Marketing and Promoting your crafts can be just as fun as making them.  
It doesn’t make any difference how unique and special your handmade
treasures are, if no one knows you are in business.  What is so fun about 
marketing and promoting your crafts, home-small biz, is that you use the same creativity that you bring to your command, when you make your crafts.

Most of us home and small biz crafters do not have a blank check, to what
ever amount we like advertising budget, so we need to come up with cost-saving ideas. There are many advertising and promotion companies out there competing for your advertising dollars.  Some are better than others, and most of them are expensive.  

Ads that tie up your advertising dollars, and may not be in print for a few months or more, or expensive coupon advertising, can deplete your advertising budget with one advertising campaign, and not return all that many new leads or customers. If an expensive advertising campaign doesn’t deliver, you don’t get your money back.  Following I have included some:

Quick! Low Cost Ways to Turn Your Business Cards
into Hardworking Little Salesmen!

Many people in business don’t use these to their greatest potential, even
though most biz people do have them printed up. Business cards are your
hardworking little salesmen, they are your mini billboards.  They work for you 24 hrs a day, without pay!…

1. Hand them out! Always have some on hand, when you go out,
and hand them out! This sounds obvious and it is, but many times
business cards are left at home. They can’t be promoting your biz, left
at home or in the car.

2. Use your biz cards as note cards… If someone needs your home
address, and your biz is a home biz, hand them your biz card.  Or
write your home address on the back of your biz card. The same goes for
your telephone no.  This gives another person a reason to have your biz card.
3. Do a Business Card Exchange!  Do a local mailing to businesses that
are complimentary to your business.  For example if you make candles,
send a letter introducing your biz, to local beauty shops, with 5 or 6 biz
cards included and offer a biz card exchange. You will hand out biz cards
for them if they hand out yours.
4. Make Your Cards Do Double Duty As Price Tags…  Make your biz card into
a hanger that you attach to your handmade items or other products, with
the price on the back of the card.  Use a hole punch to punch a hole in the
corner of your biz card, and run a piece of string or small satin ribbon through  the hole, and attach to your product.
5.Double-sided Biz Cards…  These business cards may cost a little more,
but you can make them work even harder for you.  Instead of having
blank dead space on the back of your cards, you can have that area working
for you too.  On the back of the biz card you could offer a special discount
for a first purchase.  This will motivate people to hang onto your biz card.
 6. Mini Billboards…  if you have a website and e-mail always make your
 biz cards mini billboards for your on-line marketing too.  Always include your
 website and e-mail address, on your biz cards.  This can be a great way to
 utilize double sided biz cards also.  On the back of the card could be a “short
 attention grabbing ad” for your website.

What?!  You don’t have a website and use e-mail marketing for your
small or local home biz?  If not, you are missing out on a great opportunity!
The internet is where it’s at for small biz now!  Find out how the Internet
can help your business! with  a gold nugget of a little book called
“Insider Internet Marketing” An easy to read… paint by number little book
that will get you started on the fast track to profitable internet marketing.

 As you can see, your business cards can be tireless hardworking salesmen for your products and services. I hope the suggestions presented above, have sparked more ideas, on how you could use your biz cards to promote your products and services.