How to market products?

Marcon

ALittleWolf said:

Middlestitch said:

ALittleWolf said:

Marcon said:

What are you selling? This constant prevarication for no reason (nobody here is going to seize on it as a great idea, given what you've already said, so you needn't fear an increase in competition) is utterly frustrating when people are genuinely trying to help.

As I said, t-shirts are pretty close and work fine for giving advice on.

Worrying about competition would be ridiculous. Thousands do the same, some with great success. I've already stated how many market products so if you can do all that with a good product you have a great chance of success. My problem is that I cannot do that. My main reason for that not stating is to remain anonymous.

You're not making any sense. Saying what you are selling won't impact on your anonymity. Why should people bother to try and come up with bright ideas when you are being evasive for no good reason.

It will if I give specific details, my name is attached to my product. It is very easy to find it out with just a few little details. 

Pretend it's a t-shirt. Not difficult and the advice based on that will help. 

Not worth the effort - marketing strategies are often specific to products, so it probably won't help and will be a waste of my time and effort. If you want to play mysteries, nobody here can help.

ALittleWolf

Marcon said:

 Not worth the effort - marketing strategies are often specific to products, so it probably won't help and will be a waste of my time and effort. If you want to play mysteries, nobody here can help.

I have looked at general marketing advice and specific marketing for the product and another product (for an idea I had) and they all say the same. I've never seen any marketing tip purely for my product. How odd, if it's such a specific thing!

Anyway, if you can't help that's fine.

theoretica

I do try not to be negative, but if you aren't sufficiently enthusiastic and interested in your own product to talk about it a lot and show it off repeatedly, or have an advertising budget that will at least cover an occasional free tshirt + postage then you aren't in a good position to make other people enthusiastic enough about it to buy it.  Perhaps just see the few sales you get through chance as a bonus.

ALittleWolf

theoretica said:

I do try not to be negative, but if you aren't sufficiently enthusiastic and interested in your own product to talk about it a lot and show it off repeatedly, or have an advertising budget that will at least cover an occasional free tshirt + postage then you aren't in a good position to make other people enthusiastic enough about it to buy it.  Perhaps just see the few sales you get through chance as a bonus.

I'm very interested in it. I have told people about it and had conversations on it. People are very interested until they walk away and forget all about it. I cannot figure out what I can continually talk about for a blog though. It is something I will keep thinking about.

If I had a budget it would be from selling them and I possibly would not need that budget.

It is so frustrating to constantly see marketing advice that so many use and I can't. I know I have a good product, but I am stuck.

Thanks for replying.

coffeehound

ALittleWolf said:

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.

Photos are worth doing even if the products aren't that photogenic.  If you can take some interesting, well framed pictures and upload them to a Pinterest page with relevent keywords, they should get picked up by google image search, which is what many people use when looking for products.

ALittleWolf

coffeehound said:

ALittleWolf said:

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.

Photos are worth doing even if the products aren't that photogenic.  If you can take some interesting, well framed pictures and upload them to a Pinterest page with relevent keywords, they should get picked up by google image search, which is what many people use when looking for products.

Thanks. I did do a couple of photos/images ages ago,  but I will try again as I have some more products now. I might be able to improve on my keywords.

Tealblue

ALittleWolf said:

Marcon said:

What are you selling? This constant prevarication for no reason (nobody here is going to seize on it as a great idea, given what you've already said, so you needn't fear an increase in competition) is utterly frustrating when people are genuinely trying to help.

As I said, t-shirts are pretty close and work fine for giving advice on.

Worrying about competition would be ridiculous. Thousands do the same, some with great success. I've already stated how many market products so if you can do all that with a good product you have a great chance of success. My problem is that I cannot do that. My main reason for that not stating is to remain anonymous.

Which do you want more: anonymity on this site, or success? You don't have to give your name, but giving a simple, generic description of what you are trying to sell would enable people to give more informed responses without giving away your identity, if that's what is bothering you. It's impossible to try and offer constructive ideas to help with your particular product without knowing, in broad terms, what it is. It is very unusual to read that you can't sell it other than on one particular site in competition with other people. That may be right, but without knowing what is under discussion, it's impossible to offer ideas, albeit some will be completely wide of the mark - others might just help in one way or another.

ALittleWolf

Tealblue said:

ALittleWolf said:

Marcon said:

What are you selling? This constant prevarication for no reason (nobody here is going to seize on it as a great idea, given what you've already said, so you needn't fear an increase in competition) is utterly frustrating when people are genuinely trying to help.

As I said, t-shirts are pretty close and work fine for giving advice on.

Worrying about competition would be ridiculous. Thousands do the same, some with great success. I've already stated how many market products so if you can do all that with a good product you have a great chance of success. My problem is that I cannot do that. My main reason for that not stating is to remain anonymous.

Which do you want more: anonymity on this site, or success? You don't have to give your name, but giving a simple, generic description of what you are trying to sell would enable people to give more informed responses without giving away your identity, if that's what is bothering you. It's impossible to try and offer constructive ideas to help with your particular product without knowing, in broad terms, what it is. It is very unusual to read that you can't sell it other than on one particular site in competition with other people. That may be right, but without knowing what is under discussion, it's impossible to offer ideas, albeit some will be completely wide of the mark - others might just help in one way or another.

The product type is sold on many sites. No other site offers exactly what this site does in terms of the full service they provide. I could technically sell elsewhere or on multiple sites, but it would not benefit me to do so.

I am curious what you would do differently regarding two different product types. For example, a t-shirt and a poster. Both cute, both for children. How would you go about marketing both?

I know that does not answer your question, but I have had ideas for other things and having some understanding of how people market different items would be useful. I am not expecting massive detail, but a brief overview. 

theoretica

Cute for children... Some of the many questions knowing the thing would help answer and should affect marketing:

Are they the sort of things parents would buy or more presents from relatives and friends? 

For children old enough to have known tastes/like the thing or not or for babies who get what their adults like?

Is the price point that of a considered purchase thought about or more an impulse buy for amusement? 

Will each child only need one or might you be seeking repeat purchases? 

Do they only differ from other people's in appearance or do they have any functional differences from other items?

How thematic are they?  Could you say your theme in a few words (eg wolves and wildlife, bold geometric, funny but not rude...) or are your offerings more diverse and less a clear brand?

theoretica

Also - have you looked at several of the other sellers on that site (especially, if you can identify them, successful individual designers, not the ones that seem like bigger companies) and tracked down as much of their marketing as you can?