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Successful
Online Gift Shop Marketing by Shannan
Hearne
Copyright 2002
With all the great wholesale companies
available, virtually anyone can throw up a
WWW shingle and start a gift shop.
Additionally, there are thousands of
wonderful gift shops online specializing in
everything from apple art to zebra prints.
How do you compete with your online gift
shop?
Success Promotions has spent five years
building successful internet businesses and
we'd like to share some valuable information
with you. Not every online business can
afford a full time internet marketing
employee or an outsourced internet marketing
service.
If you go to any search engine and search
for gifts you will get thousands and
thousands of returns. For example, a search
run on AltaVista.com today for the search
string "gifts" returned 12,332,556
results. After narrowing the search by
adding "women's" to the search
string AltaVista returned 12,499,266
results. Incidentally, this search returned
so many jewelry sites in the first results
that if you sell women's gifts and they
aren't jewelry you need to choose your
keywords very carefully. Needless to say,
the sites not in the first 20 to 30 results
aren't getting a tremendous amount of
traffic from AltaVista.com.
Here are some tips for internet marketers
and gift sellers alike to help build a more
successful online business.
1. Specialize and Categorize
If you are selling two gifts or 3000 gifts
you need to manage them in categories. Think
about it. Would you be able to find anything
at Walmart if they mixed the shoes with the
electronics with the crafts with the
hardware? You'd walk around aimlessly for
hours searching for a pair of size six
sandals with salmon colored strings. Don't
make your site visitors and potential
customers search aimlessly around your site.
It helps to have a search option, but for
this to work you must keyword each product
under every imaginable search word. Shoes
alone wouldn't work for sandals. You'd need
to also have it pop up under footwear,
summer wear, women's attire, etc.
Furthermore, once you begin to break your
gift site down into smaller, more manageable
categories, you can market EACH page to the
search engines under different keywords. Its
great if every single item you sell can be
managed under a keyword or category from
your main doorway page. But why not create a
sub-category doorway page for each product
category and each product line? Then you can
submit all doorway/front pages to the search
engines and instead of appearing as search
return #1,456,825 you can be in the top ten
for shoes, and footwear, and socks, and
sandals, and gifts, etc.
Lynn Korff, of Korff's Ceramic Originals, http://www.korfforiginals.com
knows this works. Her products vary from
ceramic piggy banks to dinner ware to candle
holders. She breaks them down not only by
product but also by glaze patterns. Shoppers
can readily find anything and then find
matching products making her site more
shopper friendly and more marketable. If you
don't believe me, go to any search engine
and search for "ceramic piggy
banks". Lynn is always right up there
at the top.
Additionally, besides being more search
engine friendly and successful, your site
can also be more shopper friendly. How many
times have you followed links for search
engine returns that required you to go
through far too many multiple pages to find
the search engine return you were actually
looking for? How many times did you stop
searching the particular site before you got
to the object of your search?
Don't fret if this sounds like a major site
re-design. The improvement in marketability
and shopability is worth every second of
work.
There is no limit to the amount of products
you can sell. But make them easy to find and
you will sell a lot more of each one.
2. Advertise
No surprise to find this one, huh? If you
don't advertise, you don't sell anything.
People don't knock on your front door to see
if you might possibly have free puppies
unless there is a sign. Don't expect web
site visitors to knock on your front URL to
see if you maybe have the exact gift item
they are looking for just because you sell
gifts.
You can advertise on other gift sites that
market to similar niches without selling the
same products. You can advertise in online
and offline publications. You can advertise
on any imaginable site that caters to the
same people you are catering to. Going back
to the free puppies analogy, suppose that
you sell embroidered puppy collars. Wouldn't
a site run by the Humane Society also cater
to people with puppies? Wouldn't they be
happy to swap links if you could help drive
a few puppy shopping families to their web
site?
Where all you could advertise depends
entirely on what you sell and who you are
attempting to sell it to. But be creative.
Go to any search engine and do a search on
some of your own keywords. See if there are
special interest groups, clubs, or other
organizations who comprise of members who
are your potential customers. If you sell
sportswear, start hitting little leaguers,
co-ed leaguers, etc. As fast as the internet
is growing, and as many new users as appear
online every day, you should never, ever
stop looking for new places to reach
potential customers. While you are
advertising, remember to keep your message
simple and specialized. Don't just create a
big banner that says "gifts" in
eight flashing colors. Tell potential
visitors what type of gifts you offer. We
all have to have traffic to sell, but the
wrong traffic doesn't create sales.
Rose Clark of the Cabot Mall, http://www.cabotmall.com,
helps all her mall merchants do this. She
offers free ezine advertising to each of her
merchants, generating more traffic and brand
name awareness for each of them.
Additionally, Rose's mall does a superb job
of categorizing.
3. Market to your visitors
Think of all your advertising and marketing
efforts on a Return On Investment basis. It
costs far more to get a customer than it
does to keep one.
You should be obtaining contact information
from every one who visits your web site.
Email addresses. Phone numbers. Snail mail
addresses. Keep marketing to these people.
Tell them about new products, sales,
specials, etc. Remind them why they surfed
into your site in the first place and invite
them back. Contests are great ways to do
this. If you can give away one $5.00 widget
a month and obtain 500 new contacts for
every widget given away, that is a high
return on investment. Some of the people who
register to win your widget will buy one if
they don't win. And they will come back
monthly to re-register. Especially if you
send a reminder to them to do so.
Cyndi Steinmetz of CDK Enterprises is very
efficient in this department. When you shop
at her site, register for her contest, or
simply visit and supply your email address
you enter her mailing list for life. Monthly
reminders from CDK tell me about new
children's gifts. And with four children in
my home, scarecely a month goes by that I'm
not looking for something for them! Cyndi is
always on my mind because she reminds me to
think about her regularly by sending me
emails. Her reminders of products keep me
thinking of new ways to shop with her all
the time.
This is especially useful if you sell
collectibles that are released and retired
on a regular basis. If you collect Beanie
Babies, you want to know when each one is
retiring and make sure that you have it. If
you collect Longaberger Baskets, you want to
be reminded when the Mother's Day Basket is
sold each year to be sure that you add it to
your collection.
4. Mail, mail, and mail some more
Email specifically. Email is the
cheapest form of advertising known to
mankind - except for word of mouth. If you
aren't sending emails to customers, leads,
contacts, etc., on a regular basis you are
missing out on a very powerful form of
advertising. Its fast. Its easy. And its
free. Case in point. When Success Promotions
has a small lull and is in search of
customers, I can obtain far more with far
less effort by contact past customers. They
know what I do. They know it works. And they
may have been planning to start marketing
with me again, but just haven't gotten
around to ordering. Susie Glennan, of The
Busy Woman's Daily Planner, http:/www.thebusywoman.com,
knows this works. She monthly sends
reminders to people who haven't ordered in
the past 12 months. Her products are
consumed, if you will, on an annual basis.
She generates more sales by reminding
customers to come back and re-order.
Think about the life cycle of your products
and do the same. Perhaps you have a birthday
product. You know one year later, the gift
giver will be shopping again. Send them an
email inviting them to come back and shop
with you.
5. Plan ahead for seasonal sales
Of course Christmas applies here. But what
about Valentines Day, Easter, Chanukah, Flag
Day, Voting Day, and hundreds of others? If
you have gifts that apply to all occaisions
generically or to specific holidays you have
to plan in advance to get your marketing
message in front of consumers at the
appropriate time.
It might be hard to think about Santa Claus,
cold weather, reindeer, and jingle bells in
July; but that is when you need to start
planning. Especially if you will be running
special discount campaigns. Don't wait til
the last minute this year. Right now, get
out your calendar and make note of every
holiday that will effect your business. Back
track anywhere from two weeks to six months
in your calendar and make a notation to
begin planning and implementing campaigns
for these holidays.
6. Campaign
Politics or not, we all must group and
categorize our advertising in some manner.
If you develop entire campaigns for products
and occasions, then you are ready to roll
each time with ad copy, brochures, sales
messages, etc. Don't short change yourself
here. This is where it is at for every
business. And gift shops aren't any
different. If you plan to roll out six new
necklaces this year, one every two months,
then you really should find some sort of
campaign method to link and organize
yourself. Market them in a uniform and
pre-planned manner. And by all means, have a
campaign for every new product. Don't just
clandestinely add it to your site and hope
that someone notices. Add it with a bang,
and a campaign.
7. Organize
To a great extent, we've been covering this
all along. But it can't be emphasized
enough. Don't make me, the shopper, search
high and low on your site for a statue that
perfectly matches my wizard logo. Combine
the wizard, sorcery, magical, knights of the
roundtable products together. Think of every
way that someone like me - or any other
shopper - might go looking for them. And
make them easy to find by organizing.
8. Monopolize
Many merchants worry that this is a taboo
form of marketing. Not at all.
Would it have been taboo to sell flags on
9/11/01? Perhaps. But every day since then
they have been selling like hotcakes. And if
you offer American patriotism in the form of
products on your gift site, then you need to
monopolize on the new American patriotism.
For years merchants have monopolized on
Christmas, Mother's Day, and every other
gift giving occasion. Let's face it,
Hallmark and American Greetings would go
belly up if this year we all decided to
boycot our moms on Mother's Day.
So how do you do this? Jog your memory by
looking at everything we've covered.
Specialization and categorization.
Organization. Preplanning. They all come
into play.
You don't need a crystal ball to see what
trends are coming along in consumerism. And
if you see them, you need to monopolize on
them if you want to run a successful gift
sales business.
Look at what eToys.com, Walmart.com,
BlueLight.com, etc. did this year. A rather
unstable economy kept people from spending
quite as freely as they have in years past.
Rather than give up all together, merchants
increased their specials and discounts. And
didn't we all buy at least one thing this
past holiday season not because we or our
gift recipient needed it, but rather because
it was too inexpensive not to buy?
9. Design Your Site Carefully
This could be an entire article on its own.
But let's look at the general mechanics of a
site that would rank high in the search
engines.
Quality and quantity keywords and meta tags
are imperative if you want the right kind of
traffic. Speed of loading and ease of
navigation are required to get visitors
where you want them to end up - the order
page. Aesthetically pleasing visuals make
shoppers happy and turn them into buyers.
And finally, the more payment methods you
are able to accept, the more buyers you will
receive.
Invite a friend, preferably an internet
newbie, to shop from your site. Perhaps even
offer a free gift as the incentive. See how
long it takes them to find what they are
looking for and order it. Do they get
frustrated? Do they smile or frown? Re-think
your gift site design accordingly.
10. Market Every Day
What no holidays or Sundays off? That's
right. You should always be prepared to hand
out a business card or zap off an email when
you see a marketing opportunity. And you can
be marketing even when you aren't marketing.
Your signature text in your emails should
ALWAYS contain a link to your business site.
Every thing you ship should have your URL
printed everywhere. When you leave a pen at
the bank, it should have your business
contact printed on it. If you stop at a yard
sale and see that someone obviously likes
Teddy Bears, you should tell them how to get
to your Teddy Bear Site.
What about getting other people to market
for you?
Groups like http:/www.mompack.com
are all about having other people help
promote your business for free. When you
ship a product, always include at least
THREE of your business cards, one for the
recipient to keep and two to give away.
Affiliate programs are a great way to get
people to sell for you. Don't overlook any
option.
And when you are running a special, don't
forget to advertise on sites that compile
savings information. My favorite is http://www.clearancecrazy.com.
But there are tons of them.
11. Utilize Every Contact as a
Potential Marketing Contact
One category of products that I sell is
gourmet coffee, tea, and snacks. It has
absolutely nothing to do with my primary
business, http://www.SuccessPromotions.com.
However, it is very successful in its own
right. http://www.coffeeteaetc.com
gets more hits regularly than Success
Promotions. Why? Because I tell everyone
about it. For example, every time I get a
free cup of coffee somewhere, I leave a
couple business cards and web cards. (See http://www.mothersdayout.com/
for web cards.) I participate in marketing
material exchanges through the Mom Pack
mentioned earlier. When I meet someone who
sells any type of home party product whether
it be food/kitchen oriented like TupperWare
or completely different like PartyLite
Candles or House of Lloyd, I tell them about
my business. It is easy to recruit for and
easy to promote. Almost everyone I know
drinks coffee or tea. I give away samples. I
invite neighbors over for gourmet coffee.
Everyone I talk to is a suspected buyer or
reseller until they prove themselves
otherwise.
You should assume the same.
Wear the clothes that you sell or the
jewelry. Drive the car that you sell. Drink
the coffee that you sell. And be prepared to
share them with anyone who even casually
asks.
Along the same lines, encourage your own
customers to do the same. I have purchased
many shirts from Sirr Max, http://www.sirrmax.com.
Their positive logoed apparel fits my
personality and I enjoy sharing their
messages of hope with anyone who takes the
time to read my clothing. At least twice a
day, when wearing Sirr Max apparel, someone
will comment on how much they like my shirt
or admire the message on my tote bag. I'm
always prepared to give a business card to
them. Ordering from this online giftwear
site is easy. But potential customers have
to get to the site to order. So I help
Pamela Jordan of Sirr Max by advertising for
her every time I wear her clothing.
If you sell anything besides underwear, then
your customers' friends are going to
eventually see it. Make sure they are
prepared to tell their friends how they can
get some too.
12. Network
The dreaded "N" word. This has
nothing to do with multi level marketing. It
is all about who you know and what you know.
When you network, you invariably make
potential business/client contacts. So do it
wholeheartedly. Don't just join a group like
Digital Women http://www.digital-women.com
or The Network for Women http://www.thenetworkforwomen.com,
but participate in them. Join the email
lists. Advertise. Donate time, products,
services, etc. Make yourself visible enough
within the group that your networking is
accomplishing something. The contacts will
be invaluable. And you neve know who you
will meet who either is just now looking for
gifts like you sell or knows someone who is.
It's a new year and all of us are ready for
a fresh, new start. Make an effort to
utilize these suggestions in the way most
appropriate for your business. Sell more
gifts by working to sell more gifts.
And remember, Success Promotions, http://www.successpromotions.com
is always just a quick browser surf away
with tons more tips, tools, and tricks.
------------------------------------
Shannan Hearne
President and Wizard
Success Promotions
http://www.successpromotions.com
Building Your E-Business Better
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