posted on April 22, 2003 08:10:22 AM new
I started the post that follows as a reply in the Website Ideas folder but though it could actually be a very good thread of its own where everyone could share marketing concepts that have worked for them in the past....... and those that have failed. I don't think many of us actually compete directly against each other so hopefully that won't hold anyone back. Besides, the more we all do to raise each other up the more successful we will be at eliminating lower rung sellers that are taking our bids (They are rightfully ours right ) Hopefully this thread can be a tutorial of ideas and sources for ebay and website marketing ideas and providers of helpful services (or heads up of not so helpful ones).
Don't be shy! If you have an idea or a proven strategy regarding increasing ebay or website sales ... toss it out there. Ever try something that failed horribly? POST IT! Think of all the karma you build up by steering another seller away from big mistakes. Besides, with all of the creative minds here, someone may just find where a the fatal flaw was and be able to give a suggestion to help turn it into a success.
posted on April 22, 2003 08:12:33 AM new
Re: Turning ebay sales into website sales
Back when ebay was just starting to catch on I started selling to a niche genre. I was lucky because since it was a very narrow niche, related merchandise and memorabilia was nearly impossible to find in most areas (To this day, the web is still the source for 90% of it sales in the US). My customers were generally 15 -30 and they were hard-core followers. I was only listing maybe 200 items a month but I my sell thru rate on them was probably 95% on first listings and 100% on relists. I got so many emails from people wanting to buy other items off of ebay that I decided to start a website.
I changed my ebay handle to www.widgets.com, put a banner (back when this was still allowed) at the bottom of each of my auctions to my site and traffic started appearing.
I then designed 1 page "catalogs" for each line of widget that had pics of the different styles, pricing, hyped the other lines of widgets, gave the site address and mentioned the news section (covered in next section). When I sent out EOA notices I included a few sentences about the site and what was offered. In addition I designed a business card sized coupon with the website address and an offer of buyers choice of free shipping on orders over $30 (this was back when Priority was a whopping $2.85 for anything under 2 pounds and before zones) or purchase five widgets, get one free. You can get 500 of the printed up overnight from almost any print shop for under $20. Whenever I shipped out an ebay order, I included a coupon and a flyer relating to the specific item they had won. Thanks to the coupons I was able to get an idea of how many sales were coming directly from ebay sales, it was generally in the 25% range and about 30% of them became repeat customers. (BTW - Ebay sales stayed steady during this time as well)
RE: Developing more traffic while waiting for the elusive Search Engine addition:
Bulletin Boards, Discussion Groups.... Become one with them! I searched out bulletin boards and discussion groups related to the genre I was dealing with. When I found one, I asked posters there about others and got involved with them as well. Rather than just pitching my site I got involved in the discussions and became a contributing member. Rather than shilling or spamming the boards I would mention merchandise only when someone else brought it up. If there was a widget that became highly discussed that I didn't have, I would search it out. If I could find a decent quantity I would have them list in the regular part of the site but would then set up a special page with it at a discounted price which would be given to the board members that had expressed interest. In no time I never had to hype myself, other poster would do it for me. If someone new came along looking for something other posters would direct them to my site. Remember when signing up for these to always use your URL in your screenname whenever possible. (Most website come with multiple email accounts. Set one of these up as your "junk Box" and use that one when subscribing to the boards to help keep spam out of your "Business Box"
RE: Turning Website Visitors into Website Regulars and Customers
When I designed the site I included an info section that gave news, updates, photos, gossip, whatever I could find that related to the genre so that people would return not just when they wanted to buy something, but also for entertainment value. If I had merch associated with whatever the new update was, I built a separate page just for those pieces then put a link beside that piece to the general page that held all the different styles in that line (i.e. if Joe Schmoe was in the news, Joe Schmoes name would hyper link to a page featuring all of the different Joe Schmoe related widgets, then beside the Joe Schmoe DooHickies was a link to my page of all DooHickies, next to the Joe Schmoe Whoosiwhatsit was a link to the Whoosiwhatsit page, etc).
I also took advantage of free mailing list services by adding subscription links to each page. Since I was using one a third party service that had done all of the set up work and did not have to worry about the details and funky upkeep, I used them to excess. I actually had about five different lists. Subscribers could choose to receive a weekly update which listed all newly added items, clearances, sales, et or the could instead sign up to receive notices only when new items styles were added to their specific widget line of interest. I would also include little news or gossips quips in these which I got great feedback on, more than a few people said that they opened an email just to check the gossip, ended up going ahead and checking out the new additions and saw something they suddenly fell for and had to have.
RE: Having successful auctions AND a successful website.
Obviously once you convert an ebay buyer to a website customer you stand the chance of losing their bids on your auctions.... also, some ebayers may ignore your site figuring they will eventually be able to get the item cheaper on ebay. I minimized the effects of this (and even took advantage of it) with a couple of different tricks.
About 50% of the items I listed on ebay were ones that were also available on the site. I had links on each page of the site to my bay auction list. I started all of my bay auctions at 50-75% of their price on the site. Regular customers knew to check my ebay listing before buying from the site just in case they could luck out and catch a bargain. In other word, my website traffic was furnishing at least one bidder (often more) to my auctions. Since we all know that people are more interested in items that show bids, this helped attract people to the auction and their bids helped drive up the final auction price. Occasionally something would close below the site price but more often than not, they were the same or higher and the loosing bidder would end up buying the off the site in the end.
I also made some items ebay exclusive or website exclusive. Most of the widgets had varying rarity in the different styles. In some cases some of the more common styles were only available on ebay, in others they were only available on the site. On the website I would state which styles were currently being auctioned and the EOA notice and flyer would mention the website exclusive styles.
You can also have a "featured auction" box on your front page. Post a picture of one of your ebay exclusive auction items with a link to that auction.
(BTW - If you are going to do this, you should also check into becoming an "Ebay Affiliate" it is a super simple sign up process and last time I checked you receive $5 when someone signs up thru your site and places a bid. I think it pays quarterly)
RE: Using your Web Mailing list to increase your ebay sales.
Occasionally I came across an item that was either super rare and highly sought after or just completely unique. When this would happen I would send an "Special Auction Alert" to the people on the appropriate mailing list regarding this special find and providing a link to the auction. I would also put a picture and special notice on the front page of the website. Be careful not to abuse these. Only send them out when you are dealing with something really special. Your customers will then see these alerts as something that really is special and are more likely to look. If you abuse this avenue, they stop paying attention and you end up losing in the long run. I actually lucked out once and bought an incredibly rare piece on ebay for $10 from someone who had no idea what it was and did not include a photo. He had mentioned the maker in the description which caught my attention since they lasted for about a year had only created this one line and done such a horrible job of marketing it that the line and the company flooped but 10 years later they were they most sought after pieces in the genre. I emailed him and confirmed my suspicions. When I relisted it and sent out notice to my mailing listed I ended up with a five person bidding war resulting in a final price of nearly $300.
Nurture your Market!
One of my other marketing tricks was straight out of the Disney book. I nurtured demand by not having every available style of every widget available at all times. If there were 50 different styles of a widget I would only have maybe 20 of them available at any one time. Every month or so I would pull 5 or 6 of them off the site and replace them with other styles. There was always a good selection but it also always changed and so people would keep coming back to see if anything new was added that they didn't have yet which helped keep sales level consistent.
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Sorry about rambling on here forever but I I figured that spelling out all of the different avenues that I used in developing what was a very successful site might help some others getting started. It's not meant as a road map since I don't think you need to use every trick I used and obviously not all of the strategies will work with every genre but hopefully there are one or two things that you can either straight out adopt for yourself or that got the wheels turning as to adapting them to your business.
Now..... since I am in the laborious researching trends and competitors stage of getting restarted, what has worked for you? I'll take every suggestion I can get.
posted on April 22, 2003 10:24:55 AM new
There are many good ideas in the Guerilla Marketing book series. (Check 'em out from the library, don't buy.)
I agree with neonmania: Always have something new and different for your customers to buy. I offer new jewelry styles from time to time, and have crossed over into other types of accessories with some success. That brings more folks back to my jewelry auctions.
Offer stuff you might not imagine would sell on eBay. I used to throw away stones salvaged from broken jewelry but now put them up in big lots on eBay.
Step back from eBay and look at other merchandising avenues. I've increased sales by about 25% by using a liquidation web site. There are liquidation newletters you can subscribe to where members list their latest offerings. I'm thinking of putting together some packages for that.
--
"I'm thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said `I drank WHAT?'"
posted on April 22, 2003 01:09:30 PM new
Very cool thread, neon, thanks. An idea I read about a month or so ago on alt.ecommerce is to create a group of networked websites. Several of them might actually be for selling your product, while others might include a fan site, targeted community site, or something else related to but not necessarily selling your product. All of the sites link to your main selling site. This both helps increase rankings in the search engines (increased links to your site), builds popularity, makes the customer feel that you're not just out to "sell them something" and helps to create engaged customers. One thing mentioned was that for many products, a customer has to have that product shown to them 7 times before they will make a buy decision, but it doesn't have to come from "advertising." It could come from seeing it repeatedly in searches, being recommended by customers, reading about it in a newsgroup or list, etc., and these methods fly under the "pushy salesman" radar.
I'm working on implementing this by building sites around several of my niche products that will link back and be linked to my main site, as well as a web community site, which will be "sponsored by" my sites and complementary but non-competing websites.
posted on April 22, 2003 01:21:26 PM new
Great post neonmania....
One thing that really struck me about it was how many times you mentioned when this was allowed, or this cost that much. There is so much that has changed in the past couple of years that really does make it much harder. I am not talking about competition, I am talking about different rules, more fees, etc.
posted on April 22, 2003 03:11:58 PM new
Fees have definately gone up and always will - I mentioned the postage cost to give an idea of the worth of the coupon at the time.
The only rule that has really changed is the banner/site link ban but you can still use your URL as your User ID. It's definately more difficult now to get into the search engines but if you are selling a unique line you can always research what the per click cost would be to list as a sponsored link thru Overture.
posted on April 22, 2003 03:36:52 PM new
No argument that fees will go up, but over the past couple of years, the % they take from you have gone up a lot. I know, I have a merchant account, I know what it costs to do business. It was just nice for a little while...
Also, the postage increases have been astronomical. Sure, the media reports that stamps will go up by 1 cent, or 3 cents, but the real story is priority mail. On January 1, 2001, it cost me $3.20 to send a 17 ounce package to the East Coast. On July 1, 2002, 18 months later, a 17 ounce package costs $5.75 - That is a 55% increase in 18 months...
) Hopefully this thread can be a tutorial of ideas and sources for ebay and website marketing ideas and providers of helpful services (or heads up of not so helpful ones).