Topic: Member Workshop: Marketing That Sells™! 5 Powerful Ways to Market Your Niche Business Today!
Host: whatdoisell Date: Monday 06/09 Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific time Location:Workshop Board
Description: When most people think of marketing their niche business, they think about “getting the word out”. But simply getting the word out about your business is not a guarantee of more sales. Please join Lisa Suttora, Founder/CEO of eBay Certified Provider WhatDoISell.com as she outlines 5 powerful marketing techniques that will raise the visibility of your niche business AND generate more sales!
My name is Lisa Suttora and I’m the Founder and CEO of WhatDoISell.com™.
WhatDoISell is a full-service education site for home based online retailers who sell on eBay and beyond.
In today’s workshop, we’re going to talk about a very important part of running your niche business on eBay – marketing.
But not just any marketing.
Marketing That Sells!™
Marketing is often one of the most overlooked aspects of running an e-retailing business.
And many people jump into the “marketing pool” without a plan and end up swimming around with few results.
One of the biggest roadblocks to marketing your small home based business can be your mindset! So often people who have small home based businesses don’t think the businesses are yet ‘worthy’ of marketing.
That their businesses are not big enough for true marketing. Or ready to market. The fact is, it’s never too early to market your home based business.
Today, we’re going take a look at what you need to do to design a marketing plan that sells! And cover 5 powerful marketing techniques to market your niche business today!
The workshop content is directly below. After you’ve read through today’s workshop, I’m here to answer your questions about marketing your niche business!
Have you ever wondered what it would take to get a stream of interested, targeted buyers coming directly to your eBay store and listings on a regular basis?
You probably already know the answer! You need to market your online niche business.
But your approach to marketing it very important! It’s not just about getting the word out!
You may already be doing some marketing. You may even be getting some good results.
But if you’re like many busy home based business owners, your marketing may be happening in a hit and miss fashion:
“Try something. (Hope it works.)
Try something else. (Hope it works.)
Try the latest thing. (It’s new, it should work!)
Try what your friend is trying. (It worked for them…)
If that sounds familiar… you’re experiencing marketing madness!
Marketing madness is random marketing - going from thing to thing, hoping to get the word out about your business.
Marketing madness can also be simply not marketing at all. And waiting for the buyers to find you.
Either way, it’s time to put a stop to marketing madness and learn some effective ways to market your niche business.
So many places to market. How do you decide where to start?
By applying Marketing That Sells™ - a method that will take the madness out of marketing and bring money into your business!
Marketing That Sells!™ is an exclusive marketing strategy that we developed at WhatDoISell.com to entrepreneurs successfully market their niche businesses.
On average, human beings receive over 3500 marketing messages a day! Billboards, online, radio, TV, the bus, the back of the cereal box – you name it, we’re bombarded with marketing messages.
So how does your marketing message cut through the clutter and get noticed by the people who want to see it.
Stop marketing to everyone.
Start focusing on marketing to those customers who are interested in what you are selling.
For example, if you sell women’s motorcycle clothing your most effective marketing will be in areas frequented by women who are avid bikers, weekend bikers, or even the occasional biker.
Now this doesn’t mean you can’t advertise in more general marketplaces to a certain extent.
But your most effective marketing will come from dispatching your marketing message out into the areas populated by your target market.
The question is - how do you know where to place those marketing messages?
Your niche business sells to a group of buyers who have many common traits.
Before you start your marketing plan, you must first identify what those traits are.
Your niche customers will have a common interest – an eBay store owner who sells gourmet cooking supplies will cater to gourmet cooks, up and coming gourmet cooks, people who know gourmet cooks, people who might want to be a gourmet cook.
Your niche customers will frequent the same places online (and offline) – they’ll participate in online forums that revolve around gourmet cooking, they’ll read blogs related to gourmet cooking, they’ll visit other websites that sell gourmet cooking products. They’ll read ezines and articles online about gourmet cooking.
Your niche customers will be interested in related products – scouting the competition both on eBay and off will provide valuable insight into where you can successfully market your niche business.
Your niche customers prefer a very specific kind of message to market – Do your colors, styles and marketing message that appeal to your target market?
Recently one our customers at WhatDoISell.com had a big marketing problem – they had a great product line - (large button products for seniors such as remotes and telephones).
They had heard that Facebook and MySpace were great places to do some social marketing, but were using these tools with little success.
Are Facebook and MySpace ineffectual for marketing?
Not at all!
But that’s not where this particular eBay seller’s customers are spending most their time.
Their are participating in online forums that cater to topics centered around the interests of seniors.
Once this business started focusing on marketing in the arenas where their customers “hang out” their sales doubled almost immediately!
As you start to identify your buyers, keep in mind your list doesn’t have to be perfect. You just need to get started!
Even identifying the characteristics of your target market will put you ahead of 99% of your competitors!
Over the years in working with thousands of online business owners it’s been the rare business owner who has given much thought to who their target market is and how to reach them.
It’s not that they don’t want to…
Most people simply do realize how important it is.
The next step is to get into Marketing That Sells!™ Mindset.
When you are in the is marketing Marketing That Sells!™ Mindset you:
1. You don’t rely on “eBay only” marketing. There is a whole world of buyers out there (both online and offline) who want your products. Your job is to reach out to them and bring them to your eBay store.
2. Successful marketing depends on pathways into your eBay store/listings. The more pathways you create to your business, the more people will find your products.
3. You continually think about creative ways to market to your niche customer.
4. You approach marketing from the mindset that people want to hear about your products and services.
5. You believe (not just know) that proactive marketing is a part of any successful online niche business.
So let’s jump right into 5 powerful marketing techniques.
Because customers who come into your store from off-eBay and make a purchase from you can qualify that transaction to receive 75% off store sale final value fees.
ALWAYS post a traditional website URL that is redirected to your eBay store.
Marketing That Sells!™ Strategy #2: Package Inserts
Every product you ship is a marketing opportunity. A customer who has already spent money with you is 7 times more likely to spend money with you again than a potential customer who has not purchased from you at all.
Yet how many eBay packages have you ever received that also contain marketing materials?
When your customer opens the item they just bought from you, you have their full attention.
They are already feeling good, because they’re excited about what they’ve purchased from you.
Now is the time for you to put your best marketing foot forward!
But not with a plain old text based “Here’s out latest special” package insert.
You need photos of the items you are marketing and some eye catching graphics that say “New for Fall” or “4th of July Sales Blowout”.
You can easily get some of these graphics for free in Microsoft Word.
There many awesome places where you can get free (quality) graphics. (You’ll can find out more in the Resource Center in the Member’s Area of WhatDoISell.com.)
Every package you send out should include at least one marketing package insert!
YouTube is the secret weapon of marketers, but not for the reason you think.
Many shoppers today when searching the Internet are searching ONLY for video information on products. At WhatDoISell.com we call them the “video searchers”.
You can grab a whole new customer set simply by posting a video review or information about the products you carry on YouTube.
And putting your website URL redirected to your eBay store at the end of the video.
Now we an entire strategy at WhatDoISell.com built around “video searching”
But here are a few tips to marketing with YouTube.
Keep the video short.
Keep the video on topic.
Provide information.
Position yourself as an authority.
This method works for both new consumer goods and antiques, vintage and collectibles.
I recently looked at a YouTube video posted by an online seller that provided a review of a popular Nikon Camera.
It had been viewed 30,000 times and was the #1 search result in Google for videos about this particular camera.
Imagine getting 30,000 brand new visitors to your eBay store!
Twitter is the fastest growing social networking and marketing tool on the internet. Think of it as a mini-blog of sorts.
And Twitter it’s not just for fun!
Big companies like Dell and Zappos are using Twitter to send out coupons, product updates.
You will be surprised at how quickly you can build up a following on Twitter.
But remember, you want to create a following of people who are interested in your niche market!
So you would want to promote your Twitter URL whenever you come into contact with your niche market.
In anticipation of this eBay workshop, we've set up a new Twitter URL where you can get free tips on marketing your niche business, selling on eBay and more.
We love workshops to be interactive, so please feel free to ask your questions that directly relate to this topic.
Added note: If you click on the "Watch this discussion" link, you will receive an email each time someone posts to the workshop.
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Hi Lisa-thank you for having this workshop. What is the best way to attract local buyers? I have some in my state but not from the County I'm in. Also the town does not want a lot of traffic to a home.How does one get around this if the local business does pick up?
This is awesome information...we like many have been doing scattered selling...been telling my husband we need to focus!! I have my idea for a website and all, but waiting to find the person who will give me my products at wholesale....and there are a lot within this field...any ideas?
Hi skatingmom64, Per the internation CAN SPAM laws you are not allowed to send any unsolicited emails to your customers without their opt-in permission.
However, if you send a personal email to a previous customer thanking them for their business and asking them if they would like to opt-in to your email newsletter or to receive future coupons - you should be fine.
If you promote a product in a post sale follow up email, that's perfect!
But if you take your customer list from 6 years ago - and they haven't heard from you since their last purchase and you send them an email trying to reactivate them as a customer, that can cause them to report your email as SPAM.
So you can do some outreach with current active customers - but only once and you must invite them to opt-in.
If they don't opt-in, then you don't want to email them again.
I have a niche market-but will I be harming it by selling items for auction or in my store that are not in the niche? What I sell doesn't really qualify for auctions-so how can I better attract buyers to my store? Should I limit non-niche items to just so many a week as auctions?
I have been afraid to add links to things because I am so new and I have heard you can be locked out or kicked out of directories. I am new to e-commerce and internet rules. I like the info provided and hope it get more clear as I get used to marketing. I think I may have chosen a store name that is too broad More-4-Less-Gifts. Should I now focus on just one type of gift or is broad a good thing.
Hi Lisa, I am a newbie to this and my biggest problem is "What" do I sell? Everything I am interested in already has sooo many people selling that product that I can't think of anything that would be new or different with ANY marketing. What does someone like me do?
Lisa-I've seen coupons mentioned a lot-how does that work and is it for a percentage off a next purchase? also I am due to renew my Domain name and will be going to Go Daddy-but I also need Domain hosting. Is that a webpage?
Hi skatingmom64-Are websites expensive? I found some wholesalers will not sell to me because I'm an eBay store-but said they would if I have a website.TIA
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