Every product has a natural life cycle and a season where it sells best: some early buyers come at the beginning, and then the mass of buyers come. Prices peak and retailers begin running out of stock. Sales slow, and trickle down to a few last-minute shoppers.

As an online seller, it’s critical you prepare for the natural retail cycles throughout the year. With some simple strategies, you can make the most of the opportunities presented by the changing seasons:

1.Keep the Flow Going
The way to maintain sales volume is to be ready for the next selling season. Phase in your new seasonal items for early shoppers while your other product line sales are winding down. You can keep the momentum going in your store and your income if you plan accordingly.

2.Make Advance Preparations
Don’t wait until the holiday is upon you to get your products lined up and ready to go. You should begin pushing your promotions two to three months ahead of time, according to Lisa Suttora of http://WhatDoISell.com. Says Suttora, “The advantage to having your products ready several months before a holiday season is you capture the early bird buyers…You’d be amazed how many people shop months in advance of a holiday.”

Another benefit of early marketing is it provides lead time for the search engines to pick up the pages for your holiday specials. Include the season or holiday name in your titles, because people are searching for those terms.
(more…)

Everyone needs targeted visitors to their websites and tis could proof, at some times, to be a very tough job to do. You hear that you need to do one thing from this guru and the other guru tells you to do another. It gets confusing at one point.

Now, the one strategy that will never fail you is finding good partners. Basically even internet marketing is about the “partners” you have and find. You need link partners to gain popularity in the search engines and when you want to sell a product, effectively, you need JV partners to get this thing rolling.

Now why should I do a JV?

Well, whenever you have a product and you want to launch it, it may be wise to find websites in your niche that have lists and may be interested in selling your products. And even if they don’t have a list, just ask them if they would like to promote your product on their website.

What is in it for them?

Great question… whenever you set-up a JV, you need to be sure there is something in it FOR THEM. So depending on you focus you could offer them a commission of 50 up-to 100% on a product you sell.

So how do your determine what kind of commission you will give to your affiliates? It really depends on your focus… if you want to build a list of paying customers quickly, you set-up a JV and give as much commission as possible to your JV partners but when it is for a product that you are going to sell as your main product, you could offer them a commission anywhere between the 50 and 65% (you still need to make a living yourself).

In the first case the product doesn’t have to be extremely high priced, it is all about building that list with “paying customers”… your golden list. So something like $9,95 would be just fine and perfect to attract partners and hand you over their lists. Especially if you give-out a commission of 100%.

Now, the next thing you should do is make it as simple as possible for the JV partner. What I mean by that is that you shouldn’t let them do to much work. You should create all the messages for them(so they can send it out to their list), create a couple of banners that they can put up on their websites, text links, etc.
(more…)

When you think of creating a new brand, it’s easy to think about advertising managers sitting around a conference room tossing around ideas with caffeine fueled creativity. However, often times, the most powerful branding comes from adding a little “fun” to your brand experience.

Driven by the Burger King mentality, today’s customers want to do business their way on their time. They want to make their own choices. As business people, it’s our job to make sure then when customers are ready to make their choice, our product or service is their top choice.

Below are five secrets to put some spark and imagination into your brand and create an unforgettable brand experience.

Secret #1: Tell Your Company’s Unique Brand Story

Television shows have long been a part of our culture. When viewers watch television shows, they see stories about characters that we relate to. Remember the Brady Bunch theme song? It tells the story of a lovely lady… well, you know how it goes.

Now imagine harnessing the power of storytelling for your business! By sharing your brand story, you create a powerful connection to your customers. They feel as though they know you. This brand story paints a colorful vignette of who you are, what vision you hold, and what experiences made you the company you are today. While your brand story might not be as catchy as the Brady Bunch tune, raving fans love to share stories of their favorite brands with others.

PartyLite is a direct sales company that has done a phenomenal job of weaving their brand story into their marketing message. Listen to the story of how this company got started.

“Mabel K. Baker, a young housewife, provided holiday candles for her friends. She hand-dipped candles from the wax of bayberry plants, which were plentiful on Cape Cod. From these humble beginnings, Colonial Candle of Cape Cod was established. In 1973, PartyLite was established to satisfy the desire people have for home beautification, along with the ever-increasing need for additional family income.”

Now can’t you just imagine Mabel sitting outside and turning her gaze over to the bayberry plants in her backyard! Surely a light bulb went off in her head as she picked berries off the bush and harvested the wax to make gift candles for her dearest friends. A story like this makes you feel like when you get a PartyLite candle, that you are getting more than a factory made product. Rather, you are getting a lovely crafted handmade candle. Great story and great marketing!

What’s your brand story? Do you have a wonderful story to tell about how your business was started? Was there a turning point in your company that shaped you into the organization you are today?

Secret #2: Make Your Brand a Household Name by Coining the Term

Why define your brand experience in terms we already use? Kleenex, Xerox, and Fed X are companies whose brand names have set the standards for their industry by becoming the coined terms to describe a tissue, making a copy, and overnight deliveries.

So how do you go about making your brand a household name?

Marla Cilley, aka “The FLY Lady” is an organizing super hero for moms across the county. She has turned her passion for tidiness into a nationally known brand.

How did she do it? By adding an ounce of fun with her own unique terms and philosophies. For example, The FLY Lady stands for Finally Loving Yourself.

Fans of the FLY Lady know that she lives by three rules.

1) Don’t sweat the small stuff
2) Laugh everyday. Even if it is at yourself.
3) Love like there is no tomorrow.

If you visit her website at FlyLady.net, you’ll notice that her brand is even reflected in some of the names of the navigation links: Why FLY, FLYing Lessons, FLY Zone, Time FLYs when, FLY FAQ, FLY Library, Join FlyLady Now, Ask FlyLady, and The FlyShop.

Secret #3: Add Your Unique Brand of Humor

Humor has the power to transform an ordinary product into a fun experience for the whole audience. Recently I saw a commercial for Red Stripe “The Great Jamaican Beer” that delivers an unforgettable quirky message.

The Jamaican spokesperson is dressed in a black tuxedo and says, “Red Stripe – the beer in the short stubby ugly bottle. If ugly people stand next to a Red Stripe they look beautiful.”

He speaks to a man who is sitting next to him, “You sir, would you say that you are ugly?
(Pause) You are VERY ugly!”

The man who is sitting down replies a little confused, “Well I don’t know…”

The spokesperson hands him a beer and says, “Here hold this Red Stripe.”

The man says, “Okay.”

The spokesperson says, “Look, you are beautiful!” (Obviously implying that just by holding this beer this formerly “ugly” man is transformed into being beautiful.)

Spokesperson says enthusiastically, “Red Stripe, it’s beer. Hooraaaayy Beer!”
(more…)

The other day I was writing a sales brochure for a West Coast manufacturer. As I got to what I’ll call the “proof” section of the brochure, I was rummaging around for testimonials.

The company already had a full-blown Web site and a solid PowerPoint presentation. So I was hopeful that I’d find some ready made testimonials or at least some material I could use to create some.

As it turned out, they had one case study with a couple of customer quotes. I pieced the material together to create one measly testimonial. It was less than adequate.

Well, maybe it’s no big deal. After all, I wrote strong copy. Why even bother with testimonials? I’ll give you four good reasons.

1. Credibility

Testimonials give your company, product, or service credibility. Everyone is bombarded with advertising messages every day. It’s a brutal marketplace. If you want to sell something to somebody, you stand a much better chance if you can convince them that you’re credible. Testimonials are like references on a resume. They’re the people who vouch for you.
(more…)