Should You Market Your Jewelry Through Jewelry Show Demonstrations?

I know many of you sell your jewelry through craft and jewelry shows. Some of you also do demonstrations of your jewelry making techniques in order to market your handmade jewelry. Is this a good idea?

At first glance, this would seem to be an excellent idea. The advantages are that:


1. You attract attention to your handmade jewelry booth which can result
in increased sales.

2. You give credibility to your jewelry line by showing that it is indeed handmade.

3. You may receive positive publicity or even a full fledged story about your
handmade jewelry if the right person happens to be in the audience.

4. You educate the public about how your handmade jewelry is made which makes them feel more comfortable buying from you.

5. You establish a personal connection with your potential customer. People would much rather purchase from an individual they've established a relationship with as opposed to a faceless company or importer.

6. You can have a helper in the audience take photos of your demonstrations to add to your portfolio.


Now, Before you decide that demonstrating your jewelry making to the public is the greatest thing since sliced bread, be aware that there are several disadvantages to using this as a promotional technique:

1. It requires you to bring additional jewelry making equipment with you to shows. As if you don't have enough to carry already!

2. It requires you to tie up some of your booth space for the demonstration which means les space for jewelry display.

3. You may need to hire an assistant to sell your handmade jewelry while you demonstrate. This increases your overhead.

4. Most importantly of all, it keeps you from actively marketing and selling your jewelry as you're tied up with the demonstration.

I've had jewelers tell me that they have tested the market by demonstrating their handmade jewelry at some shows, while spending the time at other shows actively selling and marketing their jewelry. Guess which one resulted in more sales! The shows where the jewelry designer actively interacted with customers as a salesperson won out by a significant margin.

Does this mean you shouldn't demonstrate your jewelry making skills at all? Not necessarily. You will need to see what works for YOU. Much of your success will depend on you and how your audience responds to you. Only testing will determine if this is a successful marketing technique for you to add to your arsenal.

Here are some suggestions for a successful handmade jewelry demonstration:

1. Don't use fancy, technical jewelry making language when you demonstrate. Keep it simple using only terms that a layperson can understand. No one wants to hear terms like repousse or etchant tossed about. They'll quickly get bored and head to the next booth.

2. Talk about what makes the piece you e making so special, again, using simple terms that your audience can understand. Are the materials you're using unusual? Is the technique an unusual one or one that very difficult to perfect? Did you develop a unique method to make this particular piece of jewelry? These are all factors that may make your handmade jewelry special to your audience.

3. Illustrate with lots of stories to break up the monotony. Customers love a well told story that brings your product to life!

4. As you demonstrate, give them ideas and suggestions on how to wear your jewelry. Sometimes a simple, practical suggestion for how to put your handmade jewelry piece to use is enough to spark a sale.

5. Add some humor to your demonstration. Think about those T.V. ads you see during the Superbowl. Almost all of them incorporate humor to make their point. If they're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for those ads, don't you think humor must be working?

6. Hire an additional assistant to sell your handmade jewelry while you're demonstrating. You can't afford to ignore customers.


If you've done jewelry demonstrations in your craft booth in the past, let us hear about your experience in the comment section. It'd be great to see if you think it helped your sales since there seems to be such a diversity of opinion. It's always important to test new ideas? Why not give a handmade jewelry demonstration a try?

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