snowballs and phone calls

Hi Leanne,

I'm a big fan of your Punkster blog on the Small Business Resource Center's site. I just started a small e-commerce business, www.facetsfinds.com, and I'm wondering if you have any advice on getting the word out about my site.

I'm aware of Daily Candy, Stylebakery, and other email newsletter groups, but can you recommend other marketing resources? I'd greatly appreciate any information you could offer.

Best regards and keep up the good work!

Eva

-------

Hi Eva,
Thanks for the letter, I didn't actually know people read the blog! Im
stoked! Yea, ill answer this, but do you mind if I post the letter on my
blog and answer it on there? that way I can give a better and more in
depth answer and get a blog up at the same time?

Congrats on your business, I am going to go check it out! And thanks for
reading it and saying hi!
Leanne

-------

And she said go for it! So, online marketing eh? well you just did it eva, your website is on the blog! That is one suggestion I might have for you which is blogging. blogging does a couple things, it gets your site more hits, which in turn gets you higher on the google search engine. did you know that?

when i started punkster, at www.niceshirtbaby.com it was really low on the google search list, under some swedish band with the same name, and myspace pages, etc... .bummer. but as we kept growing and getting more hits the site just kept climbing up. and now, i mean, as of last time i checked, when punkster is googled we are number one on the list.

ok im back, i checked, and yea, we are good! other ideas are emails to friends families and strangers to pass around. flyers left at every restaurant, taxi and airport you go to. (i love guerilla marketing!)

in fact, i recommend getting that book! 'guerilla marketing' it is my favorite! to me, marketing is almost like a game you get points for, or in our case, cash! that book is brilliant, and really fun and inspiring.

punkster has done some serious 'marketing' to get our name out.

-i give my business card to everyone. and when im really feeling friendly that day i give it to random stroller pushers around the city, or make my friend do it!

-we sell at markets in LA and NYC and anywhere in between, flea markets, craft markets, sell there and keep our flyers on the table. we have made great cash and connections that way

-we send samples to celebrities

-we email people we know for help and to pass the word on.

-blog!

i do not recommend hiring a PR house as they are really expensive and not a ton of bang for your buck when you just start out. maybe later, but right now, either do it yourself or hire one person to help. press helps sales a TON.

start low, local publications, papers, your college alum magazine, get press there and then go bigger, once you have some word, the snowball effect goes to town for you.

don't under estimate the snowball effect. it works in your favor and the more word you get out there the more it will get itself going.

ok, so i asked my online marketing consultant guru and friend jessica morris for some 'professional' feedback in reference to online marketing, and let me tell you, the girl knows what shes talking about. 

Depending on your budgetary and ROI constraints, there are a myriad of
online marketing opps that small ecom sites can take advantage of. See below
for a brief overview:
1.) Make your website search engine friendly with keywords related to your
product, title tags, text/html not images, meta copy, link qualty, etc.
2.) Paid search is an option depending on budget and brands carried (the
relationship with vendors)
3.) Comparison shopping- Nextag, Shop.com, Shopzilla
4.) Social Shopping- This Next, Kaboodle
5.) Grow and retain an email list
6.) Google Analytics is a great web analytics provider that is free and will
give you insight into your site demographic and referral traffic which will
help you better determine what type of marketing to do. ie: do most of your
customers come from blogs, natural search, direct load (users typing in your
web address directly into their address bar)
7.) Loyalty and affilliate sites- usually when you grow bigger
8.) Listing on local organization websites related to your product business-
this helps in natural search as well.
9.) Blog submissions'

-you can email her,  jessica morris is a online marketing consultant who charges hourly to help get your website up and marketing on its own, even while you sleep! thats right, marketing in your sleep.

jessica, that should be the name of your book! 'marketing in your sleep'

Eva- does this help at all?

anyone else have suggestions for us?

-leanne ford

Comments

[dan]

check out that cool new Ford book Ford and the American Dream by Clifton Lambreth its a great read

[Shama Hyder]

A few words from the marketing consultant within me-

Eva, I checked out your site and it has a lot of potential. You need to brand it as a "rare finds" site. Otherwise-it's just another e-commerce site. I would also leverage e-bay. Set-up shop there and build up a customer base and collect testimonials.

Also-I strongly suggest you change your landing page. Currently it is trying to be everything to everyone. You need to divide and conquer.