Where Will You Sell Your Products?

Happy Monday! This weekend we had a lively conversation over a Facebook post:

My best advice: don’t create a product without creating a marketing and distribution plan first!! What good is an awesome product without a way or plan to sell it?

And that post got so many people talking, I thought we better have a conversation about this.

See, I have worked with some absolutely amazing people. People who have put their blood sweat and tears into developing a product.

Everyone from scientist to mom’s making something for their kids and I’ve learned over the years, the difference between an awesome product and a successful products is a marketing plan!

Who wants a bunch of product in their garage? or hawking stuff on ebay? So for today, get your pens out and answer these questions (BEFORE YOU produce the product) and if you have already made the product then, look at your marketing strategy again 🙂

1. Where are you going to sell the product? 

Some of you are aesthetician so you can sell it in your spa or salon. Some of you have retail store so some can sell it there. If you have a traditional brick and mortar space. I want you to make sure you have the following in place:

• A product that your client actually wants
• Priced competitively, people associate cheap with cheap and expensive = good be sure to find your customer’s price point
• Proper selling material. Including display signs, brochures, test samples
• A sku or barcode or way to make the product purchasable

If you are selling it online – before you think you can put up a website and people will come make sure that you understand the following:

2. Do you know web marketing? In today’s web marketing world is a to different then when I started online. I owned 2 e-commerce stores through out college (one had a product on Oprah). In today’s online world you have to know:

• SEO
• PPC
• Social media, content marketing
• Email marketing and conversion rates

In addition to knowing those things, your product also needs to be competitively priced and sometimes with free shipping on orders and returns. Be sure you master those skills and are prepared to offer stellar customer service.

Once you have a market to sell to or at least a plan, then let’s talk about creating a product. I know, it’s not as exciting as  product development, but honestly product development is the easy part. It’s the marketing that makes the difference between a successful product and an experience (no failures, only experiences and lessons here!)

Leave your comments below, I’d love to hear how you plan to market your product or where you need some help in this area!