The Importance of Valuing Your Work For Your Marketing – with Inkifi*
[Sponsored content] I’ve never been good at valuing my own work for it’s own sake. A school swot, it always took high marks and the approving nods of teachers for me to feel successful, and to see my activities as valuable. Creating for it’s own sake is not something that wholly makes sense to that motivational part of my brain. So when Inkifi got in touch to see if I’d like some prints of my Instagram pictures, it didn’t quite compute – what would that be for?
But of course, appreciating and enjoying your own work is the first step to feeling successful and valuing your work on its own terms. If you can’t enjoy it for reasons other than the financial gain it might bring you, then how on earth can you expect others to enjoy it? This was one of my founding principles when I started Simple & Season; every piece of content had to be something that I would want to read.This I like to think of as your work’s intrinsic value. Rather than it being the sum of its parts, this value is the life it takes on when it is whole. It’s when a picture of a cup of tea and a pile of books becomes a story about a cosy afternoon behind rain-streaked windows, or when a handmade jug becomes the centrepiece of weekend breakfasts and birthday spreads. The intrinsic value is wrapped in the possibilities of what your work can provide; how it can change lives in tiny or in huge ways.
Only when you yourself appreciate and value this intrinsic value of your work can you begin to effectively communicate and sell it to your target audience.
Value and Selling
Of course, when talking value we so often wind around to talking about money. Often in our burgeoning online industries there is confusion about what we should charge, or even if we should charge at all, while makers similarly will often price on parts and labour, rather than take into account the intrinsic value of their work. When we’re pricing, this intrinsic value must always be taken into account.Perhaps this stems from the undervaluing of creativity generally in our society. A throwaway consumer culture sees the cheapest rise to the top, with artisanly made items often overlooked in favour of cheaper knockoffs that can be replenished every few months. The same is true of services – most often when looking at coaches or designers we’ll go straight to the price and compare from there, rather than looking at all the value that goes above and beyond the pound sign.
But let’s not get too depressed, ay?! The tides are slowly turning and handmade and independent businesses are starting to be valued again. All the same, it can be incredibly tempting to slash prices in those quiet weeks. During these periods, knowing and believing in the intrinsic value of your product will help you remain firm in your pricing strategy. Ultimately, if you want people to value your product you must value it too – and that means standing by your pricing.But more than standing by your value, you must be evangelical about it. We can’t expect our customers to just get why the product you make is £400 when they can get something similar in Ikea for £100 – it’s not their job to know, it’s your job to tell them. This is where we take up arms against the throwaway culture and use our belief in our value to passionately demonstrate it and educate our potential customers.
Value and Content
Of course, I don’t mean ramming it down their throats. This is where we get clever with our content and use our blogs, email newsletters, social media channels and any other platforms at our disposal to demonstrate our value. Behind the scenes Instagram Stories or a blog post detailing the origin of your materials can help a customer understand the work that goes into each piece, and therefore understand your pricing. Use testimonials or User Generated Content to demonstrate longevity and value over time. Getting your customer to understand what goes into the making of a product lets them in on its value.However, it is the intrinsic value that will ultimately sell your product. Getting people to buy into the possibilities it holds to make their life more valuable. This is what we’re doing when we take pictures of products in beautiful settings, when we share recipes for their next dinner party, when we write about what their life will be like after purchase. We make decisions in the same part of our brain that controls emotions, so when we communicate value in an emotional way, it has more impact.
Value and Development
Lastly, the more you appreciate your work’s value, the more it helps you to improve. I sit here now looking at my Inkifi prints, at some of my more popular compositions, and I can appreciate what went into them to make them successful. I can value them for their own sake, and see how I could maximise that value in future iterations; only by truly knowing and believing in the value of your work can you begin to increase it.
*This post happened because it was sponsored by Inkifi – although all words are mine and from the heart.
Pin for later:
