Promotion To Drive Sales

[thevintageread]

Hi Everyone,

I have been reading these boards for a long time and have gained a lot of helpful insight. I thought I'd leap in with a question and a Poll (which is probably annoying but...)

What I'm interested to find out is;

Does everyone use external promotion to drive traffic to their Ebay stores?

Social media, blogging, or even paid promotion such as Ad words?

I'm picking up that most long term sellers have noticed a massive drop in traffic to their stores, I know I have!

(Most off it is self inflicted of late because I haven't been consistent with my listing) but when I was really putting the work I noticed a significant drop in sales and traffic over time.

I'm determined to get the rest of my vintage stock listed this year but realize I need to be proactive with promotion if I'm going to have any hope of actually selling it.

Really interested to hear thoughts from all those experienced sellers out there ?:|

[foxette-in-sox]

I used to sell & used NONE of the options in your poll.

NONE is not an option to choose though lol

[motherbear2003]

None would be my choice also:-)

[thevintageread]

LOL :^O

Feel a bit embarrassed now!

You see I haven't really tried any form of promotion...yet... and I thought some of you out there with massive feedback must have?!!!

I'd edit the Poll to say "none" but I've just discovered you can't edit posts in these forums. (Which is a bit of a worry when you see the appalling grammar & spelling etc in my OP).

[thevintageread]

Have to add...

motherbear I love your shop and stock, I can see why you don't need to promote 🙂

[thecatspjs]

Gosh, what is to be embarrassed about ?:| 

I think it is a most pertinent discussion thread to selling on ebay.  With online sales rising, getting an edge over other sellers and utilising all tools and resources available to increase traffic and ultimately sales, seems to be me to very relevant indeed.

I have only dabbled with social media and desktop researched other avenues, but from the little bit I have gathered, IMO I think it certainly warrants further investigation.

For example, the best thing I have ever done, that has increased my ebay sales on all my sellings IDs was to learn a little more about mobile apps - subscribing to inkfrog i can see the % of items views of my listings that are made from a mobile device..... I was astounded to say the least, much much higher than I would have thought, and increasing weekly :O.   

The same principle can be applied to social media etc etc  the more you know about the potential and the pros and cons before you actually start to trial targeting through particular media, the better IMHO.  

[digital*ghost]

I blog, use Facebook, and deviantArt (to post images of my gear - artisan crafts) - all of which has lead to sales. Someone on dA once asked me "do you make....?" I do now, and they're one of the (if not the) best selling items I have now. :^O

They are all powerful tools in their own right, but like any tool, you just have to use it the right way for it to be most effective. 

[thevintageread]

Thanks for the informative replies. I know a lot of my traffic (when I was stocked!) came from mobiles too. I need to do more research but I think you've headed me in the right direction.

I'm keen to get something started but I also want to make it something I will stick at!

I dabbled in Facebook a long time ago (another shop another product) but I bored myself with my lame posts B-) & it never got off the ground.

Interesting that an enquiry lead to a bestselling product, gotta love that!

[movie_models]

Why would we need to drive sales? Ebay has been doing a great job of that themselves lately. Or does driving sales down not count?:O

[thevintageread]

I understand your point movie_models. 🙂

But sometimes I like to feel I can take a difficult situation and turn it around...empowering!

I can see many great business models on ebay from some smallish sellers which I find

very inspiring and it got me thinking that there is probably more I could do to drive traffic to my listings?

You have a very high feedback and you are obviously a seller with a lot of experience, something I am only aspiring to at the moment...

Any input is welcome.