A few years back I ran into a highschool friend in Central Park. He and I had both tranformed ourselves into some semblance of triathletes so when I ran into him he was sitting on a bench in Central Park with his full biking gear on and his super-sleek racing bike next to him. The better half and I stopped to chat, catch up, and talk about our racing schedules (as triathletes are prone to do). My friend was training for an Ironman distance race (2.4m swim, 113m bike, 26.2m run) but apparently training was getting the best of him and he told us he was debating blowing the ride off and going to get all you can eat wings.
And the relation to entreprenuership? I think I'm having one of those weeks where I'm ready to metaphorically blow off the business and go get my own version of all you can eat wings (which in my case is all you can eat cupcakes...or icecream...or mini eggs...or...). I think I'm just struggling with the wholesale aspect of the business which is, understandably, slow right now in this economy. And it's just SO much work to get each and every sale. Yes, I know, I'm whining.
I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out how to make a direct to retail model a larger percentage of my business. Other than SEO, which I will be doing (my web guy just lost his fulltime contract so I'm giving him some space before approaching him), what else can I do to attract customers to my retail store? Web ads, print ads, catalogues? What attracts you to small, little known webstores? How do you find them? Why do you check them out? Why do you recommend them to family and friends? Why do you return again and again to shop there? How about this, I'll offer up a free cupcake next time you're in Seattle to anyone who answers. Serious! Help me!
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You know, I'll give this some serious thought and get back to you. I'm busy being a lazy ass in bed and brain doesn't work so good when I'm in this state.
But this I know... you have a great product. Everyone who sees it thinks it's fantastic. It may take a while, but I just know it will catch on.
For me it's really word of mouth -- or referrals from a trusted source that's as good as word of mouth. Things like Daily Candy qualify; I trust them to have interesting products (although I NEVER open their dedicated emails -- the obvious ads). I've started subscribing to a couple of other Daily Candy-like emails, but they're travel & home-focused. Is there something similar for your industry?
Really, for finding small, high-quality niche products on the web, there's nothing like recommendation from a good source. I just don't trust ads at all. I click through on links from trusted Twitter friends when they recommend -- same for blogs in areas I'm interested in.
Unfortunately I know that's not a great answer because it's hard to do -- so many possible bloggers to contact, etc. But internet PR -- not advertising -- is how I find cool stuff that's not in my neighborhood.
ockeghem - thanks so much and I do agree with you 100%. I think I really need to put much more focus into social networking for the business and focus on getting the word out amongst "quality" bloggers to help drive traffic. I agree with you that ads just don't carry the same weight as a recommendation either from a friend or trusted resource. Just wish there were an easier way to tap into that... :)
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