Marketing 101

The very wise Neil of WoodJewellery said something today that made me smile: "There are a great many way to sell. the hardest and least successful one is to sit and wait for sales to come to you."


Necklace from WoodJewellery

So true!

Right now on folksy there are a gazillion forum threads from sellers trying to work out how to improve their sales.

Clare of ClaresCreations
put me on the spot and asked me: "where else do you advertise?"


Clare's fishbowl

Here's an edited version of my answer:

Clare, I don’t often “advertise” in a direct way, but I do spread myself about!

I chat on twitter and facebook, I have a website (address is on my business cards) which is pretty much just an address book so people can find my various links and I blog several times a week. Oh and I hang around etsy and folksy forums.

Right now I’ve sent a couple of meerkats around the world visiting members of my etsy team, and each one is blogging about it and reporting back to their facebook page



baby meerkat from folksy
baby meerkat from etsy

This in turn has given me something to tell the local paper, so they featured me a couple of times and put a video interview on the paper website.

I've even been interviewed on the radio!

I go to local twitter network meetings (next lunch is on Friday!)

I’ve entered harry hill’s K factor knitting competition

So – you might not call much of that “advertising” but in my opinion it all works much much better than going on twitter and saying “I’ve made this, buy it!”

I'm currently working on a blog post about "real" advertising, in particular Project Wonderful (you may have noticed the two advertising slots that have appeared on the right >>>) but it seemed appropriate, in the light of today's threads, to address these other methods today. Please leave a comment with other forms of advertising you find useful.

More about Waggling :-)

Following on from yesterday's post: I am learning to find my red spoon!



(Apparently in American ice-cream parlours, customers are offered tastes of available flavours using tiny little red spoons. The ice-cream vendor isn't saying "buy this flavour", they are giving away a taste, showing the taster how lovely it is - and then they buy!)

Try to identify *your* red spoon - instead of going straight for the sale, what can you give your potential customer for free, to show them how wonderful your work is?

For some online sellers this will be easier than others, I think. Tiny samples of new soap or candle scents, a sample of beads or ribbons, - I'm still pondering this one. What can I offer as a sample? (All suggestions gratefully received!)

No one night stands!

By this rather startling phrase we're reminded that the seller/buyer relationship is most fruitful to us (as sellers) if it's ongoing. Follow up your sales - has the package arrived safely? Create an expectation of a continuing relationship by offering a discount next time, or asking the buyer to sign up for your newsletter.

If you've chosen blogging to be one of your three focuses, remember to make blogging interactive.

• Run a poll - you are an expert at what you do. If it's fashion, then run a poll about the new colours.
  
• Visit other blogs and leave a comment...not just once, often!
  
• Follow up comments left on your own blog.
  
• Share your information, share your networks.
  
• If you're now looking at your blog in a whole new way, are there some earlier posts you can rejig and repost - now that more people than just your mum and best friend are reading your words of wisdom?

If it matters - measure it!

Have you heard yourself saying "oh but I haven't got time to do that..." or "I'm too busy..." ?

Nobody has more (or fewer) hours in the day than I do. I know there is no point spending every waking hour knitting meerkats if I don't make them available for people to buy. Equally, there is no point me polishing my photos and descriptions unless I also knit some stock!

Measure and record how you're spending your time. If you've been on facebook for an hour - fine. It's your choice. How did you spend that hour? Were you networking, building relationships, playing games? Did you suddenly notice it was lunchtime?

You may well find (and we ALL know I'm talking to myself here, don't we?) that your time could be better spent. Remember the advice yesterday - choose THREE. How will you know which three? Check your records. In my own case, twitter has become a great source of contacts, friends, ideas and support. Twitter friend @KToogie gave me the caption for this Emo card when I was stumped!



My final nugget of gold from the FREE Waggleforce seminar was to spend time with my email inbox and go back through past mail. Are there some enquiries that I never got around to dealing with because I was "too busy"? (yes!)
Are there people I could be reminding of my existence by wishing them a Happy New Year? *NB be aware that unsolicited emails on Etsy are spam, and not allowed.*

So - a whole lot of new and not-so-new ideas to consider. I strongly recommend listening to the whole session, and having a wander around the site. There is a section of resources for entrepreneurs which is worth checking out - and above all, do not be afraid that you are missing out if you decide twitter (or whatever) is not for you. Whatever you choose to focus on, do it well and have fun! Life is too short to waste :-)

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Check back tomorrow for a VERY exciting competition!

Let's meet...pjlacasse!

My second interview is with Pamela Jean Lacasse, who runs pjlacasse, a store with beautiful handmade jewellery and original artwork.

Tell us all about you, Pamela :-)

Cats or dogs?

I have a cat, Milow and Two chocolate labs, jack and logan.

Star Wars of Star Trek?

I love both Star wars and I grew up with Star Trek.

Fruit or Chocolate?

Chocolate: life is too short, so enjoy it while we are here, Eat what you want

A woman after my own heart there!

Favourite colour?
green
Yes, I think I could already tell that from your shop!



Favourite meal?

Thanksgiving with all the fixings!!
I confess I don't know a lot about Thanksgiving (I'm in the UK) but I've seen Friends, of course. Thanksgiving will be the meal where Joey gets his head stuck in the turkey!

City break or weekend in the country?

A long walk in the woods, in winter,spring,summer or fall
And Pamela's love of nature really shines through in her work, I think.



How did you get started on Etsy?

Before I came to Etsy, I sold antiques, and jewelry on ebay . I got tired of shipping large packages! and jewelry is harder to sell on ebay. A friend told me about Etsy, I use to sell out of a small shop in New London, NH but her consignment fees went to 50% and it was either cut my price or the item just sat there.

I also do a Christmas fair but all I sell there is my art work and broken china ornaments, similar to the broken china pins, and earrings I sell now.




Do you have a favourite piece?
My green bracelet, that I use for my avatar!



Do you have a top tip for new Etsians?

The best lesson is to network! I opened my shop in August of 08, and I spent money on advertising which was a big waste! It gets you looks but no sales, and then I joined ETTEAM and things have looked up! I have 11 sales and 182 hearts! It may not seam like much but on a site where competition is stiff I think it's not bad, I can't quit my day job yet!

I would like to do enough business to someday quit my day job, as a florist! Like anything in life it takes hard work. I work two jobs (a small part time one at night) I can work at Etsy and take my time!




One last marketing tip: diversify your shop to bring in more traffic...network...on and off etsy. I did a home party before Christmas and did very well...I felt I was not in the other girls league but I held my own. It's hard to sell from a picture, if the customer can't hold it in their hand it's harder to sell it. So when people ask me how to sell on etsy I always say, pictures, pictures, pictures, then description and network!

Thanks Pam - good luck with your shop!