Do You Have A Great Product? That No One Knows About?
I just had a real-life experience that I think can teach us all a good marketing lesson.
During the holidays I decided to get my friend one of those cool Black & Decker Power Scissors. You may have seen the ads. They are the battery powered ones that can cut through anything!
However, since they were highly advertised, I couldn’t find one anywhere! Everyone was sold out of them (and still are). So, I printed off a picture and gave that to her - and have been looking for them ever since.
Today I went into Home Depot and asked about them for about the fifth time. The girl there was very nice; she said that they had them last year, but they all went out on the clearance rack recently.
I was surprised that they were on clearance already, so I asked - “These were just released this year, why were they on clearance so fast?”
The lady doing inventory told me that they actually came out for the 2005 Holiday Season, but Black & Decker didn’t advertise them so they just sat around for a year until they finally put them on clearance. Then, when they finally decided to advertise, they sold out almost immediately.
Ohh, the power of advertising! My experience with this little gift brought up a few questions that I wanted to ask fellow affiliates.
Do you have a great product to sell, but no one knows about it?
If so, you need to get better at marketing and advertising. You need to get the word out as quickly as possible, before you get tired of the product and give up on it. At the very least, make sure you have done the following to get exposure:
- Write articles and submit them to article directories.
- Use PPC advertising for more exposure.
- Contact other marketers who have complementary products in your niche and ask them to promote your product.
- Post messages on other people’s forums and blogs with a signature line that leads back to your product
- Get some business cards made up and leave them wherever you go (even in bathrooms, gas stations, and grocery stores if possible).
Never just sit on a product and hope that the buyers will come. It won’t happen. Unless you are actively out there promoting the product, you may find yourself selling it for less than it’s worth. And that’s never a good thing!