You have a product. Maybe you made it yourself, or found some pieces that you thought went well together. Whatever the case, you’re proud of what you’ve created and want to share it with the world. But how do you go about doing that? You could throw a party and invite your closest friends and family. Or, you could create a website and start marketing your product online.
While most people think about launching a website to sell a product, there’s another way to go about it: you can use your website to design a product for others to purchase. In this article, we’ll discuss how you can make your buyer design products for you to sell. We’ll cover everything from business basics, to marketing and sales, to creating a successful product and launching a new brand.
Set Up Shop
You’ve got a product – either a physical thing you made, or an online resource that you created. The first step in making money from your product is to set up shop. This means creating a physical storefront, either online or offline, where people can come and purchase your goods. Typically, you’ll want to start small, either with one space or a few retail outlets.
If you go the traditional route and choose to open a physical storefront, you’ll have to decide on a location. This could be anywhere from a small shop in your home, to a large space in a prominent shopping mall. The key is to find a place that’s prominent enough to ensure that people coming into the area know what you are, and can find what they’re looking for. In addition to a physical storefront, you could also opt to sell your product online. With online stores like Shopify, you don’t need a physical location to sell your product. You can set up a storefront and launch your product to the world, entirely online.
Find Your Market
Once you’ve got your physical storefront up and running, it’s time to figure out who your market is going to be. This is a lot more strategic than just putting up a sign and hoping people will come by. Instead, you want to choose a market that aligns with your product and has the potential to purchase it. Your target market should be people who are interested in your product, but maybe haven’t heard of it before, or could benefit from using it. In most cases, the best approach is to choose a market that has some overlap with your existing clientele. This way, you’ll already have a connection with the people you’re targeting.
For example, if you’re an interior stylist who specializes in designing kitchens, you might choose to focus on creating a dietetics kit that also has practical cooking utensils in it. Or, if you’re a pet store owner and consider yourself an expert on dog nutrition, you could create a diet for dogs that’s only available at your store. Finding the right niche is important, and can help you stand out from competitors who are already positioned within the market you chose.
Make It Easy
Once you’ve got your market identified, it’s time to work on making it easy for them to purchase your product. The first thing you’ll want to do is to develop a clear value proposition. This is essentially, a brief explanation of what your product is and why someone should buy it. It should include both quantitative (e.g., how much does it cost?) and qualitative (e.g., what makes it special?) aspects.
In the example above, it might read: “Our dietetics kits save people money by ensuring that they always have all the necessary nutrition supplies on hand when preparing meals for themselves or their loved ones.” This explanation makes it easy for someone to understand the value proposition of your product. It’s also worth bearing in mind that a key goal of product design is to make it easy for the end user to understand and use the product.
Create A User-Friendly Website
Now that you’ve got a clear idea of what your product is and why someone should buy it, it’s time to create a user-friendly website to sell it. Ideally, you want to create a simple, sleek website that’s easy to navigate. This doesn’t mean that your site needs to be boring, or that you need to resort to using stock photographs or ugly fonts, but it does mean that you want to ensure that your visitors can find the information they need easily and that the information is presented in an appealing manner.
There are plenty of good, free web design tools out there that you can use to build your website. When designing with Squarespace, for instance, you can choose from a range of templates, including those for food blogs, to create a fully functioning website with a shopping cart, in less than ten minutes.
Launch The Product
Once you’ve got a user-friendly website, it’s time to launch your product. This means posting content about your product online, including but not limited to, blogs, social media posts, and product reviews. The more you can do to spread the word about your product, the better. Make sure that you choose a marketing channel that matches the type of product you’re selling. If you’re aiming for the general public, then a viral marketing campaign might be the way to go. Alternatively, if you’re aiming for a more experienced audience, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) might be the way to go. With SEO, you’ll want to develop a strategy, building on what you’ve already achieved, to ensure that your product shows up on the first page of results when someone types in a relevant search term.
As you continue to grow your business, it’s important to keep track of your metrics, analyzing the results of your efforts to determine which ones worked and which ones didn’t. Luckily, Google Analytics is one of the most popular tools that can help you do this. With Google Analytics, you can track the results of your SEO strategy, viewing site traffic and conversion rates over time. In addition to this, you can also determine the impact of different marketing strategies on your business, comparing conversion rates between different channels to find out which one is most effective.
Make Money
Now that you’ve got a successful product, it’s time to turn your attention to making money off of it. A big question for most people who have a product is: how do I make money off of this? You’ve got a few options here. First of all, you could sell the product yourself. For example, if you’re a baker and have created a gluten-free baking kit, you could start a business baking gluten-free cakes, or you could decide to sell the cake pops you make.
The issue with this option is that you’ve got to find someone who wants what you’ve made. This isn’t always easy, and even when you do, it can be difficult to get them to try your product, much less buy it. The best approach is to find a retailer that has a physical location and can show off your product, letting them know that it’s a hot commodity and drawing in potential customers. Alternatively, you can choose to wholesale your product, selling it to other retailers and getting a small commission each time it’s sold. You can also opt to create your own online store, where you’ll effectively be selling yourself. To make it easier for people to purchase your product, you could put up a page on your website with all the information about it, including price. The more you can do to make your product easily accessible, the more money you’ll make.
Stay Competitive
Now that you’re making money, it’s important to remain competitive. Even though you’ve chosen a niche and developed a clear strategy for growth, you’re still going to have competition. From other established brands within your niche, to new brands just entering the market, there’s always someone out there who wants to take your spot. To remain competitive, you’re going to have to continue developing new products, seeking out new clients, and trying to grow your business as much as possible. This means staying alert to new trends and developments, as well as continuing to grow your network, developing new partnerships, and looking for new ways to promote your business.
Be Confident
Finally, it’s important to remain confident, even when pursuing a seemingly impossible goal. The more you believe in yourself, the more you’ll be able to accomplish. When you stumble upon a problem, you might feel overwhelmed, but instead of losing hope, consider it a new challenge, an opportunity to prove yourself. As humans, we tend to seek out challenges that we’re confident we can overcome, meaning that even if you feel discouraged, you’re still going to have the opportunity to succeed.