What’s good for the earth can be great for your business!

Eco-friendly or “green” products, once a specialized niche are now mainstream, and sales continue to grow worldwide.

Which means there’s more opportunity than ever to sell green products online!

Whether you build out a full-fledged line of eco-friendly products or bring a few green alternatives into your product mix, exploring eco-friendly sourcing options can be an easy and profitable way to expand your inventory.

Green products are an influence in every product industry today.

On Earth Day 2012, both eBay and Amazon featured eco-friendly products in a variety of categories.

Let’s look at some examples of product categories that now feature eco-friendly products…

New Consumer Green Products

• Furniture
• Soaps and skin care products
• Clothing
• Pet supplies and accessories
• Baby products,
• Kids clothing
• Toys
• Cosmetics
• Mattresses, sheets and blankets
• Dishes
• Bakeware and cookware
• Kitchen and dining
• Home appliances
• Home improvement
• Automotive
• Toys
• Sports and outdoors
• Solar power systems for home
• Patio furniture and lighting
• Lawn care
• Garden accessories
• Footwear
• Handbags and belts
• Wedding attire and decor
• Diamonds
• Jewelry
• Eco-friendly/energy saving consumer electronics. Top brands are now looking at ways to make traditional “energy hogs” such as big screen televisions more energy efficient.
• Bicycles

The range of eco-friendly or green products that are now available in the marketplace is huge.  And it’s growing every day.

As demand for organic products has risen, prices have also come down.

Sourcing Eco-Friendly Products

The easiest way to offer eco-friendly alternatives to your customers is to first contact the suppliers of your existing products to see if they offer an eco-friendly version.

Many companies that do not produce full green product lines, do have at least a few eco-friendly alternatives in production.

If you aren’t able to work with your existing suppliers to bring in some green options of existing products, the next step is to look for green vendors in your existing niche.

Attending a green trade show like the Natural Products Expo or get new product ideas at a consumer show like the Go Green Expo to get new product ideas.

No matter what you sell or where you sell it, green products offer a product line expansion opportunity.

And you don’t have to sell only eco-friendly products to take part! Offering a few green alternatives generate new sales within your existing product line.

Have you ventured into selling green products?  Tell me below!

-Lisa

This week the web’s two largest ecommerce marketplaces, Amazon and eBay, began leveraging the power of Pinterest to increase traffic, drive sales and reach new customers.

Both Amazon and eBay have added the Pinterest “Pin It” button on every product page within their U.S. sites.

The Pin It button allows eBay and Amazon buyers or visitors to easily post products they love over on Pinterest.

In doing so, they are free providing word-of-mouth marketing on Pinterest.  A site that lends itself perfectly to ecommerce.

eBay and Amazon are following Etsy’s lead in successfully integrating the Pin It button into their product pages. The strategy to get Etsy’s products in front of Pinterest’s 12 million + unique visitors is working…

According to social media statistics tool Zoomsphere, Etsy and Google now alternate as the #1 and #2 sources of pinned content on Pinterest.

However, even without a resident Pin It button, Amazon currently holds the #3 spot as a content source for Pinterest.

With the addition of the Pin It button, it may not be long before Amazon or eBay products are vying for the top spot.

Benefits of the Amazon/eBay/Pinterest Integration

With more than 12 million unique monthly visitors to Pinterest.com, there will be no shortage of Pinterest users excited about pinning your products.

While Pinterest users can pin directly from their browser bar, they have to have the Pin It button installed in order to do that.

Easy access and a visual reminder to “Pin It” on Amazon and eBay’s pages, will only serve to increase the number of products pinned from these two sites.

That means more visibility for your eBay and Amazon products.

Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter?

While most people are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest has seen a meteoric rise as a legitimate player in the social commerce space.

(You can learn more about how to market your online business with Pinterest by reading my recent blog posts here and here.)

A big advantage to  the integration of the Pin It button on both these sites is the compatibility factor between Pinterest and ecommerce.

• Pinterest is a platform for sharing visual imagery
• Ecommerce sales in large part because of visual product imagery

And while the Facebook and Twitter community value interpersonal interactions over postings of product images… 

The Pinterest community thrives on the discovery of the cool products, trends, useful tools, good design, creativity, form, function and color!

In fact Pinterest is fast becoming a destination site for people to discover great gift ideas or look for product recommendations. Earning it a reputation as a top-notch curated content and product catalog.

Not only that, Pinterest users are engaged and take action!

Pinterest now ranks #2 in number of minutes spent on the site, coming in right behind Facebook. Twitter clocks in at #4.

Traffic referral to external sites: For the first time in February 2012, Pinterest drove more referral to external websites than 6 year old Twitter (And it continues to drive more referral traffic than LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ COMBINED)

Pinterest‘s visual imagery moves people to action.

Whether they’re repinning, recommending, commenting or buying, Pinterest’s users are some of the most active on the web!

Pricegrabber released survey data this week revealing that 21 percent of people who identified themselves as Pinterest users said they had purchased a product after seeing it on Pinterest.

Pinning Strategies for Online Merchants

As an online merchant, you can also use the integrated Pin It button on eBay and Amazon to share your content on Pinterest. Or you can continue to use the browser bar Pin It button as I describe  here.

But there are some key things to rememeber when using Pinterest for marketing:

You have a responsibility to follow Pinterest etiquette when using Pinterest for marketing. You can’t SPAM the Pinterest boards or use an automated Bot to post your listings. The Pinterest community will respond by not repinning or liking your influx of “PSPAM” which defeats your marketing efforts.

Pinterest  is a curated content catalog not a classified ads site. Photos and products should be curated, meaning you should pin the best of your inventory and product photos on Pinterest.

You MUST have a strategy in place to use Pinterest for business marketing.  While buyers will simply pin products they love, a business owner must approach Pinterest strategically. (Both to get ROI on your marketing efforts and the best visibility for your brand.)

In fact, promoting your business on Pinterest incorrectly can actually do more harm to your brand than good.

That’s one of the reasons I put together the only course of its kind. A step-by-step course on Pinterest for Ecommerce. In this 5 video series, I’ll show youhow to strategically use Pinterest to reach new customers, drive more traffic to your products and convert more Pinterest visitors to sales!

Until Tuesday, April 2, you can get Pinterest for Ecommerce at a special introductory price. Click here for details.

Whether you sell on Amazon, eBay from your own website… (or  you’re an author, speaker, blogger or consultant).  If you sell something online, you need a presence on Pinterest!

-Lisa

I’d heard a report from last week’s SXSW conference that Pinterest would be redesigning user profile walls to look more beautiful and display users’ influences more prominently.

Imagine my delight upon logging into my Pinterest profile wall today to see that they have done just that.

The first thing that struck me about the new profile walls is that they showcase the owner and their activity/influence on Pinterest very prominently.

For marketing purposes, let’s call this your “landing page”.  When people come to your landing page to see what you and your business are all about, you want that landing case to showcase your business in the best possible light.

Pinterest has accomplished this with a clean and simple redesign.  One that puts the owner of the profile wall front and center.

 The new header (#1 on the screenshot below) features places the Pinterest user front and center. Not only is it very easy to see a person’s profile information at a glance, but there are also built in social sharing icons for Facebook, Twitter and most importantly, a globe icon that takes you directly to the user’s website store store with the click of a button!

Social proof (#2 on the screenshot below) is also front and center with the latest repins displayed right next to your profile description. This provides added engagement with the community and those who are repinning your pins.

For business and brands who want to build a following and become influencers in their category, the new “activity bar” above the boards (#3 on the screenshot above) really heats things up.

 You can clearly see the pin activity, number of boards, likes, and followers. A click on the “Activity” link takes you directly to all the user’s recent activity.  A GREAT way for people to get a snapshot of all the products you’ve pinned.

Finally a large image (#4 on the screenshot above) of a recently pinned item makes each board even more visually appealing than before. The larger image serves as the centerpiece and the smaller tiled images below invite people to click.  The names of each boards are also prominently displayed, making it easy for visitors to scan and go directly to the type of board they’re most interested in.

The new Pinterest profile wall update is great for businesses because it gives your landing page a more professional, polished look.  It allows you to clearly showcase your brand and your wall.

With strategically named Boards, you can attract exactly the right visitors to your products and Pins.

Don’t Make These Pinterest Mistakes!

While Pinterest has just upped the marketing benefit for brands, it won’t help you unless your profile wall is optimized correctly!

Two of the biggest mistakes I see businesses making on Pinterest are lack of an optimized, relevant bios and Boards…

With the spotlight now on your bio and your Boards, optimization becomes even more important.

Here’s What TO Do!

1. First and foremost, your brand bio must describe exactly what you do!  Pinterest profiles are indexed in Google, so your Pinterest bio must contain revelant keywords and keyword phrases describing what your company does.

As you can see below, when you land on Search Engine Land’s Pinterest wall, you can tell from their bio exactly what their brand is about.

You should also include the URL of your store or website in your Pinterest bio.

(I explain in-depth on how to brand your business with your Pinterest bio in my new Pinterest for Ecommerce 4-part video series.)

2. Create specific board descriptions.  Pinterest boards should not be all about the hard sell, but neither should they be vague and unfocused.

Nordstrom does a great job of showcasing their products, along with combining interesting fashion news that their followers would be interested in.

Nordstrom was an early adopter of Pinterest for marketing and now gets more traffic to their site directly from Pinterest, than they do from Facebook or Twitter!

The way you structure and name your boards (as well as the Pins you put in them) makes all the difference in attracting the right customers. A mix of business, topical themes and fun (as opposed to sell! sell! sell!) is the recipe for Pinterest success.

And there are ways that any type of business (no matter what you sell or where you sell it) can theme their walls for maximum conversion.

If you want to learn more about using the power of Pinterest to market your products and services, I just released the first ever Pinterest for Ecommerce course!

This 4-part video series walks you step-by-step through reaching new customers, selling more products and increasing your brand visibility through the power of Pinterest!

Click below to learn more!

Pin It

It wasn’t that long ago that most online businesses focused their marketing efforts on search engine optimization.  Optimize your store or website for good placement in Google search and you could get new customers coming in through Google’s front door.

But times have changed, customers have changed and your the way you market your business has to change with it.

While a well optimized store or website is certainly a must, it’s only a part of your marketing strategy.

In order to get your products and business in front of new customers, your marketing reach must extend to where your customers are.

I call this signal marketing.

Signal Marketing

1. A search engine optimized site
2. Relevant, keyword optimized content on your product pages
3. A product review that you’ve posted on YouTube that is then displayed in Google’s search results
4. The new Google Search Plus Your World integration with Google Search
5. Sponsored Ads
6. A product presence in Google Shopping or
7. A Comparison Shopping Engine search result
8. Or indirectly, through a blog post, a press release or article marketing.

eBay and Amazon Signals

If you sell on eBay, search engine optimized titles and detailed Item Specifics send signals to eBay’s search engine.

A well written eBay Guide sends signals to Google.

On Amazon, an optimized product title and product page send signals to Amazon search.

Amazon Product Ads send signals to Amazon and then direct Amazon customers back to your website.

You can also use Signal Marketing to send traffic to your eBay or Amazon store.  Connecting with buyers in other parts of the web and sending them over to your eBay or Amazon products.

Social Commerce Signals

Many of your potential customers are spending a significant part of their time on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and the hottest new social networking site of the year, Pinterest.

And while they may not be hanging out there specifically to shop, your marketing efforts need to extend to these different channels.

The natural integration of social media + ecommerce = social commerce.

And this is one of the biggest shifts and opportunities in marketing today.  Whether Pinning your product images on Pinterest, Tweeting spoecial deals on Twitter or adding a Facebook Like button to your website (allowing happy customers to send out signals for you), social commerce signals help you get found in the pockets on the web.  By going to where your customers spend their time (rather than expecting them to come and find you) you can integrate your marketing into these social satellites allowing shoppers to find your products in ways they wouldn’t have found them otherwise.

Sending Signals

These are just a few examples of Signal Marketing that we’ll be talking about during March Marketing Madness!

And while there are a myriad of ways to send signals out about your business, that doesn’t mean you have to do them all. And certainly not all at once (especially if you’re getting started).

The key is in determining which marketing strategies are best suited for your products.  And starting with those first.

What you don’t want to do is throw a bunch of marketing out there and hope something sticks.

So as we go through each of these ways to market your business, think about if/how this would apply to your business.

Does it fit the products you sell?

Where do your customers hang out on the web?

What are the signals you need to send to them?

-Lisa

Read All the March Marketing Madness! Posts

Day 1 It’s March Marketing Madness!
Day 2 Reaching New Customers with Signal Marketing
Day 3 Content Marketing: The Secret Sauce for Your Online Business