Shop Talk Friday: Marketing with Purple Lemon Designs

Guest Blogger: Kelly Rinehart of PurpleLemonDesigns.etsy.com

In the last "Etsy Journey" post on my personal blog, I touched on the social media aspect of marketing my Etsy shop. Today, I am going to touch on other ways I market my shop.

Business Cards

I actually have two business cards that I had printed. One is a part of my packaging that also doubles as a business card. The good thing about this one is that it has a bounce back coupon on it. I also have a standard business card that is just a biz card with my info on it. I actually carry both in my purse. When I get a great dental cleaning or I get a great cashier when I go to the store, I say thanks and hand them the business card with a coupon on it. I give them a quick spiel about what I sell and then I am on my way. Does it work? Who knows…it certainly can’t hurt. Other things I use my business cards for are shop mail outs, (I will talk more about that in a minute), I put them up on bulletin boards, and I sometimes even leave them on the table when I go to dinner.

I also give my regular business cards to EVERYONE I talk to about my business. If you meet people and make that personal connection, they are much more likely to purchase from you. They feel like they are buying from someone they know and can trust. This leads me into my next segment, Talkin’ It Up.

Talkin’ It Up

Some of you are really lucky and talking to people is easy for you. But there are others of you out there saying to yourself, "I am soooo shy! I can’t talk to people about my business! That just isn’t my thing!"

Well, sister (or brother), you have got to get over that. I did. I am the world’s biggest introvert. I am much more comfortable in front of my computer, but I know I can’t sell things to my computer (trust me I have tried – he is just not that into rubber stamps). I have forced myself to talk to people. Let me let you in on a little secret, it is not as hard as you think. It also gets easier the more you do it. People really don’t bite (as much as I thought that they might.)

A little tip when starting up a conversation with someone you don’t know: people love to talk about themselves. Start a conversation with them asking what they do, where they grew up, about their kids, or anything else that relates to them. Make sure that you listen and genuinely care about what they are saying – don’t just wait until they stop talking to run through what you do. Ask questions about what they are saying. Then, once you have gotten a good conversation going with them, I bet that they will ask about you and what you do. Then, don’t dominate the conversation, but quickly tell them about your business using a great elevator speech.

I could go through the ins and outs of developing an elevator speech, but it is much better said by Barbara Lopez for the Design*Sponge biz ladies series. This is an excellent post about developing a speech for those conversations when you get asked, "So what do you do?" You can read the full article here.

My Packaging

I take full advantage of my packaging to advertise my shop to my customers. Your best customers are going to be return customers, so you MUST market to then when they are a captive audience - like when they are opening their purchase from you and they are all giddy from excitement!

Once again, I am going to state this is how I market my shop; I am not an expert; this is what works for me. That being said, I will tell you about my Etsy packaging. This seems to be a very taboo subject around Etsy, but I'm not shy and secretive with my packaging. I use my business stamps to their full advantage:

Remember that dual business card I referred to above? Here it is in action:

I also include a handwritten note on customized stationery for my business.

Then I put all those elements together and voila! - a beautiful Purple Lemon-rific package for a customer to open and enjoy. Hopefully, it will be memorable for them so when they need another stamp or some stationery they will come back to visit.

Hope you enjoyed a little more info about how I market my shop!

Kelly Rinehart
PurpleLemonDesigns.etsy.com

Shop Talk Friday: Ready, Set, Market!

A recent Shop Talk Friday reviewed Project Wonderful, but there are other ways to promote your shop and work to the public online.

Online Advertising Options

Google’s AdWords is an advertising program where you create ads that appear when people search Google, and you can set spending limits, such as a daily budget of five dollars and a maximum cost of ten cents for each click on your ad. Google provides keyword traffic/cost estimates, keyword guidelines for choosing effective keywords, and you only pay per click, and not per display.

The companion to this program, Google AdSense, is for websites which would like to display advertisements, and it can also be a good option for entrepreneurs who would like to also generate revenue.

Yahoo Search Marketing is a program that is very similar to Google’s, allowing you to set your limits, pay per click only, etc. To give you an idea, 2.3 BILLION searches occur on Yahoo every month. Yahoo also provides support, ad testing, keyword guidelines, and more.

Magpie - Here you pay per view, but this is also set up on a similar keyword model. You can target fairly specifically here, and click-through rates tend to be much higher than with traditional banner ads.

Non-Traditional Sources for Promotion

Flickr - Don’t sell off of this photo site, use it to show. Show off new work, work-in-progress, or sold items to give people a feel for your product line. This is a great, easy way to build a network of interested people. Tweet about your postings.

My Etsy Book – This is super easy and can be shared via Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. Like a virtual portfolio or mini, only far more detailed, this is a great widget and you can customize it. You don’t have to use their templates, and can upload pictures, or use plain background colors, as well as move and remove elements.

Forums - Most forums have a promotional thread where you can promote your work, website, shop, or latest coupon or sale. A good one to try is the Crafting and Business Help Community, which is a new forum, but already full of great information and resources. ETT has our own private board there as well.

Handmade Pledge - This is one way to access a huge number of handmade and Etsy lovers, many of whom have provided a link/URL or email address. Use this list for networking and for connecting with others who love what you love.

RSS Feeds - This is a GREAT way to provide customers who are interested with your new products/blog posts/website and shop updates, and more. First, find your feed - usually you will find a small button at the top of your webpage on your tool bar that looks like a small, square orange box. If you click on that, it will take you to a link that looks like this one from my shop:

http://www.etsy.com/rss_shop.php?user_id=6174558

Copy the link, then go to www.widgetbox.com (use the basic, free package) and create a widget that will allow people to sign up to receive your RSS feeds when you update your shop. It’s easy, you don’t have to worry about being labeled as spam, and people can choose to be updated.

Additional Stores - places like Artfire, 1000 Markets, Ebay, and personal websites all provide additional promotional opportunities to promote yourself and your work, for a minimal cost.

The one important thing to remember when using any of these opportunities, or any that you find through your own research is to have specific goals in mind that are achievable and targeted to what you want to accomplish. Sometimes that will be generating traffic for a sale or special promotion, sometimes it will be increasing awareness of your shop, and other times it will be to introduce a new product.

Resources:

Handmade Marketing is an excellent and extensive source of great, usable resources, ideas, and links.

Programmable Web is an excellent resource for widgets, etc, with links and details.

Homework for this week: Spend some time on handmademarketing.org investigating opportunities, or if you don’t think you are ready for that, sit down with paper and a pen and come up with three objectives (goals) for your shop. Make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and have a Timeframe) so that you can determine when and how to meet them, and then begin looking into ways to make those happen.

Next Week’s Shop Talk Friday will be covering wholesaling, so stay tuned!

~ Kristen

Shop Talk Friday: Project Wonderful

Kristen, from FirebirdHouse.etsy.com, has some tips and tricks for getting your advertising feet wet.

I want to Advertise. Now what?

When it comes to deciding where and how you promote/market your shop, do you find yourself lost in a maze of blogs, sites, and complicated information?

If so, take heart. Deciding where to put your promotional efforts, ads, and budget really only requires some good information, a little common sense, and occasional trial and error.

Decisions, Decisions

The Internet can be a lot like a circus, where there is something going on anywhere you look, and all the activities look equally promising and fun. If you have ever been to a three-ring circus, however, and had so much trouble deciding which ring to watch that you ended up only getting bits and pieces of all three, you know that trying to do it all just means you end up scattered.

So let’s start with a good place to begin advertising on the Internet:


Project Wonderful (PW) is an unusual and inventive way of providing ad space to people for what the demand cost actually is, by setting up an auction. If there is no demand or it is small, your cost is equally small, while ads on pages with much larger page views and visitors will cost you more, but only up to what you are willing to spend. This is a great way to spend what you can AND maximize the effectiveness of a smaller budget. They provide excellent stats that are easy to understand, will walk you through the process, and have a lot of help available. It’s a great way to get your feet wet.

Here’s how it works:

You, as the advertiser, bid on advertising slots on websites, which you can choose and target to your needs and to your customer base. If you’re the highest bidder, your ad will appear until someone outbids you. It’s that simple. Your ads can appear immediately, or you can schedule them to appear on a specific date. You set the amount by telling PW how much you want to pay per day to appear on that site.

For example, if you say you want to pay a $1.00 a day for a week, your total cost will be $7.00 max. If someone bids higher, you have the option to raise your amount per day and bid again. It’s all within your control. Since you pay by the day and not per click, you don’t have to worry about fake clicks and fraud.

PW’s powerful search engine can help you find the perfect match for reaching your customers, and you can also set up Ad Alerts, which can tell you immediately if a space you want to advertise on becomes available. They provide extensive data, allow you to compare, see bidding trends for sites, and more. All you need to make really good decisions is right there and easy to read.

You can also set up Google Analytics to track your PW ads by configuring a correct URL that Analytics will read.

Remember: You maximize your advertising dollars by placing ads on sites which reach the maximum number of potential customers for your shop for the least amount of money.

Other good sources of information include:

• Project Wonderful’s blog.
• handmade-business.blogspot.com: ETT team member Sheryl Westleigh’s (noadi.etsy.com) excellent blog on the handmade business.
• etsymarketing.org for great marketing tips, articles, and practical suggestions.

So go over to the Project Wonderful website, read through the ins and outs, then dive in. Got questions? Let us know here on the blog and we’ll be glad to help!

Shop Talk Friday: Marketing

We are bombarded with marketing information in modern life. From the car zipping along the open road with the top down in a Ford commercial to the Goodwill drop off boxes in your office parking lot, our brains absorb and filter hundreds if not thousands of pieces of information every day.

And we forget the majority of it.

The fact that we forget most of what we see or hear explains why the amount of it continues to increase, as companies strive to be the one car ad or ring commercial you remember when you decide to make a purchase.

For smaller entrepreneurs, jumping into the pool of ads, commercials, shows, fairs, and more can seem like diving headfirst into the deep end without knowing how to swim.

So in this article, I am going to keep it simple, list things for you to consider, and some places to go for additional information.

Marketing Basics

In the long run, marketing is simply getting your product in front of people who would like to buy it. Here are some tips, and ways to do it online for free, as well as some things to think about as you plan your strategy.

1. TARGET - Who are you selling to, and what would they want you to say about your product? You’re working with the law of averages here because you can’t know what every one of your potential customers wants to hear. In general, try to aim your message at a target audience. Everything people see that references your store can be considered a message up to a point. That includes your store banner, pictures, descriptions, titles, your blog, and tweets, because all of that and more give people information about you and your work. The main thing is to be consistent as much as you can, and to give some thought to what you are saying about your store and your work. You may have more than one thing to say, so some trial and error may happen before you hit the right note with your customers. Contrary to what the gurus want you to believe, marketing is rarely an exact science.
2. HOW- This is a major consideration for every company, large or small. I am narrowing it this week to Etsy. For Etsy sellers, Etsy does a lot of the groundwork, and they bring in large numbers of potential buyers. Your consideration here is really more how to reach the buyers they bring in and to make your items and store stand out in the crowd. Good ways to do this include:

• Excellent Tagging – Use synonyms, search word helpers like Yahoo and Google, and when in doubt, try searching on the tags you would like to use and see what products pop up. Only one word is allowed per tag box (i.e. “silver”) except for phrases (i.e. “sterling silver”, “cornflower blue”).

• Descriptive Titles - Include potential search words but are also user friendly - those 26 word titles you see sellers sometimes use are not really user friendly.

• SEO Friendly Descriptions – SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. It means using words in your product description that people might use when searching on the Internet. If you describe a bracelet without mentioning the word “bracelet” in the first paragraph, you have missed an SEO opportunity. So an accurate and detailed description is important.

• Good Customer Service - Prompt communication, clear expectations, thanking them for their business, treating people with consideration, unique product packaging. Stand out from the crowd with your “above and beyond” good customer service.

• Coupons and Offers for Repeat Customers – Whether you offer a percentage off, free shipping, or some other benefit, offering incentives for repeat business is a good idea. You can offer them only for customers who spend a certain amount, or use a sliding scale where someone who spends $200 will get a larger percent off on their next purchase than someone who spends $20. Add a sense of urgency by including an expiration date.

• Referral Cards - This is one way to bring in new customers. Offer existing customers a percentage off for every new customer they bring in who purchases. Include a code for both existing customers and new customers to use so you can track it. Limits on these should be clear, and don’t offer more than you are comfortable with.

• Treasuries and Etsy Team Activities – These are simple, give you the power of group promotion, and increase your visibility and reach. Participating in Trunk Shows, Scavenger Hunts, Blog Promotions, etc. puts you and your work in front of more potential customers than you could do on your own, making your efforts more effective. And it’s free.

• Etsy Minis and Trade – Minis can be made either of your store, or of your favorites in other stores. One easy and simple way to use minis is to trade minis with a friend or teammate to reach readers of each other’s blogs. You can also profile a friend or teammate one day a week, once a month, or however often you want to do it, and have them profile you. There are also blogs that look for artisans to profile and these can also be helpful. Do a little research to find them.

Your homework for this week is to think of two new ways to promote your work that you haven’t tried, using this list as well as your own ideas. Some resources for additional information:

The Creative Entrepreneur: A DIY Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real by Lisa Sonora Beam. I have this and am finding it WELL worth the time it takes to do it. {Editor's note: I have this book as well and have found it to be a valuable resource for creative people trying to wrap their heads around business ideas.}

Making a Living In Crafts: Everything You Need to Know to Build Your Business by Donald Clark

Next week, I will be covering a whole host of online sites and promotional opportunities, free and not free, for you to consider as well, and will be writing a separate article on wholesaling considerations. So there is a lot more information to come!

~ Kristen
FirebirdHouse.etsy.com

New Crafting & Business Forum

Becki, from AmbientLights.etsy.com has created a new Crafting and Business Help Community forum/board. She has really put a lot of thought and effort into what looks to be a great place to get business help and chat too! Becki has written a post to introduce the forum...

Announcing....

Crafting & Business Help Community

There are lots of boards out there that you can be a member of, but this is a really special board if I may say so myself ;). I created this Community board by taking the things I like most from other boards, adding my special touch to it, and putting it all together in one fabulous place! My goal is to establish a place where everyone feels at home and can come to see friends, get the help they need for their craft, for their business and for moral support also.

There are a few different forums just for business related topics including advertising, marketing, networking, accounting, shipping, etc as well as a forum just for selling on online venues, and another for wholesaling, fund raising, craft shows, home parties and more.

There are currently eight specific forums for help and tips for your craft, everything from Bath & Body items, Candles, Jewelry, Crafting with Vintage Items, and more. If you think there should be another crafting specific forum that you don't see there, please post your idea in the suggestions forum!

There is a Chit Chat forum to chat about anything in the world you want and also a venting forum... for when you really need to get something off your chest.

Of course we have a Promo You forum (to promote yourself and others). We also have a special Poll forum. You can create a poll question with up to 10 choices for members to choose from to answer your question, and you can set the number of days you want the poll to run for.

The really special part of this board is that while anyone in the world can register and join our Community, there is also a private forum section that is JUST for the Etsy Twitter Team. Vickie (In My Head Studios) already has some great threads started in our private forum.

To sign up for the private forum you must first be a member of our Usergroup. For details about signing up for our Usergroup (it's quick and easy!) please see here.

I look forward to seeing you there at AmbientLights.forumer.com!

~ Becki

Shop Talk Friday: The Recession

Recession. It’s an ugly word, and as the media points out to us, on a daily basis, it means that no one is buying and the economy is frozen as solid as the food in your freezer. But the actual truth is a bit more complicated because people are not as predictable as statistics.

In the height of the depression, two things continued to sell well - jewelry and makeup. The reason for this was actually very practical - they were easy ways to “fix yourself up” for a very small amount of money when the cost of new clothes was out of reach of your budget. It helped people feel better.

Faced with some difficult economic times of our own, we can learn a lot from the marketing techniques used during the 1930s and 1940s. Here are some crucial things we can take away and apply to our own businesses in 2009.

1. Range of Prices – Catalogs of the day show a range of prices from nice things for not a lot of money to nice things for a moderate amount of money. The emphasis is on the range of options for most budgets and on the quality of the merchandise. The upper level price is also considerably less from 1929 to 1932. For example, a dress that sold in 1929 for $45.00 was only about $30 or less in 1932. Retailers realized that even their highest priced items had to be made more affordable in order to be bought.

2. Reducing Costs – One reason that the catalog manufacturers were able to cut their prices so much was that they reduced their own costs. They kept the quality but produced pieces in two colors and styles, instead of five, or used a season-less fabric so that the styles would span summer and fall, for example. I will have some things for you to think about to apply this to your own stores at the end of the article.

3. Emphasis on “Using What You Have” instead of “Replacing” – This is not something many of us have consistently thought of in the last few years. When money is tight, people don’t spend to replace big items like couches and tables as much as they look for ways to use what they have - that means, using a chair cover or tablecloth, getting new drapes, framing a print to fix up a tired room, or buying new earrings for an old dress. With that in mind, it’s good to think about what kinds of smaller or accessory items you can introduce into your shop.

4. Using Creative Marketing Ideas Instead of Traditional Ones – Much of the Depression Glass you see around was a free or low cost giveaway associated with specific products - you bought the product, and would get the glassware for free as part of the purchase. It was a way of adding additional value and it proved to be a real hit. Jelly in glass jars that were actually glasses, and could be used once the jelly was gone, is another example of this kind of creative marketing. My mom still has her jelly glasses! People saw this as the kind of practical buy that helped their money to go farther.

5. Emphasis on Quality - This was consistent from 1930 on, and it was based on a sound idea - that when money is tight, people want to know that what they buy will last. What is “trendy”, “up to the minute”, or the “very latest” in 1929 becomes “classy, timeless, and season-less” in the 30s and 40s, as retailers emphasized that their clothing/housewares/jewelry or etc would look good even if they couldn’t be replaced in the next year. Quality markers such as hand-finished seams, fine durable fabric, and other details become the main points that retailers emphasized.

Some things to think about regarding your own stores: Are there ways to apply these marketing techniques and ideas to your store and/or products? What about bartering or trading for things? Can you make smaller pieces, such as earrings instead of large necklaces, a small doll instead of a life-sized one, or less detailed items such as a plain pillow with one embroidered flower as well as the more time consuming pieces? What about doll clothes as well as dolls? Can you emphasize quality? Is your soap organic, or does it avoid certain oils or chemicals that can make allergies worse? Does a bar last a lot longer than store bought varieties? Can you offer a value added product? Not everybody can, but it is worth thinking about.

Artists can look into creating prints, offering ACEOs, or even painting on found objects such as thrift store pillows (I have friend that does these and they are amazing and very eco-friendly).

I encourage you to brainstorm about some of the things in this article, and see what appeals to you. Talk to your teammates, friends, and family, or leave a comment/suggestion here. I am always happy to help, too, so feel free to email me.

Next week’s article (and the one following) will concentrate mainly on creative marketing ideas, and how to get the best out of your online and offline presence.

Have a great weekend!

Kristen