Shop Sales Promotion Brainstorming

Posts : 13 Join date : 2009-05-03

No, I'm not talking about the usual things people think of when discussing promoting their shops. You know - SEO, handing out buisness cards, blogging, etc.

I'm talking about the bigger picture. How to promote SHOPS (all of them) in general, over the new (and decidedly not improved) Marketplace CP is creating.

Namely, I wonder if there's some way we can make a concerted, and more importantly, EFFECTIVE effort to create huge public awareness of the big difference between shopping at the Marketplace (boo, hiss!) and supporting the actual DESIGNERS by purchasing directly from our shops instead?

Wouldn't it be neat if we could start a grass-roots campaign to turn this whole plot of CP's around and over their own heads - with nothing they could do about it?

But how could this be accomplished? I've seen people suggest planting such thoughts within the descriptions of their designs- but, assuming these are even read much by anyone other than search engines, if it ever even began to subvert the Marketplace, CP would certainly make the descriptions disappear from the marketplace altogether.

So, there is a need to think outside the proverbial box. I'd like to see a discussion here that explores all the possibilities - a brainstorming thread of the sort that would probably get pulled if it were posted at the CP forum. Unfortunately, though, I'm not technically savvy enough to know what would or wouldn't work.

Start the karma pendulum rolling back at 'em, I say. Ideas, anyone?

Subject: Re: Shop Sales Promotion Brainstorming Mon May 11, 2009 12:42 pm

You have to be careful. In these economic times everyone is out for a "good deal". If you point out too much of a difference to customers, they will go for the cheaper prices. Can't blame them really. Times are hard.

I hope you can come up with something. I wish you luck.

May the fairy be with you! Shop Sales Promotion Brainstorming 187714

Shop Sales Promotion Brainstorming 187714

Subject: Re: Shop Sales Promotion Brainstorming Mon May 11, 2009 1:52 pm

oooH, I have to agree with Bambi. . .we don't really WANT the customers to be privvy to the Marketplace. I would just as soon that MY customers don't realize there is a single OTHER dog design in existence ! Very Happy

And. . .I've always ended all of my product descriptions with a line that says: "See ALL of the fine products with this design, visit my Shop!"

Since there was always a link to our shops that came up along with the larger thumbnail from the Marketplace, I felt this was a good idea, in case that customer happened to click on a sticker and would have liked a shirt. . .etc.

I think your idea of GREAT SEO should now be transferred over to your new shops at Zazzle and Printfection. . .and, of course, still promote the original CP shops!

Ann K.

Posts : 13 Join date : 2009-05-03

Well, I guess I wasn't even thinking along those lines... LOL. What you both allude to is a moot point with me, as one way or another (see my other thread) my products will not be available via the Marketplace at all when this stuff starts. I'm just trying to weigh the relative merits of opting out versus stripping the tags, as a long-run strategy. (I'll probably just do the easier one initially, as I am very busy with other things between now and June 1st.)

I was thinking more about making all the people who now think of CafePress and the Marketplace as being synonymous - those who don't realize that all those designs they're seeing were made by people who have them in shops... aware of the benefits of buying from those shops. Perhaps it's a pipe dream of mine. Even though my designs won't be in the marketplace, I can just imagine someone who goes there to search for one of my designs that they've seen there before, and it's suddenly not there. Maybe that person needs to realize that googling the design by name WILL bring it up, via a link to my shop.

It will be many months, I'm afraid, that my Zazzle shop will have enough in it to even compete with a store that's made me a decent 5-figure income. Even though I have a total of fewer than 1000 designs, it's a slow process copying them over to Z, as completing about 6 designs a day is enough to make me crosseyed and cranky. At that rate, well, you know it will take a long time! I doubt I'll even bother with Printfection, as my store there has had my best sellers online since I opened it in 2006, and sales have dwindled to about one every 2 months lately, if that. And their interface is much more cumbersome even than Z's.

I still think that the public who knows of CP, but not that it is comprised of individual shops, is significant, and as such, is a group that needs to be "educated". But maybe I'm all wet. It wouldn't be the first time!

Subject: Re: Shop Sales Promotion Brainstorming Mon May 11, 2009 4:35 pm

Its a noble idea geargems and I can see where you are coming from but I am afraid that I think Ann and Bambi are right in the fact that

1 We maybe should not point out the market place is cheaper

2 People will not care about our plight and go for the cheaper option

Shame though

Posts : 13 Join date : 2009-05-03

I don't get it. I wasn't intending anything noble, but just practical.

"The marketplace is cheaper." <--- But all designs aren't going to be IN the marketplace. That's not a valid apples to apples comparison, imho. We don't even know the marketplace prices yet anyhow, but assuming we did, and they are cheaper, then so what, if someone would like my design (or yours) better than what they could find in the marketplace. Only they couldn't find it at all, without being AWARE that non-marketplace designs exist "out there"!

Sigh.

I just can't identify with this "cheaper" stuff, I've always priced my merchandise high and if people like it, they will buy it. Even with the economy not doing so well.

Again, this thread was not supposed to be about promotion of one's own shop, as there have been countless rehashings of that subject everywhere for years. It's about how to inform John and Jane Shopper that in this new world of CafePress, there actually do exist individual shops, and not just the marketplace, which is cumbersome and full of bad to mediocre filler, where the really good designs are few and far between.

Subject: Re: Shop Sales Promotion Brainstorming Mon May 11, 2009 5:55 pm

I wasn't trying to offend or anything when I say noble I just mean its a GOOD idea but in this crappy world it would be hard to persuade people to go for the more expensive option.

The only way would be to have LOADS of links out there which take people straight to your shop. You never know maybe if you did explain some may go for the more expensive (but right) option of buying straight from your shop

Subject: Re: Shop Sales Promotion Brainstorming Mon May 11, 2009 6:08 pm

I hear where you're coming from geargems. You're absolutely right I think in that many people don't realise there are individual shops at all. There is no awareness as each individual SK has been encouraged to concentrate on their own SEO. That's a pretty safe bet for CP, there's not much likelyhood that any one SK, no matter how big their shop is, can be any threat to CP on their google placement. They have millions of descriptions helping their SEO donated freely by all the shopkeepers. There hasn't been too much done collectively.

On a personal level I will be leaving my designs on CP just as they are for the time being, BUT by June 1st I will remove all product descriptions from my items and replace it with the name of my website. I will also be putting a link to my site in every text area possible within my stores until they close (one this July, another March 2010). I now have all links on my website pointing at Zazzle. I know none of this applies to somebody that wants to keep trading from CP outside of the MP.

But for the bigger picture, if you take a look at the Zazzle threads here, you'll see a directory that I have set up to affiliate & promote Zazzle stores for myself and others. The idea is to promote it as a directory of stores containing good quality artwork/designs/merchandise, without a customer having to wade through a marketplace of repetetive spam and schlop to find what they are looking for. I have quite a few promo ideas for it. If it gets enough awareness people may just click to there knowing it lists good stores. It may work, it may not, but it's gotta be worth a try.

What is needed is something similar for CP shops. There's alot of t-shirt top list type sites, but I don't think they work that well. People just add their own banner and keep clicking through to vote for themselves, or have loads of friends that will, and hog the top spots even when their store is crap.

It needs something new for CP's SK's, something different. confused

Posts : 13 Join date : 2009-05-03

TheCrew, I'm not offended. It's not about "my shop", but everybody's. Look, maybe I'm just not very good at explaining myself. Perhaps someone else will read this and visualise the possibilities, and be able to better express what I'm trying to convey. Otherwise, the thread will just die a (maybe) well-deserved death, because there are no such possibilities and I'm just pipe dreaming. But for now, I will just sit back until or unless I think of a better way to describe what I'm thinking about here. I was always a more visual than verbal thinker. That has made communication difficult for me at times.