Make it Great

Hey!

I should be packing but of course I am not…..it’s all about priorities people.

Anyway, I was reading an email I received that was talking about why Mia Bella’s Candles are “gourmet” or more so, why they are labeled as gourmet. It stated because our candles were for the “candle connoisseur”. I have read this before when different people were speaking about where to find potential customers and such. So I started thinking, how do you know who your market is or whatyour target market is? Is it possible that people who don’t do well in retailing are just targeting the wrong customers? Then, I was like is that even possible to have a “wrong” market, because they (the smart marketing people) say that everyone isa potential customer or business partner and don’t judge.

Well, I have drawn my own conclusions on the matter.

Conclusion #1: You do have a target market or particular market of people that would be ideal for your product.

Conclusion #2: You shouldn’t judge. You should offer your product or service to all but, be able to weed through those who will buy and those who are just pulling your leg. In other words don’t spend all your time on nickels when you could be catching dollars.

Conclusion #3: Price! Different people can afford and will pay for different things. Some people are bargain shoppers and will not pay retail for anything no matter how great or “ideal” it is for them, they believe they can find the same quality or quantity for $5 less or 25% off at Wal-Mart or something.

What I have learned that you have to do is make your product or service available to all people, no matter what. I see billboards for $100,000+ homes in lower income neighborhoods, they may not be able to afford that house now, but they may in the future and that’s what counts.

Compare your prices not only to others in your industry online, but also in the stores that you normally shop in. Is your product double or triple the price of similar products? For me, our candles are triple the prices of the candles in Wally World or any other bargain store. Double the price of candles in other stores as well. But, they are the same price as one of the leading candles in America, so I know my customer base exists in my city since they have a store here.

Now lets say I sold candles that cost $40 or so a jar. I don’t have any shops around me that sell candles for that price. The leading candle company in my city sells candles, for half that. Where am I going to find my customers? Who are my customers? Do you see how candles at this price would be a bit harder to sell in my city?

But, if I lived in ”celebrity city”, California, where most things cost an arm and a leg, I could get away with probably selling my candles for $50 a pop in the right stores. That wouldn’t fly here where I live, we are not that high class.

So maybe if you are someone who is not doing so well retailing your particular product or service you should check your prices. See if people in your area can afford your products. If they can’t that doesn’t make them unaffordable to all, just in your city. You will probably have to advertise in other areas.

Hope this helps answersome questions!

Thanks for reading!

Jarmelia Ladson

Well, after reading a post about someone saying that they were feeling discouraged or like they were not going to succeed with their current business. I think we have all been there or at least know someone who has been here. I. have. been. there.

One of the things people say that I strongly disagree with is; “If you have a passion for the products, you will succeed!” I disagree totally. You need more than passion for the products and business. Passion may make you get up and go to work,talk to strangers about your products or approach businesses, but you need more than that. You have to learn how to “sell” products, what to say, how to approach people and what works. You really have to get into the potential customer’s mind. I know it sounds corny and all but it is true.

Like I have said time and time again “Working from home takes work!”

We are building businesses. This takes years for most people. So, why do we, home based bsuiness owners, expect it to take just a few months or weeks? Pateince is something we all need to aquire.

Think about this:

How many times have you walked into a store and bought nothing? Plenty of times (or at least I hope so, or you have some kind of pack rat problem…..I mean that in the kindest way :))

Okay so, if 100 people have shopped in a store, actually bought something, how many people in total do you think came and didn’t buy anything? Probably 200 or even 300 dare I say 400…. Do you see where I am going with this?

I have heard people say in the first year of running a business you will spend more than you make. I agree. You will also do more work than you expected, with what looks like little profit.

Back to the store…..

Okay so 100 shoppers doesn’t seem like a whole lot of business does it? But it is. If 400 people entered that store, looked around and then left, those 400 people will probably tell someone else they know about the store, reaching 400 more people. What if this was in a 1 day period? That store reached 800 people in 1 day. That is not bad, if you ask me.

Point is, it is not about how many people buy your products or sign up with you, it is about establishing a presence. Letting people know you exist and have what they are looking for, is what it is all about in the first year.

Here are some tips to get your website or store to reach your target market:

Your store/website name:

If you sell candles , if would be wise to have a name such as “Blah Blah Candles” or “Candles for Blah Blah”. That way customers will know they are going to a site that sells candles, talks about candles or at least can direct them to candle information. This way you will know that 90% of the customers who came to your site and didn’t buy anything, didn’t leave because they didn’t know what you offered or what your site was about.

Be clear about what you offer on the home page:

If you offer candles, be clear about that on the homepage. Make sure you are not dragging the customer through the whole website, before you finally tell he customer what you offer. The homepage is not for your biography or company story. It should be all about what you sell and what variations of the products you offer and any specials you have.

Contact information:

If you don’t want a lot of emails that say “I am interested in your products!”. Don’t put your email all over the website, just put it on your contact page. Offer a place on your website for customers to ask for a catalog or sample. This way, they ask for what they want and move on. On my website, which is still under construction, I have my email,  phone number and address j/k no address. That’s all customers need. Make sure you put a link to it on your Homepage in the navigation bar.

What may also help is to ask for opinions on your website. Join forums, such as WAHM and ask the ladies on there to look at your website and critique it.

Don’t get down in the dumps, just change your approach, stay open minded. Big stores such as Wal-Mart try many different marketing strategies, so we have to as well.

This ain’t easy, but you can do it, if you want!

Thanks for reading,

Jarmelia Ladson

http://www.mbgourmetcandles.com

Enter to win a FREE candle!

I know I am supposed to be cleaning…..this is way more important.

I know alot of us have trouble getting our products noticed and it seems as if all we do is spend money with few results. We have all been there at one time or another. But in the past few weeks I have learned some inexpensive tips that helped me get around.

Donate:

If you hear about an auction or raffle going on in your town or over the web. Donate a product to it. There was a lady who asked for a donation for a basket for her daughters fundraiser, I immediately replied. I am also going to send her a Thank You votive, because she didn’t have to even ask us WAHMs or wannabe WAHMs to donate. She could have bought everything from the store.

Sponsor:

Someone else asked for sponsors for a Virtual Party she was having, I donated a basket. Well, come to find out, the person who won my basket loves candles! I am also sending the virtual party coordinator a Thank You. When I told her I wanted to send her something, what did she say? She loves candles, but has never tried melts (tarts), she was excited!

Now don’t think I am just buying these candles and products all willy nilly, I am using the left over stock that is just sitting around on my desk, causing all kinds of clutter.

Thank You gifts: 

I also just recently got an eye exam, I got contacts and have to go back to Sams (my 2nd grocery store love) and pick up my prescription. When I go back I plan to give both the eye doctor (I am not spelling out the technical term, that would be embarrassing) and his trusty sidekick assistant, a votive as a, Thanks. The eye doctor is a man, but I saw a wedding ring so he seems to be married, I will  assume he’s married to a woman who loves candles.

If they throw my votive away, oh well. It was just sitting around anyway, but I hope it unlocks their inner candle burner and makes them run to my website with all their friends and buy candles galore! Oh, that is very possible….

I plan to give the management office of my apartment complex and gift basket with  a simmer pot and some melts for them to use. The office is full of women and women go in and out all day so I know, this will be a hit. It won’t be quite a “Thank You” because they really could do better maintenance wise and such, but that is beyond the point.

All this giving should cost me about $20, which is in my budget, shucks it is my budget! I will keep you updated on how well it goes! Who exactly the ”you” are that I will be updating is debatable, but “you” are none the less important to me.

Thanks for reading,

Jarmelia Ladson

http://www.mbgourmetcandles.com

Enter to win a free candle!

Well I just recently purchased some items to help me advertise my business more and in different ways. Here are my latest purchases:

120 organza bags from Your Organza Bag for under $10 not including shipping.

I also purchased some cello bags for Cello in a Box, I am very impressed with them, the bags and the shipping.

I placed these orders on the 12th and received them on the 16th, that is some greast shipping!

With the organza bags, I plan to make scented sachets with them to sell or use for fillers. With the cello bags, I got the flip flop print, perfect for South Carolina. I am going to be making my own fillers to hand out around town.

The fillers will be for advertising businesses and products to other moms.

So, I wil be busy for the next few days getting all these mopacks and fillers together.

When I am done with them I will be taking pictures!

*that was a whole post about nothing, I will do better tomorrow*

Thanks for reading!

Jarmelia Ladson

http://www.mbgourmetcandles.com

Enter to win a free candle! 

So, yesterday I made a trip to Earth Fare to pick up some hair care products and a few other things. I was at the checkout when I saw they had this bulletin board, where people can put up community events, leave parent magazines and family things. So, I picked up 4 of the magazines and all of them have a section for advertising. I will be the one of the few, if not the only, candle business and home-based business.  When I go back I am going to leave some catalogs and brochures for the mommies to look at and pick up.

I see this section every-time I go there but, I never had the sense to look and see what was over there. Duh! Right? Please check your Earth Fare or Whole Food store for any magazines and such as this is usually the market we look to advertise with.

Next, I found a link to a great Internet Marketer’s , (well actually I am on her team, but she is still great) Jackie Ulmer and she wrote about goal setting. I think this post is a great post to get some of us off our butts and into the post office mailing off samples and contacting leads.

Here is a snippet:

1. Make a decision and then commit to yourself to spend ten minutes a day for the next 7 days setting goals. Grab a spiral notebook (don’t use anything fancy as it will just slow you down and force you into perfectionism!) Think of all areas of your life where you would like to set some goals – ie: personal development; business; family; health and fitness; etc.

2. As you work through this process each day, ask yourself – What would my goals be if time and money were not a consideration? What would my goals be if I knew I could not/would not fail?

3. Don’t hold back! Have fun and be creative and spontaneous. Each day, read the previous days goals and then move ahead with new or adjusted goals. Forget about anything but the fun of doing this exercise.

How do you feel as you set these goals? Do you feel inspired to take action in each area? Do you feel empowered, knowing what steps you can take daily to see the job through?

How will your life be different if you pursue this exercise for the next year, and take inspired action?

Click hereto read the rest of her post. I am so glad I am on her team with Mia Bella, she is truly great example to follow! Read around her blog and check out her website, she explains everything so simply!

Jarmelia Ladson

http://www.mbgourmetcandles.com

With this Yahoo group I am in, I get to “meet” lots of wonderful business owners and WAHMs. Its called The MomPack, greatest group, EVER. Well, I ran across someone who wanted to do an interview with me for my blog. I looked at her website and lo and behold she is and advertising guru! She is the owner of Baby Swags and she can tell you the rest!

My interview with Phyllis:

Me: What do you do?

Phyllis: I own a company called Baby Swags.  I started Baby Swags in September 2006.  Baby Swags is an Entertainment Marketing company that specializes in promoting Entrepreneurial Women and the products they create.  Baby Swags offers small businesses the opportunity to participate in events, print advertising, and celebrity giftings without the corporate price tag.  Within the last 1.5 years Baby Swags has been making great strides and have been able to get client products seen on TV, and print.  I am now expanding the business to gifting lounges for big events such as the Oscars!  Baby Swags is moving full steam ahead and I couldn’t have done it without all the hard working women who have in one way or another touched my life in such a positive way.

Me:Why is your business beneficial to those trying to get their products in the right hands?

Phyllis:The primary goal of Baby Swags is to bring the ‘buzz’ to your business and/or product.  Baby Swags is to be considered as a marketing tool that will link your product to celebrity.  Of course, the best gift in return is to receive a thank you note or spot a photo with a celebrity actually using your product.  There is no guarantee that will happen, so we will photograph the contents of the basket and include each company in the press release that is distributed.  Each company is allowed to use that photographed image and press release as a part of their own press page, and are strongly advised to distribute their own press release announcing their affiliation with Baby Swags and shout out to the world that the celebrity has been gifted.  It is important to note that the celebrities that are gifted are not endorsing the products they are sent, we are simply stating that gifts were sent to them.  A great deal of time is spent verifying that the gifts sent are going where they need to be going.  If at any time a gift basket is returned, we contact the companies directly and they can either place their products into another basket or they are returned to them.   I basically will take the leg work out of it for you. 

Me: What are some of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to marketing their products?

Phyllis:I have found that many people get discouraged and tend to give up after a short time.  People need to realize that marketing your product or service is an on going venture.   You have to work very hard at it on a constant and consistent basis.  If you think that by placing an ad in a printed magazine for one month will bring you great sales, you will be set up for disappointment.  I have found that in order to really start to see sales increase you need to be in that magazine for a good 6 months before anyone even bats and eye at you. It is costly to be a part of a printed magazine, so you really need to do your homework when it comes to your target market.  As in any advertising campaign, nothing is a sure thing, however you can take measures to insure you are getting the best exposure for your company by doing extensive research.   

Me:  What are some low cost ways to market/advertise products?

Phyllis: There are some wonderful low cost marketing tools out there.  For example, you can submit your products for blog reviews, write up a press release and distribute it on the web (don’t forget to send one to your local editors), submit your website to search engines, make sure you have excellent keywords and meta tags set up, leave business cards around your town at various hot spots, offer products for giveaways, provide items for silent auctions in your hometown, and the list goes on.  You can be really creative with your marketing and it won’t cost you your life’s savings.  

Me:  What are some low cost ways to market/advertise, that are a waste of time?

Phyllis: I don’t believe any marketing or advertising should be considered a waste of time.  What does not work for one company may bring sales and exposure to another.  I do believe companies should try many different forms of advertising and marketing.  When you find a medium that works for you, and you comfortable or at ease with your results, keep doing it until it doesn’t work anymore.  When it just doesn’t feel right, or is not bringing you the results you had hoped for, that necessarily isn’t the right formula for your success.  If that is the case, consider it a lesson learned, but don’t rule that method out completely because at a later date, it may bring you greater results.

Me: If you could tell someone one thing to help them market their products better what would it be?

Phyllis: In this day and age, the internet is a huge, powerful tool.  Do not skimp on the appearance of your website.  You literally have 3 seconds to capture a potential buyers attention.  If you are using a free website, or have not invested the time or money to developing a eye stopping website you may have just lost a sale because of it.  People are very visual where the internet is concerned.  Your website should be free of advertisements (if you are selling a product), easy to navigate, no broken links, be appealing to the eye (color wise), have photos professionally enhanced, and be sure you have a fully functional shopping cart that will accept credit cards.  I cannot stress enough, that is your image.  That is what people see first.  If it doesn’t meet their expectations, no matter how great your product is, you will lose their business.  Save yourself a big headache and hire a professional, you will not be sorry!

Me: Do you have any advetising tips you can share? 

Phyllis: My biggest advertising tip is very simple, write and distribute a newsworthy press release at least 3 times a year.  There are many reasons for a press release such as a new product, a giveaway,  or perhaps you are participating in a celebrity gift basket (shameless plug)!  Your main goal is to start to get people talking about your product.  Don’t be afraid to step outside of the box.  If you are passionate about what you are doing or what you have created, don’t be afraid to shout about it because you never know who will be listening!

Phyllis Pometta
Founder/CEO
Baby Swags- http://www.babyswags.com -Marketing/PR for the WAHM

Anyone and everyone who has an email address has received SPAM. I can’t stand email spam or canned spam and when either one is placed in front of me, I have to say a prayer on the givers behalf. Seriously.

It didn’t take me long to learn what was appropriate and inappropriate when finding leads and prospects.

Here are some do’s and don’ts:

• Always ask yourself, did this person give me their email address for this purpose?

If you are a part of a forum, Yahoo! group or any other community, where you interact with others, you will receive various emails for various things. If someone in that Yahoo! group is asking about children’s clothing and you sell candles, why would you email them about your candle business opportunity? Its like going to a store and asking for the shoe section and someone sends you to a coat rack. You would wonder about the saleman’s mental state, I would.

• Did they ask you for that information?

If the answer to these 2 questions is NO, then don’t email them. You will end up either being reported for SPAMMING or leave a bad impression of yourself on them, usually both.

What impression are you leaving when you spam? You look desperate. Even if you are hoping and praying that someone will please sign up for your business this instant so that you can finally move up director of the month, don’t act like it. People can tell when someone is successful in a business, why would someone who is successful have to throw themselves at people? They don’t.

You don’t see rich people picking up pennies off the sidewalk. Why? Because they don’t need them.

You have something to offer that will change people’s lives. Either your product or your business opportunity will make someones day better, you have to convince people of this. But, there is a way to do it.

Ways to advertise on the “low key”:

• In your email signature. You can put links, pictures, basically whatever you want in your email signature and it goes out with every email.
• In your profiles. Wherever you register online they usually ask for a (WWW) or homepage, put your website address in it. Nosey people will click it, I know I do…..
• In you signature in forums and message boards. Goes under every post you make. Same as email signature.
• On your car. Goes everywhere you go, duh!
• In blog comments. When you leave a comment on a blog, it usually asks for a (URL) put your website address.

What should you link to?

Link to a page on your website that gives people something to do. People do click on links, but that won’t get you sales. You have to capture their information. I have a free candle drawing page I link to: Here.

In order to qualify for the drawing participants have to give: Name, email, phone number, mailing address and how they found my page. Great marketing  tool. I’ll tell what I do with them later.

You can link to newsletter subscription forms, Splash pages, your online store, etc. Link to pages that get people to take action. No one wants to read about your company history just yet, you have to “Woo and Ahhh” them first and then they will want to know more. Just tell them what your business is about, what you sell and how they can earn an income doing what you do. Short and sweet, but informative.

Splash pages- I like them a little, I am still trying to get used to them. I personally get mad when someone has a link that says: “Learn about my business!” and sends me to a page with very little information about said business but want all of my information or else I can’t learn more. I feel violated…. So, I usually Google in the company name and go from there. I do my research before I give them information. I don’t want people calling me about something I have no idea about. This is just my opinion, but I think most can agree on this.

I had a Splash page and out of about 10 leads, 1 answered my phone calls. You have to be getting hundreds of leads to your Splash page in order to see much progress. If you get hundreds of leads a day or week, then a Splash page may work for you.

What do I say in my link? It depends on what you link to. I usually say “Win a free candle!” or “Free candle here” or something along those lines. If you are advertising your business opportuntiy, I usually put “Work from home selling candles” or a nice quote like “Everyone is on a path, where it leads is up to us”.

If you don’t have a “lead capture” page. You can usually get one for about $20 a month. I have heard great things about Aweber, but there are more out there. Just Google in “autoresponders” and “splash pages”.

Make sure you provide the leads with enough business information on your capture page. Don’t lead them along blindly. Because if they find out what you have to offer is not right for them, they will ignore your emails, phone calls and trash your letters. Wasted money and time which could have been avoided if they had known what your business was in the first place.

Disclaimer- all views and opinions expressed on this blog are just that, opinions.

Next post

~What to do with lead information?

Here are some more ways to get you name out there.

Giveaways- I love doing giveaways on blogs and websites! I have learned a lot about how to do these and where to do these.

Basic guideline:

• How much can I afford to giveaway a month? $20 worth of product or $10 worth of product?
• What am I going to do with the leads this will generate? Send samples, call, email, etc.
• How will I get the participant’s information? I need emails at the very least.
• How will I get them to my website to look at my products?
• Does this website or blog get nice traffic? $20 is a lot to giveaway for just 3 participants, it has to even out.

Since 1 jar candle is worth $20 in retail value, I am essentially paying $20 for this giveaway. I say about 30 participants is nice outcome. I am paying around $20 for 30 leads that I know love candles.

I usually offer a free  scnet sample in the scent of their choice. They email me with the scent they want and I now have: email, address and phone number of all 30 leads.

 I can almost bet they will purchase from me in the future, most are extremely glad to get a sample and can’t wait to smell them. I am getting my name out to places all over America for a small price. And most websites/blogs will leave your contest in the archives for years so the advertising essentially never ends.

This is MY winner in getting leads, but yours may be different depeding on your product.

Here is a list of 118 ways to advertise offline you can look at it for more ideas. The 3 I discussed are the most popular and the ones I have the most knowledge about. As I go along I will give my 25 cents worth on different ways to advetise.

I know we all know that in order to have a successful business we have to let people know about it. We have to tell everyone we see, email, call, exchange money with, do our home repairs, etc. We must never miss an opportunity to advertise!

But, are the people you talk to day in and day out, looking for your business? Example, if you sell bears, is the man who just fixed your toilet and has 15 more toilets to fix by 5:00 pm, really thinking about a teddy bear right now? No, probably not. I mean you may get a call from his wife or aunt but, come on who can build a business on that? You need solid leads.

You can get solid leads many ways. They can be cheap, free, or expensive. If you Google in leads- in my case, candle leads, lots of lead companies will appear, all claiming to deliver me fresh  inexpensive leads that will sky rocket my buisness. Aren’t I glad!?! For $75-$100 I can build a team of 20+ people over night! Then I woke up.

Buying leads can be really tricky business, there are lots of lead companies that want your business. You should make sure to ask your sponsor, upline or mentor (whichever one you have) if they use leads and which ones work for them. I would NEVER buy leads without checking them out first. If you don’t have $75-100 to waste, don’t buy them. There is no gaurantee that people will call you back, no matter how fresh the lead is or how reputable the company is. Do your research and if you can’t afford to flush $75 down the drain, find a cheaper route.

Placing ads- This is basically trial and error. You have to find out what you can afford. Offline ads via newspapers, newsletters, or vaious flyers can be expensive. Here are some questions you can ask the owners of these newspapers and varoius circulars:

• How many readers do you have? Ask about their subscribers, if they don’t have subscribers, ask for the number of places they leave their information.
• What is the cost per line, word or paragraph?
• How many other work at home opporuntites do you already have in your paper? You don’t want to get lost in the shuffle.
• Where will my ad be located? If its somewhere at the bottom of the last page next to an ad for psychics, please pass. Not worth a dime.

Make sure you find out what other companies are also advertising in that particular paper. If there are more than 20 other companies in a small, 10 page paper, you will probably get lost in the shuffle unless you are at the top or have a border and bold writing.

This type of adversing can be pricey. I tend to lean towards small papers that cost about $5-10 an ad and run for 2 weeks or so. They are out there, you just have to look for them.

Online advertsing- Placing buttons and banners on websites. I follow the same criteria as above. I ask for their stats. How many hits do they get a day? Unique visitors? I ask the same questions for blogs and websites.

If they get a large amount of hits a day, I am talking hundreds, I still don’t pay more than $20 per month. Thousands, I won’t pay more than $40 a month. I know, to some this is cheap, but there are other less expensive options and my money doesn’t grow on trees.

If there are lots of other buttons and banners all over their website, I don’t even bother. Think of it this way, what is going to make my button stick out? Nothing. I would rather be somewhere clean and less cluttered = less competition and more hits. New websites and blogs are great for this, I am constantly searching for fresh blogs that have almost no advertising, these websites usually charge $5, which is in my budget.

I go for family friendly sites where moms usually hang out. That is where my product and business fit in. So if you sell s - e- x toys, I wouldn’t suggest you advertise on these sites….just saying. Your target market would be a bit different of course. Try blogs and websites targeted towards marriage and dating, you would get more hits on those.

I’ll have more advertising tips next post~