People who want to start their own Greeting Card Businesses typically tell us, "But I don't want to do the selling." We wish there was a Perfect World in which we could each sit in our ivory towers and produce beautiful art without ever having to face criticism and rejection, without having to present our work and without having to deal with retailers and customers. However, in the Real World, I can assure you that sooner or
later, you're going to have to get involved in selling. If you can't be enthusiastic about your own products, it's going to be difficult for someone else to become enthusiastic about them. Selling is not nearly as scary as it may seem. In fact, it can be quite rewarding to visit a store and learn that customers have been asking for your cards and that the retailer would like to place more of your products. There are many different ways to approach selling. The more diverse approaches you take, the better chance you stand of getting good results. Sales Reps, Sales Distributors, Selling To Buyers and Retailers Assuming that you are just starting out, you face the challenge of getting people to become enthusiastic about your products. We've found that the best way to do this is to be able to boast hearty sales. This is why we'd recommend that you begin by being your own sales rep and going straight to the retail buyers yourself. You have the advantage of living and working in New York City, where there
are hundreds of listings for greeting card shops, gift shops, independent bookstores and other outlets where greeting cards are sold. As your business grows, you may well want to consider getting a Sales Rep. You will be infinitely more attractive to a rep if you have a product with a proven track record. Bear in mind that Sales Reps typically
receive 10% to 20% of your sales. They will want to take over your accounts as well. If you choose to meet with retail buyers yourself, it is very important to listen carefully to their feedback. Invariably, some of it will be rubbish, based upon their subjective opinions. But pay close attention to their constructive criticism. If you are
lucky, the retailer may give you great ideas about how to improve your product, your sales presentation, or where your product would sell the best. Some of our retail buyers have given us our best ideas for improving our products. Of course, business etiquette is very important here. If your buyer also happens to be working the register or instructing
workers in the store, you must always stand back out of the way. Allow him to deal with his customers first. Some buyers might keep you waiting. It comes with the territory. Always be courteous, but if you are getting the runaround then you will want to cut your losses. You'll learn how to tell the difference. Persistence can pay
off. You may not make a sale the first time around, but that is no reason to give up on the prospect. Always behave graciously and politely. You never know when a buyer might change his mind, or recommend your products to a buyer in a different store. Greeting Card Distributors will buy your cards outright, for as little 25 cents per card or
less. They will move your inventory, but your profit margin will be very small, if not negligible. Mailings - I've known of small companies who invested in beautifully printed catalogs which were sent to Sales Reps with good results. However, most of our experience has been through Direct Mail. If you are choosing to go the Direct Mail route, we can suggest a few methods to reduce your expenses and net the best result. Catalogs are time consuming to design, expensive to print and expensive to post. Some companies choose to deliberately limit their catalogs to
few enough pages to keep within the 34 cent postage requirement. With a mailing, the average return in orders is from 2% of the customers on your mailing list. Other customers will hold on to your catalog and call you at a later date. Others will toss it before even opening it. People on your mailing list will always be relocating, so invariably some of your catalogs are only going to be returned to you. Postcards are a fabulous way to promote your catalog or anything about your business. Postcards are cheap to produce and cheaper to post. It's easy to ignore a piece of "junk mail" that's packaged in an unremarkable envelope. But a postcard's image is visible when mail is being collected and it can deliver a succinct message without having to be opened. We send out postcards to everyone in our database asking them to either visit our web site or call us for a paper catalog. That way our mailing expenses go directly to those who are interested enough to call us and who don't have Internet access.
Newspaper and Magazine Ads - Targeting your market is everything! If you have a niche product and you are trying to appeal to a narrow market you may be quite successful by running an ad in a publication catering to that market. Charlie Yandolino of UAreSoBeautiful.com sells cards with images of African Violets by running ads in African Violet Magazine and promoting her web site which features her images of African Violets. If you are selling Wedding Invitations, many publications have an annual or semi-annual pullout section dedicated to weddings. Future brides and their families will be sure to be scanning these pullouts and you might benefit by running an ad in one of them. If you choose to
invest in running a print ad, be sure that you secure other publicity in the publication. Most publications will mention their advertisers in their articles. Conventions and Shows - Big money is spent mounting conventions and shows in the Stationery and Gift industry. Investment in attending one of these events could be quite steep, but it will
expose your work to a great amount of buyers in one fell swoop. You may want to share the expense and split your space with another small company or with a sales rep. Street Fairs, Craft Fairs, Art Shows, or Open Studios - For shows and fairs, you usually pay a flat rate to set up your table with your display. Some fairs or shows will charge you a
minimal fee, but they will take a percentage of your gross sales. Open Studios are ideal, because you can run them in your own home without any additional expense. However, be sure that your home is safe and that you are safe from those who come to visit your Open Studio. These events can vary greatly in clientele. Another great advantage to
these events is that you are selling directly to your customers. Therefore you get to see their reaction to your products. You can receive priceless feedback directly. Commercial Web Site - The Internet revolutionized the way our company does business. No matter what type of greeting card company you see yourself starting, having a web site is
an invaluable tool for promotion and sales. It will also wind up saving you a small fortune in postage, paper, ink, and printing costs. Though a good retailer is an invaluable associate, a good web site can help you to circumvent the retailer. It can introduce you to the world's biggest audience and help you capture a bigger profit margin.
Before the advent of the PC, we were at the mercy of retailers. They decided whether or not they'd carry our cards. They decided where our cards would be displayed in the store. They decided whether our cards even received placement in the racks once we shipped them. And they always expected us to take back whatever didn't sell, no matter what
condition it was in. Now we have the ability to attract customers from all over the world. These customers pay for their orders up front and returns have been minimal. After filling in excess of two thousand orders, we've had exactly two returns. Our entire catalog is up on line, which means that we no longer pay to print catalogs unless we are dealing with the rare customer who doesn't have Internet access. Because our entire catalog is available on line, we have been able to attract the attention of writers for news outlets. Because of judicious placement in Internet search engines, we are able to attract customers who are looking specifically for
what we can offer. E-Postcards, electronic newsletters and on line diaries are also great promotional tools to bring traffic to your web site. The receiver of an e-postcard will have to come to your site in order to claim his card. This could lead him to browse your site or to send out more of your designs to other friends. Though e-postcards
are sent free of charge, they bring in traffic which could lead to sales. Invite visitors to your site to sign up for your free newsletter or to read your on line diary. Those who browse the web love to find new content and many will become hooked on a site that is updated daily or weekly. If your on line diary or newsletter is well written,
handsomely laid out, and long on interesting images, you can wind up attracting hundreds of steady visitors to your site daily. Your visitors will love to peek behind the scenes of your business. They'd love to see you at work. They'd enjoy seeing your studio or your offices. If you appear at an art show, take photos and upload them. If you
receive a write up, pass it on to your readers. We have used Karen's on line diary, Wet Paint, to discuss politics, to talk about our family, to gush about favorite music, to review books, films and TV shows, to show sketches or to offer links of our favorite web sites. Even Karen's heartfelt reflections on our personal experiences on September 11th brought many visitors our way. When they called to order, they felt as if they knew us, and they chatted with us like
friends. If you decide to go with your own commercial web site, it's a very good idea to purchase a toll free "800" number for your business, and to have to ability to accept credit card sales. A good deal of impulse buying is done on the web, and the quicker you can close a sale on line, the more sales you'll be making. If you wait for your
customer to send a check via surface mail, you've given them an opportunity to forget about you. Keep in touch with everyone who has bought from you. Offer them the opportunity to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter. It's the cheapest form of well targeted mail available. Decorative Painter, Tera Leigh, offers one of the most beautiful and
inspiring newsletters. Karen looks forward to receiving it each month. In the newsletter, Tera will run the gamut from inspirational articles, to art technique instruction, to book reviews, to recipes. You can see an example of her newsletter by clicking on the link at www.teraswish.com Niche Markets
- Give consideration to developing products for any passion you harbor or hobby or sport in which you indulge. Karen's years of training and dedication to the art of dance led her to develop lines of cards featuring dancers and scenes from ballets. They've been sold to local Dance Companies who resold them as fundraisers. Our love of buildings and architecture has brought our work to the attention of many Real Estate Agencies and Architects Offices, who buy from us directly. Think about the things that you love most and see if you can't dream up a line of cards that will inspire any enthusiast of the subject.
These niche markets can be successfully targeted with advertising in trade magazines and with good web site listings in Search Engines. Press Releases and Brochures
- Several times a year, it's a good idea to send out a small barrel fold brochure announcing what's been going on at your company. If there is a publication that you think might be interested in your cards, keep them informed about what you're up to. Repeated mailings can do the trick. Even if you get no response, it doesn't mean that your brochure hasn't been salted away for a future date. We've had a few responses to mailings and press releases close to a year after they were sent out. The more often your company's name is put out to the public, the more recognizable it will become.
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