|
You may be more familiar with marketing the way your parents did it than the way it works today. If you had a good budget and the demographics were right, if demographics even played a role, then you went on TV and did a thirty second spot. You can ask almost anyone about the cost of a thirty second spot for the Super Bowl in the U.S. and they can tell you it's over a million dollars. As a matter of fact some people watch the super bowl just for the commercials. If your company could get their product used in a movie that could lead to future success also. One odd little use of modeling clay lead to an increase in sales after Saturday Night Live created a character out of clay and then kept destroying him in a variety of funny circumstances. If you don't remember, ask your parents about Mr. Bill.
Then there are radio spots and newspaper ads that are a little less costly. Then billboards, neighborhood flyers, people dressed up holding a big sign pointing to your business, etc. You get the picture. If your business was kids craft projects you were probably pretty limited in how to increase your sales through marketing. Maybe getting it into the local schools or libraries art programs, flyers and most of all word of mouth were parts of your repertoire of tools to sell more. These days have changed for those who are getting on the internet. Those left behind may want to read about the possibilities of the using the internet. No longer do kids crafts have to be a local market with local marketing efforts.
By using the internet for your storefront, your arts and crafts business can now be an international business with a global presence and 24/7 access for 365 days a year. This requires a whole new paradigm for what's coming next. The best marketing on the internet is to get your online store to come up on the first page of the various search engines when someone searches for art supplies. This is often referred to as search engine optimization or SEO. You may never have to market any other way if you spend the time and money to do this. Not to mention this will also increase sales by making it easy to buy from anywhere in the world at any time of the day or night. You don't even have to be there for someone to buy.
If you haven't done so already, get a page up and start thinking about how to compete with all of those other web sites that offer the same or similar products. The best bet is to hire a specialist in search engine optimization while you focus on what you do best, running your business. You can't be great at all of it so delegate this one out to the pros. In the meantime you'd better be figuring out how you're going to grow at an astronomical rate when your site starts popping up on page one of the search engines.
|
|
|
