Selling Stuff Online

Recently a client came to us and asked how she could sell yoga DVDs online. We reviewed the category and looked at the competition and told our client that we could help her create a network in order to talk to people online about her style of yoga and the DVDs she produced.

The client wasn’t too thrilled initially, in fact, she downright hated the idea, but we held our ground. The thing of it is there is millions of yoga DVDs and differentiating one yoga DVD from the next is a hard nut to crack. I’ve tried a few yoga DVDs in my time, and I usually try the ones with the highest ratings on Amazon or whatever is being endorsed by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow or Madonna. Years ago I bought the NYC Ballet Company fitness DVD because Sarah Jessica Parker swore by it.

Lame as it might be, word of mouth is how most consumers make their buying decisions. Even if the recommendation comes from a total stranger it’s better than nothing. At least a rating and review provides some form of context. I also like being able to try before I buy. Video samples and video podcasts are a brilliant way to give potential customers a digital taste.

Anyway, during this time I was browsing through Mashable, and noticed a banner for a CMS platform called SocialGo. On the SocialGo website I found a case study for a site called Earthlings.

When the owners of Earthlings started their SocialGO network, they weren’t yet ready to sell their baby clothing products. Even so, they persevered and built a healthy, online community so that when they were ready to sell, they had constant access to a specifically targeted consumer base. “We thought, why not start a community? We can have the ball rolling even before we get our products online,” says Hannah Shone, Co-Owner of Earthlings.

There are a lot of online communities out there, and I think it’s a mistake for any company to think their online community is going to rival Facebook or Twitter – I can guarantee you that a corporate or brand community will never, ever surpass a community based on real-life connections.

Anyway, the goal is to integrate into existing communities and start a dialogue about something you’re passionate about. For my client, it was yoga and living a healthy, balanced lifestyle. This is the perfect kind of conversational fodder, and I imagined she’d take to it like a yogi to a mat. But I was wrong. My client followed my directions and created her own network on SocialGo, and created profiles on Facebook and Twitter. We had custom backgrounds made and showed her how to communicate with people. As a few months passed she arrived at my house looking glum and defeated. When I asked her what was going on she told me that she felt disappointed that no one had bought a DVD and no one on her SocialGo network was interacting.

I was shocked. It never occurred to me that I needed to explain that setting everything up was only the first step. The web is not a field of dreams – there is no “build it and they will come” mantra happening in the background.

First you need to interrupt someone, get their attention by offering them something they’re interested in or looking for, and then provide them that ‘thing’. Once you’ve got the ability to communicate with them and they feel satisfied that you delivered what they were looking for you can then start communicating with them about the next thing they want. Then you deliver that next thing, and so on. This goes on for awhile, and then one day you tell them about something new you’ve got before they even have to ask- why do you do this? Because you’ve developed a relationship, and you aren’t offering them something random- but something relevant and right up their alley.

I'll be blogging about this client adventure more over the next few weeks. Please add a comment or send an email if you have any questions or want to share your own experience with selling products online.