Just For All Those Listed In The Hand Made Product Directory

I’m sure this news it will come as no shock to many readers but sales are down. We did a rather informal survey of a those listed in the directory last week and the results were not what we wanted to hear. Across the board and across the various categories we have in the directory, sellers reported an overall drop in sales. Some categories did better than others but on the whole sales were reported significantly down.

It’s also no surprise that the current economy is behind theses problems. When customers feel the pinch, they naturally postpone many purchases only buying what they consider to be really necessary or really great bargains. The temptation for many sellers is to start cutting prices which usually only reduces cash flow for the seller and in most instances is only a temporary solution. Reducing operating and productions costs where ever possible is a given but the big temptation to reduce marketing and advertising must be avoided at all costs.

The general consensus among business experts is that these are the times when marketing and advertising should be increased not decreased. The rational being that competition for those sought after customer dollars is greater during these time greater effort is required to capture them. The good news is this. Since there will be a large number of merchants who succumb to the temptation to reduce advertising, those that don’t give in to the temptation and continue or increase their marketing and advertising efforts are going to actually have a better chance of increasing their sales because they will stand out above those that have stopped or reduced their marketing and advertising.

I know what you are saying. “But I don’t have that much money to advertise with right now.” We here at The Hand Made Product Directory know and understand this. One aspect of our company creates and sells Country Rustic and Primitive home décor so we like you feel the sales pinch also. We also know that we are in a unique position to assist our fellow merchants at this time.

We have a plan that we believe will be of help driving traffic to your stores and at the same time save those taking advantage of it a significant amount of money. Our records clearly show that although the Home Page of the directory is first thing that the vast majority of shoppers initially see, it is through the various General Listings Pages where they head for. One would think that shoppers coming to the directory would use the Search Feature the most but our records are showing that Browsing by Categories is much more prevalent. Shoppers like to look through the Category pages to see what stores are represented. Again we are finding that the majority of shoppers leave the directory by clicking on one or more of these store listings. Since this is the case, it makes sense to focus our efforts at attracting customers in these pages.

Would saving 75% in advertising sound good to you? That’s what we are offering to you. Among the various advertising options available in the directory is one that specifically is geared towards the General Listing Pages. It provides those using it the greatest amount of visibility possible within these pages. It’s Option #4. Details of it can be found in the directory.

Along with this savings, comes the ability to list your products in three (3) of the most visited customer oriented promotional pages in the directory; the Gift Guide, the Style & Fashion page and the Home & Hearth page. Over 65% of every visitor to the directory stops by one or more of these pages to see what products are being shown.

Stop by the directory today, check out the details and see if this offer is one that will work for you.

Shopping is more fun when you find incredible quality at incredible prices! Thousands Of Stores To Shop From

Want To Increase The Traffic To Your Store? Get Listed In The Hand Made Product Directory Today!

Copyright © 1988-2008, The Hand Made Product Directory / New Creations Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved

info@dmpmc.net www.dmpmc.net/THMD

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Are Your Customers Experiencing Shipping Sticker Shock?

PayPal questioned online shoppers in the U.S. that had abandoned their shopping cart contents. They wanted to know why. And the winner is --- - shipping costs.

Here is what they found out. - A whopping 43 percent of consumers felt that shipping charges were too high - 36 percent said the total cost of their cart items was pricier than expected - 27 percent wanted to carry out further comparison shopping - 16 percent couldn’t easily contact support with pre-sales questions - 14 percent of shoppers forgot how to log into their accounts.

Since PayPal is probably the #1 transaction processing entity used by many on line sellers, these findings should be considered looking into. Now I don’t believe for a minute, like many other on line statistic providers, that PayPal is beyond using or even skewing figures to fit their agenda but I’m not going into that right now. I do believe however that regardless of the accuracy of these figures, they probably hit the nail on the head. At least in this situation.

No one needs to tell the reader that the ever increasing shipping cost’s are seriously impacting their businesses. We have all seen where a sale has gone south because the shipping costs were higher than the cost of the item being purchased. Most of us have also dealt with customers who ask the question “why so much shipping?”.

I don’t have the answer to this problem and I don’t know anyone who does. I do know however that if you’re experiencing high abandonment rates, perhaps you should shop around for cheaper shipping options. The day’s of using just one shipping carrier for every product you produce has come to an end. The best and cheapest shipping method for one product may not be the same for another.

Now it’s unlikely that even if millions of customers start complaining to the shipping carriers that they are going to reduce their rates. I’m not defending the shipping carriers but just like every other business, they have to pass the cost of inflation on to their customers.

What we have found to be of some help in this situation is enlisting the customer themselves as an ally in this situation. We have found that by explaining clearly to the customer that we only charge the customer exactly what the shipping carrier charges us has been of help. In fact, we place this statement in the description of almost every item we offer. Add to this 110% customer service, before, during and after the sale with great communications will also be of help.

Want To Increase The Traffic To Your Store? Get Listed In The Hand Made Product Directory Today!

Copyright © 1988-2008, The Hand Made Product Directory / New Creations Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved

info@dmpmc.net www.dmpmc.net/THMD

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Enhancing Your Work

Usually I write about items pertinent to on line marketing but every now and then I talk about marketing in the real world of live people. I was at a craft show over the weekend and what I saw there inspired these short thoughts. I say some of the most outrageous display work at this show that I have ever seen. I don’t mean outrageously good but outrageously poor. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that they had a class prior to the show on how to create the worst display. I would say that about 90% of the displays simply wouldn’t appeal to the shoppers at the show simply because their display theme was wrong and the sales at the show proved it.

A good craft show display fits with the image of your product and the expectations of your target market. A vibrant color in your display may do a great job to draw in a younger crowd. That's great if that's who your craft appeals to. It's not so great if your crafts have a more sophisticated appeal.

Color can also impact the way your crafts appeal to customers when they are up close. You may be tempted to buy a colored canopy because it is on sale, but keep in mind, that color is going to reflect into your craft show booth and impact the way your crafts appear to customers.

If customers are constantly commenting on your great display, you may want to rethink your display. It's great for customers to notice your display at a distance, but by the time they have reached your booth, you want them to notice your crafts and forget about your display. That is unless you want to sell your displays and not your merchandise.

Shopping is more fun when you find incredible quality at incredible prices! Thousands Of Stores To Shop From

Want To Increase The Traffic To Your Store? Get Listed In The Hand Made Product Directory Today!

Copyright © 1988-2008, The Hand Made Product Directory / New Creations Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved

info@dmpmc.net www.dmpmc.net/THMD

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Even You Can Use Autoresponders To Get Traffic To Your Store

Considering the fact that 20% of your customers bring in 80% of your sales, it makes sense to take care of that 20% real well. That means that 20% of your customers will buy again from you if you treat them the way they expect to be treated.

You might even say that one-fifth of your customer base is just sitting there waiting for you to offer them something new! All you have to do is get them to come back through your shops front door.

An excellent way to do that is to be constantly offering some type of downloadable or autoresponder based free item on your web site or blog. It can be articles, how to’s, product updates or what ever may seem appropriate for your web site. If you have your own web site, you probably have this capability through your web site control panel. If not however, you can still make use of this marketing technique.

If you are on line, the chances are 99.99% that you have an email program you use. You just can’s sell on line without one. Here is how you do it.

The first thing you will need to know is how to make your email link that goes on your web site or blog that requests the particular item. This is really very simple. Let me use an example:

Let’s say you want to give away an article you have written. We will title the article “XX” for this example. Your email link will look like this:

mailto:youremailaddress@whatever.com?subject="XX"

Once this link is on line, you will need to set your email program to send out this “XX” article when called for. Depending on the email software you use, the process will be slightly different. In most email software however you can do this by using your email programs filtering tool. You create a filter so that when the above email comes in with the Subject Line saying “XX” it responds by sending either a pre-created Template or a File. This is where exploring your particular email software comes in. You will have to see what it will do. Of course you will have to create the template or file for you email software filtering agent to call upon.

If set up correctly, every time an email comes in with “XX” in the Subject Line, the article “XX” will be sent back to the person sending the original email. You can also have your email software move the original email to a special folder for later use. Some email software will automatically extract the senders email address and add it to either a file or folder in your address book.

By the way, this is a way of gathering email addresses for future marketing but be careful you don’t use them for Spam marketing. You can however get away with a short follow up email to make sure the party requesting article “XX” received it. Some very short and brief promoting here is usually acceptable.

Want To Increase The Traffic To Your Store? Get Listed In The Hand Made Product Directory Today!

Copyright © 1988-2008, The Hand Made Product Directory / New Creations Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved

info@dmpmc.net www.dmpmc.net/THMD

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How long are your email subject lines?

This may not seem like all that important a topic or what it has to do with marketing but surprisingly it can make a difference. No one wouldn’t think that anyone would even think of taking the time to research something like this considering all the other important things to deal with but they have.

Research shows that the best results obtained on email marketing comes from subject lines that have a character length either in the 50’s or 80’s. Research also shows that subject lines in the 60’s and 70's. It appears that the 50 character subject line length appears to be the best for special offer promotions and the 80 character range is more suited to newsletters.

Now that I look at these things myself, I think these studies may be right. I get a lot of email newsletters and if I’m in a hurry, unless the subject line catches my interest, I tend to gloss over it. If a newsletter subject line mentions several topics, there’s a better chance I’ll open the email.

Since none of us are mind readers, at least I don’t think so, it is unlikely that we are going to know exactly what is going to trigger the interest of every individual on our mailing lists, it makes sense that mentioning a couple of items in the subject line gives us a better chance of stirring curiosity to a wider group.

As always, what works best for you is what you should use. If what you are currently using is effective great but if it doesn’t seem to be working, you may want to experiment and see what happens.

Shopping is more fun when you find incredible quality at incredible prices! Thousands Of Stores To Shop From

Want To Increase The Traffic To Your Store? Get Listed In The Hand Made Product Directory Today!

Copyright © 1988-2008, The Hand Made Product Directory / New Creations Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved

info@dmpmc.net www.dmpmc.net/THMD

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Does Working Smarter Not Harder Really Work?

It does if you do it right. I’m sure you have all heard the term “work smarter not harder” at some time in your life. The term makes sense but let’s face it. It just doesn’t always seem to work out that way does it. We have all had times when we come up with an idea that is a really good one. We figure out all the details, at least we think we have, and we move forward with the idea. Somewhere along the process however we find that we calculated incorrectly and some part of the plan is going to either take longer than we thought or is going to cost more than we figured and budgeted for. This sound familiar?

One way of overcoming these unexpected situations is to allow yourself a buffer in your initial calculations. In both the areas of time and money, you should always figure in at least a 10% (that’s 10% of your initial final figure) for a buffer. If it isn’t needed great but considering the economy these days and the way material costs keep taking a jump every time you turn around, at least you are covered.

The same principle should be applied to your marketing and advertising. What ever you figure the cost to be, add at least 10%. It’s kind of nice at the end of the year to find that you have a little extra money available for that special holiday push you may want to make.

Shopping is more fun when you find incredible quality at incredible prices! Thousands Of Stores To Shop From

Want To Increase The Traffic To Your Store? Get Listed In The Hand Made Product Directory Today!

Copyright © 1988-2008, The Hand Made Product Directory / New Creations Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved

info@dmpmc.net www.dmpmc.net/THMD

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The Perils of Not Using Your Business Email

A large number of sellers of handmade and handcrafted products use a hosting service to host their store. These are great places to have for many merchants. Particularly if you are just starting out, lack the skills to build and manage your own web site or can’t afford to have this done. Some hosting locations are better than others depending on the services and costs involved. The one you choose of course will be based on your own specific needs.

One of the first things you should remember is that you should never use a store’s hosting site’s communication system to conduct business with your customers. After the first initial contact, all communications with a customer should be done using your own business email. If a customer isn’t willing to provide you their email address, there isn’t much you can do about it. Not everyone feel like this but any customer who isn’t willing to provide us with their email at the initial sale isn’t a customer we really want to do business with in the future. It just leaves the entire sale process open for problems if you can’t communicate with a customer. I always ask myself, “are we being scammed” and that feeling doesn’t go away until the money is in the bank. These types of customers are also the type that usually cause you problems in one form or another.

I could recount numerous instances of where a sale has gone down the tubes when relying on a hosting sites communication system. Many in house systems only allow you to contact a buyer a few times. This seriously hinders you ability to provide really good customer service. You should be making contact with all customers, to thank them for the order to confirm the information you have received, when you ship your item, sometimes a follow-up about the current shipping status if the item being shipped is thru UPS or any other site where the shipping time is more than 3 days, a quick note upon the delivery to make sure that the item was received properly and that the customer is satisfied.

Doing this on many hosting sites is considered Spam. But doing this Is just good customer service.

Want To Increase The Traffic To Your Store? Get Listed In The Hand Made Product Directory Today!

Copyright © 1988-2008, The Hand Made Product Directory / New Creations Consulting, LLC

All rights reserved

info@dmpmc.net www.dmpmc.net/THMD

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