How Do You Really Get a Buyers Attention & Make Them Want What You Have
14. Apr, 2012 
23 Comments
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Tasse triangles by: Asleepfromday
How do you sell something to someone?
How do you land the sale?
1} It’s All About Relevance
What is your customer struggling with right now? What will help them with their struggle? Does your product meet their need?
Forget value. You know you’re supposed to provide value to your customer, but it’s still not happening. What’s going on? Instead, think in terms of relevance instead of value.
In essence, you have to start your research back over.
2} You need a tiered product line
Again, the term value comes into play. You may sale beautiful wedding jewelry, but when a bride comes across your shop it doesn’t mean she’s automatically going to buy something from you because she’s looking for bridal jewelry.
Why not think of how you can offer products to all brides no matter the size of their budget.
Now when a bride comes to your shop, you have something to fit her budget no matter what that budget may be.
3} You need to know what to highlight when it comes to your product.
The last step you need to focus on when it comes to nailing a sale is to know what to tell your customer about your product.
Going back to the pearl necklace.
The benefits of the necklace would be that you now have the perfect piece of jewelry to wear on your wedding day, it will make you feel beautiful, or that it will become a family heirloom.
Do you see the difference?
Now, how do you know which one to talk about to your customer? Both maybe, but think about what I’m about to tell you below. I think it will make it easier for you to choose just one.
There are 3 things to consider when it comes to selling your product based on it’s features or it’s benefits.
Here’s why.
Now if your product is high priced, requires a lot of commitment, but the need isn’t all that great, then you’ll want to focus on the benefits.
Come on! Who wouldn’t want one of those two things!
Do you see the difference here?
In Conclusion
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Megan,
Great article. I’ll be going over it several times to try and improve my tactics in selling.
I’m still trying to attract my target audience. I do have a narrow audience and some of my diaper bags are priced in the high range, so I decided to make matching lower priced items to go with them. Those are selling, although slowly, but not the diaper bags. I do know I need to increase my selection, especially of the cross body bags, which I’m working on now and am considering making matching bibs and waterproof changing pads.
I’ve joined many Etsy teams, included in my circles people who are in circles of other successful diaper bag makers, redone my titles and tags, etc.
I’m thinking I need to try and focus on the benefits of buying my bags and also I just need more time to be noticed. Any suggestions you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Kathy
Thanks for your comment Kathy! I took a look at your shop & you make beautiful products. 2 things I noticed right away.
First off… photos. Your photos look nice, but they weren’t as eye catching as they probably should be and here’s why. I think the background you’re using is too distracting. If you went with a solid white background or even a light colored background that was blurred your product would pop more. Make your first photo the most unique while making sure it’s obvious what the product is. Maybe have a shot with items in your bag or a shot with the bag worn by a model.
Secondly, your titles. Try to think of how someone would search for a handmade diaper bag. Would they type “handmade diaper bag” or would they search for “blue diaper bag”. Maybe even “large tote with pockets”. You have to figure out what’s being searched for the most and center all your diaper bags around that one keyword so you get targeted customers who are definitely looking for what you have.
Lastly, you mentioned creating more items and promoting more. I think that a lot of sellers too often focus on creating way more than they need to to make a sale. Instead, take some of that time to market your current products more. Work at promoting in places you’ve not promoted yet… getting in front of new customers.
Hope this helped Kathy & good luck!
This is some really insightful article, especially the third point. Thank you
Welcome Dori!
Actually. I’m struggling with all of the above. Since my quilted fabric postcards are different, I just don’t know how to market them.
Hey Linda! Your postcards are awesome! They’re so detailed and I’m sure perfect for those who like to display art in their homes. In order to know how to market them it’s soooo important that you know why your product is different from other similar products that way you have something to advertise in your marketing. Once you know that you need to know who your ideal customer is for this product. Who would by this, why would they buy it, what’s it going to do or provide for them, and where can you find that person? Answer those questions, research the web to find places your IC would be at, and market your products there.
HTH and let me know if you have any more questions!
<—raises hand! I get great feedback about my jewelry, but I have a very hard time stating benefits and relevancy of it all. I really need another perspective and voice to help me kickstart my business. I'd love some input! Thank you!
Absolutely Rachel. So I took a look at your shop and at some of your products. They are beautiful! Again, here are two quick things I noticed before I talk about descriptions.
Some of your photos look pixilated or spotty. I’m not sure if that’s because you’re using a dark background or because the photo is large. Anyway, photos obviously can make or break a sale so you may want to play around with your camera or Google why that may be happening and try to correct it.
Next, your titles are starting with the name you’ve given your piece, and at least within Etsy, that’s putting your products at a disadvantage since the first 3 words are the strongest ones used in Etsy search results. Personally, I’d move that to the description or to the end of the title.
Now as far as listing benefits, have you tried looking at each piece of jewelry you make and making a list of what makes it special? Maybe you’re using sterling silver instead of plated or you’re using swarovski crystals instead of cubic zirconium. Is the gemstone you’re using rare? Does it have a special meaning? Is there a special technique you use when putting your jewelry together? How do you package your item for safe shipping? Another way to talk about the benefits of your product is by telling a story about it that can let your customer imagine themselves wearing your product. Describe a date or a night out with the girls, something along those lines.
Hope this helped a bit and good luck. You truly have very nice products!
I always read articles like this looking for help with reaching my market and you have some good information here. I am still trying to figure out a few things I hope you can help with…
1. How does someone do market research if they don’t have customers yet? What things are we to look for?
2. I understand the benefit and the need for buying wedding jewelry but what about every day jewelry? What is the benefit of buying it and how do we tap into that? Is there really a ‘need”? If not, what then?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge in this area that many of us have a hard time with.
Great questions Cory! First off… doing market research if you don’t have customers yet. -> You should know who your ideal customer is before you ever make your first sell. If you know the type of person that is willing to buy your products, then find out where they’re at and poll or survey them if you can. Use the Etsy forums or etsy teams that fit your ideal customer and ask questions. SurveyMonkey.com has a new option where you can pay to create a survey and send it out to people who fit your target market. You’re sure to get your survey answered and that can be really helpful.
When you’re doing market research, you want to focus on one thing. It could be about your product or your marketing. If you’re focusing on your product you could ask questions like how many times a week do you wear jewelry, which do you wear more often: casual jewelry {simple} or dressy jewelry {stand-out}, what color jewelry do you wear most often, etc. -> that way you get a good idea of your customers jewelry habits. Same with marketing except you’ll be focusing on questions that try to uncover what gets their attention about jewelry online. I hope that answered those questions for you.
As for a need for everyday jewelry, for me personally, I’d say there’s a big need. Putting on a necklace and earrings makes me feel more “put together” or like my outfit is complete. It makes me feel prettier. I feel like I’m ready for the day. Everyday jewelry is perfect for dates, get togethers, church, work, or really any type of outing. People want to accentuate what they’re wearing. If someone has a low neckline, what kind of necklace works best for that {long or short}? When should someone where hoops vs. dangle earrings? You can answer those types of questions in your descriptions and that will solve a problem they may be having. Here again, is where your market research will come into play.
Hope this helped Cory! Thanks for sharing!
I struggle with the benefits of my jewelry and sometimes with the tiered pricing. Love working with gemstones, but I haven’t found my market there… it’s in Jewish jewelry and kippot.
Any help would be appreciated.
Well benefits will change depending on what your jewelry is for. So for your Jewish jewelry… when would someone want to wear it or why would they want to wear it? Answer those questions in your descriptions or even tell a short story around the answer. You could talk about wearing a piece of jewelry to a get together during Hanukkah or even wearing it because they’re proud to have a Jewish heritage.
As far as tiered pricing goes, you’d want to look at each product line you have, like the Jewish line for instance, and see what you could do to increase the value of the product or decrease it. Could you used more expensive/rare/prestigious jewels or metals? If so, that would increase the price and the value of the product… then you’d have your high-end part of that product line. Same goes if you want a low-end part… can you cut your costs somehow?
Hope this was helpful Linda!! Good luck!
Wow, what an eye opener!
I am not stressing any benefits in my bags. A lot of my bags are relatively expensive–high commitment–and I don’t stress the benefits of buying one.
I using stress the features–strong seams, quality fabric, etc. This was a great article, thanks!
Good for you! You’re welcome!
Great article!
Great article! You definitely need to know your audience and what they are looking for. Twitter and Pinterest are great places for market research. You can read about what and how people are talking about purchases, shopping, gift buying, etc.
Love that you fleshed out the differences between features and benefits! Speaking to the emotional core of the product really sets it apart.
Thanks Tiffany! Yes, Twitter and Pinterest can help with marketing research as can using Google Alerts to see when people are talking about certain topics that relate to your products. Thanks for the tips!
Need to think about this article. I believe I am doing all these things and can’t seem to reach the buyers.
If you think you’re doing all of these things, but not reaching customers very well, my suggestion would be to make sure you are marketing your products to the right customer which means you’ll need to re-evaluate who your customer is and where they’re at. Again, that’s doing market research and that always takes time, but it typically pays off in the end.
In fact I do reach buyers but that is when and only when google crawls.
Lots of great points Megan. It is vital to know your customer FIRST, and then cast your net in their direction.
Yes! Absolutely. If you don’t know your customer, you’ll never know how to appeal to them. Thanks for your thoughts!
Really great article! What are the unconventional benefits of art? (besides making your house beautiful and lifting your mood up) I am looking for something different. Do you have any ideas?