Advice on Sales!!

I have thought about creating a group to add folks that have made purchases in the past, sadly though I have not kept records since starting

I would like to do something like that, just using the records I have on hand... or even on a monthly basis...

the only thing I worry about is people considering it spam, and adding folks to a "mailing list" without their permission or knowledge.

(I know I for one, would hate to start getting "unsolicited mail" from places I shopped at.)

It is a nice idea for 1 or 2 stores, but if all stores started doing this, I fear it would be ugly...

This is something I have been debating within myself (the adding folks that made a purchase and sending them a thank you gift cert)

I do not use the hippo vend system, but have been considering it... however I dunno if it works with metacard

I do get occasional metacard purchases so I would like to keep that.



what do you all think of being added to a list, that you never agreed to be added to, and that list's only purpose is to say thank you and to send you a gift cert?


by the way Marcel, I think I will do the picks thing too... It does seem to help as you mentioned.. I think I will send out a notice to my store group to ask folks to add me... *need to think of an incentive as to why they would want to add me to picks, and look into those picks boards things*

I see picks as no different than advertising, it is just another form of it, and a handy way for people to make a few extra lindens in the process...

and congrats on the skybox rental

I am having so much fun setting up my house, feel like a kid with a doll house LOL

time to do some sleeping, and usually in my sleep I end up coming up with the solution hehe

(the old adage... sleep on it, fits so well)

Rhaort,
You can indeed set up the hippo vendors to accept metacard, I had it in the past but removed it, as I had no sales at all with Metacard. For me, especially the web version, HippoVend is a great system. In fact I own about everything they sell, even the 4 rentals have hippo rental boxes. Once you are used to their system, you will love it. Plus they all connect together. For example: paying a rental box of one of the skypods, immediately enables the teleporter, and the security orb for the renter. How easy do you want it

As for the spam factor of this way of communication, I had that same thought. But then I thought that as long as you keep it worth it, people won't mind. They can very easily opt out, but staying in will give them free items, and many people will like that part. Since they bought at my store, the chances are big that they like my designs anyway

Pick boards you have to be careful with. As you might knw, I did run such a device in the past (gave some great discussions in the forums ) but I decided to stop with them.
One of the reasons, is that stores are bidding against each other with rewards. I had 25 linden per week, but there were stores out there that gave the same amount per day!
Second, the costs. At the peak, I had about 100 avatars using the system, resulting in 10k expenses per month. When I found out that the amount of picks did not really influence my ranking, my decision was quite easy.

After removing the pick board, I lost about half my picks, and stayed on #2 in Search All. The only reason I am now at page 2 instead of place 2, is because I had hardly any picks for the new location. But I expect that as soon as I get back at the 40-50 again, together with my other efforts, I must be back in the top 3. Picks do count, but are not the most important factor.

It would annoy the hell out of me to be honest. I would be very annoyed that a shop owner added me to any group without permission. That is one of the things which annoys me most abut these hippos groups etc is that the owner can add someone without their permission.

I dont even like being sent invites to the normal groups of the places i shop add. If i wish to join a group i would do it on my own. But at least those groups give me a pop up to join or not join. To be added to the hippo groups etc i wouldnt even be given a choice i would just start recieving spam.

To be honest I would likely AR any shop owner who did this to me ad would likey never shop there again.


(mind you i also hate getting LM's notecards abotu stores and group invites when i tp into a place too. I am one of those who if i want to know soemthing about your store or want a lm i will sort that out myself)

I just realised what these Hippo groups are. When Marcel posted about adding people, I was thinking that people would get the blue pop-up invitation, and I first thought that it would put as many people off from going back to the store as it would encourage to join for the free gift. Now that I've realised what it is, I'd definitely not do it, but that's because of the way I am. I reject all of those things out of hand. If I started receiving unsolicted stuff from a Hippo group, it would have the same effect on me as it would on Eclectic.

Can you mute them?

nope. and muting the owner of them doesnt work either. The work kind of like IMs from an object.

The only way to get your name off them is to go to the shop and to manually click the board then opt out (which could be damn annoying if you arent 100% sure where the hell this is coming from cos you purchased soemthing from the months ago). I think you can also opt out via the websitee, but i dont completely understand that (andy the owner of hippo tech was trying to explain it to me a few weeks ago but i dunno i was confused)

The actual message from Hippogroups is simply a chat message, so if you are not online, it will be be lost. Not much harm done there, I guess.
The attachment is an inventory offer. If you are online, you will get a blue popup which you can accept or decline, if you are offline it will get into your inventory (though you can switch that functionality off if I am right).

Now I can only imagine these things to be annoying, if you get man of them. That is why I am going to try to keep the amount of messages as low as possible, and as interesting as possible. Maybe it is even smarter to make 2 groups: One for people who purchased something, one for people that subscribe themselves. The first then only gets free items, the second also the product updates. Will have to think that one over.

Actually that is incorrect. The green messageis an IM and if you are offline it stores til you come online again and can result in IM capping. They also go to my emails. As for anything you send with it while you are offline it stores with the pop up as well unless you get capped then it is either lost in the neversphere or goes into your inventory depending on LL's mood hehe

Honestly regardless of what was being sent to me or why from a group i would find it annoying including free stuff. I have had pepel add me before and i do find it annoying. My IMs are capped a lot as it is and i dont need that to be added to from stores that decided to add me to their mailing list without permission

Rha, It's just Networking. If you invite your members, and I invite mine- then next week you send notice out, my peeps will get it and be exposed to your stuff; I wd do same and my members wd experience your product. Now you and I both do clothes- but our styles are completely different. Folks looking for my stuff may have walked right by your store and visa versa- now this gives them an incentive to try us both. Marcel's customers are primarily looking for furniture and maybe never saw either your or my stores- now they get a chance to know we are out there.

You have to look at the big picture here- what's good for the group is good for all of us. Yes we want to promote our business- but so will every one of us be doing that- promoting individual and other members' as well. Heck I do that now- even before the Cheap Peeps or the Biz Owners- I don't know anyone else that has the Body Jewels silks- guess where I send them if I am asked where I got it? And you proly have heard me wax eloquently about Falln Angels- and they are not a member of any group I belong to- they just make awesome stuff

What it comes down to is confidence in your own product that it will sell it self and we all have that already or we wouldn't be in business any way.

I'm in complete agreement with Eclectic on it. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't use it - as an opt-in only system. I really do dislike auto-in stuff that requires an action my part to opt-out. If it happened to me, it would ensure my lack of custom in the future.

Re groups- I send ONE invite to folks that have visited- just one, and I keep a spread sheet to make sure I don't bug them again.

As for getting my store into their picks - I just ask them. If I find them in the store, after polite conversation, I say simply, "If you like Talon Faire, please add us to your picks." And that's it.

I do send thank you gifts to folks that have purchased non-dollarbie items- sometimes if I am in the store I give random people gifts for the hell of it. Or even at different venues- like at Phat's the other night- a hostess liked the dress I was wearing - I gave her an LM and a dress . Haven't noticed if she came by yet- but when she does wear my gown- peeps in Phat's will see it and some may like it enough to ask. If not-, oh well - nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Do people actually agree? I tried this ages ago with my customer base and got told off allot! People told me that picks are not for advertising peoples businesses, they were for more non profit related locations such a beauty spots, theme parks, ivory tower etc.

Now I just pay for peoples picks. Allot less grief and allot more effective.

A friend of mine was raving about Hippo groups so I bought a copy without really reading anything about it. Eventually I tried it out, added everyone that had purchased something within the last 12 months, sent out a news letter…. and it really didn’t go down well. Spamming your existing and potential customers without first asking them if they wanted to be in your group is not good business practice and I think it will cost you business rather than generate it. I think you need to advertise your new hippo group in your store and get people to request an invite. Or at the very least ask their permission.

Yup, absolutely! Just like I agree to wear the pick of stores I like - Now mind you, I don't just walk up to people and hit them with it- I do engage in conversation and then mention it off hand. I know they do do it, at least some, 'cause just yesterday I talked to one girl who came in based on the pick of a friend's profile. It may not generate huge numbers of picks - but chances are these folks are more inclined to keep them since we engaged in conversation and now they may have a vague recollection of the person behind the Talon Faire name.

I've never asked people to add my store to their picks - not since I got it up the ranking, anyway, and then I just asked people I knew. I have 2 signs in the store that suggests it to people, and it works fine. The signs say:-

"If you like this store, and would like to help other people to find it, please add it to your Profile Picks. It helps in the new All search."

I put the signs up when I moved the place to a different sim, and it works fine. It suggests adding the place to people's picks only if they like the place enough, and it also reminds people about their Picks - many wouldn't even think of it at the time.

I think the hippo groups are an awesome alternative to the normal group system and they certainly save on group space. Andy does a marvelous job with all the stuf he makes and the hippo group is a hell of a lot cheaper than the alternatives out there.

However i think using it to spam everyone and anyone who has purchased from you will always be a bad idea.

To have it in your store and allow people to click it to join if they would like updats on the other hnd is great. And i have clicked and joined several at stores i like.

That’s interesting. My approach didn’t really involve 'chatting' with them, it went more like:

Porky - Hi, thanks for purchasing one of our buildings, if you enjoy our products please help improve our visibility by adding Hydro Homes to your picks.

Customer - eeer no thanks.

Porky - FINE!! well F@%^ YOU THEN (Porky comes charging out of the staff entrance and starts battering the customer with a wet sheep before ejecting them out of the sim at high velocity)

I used to employ a really nice person who worked as my customer interface. She was lovely and dealt with my customers really well and knew my business inside out. She stopped playing SL a year ago and now my customers are stuck with me. Poor buggers.

Totally agree and I dont want to detract from the HIPPO products, those guys have done really well in SL. I think as business owner we need to be sensible with how we use the tools available. It's our responsibility.

I tried and still do the 'polite sign' thing I needed to boost traffic allot quicker though, I rejected the ..(cough) bots (cough) option. I felt my classified was far too ineffective and I was paying too much. So I diverted the money from the classified into paying for picks. Has taken a few months but I am now on page 1 and 2 for important keywords (prefabs, houses etc )in 'search all' and it costs me allot less than the old classified.

Btw I went to your store last week Phil. I was wandering around and then walked round the corner to find an orgy going on in your bedroom department. Took me a second to realise these were alts acting as dummies or whatever but felt pretty embarrassed for a second or two, thought I had walked in on something i shouldnt have

I don't hang out in the store all that much - besides having to make time for actually making stuff, I find it intimidates peeps when they know u r there- so the conversation is incidental not contrived or even sought really. You might try to avoid the F$%& approach though, just saying...

Phil- hadn't thought of a sign! Good idea

And uhm.. orgies... well- hey- different marketing approach I suppose

Yep good advice

I rarely need to do customer service now. I went to great efforts to survey my customers regarding all aspects of my business around a year ago. As a result of that I implemented changes in my marketing, sale boards and information available in the store prior to purchase. Plus I include troubleshooting guides for post sales support. I sell hundreds of prefabs every week and maybe get 2 or 3 pre sales questions and a few after sales support requests mainly from customers who messed up their mods.

2 years ago I spent half my online time doing customer service. Nowadays some weeks I have zero customer service




Just to clarify, my first impression was that it looked like an orgy for a second or two. In actual fact it was 'bots in underpants' demonstrating the beds features
Good concept I thought.

pretty much how I feel about it too, that is why I have myself blocked from hippo groups on their site, so folks can not add me without my permission

Yes- I was just funning- he had spoken of this in another thread at some point

you can not mute them.

however you can register on the hippo website and set yourself to blocked so that folks can not add you without you clicking a groups board of theirs

also the website will allow you to manage any groups you are in, so you can see if anyone has added you to a group without your permission (and remove yourself from groups if you desire)

if you go here
http://www.hippo-technologies.co.uk/
at the bottom of the screen is a link to manage your groups...
clicking that will bring you to a log in screen, if you are not already registered with them, click the link that says....
"For instructions on using this service, including how to get a password, click here!"

then just follow instructions.

good luck

Ahh cool. Didnt want you to think that Phil had turned into a pimp or something

lol. Some people leave them 'in action' and others stand them up when they've seen all they want to see. When I see them not in use and not stood up, I stand them up. There is a big sign at the entrance indicating what are though - "Demo by models". You can't miss it

The solo guy model got an IM the other day, asking him if he could remove his underpants