Sales Discussion

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thanks for the responses, iCraft admin. I think 5% is reasonable since you will only collect if we sell something.

Have you considered the cash flow impact of that to you? How will you "catch" people who list unlimited stuff on your site but seal the deal off-site for fee avoidance? People can sign agreements but if you don't have a way to monitor, it might not work. I don't need the low down, I just want to make sure you've considered that.

Great ideas, Elizanne. I actually created a make-believe company for a training program at work where the make-believe company was a social media campaign service that ran ads on behalf of companies! You must have read my mind!

For those who increase traffic to the site - say I manage to generate incidental traffic from my blog - does that count? Or does it have to be referrals from a specifically agreed-to service between a service provider and a seller?

I had tried Project Wonderful but it was time consuming and I didn't really understand all the stats. It was a $5 investment to experiment, so I went with it. It was tracking clicks per 1,000 views, so I suppose compensation can be based on click tracking? Anyway, I think I'll wait for you to release the info page before I try to ask more questions.

If you plan to redo a resources section - can it be seller-only? It seems weird to talk about how to get buyers in front of the buyers.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,

Good point about the placement of the Resources section. Ha ha! 

As for the referral traffic, we'll give you a Referral Code that you could add to any iCraft URL on your blog. This way we'd know who's referral that is. Thanks!

[elizanne]

I am not sure how much I would be willing to spend, mostly because I don't know the cost (its been a while since I set up a marketing plan).  It might be helpful to have some sample plans set up including cost and reach to see if it is a viable idea.  Divide the cost among those who want to participate, limiting to the number of participants so it doesn't get too busy, or run a separate duplicate ad with a different set of stores if a lot of people are interested.

For the newsletter, I how much I am willing to spend depends on the reach.  I would not want to spend much if you are sending out 1000 newsletters per month but if you were sending out 20,000 my interest would increase.  Also, quality of the content would be important.  If it is just to advertise stores, I would not be interested, but if we were presenting the reader with reasons for shopping at iCraft - great selection of gifts for Mom, warm up to winter with great hand knit hats, I might be inclined to pay for inclusion if my store fit the topic.  (Hmm - iCraft Admin setting up a store on iCraft selling advertising space - for some reason that amuses me)  If you were to have an "on sale" section in a newsletter, I would probably pay between $5 and $7 for a spot in a newsletter if I were holding a sale. 

Finally, while I say I would be interested in paying to be included in a marketing campaign, I would want analytics to show what the results were and that they met the purpose of the ad (increase traffic, brand awareness, increase sales, increase the number of product views, increase Facebook Likes and Follows).  I can see the results to my own store, but what are the results to iCraft?  I wouldn't continue to pay for something that benefits everyone without knowing if it's working. 

As for resources.  How about something like - Increase Interest in your Store - with links to sites that present well how to take good product shots, how to write tags that work, how to name your product and the first line of your product description.  Places you can list your store such as directories or forums, that are free and a quick description about them.  Another resource could be about social media, links to blogs, websites, and articles, about how to use it, when to use it, how effective it is, and what is good content.  With the changing landscape of social media, this should be updated regularly.  If we find something that we think should be included, a email to send it to so that it can be included on the resource page.  I really don't want to read through forum topics to try to figure out where to post something or where to find something.  I just don't have the time. 

One of the reasons I stopped reading the forum here is that I found there were very few recent additions and didn't know if the information was up to date.  My last check showed only two posts this year and only one had a discussion going.  Writing a response should be encouraged.  A store only newsletter could be implemented to highlight new discussions, comments to discussions, new resources added, results of marketing campaigns, etc, to try to get us more involved in the community.  I am busy with work and if something is is in my inbox I am more inclined to participate.  I also agree that we should have a forum that is not available to the customer.

[iCraft Admin]

As usual, a lot of good ideas, Elizanne. Thank you!
No, I am not setting up a store here, was probably testing something.

[iCraft Admin]

Please check our redesigned Community Rewards program https://icraftgifts.com/community-rewards.php and let me know your thoughts on it.
We still need to figure out a few things related to how sales associates will work, but that feature will be implemented on the new site. So we have some time to do all this work. For now, we are looking for people interested in doing this kind of sales and marketing work from home and for sellers interested in getting extra help with sales.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I like the refer a buyer idea. I see lots of paper crafting you tubers have associate links to stores where if you use their link they get some small compensation. I imagine refer a buyer would be similar.

I wish I had time to contribute to the blog. Unfortunately, "regular" is not a word I associate with my crafting, let alone any kind of marketing, lol.

Looks like a good start but I'm not sure it will be the large scale transformation you're looking for.

Question - in your mobile or social media tools, can a buyer put a favourite seller on a watch list of some kind and receive an update whenever that seller lists something new? That might help get return buyers.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,

We are trying different things. I think a combination of those things will help, thought it might take time to get the participation numbers up.

Yes, we can definitely add "Watch this Store" notifications feature. Great idea!