Planning And Executing An Online Shop The Un-traditional Way

10 Ideas I’m Using To Market My Online Shop Without Doing What The Gurus Say 

A few weeks back I shared how I wanted to see if being creative is enough to monetarily support the life/lifestyle I have. I specifically want to know if I can replace my income or substantially supplement my income as an artist. In case you missed it, you can read that post here. There is a deeper reason as to why now is the time I chose to really pursue this action. 

If you read the previous post, you may have caught that I’m closer to retirement than not, but I was also returning to my job after an injury. This injury, a broken foot, kept me out for two months. In those two months I began doing a few t-shirt designs to add to my lackluster online shop of which I had paid zero attention to. I also was asked to create six drawings, from any medium, to go in a baby’s nursery. 

I was beginning to get the bug of creating back! I was excited to pick up the pencil and design the ideas that came out of my brain. 

And then,…I returned to work. 

I returned to massive changes in personnel, management and job,...my job. The job I have done for the last 12 years was no longer the job I would be doing. This new job is much more physical. I come home everyday aching and sore, and I’m learning this job might not be a good fit for me. This is the situation that has got me motivated to once and for all…build an artistic business.

What Do I Do Now? Where Do I Start?

So, what’s the plan? How do I go about making a winning strategy that will allow me to be an artist and create lasting income? What are the actionable steps? 

This is what I’m working with…

• I have an online shop where I sell t-shirts, mugs, stickers, tumblers, buttons,…you get the picture. Currently I have over 20 different products, ten or more designs, and all categorized in eight collections.

I have had this online store for 7 years now and as you guessed it, it has been an afterthought. I remember it at Christmas and maybe one other time of the year, but for the most part, the e-commerce platform routinely drafts the monthly plan fee from my account and keeps my store active month after month, with no real focus from me to grow it.  

What I would like to do to my store now that I have a renewed interest in its success is add these additional products:

• Original Artworks
• Tote bags
• Sweatshirts
• Hoodies
• Cards (Seasonal, Holiday, Thank You, Birthday)
• Posters
• Hats/caps
• Embroidered items

If You Build It Will They Come? 

Shopify lists 10 steps to starting an online store. 

How to start an online store (Shopify)

• Find a target audience
• Source your products
• Choose a commerce platform
• Design your brand
• Register your business
• Build your store
• Set up your checkout and shipping
• Make you store live
• Market your products and brand
• Optimize your store

The first thing on the list is to “find a target audience.” 

I’m going to be honest, I know you need to do your research on your target audience,…blah, blah, woof, woof…

I don’t have time. 
Am I shooting myself in the foot? 
Probably. 

 The rest of the list,...source products, choose platform,..etc. I’ve already laid that groundwork. What I need to concentrate on is the building, marketing and optimizing of the store.

What I am going to do is come up with a strategy and follow it to the best of my ability. Right or wrong, these are the steps I will take:

1. I WILL TAKE A LONG LOOK AT MY SHOP. Is it time for an overhaul? New website theme? Deletion of some products? Addition of new products? Is my store loading as fast as it can? Is my store mobile friendly? Does my web design reflect my brand? Am I using quality photos? Do I need to adjust the prices?
2. NEW PRODUCT DESIGNS! I must create well crafted products. I’ve already listed a number of new products I would like to add to what’s already there. I’ll get to doing that. Would knowing my target audience help in this quest? Sure, but I’m just going to jump right in, create designs I’m in love with and try to find an audience based on those designs. Perhaps then I can see if that gets me both momentum and eyeballs. 
3. I WILL LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO SHOW MY PRODUCTS. Pop-Up shops, Grassroots, good old fashioned talking it up and showing my store to anyone who will listen.
4. BLOG POSTS. If you are reading this, you already know I’m blogging! The idea is two fold. One, to get my thoughts out and document this process and the second idea is to bring attention to the store through the posts. Most e-commerce platforms allow you to link your products directly in blog posts so that makes it a win-win! 
5. SOCIAL MEDIA! Yes I have the usual social media platforms. Am I very social? Not really but I plan to do a better job of that. I also plan to take advantage of the social media features like content sharing, product tagging and integrated shops. 
6. OPPORTUNITIES TO PARTNER! Whether it’s an opportunity to partner with an influencer, a company/individual I will be looking for opportunities to put my products on people or in people’s settings, kind of like “product placement.” I will even be open to creating products for people or organizations and sell them, for them, in my shop.
7. VIDEO! So, I once considered YouTube. Who am I kidding, I’m not an extrovert who wants to jump on camera and begin weekly uploads. But what about a faceless way to share my process? A YouTube channel of shorts? Or short videos? The YouTube algorithm would dictate that I give it a try. I have nothing to lose and eyeballs to gain.
8. BUILD AN EMAIL MARKETING LIST! I like the idea of email marketing, I just want to make sure I don’t overdo it. I will have to be strategic in how many emails go out and what information is included. Nobody likes TOO many emails, but you can’t deny the benefit of speaking directly to your customers. I do have an idea to jazz up my emails in what I’m going to call an “interactive magazine/newsletter.”  I’ll explain the details for this in a later post.  
9. DISCOUNTS, GIVEAWAYS! Special occasions, seasonal activities, “BUBBLE DAYS?” Maybe I should take a page out of Amazon’s book? Everybody likes a deal. I think I will periodically implement these special buy options. 
10. SEO. No one knows your site exists if they can’t find you. As much as I’d like to skip all the hard, time consuming parts of building a business, I can’t deny that having Google rank a product from my site is one of the best ways to “get the word out” about my store. Now I’m certainly not going to lock myself in a room and cram vast amounts of knowledge about SEO, backlinks, meta descriptions, title tags and such. What I will do is recognize that having even a little knowledge of how to tell Google you exist can be one of the best practices to help my site rank in search results. 

So there it is. 10 ideas I’m using to market my online shop. Not too hard is it? After seven years of doing virtually nothing if I at least accomplish half the things on this list I feel like I should improve, if for nothing else,…views! After all, isn't it really a numbers game? The more people who see your products, the more chances of increasing your opportunity to make a sale? I will leave you with a few bonus tips! 

Let's Get Comfy!

SHARE. I’ve never been eager to share my site with family and friends. Partly because I’ve wanted to build a business on my own. Secondly, perhaps I’m saving my feelings from the familial critics. Those who may be judgemental or jealous. I understand that some of these family members can exist, but I have a great support system within my family. I know because they have supported me in the past. But what I often forget to realize is that they can be customers too! And if not customers you know what else they are good for? Sharing. Sharing my products, and wearing my products. Let them be walking billboards to your dreams.

Bonus tip number two, has everything to do with learning, but in a fun, non-intense way. 

OPEN-MINDEDNESS. Look at what others are doing to promote their businesses. Is it fun? Is it working? Does it line up with how you want to represent your brand? Can you duplicate it? There are many ways to grab attention. Be open to different avenues you hadn’t thought about. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Social media is filled with imitators, what works for one person becomes the trend for the rest. Take your shot at the next best thing. You just might find a new method of solving an old problem. 

One final tip for introverts like myself,…get comfortable being uncomfortable.

NO RISK, NO REWARD. Make a vow with yourself to step out of your comfort zone and be fearless in building your business. Accept that there will be setbacks, but don’t quit. Accept that some people just aren’t going to like your designs. Accept that you may have to talk to strangers to get people to look at your store. Make a point to DO SOMETHING about your store daily. Get comfortable talking about your products. Get comfortable leaving a business card with someone who’s asked a question about what you do. 

MAKE AN EFFORT!…at least for me, seven years of doing virtually nothing, I can’t get any worse.