The Ultimate Guide to Collaborative Marketing for Indy Pattern Designers
In this blog series on collaborative marketing for pattern designers, I will explore 8 ways to promote and grow your handmade business by working with other designers and engaging in community events. Not sure whether a blog hop or round-up is right for you? This series will break bring all the information together in one place.
If you’re here for the love of knitting, crochet, or crafting—but not the business side—remember: Everyone has the right to a hobby
This series of 9 posts is for the designers and indy crafters who run small buisnesses. Creating patterns, tutorials, and resources is creative, artistic, rewarding, and fun. For many of us, it’s also our business: providing some (or all) of our household income, and we need marketing to help it succeed.
This series covers 8 types of collaborative marketing for indy designers practiced across the crafting world. Whether you knit, crochet, sew, quilt, embroider, or create in another niche, you’ll find strategies to grow your audience, sales, or community.
A Word About Marketing
Here’s the hard truth: A business without marketing is an expensive hobby. Your patterns, designs, and tutorials might be the best in the field—but if no one knows about them, they won’t sell.
This series isn’t about marketing in general. For broader advice, I recommend “Building a StoryBrand”. It’s great for clarifying your message and connecting with customers. If you prefer a craft-specific resource, The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin is tailored to handmade sellers.
Instead, we’re focusing on the unique marketing opportunities crafters create by working together. These collaborations that leverage community, creativity, and build shared audiences.
What is a Collaborative Marketing Opportunity?
A collaborative marketing opportunity is a strategic partnership where designers, makers, or small business owners—often within the same niche—join forces to cross-promote each other’s work. Rooted in the ethos of community over competition, these collaborations leverage shared audiences, resources, and creativity to amplify visibility for everyone involved. Think of it as a “rising tide lifts all boats” approach: by featuring each other’s patterns, hosting joint giveaways, or co-creating content (like blog hops or Instagram takeovers), participants tap into new networks while fostering a supportive, growth-minded community. For craft-based businesses, this might mean teaming up with fellow knitwear designers for a seasonal pattern bundle, or partnering with yarn dyers to showcase complementary products—all while centering values like mutual respect, inclusivity, and shared success.
Your Business Model
Before diving into the opportunities, it’s useful to identify your unique business model.
It has to be said, I don’t see myself as a business advisor. That’s not my comfort zone. If you want help actually writing a pattern, I’m very happy to give advice. Starting from the cover page (internal link) I can talk you through it. And I see my narrow area of business advice to be selling internationally, and being compliant with EU regulations. You can check out my GPSR page.
But when deciding which opportunities are right for you, it’s important to be clear about your business model, your business goals, and desired business outcomes. For example, if your business model is to provide free crochet patterns on a monetized blog, then the first opportunity explored, ‘blog hops’, will be a great opportunity for you. If you sell knitting patterns, with no free resources, you won’t find many blog hops that will suit. However, you may thrive by speaking at knitting summits.
And so, in this preliminary blog, I will provide an index to the 8 blog posts about 8 different types of opportunities, with a table you can cross-check to see which ones might work for you. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter so you know when the post you are interested in goes live.
Selling Patterns versus Free Patterns
Do you sell PDFs on a platform such as Ravelry, Etsy or Shopify? Or do you monetize free-to-the-user content, through a blog, YouTube channel, or similar? 90% of businesses probably do both, but will have a main focus.
The opportunities that help a designer driving traffic to a free blog don’t always work so well for a designer driving traffic to Etsy, so its always worth checking that an opportunity aligns with your goals, before jumping in.
The Marketing Platforms
Some collaborative opportunities help people discover your patterns directly. Others help you find followers. We all need to do both.
The business mentor I follow, Jenny from The Female Entrepreneur School, recommends a small business should have:
At any one point in time, your primary goals might be to build one of these spaces. It’s hard to do it all at the same time. So at this moment, you might have a goal of getting new followers on instagram. Or getting new newsletter subscribers.
When choosing which opportunities to pursue, it’s most important to check that it will align with your current goals. In the table below, you can see each of the opportunities that will be discussed, and which goals it supports. Each week for the next 7 weeks I will post about one of these opportunities in depth, including a breakdown of what it is, how it works, and where you can find out and sign up for these events. Sign up for my newsletter or check back here to see when the opportunity that works best for your goals is posted.
Frequently Asked Questions About Collaborative Marketing for Pattern Designers
A: The best opportunities depend on your goals! Blog hops and round-ups are great for driving traffic to free content, while summits and pattern bundles work well for selling PDFs. Start by identifying your primary goal (e.g., growing your email list, increasing Etsy sales) and match it to the opportunity.
A: Join groups and engage with other designers in your craft. Groups are organised on Facebook, Reddit and instagram, as well as more specific sites such as Ravelry, Many opportunities announced in newsletters—sign up for a few from designers you admire!
A: If you want to grow your audience, build relationships, or boost sales, yes! Collaborations work for businesses of all sizes. Start small—try a single blog hop or guest post—and scale up as you gain confidence.
A: Use the table in this post to match opportunities to your current priorities (e.g., newsletter growth, Etsy sales). For example, if you sell PDFs, focus on summits or pattern bundles. If you monetize a blog, prioritize blog hops and round-ups.
A: Absolutely! Many collaborations welcome new designers. Start with low-commitment opportunities like guest posts or small round-ups to build your network and portfolio.
A: Track metrics like website traffic, social media followers, newsletter sign-ups, or sales during and after the collaboration. Use tools like Google Analytics or Pinterest Analytics to compare performance.
Drop it in the comments below, or email Ciara@TheFairythorn.ie for personalized advice
Jump to the opportunity that’s right for you
A new blog post will be added here each week. Check back, or sign up for my newsletter to see when the one you want to read is live.
Read Post 2 – all about blog hops here.
all about Roundup blog posts post 3 – now published.
Speaking at Summits – post 4 now published.
3rd party publishers – coming next week. Bookmark the page, and check back.