How to sell ethnic gift products & Incense on Facebook (and get more buyers)
You got a Facebook page with a few hundreds likes, but you don’t know if it’s worth continuing it and how to engage your fans to become customers? I do! And you will, too, very soon! So let’s dive in:
Images, Images, Images!
That’s what counts when you’re dealing with Social Media.
Instagram and Pinterest only exist through graphics.
You can do even more on Facebook.
So let’s begin!
Keep it as short and simple as possible:
- Make your picture clear and compelling. No fuss.
(But DO NOT just take a plain boring picture from the easiest angle. If you really don’t know how to take compelling pictures, find someone who can. They have to be good – but that doesn’t have to be expensive!)
- Make sure that your picture has the right size.
(The general size for Facebook is either 940x788px or 800x800px for squares. But don’t worry, your best pictures-for-facebook-maker-tool “Canva” is always up to date.)
- Have a good and short description. Choose a great caption to go along with it.
Tired of winter? It’s already spring time in our shop! 🙂
- Share at the right time (planned posts: best times are between 8-9 in the morning and 7-9 in the evening) and share your content several days in a row (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday).
- If you’re shouting out a reduced price: show the usual price as well.
- Make it funny. Make it geeky. Nerdy. Something happy, something colorful. What have you got, that’s real trendy?
Don’t put up anything. Be the one who stands out.
It must be your best product, Yoda says!
Give away: share, like or comment to win
The goal here is to engage your users and to get more fans through the engagement.
The key to this is to ask them questions and encourage them to make comments or share your posts (the best option).
Questions could be like these:
Let us know why you should win this product which of these products would you prefer to give to your friends as a gift? Comment and win your favourite product!
Which one of these Incense fragrances is your favourite? Are you Rose or Jasmine? Sandalwood or Nag Champa?
Another way to get specific shares is, to have giveaway’s with two things: one for the person who comments and one for a friend who gets mentioned in the comment.
You’ll get bests results, if you announce your give-away through a video and then with pictures in the days to follow.
If you are launching a new product, you could also ask your customers for ideas on how to call it.
A great idea is also to give some things away, that are really for free. But they have something, that will bring back your customers. You could make a wall calendar – which you’ll give away for free – that includes fantastic pictures of your products.
But each month will also have a reduction code, which is only valid for that month, on one range of products, preferably the one shown in the picture. This will make remind your customers to come back every month.
If you have a local shop, you could also offer free workshops.
„Make your own Christmas tree decoration from colourful Indian glass beads“.
Do not just give away one item. Give away 7 – one for every day in the week. This makes sure, that people will come back again. Didn’t win yesterday? Today’s another chance!
Competitions
Competitions are giveaways, where fans will have to attribute something in order to win one of your products or a coupon. The theme would really depend on your unique business. It could be a photography contest, if you sell clothes (who’s having the best look with your clothes on!?) or the most beautiful Buddha statue arrangement in their garden. Or, if you sell shells and other natural materials, who made the best jewelry. Then everyone sends his entries and all fans can vote – the one with the most votes is the winner. Participants will try to get as many fans for their picture as possible, and will therefore bring new fans.
Discounts / Promotion codes
They’ll get a discount, just for being a fan, which others won’t. This could also drive them to your e-mail newsletter. This can be done for almost any occasion, but holidays and gift season work best. But if you got products, that have a high peak on certain dates, such as Myrrh Incense on Christmas, or the Rose of Jericho plants on Easter and Christmas, you could just make a reduction a few weeks ahead of the date.
Flash Sale / Bundle Offers
Flash Sales are sales for a short period of time, with a high reduction. Perfect to get rid of overstocks. Or if you think, that some trendy items will soon not be so trendy any more. Or if your competitor has now got the same products for a cheaper price, and you just want to make the final sales. In these cases, bundles can also make sense, so that you’ll get more space faster. Don’t just sell each package of Incense at 40%. Sell 5 packages of Incense and two Incense Holders. And some charcoal.
Buy one get one free offers / Buy two get random one for free
This is especially great to get rid of overstocks or when your wholeseller just had an amazing offer, say, if you bought 1000 boxes of Nag Champa Incense 😉 Just say: „Buy any two kinds of Incense from our „Papillon Premium Incense – The Search Is Over“ Range, and you’ll get one box of Nag Champa for free! (only valid for on week, so hurry up!).
Monthly give away to all your newsletter subscribers
Each month, five subscribers are chosen and they will get either a product for free, shipped to their home (if you’re an online shop), can pick it up at your store (if you got a local store or sell at markets) OR they’ll receive a coupon to redeem, worth 15.00€ or something (an amount that will attract them to buy a little bit more than just this amount).
Tell a friend and get rewarded!
Mention a friend in the comments and we’ll give you something for free at your next order. Or a 2.00€ discount coupon. Or the chance to win something really awesome.
Partner up to create something even bigger
Work together with other shops that offer somewhat similar, but not quite the same stuff. Or people who offer services. For example, if you sell high quality expensive Singing Bowls, you could team up with a person who teaches yoga. You wouldn’t interfere in business, as you don’t sell the same thing, but you got the same customer base, most probably. You’ll get together and make a give away in which people can win something from each of you – but they’ll have to like both of your Facebook pages.
Sponsor Fan Page Giveaway’s in your niche
There are plenty of people whom are very passionate about something. Games. Incense. Hippie lifestyle. They probably even blog about it – on Facebook. They want their posts to be read. And you want some new audience. So there’s a good chance for an exchange. You offer them a good amount of things or coupons to give away. And in exchange, they will have a contest on their page. Plenty of new people will see your page. And if you can, make it mandatory that only people who like your Facebook page can win your coupon. Check on Google who’s a guru in your niche and who’s got a good going Facebook page. Or look among your own fans.
Spotlight your clients
People want to be seen. And they deserve it, too. Maybe you got some customers, who apply the products that you sell in a nice way. I have a customer who sells all kinds of different plants, the Rose of Jericho is only one of them. He sold a few plants to a local coffee store – and he made a picture of the arrangement in that store and posted it on his wall, mentioning the awesome store. That’s advertisement for you and your customer. Because they will like, that you shared them!
Don’t forget to use the statistics: if something worked extraordinarily well, repeat it – with a small twist.
You can easily check where your website visitors came from with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.
And finally don’t forget: every journey starts with the first step. It won’t be perfect from the start on. But you’ll learn. So just start – now!
PS: some short advice geeky internet advice: place your products next to cats.
The internet loves cats. And please send me the picture afterwards. Give it a try, come on!
Need help with your social media marketing? I’m here to help – let’s discuss your plans and ideas.
I’ll give you 20 minutes of phone or e-mail consultation for free. It’s worth it.
Just send me a message.