Best ways to promote a new store?

Hello all, I recently opened up my first store in B&L Creations and am wondering what I need to do to promote it. While it's not a super store I do believe I am creating some decent items for sale but seem to not be making any sells and not getting many people to even check out the store. What are some of the best (but cheap, just opened the store) ways to promote a new store to actually get enough customers in the next month to keep it open (don't need that many, just some). I have made posts in the Shopping the New Products forums for the store and for a couple of the products in it but that seems to not have picked up traffic yet either. Any advice?

Hmm, you are in a bit of a fix, you are [edit -NOT -]supposed to advertise in the general, just as one doesn't harangue folks in the Welcome Area with advertisements.

You are of course able to answer direct questions, so exactly where is your store, and what is it's name, and exactly what sort of things do you sell?

Have you an ad in one of the forum classifieds, do you have a nice sim picture in your forum signature?

How is your inwold profile looking? Customer friendly , aimed to maximized sales?

Don't forget advertising on slboutique.com, slexchange.com, and secondserver.net.

Once you get the forum signature, spend some time answering any question you can in the forums, no need to go at great length, short and sweet and show 'em that signature ad.

Join some groups inworld, and say stuff on the group chat. Use that as a marketing tool. Remember, everyone you see is a potential customer.

Posting pics and descriptions of your items in the new products classified forum can help a lot. Also running an in-world classified and paying enough to get it on the front page can help bring in traffic. My best advice is to be patient. Word of mouth is still the best advertising in SL but it can take quite a while. One thing that you can do to speed it up is to give away some free samples of your work to people with a landmark to your store. If they like it and use it then your chances are much better that they'll tell others about you and your store

If you make good stuff then people will seek out your store when they see it worn.

Just make sure people are appropriately equiped for handing out landmarks and knowing what your stores name is, and give out a few free copies of whatever to public places and figures that would like your stuff.

In addition to the previously mentioned means of advertising, I would also respectfully recommend the Metaverse Messenger.


Information on advertising is available at www.metaversemessenger.com/advertising.htm.

P2

One other word of advice. Ignore SuezanneC's post.

Why?

I want to say something smart alec, but if my advice is really terrible, it would be useful to say what is wrong with it, and to offer some better suggestions.

This is a good example of one type of self promotion one can do without being offensive.

I've had the Messenger come highly recommended to me. Personally, I don't think it brought me a single customer, or even increased traffic, but plenty of other people have had better luck.

Make sure you're listed in Find, too. I know it's $L30 a week (which may or may not be a lot for you), but this at least gives you the chance to get customers who are doing searches for the kinds of things you sell.

I second the recommendation to put an ad in your signature. My traffic always seems to go up whenever I post.

There's also this thread, for more perspectives.

First off, I do have threads in the shopping forum for the store itself and one thread in the products section of the classifieds for one of my products although I will be creating another one soon. I have had about 6 people near the store but didn't sell anything. Maybe I'll look to getting a fountain on someone's land or something and hope to stir up some business.

Also I have decided to work on an ad for the Metaverse Messenger to see if that will do some good.

Seconded
Thirded
Fourth'd
And so on.

Word of mouth is king. Give out some free stuff, whatever stuff you made that really stands out in a crowd. And is serves repeating, make sure the people getting freebies can easlily hand out landmarks.

- Ani

I would also submit that advertising on Snapzilla is also a good way to gain exposure for your store - it has a pretty captive SL audience and high traffic and is non-commercial. Information on advertising on the site can be found at http://www.SLUads.com. Your ad can be linked right to your store location, so with P2P it makes it a great option to bring people to your store.

I have also noticed a direct correlation between advertising in classifieds in SL and an increase in traffic to my stores overall. I am not sure how well it works across the board, but I know I have had pretty good luck with it, and I have never spent more than $500L on an ad there since the new system was launched, in spite of people spending ridiculous amounts only to be placed higher on the list.

PS - one more thing - also make sure you put your store in your Picks in your profile. I can't count the number of times I have found stores that way when I have not known the name of someone's store but knew they made stuff and wanted to check it out.

You know for some reason this doesn't work very well for me.

Do post new items in the Classifieds forum when you release them. It seems that a lot of people scan those regularly. Listing your site in FIND only costs 30L/wk and honestly seems to be my best source of customers after word of mouth. Be sure to use effective keywords in your land description.

Good Luck!

If you want cheap, have an ad at the Infohubs, that costs nothing except your time. Alternatively, offer to sponsor your favorite event host with prize donations - it gets your product out for the world to see.

I have found word-of-mouth to be my best advertisement. Give away some of your product. If folks like it they will chat it up.

Do promotions at your store. Free item of the week, Everything 1/2 Price Day, etc etc. Have a Grand Opening.

When offering your items for sale, give as much information as possible. Permission information is often lacking.

Display your items. Vendors are great but I have found that displaying the actual item brings more sales. I know this is not always possible such as at sites you rent, but a notecard explaining that the item is on display with a landmark works wonders.

Don't get discouraged, it does take time to build up a clientele.

Hope this helps.

I'd suggest perhaps adding something slightly controversial in nature to it and then post a poll in the forums asking if you think you should be banned from SL. Seems to work wonders

Hey there,

Most people have said it all in this thread.

1. Choose a main location for your store

2. Advertise in the classified section of the forums!

3. Make a forum signature, everytime you post people will see it.

4. Invest some money in advertisements with, snapzilla, slexchange, slboutique, and secondsever.

5. Put store in your picks!! (this is a big one, if someone is looking for something you made)

6. Do parties, invite people give free stuff ouT, if someone buys from you, thank them and give them some free item, this will show that you care about their business and you appriciate them, they will remenber how kind you are and come back again!!

7. BEST WAY is word of mouth!


example:

"Omg omg omg!, that is so cute where did you get it???"

hehe.

goodluck!

Posting just to have your sig in a lot of threads isn't a very good idea, but I suppose it can work if people enjoy your posts and a sig is definitely a good idea.

Using group chat for advertising is a very very bad idea. Good way to annoy people and start bad word of mouth.

I have had a good ammount of sucess with freebie items. I just put a landmark to my main store inside them. Even though my store has moved a few times it at least identifies who made it and what store it can be purchased at. It gives people an idea of what your quality is. You dont want to give away something too nice as a freebie but also dont give away a peice of crap.

Another thing that has helped me a lot is letting customers know they can contact me with any questions they may have. Also I have a workspace above my store and I sometimes pop down when i see people come into my store and i'm not really busy. Its amazing what a little interaction with the customers can do - I actually have customers who have become good friends.

Also I dont know if anyone mentioned this and it goes along with word of mouth, but put landmarks in your products, especially if they are boxed up. This way people know where to go back if they want more, or they can pass the landmark to someone else who may be interested. General informational notecards are good as well. I made a notecard that was a cataloge of my pre-fab houses with pictures, descriptions etc which i stoped distributing ages ago because the info was out of date, but still people IM me asking about houses they see on the notecard, so its apprently still in circulation.

And signatures in the forums.

That reminds me, i need to get crackin' on mine.