I found this wonderful blog this morning, and wanted to share. Its full of tips for online businesses, and I plan to read every post with a fine-tooth comb throughout the day :)
The blog is here: http://www.ataglancegraphics.com/
This one of my favorite posts so far about getting back to marketing basics (a very cute, yet very useful article!): http://www.ataglancegraphics.com/2010/05/back-to-basics.html
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
I Heart Google Analytics!
I have something new in my life, I hope my husband doesn't mind. It's called Google Analytics, and it's absolutely amazing (but then most of what Google does is amazing). This site has the ability to track how many visitors your page has had, where they're coming from - down to the city, how long they stayed on your site, how many were brand new visitors, which site (if any) they were referred by.....the sheer volume of useful information is mindblowing! If you're interested in which internet brower your customers are using, Google Analytics will tell you that too.
If you have a website, even if you only have an Etsy site, you must sign up! Its under "web analytics" on the left side of your "My Etsy" page. If you're not an Etsy user, but have a webpage, sign up here: http://www.google.com/analytics/
I've told you what it can do, let me tell you what it did for me. For example, I know that yesterday I had 89 unique visitors to my site, up from 67 the day before. I know that the majority of my visitors were from the US, followed by Canada, for a total of 17 countries. I could even see that the leading city my visitors were coming from is Corvallis, which is close to where I live. This tells me that either my mom has handed out my business cards like she said she would, or that marketing myself at the Jamba Juice (as blogged about below) has actually worked. I don't think that those people were just random visitors.
Perhaps one of the most useful stats is knowing how these shoppers found my site. About half of my traffic is direct, meaning they found Etsy on their own, without clicking a link or searchig. I am getting 25-35% of my traffic from Google, which I found interesting. It will even tell you what search terms the shoppers used that ended up clicking on your site. When I enter that information, I don't find myself, at least not in the first several pages. I've spent a TON of time on Search Engine Optimization in the last week, but its too soon for Google to reflect those changes. At least I know I'm still getting some search engine traffic. I can also see when my craigslist.org ads are working - I had four clicks from the ad I posted yesterday. Despite my Twitter addiction, I only had two shoppers that came from Twitter yesterday.
All in all, this information is extremely helpful. I can target my marketing towards certain demographics, I can see which tactics are working. I'm an information-loving gal, so I'm totally in love with Google Analytics. Sign up and you will soon be in love with it too.
If you have a website, even if you only have an Etsy site, you must sign up! Its under "web analytics" on the left side of your "My Etsy" page. If you're not an Etsy user, but have a webpage, sign up here: http://www.google.com/analytics/
I've told you what it can do, let me tell you what it did for me. For example, I know that yesterday I had 89 unique visitors to my site, up from 67 the day before. I know that the majority of my visitors were from the US, followed by Canada, for a total of 17 countries. I could even see that the leading city my visitors were coming from is Corvallis, which is close to where I live. This tells me that either my mom has handed out my business cards like she said she would, or that marketing myself at the Jamba Juice (as blogged about below) has actually worked. I don't think that those people were just random visitors.
Perhaps one of the most useful stats is knowing how these shoppers found my site. About half of my traffic is direct, meaning they found Etsy on their own, without clicking a link or searchig. I am getting 25-35% of my traffic from Google, which I found interesting. It will even tell you what search terms the shoppers used that ended up clicking on your site. When I enter that information, I don't find myself, at least not in the first several pages. I've spent a TON of time on Search Engine Optimization in the last week, but its too soon for Google to reflect those changes. At least I know I'm still getting some search engine traffic. I can also see when my craigslist.org ads are working - I had four clicks from the ad I posted yesterday. Despite my Twitter addiction, I only had two shoppers that came from Twitter yesterday.
All in all, this information is extremely helpful. I can target my marketing towards certain demographics, I can see which tactics are working. I'm an information-loving gal, so I'm totally in love with Google Analytics. Sign up and you will soon be in love with it too.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Finding my target audience
My first Twitter giveaway wasn't as successful as I'd hoped; in fact, it really wasn't successful at all in the way I wanted it to be. I did learn one lesson: despite having a good number of Twitter followers, I realized that my followers aren't my target audience. They're mostly other Etsy shop owners looking to also promote their shops. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing everybody's work and I have had some purchases result from Twitter, but the majority of my followers aren't looking to buy my items. This now poses the question: how do I find my target audience and where are these people?
I did some thinking and came up with some ideas, but I can't help feeling that there's this market of buyers out there that I haven't found that's waiting for me to find them. Maybe there's a site called EtsyBuyers.Com (I should check! Ok, I checked and it's not a site). I know that some of my products are marketed towards moms, some towards brides-to-be, but the traditional sites I know of for those populations strictly prohibit the promoting of your Etsy shop. Seriously, it mentioned Etsy by name in the site rules. So much for those ideas.
Buyers, buyers, where are you.....I will keep looking and seek you out!
I did some thinking and came up with some ideas, but I can't help feeling that there's this market of buyers out there that I haven't found that's waiting for me to find them. Maybe there's a site called EtsyBuyers.Com (I should check! Ok, I checked and it's not a site). I know that some of my products are marketed towards moms, some towards brides-to-be, but the traditional sites I know of for those populations strictly prohibit the promoting of your Etsy shop. Seriously, it mentioned Etsy by name in the site rules. So much for those ideas.
Buyers, buyers, where are you.....I will keep looking and seek you out!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Go On Girl - Get Out There!
Working from home, I really enjoy that I don't have to leave the house every single day. Some people might find this strange, but there's something so freeing about waking up and staying in your PJs all day, without having to put makeup on or do your hair. I don't do this everyday, but I do enjoy that I can do it some days.
Today was not one of those days; I was on a mission. I wanted to see if I could find the second book in the "86 Bloomberg Place" series at a local used bookstore, I wanted to see what deals I could score with my 20% off Total Purchase coupon at Michaels, and I wanted to take my first stab at promoting my business off-line. I struck out at the bookstore, which was a bummer. Michaels was also somewhat of a bummer. Nothing was already on sale, making 20% off Total Purchase coupon pretty useless. I did find some new die cuts templates on clearance (not elligible for the coupon) so all was not lost, but my outing was pretty disapointing.
Then the husband and I decided to stop by Jamba Juice, where I noticed a community bulletin board. They had a couple ads for local plays and businesses - I could totally post a business card there! A little disclaimer told me I needed management approval to post anything, so I mustered up my courage and asked to speak to the manager. He came out, I explained who I was and what I sold, and he gave me permission to leave a business card on the board! I was psyched, my first off-line advertising venue. I intend to carry my cards with me now at all times, just waiting to come across another wonderful bulletin board like the one at Jamba Juice.
Today was not one of those days; I was on a mission. I wanted to see if I could find the second book in the "86 Bloomberg Place" series at a local used bookstore, I wanted to see what deals I could score with my 20% off Total Purchase coupon at Michaels, and I wanted to take my first stab at promoting my business off-line. I struck out at the bookstore, which was a bummer. Michaels was also somewhat of a bummer. Nothing was already on sale, making 20% off Total Purchase coupon pretty useless. I did find some new die cuts templates on clearance (not elligible for the coupon) so all was not lost, but my outing was pretty disapointing.
Then the husband and I decided to stop by Jamba Juice, where I noticed a community bulletin board. They had a couple ads for local plays and businesses - I could totally post a business card there! A little disclaimer told me I needed management approval to post anything, so I mustered up my courage and asked to speak to the manager. He came out, I explained who I was and what I sold, and he gave me permission to leave a business card on the board! I was psyched, my first off-line advertising venue. I intend to carry my cards with me now at all times, just waiting to come across another wonderful bulletin board like the one at Jamba Juice.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)