Sewing Business Blog » Marketing

2009 Holiday Shopping Trends

S. Denise Hoyle — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:01:12 +0000

The online holiday shopping season has already begun according to the IRI Holiday Forecast. With only a month and a half until Christmas, and less than three weeks until Black Friday, most people have already started their holiday shopping, so you should be busy with holiday promotions for your business.

Consider the predicted 2009 shopping trends when planning your promotions and you’ll be able to create more effective marketing campaigns. For example, shoppers this holiday season are anxious to take advantage of discounts, so look for items or services that you can afford to offer steep discounts on and promote them heavily.

Many shoppers report that they plan to be more frugal with their shopping this year and you can cater to these customers by offering free shipping or featuring a special deals section within your store or website.

Another trend is “back to basics” which has been beneficial to the craft and sewing market. Take advantage by offering free classes that teach customers how to make homemade gifts using your products, or focus on offering practical, budget-minded gifts.

Social shopping is rapidly becoming more popular with many mainstream companies promoting their products on Twitter and Facebook. If you haven’t already, you should consider creating accounts and get started on growing a member base of fans that will love to hear about your promotions.

Don’t forget Cyber Monday if you have a website, Etsy store, or some type of online presence. Shop.org reports that Mondays in December 2008 were the highest grossing online sale days of the season for many retailers, with December 1st (Cyber Monday) being the highest grossing day for half of the retailers surveyed. This year Cyber Monday falls on November 30th – make sure you’ve got some great deals ready on your site!

5 Ways to Promote Your Sewing Business

S. Denise Hoyle — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:54:36 +0000

Promoting your business is the key to its success! If you don’t promote your business, how will you find new customers and help the business to grow? Here are some easy steps to help you promote your sewing business.

1) Create Some Marketing Tools

Every business should have business cards and flyers. It doesn’t matter if you run your business from home or from a studio or retail space somewhere, you need to have some cards handy to give people whenever the opportunity arises to talk about your business. Keep plenty on hand in case you’re able to post some on community bulletin boards in local grocery stores, or perhaps your favorite fabric store will allow you to leave a few near the register or cutting table. You can print some yourself on pre-scored business card paper from the office supply store, or you can have some printed for free at Vista Print.

While you’re at it, be sure to create some flyers that give more information about your products and/or services, as well as any specials you may be running. Give them to current customers and ask them to help spread the word.

2) Place Local Ads

Check out the advertising prices in your local newspaper(s). You may not be able to afford a display ad right away, but try running a classified ad in the “services” section. This is an inexpensive way to reach your local market, but you could also place some free listings under your local area at CraigsList.org.

3) Start A Website

If you don’t already have a web presence, then there is no time like now to get one started. Reliable hosting can be found for as little as $4.95 per month at GoDaddy or LunarPages, and both services can even help you to get a site designed and online in less than 24 hours if you’d like. With the relatively low cost, and ease of getting a site setup, there really is no excuse NOT to have one. You might think that a website doesn’t apply to a local business, but most people get online these days, and even if you only acquire one customer a month from the site it will pay for itself.

4) Market Your Website

Look for sewing forums and other online communities where you can contribute your expertise. By making relevant posts at other websites, you will establish yourself as an authority, and you can provide links back to your website with each post or comment that you make. There are also niche pay-per-click engines, like SewVillage.com, where you can list your site and bid for higher placement in the search results pages if you want. You can even get started for free because they give you $20 in your account just for signing up! How can you beat a deal like that?

5) Get Involved In Your Community

The best kind of advertising out there is word of mouth since most people tend to take the advice of their friends and loved one’s first, before they seek out other alternatives. Join a local sewing club, volunteer to make costumes for a play at your child’s school, or offer to teach some neighborhood kids to sew. Getting involved helps you to put your business out there in a positive way and can help you get some buzz started!

Human Touch Even Affects Online Sales

S. Denise Hoyle — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:13:04 +0000

A recent survey by Harris Interactive and IMShopping concluded that more than half of consumers make purchase decisions “at least sometimes” based on their abilitity to get help from another person. Of those surveyed, 52% said they had decided NOT to make a purchase because they weren’t able to get any human interaction for assistance before the sale.

In most cases, the respondents indicated that they sought out assistance in the first place because there either wasn’t enough detailed information on the ecommerce website, or a lack of customer service functionality which made them feel insecure about making a purchase. Others just wanted a little personal reassurance before making the purchase, especially with larger ticket items. 93% of the people surveyed indicated that they had a question about an online purchase within the last six months, and more than half of the respondents said they hadn’t been able to find the answers they were looking for within the site.

The good news is, even small operations can give their websites a more human touch by taking a few simple measures. The easiest way to lessen purchase anxiety for your visitors is to give clear product descriptions and detailed explanations of payment functions and delivery methods. The more information you give to visitors right off the bat, the less likely they’ll need to contact you, but make it easy for them to do so by providing contact information on every page of your site. These small steps will go a long way toward lessening purchase anxiety, but be sure to also respond as quickly as possible when you do receive questions from customers since that’s the best way to build trust.

Why Insert Flyers In Your Mailings?

Sarah J. Doyle — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:35:00 +0000

If you are not already including flyers and informational material about your website / blog / additional products with packages you are sending out, we consider that as sending a “naked” package.

Flyers and informational sheets are very inexpensive to have printed (or you can make your own and simply print them out on your printer as needed). The flyers are a very non confrontational advertising medium that your customer can read at their leisure, then either save it for use later, act on something they like, or simply discard it. However, if you have NOT included the advertising sheets, you already know you won’t be getting any additional orders from those customers. In other words, you have nothing to lose but a few pennies, and everything to gain by including advertising flyers with every order.

In addition to having inserts in every package you mail, we also suggest that you make 2″ x 4″ labels that also contain your advertising information, such as the following:

These “mini-flyers” can be done on labels, as just mentioned and added to the front of every package you mail, placing it right beside the address label.

The “mini-flyers” can also be made out of regular paper and cut to the proper shape, then included in every bill that you pay. Those people who sit and open mail all day at phone companies, power companies, credit card companies, etc, must get very bored, so I’m certain that when YOUR mini-flyer pops out with your payment check, the person opening the mail will read it, and most likely will pass it around to the others in the room. WOW! How about some free advertising — and guess what! All those people are sitting right next to a computer, so what do you think the next step is —— head to your website / blog to check it out!!

How Important Is Your Headline?

Sarah J. Doyle — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Just how important is the headling of your sales material, your blog post, your website? Considering how much stuff you’ll be covering within the body of the sales flyer or the website page, and the fact that you have to consider key words as part of your sales literature and reading material for the customers, it is very easy just to “throw together” a title of sorts and concentrate on the body of the page.

WRONG ATTITUDE! Do you know that the experts say that when a customer lands on your page or post, it takes 8 seconds or less for them to decide if they want to read further or move on to something else. EIGHT SECONDS — how much can they read in 8 seconds? The ONLY thing they’ll be reading is your headline.

Your headine must reach out and GRAB the attention of the potential customer.

Yes, you must have a good (great) product or informational item for them. Yes, you need to have a site that is well designed and easy to navigate. Yes, you need to do all you can with key words to get yourself placed as high in the search engine rankings as possible. However, after all the hard work is done, and your headline leaves a lot to be desired, you might still be wondering where the visitors are and why you’re not making any money.

Once you’ve spent some time thinking about possible headlines – write up half a dozen or so different headlines that you could use. Check out the keywords you have within the headline. Be sure you are focusing your headline on “benefits” to the reader, or how your information could present a “solution” to a problem or situation. Some of the best “grabbing” words are “how to”, “discover”, “how” — see if you can include those or similar words into your heading.

Check out the headlines that you’ve made by testing them. You could test one of what you consider the best headlines by using it for a few weeks, then “tweak” it a little and run the same body with the new headline and see what the difference is.

The purpose of any headline is to get the visitor to STOP, read, get excited enough to want to read further, and you can then watch the sales grow.

BabyCenter releases the “21st Century Mom Report”

S. Denise Hoyle — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:55:00 +0000

A new research study by BabyCenter, LLC reveals that tech savvy moms have increased their usage of social media since 2006 by 462%, and their usage of cell phones to go online has gone up 348%.

Major trends identified by the report show that moms today are comfortable with technology, they are increasingly eco-friendly, and that this transformational stage of life has a major impact on a woman’s purchasing behavior for the remainder of her life. For example, of moms surveyed, 85% said their purchasing habits were changed after having a baby, 73% said it affected the criteria they use to make purchase decisions, and 62% said it had affected the brands they buy.

After entering motherhood, women tend to focus on quality, safety and price, where they once tended to shop based on features, service and design.

Other insights provided by the report are that once a woman becomes a mom, marketers have at least three fewer hours a day to engage with her. This has been a major catalyst for online community building since the Internet easily serves her communication and media needs on demand no matter the time of day.

Chairman and President of BabyCenter, Tina Sharkey, says “to successfully reach today’s mom you need to fully understand how she lives her life.” If moms in any way make up a part of your target market, you should read BabyCenter’s “21st Century Mom Report” so that you can get your marketing message through most effectively.

Write an Informational Report For Your Customers

Sarah J. Doyle — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Now why would you want to give your customers an informational handout when you can simply talk to them when they come in to your shop?

If you deal in wedding dresses, wouldn’t it be nice if you could give each customer a small booklet or leaflet explaining how to take care of the wedding dress, and how they can preserve it. You can talk to the customer, but they’re probably so excited about the upcoming event that they won’t hear a word your’re saying, and if they DO hear it, they’ll forget what you said by the time they get home. With the little leaflet you hand out to them, you’ll be helping them more than you can imagine.

If you work with silks or specialty fabrics, a “report” or sheet of paper telling how to wash the fabrics, how to dry them, how to remove stains, etc can really be a life saver for your customers.

It would only take a few minutes of your time to brainstorm and come up with some ideas that would be helpful for your customers, regardless of what field of sewing you’re in. You can make one or two or even three different handout sheets to give to your customers, depending on what it is that you do for them.

Be sure to put your name, address, phone number and your website address either at the top or bottom of the sheet so they’ll know where they got it, and if they make copies to hand out to their friends, the friends will also know how to find you.

By the way, these informational sheets or reports can be added to your website as content for other readers who visit your site — you never know how much additional business you can get just because you’re making yourself an expert in your field, and the fact that you are willing to help your customers by giving out the helpful hints.

If you’re already doing this, we applaud you, and give you the “thumbs up” for excellent work. If you’re not already doing these things, think about what YOU would like to receive if you were the customer.

Spread The Word With A Press Release

S. Denise Hoyle — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:15:00 +0000

Do you have a new product to announce? Have you moved your shop location? Re-designed your web site? Spreading the word is easy through press releases and there are a number of free and low cost resources available online to help you write your own press release and get it distributed.

Bill Stoller’s Publicity Insider is an excellent resource on how to write a great press release. This is a wonderful place to start to learn what to put into your press release, what format to use and how to create a catchy headline.

PRWeb boasts clientele ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 companies and claims to be “trusted by more than 40,000 companies worldwide.” With no annual contracts and no subscription fees, PRWeb charges around $80 per press release for standard visibility.

1888PressRelease distributes press releases online and directly to media agencies and professionals. The process of submitting your press release is user friendly and takes only a few minutes. Prices range from $10 to $50.

MarketWire also provides online news monitoring so you get up-to-date information on where your press release is posted around the Web, how many times your release is accessed and who is accessing the release. Costs vary for different levels of service.

SBWire is an affordable solution for small and mid-sized businesses, and even provides its services at no cost to non-profits. Press release distribution services start at $24.95.

Get free and low-cost press release distribution services at PR.com. Their free service distributes releases online through emails to journalists, search engines and Google News.

PR Newswire allows you to submit press releases and search for article queries. Distribution costs vary based on the service and there is an annual membership fee of $150.

Duluth Company Goes To The Dogs

S. Denise Hoyle — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:25:00 +0000

Louise Russell’s company in Duluth, Minnesota is the largest maker of dog booties in the world. Russell has seven employees who work with her full time at sewing tables stacked with colorful, yet tough fabrics. Dogbooties.com has quietly grown over the years and now ships booties to mushers and dog owners in all fifty states and around the world.

Although business typically picks up when the snow starts to fall, this year Russell says the company has also benefitted from a brief mention in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, revealing that the site has had over 2,000 online orders since that paper came out.

In 1991, Russell purchased the Arrowhead Fabric business, which specialized in supplying tough fabrics for the repair of outdoor items like backpacks and sleeping bags. Then some area dog mushers asked if she could make something to cover their dog’s feet. Russell’s dog booties have since become so popular that the company made 140,000 of them last year.

Russell says her company’s advantage is in its stay snug design, and that they don’t cater to pampered pooches. Her booties are designed for protection from snow, hot surfaces, salt, mud or for protection as paw wounds heal. The booties are a necessity for dog sledders, who can actually go through a couple thousand booties a year.

The booties are all proudly made in Duluth and are cheaper than most of her competitors at around $10 for four. You can see the booties as well as collars, leashes and dog jackets at Dogbooties.com, or read more about Russell’s story in the Duluth News Tribune.

What Do Shoppers Want in 2009?

S. Denise Hoyle — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:20:00 +0000

The majority of adults in the United States (69% of them) reveal that they plan to spend less on retail shopping this year than they did in 2008. Random telephone interviews conducted nationwide in the 2009 Consumer Shopping Intentions Study also indicate however, that 58% of young adults age 18-24 plan to spend the same or more in 2009.

The research, performed as a follow up to a 2008 shopping study, shows that while shoppers are optimistic about the economy in 2009, they plan to spend less overall this year, and are most interested in consistent low prices and value rather than so-called “bargains”.

Mass merchants like Target and Walmart are expected to do well because purchasers, even in higher tax brackets, aren’t expected to be shopping for flashy or big ticket items.

Although the study predicts that shoppers will be moving away from department stores toward discount stores, it also indicates that larger selections, especially in the clothing sector, will continue to draw in buyers.

Now the trick is to apply your knowledge of shopping trends for this year so that YOUR business will benefit. We’ve talked in recent posts about launching loyalty programs and using promotional items to attract new customers and to engender loyalty in current customers in a down economy.

This data suggests that you should also think about ways your business can cater to the younger crowd – perhaps you could hold some classes on sewing or how-to projects that highlight items you sell. Craft kits, step-by-step instructions and learning activities are all great for the younger crowd. If you have a retail store – keep it light and casual, go for a modern look if possible, and stock some trendy low priced items to draw in impulse shoppers.