Online Sales Without A Blog

Audio Transcript:

Alright, let’s chat about generating on line sales

I know that you know that in order to have on line sales you must have an on line presence.

And for most folks that means a blog

And if you are taking this class I will bet you don’t have a blog, but you probably think you should have a blog.

And the reason you don’t have a blog:

Because it seems overwhelming

Who hosts it?

How do I decide a tag line, a logo?

How do I do a shop now button?

It takes time and money and tech knowledge, oh my!

It is overwhelming to start and build a blog

But here is the deal:

If you want to generate on line sales you must be on line, in some capacity.

Minimally for people to order on line, with you as their demo, you must have a DBWS

And what I want to teach you today is that thru the use and updating of your DBWS you will be able to generate on line sales.

Both from your existing customer base, they will spend more when they can shop anytime, and from new customers you generate as a result of being on line

Some of you may already be subscribing to a DBWS and some of you will need to get started.

I will provide the starting point for each of you, but let me tell you why this works

All the graphics are done for you

The shop now button is there

The calendar of events is there

The on line catalog is there

The promotions are there

All you have to do is add the details which is basically typing in the info on a handful of pages

Ridiculously easy

And what you may not know is that Stampin’Up! has provided FABULOUS tutorials, along with live person q&a to help you with every piece.

This alone is worth 100’s if not thousands of dollars. And HUGE time saver.

You will never get that level of help, assistance, and guidance from any of the blog hosts.

So rather than walk you thru how to set up your DBWS I am going to point you to the places where you will find the best direct help, particularly since you are all coming in to this with various degrees of using your DBWS

What I want to do is highlight the areas that will bring you the most return, give you some tips on how to think about your DBWS and help you create traffic, viewers, visitors and sales from your DBWS.

And if you are thinking, oh I have had my DBWS for years, I don’t need a refresher, training, etc., you are fooling yourself. The on line training is amazing and will give you insights and tips that can really help.

So let’s start with the basics: the name of your DBWS.

You can change the name of your DBWS anytime you want, although I would be sure to pick something you don’t plan on changing as that makes it difficult for customers to find you.

My suggestion is that you use your name so that if someone Googles you they can easily find you.

Mine is www.lisapretto.stampinup.net

On a full fledged blog we have a little more room for creativity, but we want to be efficient and not invest so much time on the DBWS. So keep it simple and relevant.

You have 4 lines in which to personalize what they see on the first page of your DBWS:

We recommend using:

Name

City and State

Request my Newsletter

We think it is important to have your city and state over your phone number.

Whoever is on your site is computer savvy enough to find you, so they don’t need your phone number to reach you. But even in the day of the Internet a lot of people like to do business with a local person. So your location can be a great selling point.

Below that you can use a stock picture from SU! On the left and the right is a place for you to personalize with text

We recommend using a photo of yourself on the left, people like doing business with real people.

And here is the text we use:

My name is Lisa Pretto Ibinger and I have been with SU! since 12/1998.  I have been blessed with awesome customers, a large and growing downline, and many awards in my years as a demonstrator. Every day I feel so lucky to call this my job!  You can order here anytime or email it me at lisa@inkbigacademy.com.  I offer monthly stamp classes near Madison WI and I would love to have you join me.

Simple, straight forward, enough to leave them wanting more (there is a character limit so don’t get wordy)

On the bottom right you will see a calendar and an opportunity to put a call to action

You cannot edit your calendar from here, but we will get to that

You can use any call to action that SU! Has listed, I like the shop now as it makes it very clear that you aren’t just providing ideas but people can shop right there. Don’t assume people know that.

The next part that is important to set up is your calendar. People like to do business with people who are actively involved.

The events tab to customize your calendar is along the top. You can click on it and begin to add events to your calendar.

So fill out the days you have events. I am going to guess that many of you are still focused primarily on stamping events.

With each event be sure to give it a name and be very clear about what you are offering, the date, time, cost, how to RSVP, etc

Next fill in any downline, upline, or training opportunities you are participating in, even if it is virtual put it on the calendar.

This will demonstrate that you are part of a vital group which can be appealing to potential recruits.

Now put in the times you are prepping or stamping just for yourself: if Tuesday morning you are stamping thank you notes put that on the calendar.

The idea I am getting at here is that we want your calendar to reflect a busy, successful demonstrator.

If all you have on there is a once a month card class that doesn’t make it look like you are really in business.

So prepping, delivering, entering orders, making swaps: all of these things can go on the calendar with a cute little description that might intrigue someone.

The rest of the pages that you can build out are all listed and you can personalize text on each of them based on what you are looking for, what you want to offer potential customers, where you want your business grow.

There are also lots of opportunities to add photos, themes, etc.

Stampin’Up! Will also be coming out with new catalog options shortly that will allow you to use new art work from the 2013-2014 catalog.

One of the pages you will see is for your “stamping blog”, do not let that freak you out. I want you to think of this as a running commentary of what you are doing in your stamping world:

New catty arrives

Deciding what to order

The boxes arrive

Show what you make

Setting up for stamp club

Packaging up orders

What your club, class made

What SU! Is promoting

One of the things you will hear from demos who have built successful on line businesses is that they share every day what they are working on because it gives them a reason to stamp and work their business.

So don’t get caught up that every day has to be a full card with recipe and links to buy, etc., that will overwhelm you.

For example, we make paper flowers for a lot of local brides for décor. One day is a photo of 100’s of these flowers.

The next day they have been glued to topiaries, and the third day is a quick photo tutorial of how to make the flowers

My next day is a pic of all the new catalog items we received and then the next day is a photo of a card I made.

If you do a stamping event you will have 4-10 cards that you can share a picture of, along with photos of the event, set up, anything that might have insight as to your stampin’ life.

Even though it has the name “stampin blog”, I want you to think of this as your journal. Every day upload a pic of what is going on in your stamping world and share it.

This will make you more than a store or direct sales person, it makes you human and relate-able, which will go a long way in building a loyal following and developing readers who will buy from you.

Couple of things to remember:

When you are first starting no one is reading, which although frustrating is good. Don’t sweat it all. Just start creating content.

Eventually people will start reading what you do and then you can fine-tune, get more picky about what you share etc.

People love consistency

If you post everyday eventually they will come looking for you every day. Consistent effort over time is what is needed to create on line sales

The third area I want to talk to you about is creating links that show up on the side of your entries.

So you are creating an on line journal, all the marketing pieces are there for you, you can change colors, etc., fine tune the writing but all of the hard work is done.

At some point, and the sooner the better, you will need to work at getting people to visit your on line story and stamping journal

Existing customers: we want them to visit because we know that when they can place orders on line they will buy more.

You can put up photos of stamp club projects, you can post tutorials, directions, videos to support the projects that you do with them.

This will give them an incentive to visit your journal and get comfortable.

You can do “hey did you know you can order from here anytime and have it shipped directly to you?”

When you start to fine tune what you are offering on your DBWS, let your existing customer base drive the show. If your club makes 3 projects, you can put a pic of a bonus project on your DBWS and send them there

Think of it as a way of serving existing customers

To get new folks to join you, you will need to do a little marketing, this is called generating leads.

There are 3 places that are fabulous for helping people find you:

Facebook

YouTube

Each one of these will provide you an opportunity to get in front of more people, drive people to your on line store and build a following of customers.

The best way to go about this is to pick one that you are most comfortable with and get it up and running.

Then you can add another.

In your training you will receive links on how to set up a business Facebook page, a Pinterest business page and a YouTube channel.

Start with one, build it, get on a routine with it and then think about adding another

Pinterest and FB are easy, you are probably already familiar with them.

The most important thing is to be consistent, think about what your customers want to see and share good stuff with them

YouTube takes some tech knowledge, so even though it isn’t hard and it gets great results, there is no need to jump into that until you get the other two down.

With the links option you can provide links on your stamping journal to your FB page and your Pinterest account so that you keep your visitors engaged.

Now I know you are thinking: “gosh Lisa I don’t want to do all this” and I am going to tell you that is fine and you don’t have to do all this.

But you cannot create on line sales without engaging in being on line.

It doesn’t have to generate orders today or even tomorrow.

Just start sharing what you do

People will search your name, they will search for demos in your area… I can’t tell you how many customers I get who say oh I saw you were from Madison and you do classes. And I am terrible at updating my SU! DBWS with anything other than events.

The thing that I love most about taking some business on line is that it gives you freedom to continue your business even if you go on vacation, or you have to care for a sick parent, or you just need a break. I wake up to orders, how cool would that be?

In the accompanying PDF I am going to give you the links to all of the DBWS training on the SU! Website

I am also giving you the links on how to set up your business FB page, Pinterest and YouTube account

I am also going to share with you 2 newsletter services if you want to start managing your own newsletter.

Don’t let that deter you, some of you may be ready for that and some of you may not.

Anytime you can get the emails of your customers and potential customers that is huge because it means that you can share with them when there are great sales, hostess or recruiting opportunities.

Also by having their email you can share with them special tutorials, ideas, etc to help them think of you as their demo.

As you work thru these things keep in mind that even though this is really easy, it is new. So we are here to provide on going support as you put these pieces together. You can email us at anytime for help and/or direction.

We want you to be successful

We want this to be fun and exciting for you

And we want to minimize the struggle as you grow your business.

So email us, chat with us on FB, let us know how you are doing and that we are here for you 100%

The link to this training, along with all the oterh trainings, is below