Online Promotions That’ll Have Customers Cheering

This is a guest post by Piper Toth. Piper happily traded the corporate world for the online world when she opened her online boutique, one sydney road. She authors the blog of the same name where she waxes poetic on the crazy roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship!

I don't know about you but I hate being "sold" to. Just about as much as I dislike having to "sell" to customers. I'm sure they go hand in hand but all I know is that I want to run screaming anytime I have to venture foot inside a car or phone dealership. It's such a hard sell - and let's be honest - not very pleasurable for the customer (ahem, me!)  Which gives marketing & selling a bad name...and causes us indie biz owners to want to avoid "selling" or "marketing" like the plague.

It doesn't have to be a hard sell.

That’s the beauty of owning your own business – you get to decide what feels right for you. In fact, it doesn't even have to feel like you're selling at all! (okay, yes, you are still "selling" but you can take the ickiness out of the word!) One of the best bits of advice that I received as I was starting my online boutique was this..."how are you helping your customers?"

Well, that certainly changes things, doesn't it? 

If we look at marketing as a way to help our customers, doesn't that take all the pressure off? (Not to mention, the icky factor?) 

To help you start thinking outside of the box when it comes to marketing, I'll share with you an event I did for my own online store over the holidays. I created an online event called "60 Days of Wanderlust" where the mission was to provide my customers a chance to "travel & find gifts from around the world all from the comfort of their own home". Sounds pretty cool, right?  Guess what though?  It’s marketing & selling!

I didn’t start with marketing and selling as my end goal.

I started with a simple question: “What would my customers like & find helpful during the holidays?”

A bit of brainstorming led me to a couple things... customers are stressed during the holidays and in need of help with finding unique gifts. Well, that I CAN HELP them with!

So I created a way to provide them with an escape during the frantic pace of the holidays (dreaming of far away places) and a solution to their gifting needs (unique items from artists around the world)

By getting bloggers & artists from 8 different cities around the world to participate by sharing their city with us through pictures and places they’d take us, not only did it create buzz from customers but the bloggers & artists got into the spirit of it as well! Buzz was generated through social media without me constantly prompting it. Customers loved seeing the new city guide each week and getting to know more about each artist.

Is it marketing & selling?  Sure, absolutely - but in a way that actually benefits your customers. You're just helping them (again back to that word "helping"!) find that gorgeous pillow from Cape Town that’s perfect for their Mom and giving them a much needed escape to that city as well!

So indie biz owners, I challenge you to start thinking outside the box when coming up with ideas for marketing. Don't think of it as "how am I going to market this bowl?"  Instead, think to yourself "How can I help my customer?" 

Feel free to share your “outside the box” thoughts & ideas below!

passport design: we heart paper