The Art of Pin Point Marketing

I have written a few posts on the subject but needed to actually see the results of this technique before I fully understood why it is a true art in itself.

I know when you think of art the first thing that pops in mind is some sort of unique painting or original sculpture. But art is defined as superior skill that you can learn by study, practice and observation.

To be ahead of your competition and win over the sales you may have lost by not being superior in your skill makes all the difference between a successful and failing business.

Now lets jump right into the nitty gritty of this topic.

Great example of “miss-advertising”:

A few months ago Timothy from TimothyAdamDesigns put out an offer to all his exclusive blog readers. (If you are unsure of who Timothy is, he is a “household” name around etsy with a reputation of being a great source for elaborate information on how to improve your etsy shop with practical techniques such as how to improve your photos and much more.)

Knowing his blog has over 1,000 readers and is nearing 20,000 site visits I thought, "How could I pass up a free advertising opportunity." So for the next week during the open contest time I worked so hard promoting…promoting…promoting!

In the end, my hard work paid off and I won second place landing a free month long add space on his blog. On top of that and the start of HandmadeOlogy Timothy offered me a $40 one month add space on his new, highly anticipated website. He quoted me the numbers expected to visit his website and they were staggering.

Again I though, $40 is hardly anything to pay for the amount of folks that will be seeing my ad and stop by my shop. I paid the $40 and couldn’t wait to see what happened. Was I surprised when I had about 2 extra sales during that month. Not really. In everything I have read about business and marketing I should not have received a sale but I tricked myself at the thought of all those people seeing me.

Yes, my views did go way up. But views are not sales. To no surprise I learned firsthand they weren’t my customers. Most of the folks that visit his blog and website are other possible struggling business owners looking to make either a start for themselves or improve a bit of what they have or need to improve to bring sales in.

My market is mostly brides.

Although my personal style for invitations and other wedding related paper accessories tends to be a bit more modern, I do my best to have lots of different samples to appeal to brides with different tastes. Now that I have a good understanding of who they are now what? How do I draw them in and land the sales I need to succeed?

Great Example of “Perfect” Advertising

I was invited to attend a bridal show on the 1st of this month. The fee for 1 table for 4 hours was $300. Gasp! $300 is a hefty amount to come from my business funds never mind for only 4 hours.

I talked it over extensively with my husband and the point was I had to take the risk since every bride to be I would encounter that day (150 pre-registered) could potentially be a customer. With my husband’s blessing I gave it a shot. I dropped my master card on the $300 and didn’t think about it again. From that moment on my focus was on being as unique and “remember- able” as possible to earn as many sales as my little hands could handle.

The day turned out to be a bit less than desirable(story here) due to the weather but I had to trust the tried and true “marketing” approach. After many shivering conversations with brides, handing out many business “post cards” (tip: they are 4 x 8 and don’t get lost among other business cards) and 32 entries for a drawing I had for $$ of their order, 3 weeks later I have 4 orders that more than pay for the vending expense.

Now to Narrow

With the leads list I received for participating in the show I now have contact information for over 150 brides. I have the opportunity to contact them as much as I want.

Hating “junk” mail myself I have been as practical and as conservative as possible about sending them information.
I started a monthly newsletter through vertical response, which sends me reports with percentages of who opened and clicked to narrow down the “truly” interested out of the 150 brides I emailed.

Out of those 150 there are about 30 seriously interested brides in having me complete their wedding invitations suites. Yesterday I spent the afternoon designing post cards through vista print to mail out to these 30 gals a “special offer” to hopefully seal the deal in their mind by receiving a fantastic deal that my completion, hopefully, can’t compete with.

Although I spend a great deal of time and energy in learning and testing the market in order to have a successful business; I spend just as much energy on leaving my customers more than satisfied! Literally I go above and beyond what any customer would ever expect. That is another secret of success to be shared at a later date so keep your eyes out.

As always- I love to hear your thoughts

BullsEye-Targeting Your Market

Know your target market-

It’s easy to get roped into “blanket” advertising opportunities in order to overwhelm as many people as possible.

That, I must admit, has been my biggest mistake since my start back in January of 2008. The money it costs to do so is not worth the type of business you are looking to get.

Owning your own business means you are providing a product or service that has a need to fulfill.

With that being said, there is a precise group of people looking for your particular product and/or service. It cuts into your valuable time and money to throw darts blindly at a target.

So do some research and find your demography.

One of the first things you need to do is to refine your product or service so that you are NOT trying to be 'all things to all people.' Become a specialist!

For the Invitation side of my business my target market is shared with photographers and various wedding boutiques; generally consisting of young woman ages 18-35 looking for a modern flair to accent their wedding. I specialize in offering modern invitations with a stunning quality and personalized accents, which is a niche amongst all the different styles girls are looking for to make their special day perfect.

Next, you need to understand that people purchase products or services for three basic reasons:

· To satisfy basic needs.
· To solve problems.
· To make themselves feel good.

Their need: announce their wedding and celebration. I solve their problem by catering to their taste and style and that makes them feel good. Those women will most likely one day start a family and be in the need of shower invitations, birth announcements and birthday invitations which expands then expands my business.

· You'll need to determine which of those categories your product or service is the solution to, and be prepared to market it accordingly.
· Your product or service may fit more than one category, too
A good place to start is by researching the 'demographics' of your community, and divide it into market segments:

· Age: children, teens, young, middle, elderly
· Gender: male, female
· Education: high school, college, university
· Income: low, medium, high
· Marital status: single, married, divorced
· Ethnic and/or religious background
· Family life cycle: newly married, married for 10 – 20 years, with or without children.

This information should be available to you through your local town , hall, library, or Chamber of Commerce – and the more detail you can get, the better.

There may be a lot of work involved to put your thumb on those that are looking for your particular product and service; but it is work well worth it. You can now stop spinning your wheels and focus on the tactics successful business currently use to break through their completion and stand above the rest.

Specifically, if you are a card maker, with greeting cards steadily inclining from a $7.5 Billion Industry in which 80% Market Share is held by Hallmark/American we can’t afford not to break into the cutting edge of our completion. The average consumer buys 10 cards per year and most often has a need for 70 cards per year. Due to sheer inconvenience they often don't get around to it. Online it’s even harder to compete with the convenience of going to the store.

Make it convenient.

1. Offer free shipping
2. Offer a reminder service
3. Sell “Yearly Survival” Packs

Don’t be scared to get creative; it will pay off by helping you stand out amongst your completion.