Marketing your knives

B

Blackdirt cowboy

Joined
Oct 29, 2015
Messages
301
So I’m just getting into knife making. I’ve made one for myself. I’ve had two family members express interest in a knife, so I thought I would build them one and gift it to them to start getting my name out. Other than that, how did y’all start marketing your knives when y’all just got started. I don’t and never will have Facebook. I do have Instagram, but don’t have a large following there. So I’m just wondering how I can gain some exposure.
 
Sales info typically gets pulled fairly quickly on this forum.

But, if you get to read this... Start with family and referrals. Branch out into local sporting goods stores.

Keep good track of orders. Under promise and over deliver.

Build an email list of previous and potential customers, and sell to them first.
 
I’ve just posted stuff on social media and it all sells pretty quickly. I’ve found in most areas of life if you do good work consistently, it may take a bit, but people will notice.

I’ve made designs I like and others happen to like them too. Instagram is by far the fastest way I’ve sold things. Some Facebook groups have been good as well
 
Personally, I have found there is a pretty wide gap between people's expectations and what is actually possible with a well executed knife. Folks whose knife experience has been with things like Gerber from Walmart don't realize what is actually possible with modern materials and optimized metallurgy. So for marketing, if you're doing your job right, your work is at a level that the typical layman is not familiar with. so that marketing is as simple as demonstrating the quality of your work in a format that people can digest. I found it helpful to summarize specifications and simply demonstrate what the work can do and put it on YouTube and include this information on the sales threads. After a while, people who are looking for high-end work, which all of us here should be striving for, they appreciate it.
 
Please don't take offense, but I definitely suggest making more than 3 knives before even thinking about marketing your work.

You need a body of work to build your name and brand. Build your skills, develop a style or styles and figure out how you want to move forward.

Do you want to take on custom work? Do you want to do template type work? What are your goals? Do you even know if you really like making knives? How much time can you devote? How much money can you devote? Etc.

I'm not trying to be negative but you should do it because you want to do it and not worry about all of the other stuff right now. Learning to make quality knives is tough enough and trying to do everything at the same time is a path that almost always leads to failure. Heck, you can do everything right and still fail.

Hope it helps. I'm around if you have any questions about how I got started and how my work has progressed.
 
Make a quality knife at a competitive price.
Your name is worth ZERO $$ when you start making knives so do not price your knives at the same price of someone whose name adds $$ to the price.

Everyone makes a 3 piece knife, it is not that hard, so keep prices low until your knives are better then similar quality knives.
 
After you have made a hundred or so ... Let your quality do the talking
When you get comments like: I feel like I stole that for X amt of $ from a buyer
Can you make me three more of those blades
or Your style is great can I send you a design to make
Might be time to think of a marketing strategy
Remember this if you make it a policy to invest 30% of the profits into advertising (and stick with it) Hire a good SEO company it will be hard to fail
 
The advice given you by the others is good advice.

The first step is to learn how to make knives.
Next is to learn how to consistently make a god knife.
When you are ready to talk about selling them, get a Knifemaker level membership. Sales talk about specific knives and pricing is restricted to that level and above. Since you are just talking about the possibility of selling, I'll leave this open.
 
All good advice. I agree, I’m nowhere near being ready to sell knives. But it’s good to have a plan and a road map. This will give me some goals to work towards. I really appreciate all the info.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top