All posts tagged marketing ideas

Google Trends – Product Search Phrases On The Rise

by G.B. Oliver

★ THIS BLOG POST  MADE NY TIMES SMALL BUSINESS, BEST OF THE WEEK 

I love looking at Google Trends and seeing which search phrases are popular, but also which ones are on the rise. The great thing about Google Trends is you can customize it by country and by time period (i.e. last 7 days), so it is a great tool to keep on top of the marketplace. So I entered some product categories to see what the top rising search phrases were, for the last 3 months, worldwide.

Unknown-2

For the jewelry vendors out there, and I know there are lots, these are the top rising search phrases:

  • Cheap Body Jewelry
  • Hematite Jewelry
  • Amethyst Jewelry (amethyst is the February birthstone)
  • Bridesmaid Jewelry

For wedding products vendors, typing in wedding was too generic, so here are the top rising search phrases, worldwide, in the last 3 months for “Wedding Invitations”:

  • Fun Wedding Invitations
  • Coral Wedding Invitations
  • Country Wedding Invitations
  • Homemade Wedding Invitations

For vendors of baby products, again, typing in baby was too generic. So I tried “Baby Clothes”, and these were the top risers:

  • Baby Summer Clothes
  • Neutral Baby Clothes
  • Crochet Baby Clothes
  • Handmade Baby Clothes
  • Unisex Baby Clothes

For vendors of art, I typed in the phrase “Wall Art” and this is what resulted:

  • Kitchen Art
  • African Wall Art
  • Bathroom Wall Art
  • Beach Wall Art
  • Kitchen Wall Art (Kitchen seems to be in big demand)

For vintage sellers, these were the breakout rising searches for “Vintage”:

  • Vintage Valentines
  • Modern Vintage Boutique
  • Vintage Swimwear
  • Vintage Prom Dresses
  • Vintage Bridesmaid Dresses
  • Vintage Style Dresses

For sellers of home products, it is a little tougher to narrow things down. So I entered “Decorative” and these were the results:

  • Decorative curtain rods
  • Decorative baskets
  • Decorative bird cages
  • Decorative wall hooks
  • Decorative ceiling tiles

FINAL WORD: When you look at searches in lesser time frames, like the last 3 months, it helps you to see popular cyclical searches, such as Valentine’s, and also how far in advance people start searching for different events or seasons. For example, people are already searching for summer items. Use Google Trends to help you find where that next opportunity lies for your online business.

★ If You Like My Blog, You’ll LOVE My New Ebooks (because I save my BEST ideas for in there!) 

MalloryHopeDesign_AGMarketing_eBook_HomeProducts

“Best buy ever!” . . “Cannot recommend this enough!” . .  ”You will not be disappointed!” . . . “Incredible!” – just some of the customer reviews of my new ebooks, Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work!. Download today at my Etsy shop.

PLEASE Tweet, Post to Facebook, Stumble, PIN & more this post using the SHARE button below. Thanks!

PLEASE LIKE this post using the button below and follow my RSS feed to know when new articles are posted.

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

9 Comments
by Attention Getting Marketing on March 19, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Trends, Google Tips
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on March 19, 2013

http://attention-getting.com/2013/03/19/google-trends-search-phrases-on-the-rise/

Be Careful About Sharing Your “Success” Tips – Your Competition is Listening

by G.B. Oliver

I was on one a popular online store’s forums the other day where sellers talk to each other and share information. Here, I frequently see sellers who make grand declarations such as they’ve made 500 sales in a month and here is how they did it. And I scratch my head and think to myself, BIG MISTAKE!

I realize that a lot of these online marketplaces like to foster a sense of community, but, at the end of the day this is still business and many of these sellers are your direct competition. Why on earth would you want to tell them your success secrets?

That is the problem when your ego takes over from your business sense. You have a bit of success and you want to tell everyone. But now realize, you are telling everyone, including your competition, and that’s not good.

It is NEVER a good idea to share your secrets with competitors. I dare anyone to find me a business book that says to do that. Would Coca-Cola email Pepsi and say, “Here is everything we did last year that worked. Good luck”. You would be sabotaging your own business. You don’t have any control over who reads your posts or your blog or tweets, so why put information out there that can hurt you? You want customers to notice you, but quite frankly, when it comes to your competition, you want to fly under their radar.

I have marketing professionals follow me all the time on Twitter. They don’t need my services, obviously. They are keeping tabs on me, which is what the competition does. If I do something they think works, let’s be honest, they will probably “borrow” it.

This is just good seasoned business advice. Remember the saying, Loose Lips Sink Ships. If you have an amazing secret that you stumbled upon that is causing your sales to skyrocket – KEEP IT TO YOURSELF (but tell me, of course).

Now, luckily for you I share my marketing secrets that will help your online business, in my ebooks, Small Business Marketing Ideas That Work!, plus find other helpful marketing tools in my Etsy shop.

PLEASE Tweet, Post to Facebook, Stumple, PIN & more this post using the SHARE button below. Thanks!

PLEASE LIKE this post using the button below and follow my RSS feed to know when new articles are posted.

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

1 Comment
by Attention Getting Marketing on March 6, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Marketing 101
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on March 6, 2013

http://attention-getting.com/2013/03/06/be-careful-how-much-you-share-with-your-competition/

Products I Love – February 2013

by G.B. Oliver

I love smart and innovative product design for many reasons. One, it is inspiring. Two, it always gets publicity. Three, social media followers love spreading the word. Four, it sells!

I went over to one of my favorite shopping blogs, Outblush, and found some of their recent picks that I think are brilliant.

Deep Tea Driver Infuser

Deep Tea Diver by Kikkerland from Modcloth

Deep Tea Diver by Kikkerland from Modcloth

How great is this $15 tea infuser from the online store, Modcloth? Even the name is smart. I love this because it is just so clever. How could you not want to buy this, whether you drink tea or not? Now, granted, you have to use it with a glass mug or it kind of defeats the purpose, but you have to admit it is just makes sense.

Recipe Writing Rubber Stamps

Recipe Writing Rubber Stamps from Paper Cookie

Recipe Writing Rubber Stamps from Paper Cookie

I love these stamps (4 for $24.95) from the Paper Cookie. This is a practical product that appeals to the person who still wants to write out their recipes the old-fashioned way, but made a little easier by the stamps. The stamp market is a big business, and it is nice to see a company finding a new, creative use for them.

Constellation Lamp

Constellation Lamp from Urban Outfitters

Constellation Lamp from Urban Outfitters

What kid is not going to love this lamp ($49) from Urban Outfitters in their room at night? Plus, it’s educational. Educational + fun always sells!

Teacup with Wood Saucer

Teacup with Wood Saucer from Scandinavian Brands Online

Teacup with Wood Saucer from Scandinavian Brands Online

Smart product design is when you solve a problem for the user. That is why this teacup with wood saucer ($28) from Scandinavian Brands Online works. It solves two problems – needing a saucer for your tea when you are drinking it and keeping it hot when you are not. Plus, it looks good.

You Got Your New Dog Kit

Got Your New Dog Kit from Uncommon Goods

Got Your New Dog Kit from Uncommon Goods

This New Dog Kit ($25) from Uncommon Goods is smart for so many reasons. The obvious is that it makes the perfect gift, and gift sets are big business and dog gifts are big business. But if you sell a variety of pet products, why not package them all together as a great way to up-sell your other products. This kit includes practical items like doo-doo bags (their words, not mine), a training clicker, dog treats and a quick start instruction card for the new owner, which to me acts like a very effective business card so the gift receiver knows exactly where to get more.

Be like these online sellers and take your business to the next level! I offer a variety of helpful marketing tools in my Etsy shop, the best advice to market your small business!

★ PLEASE Tweet, Post to Facebook, Stumple, PIN & more this post using the SHARE button below. Thanks!

★ PLEASE LIKE this post using the button below and follow my RSS feed to know when new articles are posted.

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

Leave a Comment
by Attention Getting Marketing on February 22, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Marketing I Love
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on February 22, 2013

http://attention-getting.com/2013/02/22/products-i-love-february-edition/

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!

Leave a Comment
by Attention Getting Marketing on November 15, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Trends
Tagged , , , , , ,

Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 15, 2012

http://attention-getting.com/2012/11/15/want-to-make-more-sales-then-take-your-products-up-a-notch/

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.

2 Comments
by Attention Getting Marketing on November 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Marketing I Love
Tagged , , , , ,

Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 13, 2012

http://attention-getting.com/2012/11/13/marketing-i-love-philosophy/

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.

Leave a Comment
by Attention Getting Marketing on November 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Marketing 101
Tagged , , , , , ,

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.

Leave a Comment
by Attention Getting Marketing on November 7, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Home, Marketing 101
Tagged , , , ,

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.

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

Posted by Attention Getting Marketing on November 6, 2012

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

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 773 other followers

%d bloggers like this: