Marketing your products online offers plenty of opportunities to reach customers beyond your own website. Partnering with other sites that have their own built-in user bases gives you access to large groups of new consumers that you can make your customers.
Three creative ways to increase product sales
1. Daily deal sites
In the last few years, the popularity of daily deal sites has grown substantially. Even if you’ve never shopped on one, you’ve probably heard of Zulily.com, Living Social, Jane.com.com and Groupon.com. Some sites sell physical products, while others sell gift certificates or codes customers can use on your site.
While deal sites usually charge fees of 30%-50% of your sales and require that you offer your product at a discount from your regular price, they do offer an AMAZING marketing opportunity and chance to get your brand in front of tens of thousands of new customers.
Key to maximizing the value of working with a daily deal site it making sure your product is well suited to such a sale. If you have the available stock on-hand to accommodate a large number of orders at once, and your retail price is a minimum of 4 times your manufacturing cost, your product may be well suited to a deal sale.
2. Gift-box subscription sites
Partnering with a monthly subscription gift-box site puts your product in good company. Sites like Yogi Surprise, Kiwi Crate, Bluum.com, TeaRunners, BirchBox, and Prospurly curate a box of surprises to send their subscribers once per month. It’s a great way to connect with potential customers by offering them a sample of your product, and a coupon to bring them back to your site.
Some sites will pay for your product, others will ask for free samples in return for the marketing opportunity. Check the site’s policies to ensure the deal works for you before agreeing to put your product in a gift-box subscription.
These boxes land directly in the hands of subscribers, so be sure to include a coupon or special offer with your sample and even one for them to share with a friend. This sends the customer to visit your website while your product is on their radar.
To get a list of Subscription Boxes, visit Cratejoy.
3. Blogger Giveaways
Connecting with bloggers who review products and do giveaways should be an essential aspect of your marketing strategy. While it won’t always translate directly into higher sales, it can win you more Facebook fans, Twitter followers, newsletter subscribers, and backlinks.
Most bloggers require you to send at least two of your products, one to review and one to give away. It’s also common for the blogger to request that you mail the giveaway product directly to the winner. Ask the blogger to explain the terms of the giveaway via email so you always have the details on-hand.
When looking for bloggers to do giveaways with, keep in mind the following:
- Traffic: I suggest working with bloggers who have at least 5,000 unique visitors monthly. Any professional blogger should be able to tell you their monthly traffic easily. Check the blog’s Facebook page and Twitter profile for activity, and interactions with followers.
- Voice: Read through the blogger’s previous product reviews to see what she had to say about other products, how she said it, and what the response was from readers.
- Readership: Before you commit to giving away your product make sure you're reaching the right audience and that the blogger's readers are similar to your customer profile.
Once the review is posted share it on the press section of your website and your social media accounts.
I hope this gives you some fresh marketing ideas to get your brand name out there. I love to hear your ideas in the comments section.
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