I can’t believe it. My colleague and I have been talking a lot about creative ways to market products on eBay. Eveyone has heard of eBay, bought something, sold something, or maybe even been “scammed”. My colleague has been a Gold Power Seller on eBay for some time and recently sent me this ebay completed listing. He recommended that I have all clients do a listing like this every once in a while. Check this out:

I’m selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn’t notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.

You haven’t lived until you’ve gone grocery shopping with six kids in tow. I would rather swim, covered in bait, through the English Channel, be a contestant on Fear Factor when they’re having pig brains for lunch, or do fourth grade math than to take my six kids to the grocery store. Because I absolutely detest grocery shopping, I tend to put it off as long as possible. There comes a time, however, when you’re peering into your fridge and thinking, ‘Hmmm, what can I make with ketchup, Italian dressing, and half an onion,’ that you decide you cannot avoid going to the grocery store any longer. Before beginning this most treacherous mission, I gather all the kids together and give them “The Lecture“.

“The Lecture“ goes like this…

MOM: “We have to go to the grocery store.”

KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“

MOM: “Hey, I don’t want to go either, but it’s either that or we’re eating cream of onion-ketchup soup and drinking Italian dressing for dinner tonight.”

KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“

MOM: “Now here are the rules: do not ask me for anything, do not poke the packages of meat in the butcher section, do not test the laws of physics and try to take out the bottom can in the pyramid shaped display, do not play baseball with oranges in the produce section, and most importantly, do not try to leave your brother at the store. Again.”

OK, the kids have been briefed. Time to go.

Once at the store, we grab not one, but two shopping carts. I wear the baby in a sling and the two little children sit in the carts while I push one cart and my oldest son pushes the other one. My oldest daughter is not allowed to push a cart. Ever. Why? Because the last time I let her push the cart, she smashed into my ankles so many times, my feet had to be amputated by the end of our shopping trip. This is not a good thing. You try running after a toddler with no feet sometime.

At this point, a woman looks at our two carts and asks me, “Are they all yours?” I answer good naturedly, “Yep!

“Oh my, you have your hands full.”

“Yes, I do, but it‘s fun!” I say smiling. I’ve heard all this before. In fact, I hear it every time I go anywhere with my brood.

We begin in the produce section where all these wonderfully, artistically arranged pyramids of fruit stand. There is something so irresistibly appealing about the apple on the bottom of the pile, that a child cannot help but try to touch it. Much like a bug to a zapper, the child is drawn to this piece of fruit. I turn around to the sounds of apples cascading down the display and onto the floor. Like Indiana Jones, there stands my son holding the all-consuming treasure that he just HAD to get and gazing at me with this dumbfounded look as if to say, “Did you see that??? Wow! I never thought that would happen!”

I give the offending child an exasperated sigh and say, “Didn’t I tell you, before we left, that I didn’t want you taking stuff from the bottom of the pile???”

“No. You said that you didn’t want us to take a can from the bottom of the pile. You didn’t say anything about apples.”

With superhuman effort, I resist the urge to send my child to the moon and instead focus on the positive - my child actually listened to me and remembered what I said!!! I make a mental note to be a little more specific the next time I give the kids The Grocery Store Lecture.

A little old man looks at all of us and says, “Are all of those your kids?”

Thinking about the apple incident, I reply, “Nope. They just started following me. I’ve never seen them before in my life.”

OK, now onto the bakery section where everything smells so good, I’m tempted to fill my cart with cookies and call it a day. Being on a perpetual diet, I try to hurry past the assortment of pies, cakes, breads, and pastries that have my children drooling. At this point the chorus of “Can we gets” begins.

“Can we get donuts?”

“No.”

“Can we get cupcakes?”

“No.”

“Can we get muffins?”

“No.”

“Can we get pie?”

“No.”

You’d think they’d catch on by this point, but no, they’re just getting started.

In the bakery, they’re giving away free samples of coffee cake and of course, my kids all take one. The toddler decides he doesn’t like it and proceeds to spit it out in my hand. (That’s what moms do. We put our hands in front of our children’s mouths so they can spit stuff into them. We’d rather carry around a handful of chewed up coffee cake, than to have the child spit it out onto the floor. I’m not sure why this is, but ask any mom and she’ll tell you the same.) Of course, there’s no garbage can around, so I continue shopping one-handed while searching for someplace to dispose of the regurgitated mess in my hand.

In the meat department, a mother with one small baby asks me, “Wow! Are all six yours?”

I answer her, “Yes, but I’m thinking of selling a couple of them.”

(Still searching for a garbage can at this point.)

Ok, after the meat department, my kids’ attention spans are spent. They’re done shopping at this point, but we aren’t even halfway through the store. This is about the time they like to start having shopping cart races. And who may I thank for teaching them this fun pastime? My seventh “child”, also known as my husband. While I’m picking out loaves of bread, the kids are running down the aisle behind the carts in an effort to get us kicked out of the store. I put to stop to that just as my son is about to crash head on into a giant cardboard cut-out of a Keebler elf stacked with packages of cookies.

Ah! Yes! I find a small trash can by the coffee machine in the cereal aisle and finally dump out the squishy contents of my hand. After standing in the cereal aisle for an hour and a half while the kids perused the various cereals, comparing the marshmallow and cheap, plastic toy content of each box, I broke down and let them each pick out a box. At any given time, we have twenty open boxes of cereal in my house.

As this is going on, my toddler is playing Houdini and maneuvering his little body out of the seat belt in an attempt to stand up in the cart. I’m amazed the kid made it to his second birthday without suffering a brain damaging head injury. In between trying to flip himself out of the cart, he sucks on the metal bars of the shopping cart. Mmmm, can you say “influenza”?

The shopping trip continues much like this. I break up fights between the kids now and then and stoop down to pick up items that the toddler has flung out of the cart. I desperately try to get everything on my list without adding too many other goodies to the carts.

Somehow I manage to complete my shopping in under four hours and head for the check-outs where my kids start in on a chorus of, “Can we have candy?” What evil minded person decided it would be a good idea to put a display of candy in the check-out lanes, right at a child’s eye level? Obviously someone who has never been shopping with children.

As I unload the carts, I notice many extra items that my kids have sneaked in the carts unbeknownst to me. I remove a box of Twinkies, a package of cupcakes, a bag of candy, and a can of cat food (we don’t even have a cat!). I somehow missed the box of Pokemon cards however and ended up purchasing them unbeknownst to me. As I pay for my purchases, the clerk looks at me, indicates my kids, and asks, “Are they all yours?”

Frustrated, exhausted from my trip, sick to my stomach from writing out a check for $289.53, dreading unloading all the groceries and putting them away and tired of hearing that question, I look at the clerk and answer her in my most sarcastic voice, “No. They’re not mine. I just go around the neighborhood gathering up kids to take to the grocery store because it’s so much more fun that way.”

So, up for auction is an opened (they ripped open the box on the way home from the store) package of Pokemon cards. There are 44 cards total. They’re in perfect condition, as I took them away from the kiddos as soon as we got home from the store. Many of them say “Energy”. I tried carrying them around with me, but they didn’t work. I definitely didn’t have any more energy than usual. One of them is shiny. There are a few creature-like things on many of them. One is called Pupitar. Hee hee hee Pupitar! (Oh no! My kids’ sense of humor is rubbing off on me!) Anyway, I don’t there’s anything special about any of these cards, but I’m very much not an authority on Pokemon cards. I just know that I’m not letting my kids keep these as a reward for their sneakiness.

Shipping is FREE on this item. Insurance is optional, but once I drop the package at the post office, it is no longer my responsibility. For example, if my son decides to pour a bottle of glue into the envelope, or my daughter spills a glass of juice on the package, that’s my responsibility and I will fully refund your money. If, however, I take the envelope to the post office and a disgruntled mail carrier sets fire to it, a pack of wild dogs rip into it, or a mail sorting machine shreds it, it’s out of my hands, so you may want to add insurance. I will leave feedback for you as soon as I’ve received your payment. I will be happy to combine shipping on multiple items won within three days. This comes from a smoke-free, pet-free, child-filled home. Please ask me any questions before placing your bid. Happy bidding!

If you’re still reading now, you are definitely on you way to success. Commitment and dedication to read such a long description of a product will pay off for you. What can we learn from this:

• Sometimes a fun story about how you got a simple product can really help it sell. It doesn’t have to be something extravagant, in perfect condition, or even very valuable to you. However, you may find, as this seller did, that a good story about a product can really pay off.
• Include a “Make sure you check this out and forward it to all your friends” type invitation. This is called “viral marketing” and was probably the only way this eBay seller made over $150 on Pokemon Cards. They had tons and tons of views of the listing and many bids, most likely out of courtesy.

Best of luck in your selling on eBay. Let us all know how this crazy idea worked for you.

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One of the blogs I read alot is by Andy Beal, also known as Marketing Pilgrim. (It’s important to educate yourself all the time.) In the article it talked about some of Forrester’s statistics related to the holiday season for online retailers, of which I want to elaborate on a bit:

1. 61% of online shoppers prefer an e-tailer that offers free shipping. However, 49% say shipping prices do not deter them from buying. My recommendation is to test things. Don’t “give away” your product or lose too much money because of the free shipping option. Add some of the cost of shipping in to the price of the product, charge a small handling fee, and experiment.
2. Only 26% say they would pay for expedited delivery. (It was 45% last year.) It’s good to give clients options. Just be careful not to over promise and under deliver.
3. 55% say they shop online to find products they can’t find offline. Not much to elaborate on here. This is where demand and competition research with keywords comes back to help you.
4. Only 18% would pay extra for gift wrapping (down from 33%). I’ve never even offered this option since most of my stuff is via dropshippers. It would be an interesting experiment to see if you got more sales by offering this service for a small fee.
5. The top categories for online shopper this holiday season? In order: apparel, books, electronics, gift cards and toys. Don’t let this discourage you if you aren’t in one of these industries. Nor do you want your decision on what to sell to be based on these things. It’s important to do something you love to do, not look for what’s hot necessarily.
6. 68% of internet users shop online or research products online. 50% of those users window shop only (research information) and then buy offline. This is interesting—it seems to indicate that only about 1/3rd of internet users are really online shoppers.
7. The higher the income, the more likely a user is to shop or research products online. How relevant is this to what we are doing? The important thing is to think about who your target audience is: do they have money to spend on your products or services? If not, how do you plan to make sales?
8. Here are the biggest deterrents of online shopping in order: credit card security, privacy, shipping costs, quality, return policies, delays and product availability. These are good things to be aware of. Don’t over think though - if you are using systems like PayPal for credit card security and include some type of privacy and return policy information on your website, these things shouldn’t be an issue.

Good luck with sales this holiday season. As I always say, keep the questions coming! Let’s be part of the best online sales holiday in history!

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Will a title like this get some attention?  We shall see, we shall see

But it is a good question, don’t you think?  This question is one I asked myself over and over again, even now at times, for my first website that sells new and used clogging shoes.  It’s a question you have to asked yourself as an eCommerce business owner.  Getting traffic to your site is one thing, but if the traffic doesn’t do anything…

Here are some answers, in the form of questions, I recently gave a client:

• Have you tried any promotions?
• Are you getting people to sign up for something or getting visitor information?
• What do the visitors do when they come to your site?
• How are they finding you?
• Are they coming back?
• If so, what do they do when they come back?

These are questions you have to be able to answer.  Google Analytics or Statcounter.com are tools I use to answer some of these questions. A first time visitor isn’t always that prone to buy until they have a bit of trust with the company.  How can you gain their trust?

Other questions might include:

• Do you have testimonials or feedback on the site to help build credibility?
• Are you answering questions you feel visitors may have?
• Is your site easy to follow?
• Are you focusing primarily on visitor friendliness, search engine friendliness, or both?

There are probably even more detailed questions that you can ask about traffic.  Some others that come to mind would be “What is the path a visitor takes - home page, then ______ page, then back to home page, then ______ page, then CHECKOUT!”

You need to know what path you want the visitor to take; then make it as easy as possible for them to get through that path.  Maybe even give the visitor multiple ways to get through that path (ie. side navigation links, context links, footer links, pictures, etc.)

So, this is a start.  Visitor conversion is an ongoing maze all online business oweners have to figure out.  The bad news is, there really isn’t a “perfect answer” that I’ve found.  Test! Test! Test!  Then record the information, look it over, and decide what’s working best.  Repeat what’s working and stop doing the ineffective stuff.  It’s really about that simple! 

11 Comments »

I talk to clients all the time about internet marketing, search engine optimization, and a variety other things to help them see results with their online businesses. However, when it comes right down to it, it’s all about making sales. Whether you go out and cold call, talk to friends and family, rely on SEO and SMO strategies, or just generate sales over time, the sale has to be made.

Promotions and creative ads can really help you increase sales. I had a client recently who did a “Free Product Promotion” and saw amazing results. Remember, there are two main things I want to happen with a promotion:

1. Make a sale! Obviously this is the best thing because hopefully, by making a sale, you’ll also make money - duh.
2. Get information from the client. Getting names, emails, and contact information of any sort can be almost as good as making the sale. Generally if a visitor does something on your site like give you information, it means they are somewhat interested in what you are offering. Generating leads is actually a business some people focus on. By getting good leads, you can remind them about your business over and over again and eventually they could turn in to a big revenue for your company.

The story below is a perfect example of how this works. It’s also a good example of a well-written press release.

Free Health Drinks Attract Thousands of New Customers to BestHealthFoodStore.net

BestHealthFoodStore.net was offering free health drink samples until they were overwhelmed by thousands of requests from thirsty customers. Daily traffic was steady at about twenty-five visitors a day when store operators suddenly tracked over 2,000 visitors in less than 24 hours.

As the mad dash continued, operators of www.BestHealthFoodStore.net grew uneasy about the costs associated with the promotion. Jane Wakefield, a store owner, said, “We couldn’t believe our eyes as the requests poured in, from one every five minutes, to two or three per minute”. They were forced to discontinue the free health drink promotion.

Smith and Wakefield posted a note on www.BestHealthFoodStore.net mentioning their surprise at the thousands of people who wanted free health drinks. They encouraged visitors to look around the store, use a special code and receive 20% off any purchase. They also offered free health podcasts and articles.

Obviously, this is powerful advertising for a new Internet health food store, but can they afford to send free health drink samples to so many people and stay in business? How many of those people will ever buy anything from BestHealthFoodStore.net? Wakefield answers this question by saying, “It is encouraging that many of the requests reveal a genuine desire for higher quality health products than what is being sold in stores or advertised on TV”. Whether or not there will be enough buyers to keep them in business remains to be seen. For now, though, www.BestHealthFoodStore.net offers all natural, low carb, high fiber foods and health drinks not found at the retail level.

So, as you can see, by doing a creative advertising strategy, this new website business got so much attention they weren’t really sure how to handle it. The important thing is, they’ve learned how effective a creative ad can be to get traffic and build a database to market to now and in the future. I’ve encouraged them to learn from this and make it even more profitable next time. Recording the details of the campaign and then not repeating the mistakes (or repeating the things that really worked) are key to the success of any business.

Now, how are YOU going to implement these ideas with your business plan?

3 Comments »

I recently finish reading “A Crash Course in Marketing” by David H. Bangs and Andi Anxman. Although it was written a few years ago and many of the concepts of eCommerce were out dated, there were really good marketing ideas presented that made me reflect on what I am (and am not) doing with my businesses at this point.

The book covered a lot of ground: from Setting Market Goals to Learning About Your Market to Interacting with Your Customers. As I read the book, I really felt guilty and almost depressed that I’m not doing more for my businesses. Goals, goals, goals - if I don’t write down what I want and need to accomplish, I will never achieve the highest levels of success with any of my businesses.

The authors talk about the 4 P’s of marketing: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. They take it a few steps further than that though. They also include these factors:

• Perception: how your products are perceived by you target market may be more important than any other single factor in marketing. Finding out what your market really thinks about your product is crucial; what you think doesn’t really matter if your target audience doesn’t like it.
• Positioning: how can you position your product or service in the minds of the consumers you are trying to reach? How does what you offer differ from your competitors? Do you even know who your real competitors are?
• Potential: a sure way to lose money is to plunge ahead and market a product without making sure there’s demand in the market. Don’t waist effort on duds. As a small business owner, you don’t have the luxury or financial means to toss a product out there hoping people will all of a sudden want it.
• Professional help: there’s a really good reason why smart business owners invest in expert advice from people that have been there and done that. Think of professional help as an investment in future profits.
• Planning: planning beats hoping and wishing for business success. You need two plans - a business plan and a marketing plan. The business plan helps identify broad opportunities. The marketing plan is the “plan of attack”, putting the goals in motion.
• Product Knowledge: If you don’t know your product (or service), how do you plan to sell it? I really liked this point because far too many times, clients want to sell what’s “hot” at that moment. So does everyone else! In order to avoid multiple learning curves, do something you have some knowledge about. Good presentations move product quickly. If you can’t tell a consumer why your product is good from them, why would they ever buy from you?
• Prioritizing: Marketing can be so overwhelming and complex. Setting priorities is so crucial to the success of your start-up business. You have to set priorities to assure progress toward a certain goal or objective. Some things have to be done before others: market (keyword) research, finding suppliers, setting up the business entity - things like this definitely come before the actual site will be live for all to see. Our main job as business owners is to make sure the important jobs are done first. For this reason, we set goals with timelines on when we want things done.

There were other things talked about but those are some that stuck out to me. As many of my clients have mentioned at one time or another, the feeling overwhelment happens to all of us. The concept of “Small Success leads to Big Success”, if believed in, will really take you to levels you never thought you could get. It’s because of that overwhelming feeling that I encourage clients to write down all the small things that are leading towards their big success. They can then go back and review the progress they’ve made, and their confidence and self-motivation will stay strong.

Probably the best thing I read in the whole book, the information I valued most, was the idea that marketing is an ongoing endeavor. There are always new things to try, experiments to test, and the results can be amazing. The future is bright as we implement what we learn.

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