Little Advice?

Hey all im just wondering how anyone here whos started a buisness has well..started lol..
I already have a shop , and also have got 2 vendors and am now just producing more things and putting them up for sale.

My question is ...how does everyone else advertise too bring the crowds n or just too be recognised..is it purley based on time and vendors ? or are there otehr ways.
I mean i post new products here and list them on SL exchange and thats all i can think of doing.
Also doing classifieds for my vendor spots and my main shop.

thanks if anyone has any comments on what THEY think is good advertising

Your best advertising is the one your customers are doing, word-to-mouth is what really works on SL (fortunately). It takes time and dedication but if your products are worth it, you're sure your business will be a success.

To me the keys to success are :

- Quality of your products : people who see your customers using your products will want the same for themselves.

- Customer support : One day or another, something breaks. It can be a newbie error, a misunderstanding/non-reading of your manuals, a SL bug, but anyway you WILL get questions, requests and rants. Be polite, and ensure you NEVER let any problem without a solution. Always keep your customers happy. Don't hesitate to create a customers group, that way you can send notices and sometimes enlightened customers provide help to others... that's priceless.

- Keeping your brand alive : No need to release everything at once. Work on new products, experiment. People love it when they know the products they have bought will be improved someday

- Strategically placing vendors : Do not rely on passing people, but advertise on key locations. Malls with a lot of traffic are likely to be the very ones with a lot of camping chairs, and camping zombies don't buy (much).

Good luck in your business

Luring those first few potential customers into your store is possibly the most difficult part of being a second-life start-up.... so much so, that I've built a whole business around devices created to assist with the process Check out "Lucky Designs" (in the November Sim) .... "Lucky Chairs" and "Mobvends" are particularly popular with my clients.

But don't take my word for it... (I'm biased!) ...If you want to see for yourself how much interest this type of promotion can generate, try evesdropping on in-world groups like "Jennifer World Crew" and "Super Awesome Lucky Chair Wow" - or speak to my existing customers in the "Lucky Designs" group.

Best of Luck,
Shep K.

I would echo the word of mouth thing. The best compliment you can ever receive from your customers is the referral of their friends.

Also, classifieds can be effective if you choose your words carefully so they have good relevance to what folks are searching for - but don't forget to list your land in Search Places as well, carefully choosing key words for the parcel name and description. From what I'm gathering from some of the more established proprietors in Second Life, this part is essential, and will be the source of most of your advertising draw.

wow thanks thats such a big help you 2 ...i currently sell tattoos and shaeps BUT im breaking into the jewelry industry and its alrady a hit with my freinds so im continuing.
Do you think its good too put a lucky chair in my store ? would i then just advertise ' tattoos jewelry etc and lucky chair' ?

i mean i make my stuff put it up for sale..and at the vendors and then i get stuck and think there MUST be other ways too advertise lol

I opened the doors to my SL business in February.

This is a very brief summary but here goes:

#1: List your business in your profile Picks! If you haven't already done this, do it now! It's free advertising. Put a space or two infront of the name of the pick so it appears at the top of your Picks. People do read profiles and do look at picks.

#2: Put a 'signature' in your forum profile with mention of your store. It doesn't have to be a big flashy graphic or anything. In mine, I have just the name of my shop and a SLURL link to it.

#3: Run a classified. I was sceptical at first, but I listed a single L$50 classified and sales took off overnight. With your classified, be specific in your wording, make mention of what you do that is special or unique, and use a picture that you feel gets across the sort of products you are selling.

Oh, and #4: If you own the land your shop is on, edit the name of the parcel and the parcel description, it's basicaly another kind of ad, and make sure it is listed in 'search places'.

Try these things and give it a couple days. I now run 5 or 6 classifieds at a time and all of them are L$50. When I introduce a new product that I feel is noteworthy, I run a classified for it in 'new products' category for 2 weeks. Monitor your classifieds, you will see the number of teleports, mappings, and profile views they receive. Cancel (or change) ads that aren't working, keep the ones that are.

I know someone who updates her ads regularily, tries different pictures, etc. to see what brings in more traffic.

Good luck with your SL venture!

Edited to add: I recently added a lucky chair to my store. It has not increased sales in any measurable way, and I don't pay too much attention to traffic. However, the cost was minimal (L$400 or so?) and I view it like chicken soup -- it can't hurt. Just make sure you read the instructions that come with it, and set permissions accordingly, on anything you put in it. My products are somewhat niche so my results with the chair may not be typical.

-Atashi

If you can, try to find a friend who will let you place some vendors or an advert in their established store. This is far more valuable than a slot in a mall, but you should get mall slots too. Don't worry if they don't do very well, mall slots often don't, but at least your name is getting around.

Start a group for your customers and invite them into it. This always has to be done manually, unfortunately, but it's a nice advantage. a) It makes it much easier to give customer support; b) it lets a community build around your products; and c) it lets you advertise.. for free.. in the front page of people's profiles - how fantastic is that? .

Take out a classified. One at 50 (to catch the "upside down" searchers) and one at L$1 more than your nearest competitor is usually about right.

If your product is one that people use socially then word-of-mouth will sell it for you, as Marine mentioned, but not all products are so obvious - some scripted objects, for example, aren't visible to others at all; and other ones might not have a desirable effect on people who are affected by them (I wonder if there is anywhere a weapon that gives out a landmark to the source store to anyone who gets shot with it) In this case, building your own network effect becomes extremely important.

Make sure you spell everything correctly in your land description and classified ad. I'm not picking on your forum typos to be mean- I see typos in place descriptions too. Typos in your descriptions will cost you visitors, and therefore sales. So take care with that. Also due to search being rubbish, you will need to enter both the word "shape" and the word "shapes" in your description. The search isn't smart like google to add/remove plurals etc.

Make a post in the appropriate thread on the SL forums announcing your new business along with product releases.
Sign up for SLBoutique.
Approach companies like Metamart (Hud selling companies) that only charge commission on goods sold.
Look at advertising companies in SL and RL that do inward/outward facing advertising.
Look into the various methods of displaying your goods to their best advantage.
Post events for your store offering enticements such as 10% off goods for an hour.
Use a LM and NC giver prim to let people store information about your goods.
Always use your company name in the description of the objects/goods/items you sell, so people can find out easily where they bought things from and recomend you.
Speak to those customers who do come and ask how they found you. Focus on ways to improve that.

GL with your new venture.