Did you enjoy the day off yesterday?

hahahaha sorry about the unscheduled day off from the selling challenge yesterday.....I really wasn't very well and my head certainly wasn't with it enough to set any challenge tasks! It was a challenge for me just to post on my page.  Anyway, here i am back again to continue with the challenge!

Don't forget to let me know if you have had any more results from the challenge - it might be new likers have joined your page, more comments on items, enquiries or of course sales ;) Am keeping my fingers crossed for you all to sell lots!!!

So our last challenge day involved a few little tasks didn't it? How did you get on? Did you manage to share something on your own page with a way of getting people to interact on the post?

This is an example of what i did on The Selling Cafe Page:

The result was every picture i shared for the game was commented on and people enjoyed the game.....it also meant these pictures got seen by about 4 times the number of people they usually would have. 

I also checked back over the posts i added to the selling groups......the album did get some extra interaction in the form of likes, comments and i had 3 enquiries to follow up on.  

Today then, the challenge is to once again check your posts in the selling groups, respond to any comments and add another comment to the post to bump it back up to the top of the group.

I would also like you to share some of the items from your selling album to your own page again.  This time though i would also like you to share the album to your own personal profile and just ask your friends to give you a hand with getting your products seen by liking, commenting or sharing :) 

Following up on the last task from the previous challenge post i would also like you to take some action towards adding your own products from your selling album to at least one of these additional places.  This could be an online place such as Etsy, Folksy, Wow, Pinterest, Twitter, Ebay, Gumtree......or it could be offline such as a local shop, a craft fair, a house party........basically wherever it is you have come up with as somewhere suitable for selling your products i would like you to take at least one step towards doing it.  Remember facebook is only ONE of literally hundreds of places you could be selling from........

Ok thats us for today.......hope it goes well! xxxx

Interesting Responses to Yesterday's Challenge....

So yesterday i set a little challenge to find some local selling groups on facebook and the response to this was very interesting indeed.  You seemed to be split right down the middle in your views of doing this, some of you thought it was pointless and thought your time would be better spent on craft networking style pages, and some of you simply took the challenge on and went for it.....

I will say that my tasks for the challenge are extremely clearly thought through and are based on my own experiences of selling as well as info i have gathered from years of being on facebook while involved with selling by others in some form or another.  I can only provide some guidance however so obviously if you choose not to do the tasks that is entirely your choice :)

So far participants in the challenge have reported some interesting results:

1 seller practically sold everything from their selling album and has had so many orders she has had to close her order book.

Another seller has had 2 enquiries in the past couple of days on her own page.

On the selling album i have been sharing from The Selling Cafe Page there have been 3 enquiries and lots of comments left on the product pics.

On the selling album on my own page i have had 1 enquiry and lots of comments left.

So it seems to be having an impact! Many of you seem to be generally enjoying the challenge and learning quite a bit, that is as well as seeing an increase in interest in products which is fab news - i am glad its proving useful! So who is ready for day 4 then?

Ok so today we have a couple of tasks again.....

First of all i'd like you to share some of the products from your selling album on your own page......but i want you to do so in a way that encourages people to interact with the pictures - this could be by asking a question, playing a game, asking people which their favourite item is etc etc.

Second i would like you to go back to the selling groups you posted in yesterday, check for any comments being left there or other interactions such as likes being left (and use these as an opportunity to interact), but i also want you to leave a comment on your own item (which effectively bumps the image back to the top of the group).  Please leave a comment that means something and use it again as an opportunity to encourage people to look at it (writing bump is usually completely ignored!).  BTW the easiest way to find your own post again is to use the search option at the top of the group and search for your own name!

An additional task for today is to write a list of other places (outside of facebook) you could advertise your goods.  Again we will be adding a list of these places to the Business Pages Advice Group 


Do you have any other comments or results to report? Have you had more 'likes' or comments on your page since we started? Have you had more interaction? Do let me know :)

Ok Now its Serious Selling Time!!

Yep, we have pondered and put our brains through enough to perplex a platypus :D hehehe, we have identified our target markets and figured out when to share things on our pages so far (haven't we???) if you haven't done day 1 and day 2 yet it might be worth having a read back over them before moving on to today's challenge tasks.

If you are raring to get selling though its time to get those albums out to the relevant people.  The best place i have found for selling goods on facebook is via established selling groups and pages (not networking pages).  This might take a bit of research though and plenty of searching......there are usually several local selling groups for each area so its worth searching for your own town.  There are many many selling pages which also work mostly on a local basis.  Finding these on fb is easy enough to do - just enter the town name in the search box and filter results by group and you should find some ;) Do take your target selling market into consideration when choosing groups and also check down the page to look for people responding to posts with questions.  A good group to post in will be one that is frequently updated and has a decent amount of people in it (1000+ is good to look for)

So today's challenge is to find around 10 local selling groups/pages and add your albums to them - just be careful about posting your links in quick succession in different groups.  

I would also advise not just posting a link without saying anything - try to think about what might attract someone to looking through your album and write that as an intro (PS things like please check my album DO NOT WORK!) 

There are also many networking pages which are worth adding an album link to as well - again be careful about posting in quick succession ..... If you are unsure about either networking pages or selling groups please feel free to view the lists in our Business Pages Advice Group. 

Good Luck :D and don't forget to let me know how you get on!!

Is your Selling Campaign Album Ready?

Ok so did you read yesterday's post? Are you joining in on the challenge? If you haven't read it yet you might like to do so now: its-a-challenge.

So far you should have a selling album ready with the products you want to focus on this week in it.

Today there are a couple of little tasks to do:

First, check the sales album has a good description included for each product.  This should include information such as:

• materials used, 
• how it is used, 
• the size,
• if it can be custom made or not, 
• the colours available

Also check there is a price clearly visible, information about payment methods accepted and if the item can be posted the costs for this as well.  

Think about the type of questions a potential customer might have about your product and answer them before they are asked.

The second part of the task is to identify your target market. 

 

When selling on facebook often sellers do not even think about their target market and simply advertise everywhere they can.  This practice however is frowned upon by many users and facebook itself and is highly likely to end up getting your account restricted.  It may not cost you anything financially to advertise in 100 different places on facebook but that does not mean it is a good idea to do it.  

The other reasons for spending a bit of time on this is because many people are not advertising their business products in the right places at all.  You need to think about who is likely to buy the products you have in your selling album.  For example, the album i am using for the main page is Valentine themed, but it is important for me to look at if the products would appeal to men or women to buy.  If it is full of jewellery there is little point in advertising in a group of mum's unless i use a tactic which encourages them to tell their partners......

Spending a little time identifying your target market will also save you time in future, and help with developing other products, so despite there being a lot of free advertising options on facebook it is still worth doing this.  I know its not always the easiest thing to do and i'm expecting this part of the challenge to lead to quite a bit of discussion in our Business Pages Advice Group

The final little task for today is to share your album on your page.......BUT do not just click share without thinking about it.  Plan a couple of shares, maybe 3 at the most again by using the idea of targeting - what time should you share at? who will be likely to see it? how can you maximise the reach? Will the people who see the album link be able to open it to view other items? Will they know to do that?  Basically i'm saying engage your brain before you hit that share button! 

Ok, thats it for today......don't forget to let us know how you are getting on so far by commenting below! 

Its a Challenge......

I was running a little challenge in our Business Pages Advice Group a few weeks ago and it went really well. We started the challenge by looking at facebook page reach and engagement and within a few days all who participated reported great results!  As it worked so well i thought i would put together another little challenge to help direct and motivate those with business pages on facebook towards increasing sales.  This challenge will follow on directly from the previous post selling-from-facebook-page-methods-to.increase-sales.

So this challenge is going to last for a week which in my view is a good time scale to work on a sales campaign.

Each day for this week i will post a little task here on the blog which will hopefully help to get some sales happening for those who take part - Obviously i can't guarantee results, i will simply be talking you through the type of actions i personally take when creating and implementing a sales campaign for either my own page Truly Quirky Me or for the main page The Selling Cafe.

So if you would like to take part in this challenge simply comment below :)

Day one of the challenge is today.....

Its an easy starter honestly - the only thing i would like you to do today is to create an album on your facebook page with some products you want to focus on selling this week.  I would suggest you choose some sort of a theme for these rather than completely random products.

I would also suggest you add at least 4/5 products to this album and not more than 10/12.  Personally i will be working on a larger album for the main page but this will be from several different sellers.  I will also work on a smaller album with my own personal page.

Each day just come back here to find out what the task for the day is and let us all know how you are getting on :)

Right then lets go :) and good luck for sales xxxxx

Selling from a Facebook Page - Methods to Increase Sales

Todays post is about some methods you can use on your facebook page to increase the chances of you getting orders and sales.  After all this is what you are actually there for right? Obviously i can't guarantee these methods will work for everyone, but from my time running selling pages etc i have built up a good idea of what works and what doesn't in general terms.

Who are you selling to?

The first step to increasing your sales is to look at your audience. The first thing you learn in any marketing course is to identify your target audience, and its the first step for a very big reason - There is no point in advertising products to people who are not interested in them. You could offer the goods to people for free and if they are not interested in it to start with they still wouldn't care if they had that product or not.

So you need to think about who you are attracting people to your page - what kind of people are they? Are they people who would be interested in actually buying your products? If your page has a lot of 'false' likes you will basically need to work on attracting a new audience.

How to find people interested in your products is actually quite easy - you say this is what i sell, if you like it come like my page to see more....yep thats it - see fb does actually make some things easy for you! The trick is to make sure you are asking people who are interested in buying things in the first place, so make sure you are posting in a place where there are buyers and not just other sellers.  (Yes ok some sellers are buyers too BUT remember a lot of people are selling on fb or have set up a small business because they need an extra income - they often do not have money to spare).

What about people already on your page? 

Ok so what if you have already built up quite a lot of people on your page? Even if the people who have liked your page are not interested in buying your products they can still be useful contacts.  They might not be potential buyers BUT they can help you in a number of ways so all is not lost.

Firstly, with the new settings and restricted reach of many pages anyone who engages with you on your page will help to increase the reach (people who can see the post). So if your likers start to engage with you it will help other people to find your page and products.

People who have liked your page with no interest in buying from you are highly likely to be other small business people. IF you do manage to build a relationship with them they can be a good source of support, information, feedback and possibly referrals as well - this does tend to be based on a reciprocal relationship so remember to offer the same in return.

If you are really struggling to make any sales on your fb page the people already there can also be a useful sounding board - would they like to see a different range for example? are there competitors you aren't aware of? The people on your page MAY be a useful source for conducting market research.....

Look at your facebook page through the eyes of a potential customer....

There are certain things that simply put people off from buying on fb pages so try to make sure your page:

Is warm and inviting - don't just post pics of things you are selling and hope people will buy them.  You need to welcome people and make you page a nice place to visit.......think of it like it is your shop and treat people the way you would like to be treated as a customer (or potential customer).

Has clear information about how to purchase - what should someone do if they would like to buy something? Don't assume it is obvious.

Has prices and descriptions on everything for sale - This is one of the most common reasons people don't buy from a page.  Especially if you have to wait for replies etc the chances are high the buyer will see something else they like on another page where they don't have to ask.

Has information about payment methods accepted - The most common form of payment on fb is paypal.

Has information about returns/problems - Let people know what to do if they have a problem with a purchase.  Don't forget under the distance selling regulations you are obligated to have a returns policy.

Has decent quality photographs of products - Your photos should be clear, uncluttered and show the item from different angles.

Is updated regularly - show people that your page is managed and checked on a regular basis and you have new products being added.  Keep the range of goods interesting.

Offer discounts/give aways etc to customers but do so with caution - Be careful not to be discounting goods constantly - offers should be clear and time limited to meet fb terms and conditions.

Respond promptly - It is difficult sometimes to monitor your page all the time but do try to respond as quickly as possible to queries.


Create a Sales Campaign 

This one is about sitting down and actually planning what it is you are going to do in order to generate sales.  It doesn't always have to be about spending money on advertising, it could be posting an album of your goods in a local selling group, using a networking page, offering a discount etc etc.  For this type of campaign i would suggest focussing on just a few products rather than trying to sell your whole range.

Check your pricing

I have deliberately left this one to the end, because in my view you should know what your selling price is.  If you have done your research to begin with and used a system for working out your pricing then changing it should really only be a last resort.  I know craft people in particular find it difficult to price their goods, but you should know what it costs to make, and you should know what profit margin you are looking for.  If you decide to alter your prices it should be after you have sat down and done the calculations, not just because someone else is selling similar goods at a different price.

I hope you have found this post useful.....I could write more but don't want to turn this into a marketing and sales essay LOL! If you have any other tips you would like to share please do leave a comment.

If you would be interested in sharing your business story regarding selling on fb on this blog please contact me on thesellingcafe@gmail.com or on my facebook page.

What a Difference a Month Makes

In my last post The Second Phase I had more or less just started to see some results from working on the interaction on The Selling Cafe Page  and the general page reach.  I had reached 605 likes and all was seeming like it was on track to where i wanted it to go.

Its now just over 1 month since those last statistics were published and definitely time for an update! Things have progressed extremely well i have to say.  Without looking at the stats i know the page is much more active and i have several developments underway - to be honest i'm quite surprised it has only actually been a month!!

So what do the stats say?

The number of likes today is 737 - up by over 200.

Last month interaction was up to a maximum of 200 from a maximum of 50 in month one.  This month the maximum is hitting almost 400.  There is a clear inactivity for a few days over Christmas but the rest of the month has a reasonable amount of activity going on and seems to be around the 100 level on average.

The post reach for December seems to be averaging out around 500-600 with a few higher peaks showing. Considering the likes are just over 700 i seem to be maintaining a reach that is not far off the mark on this right now.  I'm very pleased with this as many pages are struggling to hit even 50% of their likes level in reach terms right now.

Looking at the individual posts more closely the written posts are now hitting between 150 - 300 which is a decent enough increase from last month but the photos are still hovering around the 50 - 70 level.  This is not good news and i do need to do some more work on this ASAP.  The rest of the stats are showing things moving in the right direction though which is a relief. 

With regard to the sense of community - this is working very well.  There is a great sense of camaraderie with a group of around 20 people at the minute and i think this will really give us a good solid foundation.  The group is extremely supportive of each other and the general comments indicate there is a very big reduction in the feeling of isolation.  To be honest this side of things literally could not be better at this point.

Sales being generated from the page are extremely difficult to measure as often i am not privy to that information and its difficult to know where sales have come from specifically.  I do know for sure there have been several sales on the page though which i'm glad of.  At the minute i am considering changing part of the selling aspect on the page itself though - this issue of photos not being seen is forcing me to look at alternatives.  I have started to work on the blog now and have sorted links for Twitter from the fb pages.  Buy now buttons have been added to the blog and some of the sellers goods have been publicised on there so far.  I do want to get a basic introductory post completed for each seller and then it will be used for updates and announcements.  Another main development in regard to the blog is i have started a mailing list, so i am now actively capturing contact details.  

Overall i feel the foundations of The Selling Cafe have been set pretty well.  I am happy with the page progression and i have several additional themed pages working at bringing buyers into the loop.  There is now an auctions page and a £1 page.  The auctions page has just hit 300 likes and is proving popular, and the £1 page is just new with just 23 likes but again it is generating a good amount of interest from people who are there specifically to buy.  These pages will be used interconnectively to pull both sellers and buyers in and hopefully this will result in sales.  

So, it seems we are progressing well into phase 3 of the plan now - the selling part - the foundations of this are being laid down and i am reasonably confident of the multi-pronged approach being a good one.  

An additional aspect of providing advice and guidance has started to bud now as well.  This isn't something i deliberately aimed for, but with the changes happening on facebook pages right now it is becoming more and more obvious that pages are having to learn how to use their pages more effectively.  Luckily i have been developing my own knowledge about how the pages work for quite some time now, so my level of understanding is proving useful.  

Next steps? 

Obviously i need to continue adding to the group of members - the community needs to keep growing.  I am using a slow but steady growth model for this - i am adding to the group literally just a few members at a time, but i am now using a multi-level progression to membership.  

The main focus now will be on those activities which should lead to sales:  Overcoming the photo restrictions on fb has to be the top priority.  Luckily i do have a plan in mind!