Why Did You Join GROW? – Part 1

Filed Under: All Posts, Guest Bloggers on February 22, 2010

If you are a GROW member, this blog is for you. I want you to take a second to really think about why you joined GROW Nebraska. I guarantee whatever reason you joined GROW if not THE reason you joined is to increase your profit margin – to raise that triple bottom line. If this is why you joined – KEEP READING!

GROW offers multiple retail opportunities through two year round stores, holiday stores and the state fair store, and yes, these will increase awareness of your product and get it in the public view. However, let’s be realistic. Do you want to limit your sales to one geographic region? Does your target market even live in this region? Even then, what does your product offer over a similar product (let’s say from Walmart) sold at a store with higher foot traffic and enormous brand awareness?

To have a successful, growing business (especially a product based business that does not have it’s own bricks and mortar store) you absolutely need to have at minimum a Web site with a simple shopping cart. Automatically this opens your market access from a couple hundred-mile radius to the entire world. Things to keep in mind for an eCommerce store and good links for each below:
1. Clean and clear product photos
a. Five Tips for Taking Your Own Photography
b. Best practices for e-commerce product images
2. Product Descriptions
a. BIG Commerce
b. Idea Marketers
c. Your Online Product Descriptions – The Quiz
3. Keywords
a. Finding Keywords: Six Tips for Choosing the Right Keywords to Use

Getting a web site with a shopping cart is the first and most critical step to increasing your market access in a big way. However, it’s just one step that you can do to increase market access. This is just the first of the series, so keep checking the GROW blog for more tips to increase your bottom line!