Welcome to Business of Craft, a show designed to help entrepreneurs with fabric or fiber businesses become more successful.
This is our 8th season of BOC and today we have another solocast to cover one of the topics in our new book, Marketing Magic for Savvy Craft Businesses. I’m super proud of this book which my whole team wrote in 2025. The book is available for sale in Kindle and print version (and soon to be audio) on our website or Amazon.
Listen to it on Spotify, iHeartRadio, iTunes, and PlayerFM,
Thank you for taking the time to listen! If you’re enjoying the show, it’s safe to assume there are others out there like you who would also enjoy the show. Help them find it by leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Don’t forget to subscribe to stay on top of the latest episodes!
I’m your host, Leanne Pressly- I’m the founder and CEO of Stitchcraft Marketing and we talk about all things craft marketing here on the show. Today we’re asking a really fundamental question. Who is your customer, really?
If you’re tempted to answer with, “Oh, anyone who likes to knit,” or “People who buy fabric,” then stick around — because this episode is definitely for you.
Chapter 4 of our book dives into a fundamental truth of marketing magic: you cannot sell to everyone.
You can try, sure — but I always say if you market to everybody, you’re connecting with nobody.
That’s why we talk so much about customer avatars at Stitchcraft Marketing. You might also hear this term referred to as a persona or an ideal customer or a target customer. A customer avatar is a detailed profile of just that…..your ideal customer. It’s the person your marketing efforts should be speaking to — directly, personally, and emotionally.
And again, I’m not here to tell you to turn away customers…. I often use a fishing metaphor when describing the difference: Which is you’re going to have your net ready and of course you’re going to sell to any fish that swims in your net, but we are going to be really strategic about the kind of lure we want on the end of our line when we’re trying to catch the big one!
When you know your avatar, marketing becomes easier — because now you’re talking to someone instead of shouting into the void.
When I teach about the avatar, I have a quadrant of four different sections that we think about when we’re identifying our avatar… and in the book, we cover all four of them and we have some cool illustrations and we even have an extensive questionnaire and worksheet to help you really nail down your avatar.
Today, we’ll go over one of those areas in the quadrant– which is about HOPES.
For example, if your ideal customer is a 52-year-old crocheter named Carol, maybe she’s not just looking for cheap yarn. Maybe she’s looking for connection, peace, or the joy of making something for her grandkids. Her HOPE is that when her daughter in law opens her blanket at the baby shower, she has a sense of pride, of family and something warm and fuzzy in her heart.
That’s the real key to understanding this section of our avatar quadrant HOPE! — identifying the emotional motivators behind the purchase.
Because here’s the thing: people don’t buy products. They buy feelings. They buy identity. They buy community. They are really buying HOPE.
Let me share a story from one of our clients — they had a line of luxury knitting needles, priced at the high end of the market. At first, their marketing emphasized craftsmanship and materials. But when we got clearer on the avatar — we discovered their customer wasn’t just interested in quality. She wanted to feel elevated as a maker. She wanted tools that matched her identity as an experienced, stylish, and serious crafter. Once we positioned the brand to reflect that, we could craft better marketing strategy and messaging.
So here’s a reflection moment for you:
Grab your notebook and jot this down —
Who is your most loyal customer?
What is one of their HOPES when they buy from you?
What’s motivating them to buy from you and not the competition?
I often get asked if you can have more than one and the answer is yes! And we go through those examples in depth in the book. There is a way to finesse that, however because most of you are using the same newsletters, the same social channels to reach your entire audience.
Another example I often cite is our client Eucalan-and we worked with Jen and her team for about a decade at the agency. She had three distinct avatars for her delicate wash product. We had fiber makers- such as handknitters or crocheters, we had what we called “eco baby mamas” and we had lingerie enthusiasts. Our strategies and our messaging and even our segmented offerings were all distinctly different. It was never just a one size fits all approach. We found the more specific we could get with our segmenting, the more robust sales were for those avatars.
Before I wrap up, I want to be clear: crafting your avatar is not about limiting yourself. It’s about clarity. When you focus your message on one well-defined audience, others will still find their way to you — but now you’ve got a magnetic pull instead of a generic push.
And remember — your brand is not the hero. Your customer is.
You’re the guide. The mentor. I always say, you need to be the “problem solver” and the heroine that helps your customer shine! The magical support character that helps them have an experience in your store and guides them on their journey.
You know you can get it right with some of the other aspects of looking at your avatar like are they female and how old are they but the most successful clients that I work with really know how to level up with this. They deeply understand their customer and what motivates them. Once they have that, they can craft a customer experience that far surpasses their competitors.
When you get that right, marketing really does start to feel like magic.