Creating consistent sales can be difficult if you’re an online seller on Etsy or Amazon or if you run a small business out of your own home in general. Today I figured I would share with you guys some tips on how to promote and market your products both online and in person.
20 Ways to Market Products – For Etsy, Amazon, and small business owners
Stay active on social media.
Social media has endless potential when you want to reach a variety of potential different buyers. When you’re active posting multiple times a week… you’ll have more chances to be seen and recommended to potential customers.
I suggest using Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even Youtube to reach potential buyers.
Start creating videos.
Videos are pretty much the here and now. Make creative videos for each platform that is tailored to the audience you’re marketing to. They can be short 20-30 second ones for social media or you can create longer 2-5 minute ones on Youtube. Create skits for holidays and certain times of the year. Creating a Youtube channel featuring your products in every video or just shouting them out would be a great way to get the word of across. You could even create mini-commercials for the holiday season and share them.
Always use hashtags on social media.
Hashtags are EXTREMELY important if you’re on Instagram and Twitter. Make sure you do your research to find out what hashtags would work best for your brand. You could even experiment to see what hashtags would be the better fit for growing your reach.
Join Facebook groups and Pinterest groups.
Take sometime out to research Facebook groups and Pinterest groups where you can promote your items. Make sure to read the rules when it comes to promoting in Facebook groups. Some groups don’t allow self-promotion too often.
Start a blog.
Establishing a blog can be one of the best ways to grow your reach. If you learn how to properly use SEO (search engine optimization), you’ll have tons more chances of being found on Google or other search engines which would be great for business.
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You can also create roundup posts of the products that you have available so that people can see the choices you have in stock.
Here’s an example of a roundup post I created for an Etsy store owner:
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Create gift guides featuring your products or reach out to bloggers/website owners to include your products in gift guides.
Gift guides are one of the best ways to promote products. It gives a potential buyer options and if you know how to properly keyword, then you’ll be able to find more customers.
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Run a giveaway.
Offer a free item from your store to increase your following and even sales. You could ask people to follow you as well as share your giveaway on social media as an entry.
Analyze and know where your customer hangs out.
Take time out to assess your customers’ demographic (how old they are, where they might live, what interests they might have), then research group boards and forums where they might hang out.
Offer discounts and sales throughout the year.
Discounts and sales will drive a lot of people to make purchases. I personally have offered sales for products or mentioned it and lots of people ended up making purchases through affiliate links. Everyone loves the feeling of saving money.
Get more reviews on your products.
Have friends and family purchase your products. They could then write public reviews on your Etsy or Amazon page. You honestly could even give someone the money to buy the item and have them write the review for you as well if you wanted a boost of trust.
Work on your persuasive copy and keyword description.
One reason why you may not be getting sales is because your keywords for the product you are selling isn’t great or you may not be influencing potential sales because you haven’t written anything convincing enough to make someone want to buy your product. Take sometime out to do research on how to write persuasive copy for products. Look up your competitors to see what keywords they use as well.
Always have amazing customer service.
Whenever someone asks a question or speaks with you, it is important to have great customer service where you show that you value them. A lot of people end up forgetting how crucial customer service can be within running a business.
Take better photos.
I will be completely honest. I do a lot of Pinterest influencer marketing on my own account and I have had so many small business owners reach out to me about promoting their products, but their photos would be awful. The lighting wasn’t even there. You could barely see the product. There was a mess in the background. The product was out of focus or blurry and they would expect to receive lots of sales and results. I would end up sharing with them that their product would probably not make any sales because of photos. Some would be upset with me while others thanked me for being honest and came back with better photos.
PRESENTATION IS EVERYTHING!
Make sure that your products are in a well lit space. Make sure they are in focus and that the background in which the product is in looks neat.
Work with influencers.
Influencers can be a great way of getting the word out about your products or business, but you have to make sure you do your research. Anyone can buy followers or fake engagement. Take sometime out to analyze whether an influencer can benefit you. Many of them just want free stuff or they’re in it for the money completely without any intent of helping the business they’re working with.
Always market at least a month before the holiday seasons and continue promoting until the shipping time you have available.
Always be aware of what holidays are coming up. Remember to promote before New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and whatever other holidays. Also think about having President’s Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday sales. Don’t forget to think about the time of year (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall). Back to school season can also be a great time to promote depending on the products you sell.
Think about what’s trending.
Sometimes trends can help your sales. Look at what’s popular/trending on Twitter and you might be able to gain some traction off of it to be honest. Check out what’s trending on Youtube and even Google too.
Create pop culture themed products.
If you know about a movie or cartoon that is coming out or that is extremely popular, you could create a product related to it. For example, when everyone was excited about Frozen 2 coming out.. I did start seeing a lot of Etsy owners create more Frozen related products. Just make sure to not do anything that would strongly violate a copyright violation.
Use paid ads.
Set some money to the side to run paid ads. I recommend running paid ads before certain holidays. You could try running a Pinterest ad for $5 a day or even a Facebook ad. There’s also Reddit, Instagram, and Youtube that you could use for paid advertising. Also don’t forget running ads in a local newspaper as well.
Market locally at festivals and events.
I have seen people who had trouble making sales online clean up in sales in person at festivals as well and events. Sometimes selling locally is the way to go. People will legit save up to attend events like festivals and cons (conventions). Look up what events are coming up 6 months to a year in advance. Check out what other people sold. Submit an application to attend and start evaluating how much inventory you should bring. You could end up making a lot of money.
Grow 1,000 true fans.
There is this video interview of a man named Kevin Kelly that expressed how having 1000 true fans is how you can have a living doing whatever you love. It is a great theory to put into practice especially if you want to grow as a small business owner or if you just want to make a bit of money on the side.
From my experience, the more you connect with people personally… the more they are able to trust you as well as want to support you and buy from you. This is why having a Youtube channel or even an Instagram page where you promote your items could be beneficial within growing your reach.
So I hope that you found this helpful.
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Thanks for reading and visiting my website!
