Marketing experience?

Well I posted this question on SLX, but I am sure there are some good answers to be found in this forum as well!

After building a couple of items, coming up with a brandname, and renting a few stores, I am kind of stuck. Building I like, but as for marketing, I don't have good skills For example I used the "put on frontpage" at SLX twice without any sales. So either I suck at building, or at marketing....hope its the last.

So the actual question: does anyone of you have experience with hiring others to market your products for you? Since I don't have that much in-world time, I prefer spending it building, and spend some linden to a marketing person who should earn him- or herself back in no-time Any experience on this is welcome, so I know where to go from here.

As an add-on: I do not expect to earn any cash from SL, every linden will flow back into the game i guess. At least untill tier for an entire sim will be covered *grin*. Just would be great if my creations would sell a bit, even as it is just to pay for the stuff I buy to create them (full perm poseballs for example ).

Thanks! Marcel

Have RL Marketing, Market Research and Customer Service experience ...

Hi Marcel!

I have never hired anyone to do my marketing for me. I would seek out an in-world firm if that is the route you want to take. Personally, I think marketing is a very delicate task and should be handled by someone you trust if not yourself.

If you choose someone else, be sure that they stay consistent and are actively promoting your product(s) and/or brand. Marketing works best when it is repetitive and consistent. Also you should ask to see everything before it goes out (i.e. ads, signs, etc.) Although they may be working for you, it's your business that they are promoting and you want to make sure that everything is the way you want it. Not the way they want it, unless of course you are extremely comfortable with their style and you trust them.

Just my 25 cents
Hope it helps!

~Maddy

Well like anything in life, you only get what you pay for. Unless you are earning a very large amount from selling your items, I'm not sure how employing someone is going to pay dividends.

Marketing needn't take up a whole heap of time. Have you considered proposing a partnership with other business owners? For example, you could approach someone who runs a club or newbie events, and give them free items that they can offer as prizes.

I've been in SL for 9 months now, wanted to make and sell stuff, but also realized marketing was quite important even to do this in a small way. So recently I got a "let's design and build furniture bug", I don't expect to make money in SL so my furniture is very inexpensive and a few items are free. So with the new search I have found a few keywords actually help a lot, FREE is a good word, and SEX, but I don't have sex on my parcel so its No Sex, I like to keep things factual. The effect of this is up to last week most days my Linden balance always went down, a upload here, the L$30 for search and the occasional steampunk googles I tripped over. With the new keywords I have increase my balance on average L$70 a day, so that pleases me quite a bit, of course many freebies go on a daily basis too.

So a good product, some good 'honest' keywords and something to grab their attention works well enough

I have been doing marketing for a store in SL for a number of months now (if you search the New Product forums for threads started by me you can see some of the forum ads). I was targeting the type of repeat customer who has brand loyalty and buys several items per visit. A multi-pronged approach worked very well, sales were significantly boosted (store update group, inworld aficionado group (Fashcon), forum postings in more than one forum, weekly events).

For furniture/houses, I would try some slightly different approaches. I'm available for hire, let me know if you're interested. You do already have some differentiation built into your offerings with the Indonesian twist; differentiation is a good thing!

p.s. you may wish to just hire someone for some consulting on what YOU should do, and perhaps creation of some advertising templates, rather than paying them week after week.

Actually I've just been approached by a night club to give my furniture as a prize, they have said they would promote my site through this. Again whether this improves sales or not I'm just pleased they thought my stuff was good enough to offer as a prize.

The most important marketing tool you have is yourself. The only customer you will ever really know is you.

What price point will YOU buy things at?
What types of items would YOU buy?
Where would YOU shop for those items?
What keywords would YOU use to search?
What would make YOU buy one item over another?
What do YOU look for in a vendor?
What do YOU look for in an item for sale?

Start with what you know and what your habits are, you can't control others and they will always surprise you. Over time you will build a customer base and start to understand them, but when you are just starting out you don't have that history to analyze and you can only go with what YOU know.

Make some freebies and post pictures of them and slurls in the NEW PRODUCTS thread of these forums, create a open -enrollment product update group that gives away exclusive freebies to members and announce all new products there. Have a DJ'd event in your store with a contest every once and a while. Join the group ANNOUNCE IT! to advertise your event. Always have a classified running with good key words for the search.

if only it were that easy

If you put no sex then it will come up as listed for sex ...

Snippage.

Nika has some very good points here, aside from just the one I have quoted.

I am not available for hire but I am happy to give advice if I can.

It is that easy. You can't say you did everything you could if yo have not taken these easy steps. When these don't work for you - then its time to brainstorm and step outside the box with some more innovative marketing techniques.

And to get some business, I'm going to be making a couple deals with friends to give them adspace if they give me some, which is always nice...

But the best things you can do in my opinion, are get your name out there (Post on forums, blogs (I was told that one yesterday lol), classifieds, places listing), hold events to attract customers, and post them in the events tab and in the events forum here, and give freebies.

Once I've got the store built, I will be sending freebies out to various people I know from prior business and dealings, and will also make a promotional pack that I'll see if I can get put into some freebie stores.

I found out last night, the classifieds and places listings really do work, so use them!

I posted my BDSM Sky Isle last night in both, and within 30 minutes had someone there ^^

My stuff used to sell until quite recently, so it was obviously OK, and I got compliments from customers. But now I can't even give the stuff away!!

The market for goods in SL seems to have changed a lot.

There are lots of good freebies about and that is the real competition you'll be up against.

My advice would be to do everything iyourself - building and marketing. And have at least one shop on land that you own.

Also ... a lot of people have a lot of stuff and we're all looking for something NEW that no one else has ... yet ...

Buy some very small plots all over the mainland and put up massive billboards. That's what I would do.

I have taken these steps, and brainstorming is getting me nowhere

I am at a loss as to how to get folks to my store, then how to get them to buy

going through the same ordeal with my RL website as well

I am definitely not good at marketing (I do not think my product sucks, if that were the case I am sure someone would have said something by now)

LOL - I think that's the point Cherry - it ensures a better hit rate in search simply by making sure the word 'sex' is in there somewhere

one thing i did that REALLY increased sales is, every classified ad i run, i run it thru 'babel fish' translater and run my ad in every single lang. it can be translated into.

if you need more help IM me in world, i will be happy to help you write ad copy and talk about marketing

question about the new "All" search: If you entered the word "sexy" into your parcel description for example, and someone searched on "sex" would your parcel show up?

Wow I am pretty impressed by the amount of input! Just yesterday I finished my main shop on my own parcel, up to now I only had rented shops. Next days I will put up some classifieds, and from SLX I got a nice tip about an advertising system, from another merchant who gets good results with that.

After reading and rereading the reactions I will surely contact a few of you to keep you up your promises It's very nice to see so many helpfull people around!!

Thanks a lot, Marcel

Yes that's correct Well it's honest there is 'No Sex' but I'm doing these people who search for Sex a favour, what they really want is to spend Lindens and when they arrive at my place they also realise that buying furniture is nearly as good as Sex and it lasts longer, "Dekka Raymakers Furniture is for Life, not just for Bonking"

There has been a major change in the markets, which I believe has been caused by the gambling ban. Suddenly, SL has become a you-get-exactly-what-you-pay-for-in-US$ economy, unlike previous occasions where a consumer user could still "work their way up" via avatar contests and gambling games. This means that customers are shopping around more, and also the customer base is shifting - it's more likely to be people who are interested in become "established" in SL, and buying houses or role-playing items and similar, rather than people frivolously buying things with the money they won that day.

Well then... what I did up to now is:

- putting my little shop in a classified i pay 75 linden a week for, not too bad
- putting my shop in a networked billboard system (NOT the kind that spin around on 16m2 mainland LOL), which should display it on at least 100 different places, rotating display time with other clients of course. Costing 50 linden a week.
- Rebuilding my parcel, so I can join forces with other designers, making it more worthwile for people to come to my place. Free of rent even for the right merchants (theme-wise).

So for the time being i spend 125 linden a week on advertising, together with renting 3 shops. After my parcel is done I will sit back and take a look wether any of this did any good, if not I will give a few of you an IM i guess Will implement the freebie idea too, I like that.