so I just launched my new collection of
pottery for the winter and I was
thinking about all the different systems
and processes you know I love a good
system that I've set up over the years
to launch new Collections and so I
thought it would be the perfect time to
walk you through how I sell pottery
since it's all fresh on my mind so let's
get into it so I do three to four
collection launches per year I
personally have a lot of other stuff
going on this YouTube channel for one so
I don't have that many collections some
Potters might do collection launches
every month some I do larger collections
less often and then some will just have
a continuous open shop where they just
keep updating as they put new work in
how you do it just depends on your
workflow and how you prefer it the
reason I prefer to have larger
collections less often is so I can batch
batching these processes really saves
you a lot of time so I do all the photos
at once ship a bunch of pieces at one
ones I also find that doing less
collections makes the customer think
that it's kind of like special it makes
a bit of excitement about the work okay
so this isn't really a step rather it's
something that you should continually
work at throughout time you need to
build your audience for people who will
be interested in your work so for me the
beginning of my promotion of my own
pottery started 10 years ago when I
first made my Instagram account and I've
been slowly working at it throughout
this time to build up my audience now
your journey might look a bit different
you might build up followers faster or
slower than me but basically you just
want to keep plugging away so you have a
group of Hardcore fans that are so much
more valuable than the kind of following
you get from going viral there's a
concept in sales called a thousand true
fans it's by the sky
Kevin Kelly basically he asserts that
you only need a thousand true fans to
buy a hundred euros worth of your work
over the course of the year before you
have 10 000 Euros in revenue and I
really appreciate this concept because
for me a hundred euros is just a couple
of mugs and it feels like something
that's actually achievable so if you
want to learn more about his theory I'll
link his article down below so for
Potter specifically I recommend two
types of marketing number one is going
to be visual social media so by that I
mean Instagram Tick Tock Pinterest
YouTube even Facebook and then the
second kind is a newsletter so for
social media what you want to do is
choose one and really become an expert
at it really kind of invest all your
eggs into one basket for the beginning
because when you're just starting out
you don't want to spread yourself too
thin all the different social media apps
work completely differently and you
really kind of need to figure it out
figure out what kind of content is going
to work on there that's going to
generate that loyal following that
you're looking for and then you're also
going to want to have a newsletter now
this is going to be for your super fans
this is really important because it's
something that you have control over and
it's not susceptible to a change in the
algorithm or a billionaire takeover
I personally use and do recommend
MailChimp for your newsletter not
particularly because it's the best I
actually find it a little bit annoying
to use but it is free up to a certain
amount of subscribers I think it's like
2 000 subscribers don't quote me on that
I'm not totally sure but once you've
gone past that subscriber count then you
can move on to maybe another platform
that works a little better but when
you're just starting out we want to go
for free resources as much as possible
okay so step two of selling online is
you want to announce a date that you're
going to be launching your products you
want to announce it as wide as possible
like on every platform that you have and
really build up that hype one fun thing
that you can do to kind of get your
followers engaged in the collection
launch is actually have them choose the
date I often do this on my Instagram I'm
like would you rather do it on Saturday
or Sunday what time this helps them get
engaged in your collection launch but
you can also make sure that they're
available for that time period when your
collection is going to drop along with
building the hype definitely encourage
you to share the process of preparing
your collection launch with your
following as well so you want to share
you know the planning of the collection
making the pots of course but also doing
things like photography and you know
organizing your pieces I do this mostly
on Instagram stories that's just the
platform that I feel most comfortable on
but whatever makes sense for you I think
Tick Tock would work really well for
this as well step three is make a
schedule now is when you guys are
reminded that I'm a type a person and
lists our life so once you have your
launch date you're going to want to work
backwards from that date and figure out
when you need to finish things by so
here's what I schedule I schedule a day
for photo shooting a day for editing
those photos and a day to prepare the
promotion and then I also make a note of
when the last firings are possible so
when I need to actually finish the
Pottery by so this is my actual schedule
for the recent launch I wanted to have a
launch in early December to kind of
catch those Christmas sales but early
enough so that I know that if I'm going
to be shipping products to various
places in the world they're going to get
there in time for Christmas hopefully
so in my schedule I decided to take
Saturday off
um it would be great to have that day
free but it's also an extra buffer day
in case I get behind on anything and
then I give myself a day each for the
photo shoot for editing those photos and
for preparing the promo
so each of these steps just takes a
couple hours each but I'm usually
juggling a few different projects so a
couple hours is for me more manageable
but if you're able to focus exclusively
on your collection launch you can
definitely fit all those things into one
day and then I gave myself another
buffer day on Tuesday and set Monday as
my last glaze fire day
I thought I would have about two Kilns
worth of pots to go through so I made
two batches of pots going through which
meant I had until Tuesday to throw pots
most of speed drying my potteries so if
I am still going to throw pots on
Tuesday that means they're going to be
sitting on top of one of the Kilns to
dry out faster so that they can make
that last bisque fire date so once all
of your pots are finished it is time for
inventory now this step just takes a few
minutes and I usually just do it right
before the photo shoot so I don't
schedule something separate for that now
your inventory is going to depend on
like what Pottery you do what kind of
system works best for you so for me I
usually throw a series of pots but they
often end up being slightly different
from one another I like to work quite
Loosely and kind of go with the flow and
see how things turn out so for me I will
take one category of pots like for
example these Christmas trees I'll group
them all together and then I'm going to
number them so I'll write one two three
four five in pencil on the bottom of the
pots you want to do it in pencil so you
can erase it later on when you're
shipping out your Pottery but this step
is definitely going to help me later on
when I'm sorting through my photos and
uploading them and then I print out this
little grid that I made and just fill it
out or sometimes I go Rogue and just do
it on a blank piece of paper this sheet
should contain the most important
information about your pots and what
you're going to use later on when you're
making your listings so it needs to
include the name the quantity maybe
quantity of each color Dimensions weight
and of course your price so just fill
out that sheet and then we'll get back
to that later when we're making our
listings so it's time to do the photos
so I personally have an old DSLR that I
like to use for my photos but honestly
at this point smartphones might be good
enough to take just as good of pictures
so don't worry about investing in a good
camera right now the most important part
about photography is lighting and
composition so you want to take photos
of your pottery from a few different
angles basically you want to convey as
much information about your Pottery to
the customer as possible you want them
to really visualize themselves having
that object in their hands you want to
show things like the bottom of the cup
or the size when I'm doing my photos I
often use hands so I use my own hand in
the photo and this helps kind of
conveying the size but it also helps the
customer visualize themselves holding
the pot it kind of makes it more real to
them for lighting ideally you use
natural light and the best type of
weather for taking photos is a bright
but slightly overcast day what you don't
want to use is direct sunlight because
that and ends up looking pretty harsh
and can also cause your Pottery to look
a little bit more yellow than they
actually are what an overcast day does
is it diffuses the light so you have a
more atmospheric light that is going to
brighten up the entire space and the
entirety of the pot instead of just one
specific direct intense light but you
don't want your day to be too cloudy
because that can cause your pots to be a
little dark and blue so it's kind of the
perfect balance you should try different
parts of your studio or your home or
even go outside sometimes I have to take
my photos outside to get enough light
and in a pinch you can also get light
boxes to artificially add some light I
do have a couple on hand just as a
backup and they're actually pretty cheap
I'll link the ones that I have down
below an extra little tip for you here
is that if you are numbering your
Pottery like I do you want to take the
photos in the order of the numbers this
is going to help you so much later with
sorting out your photos and creating
your listings
so editing now there's a bunch of
different ways to do this and you can
choose whatever works for you I
personally use Photoshop just out of
habit but you can also use Affinity
Lightroom or there's loads of apps on
your phone that you can use basically
with editing I mean color correcting
cropping usually lightening a little bit
and then straightening your photo
obviously you want your pot to look as
true to how it actually is as possible
so you don't want to go overboard but in
my opinion this is a pretty crucial step
to making your pottery look as beautiful
as possible it's important to keep in
mind that when you're selling products
online you are not selling the product
itself you are selling the image and the
idea of the product you're selling the
photo of the product okay so step seven
is to upload everything into your online
shop now of course every platform is
going to look a little bit differently
here I personally use Squarespace but in
general you want to upload your photos a
little description about them the price
the dimensions and then if you're doing
calculated shipping based on weight
you're going to want to enter that
information as well as well as any other
information that your customer might
find helpful so a little example of that
is I sell tea strainers and the holes in
my strainers work best for larger Leaf
teas I can never get my holes as fine as
like a mesh strainer would do so I
always include that like best for large
leaf teas something like that with
Squarespace it's possible to put a
password on your page so you can like
lock the page and make sure no one has
access to the shop before the launch
date but another thing you can do is
create a dummy page change the url put
that page up and then you can work on
your shop while it's a hidden page it
just depends on your website something
that I always find a little bit tricky
even now is shipping so I've recently
switched over to weight based shipping
and so the website kind of calculates
the shipping for you I like this way
because it's a more true to cost
shipping I'm actually looking at my
shipping provider and seeing like what
it actually costs them and charging the
customer exactly what it's cost I don't
want to overcharge or under charge them
but that can also be very time consuming
to set up so another option is to just
do a flat rate with shipping you really
need to decide where you're going to be
shipping to if you want to ship
worldwide that's awesome that comes with
a lot of challenges not just with the
shipping calculation but also worldwide
deliveries often get lost more
um I'm kind of on the edge this time I
did offer a worldwide shipping but I
only offered it like on a case-by-case
basis so someone would have to
specifically contact me and then I would
generate a shipping quote for them in
like a private listing otherwise the
website's just set up to ship within
Europe but it really just depends on
where your audience is if you have a
really local fan base then you can
probably keep it to your country or to
your region yeah this is something that
you kind of just need to figure out on
your own
well first my battery died and then the
DHL guy came to pick up your orders from
my shop update and then I decided to eat
lunch so here we are back I've got my
tea and let's finish so the last thing I
wanted to say about websites is that
um while I do love Squarespace I think
it's beautiful and aesthetic and very
well designed it's a little bit
expensive so if you're looking for a
cheaper option I have used Big Cartel in
the past I believe that they have a free
option for the website or at least it's
definitely cheaper than Squarespace and
it works totally fine if you're just
looking for a very simple store and then
another option of course is Etsy so
there's a lot of mixed emotions about
Etsy online I think Etsy is actually
really great if you haven't built up
that following yet because they have
sort of a built-in audience of people
already going to the Etsy website the
downsides to Etsy are that they have
pretty high fees so whatever you're
charging for your pot that's not going
to be what you actually take home and
then there's a lot of competition on
Etsy so when someone Googles a mug
they're going to get a hundred thousand
different mugs and whether or not you
rise to the top is based on an Etsy
algorithm which you don't actually
control step eight is promote so this is
not really a step unto itself because
you should have been doing this the
whole time as I mentioned use the
process of creating your shop update as
the promotion itself one thing I like to
do is schedule a little mini photo shoot
a week or two before the actual photo
shoot so that I can get some good photos
to use throughout my social media like
at least a week before the shop update
instead of just the photo shoot photos
which are just done a few days before
the update and even if all your pots
aren't done just get a few good pictures
of some of the pots that are done that
you can use for promotion so my
promotion is on Instagram so I use
Instagram stories grid posts and reels I
also have a newsletter and I use
Pinterest so what I'm doing on the
promotion day is I'm preparing all the
items so for my newsletter I typically
send out two different emails here one
is a couple days to a week before my
shop update where I'm giving them a
little preview having some photos and
basically just announcing to my
newsletter audience that a shop update
is coming and then the second email that
I send is just a hey my shop is open now
click here you know link to the shop
and with Instagram I mentioned with my
stories I of course show all the like
behind the scenes information about
preparing the shop I'll post more like
curated uh beautiful pictures on the
feed and then I'll usually try and make
a reel or two just because that's what
Instagram is promoting right now so try
and figure out some sort of short form
content that you can use for that and I
don't get a lot of customers from
Pinterest at least for people who buy my
Pottery but because I have all the
photos already I'll just Chuck them all
up on Pinterest and you know can't hurt
right and then on this day I'm also
scheduling everything so with MailChimp
you can set it up so that it will send
out your newsletters automatically and
then I use the free version of an app
called preview to schedule my Instagram
posts for my grid I'll usually post one
or two photos a day to Instagram feed
and then everything else I just do
manually so the stories and the reels
and stuff I just do manually okay so the
morning of the launch I'm going to do a
few last minute promotion anything that
I haven't wrapped up already I'm going
to get that wrapped up so like sometimes
I leave the newsletter to this day and
just write that quickly before the
launch I'll also usually post something
on Instagram like an hour or two before
the update and say hey update in two
hours or whatever something like that
and then when it's time to actually take
it live I'll sit down at my desk like
five minutes before when the clock
strikes 12 I will you know take the
password protected page down off my
website or you know do whatever you need
to do to actually make the shop be live
and sellable and then I will double
check that my newsletter went out
because I've done it in the past where I
scheduled the wrong time so I'll double
check that that actually sent and then
of course I'll do an Instagram post
Instagram story basically every platform
that you have access to right now you
should be using because now the shop is
live and you want people to come visit
your shop and then once all that's done
done I usually still stay at my desk for
a little bit in case any emails any DMS
come in I want to be there to answer
questions if people have them and keep
the customers engaged so step 10 is
rinse and repeat so one thing I do want
to say is don't get discouraged if it's
your first shop update and you're seeing
few sales or no sales at all I
personally will never forget the time
that I did my first online sale I did
all this preparation including setting
up my website for the first time and I
did all this promotion and I didn't sell
a single pot and that's just because my
following was very small back then and
even the people who are following me I
think they were just not interested in
what I was selling but that doesn't mean
that you should change your work perhaps
you are reaching out on the wrong
platform perhaps you should try out Tick
Tock or Pinterest it's all just about
growing your fan base in the place that
they are and it will don't take time so
just because no one's buying your
Pottery does not mean you are a bad
Potter it's more that people just
haven't found you yet so my advice here
is if you're small and you're not making
very many sales this is actually a
really great opportunity to try some
things out so you can go through this
whole process and try and work out the
Kinks for yourself because when you do
this you're not going to probably want
to do it exactly like I do it so you
want to set up a system that works well
for you figure out how the shipping
works and all that is way lower Stakes
when you're small when you have a small
update so small is not always bad you
can use that to gain experience so that
by the time you have a big shop update
with a lot of visitors you can be very
professional so as always if you have
any questions or video recommendations
you can write them down below or you can
also find me on Instagram and DM me
there otherwise I'll see you in the next
video which will actually be a making
video again finally I'm so excited about
this project so I'll see you then oh and
check out my new collection I'll link it
down below bye friends