Why Your Handmade Business Needs Its Own Website

Worried your creations are getting lost in the noise of social media and marketplaces? There's a better way to showcase your talent…

In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on why having your own digital home (i.e. your own website) is crucial for your handmade business – even if you're just starting out. We'll explore why relying solely on social media or marketplaces might be holding you back, and how a simple website can become your most powerful tool for showcasing your work, connecting with customers, and building a sustainable creative business.

I'll share practical insights on choosing between platforms like Shopify and Squarespace, depending on where you are in your journey, and show you how to start small but mighty with just the essential pages you need. No tech overwhelm, no complicated systems – just clear guidance on creating an online presence that feels authentic to you and your craft.

Whether you're currently selling on Etsy or just beginning to share your work with the world, this episode will give you the confidence to take that next step in establishing your creative legacy online. It's time to stop hiding your talent and start building a digital home where your creativity can truly shine.

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Transcript

Hello, in today's episode, I'm talking all about building an online presence for your creative business. So wherever you're listening and however you're listening, I hope you enjoy.

Hello and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast. This is a podcast to support makers, crafters and artists to start and grow their creative passions into thriving, profitable businesses. I'm Sarah Kavanagh, your host, and I'm passionate about all things creative and how to turn your unique talents into a thriving business, giving you the lifestyle that you want.

I started my own handmade fine jewellery business over 15 years ago and now also help other artisans and makers build their own creative businesses through marketing and branding and and strategies I've studied, learnt and put into practice along my journey. Today I want to help you to establish and grow your own design led business so that it can help support the lifestyle that you want.

Think of this as your go to resource and check in for all things strategy and marketing for your business along with stories and anecdotes from my life as a creative entrepreneur. Thank you for tuning in and welcome to the Thriving Maker podcast.

Hello, today I'm talking all about building your online presence for your business, for your craft, your handmade work, your creative passion, and I want to start by talking about why I think it's so important to have an online presence for your business. And even if you're just starting out, even if you're at the very early stage, the importance of having some kind of online presence is really great. So, what does having an online presence actually mean?

What do I mean by that? So, you've got your social media, you've got your Instagram, you've got Facebook, you might be on TikTok you might be also on Pinterest, which is, rather than it being social media, it's more like a visual search engine. So that's another place you may be online.

You may be starting to sell your work in an online marketplace such as Etsy or Folksy. Or you maybe are not on the high street if you're in the UK. There's lots of different online marketplaces as well that you might be selling your work and you may have some kind of presence and what I really want to talk about in this episode is your own website.

Now the other online places such as social media, are really important and I feel that you do still need to be active in other places but I think it's so important that you have your own website. Because I believe that this is the most beneficial form of online presence that you can have for you, for your creative business.

Having your own website is the best place to showcase your work and your messaging. You have full control over what you put on your website. You're not in a marketplace where you have to abide by the layout and the [00:03:00] styling that fits for all the different businesses. You have control over your branding and your messaging and how you want to portray your work on your own website.

It's the best place for long term marketing. So, when you're thinking about building your presence for your business and building a name for your business, think about SEO and optimising your site through blog posts. And with blog posts, you can really talk to your customers. So it's the best place for long term marketing, you can speak directly to potential customers, really talk about the work that you're doing, your style, your processes, what it means to you what your business means to you, what inspires you.

It's very difficult to give all of that into some of these other places online like social media or another marketplace, but with your own website, you can put as much as you want on there about what your work means to you and about how you make it. And you can use those blog posting opportunities to really build SEO and connect with your potential customers.

 It's the best place to direct potential customers to as well. So if you meet somebody and you're talking to them about what you do and what you make and they maybe want to see a bit more of your work you can direct them to a website and even you can just say ohI have my website So for me, I would say something like, Oh, I'm a jeweller. I make fine jewellery. And quite often people will say, Oh, do you have a website I can go to? You say, Oh, it's audreyclaude.com. Or even if they don't ask for a website, it's all what's it called? People are interested in other people's lives and other what other people are doing.

And then they will go away and they'll Google Audreyclaude.Com or they will Google Audrey Claude jewellery and then they will find my work that way. So it's really important that you have a place where people can come and see your work and learn a bit more about you as a maker  and your style and, to learn a bit more about what you're doing without being distracted by a million and one other sellers, which is what you get with some marketplaces.

Now marketplaces are great for selling your work, but even if you are selling work on a marketplace, I still think it's really important to have Your own website, even if you don't want to sell through your own website, to have it there as like a storefront, a shop window into your world, where you can talk about yourself, you can talk about your work, you can share beautiful pictures and images of your pieces.

And even if you are then selling on Etsy or Folksy, you can then direct people to there to buy from you. But having your own space, one, it helps your potential customers know to take you seriously and start to learn a bit more about you but also I think having your own website does something to you as a maker as well. It allows you to believe in your work and to be proud of what you do because you are  putting it out there and it's that statement of intent of saying, this is me, this is my work.

I'm happy to show it to you. I want you to really get to know me and my work. So even if it's the most simple of websites, I think it's really important to do that. 

 as I said, having your own website doesn't mean that you have to just be selling all your work on your website. It can be that business card to what you do. It can be that shop window that leads people into your world.

And there are different websites, depending on the type of business you have. 

So if you have a body of work that is ready to sell and you sell frequently, you just want to replicate what you're selling in marketplaces or, start stepping away from the marketplace and have that body of work ready to sell, then you'll be wanting to set up a website through Shopify, which is the leading e commerce web platform.

If, however, you are just starting out and you don't necessarily have lots of work that you're ready to sell. It's more a case of you want people to get to know you and get to come into your  world. And you maybe want to start selling just a handful of pieces. 10, 20 pieces, five pieces, then a different type of website is going to work better for you.

So maybe something like Squarespace, which enables really beautiful designs and has the ability to do small scale selling. So, it's not the best for, if you've got hundreds of products that you want to sell, but if you're just selling either a bespoke service, or you want to sell workshops or tutorials, or you have a handful of products that you want to sell, then something like Squarespace would be my recommendation. So you can have that online presence and bring people into your world. And it doesn't have to be daunting and scary.

I know I've spoken about websites before and the different platforms, and as you talk to people, you will find people that will be more than willing to help you with your website.

There will be companies that offer web design all singing, all dancing web designs, and there will be small, independent, more creative companies,  that will work with you one on one and will be able to tailor something just for you. But both of the platforms that I talk about and that I recommend, which is either Shopify or Squarespace, they are both intuitive enough for you to be able to take on if you have that time, that extra time to grow yourself.

But, as I said, don't be put off by the fact that, oh my goodness, a website seems such a daunting thing. Having an online presence, having your own website is so important and I think it's essential really if you're taking your business seriously, if you're taking your creative passion seriously and you're wanting it to grow into something that will provide for you, you need to start off on the right foot and you need to start with that online presence.

And don't be put off by all singing or dancing websites of other people and other makers. Your initial website just needs to be the homepage, an about page that talks about you as the maker and your story as a creative and what inspires you and what makes your work different from other people's orwhy do you make what you make?

 it doesn't need to be all singing and dancing it can be very simple. Start collecting beautiful images of your work, of you at work or even if you don't have pieces ready just yet, commission, a photographer to take your photo or get a family member or a friend to take a photo of you at work.

 If you have a workbench or a potter's wheel or at a sewing machine, whatever it might be, it doesn't need to be all singing and dancing to start with. It can be really simple. So that was all I wanted to share with you today.

If you want to hear more from me about building your own online presence and growing your business, then do sign up and join the newsletter and I'll be able to share more tips and strategies for you

as you build and grow your business. So until next time, take care and I'll speak to you soon. Bye for now.