Deja Letov
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Posts posted by Deja Letov
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Rya Nitely wrote:[2013/06/05 01:30] Rya Nitely: Thank you for your purchase. Please let me know if you have any problems with it
[2013/06/05 01:31] Customer: Awesome. A creator that's actually helpful to his customers. :smileyvery-happy:But alright, I'll let you know if I have any problems.[2013/06/05 01:32] Rya Nitely: cool, good feedback thereSo, this customer was actually surprised I spoke to him. This tells me it mustn't happen to him often.
That's gonna happen a lot. I don't do it all the time but I try at least a few times a week to send my "thank you' notecard to my MP customers when they order something. I don't get everyone but I go back maybe a day or two and send to them. The messages I get back are always full of surprise that I would even bother to contact them. I've met some awesome people and made some great friends just by saying thank you.
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Perrie Juran wrote:TatianaDokuchic Varriale wrote:
That's interesting, Deja. I also sell furniture, prefabs etc. and I find that my sales are evenly split between inworld & the MP. I have everything on display inworld and yet I would guess that half my customers buy from the MP without checking it out "live" so to speak.If I am buying on the Market Place the odds are I have seen the item somewhere In World and either asked the owner where they got it or checked the object for who the creator is and have followed the trail to a store. So even if I have never been to your store In World it does not mean I haven't seen the item there.It is very rare for me to buy something that I have not actually seen In World unless I have already been persuaded that a Merchant produces quality products.I shop the same was as the martian. Love to find things in world and then locate it in world. I really prefer to buy in world even if I do happen to find it on the MP. I think it supports SL better, puts more money into the creators hands and really promotes what SL was meant to be in the first place.
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Czari Zenovka wrote:/slight derail onI just have to comment on your sim/s, Tatiana. I spent an enjoyable afternoon in your sim awhile back. It is GORGEOUS!!! I've said this before, but I enjoy atmospheres that incorporate what is sold into them and you have done that so elegantly. I even saw an apartment I would love to live in but I don't want to give up my current parcel and can't financially justify two places in SL. But if I ever have to leave where I'm living - I'm making a beeline to your sim./slight derail off
Ditto...I've been too...though it's been awhile and it's so lovely.
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TatianaDokuchic Varriale wrote:Deja Letov wrote:But being furniture most people like to try before they buy, so they mainly come into the store. But I'd love to learn some new ways to increase MP sales even higher aside from good photos, good descriptions, good keywords, etc. Aside from just good general listing techniques how can we market our MP stores better?
That's interesting, Deja. I also sell furniture, prefabs etc. and I find that my sales are evenly split between inworld & the MP. I have everything on display inworld and yet I would guess that half my customers buy from the MP without checking it out "live" so to speak.As for increasing MP sales, I believe that the use of social media (blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc. as mentioned earlier in this thread) probably results in sending more people to my MP store than the one inworld.As for marketing in general, selling in a niche market (French Antiques for me) can be an interesting challenge in itself. I support my role-play community in a number of ways including running a social networking site which benefits the community at large as well as the merchants, landowners, etc. within it. I've found that having community support can make a big difference to the "little guys" of a niche market.Yes mine are split right down the middle to, I was speaking mainly about when I send my weekly newsletter and happen to have a new release, my current customers like to come into the store and try it out first and then buy it. I can tell because when I do a new release, it never fails, MP sales for it are usually new customers for the most part and in world sales are current or repeat customers. I really don't get too many of them buying on the MP even if I include a link in the newsletter.
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Rya...I'm just replying from your post but this isn't just for you, but I'm curious from a marketing perspective, what some good marketing techniques would even consist of for the MP. I guess they would be including MP links and such in my notecard which I am already doing. Like when I do a new release I send out the details along with a MP link and my LM. But being furniture most people like to try before they buy, so they mainly come into the store. But I'd love to learn some new ways to increase MP sales even higher aside from good photos, good descriptions, good keywords, etc. Aside from just good general listing techniques how can we market our MP stores better?
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Rya Nitely wrote:So here's my conclude -Active and regular marketing probably has a significant impact on the level of sales you get inworld because it helps establish a loyal customer base. But it doesn't help MP sales that much. Deja, your primary focus is on your inworld store. But for me, because 80 to 90% of my sales are MP that is where my focus lies. I work on increasing and improving my MP listings. My inworld store, although very expensive, is not what brings in the money.But I do see your point, increasing inworld sales would be a huge boost in profit - because inworld customers are more likely to go on a spending spree.
Most definitely! I do focus much more on my in world sales, although right now they are about 50/50. I've tried making in world higher but I just can't do it. too many people are using the MP search these days. But I think you're right that people who shop on the MP aren't loyal to your brand necessarily...they are choosing what comes up in the search, especially when it comes to new customers. I'm guilty of it myself actually...though I tend to do more purchasing in world than on the MP...even if I first find it on the MP.
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Darn it I found it right after I hit post. here is the link to that thread I mentioned above with ths survey results.
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/Survey-Says/m-p/1650645/highlight/true#M26578
What I love about this was that Word of Mouth and Hunts were my top 3 answers for how people found me. Both due to my marketing.
I may run this again because my marketing methods have changed, for instance I no longer sponsor events...at least not that often. i was doing that quite a bit back then but wasn't getting very much in the way result.
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Rya Nitely wrote:thanks Deja, my partner and I consistently make around 350K a month, of this 64K goes to tier and the rest we split. November and December 2012 were down for us too - these were our worst months in 2 years. But besides this, our profits have been fairly steady for about two years - so, I believe that without creating new items it would decrease.I would love to have an assistant but I prefer not to pay anyone for work I can do myself. Although it does take time. Today I spent a few hours just fixing MP listings. I also have so many items in my inworld store that are not yet listed on MP - I'm working on this too because that's lost money right there. I have so many ideas for new creations if I could only find time to make them.And my rl work sucks - all social networking pages are blocked, including this forum
Because of this thread, I am now starting to ask customers how they found my inworld store (but only If I get a chance to talk to them without being intrusive). So far, the answer is always MP or I bought from here before, but I haven't asked that many yet.I know people also find me by seeing my items inworld because over the years we've been told this often.Now here is an interesting experiment - I'm looking at my MP Orders - Transaction History, and there I'm looking at my customers by clicking on the name. This brings up a record of every item the customer purchased from me on MP. This is a good indication of whether you have regular customers or not. The vast majority of my customers are not regulars. It's first or second purchases. So this tells me that I don't have a regular customer base. I often hear people saying 'my customers tell me this or that'. I don't have the same customers, it's different people all the time - but a constant flow of them so that it gives us a regular income.Facebook is not for me, and I'm pretty sure nobody visits our blog, but I am going to give hunts one more go and keep a visitor list and then track down those people to see.Thansk for your explanation. It's great to share experiences.
Totally agree with you that without new items it would decrease. I'm always putting out new items...I guess that's the benefit of having an assistant and "store reps" greeting people. I don't have to do that so I can be up in my skybox building. I guess I've just found a happy medium for both.
I tried finding it but couldn't, but awhile back...sometime last year I think, I posted a thread about a test I did with a survey in my store asking people how they found my main store. I'm gonna look for it again and see if I can post the thread here but the results were really interesting! Some are probably gonna laugh at this but I prefer NOT to get sales on the MP. I'm always contacting my MP customers, sending them a quick Thank you, asking them to join our subscription group and inviting them into our store. It really helps to build that loyalty when they come into the store and I try not to be one of those shopkeepers that never talks to customers.
What's interesting too, is that you noticed that most of your sales are not regular customers. Imagine what would happen if they were!
Facebook isn't for everyone...and honestly, in the grand scheme of things probably isn't all that important. It was just one of the things I do so I listed it. There is a certain crowd that follows it, but the majorty of my customers are not on it.
And yes most definitely I love sharing experiences. There are more than one way to skin a cat!
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Czari Zenovka wrote:I know several merchants who have large stores and hire "assistants" which is pretty much the same thing as what you are asking, if I'm understanding you correctly. Depending on the store owner, what duties the assistant/s have varies. Some stay in the store during set hours or during a special event to greet customers and answer questions. Others handle updating the store blog. Some may handle setting new items to sell, leaving the owner with more free time to design new items. Some do a combination of all of the above.Most of the merchants I know with assistants were either friends with the assistant prior or the assistant was a regular customer who got to know the merchant. Once in a great while I have seen ads on the forums for a sales rep./assistant.
That's pretty much what mine do. I have 3 "assistants" who are just in my stores, greet people, suggest products when asked and are just sort of "there". then i have a 4th who does my blogging, facebooking, and some greeting. To me, it's just a friendly face and a go between man when I'm not available.
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Oh also...let me be clear, when I say I spend a lot of time on Facebook, I don't mean for SL. I'm just a FB junkie in general and 99% of it has nothing to do with Sl..other than if I see someone post something to my business page, I will respond to it if my assistant hasn't already. I mainly stated that to show how junkified I am to it, and others are too so it's a good medium to target.
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Madeliefste Oh wrote:Deja Letov wrote:I saw "we" above, because my assistant actually does most of it for me which is why I can still only spend an hour a week on marketing. I'm all about working smarter, not harder. I don't do blog posts myself. She does them all. She also does most of the FB posts too.
And how many hours a week does she spend on your marketing?She writes one blog post and one facebook post a week. Occassionally if I have new release in the middle of the week and I don't want her to wait til the weekly newsletter she might do one additional. So maybe 20-30 minutes. It's pretty quick cause she grabs most of the copy from my marketplace listings. The nice thing is...it doesn't matter because I pay her the same weekly amount no matter what.
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Rya Nitely wrote:Deja Letov wrote:
I saw a several hundred real dollar difference when I did nothing. So ya, i'd work an extra 3-5 hours per month to see a couple hundred extra dollars in my real world pocket.Well, now that is just amazing . If I could get a couple hundred extra dollars in SL for 3 to 5 hours extra work a month then I say YES :smileyvery-happy:Perhaps getting the ball rolling would be the hard work because all the things you mention would take time for me - I've done some of it in the past but not for long enough to see the results you get. One day I would like to find out exactly how it works.- How does facebook get people to actually buy your stuff? I mean, I check out what people here sell all the time but it's just curiosity :smileyembarrassed:.
- How do you get people to actually take an interest in your blog so that they visit it regularly?
- And people who come to the hunts seem to just grab and go, and never return.
- And yeah, I have a group but I just don't like to send people things. To me it feels like spam but that's just me - I don't like people sending me things.
Maybe your items are just amazing, and that's great, but I don't think I could create such a strong fan club for my items - although I believe spending more time on my skills and creations will bring me closer.I recently looked at my most recent MP customers in order transaction history, and the majority of customers have only bought once or twice - so it isn't that people know me.But yet I do well enough - I pay tier for 2 sims, my partner depends on his SL earnings for RL expenses, and I do most of my RL shopping online with SL money.So for me the 'build it and they will come' method works. Although, this method only works if there is a demand for what you sell - not if you have to coax customers.But Deja, I will say again I'm very impressed at how well marketing works for you. You have planted the seed in my head - an extra $US200 a month without much more effort :smileytongue:Ok let me try to answer some of your questions and throw some numbers at ya too. I'm just writing these nubmers out, but if you'd like to see actual charts from my tracking software, Ill be happy to post em, just so ya know I ain't pulling any legs here.
Facebook marketing...Ok I admit I am a FB junkie. I mean I'm on that stuff constantly while I'm at work LOL ssshhh don't tell my boss. Seriously though, I know there are others like me. LOTS of others. Facebook is just one of the ways I keep in contact with them so take that into mind as well. Basically my facebook and blog work together. We do our longer more detailed posts on the blog and then link back to them from Facebook. For example...if I have a new release, we will post pics and detailed descriptions on my blog. But then on facebook you might see "hey check out our new release" and it links to the blog. We use FB to post contests, to announce sales, etc. People read the weekend sales stuff and head on over to the store. The cool thing is...people who like our FB page and posts...they share those on their own FB pages so other SL people see those and then they come to the store or at least over to our FB page.
I saw "we" above, because my assistant actually does most of it for me which is why I can still only spend an hour a week on marketing. I'm all about working smarter, not harder. I don't do blog posts myself. She does them all. She also does most of the FB posts too.
As for hunts...I have a lot of success with them. I also get a ton of purchases from them. My software that I use to track sales, I can see everyone who picks up a hunt gift and then I can see their purchases they made AFTER they picked that item up. Mostly I'm interested in if they have never bought from me before, did they buy something from me after they came through on a hunt. I posted results from one hunt awhile back and I had several thousand in sales from hunts.
As far as the groups go, it's not spam to them because they ask for it. I have two groups. One is a basic subscription kiosk type group. They choose to sign up for it and can unsubscribe at any time so why not send to them if that's what they want? And the second group is a pay to join group which is my VIP group, where they get a free gift every month. I will tell you..my VIP group is awesome. The sales from those people is awesome!
Now...just to give you an idea on exactly how much marketing makes a difference. It's actually far better than what you might think. I know I said a few hundred dollars, but let me show you EXACTLY what we're talking about here.
In December I mentioned I had a baby. So I basically did nothing for marketing towards the end of November through about January. My total sales was 170,986 for the month of December. Now, take last month, where I spent on average 1 hour per week doing my normal things of sending out newsletters, posting to FB and blog posts, etc. My sales for last month was 308,546. That's a difference of 137,560L. Right now if I go try to cash out 137,560L that's over $500. To me...those couple of hours are totally worth that.
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Rya Nitely wrote:Deja Letov wrote:I think it's especially important if you are a new business and don't have the customer base to backup your ignoring the marketing part of business.
Now when I think of a new business, I think of an individual who hasn't been around long enough to have a great range of items or skills. Should this person really be spending precious time on marketing? If their items are few and of average quality then I would be advising them to work on their skills and collection. Otherwise it's like Medhue put it... 'like trying to get somewhere on a stationary bike'.For someone in your description who doesn't have items or skills...well obviously they shouldn't spend time marketing and ya I'd probably recommend sharpening their buidling skills first. But why would someone even consider marketing if their stuff is either crap or just not enough of it? but I don't think of a "new business" person in the same way you do. I just don't think that's the majority of people who would actually consider marketing. If someone is considering marketing, they most likely have a product range and know enough about SL and creating that they feel they can market effective. I think the description you're giving is the worst case scenario and it would be common sense not to try to market craptastic products.
But I don't believe in the whole "build it and they will come" theory. It doesn't always work and even if it does...it will be harder and take longer to get steady and lucrative business coming in. I could bet money if two people created similar products, same number of products, both had a store on main land and had marketplace listings...if one opened the doors and didn't tell a soul about it and instead just went up to their skybox and built more stuff and the other opened their doors and took part in just two hunts, the 60L Weekends group, started a subscription list, etc...I would put money on who would be more profitable in the starting up phase of things. The other guy may get there eventually, but by completely ignoring every aspect of marketing, it will take him much longer.
Although maybe these aren't good examples because many (not all) of the people saying not to market, did in the beginning as far as I can remember.
And I'm not saying anyone is wrong, to each his own, but I've seen real world and SL world examples of this...experienced them myself in some cases. So all I can go by is what I've seen and experienced. What works for someone may not work for others.
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Rya Nitely wrote:Maybe as Madeliefste pointed out, marketing is something you either put a lot of time into or you don't do at all. Deja, I think you must put a lot of time into it, even if you don't spend money on it. April made a point of saying it's free to do this and that. As merchants, nothing is free in SL if it uses your time. I am happier creating. At the moment creating new items to keep up with the mesh trend is so very time consuming that it would be stressful to add marketing hours to it.So I guess it depends on what you enjoy, otherwise it's not worth it. I would rather spend my hours watching mesh tutorials to refine my skills and creating new products than getting involved in marketing and networking etc.The little marketing I have done like hunts etc. didn't increase my sales. I participated in an expo recently (I had the time because of a break from RL work). It was fun, but only because I didn't feel I had to do it to get sales. I wouldn't like that pressure. We were featured in blogs after that expo. It made me feel proud, but I'm seeing no increase in sales as a result of it.
Not too much time really. Currently, Id say maybe an hour per week. A lot of it is stuff that's just kind of "there". Like the VIP group, I don't have to do much other than send my newsletter out, which is one of about 6 groups I send it out to each week and takes me about 2 minutes per week to send it to all. And about 10 minutes to write up the whole newsletter. And I can whip out a hunt gift item pretty quickly too. If I stick to no more than maybe 3 hunts per month it falls right in line with my other time and still keep me about an hour a month. I saw a several hundred real dollar difference when I did nothing. So ya, i'd work an extra 3-5 hours per month to see a couple hundred extra dollars in my real world pocket.
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I'm the odd man out here but I do market. I wouldn't say I spend money on marketing like placing ads and all that...I think those are a waste of time. But my marketing efforts include:
- Having a subscriber list in my store and sending them a weekly sales letter that has all that weeks sales or new releases.
- Participating in several sales groups like 60L Weekends, Fable Fridays, My 60L Secret, etc.
- Participating in monthly hunts to help build up that subscribe list and get residual sales from.
- Actively keep my blog and facebook up to date and active.
- Holding contests occassionally
- A pay to join VIP group.
And I can tell you when I don't do these things...if all I do is build and never remind even my current customers that "hey we're still here" my sales plummet. Case in point, I had a baby last December. I was so dead to SL business from about the end of November through Mid January and my sales show it. I come back in February and voila...back to business as usual. Maybe not every type of business needs marketing but I think every business can benefit from it.
I think it's especially important if you are a new business and don't have the customer base to backup your ignoring the marketing part of business.
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Working fine for me. I'm in Chrome. Not sure why, maybe a setting got accidentally set?
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LOL it happens. Some have said they had to relog out of the MP and from SL and retry. Best bet is to go back and read over past forum threads because this stuff has been discussed to death.
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There are no magic boxes anymore, well not for unlimited items. Everyone ison Direct Delivery now. Started over a year ago, but the cutoff was last month.
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You got all good advice here. The one thing I would suggest in addition to your graphic settings is to adjust your maximum bandwidth which is under network and cache tabs. I tried everything to get rid of lag, turned my graphics all down and everything and nothing seemed to help. But then one day looked at maximum bandwidth and saw it was around 512k....ya right! maybe back in the 90s! I slid it all the way to the right, i think it's at 3,000now, and I am completely lag free no matter what sim I go to. keeping it at the default means it will only process so much, but slam it up to 3000 and it comes back really fast.
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Pamela Galli wrote:From what I gather, those who try to migrate after the magic boxes were disabled, have to relist everything one at a time because there are no magic box items to replace.
^^^^This. I've been hearing the same thing happening in some of the groups I am in. They had a year to do it and never did, trying to wait til the last second I guess. And now some of them are having to relist HUNDREDS of items all individually.
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Mikki Miles wrote:there's a light ...(now everybody raise your lighter in the air) ...over at the Frankenstein place
This made me laugh out loud...and made coffee come out my nose.
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I love the snow sims....I know totally off topic. Before I moved to my current sim and I was on mainland I had road side snow land, right near some huge ski resort area. I loved it. The only problem is when it got to be spring, I just didn't want to be there anymore. So now, having my own sim I can create all 4 seasons if I want.
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Funny you say that Czari...I just sold my ice skating rink a couple of weeks ago, I never sell that this time of year. Just goes to show, it's cold somewhere!
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I wonder if is it really seasonal as in winter, summer, spring or fall or more holiday oriented? I know a lot of people give gifts around Christmas time so that is one major fluctuation in sales. But also Valentines Day is big as well. Then you've got your niche markets like Halloween in which a lot of us "darker" themed stores seem to get a flood of sales in at that time. I guess Thanksgiving could also see an increase in sales from people looking to decorate their home. It's an interesting topic.
*I'd love to see more sales topics again like these like we had last year. I kinda bugged out of them after some nasty comments, but I'm a numbers fan and love these types of things.
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Gotta mark em as adult now. It's stupid I know. A bunch of has had our stuff flagged. Someone got bored one day I think.