Advertising budget

Hello All:

I am gearing up for to spend some money on advertising. As you all
know, it is terribly expensive and I want to put my dollars where it
will be used the best. If you were interested in taking a workshop
or class somewhere, where would you all look to find that
Is there a particular publication that you like best?

Thanks for your help,

-karen

Karen Christians
M E T A L W E R X
10 Walnut St., Woburn MA 01801
Ph. 781 937 3532, Fx. 781 937 3955
http://www.metalwerx.com/
Jewelry/Metalarts School & Cooperative Studio

If you were interested in taking a workshop or class somewhere,
where would you all look to find that Is there a
particular publication that you like best? 

Karen,

I’m in the SF Bay Area, nowhere near you, but I can tell you one
place I would definitely check - Orchid!

I also read Metalsmith and Bead and Button and Lapidary Journal - I
do mostly wirework but am starting to learn a little metalsmithing.
Bead and Button might not reach as much of your target audience as
Lapidary Journal or metalsmith, but I’m not sure. I would think that
Lapidary Journal gets more people who are learning than Metalsmith,
since it always has projects with instructions, so that might be the
best one of the three for you. good luck!

– Leah
www.michondesign.com
@Leah2

Hi Karen

A lot depends on your budget. Cable for you if you have $1200 a
month is a waste. If you have $3500 it will go far. So “size
matters”.

Secondly you need a compelling offer. And you need to decide how to
spread your money. Are you going direct mail, newspaper, flyers,
what?

If you’re doing TV, radio, you need to reach 70% of your targeted
listeners at least 3 times per week.

Figure 3-4 months for it to take hold.

In newspaper, be consistent, advertise each week. Consider Saturday
or Sunday the most.

If you use direct mail know that one mailing to a list might get you
a 1-2% response. Mail that SAME list again soon and the response goes
up. The same list a 3rd time might get you 12-25% on the third time.

Do you have your own customer list? Go to them first.

I sell a book on my web site which is great to show you how, what
where and why of advertising, $15. “The 33 Ruthless Rules of Local Advertising” by Michael Corbett. Also on Amazon. Great book.

There are two other MUST reads on this subject.

“The end of advertising as we know it.”

And

“The end of marketing as we know it.”

Both by Sergio Zyman, the ex-marketing director of Coca-Cola. He
says you can no longer just tell people “we’re here”. You must give a
reason why. A great book (s) to get result. I don’t sell these but
you can buy probably all 3 at a major bookstore and Amazon.com

Give me some feed back to my questions, I’ll give some suggestions.

By the way if you’re going to do postcards and what jewelry color
pictures and holiday together, go to this site., They will deisgn,
print and mail: www.postcardmania.com

David Geller
www.JewelerProfit.com

Prepare for a shameless plug!

Speaking of where to find out about workshops (and classes): For
those within reach of Evanston, IL, I will be teaching an 8 week
class in fusing and torch-texturing at the Evanston Art Center in
April & May, 2004, on Monday evenings. The class size is very
limited, since each participant needs a torch. Registration will be
possible in 2-3 weeks, I think, so if you’re interested, be sure to
sign up early. The term starts Feb 1, even though this class
doesn’t. I did this once before, and it was a gas.

–No�l

David, You missed Karen’s point. She wasn’t interested in
advertising concepts. She specifically wanted to know where, if you
were a jeweler who wanted to take courses in jewelry, you would look.

Daniel R. Spirer, GG
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-6000
@spirersomes
www.spirersomes.com

Karen,

As vice-president of the North Carolina Society of Goldsmiths and
having recently finished our membership survey, I can say that the
main thing that members read our newletters for is workshop news and
We post many workshop schedules from schools in NC and
the surrounding area for free, though in doing this we pick the
format and font and all that so that it fits our newsletter. But
our ad space is very cheap. We just started doing business card
sized ads for $30 per year (4 ads) or $10 per quarter. How can you
go wrong with that? I think that Florida Society of Goldsmiths
charge $25 per year, but check with them for that rate. There are
other guilds that have newsletters too and I’m sure they would be
interested in letting thier members know about your workshops.

Here are some of the guilds I follow as newsletter publisher.
Contact them to see what your options are.

Houston Metal Arts Guild
Michelle Hall-newsletter editor
mmhall1@flash.net

Washington Guild of Goldsmiths
newsletter co-editors
Stacy Maiano
smaiano@hotmail.com

Seattle Metals Guild
1426 Harvard Ave #154, Seattle WA 98122-3813

Florida Society of Goldsmiths
www.fsg4i.com

Perhaps there are others out there with other recomendations?

By the way I read Metalsmith and American Craft and thats about it.
They come with the memberships, I rarely read anything else these
days.

Larry

I have looked in Metalsmith magazine when I have looked for a
workshop but that was a long time ago. Now, I might just google the
internet.

Marilyn Smith

daniel,

karen is interested ina workshop where she can learn more as to
which way the money should spend wisely on advertising.

karen,

the best you need to really put together your budget and then the
target market and then think of yourself to be in their position
andthink of their regular habits and customs once you have that input
you will be able to understand how and where you can have the
for them that would be visible and would stimulate your
target customers.

important question that you need to answer

1. target age , sex , geographical , income bracket of your target market
2. your target sale in ratio with the advertising budget
3. and so on

will continue

but you do need to assess the target market and advertising in ratio
to sales target and then how where and when to advertise.

regards
kumar

Karen - It was not apparent to me what exactly you were looking for
in your advertising budget post - initially I thought you were
looking for a workshop on advertising or marketing - ie, something
for a small business to make the most effective use of their budget -
since reading other responses I have come to believe you were asking
us where we look when we want to find a workshop so that you can
assess where you might best post info re workshops you are offering
at Metalwerx - sooooo - assuming that I have finally figured out what
you are looking for: I don’t affirmatively look for workshops. But

  • I do regularly look at and mentally evaluate schools and workshops
    through ads in CRAFT, METALSMITH, and ORNAMENT, and I belong to
    several organizations (SNAG, Enamelist Society, Metal Arts Society
    of Southern Calif, Enamel Guild West, etc) and am regularly sent info
    re workshops being offered by these organizations. If they appeal to
    me I sign up. Sometimes I am unable to attend a workshop in
    California by someone whose work I really admire so I look elsewhere
    for where that person might be teaching. In addition, I do keep
    track of what is being offered at Revere in San Francisco and though
    Orchid I discover places where workshops are given or persons whose
    work I come to admire and then I might undertake to find out where or
    when someone is giving a workshop or plan to attend a workshop. When
    I am looking for a particular person or school I go to the internet.
    Don’t know whether that helps. Sheridan Reed

Karen,

In looking for a course or workshop, the first place I look is my
local and state Guild of Craftsmen publications. Then I look for
discussions in Orchid and ads on the Ganoksin site. Then I look at
SNAG, both the website and Metalsmith. I also look for workshops at
sites I already know about that are in my “easy drive” area – Philly
and environs.

I would say my most compelling desire for a class or workshop comes
from hearing about others who have taken it through Orchid or my
state Guild. That’s what is most likely to sway me, because I have
the info to know that it’s actually “worth it.”

Hope this helps,
Karen Goeller
@Karen_Goeller
Hand-crafted artisan jewelry
http://www.nolimitations.com

Hi, everybody my name is Carla and this is my first post in this
forum; I moved from Italy 5 years ago, I’m currently living in
Massachusetts and I’m a beginner at jewelry making (in my "previous"
life, linguistics and speech pathology were my everyday thing… how
I switched to jewelry it’s a long story…) Gold and platinum are my
(once hidden…) passion, and Orchid has been an invaluable source
of (yes, I have shyly lurked for several months…);
plus, there is a feeling of warmth, of belonging, almost as in a
virtual (but also very real and supportive) big family… needless
to say, I love it!!! Great job, thanks, dad…ehm… Hanuman :wink:

Karen, as somebody who had no previous experience whatsoever with the
jewelry world (and wanted to start taking courses), I checked the
yellow pages, under “jewelry schools”, with little luck; then I
figured I’d look for somebody who was knowledgeable in the matter,
and who better than a jeweler? I went to several jewelry stores,
mostly in malls, and everybody was kind, articulate (they classified
schools by length of courses, costs, school-like environment vs
friendly one, etc.) and ultimately very helpful: more than one
regretted not having a school brochure to show… so maybe these
could be starting points to attract beginners and/or foreigners…

Carla