Wednesday, July 8, 2009

OK, I lied.

Over the past two months, I just posted all kinds of guerrilla marketing ideas in a series called 151 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas You Can Use.

I'm sorry to have mislead you with the title. That was not 151 ideas.

The grand total came to 193 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas You Can Use.

Whoops!





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Monday, July 6, 2009

151 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas :: Wholesale

Today's Low-cost, High-impact Marketing Ideas focus on Selling Wholesale.

For the full list of ideas, organized by category, check out this post.

  1. As far as some of my larger orders - I actually approached people I know who use large quantities of canes or beads on my own online and bead shops offline. Most of them at least heard me out and I got enough orders written that it's made it profitable over the years. Neither of those are quick fixes though - six months to a year before they start showing results.
  2. http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2006/01/wholesale_retai.html
  3. I priced my products with wholesale in mind from the start and think it's really important to figure out how to do that if you want to make a living from your work
  4. Also, several customers found me at craft shows
  5. have made for you custom POS fixtures, and offering a discount when they buy a whole fixture's worth, can be real money makers. Buyers like to get in and out easy, and If you have on display a whole filled fixture, with a price list for the exact items on the fixture, they tend to just buy twice as much
  6. Wholesale trade shows and trade magazines such as The Gift Shop magazine
  7. http://qbranchltd.blogspot.com/2008/02/selling-wholesale-part-i.html
  8. http://www.designspongeonline.com/bizladies
  9. I found that directly targeting stores myself is too time consuming. That just did not work for me.
  10. When I first started looking for wholesale accounts, I definitely did some soliciting. I created some line sheets (there are lots of examples out there if you google it) and attached them with a brief note of introduction. It worked surprisingly well, and really got my foot in the door
  11. Get sales reps! You pay them 15% of the sales, you sit back and listen to the fax ring in your orders, pay them commissions on a monthly basis, on PAID SALES ONLY!
  12. The first thing you should do is post that you wholesale in your shop announcement. That is the easiest way to start. Most people are looking for a catalog, if you convo me, I'll send you the link to my catalog.

As mentioned in this post, the ideas in this post came from my snippets of ideas saved from Etsy forum posts over the last year. If you provided an idea listed here, please comment and I'll credit the idea to you with a link to your shop, ok?







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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

151 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas :: Video

Today's Low-cost, High-impact Marketing Ideas focus on Video.

For the full list of ideas, organized by category, check out this post.

  1. how about making a video/ commercial on youtube, with the right tags you're guaranteed to get views and visits
  2. Sell more than handmade items. Use video to sell your story.
  3. I am actually planning to vlog some craft tutorials to attract some traffic
  4. If the way your create or sell your product would be at all interesting to watch - create and post Youtube videos about it. Humorous commercials will get you attention here too!
  5. I've also thought about selling video beadweaving tuts for download.
  6. You can show people your products and services by posting videos to your website, blog, social networking sites, etc
  7. There is a website call animoto.com that allows you to upload images to their site, and they have some software that creates the video for you.
  8. I have done a couple of videos of the things that I make.

As mentioned in this post, the ideas in this post came from my snippets of ideas saved from Etsy forum posts over the last year. If you provided an idea listed here, please comment and I'll credit the idea to you with a link to your shop, ok?







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Monday, June 29, 2009

151 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas :: Tell A Friend

Today's Low-cost, High-impact Marketing Ideas focus on Tell A Friend aka Word of Mouth.

For the full list of ideas, organized by category, check out this post.

  1. Make up some business cards to be your "Tell A Friend" cards. You can use these to create a referral discount program, where each customer is assigned a unique referral # that is printed on their tell a friend cards. If this # is mentioned in future orders, the original customer receives an X% discount on their next purchase from your store.
  2. If you are selling multiples of the same item and sell one, you can include a few "tell a friend" business cards with the order - that include a photo of the item they purchased. Customers will sometimes share these with people who ask them about your item.
  3. When a customer refers a friend to my shop and that friend buys something, I offer the first customer 10% of their friend's purchase as a store credit. So if the friend buys a $20 item, the first customer gets a $2 credit on their next purchase. They can save up their credits and use it for their entire purchase (They still pay shipping.) Your customers would be really working hard to get people to buy from you. The new person would need to give the first person's name and convo you to say 'So and so referred me to your shop'
  4. I would put a 10 referral limit on the referrals and only offer it to a person that actually buys something from you.
  5. Assign everyone a code that they must pass on to whomever they refer. Referee must put code in notes to get discount. It could be something as simple as the person's name with letters or numbers or something like that. If you keep a little chart, it'd be pretty easy to keep track of.....
  6. I made a purse for a friend of mine that lives far away from me. Anyway she had sent me a message on MySpace telling me that all her friends LOVE her purse....and one of her friends saw that comment and found me....now she's interested in getting something from me!
  7. An unknown customer (that is one with no previous knowledge of you) who has a positive experience will tell 5 people. That same customer - if they have a negative experience - will tell twice as many people
  8. When I first opened my shop, I sent an email to my friends and family. My brother- in -law forwarded it to a friend who was remodeling their house and they bought a painting.
  9. I remember from the guerilla marketing book was that I should be spending half my marketing efforts on my current/previous customers
  10. http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/935-Ecommerce-Know-How-Start-a-Buzz-with-Word-of-Mouth-Marketing

As mentioned in this post, the ideas in this post came from my snippets of ideas saved from Etsy forum posts over the last year. If you provided an idea listed here, please comment and I'll credit the idea to you with a link to your shop, ok?







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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

151 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas :: Contests & Giveaways

Today's Low-cost, High-impact Marketing Ideas focus on Contests & Giveaways.

For the full list of ideas, organized by category, check out this post.

I want to preface today's list with a link to this post in Etsy's Storque regarding contests. By sharing these contest ideas I am not advocating contests, but just relaying info about what other people have said or done.


That said, here is today's list of ideas:

CONTESTS

  1. Enter your crafts into contests...such as the county fair. Winning competitions and contests is a good way to get your name out there and win some money or recognition to boot!

GIVEAWAYS - Do they help?

  1. I just recently ran my first blog giveaway. I had put an announcement in my shop announcements. I had over 400 views that weeks and over 100 people register for the contest. I would say that was pretty successful, and it was a ton of fun. ;-)
  2. It is pretty easy, and it does get you traffic
  3. I know that it generates a lot of views, some hearts, and we've got our fingers crossed about more sales :)
  4. I participated in a blog giveaway earlier this week on another seller's blog that gets a TON of traffic and someone who read that blog found my site via that blog and purchased $80 worth of prints from me

GIVEAWAYS - Great Ideas

  1. EcoEtsy Team did a scavenger hunt through participating Etsy team shops - http://ecoetsy.blogspot.com/2008/02/st-patties-day-team-scavenger-hunt.html
  2. You could have a contest to post a picture of yourself in one of the ugliest fads you've ever owned. E.g. slouch socks with rolled up stonewashed jeans. And then vote on which one you think is the ugliest and they win something.
  3. Do a monthly giveaway for those who sign up for your blog/newsletter.
  4. I have a mailing list that I ask people to join, and I pick monthly from that list. I am also having a blog give away right now, and to have a chance to win, you just have to comment to that post.
  5. I have people enter my giveaway by sending me photos of things made with beads from my store. I let them know I'll use the photos to create product pages that are inspiring and creative instead of the same drab photos.
  6. Every blogger that featured us during the month of April, would be entered in the drawing to win.
  7. I often like product testers for some of my items before I launch them for sale. I was thinking of doing a giveaway for a beta product, so it could be something small or big, with the expectation that the winner(s)would use it, abuse it and answer a few questions in a month's time.
  8. OneWorld One Heart - an annual worldwide giveaway every January
  9. I have a giveaway at the beginning of every month.
  10. How about a "free flair" giveaway where I would send people a free button and then I would ask them to send me a picture of their "flair" in action--- wearing the button on a jacket or purse or whatever--- that I would post on my blog with their link.

As mentioned in this post, the ideas in this post came from my snippets of ideas saved from Etsy forum posts over the last year. If you provided an idea listed here, please comment and I'll credit the idea to you with a link to your shop, ok?









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Monday, June 22, 2009

151 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas :: Memorable Business Cards

Today's Low-cost, High-impact Marketing Ideas focus on making and using Memorable Business Cards.

For the full list of ideas, organized by category, check out this post.

  1. I always make and send out bookmarks with my orders. That way, you never know where they'll end up, not just in my city, but all over the world to people I sell to. Mainly I just do it because it's a nice 'extra' for my customers.
  2. I once found an old theater ticket from England from 1943 in a book I got from a used book store and it was like a treasure. If I were to advertise in library books I think I would make special advertising bookmarks with a nice ribbon and such so that the person feels more like it's a treasure than an invasion.
  3. When I was 12 I found a very unique and mysterious business card taped to a bus stop window and I still have it because it was so interesting to me.
  4. i make matchbook style Post It holders with my shop info printed all over the outside cover.
  5. bookmarks are cool too. i just bought a bunch recently when Overnightprints.com had a special where you get 100 booksmarks free with the payment of shipping.
  6. I like the idea of making Etsy bookmarks and leaving them in books. I am always looking for a bookmark and usually resort to old bill envelopes or scraps of paper when I'm desperate. Finding a nicely done bookmark in a library book would be like finding buried treasure. (I am a school librarian, by the way.)
  7. my business cards are actually bookmarks. figure when i send it out with my items it kills 2 birds with 1 stone
  8. We have MixedSpecies temporary tattoos that we give and apply for free! You'd be amazed at the fun those things create. We also are working on sets of "leave behind" coasters to drop off at bars with a drunken dot to dot game! Just a couple ideas!
    made my banner and my business card into key chains and make sure and show them off every chance I get...I love people at the grocery store asking me about them.
  9. I make coupons using etsy mini and send then out as postcards and hand them out at craft shows.
  10. I got pens with my Etsy url and tag line on them. Every time I have to sign something - at the bank, the pharmacy, the doctor's office, etc., I "accidentally" leave the pen behind. I've also left them in public restrooms, at restaurants, pretty much everywhere I go. also, at places that have cups of pens, like my chiropractor or the vet, I put a couple of my pens in there for their clients to use. Sneak marketing.
  11. I make postcards out of etsy mini with my website on them and send them out and hand them out (with little coupons or discounts on them).
  12. I got talking with the librarian and told her what I do. I asked her if I was to make up some book marks would she put some up at the front desk.
  13. Perhaps if you know the item is going to be a gift, offer free gift wrapping and use Kraft brown paper, and then stamp your logo on it nicely?
  14. Refrigerator and bumper magnets are fairly inexpensive to make yourself now, especially if you are using custom wooden stamps.
  15. Temporary tattoos of our logo.
  16. I bought these teeny tiny hardcover composition books (4 in a pack for a dollar) and glued my business card to the front. Once I found a ton of boxes of purple ink Bic pens at the dollar store. Since purple is my colour, I scooped them up! People can always use a little pen & notebook for their purse/backpack.
  17. gave these out for halloween, along with candy of course! my son takes them to school, too.

As mentioned in this post, the ideas in this post came from my snippets of ideas saved from Etsy forum posts over the last year. If you provided an idea listed here, please comment and I'll credit the idea to you with a link to your shop, ok?







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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

151 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas :: Samples

Today's Low-cost, High-impact Marketing Ideas focus on Samples.

For the full list of ideas, organized by category, check out this post.

  1. You could also try giving out samples at various events. Even at family or work events...you could supply the give-aways or doorprizes and then place your business card or a tag with you Etsy info on them.
  2. I leave soap samples and business cards in public restrooms.
  3. I've got a purse full of soap samples....just let them ask me a single question even remotely related to soap, and they wind up with a free sample to try.
  4. Have sent sample santas to stores in the past, and ended up with an order for 40 santas!
  5. I made up some little bags with mints and some other candies and a business card in them and had friends put them in the lunch room where they worked! everyone needs and after dinner mint!
  6. I have also sent "promo packages" to everyone in my family....The instructions are funny... "This is not for you! Give this to a friend or someone you know! If they buy from me you will get something extra special in your christmas card!"
  7. I contacted by local community welcome wagon (they introduce all newbies to the city) and have asked them to include my sample package in their basket.
  8. If you include any samples in orders, try including an extra "Tell a friend" sample that includes your store name and url.
  9. showing my paintings in a local cafe has been my most successful marketing yet!
  10. Most hospitals have volunteers that put together packets for new parents.
  11. When I make a new soap that I want tested or critiqued, I'll bring mini-bars to work. Word has spread like wildfire and my colleagues are my best customers.
  12. send out lip balm samples to local dentist's
  13. If you include any samples in orders, try including an extra "Tell a friend" sample that includes your store name and url.

As mentioned in this post, the ideas in this post came from my snippets of ideas saved from Etsy forum posts over the last year. If you provided an idea listed here, please comment and I'll credit the idea to you with a link to your shop, ok?






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