Archive for the ‘Promotesy’ Category

Monday Marketing

 

 It’s been a busy month of completing a lot of loose ends, especially in getting ready for the holiday season. But I am always on the outlook for great ideas for and about marketing. Ask Harriete has had an interesting series on displays for windows and booths – lots of great ideas to enjoy – as well as think about what could work for your own purposes. Window Dressing for Booth Display – fascinating ideas for setting up displays.  Made with pencils, and there is a video to go along with the photo as to how the booth was constructed. Who knew hangars could look so cool?

A fascinating TED talk on Collaborative Consumption – lots of food for thought……Would love to open a dialogue with folks about some of these ideas.

In the meantime, getting the Etsy shop loaded with fabrics in preparation for a 50 percent off sale on Cyber Monday. Promotesy (from the folks at Handmadeology) is a great tool for scheduling and marketing posts and items. And you really can’t beat $5 a month. The biggest marketing task has been a total makeover of the website, which has kind of sat idle for a couple of years, as the blog and Facebook page moved to the forefront. Lots of major changes on the site: new pages: Testimonials, Snapshots, Patterns, Digital Marbling, Classes and Workshops. Plus, new work is finally up, and the gallery has been seriously updated. Some pages still need writing and pictures, and the order form is getting a makeover, but the site is so much more comprehensive. And….two new domain names….

The domain name has been an interesting issue. We’ve had “marbledfab” since the late 1990s, since “marbledfabrics” was already taken. Hence a play on the words, but we always have to spell it for people. When we got our domain name, e-commerce was still very much in its infancy. It would be several years before domains became the critical component they are now. So we now have two new domains that point to the website (and I actually learned how to do that…): deanandlindamoran.com and MarbleTDesign.com. It’s all about branding and making it easy for folks to find us. We’ll see how it works…and the new business cards will have the new domains on them.

I decided to also add more examples of fabrics and patterns to our fabric page. These are pieces from our “we’ll never sell anything in this folder because it’s so gorgeous” file. These are just a few…..

Ideas to share? Pas them along!

Monday Marketing

So here’s my list of marketing tasks for today:

* update Facebook business page, reflect on how I did the past week – I did pretty well over this past week, a lot of updates posted, mostly personal and helpful (hopefully). I just need to get in the habit of doing this each day. I also commented on a number of different pages.

* NEWSLETTER finished and scheduled – written, proofed and ready for mailboxes on Wednesday! That’s six months of regular newsletters, after a long drought of not writing. Yay me!

* schedule blog posts, especially TAFA and books for Amazon – Tuesday’s Top Ten is already scheduled, and I’ve started next week’s Top Ten, on some really great new blogs I’ve found. It was easier last week to get blog posts scheduled, and I’ve come up with a few new things to try for posts.

* Promotesy – worked on this during the middle of last week. Worked on this again today, and I learned some interesting things about hashtags from Tim, the mastermind behind Handmadeology. Let’s see if it works…..

* look at holiday marketing plan and choose what needs to done this week – working on another basket this week,so I’m pretty much on track.

* “About” page for the Etsy shop – done. Pretty easy, just follow the directions on your Etsy shop. Here’s ours. It’s a nice personal piece to your Etsy shop.

This doesn’t seem like a lot, compared to last week. I think I’ll ruminate some more on what else I can do.

 

Here’s what’s left for next week, and I’m sure I’ll add to this.

update ebay “About Me” page

schedule for pattern release

review and comment on blogs

Look at TAFA marketing for holidays

Handmadeology post on community for this week

Southern Cal artist packet completed

Stumble pages

Monday Marketing: The Holidays are Coming!!

I just did the following post for Handmadeology, as I am doing a series on niche marketing. And…in the 24 hours since it was completed, I have sold a basket and done a $100 order on Etsy. I can’t emphasize enough the need to plan ahead for this buying season. I was freaking out because I hadn’t done any planning, so I used the blog post as my think tank. It worked really well. Hopefully you will find some use for this post, and you can read the previous posts in niche marketing.

Marketing 101: Niche Markets Part 7

Can the Holidays Be Far Behind?

Part 1: Niche Markets

Part 2: What is your wackiest marketing idea?

Part 3:  Getting out there

Part 4:  Have you done your newsletter?

Part 5: Your Newsletter Revisited

Part 6: Packaging and Displays – Field Trip Time!

 

I am sitting here on September, nearly panicking because I don’t have my plans done for this coming holiday season. Actually, this is good, because for the last few years I have missed the holiday season completely. Teaching always got in the way, and the next thing I know, it’s a week after Cyber Monday. I am bound and determined not to let that happen this year.

I’m using this post to think through my plan, so you can see exactly where I’m going with ideas, and I sure hope you join in with additional ideas. As you read through these, you’ll probably notice these are basic marketing tasks, not just for a niche market.

* I need to set goals for this holiday shopping season, so I can start the actual planning.

– My newsletter will have specials each month with a holiday theme. The newsletter that went out last week advertised a new pattern for a table runner that would make an easy gift for     a  holiday hostess.

– The Etsy shop will be stocked to the brim with a variety of items: small quilts,   large quilts, patterns, pattern kits, marbled fabrics, ribbons, gift baskets. We are  up to almost 40 items at this point, with another 10 to be added in this weekend.

– I will sell at least 10 gift baskets of marbled fabric goodies (I aimed for 5 last year  and actually made it). I need to get supplies for these and begin the handcrafted bowls – perfect task for watching television at night.

– I will determine a nonprofit to receive a percentage of sales for this holiday  season. This involves looking locally, deciding on a percentage, before/after      shipping, and how to advertise this.

–  I will create a marketing plan that includes website, blog, Facebook business page, newsletter, personal email contacts, and anything else that comes to mind.

* Thoughts on actual marketing:

– I will determine coupon/discount specials for the newsletter, the FB page, and the Etsy store for each month, starting now.

– I will create long-term coupons to go in all mailings and gift baskets.

– I will sketch out what needs to be accomplished during each month, prior to Thanksgiving Black Friday.

– I will continue to create product for the Etsy store so that I do not run out before the beginning of December.

– I will check for all packaging/mailing supplies and stock up during sales.

– I will investigate the new Promotesy as a way of increasing my visibility during the holiday season by connecting all my social media profiles together. Certainly  the price is right, and I want to track how it does for me in bringing more traffic to my store.

* Each month:

– September: clothesline for fabric bowls, create at least 3; marble fabric for gift    baskets; complete Etsy inventory for this month; start listing what still needs to be marbled for other goodies; newsletter special.

– October: three new fabric bowls; check on nonprofit and determine accounting   for discounts; marbling for new products; new pattern up on Etsy; newsletter  special.

– November: plan for Black Friday and Cyber Monday; three more fabric bowls; marbling new fabric; new pattern up on Etsy; newsletter specials and reminders about Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales; determine last day to ship in December to be sure items arrive.

December: last sale newsletters; last fabric bowls; complete last-minute marbling; last shipments.

So that’s thoughts to get us started. I would love to hear what you would like to add to these ideas. I’ll share everything that comes in, and let’s keep each other on track for a good holiday season!

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