OK, going to do a little series here on eBay and how to get the most out of it. This is going to be a marketing focused series, so if you feel marketing is a weak point of yours, I hope to provide you with some helpful tips on how to make the most of your efforts.
Absolutely no doubt in my opinion that if you are selling goods online, you need an eBay presence. Yes, there are negatives to selling through eBay, cost, competition and so on, but the name of this game is TRAFFIC FLOW, and no one can deliver that better than eBay.
So, what's the secret?
For me, I think it comes down to using eBay EFFECTIVELY, and that dosen't mean just loading listing after listing in the hope of finding success. eBay delivers the traffic, but it's up to you to make the most of that traffic and to not just squander it like so many seem to do.
My first key point in making the most of eBay is image. Image in the way of your listing itself. That might surprise a lot of members who would have expected me to say something like PRICE. Well price plays a role, but stay with me here and all this may well start making more sense as I unfold my theory here.
Image, you have to think of eBay as a massive bricks and mortar shopping mall. Thousands of shops for passing customers to look in as they are walking the mall. That would make image important in just a general shopping mall to get their attention as they walk past, but now you combine that with this mega mall having hundreds of stores inside all selling the EXACT same thing as your store. Now the importance of your image has just gone through the roof, you don't just need to attract them as they pass by, now you need to attract them away from all of your competitors who are positioned right beside you in the mall.
When a buyer enters your eBay listing, they are in essence entering your mega mall store. Now people respond to several main stimuli when shopping, such as TASTE, SIGHT, SOUND, SMELL and TOUCH, and a smart mega mall stall holder could use pretty much all of those to make an immediate impact on the customer because it is a completely interactive experience.
For an eBay seller, the online world robs you of most of that interactivity and most of those stimuli that you can use to your advantage in creating a sale. So, eBay essentially boils down to SIGHT as being the only real stimuli you have to use to your advantage in creating a sale, and of course SIGHT converts to IMAGE. So it's important from a marketing point of view to make that image as effective as possible to give yourself the very best chance of converting that sale.
So, creating an image that best suites your product is very, very important. The moment a customer opens your eBay listing and don't like the image they see, the chances are that they will be in a competitors listing within seconds. You have to create an image that not just captures their attention, but holds it.
The way to create the best possible image on eBay is through HTML. Now there are plenty of free HTML templates around to make use of, but you have to ask yourself are they going to do the right job, create the right image, the image you want and need for your product/s
Of course you have have something developed specific for you, not the cheapest option, but one that will probably provide you with the best results. If you or you know of someone who is good with a graphics program and you or you know someone who is good with HTML coding, then creating a fantastic image can be a cheap or even free option you may be able to take advantage of.
If you're not the most creative monkey in the tree, my suggestion is to look at websites selling the same or similar products for design ideas. Even looking through advertisements in magazines can give you great layout ideas. You don't have to be a graphic designer to come up with a killer image, magazines are full of advertisements where all the graphic designer work as been done for you, so why not just borrow from their ideas.
Now you might at this stage be thinking, what a lot of work and hassle just to advertise a single product. I wouldn't put that much effort in designing my own store, let alone a single eBay listing. Well if that is what you're thinking, you might want to reconsider. Effort in = Reward out and in business, Image is the foundation of success!
OK, that's my first key point in making the most out of eBay. In the second installment on getting the most out of eBay, I'll be following up with ways of using your image and presence on eBay as a marketing tool for your own independent site. So those with a SaleHoo Store or other independent store platform will hopefully get some helpful tips from that.
I've locked this topic to get it all focused an the tips only. For any questions related to my advice in this and the following posts in this series, please ask them in the Coffee Lounge category.