Marketing

This year, 2012, I decided that I'd like my business to be more successful. To do that, I decided that I need to promote more. I'm not that great at self-promotion - it seems so conceited -- definitely not what I want to feel like I'm doing! But it's a part of being a retail business so I need to do it!  My sister helps when she can and with what she can (she enjoys marketing) and my husband proofreads stuff to make sure that it's not braggy and not meek.


I decided to delve into the world of paid ads. This past month, I paid for a FaceBook ad. It did reasonably well gaining me 90 additional followers (wanna be 91?) and I can attribute one $8.50 sale to it (okay, so without taking into account supplies, my net was -$13.50). I'm hoping that I can at least break even without playing FaceBook games (Pa-Tooie) with my fans!


Next, I'm considering putting my business cards with a code printed on them in a local consignment sale's bag. But it's $50 plus the cost of the cards (I could do 1/4 page fliers instead to save some money) and I never look at the paper that comes in my bag and I'm not sure consignment sale shoppers are my target market (they tend to be looking for a deal)... so I'm definitely not going to make the March sale...


Finally, I'm considering an ad on a local Mommy Blog... I've gotten as far as creating an ad:

I'm still a little nervous about the cost. (fyi - this coupon code is not yet active)


Now, I decided that I need to hone down where my advertising would be best served. I started using Outright.com for keeping track of expenses and such. One of the reports I can generate is a map that shows my sales by state. Most of my sales are made to Florida and Texas and I haven't made any sales in South Carolina or much of the non-coastal western US! So, my question, dear readers, is do I focus on reaching NEW customers or do I find ways to bring customers back to my shop?  I think I need a way awesome BROWNIE bow...


And if I don't write again before then, Happy Valentine's Day!!