All posts for the month November, 2012

Do You Have a Product That Will Get Attention?

by G.B. Oliver

The other day I was advising a shop called Escena, that sells Jewelry online, and looking through their selection one item really stood out to me. They had a pair of earrings called 50 Shades of Grey Dangle Earrings. Immediately I thought, this is your money maker. While the other jewelry items are beautiful, this is the one that will get attention.

50 Shades of Grey Earrings from Escena on Etsy

Why?

One, because it relates to something really popular in the news right now, the book, 50 Shades of Grey (1 million+ Google searches a month).

Two, because it is a sexy product that all the upcoming Valentine’s gift guides will be looking for (you should be submitting to these now, by the way).

Three, what husband wouldn’t buy this for his wife who has read the book?

Four, what woman wouldn’t buy this as a tongue-in-cheek gift for all her girlfriends who have read the book?

Fifth, what fashion blog wouldn’t show it as a homage to all the fashion being inspired by the book?

In other words, it provides a ton of opportunities for PR and sales that will bring people to the shop.

Every shop needs that one product that the content-starved media is looking for. The conversation starter, the image that will gets tons of REPINs, the product a majority of people can currently relate to in some way.

Now maybe your shop doesn’t have a product like this and you don’t want to change the focus of your product line just to include some one-off for publicity’s sake. That’s understandable, but it doesn’t have to be a permanent offering. It can be something you just offer as a special or for a limited time, or as a promotional item given free with the purchase of another item. However you want to spin it, the fact is that products that are clever or quirky or on trend with what everyone is talking about will always get publicity.

The benefit is you are pulling the curiosity seekers into your shop or website. Hopefully they will look around at your other items and not just this one. It is a hook and it works!

★ If you can’t figure out which one of your products will get attention, feel free to get in touch. I do consult! Also, if you want more of my marketing advice (I save the best stuff for my Ebooks) that will help increase the sales of your online shop, please see my Ebook shop for my PDFs, Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work!

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 29, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 29, 2012

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Is Fab the New Model for Online Marketplaces?

by G.B. Oliver

Have you checked out Fab.com yet? Fab is the latest entry in the online marketplace selling designers’ and artisans’ work. They have been incredibly successful and in the past year have grown from 1.5 million members to now over 7.5 million (members = buyers) and they do things a little differently, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Fab sells products that are hand selected by their staff via submissions (anyone can submit). They offer up to 70% off retail prices on a variety of products including furniture, gadgets, home accessories, art, jewelry and so forth.

So, what does Fab bring to the table that the other marketplaces don’t?

1. Fab is more more hands-on. As mentioned, they have a team that hand selects the items that make it onto the site, so there is quality control.

2. They write the clever and witty copy that accompanies each product because vendors don’t always know how to market their products in the best light (hence the need for ebooks like mine), and it maintains a consistency across the vendors.

3. While the designer/shop is mentioned by name, there is no link to the seller’s shop (you stay on Fab). Also, there is no actual permanent shop on the site for a vendor, but they will group their items together in a “storefront” window for as long as their sale lasts.

So it is kind of like a One Kings Lane meets Etsy.

4. Fab’s “Feed” is interesting as well. This is how you search. A random search of products is displayed, but you can search by popularity, price, category and color. You can also add comments to products that show up right on the search page, similar to how you see Pinterest comments.

5. Fab integrates social media really well.  If you “Like”, “Tweet” “Pin” or “Tumble” their products you earn Fab points to be used towards future purchases. Great incentive for people to do so. They also have a mobile app so you can get their daily inspirations on the go (30% of their orders are via mobile).

6. Fab also sends lots of emails, typically four a day in your mailbox, as each day there are new sales starting at 11 am EST. So they really work hard to promote ALL the products on the site.

7. What is really refreshing about Fab is their sense of personality. They are quirky and fun and you can tell they look for products that are not only in this vein, but are also original, functional and well-designed. While other online marketplaces have worked to create community among their sellers, Fab uses this sense of personality to create community between itself, its sellers AND the customers, which I think is its strongest asset.

This is not your typical shopping experience. And that’s what makes it Fab!

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★  If you have an online shop, be sure to check out my new series of PDFs, entitled Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work! where I give you all my best and latest marketing secrets that will make your shop a top seller in 2013! Editions for Jewelry & Fashion Accessories, Home Products, Kids & Baby Products and Wedding Products. Get your copy by email today!

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© 2012 G.B. Oliver. All rights reserved.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 27, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 27, 2012

http://attention-getting.com/2012/11/27/is-fab-the-new-model-for-online-marketplaces/

Selling On Etsy Successfully – An Analysis of the Top Selling Shops

by G.B. Oliver

Every day you will see queries from people asking how they can sell successfully on Etsy and other popular online marketplaces. It can be extremely difficult as these marketplaces have gotten quite large in terms of the number of sellers and products.

Selling on Etsy

Etsy currently stands at 1 million + sellers and 130 million + products. So how does a new shop get found?

So I did some research on shops that are considered the Etsy top sellers and here are some of my findings. Keep in mind these next points are specific to Etsy and not necessarily selling online in general.

Common Traits Among Etsy Top Sellers:

  • The majority opened on Etsy before 2009 (have had longer to establish themselves)
  • The majority list over 100 items and more likely upwards of 750 (the more items you have, the more searches you turn up in and the more search tags you can take advantage of i.e. 750 out of 114 million is slightly better odds than 20 out of 114 million)
  • The majority offer products under $8 (easy to take a risk on, easier to sell more than one item to a customer)
  • They all offer unique products in a niche (get better search results because they sell one type of item i.e. bracelets)
  • They all use one of their products as their avatar – it’s like a free ad anytime it appears in a forum post, treasury listing, convo, etc.

Common Traits Among Successful Etsy Sellers That You May Find Interesting:

  • A lot of the top sellers do NOT have amazing, high quality photos.
  • A lot of the top sellers do NOT keyword their listings and shop description to be optimized for search.
  • A lot of the top sellers do NOT have thousands of Facebook fans or Twitter followers (some aren’t on either)
  • A lot of the top sellers do NOT have an About page.

I would assume that each had some sort of major publicity hit for their shop, such as appeared on a popular blog, print publication or on the Etsy front page, which propelled a burst of traffic and sales and now they get a lot of repeat business from this established customer base.

Should You Be Selling on Etsy?

The thing to note here is that Etsy may not be all things to all people. While it is a very affordable marketplace, there is obviously still a certain type of clientele or target market that shops here. For example, if you are trying to sell fashion or fine art, you may have a hard time on Etsy because that is not what shoppers currently expect to find, or may be searching for on Etsy. That may change in the future as Etsy continues to expand it market, but right now your best success there would be if your products fall in line with what the top sellers offer.

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© 2012 G.B. Oliver. All rights reserved.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 26, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 26, 2012

http://attention-getting.com/2012/11/26/how-to-sell-on-etsy/

Do Guerilla Marketing Words Still Get People to Buy?

by G.B. Oliver

One of my all-time favorite marketing books is Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, first published back in 1993. In the book, Jay talks extensively about advertising and the power of words.

He references a list of the 12 most persuasive words in the English language (words that might get people to buy), from a research study done by psychologists at Yale University in 1970. Jay recommended using these words in headlines, signage and any other forms of your advertising.

x

So, in no particular order, these words are:

  1. YOU
  2. MONEY
  3. SAVE
  4. NEW
  5. RESULTS
  6. HEALTH
  7. SAFETY
  8. EASY
  9. LOVE
  10. DISCOVER
  11. PROVEN
  12. GUARANTEE

Now this study was done over 40 years ago, so maybe things have changed. Therefore, I thought I would take a look at some current print ads in popular magazines and see how many companies are still using these words to get you to buy their products.

After looking at over 50 ads, for everything from food products to cosmetics to cars to books, here is what I found:

Still Commonly Used Adjectives

  • New
  • Results
  • Easy
  • Save
  • Proven

The word safety seems to have been replaced more with peace of mind and reliability.

New, Popular Adjectives

  • Ultimate
  • Best
  • Special
  • Excellent
  • Tasteful
  • Perfect
  • Bold
  • Dazzling
  • Powerful
  • Hot

Grand phrases like must-have, essential, breakthrough, unprecedented, industry-leading and revolutionary are also very common in describing products.

Still Commonly Used Verbs

  • discover
  • expect
  • delivers
  • learn
  • dare
  • defy
  • helps
  • improve  
  • find

Surprisingly, I didn’t see that many companies offering a guarantee, but I did see the word promise a lot.

Other Words

One really interesting fact I did notice was that not many ads used the word “you“. Copy was written in very general terms, and, for the most part, no pronouns of any kind were used. Your was used a lot, such as your family, your home, your health, your safety, but not “you”, in the sense of “you’ll love” or “you need”.

The words money, love, health and safety were used, but only specific to certain types of products.

FINAL WORD: So are words that were effective in a study done 40 years ago still effective today? Do certain words work on men and not women, and vice versa. And what about teens? Do they care about health, safety or saving money?

Think of who you are selling to. Then find media, such as magazine covers, that target this age and gender group and see the words they are using on the covers.  Those should be the words you use in your product descriptions and advertisements. They’ve done the research, so they know which words work, and you can benefit from that.

 

Get More Great Marketing Advice in My Ebooks

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“Best buy ever!” . . “Cannot recommend this enough!” . .  ”You will not be disappointed!” . . “Incredible!” 

 

Take your online business to the top TODAY, before your competition does. My expert, innovative advice, ideas and tactics will make you an online superstar! Download your copy of Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work!, HERE (versions for selling Home products, Jewelry / Fashion Accessories, Kids& Baby products and Wedding products).

 

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© 2013 G.B. Oliver. All rights reserved.

 

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 23, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 23, 2012

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Marketing I Love – One Kings Lane

 by G.B. Oliver

If you are not familiar with the online store, One Kings Lane, they specialize in offering home decor and accessories products from different vendors, and showcasing certain selections of the vendors’ products for a limited time to buy. You have to be a member of One Kings Lane’s site in order to purchase.

So exclusive products at a reduced price for a limited time offer to a select clientele. It’s a great business model. Limited time offers mean people have to act quickly; exclusive products also make buyers act quickly; having products that are always marked down from retail price is a great lure; and a membership only storefront means a lot of repeat business from your customer base.

I was on their website recently and noticed some really smart marketing ideas that they’ve implemented, that a smaller online shop could take advantage of as well.

  • Invite Friends Offer: They have an offer that if you invite friends, either by emailing them a product listing or liking the product on Facebook, and the friend buys, you get a $15 gift card. And they make it really easy to do with the icons very prominent beside the offer and with one click all the product info appears in a posting on your Facebook page.
  • Smart use of Pinterest Icon: Some businesses just put the Pinterest PIN it icon on their product page, which can get lost in all the text, but One Kings Lane includes a sentence in red beside it telling you to “Click PIN it to Pin this product on Pinterest“. Your customers don’t always think to do it, so it’s a great reminder .

One Kings Lane groups their products into useful searches

  • Personalization Reminder: If a product can be personalized, One Kings Lane makes it very clear in two different places – a very visible icon on the product photo that says “Personalize It!” and another icon in the ordering information that says “Personalize this item” and then expands how the process works.
  • Sale Countdown Clock: They have a countdown digital clock on the page so you know exactly how many hours and minutes you have until the sale ends. Great way to get you to act quickly.
  • Delivery Time: They give the estimated arrival for every item at the bottom of the product copy.  For example, they will say “Estimated Arrival Nov 28 – Dec 3″. This is helpful if it is a gift and you need to know that if you purchase it, it will arrive in time for Christmas.
  • Vintage Descriptions: One Kings Lane is known for also carrying a lot of vintage items. In their copy, they will always identify the era and condition. For example, Era: 1960s  Condition: Very Good; blemishes and weathering from age and use. If you are selling vintage items, you must include the era and condition as it will help the item be found in Google searches (customers searching for a specific piece from a specific time), as well as vintage customers expect this type of information.

These are all easy marketing tips that you can apply to your online shop or business that will help boost your sales.

★ For more great marketing ideas for your small business, as always, please check out my Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work! Ebooks, available in my shop.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 20, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 20, 2012

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Traffic is Not Sales

by G.B. Oliver

Do you ever see marketing promises that say, “We’ll get you tons of traffic”. Well, that’s very nice but traffic is not a guarantee of sales.

For example, say you sell jock straps. If one day, all of a sudden, 500,000 women visited your site, how many jock straps do you think you would sell as opposed to if 500 men visited your site? Exactly, if they have no need for your product, they’re not going to buy it.

Large Twitter followers doesn’t always translate into sales

Another offer you’ll see is, “I will tweet you out to my 200,000 Twitter followers”. Well who are these followers? Are they just other companies who wanted a follow back, so the person reading your tweet is their Web marketing person (who is probably not reading tweets, just sending them). How many of their followers are actually still active on Twitter (people do get bored with social media and take a break). Don’t be lured in by high numbers. Again, if they are not who you are selling to, it is not going to make a difference.

What you want is traffic that is your target market. So if you sell wedding products, for example, and someone says they will get you in front of 200,000 brides, that is reliable traffic…maybe. How long have these “brides” been on their blog, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.? A woman plans her wedding in 12 to 18 months so if she first joined their blog 2 years ago, she is married now and not interested in wedding products. She just hasn’t taken the time to unfollow. So, it could be only 60% of these 200,000 brides are still potential customers. Which is still good, but remember numbers can be overestimated.

Same thing if you are selling maternity clothes, for example. Women are only pregnant 9 months, so if they’ve had the baby, they may still be on that person’s email list but have no need to buy your products.

So go find where your potential customers are really hanging out online, at this moment in time, and that is where you will find the traffic that will buy from you. Now, how do you find this out? Simple, ask them. If you are selling to 13-year old girls, you must know a few – family, neighbors, friends’ kids. Ask them where they go online and that is where you’ll find your traffic that will lead to sales.

Once you find this traffic, how do you get it to your site? Well I can’t give away everything on my blog, I have to sell too! But you can find these answers, as well as other ways to get attention, in my marketing Ebooks, available here.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 19, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 19, 2012

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Want to Make More Sales? Then Take Your Products Up a Notch!

by G.B. Oliver

I’ve never understood why people just do copycat products. Granted, it makes business sense (although, not really ethical) to jump on someone’s proven success, but I have to think your success will be short lived if you can’t come up with product ideas on your own. It really isn’t that hard to be an innovator and develop new products. In fact, you can start with the products you currently have. Just step back, take a more objective look, and see how you could take things up a notch to differentiate yourself in a very crowded and competitive marketplace.

Anthropologie’s Handpainted Monogram Letters

A shop like Anthropologie is a good example. What makes them great is that they take products you’ve seen before, but they add a new twist to make them different from the traditional. For example, wooden letters are everywhere as wall decor, but Anthropologie turned these typical letters into Handpainted Still Life Monograms by making them out of canvas and adding painted murals on them. So now they have become true artwork for your walls.

Another example is their Colorblocked Baguette Board. They took what would be a regular cutting board, dipped the ends in milk paint to add some style and made it out of a much higher quality wood so you can use it as a bread server as well. These are simple twists on everyday products that also repurposes them.

Anthropologie’s Colorblocked Baguette Board

If you want to be successful, you have to offer products that are unique, but still serve a purpose. People love products that are conversation starters. People also like unusual products because they make great gifts for those hard to buy for people. And as I say in my marketing ebooks, quirky always gets publicity! No one is going to write about a plain old cutting board in their magazine, but they will if it is now a stylish baguette server.

So don’t just copy someone’s else products. Take a look at a product that is popular and think, how can I make it more feature-rich, more useful, more interesting, more… attention getting!

★ As always, if you want more of my marketing advice (I save the best stuff for my ebooks) that will help increase the sales of your small business, please see my Ebook shop for my PDFs, Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work!

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 15, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 15, 2012

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How to Target Your Products at the Lucrative Baby Boomer Market

by G.B. Oliver

There are currently 80 million baby boomers in the U.S. This is the population aged generally in their 50s and 60s who, according to MediaPost, hold 70% of the US disposable income (i.e. they’ve got money to spend on stuff!).

~ So is your business targeting them? ~

The economy is not great right now, and yet Baby Boomers still have money to spend. The majority are still working, kids’ college is paid for, houses are paid for, if anything they are downsizing, which is putting more money back in their pockets. So if they are the people spending right now, why aren’t you targeting them?

Other Interesting Facts: 71% of baby boomers go online everyday, 53% are on Facebook and over age 50 spend $7 billion online annually!

For example, if you sell baby and kids products, do you just target moms and dads, who are busier, have less money to spend, are probably too tired to think? Why not target grandparents, who do have the money to spend and love buying gifts for the grandkids. Plus, grandparents are not up on what kids want the way parents are, so you have an opportunity to convince them that kids really want your products!

What if you are selling jewelry or fashion. Baby boomers don’t necessarily feel comfortable wearing the latest youth-oriented trends. So why miss out on this market even if it is not your style. Create a more traditional line of products, or a more mature line, that you could section off in your shop just for this market, the same way you see a regular store and a plus size version of that store.

What about home products? Baby boomers love nostalgia, so research style trends from the 1950s, 60s and 70s and seen how you can incorporate it into a “Baby Boomer Line”. Also, were there cool products from this era that you could revamp for today’s market, making them both modern and vintage at the same time.

Baby boomers don’t just buy a lot for themselves and their grandchildren, they also buy for their grown children who have less disposable income due to being new to the workforce or owning homes and raising kids. So if you have items strictly aimed at the 20 to 30 year old market, those non-necessity but nice to have items, convince mom and dad to buy it for them! Would make a great gift guide, “What to buy for your grown children besides gift cards”. In fact, encourage customers to make a wish list just for them to give to Mom and Dad.

Now go get their attention!

★ As always, if you want more great marketing advice, please see my Ebook shop for my PDFs, Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work!

 

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 14, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 14, 2012

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Marketing I Love – Philosophy

by G.B. Oliver

If you are not familiar with the line of skin care, bath and fragrance products called Philosophy, you definitely should check them out because they do branding really well, especially when it comes to packaging. (Now if the word branding is throwing you off and you don’t do packaging for your products, keep reading because that is not totally what this post is about.)

On their product bottles, Philosophy hardly uses any graphics (except for special holiday products), mostly text (and a simple font at that), and they don’t even talk about their product on the label. Instead, their products have names like Hope, Purity, and Grace and the label is taken up with a well-written, inspirational paragraph that typically has nothing to do with the product.

Philosophy’s Simple but Clever Packaging

The names are simple, but clever, and they relate back to what the product is for. For example, Hope is a moisturizer. Their skin care products are all in white or cream bottles, evoking an image of clean. Their fragrances‘ packaging is light pink and ivory, creating a very feminine feeling, and their bath products are bright colors (because baths are fun) and they have fun names like Gingerbread Man, Candy Cane, and Sugar Plum Fairy. In fact their Mimosa Bubble Bath actually has a recipe for Mimosas on the label. Not what you would typically see on a bottle of shower gel, but that’s what makes it eye-catching.

So How Can You Apply This To Your Small Business?

Simple and clever always work. Simple makes it easier on the customer who is thinking of purchasing the product (no hard sell, not a lot of typical “marketing” words on the package) and clever always gets attention. And great packaging alone can sell products.

Now, maybe you don’t package your products, but you can apply these same techniques of simple and clever to your logo, shop design, website design, product names, even product design. It is a crowded, crowded marketplace so you have to do something to separate yourself from the pack and create a brand that is memorable to customers. If they don’t remember you, they can’t come back and buy from you.

★ I talk a lot about how to ensure that you offer marketable products in my Marketing Ideas That Work! Ebooks, available HERE.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 13, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 13, 2012

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How Your Online Shop Can Benefit from Small Business Saturday

by G.B. Oliver

Saturday November 24th is Small Business Saturday where consumers are encouraged to buy from small local businesses. It was an initiative started by American Express and it always takes place on the Saturday after Black Friday (which is the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday).

How Online Shops Can Take Advantage of Small Business Saturday

Now, while online businesses benefit from Cyber Monday two days later, you can still take advantage of Small Business Saturday with your local market even if you only sell online.

5 Ideas to Try:

1. If you sell on a site like Etsy or Artfire make sure you have entered your city and state/province in your profile if you haven’t already, as customers can search for shops this way. Maybe even put it in your shop title and description, if just for this Saturday. For your regular website, this is a good opportunity to mention your city somewhere on your main page, again, if only for Small Business Saturday. It reminds visitors as well.

2. Email the editor of your local newspaper (do it this week or you’ll be too late!) asking if there are doing any articles on local companies offering specials for Small Business Saturday and mention a special you will be offering (make it worthwhile, like 30% off today only). Even better if they will consider doing a separate article just on local businesses selling online. Can’t hurt to put the idea in their head!

3. Offer a special just for customers from your city. For example, “Today we are offering 25% off for everyone, and 30% off for customers in the Boston area in support of the Small Business Saturday initiative”.

4. Pair up with a few other online vendors in your city who sell complimentary (but not competing) products and ask that they mention you on their website/online shop if you mention them on yours. Kind of like a blog roll of local shops to check out on Small Business Saturday. Again, you only have to keep this on your site for the week prior to, and the day after Small Business Saturday.

5. And of course fire off some Tweets using the #hash tags #SmallBusinessSaturday, #SmallBizSaturday and #SmallBizSat are the most popular ones, but add your city at the end to get to your local market i.e. #SmallBusinessSaturdayBoston (make sure your Twitter profile lists your city).

★ If you think I give good advice on my blog, then you should know that I save the best ideas for getting attention in my E-books, available HERE.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 12, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 12, 2012

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3 Uses for Pinterest’s New Secret Boards

by G.B. Oliver

This week Pinterest launched the ability to do “secret” Pinterest boards. Users are given three secret boards and they control who sees what they PIN on them. In other words, these are boards you create for invitation only.

So how can these new secret boards help your small business? If you sell products online it can help in a ton of ways if you are creative enough.

3 Ways to Use Pinterest “Secret” Boards

Here are a few of my ideas for using “Secret” Pinterest boards:

1. If you currently send out a newsletter or email promotion, now use a secret Pinterest board instead. You could post photos of products you are having a special on that is for customers only, and just delete the PIN when the special is over. The customer is alerted by email when you PIN something new on the board and they can choose whether or not they want to join, so it is not as intrusive.

2. Because you can REPIN from these boards, it is a great way to ask your customers to spread the word about your products without it being as obvious as when you post on a public board. You can PIN a new release and nicely ask them to “like” it and “REPIN” in exchange for a percentage off their next purchase.

3. You could do a Pinterest board for your customers only that is really more of an inspiration board and PIN complimentary products from other vendors that would work with your products. In return, ask that complimentary vendors do the same for you on secret boards for their customers. This is a great way to cross promote and get in front of more buyers, and it serves as a value added service to your customers who may not know which shoes to wear with the dress they just bought from you.

Now, what would have made these secret boards even more valuable to online sellers is if Pinterest had given you the option to enable/disable the REPIN feature on these boards. Then you could have used them to give sneak peaks of your new products and offers to customers before they are made public, polled customers on new products to get their feedback (like having a focus group) and showcase how other customers have used your products without having the world see their private photos.

★ Want more advice on how to use Pinterest to Get Attention!? Then please see my E-books, available HERE.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 9, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 9, 2012

http://attention-getting.com/2012/11/09/uses-for-pinterests-new-secret-boards/

Why Clever Product Names Can Sometimes Work

by G.B. Oliver

The other day I was on a clothing site called LuLus, whose fashions are obviously aimed at young women. I was looking at the purses and noticed that they were all labeled with very creative names. For example, Seven Year Itch Quilted Stitch Purse, In Hot Purse-uit Purple Purse, and Weave Got Your Back Brown Tote. Cute, right?

LuLu’s In Hot Purse-suit Purple Purse

As I was reading these I was reminded of the names cosmetic companies give to lipsticks and nail polish colors. Back in the day, shades were just given a number. But due to growing competition in the makeup industry, clever lipstick and nail polish names became a way to show personality, create an image and set their brand apart. A clever lipstick name can actually get publicity just because of the name.

So what is the point of these witty names besides making a lot of work for  the marketing department?

I have to be honest, these cutesy names were attention getting and kept me on their site longer. I kept reading each product name more out of interest than anything. So maybe that was the intention, if not the result.  Creative product names and copy writing can keep people on your site longer and make them actually read the product descriptions instead of just scanning for bullet points. It also made them look like a cool, hip site which I believe is the image they are trying for.

I have always been an advocate of clever writing because it evokes a sense of personality, and when potential customers can get a better sense of who is selling to them, it helps them to feel like they know you a bit better and that helps to get them to trust buying from you. It’s also a great way to establish an identity against competitors who are a little more standard.

~ So How Can You Apply This To Your Small Business? ~

Think about your product names. Now, I’m not saying you need to go out and rename them all, because that may not suit your brand, and it depends who you are targeting. Obviously for a younger market, it can be quite effective. And we’re not talking cute here, we’re talking clever. Product names that show who you are as a brand. It can get attention.

★ If you really want to know how to write product descriptions that Get Attention! I cover that extensively in my E-books, Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work! available HERE.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Marketing 101
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 8, 2012

http://attention-getting.com/2012/11/08/whats-in-a-product-name/

Promotional Emails That Get My Attention (and ones that don’t)

by G.B. Oliver

I get a lot of promotional emails from stores such as Old Navy, Gap, to name a few. I subscribed for them, so that’s okay. I thought I would point out a few tips on how to effectively email your customers, based on what I notice the big companies do that are attention getting (plus a couple of things you shouldn’t do).

Old Navy’s Email Campaign

1. FREE SHIPPING always gets my attention. With gas prices what they are today, it only makes sense to buy something online if you can save money and time driving to the store.

2. Little icons get my attention. ★’s and even ♥’s do draw my eye to the subject line. For example, ★ 40% OFF TODAY ONLY! ★. But don’t over do it. Too much and it’s annoying. You just want to grab them, you don’t want to blind them.

3. A limited time to act. When the offer says “25% off until 11/09/12″ and that is only 2 days away, it gets my attention. I know I should probably look at it now if I’m truly interested, otherwise I’m going to miss out.

4. A significant discount of either 75%, 50%, 40% even 25% will make me act. A 10% or 15% discount doesn’t seem worth the effort.

5. Don’t add customer’s name in email subject line. A lot of marketing people think this is more personal, but I feel the opposite. I know that when a large company sends out an email and my name is in the header, that they did not personally write each email, but rather just used technology to add my name. This feels more like spam to me than anything. So unless this is an individual email that you physically wrote, don’t put the customer’s name in the subject  line.

6. Don’t email too often. There are some companies that send me 2 to 3 promotional emails a day. That’s too intrusive and what will happen is customers will get annoyed and take their name off the email list or just block it as spam. A small business should only email customers either when they have something really special to offer or right before the big holiday shopping season (early November), and no more than twice a month.

Think about what you like and dislike when promotional emails are sent to you, and don’t make the same mistakes with your own customers.

★ If you want to know more about writing emails that Get Attention!,  I give more tips and advice in my E-books, Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work! available HERE.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 7, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 7, 2012

http://attention-getting.com/2012/11/07/how-to-effectively-email-customers/

Marketing I Love – Piperlime

by G.B. Oliver

If you have ever visited the online store, Piperlime, they do something I think is really smart. They know times are tough right now, so they have a category on their site called “Girl on a Budget”. All the items listed here are under $100.

“Girl on a Budget” Promotion from Piperlime

This is smart marketing because 1. they have made it easy for the buyer by already putting aside these items in one area 2. they get it that not everyone can afford to spend a ton of money on clothes right now. They also send out an email campaign to their customers with the same “Girl on a Budget” heading. If you’re a female, that heading is attention getting.

This campaign goes with my philosophy that when the economy is down, there may not be a lot of people with a lot of money to spend, but there will always be a lot of people with a little money to spend. That is who this is targeting. For some customers, this may be the only area of their website that they look at.

So How Can You Apply This To Your Small Business? 

Think about doing this with your own online business. Are there certain items you can pull out and say “Gifts under $25″ or the “Everything under $30 section”. People will usually take a chance on a low cost item, and if they are satisfied they will return and buy more.

★ Want to love your marketing? Get innovative ideas that work! in my E-books, available HERE.

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by Attention Getting Marketing on November 6, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Marketing I Love
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Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 6, 2012

http://attention-getting.com/2012/11/06/marketing-i-love/

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