With summer, right around the corner, thoughts turn to fun in the sun! Less people are shopping on-line, sales slump, and sellers are busy with vacations, taking care of children, and spending time outside. I am constantly searching and brainstorming for ideas as to how to market my store. I want to work smarter, not harder, but sometimes it seems as if all I do is work, work, work, and see few results. I know that it takes time ( some say up to a year or more!) for you to brand your name and business.

So, I have been thinking of all the things I have tried to market my Mommy Auctions store, and things that I want to try. Hopefully, some of these ideas will help you! You have to spend money to make money, and some of these strategies do cost some upfront money.

* Craig’s List- I will sometimes list an item here to drive traffic to my store. I haven’t had any sales yet, but at least it gets my store name and url out there!

*VistaPrint- A lot of the moms on Mommy Auctions use this fantastic site to order business promotional items. With the numerous free sales they have, you can’t go wrong! I like the business cards, postcards, car magnets, frig magnets, pens, and t-shirts! When I design a postcard, I like to offer a promotional discount for repeat business. It can be as simple as stating, “mention this ad to receive a 20% discount!”

*Flyers are easy to create and you can print them at home. I use them to highlight items in my store, have my url plastered all over it, and again, offer a discount.

*Something I just ordered and received are scratch-off cards. They are like a business card and have a scratch off area for your customer to scratch and win. Mine were custom-made by terra@easyscratchoffs.com. She made me cards with various discounts (10% off, 20% off, free shipping, etc). They look fun, and I will send them out with customers’ order.

*With the season of yardsales upon us, I will leave my biz card when I make a purchase! When I host a yardsale, I always give out my biz card, flyer, and have the Mommy Auctions flyer with pull-off tabs visible. Last month, I participated in a community yardsale and was able to talk with many women about Mommy Auctions!

These are just some things that I have tried. Sometimes, it is hard to tell if your efforts really are paying off or not. However, with the increased traffic here at Mommy Auctions, I would say that sellers are getting the word out! Hopefully, my efforts will pay off with a few sales and increased recognition and I can spend my time at the pool with the kids!

What has worked for you? Leave me a comment with your promotional ideas!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 5:32 am and is filed under WAHM Tips, Mommy Auctions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.