The beginning of a long journey!

[mosdef]

Hi, I launched my product about a week ago, so far i made sales for about 300 dollars, without any marketing at all. Its mainly thru a market and from people hearing about the my product.

I sell mainly on etsy and a site much like craiglist in sweden.

Thinking of starting selling on ebay and amazon also but problem i feel about etsy, ebay and amazon is that for me to ship to rest of europe or the world is so expensive from sweden. Thus buyers from other countries in EU rather buy from there.

This is a product i create on my own. Im thinking of launching more product to my brand but dont know if i first should focus on marketing and selling more of the product i have or launch more products.

What are your opinions? Where should i go from here? I know the sales part is the toughest part.

Thanks to this forum and MJ, few months ago i couldnt imagine creating and selling my own product. Thank you very much guys. This is a big step for me

 

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[PureA]

Social media should always be leveraged, and/or paid advertising if your margins allow. This could also provide some momentum if your product is great.

 

[mosdef]

Social media should always be leveraged, and/or paid advertising if your margins allow. This could also provide some momentum if your product is great.

Almost the customer i sold to are happy with the products, only got good feedback, so i think the products is good, could be better and will try to make it even better.

Im totally new to this and thought i just launch and learn as i go

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Hi, I launched my product about a week ago, so far i made sales for about 300 dollars, without any marketing at all. Its mainly thru a market and from people hearing about the my product.

Seems like you validated your idea. This is very important!

I sell mainly on etsy and a site much like craiglist in sweden.

What about Norway, Finland and Denmark. Start with expanding here and move on to the following:

Thinking of starting selling on ebay and amazon also but problem i feel about etsy, ebay and amazon is that for me to ship to rest of europe or the world is so expensive from sweden. Thus buyers from other countries in EU rather buy from there.

I don't know what your target market is, but I guess you need to figure out a way to ship inexpensively all over the world. Otherwise, you will have a scaling problem very soon.

This is a product i create on my own. Im thinking of launching more product to my brand but dont know if i first should focus on marketing and selling more of the product i have or launch more products.

Focus on sales & marketing. Have you looked into buying traffic? What about campaigns or specific partnerships?

Congrats on your progress so far!

 

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[mosdef]

So focus on sales and marketing. I only sell on etsy and the craiglist like site in my homecountry. So anyone has experience on marketing Etsy? Some problems im facing with etsy is that not many people use it in my country and when we are competing against us and some countries in europe the prices is very low. And i would have to lower the price so much.

 

[Gale4rc]

I would suggest definitely building a website with something like shopify and selling on their as well.

The new problem will be driving traffic to your website because it wont have a built in market place like craigslist/etsy - The reward will be much higher though.

 

[Destined]

Hi, I launched my product about a week ago, so far i made sales for about 300 dollars, without any marketing at all. Its mainly thru a market and from people hearing about the my product.

I sell mainly on etsy and a site much like craiglist in sweden.

Thinking of starting selling on ebay and amazon also but problem i feel about etsy, ebay and amazon is that for me to ship to rest of europe or the world is so expensive from sweden. Thus buyers from other countries in EU rather buy from there.

This is a product i create on my own. Im thinking of launching more product to my brand but dont know if i first should focus on marketing and selling more of the product i have or launch more products.

What are your opinions? Where should i go from here? I know the sales part is the toughest part.

Thanks to this forum and MJ, few months ago i couldnt imagine creating and selling my own product. Thank you very much guys. This is a big step for me

You just launched, a week ago. For sure focus on selling and distributing more of the same product. Try finding partners that can help you reach more of the audience, that you are selling to. Creating another product, will just distract you from making more sales, of this product. Down the line when this product starts to not sell, then launch another product.

 

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[mosdef]

You just launched, a week ago. For sure focus on selling and distributing more of the same product. Try finding partners that can help you reach more of the audience, that you are selling to. Creating another product, will just distract you from making more sales, of this product. Down the line when this product starts to not sell, then launch another product.

Thanks will try to sell more of my already made product! The product im thinking of launching will be released under same brand. To be able to offer more products to my customers.

Im thinking of setting a goal for sales, lets say 500 dollars, and when i hit 500 dollars in profit i use the money to build a website.

 

[DennisD]

This is a product i create on my own. Im thinking of launching more product to my brand but dont know if i first should focus on marketing and selling more of the product i have or launch more products.

Focus on making the most of what you already have up there now.

 

[Silverhawk851]

Sell more.

 

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[Andy Black]

Can you make a machine that sells that first product consistently, without too much input from you to keep it going? Flywheel like?

Then focus on getting more people into your funnel, and increasing the LTV per visitor.

 

[mosdef]

Can you make a machine that sells that first product consistently, without too much input from you to keep it going? Flywheel like?

Then focus on getting more people into your funnel, and increasing the LTV per visitor.

at the moment i only have to create the product and ship it. Thats all i need to do. If i sell more and get more money i can think of ways to make that go on auto.

So selling is the toughest part, and to be able to sell it people has to know about my product. So i know nothing about this, i will launch a instagram and pinterest account, even thou i dont think pinterest is big in my country. Any other ways, any tips for cheap ways to market your product?

 

[mosdef]

last night one customer ordered my product on saturday, i saw that the adress was near to my town so instead of shipping it im going to drive it out and let the customer get the product on a sunday

Thanks MJ for tips on service

 

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[Gale4rc]

So selling is the toughest part, and to be able to sell it people has to know about my product. So i know nothing about this, i will launch a instagram and pinterest account, even thou i dont think pinterest is big in my country. Any other ways, any tips for cheap ways to market your product?

Who's your exact target customer? The better you describe them, the better I can give you some tactics

 

[mosdef]

Who's your exact target customer? The better you describe them, the better I can give you some tactics

Men that care about there appearance, men that take care of them selfs

 

[Gale4rc]

Men that care about there appearance, men that take care of them selfs

So then yes Pinterest is going to work for you , even though it's mainly women on there.

And Instagram will work for you too but, the only way to track those sales will be with a coupon code.


For pinterest:
Get started by creating a theme board for your brand and other boards pinning other stuff.
After you have your own board, use a website like pingroupie.com to join pinterest groups where you can pin stuff too and it will give you a small audience to connect with over time.
The main thing with pinterest is that there is no quick fix for winning this social network, it takes time and hard work - There's a lot of guides online for getting started, I would suggest reading a couple

For Instagram
Again, upload at least 6 images that look really good and then I would suggest using instagress.com (paid tool) to help you automatically like and favorite on peoples photos in certain hashtags like [HASHTAG]#mensfashion[/HASHTAG]
This should help you gain a following of around 1k+ real followers/mo
The funner your instagram theme / not just straight product sales shots, the more people are likely to follow. Make them want to follow because it's entertaining, not because you have an ok product? Think Redbull, people don't follow them to look at an energy drink.


I would really suggest starting a blog on the side and interviewing some mens fashion people and building a relationship with them. After you build the relationship with them they are very likely to link to your store on their website.

Another tactic that I used myself was sending out free product. Find some mens fashion blogs that are high traffic and then email them and ask if they would be interested in trying out your product for free. This is a good way to get cheap advertising (just the cost of your product + shipping) and building traffic over time.

Also there are a lot of mens fashion forums on the web, I would suggest joining them and becoming active in the communities that allow you to have signature. Your goal with this is not to spam your product but, to become a contributing member and having people check out your website because of the value you've already brought them.

 

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[mosdef]

wow thanks for your amazing answer!!! You wont happen to run a etsy shop? Man that place is hard to sell on!

 

[Gale4rc]

wow thanks for your amazing answer!!! You wont happen to run a etsy shop? Man that place is hard to sell on!

I have and I quit to start a startup - It's definitely hard to sell there but its hard to sell anywhere

The one thing that i've learned throughout these real years of marketing / grind is that you have to love and live for the grind.

You can make your store be successful by driving visitors there yourself and not relying on their market place.

Every relevant pin on Pinterest is a chance to leave a meaningful comment, get someone interested in your brand and check you out
Same with instagram, tumblr, and other social networks.

A blog might be a good way to reach a broader audience as well depending on your experience

Just know that the inches you need are everywhere around you and it's up to you to grind for every one.

Spend a full day just grinding on pinterest, watch the results
spend a full day on instagram, watch the results
spend a full day commenting on relevant blogs, watch the results

keep testing improving and finding out what works for you but spend the time on the grind.

The only silver bullet is the time you put in every day.

 

[mosdef]

instagram and pinterest up and running!

 

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[mosdef]

just got one order from instagram 1 hour later

One thing that worries me is that when i link my etsy page on instagram customers can directly browse Etsy and find competitors, am i leading them to buy from others or does still raise my chance to get orders? Hope you understand what i mean?

 

[mosdef]

was afraid of starting my own progress thread but its time to do it.

Today i started to look at changed my product a little bit, its maybe going to cost me 850 dollars, but when finished i will have a product i can sell to females aswell = expanding my targets by much!

started to look at how i can go about this but end up in a jungle of info and end up with headache and tired as hell.

Lesson: Take a 15 minutes break and clear your head and focus on the main thing. Now i have been researching for 10 hours my eyes are tired as hell!

 

[mosdef]

Things to do today:

Talked to a desginer friend about making the label : He agreed to do it for free!

Decide about size and price about the new product and here i have to make some tough choices.

hustle som instagram and pinterest for promoting my existing product!

 

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[mosdef]

So guys im talking to a retailer about selling my product.

She answered my email and had these questions for me :

I would like to know more about the brand, what are your plans regarding your brand? More products, where are you planing on selling it?

We are taking our brand seriously, and know how important it is to build and take care of your brand. We are in the process of creating more product to our range. But we dont that to spit our products just to have much products, we want it be something we are proud of. In the future we are going to expand to other niches also, our plans is to provide quality products for females aswell.

Price? For us and for the customers?

150kr(swedish currency) for the customer. And we are thinking 75kr for you.

We want this to be a longtime relationship, we want to grow end establish ourselves together with you.



So the black text is her questions to me and the red is my answers to her, what do you guys think?
Is it to little to only charge them 50% of the customer price? This means that im going to profit 7 dollars each produkt we sell to them.

Please critique my answers to her, the good and the bad? First time im doing this!

 

[mosdef]

Send a few samples to the reseller hopefully they think our product is good enough

Contacted another seller and tomorrow im going on a meeting with people who probably can help me get a mentor. Lets se what happens.

its F*cking hard to sell

 

[mosdef]

been working my instagram and pinterest pretty hard last days. Getting more followers but its going slow!

 

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