with him since I can’t remember his product and there are no online pictures for me to pick from) the next time I have a need he can fill. 

Think about it.