Is Your Website Sitting or Selling?
A website is a great marketing tool. Most of us know that you must have a web presence. It allows people to see your work and get to know your style.
But in today’s times a website is a great money making tool if you put it to work. Read more...
Making Fashion Shows Profitable
Fashion shows cost me money so I don’t do a show unless I have something to gain from it and exposure doesn’t count. My gowns are expensive. They usually have beading and such on them. To dry clean them after a show costs me about $25 each. If a model gets her heel caught in the hem it cost me money to repair it. Add to that travel, eating, and time expenses. So I have rules for doing shows...
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Developing a Complete Marketing System
A complete marketing system will take your prospect from beginning, point of contact, to the end result, a sale. It will take the client and walk them step by step through a seamless compound of systems that will ultimately close the deal. This complete system is best done in three parts.
- Branding
- Lead generation
- Sales
Branding
Branding your company and yourself is a matter of knowing who your customer is and structuring every point of contact to say and be exactly what they will respond to. Your website, business cards, store, commercials, ads and you( you are your business image) should all send the same message, a message that sets you apart from all the rest. This includes colors, logo, structure and message. True branding uses all these things together to speak directly to your customer. But you have to know who they are, who are you talking to. How old are they? What is the gender, what is the age range, how much do they earn, what type of jobs do they hold, cultural background, race, where do they go, where will they find you, where are they shopping now, what motivates them to buy, why should they buy from you, how much will they pay for what you are selling? These are very important questions that must be answered to develop a successful brand that works for you.
For example look at Starbucks. There is a very specific person that will spend $5 for a cup of coffee. That person will respond to the colors used in their store, the lounge atmosphere, the music they play and the trained professionals that work there. The advertisements, store locations are all speaking directly to one type of person. Others will come and buy, but they have built a business with a very specific target in mind.
In order to aim for the bull’s eye, you must first see it clearly.
Once you have a complete knowledge of who you are talking to you will better know what to say.
We will cover lead generation in the next blog.
Low Budget Startup Marketing Techniques
These are the low budget techniques I used to get started and they worked well for me. I create custom clothing and sell directly to clientele. You will need to consider your business structure to determine what will work for you.
- Networking- The area I live in is big on networking so I would go to an event at least once a week. I would wear my designs and wait for someone to ask where it came from. That’s when my portfolio came out. I got to know quite a lot of people. I shared information with them and offered help when I could. Networking is a two way street. Don’t go in to get, go in to give and you will get a great deal. The best places for networking are church events and business seminars.
- Website with email campaigns- If you are able to build a basic website yourself it is not expensive. There are several online companies that go from free to $10 per month. Your website is useless until you do something to drive visitors to it. The email Campaigns give clients that you already have a reason to come and buy something else from you.
- Referrals- You can use your emails to ask current clients for referrals. Treat your customers well and they will take care of you.
These activities will begin to bring a little business. If you are just starting you need to start with little to see if you can manage much. I will share at another time how to get much.
Flash Websites
Being a designer I love all things beautiful. Add bright and shiny and I am there! So when I found this website that makes flash website very affordable I visited it every day for about 3 months trying to decide which one I would buy.
But during my infatuation with the site I became educated about flash sites. Here are some things you need to know before you buy.
The flash sites do not lend themselves to being found by the web crawler. The entire site registers as a photo. So your words will not be picked up by the search engines. You will have to promote your site yourself. The site I have now brings me lots of visitors from the Google search engine so decided to keep it and pass on the glitz. This is a good business decision.
If you decide to do it anyway be aware of how to use this site. They have some templates that you can update and make the changes you need to make and some that require the companies technical support to personalize the information. Read the details very carefully before you buy. Also the only way to contact the company is by email, which always makes me uncomfortable.
Disclaimer
I am in no way indorsing this company or buying flash websites.
I am just passing on information on a very affordable way to purchase a great flash website.
www.icetemplates.com