Prep for the Holidays EP5: Get a Jump on Holiday Marketing with Product Mockups & Samples

Getting featured in print & digital gift guides, getting accepted into big holiday craft markets or selling your items in small boutiques for Christmas all require a lot of advance prep work - that happens way earlier than we think! 

This is where prepping mockups and samples of whatever it is you create can help you get a jump on things! You might not be ready to go into full production mode yet but having a few things prepped and photographed means you have something to show your work when asked! Now you can apply for markets, investigate additional PR or marketing opportunities and get your product into shops! 

Tune in and gear up for a successful holiday season.

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You can find Melissa at finelimedesigns.com, finelimeillustrations.com or on Instagram @finelimedesigns.

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And She Looked Up Creative Hour Podcast

Each week The And She Looked Up Podcast sits down with inspiring Canadian women who create for a living. We talk about their creative journeys and their best business tips, as well as the creative and business mindset issues all creative entrepreneurs struggle with. This podcast is for Canadian artists, makers and creators who want to find a way to make a living doing what they love.

Your host, Melissa Hartfiel (@finelimedesigns), left a 20 year career in corporate retail and has been happily self-employed as a working creative since 2010. She's a graphic designer, writer and illustrator as well as the co-founder of a multi-six figure a year business in the digital content space. She resides just outside of Vancouver, BC.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the and she Looked Up podcast.
Each week, we sit down withinspiring Canadian women who
create for a living.
We talk about their creativejourneys and their best business
tips, as well as the creativeand business mindset issues all
creative entrepreneurs strugglewith.
I'm your host, melissaHartfield, and after leaving a
20-year career in corporateretail, I've been happily

(00:32):
self-employed for 12 years.
I'm a graphic designer, anillustrator and a
multi-six-figure-a-yearentrepreneur in the digital
content space.
This podcast is for the artists, the makers and the creatives
who want to find a way to make aliving doing what they love.
Hello everyone, and welcome toanother episode of the and she

(00:57):
Looked Up podcast.
As always, I'm your host,melissa, and this week we are
back with another episode in ourPrep for the Holidays mini-sode
series.
So for those of you who are newto the show, this Prep for the
Holidays series that we're doingis a whole bunch of mini-sodes
that we are running every weekduring the summer and into the

(01:20):
fall and early winter, probablydesigned to help all of our
makers, artists, creativeservice providers and content
creators who listen to the showget ready for the busy holiday
selling season.
So for most of you, q4 is whenyou bring in the bulk of the
revenue in your creativebusiness, and to do that, it

(01:43):
requires a lot of prep, and,unfortunately, a lot of that
prep has to be done during thesummer months.
So that is why we are doingthis series now, and the idea
being that, each week, theepisode that we air, the one
task that we cover in thatepisode, is a task that you
should be working on right now.
So what are we going to betalking about this week?

(02:06):
Because we are, I think, ontask number five this week, and
so, for this episode, we'regoing to start talking about
getting into production mode,and we're going to be talking
about a very specific part ofproduction mode.
So production mode is when youactually start making the thing
that you're going to be selling.
So it's when you start paintingthe paintings, printing the

(02:28):
greeting cards, making thejewelry, crocheting the coasters
, whatever it is that you makethat you're going to be selling.
This is the time where we startproducing that product, that
product.
If you are a content creator,this is the time where you are

(02:49):
probably starting to write yourblog posts, get your content
shared on social media throughPinterest, so that you can start
getting all your SEO juice intime for the actual holiday
season.
If you're a creative serviceprovider, this episode might not
work as well for you, as I'vebeen trying to think of how we
can incorporate something ineach episode to appeal to

(03:12):
content creators and creativeservice providers, and I think
this might be the first episodethat we've done that.
May not work for those of youwho are creative service
providers, but have a listen andsee if you can pluck something
from it that you're able to useas you get ready for the
holidays.
Because what we're going to betalking about today is coming up

(03:35):
with mock-ups, and there's avery specific reason why I
wanted to talk about mock-upsbefore we get into the actual
production episode, which we'llprobably do next week.
Mock-ups are when you createbasically a mock-up of the
products you're going to bemaking.
So that could be for ourlisteners.

(03:56):
It could be so many things itcould be.
You know, maybe you make cutelittle crocheted stuffies, so
now is the time where you wantto get one or two of those
whipped up really quickly.
If you are a painter, you wantto have some of the things that
you're going to be sellingalready ready to go, so that

(04:19):
people can see what they looklike.
And there's a very importantreason for this because and
we're going to be getting intoall of this in coming episodes
but if you want to pitchyourself for gift guides whether
they be magazine gift guides orblog gift guides or anywhere
where people put together gifts,curated lists of potential

(04:42):
presents for the holiday seasonIf you want to get your product
on any of those, you are goingto need to be able to send
photos of those items out reallyearly on.
Those things are prepped monthsin advance.
In fact, if you are looking toget into print magazines, it's
probably too late.
Usually those need a six monthlead time.

(05:02):
So if that is something thatyou would like to do in the
future, you need to startthinking, probably about that
for next year.
So if there's one or two itemsthat you hope to get into
Christmas gift guides in printmagazines next year, you
probably want to make sure youhave your mock-ups and your
photos done in February, march,so that you can start getting

(05:23):
those out.
But if you are looking to takepart in things that are more
online so whether it's a lot ofbloggers put together gift
guides for the holiday season, alot of websites put them
together.
Even local newspapers put themtogether.
They start looking for thingsaround this time of year.
So August, september they startpulling together ideas and

(05:47):
coming up with themes thatthey're going to use for their
gift guides.
So now is the time where you'regoing to want to start pitching
those.
We'll get into that in anotherepisode.
But before you can pitch, youneed to be able to show them
what it is that you're going tobe selling, and the best way to
do that is with a photo.
So you're going to want tocreate mock-ups for that.

(06:09):
This doesn't have to be aperfectly finished product.
It doesn't have to be all thecolors of the rainbow that you
might be making it in.
It doesn't have to be everysingle product that you're going
to be making.
So you know, if you're ajewelry designer, it doesn't
have to be earrings, rings,necklaces, everything.
It could just be one or twoparticular items that you think
are going to do well.

(06:30):
So maybe it's one set ofearrings or one necklace, or
maybe you're bundling themtogether into like a gift box
type thing, where they get thenecklace and the earrings as a
set.
That might be something youwant to feature in a gift guide,
and so you're going to want tobe able to create photos of
those, and that means you'regoing to need to show it in the
gift box or a lifestyle typephoto something so that the

(06:55):
people who are evaluatingproducts for their gift guides
can get a really good idea ofwhat it's going to be, but also
so that they can see yourpictures and see how that might
fit into the overall theme ofwhat they're doing.
This is also a really good timeto write up a brief blurb about
the particular product that youwant to get out there, because

(07:16):
they are going to want somethingalong those lines too.
They're going to want to knowpricing and, like I said, we'll
get into that in a futureepisode.
But this is why you need tostart prepping mock-ups of your
products now and, like I said,it doesn't need to be every
single color that you're goingto be selling.
It doesn't need to be everysingle design.
It just has to be one or twocarefully chosen items and if

(07:37):
you think that you know whatyour big seller is going to be
or what you're kind of bankingyour season on, you want to make
sure that's one of the items.
You're also going to need theseif you want to do in-person
markets.
A lot of in-person markets askfor pictures of your work as

(07:57):
they're deciding who to includein their markets.
We're going to be talking aboutfinding markets to take part in
again in a future episode, butfor now, you're going to want to
start having a little bit of aphoto gallery that you can send
off to the markets that you'reinterested in, particularly
juried markets.
Juried markets are the oneswhere they evaluate you against

(08:21):
other people in the same niche,you against other people in the
same niche.
So, using jewelry as an example, if they get 20 jewelry
submissions, they may havealready decided they only have
room for five jewelry booths,and so they're going to be
evaluating you against thoseother 19 jewelry submissions to
decide.
And so this is where thingslike your photos and your little

(08:43):
blurbs about what you're goingto be selling can be really
helpful to the market organizer.
Market organizers also like tohave images of your items so
that they can market the market.
They want to be able to showpeople who might be attending
the kinds of products thatthey're going to have.
They want to be able to featurevendors all of those things.
So it's really important andthese things start early.

(09:05):
I know it seems really weirdthat you need to have your
pictures ready by August and orvery early September at the
latest, and, to be very frank,I'm terrible at doing this.
This is something I reallystruggle with, and so you know
it really does require workingin advance and having a very
clear idea of what it is thatyou're going to be getting out

(09:26):
there.
It doesn't mean that you can'tcome up with something else that
you don't have photos for.
It just means you need to haveenough photos to put before
somebody, to show them, to givethem a sense of the type of work
that you do, so they can see ifyou're a good fit for their
market.
Same with the gift guides andthings like that.

(09:47):
You really are just trying togive them a sense of what you're
all about, what your style is,what your branding is, what you
know.
Are you bright and bold?
Are you more like calm andneutral?
Are you for kids?
Are you for adults?
Like where?
Where do you fit into the mix?
As they start to put togethertheir uh market vendor lists or

(10:09):
their gift guide products, theyneed to have a good sense of
what you're all about.
So this is why it's soimportant to start getting
mock-ups done and start gettingthem photographed, um, start
writing up your blurbs.
One of the things I do uh, tomake it easier for myself and
hopefully for the vendors that Iwork with is I've created a
Google Drive folder and in thatGoogle Drive folder I keep

(10:32):
product photos, and these arethe product photos that I don't
mind the vendors using in theirmarketing.
So I'm able to give them a linkto my Google Drive and say you
can use any of the photos inhere.
Or, if I'm applying for amarket, here's a link to all of
my product photos, as well as alink to my website and my Etsy
shop to show them that theseproducts do sell online and all

(10:53):
those things.
So you can't do that if youdon't have the photos.
So that's the first thing youneed to do.
You need to create some rough,mocked up products, get them
photoed as beautifully as youcan to show what you're all
about.
You can also use your olderproducts for this.
So if you've got things thatsold really well for you last
year and you've got photos ofthem, or you've already got the

(11:14):
product on hand and you can takesome photos of them.
You can do that too, but it isnice to be able to show new
things.
Particularly if you do the samemarkets over and over again or
if you've already submittedthose items to gift guides, they
may not want to feature themagain.
They're looking for new thingsthis year, so it is nice to have

(11:35):
one or two new things that youcan showcase to whoever it is
that you're trying to convinceshould be doing business with
you.
So that is our tip for thisweek.
Um, mock-ups are something thatyou need to get on top of now
before you're in full onproduction mode, whether that is
soldering, fix jewelry,fastenings or crocheting your

(11:58):
stuffies or, in my case you know, making greeting cards.
I'm not going to be doing myfull production mode just yet,
but I do know it's reallyimportant that I get on top of
creating product photographyfrom mock-ups and at least
getting one version of the newthings printed out or packaged
or all those things.
And going through this processis actually a great thing to do

(12:20):
before you're ordering yourshipping and packing supplies,
because once you've got theproduct mocked up, you have a
very good idea of how large itis, how much it weighs how it's
going to be packaged, and thatcan really help you as you order
your packing and shippingsupplies so that you're not
caught off guard at the lastmoment.
We talked about that in a pastepisode, so if you missed it,

(12:41):
you can go back and have a lookat that.
So that is it for this week'sepisode.
I hope this was helpful and wehave.
If you've missed previousepisodes, you can listen to them
on your favorite podcast app ofchoice or if you're on YouTube,
we have a playlist which I willput in the video description
that has all of the prep for theholiday episodes, and I also

(13:03):
just want to remind you all thatif you are loving the podcast
or you're loving the videos onYouTube, you can support us
through either Patreon orBuzzsprout.
So Buzzsprout is our podcasthost.
They have a fantastic way forour listeners to support us
directly through their podcastapp and for those of you who are

(13:26):
more familiar with andcomfortable with Patreon, you
can support us through there.
All the money that comes inthrough our premium subscriber
support goes to the productionand promotion of the show, and
it also helps keep me motivated.
It's really just really nice toknow that there are people out

(13:47):
there who are enjoying the show,and as a thank you for your
ongoing financial support, youget a free bonus episode every
month that is only available topremium subscribers.
I will put links to all of thatin the YouTube show notes and
they are also in the podcastshow notes on your favorite
podcast app of choice.
So that is it for this week.

(14:07):
I will be back next week withanother tip to help you get
prepped for the holidays, and weare in August now, which means
that we are just two weeks awayfrom us starting to work on
production for season six of theshow, which will be back in
September after the Labor Dayweekend.
So that's it for now, and Iwill talk to you all soon,

(14:30):
thanks.
Thank you so much for joining usfor the and she Looked Up
Creative Hour.
If you're looking for links orresources mentioned in this
episode, you can find detailedshow notes on our website at
andshelookedupcom.
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(14:52):
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(15:14):
Thanks for listening and we'llsee you next week.