How to sell on eBay and Etsy - simple steps to success

Among the services offered by Bizi Marketing Solutions is sales through various Internet Shop platforms. This mostly includes such platforms like eBay and ETSY. Clients for this service are mostly found among individuals or small groups of entrepreneurs who have a unique product (or products) and are interested in starting selling them overseas.
Just a few examples: ceramics, sculpture, paintings, hand made jewelry, innovative water filtering device, etc.
Almost everything can be sold on eBay (the list of items prohibited for sales on eBay may be found here);  while Etsy is a platform for selling only handmade goods.
Here I would like to explain the process of managing and carrying out this kind of sales.

1. Problem: there are thousands of products (and sometimes services) being sold on eBay and Etsy. Of course, there is no guarantee that a visitor, looking for the kind of product you are selling will even notice your product among the thousands of others. 
• Solution: design and optimize sales pages in a way that will allow eBay or Etsy's search engines to easily find them and drive quality traffic (i.e. users that look specifically for this product) to them.
2. Problem: even if your sales page is optimized, there still exists huge competition. Besides that, people are often just surfing the products without any intention to buy. I.e. - this is NOT a quality traffic. Therefore, there is a need to drive quality traffic to your sales pages (or your shop on eBay or Etsy).
• Solution: In order to drive quality traffic you need to "filter" it. But first of all, you need to get this traffic somehow. You need to let the world know that you have those unique products that people are looking for. That's why you need to build (if you still don't have one) a good website, optimize and promote it. In this case people will find your website, where only you are presented (no direct competition). They will see your products, learn about them, learn to like and appreciate them. From this site you can easily drive traffic to your eBay or Etsy sales pages. Those visitors will already know your product and will go to eBay or Etsy with an intention to buy it.

So, the general scheme is as follows:
We optimize your website, drive traffic to it from various sources (blogs, indexes, directories, forums, search engines, promote it on social media). As a result, quality traffic is driven from your site directly into your eBay or Etsy shop (or to specific sales pages). These people come with an intent to buy, they already know what they are looking for and the probability of them purchasing your products is very high.

The conclusion is: it's possible to develop a profitable sales channel on eBay, Etsy and the like. To maximize the probability of success you need:

• to have a functional website
• to optimize and promote it
• to drive quality traffic from your website to your eBay or Etsy shop (or sales pages)

We, at Bizi Marketing Solutions, offering the set of services that will bring you to success in your overseas sales project. If you have a unique product and would like to start effectively selling it overseas, you're more than welcome to contact us at info@bizi-marketing.co.il 

Web Design, CMS and SEO

Almost all the companies today have websites. Some of these websites are good, some of them are... not so good.
The process of website design and development consists of several "musts":

1. Design
2. Content Management System (CMS)
3. SEO

And here we come across issue 1: Design

There are lots of ways to design a website. There are lots of designers who offer their services and show incredible designs to support their statement that they are the most appropriate, the most creative, unique, talented... in short, they are the best for a web design project.

But do they know how how to create a design that will market and sell?

Do the know the basics of marketing?

Do they know that not any design (even the most unique and beautiful) can satisfy the demands of the users?

Do they know how to make their design fit the SEO requirements?
Do they know how to design the site in a way that will lead the visitors to fulfill the purpose of the site (purchase, subscribe, etc.)?

Before choosing a web design service provider, one should ask himself those questions. One should remember, that the website has to be a marketing tool, and not one more useless piece of artistic creation, hanging somewhere in the wide and often deserted fields of the World Wide Web.

Issue 2: Content Management System

A) Content Management System Providers

Yes, there are lots of them. Some of those systems are hosting related, some are not. Some are being given away for "free" (I'll explain this later), some come to 12,000 - 20,000 shekels.

Cheaper systems and system given for "free" are mostly based on existing templates. This means that the user can only change the top pictures, insert their own logo, change/insert pictures, menus and content (text). The design of the website is predefined. These designs are not flexible, you won't be able to change the location of various elements on the page, it will never be unique.
Besides that, you will be bound to your CMS provider hosting (which may be more expensive than other hosting options). The moment you decide to leave this hosting, you'll also lose your website. You won't be able to "relocate" it to another hosting.

There is a limited number of web-based CMS's that allow unique designs. You, or rather your web-master or designer will need to learn how to integrate your website design with such CMS. Those systems are much better in quality, more flexible and, of course, more expensive. Prices of those systems (not including design and integration) vary between $200 - $1000, depending on the system and system modules required by the client.

Another kind of CMS is a "stand-alone" system that doesn't require any specific hosting. Those systems are usually very flexible, well-designed, user-friends... It's a pleasure to use them. Although, it's not such a pleasure to pay for them, as they are (mostly) very expensive. However, as we all know, reliability and quality are sometimes worth paying for, especially when we are planning for a long-term. Cheaper solutions may cost you more at the end of the day. When you need to change something that a cheaper system doesn't allow you to change, or need some functionality not supported by a "free" system, you'll need to look for solutions... and will end up either not having this functionality or building another website (and paying twice).

B. Content Management Systems and SEO

Not all cheap or "free" Content Management Systems allow optimization; although most of them do allow insertion of the basic meta-tags (keywords, title, description). However, there exist more meta-tags and some of them are very important. For example, for geographic targeting.
It's also (almost always) impossible to optimize the template menus for recognition by search engines. Menus are critical as they usually represent many important keywords. In the other words, if you decide to use template-based Content Management Systems, you should pay attention to their SEO functionality.
Content Management Systems that don't require the use of templates are more flexible and almost always allow direct access to the code or supply other ways to insert as many meta-tags and to do whatever changes the client may require.

Issue 3: SEO

It's still called SEO... at least it's known as SEO. But when we talk about IT, we actually mean a whole set of actions aimed at promotion of a website and increasing quality traffic to the website.
IT includes:

• Code optimization (code should be "clean", readable for search engines, there should be a certain balance between code and text of the website page, meta-tags, alt attributes, keyword density and many more.
• Site optimization: correct linking navigational system between the pages of the website, content optimization, image optimization, etc.
• Registration with quality indexes and directories (not all the directories are good, some may even hurt the website rating and SERP - Search Engine Results Page).
• Links exchange - this becomes more and more difficult, since Google has "learned" to identify reciprocal links and once it "sees" two websites linked to each other it just ignores it. It's a hard work to find quality back links from industry related websites, blogs and communities.
• Blog - is another way to promote your website.
• Participation in various blogs, communities, work with social media sites... 

All this is a complex work aimed at promoting a website.

That's why it's important to find a company that can offer you a combination of professional market oriented web-design, flexible and functional Content Management System and SEO/SEM services.

Only the combination of these three crucial aspects will make your website truly functional.

Remember: your company website is not a mere decoration. It's a powerful marketing and sales tool.

You can read more articles about marketing, SEO and related issues at http://bizi-marketing.co.il/articles.htm

Who is my client?

How many times have all entrepreneurs or sales people heard a knock-out argument of their clients: "But the other system (service, product) is so much cheaper!"
Are we here to be cheaper? Are we here to be professional? Are we here to provide high quality services or to make money? Or both? Should we reduce prices? Should we reduce prices on the account of quality?
Are those moral questions or purely business ones? Can we (and should we) differentiate between morals and business? Can we avoid this?
Being an entrepreneur in the field of Internet marketing and, hence, having a huge competition, I face those questions every day.
Unfortunately it's hard to argue that the world of Israeli business and competition is the world of wolves and it's subjected to the laws of survival. But should this survival be achieved at any cost?
I had an interesting discussion today regarding those issues with Gila Ben Avraham, the owner of The Bag and a talented programmer, who stated her position pretty clearly: "What is required is to provide a platform to rely on in ALL aspects, and that includes the moral ones. No surprises for the client, no hidden costs down the road, reasonable response and support times, good availability, good faith and fidelity." And she is right about it. At the end of the day what matters, even if we look at it only from the business (and not moral) perspective, is good reputation. Without reliable product or service and without transparency and honesty in supplying those services and products, it's impossible to maintain good reputation.
But we also don't need to forget another important aspect - ourselves. As service providers (or product suppliers) we need to feel good with the price our clients pay for our products. In the other words, the price we request from our clients should be consistent not only with the time it takes us to produce it, but also with the quality of the product, with professional knowledge and final client's benefits.

This reminds me of a story told by Paul McKenna in one of his books:

In the days gone by, there was a wealthy man who had a wonderful steamship, but as is the way with expensive things, it was prone to breaking down. Normally, the ship's engineers could get it going again, but one day, after a particularly difficult journey, the engine failed, and no one could get it going again.
One by one, every mechanic and engineer in the land was summoned to try to fix the engine, and one by one they failed. Finally, word came to the wealthy man of a wise old shipmaker who might be able to help, but at a hefty price. The wealthy man agreed at once.
Soon an old man who looked like he must have been fixing ships for a hundred years arrived. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and he immediately went to work. He inspected the large network of pipes leading to and from the engine very carefully, occasionally placing his hand upon the pipes to test for warmth.
Finally, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped against one of the pipes. Instantly, the sound of steam rushing through the pipes could be heard and the engine lurched into life as the old man carefully put his hammer away.
When the wealthy man asked the shipmaker what he owed him, the bill came to ten thousand pounds, a princely sum then.
'What?!' the ship-owner exclaimed. 'You hardly did anything at all! Justify your bill or will have you thrown into jail.'
The old man began to scrawl something onto a ragged piece of paper he pulled from his pocket. The welthy man smiled as he read it and apologized to the shipmaker for his rude behaviour. 
This is what it said:
For tapping with a hammer - 1 pound
For knowing where to tap - 9,999 pounds.


So... if we know "where to tap," we, in my humble opinion, should prove it by our work. If we succeed to prove it, then we have to be rewarded accordingly.
That's true, not everyone is our client. Not everyone can appreciate quality. But this doesn't mean that for the sake of winning a lot of unappreciative clients, real professionals need to drop the standards of their work and spend a lot of time producing low-quality, low-price mass products.
Besides, as Gila mentioned, if we work for a price that doesn't justify the amount of work we put in, there is a risk of being stuck with lots of work and no money.


Now I'm busy defining for myself, who is my ideal client... a client who will allow me to feel good with the product and service I supply and with the price I'm rewarded with. 


Maybe a good idea would be to open a new market for customers coaching :) ... Some way to explain to the general public how to look for a really cost effective product or service, how to differentiate between those who are trying to sell at any cost and real professionals who can't jeopardize the quality of their work by so-called "competitive prices." 

Niche Related Social Networking sites

Just came across this website -  very useful for all social networkers. Enjoy.

Eroticism in Advertising or Does Sex Sell

(for the full text of this article with illustrations, please visit: http://bizi-marketing.co.il/sex_in_advertising.htm)

Let's pretend that someone needs to buy a good eau de cologne for men. Just because the old one has finished. In the other words, his need in this product turned from its latent state into urgent need that required immediate satisfaction. So, the passive desire to possess something has transformed into an active behaviour, i.e. search for and purchase of the product. This means that in the next few days this guy will pay increased attention to the corresponding advertising messages, or, using marketing lexicon, he will become the targeted audience for advertisements of this particular object of consumption.And… here we go: “This eau de cologne has refined inimitable in its beauty fragrance” – says one advertising. Well… maybe that's true. Another company whispers: “Our eau de cologne will make your skin radiate elasticity.” This also can be true. But when they start telling their male audience that “this fragrance charms women” and, of course on the TV screen we see a dozen of young attractive female species who are intensely licking all over the happy owner of this eau de cologne one should understand that it's just a banal psychological cheating and then he will never buy something that is being advertised in this manner. Advertisers start using some male complexes and sexual instincts to increase their turnover.Eroticism and sex are used in today's advertising everywhere. If advertising is the engine of commerce, then various sexual motives is the engine of advertising. Sexual advertising influences our biological instincts and evokes strong emotions. It is considered that this helps to increase sales.
Look at this Samsung's advert. It uses one of the basic psychological methods of advertising business – provoking of conditioned reflex.

Sexual instinct is one of the most powerful biological stimulants. Connecting it with a neutral object you can achieve amazing advertising results. Most of men and a lot of women like to see pretty young girls. It evokes positive emotions. These positive emotions that we experience looking at nice pretty girls is automatically transferred to the logo of well-known brand, which is modestly situated in the top left corner of the advert. It

is so called “halo effect” well known in psychology and advertising industry. After seeing this kind of advert numerous times (probably even in different medias), the conditioned reflex will be preserved and kept in you subconsciousness. Very soon you will forget about the pretty girls from the picture and will never recall about them. But, sooner or later, you will come to a shop and will see the

familiar logo

on one of the products… and your reaction to this product will be a priori positive, so that you will be more likely to purchase this brand and not it's competitor.

It doesn't mean that some Mr. Smith, after seeing this advert for 50 times will be sexually attracted to a Samsung DVD player and won't be able to control his emotions if he sees Samsung logo on the window display of a nearby consumer electronics store. It's just that Mr. Smith for some mysterious reason that he himself cannot understand, will prefer Samsung labelled products. They will awaken positive emotions and will be associated with something nice, light, sexual and attractive… Our conditioned reflexes are at place and working properly for the benefit of advertisers. The connection does work: familiar logo à recollection of something positive, attractive, nice (pretty women) à positive emotions + positive reaction (purchase).

Using the mechanism of conditioned reflex, advertisers often use sexually attractive and not overloaded with clothes male and female models. Seductive tempting legs, butt cheeks, bosoms, biceps, triceps and other body parts (for every taste) are constantly attacking us from the TV screens, magazines pages, billboards and other advertising media. But how effective are those adverts? Let's see.

Yes, Freud would throw a party and write another book which would probably be called “Practical guide to male complexes.”

Just look at this picture. Look, look… do you really feel

nothing? Well… this is a typical example of one more well known trick. Usually (yes, that's what surveys show) this trick has a great influence on the male

audience. It is called projective identification . According to Freud identification is a form of emotional connection with an object, which, by means of regression, substitutes the real libidinal (sexual)

connection. Ye… sexual function is transferred from the real object (person) to a symbolic object. In the other words, product advertised in such manner acquires some phallic symbolism and transforms into a symbol of male strength. So that the buyer is not buying cigarettes any more, but a mediated ability to satisfy this very pretty girl from the advertisement. On subconscious level purchasing and smoking of those cigarettes turns into symbolic realisation of sex relations. In this way sexual attributes are projected onto objects that have no relation to sex whatsoever. This is a

frequently used, though nasty trick of modern advertising. Theoretically, this sexual meaning may be attributed to any product dedicated to the male audience. Comment on the second picture says: “ZIPPO will never reject you,” implying that if you use Zippo you can always approach the most beautiful women and will never be rejected. Also the trick of hola effect is in play here. Who will never reject you ? Zippo ? Or the pretty girl from the poster? Or any pretty girl you approach ? But only if you use Zippo …

You can find and play around sexual motives in any product advertisement.

Look at those ads and just try to imagine what the mechanism of psychological influence used in those ads is.

Some of those adverts are really artistic – they are within the boundaries of good taste, yet erotic and inviting. Some of them are just vulgar and cheap. But there is something that unites all of these and many other adverts – use of sexual drive as well as the lack of confidence and desire to be accepted by and attractive to beauty. Advertisers basically use human nature and its imperfections to promote all kinds of products and services.

Shock Advertising

In the modern world the audience is bombarded daily by hundreds and thousands of advertisements and commercials. That's why one of the main objectives of any advertisement is to excel and stick out. Sexual subjects serve this purpose the best. Sexual instinct is one of the most powerful instincts and cedes only to the instinct of self-preservation. Our nervous system is built in such a way that any signal associated with sex immediately evokes orientation response. One's attention immediately focuses on the source of this signal and this reaction is rarely conscious. That's why sexual images are the most effective means to attract one's attention to an advertisement. It's believed that this makes the advertisement, and consequently, the brand more memorable.

And... what can be more sexual and shocking than kissing nun and monk?Gucci generated an advert showing the letter G shaved into a woman's pubichair. Shocking, isn't it? Memorable, as well… that's what they wanted to achieve. Calvin Klein, United Colours of Benetton, Gucci… all are respected and well known and established brands. All of them spend fortunes on advertising and market research… All of them use Shock Advertising policy and use sex images as the best “shock therapy” tool.

You may say that clothes are often supposed to be sexy… how about coffee? Lavazza uses the same technique to shock and attract attention to their products.

And doesn't matter that these adverts may cause a major scandal. Even better. Then it's more likely to be remembered.

Use of hints

Another advertising trick opposite to the shock advertising is the use of subtle hints. Sometimes it's better not to talk openly about sex. Sometimes an advert should have some mystery in it, should be a bit funny and intriguing and sexual motives may be just a nice addition to the commercial message. In this case the buyers can use their imagination and “finish” the story of the advertising image by themselves. Thus, the buyers acquire the role of active participants in the advertising process. People that act as active participants of the advertising process are more likely to change their views in favour of the views recommended by the scenario of the advertisement: “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand. ”

The most effective is not an advert that suggests pre-formed schemas and images, but the one that evokes thinking processes of the purchasers and allows them to understand and comprehend the meaning of an advertisement message on their own.

Various kinds of erotic hints and sometimes humour are very popular today in the advertising industry. This is not only an effective tool of advertising. It also allows using the attractive nature of sexual advertising message without the use of shocking vulgar images that may easily offend some part of the targeted audience and potential buyers. On the other hand it helps to involve potential buyers into active thinking process. Mental involvement in combination with nice looking not vulgar eroticism of the advertising images help to achieve the advertisers goal: attract attention, involve, make the advert memorable, promote the brand, enhance sales.

Gender differences

Psychologists say that men and women approach sex differently. This is determined by biological and psychological differences between the sexes which are much deeper than artificially acquired cultural and sociological influences. As a result, advertisements designed for male and female audiences are very different.

With men everything is simple. It is assumed that men are naturally polygamous. As a result, for men any young good looking woman becomes an object of sexual attraction. Therefore, the advert should: (1) attract a man's attention with a sexy female body; (2) create a strong association: if you purchase the advertised product you will attract (have) a beautiful woman, maybe even few beautiful women. The advertising message is as follows: a woman will always prefer a man who possesses the advertised product.

This approach became so popular in the modern advertising industry that eau de colognes, cars, chewing gums, cigarettes, various beverages and other products are almost considered to be sex-stimulants (which is, of course, ridiculous). Chew this chewing gum and you will immediately become the object of desire of at least dozen of young attractive girls. Just smell this coffee and you'll have the best sexual adventure of your life. Choose those shoes and women will be at your feet.

Sometimes, to attract a more representative male audience, the theme of sex is presented as part of an “elite” life-style associated with the advertised product. This kind of advertising is appropriate for cars, expensive alcoholic beverages, houses, golf clubs, etc.

The approach to female-oriented advertising is more complicated. It is generally held that for women physical attractiveness of men is an important though not ultimately defining attribute of his sexual attractiveness (for the exception of really young teen age girls). Women are more pragmatic and any potential partner is evaluated by them on the basis of his social and biological characteristics. The process is often subconscious: is it possible to have healthy kids with him? Will he be able to satisfy her needs? Will he constantly take care of his wife and children? In our modern society the average women are looking for the features of “social success” with the set of typical characteristics ascribed to this “social success”: self-confidence, good manners, tenderness and sensitivity to the female needs, financial stability, high social status… and, of course, physical attractiveness – as a nice value adding feature. This kind of advertising demonstrates that the purchased product will attract this very type of men to women – successful, rich and sensitive. And, of course, stereotypic tools and images are used to demonstrate it: yachts, expensive cars, stylish watches, etc.

And, of course, the decision will be in women's hands. All men will go after her, will desire her and long for her… (if she purchases the advertised product). Along with that sex is almost never used in female oriented adverts. The male body in this kind of advert is not sexual, but romantic and aesthetic.

Yes, today's advertisement industry targets average typical female slobs. Not that it's very different from the macho targets of male oriented advertising.

Is this advertising effective?

Yes, marketing researches show that the majority of audiences would pay more attention to adverts that contain some kind of sexual element. However, what happens after that? According to researche males usually enjoy the pictures but do not really read the text of the advert and using their selective hearing technique do not listen to the commentary (if it's a TV ad). Women, on the other hand, usually read the text. This means that in most cases this advertising is “consumed” by the wrong target audience. Funnily enough the same happens with the adverts that use images of attractive men. They are usually read by men, while women just look at the pictures.

Moreover, American studies show that although people remember “sexual” advertisements they don't remember or remember much worse the actual advertising message and can rarely recollect what product, company or brand were advertised.

In the other words, consumers, i.e. – potential buyers remember the advertisement itself but have absolutely no idea and no recollection of the advertised products, services or brands.