Get the ins and out of custom knife marketing and learn how to improve profits from a maker with years of experience slinging blades.

The most difficult part for crafters is turning themselves into efficient sales and marketing people when they’d rather be throwing pots, building furniture, making knives, blowing glass, sewing moccasins and parkas and the myriads of other craft items people make. Marketing and sales present two different issues; both are necessary for the business to succeed.

Yes, it is a business.

The minute you start working for yourself, full or part time, you no longer have the umbrella of the company you’ve worked for. Now all the financial decisions are on you. Steel or groceries? Both require you to show a profit to draw money from to maintain your materials supply, pay the electric and gas bills, and get your kid’s braces. Paying these expenses is up to your fledgling business. If you have other money coming in from your spouse working, etc., stay out of it. The business needs to support itself. Don’t cut back on the family dog’s food because you need some paint brushes. So, it’s up to you to make it work.

Custom Knife Marketing

Marketing is about getting your name and your work out there for people to see. This is not an overnight happening. It is something you will need to pay attention to throughout your whole career if you want to maintain a public image that helps you sell.

The best venue for your work is shows, books and magazines specific to your genre.

Show promoters take out large ads in magazines. These usually list the names of the crafters participating. Name recognition is important, especially if you wish to draw collectors.

Advertising

For a show I did at the Hyatt Regency in Beverly Hills, the gallery that was representing four of us took out a full-page ad in the magazine that was putting on the show. Those magazines are kept and float around doctor and dental office waiting rooms for years. I had a small ad in Alaska Magazine that I was still getting inquiries from 10 years after the ad was pulled. I worked out the ad wasn’t bringing in enough money to pay for itself, even after 10 years.

Be aware of how much advertising costs you against how much real return you get from it. Maybe it’s better to save those monthly charges and put them toward doing actual shows where people have a face to put with a name.

Photos

Magazines don’t usually send out letters asking you to send them photos of your knives. You need to send them on your own. Don’t inundate them with dozens of photos. Make your choices very carefully. Check with the publication to see what form or format photos need to be in. These need to be high quality and/or high resolution for the magazines to print them or put them on electronic media.

If you’re not a photographer find someone who is, because these photos are the only way the public can see your work, other than shows. So be sure to have them taken or take them yourself. I have taken my own photos for the past 35 years. The rules for good photos are simple. Remember, it’s about your work, not the killer props it’s set up with.

Beware the dangers of Photoshop. The item has to look as good in real time as it does in the photo the magazine prints. If there are flaws, don’t let the customer be the one to point them out. (There is nothing wrong with selling something that isn’t up to your usual standard as long as you’re up front with the customer, and the selling price reflects these issues.)

Knife Shows

Shows can be good, just pick them wisely. If you can sell everything you need to sell by doing only local venues, that’s good. In Alaska I’d be fortunate to sell one piece a year after my prices went up to cover my costs in the late 1980s. I had to do shows to meet the people who would form my future collector base.

On average a well-known show is expensive for most people. Table fees can easily be over a thousand dollars each. Due to the sizes of some of my pieces, I always must have at least two tables because some of the bigger ones are too long to fit on one table. Add a plane ticket to that, the cost of the hotel and food, and you’re close to $5,000. If you’re doing a show in Manhattan, more if you plan on marketing in Europe or Asia.

I have done a lot of shows. I have never done one I could drive to. There’s always a plane ticket involved, the shortest flight being Anchorage, Alaska to Seattle. After that, things can get expensive. Overweight, oversize, extra, etc., those all have costs attached to them. I have traveled with as many as five large aluminum boxes (with snap-off wheels). It does no good if I reach my destination but don’t have anything to sell, so keeping my work safe in transit is very important.

This is a partial list of where I have attended shows, some annually for many years: Manhattan; Meadowlands; Atlanta; Las Vegas; Jersey City; Miami; Orlando; Dallas; St. Louis; Dallas; Denver; Nashville; Scottsdale; San Diego; Anaheim; Santa Barbara; Solvang; San Francisco; Seattle; Tokyo; Milan; Paris; Munich; Solingen; Helsinki; Belgium; and Memphis.

Every year I have attended four or five shows globally traveling from Anchorage. Now I need $20,000 just to cover basic show costs. Multiply that by three and that is where your profit starts. From the beginning I know I have to do at least $60,000 to cover the basic costs of being in business. It is closer to $7,500 in months when my materials are drawing a lot of money from my account.

The one common denominator in all shows is how tired you are when you arrive, and how tired you are when you finally get back home. There is a lot of stress in doing this. A mistake you shouldn’t make is thinking it can be used as a family holiday. This usually ends up with the kids up in your room with a movie menu for the TV, and your spouse right next to you waiting for the sales to show up. It’s better to leave the children at home.

Rolling With The Market

Your spouse is good to have with you for both physical and emotional support. When things aren’t selling because someone just plugged the Suez Canal for the umpteenth time, and that’s 10,000 miles away from you, there is no snappy comeback. When 9/11 took place it killed the New York Show, which was the most profitable show I attended annually. You could roll bowling balls down the aisles the following year. You have just been had by chance and circumstance, two things you have no control over as a speculation-oriented crafter. (A speculation crafter—that’s me—is one who builds something hoping to find a customer when it is finished.)

Moving Forward

If it isn’t selling, make it better next time. The customer is out there, you just need to get this little beauty in front of them. Long-time knife artisan and BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Ron Lake once said, “Some people keep making the same weak design every year, they just make it better. In the end it will always be a weak design.” Avoid this pitfall by looking at your work realistically. Just because it is bright and shiny doesn’t make it craft or art. The quality of the work and the attendant aesthetics are what customers look to before digging in their pockets.

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