Have you gone to a certain site and bought a product that you don’t need? Or do you need a particular one but having second thoughts of clicking the BUY button?
Most online businesses do a market research or a survey first, before they launch a product or service sold online. They study how buyers behave, how to target them, how to build trust and relationship and even how to CREATE a NEED for their product.
Theses are what the well-established online or traditional businesses do to sell something but as a small and starting business owner, what can you do to replicate the same without having to spend much? What are the things that you, as business owners should do in order to create a product that sells?
I’ve researched online and found a couple of tips, and I collated all of them.Here are some examples :
1. Make sure the value is obvious – every product should solve a certain problem or answer a specific question . Once you understand this, it give an obvious value to your product. No need for salesy speeches and demonstration.
2. Unlearn what you know and step into your market’s shoes – most business owners overlook this part because of one simple reason. They thought that their market also knows what they know. Step out of your box first and think like someone that doesn’t know anything about what you’re selling. Make their questions answered and offer a solution to their problem. By thinking like that, you’ll be able to think of more products than you can imagine.
3. Get to know your clients – this is where the picture of an IDEAL CLIENT comes in. As a business owner, you should know how your clients think, what they like, what are the problems they’re facing, questions they may have that needs answered and things that will make them feel happy or entertained.
4. Deliver as you promise – most products I see online over promise and delivers less. This lessens your credibility and most likely, an unsatisfied customer will not buy again, right? So, make sure that you deliver as you promise in your marketing campaign.
5. Give better delivery options – if you are selling online, (which is most likely) you should think of ways to get the products to your customers fast, lesser or no hassle at all and again, “deliver as you promise”. Make sure that the courier knows how to deliver the product safely, fast and with tracking options for better customer satisfaction.
6. Make it look professional – packaging says a lot about a product. Let’s face it. Most people “judge the book by its cover” so don’t take the risk of not having your product seen by an expert in packaging. Make sure that the pictures and graphics looks and feels the same as your website theme. It’s called “the product extendability.” That mean that your packaging can be adapted from one product to another in order to create the same feeling that your business wants to convey to your market. It helps build trust and credibility, too.
These are just some of the few suggestions out there. There are more, of course! Always remember that there are tons of help out there, choose your best judgement and pick what you think is best. Feel free to comment your questions and suggested topics and I’ll be happy to answer or write them for you. Share if you think someone may benefit from this post and thank you in advance.
I think having as many delivery options as possible is the hardest for me (with my ebooks) and in the end I just went with amazon and PDF and didn’t kobo, nook etc, which I know I should do.
Business is also trial and error, Damaria. I guess we can try what works for us best first, then it doesn’t, we can always reinvent or improve our system. 🙂
These are great suggestions. I’m in the planning stages of creating products. I’ll keep these tips in mind – especially getting to know your ideal clients and what THEY want instead of just what we think they should want. Good advice.
Glad you can use it, Deb. Sometimes, it’s really hard to unlearn things especially if you’ve known it for quite a while so it helps to ask a few clients what they need and what questions they want answered, from there, we can get more ideas. Funny is, most often that not, the answer is already right in front of us ans we can’t see it because we’re looking at the Business Owner’s perspective. 🙂
Awesome information!! ive actually have a plan on making an garage sale online on facebook. Thank you for the great tips!
Great! Welcome, Richard. It’s nice to know that you can use the tips.
Selling online can be a slippery slope. I find that the overpromise under-deliver is really true with some vendors. Thanks for your insight into this
Oh, yes, Veronica! If you’ve been online long enough, you’ll see tons of it. That’s why we have to be careful of what we promise as a business owners ourselves. We’ve been customers at one point, too and as much as possible, we want them to feel the value of our products.
These are really great tips for people who sell products. I know that the packaging has a lot to do with whether I buy something or not. Image sells.
That’s right, Deanna. Packaging really matters and if it goes with a great product, surely your customer will keep coming back.
Great tips – especially the first three points! personally, as a consumer, I detest the ‘hard sell’ . . the harder someone tries to sell me something, the more I dont want to buy it! So, the value of the product has to speak for itself, fixing a problem or enhancing my life in some meaningful way. And putting yourself in your customers shoes is DEFINATELY something that all business owners need to consider. Be objective, and you may find ways of reaching your market that you hadnt previously thought of! Definately a lot of food for thought here!
Thank pixeldesign. It feels good that someone appreciates the tips and shares with my views. These are food for the heart. 🙂
These are some great tips and wonderful advice. I will definitely be considering these if I choose to sell a product in the future. Great post!
Oh, great, Kungphoo! Thank you.
These are great tips! Keeping your client in mind and deliver as you promise are very important. Thanks for the info!
Great tips! The client and deliver as you say are very important. Thanks for the information.
You’re welcome, jstforty. Your comment alone is really enough for me to get inspired in writing more.
I really like the idea of having delivery options.
Yes, me, too since I hate picking up stuff. Lol!
I have always been on the service side, so these are great tips if I switch over.
Great! Glad it helps. 🙂
Very detailed information that is valuable to anyone looking to start their own business.
Thank you.
They are all great steps, but I really like Step 2…very important!
You all have great choices here! I love the variety of choices you all prefer. Just shows a business owner should really try all of the mentioned tips. An “Aha” moment for anyone considering to sell online, I guess.
Great, detailed advice to anyone considering selling products online. Thanks for the information.
Yehey! I’m happy with the comments. Thank you!
Very good reading here.
My business is mostly about service