Successful Online Gift Shop Marketing

by Shannan Hearne

Copyright 2002

With all the great wholesale companies available, virtually anyone can throw
up a WWW shingle and start a gift shop. Additionally, there are thousands of
wonderful gift shops online specializing in everything from apple art to
zebra prints. How do you compete with your online gift shop?

Success Promotions has spent five years building successful internet
businesses and we'd like to share some valuable information with you. Not
every online business can afford a full time internet marketing employee or
an outsourced internet marketing service.

If you go to any search engine and search for gifts you will get thousands
and thousands of returns. For example, a search run on AltaVista.com today
for the search string "gifts" returned 12,332,556 results. After narrowing
the search by adding "women's" to the search string AltaVista returned
12,499,266 results. Incidentally, this search returned so many jewelry sites
in the first results that if you sell women's gifts and they aren't jewelry
you need to choose your keywords very carefully. Needless to say, the sites
not in the first 20 to 30 results aren't getting a tremendous amount of
traffic from AltaVista.com.

Here are some tips for internet marketers and gift sellers alike to help
build a more successful online business.

1. Specialize and Categorize

If you are selling two gifts or 3000 gifts you need to manage them in
categories. Think about it. Would you be able to find anything at Walmart if
they mixed the shoes with the electronics with the crafts with the hardware?
You'd walk around aimlessly for hours searching for a pair of size six
sandals with salmon colored strings. Don't make your site visitors and
potential customers search aimlessly around your site.

It helps to have a search option, but for this to work you must keyword each
product under every imaginable search word. Shoes alone wouldn't work for
sandals. You'd need to also have it pop up under footwear, summer wear,
women's attire, etc.

Furthermore, once you begin to break your gift site down into smaller, more
manageable categories, you can market EACH page to the search engines under
different keywords. Its great if every single item you sell can be managed
under a keyword or category from your main doorway page. But why not create
a sub-category doorway page for each product category and each product line?
Then you can submit all doorway/front pages to the search engines and
instead of appearing as search return #1,456,825 you can be in the top ten
for shoes, and footwear, and socks, and sandals, and gifts, etc.

Lynn Korff, of Korff's Ceramic Originals, http://www.korfforiginals.com
knows this works. Her products vary from ceramic piggy banks to dinner ware
to candle holders. She breaks them down not only by product but also by
glaze patterns. Shoppers can readily find anything and then find matching
products making her site more shopper friendly and more marketable. If you
don't believe me, go to any search engine and search for "ceramic piggy
banks". Lynn is always right up there at the top.

Additionally, besides being more search engine friendly and successful, your
site can also be more shopper friendly. How many times have you followed
links for search engine returns that required you to go through far too many
multiple pages to find the search engine return you were actually looking
for? How many times did you stop searching the particular site before you
got to the object of your search?

Don't fret if this sounds like a major site re-design. The improvement in
marketability and shopability is worth every second of work.

There is no limit to the amount of products you can sell. But make them easy
to find and you will sell a lot more of each one.

2. Advertise

No surprise to find this one, huh? If you don't advertise, you don't sell
anything. People don't knock on your front door to see if you might possibly
have free puppies unless there is a sign. Don't expect web site visitors to
knock on your front URL to see if you maybe have the exact gift item they
are looking for just because you sell gifts.

You can advertise on other gift sites that market to similar niches without
selling the same products. You can advertise in online and offline
publications. You can advertise on any imaginable site that caters to the
same people you are catering to. Going back to the free puppies analogy,
suppose that you sell embroidered puppy collars. Wouldn't a site run by the
Humane Society also cater to people with puppies? Wouldn't they be happy to
swap links if you could help drive a few puppy shopping families to their
web site?

Where all you could advertise depends entirely on what you sell and who you
are attempting to sell it to. But be creative. Go to any search engine and
do a search on some of your own keywords. See if there are special interest
groups, clubs, or other organizations who comprise of members who are your
potential customers. If you sell sportswear, start hitting little leaguers,
co-ed leaguers, etc. As fast as the internet is growing, and as many new
users as appear online every day, you should never, ever stop looking for
new places to reach potential customers. While you are advertising, remember
to keep your message simple and specialized. Don't just create a big banner
that says "gifts" in eight flashing colors. Tell potential visitors what
type of gifts you offer. We all have to have traffic to sell, but the wrong
traffic doesn't create sales.

Rose Clark of the Cabot Mall, http://www.cabotmall.com, helps all her mall
merchants do this. She offers free ezine advertising to each of her
merchants, generating more traffic and brand name awareness for each of
them. Additionally, Rose's mall does a superb job of categorizing.

3. Market to your visitors

Think of all your advertising and marketing efforts on a Return On
Investment basis. It costs far more to get a customer than it does to keep
one.

You should be obtaining contact information from every one who visits your
web site. Email addresses. Phone numbers. Snail mail addresses. Keep
marketing to these people. Tell them about new products, sales, specials,
etc. Remind them why they surfed into your site in the first place and
invite them back. Contests are great ways to do this. If you can give away
one $5.00 widget a month and obtain 500 new contacts for every widget given
away, that is a high return on investment. Some of the people who register
to win your widget will buy one if they don't win. And they will come back
monthly to re-register. Especially if you send a reminder to them to do so.

Cyndi Steinmetz of CDK Enterprises is very efficient in this department.
When you shop at her site, register for her contest, or simply visit and
supply your email address you enter her mailing list for life. Monthly
reminders from CDK tell me about new children's gifts. And with four
children in my home, scarecely a month goes by that I'm not looking for
something for them! Cyndi is always on my mind because she reminds me to
think about her regularly by sending me emails. Her reminders of products
keep me thinking of new ways to shop with her all the time.

This is especially useful if you sell collectibles that are released and
retired on a regular basis. If you collect Beanie Babies, you want to know
when each one is retiring and make sure that you have it. If you collect
Longaberger Baskets, you want to be reminded when the Mother's Day Basket is
sold each year to be sure that you add it to your collection.

4. Mail, mail, and mail some more

Email specifically. Email is the cheapest form of advertising known to
mankind - except for word of mouth. If you aren't sending emails to
customers, leads, contacts, etc., on a regular basis you are missing out on
a very powerful form of advertising. Its fast. Its easy. And its free. Case
in point. When Success Promotions has a small lull and is in search of
customers, I can obtain far more with far less effort by contact past
customers. They know what I do. They know it works. And they may have been
planning to start marketing with me again, but just haven't gotten around to
ordering. Susie Glennan, of The Busy Woman's Daily Planner,
http:/www.thebusywoman.com, knows this works. She monthly sends reminders to
people who haven't ordered in the past 12 months. Her products are consumed,
if you will, on an annual basis. She generates more sales by reminding
customers to come back and re-order.

Think about the life cycle of your products and do the same. Perhaps you
have a birthday product. You know one year later, the gift giver will be
shopping again. Send them an email inviting them to come back and shop with
you.

5. Plan ahead for seasonal sales

Of course Christmas applies here. But what about Valentines Day, Easter,
Chanukah, Flag Day, Voting Day, and hundreds of others? If you have gifts
that apply to all occaisions generically or to specific holidays you have to
plan in advance to get your marketing message in front of consumers at the
appropriate time.

It might be hard to think about Santa Claus, cold weather, reindeer, and
jingle bells in July; but that is when you need to start planning.
Especially if you will be running special discount campaigns. Don't wait til
the last minute this year. Right now, get out your calendar and make note of
every holiday that will effect your business. Back track anywhere from two
weeks to six months in your calendar and make a notation to begin planning
and implementing campaigns for these holidays.

6. Campaign

Politics or not, we all must group and categorize our advertising in some
manner. If you develop entire campaigns for products and occasions, then you
are ready to roll each time with ad copy, brochures, sales messages, etc.
Don't short change yourself here. This is where it is at for every business.
And gift shops aren't any different. If you plan to roll out six new
necklaces this year, one every two months, then you really should find some
sort of campaign method to link and organize yourself. Market them in a
uniform and pre-planned manner. And by all means, have a campaign for every
new product. Don't just clandestinely add it to your site and hope that
someone notices. Add it with a bang, and a campaign.

7. Organize

To a great extent, we've been covering this all along. But it can't be
emphasized enough. Don't make me, the shopper, search high and low on your
site for a statue that perfectly matches my wizard logo. Combine the wizard,
sorcery, magical, knights of the roundtable products together. Think of
every way that someone like me - or any other shopper - might go looking for
them. And make them easy to find by organizing.

8. Monopolize

Many merchants worry that this is a taboo form of marketing. Not at all.

Would it have been taboo to sell flags on 9/11/01? Perhaps. But every day
since then they have been selling like hotcakes. And if you offer American
patriotism in the form of products on your gift site, then you need to
monopolize on the new American patriotism. For years merchants have
monopolized on Christmas, Mother's Day, and every other gift giving
occasion. Let's face it, Hallmark and American Greetings would go belly up
if this year we all decided to boycot our moms on Mother's Day.

So how do you do this? Jog your memory by looking at everything we've
covered. Specialization and categorization. Organization. Preplanning. They
all come into play.

You don't need a crystal ball to see what trends are coming along in
consumerism. And if you see them, you need to monopolize on them if you want
to run a successful gift sales business.

Look at what eToys.com, Walmart.com, BlueLight.com, etc. did this year. A
rather unstable economy kept people from spending quite as freely as they
have in years past. Rather than give up all together, merchants increased
their specials and discounts. And didn't we all buy at least one thing this
past holiday season not because we or our gift recipient needed it, but
rather because it was too inexpensive not to buy?

9. Design Your Site Carefully

This could be an entire article on its own. But let's look at the general
mechanics of a site that would rank high in the search engines.

Quality and quantity keywords and meta tags are imperative if you want the
right kind of traffic. Speed of loading and ease of navigation are required
to get visitors where you want them to end up - the order page.
Aesthetically pleasing visuals make shoppers happy and turn them into
buyers. And finally, the more payment methods you are able to accept, the
more buyers you will receive.

Invite a friend, preferably an internet newbie, to shop from your site.
Perhaps even offer a free gift as the incentive. See how long it takes them
to find what they are looking for and order it. Do they get frustrated? Do
they smile or frown? Re-think your gift site design accordingly.

10. Market Every Day

What no holidays or Sundays off? That's right. You should always be prepared
to hand out a business card or zap off an email when you see a marketing
opportunity. And you can be marketing even when you aren't marketing. Your
signature text in your emails should ALWAYS contain a link to your business
site. Every thing you ship should have your URL printed everywhere. When you
leave a pen at the bank, it should have your business contact printed on it.
If you stop at a yard sale and see that someone obviously likes Teddy Bears,
you should tell them how to get to your Teddy Bear Site.

What about getting other people to market for you?

Groups like http:/www.mompack.com are all about having other people help
promote your business for free. When you ship a product, always include at
least THREE of your business cards, one for the recipient to keep and two to
give away. Affiliate programs are a great way to get people to sell for you.
Don't overlook any option.

And when you are running a special, don't forget to advertise on sites that
compile savings information. My favorite is http://www.clearancecrazy.com.
But there are tons of them.

11. Utilize Every Contact as a Potential Marketing Contact

One category of products that I sell is gourmet coffee, tea, and snacks. It
has absolutely nothing to do with my primary business,
http://www.SuccessPromotions.com. However, it is very successful in its own
right. http://www.coffeeteaetc.com gets more hits regularly than Success
Promotions. Why? Because I tell everyone about it. For example, every time I
get a free cup of coffee somewhere, I leave a couple business cards and web
cards. (See http://www.mothersdayout.com/ for web cards.) I participate in
marketing material exchanges through the Mom Pack mentioned earlier. When I
meet someone who sells any type of home party product whether it be
food/kitchen oriented like TupperWare or completely different like PartyLite
Candles or House of Lloyd, I tell them about my business. It is easy to
recruit for and easy to promote. Almost everyone I know drinks coffee or
tea. I give away samples. I invite neighbors over for gourmet coffee.
Everyone I talk to is a suspected buyer or reseller until they prove
themselves otherwise.

You should assume the same.

Wear the clothes that you sell or the jewelry. Drive the car that you sell.
Drink the coffee that you sell. And be prepared to share them with anyone
who even casually asks.

Along the same lines, encourage your own customers to do the same. I have
purchased many shirts from Sirr Max, http://www.sirrmax.com. Their positive
logoed apparel fits my personality and I enjoy sharing their messages of
hope with anyone who takes the time to read my clothing. At least twice a
day, when wearing Sirr Max apparel, someone will comment on how much they
like my shirt or admire the message on my tote bag. I'm always prepared to
give a business card to them. Ordering from this online giftwear site is
easy. But potential customers have to get to the site to order. So I help
Pamela Jordan of Sirr Max by advertising for her every time I wear her
clothing.

If you sell anything besides underwear, then your customers' friends are
going to eventually see it. Make sure they are prepared to tell their
friends how they can get some too.

12. Network

The dreaded "N" word. This has nothing to do with multi level marketing. It
is all about who you know and what you know.

When you network, you invariably make potential business/client contacts. So
do it wholeheartedly. Don't just join a group like Digital Women
http://www.digital-women.com or The Network for Women
http://www.thenetworkforwomen.com, but participate in them. Join the email
lists. Advertise. Donate time, products, services, etc. Make yourself
visible enough within the group that your networking is accomplishing
something. The contacts will be invaluable. And you neve know who you will
meet who either is just now looking for gifts like you sell or knows someone
who is.

It's a new year and all of us are ready for a fresh, new start. Make an
effort to utilize these suggestions in the way most appropriate for your
business. Sell more gifts by working to sell more gifts.

And remember, Success Promotions, http://www.successpromotions.com is always
just a quick browser surf away with tons more tips, tools, and tricks.

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