How to market products?

ALittleWolf

Hello.

I have some products listed on a site with many other similar items (from other people). I have sold a few, but really need to do some marketing. I am hoping that someone can give me ideas on how to do that.

I have no money to spend on marketing, nor any way of gaining money to do so.

I have no friends or family who can help me market them.

I have a limited amount of keywords I can use. The site includes the majority of information on the product page so there is not much I can write in a description regarding SEO/keywords.

I thought about blogging and including links to the products, but I have nothing to blog about. I keep coming back to the idea and trying to think of possible posts, but I have never managed to think of anything. Also, I then have the issue of having no way to market the blog.

I can’t do a mailing list as I have no one to mail, no way of collecting emails and nothing much to mail about anyway apart from the occasional listing of a new product or a product that’s on sale for a limited time.

I have tried getting a following on social media, but (as with the blogging) I have very little to post about. If I follow someone it is rare they follow me back and those that do often message me about their products and services that they want me to look at, they are not actually interested in my products. I do get some views on what I post, but not a lot because it is not reaching many people.

I considered taking photos, but there is not really anything to take photos of. A couple of boring ones of the product and that is it. There is nothing interesting relating to them that I can photograph. They are products that many people love, they are just not something that anyone would care about regarding photos of them.

I don’t know how to change things and properly market my products. Everything I read seems to involve already having a mailing list (or blogging to gain one) or lots of family and friends who can buy the products and share posts to a wider audience. I don’t have that.

Is there another way to market these products?

Thanks.

theoretica

Start by answering for yourself why should people buy your product rather than one of the similar ones?  Are yours cheaper?  Better quality?  Will appeal more to cat lovers?

ALittleWolf

theoretica said:

Start by answering for yourself why should people buy your product rather than one of the similar ones?  Are yours cheaper?  Better quality?  Will appeal more to cat lovers?

Difficult to answer. Yes and no to price and quality. Quality in terms of manufacturing is great, the rest is subjective. 

They are aimed at a very wide audience of a certain age, but not one that will be buying the products, and one product may largely appeal to someone while another will not appeal at all. 

Brynsam

ALittleWolf said:

theoretica said:

Start by answering for yourself why should people buy your product rather than one of the similar ones?  Are yours cheaper?  Better quality?  Will appeal more to cat lovers?

Difficult to answer. Yes and no to price and quality. Quality in terms of manufacturing is great, the rest is subjective. 

They are aimed at a very wide audience of a certain age, but not one that will be buying the products, and one product may largely appeal to someone while another will not appeal at all. 

As marketing messages go, that's about as confused, and as negative, as it gets! The good news is that because you are starting from the lowest point, things can only get better.

Do some reading. Your local library will have plenty of books you can download as e-books or audio books, or you can buy cheaply on ebay or Amazon. The Dummies series has several books on marketing, all written in a practical, engaging and helpful style. Google for free online courses on marketing (just make sure you don't sign up for something which leads seamlessly into a high-cost follow up).

You might also have a think about reading/doing a short course on positive thinking to try and get yourself into a better frame of mind. Lockdown isn't easy for anyone, so you are far from alone in feeling that way.

ALittleWolf

Brynsam said:

ALittleWolf said:

theoretica said:

Start by answering for yourself why should people buy your product rather than one of the similar ones?  Are yours cheaper?  Better quality?  Will appeal more to cat lovers?

Difficult to answer. Yes and no to price and quality. Quality in terms of manufacturing is great, the rest is subjective. 

They are aimed at a very wide audience of a certain age, but not one that will be buying the products, and one product may largely appeal to someone while another will not appeal at all. 

As marketing messages go, that's about as confused, and as negative, as it gets! The good news is that because you are starting from the lowest point, things can only get better.

Do some reading. Your local library will have plenty of books you can download as e-books or audio books, or you can buy cheaply on ebay or Amazon. The Dummies series has several books on marketing, all written in a practical, engaging and helpful style. Google for free online courses on marketing (just make sure you don't sign up for something which leads seamlessly into a high-cost follow up).

You might also have a think about reading/doing a short course on positive thinking to try and get yourself into a better frame of mind. Lockdown isn't easy for anyone, so you are far from alone in feeling that way.

It makes sense if you know what I am selling, I just did not really want to say.

My issue is the products are the same type, but varied. For example, all CDs are CDs, but they vary greatly in regards to the audio content and artwork. 

I cannot change the price the product costs, it is the same for everyone selling the product type I do through the site I use. I also cannot possibly make each product appeal to everyone. Marketing it being the cheapest or best quality is not possible.

I have read many websites and YouTube videos. I have yet to find anything I can actually do to market them.

I am not intending to be negative, simply realistic. That way I can hopefully get helpful advice and not make it appear I can suddenly market it when I can not.

tacpot12

Marketing starts with understanding who your market is, and then understanding how those people decide to research or buy any product. With this information, you can work adverts for your product into places where that target audience will see them.

As well as understanding why someone should want to choose your product over someone else's, it might help to understand why anyone would by the product at all - what are they buying? Something to make their life easier? Something to give them pleasure? Something to make them feel good? What ever it is, you need to sell them on the idea that your product is good, and will deliver what they want it to. It doesn't matter if other products are equally capable - you are not advertising them. You need to talk up your product a bit, be enthusiastic about; pretty much anything goes in advertising, apart from outright lies. 

ALittleWolf

tacpot12 said:

Marketing starts with understanding who your market is, and then understanding how those people decide to research or buy any product. With this information, you can work adverts for your product into places where that target audience will see them.

As well as understanding why someone should want to choose your product over someone else's, it might help to understand why anyone would by the product at all - what are they buying? Something to make their life easier? Something to give them pleasure? Something to make them feel good? What ever it is, you need to sell them on the idea that your product is good, and will deliver what they want it to. It doesn't matter if other products are equally capable - you are not advertising them. You need to talk up your product a bit, be enthusiastic about; pretty much anything goes in advertising, apart from outright lies. 

My market would be parents. The reason for buying would be for their children. My product potentially will be enjoyed by the child, but it is subjective. My product is good, if that is specifically what they are after. I have a massive amount of competition and most will go for what they know and what is recommended. 

It is something that kind of sells itself if people find it and like the look of it, there is not all that much to say on it, but it's getting people to see it in the first place.

idlewild365

From my understanding of Marketing with a low budget, they key is to get into a really narrow niche.  If you can try and become and expert/authority in a particular niche, you can try and expand from there.  It's a bit of a slog and might not be what you want to do at first, but unless you can "out market" the competition on more general categories (as is spend a lot of money), it's the best approach.

ALittleWolf

idlewild365 said:

From my understanding of Marketing with a low budget, they key is to get into a really narrow niche.  If you can try and become and expert/authority in a particular niche, you can try and expand from there.  It's a bit of a slog and might not be what you want to do at first, but unless you can "out market" the competition on more general categories (as is spend a lot of money), it's the best approach.

Thanks. I am happy to go with a niche, but I have yet to think of something. I have had ideas on things and written notes and researched it all, but so far I have not managed to find a niche.

idlewild365

ALittleWolf said:

idlewild365 said:

From my understanding of Marketing with a low budget, they key is to get into a really narrow niche.  If you can try and become and expert/authority in a particular niche, you can try and expand from there.  It's a bit of a slog and might not be what you want to do at first, but unless you can "out market" the competition on more general categories (as is spend a lot of money), it's the best approach.

Thanks. I am happy to go with a niche, but I have yet to think of something. I have had ideas on things and written notes and researched it all, but so far I have not managed to find a niche.

That can be the hardest point for most people.  I was recently reading a book called The 1 Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib, which gave a good overview on how to start with your marketing approach. Might be a good read for you (I got it free on my Kindle with a Prime membership).

idlewild365

Oh and if you want to try and market the product online, it's worth seeing what people are searching for online.  You can try using this keyword checker from ahrefs or go to google trends