video inspiration Monday: a video business success story

Last week, I got this email from Wendi of Shiny Happy World:

“I decided to commit to video in a big way in January of this year. I noticed two things…

1. A lot of people want to learn to sew, but they’re frustrated with commercial patterns and typical sewing books.

2. The only thing that ranked higher than my sewing tutorials in Google searches was video tutorials.

I decided to start a site especially for beginning sewists and embroiderers. I post two free videos every week – one teaching a sewing technique and the other teaching an embroidery stitch. I design patterns especially for beginners, with lots of step-by-step photos and LINKS to those free videos. I don’t release a pattern until I have videos demonstrating every skill that my reader will need to complete the project.

The site is still growing – but it’s growing steadily. I’ve got over 1000 subscribers to my mailing list and my pattern sales have doubled every month since January. And it’s all because of VIDEO! I was really nervous about being on camera at first, but it’s gotten much easier with practice, And I love the feedback I get from my readers!”

I’m sure some of you remember that in a previous post I mentioned that how-to videos of your process weren’t always the best marketing tool.  Well, Wendi is the exception to this rule because her product – patterns – are targeted at other makers. And her videos are perfectly poised to help her sell more of those patterns.

Wendi is the perfect example of how when you develop a strategy for your videos that takes into account your target market and your end goals, it can have a big impact on your business.

Thanks to Wendi for sharing her story and for letting me share it with all of you!  I hope this has inspired you to make video a bigger part of your business!

And don’t forget to upload those videos to YouTube with the tag “craftMBA” – the video challenge ends tomorrow!