With marketing your business a continuous cycle & learning process, it’s so easy to cut corners or pick up other people’s bad habits.
I want to share 3 mistakes that I see product based business owners are doing within their business. I want you to either stop you doing these 3 mistakes, avoid if you are not, or identify them to see if you are actually doing them and don’t realise it.
Even though I call them mistakes they are learning curves that help us better what we do. When you know what to avoid or stop doing the business journey becomes a little smoother.
1: Are you doing Keyword Research?
You are not using keyword research as part of your marketing. Before you upload your products you have to kind of have an idea of what people are looking for when it comes to your products. If you have no idea then they’re not gonna be able to find your products. Now if you sell your product on Etsy folksy or even Amazon handmade they have a search facility. So the very people who you want to come and find your product. Are using this search bar to kind of get an idea of what products are available.
As a business owner, you should be using this search bar to help you find keywords. So what you are going to do is put the keyword of your product or the basics of what it is into the search bar.
Then see what autosuggest keywords are available because the search bar will give you new words. These keywords are what other people have searched for before. When you’ve kind of got keywords that best describe your product, press Enter, and then see what comes up. If there are similar products to yours in the search query that’s available then very much research those people. If they’re getting a lot of customers or feedback their keywords are working. An if it’s working for them then they work for you if your product is similar or even the same.
Then you can use some of their keywords to name your products. The plus side is if those people or products you researched keep getting featured in the search for that search term. Then hopefully you’ll get your product in the same criteria so when someone searches that search term your picture of your product will be alongside theirs.
This is quick keyword research obviously I would say do more research. But if you don’t usually do any keyword research, I don’t want to overwhelm you with all the different ways you can get keywords. So this is really the basic way to use these platforms you use to sell to help you find keywords.
If you sell your product via your own website, you are still using this simple keyword research using Google search. Alongside using Google Keyword Planner which is free to use.
2: Are you using these common words
The second mistake is using really common words, that are very overused, especially within the handmade maker industry. Words like made with love, unique, one-of-a-kind. Even though these words are special, because the handmade industry is really huge right now. Then these words that used to be special are now just very common, with everyone using them. To be honest your new products are unique. It’s more than likely made with love and it is one of a kind. To make your product appear different gives potential customers something they cannot hear or feel or smell. Also, show them how your product fits into their environment.
3: Are you lowering your prices?
I speak to a lot of makers who come to the point where they lower their prices. It’s sad because really and truly they just haven’t done enough marketing or need to increase
their reach for people to actually find their product to buy.
There are three things that the lower your prices will do to your products, your
business and yourself. I want you to bear these in mind before you take the
route of lowering your prices. Because you feel this is why your products are not selling and this is the only option you have.
1: The first is that you devalue your product. If you put it at one price and then lower it, then lower it again. Visitors may choose not to buy hoping you will lower the price again.
2: Next it lowers your profit line. At the end of the day it’s not a hobby it’s a business. You’re creating products to sell to make a profit. If you’re already lowering your price because you don’t think it’s worth the price that you really want to attach to it. Then you’re already cutting into your profit. So you don’t really want to lower your price because the profit is the whole point of being in business.
If you don’t make a profit how are you going to be able to have money to buy stock and re-invest in your business it’s really important. It’s something you need to think about before you go to the extreme to lower your prices.
3: Lastly it deflates your confidence in your creative ability. You’ve spent time and energy creating your products. You priced it, you put it out there, now it’s not selling. By putting a lower price on it, you start telling yourself “your products are not really worth anything”. Or start asking yourself am I as good as I think I am”. You begin to dissect yourself and your ability, your creativity all because you want to lower your price because it didn’t sell.
You just need to increase your marketing so more people get to see your products. There are billions of people on the planet. That’s a lot of people still waiting and probably searching for your products.
Now you know what the 3 marketing mistakes are, be proactive in your business knowing what to avoid or work on.
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